3p Contributor: Gina-Marie Cheeseman
Recent Articles
JP Morgan Report Says Paperless Office Is Possible
It’s a fact of life that offices use vast quantities of paper. Just add recycling bins, and an office is environmentally friendly, some would say. However, a paperless office is possible, according to a recently released report by JP Morgan. The report, titled Sustainable Treasury Management: It’s Easier Than You Think, mentions JP Morgan’s Go Green Campaign, launched in 2007, which reached out to over 25,000 clients to help them transition to a paperless office. The campaign already has reduced over 101 million documents, 50 million pounds of greenhouse gases (GHG) and preserved 33,000 trees, which would cover an area roughly three times the size of New York City. The campaign wants to reduce the amount of paper sent to clients by an additional 77 million documents.
Every year large paper-based treasury operations generate 5.5 tons of paper, the equivalent of 143 trees and 106 tons of GHGs. Using that amount of paper is costly, according to the report. In order to file and maintain 500,000 pieces of paper, companies spend an estimated $250,000 in workflow management, $115,000 to research lost files, and about $150,000 in storage and disposal.
How To Cut Costs Through Energy Efficiency
Is it possible to cut cost without cutting meaning? Robert Verganti of the Harvard Business Review thinks it is possible. Verganti, the author of the book, Design-Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating what Things Mean, pointed out that people care about price, but they also “do not want to feel poor.” Verganti added, “So the challenge for companies is to cut costs without cutting meaning.”
Companies can cut costs by implementing energy saving measures. A report released last summer by McKinsey found that the U.S. could save $1.2 trillion through 2020 by investing $520 billion by making improvements such as replacing inefficient appliances with new, energy-saving ones. The industrial sector accounts for 40 percent of end-use efficiency and the commercial sector for 25 percent.
The website, Business.gov proclaims, “Good energy management is good business.” The website lists “simple, low-risk, high-return” energy efficiency improvements businesses can make in the following categories: lighting, water heating, refrigeration, equipment, heating and cooling systems (HVAC), and buildings. Some of the improvements businesses can make include:
Three Big Companies Gave USCAP The Shaft
This article has been updated since it was originally published.
ConoccoPhillips recently pulled out of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), a coalition of businesses and environmental groups. Conocco is the third company to pull out, after the British oil giant, BP, and equipment manufacturer, Caterpillar. Conocco’s chairman and CEO, Jim Mulva said in a statement, “House climate legislation and Senate proposals to date have disadvantaged the transportation sector and its consumers, left domestic refineries unfairly penalized versus international competition, and ignored the critical role that natural gas can play in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.”
Mulva continued, “We believe greater attention and resources need to be dedicated to reversing these missed opportunities, and our actions today are part of that effort. Addressing these issues will save thousands of American jobs, as well as create new ones.”
Algae Based Fuel Is Not A Silver Bullet
Algae as fuel is the latest biofuel rage. On January 14 the Department of Energy (DOE) announced an investment of $44 million in algae-based fuels. Last summer, ExxonMobil Corp. announced a partnership with scientist Craig Venter’s Synthetic Genomics to develop algae based fuels.
However, there is a problem with algae-based biofuel.On January 19 the Environmental Science & Technology published a report by University of Virginia in Charlottesville which researched energy costs and environmental impacts of producing algae for fuel. Researchers then compared the results to corn, canola and switchgrass. The report found that algae farms need to use less fertilizer and freshwater.
Study co-author Andres Clarens said algae farming is still in its infancy. “Corn and canola we’ve been growing for a long time. We’ve gotten pretty good at it.” He added, “Nutrients are going to be the limiting factor. We’re humans. We need to eat dinner, and you can’t expect to have algae that provides a bunch of energy without feeding it nutrients.”
The Problem With Oregon’s Business Energy Tax Credit
Oregon’s Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC) allows businesses without ties to green energy buy credits at a discount and reduce their state income tax bills. There is a problem with the BETC. As Treehugger.com put it, Walmart “raked in $11 million by taking advantage of it—without ever touching a solar panel or a wind turbine.” State records show Walmart paid $22.6 million in cash in 2009 for the right to claim $33.6 million worth of energy tax credits. The money Walmart paid went to seven projects, including two wind farms and a solar power manufacturing plant. Walmart profited $11 million from it.
The Weyerhaeuser Paper Mill received $3.3 million in Oregon energy credits in 2008 for revamping a biomass plant that burned wood waste for heat and steam, and capturing the heat to dry paper. The company then sold energy tax credits to Walmart for $2.3 million in cash. Walmart is able to deduct the full $3.3 million from its Oregon income tax over five years. Last year, International Paper bought the mill and shut down production. Walmart is benefiting from energy tax credits even though the mill is no longer in operation.
What Does Yvo De Boer’s Resignation Mean for Climate Change Negotiations?
Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, dropped a bomb shell when he announced his resignation last week. His last day will be July 1. He will join the consultancy group KPMG as global adviser on climate change. This leaves the UN with just a little over four months to find de Boer’s successor.
About his plans to join KPMG, de Boer said, “I have always maintained that, while governments provide the necessary policy framework, the real solutions must come from business. I now have the chance to make this happen.”
Alliance Federated Energy’s Plans To Build A Waste To Gas Power Plant
Alliance Federated Energy recently announced plans to develop a $225 million renewable energy plant in Milwaukee, dubbed the Project Apollo. The plant would use technology developed by Westinghouse Plasma Corp. of Madison, Pennsylvania, to convert waste at high heat into a synthetic gas, or syngas which would be used as fuel to generate power. The plant would create 250 construction jobs and 45 full time jobs.
The first phase of the project is expected to be running by 2013 and process about 1,200 tons of municipal and industrial waste, per day. It would generate 25 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to power about 20,000 homes. The second phase would generate another 25 MW of power. Several plasma gasification facilities operating around world, but there are no commercial plants operating in the U.S. Project Apollo will be the first.
Interview With Kevin Whitfield, Head Of Carbon At South Africa’s Nedbank
Nedbank Group is one of South Africa’s largest banks and a leader in sustainability. I recently interviewed Kevin Whitfield, head of Carbon at Nedbank via email.
Gina-Marie Cheeseman: Nedbank Group has a reputation for being South Africa’s “green bank,” and has been committed to sustainability principles for 18 years. Why did Nedbank start to take sustainability into consideration almost two decades ago?
Kevin Whitfield: Nedbank’s sustainability journey was initiated by visionary foresight and leadership that recognized not only a need expressed by our clients to address environmental issues but also understood that the concept of sustainability in all its facets is crucial to ensuring the long-term interests of all our stakeholders and the bank’s own long-term profitability.
The journey began with the establishment of our partnership with WWF-SA in 1990 and has continued to be supported by WWF SA, our staff and various other stakeholders and is integral to the bank’s vision, strategy and long-term objectives.
French Nuclear Power Company Acquires Solar Thermal Systems Manufacturer
Last year, solar companies Optisolar and Solel “both sold out to larger, deep-pocked companies,” as a New York Times Green Inc. post put it. Last week, the French nuclear power company, Areva announced its acquisition of Ausra, a small company that makes solar thermal systems used for electricity production or industrial steam. The deal is expected to close within the next few months. Ausra manufactures curved mirrors that focus the sun’s heat on a black pipe that goes through the middle of the structure. Fluid in the pipe is heated and used to make steam.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company was founded in Australia, but relocated to Silicon Valley in 2007. Ausra has a five megawatt (MW) demonstration plant near Bakersfield, Calif., and a factory in Las Vegas that makes mirrors. It also has a solar array that feeds steam into a coal-fired power plant in New South Wales, Australia.
Report Shows Few Companies Including Water Risks In Financial Filings
A recently-released report by the investor coalition Ceres, the financial services firm UBS and financial data provider Bloomberg evaluated and ranked the water disclosure practices of 100 publicly traded companies in eight key sectors. The report revealed that many companies are not including water risks and performance data in their financial filings. Only one of the 100 companies provided comprehensive water data on their supply chains.
The report used a scale of 0 to 100, and looked at data through June 30, 2009. The eight sectors looked at include beverage, chemicals, electric power, food, homebuilding, mining, oil and gas and semiconductors. The companies were scored in five categories: water accounting, risk assessment, direct operations, supply chain and stakeholder engagement.
Eighty of the companies scored less than 30 points. The mining sector received the highest scored overall, followed by the beverage industry. The homebuilding sector had the lowest overall scores. Only 21 companies disclosed targets to reduce water, and only 15 companies had goals to reduce wastewater discharge. Only 17 companies reported local-level water data.
What The U.S. Can Learn From Denmark About Health Care
President Obama touted the merits of computerizing health records last year. “This will cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests,” said Obama. “It won’t just save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs — it will save lives by reducing the deadly but preventable medical errors that pervade our health care system,” he added. Obama pledged $19.5 billion from the stimulus to begin to computerize medical records by 2014. The funds will be used to provide incentives to doctors and hospitals that accept Medicare and Medicaid patients. Ninety percent of physicians and hospitals do accept Medicare and Medicaid patients. Kathleen Sebelius, Health and Human Services secretary, calls the plans to move to electronic record-keeping “one of the linchpins” of changing the country’s health care system.
The U.S. can learn much from Denmark which began to computerize its health records a decade ago. Currently, almost all Danish primary care physicians and almost half of Danish hospitals use electronic records. A Commonwealth Fund study published last month said the Danish information system is the world’s most efficient. It saves doctors an average of 50 minutes a day in administrative work. A 2008 report from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society estimated that electronic records saved Denmark’s health system up to $120 million a year.
Swedish Clothing Company Klattermussen’s ECO-index Rates Products
Klättermusen, the Swedish company that sells outdoor clothes, sleeping bags and packs, launched an ECO-index last year. The ECO-index lists the impact a product has on the environment, and includes whether the product can be recycled. The idea behind ECO-index is to make it easier for consumers to compare products.
The ECO-index uses ten environmental criteria to assess a product, and then calculates a percentage which will state how much more needs to be done until the product is completely environmentally-friendly. The product receives one point for each criteria it meets, then the points are added and assessed against the potential maximum points to determine the percentage. The criteria include the life of the product, biodegradability, whether it is manufactured from natural non-fossil materials, and whether it can be recycled.
Groups Sue California Over Low Carbon Fuel Standard
Last week the American Trucking Association (ATA) and the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association (NPRA) filed a lawsuit against California’s low-carbon fuel mandate, which calls for the state’s petroleum dependence to be reduced by 20 percent by 2020. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted the standard last April. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Fresno, claims the mandate violates federal laws regarding interstate commerce and makes the cost of doing business too expensive. It is the third suit filed in the last two months challenging the mandate.
“We felt the need to challenge it because it will increase the cost of fuel produced in California,” said Rich Moskowitz, vice president of the ATA. “A new clean-diesel truck that emits virtually no particulate matter is about $100,000,” he said. “A natural gas engine adds a 40- to 80-thousand-dollar premium on top of that.”
Is Walmart’s Sustainability Consortium A Genuine Effort To Develop Better Products?
Walmart is certainly not a stranger to controversy and criticism, and neither is its attempt to develop sustainability standards for products. Last summer the world’s largest retailer announced plans last summer to develop a Sustainability Index which would serve as a single data source for evaluating a product’s sustainability. The Sustainability Index initiative then launched the Sustainability Consortium, a group representing governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academic and business interests to develop standards which can be used to rate the sustainability of products.
The Consortium’s website states that it “develops transparent methodologies, tools and strategies to drive a new generation of products and supply networks that address environmental, social and economic imperatives.” .The Consortium’s website also states that it “advocates for a transparent process and system, not individuals or organizations.” However, the Consortium does not support third party-rating systems such as EPEAT. As Treehugger.com put it, the Consortium “decided to take matters into their own hands and push for consumer outreach on electronics themselves.”
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