HSBC ejects Carbon Traders from their Climate Change Index

Hope you're enjoying your spring break! Here's an interesting article from Green Inc blog on changes in HSBC Climate Change Index, indicating on what they call “a shift in focus from building carbon markets to delivering low carbon growth”

HSBC Ejects Carbon Traders From Index

By JAMES KANTER

The banking giant HSBC removed two companies involved in carbon trading from its Climate Change Index on Monday because they had lost too much value.

Analysts from HSBC said the cause was mainly that governments had failed to come up with a timetable for a global climate deal at the United Nations summit in Copenhagen in December.

“Carbon trading was the major loser from Copenhagen,” HSBC analysts said in their March 21010 Quarterly Index Review. “Cap and trade needs hard targets and binding rules – and Copenhagen delivered neither,” HSBC said.

The two companies ejected were Climate Exchange and Trading Emissions. Both companies are based in the Isle of Man and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Climate Exchange owns the European Climate Exchange, the Chicago Climate Exchange and the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange. The chairman of Trading Emissions, Neil Eckert, is also the chief executive of Climate Exchange.

Among companies joining the index were Renesola, a solar manufacturer with a heavy focus on China listed on the London Stock Exchange, and Universal Display, a United States-based lighting manufacturer listed on Nasdaq.

The revised rating by HSBC is another example of how expectations for carbon trading, also known as “cap-and-trade,” have diminished over the past year – a topic covered by my colleague John Broder in an article in The New York Times last week.

HSBC said South Korea had “kept the carbon trading faith” with plans to introduce a pilot program and it noted that the European Union has operated a carbon trading system since 2005.

But a failure by the European Union to order deeper cuts in emissions, and the absence of decisions putting the system in place in other major advanced economies like the United States, Japan and Australia, had undermined chances of a global carbon market emerging any time soon, it said.

HSBC said those disappointments were reflected in the value of the companies reliant on carbon trading; the companies HSBC removed from the index had failed to reach the minimum market capitalization of $400 million.

HSBC forecast that the rest of 2010 would be characterized by a focus on Asia and by pragmatic deals on adaptation, forestry and climate finance, rather than on a comprehensive global deal. There would be “a shift in focus from building carbon markets to delivering low carbon growth,” HSBC said.

Earth Hour

I just heard about "Earth Hour", which is a worldwide initiative where millions of people in more than 80 countries will turn off their lights for an hour starting at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 27th (tomorrow).

Will you be participating?

Here is the official website with some more information about Earth Hour 2010:

http://www.myearthhour.org/

Recycle Match Interview At SXSW Interactive

Following the discussion in the last class on industrial ecology + some insights on entrepreneurship:

Interview with the author of The Sustainable MBA – The Manager’s Guide to Green Business

Giselle Weybrecht is the author of The Sustainable MBA: The Manager’s Guide to Green Business, published by Wiley in 2010. Giselle wrote The Sustainable MBA while completing her own MBA, after being disappointed with the lack of sustainability awareness by the next generation of business leaders.

There's an interesting interview with her on Net Impact's website, which you might find interesting. Here's the link: http://alturl.com/s6oq

I'll bring the book to the next class so you can have a look in it.

Raz

GeoEngineering Our Planet

If you appreciate Bill McDonough's vision for a sustainable future and his ability to think big, this is something you'll want to check out. Some scientists have been thinking ahead about how to deal with our climate change problem and what to do in the future if we haven't acted quick enough. Eli Kintisch, a writer for Science magazine, has written a book called Hack the Planet that describes ways to geoengineer the planet to block the sun's radiation in a way that will cool our planet, and lays out ambitious ways to sequester carbon. A quick sample of the ideas mentioned to reflect light to combat climate change: brighten the ocean's surface with tiny bubbles, brighten clouds, and put certain aerosol particles into the stratosphere to reflect light.

These types of plans are a last resort to solve the problem of raising temperatures. The author explains that these ideas are on such a scale that nobody is sure of what might happen when implemented. Political and moral questions arise from these types of grand ideas; who gets to use this technology? should we tinker with earth's delicate climate system? The idea is to have some sort of backup plan in case we fail to solve this problem through gradual shifts toward sustainability and reduction in greenhouse gases.

Fascinating stuff. Here is a link to a Q&A with the author.

How you can make money from recycling old cellphones?

Here's another example of win-win solution generated from an innovative business approach to recycling:

(Reuters) - Former heads of Sprint Nextel Corp and RadioShack Corp have launched a company aimed at refurbishing or recycling the estimated 65,000 metric tons of old cellphones U.S. consumers ditch every year and named Sprint as its first customer.

Ron LeMay, once Chief Executive for Sprint's wireless business and David Edmonson, former CEO of electronics retailer RadioShack founded eRecyclingCorps to set up phone trade-in schemes for operators to encourage consumers to return old phones to carriers instead of putting them in the trash.

Under its plan, consumers would turn up at their network operator's store with their old phone and get credit for the value of that device to be put toward a new phone.

The carrier stores, which sell about 60 percent of U.S. cellphones, would then send the phones to eRecyclingCorps. It pays the carrier for the phones and sorts out which devices should be recycled and which ones can be refurbished. It would then sell the revamped phones to consumers in emerging markets.

The company's Chief Executive David Edmonson said he expects this system to work much better than current recycling programs where consumers either donate their phone or wait weeks to be reimbursed after mailing the device.

"The trick here is to provide a meaningful incentive to consumers," Edmonson said in an interview on Monday ahead of the CTIA annual U.S. wireless show in Las Vegas.

Sprint has asked eRecyclingCorps to handle phones returned to 1,100 of its own stores and 1,400 of its third-party dealers as part of its own aim to have nine phones out of 10 recycled or reused for every phone it sells by 2017.

Edmonson said he hopes his company can help it reach that goal sooner.

Dallas, Texas based eRecyclingCorps said only 1 percent of the world's 4 billion mobile phone users recycle their old phones, while 10 percent of the roughly 275 million U.S. wireless users recycle their handsets. It cited research from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Edmonson said that after proving that the concept can work at Sprint, he is in active talks with other carriers and aims to convince consumers to return 20 million to 30 million of the 130 million phones they retire each year.

"I'd call that a good start," he said.

Edmonson said he feels a responsibility to help deal with the issue of cellphone waste because he helped create the problem by being instrumental in developing the U.S. mobile phone market during his time at RadioShack.

However the company is still hoping to profit handsomely from the endeavor.

He estimated that it can achieve profit margins of about 35 percent on recycling and refurbishing phones that are traded in, of which roughly 80 to 85 percent have some value.

And once the consumers of the refurbished phones in places such as Brazil, Russia, India and China are ready for their next device, the company is looking into whether it can work with the governments of those countries to get involved in recycling or cleanly disposing of the devices again.

Wind Power: the lonely story of Mr. W

I was reminded today of this stellar commercial about wind energy. Enjoy.

Cutting Emissions: Good Business

Interesting article that discusses the practical business reasons on why companeis choose to go green - for future economic cost savings and protection

http://www.green-energy-news.com/arch/nrgs2010/20100016.html

The Water-Saving Toilets of the Future

We don’t really think about it but when we flush the toilet we are wasting 3.5 gallons of water if the toilet was made before 1994, which a lot are, or if they were made after the Energy Policy Act of 1002 we are still wasting 1.6 gallons per flush. The future of low-flow and ultra-low-flow urinals is discussed in this article. They also talk about air-flush toilets and dual-flushers. I know when I was studying abroad in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Australia every bathroom I was in had the dual flusher. So far in the U.S. you don’t really see any of these dual flushers. The article also mentions the peepoo bag we talked about previously in class.
Here is the link:
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/03/22/water-saving-toilets-future?page=0%2C3

Richard Branson Aims to Rock the Boat for Green Shipping

This article is about Richard Branson's (runs Virgin Group) goals to reduce CO2 emissions in regards to shipping. Branson stated that currently, global shipping is equivalent to the 6th most polluting country in the world. He suggests that ships slow down their speeds and even mentioned a bold idea called Skysails. Skysails are large kites that attach to ships allowing the ship to move using the wind, therefore using less energy. Here is the link to the article!

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS92097876520100311

Did You Know

Today is World Water Day? This year's theme is water quality.

This article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edison-de-mello-md-phd/the-water-bottle-lie-and_b_506523.html) really surprised me with facts about the water supply in the United States, and touches on the evils of bottled water.

The Dark Side of McDonald's...

After giving such a glowing report on McDonald's last week, I just found an article about the apparent immortality of Happy Meals. Ick. Click here for the full story and picture of a year-old meal.

Green jobs update

Please check out the new list of green jobs boards on the right column. You'll find there many postings and will have a chance to learn more what green jobs are in demand today.

Speaking of green jobs, Net Impact is a great network to meet other business students and professionals that share the same green values and to get useful information and tools to help you with your career goals. Once a month or so they publish on their website an interesting personal story of someone who is pursuing a green career. Here's the last one they published of Malini Ram.

Malini Ram

Net Impact Member Since: 2004
Current Position: Manager of a farm collective
Former Position: Engagement Manager, McKinsey & Co.
Education: MBA, University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business
Location: Tallahassee, Florida

Prior to grad school, Malini had been working on Wall Street as an investment banker with JP Morgan where, although initially hopeful she could join the groups that raise public market funding for museums, she instead ended up working on refinancing prison bonds. When she went to business school, she co-led the Net Impact student chapter and had every intention of getting a “Net Impacty” job upon graduation. But she found it hard to pass up an offer with McKinsey & Co so, with the idea that it would serve more as a training ground than an endpoint, Malini accepted the offer and spent a “wonderful, eventful three years” working for them as a strategy consultant in Chicago, New Jersey and Sydney.

But when her husband got accepted to graduate school in Tallahassee, Florida earlier this year and as they began to plan their move, Malini saw an opportunity to make a career move as well. “I’ve always been interested in the local food movement,” explains Malini, whose grandparents had a small farm in South India, “and I wanted my work to focus on something that was unique to the area I was living in.”

She started reaching out to sustainability-minded farmers in the area to understand core issues that needed addressing and found they voiced similar needs: stabilizing cashflow, finding consistent labor, and generating enough revenue to operate and save.

As a result of her interviews with the farmers, Malini and the famers determined that setting up a cooperative would be a viable solution to addressing the issues they identified. “The format of an economic cooperative is exciting because it’s such an effective way for a large group of similar small players to achieve scale and significance in a small marketplace,” says Malini. “We are starting with the traditional farm cooperative as a base, and exploring hybrid business models that could work in the context of Tallahassee’s local food system.”

What started just as conversations eventually got Malini thinking about the cooperative as a small business. In December 2009, she left McKinsey and, though she continues to do some part-time government consulting work, now focuses the bulk of her time on the farmer’s cooperative.

The primary goals of their work are threefold: first, to support the economic stability of small alternative farmers by reducing operating costs through buying clubs and P&L transparency and by stimulating revenue through the development of new channels such as a “farm to school” programs; secondly, to strengthen the community amongst small alternative farmers in this geographical area; third, to expand access to local, fresh farm products for all residents. There’s also a concern about who’s going to be the local food source when these farmers retire, so there’s a discussion of trying to establish mentorship programs for new farmers.

“The success of small organic farms impacts so many issues: economic development and job creation, obesity and nutrition, and education,” says Malini, explaining the importance of helping these small farms to remain economically viable.

Malini says that being a part of the Net Impact community has given her the courage to move forward with this. “I’m coming off of a run of ‘big corporate’ experiences and starting a farm cooperative is a fairly risky thing for me to do right now—I may completely fail at it. What strikes me is that, if it weren’t for Net Impact, I’m not sure I would even be trying this endeavor. Through Net Impact, I’ve had a constant stream of inspiration and motivation to keep me afloat. Staying engaged with case studies, conference calls, national conferences, and local events helped me stay connected to the type of ‘business’ I really cared about conducting.”

Malini has no plans to return to the banking world, and hopes to stay involved over the long term in small farm welfare, local food, and food security issues in some capacity. She enjoys the challenges of this work, and has had her ego humbled a bit. “Few to none of the farmers have ever heard of McKinsey or the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. My credentials mean squat here! Seriously, when I’m with the farmers, it’s just me standing out in the fields with nothing but the smartness of my words and actions.”

They are currently in the process of assembling their board and are preparing to file for legal status. The idea is that the enterprise will eventually be self sustaining, i.e. being fully operated by the members it serves. A long term dream would be for the model to generate enough revenue to codify the knowledge and expand nationally, following a corporate cooperative model similar to Organic Valley or REI.

“We’re still in the early stages, so we don’t have any tangible results yet,” says Malini. “The most rewarding aspect so far has been the feedback I get from the farmers who are excited to talk with me and who are poignantly appreciative that I’m taking on this work. Though the fresh arugula from our local Turkey Hill Farm is also a fine reward—once you taste it, you’ll understand!”

Carbon Emission Fail

I thought I would share this with the blog. Click on the link. I think the title tells the story.

http://failblog.org/2010/03/17/cleaner-emission-fail/

Funny how these things can make green marketers look really bad.

CSR Perspective from several companies

Dr. Massey, Bank of America's Chairman of the Board, has also served on the board of directors for McDonald's, and BP. He presented at The Economist conference on his experience with CSR in these three industries over the past two decades.

His key perspective is that "nothing is more vital to the long-term health of a business than for boards and senior management to confront and engage, as opposed to obfuscate or deny, seemingly adversarial and hostile points of view. It may be that business is its worst enemy when compelled to dismiss these counter-narratives..."

In the speech, he goes on to demonstrate situations in each company where entering into dialogue with opposing viewpoints created progress.

Here is the full article: http://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/index.php?s=63&item=236

Big Oil and Solar Power

Chevron is leading the way on concentrating photovoltaics in the US

http://www.green-energy-news.com/arch/nrgs2010/20100014.html

Health Costs of California Air Pollution

I found an interesting article in the NY Times that spoke about a recent study exposing the correlation of air pollution in California and rising hospital costs. The RAND Corporation study stated that filthy air in California cost federal, state, and private health insurers $193 million in hospital costs. More than 2/3 of the costs are paid for by Medicare and Medical (California's Medicaid program), while private insurers paid the rest. The study showed that Los Angeles County spent the most in the state on air pollution related ailments, which makes sense considering Los Angeles is known for high traffic content and air pollution. Air pollution led to almost 30,000 hospital admission and emergency room visits for asthma, pneumonia and other respiratory and cardiovascular ailments from 2005-2007. From these cases, 3/4 were directly related to fine particle pollution, or small pieces of soot trapped in the lungs, and the remaining cases were caused by ozone. This article was alarming to me because it showed how poor air quality is affecting the health of the residents of the area. More initiative must be taken to clean the air of Los Angeles County, perhaps by promoting car pooling or the use of public transportation. The rising health costs can be alleviated by going to the source and attempting to prevent excessive pollution in order to enhance the health of future generations.

Here is a link to the article:

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/health-costs-of-california-air-pollution/?scp=1&sq=health%20costs%20of%20california%20air%20pollution&st=cse

Daily DIY: Five Ways to Re-Use a Plastic Bag

I found an interesting article about 5 everyday objects that can be constructed from plastic bags. Although plastic bags are not the most environmentally friendly, when reused in these very unique ways they create some interesting household products:

1. The Plastic Bag Chandelier

2. The Plastic Bag Chair

3. The Plastic Bag Cushions

4. The Plastic Bag Shoes

5. The Plastic Bag Containers

Who knew plastic bags had the potential to be turned into such great things?

Here is the link to the article and each product has its own link to click on and check it out for yourself.

http://www.diylife.com/2009/10/06/daily-diy-five-ways-to-re-use-a-plastic-bag/?icid=main|main|dl9|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.diylife.com%2F2009%2F10%2F06%2Fdaily-diy-five-ways-to-re-use-a-plastic-bag%2F

Preview of today's presentation...

Lighting Controls

The topic of occupancy sensors came up last session. I believe the implication of the conversation was that occupancy sensors may someday be cost effective. In fact, occupancy sensors are cost effective in both new construction and retrofit projects. In office buildings, it is estimated that they save roughly 20% on lighting energy costs. I have personally seen such sensors used not only in commercial applications but even large warehouses. As one moves through the warehouse, lights turn on in the area that the person is in – it feels very sci-fi. Note as well that the term occupancy a sensor is now more commonly used than motions sensors; the control may use more than simply motion to activate a lighting fixture.

Corporate Responsibility: McDonald's.

We will be discussing a few of these issues today, but if you are interested in more details on McDonald's corporate responsibility report, you can find information here.

Pepsi Refresh Project

Pepsi has been trying to give back to the community and is funding projects that get the most votes on their website. People sign up, come up with an idea, and wait in hopes of getting money from Pepsi to bring their project to life. I think this is a great idea because it is allowing people with great sustainability ideas to get the chance to follow through with them.

The YouTube commercial of the Pepsi Refresh Project is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srY7Wkl2IbI

The website where people can post their ideas is here: http://www.refresheverything.com/

The Running Shoe Leading the Race to Sustainability

Here’s an article that relates to what we were talking about in our Nike presentation last week. I thought this was a good article because it allows us to compare what different shoe companies are doing to become green and what they are emphasizing on. A company by the name of Brooks who is at the forefront of sustainability has been working to improve its products’ environmental impact for many years now. They are focused on packaging, reducing non-renewable materials, increasing durability, and maximizing their end of life outcomes. Brooks has launched their Green Silence shoe. To give some statistics on the shoe, it is made from 75% post-consumer recycled shoes material, has 100% recycled packaging (90% is post-consumer), the shoe laces are 100% post-consumer recycled, they use water-based adhesives, all dyes and colorants are non-toxic, and there are half as many parts as to comparable shoes. They’ve also introduced the biodegradable BioMoGo midsole, which they use in many of their shoes. The name of their environmental principles is “360 degree sustainability”. Their ideas relate to such concepts as cradle to cradle, green chemistry, and design for environment. In the future they hope to improve upon their concept of 360 degree sustainability and they wish that all companies will be winners in the race to become sustainable.

Here's the link
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/03/01/running-shoe-leading-race-sustainability?page=0%2C2

Fortune Brainstorm: Green Conference

This looks like a very innovative, green conference sponsored by Fortune called Brainstorm Green.

I couldn't believe this lineup of speakers. Check it out:

http://www.fortuneconferences.com/brainstormgreen/speakers.html

Then I wondered how in the world the company paid the expenses of all of these honorarium fees. Well, with a registration fee of $2900 for a three day conference I guess they can do whatever they want.

Herbal Essence

Remember the commercials for this shampoo? Maybe the spokesmodels' "ohs and ahs" were due to the toxins irritating their scalp and not the tingly fragrance...Well P&G is cleaning up their act by altering the ingredients in this 'natural' shampoo and removing the 1,4-dioxane. "Recent tests of the products found they contained such a high level of 1,4-dioxane that they should have carried warning labels as required under California's Proposition 65. The law requires companies to include warnings on products that contain certain levels of chemicals know to the state to cause cancer." This is pretty scary-how many other shampoos are getting away with including this toxin?

Check out the full story here: http://www.greenerdesign.com/news/2010/03/12/p-g-reformulating-herbal-essences-limit-toxins

What we can learn from the success of Avatar according to the EPA Chief?

"EPA chief Lisa P. Jackson recently suggested that folks wary of greater environmental protection consider the success of eco-themed Avatar, the highest grossing movie ever made. Her point? Government regulations aimed at cleaning up the environment, including caps on greenhouse gas emissions, won’t hurt the economy, but help it."

You can read more about the mix of environment, policy, economics and politics and how the EPA finds itself in the middle of it in this interesting article - http://industry.bnet.com/energy/10003390/epa-chief-avatars-success-proves-theres-money-in-going-green/

Raz

EBay Highlights Conservation as a Benefit of Buying Used

This New York Times article outlines eBay's new efforts to attract green-minded consumers. The company has suffered consecutive unprofitable quarters and is trying to re-brand itself to expand its demographic. They hired a company to calculate how much CO2 buying used saves and is incorporating the results into their new advertisements. They have a new site, green.ebay.com, which displays the benefits of buying used. This kind of story shows that companies are trying to announce how green they are in order to increase sales just by changing their advertising. For example, one of the ads proclaims: "Choosing a previously owned espresso machine saves 90% of the CO2 needed to produce a new one. So you get the jolt you need without compromising mankind."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/technology/08ebay.html?em

Energy Efficiency Proposals Could Create 333,000 Jobs in 2010

According to the American Council for an Energy- Efficient Economy (ACEEE), a proposal has been made that would create up to 333,000 energy efficient jobs in 2010, and then 184,000 in 2011. The proposed programs include residential and commercial retrofit programs and an energy efficient manufacturing grant program. These programs would create jobs because energy efficient improvements are labor intensive thus requiring more construction and service sector jobs, as well as create a small number of jobs even after the stimulus period if over because the energy bill savings will enable consumers to save money thus allowing them to spend money elsewhere in the economy. These provisions focus on improving productivity, creating jobs, and leveraging government, consumer, and business funds in the best possible light.
The "home star" program would provide rebates for energy efficient improvements to homeowners is estimated to create about 126,000 jobs in 2010 and 36,000 in 2011; while also improving up to 3 million homes at a cost of $6 billion dollars.
The "building star" program would offer rebates for up to 30% of the cost of improving lighting, insulation, and energy management for commercial buildings. As we learned last class, commercial buildings use the majority of energy thus these improvements could make great strides to reducing energy usage. This program would create 130,000 jobs in 2010 and 57,000 in 2011.
The last proposal is to help manufacturers create energy efficient and clean energy product manufacturing projects with a grant of $4 billion. This proposal is also supposed to create 77,000 jobs in 2010 and 91,000 in 2011.
Lets all hope these proposals happen and are able to create such a large amount of jobs; we all know our economy could use this!

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/19908

Senate Bill Expands Offshore Wind Incentives to 2020

Four Senators, including our very own Tom Carper, have introduced legislation that would extend production and investment tax credits for offshore wind power until 2020. The senators claim that the bill will provide greater stability for the offshore wind industry and that they tax credits will encourage greater development during a horrible economic state. According to the Univeristy of Delaware, the winds of the Atlantic Coast have the potential to generate 330 gigawatts of power; which is enough to replace 300 large coal plants and enough to support 9 states from Massachusetts to North Carolina. The NRG Bluewater Wind in Delaware estimates that their efforts could create as much as 1,200 jobs during construction and around 300 jobs after construction for operation and maintenance.

Its good to see our state senator Tom Carper make great strides to encourage companies to invest in clean and stable wind energy; and to see Univeristy of Delaware get in on the action!

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/19911

Mad Men's Jon Hamm is New Green Voice of Mercedes-Benz

The new voice of Mercedes-Benz is Jon Hamm, the Golden Globe winning star of the hit series Mad Men. Hamm made his debut — or at least his voice — on the Academy Award Oscars show, in a commercial featuring the new Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid luxury sedan.

More about it - http://www.car-and-travel.com/2010/03/mad-mens-jon-hamm-is-new-voice-of-mercedes-benz-commercials-for-green-cars/

eBay, Starbucks Launch Green Marketing Efforts Around Rainforest

Environmental Leader is reporting today on new marketing initiatives of eBay and Starbucks:

eBay has launched two green initiatives aimed at positioning itself as a conservationist in the eyes of consumers. The online marketplace has unveiled a new green shopping hub that will help consumers find millions of green products, and launched its eBay Green Team Challenge that commits the online giant to save up to a quarter of a million acres of rainforest for consumers who reuse.

Starbucks also has a new marketing effort that will generate funds for rainforest preservation...In collaboration with Conservation International, the coffee house chain is launching a new Starbucks Card made with 80 percent post-industrial recycled materials. Starbucks will donate 5 cents to Conservation International to help save forests each time consumers pay with the “Preservation” Card from March 9 to Dec. 31.

What do you think about these initiatives? Will they make a difference to customers? Will they benefit eBay and Starbucks' brands?

Raz

The Peepoo Bag

Find the New York Times article here. A very interesting "green" invention that focuses on both the social and environmental parts of the triple bottom line... I guess we'll just have to wait and see if it becomes financially successful, as well.

The New York Times’ science section recently wrote on a waste innovation from a Swedish architect called the PeePoo bag. The bio-degradable, one-time-use plastic bag could provide a more sustainable solution for human sewage management in urban slums around the world. Urea crystals within the bag break down the pathogens in feces. After use, the bag, which will be sold for 2-3 cents each, can be knotted and buried, turning into fertilizer. Anders Wilhelmson, who patented the bag, said “not only is it sanitary, they can reuse this to grow crops.” Wilhelmson tested the bag in Kenyan urban slums and found there were ample open space to bury the bags.

According to UN estimates, some 2.6 billion people or 40 percent of global population lack access to a toilet. Feces contaminates available drinking water in slums, and contributes to the early deaths of 1.5 million children per year. While the UN has set targets (improving the access to toilets by half by 2015), the private sector may need to get further involved in providing solutions. There is a large market firms can serve. Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organization, told The New York Times there is a trillion-dollar potential market in low-income countries.

Houston as an Electric Car Leader?

Many would not relate Houston to electric cars but the city is forming alliances with Nissan and local utilities for electric cars and electric public stations.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10454610-54.html

Nike Ratings System for products

Interesting article that discusses Nike's plan for LEED style ratings for products and its goals for the upcoming year.

http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/compostmodern/sustainability_at_nike_considered_by_jane_savage_75376.asp

Dongtan, China - A Planned City

This planned city is mentioned in our reading for the week. The engineering firm that is building the city was named as one of Fast Company's 50 most innovative companies. Below is a link to a short article, which outlines the challenges and goals associated with building this city.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/103/open_22-head.

What do you think? Is this an economically viable idea? Can these practices be translated in existing cities?

Ordering a take out?

Deloitte wants to offer carbon and sustainability consulting services

This was posted earlier today on Environmental Leader:

Deloitte has purchased dcarbon8 (http://dcarbon8.com/), a carbon and sustainability consulting firm, in a bid to position itself for growth in environmental advisory services, reports Accountancy Age.

As part of the deal, Gut Battle, founder of dcarbon8, will become a partner at Deloitte. Battle’s employees also will be joining Deloitte, according to the article.

John Connolly, CEO and senior partner at Deloitte, said dcarbon8’s position in the market warranted the decision, adding, “dcarbon8 is a leading innovator in carbon and sustainability consulting and already advises a number of blue chip clients,” reports M&A Deals.

Battle said that becoming part of Deloitte offers some “necessary depth” and resources.

“The challenges facing business as the world moves towards a low carbon economy are enormous,” Battle said.

A UK firm, dcarbon8 was a “˜grand prix’ award winner at the 2008 Green Business Awards, reports Sourcews.

SunChips Compostable Packaging

I thought this commercial tied into the presentation by Daniel Abramowicz from Crown that we had during class on Monday. SunChips will be introducing a chip bag with packaging that is made completely from plants, so that is completely compostable. The bag is designed to completely break down in just 14 weeks and will be available for sale on Earth Day.

Check out the commercial on the SunChips website here:

http://www.sunchips.com/healthier_planet.shtml?s=content_compostable_packaging

Green Conference in DC

There will be a green conference in Washington, DC this summer, hosted by USGBC - National Capital Regional Chapter. I believe the event begins on June 21st and ends on the 23th. There will be several opportunities for training sessions along with the general expo. Discount price for students are avilable.

If you've never been to DC and you're looking for an opportunity to see what's the going thing in sustainability in the Mid Atlantic region, this may be your event of the summer.

http://realgreenconference.org/

More about the Bloom Box

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Wal-Mart Sets Supply Chain Emissions Goal for 2015

Wal-Mart has announced their goal to eliminate 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from it's global supply chain by 2015; which is equivalent to eliminating more than 3.8 million cars off the roads for a year. Their focus is on their supply chains because it has much greater emissions footprints than the actual retailer itself. In order to achieve such a high goal Wal-Mart much get all of their suppliers involved by selecting areas could reduce the most greenhouse gas emissions. It could be in the raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, customer use, or end of life disposal. Wal-Mart has also engaged in many partnerships in order to make their goal a success.

I personally think that Wal-Mart is such a large powerhouse that they could easily make this goal happen by getting their suppliers involved. Do you all think that Wal-Mart has the ability to obtain this goal by 2015?

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/19839

Safeway Join's WalMart's Sustainability Consortium

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/03/02/safeway-joins-wms-sustainability-consortium/

WalMart'a Sustainability Consortium, which we have discussed a few times in class is growing. Safeway, another large grocery chain has jumped on board. The Consortium already has numerous big players involved such as Disney, General Mills, and HP and it's really great to see it growing. If many more large companies get involved, I think we can really see a big change in the way businesses and consumers become conscious of the environment and the effect they have on it.

What major businesses do you think should get involved that aren't already? How many more companies need to be involved for this to be a standard that all businesses need to meet in order to cater to the economic, environmental, and social needs of our country/world today?

eBay Hosts Launch of Bloom Fuel Cell

http://bx.businessweek.com/green-business-acceleration/view?url=http%3A%2F%2Fc.moreover.com%2Fclick%2Fhere.pl%3Fr2577887359%26f%3D9791

This is an article about the Bloom energy saver that is supposed to help cut carbon emissions. An interesting fact about this energy saver is that it "was developed originally at Nasa for use in Martian exploration, but was adapted for use as a fuel cell after the Mars project was cancelled."

Green Drinks this Tuesday (March 2nd)

Here are the details:

Green Drinks @ Courtyard Marriott at Univ. of DE

6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Mar 02, 2010

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Whether you're an EcoMom or a solar installer, you'll find like minded people to discuss your concerns or ideas with.

What is Green Drinks?: A casual and unstructured event - no agenda, no speaker; no power point presentation - just a good time over a cool beverage.

Our Goal: To bring together everyone who shares a passion for the environment, sustainable/green living, energy efficiency and green power, green transportation, environmental legislation and advocacy, green product-sourcing and, well, you get the picture.

Why you should be there: Because you are green, because you want to go green, because you want to meet other environmentally minded people.

For more info, visit our Green Drinks page.

Location: Courtyard Marriott - 200 New London Road, Newark, DE 19711

Free Green Expo for Students

In Wilmington and free with student id.

See below:

http://greatgreenexpo.com/pages/attend.html

Getting a Green Job isn't so Easy

I found this article particularly interesting as many of the "green jobs" are not easily obtainable and may not exist yet despite popular opinion. Just as with other jobs, "green jobs" encompass many different areas of expertise and often require particular skill sets and levels of expertise. With all the recent press surrounding "going green," many overlook important details and must understand that it is merely a small piece of the global job market.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/01/news/economy/green_jobs.fortune/index.htm?source=cnn_bin&hpt=Sbin

DE Great Green Expo

What: Delaware Great Green Expo is the first of it's kind in Delaware highlighting local and regional businesses that offer "green" solutions and contribute to lessening pollution waste in Delaware and surrounding areas.

Where: The Chase Center on the Riverfront in downtown Wilmington

When: March 20, 2010 from 9am to 5pm

How much? Free! with your student ID.

Newark Joins Wilmington & Dover as Cool Citiies

Here's an update I received on the email:

The City of Newark's Mayor and Council voted unanimously Monday, (Feb. 22, 2010) to endorse the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Newark now joins the ranks of Wilmington and Dover as Delaware's Cool Cities!

"This could not have happened without the patience and dedication of the Sierra Club's Cool Cities volunteers, especially Ron Zink, who made the trek to Newark on numerous occasions to convince them that
this was the right thing to do." said Cool Cities Delaware coordinator Amy Roe, a doctoral student at UofD's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy (CEEP).

Cool Cities is a national initiative that encourages local governments to develop policies and programs that promote energy sustainability, environmental stewardship and climate protection.

Delaware's 57 villages, towns and cities represent 30% our state's population and 70% of Delawareans live in unincorporated counties.

Improving energy and environmental policies on the local level can dramatically improve our environmental quality.

To date, more than 1,000 cities across the country have endorsed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and 42 counties have endorsed the U.S. Counties Climate Stabilization Declaration.

Find out more about Cool Cities Delaware, better yet sign up to become a volunteer and help promote Cool Cities throughout the state, at CoolCitiesDE.us.

Raz