economics

If you think Black Friday couldn’t get worse, you got it wrong. The biggest shopping day of the year is beginning earlier than ever this year with retailers such as Target, Best Buy, Kohl’s, Gap, Toys r Us and Macy’s opening their doors as early as midnight, or even earlier in the case of Wal-Mart. [...]

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In a major event at National Geographic headquarters last month, Rocky Mountain Institute’s founder and chief scientist, Amory Lovins, unveiled the pathway to a new energy era that would lead to energy independence, get us entirely off of oil, coal and nuclear energy, reduce natural gas consumption by a third, all while saving $5 trillion, [...]

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Black Friday is almost here, which means the holiday shopping season is just about to begin. Even if Black Friday is not your cup of tea, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that retailers, nervous about the economy, are hoping for a relatively strong holiday shopping season. One key to making it happen is [...]

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Davide Vassallo is a global practices leader for DuPont’s Sustainable Solutions Group. As environmental stewards for a company that is the owner and operator of more than 150 production facilities around the world, his group has found that energy efficiency improvements can often be achieved for little or no cost. After running a large number [...]

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It seems to me that the big “government bailout” of banks and selected industries was significantly one sided. There could have been a more equitable solution that considered all sectors of society and not just the “fat cat risk-takers” and politically entrenched businesses. Here’s how:

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Carl Pope, the long-time Executive Director of the Sierra Club announced last week that he would be stepping down as Chairman of the organization next year. This follows his move last year, to turn over the Executive Director’s reins to Michael Brune. Pope’s decisions in recent years to seek cooperative action with corporations, and in [...]

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How can the US government possibly consider taxing carbon when they’re still subsidizing oil? Isn’t this an obvious contradiction?

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A report released earlier this week by The Analysis Group, entitled “The Economic Impacts of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative on Ten Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States,” tracked the dollars collected and spent by the program over its first three years of existence. The report finds that the program, despite continuous criticism from conservatives as being burdensome and costly, added a net value of $1.6 billion, to the ten member states, or roughly, $33 per person.

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While not many ordinary Western consumers understand the principles of Islamic finance, an increasing number of Western institutions have begun to incorporate its principles into operations in some parts of the world.
Most people may know that Islamic finance bans interest, gambling and speculation, but not much more than that. What they don’t usually hear is that it also promotes the kind of focus on partnership and productive investment that seems to have been missing from the global boom of the first decade of the 21st century.

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>by Derrick Mains One thing is certain. The economy sucks and neither side seems to be offering any real long term (place tongue in cheek and say “shovel ready”) solutions. So the question arises – are our economic challenges a result of big business greed, big government spending, lax regulations or could it be that [...]

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Countries and cities spend vast amounts of money to participate in the bidding process to host world sporting events. Along with the pride and glory and the opportunity to showcase one’s cities, nation, and culture, there is the perception that such events will create an economic boon in the country. Whereas this may be the case for developed nations, the prize for hosting soccer’s World Cup can turn into fool’s gold for developing countries and emerging markets.

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Let’s play the word association game. I’ll start with ‘solar energy’ – what’s the first thing you think of? Is it ‘the energy of the future’ or ‘bankruptcy’ or maybe even ‘waste of American taxpayers’ money’? Until not too long ago, the answer would be probably be the former rather than the latter. Yet, in [...]

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Police can break up the various “Occupy” encampments across the country but can they halt the movement? Probably not. As disorganized, disparate and disheveled as some would like to believe Occupy Wall Street and its regional allies are, the barn door is open and the horse is romping freely in the field. Or in this [...]

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Can an investment help the pocketbook and the planet at the same time? Definitely, says R. Paul Herman, author of The HIP Investor: Making Better Profits by Building a Better World. Following is an excerpt from Herman’s book. Explore the options, and put your money on a wiser course… What frameworks are useful in evaluating real estate [...]

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Now we are in the early stages of the first-ever global revolution. It is not about seizing power in capital cities; it is a values revolution that is demanding a transition from the current system where money values rule over the life cycle, to a new system where life values will rule over the money cycle.

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We are MBA students studying the interconnections of sustainability and business at the Presidio Graduate School. As part of our curriculum, we are developing a capital markets mechanism to monetize ecosystem services that would incentivize communities to preserve and/or rehabilitate vital local ecosystems, such as watersheds. This is a letter of inquiry to engage the Packard Foundation (the Foundation) as an investor in a proof of concept pilot project for the above model.

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We are writing to commend your vote on Oct. 18, 2011, to implement position limits on commodities speculators, including oil speculators. Further, we would like to voice some of our concerns regarding the regulation of oil price speculation and the affects on the general well-being of the American people in response to the CFTC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking RIN 3038-AD15 and RIN-AD16 on the topic of Position Limit for Commodity Derivatives, dated January 26, 2011.

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Given the twin concerns of peak oil and climate change, it’s no surprise that natural gas (with its lower carbon intensity than coal) has been hailed by many as the salvation of our modern way of life, at least for now. And with the discovery of enormous deposits under Marcellus Shale in the Eastern US, [...]

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Last week could be considered a good week for Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protestors – Bank of America backed off its plans to charge debit card fees due to public pressure and SaveUp, a new program rewarding people not for spending, but for saving, was launched. Although the launch of SaveUp has no direct connection [...]

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It was nearly 30 years ago, in the wake of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, when the classic Nukespeak from Sierra Club Books was published and immediately shaped public debate on the immense risks of nuclear technology. Now an extensively revised and updated edition promises to continue to fuel that debate in the aftermath [...]

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By Maggie Winslow How are we going to return to full employment in the U.S.?  We can’t just keep producing more and different consumer goods, hoping jobs will come from their production and consumption.  We don’t have the natural capital for that plan.  But, what if everyone could afford to work fewer hours so that [...]

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From 1977 to 1986, student activism on campuses across the United States drove anti-apartheid divestment that eventually pressured the South African government to begin negotiations that led to the end of the apartheid system. With the power to effect change of this magnitude, imagine what else can be accomplished by an impact investment approach to endowment fund management. A new program of the Sustainable Endowments Institute, in partnership with 16 other organizations including AASHE, The Clinton Climate Initiative and Net Impact, is helping academic institutions and other non-profits to do just that.

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Boulder voters approve steps towards breaking away from Xcel Energy to increase local and renewable energy options in the community. This could have ripple effects for utilities and cities throughout the country.

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Walking in Greenwich Village after Gernot Wagner’s talk at the New School last Tuesday, I realized that I’m probably not very far from the home of Colin Beavan, aka No Impact Man. I find it very interesting that these two bright people, who are so passionate about the future of the planet, have such different [...]

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Curbside recycling services have not been uniformly successful throughout the country. While citizens support them, their traditional cost structure creates a moral hazard and therefore a market failure. Some cities have figured it out how to address this issue while others still struggle to provide a much needed service.

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Putting a “green” twist on the concept of Free Trade Agreement, the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development is advocating the enactment of Sustainable Energy Trade Agreements to speed up the development and adoption of renewable energy and clean technology globally. By supplementing incentives such as feed-in tariffs and tax credits, SETAs could function as integral facets of pro-sustainable energy policy frameworks, the ICTSD says.

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BSR, led by President and CEO Aron Cramer, held a media event announcing the results of a global business survey poll that reveals sustainability, in fact, ranks highly within companies’ core strategies and operations.

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In political circles, making space for pedestrians, cyclists and nature falls under the purview of “transportation enhancement” activities. Last year, enhancement investments totaled close to $900 million, funds that drove the creation of urban trails, open space parks and the one of the largest build-out of bicycle lanes the country has ever seen. Unfortunately, it seems the future of all enhancement funding now hangs in the balance.

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I don’t think anyone reading this would question the notion that the Internet has created incalculable benefits in today’s world. Indeed, among those in their twenties or younger, it is probably difficult to imagine the world without it. A 2009 article in the Harvard Business Review, estimated that the advertising-supported internet created $444 billion in [...]

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Smart grids are billed as the hub of a smarter, more sustainable and democratized electricity distribution system, a core element of making a transition from fossil fuel to cleaner, renewable energy sources. Investing in smart grids is also touted as an engine for creating relatively well-paying, clean tech jobs. A study released yesterday by the Silicon Valley Smart Grid Task Force found that these claims aren’t unfounded.

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