Archive for May, 2009

The New York Times’ Green Inc. reports that with the new digital era being ushered in this year, consumers will now be able to distinguish between new television sets based on their environmental impact.  Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Panasonic, Sony, Environmental Protection Agency, Natural Resources Defense Council and 70 other large enterprises has agreed to create a voluntary labeling system that will let consumers know, for example, how much lead, mercury and toxic flame retardants their televisions contain.  The labeling system goes far beyond the now-familiar EnergyStar sticker, which simply designates the energy efficiency of electronic products.

Environmental Leader reports that organizations are increasingly putting more effort into their recycling programs for all types of materials such as aluminum cans, fluorescent lamps, wood waste and scrap metal.  Novelis Inc., a producer of flat-rolled aluminum and a recycler of used beverage cans, has recycled an estimated 39 billion aluminum beverage cans in the past year, a new record for the company.

The WSJ’s Environmental Capital reports on new thinking with regards to China’s ballooning carbon dioxide emissions.  The Chinese say much of the stuff they make is for the West, so rich countries should shoulder those emissions as well.  Climate-change guru and advisor to HSBC, Lord Nicholas Stern, figures the Chinese might be right: “The logical point China makes is that there is a definite responsibility with the consumer and not just with the producer is a sound one.”

GreenBiz reports that a group of faith-based investors will withdraw its shareholder resolution it filed to get Chevron to track its products’ carbon contents after the oil company agreed to comply.  After agreeing to comply with the resolution filed by the Sisters of St. Dominic, Chevron consented to voluntarily track product carbon content, and pointed out another oil giant — ExxonMobil — is still resisting similar proposals.

Tim Woodall at FD Element

New Report: Global Shipping to Reduce GHGs by 20%

HSBC Holdings Releases 2008 Sustainability Report

Symantec Releases “State of the Data Center Report”

Exxon Moves Ahead With Alberta Oil Sands Development

Johnson & Johnson Asked to Remove Chemicals From Baby Shampoo

U.S. Government Wastes Over $440 Million per Year in Printing: Report

U.S. Carbon Emissions Fall by Most Since 1982

Oil Industry Braces for Trial on Rights Abuses

Climate Bill Clears Hurdle, But Others Remain 

Industries Are Grappling With New Bill On Climate

Opportunity Knocking: Green Auto Financing

Gore Vs. Hansen: Enviros Take Sides in Debate Over House Climate Bill

Renewable Energy Industries Ask Obama to Speed Loan Guarantees

Shell Shareholders Reject Plan for Bosses’ Pay

Coca-Cola, Toyota, France Telecom Among Top-Scoring CSR Reporters

As Political Winds Shift, Detriot Charts New Course

Climate Change Odds Much Worse Than Thought

Cisco Queues Up Smart Grid Technologies

Obama to Tighten Fuel Economy Standards

Competition Heats Up in Race for Electric Car Dominance

Greenpeace Warns on Shell Oil Sands Projects

On Friday, Representatives Henry Waxman and Edward Markey on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released the draft text of a climate and energy bill after making concessions to “blue dog” Democrats who represent districts dependent on fossil fuels.  What emerged was a draft bill that starts the United States down a path towards a reduction in carbon emissions, even if many environmentalists are unhappy with the legislation.

The bill includes a combination of free and auctioned off carbon credits that cap the amount of greenhouse gas emissions the electric utility companies are allowed to release each year.

Here is the breakdown of the permit allocation:

• 15% of the carbon permits will be auctioned off, with the proceeds going toward helping low- and moderate-income families to protect them against energy cost increases

The rest will be given away as follows:

• 35% for the electric utility sector
• 15% for carbon-intensive industries, such as steel and cement, in 2014
• 10% for states for renewable energy and efficiency investment from 2012-2015
• 9% for local natural gas distribution companies
• 5% for tropical deforestation projects
• 3% for automakers toward advanced technologies through 2017
• 2% for domestic adaptation to climate change between 2012-2021
• 2% for international adaptation and clean technology transfer from 2012-2021
• 2% for carbon capture and storage technology from 2014-2017
• 2% for oil refineries from 2014-2026
• 1.5% for programs helping home heating oil and propane users
• 1% for Clean Energy Innovation Centers for R&D funding
• 0.5% for job training from 2012-2021

The free credits will ratchet down every year, so that there is both an incentive to address carbon emissions, as well as the opportunity for utilities to sell their unused credits on the open market.  While many environmentalists deride giving away these carbon credits to companies which have had years to prepare for national climate legislation, as Paul Krugman asks in his column this morning whether they are, “making the perfect the enemy of the good.”  He goes on to say:

“Now, these handouts wouldn’t undermine the policy’s effectiveness. Even when polluters get free permits, they still have an incentive to reduce their emissions, so that they can sell their excess permits to someone else. That’s not just theory: allowances for sulfur dioxide emissions are allocated to electric utilities free of charge, yet the cap-and-trade system for SO2 has been highly successful at controlling acid rain.”

While this may not be the bill that pleases everyone, for the first time established benchmarks for scaling down our carbon emissions through 2030, and gives companies certainty about how these externalities will be regulated going forward.  The electric utility sector and other energy-intensive industries have a framework within which to identify cost and energy-saving measures to guide them forward in a carbon-constrained world.

Tim Woodall at FD Element

As Alaska Glaciers Melt, It’s Land That’s Rising

New Version of House Climate Bill Released

Draft UN Climate Texts Mark Step Towards Treaty

NY Governor David Paterson Announces Plans for Largest Solar Project in State History

The New York Times’ Green Inc. reports that Last week, the Energy Department announced nearly $50 million in new financing and scholarships through its Nuclear Energy University Program for American colleges working on “cutting-edge” nuclear energy research.  “The next generation of nuclear power plants, with the highest standards of safety, efficiency and environmental protection,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said, “will require training the next generation of nuclear scientists and engineers.”

As Consumer Reports… well, reports, this week Coca Cola unveiled its new PlantBottle, which is made from 100% recycled contents.  It is comprised of a mix of petroleum-based materials and up to 30 percent plant-based materials, including sugar cane and molasses. Compared with the production of petroleum-based PET bottles, says Coca-Cola, making the PlantBottle relies less on a nonrenewable resource and reduces greenhouse-gas emissions by up to 25 percent.

GreenBiz reports that Safeway stores recycle about 85 percent of their solid waste through a series of programs that have diverted hundred of thousands of tons of garbage from landfills.  The company’s 85% diversion rate exceeds the 50 percent mandated goal of California, the state in which the retailer is headquartered. All told, the programs have diverted more than 500,000 tons of waste materials, Safeway said in its 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility report published today.

Tim Woodall at FD Element

Empire of Carbon

Obama’s 2010 Budget to Increase EPA Funding by 34 Percent

How National Grid Ties Executive Pay to Carbon Reduction

Proposed Clean Energy Deployment Administration

Guest post by Richard Seireeni

Parts 1 and 2 of this story can be found HERE

Another ingenious idea driving sustainability in Africa comes from a San Diego businessman, David Palella, who aims to provide direct payment to rural people who offset their carbon production with high-efficiency stoves.

“The cell-phone-based Carbon Micro Credit system employs SMS (simple message service) and unique identifiers to allow millions of families in the developing world to claim on a bi-weekly or monthly basis the carbon offsets they produce by using more efficient cooking methods such as a modern charcoal stove or solar cooker, instead of an inefficient open-pit fire burning biomass. As a result, each family is able to monetize directly its own contribution to mitigating global warming, while also reducing nationwide rates of deforestation and desertification.”

The concept is promoted by David’s non-profit, Carbon Manna.

In addition to Carbon Manna, there are a number of other organizations working toward a model of African sustainability including the Partnership For African Environmental Sustainability, Conserve Africa, Fair Trade In Tourism South Africa, All Africa, and the Kenya Organic Agricultural Network. The Green Living Project is currently documenting sustainable projects throughout Africa. For those who have read my book, you will see the beginning of an African gort cloud in this list.

So, how can David Palella’s idea and that of thousands of other business leaders transform the world’s view of Africa? The key is sustainability. Sustainability is a brand driver that has the power to change the conversation from ‘basket case’ to ‘land of opportunity’. Just as sustainability has been used to change the nation brand of New Zealand and the city brands of Curitiba, Brazil and Portland, Oregon, sustainability can completely change our impressions of Africa.

An African brand driven by sustainability can reassure investors and produce lucrative markets for organic food, eco-friendly textiles and properly managed natural resources. An African brand driven by sustainability can establish new rules for participation in African growth, one that extends its rewards to those at the bottom of the economic pyramid. A commitment to sustainability can demonstrate that all Africans - the stakeholders in the African brand - have a vision for a future that provides economic growth and environmental protection.

Many nation-branding experts have been pondering how to change the West’s negative impression of the African brand. I think the solution is sustainability.

Richard Seireeni is president of The Brand Architect Group, and author of a new book on green marketing, The Gort Cloud, that describes the invisible network that is powering today’s most successful green brands

Guest post by Richard Seireeni

Part 1 of this series can be found HERE.

It is an opinion that the most progress can be made by direct assistance to the poorest and most populous Africans through micro-financing and clever inventions. It’s simple things like the high-efficiency Berkeley Darfur Stove that reduces long journeys into the bush to collect firewood that in turn reduces deforestation, or the Q Drum that makes it easier to transport water in rural areas, or Professor Wangari Maathai’s program to pay women and rural farmers to plant and maintain watershed trees.

One of these amazingly simple ideas enables sons and daughters who move to the city to transfer money to their parents who remain in rural communities. This is a homegrown Kenyan idea that is enormously successful and provides money to Africa’s poorest citizens.

The idea is called M-PESA, a Safaricom system that uses mobile phones to transfer money instantly via SMS. No bank account is required. In Africa, they never had the luxury of a wired telephone system, so mobile wireless leaped ahead. Even poor country villages have wireless service and many rural people have cell-phones. A Kenyan cooked up the idea of M-PESA, and it makes a lot of things possible - including a sustainable future for Africans. Poor people in rural areas can buy high-efficiency stoves with M-PESA or receive deposits for chickens and vegetables sold to city markets. They can also receive money from children who leave the village to find employment in the city. Funds deposited to phones can be turned into cash at village shops.

Richard Seireeni is president of The Brand Architect Group, and author of a new book on green marketing, The Gort Cloud, that describes the invisible network that is powering today’s most successful green brands

Gov. Paterson and GE Announce New York Battery Factory

EPA Outlines Ways to Reduce Our Carbon Footprint

House Democrats Reach Accord on Climate Bill

City Patrol Cars Go Hybrid

Guest post by Richard Seireeni

Part 1 of 3

I’m flying back from Nairobi. I had the privilege of making a presentation to a group of African sustainable business leaders. There was a passion in this small, but engaged meeting, a passion that makes one think of a positive future, rather than obsessing about AIDS, poverty, war and corruption, which are the overwhelming images we in the West associate with Africa. Bono and Bob Geldof, despite their inspiring good works, tend to perpetuate this impression that Africa is a basket case, an opinion that Melissa Davis expresses in her article, “Is Africa Misbranded?” and that economist William Easterly opines in the Los Angeles Times, “What Bono Doesn’t Say About Africa“. The people who attended this meeting hosted by The Environmental Press were thinking about a different basket, a breadbasket of opportunity that can sustainably and efficiently lift the lives of ordinary Africans.

There was no disagreement among attendees that Africa needs, even requires a sustainable future. The extraction industries have run wild here with no regulation that cannot be bought or bent to their will. The issue of blood diamonds was brought to the world’s attention, but oil, mineral and timber extraction continues to fuel tribal conflicts that lead to the unraveling of communities and environmental destruction on a massive scale. The raw materials used to make your cell phone? They are fueling a ten-year war in East Africa. The piracy off the coast of Somalia? Its root cause is exploitation of Indian Ocean fisheries and toxic dumping. Clearly, the current system of resource extraction must shift to a more ecological and sustainable one.

Africa also needs better infrastructure, affordable sources of power and confident trading partners. Africa needs sustainable economic growth, but there is much disagreement on how sustainability should be achieved.

There are powerful forces at work in Africa driven by resource-hungry nations like China, the US and those of the EU. This is further encouraged by the World Bank that defines progress by the number of dams, highways and bridges it funds. Modern high-output agriculture with its dependence on water, fertilizer and GMO seed stock is also defined as progress, but never mind the downstream pollution and shrinking lakes. Improved sanitation and vaccines have contributed to increased health, but also increased population; and, all of this puts a heavy burden on Africa’s ability to grow in a sound and sustainable way.

Progress also means profit. Large-scale progress produces vast amounts of cash that flows through the hands of multinationals and government officials with little trickle down to the average African. So, it’s no surprise that one view of sustainability is driven by these forces. In these circles, sustainable solutions are discussed on a grand scale, like harnessing the vast wind and geothermal resources of East Africa or tapping the enormous water reserves in Congo. Large-scale carbon trading schemes are also part of the mix. These plans, some of which are needed, are huge and require huge, mostly foreign investment. The problem is that foreign investors and foreign aid programs often promise more than they deliver, leaving these projects chronically short of funds. When corners are cut, the environment suffers.

Richard Seireeni is president of The Brand Architect Group, and author of a new book on green marketing, The Gort Cloud, that describes the invisible network that is powering today’s most successful green brands

The Road Ahead: EPA’s Options and Obligations for Regulating Greenhouse Gases

Changes in the Sun Are Not Causing Global Warming

Launch of the National 2009 Clean Air Green Tour

Waste Firms Scrap for Contracts in China Clean-up