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Mike Hower

Managing Director, Sustainability & Social Impact
Deutsche Bank

Mike Hower is tagged in 1051 stories. Page 35 of 53.
Exxon Mobil, Chevron Pressed by Investors on Low-Carbon Strategies, Carbon Asset Risk
Exxon Mobil, Chevron Pressed by Investors on Low-Carbon Strategies, Carbon Asset Risk

Stakeholder Trends and Insights / Half-a-dozen investors have filed shareholder resolutions with ten fossil fuel companies, including Exxon Mobil and Chevron, seeking an explanation of their strategies for competing as the world moves toward a low-carbon global economy.The resolutions focus on potential carbon asset risk, or the possibility that these companies’ present and future fossil fuel-related assets will lose value as various market factors — such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, fuel economy, fuel switching, carbon pollution standards, efforts to curb air pollution and climate policy — increasingly threaten demand for fossil fuels and related infrastructure. - 10 years ago

Cradle to Cradle Institute Launches Product Registry
Cradle to Cradle Institute Launches Product Registry

Products and Design / The Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute on Wednesday launched a product registry designed to increase transparency from manufacturers.The Cradle to Cradle CertifiedCM Product Registry allows consumers, designers and builders to make wiser, healthier decisions and calls for greater transparency from the manufacturer. Other features include improved overall site speed and the optional certification scorecard, which is a summary of levels achieved in the five categories of certification optimization: material health, material reutilization, renewable energy & carbon management, water stewardship and social fairness. - 10 years ago

Chevy Carbon Credit Initiative Helps US Colleges Earn Money for Reducing Footprint
Chevy Carbon Credit Initiative Helps US Colleges Earn Money for Reducing Footprint

Cleantech / Chevrolet has helped develop a formula where US colleges and universities can earn money for certain upgrades that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as part of a new voluntary carbon-reduction initiative.Through this initiative, Chevy will buy and retire carbon credits resulting from some campuses’ GHG reductions from either their LEED-certified buildings or other campus-wide energy-saving initiatives. The program is part of the company’s voluntary goal set in 2010 to prevent up to 8 million metric tons of carbon emissions from entering the earth’s atmosphere. - 10 years ago

H&M Pumps $9.3 M into WaterAid to Bring Safe Water, Toilets and Hygiene to Schools
H&M Pumps $9.3 M into WaterAid to Bring Safe Water, Toilets and Hygiene to Schools

Collaboration / H&M and WaterAid on Tuesday launched a new global partnership aimed at improving the health, education and future prospects of students by delivering safe water, sanitation and hygiene education programs in schools throughout the developing world.The initiative will not only transform the lives of students by delivering immediate and long-term improvements to health and education, but also influence national and international policies around the right to safe water and sanitation, H&M says.To make this happen H&M, through its philanthropic arm the H&M Conscious Foundation, will donate $9.3 million. - 10 years ago

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100 Jewelers & Retailers Committed to 'No Dirty Gold' Campaign
100 Jewelers & Retailers Committed to 'No Dirty Gold' Campaign

Supply Chain / Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Tiffany & Co., Target and over 100 of the world’s leading jewelers and retailers have committed to more responsible metals sourcing by agreeing to abide by Earthworks' No Dirty Gold (NDG) campaign’s Golden Rules.As part of the initiative, the companies will study their metals supply chains, revise their supplier sourcing criteria to include the Golden Rules, increase recycled gold content and seek more responsibly produced metals. - 10 years ago

Japanese Firm Builds First Large-Scale Power Storage System From EV Batteries
Japanese Firm Builds First Large-Scale Power Storage System From EV Batteries

Waste Not / Japanese multinational corporation Sumitomo has developed and installed the world's first large-scale power storage system that utilizes used electric-vehicle (EV) batteries. Built on Yume-shima Island, Osaka, the commercial scale storage system will begin operating later this month.Over the next three years, the system will measure the smoothing effect of energy output fluctuation from the nearby Hikari-no-mori solar farm, and will aim to establish a large-scale power storage technology by safely and effectively utilizing the huge quantities of discarded used EV batteries which will become available in the future. - 10 years ago

Ceres: SEC Taking Inadequate Action to Address Climate Change
Ceres: SEC Taking Inadequate Action to Address Climate Change

Stakeholder Trends and Insights / The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not adequately addressed the climate disclosure deficiencies of publicly traded corporations, despite four-year-old formal guidance requiring companies to disclose material climate change risks, according to a report published Thursday by Ceres. - 10 years ago

Drilling Company Wants to Build Roads From Fracking Waste
Drilling Company Wants to Build Roads From Fracking Waste

Waste Not / In an interesting "band-aid" proposition, oil and gas exploration and production company Range Resources recently announced it would like to start using the waste rock material brought to the surface at fracking sites — known as gas well drilling “cuttings” — as a paving material. - 10 years ago

CVS to Cut Tobacco Products From All Pharmacy Locations
CVS to Cut Tobacco Products From All Pharmacy Locations

Behavior Change / In a bold yet intuitive move for a pharmacy, CVS Caremark announced Wednesday that it will stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products at its more than 7,600 stores across the US by October 1, 2014. It is the first action of its kind by a national pharmacy chain.With more than 480,000 deaths annually, smoking is the leading cause of premature disease and death in the United States, CVS says. While the prevalence of cigarette smoking has decreased from around 42 percent of adults in 1965 to 18 percent today, the rate of reduction in smoking prevalence has stalled in the past decade. - 10 years ago

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IKEA Ups Use of Sustainably Sourced Cotton to 72%
IKEA Ups Use of Sustainably Sourced Cotton to 72%

Supply Chain / IKEA has expanded the use of sustainably sourced cotton in its products to 72 percent, up from 34 percent in 2012, according to a recent announcement.The furniture company uses around 0.6 percent of all cotton grown around the world, and in 2013 sourced 79,000 tons of cotton from more sustainable sources; it used a total of 110,000 tons of cotton in 2013. - 10 years ago

Report: Sustainable Sourcing Driving Major Market Growth
Report: Sustainable Sourcing Driving Major Market Growth

Supply Chain / Private sector sourcing commitments from companies such as Unilever, Coca Cola, Starbucks and Home Depot are driving major market growth for sustainable commodities, according to the State of Sustainability Initiatives (SSI) Review 2014.Once thought of as instruments primarily tailored for niche markets, voluntary sustainability standards such as Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and Organic are gaining traction in mainstream markets. The trend towards mainstreaming of sustainability standards is strongest among newer sector-specific initiatives that explicitly target mainstream markets. - 10 years ago

Bacardi Aspires to 100% Sustainable Sugarcane Sourcing by 2022
Bacardi Aspires to 100% Sustainable Sugarcane Sourcing by 2022

Supply Chain / Bacardi Limited, the world’s largest privately held spirits company, has pledged to obtain 40 percent of the sugarcane-derived products used to make its rums from certified, sustainable sources by 2017 and 100 percent by 2022 — an industry first — as part of a new global sustainability campaign.Marking the 152nd anniversary of the company’s founding, Good Spirited: Building a Sustainable Future builds on current programs and efficiencies that reduce water and energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and sets new goals in three primary areas: responsible sourcing, global packaging and operational efficiencies. - 10 years ago

EPA Programs Help Companies Reduce Costs, GHGs
EPA Programs Help Companies Reduce Costs, GHGs

Cleantech / The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) climate-protection programs prevented 365 million metric tons of US greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in 2012, according to a new report by the agency.EPA’s annual Climate Protection Partnerships report highlights the steps more than 21,000 organizations across the United States have taken to reduce GHG pollution while achieving significant environmental and economic benefits. - 10 years ago

New Apple Patent Could Yield Solar-Powered Mac Books
New Apple Patent Could Yield Solar-Powered Mac Books

Products and Design / Solar-powered Mac Books? Apple recently was granted a patent for an “electronic device display module” that could make the idea a reality.The patent essentially is for a dual-sided laptop display: The front of the lid would house a common LCD, and the backside would be constructed from electrochromic glass atop photovoltaic cells and touch sensors — a fancy way of saying “solar panels.”The lid would absorb energy from the sun to charge the laptop and/or offer longer battery life, according to the patent filing. The light energy gathered also could be used to illuminate the logo, and the rear of the lid could be used for touch input commands such as media controls, pass codes and other uses. - 10 years ago

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CFSI Identifies Conflict-Free Sources for All Four Conflict Minerals
CFSI Identifies Conflict-Free Sources for All Four Conflict Minerals

Supply Chain / The Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative (CFSI) reports that it has validated conflict-free smelters or refiners of all four conflict minerals for the first time in the initiative’s five-year history, and is calling on more smelters and refiners to join the effort to become conflict-free by undergoing CFSI’s conflict minerals audit. - 10 years ago

American Cleaning Institute Rolls Out Sustainable Products Initiative
American Cleaning Institute Rolls Out Sustainable Products Initiative

Chemistry, Materials & Packaging / The American Cleaning Institute (ACI), the nonprofit trade association representing over 120 companies in the US cleaning products industry — including BASF, Clorox, Dow, Novozymes, Method, Seventh Generation, Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever, to name a few — has launched a new voluntary initiative to promote and demonstrate continual improvement in the cleaning products industry’s sustainability profile. - 10 years ago

New York Offers $21M to Help Dairy Farms Convert Waste to Energy
New York Offers $21M to Help Dairy Farms Convert Waste to Energy

Cleantech / New York recently made available $21 million to help the state’s dairy farmers convert farm waste to energy.Most of the funding — $20 million — is available through New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to install anaerobic digester technology that produces renewable biogas used to generate electricity and heat from organic wastes. Food processing manufacturers, farms or municipal wastewater sites would be eligible for up to $2 million per project. - 10 years ago

Chevron, Southwest Gas Fined Nearly $1M After Failing to Report GHG Emissions
Chevron, Southwest Gas Fined Nearly $1M After Failing to Report GHG Emissions

Marketing and Comms / Chevron and Southwest Gas have been fined close to $1 million for late or inaccurate reporting of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for 2011. This action marks the second time the Air Resources Board (ARB) has issued fines for violations of California’s Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting regulation.Chevron USA will pay $364,500 for reporting incorrect information regarding operations at its El Segundo Refinery. In this case the data remained uncorrected for 243 days, according to ARB.In a separate matter, Chevron North America Exploration & Production Company of Houston, TX has agreed to pay $328,500 for late reporting of GHGs emissions from its San Joaquin Valley oil fields. That data was late or incorrect for 219 days. - 10 years ago

Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable Releases First Common GHG Guidelines
Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable Releases First Common GHG Guidelines

Collaboration / The Coca-Cola Company, AB InBev, Diageo and other members of the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) recently published a document that creates the industry’s first common framework for greenhouse gas emissions reporting. - 10 years ago

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Electronics Industry Initiative Calls on More Companies to Become ‘Conflict-Free’
Electronics Industry Initiative Calls on More Companies to Become ‘Conflict-Free’

Supply Chain / The Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative (CFSI), a leading industry initiative on conflict minerals, is calling on more companies to join over 120 companies from seven different industries to already become conflict-free.The CFSI provides vital sourcing information that enables companies to make informed choices about minerals they use in their products — including helping companies meet their upcoming reporting deadline related to U.S. conflict minerals regulations. - 10 years ago