3p Contributor: Gina-Marie Cheeseman
Recent Articles
Can A Company That Makes Roundup Be Sustainable?
While waiting for the PBS show, the NewsHour, to begin, I saw a Monsanto advertisement which said, “Monsanto…producing more, conversing more…that’s sustainable agriculture.” On Monsanto’s website the company states its commitment to “help farmers produce more and conserve more” by 2030. One of the ways Monsanto will achieve its goal is through “developing improved seeds.”
In 1996, Monsanto, the world’s largest agrochemical company, introduced Roundup Ready Soybeans, which included “in-seed tolerance to Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides.” Roundup Ready seeds are the “most common herbicides used with cultivated GMOs.” Roundup itself is one of the most common herbicides. Roundup Ready seeds ensure that glyphosate, the chemical name for Roundup, will be used on crops.
Why Genea Energy Made Forbes List Of Most Promising Companies
Southern California-based Genea Energy is ranked number 13 on Forbes’ America’s Most Promising Companies list. Doug Schneider, Genea Energy’s CEO, said, “Forbes saw in Genea a special potential for growth, and that just echoes what our management team has been saying all along. We have a very special business — we’re just beginning to see its potential, and that’s exciting.”
Genea Energy offers a “highly interactive way of controlling and optimizing energy consumption in commercial office properties.” One of the company’s services, the Building Optimization Solution, provides building owners with a “web-enabled technology platform” that controls energy consumption and businesses processes.
Kaiser Permanente: “60 Sustainable Seconds”
As part of a new initiative, every month Kaiser Permanente (KP) will feature an online video of an employee or physician who is doing something worthwhile in regards to healthcare and sustainability. The program is called 60 Sustainable Seconds with Kathy Gerwig, KP’s environmental stewardship officer and vice president of workplace safety. Watch the first video below:
Protecting Ecosystems Makes Money
Protecting ecosystems saves money, according to a new study, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB). The UN Environment Program (UNEP) hosted the study. The study emphasizes putting a price tag on saving the world’s ecosystems from destruction. The study itself puts a price tag on the ongoing cost of forest loss: $2 to 5 trillion. Clearing mangrove forests costs local communities over $12,000 a hectare, plus $9,000 to rehabilitate a site.
Protecting ecosystems creates jobs. One in 40 European jobs is linked with environmental and ecosystem services. Investing in the protection of Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve generates $50 million a year, created 7,000 jobs, and increased local family incomes.
Recession Provides Opportunities For Land Conservation
The housing market collapse presented land conservation trusts with the opportunity to purchase land slated for development. As a study by the Land Trust Alliance puts it, “land trusts are attractive buyers (to banks) because they don’t require further infrastructure investments.”
Land trusts all over the country are taking advantage of those opportunities. In Northern California, several land trusts acquired parcels this year. The Trust for Public Land bought chaparral-covered land for $4 million that was going to be bulldozed. The Peninsula Open Space trust paid $16 million in June for the 966-acre Rancho San Vicente, a former cattle ranch. The Ranch was slated to have 300 units and 16 large estates built.
Why Solar Rebates Are Becoming Extinct
Solar rebate programs are winding down. Austin Energy cut solar rebates for homeowners by a third. Xcel Energy will cut its rebate program by about 50 percent. The Long Island Power Authority made an immediate cut in its rebate program, and one scheduled for January. New York reduced its solar incentive by 50 cents per watt in October. Massachusetts closed its rebate program, and California is gradually decreasing its incentives. Australia also stopped its rebate program. However, a 30 percent federal tax credit still exists.
Popularity and the impact on budgets are the reasons why rebates are being reduced according to New York Times’ Green Inc blog. Barry Cinnamon, chief executive of installer, Akeena Solar, said, “I do not believe that the more the merrier is the right approach. Instead, I believe that incentives should decline as costs decline — that way ratepayer dollars are used most efficiently.”
JumpStart Helps Cleveland’s New Entrepreneurs
Cleveland is part of the “rust belt,” the moniker given to the upper Midwest because many of its factories and plants are no longer in operation. However, in 2004 Cleveland’s business leaders, government, and foundations created the nonprofit corporation JumpStart to help entrepreneurs. JumpStart invests only in companies that have the chance to grow between $30 million and $50 million in sales within five to seven years and have innovative products.
JumpStart has helped 40 companies who have the potential to create 2,400 jobs at an average salary of $65,000. Last year JumpStart spent $9 million last year, generated $75 million in local spending, and Cleveland made $8 million through payroll taxes.
Early stage investment starts at $250,000 and goes up to $600,000. The nonprofit corporation assigns an experienced CEO to help create a business plan. In order to qualify for JumpStart’s help, companies must have the following:
Why Copenhagen Could Be a Social Tipping Point
“The world is looking to the United States for measurable, verifiable action,” the New York Times’ Andrew Revkin declared on November 4 while speaking at the Bard Center for Environmental Policy’s National Climate Seminar. Revkin is not optimistic that Congress will pass a bill reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions before Copenhagen. The House passed a bill this summer that requires a 17 percent reduction in carbon emissions, but the Senate has yet to pass a bill.
“The table I see being set at Copenhagen is with some pretty stark divisions.” Revkin said. Developing countries want $100s of billions in financial assistance to cope with climate change. In October, developing nations asked developed nations to give up to $400 billion a year. Around the same time, the EU’s 27 national leaders agreed that developed countries will have to offer developing countries around $147 billion a year.
How Target Invests In Sustainability
Target Corporation, one of the largest general merchandise store chains in the U.S., focused on making its stores more energy efficient in 1989 when it began using an energy management system (EMS) to conserve energy. The system at the company’s headquarters allows for company-wide energy policies to be implemented.
In the early 1990s, Target began selling used cardboard to recyclers. The majority of its stores now return their cardboard to distribution centers on the same trailers that deliver merchandise to stores. Target stores recycle electronics, both product returns and company equipment. Target stores also repair and refurbish damaged shopping carts. When the carts are not fit to be used anymore, the plastic and metal is recycled. As of 2007, 983 million pounds of cardboard and 47,000 broken carts were recycled.
The End of Corporate Climate Change Denial?
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said this summer it would like to put climate change on a “Scopes trial.” However, the end of climate change denial is over, at least when it comes to the majority of large U.S. corporations. Three-quarters of the executives interviewed for a McGraw Hill study commissioned by Siemens Building Technology view sustainability as consistent with their company’s profit mission and engage in sustainability activities, double the amount in 2006. Over half (58 percent) believe sustainability will serve the financial performance of their company from 31 percent in 2006.
The economic crisis has supported and not deterred sustainability activity in the firms represented in the study. Over half (57 percent) believe sustainability practices are either unaffected or aided by a down economy. Only 32 percent view an economic crisis as an obstacle.
Energy savings is the most important driver toward sustainability, with 75 percent citing it this year, and 73 percent in 2006. Global influences increased as a driver with 38 percent in 2009, and 26 percent in 2006. Government regulations decreased as a driver with only 29 percent citing it, down from 40 percent in 2006. However, 72 percent expect it to become a requirement.
Over 80 percent of larger firms believe sustainability provides market differentiation, and over 70 percent expect sustainability efforts to retain and attract customers, and reduce the costs of doing business. Almost a third reported dedicated funding for sustainability.
World’s Largest Carbon Capture and Storage Project Gets Green Light
Chevron Australia awarded a $400 million contract last month to General Electric (GE) for the world’s largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) project off the West Australia coast’s Gorgon natural gas field. Chevron estimates the CCS project will sequester four times more carbon than any other project. The project is a joint operation with the Australian subsidiaries of ExxonMobil and Shell, and is estimated to cost about AUD$43 billion for first phase of development. The Gorgon field is believed to contain about 40 trillion cubic feet of gas, about eight percent of the current global capacity.
GE will supply six units capable of injecting captured carbon 1.3 km underground the Gorgon field. GE will also supply three refrigerant units that will chill and pump 15 million tons of natural gas a year from the Gorgon field through subsea and underground pipelines to gas treatment and liquefaction facilities on Barrow Island off Australian coast. Before liquefaction, the carbon will be taken out of the natural gas and injected into depleted natural gas wells.
Wal-Mart Plans To Grow By Shrinking Store Size
A few weeks ago, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. presented its growth plans for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2010 at its annual conference for the investment community. The company plans to add about 38 million square feet globally compared to the 44 million square feet it added the prior year. Wal-Mart plans to increase global square footage by about 37 million square feet in fiscal year 2011. Future stores will be eight percent smaller, and cost 16 percent less to build.
In the U.S., Wal-Mart will “continue to focus on further improving the returns of its supercenter format” through remodeling existing stores and accelerating the growth of new stores. This year, Wal-Mart expects to add 15 new Sam’s Club stores, and between five and ten new Sam’s Club stores in fiscal year 2011.
Wal-Mart International plans “aggressive investment… in growth markets such as China and Brazil.” The world’s largest retailer expects to add about 23 million square feet in fiscal year 2010 in its international stores, and about 25 million square feet in fiscal year 2011. Acquisitions are not included.
Hunter Lovins Speaks On Climate Change Action and Revamping the Economy
“Whatever you do, please take action…if we are going to solve this one [climate change], it’s going to require all of us,” Hunter Lovins said while speaking on October 21 at Bard Center for Environmental Policy’s National Climate Seminar. The founder and president of Natural Capitalism Solutions, and a founding professor of business at the Presidio School of Management, reminded listeners everyone can take action concerning climate change.
Lovins mentioned that since Pacific, Gas & Electric (PG&E) quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last month because of its stance on climate change legislation, other companies are “starting to flee.” She suggested two actions people can take:
- Write to companies who are still members of the Chamber of Commerce, telling them you are not sure you want to do business with them.
- Send a letter to the Chamber of Commerce telling them to stop obstructing efforts to mitigate climate change by going to the website, NewVoiceofBusiness.org, where such a letter exists, and click “send.”
Fisker Automotive Buying Closed GM Plant To Produce Plug-in Hybrids
General Motors (GM) closed its Wilmington, Delaware plant in July, leaving 550 active employees out of work, and another 500 laid-off hourly workers without the hope of being called back to work. Vehicle manufacturing used to be Delaware’s second largest private employer. Perhaps it will be again. Fisker Automotive announced on October 27 it signed a letter of intent to buy the plant for $18 million after a routine four-month evaluation period.
Built by GM in 1947, the Wilmington plant produced 8.5 million cars, and has a production capacity of 300,000 cars a year. The Wilmington plant will support the Irvine, California-based company’s Project NINA, developing and producing a $39,000 plug-in, hybrid sedan. Production is scheduled to begin in 2012, and by 2014 the company plans produce 75,000 to 100,000 cars a year. Over half of the cars produced will be exported. The plant will create or support 2,000 factory jobs and over 3,000 vendor and supplier jobs by 2014.
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