NEW METRICS -
Ecolab’s efforts to help customers reduce, reuse, manage and treat water more efficiently led to a savings of 115 billion gallons of water in 2014, according to the company’s 2014 Corporate Sustainability Report, released Thursday.The company also launched the Water Risk Monetizer, a free public tool designed to help change the way water is valued and managed by all water users.Ecolab says its mission is “to provide and protect what is vital: clean water, safe food, abundant energy and healthy environments.” Through partnerships with customers, NGOs and communities, the company helps address some of the world’s most urgent resource and business challenges.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
On Wednesday, Ford Motor Company released its 16th annual sustainability report, highlighting progress to reduce its environmental impacts and to innovate “smart mobility” models that accommodate growing interest in alternatives to vehicle ownership and crowded cities.Notable successes in 2014 included:
CLEANTECH -
California is experiencing a significant paradigm shift around water and energy, and the 2015 Water/Energy Nexus Hackathon, coming to San Francisco in mid-August, intends to bring some of the smartest minds together to help address these complex issues. This two-day event will allow students, professionals and enthusiasts to experiment, improve and unveil new methods to help manage, interact and understand the growing relationship between water and energy, which is ever more critical given the current drought situation.
CLEANTECH -
Carnival Corporation & plc, the world's largest travel and leisure company, announced Monday it has signed a multibillion-dollar contract with German shipyard Meyer Werft to build four next-generation cruise ships with the largest guest capacity in the world. The four new ships will also be the first in the cruise industry to be powered at sea by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) — the world’s cleanest-burning fossil fuel.The company said two of the ships will be manufactured for AIDA Cruises at Meyer Werft's shipyard in Papenburg, Germany. Additional information about the ships, including which new ships will be added to each brand, will be made available at a later date.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
Stanford scientists have created a new carbon material that “significantly” boosts the performance of batteries and supercapacitors, according to a new study published in ACS Central Science.Zhenan Bao, senior author of the study and a professor of chemical engineering at Stanford, said they have developed a so-called “designer carbon” that is both versatile and controllable. The material has notable energy-storage capacity, which enables high performance in lithium-sulfur batteries and supercapacitors.
PRESS RELEASE -
People flying over Walt Disney World will soon see a shiny new huge “Hidden Mickey” looking up at them. But it’ll do more then just look cool. It’ll be creating energy.Walt Disney World Resort is working with Duke Energy and Reedy Creek Improvement District to develop a five-megawatt solar energy project on Disney property that will further reduce the impact on the environment. The facility will occupy approximately 20 acres near World Drive and Epcot Center Drive.
CLEANTECH -
If you’ve ever wondered about the energy powering your favorite websites, a new tool from Greenpeace is here to help. On Thursday, the advocacy group released a new browser extension tool that shows which of the most popular websites are moving most ambitiously towards renewable energy use. Users that download the extension (compatible with Google Chrome) can distinguish leaders from laggards by the color of a cloud icon that appears green, yellow, or red whenever they open a new site.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Morgan Stanley has announced that it closed on the issuance of a $500 million green bond, its first green bond, as part of the company’s strategy to advance market-based solutions to social and environmental challenges.Funds equal to the net proceeds of Morgan Stanley’s green bond will be allocated to various renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Much of these funds will correspond with investments in existing and future third-party renewable energy projects, primarily wind farms, including Route 66 Wind, a 150 MW wind farm under construction in Texas, and Rattlesnake Wind Energy Center, a 207 MW wind power project also under construction in Texas.
LEADERSHIP -
Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) published its tenth annual Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability report this week, in which it set its most ambitious environmental and social targets to date.The new commitments include:
CLEANTECH -
Today Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a solar farm project in Virginia that will advance the company’s progress towards its recent commitment to powering its data centers with 100 percent renewable energy.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
SunFarmer, a non-profit Toronto startup that offers long-term financing for solar energy systems in underserved regions, is playing a vital role in helping the earthquake-wracked country rebuild.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
The Norwegian parliament has unanimously voted for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund (GPFG) to adopt strong divestment criteria for companies involved in coal mining and coal fired utilities, including 49 companies and subsidiaries based in the United States.The GPFG is the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund and the new criteria will most likely force it to divest from 122 companies totaling $8.7 billion, according to calculations made by Urgewald, Greenpeace and Future in Our Hands.The exclusion criteria states that any company deriving more than 30 percent of its activity from coal will be excluded from GPFG’s portfolio, including both coal mining and coal fired utilities.
PRESS RELEASE -
TIRANA, Albania – A new Arizona State University study outlining a national plan for energy-efficient schools throughout Albania determined that the nation's education system could be transformed through a series of innovative sustainable repairs and improvements to its 3,300 schools. The study was presented on June 4 by ASU sustainability scientists at a special event in Tirana with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, Minister of Education and Sports Lindita Nikolla.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
AECOM, Van Alen Institute and 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) on Wednesday launched a new ideas competition calling on multidisciplinary teams of students worldwide to identify risks to urban food, energy or water systems and offer strategies that make these systems more efficient, equitable and accessible to diverse populations.
COLLABORATION -
Given the packed room for Wednesday afternoon’s panel discussing carbon offsetting, it’s evident that as organizations become increasingly aware of their environmental risks, carbon management has become a critical tool.
WASTE NOT -
Fashion is probably the last thing you think about when you see a leather airplane seat – yet through a partnership between Southwest Airlines and textile and accessories upcycler Looptworks, 43 acres of leather collected from 80,000 discarded Southwest airplane seats were turned into LUV Seat weekender duffle bags, shoes, soccer balls and more that embody how creative partnerships can help companies close loops and benefit the environment.
LEADERSHIP -
Tuesday afternoon’s session led by Anne Kelly, Senior Director of Policy at Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP), shed light on how corporations influence public policy and government regulation in support of a sustainable economy.
COLLABORATION -
Whirlpool Corporation and Kohler will collaborate to identify ways to achieve net-zero water in the home, according to an announcement made this week at SB '15 San Diego.During the conference, representatives from both companies discussed a shared hope to create energy and water advancements that lead to reduced consumption and allow existing buildings to become self-sustaining systems.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
For Ron Voglewede, Global Sustainability Director at Whirlpool, “doing the right thing the right way” is the only way, “because there is no right way to do the wrong thing.” For Voglewede, the ‘right thing’ means being net positive — where the resources that we produce are at least equal or greater than the resources that we consume; the ‘right way’ requires looking at all stakeholders using systems thinking. In order to do the ‘right thing the right way,’ Voglewede has found that one needs to work on three levels: optimize, innovate, and transform.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Ben & Jerry’s has announced that it will institute its own internal carbon tax of $10 for every metric ton of its greenhouse gas emissions, from farm to landfill.Using a recent Lifecycle Analysis that gave the ice cream company a “cow-to-cone” picture of its carbon footprint, Ben & Jerry’s says it will be putting the funds from the tax to jumpstart sustainbility programs it’s already working on. Due to the fact that the dairy component counts for 42 percent of its overall lifecycle emissions, the company will start by working with farmers to develop and implement carbon footprint-reducing strategies.