On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) announced the imposition of antidumping tariffs of more than 31 percent on solar panels from China. The preliminary ruling, if affirmed by the DOC this fall, is expected to have significant implications on the solar industry, creating presumably both winners and losers. Yet, although it might be too early to evaluate the impact of the new ruling, we have a feeling there’s a good chance no one will benefit from this tariff. Is it possible?

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Last month Leon Kaye suggested that America might have reached ‘peak-meat consumption.’ Now it appears that China consumes way more meat that the United States ever had. The way meat is produced is going to have a massive impact on agriculture as well as planetary health. According to the Earth Policy Institute, over the last [...]

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Last week, at the close of the Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics conference in Santa Barbara, California’s Governor Jerry Brown talked with CEO’s and industry leaders about his work to build a health, clean energy economy in California. Here are some highlights: Wall Street Journal: In 1977, California introduced solar tax incentives. How has your view [...]

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Mike Daisey’s story about Apple in China, which was broadcast in January on This American Life, appears to contain significant fabrications. We can’t vouch for its truth and therefore we’re retracting the story, Ira Glass, the host, announced on Friday. The impact of the original show in January brings to mind two important questions – why Daisey’s story played such an important part in creating a tipping point, and also, given what many consider as a positive impact generated by the original show, does it really matter if Daisey fabricated some parts of it?

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Hunter Lovins set down last week to a conversation with Eban Goodstein, the Director of the Bard MBA in Sustainability and Bard Center for Environmental Policy. This talk was a chance not only to learn more about Lovins’ impressive biography, but also to explore with her the sustainability challenges we are facing.

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A generation ago the economies in Latin America, Africa, India and China were stagnant and left billions in poverty and provided few opportunities for the vast majority of their citizens to build a better life. Fast forward to this decade, and the global financial landscape has drastically changed.

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Two online petitions with 250,000 signatures and dozens of demonstrators in front of Apple stores brought the company to announce that it asked the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to conduct special voluntary audits of Apple’s suppliers, including Foxconn factories in China.

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Over several months, many governments and airlines around the world have opposed the European Emissions Trading scheme forcing airlines to buy carbon allowances, but China’s reaction this week is the strongest yet, in imposing a national law placing an outright ban on participation.

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By Amadou M. Cissé, EMBA 12, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland A few days ago, on my way home I was listening to NPR and I heard about yet another chemical spill in a river in China.  It turns out that seven people had been detained in connection with the toxic [...]

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At the VerdeXchange Marketmakers Conference that took place in downtown Los Angeles this week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gave a keynote speech to an audience of about 500 industry leaders working to build and shape the green economy of Los Angeles and the nation. In his presentation, Mayor Villaraigosa explained how his focus on developing Los Angeles’s clean technology market is helping him address some of the biggest challenges facing the city.

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I’m not sure if Steve Jobs was a fan of This American Life, the award-winning critically acclaimed radio program, but I bet that if he was still alive, he wouldn’t be too happy about last week’s show. It was dedicated to Mike Daisey’s show “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs” and his journey to China to learn more about the people who make all his beloved Apple products.

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From the development of new urban mobility technologies, waste diversion to a commitment to greener cars, the new GM going forward is a new company as its CSR report reveals.

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There is a heated debate going on between people who are supposed to be on the same side of the aisle. Yet, when you hear their passionate arguments and the way they describe the damage the other is causing the US, you start wondering if they actually share anything in common. No, I’m not talking about [...]

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Were the celebrations too early? Earlier this week, I reported on the launch of the new European scheme requiring airlines to pay for the carbon emissions of their flights to and from Europe. As I mentioned, most of the world was pretty angry with the scheme and many countries protested and promised to take an [...]

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On May 19, 1997, John Browne, then the CEO of BP, gave his famous ‘Climate Change: the New Agenda’ speech at Stanford, outlining BP’s new approach to global warming. One part of that new agenda was a foray into new energy technologies, particularly solar. Now it looks like solar is about to join the rest [...]

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I’m always happy to read about eco-news and especially around the holidays, good news just seems to sound better. You would hardly think to associate China with organic food but that is exactly what is happening, with organic food gaining popularity within the country. According to an article in China Daily, one of the top growers [...]

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Recently, the news reported a prosperous real estate market in the South Bay in the area around Millbrae, Palo Alto and Cupertino. Investments in homes over $300,000 coming from Asia, especially from China, increased significantly during 2011. There are also travel agents taking this opportunity to organize large expensive trips, charging lots of money for Chinese people to come to the U.S. to see houses.

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A recent article in Harvard Business Review suggests that the stage is being set for a resurgence of manufacturing in the US. This is primarily due to rising Chinese wages. This pattern has played out around the globe with Japan for example, which used to be the low cost supplier, giving way to Mexico, which [...]

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Is it possible that a memo is going around among CEOs instructing them to engage more seriously with stakeholders in general and NGOs specifically? Just look at the list – Adidas, Nike, Puma and H&M have all made commitments to eliminate all toxic pollution throughout their supply chain following the Greenpeace Detox campaign. The Rainforest Action [...]

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The White House is worried that the story of Solyndra, the solar power company that filed for bankruptcy protection after receiving $535 million in loan guarantees, will follow Obama through the 2012 election season. I’ve got a feeling it will stay with us even longer than that. Thomas Friedman once wrote that when historians will [...]

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Though we have all become accustomed to China as a major net exporter of goods to global markets in recent years, in the automotive world, China’s burgeoning domestic car market inspires all the major global auto companies to compete vigorously for a piece of the action. The size of the Chinese market is set to grow [...]

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By Ayesha Barenblat, Dir, Stakeholder Collaboration, BSR Over the past decade, NGO activity has been shaped by the spread of democracy and the rise of the internet opening up societies. This spurred an expansion of all types of NGOs that enjoyed support from northern governments and unfettered trust from the public. In particular, we saw the [...]

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As surprising as it may seem (or not) there are problems with Apple’s suppliers in China, namely that many are not exactly environmentally friendly citizens. A coalition of environmental organizations cited “pollution and poisoning” problems in Apple’s China supply chain in two reports on the “Other Side of Apple.” In the second report, this group—Friends [...]

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Last Wednesday was a red letter day for Nike. First, the company accepted the Greenpeace Detox challenge, beating Adidas in a race Greenpeace instigated between the two on who would be the first to commit to “a toxic free future.”  That evening, FC Barcelona, sponsored by Nike, beat Real Madrid, sponsored by Adidas 3:2 in [...]

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About a month ago, Puma, one of the world’s leading clothing brands, was asked by Reuters if the company would end its business relationship with Yonguor Textile of China. This question was raised after Greenpeace published a report profiling the problem of toxic water pollution resulting from the release of hazardous chemicals by textile factories [...]

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China recently set up a strategic pork reserve (really!) to feed the middle class’ growing hunger for meat and to prevent the kind of crisis in pork supply that occurred after the outbreak of porcine blue-ear pig disease (PRRS) back in 2008. The outbreak required Chinese pig farmers to slaughter millions of pigs and the [...]

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China is on a severe tobacco crackdown to show that they are taking World No Tobacco Day seriously. Industry figures show that China produced 2.38 trillion cigarettes in 2010, rising a staggering 40% over the past decade. The tobacco industry currently generates about 7% of the government’s annual revenue. However last year, the cost incurred by people [...]

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A report by the Hong Kong based group, Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), details poor working conditions at Chinese factories which manufacture iPad 2 and HP laptops. The report claims that Foxconn, the company which owns the factories, treats workers “inhumanely, like machines.” At least 14 workers at Foxconn factories killed themselves in [...]

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This post is part of a blogging series by economics students at the Presidio Graduate School’s MBA program. You can follow along here. By Peter Blanchard According to an estimate from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in the last year, commodity prices have shot up 20-30%. The head of the IMF explains that this increase [...]

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The following open letter is a part of the Presidio Graduate School’s Capital Markets course. For one of the course assignments, students write a letter to an oversight body, government entity or other appropriate institution. The topic: changing the sector of capital markets that relates to their chosen topic so it reinforces principles of sustainability. [...]

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