Have you submitted your firm’s information yet for inclusion in Greenbang’s huge new directory of cleantech companies and technologies? If not, don’t miss out — let us know soon!
To learn more or to request a questionnaire, please write to Dan Ilett at Greenbang (dan@greenbang.com).
Greenbang’s hearing from lots of firms looking to be included in our huge new directory of cleantech companies and technologies — have you submitted your company’s information yet?
If not, we’d love to hear from you: for more information and a directory questionnaire, please write to Dan Ilett at Greenbang (dan@greenbang.com).
Good news: Greenbang is compiling a huge directory of cleantech companies and technologies, and we’re looking to include information about your firm.
If you’d like your company to be mentioned in the directory, please write to Dan Ilett at Greenbang (dan@greenbang.com) and ask for a directory questionnaire.
Too many organisations are still unprepared to deal with sudden business disruptions caused by such threats as electronic attacks or a global pandemic (PDF), according to a new report from the Chartered Management Institute in collaboration with Cabinet Office.
“A Decade of Living Dangerously,” the institute’s 10th business continuity management report, find that, while more organisations than ever (52 percent) now have business continuity plans, the number of managers who say continuity is important dropped to 64 percent, down from 76 percent in 2008.
Of greatest concern to the organisations surveyed were the threats of electronic attacks (58 percent) and disease outbreaks such as an influenza pandemic (57 percent).
“Against the backdrop of increasing economic pressure, the need for business continuity has never been greater,” writes Bruce Mann CB, Director of Civil Contingencies Secretariat, Cabinet Office, in the introduction to the report. “If British businesses are to remain competitive in our ever-changing economic and environmental climate they must ensure the availability of their services, a constant state of readiness and the flexibility to respond to any eventuality.”
The UK could cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by mid-century if it refurbished up to 2 million non-domestic buildings with poor energy efficiency, according to a new report prepared for Irish construction products manufacturer Kingspan.
The report, prepared by Caleb Management Services, says the government should make better use of the energy hierarchy framework (Trias Energetica), scale up funding for refurbishments, concentrate on “tried-and-tested” technologies and place a “high priority on the energy security and employment potential of buildings.”
“Now is the time to accelerate the refurbishment of non-domestic buildings,” the report’s summary concludes. “A survey for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development shows that buildings professionals in Europe and other parts of the world routinely misjudge the costs (and) benefits of energy efficient buildings. They seriously over-estimate the cost of achieving energy efficiency and underestimate the potential to reduce emissions. The cost of completing energy efficiency refurbishments is often lower than estimated by building professionals, building owners (and) users — particularly if done on a ‘whole building’ basis. Meanwhile the climate, energy security and employment benefits of accelerated refurbishment are significant and increasingly important for the country as a whole.”
Looking for advice on how to make your organisation leaner, greener and cleaner? Then look no further than Greenbang’s newest downloadable report from IBM, “Leaner, Greener, Keener: Insights and Inspiration on Delivering Change in UK Public Sector.”
The report features advice from 15 leading experts on change in the public sector, including John Suffolk, Chief Information Officer for the UK Government; Debbie Ellis, Interim Director of Shared Services at the Department for Transport; Willie MacDiarmid, Director of Energy Retail for Scottish Power; and Paula Higson, Senior Director for Managed Migration, Home Office.
“Public sector organisations in the UK are under pressure to do more with less, to respond to the challenge of climate change and to increase and improve service delivery for citizens — in other words, they need to be ‘leaner, greener and keener,’ ” writes Julian David, IBM Vice President, Public Sector, in his introduction to the report. “This challenge is at the heart of this publication, our fourth set of essays on the subject of delivering change within the UK public
sector.”
Experts from a wide range of backgrounds all contributed to the latest report.
“Their experiences represent a level of public service achievement on a scale that is not always fully appreciated in the
media,” David states. “Their insight regarding best practice when it comes to leaner, greener and keener activities is relevant and transferable … I hope that this collection of essays makes a useful contribution to even better service delivery and a greener future for the public sector.”
The global climate changes wrought by rising carbon dioxide emissions are now too late to stop and will linger for more than 1,000 years, according to a new study by researchers in the US and Europe.
“Our study convinced us that current choices regarding carbon dioxide emissions will have legacies that will irreversibly change the planet,” said Susan Solomon, a senior scientist with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Researchers from Switzerland’s ETH Zurich and France’s Institut Pierre Simon Laplace also participated in the study.
The study modeled several scenarios in which global carbon dioxide levels peak at different concentrations, at which point all future emissions are completely stopped. No matter what level they considered, though, researchers found the results were quantifiable and irreversible impacts on climate.
In the case of carbon dioxide peaking at 450 to 600 parts per million (ppm), compared to today’s level of 385 ppm, several parts of the globe could expect drastic drops in rainfall comparable to the US Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Those regions include southern Europe, northern Africa, southern Africa, southwestern North America and western Australia.
Rising carbon dioxide levels are also “locking in” higher sea levels for centuries to come, the researchers say. Minus even the additional water from melting ice sheets and glaciers, global sea levels would rise at least 2 meters by the year 3000 if carbon dioxide concentrations peak at 1,000 ppm.
The result, the study’s authors write, would be “irreversible commitments to future changes in the geography of the Earth, since many coastal and island features would ultimately become submerged.”
Depressed yet? We are.
Rising sea levels caused by global warming pose a threat to animals, humans and important structures of Lancashire, Cumbria and Wales, according to researchers at the University of Manchester.
Richard Kingston and Adam Barker, both with the university’s School of Environment and Development, have launched a Website where citizens and organisations can view maps showing how various coastal areas will likely be affected by rising seas. The maps also provide links to proposed shoreline management plan policies as well as to a form for offering public comments on those proposals.
“If local agencies are forced to abandon sections of our coast to the advancing sea, then this can only be effectively done with the knowledge and understanding of local communities,” Barker said. “Clearly it’s a pressing issue: large parts of the coastline — some of which are highly populated — are likely to recede. At the same time however, local authorities are under pressure to release more land for development.”
He continued, “Something needs to be done to manage this transition as effectively as possible and to involve the people who live in these areas in the decision-making process.”
According to the UK Climate Change Impacts Programme, high tide levels along the British coastline are expected to rise by 10 to 34 inches by 2080. Such increases would pose a significant threat to:
“”This project is about utilising new technology to make it easier for the public to engage with proposals to manage the changing coastline,” Kingston said. “The plan is the means by which the Coastal Group will determine the
best way to look after the coast in a sustainable way for the next 100 years.”
Engaging citizens throughout the process is the best way to ensure better future results, he added.
“If you don’t properly involve the public, then poorly developed and unpopular planning decisions will result,” he said.
Need to know more? Check out the North West and North Wales Coastal Group … or, if you’re especially pessimistic, start drawing up plans for your own Waterpod.
We’ve all heard plenty about how people in developing countries are eager to catch up to the developed-nation lifestyle: fast food, cars, mobile phones, big-screen TVs, etc. But a new study by the consulting giant Accenture finds an intriguing difference between the populations: citizens of developing economies are apparently more concerned about global warming, and more willing to take action against it.
And that raises the possibility that emerging markets could siphon off climate-change investments that would otherwise be made in the US, EU and other mature markets, Accenture says.
“Governments in North America and Europe cannot assume their countries will lead climate change solutions or policy,” said Sander van’t Noordende, group chief executive of Accenture’s Resources operating group. “Low-carbon investments will be drawn to the most concerned and active consumers and to those economies that can leapfrog to new technologies and implement cutting edge policies. There is a small window of opportunity for western governments to act before a global climate change policy agreement gives emerging economies the incentive (to) draw investment away from developed markets.”
According to Accenture’s research, climate change raises extreme concerns among 53 percent of people in the emerging-economy nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China, Argentina, Chile and South Africa. In North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia, only 31 percent expressed such worries.
At the same time, however, more citizens in developing countries — 70 percent — are optimistic about the possibility of effective action against global warming. In established economies, only 48 percent said they were optimistic.
That optimism also translates into a greater willingness to change buying habits to fight climate change: 53 percent in emerging economies, versus 24 percent in developed ones.
Could it be that the economic rise of nations like China and India could actually save our planet rather than doom it, as some have warned? Accenture’s findings raise some pretty provocative possibilities.
Hmm, it seems as though kicking this fossil fuel habit through renewables isn’t so straightforward after all: right on the heels of a report that home-based wind energy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be comes a new study exploring the dangers of toxic chemicals used in solar cells.
The new report, “Toward a Just and Sustainable Solar Energy Industry,” was prepared by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. The 45-page white paper points to a host of problems associated with the photovoltaics (PV) industry: dumping of toxic manufacturing byproducts in regulation-challenged parts of China, new solar innovations that rely on harmful materials like cadmium and selenium, the as-yet uncertain impact of nanomaterials on the environment and the use of sulphur hexafluoride — a compound with super-greenhouse gas power — for cleaning reactors used in silicon production.
“(A)s the solar PV sector expands, little attention is being paid to the potential environmental and health costs of that rapid expansion,” the paper’s executive summary notes. “With the solar PV sector still emerging, we have a limited window of opportunity to ensure that this extremely important industry is truly ‘clean and green,’ from its supply chains through product manufacturing, use, and end-of-life disposal.”
The report’s authors make six key recommendations to address such concerns: work to reduce and eventually eliminate the use of toxic materials in PV production, set standards to hold manufacturers accountable for the full lifecycle impacts of their products, conduct precautionary tests on all new and emerging materials and processes, expand and improve upon recyclability, focus on high-quality PV industry jobs that protect workers’ health and safety, and manage the entire supply chain to ensure the health and safety of communities around the globe.
The paper points to several such efforts already taking place, including the European Photovoltaic Industry Association’s and the German Solar Business Association’s endorsements of full lifecycle accountability, and a German firm that’s started a pilot effort to recycle used and defective solar panels into new ones.
Looks like the lesson of today’s reports is that nothing is ever as simple as it seems.
| global warming Take a look at the environmental graffiti site and see the 5 deadliest effects of global warming. |
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