Archive for August, 2007

American Airlines, one of the world’s largest carriers, was supposed to roll out a new green marketing campaign sometime in this past August according to Environmental Leader. Aviation accounts for around 5% of total greenhouse gas emissions and the industry is growing by about 3% per year. If you read AA’s environmental report, you will see that their previous efforts have focused on recycling and fuel conservation.

Perhaps AA needed to rethink their green marketing strategy in light of the high profile protests at London’s Heathrow Airport this August. A group called Camp for Climate Action got hundreds of people to try and stop air travel as well as prevent the expansion of Heathrow. Their signs had slogans such as “You Fly, They Die,” according to BBC reports.

It will be interesting to see how the industry reacts. Geneva Switzerland is hosting the third Aviation and the Environment Summit, to be held April 2008 to hash out some solutions and coordinate their strategy. All the major players will be there. But can the industry wait that long to respond?

By Stefan Deeran at The Element Agency in New York

Thanks to Ethan Oringel of Green Brooklyn for sharing this BBC article that exposes Aminex, an Irish-Anglo conglomerate, as one of the companies lined up to exploit North Korea’s fossil fuel.

Aminex has a 20 year deal to develop the oil industry in the dictatorship.  North Korea may be notoriously secretive, but Aminex is a publicly traded company on the London and Dublin stock markets.  We can require transparency from Aminex so please demand that the company works to protect the environment of North Korea.  Petitions can be sent to the address below.

Aminex London Representative Office
7 Gower Street
London WC1E 6HA, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7291 3100
Fax: +44 (0)20 7636 9667
Email: info@aminex-plc.com

Yesterday was supposed to mark the start of a summit between North and South Korea. North Korea has asked for this week’s summit with the South to be postponed because of recent flooding which has ravaged the impoverished country. This would have been only the second summit between the two countries and the first since 2000.

Most media reports have focused on how the two nations can work towards peace and deter Kim Jong-il from pursuing nuclear weapons. Bargaining chips for the West include food and fuel, since North Korea currently cannot produce enough of either. South Korea is trying to cut a deal that will put a railroad link through the demilitarized zone of North Korea. But in the background, major players are also scrambling to gain control of North Korea’s vast untapped natural resources as the country opens itself up to foreign development.

North Korea actually possesses substantial undeveloped natural gas and coal reserves strategically situated near the Chinese border. So now China, South Korea and Western oil companies, are all scrambling to secure the spoils.

North Korea’s environmental situation is already horrific, with terrible air quality, massive deforestation and polluted water systems. As the North suddenly allows extraction of its fossil fuels, expect the remaining pockets of natural purity, many of which contain critically endangered species such as the Amur leopard, the Asiatic black bear and the Siberian tiger to be put into jeopardy.

Environmental oversight of the North has never been adequate. The UN’s Development and Environment Programmes only got its first peak into the dictatorship back in 2000. Therefore there is nothing to prevent fossil fuel extraction from occurring at the cheapest and most unsustainable manner.

It is time for environmental groups to push for a seat at the bargaining table and demand proper oversight of the North’s development. Since the summit has been pushed back to October, we now have a small window to get our act together. Where is Team America when we need them?

By Grant Draper at The Element Agency in New York

The Marriott hotel and resort company’s ten-year ECHO (Environmentally Conscious Hotel Operations) program has resulted in notable accomplishments such as a 20% reduction in greenhouse gases since 1990, standardized recycling processes and the installation of 400,000 water-efficient showerheads.

Marriott has not integrated their green initiatives into their brand and you have to dig for the “Green Marriott” page on their corporate website. But they have attempted to advertise their efforts, most recently by hosting a Green Hotel fair for 3000 employees which coincided with the last Earth Day.

They also set up a web 2.0 contest called “Eco-Cation” whereby contestants could submit sustainability videos to YouTube and win a trip to Costa Rica. We have checked the site and there are only two user responses. Either the contest was not successfully marketed or Marriott has since deleted the user content.

The greening of the hospitality industry is a major trend of 2007. Expect more hotels and resorts to promote their green offerings through online marketing campaigns in the coming months. We shall see whether the next Web 2.0 blast from green hoteliers actually generates some buzz.

By Stefan Deeran at The Element Agency in New York

This week over 1000 representative from 150 countries are meeting in Vienna under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) leadership. The Vienna talks are meant to set the stage for a major global warming summit in Bali this December, during which a post-Kyoto order (that agreement ends in 2012) will be planned.

Of course, talks could be fruitless if larger players like the United States and Canada refuse to enter an agreement that does not stop developing nations like China and India to pollute as the please. Interestingly then, that the chief UN climate official Yvo de Boer has stated, “we need to climate-proof economic growth.” That means up to $200 billion in climate control aid to developing nations each year for the next few decades.

Also of note: the UN outlook suggests that fossil fuels are here to stay and cleaner coal and oil are the answer. “The war against climate change is not a war against oil. It’s a war against emissions,” argues de Boer according to AP reports.

If you are interested in watching the drama unfold, you can catch live webcasts of the Convention at this UNFCCC site.

Some green blog posts to check out for the week ending August 25th, 2007.

60 Percent Campaign shares the benefits of solar cooking

Cleantech Blog recaps all the recent green media company buy-outs

Enviroblog covers how the Environmental Working Group’s media tactics got the FDA to change sunscreen regulations

Marc Gunther shares some highlights from his interview with Starbuck’s CEO Jim Donald about corporate sustainability

Eco-Chick reports on Greenpeace’s new nudist global warming ad campaign

Group 7 discusses the sustainable hospitality industry in developing nations

And finally, Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11th Hour has been in theaters all last week. We have the trailer featured as our Green Video and would love to hear reviews from any readers that catch it over the weekend.

Every year the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) brings together thousands of hotel executives, investors, developers and consultants to discuss the latest trends and opportunities in the hospitality industry.

Today Travel Daily News reported that this year’s Summit, to be held January 28-30, 2008 in Los Angeles, will focus on developing and managing green hotels and resorts.

Developer Stanley Selengut, a green tourism leader will be honored with the International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC) Pioneer Award. You can check out his St. John resorts here.

In a sense, this Summit demonstrates how green hospitality has officially moved from a small niche to a mainstream movement.

Jim Burba, ALIS chair, told Travel Daily News, “Green is now being embraced by developers and owners and is being discussed in the boardrooms of the largest companies in the travel industry.”

To their credit, boutique hotels have been going green for years. Now that the largest players (ALIS sponsors include Hilton and Starwood) are on board, expect the bar to be raised even higher.

By Stefan Deeran, at The Element Agency in New York

Air pollution can be so bad in Beijing, the BBC reported earlier this month, that Olympics boss Jacques Rogge may consider postponing some events at the 2008 Games hosted by China.

So it is no surprise that Chinese State officials are now promoting sustainability initiatives where many first time visitors will reside–hotels. Olympic travelers now have the option of staying at “Gold or Silver Leaf Green Hotels,“ properties that have been certified by the China National Tourism Administration. 52 of the 112 hotels that are being built just for the Games have passed the green assessment and only those that pass may promote a connection to the Olympics.

Green hotels must improve energy and water efficiency, reduce air pollution and not offer any wild or protected animals at their food service operations. The Green Leaf program just started this year and supposedly improves upon a previous standard developed by the China Hotels Association.

The People’s Republic’s green hospitality goals seem quite ambitious, since 10,000 environmentally friendly hotels must be built by 2010. Spurred by the standards, eco-friendly hotel products were reported to have been very popular at the recent Shanghai International Hospitality Equipment & Supply Expo.

Unfortunately, the Green Hotel program currently lacks transparency. Hunting down the actual benchmarks behind the standards or even finding background information on the various State departments, at least in English, is difficult.

Nonetheless, this green hospitality trend seems to be moving quickly in the right direction. We will be closely following this movement and reporting any news on this blog.

By Stefan Deeran, at The Element Agency in New York

Want to get in touch with nature but don’t want to leave your cubicle?

Now you can teleport to Conservation Island, a virtual world built by the World Wildlife Fund into the popular online computer game called Second Life. Your digital self, called an avatar, can chat with an elephant or a panda about important environmental issues in the real world.

Seek out Mr. Tangee, the ice cream selling orangutan shown above and he will share the problems of worldwide soy production.

With almost nine million registered users, WWF is betting that this online marketing campaign’s buzz will drive traffic to their educational site, panda.org. Whether the nonprofit can then persuade some passive people to take action in the natural world remains to be seen.

The campaign was developed by Enable Interactive, a UK-based digital ad shop.

By Stefan Deeran, at The Element Agency in New York