"The company is currently installing alternative energy technology at its Houston and Fairfield breweries, which will be operational by year end. Once completed 10 out 12 Anheuser-Busch breweries in the U.S. will be powered by alternative energy.
The Fairfield brewery will generate 15 percent of its fuel needs from a bio-energy recovery system, which turns brewing wastewater into fuel. Three percent of the brewery’s electricity needs will be generated on-site through solar panels."
Labels: beer, Environmental Leader, sarah
Academics and researchers from Intel and Microsoft are putting the Internet under the microscope, developing strategies to cut the consumption of computer-network hardware in the belief that adjusting the flow of network traffic could create dramatic energy savings, NewScientistTech reports.
Studies have shown that a server can consume 60 percent of its peak power even when it is idle, said Jie Liu, a researcher at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Wash., studying how Internet servers use energy.
“In an extreme case, a single connection can keep a server on,” Jie Liu said.
One answer could be to slow things down. CNET reports that “research from labs at Intel and the University of California at Berkeley has found that network hardware could consume up to 80 percent less energy if allowed to sleep, or if set up for data to travel in clusters rather than in an even flow. Changes to delay the flow of data by milliseconds, not enough for Web surfers to notice, reportedly cut energy use in half.”
Labels: computers, energy efficiency, Environmental Leader, sarah
On Earth Day, the City Council of Los Angeles passed an ordinance requiring builders of large commercial and residential developments to adopt green building rules that would potentially cut millions of tons of pollution over the next decade, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Wearing a green necktie in honor of 38th Earth Day, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa pledged to reduce the city’s carbon emissions 35 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, an effort that will also require a crackdown on the city’s coal-dependent municipal utility and a move toward electricity from renewable sources.
City officials said about 150 new and renovated buildings, or about 7.5 million square feet, would be covered by the ordinance each year. The rules would amount to preventing about 85,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the next five years, the equivalent of removing 15,000 cars from the roads.
The LEED checklist includes such items as low-flow toilets, paints with low emissions, use of recycled materials, efficient irrigation, solar panels and use of natural light.
So far, one state, Connecticut, and 14 cities are requiring private developers to meet green building standards.
Labels: Environmental Leader, green building, Los Angeles, sarah
Virgin Money is launching a green fund which will invest only in companies committed to high environmental standards. To launch Virgin Climate Change Fund, Virgin teamed up with GLG Partners, who will act as fund advisors, and Trucost PLC, who will provide environmental data. “Consumers are changing the way they spend and are increasingly looking for more environmentally friendly ways of investing their money,” said Richard Branson. According to research from Virgin Money, 29 percent of consumers prefer products and services from environmentally-friendly companies, and 68 percent said if data were available on a company’s carbon footprint, they would pay more attention to the issue.
At least 75 percent of the fund will be invested in an environmentally-filtered basket of European shares, and only companies who have a better than average environmental record in their sector will be selected. Another 15 percent will be invested in companies adopting environment best practice, and 10 percent will be invested in firms specializing in solutions to environmental problems.
The Virgin Climate Change Fund opens for business on January 21 and will be available through IFAs and direct to the public.
This Fund is another initiative in the list of Virgin’s environmental commitment, which includes $3 billion for renewable energy and a partnership to develop ethanol. Last year, Virgin partnered with Boeing to develop planes that use biofuel.
Labels: Environmental Leader, green resources, sarah, Virgin
Austin, Texas hopes to reduce the trash sent to landfills by 20 percent by 2012 and eventually achieve zero waste by 2040. The city recently hired the California firm of Gary Liss and Associates to spend half a year writing a plan to reduce to zero the amount of garbage the city sends to landfills. With the plan, Austin will join other cities, such as Seattle and San Francisco, as well as other counties, who already have or are writing similar long-term solid waste plans.
Last year, Austin announced an aggressive climate protection plan that will cut its carbon dioxide emissions to almost nothing by 2020
Zero waste plans utilize both recycling and ways of preventing garbage from getting to landfills in the first place, such as penalizing customers who produce the most trash and offering incentives to businesses to reuse their packaging and products.
In addition to the plan, Austin will be opening a single-stream recycling facility in 2008 or 2009.
Labels: Austin City Limits, Environmental Leader, recycling
The 20 to 25 million annual customers of the car rental companies can offset the CO2 emissions generated by their car rentals by opting in during the reservation process to pay $1.25 per rental.
Customer offset purchases will be matched by the company dollar-for-dollar up to $1 million. Beginning in January 2008, the program will be offered at participating locations in the U.S. and Canada; it will be extended to Enterprise’s European customers in mid-2008.
TerraPass will administer the carbon offset program. Customers will be able to purchase their carbon offsets while booking their reservations through call-in reservation centers or online at the car rental sites.
Inc. Magazine has an in-depth article on how Enterpise came to offer voluntary offsets.
It will be interesting to see what, if anything, Hertz and Avis will offer in response. Along with Enterpise, these rental companies have added thousands of hybrids to their fleets recently.
Last October, Enterprise announced it was underwriting the planting of 50 million trees over the next 50 years at a total cost of $50 million.
Labels: carbon offsets, Environmental Leader, sarah, tour resources
“There is a cost to this strategy, and that cost is that we can’t claim that we’re carbon neutral,” Douglas writes. “Right now that’s a cost we’re willing to live with.”
Then Douglas asks if a company can be double carbon neutral? “If it is good to offset your emissions, is it even better to offset your emissions twice?” Douglas asks.
It’s an interesting question. As company’s continue to raise the green PR stakes, we could see moves like this down the road.
I think it's a little early in the game to try and claim "double carbon neutrality" when good old singular carbon neutrality isn't universally defined. However, I like the concept. It thrills me to the bone that corporate commitments to the environment are firmly ingrained in a competitive business strategy. Some of the old guard may say that it's ruining the purity of the environmental movement, but on average, one behemoth corporate commitment to renewable energy has the same benefit as, on average, powering several hundred thousand homes. If we're in a race against global warming, I'd rather have the behemoths taking action. What does the old guard want, larger emissions reductions or indie cred?Labels: carbon neutral, Environmental Leader, sarah
To increase the use of solar on parking garages, cities can incorporate solar panels into the parking requirements for commercial developments. The legal basis for requiring solar panels atop a parking lot, according to Shoup, is similar to the basis for requiring the parking lot itself - to mitigate an impact. If a development increases the demand for scarce energy during peak hours, the solar requirement for the parking lot will help to meet this peak-hour demand.
Shoup says that California’s Million Solar Roofs program provides generous subsidies for solar panels, and the federal government offers additional tax credits, so developers won’t have to pay the full cost of a city’s solar requirement.
In addition Shoup says solar arrays are highly visible evidence of a company’s commitment to the environment.
Google has installed solar canopies on its parking lots to satisfy 30 percent of its headquarters’ power demand.
Envision Solar is just one of the companies providing such services. See their site for more info on “solar groves” over parking lots.
Labels: Environmental Leader, renewable energy, solar
Seventy-seven percent of companies anticipate more spending on environmental programs, 50 percent expect greater allocation to social responsibility programs and 45 percent say economic/governance initiatives will see more funding. Respondents felt that tax incentives, customer support, and innovative technologies were most likely to prompt companies to invest more heavily in environmental initiatives.
For more information on the study, click here.
Labels: CSR, Environmental Leader
The bill provides no definition of how much money a company has to spend, how it should spend it, or how the spending will be taxed. Article 74 is so vague that lawyers tell us it could apply to any company that uses natural resources; in other words, every limited liability company in the country.
Jakarta has a spotty record of enforcing rules on its books, so even when it becomes law, the CSR legislation may ultimately prove a dead letter, according to the article. Regardless, Article 74 sets a precedent that other countries might try to copy.
Reposted from Environmental Leader
Labels: CSR, Environmental Leader
Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Yahoo, and MSN have the highest awareness of any brands in connection with the upcoming Live Earth concerts, according to new research from Lightspeed Research and the Ethical Reputation Index. That is great for Coke and Yahoo, which beat or tied their main rivals and are not sponsors of the event. The news gets worse for Pepsi. Some 19 percent of the 500 Australians canvassed thought Coke was a sponsor - eight percentage points more than Pepsi, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. Awareness of the role played by Pepsi was higher among US and UK respondents, with the final result a tie between the two rivals at 19 percent.
The survey results point to most companies not creating pre-event buzz for their roles. Forty-nine percent of survey respondents could not point to one of the sponsors.
Other companies wrongly nominated as sponsors were Samsung (nine percent), BMW (nine percent).
MSN, which will stream the concerts at LiveEarth.MSN.com, launched a host of promotions, including earth-friendly premiums and sweepstakes, to raise awareness of its role, Promo reports.
But the timing coincides with a green marketing push by Yahoo that includes its own green site and the announcement that it would become carbon neutral by the end of 2007. It seems, at least in terms of the survey, that Yahoo’s green push has trumped that of MSN.
Coke has also been involved in a number of high profile green moves, including its $20 million freshwater conservation project, which could, in part, explain the survey results.
Here is how the other sponsors ended up:
Who do you think is sponsoring Live Earth?
49% Do not know
19% Pepsi (S)
19% Coca cola
19% Yahoo
17% MSN (S)
15% Philips (S)
12% SMART (S)
10% Stonyfield Farms (S)
9% Samsung
9% BMW
Labels: Coke, Environmental Leader, Live Earth, Yahoo
Every major label is on board in one way or another in corporate-wide greening efforts, ranging from copying on both sides of the paper to the use of energy-efficient light bulbs, according to Bill Werde, deputy editor of Billboard.
Warner Music Group and EMI are working with the Natural Resources Defense Council on a series of greening initiatives. An unnamed environmental agency is advising Sony-owned companies on environmental policies. Universal Music Group follows directives from parent company Vivendi.
One of the most significant changes the labels can have on their environmental practices would be the elimination of the jewel case. “The labels are working with key distribution partners and retailers–the Wal-Marts and Best Buys, which represent two-thirds of all record sales,” Werde says.
Labels: Environmental Leader, greening music, NRDC, record labels
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article on big name companies, including HP, Microsoft, and Verizon, that used Second Life to take part in a virtual job fair.
It takes some getting used to at a Second Life recruiting event this spring hosted by Bain & Co., the global management consultancy, a partner’s avatar slumped over by accident and looked as if it were asleep, the Journal writes.
But the payoff can be big, according to the article. It is cheaper than holding an actual job fair, where companies have to pay travel costs for recruiters. Hewlett-Packard, for example, says the cost of participating in the job fair - which includes buying land in Second Life - was less than the price of paying a third-party recruiter to hire one experienced candidate.
It also seems that interviewing in Second Life could reduce emissions, using the same arguments video conferencing companies have started using to tout their greenness.
British Telecom claims to have reduced its carbon footprint by 97,000 tons of CO2 per year, that is 15 percent of its CO2 use, by using phone conferences and videoconferencing to cut back on staff travel for meetings.
Labels: culture, Environmental Leader, greenhouse gas emissions, Second Life
WEA, the U.S. sales and distribution company of Warner Music Group, says (via Ecorazzi) that starting at the end of March, it will use ecologically-enhanced paper packaging for its standard CD and DVD products in the U.S.
WMG has also developed a new company-wide program to reduce or offset greenhouse gas emissions associated with global climate change, beginning with a “carbon-neutral” Grammy party.
“Environmentally responsible behavior is good for corporate America: it’s smart ecology and smart economics,” said John Esposito, President and CEO of WEA. “It lowers the costs of paper procurement and ...
Article taken from Environmental Leader - http://www.environmentalleader
Labels: Environmental Leader, record labels, recycled paper, Warner music
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