Earth and Industry » Business Operation

The Changing Face of Corporate Responsibility

Guest Author — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:29:16 +0000

The following post is written by Roberta B. Bowman, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Duke Energy.

In 1999, fewer than 500 companies issued sustainability reports. That number is now over 3,500. Once only a concern for a few niche companies with sustainability as a core value and brand differentiator, corporate sustainability has moved categorically into the mainstream.

Today, there is a growing demand for companies to demonstrate a responsible, sustainable, long-term approach to business, to produce a statement of their sustainability activities, and to clearly show how this relates to their core business strategy. Corporate sustainability reports now contain detailed performance metrics and reflect the priority companies have given to measuring and managing the impact of their operations.

Several factors have driven the current momentum for sustainable corporate performance:

Stakeholder expectations: Companies understand the many benefits of sustainable operations, especially now that they engage with a wider range of stakeholders – shareholders, employees, business partners, investors, consumers, NGOs, the media – who demand accountability and transparency.

Global standards: The development and acceptance of global standards has played a critical role in sustainability reporting and performance management. Currently, over 1,500 companies across 60 countries have adopted the G3 standards – introduced by the Global Reporting Initiative, which provides a universal framework for disclosure. Additionally, groups such as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the World Resources Institute and the World Intellectual Capital Initiative have also developed useful resources for business reporting language.

Investor interest: Institutional investors and stock exchanges have also asked for better sustainability reporting from listed companies. Consequently, environmental, social and corporate governance indices have been established, such as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and The Carbon Disclosure Project.

Natural resource constraints: Every company that depends on natural resources is facing increased costs and constraints. Sustainability helps companies improve their operations as natural resource constraints reshape markets.

In November, I had the honour of serving on the Selection Committee of the Zayed Future Energy Prize – a global initiative by the Abu Dhabi government that recognizes and rewards outstanding efforts in the renewable energy and sustainability sectors. I was impressed by the number of companies that had developed approaches, practices and processes to measure their performance as sustainable businesses.

From my experience on the Selection Committee, one thing is clear: corporate sustainability is becoming a boardroom strategy that is driving enormous creativity, efficiency and innovation.

The day may come when understanding the lifecycle of a product or service is so engrained in business that we won’t need to call that “sustainability”. Until then, initiatives such as the Zayed Future Energy Prize help showcase and promote the business value of sustainability, while facilitating sharing and learning between large corporations, NGOs and individuals.

Roberta B. Bowman is Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer at Duke Energy, and served as a member of the Selection Committee for the 2012 Zayed Future Energy Prize

Photo: Some rights reserved by gibffe at flickr

Toyota Follows Vestas, Donates Zayed Energy Prize Winnings

Timothy Hurst — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:40:56 +0000

One year ago, when Danish wind energy giant Vestas won the Zayed Future Energy Prize in Abu Dhabi and immediately donated the winnings to a new non-profit and the runners-up, the first thing that came to mind for many was that the gift would set a new precedent for winners of the $1.5 million prize. And the second thing that came to mind about the gesture was that it didn't exactly make the 2010 winner of the Zayed Future Energy Prize, Toyota, look very good. But few predicted what would happen this week in Abu Dhabi when Toyota announced it would be donating its prize winnings from two years ago.

Announced at the outset of the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi this week, Toyota said it will use the $1.5 million prize fund to establish a scholarship program for 10 students at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, located at the heart of the home-grown research and development community at Masdar City in Abu Dhabi.

Students chosen to receive the Masdar Institute-Toyota Scholarship will write their final Master’s degree thesis on a sustainable mobility topic.

"Masdar Institute is one of the leading research-oriented academic institutions that constantly engage with the youth to develop and implement clean energy technologies," said Nobuyuki Negishi of the Toyota Middle East & North Africa.

The Zayed Future Energy Prize, managed by the Abu Dhabi clean energy company, Masdar, seeks to identify, recognize and reward innovation, leadership, long-term vision and impact on renewable energy and sustainability.

The winners of the 2012 Zayed Future Energy prize will be announced tonight at an award ceremony in Abu Dhabi, at which point we will learn whether Vestas indeed set a new standard for corporate philanthropy at the event, now in its fifth year.

Photo credits: 1. Masdar Institute campus by Tim Hurst; 2. World Future Energy Summit
Note: Tim Hurst's travel expenses to the WFES were covered by Masdar

Company First to Make Nylon Precursor Without Petrochemicals

Timothy Hurst — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:20:40 +0000

Every year, about 2.5 billion kilograms of a little known white chrystalline powder known as adipic acid are produced worldwide, most of which is used to make nylon 6-6, a precursor to the ubiquitous modern textile, nylon. But currently, the vast majority of that adipic acid is produced using petrochemicals which produce fairly significant amounts of greenhouse gases, a substantial portion of which in the form of are nitrous oxides.

But a company called Verdezyne, which just opened a pilot plant in Carlsbad, California, has developed a fermentation process to make adipic acid from renewable sources like non-food based vegetable oils. The plant is the first-ever to produce bio-based adipic acid at scale from a non-petroleum source. And according to the company CEO, they can do so cheaper and with fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional methods of production.

"When we look at a lifecycle analysis," Verdezyne president and CEO Dr. E. William Radany said in a recent phone call, "we will save approximately 2 tons of carbon dioxide per ton of adipic acid over incumbent process."

Current petrochemical processes for the production of adipic acid generate as much as 4 tons of CO2-equivalent emissions per ton of adipic acid produced.

But Verdezyne's platform allows the microorganism to utilize sugar, plant-based oils or alkanes from a variety of feedstocks, free from shocks to production costs from future energy volatility.

"Customers want a nylon that is not petroleum-based," Radany said.

Verdezyne hopes to meet demand in smaller market sectors and capture opportunities with carpet, apparel and engineered plastics.

With financial backing provided by venture partners including BP Alternative Energy, the company continues to work on developing strategic partnerships for its bio-based adipic acid

For now, Verdezyne expects to produce about 5 to 15 kilograms of the bio-adipic acid per week, just a tiny sliver of the nearly 5 million gallons of adipic acid produced every week using petrochemicals.

"Our scale up is working as planned and we are in discussions with a number of companies to form partnerships for commercialization," Radany says, underscoring that technical challenges are first and foremost.

"The main challenge is getting the organism to do something it has never done before and conceptualize a metabolic pathway to do something valuable."

The company hopes to move into commercial production of its bio-based adipic acid in 18 months.

Photo credit: Superplus at de.wikipedia

Energy Efficient Data Centers: Why They’re Important [INFOGRAPHIC]

Becky Striepe — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 01:20:48 +0000

If you're not a techie person, something like a data center probably feels like it doesn't affect you, but you probably interact with data centers all the time without even realizing it. Any time load a website on your computer, you're relying on a data center. Basically, a data center is a huge building full of computers.

Large companies like Apple, IBM, and Amazon have huge data centers that they use to do everything from keeping inventory to processing orders, and all of those computers in all of those buildings add up to a huge environmental impact. We need to hold companies accountable when they're not doing everything possible to make their data centers energy efficient.

This infographic from Peer 1 Hosting takes a look at efficient data centers, what makes them that way, and how companies can improve.

Image Credits:
Data Center. Creative Commons photo by The Planet
Infographic via Peer 1 Hosting

Does China’s Rare Earth’s Monopoly Imperil Clean Energy?

Silvio Marcacci — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 19:08:55 +0000

The minerals known as rare earths are likely the most important, but least understood factor in our transition to a low-carbon, clean-energy future. They’re essential ingredients to just about every source of renewable energy and nearly every consumer electronic device we use today.

But China dominates worldwide rare earth supplies and production, and their monopoly could corner the world economy. energyNOW! chief correspondent Tyler Suiters explores how U.S. dependence on China’s rare earths could affect our energy future and high-tech lifestyles. The full video is available below:

Americans are used to seeing the words “Made in China” on most things we buy, but could they soon also read “Mined in China?” The nation controls 97 percent of global production of the elements we rely upon in every aspect of modern life. Consider the technologies requiring rare earths: computers, smart phones, military jets, rocket systems, electric cars, wind turbines, energy-efficient light bulbs, and flat-screen televisions, to name a few.

China’s claim on the rare earths market began in the 1980’s. Premier Deng Xioping famously quipped “the Middle East has oil, but China has rare earths,” and the country ramped up mining efforts. This drove production costs down so sharply that rare earth mining became unprofitable in other countries, including the U.S., which had led global production since the 1960s. It also boosted China’s economy.

“They were very effectively using their control over the rare earth industry to force high-tech manufacturing into China,” said John Burba, CTO of Molycorp, operator of the only active rare earths mine in America. “I could look and see how fast it was leaving the United States.”

Molycorp hopes to counter China’s rare earths monopoly through its Mountain Pass mine in California. Until the 1980s, Mountain Pass was the single top producing rare earths mine in the world. Plunging commodity prices and a series of environmental accidents forced it to close.

Through a revamped approach that favors computer control and automation, Molycorp says it can safely produce 40,000 tons of rare earths a year by 2013 – equal to all U.S. demand. “A facility of this size in China would probably require 3,000 to 4,000 people,” said Mark Smith, Molycorp CEO. “We’ll have 300 or 400.”

Meeting that demand is critical to the burgeoning clean tech economy, which consumes 20 percent of the world’s rare earths. They coat the inside of compact fluorescent light bulbs, go into the magnets that turn electric vehicle batteries, and power the electrical generators inside wind turbines. For context, some of the biggest turbines can each use two tons of rare earths.

If production can’t be increased, another solution may be to find replacements. Companies with a big stake in renewables are actively looking for rare earth substitutes. General Electric says it has developed a higher-performance wind turbine magnetizer coil, completely free of rare earths, and Toyota is working on an EV motor that doesn’t need rare earths at all. But, both are still in the experimental phase and not yet market-ready.

So while breaking up the rare earths monopoly has environmental consequences, it also represents an economic imperative – and the window is closing. “The big danger is that China totally controls the production of all devices containing rare earths,” said Jack Lifton, of Technology Metals Research. “If we haven’t made any significant moves by 2015, we will simply no longer be a nation with any hope of doing so.”

EU Set to Charge International Airlines for Carbon Emissions

The Guardian — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:15:27 +0000

by Fiona Harvey, guardian.co.uk

Europe's most senior court is expected to rule on Wednesday that airlines based outside the continent should have to pay for their carbon emissions on flights to or from EU member states, in a crucial test of climate change regulation.

At stake are millions of tonnes in carbon dioxide emissions from airplanes, as airlines at present have little or no incentive to cut their greenhouse gases.

The signs are that the EU will be cleared to impose a system of carbon trading on all passenger flights taking off or landing in member states. In a preliminary ruling in October, the court backed the EU's plans. But whatever the 13 judges in Luxembourg decide on Wednesday, it is unlikely to be the end of the story as the long-running legal battle will open up on new fronts.

Already legislators in the US are attempting to make it illegal for their airlines to comply with EU rules on carbon, and it is understood that China is issuing similar guidance, in a serious escalation of hostilities.

The hard-fought battle pits the US and Chinese governments as well as numerous international airlines against EU legislators, who have insisted that airlines must pay for their share of the potential damage from climate change. The US and Chinese governments have threatened a trade war over the issue, and airlines have protested that if the EU rules are allowed to go ahead, they will be landed with billions of dollars of new costs in the next few years.

But the amount is likely to be small, according to analysts. Research carried out this year by the analyst company Thomson Reuters Point Carbon put the probable total cost to all airlines at about €1.1bn next year, but that was based on a carbon price of €12 per tonne – whereas prices have plunged to just over half of that in recent weeks. As a result, the true cost is likely to be much lower.

"The battle has been extraordinarily fierce, given the real implications of emissions trading, which are not really that big," said Andreas Arvanitakis, associate director of Point Carbon. "It's a minute incremental cost compared to the costs of jet fuel. This is certainly not a game-changer for aviation."

Airlines will also be treated equally on each route, in order to make competition between them fair.

On 6 October, an advocate general – a senior legal adviser appointed by the Court of Justice of the European Union – issued a formal recommendation to the court supporting the legality of the EU law. The 13-judge grand chamber has been deliberating the case since the advocate general's opinion was released.

Arvanitakis warned that if the judges ruled against the EU, it would be a "serious blow to political support" for the EU's emissions trading system. "If this entire sector is taken out, it would open the window for doubters within the EU to ask where this is going," he said.

Under the EU's proposals, all airlines operating flights taking off or landing in member states would be subjected to its emissions trading scheme – the system introduced in 2005 by which carbon-intensive industries are issued with permits to produce carbon dioxide. Cleaner companies can trade these permits with laggards, giving them an increasing incentive to cut carbon.

The US, China and numerous airlines argue that the system is in effect a tax on aviation, which would be banned by longstanding international agreement. However, the EU counters that the system is not a tax but represents fair regulation in order to tackle climate change. Airlines based within the EU will already be subject to the carbon trading rules from next year.

As a result of the system, passenger ticket prices are likely be pushed up, though some airlines may choose to absorb some of the costs.

Carbon prices within the European Union have fallen sharply as the euro crisis has taken hold, and are now close to their record lows.

Airlines also argue that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is preparing its own system of carbon trading, which could be operating from 2013. However, EU officials are doubtful that this would come up to the same standards as its scheme and could be open to manipulation by the airlines. Campaigners said the move to have ICAO bring in a scheme was merely a delaying tactic, and pointed out that ICAO has been talking about such a scheme for more than five years, without any concrete result as yet, with no guarantee of a future outcome.

Bill Hemmings, program manager at Brussels-based campaigning group Transport and Environment, said: "Let's allow the judges to decide whether it is legal or not [for the EU to draw aviation within emissions trading], but it is certainly not unfair. All airlines are being treated equally when they come into and leave Europe and that is fair."

He said studies of the cumulative effect of civil aviation since its inception showed it was responsible for about 4.9% of carbon and equivalents in the atmosphere. As that amount is growing, while emissions must be cut to avoid dangerous global warming, aviation would be an increasing part of the problem, he said.

The EU is also looking at ways to regulate the carbon output of international shipping. Proposals to curb greenhouse gas emissions from aviation and shipping have been under discussion since the negotiations leading up to the Kyoto protocol in 1997, and in recent years have focused on a levy on shipping. But that proposal was knocked back yet again at this month's UN climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa.

Emissions from international aviation and maritime transport are excluded from the Kyoto protocol and the 2009 Copenhagen accord, and there is no guarantee they will be included in any new international climate agreement to come into force from 2020. If aviation is included in the EU emissions trading scheme, it will be the first time carbon emissions from the sector have been regulated.

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by ZeePack

Google’s Top Green Searches of 2011

Timothy Hurst — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:41:08 +0000

Since the early days of the internet, people have used search engines to find stuff on the web. And ever since those early searches, SEOs, SEMs, strategists, researchers and other quantoids have aggregated that data to track social trends. This decidedly new source of social data gives new and virtually instantaneous insight into the public consciousness — from the mundane and minute to the memorable and macro. To make sense of all that raw data and to find patterns of social significance, every year Google publishes Zeitgeist, a collection of the year's most popular search trends at the world's most popular search engine.

Google does not give "green" search terms their own category, however, green-themed lists are sprinkled throughout the Science, Tech & Gadgets, Quirky and Lifestyle categories.

And while green topics are not as frequently searched as pop culture and tech, major environmental disasters often trigger robust trends in search, especially at Google News, as was evidenced in 2010 with the search trend "oil spill" topping the Google News list and again in 2011 with the search trend "東京電力" (TEPCO) topping the Google News list and the global #8 Fastest Rising Search, in reference to the combination earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant accident in Japan.

Appearing as a variety of Top 10 lists ranging from high-tech to re-use and everywhere in between, the 2011 Google Green Search Trends are much more benign than the disaster-themed searches mentioned above. The lists below give a good picture of the kind of green information people are looking for when they begin typing into those little search boxes. Here's a rundown of the 8 green-themed Top 10 search term lists for 2011 (with links to each collection available by clicking on the category heading). Note: while the list below is tailored for U.S. searches, the Zeitgeist tool allows users to drill down to other geographic regions as well.

Alternative Energy