In this interview, Sourcemap founder Leonardo Bonanni shares his quest to shed light on supply chains and to make them more sustainable.

Read On »

Microsoft has committed to become carbon neutral beginning on July 1, the start of the company’s new fiscal year.

Read On »

Following the release of Timberland’s 2011 CSR report, Beth Holzman, Senior Manager of CSR Strategy and Reporting at Timberland talks about the achievements as well as the challenges the company is facing. Can Timberland meet its bold 2015 CSR goals? Does it continue to show real progress and demonstrate a high level of transparency, even after the purchase by VF? Check the interview out.

Read On »

Submitted for the TckTckTck Rio +20 Blogging competition, this article by Leon Kaye explores how Dubai and the United Arab Emirates can confront climate change from a public health perspective.

Read On »

My recent stay in Detroit and current trip to Doha have opened my eyes to how citizens are taking matters into their own hands and building more sustainable economies.

Read On »

By Jacquie Ottman & Mark Eisen Our economy is slowly but surely heeding the signal that carbon is the new watchword. During the past few years, a steady stream of so-called “biobased” products have been making their way to retail shelves — compostable dinnerware made from corn, plant-based laundry detergents, and bamboo flooring among them. [...]

Read On »

Despite UPS headquarters being 20 years old, the company just announced that it has become the first in the package delivery and logistics industry to gain LEED Gold Certification from the US Green Building Council. UPS submitted the building for review in May 2011 (shortly after the appointment of Chief Sustainability Officer Scott Wicker) and [...]

Read On »

At first glance, AMEE, a venture-backed UK company launched in 2008, looks like any other carbon tracking and management provider. But upon further investigation, it becomes clear that although still in its early stages, the AMEE platform has the potential to be much more. The company’s mission is to make the world’s environmental data more accessible [...]

Read On »

As 2011 comes to close, Google has embarked on its annual exploration of the biggest news, trends and events that captured our attention and sparked our curiosity throughout the year. With Zeitgeist 2011, Google provides a visual analysis of how the world searched, including Top 10 lists of the most popular queries in a variety of [...]

Read On »

Kraft Foods, the second largest food producer in the world, recently announced the results of a survey measuring its climate impacts, land and water use. The study was intended to provide a more thorough picture of the company’s complete environmental footprint, going beyond direct use and emissions to look at the entire supply chain. The project [...]

Read On »

The following post is part of the course work for “Live Exchange” the foundational course on communication for The MBA Design Strategy Program at California College of the Arts. The rest of the posts are presented here. By Ryan Wilday As an industrial designer, and design strategist, I am a prolific user of paper. Whether [...]

Read On »

By Jim Epstein and Alicia Epstein Korten As an investment advisor, I (Jim) am often asked to sit on nonprofit boards. I have grown uncomfortable with the term not-for-profit to describe these organizations, which often embrace business principles in their operations. For example, DC Greenworks generates income from government contracts and fees for green roof [...]

Read On »

It went into overtime and ended in three days of intense, non-stop negotiations, but UNFCCC delegates to the Durban climate conference agreed on the three pivotal agenda items: making commitments to extend the Kyoto Protocol, setting up the organizational structure and funding mechanisms for the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund, and setting out a roadmap to a global greenhouse gas emissions reduction treaty that’s slated to go into effect in 2020.

Read On »

As we seek to discover new methods of generating and harnessing energy, there is one source that is worth discussing: the human body.

Read On »

Today I read an excellent article by Tom Laksawy in Grist about the amount of sugar in kids’ cereal. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) released a report that highlighted the worst offenders. Some of these cereals contain more than half their weight in sugar and millions of children eat them for breakfast everyday. Read Tom’s [...]

Read On »

This week in Doha, Qatar, over 12,000 attendees will gather for the triennial World Petroleum Congress (WPC), which promises to be carbon neutral.

Read On »

Releasing a profit and loss statement on the environmental and social impact of a company’s performance is a bold move. First of all, quantifying these parameters can be daunting. How can you quantify the social and environmental impact of the number of liters you use in your manufacturing process, for example? It’s not to say [...]

Read On »

The car rental market is one market that is constantly getting greener, offering a growing number of green services from the newest electric cars to car sharing programs. Yet surprisingly, none of the major car rental companies, until now, have published a sustainability report. Well, that was true until last week when Enterprise Holdings (which [...]

Read On »

By Jacen Greene After a five-week trip to climb mountains in Antarctica—including several first ascents—answering questions for an audience of more than 2000 must not be very intimidating for REI President and CEO Sally Jewell. For the opening keynote of the 2011 Net Impact Conference, she was interviewed on-stage by journalist and writer Marc Gunther about [...]

Read On »

Too many of us rely on recycling to relieve our environmental conscience. While important, recycling should only be considered one action in the myriad things we do to lessen our carbon footprint.

Read On »

McKinsey has a unique ability to frame a conversation.  During the last decade when a price on greenhouse gases seemed imminent, every Fortune 500, government or startup’s GHG strategic plan featured McKinsey’s GHG Cost Curve.  While the argument for carbon abatement may have fallen out of favor, leading companies discovered that sustainability initiatives create value [...]

Read On »

To date, over a dozen colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada have campus-wide bans of the plastic bottles. A dozen more have partially halted bottle water sales to certain campus departments, and hundreds of schools have installed multiple “hydration stations”, where students and faculty can refill their own bottles. Some of the bans have resulted from student activism, while others have been a calculated effort by school administrators to save money.

Read On »

Multinational brewing giant AB InBev and GE are teaming up to find ways of increasing energy efficiency, conserving water and reducing CO2 emissions at the brewer’s facilities throughout China. The partnership with GE will help AB InBev realize its goal of reducing CO2 emissions by some 100,000 tons per year, along with making additional significant cuts in water and energy consumption.

Read On »

Earlier this week NASCAR announced race cars had racked up more than one million miles of driving on Sunoco Green E15 ethanol blend, the official fuel this season. This choice of fuel is part of a greater effort NASCAR is making to green up its auto racing business. Some see it as a great opportunity [...]

Read On »

Last Thursday Google released for the first time details on its carbon footprint. The figures themselves were interesting, but the fact that Google finally ditched its somewhat schizophrenic approach toward its climate impact was even more interesting. On one hand the company is a green leader in the IT industry that made a commitment already [...]

Read On »

Everybody travels and everybody stays at hotels one time or another but travelling comes with a steep carbon as well as water footprint. For example, every day you stay at a hotel, you might burn enough fossil fuels to release more than 33 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The good news is that [...]

Read On »

In June, I wrote about whether the US was right to seek an exemption from the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) for US airlines. The cap-and-trade scheme, designed to curb CO2 emissions, is being vigorously opposed by the American Air Transport Association, and a month on, it seems things are no less fractious, [...]

Read On »

Environmental Leader recently held a webinar, The Business Case for Sustainability Disclosure with speakers from the Carbon Development Project’s (CDP) development manager Patrick Crawford and the Global Reporting Initiative‘s (GRI) technical development manager Bastian Buck. Crawford outlined CDP Reporter Services which include a number of components that will help companies move beyond simply reporting their carbon footprint [...]

Read On »

Major virgin paper manufacturers suggest that high recycled content is not appropriate for fine printing and writing papers, based on misleading carbon footprint analysis. Verso and Sappi Paper carbon footprint analysis shows the same or higher carbon emissions with increased recycled content – based on making recycled paer at mills designed to make virgin paper. The most comprehensive and peer-reviewed lifecycle analysis of recycle vs. virgin paper manufacturing shows that the opposite is true – making fine paper from waste paper is a more efficient process than making paper from trees, using less energy, less water, creating less effluent, and generating fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

Read On »

Coca-Cola Enterprises has seven areas of focus that determine materiality for its sustainability agenda, and has achieved progress towards its “Commitment 2020” goals where the company believes it can make the most impact. Details are in its 2010 CSR report, issued this week.

Read On »