Mike Hower
Managing Director, Sustainability & Social Impact
Deutsche Bank
Mike Hower is tagged in 1051 stories.
Page 23 of 53.
Behavior Change /
The number of sea ports using ship evaluation systems to decrease carbon emissions will expand from two to 10 in the next year, according to Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, Bloomberg reports.Branson is a founder of the Carbon War Room, a nonprofit that rates ship efficiency.Port Metro, Vancouver and the Prince Rupert Port Authority in Canada already use a system that ranks 60,000 vessels in the merchant fleet with an A-to-G scale for fuel efficiency — ships rated A get the biggest discounts on port fees. Metro gave $1.1 million in discounts last year, while Prince Rupert budgeted for $100,000 this year, according to Bloomberg.
- 9 years ago
Leadership /
Kellogg Company has joined the Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy (BICEP), committing to expand its global sustainability efforts by working with businesses and policymakers to enact meaningful energy and climate policies.BICEP, a project of Ceres, was launched in 2008 with a core group of five companies, including Starbucks, Nike, and Timberland. It has since expanded to 32 leading companies, such as eBay, Symantec and Jones Lang LaSalle, which represent a broad spectrum of business sectors. BICEP members have been vocal proponents of renewable energy, sustainable transportation and stricter pollution controls on power plants.
- 9 years ago
Behavior Change /
PepsiCo has announced that, by 2020, all of its future point-of-sale equipment purchased in the United States will be free of hydroflourocarbons (HFCs), a popular chemical coolant and considered a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) that contributes to climate change. The announcement was made alongside the company’s 2013 Corporate Sustainability Report and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) report.
- 9 years ago
Leadership /
The University of California has announced it will allocate $1 billion over five years for direct investments in solutions to climate change.In addition, as part of UC President Janet Napolitano’s goal of bringing university operations to carbon neutrality by 2025, the 10-campus university system has signed agreements to secure substantial solar energy for the next 25 years.
- 9 years ago
Marketing and Comms /
Switzerland, Canada and Sweden have the best reputations in the world, according to a new report by the Reputation Institute, a global private consulting firm based in New York and Copenhagen.Finland is the biggest gainer in the top 10, moving up to fourth place, from eighth last year. The U.S. is down at 22, behind Brazil and above the Czech Republic.The firm’s fifth annual “Country RepTrak” of what it calls “The World’s Most Reputable Countries,” is a tool used to help advise countries on how to improve their reputations around the world. It also advises companies wanting to know how their country of origin influences their reputations elsewhere.
- 9 years ago
Supply Chain /
UL’s Information & Insights (I&I) division has introduced a new platform that can help companies identify conflict minerals sources and put the mandated comprehensive, audit-traceable reporting procedures in place quickly and cost-effectively.
- 9 years ago
Marketing and Comms /
Coca-Cola products in the United Kingdom will soon sport a system of traffic light coded labels and Reference Intakes (RIs) to indicate how much fat, salt and sugar an item contains.This decision reverses the company’s previous position against adopting the UK government’s labeling system, first introduced last year. Since then, there has been a marked increase in consumer support for the scheme, with UK customers saying they want a consistent labeling system across all food and drink products.
- 9 years ago
Supply Chain /
Increasing consumer demand and a greater commitment to sustainability by the fishing industry and retailers has led the number of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) labeled products to more than double over the past five years, according to two new reports by MSC.In 2013-2014 the retail market value of sustainable seafood carrying the MSC ecolabel reached $4.8 billion, an increase of 118 percent since 2009. More than 23,000 products from MSC certified fisheries were available in over 100 countries, a tenfold increase since 2009.
- 9 years ago
Cleantech /
Burlington, Vermont now acquires all of its energy from renewable sources, including wind, hydro, and biomass, after the recent purchase of 7.4 megawatt Winooski One hydroelectric project.The city of 42,000 people, through the Burlington Electric Department, will get around one-third of its power from a biomass facility that primarily uses wood chips from logging residue; one-third from wind energy contracts; and one-third from the hydroelectric stations Winooski One and Hydro-Québec.Vermont has a statewide goal of securing 90 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2050, which includes electricity, heating, and transportation.
- 9 years ago
Behavior Change /
The Social Impact Investment Taskforce, created by the governments of the G8 in June 2013 to nurture a global market for impact investing, has released eight high-level recommendations devised by government and private sector experts from across the G7, EU and Australia to increase impact investment worldwide.The report, The Invisible Heart of Markets: How Impact Investing is Harnessing Innovation and Capital for Public Good, represents one of the most comprehensive initiatives to date to define what is needed from all stakeholders in the effort to advance the tremendous potential of impact investment to improve society and the environment.The eight recommendations include:
- 9 years ago
Products and Design /
Scientists at Michigan State University say they have developed a translucent solar cell which can capture energy from the invisible parts of the light spectrum, but still let in visible light.In other words, it may soon be possible to generate solar electricity through your windows, instead of just the panels on the roof.The transparent luminescent solar concentrator uses organic molecules created to absorb invisible wavelengths of light, such as ultraviolet and near infrared light. The material moves this invisible light to the edges of the panel, where strips of photovoltaic solar cells absorb and convert it to electricity.
- 9 years ago
Behavior Change /
Global economies must cut their energy-related carbon emissions for every dollar of GDP by 6.2 percent — more than five times the rate currently achieved — every year from now to 2100 in order to to limit global warming to 2°C, according to a new report by PwC.Scientists agree 2°C of warming is the limit needed to ensure the serious risks of climate change impacts are avoided worldwide.
- 9 years ago
Cleantech /
Shell and Brazilian soccer player Pelé this week showcased a first-of-its-kind soccer field capable of capturing kinetic energy created by players' movement and combining it with nearby solar power to generate renewable electricity.Located in the heart of Morro da Mineira, a Rio de Janeiro favela, the soccer field uses 200 high-tech, underground tiles that capture kinetic energy created by the movement of the players. The energy is then stored and combined with the power generated by solar panels next to the field to convert into renewable electricity for the new floodlights, giving everyone in the favela a safe and secure community space at night.
- 9 years ago
Supply Chain /
Hershey has announced a new three-year program expanding its cocoa farmer training and community initiatives in Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producing country.In partnership with cocoa supplier Cargill, Hershey Learn to Grow Ivory Coast encompasses seven farmer cooperatives and includes investments in educational infrastructure and teacher housing. Some 10,000 cocoa farmers will be trained in agricultural and social practices that are independently audited and certified against the UTZ Certified standard. Ultimately, this is expected to help increase how much farmers receive for their cocoa.
- 9 years ago
Supply Chain /
IKEA, Tetra Pak and Kingfisher are partnering to promote the benefits of legal, responsibly sourced, sustainable timber and clarify the role of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification in the delivery of these values.
The two-year Value and Impact Analysis (VIA) initiative will support the development of a methodology for assessing the impacts of FSC forest management certification and the piloting of this methodology in selected areas. It is supported by IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative and coordinated by the ISEAL Alliance.
- 9 years ago
Supply Chain /
Institutional investors representing over half a trillion dollars in assets under management are calling on four major palm oil producers to adopt an immediate moratorium on deforestation and join the growing effort within the industry to establish traceable, deforestation-free palm oil supply chains.Led by Green Century Capital Management, investors called on Sime Darby Plantation, Kuala Lumpour Kepong Berhad, IOI Corporation Berhad, and Asian Agri to cease their efforts to weaken the existing threshold for no-deforestation.
- 9 years ago
Marketing and Comms /
First published by Net Impact in 2006, 'Business as UNusual' is the only publication for students, by students that ranks and highlights graduate schools at the forefront of social and environmental innovation.
- 9 years ago
Supply Chain /
Unilever and Solidaridad have announced a new partnership to improve the lives of one million people in Unilever’s extended supply chains.As part of this new partnership agreement, both parties will raise a mix of public and private grants, credit and investments to finance the smallholder farmer initiatives. They also will share the cost of three full time employees to execute the joint program.This builds on Unilever’s and Solidaridad’s history of creating sustainable supply chains that already engage more than 150,000 smallholder farmers and workers in India, Mexico and Colombia.
- 9 years ago
New Metrics /
Offsetting one ton of carbon dioxide brings an additional $664 in benefits to the communities where carbon reduction projects are based, according to new research by Imperial College London and the International Carbon Reduction and Offsetting Alliance (ICROA).Unlocking The Hidden Value of Carbon Offsetting shows how purchasing carbon credits creates economic development opportunities, aids environmental conservation, and helps improve people’s lives by delivering household savings, health benefits and improving water resources, among other social benefits.
- 9 years ago
ICT and Big Data /
Last week at the Stockholm International Water Institute’s annual World Water Week, PepsiCo unveiled a new data management and modeling tool that estimates the availability of freshwater use in water-scarce regions throughout Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).Developed in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Hydro-BID is an open-source modeling tool that can forecast water availability and supply in the LAC region under any climate, population and land use scenario. To date, the tool has projected water supplies in Brazil, Peru, Haiti and Argentina, and is expected to impact more than three million people across the LAC region by 2017.
- 9 years ago