Posted by jumperhead on May 9th, 2008
If Motorola really wants to win big brownie points in Greenbang’s book, it should think about stop putting that annoying “hello moto” ringtone on its mobiles. Every time Greenbang hears it, she wants to rip the offending phone out of its owner’s hands and beat them with it until they resemble human bolognaise sauce.
In the meantime, it’s mitigating its affects on Greenbang’s environment through its corporate sustainability efforts, detailed in a report out this week.
Greenbang’s had a read through and this is what she found:
Long-term objectives for our products
We are working toward these long-term objectives for
our products:
. Achieve better than 90 percent recyclability
. Use more than 20 percent recycled material content
. Achieve high energy efficiency
. Use environmentally preferred materials
. Minimize the ratio of packaging material to product volume
Greenbang likes the bits with metrics attached, not so sure about the vague wording of the rest. And there’s more:
Motorola’s climate-change strategy
By 2010, we will reduce carbon dioxide emissions from our operations by 15 percent per million dollars of sales, compared with 2005. As a member of the Chicago Climate Exchange, we also have committed to a 6 percent reduction in our absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 2010, compared with 2000.
We will achieve these reductions by:
. Improving energy management at our operations
. Using more renewable energy
We also aim to increase the energy efficiency of our products and to develop more climate-friendly products.
In 2008, we will measure the environmental impact of employee business travel and will establish a Motorola-wide methodology for measuring the carbon footprint of our products.
Of all the green bits and bobs Greenbang read, she thinks she likes this one best:
In 2007, Motorola launched MOTOPOWER, a project to bring renewable energy and business opportunities to women in Uganda. We have established 55 solar-powered kiosks that are run by local women and that offer free mobile phone charging and sell operator SIM cards (portable memory chips that identify mobile subscribers). This effort is helping to increase mobile phone ownership in a country with one of the lowest levels of electricity supply in Africa. The kiosks also provide repair services and operate as a local “phone booth.”
And the bit she likes the least? Motorola claiming there’s something inherently green about having a device with a lot of features in it: the logic of “there’s a calculator function on your phone! So you don’t need a separate device!” doesn’t exactly seem like a major environmental commitment, really.
You want the report? You want it? You can have it! It’s here.
Posted by jumperhead on May 6th, 2008
Greenbang’s not one for prize-giving, mainly because the last time she picked up an accolade was a Blue Peter badge at aged eight. But she’s feeling generous today, so she’ll share the news of some winners in the world of sustainability for those currently wondering how to pep up their CSR reports.
(Hint to CSR writers: obfuscation does you no favours).
Ceres and the Association of Chartered Accountants (or the ACCA) have published their latest list of gold stars for good sustainability reporting and Ford & The Timberland Company have both come out on top, with gongs also going to Suncor Energy and Dell.
It looks like environmental reporting is now part of any sustainability reporting grab bag.
According to Ceres and ACCA, the Ford report got top marks because it “discloses quantified data for product emissions, including average tailpipe emissions per vehicle complete with industry benchmarking” and “is transparent about Ford’s key challenges, specifically with regards to climate change and the changing regulatory landscape.”
Suncor also picked up its nod for best climate change reporting for including “a supplemental climate change focused report, which analyzes the company’s progress on its climate change action plan” in it report and “provid[ing] context for the risks and opportunities of climate change for Suncor and includes an explanation of the main corporate strategies for addressing those risks and opportunities.”
If you’re wanting to polish up your efforts in the environmental reporting sector, here are some tips from the Ceres/ACCA judges:
Only a limited number of reporters discussed the physical risks of climate change. H.J. Heinz Company, for example, acknowledged the risks that decreased water availability could have on tomato production, and TELUS discussed a strategy to mitigate damage to its telecommunications infrastructure from climate-related events. Otherwise, most reporters were silent on these risks and the strategies in place to address them.
As governments begin to address climate change by adopting new regulations that limit greenhouse gas emissions, many companies will face significant regulatory risk. To help investors understand these risks, companies should disclose:
• Any known trends, events, demands, commitments, and uncertainties stemming from climate change that are reasonably likely to have a material effect on financial condition or operating performance.
• A list of all greenhouse gas regulations that have been imposed in the countries in which the company operates and an assessment of the potential financial impact of those rules.
• The company’s expectations concerning the future cost of carbon resulting from emissions reductions of five, ten, and twenty percent below 2000 levels by 2015.
Some reporters in heavy emitting sectors such as electric power, autos and oil and gas acknowledged that climate change regulations were on the horizon and could have an impact on competitiveness. Ford, for example, described the changing regulatory landscape in the regions of the world where it operates and noted that the growing regulation of emissions could have a significant impact on financial performance.
Few companies discussed the varying greenhouse gas regulations they faced in different jurisdictions or assessed their financial impacts. No reporters outlined expectations with regards to the anticipated cost of future, mandated greenhouse gas emissions reductions.
Naturally, there’s more here.
Posted by jumperhead on April 18th, 2008
Greenbang is not a fan of the Olympics. Greenbang feels the Olympics to be the televisual equivalent of getting a stone in your shoe - merely there to annoy - bumping all the good stuff, like Quincy off the telly schedules. The winter Olympics, now there’s a different matter. It’s inherently more fun. More camp. And with more chance of seeing some fella stack it as he attempts to negotiate an unfeasibly tall mountain with some flimsy bits of wood strapped to his feet.
As well as the luge - surely the oddest sport invented - the Vancouver 2010 winter Olympics are promising thrills, spills and sustainability.
The organisation behind the games has just put out a report on how it’s doing so far - including the impact of the luge on the environment - and here’s what Greenbang found:
Our environmental monitoring and management activities included water quality monitoring, wildlife management, sediment and erosion control, site-specifi c spill prevention and contingency response planning and restoration of disturbed areas. We are pleased that VANOC’s headquarters in Vancouver received Gold certifi cation within the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.
Sometimes, creating sustainable venues has left us scratching our heads. For example, The Whistler Sliding Centre, home to the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton events, takes place on a long, outdoor refrigerated track. We came up with a few ways to lessen the environmental impact of this unusual facility, including selecting
a site that required minimal vegetation clearing; targeting LEED Silver certification for the refrigeration plant building; using an energy effi cient ammonia refrigeration system; and maximizing energy conservation features for the track design.
We were challenged when, due to a delayed start and excessive rain, we rushed construction at the Whistler Creekside venue, which resulted in some erosion of the site, including surface soil instability and some sedimentation. We have since amended our procedures and now provide additional training to contractors to
ensure best practices in sediment and erosion control.
On climate and energy, we followed many of our planned pathways to lower fuel and energy use, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). These included starting development of traffi c and transportation management plans, reducing our need for diesel generators and developing our emissions management program.
By applying LEED green building standards and following our EMPs, we reduced negative impacts on air and water quality. Hybrids and other fuel-effi cient vehicles make up 50 per cent of our VANOC fl eet.
Minimizing waste reduces pollution, emissions and energy use, while easing pressure on local landfills and saving costs. To that end, we engaged with knowledgeable stakeholders on ways to meet our Zero Waste challenge. In the 2006-07 reporting period, we achieved 98 per cent diversion from landfi ll disposal.
Thanks to our wood waste composting project at Whistler Olympic Park, most of the vegetation debris has been reused on site. All VANOC offi ces and construction sites have waste management and recycling.
The full report, as ever, is here.
Posted by jumperhead on April 17th, 2008
Pop quiz, ten points to the winner. What’s new about the “rest rooms” (or toilets to the less euphemism prone) at New York’s Penn Station? No? One last guess? Nope?
OK, Greenbang will end this terrible suspense and let you know: they’re being redesigned at a cost of $5 million and the size of the ladies will double. Yes, you heard Greenbang - double!
How does Greenbang know? Why, she found out in an announcement from the New York Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) website. She also found out about shedloads of sustainability initiatives that the authority is up to, following some recommendations from the Commission on Sustainability.
They’re a fascinating bunch and Greenbang would like to share them with you now:
Among the more than 20 recommendations and projects identified in the interim report, the MTA has made the following commitments:
• Derive 7 percent of its energy needs from solar, wind, and other renewable sources by 2015.
o 6 megawatts of solar power will be developed at MTA facilities through an RFP in partnership with the New York Power Authority and in cooperation with the Long Island Power Authority, creating the largest solar power project in Empire State history.
o A substantial portion of the Roosevelt Island Subway Station will be powered by renewable tidal energy generated in the East River by Verdant Power.
o Evaluating the feasibility of providing 14% of the power at the MTA Bus Company Far Rockaway Depot from wind turbines under an RFP process.
o The MTA has received a $2.5 million grant from NYSERDA to develop and generate the next generation of energy efficiency technologies.
• Create a partnership with the state agencies in the Governor’s Smart Growth Cabinet to promote transit-oriented development (TOD) in the MTA’s service territory.
o Offer incentive packages from various state agencies to encourage development at or near MTA stations.
o MTA will provide a web-based one-stop shopping opportunity for communities interested in TOD.
• Develop green design standards for transit facilities based on the LEED ratings, using the rigor and experience of the U.S. Green Building Council.
o The MTA is planning high-performance roofs at many facilities, including vegetated green roofs at the Metro-North Railroad’s Harmon Yard Support Shop, the MTA Bus Far Rockaway Depot, and the B&T Queens Midtown Tunnel Service Building Annex; and a white roof at the LIRR Hillside facility.
o In addition, a community-visioning session for the Mother Clara Hale Depot will explore what kind of high-performance roof to include in the new design.
o Initiate joint procurement programs for green products and services in conjunction with other major public entities.
o The MTA has established a Smart Fleets Study Group, comprising lead rail-car designers from the MTA agencies, to identify opportunities to reduce rail-car weight and introduce other environmentally-friendly features while maintaining safety standards.
• Map groundwater sources in MTA tunnels and properties and identify industrial and beneficial uses.
o The MTA will evaluate current water usage and available best practices to reduce the amount of potable water used to wash vehicles.
o NYC Transit will evaluate ways to utilize water harvested from the subway system for various beneficial uses, such as cooling of some transformers.
Posted by Greenbang on April 11th, 2008
Matthew Neilson is the Head of Environmental Solutions for the Royal Mail. He’s keen to deliver the company’s green initiatives to our cyber door.
He’s been kind enough to write us a piece on the subject.
Here he is. He looks quite friendly.
__
Everyone has a role to play in helping the UK achieve the targets of cutting carbon emissions by three per cent each year and by 80 per cent when we reach 2050 - and the government that set them is determined to play its part.
By sheer necessity, local and central government must communicate a huge number of messages to the public in its widest sense, but also to niche groups in our communities. But just like all business activities, every form of advertising has a carbon footprint.
The challenge for any communications activities, whether it be by a public sector organisation, an FTSE 100 company, or a medium-sized business, is choosing the most efficient and effective way of getting information to the right individuals and corporations at the right time.
This is essential in making a campaign as effective as possible, at as low a cost as possible. But making the right choices about how to communicate with your audiences also means that campaign efficiency can equal carbon efficiency.
It is clear that targeting the diverse communities of the UK with updates on policy and advice is no mean feat. A raft of information needs to be sent out, whether via direct mail, local press, regional and national television and radio adverts, or online.
Some communications necessitate reaching every household across the country; for example, a leaflet was delivered door-to-door to all homes following the New York terrorist attacks of 9/11. While there may be several newspapers or radio stations in an area, there is only one letterbox to a resident’s home and this is often the most effective
route.
Other campaigns, where niche groups are the target audience for the information, can enable better targeting. But whatever the breadth of a campaign, one option now available for posted communications is making them carbon neutral.
Royal Mail’s Carbon Neutral Door to Door scheme makes it easier for companies to reduce the carbon footprint of their mailing by giving them advice on the types of paper, inks and varnishes to use as well ensuring effective targeting of the campaign.
After carbon impact has been minimised in line with scheme standards, Royal Mail calculates the remaining CO2 emissions generated by the mail campaign and pays to offset through schemes such as the Woodland Trust’s Carbon Plus+, which plants native trees in the UK.
Such an approach can only enhance the already strong reputation of mail as a way of reaching people with public information messages. Indeed, our statistics show that people are more than twice as positive towards receiving government information in the mail compared with post from organisations in any other sector, so a clear majority welcome such campaigns.
Overall, more than half of people read and retain direct mail, and the figure for those keeping material has increased in each of the last three years. This reduces the need for follow-up messages to be sent, helping to keep the carbon cost of the overall campaign down.
And as politicians and civil servants harness digital media to boost the drive to personalise public services, it is also worth considering the advantages of an integrated campaign. Research by Royal Mail revealed that combining direct mail with digital messages can boost awareness and response.
More than half of confident web users (55 per cent) prefer to be contacted by a combination of direct mail and online, while 69 per cent feel that email is best used for supporting or clarifying the mail they receive.
Ultimately, advertising and marketing communications are integral ingredients to the success of any organisation. But at a time when green living and working is topping the news agenda, consumers are demanding more action from organisations they deal with.
Whether it is a supermarket chain, a financial organisation, a car manufacturer or a government department, there is an increasing need for companies and organisations themselves to demonstrate their own green credentials if industry and the public alike are to change their habits.
Making their communications greener is one way to do that.
Posted by Greenbang on April 2nd, 2008
Greenbang has found this wicked little site called ReportAlert.
Today it published details of Standard Chartered’s 2007 sustainability report.
The company claims to have:
Empowering 1.2 million people in Asia and Africa, by disbursing microfinance loans worth US$170m through 41 partners in 13 countries,
Committing $8-10bn to finance renewable energy and clean technology projects in Asia, Africa and the Middle East by 2012,
Generating over 1 million pledges for the Greatest Race on Earth: Race for a Living Planet that have the potential to save 3 billion litres of water,
Reducing paper use by 20% per full time employee (2006–7).
Again though, you’ve got to ask - in two years’ time will anyone be publishing this stuff? Or will it be the norm to do it?
Posted by jumperhead on March 21st, 2008
Imagine your name was the X in this sentence: “Despite encouraging initiatives, X is still not on course to meet targets and urgently needs to raise its game”. You’d feel pretty bad wouldn’t you? You might stare at your shoes for a bit and kick the wall.
The X in that sentence, luckily enough, wasn’t you: it was government. Whitehall has got slapped down by the Sustainable Development Commission, which is calling on the government to get on with taking “urgent and radical action”.
It’s not all bad news. According to the Commission:
Recycling targets are well on their way to being met, and targets for electricity from renewable sources have been exceeded.
Happy face! But wait a minute… there’s the sad face…
However, while overall carbon emissions from offices have fallen by 4% since 1999, nearly two thirds of departments are still not on track to meet the target of reducing carbon emissions from offices by 12.5% by 2010.
Performance against other targets shows little progress, with procurement standards introduced as ‘Quick Wins’ widely going unobserved, despite being mandatory. There was also little progress towards reducing water consumption or sourcing electricity from combined heat and power. In other cases, performance is actually worse than last year, with carbon emissions from road vehicles up across government.
The Commission again found that the poor quality of data provided by departments in many cases made it difficult to arrive at a true picture.
But back to happy face again: the Commission is “encouraged” by what the government has to say about the whole thing and has a delivery plan in the offing. Phew.
Posted by jumperhead on March 20th, 2008
Having been to Las Vegas, Greenbang can testify that using less energy typically means taking one of those weird golf buggy things rather than their own legs to travel the 500 metres from the restaurant to the roulette wheel or seeing how long you can lie motionless beside the pool, contemplating how many free drinks you can skank if you play the one dollar tables.
But back from Greenbang’s revery of Nevada-based laziness and underspending to other energy-cutting news from Sin City, this time courtesy of bigger-than-the-Grand-Canyon retail giant Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart has unwrapped HE.5, a Las Vegas store which uses 45 percent less energy than the average Wal-Mart supercentre. Wal-Mart provides this blurb about how it works:
The HE.5 store features advancements in heating, cooling, refrigeration and lighting to conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, the store takes the integrated water-source format system that Wal-Mart piloted in its successful high efficiency stores and adapts it to the unique local climate by adding evaporative cooling and radiant flooring technologies. The new HE.5 system reduces the temperature of water naturally by pumping it through roof-mounted cooling towers then runs the cold water underneath the retail floor to cool the shopping area. Together, the systems provide a comfortable shopping environment while using less energy.[…]
Given the climate-specific nature of the HE.5 store, this prototype will only be built in regions where its innovations will provide the greatest benefit. Wal-Mart’s high efficiency series of HE.1, HE.2 and HE.5 stores build upon many years of research, experiments, partnerships and pilots
Greenbang wonders whatever happened to HE.3 and HE.4? Where do unwanted high efficiency supermarket prototypes go when they die?
Posted by jumperhead on February 28th, 2008
Wow. You know corporate attitudes have shifted when the big businesses like water companies admit that climate change may have messed with their supplies a bit. It’s like your parents admitting to still having sex: you knew the risk was there, but you never thought they’d actually say it. Eight of those water supplying companies in the US have come together to make an alliance “united by the fact that climate change poses a major long-term challenge to delivering high-quality drinking water”. Shizzle.
The group, called Water Utility Climate Alliance or WUCA, will work to “improve research into the impacts of climate change on water utilities, develop strategies for adapting to climate change and implement tactics to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions”.
Denver Water, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Portland Water Bureau, San Diego County Water Authority, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Seattle Public Utilities and the Southern Nevada Water Authority have all signed up to WUCA and have created a plan to tackle all that’s going on climate change-wise:
The WUCA identified several key research needs that would improve the drinking water industry’s ability to develop strategies to cope with potential impacts of climate change. The WUCA is urging the CCSP, as well as all researchers and scientists in the climate-change field, to:
– Reduce the uncertainty in climate change projections by improving and
refining global climate models and applying them at the regional or
local level;
– Enhance the collection, maintenance and accessibility of information,
making the data more useful for decision-making purposes;
– Ensure that water providers worldwide have access to consistent climate
data;
– Develop decision-support tools for planning, decision-making and
policy-making that can accommodate deep uncertainty and the potential
for abrupt climate changes; and
– Coordinate international research efforts, particularly with those
countries that are already experiencing the effects of climate change,
such as Australia.
Posted by jumperhead on February 28th, 2008
Have you got a suggestion for Wal-Mart? Is it better than sponsoring the rebirth of the Dale Winton student-and-unemployed entertainment fest that was Supermarket Sweep? Yes? Does it involve clean tech? YES?! Then Wal-Mart wants to hear from you.
Wal-Mart first snuggled up with the Cleantech Group to work out ways of using - yes, you’ve guessed it - clean tech back in the heady days of 2007. Now the twosome have dreamt up a web based tool called the Cleantech Accelerator Project.
Using the Cleantech Accelerator, you can put forward your suggestion for “innovative ideas” on how Wal-Mart can green up its image. It’s looking for suggestion in these areas:
• alternative battery technology for forklifts;
• wind harvesting;
• closed-loop water processing;
• sustainable building materials;
• organic waste;
• oil-based waste; and
• household hazardous waste
Once the Cleantech Group has got enough suggestions, it will give Wal-Mart two to four of the crème de la crème in each category and them the supermarket juggernaut will get stuck in to rolling them out within 24 months.
Got an idea? Stick it in here.
