ICT AND BIG DATA -
The World Resources Institute (WRI) has announced an update to its online tool that helps businesses measure their greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).The Climate Analysis Indicators Tool, or CAIT 2.0, offers free online access to global GHG emissions and other climate data, enabling researchers, policymakers, media and others to download, visualize and share data for analysis and communications on climate change.WRI says the update features improved functionality and other upgrades. A streamlined interface allows users to more easily select and sort data by country, sector, type of gas, among other criteria. CAIT 2.0 also is more readily usable on a range of mobile devices such as iPads and other large tablets.
CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS & PACKAGING -
The upcoming Sochi 2014 Olympics will be the first in history to achieve carbon neutrality, according to a recent announcement by The Dow Chemical Company, the Official Carbon Partner for the Games. This includes carbon footprints associated with the travel of athletes, spectators and media from all over the world traveling to Russia for the Olympic and Paralympics Winter Games, between February and March 2014 — amounting to roughly 160,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.
According to new analysis released by PwC, the world is on track to blow its 2°C carbon budget, estimated by the IPCC for the next 89 years, within 21 years. This would put the world on a path consistent with potential global warming of around 4°C by 2100, the most extreme scenario presented in the recent IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report on climate science, released in September.
U.S.-based social enterprise Envirofit International has announced it will join the UN-supported anti-poverty program Business Call to Action (BCtA), with plans to reduce greenhouse gases by 193,500 tons of carbon through the sales of 150,000 clean cookstoves across Kenya in the next two years.Envirofit International is a multinational corporation that develops and disseminates technologies aimed at reducing pollution and enhancing energy efficiency in developing countries. By introducing clean cook stoves as a less costly fuel alternative, the company says it will help low-income consumer households that have been traditionally overlooked.
ICT AND BIG DATA -
UPS has announced the launch of its route optimization software known as ORION (On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation), which the company expects will save more than 1.5 million gallons of fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 14,000 metric tons by the end of the year.ORION has a team of 500 dedicated resources to move the U.S deployment forward as UPS nears its busy holiday season. The rollout of ORION will optimize 10,000 delivery routes by the end of the year, reduce miles driven and reinforce UPS's sustainability efforts. A reduction of just one mile each day per driver over the course of a year saves the company up to $50 million annually, UPS says.
THE NEXT ECONOMY -
'Energy independence' is a term we hear a lot of politicians throw around, but not too many actually follow through on their plans or promises.Aruba, however, is actually making good on its goal of energy independence. The tiny Caribbean country is not only addressing its energy concerns but is actually on track to become fully energy independent by 2020, thanks to a number of clean-energy investments and initiatives.Sure, it might be easier for a country that measures about 20 x 6 miles to achieve energy independence than it is for, say, the U.S., but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn a thing or two from this country and what it is doing to get its energy situation in order. Let’s take a look at some lessons we can take away from Aruba's example:
ICT AND BIG DATA -
REI says a retrofit of its data center, which houses servers and backup systems for computers, software systems, REI.com and point of sale for its 132 stores in 33 states, has resulted in a 93 percent reduction in the cooling energy used to operate the facility.The outdoor retailer says the retrofit uses “free cooling” via a rooftop evaporative cooling tower to keep servers at optimal temperatures. The system reduces the need for mechanical cooling nearly year-round, or about 8,672 hours annually.The retrofit saves 2.2 million kilowatt hours each year — enough to power six REI stores. Improved efficiencies also mean improved business resiliency and stability in the event of a regional power outage, the company says.
ICT AND BIG DATA -
When it comes to sustainability, Big Data is proving to be a big opportunity — businesses are now able to collect, store and process mind-boggling amounts of data. IBM estimates that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every day, meaning that 90% of the data in the world was created over the last two years. Analysing, evaluating and understanding this level of information is providing insights that are transforming the way business is done.
WASTE NOT -
Waste Management has announced it is building a facility that will create pipeline-ready natural gas from its Milam Landfill in Fairmont City, Ill. At a ceremony last week at the landfill, state, county and local officials joined the company to celebrate the groundbreaking.The processed renewable natural gas will be injected into the pipelines of utility provider Ameren Illinois for withdrawal at other locations, including some Waste Management facilities. Once there, it will be used to fuel truck fleets and other equipment that run on compressed natural gas (CNG). Waste Management is calling the plant the Renewable Natural Gas Facility and expects it to begin delivering gas to the pipelines in late summer 2014.
Global investment in climate change plateaued at $359 billion in 2012, roughly the same as the previous year, according to a new study by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI).The Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2013 says this figure falls well below the $5 trillion the International Energy Agency projects is needed by 2020 to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius — and the gap is likely to widen. The World Bank estimates we are on a path to four-degree Celsius warming, which suggests that efforts to scale up finance are falling further and further behind.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Marriott International has awarded LG Electronics its 2013 Supplier Sustainability Award. The annual award recognizes the Marriott supplier that has made a significant impact on its guests and properties through innovative ideas toward helping Marriott meet its sustainability goals.Through improving television product development, manufacturing and usage, Marriott says LG supports the hotel chain’s sustainability objectives in 20 countries across a number of areas — including energy efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and waste, and using more sustainable materials to reduce the impact on the environment.
America’s largest supermarkets and retailers, including Walmart and Whole Foods, are failing to take meaningful steps to replace climate-damaging hydroflourcarbons (HFCs), according to a new report released today by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a U.S.- and London-based nonprofit committed to exposing environmental crime.
WASTE NOT -
Each week leading up to our SB London conference, where the winner of the SB London Innovation Open (SBIOL) will be announced on November 18, we will get to know each of our four finalists. This week, meet the SBIOL public vote winner, O2E Technologies.
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
When the principals behind Peppermint Energy decided to tap into crowdfunding in 2012 to boost their start-up solar enterprise, they found money, but they also discovered another type of equity.“What became obvious to us is that the type of people who support crowd-funding initiatives can be very helpful to vet out what is, what is not and what should be,” said Chris Maxwell, president of Peppermint. “We used our Kickstarter campaign to get market feedback, to get a bunch of people to tell us whether we are on the right track.”
BEHAVIOR CHANGE -
Heading into this year’s Sustainable Brands conference, I was looking forward to driving BMW’s electric prototype that was on display. In hindsight, however, the technical highlight of the show for me was the Tesla Model S. You know, the ones that people were actually driving, with coffee cups in the console and crumbs in the backseat.
MARKETING AND COMMS -
Microsoft says it achieved carbon neutrality after introducing an internal carbon fee for renewable energy and carbon offsets, which led the company to increase the purchase of green energy in the U.S. by 70 percent, from 1.1 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2011 to 1.9 billion kWh in 2012.
SUPPLY CHAIN -
HP recently announced that it has set a goal of driving a 20 percent decrease in its first-tier manufacturing and product transportation-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity by 2020, compared to 2010, a first for the information technology industry.Developed in consultation with the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Climate Savers Program, HP says the GHG emissions-reduction goal will be pursued through a variety of HP-led activities, including:· Business incentives for suppliers to set and achieve tangible GHG emissions-reduction goals.· By 2020, direct prevention of 2 million metric tons of GHG emissions across HP’s multitier supply chain, cumulatively, through specific supplier environmental improvement projects, including:
SUPPLY CHAIN -
Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, has announced that it has teamed with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) to develop and implement a dynamic web-based solution for the SAC’s sustainability assessment tool, the Higg Index 2.0. Utilizing Schneider Electric’s sustainability and energy management software platform, StruxureWare™ Resource Advisor, the platform will be a groundbreaking tool for the apparel and footwear industries.
ICT AND BIG DATA -
Data, Data, DataSustainable business these days requires data, and lots of it. Companies are using sustainability data for a multiplicity of reasons: to inform corporate strategy, comply with regulations, evaluate investments, improve transparency, develop products and processes, manage risk, benchmark themselves against competitors, change organisational culture, and engage with supply chains.
ICT AND BIG DATA -
Climate change is a serious challenge for our society and for businesses around the world. As a company, we are focused not only on ways for us to reduce the environmental impact of our business, but also on the important business opportunity climate change presents.