U.S. Climate Change Envoy: Post-Kyoto Talks ‘Inadequate’
Green Ink: Oil Rebounds and Sarah Palin Attacks
Green Technology Transfer the Key for International Climate Deal, Brazilian Official Says
Archive for the ‘recycling’ Category
Wednesday Headlines
Friday Blog Roundup
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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
Would You Like Paper or Plastic With Your Tax?
permalink
It seems like things are afoot in the retail world.
I was in Duane Reade the other day, and noticed that there’s a big bin in the front of the store full of plastic bags. I asked one of the employees about it, and they said it’s a new law that all stores had to recycle plastic bags. I looked into this a bit more, and was intrigued about all the activity going on in the plastic bag world.
One of the main drivers behind these efforts appears to be that when these bags are not recycled, they tend to take up landfill space, litter roadways, and have a disastrous impact on fish and wildlife. And since they’re made of plastic, these bags take hundreds of years to decompose. It is becoming a quality of life issue for people, and legislators are beginning to take a bead on this very visible reminder of our consumer culture.
Here in New York, the city council passed a bill in January that requires large stores and retail chains, such as CVS, Duane Reade, Rite-Aid, and Wal-Mart, to recycle plastic bags prominently in their establishments. Mayor Bloomberg, in his effort to make New York the “greenest city in the U.S.,” also announced plans in November to implement a 5 cent tax on the 2.8 billion plastic bags distributed in the city annually. He estimates this program has the potential to bring in $84 million in new revenue for the city.
This is all well and good from 30,000 feet, but if a city is considering a tax on plastic bags, it really comes down to how this money collected is going to be spent. For example, money collected by states that have bottle deposit laws typically spent on anti-littering awareness campaigns, but rather directly into the state general fund for a number of unrelated projects. Let’s make sure that if we are going to be adding yet another tax, the monies should go towards solving the problem.
Grant Draper, at FD Element in New York
Top 5 Sustainability Communication Trends for 2009
permalink
Broad societal trends — from a “green” President and energy team, to the rapid rise in new media tools and the increased need for businesses to cut costs — will make 2009 a landmark year in communicating on sustainability.
1. Thought leadership and innovation as keys to combating the economic downturn
From Detroit to Wall Street, it is clear that short term bottom-line thinking is not conducive to running a successful business today. In ’09, companies will expand their focus beyond traditional sustainability methods (recycling, carbon footprinting) to include new initiatives and innovations to cut costs and attract clients. And with many businesses planning either to maintain or increase their spending on corporate sustainability efforts, 2009 will be a year companies look for and promote new ways of “going green.”
2. More use of social media tools and online video
Online video, a medium which enjoyed 350% growth in 2008, will expand even more rapidly in ’09 and will increasingly be used as a replacement for written information. Businesses and advocacy groups are now realizing the communication potential of social media networking — such as Facebook and YouTube — to engage customers and other stakeholders. Even President-elect Obama utilized these new media tools to communicate his ideas about sustainability and other initiatives.
3. Aligning corporate sustainability initiatives and activities with core brand values
There will be a closer link between companies’ sustainability initiatives and their overall brand identities. Environmental stewardship will no longer be buried in the back of a company’s website because the ROI for green marketing strategies has been established. Expect more companies to realign their core business values to adhere to these new standards being set by stakeholders, competitors and indeed consumers.
4. Consumer concern over global warming rebounds as U.S. policy on climate change is clarified
With the new administration already proposing the most forward-looking climate policy agenda ever, businesses and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) may choose to capitalize on this momentum by joining the green movement. News of Obama’s alternative energy plans has already galvanized many in the renewable energy industry and we expect this trend to expand into other business sectors.
5. Accountability involving third-party partnerships will be more important than ever
NGO partnerships are one of the soundest ways to enhance credibility on sustainability initiatives. In the long run this will blur the once clear divide between businesses and other organizations, such as NGOs. Working with these advocacy groups, companies will take more active roles in land and water conservation, wildlife protection, renewable energy and other sustainability priorities.
Grant Draper, at FD Element in New York
What to do with old cell phones? Talk to ReCellular Inc.
permalink
By Mike Newman of ReCellular Inc., today’s guest blogger
Cell phones are an unquestioned technological success story. 80% of American’s use one, and most have two or three old ones at home. All that success has bred a larger problem – what to do with the old ones? Nearly all the manufacturers, carriers and national retailers now offer free phone recycling programs. But the largest collector of used phones continues to be our desk drawers and basements.
ReCellular Inc. has pioneered the business of collecting old phones for reuse and recycling. We process more than 500,000 phones a month, collected from consumers across the country. Despite all our successes, that represents a tiny percentage of the number retired each month. It is estimated at 10 million or more; it is likely that only 1 million are collected each month. Thankfully, few actually are thrown into the garbage. Instead they accumulate in our homes and offices.
Despite the incredible amount of attention given of late to environmental issues in general, and the potential problems we face from e-waste disposal specifically, few people are self-motivated to take action and recycle their old phones. Even when presented with a free, postage-paid envelope, fewer than 5% of consumers participate. Similarly, few consumers are driven to equate the purchase of a refurbished phone as an environmentally-preferable action. If considered at all, it is primarily an economic decision. Many people jump at the chance to buy an inexpensive phone without having to sign a long contract.
Our challenge as a company – and as a society – is to figure out how to make the recycling of cell phones and other electronic waste as ingrained as paper or glass recycling. Increasingly, the means are simple and free. Education and changes in culture are the next steps towards solving this evolving environmental problem.
Editors note: Mike Newman is Vice President at ReCellular Inc. Learn more about his firm and the issues around e-waste recycling by clicking ReCellular.com and WirelessRecycling.com.
The views expressed above are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent The Element Agency. If you are interested in penning guest posts for My Green Element, please email Stefan Deeran via stefan@theelementagency.com.
Turning trash into billions
permalink
We don’t recommend that our readers quit their jobs to collect cans and truck them to Michigan for that extra 10 cent deposit. As you may recall from that Seinfeld episode, Kramer tried this with no luck. Furthermore, ten people were actually arrested in Michigan for their “can smuggling ring.”
But in a global economy, you can make a living from recycling. In fact, you can make billions.
The world’s richest self-made woman according to the Financial Times, Zhang Yin is affectionately known in her native China as “The Queen of Trash.” Her company, Nine Dragons Paper, simply buys scrap paper from the US and reprocesses it in China for resale as cardboard.
Turning American waste into profit. What a novel idea.
By Stefan Deeran at The Element Agency in New York
Wednesday Headlines
Friday Blog Roundup
permalink
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
Would You Like Paper or Plastic With Your Tax?
permalink
It seems like things are afoot in the retail world.
I was in Duane Reade the other day, and noticed that there’s a big bin in the front of the store full of plastic bags. I asked one of the employees about it, and they said it’s a new law that all stores had to recycle plastic bags. I looked into this a bit more, and was intrigued about all the activity going on in the plastic bag world.
One of the main drivers behind these efforts appears to be that when these bags are not recycled, they tend to take up landfill space, litter roadways, and have a disastrous impact on fish and wildlife. And since they’re made of plastic, these bags take hundreds of years to decompose. It is becoming a quality of life issue for people, and legislators are beginning to take a bead on this very visible reminder of our consumer culture.
Here in New York, the city council passed a bill in January that requires large stores and retail chains, such as CVS, Duane Reade, Rite-Aid, and Wal-Mart, to recycle plastic bags prominently in their establishments. Mayor Bloomberg, in his effort to make New York the “greenest city in the U.S.,” also announced plans in November to implement a 5 cent tax on the 2.8 billion plastic bags distributed in the city annually. He estimates this program has the potential to bring in $84 million in new revenue for the city.
This is all well and good from 30,000 feet, but if a city is considering a tax on plastic bags, it really comes down to how this money collected is going to be spent. For example, money collected by states that have bottle deposit laws typically spent on anti-littering awareness campaigns, but rather directly into the state general fund for a number of unrelated projects. Let’s make sure that if we are going to be adding yet another tax, the monies should go towards solving the problem.
Grant Draper, at FD Element in New York
Top 5 Sustainability Communication Trends for 2009
permalink
Broad societal trends — from a “green” President and energy team, to the rapid rise in new media tools and the increased need for businesses to cut costs — will make 2009 a landmark year in communicating on sustainability.
1. Thought leadership and innovation as keys to combating the economic downturn
From Detroit to Wall Street, it is clear that short term bottom-line thinking is not conducive to running a successful business today. In ’09, companies will expand their focus beyond traditional sustainability methods (recycling, carbon footprinting) to include new initiatives and innovations to cut costs and attract clients. And with many businesses planning either to maintain or increase their spending on corporate sustainability efforts, 2009 will be a year companies look for and promote new ways of “going green.”
2. More use of social media tools and online video
Online video, a medium which enjoyed 350% growth in 2008, will expand even more rapidly in ’09 and will increasingly be used as a replacement for written information. Businesses and advocacy groups are now realizing the communication potential of social media networking — such as Facebook and YouTube — to engage customers and other stakeholders. Even President-elect Obama utilized these new media tools to communicate his ideas about sustainability and other initiatives.
3. Aligning corporate sustainability initiatives and activities with core brand values
There will be a closer link between companies’ sustainability initiatives and their overall brand identities. Environmental stewardship will no longer be buried in the back of a company’s website because the ROI for green marketing strategies has been established. Expect more companies to realign their core business values to adhere to these new standards being set by stakeholders, competitors and indeed consumers.
4. Consumer concern over global warming rebounds as U.S. policy on climate change is clarified
With the new administration already proposing the most forward-looking climate policy agenda ever, businesses and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) may choose to capitalize on this momentum by joining the green movement. News of Obama’s alternative energy plans has already galvanized many in the renewable energy industry and we expect this trend to expand into other business sectors.
5. Accountability involving third-party partnerships will be more important than ever
NGO partnerships are one of the soundest ways to enhance credibility on sustainability initiatives. In the long run this will blur the once clear divide between businesses and other organizations, such as NGOs. Working with these advocacy groups, companies will take more active roles in land and water conservation, wildlife protection, renewable energy and other sustainability priorities.
Grant Draper, at FD Element in New York
What to do with old cell phones? Talk to ReCellular Inc.
permalink
By Mike Newman of ReCellular Inc., today’s guest blogger
Cell phones are an unquestioned technological success story. 80% of American’s use one, and most have two or three old ones at home. All that success has bred a larger problem – what to do with the old ones? Nearly all the manufacturers, carriers and national retailers now offer free phone recycling programs. But the largest collector of used phones continues to be our desk drawers and basements.
ReCellular Inc. has pioneered the business of collecting old phones for reuse and recycling. We process more than 500,000 phones a month, collected from consumers across the country. Despite all our successes, that represents a tiny percentage of the number retired each month. It is estimated at 10 million or more; it is likely that only 1 million are collected each month. Thankfully, few actually are thrown into the garbage. Instead they accumulate in our homes and offices.
Despite the incredible amount of attention given of late to environmental issues in general, and the potential problems we face from e-waste disposal specifically, few people are self-motivated to take action and recycle their old phones. Even when presented with a free, postage-paid envelope, fewer than 5% of consumers participate. Similarly, few consumers are driven to equate the purchase of a refurbished phone as an environmentally-preferable action. If considered at all, it is primarily an economic decision. Many people jump at the chance to buy an inexpensive phone without having to sign a long contract.
Our challenge as a company – and as a society – is to figure out how to make the recycling of cell phones and other electronic waste as ingrained as paper or glass recycling. Increasingly, the means are simple and free. Education and changes in culture are the next steps towards solving this evolving environmental problem.
Editors note: Mike Newman is Vice President at ReCellular Inc. Learn more about his firm and the issues around e-waste recycling by clicking ReCellular.com and WirelessRecycling.com.
The views expressed above are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent The Element Agency. If you are interested in penning guest posts for My Green Element, please email Stefan Deeran via stefan@theelementagency.com.
Turning trash into billions
permalink
We don’t recommend that our readers quit their jobs to collect cans and truck them to Michigan for that extra 10 cent deposit. As you may recall from that Seinfeld episode, Kramer tried this with no luck. Furthermore, ten people were actually arrested in Michigan for their “can smuggling ring.”
But in a global economy, you can make a living from recycling. In fact, you can make billions.
The world’s richest self-made woman according to the Financial Times, Zhang Yin is affectionately known in her native China as “The Queen of Trash.” Her company, Nine Dragons Paper, simply buys scrap paper from the US and reprocesses it in China for resale as cardboard.
Turning American waste into profit. What a novel idea.
By Stefan Deeran at The Element Agency in New York