Kyocera are also calling for entries to its annual GreenLight Awards, now in their fourth year.
The awards recognise individuals and organisations that have been instrumental in identifying and meeting an environmental challenge associated with their business and/or promoting public awareness, understanding and active concern for the enhancement and protection of the environment.
Entrants are judged by an independent panel and the winners will be honoured at Kyocera’s annual Green Card Conference, set for 9 July. The closing date for entries is 30 June.
Awards are presented in five categories:
Public Sector
Private Sector (under 50 employees)
Private Sector (over 50 employees)
Kyocera Mita Channel Partner
Thames Valley Business Award
All entry submissions should include information that will alllow the judges to easily determine what the project was, what its aims were and the overall success of the project. Entries are limited to 500 words.
The award was presented by BBC broadcaster Jeremy Vine at a ceremony in London this week.
Howard was one of 21 winners from the region and was described as a “serial social entrepreneur” combining vision with a broad understanding of climate, energy and business issues and an ability to work at the highest levels of government and business. His name now goes forward to a national final in October with a chance to win the title Ernst & Young Overall UK Entrepreneur Of The Year.
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential, and recognises the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement.
The Forest Footprint Disclosure Project (FFD), launched this week, seeks to help investors better understand the business link to deforestation (PDF).
“Deforestation is a global emergency, the importance of which the business world needs to wake up to,” said Andrew Mitchell, chair of the FFD steering committee. “Billion-dollar funding mechanisms and new regulations are being put in place by governments to curb emissions from forests and agriculture. Calls are being heard from world leaders, major businesses and influential NGOs to halt deforestation now, and this is going to have a material impact on the way business can act in the future.”
The FFD Project will, for the first time, engage the financial community and businesses to help them understand their “forest footprint,” a measure of the use of commodities within a business’ supply chain that might directly or indirectly contribute to deforestation. The project also aims to help businesses minimise the impact of their forest footprints.
The project has also launched “Global Forest Footprints,” a report that details how consumer products containing commodities taken from rainforests contribute to deforestation. The report also explains how the project can help investors better manage their forest-related risks.
A West Midlands-based energy company has achieved a Big Tick Award from Business in the Community (BitC) in the Marketplace Impact category, for its ‘”Spreading Warmth” programme to help to alleviate fuel poverty in the region and across the UK.
npower, which has an office in Solihull, has helped more than 150,000 customers through the programme, which provides financial support and energy saving advice to consumers. The initiative received the P&G Responsible Marketing and Innovation award for the second year running, and involves training employees to recognise those most at risk, including identifying customers who pay more than 10 per cent of their income on energy bills.
During 2008, npower invested over £15million in the programme.
In addition to the Big Tick award, npower has achieved Platinum status in the BitC’s Corporate Responsibility Index, the UK’s leading voluntary benchmark of corporate responsibility.
The Big Tick is awarded to businesses that are able to demonstrate significant impact and high quality management of their responsible business practices.
UK-based renewable energy firm Dulas reports that sales of its life-saving solar powered products continue to remain strong, with a total of 568 solar-powered fridges being shipped, year to date. These fridges have been dispatched across 12 countries including recent shipments to Nigeria.
The solar-powered fridges are used for the storage of vaccines.
“Dulas is one of a handful of companies world-wide who are qualified as solar systems suppliers and who manufacture a range of CFC-free solar refrigerators for use in the cold chain, and rural health facilities,” said Cath Peasley of Dulas.
The firm has supplied solar fridges to Nigeria, Yemen, Ghana, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda, among other countries.
Dell says it now sources 26 per cent of its global electricity needs from renewable energy sources, up from 20 per cent in 2008.
The company attributes the increase to its new renewable energy partnerships in the UK, Germany, Sweden and Norway with utility providers Swalec, Scottish Power Energy Retail, EVH, Mainova, Telge Energi and Hafslund.
Nine Dell facilities in Europe and the US are currently powered with 100-per cent renewable energy. Those facilities are located in Bracknell and Glasgow, UK; Frankfurt and Halle, Germany; Oslo, Norway; Stockholm, Sweden; Round Rock, Texas; Twin Falls, Idaho and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Dell’s use of renewable energy is part of its plan to reduce its facilities’ greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2015. Dell takes a three-step approach to its reduction strategy: energy efficiency, use of renewable energy and purchase of renewable energy credits.
“We’re integrating green power into operations wherever and whenever possible,” said Dane Parker, director of environment, health and safety at Dell. “It’s critical that our industry help lead the way to a green economy. Aggressive energy efficiency and renewable-power targets are essential to making this happen.”
IBM’s second annual global corporate social responsibility (CSR) found that nearly all of the 224 respondents said they want to incorporate CSR principles into their business strategies to improve business performance, societal contribution and reputation.
However, the survey also found that most firms aren’t collecting the right data, aggregating it often enough, gathering information from global supply chain partners or learning enough about the concerns of key stakeholders, especially customers.
Only 19 per cent of the firms surveyed, for example, are collecting data on carbon dioxide emissions weekly or more frequently. The rest are collecting it no more than monthly, and most only quarterly — ample perhaps for meeting government or stakeholder demands for information, but not nearly enough to make systemic changes that would reduce environmental impact.
“Our survey participants clearly understand that integrating CSR considerations into their business strategies is essential to their growth and performance,” said Eric Riddleberger, IBM’s business strategy consulting global leader. “But it’s also pretty obvious many of them don’t know what they need to know to actually make changes that would improve both business performance and societal impact.”
Companies are coming under increasing pressure from governments, advocacy groups, investors, prospective employees, and consumers to make their operations, products and services more socially responsible. This covers a range of topics, including environmental concerns, labor practices, product safety and traceability, and procurement practices. At the same time, they are under tremendous economic pressure to reduce costs and increase efficiency wherever possible.
The IBM survey found that only 30 per cent of respondents’ firms are collecting data frequently enough to make strategic decisions that address inefficiencies across eight major categories: carbon dioxide, water, waste, energy, sustainable procurement, labor standards, product composition and product lifecycle. Twenty-four percent collect this information monthly, while another 32 per cent do so no more than quarterly.
When dealing with their supply chains, most firms are even more lax, the survey finds. Twenty-nine per cent don’t collect any data at all from their supply chains, and eight out of 10 don’t gather supplier data for carbon dioxide and water.
Consumers still want to buy green despite the current economic climate, with 62 per cent saying environmental concerns influence their purchasing decisions “the same as a year ago” and just over a quarter saying they influence them “even more” than in 2008, according to new research from the Carbon Trust Standard.
Those findings are based on a survey of nearly 2,000 UK adults conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Carbon Trust Standard.
The survey found that a business’ green credentials have a significant impact on consumer buying choices. Sixty-six per cent of those questioned said it’s important to buy from environmentally responsible companies, and one in seven — 14 per cent — said they have voted with their feet by deciding not to buy from a company based on its environmental reputation.
The research also shows that 70 per cent of consumers do not feel confident that they can clearly identify which companies are environmentally responsible. Fifty-nine per cent of those surveyed said they are sceptical about the environmental claims companies make, and 44 per cent said they would like more information about what companies are actually doing to be environmentally responsible.
“This research shows that consumer values do not change, even in a middle of a recession,” said Harry Morrison, head of the Carbon Trust Standard. “They want companies to act and cut their carbon footprints, and provide transparent and accessible evidence of action. We believe companies that take real action will seize the dual benefits of immediate cost savings and a stronger reputation, which is good for business.”
Following is a guest column by Tom Wagland, Manager of the Environmental Management Group for Ricoh Europe
The past decade has witnessed many companies toning up their environmental sustainability initiatives, and refocusing their efforts around the Triple Bottom Line: People, Profit and Planet. Increasingly however, we are hearing of a retrograde step in environmental sustainability achievements as businesses put a freeze on environmental actions to focus on the business bottom line and sustaining profits.
In January 2009, the Cleantech Group released findings that companies globally invested $8.4 billion in cleantech in 2008, a seventh year-on-year of growth. In the fourth quarter, however, the figure showed a considerable drop of 4 per cent from the same period in 2007. Although investment volume is only one metric to measure companies’ commitment to green, it does suggest that this commitment is at risk in such tough economic conditions. Are companies starting to relax green business policies because of pressures on the business bottom line and does it need to be a tug of war?
At Ricoh, we have successfully been balancing our environmental commitments and the business bottom line for decades. We firmly believe this doesn’t need to be a tug of war and, in tough conditions, companies can benefit from environmental programmes that work to save both the planet and the business. Examples of striking an ecological-economic balance are widely known, but clear action needs to be taken. Benefits can be gained by using cost-efficient renewable energy sources, reducing waste to landfill, switching off equipment when not in use, recycling and reusing materials, etc.
By switching from conventional energy to 100-per cent renewable energy provided by wind, Ricoh UK Products Ltd will cut its carbon footprint by 6,000 tonnes per year over the next two years and will achieve a cost-savings of £202,000.
However, the key to striking a truly effective balance is developing environmental commitments that link to potential cost-savings at the initial planning process.
Ricoh set up its Environmental Accounting Programme ten years ago. One use of this programme is to identify the business processes with high environmental impacts. We assess the cost-effectiveness of possible actions to reduce those impacts. We then choose the actions that optimise both environmental and economic results. For example, based on this analysis, we concluded that shifting from road to railway transportation would reduce cost and environmental impact when the distance of transportation exceeds a certain figure. And accordingly, Ricoh Europe changed its core product delivery mode from its Central European distribution warehouse in the Netherlands to Italy, and has achieved so far a reduction of over 400 tonnes of CO2 (a cut of over 69 per cent) and a saving of €269,000.
Ricoh;s experience tells us that environmental sustainability and economic sustainability are not opposite ends of the spectrum. Companies might sensibly reduce their cleantech investments as cash flow runs low, but sustaining environmental commitments is an essential way to drive efficiencies and optimise profits in tough business conditions.
Of the top five PC manufacturers, only Apple stands out for being truly green, while Acer’s making progress in that direction, according to Greenpeace’s latest Guide to Greener Electronics.
On the other hand, the organisation gave Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Dell penalty points for backtracking on their commitments to eliminate the toxins polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their products by the end of this year.
As of the end of last year, Apple had already made good on that commitment with the exception on one technical hurdle: achieving certified PVC-free power cords.
“If Apple can find the solutions, there should be no reason why the other leading PC companies can not,” said Casey Harrell, Greenpeace International toxics campaigner. “All of them should have at least one toxic-free line of products on the market by the end of this year.”
Among the electronics companies showing the most improvement in this year’s report is Philips, which jumped from 15th place to fourth after improving its stand on taking financial responsibility for recycling its e-waste, according to Greenpeace.
The updated guide also notes how many companies are increasingly focusing on information and communication technologies to help curb greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. Many of those organisations are also upping their use of renewable energy; Nokia, for example, already derives one-fourth of its electricity from renewable energy sources.
Kyocera are also calling for entries to its annual GreenLight Awards, now in their fourth year.
Steve Howard, CEO of The Climate Group, has won an 
The Forest Footprint Disclosure Project (FFD), launched this week, seeks to help investors better understand 
A West Midlands-based energy company has achieved a Big Tick Award from Business in the Community (BitC) in the Marketplace Impact category, for its ‘”Spreading Warmth” programme to help to alleviate fuel poverty in the region and across the UK.
UK-based renewable energy firm Dulas reports that sales of its life-saving solar powered products continue to remain strong, with a total of 
Dell says it now sources 26 per cent of its global electricity needs from 
Consumers 
Following is a guest column by Tom Wagland, Manager of the Environmental Management Group for Ricoh Europe
Of the top five PC manufacturers, only Apple stands out for being truly green, while Acer’s making progress in that direction, according to Greenpeace’s latest