MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABILITY- Pietruszkiewicz

Black & Veatch Sustainability Policy

2010-09-03T12:59:00.000-07:00

I joined Black & Veatch almost 18 months ago and immediately joined the corporate sustainability committee and its subcommittee charged with developing a corporate sustainability policy. While we were challenged at times to come up with the right policy and the right justification consistent with the company's culture, the executive committee approved today a policy statement that should provide a firm foundation for futue endeavors. That policy is provided below.

BLACK & VEATCH SUSTAINABILITY POLICY

Policy 8.01 – Sustainability.

Since its inception in 1915, the Company has lived by the value of stewardship. We continue today to recognize this core value in all that the Company does and include it as one of the elements we annually use in performance discussions with our professionals. In today’s vernacular, stewardship and sustainability are very interchangeable. This policy covers sustainability in direct support of the company’s core value of stewardship.

The Company is committed to sustainability -- meeting the needs of the present generation while improving the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable solutions build value through services, products, and operations that integrate economic, community and environmental needs. Our overall focus is on what best serves our client’s needs. To that end we, continuously improve our related sustainability services, provide thought leadership and practice good stewardship of the company’s operations, the environment, and the communities in which we work.

Sustainable Solutions.
The Company is a market leader in delivering solutions that integrate economic, community and environmental considerations to accommodate client specific needs. Implementation of the following supporting objectives is tailored to each client’s sustainability perspective.
a) The Company offers solutions that consider life cycle of facilities, services, and materials, and conserve resources through prudent and economic use, reuse, and waste minimization.
b) The Company seeks to avoid unnecessary environmental impacts by complying with legal requirements and offering environmental engineering and permitting services to integrate clients’ environmental objectives.
c) The Company helps clients integrate sustainable community development and environmental impact considerations with client project financial goals.
d) The Company supports clients in engaging stakeholders who are affected by the clients’ projects.
e) The Company encourages its professionals to cultivate awareness of and consider the sustainable aspects of the Company’s activities and services and their individual personal actions.
f) Corporate Procurement encourages project suppliers and subcontractors to adopt sustainable practices that support client needs.
g) Divisions provide communication, training and professional development necessary for professionals to understand and implement policy and practices that facilitate delivering sustainable solutions.

Sustainable Operations & Community Outreach.
The Company believes that there is a direct tie between efficient operation of the business and sustainability. The Company implements the following objectives as an active leader in developing sustainable internal operations and community outreach.
a) Divisions develop and implement management systems to identify practices and set goals to achieve continuous improvement.
b) The Company conserves resources needed for internal operations through prudent and economic use, reuse and waste minimization in concert with the local community.
c) The Company manages facilities and operations to safeguard the environment.
d) Corporate Procurement will show preference for vendors and suppliers who adopt sustainable practices.
e) The Company promotes health, safety and security in the workplace as described in Corporate Policies 3.13 and 3.16.
f) The Company protects rights of its professionals to equal opportunity regarding all employment matters, promotes practices that reinforce inclusion and diversity management, complies with all laws and regulations, and follows fair employment practices in our operations as set forth in the Company’s Code of Conduct and corporate policies.
g) The Company’s facility planning considers sustainable community development.
h) The Company participates in community outreach programs to help improve and sustain the quality of life in communities touched by Black & Veatch.
i) The Company promotes stakeholder awareness of the B&V policies, practices and performance that facilitate sustainable internal operations and community outreach.

Auto dealers try to be more efficient

2010-02-14T10:21:00.000-08:00

Ford dealerships shoot for efficiency

At the National Automobile Dealers Association convention this weekend in Orlando, Ford unveiled a pilot project currently underway aimed at greening its 3,500 dealerships nationwide.

The project, tentatively named the Go Green Initiative, has begun at three dealerships -- one in Florida, one in New York, and one in Nevada, and involves a comprehensive assessment and evaluation of the firms impacts, primarily from an energy use standpoint, but looking at impacts across the site.

"In the past [dealers' thinking] was 'the more light the better,' but today we want to be resource efficient, and we want to provide a comfortable atmosphere," Bill Allemon, Ford's Land Energy Efficiency Manager told me in an interview. The new thinking will be to redesign the lighting at dealerships to bring lighting levels down in the showroom and spotlight it more on the products. "Think of an art gallery," Allemon said.

Ford has developed the program in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), which will be helping Ford evaluate up-and-coming technologies that can improve energy efficiency. RMI, which contributes regular blog posts to GreenBiz.com, has long focused on energy efficiency in facilities.

Details about the dealership project are somewhat scarce, since it is still in the works. Allemon explained that it is fully voluntary for all of Ford's dealers, which largely operate on the franchise model and are independently owned and operated from Ford Motor Company.

But greening dealerships is in everyone's best interests: As the primary touchpoint that individuals have with Ford vehicles, a green dealership helps present the environmental initiatives that Ford Motor Company has undertaken.

And Ford is applying some of the best practices it has learned in its multi-billion dollar renovation of its Rouge River facility, including lighting redesigns, daylighting, and even landscape innovations, like that facility's famed vegetative roof, and the use of landscaping to manage stormwater runoff.

Allemon was hesitant to talk about potential savings from these retrofits, but he said that, using off-the-shelf technologies, a dealership could expect to save 20 percent on its energy bill, and that, while Ford has "a very aggressive target" for energy savings, they're keeping it under wraps until the pilot project is completed later this year.

The renovations will be timed to coincide with already-planned improvements, so that dealers can incorporate new, greener technologies as part of the existing project. And Ford will be presenting a menu of "good, better, and best" options for efficiency retrofits, letting dealers decide just how green they want to go.

Although Allemon described a dealer aiming for a "good" renovation as essentially continuing business as usual, he also discussed the potential for having "net-zero" energy using sites, so the range of improvements is broad.

"Dealers are laser-focused on how to become more energy efficient," he said, adding that dealers "can set the dial" for what they want to do. But the sales pitch behind the renovations project is cost savings, and while they're saving money, they're also reducing their carbon footprint.

Asked about the timing of the announcement, when the nation is still reeling from a long economic slide, Allemon said that the economic situation makes the time ideal.

The time is perfect, actually," he said. "A lot of the stores have reduced their operations, they've cut their head count, and they're always looking for ways to reduce their operating costs, as well as to differentiate themselves from competitors and sister dealerships across town."

We'll have more about the project in the coming months; Ford expects to have the three pilot renovations completed later this year, at which time Ford can begin gathering and reporting the data on the environmental impacts these three dealerships are having

A Simple Explanation that Makes Good Sense

2010-01-09T11:16:00.000-08:00

Occasionally we see something that just seems to help clarify things. I think this article is one of those that help clear the view.

Why the Triple Bottom Line Matters More Than Ever
By Mitch Tyson
Published January 08, 2010

The conventional way to measure the success of a business is the bottom line. But the concept of a triple bottom line, where social and environmental factors are considered along with economic ones, is also getting a lot of attention.

Is this another business fad? Is it a new management technique like total quality management?

I don't think so. I see the triple bottom line as a way to think about yourself, your career, and your company. The essential challenge it poses to business leaders is to find a way to simultaneously please your investors and impress your grandchildren.

Triple bottom line thinking holds that a company should combine standard metrics of financial success with those that measure environmental stewardship and social justice. It is sometimes called the 3P approach -- People, Planet and Profits. In each case it requires thinking in three dimensions, not one.

It is argued by many that companies that factoring these impacts into their overall corporate balance sheets will be more successful because it delivers greater efficiency, makes them more competitive and sparks innovation -- all drivers of profitability over time.

But intuitively, doesn't it also just make sense? Don't you want to leave the planet a little better than you found it? Don't you want to work for a company that operates ethically and acts with integrity and cares about the people it employs and serves? Don't you want to make products that really enhance people's lives? Don't you want to help our country become less vulnerable to oil supply disruptions?

We certainly don't measure the success of our families by how much money we have saved. Our family's health, our kid's education, and the amount of love and caring in our family, count as much, if not more, than our financial security. So why do we have to measure the success of our companies with only one metric?

Another concept often linked to triple bottom line is that of sustainability. We sometimes speak of adopting sustainable business practices or building sustainable businesses. But what does that really mean?

The best definition I've heard was created in 1987 by the United Nations Bruntland Commission, which defined sustainability as "Meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." It's a simple, powerful statement. Make sure our decisions today take future costs into account. By adding time it asks us to think in four dimensions and not one.

There is a strong argument that triple bottom line or building sustainable businesses creates more profitable and successful business. Pursuing environmental and social objectives doesn't have to be at the expense of financial objectives and often is reinforcing.

Take the desire to reduce the environmental impact of a building for example. You could just lower the thermostat and make everyone a little more uncomfortable. Or you could do something better and install more efficient lighting. Or you could do something even better and rethink the entire building and design an integrated building that has better ventilation, better lighting, uses much less energy, and is more comfortable.

People who work in LEED-certified buildings typically show 6 percent to 16 percent improved productivity, roughly 10 times the initial energy savings. That becomes a measurable benefit that can ultimately be linked to profitability and shareholder value. What's more, employees feel better about their work environment and their employer, creating stronger employee relationships and company loyalty. One investment in building efficiency yields benefits across multiple dimensions.

This is just the beginning. Businesses pursuing sustainability are becoming more efficient, more innovative, more connected, more profitable, and more competitive.

But as in most things, companies go through phases.

At first they tend to be defensive and focus on complying with regulations. When they move beyond that, they become tactical -- looking for ways to reduce waste and become more efficient in the way they do things.

In the next stage they start to think systematically. Here, a company begins to identify its position in the value chain and explore how their customers use their products and how they dispose of them. They will also explore their supply chain and find out where their raw materials come from and how much energy is used to make them. They will start thinking about their own factories and find ways of using new manufacturing process that use less energy.
At AEB, we manufacture an energy efficient, pollution-free technology that allows traditional manufacturing industries to replace antiquated process technologies like thermal ovens.

For example, a large food package printing operation could replace its drying ovens with our electron beams and save millions of BTUs of energy annually, avoid tons of CO2 and VOC pollution. This kind of technology is both more sustainable and more profitable. In driving the adoption of our technology, we've realized it's critical to talk to brand owners and retailers to help them understand how the manufacturing processes of their supply chains impact their own environmental footprint.

Ultimately, progressive business leaders start thinking strategically and see sustainability as a catalyst for new business models.

Recently FedEx Kinko's, which has been in the business of delivering packages, started accepting documents electronically and printing them near where they need to be delivered thus meeting their customer's needs with significantly less energy.

Rosabeth Moss Kantor writes in her recent book about SuperCorps, which embedded the idea of serving society into their business definition and strategy. She cites companies like GE, which focused its mission on helping the world transition to a more sustainable energy infrastructure.

I believe that triple bottom line thinking and sustainability are inevitable. To business leaders, these are choices.

We can start to make our companies more efficient or wait until costs rise. We can redesign our products for a more sustainable world or we can try to catch up later. We can wait until our customers or the government ask us to report our carbon footprint or we can volunteer it now.

A recent Sloan Business Review survey found that 92 percent of 1,500 executives said that their companies are addressing sustainability, but most said not aggressively. Clearly the door is wide open for leaders to emerge.

Business leaders do not need to check their values at the door. Despite media coverage of ethical business lapses and shortsighted business practices, all the CEOs I know want to do the right thing.

They want employees to be healthy because they care about them not just because it lowers premiums. They want to reduce pollution from their plants because they live in the community and breathe the air not just because they want to avoid fines. They treat their customers and suppliers fairly because that's the way they want to be treated. They create value for their investors because that's what they were hired to do and that's what they committed to do, not just because they want their share. They are motivated by their core values.

You can rationalize that the triple bottom line will make your company more successful, which it will, or you could pursue it because it reflects your values as a person. But in some sense to those that will be most impacted it doesn't matter why we do it as long as we do it.

Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, uses something he calls the "Grandparent Test." He runs one of the biggest utilities in the country and has a lot of people counting on him. His customers expect there to be power at the flick of a switch and his investors expect profits every quarter.

But he's focused on what his grandchildren will say to their grandchildren 50 years from now. Will they say he ran the dirtiest utility in the world or that he was the first utility executive to commit to going carbon free?

For Rogers, doing well and generating profits aren't mutually exclusive goals; the two are inexorably linked. And in fact many of the Fortune 1000 executives who have started embracing triple bottom line thinking cite their grandchildren when asked why they are doing it. Future generations aren't an abstraction to them any more than revenues or earnings are.

The triple bottom line and sustainability aren't new management techniques. They aren't the latest management fads. They are concepts that challenge each of us to balance the way we successfully run our business and the world that our children's children will inherit from us. And we need to start now.

Mitch Tyson is Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Electron Beams based in Wilmington, Mass.

Cap and Trade AMMO

2009-12-18T13:26:00.000-08:00

More Fodder for the Cap and Trade arguement.
Cap-and-trade emissions reduction programs catch on
Dec 16 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Timothy B. Wheeler The Baltimore Sun

In a little more than a year, a regional push to cap greenhouse gases has raised millions for Maryland energy programs, with supporters calling it a model for easing climate change on a national or even global scale.

Since September 2008, Maryland and nine other Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states have been participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. In its "cap and trade" regulatory scheme, emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants have been capped and plant operators are required to buy permits for all the gas that their facilities release into the atmosphere.

Similar programs, in which businesses buy and sell the rights to release greenhouse gases, are being considered for extension nationwide under legislation in Congress that passed the House last summer and is pending in the Senate. It's also on the table for international action at rancorous United Nations climate talks scheduled to conclude Friday in Copenhagen.

"While Washington and the world debate this in Copenhagen, we've already exercised leadership and proved that cap-and-trade can work, said Malcolm Woolf, director of the Maryland Energy Administration, "and we are investing the proceeds in helping families and businesses."

Some business groups and conservative critics have warned that cap-and-trade regulation of greenhouse gases could cripple the U.S. economy, driving energy prices through the roof and putting millions out of work. Some economists and environmentalists also oppose the approach, arguing that it's too complicated and fraught with loopholes to make a real dent in emissions that threaten to drastically alter the world's climate.

But power companies in Maryland and the nine other states have been paying for the rights to emit greenhouse gases for more than a year with slight impact on consumers' electric bills. Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s residential customers are paying perhaps $1.25 a month more as the costs of the carbon-dioxide permits are passed through, said Constellation Energy spokesman John Quinn. That represents about 1 percent of the average household's electric bill.

Meanwhile, the state has collected more than $96 million in revenue from the six carbon-dioxide auctions held since September 2008, with the funds earmarked for providing relief from energy costs and ultimately reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Specifically, half the funds this year go to help poor families pay their power bills, while nearly a quarter goes to provide a bit of rate relief for all residential utility customers -- about 43 cents on the typical household power bill this winter, according to Quinn.

Another 18 percent goes into promoting energy efficiency and conservation, with an additional 6 percent earmarked to provide grants and low-interest loans for homes and businesses to install "clean" energy systems.

Frank and Lois Bohdal are among more than 600 Marylanders this year who have received state grants funded in part with carbon-auction proceeds to help them put in home solar, wind or geothermal energy systems.

Bohdal, a computer programmer with the state comptroller's office, has blanketed the south-facing roof of the couple's Millersville rancher with 40 solar panels. They cost a total of $55,000 -- but the state helped cover their installation with nearly $14,000 in grants. And the electricity they generate has reduced the couple's power bill by nearly a third.

"So far, it's been worthwhile to me," said Bohdal, who notes that he was able to cover about half the upfront costs with federal and local tax credits.

Some of the carbon-auction funds also are going into retrofitting low-income apartment complexes with better insulation and energy-efficient appliances and lighting. The state recently awarded grants to fix up the 158-unit Sierra Woods apartments in Columbia and another complex in Montgomery County. Using the auction proceeds and federal stimulus funds, the state hopes to work on nearly 1,600 apartments this year.

"We do believe that in the long haul it will help make these properties and the rents more sustainable for our residents," said Pat Silvester of the state Department of Housing and Community Development, which is overseeing the projects.

The regional effort in the East has inspired similar collaborations of states in the Midwest and the West, and supporters believe it helped build support on Capitol Hill for the cap-and-trade plan to curb greenhouse gases that is written into the bill that passed the House in June. A similar approach is being considered in the Senate.

But some note that the greenhouse gas initiative wasn't much of a test of the idea of using the market to achieve pollution reductions, since states purposely set their caps on carbon dioxide above what power plants were emitting at the time. The price of pollution allowances sold by the states have ranged between $2 and $3.50 per ton, while the Environmental Protection Agency estimates carbon credits would sell initially for $12 to $15 per ton under the more sweeping cap-and-trade approach in the House bill. A congressional budget analysis found that the cost per household in higher energy bills would average $175 a year.

Maryland officials say the states intentionally set a loose-fitting ceiling on carbon-dioxide emission for the first few years so power plants could get used to paying for pollution allowances.

The plan is to gradually reduce the allowable emissions 10 percent by 2018, ultimately making the allowances more valuable, and costly.

Bids for the carbon credits through six auctions have been within the range projected by the states, but they've trended downward lately. In the most recent auction Dec. 2, carbon dioxide allowances went for $2.05 each, down from a high of $3.51 per ton in March. And for the first time two weeks ago, the states were unable to sell all the allowances they had put up for bid on future emissions.

Karen Palmer, an economist with the Washington think tank Resources for the Future, said bidding appears to have cooled on the regional carbon auctions partly because of uncertainty about how it would be affected by federal legislation. The bill that passed the House would effectively replace the regional power-plant curbs with a nationwide cap on all greenhouse gases, though the pollution credits sold under the regional auctions could still be used to help meet the new, more rigorous federal control scheme.

Another reason for declining bids, Palmer said, is the slumping national economy, which has reduced the demand for carbon-dioxide permits now. Power plant emissions have declined as the business downturn lowered demand for energy, she pointed out.

With recent auction proceeds less than projected, that's forced the states to pare back what they can expect to get and spend on energy programs. In Maryland, though, Woolf says the drop in carbon-auction proceeds has been made up for by an infusion of federal economic stimulus funds earmarked for energy efficiency and clean energy efforts.

"The ultimate goal was always to demonstrate for the country that a cap-and-trade system could work," said Shari T. Wilson, Maryland secretary of the environment. "Really, that goal has been accomplished."

Some argue that imposing a tax on carbon would be a better way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They acknowledge, though, that cap-and-trade garnered support, at least initially, from businesses and from many environmentalists.

Charles Komanoff, co-director of the Carbon Tax Center, said some green groups evidently believed the market plan would be a "stealth" way to tax carbon, and he contended that businesses were looking to write special deals for themselves into the complicated House bill, which runs to more than 1,000 pages. Senate action has been delayed by debate over health insurance reform, though members also remain split over the bill's economic impact and some even question scientific evidence of climate change.

The regional experience with cap-and-trade has won over Constellation Energy, it seems. "We were supportive of an experiment," said company spokesman Quinn, "that a market-based system that put money back into solving the problem wasn't a bad idea."

Now, he added, "It's time to do a comprehensive program, rather than piecemeal it." The company's chairman and CEO, Mayo A. Shattuck III, issued a statement at the beginning of the U.N. climate summit supporting an international accord committing the United States and all other countries to reducing global emissions of greenhouse gases

Petrol States Eyeing Renewables

2009-11-23T18:57:00.000-08:00

Middle East Turning To Alternative Energy
Published on November 23rd, 2009 by Green Prophet

It all sounds very grandiose and really too good to be true, but a number of Persian Gulf states, including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain and Qatar are hoping to be able to satisfy a good portion of their massive energy needs through alternative and renewable energy sources, instead of relying mostly on oil.

In a part of the world that experiences some of the hottest summer temperatures, averaging above 44 degrees Celsius during at least 4 months of the year; and whose energy growth use is growing by more than 10% per annum, these countries have their work cut out for them to be able to realize 70% of their total energy needs from alternative and renewable energy by the year 2030.

By trying they definitely are, and with unique sustainable environment projects like Abu Dhabi’s zero-carbon Masdar City and Qatar’s carbon-neutral Energy City being able to produce a good part of their required energy needs may not be as far fetched as it seems.

In the two noted examples, both Abu Dhabi and Qatar plan to use a combination of renewable energy power sources to provide electricity and other energy needs for these pilot projects which will be the basis for the gradual switching from conventional power sources to those such as solar energy and wind power, geothermal and hydrogen (which also can be used to power cars and other vehicles).

In regards to geothermal power which utilizes energy from volcanoes and hot springs, and is now said to be more economical than either coal or natural gas, the UAE and other Gulf States may find it worthwhile to do business with an Israeli company, Ormat Industries, which is now said to be involved in a large geothermal energy project in Indonesia.

Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country and one that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. If Indonesia can do business with an Israeli company like Ormat (which is also involved in solar energy projects), so can countries like Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

In order to generate more interest in renewable and alternative energy projects in the UAE and other Gulf states, various international conferences and exhibitions are being held there, including the Alter Energy 09 Convention, recently held last month at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Center, with the theme of developing and implementing alternative and renewable energy to reduce dependence on conventional energy sources.

And then there is the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, in January 2010, that will feature the concept of environmentally sustainable “eco-cites” of which Masdar City will be one of when completed.

Fortunately for these Gulf countries, most of them have enough remaining oil wealth to finance these projects without having to apply for crippling loans from the World Bank (whose theme is a “world free of poverty”) or other financial institutions.

These countries are also acutely aware that they need to wean themselves off dependence on petroleum for both their livelihood and primary energy source; for they are aware of the reality that in regards to oil, it won’t last forever.

Article by Maurice Picow appearing courtesy of Green Prophet

Politics vs Carbon, where are we going?

2009-11-13T08:47:00.000-08:00

Clean Tech Revolution In Need of a Green Gandhi.
He May be Emerging.
Published on November 12th, 2009 by Joe Walsh

In spite of leaps and bounds in technology, investment capital, political support and public will over the past decade – much less the past year – there is one element of a revolution that has not emerged in the clean tech movement: an icon. Sure, standard-bearers of the green movement that began in the 1960’s are still visible and active and there are brilliant scientists, entrepreneurs and politicians out there who might be candidates. But, as greens cast about for their own JFK in government, or a Green Gates in the private sector, what they really need is their own Green Gandhi. He may be emerging.
Not content to play politics behind-the-scenes, President Mohamed Nasheed of Maldives has taken his quest to save his country to the level of zealotry. Nasheed’s Indian Ocean nation is part of an archipelago of islands sitting just 2 meters above sea level. For Nasheed and his countrymen, climate change is not just the primary challenge of the 21st century, it is a matter of survival.
Not only does Nasheed have an urgency that few others can lay claim to, but his case for getting cleaner and greener has a moral heft that is difficult for even the most compelling global clean tech business leaders to trump. Like Gandhi, Nasheed has staked his entire political life on a single existential question for his people, and he is taking his fight to Copenhagen, to the ocean floor and everywhere in between. The question for 100 years hence is not only whether students will learn the lesson of a heroic effort to save the planet, but whether there will be any students in places like Maldives at all.

Maldives leader turns stuntman

By Mohamed Shahyb (AFP) – Oct 18, 2009

MALE — Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed, who staged the world's first underwater cabinet meeting at the weekend, is emerging as the global stuntman in the battle against climate change.

Nasheed, 42, dived with his cabinet to the sea bottom Saturday in an effort to press December's UN summit in Copenhagen to cap carbon emissions that cause global warming, threatening low-lying nations such as the Maldives.

"We should come out of Copenhagen with a deal that will ensure that everyone will survive," said the president as he bobbed in the shimmering Indian Ocean after the meeting.

A presidential aide said the event, to highlight the threat facing the resort paradise -- which scientists warn could be submerged by rising sea levels by the century's end, was Nasheed's idea.

He said a New York-based environmental group had wanted the president to hold a banner underwater to push for cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions.

But Nasheed, the youngest leader in South Asia, went one better, with the 30-minute meeting intended to highlight a potentially watery future for the 1,192 coral islands that make up the Maldives.

It was only the latest in a series of eye-catching public relations moves by Nasheed, a former journalist, to focus the spotlight on climate change and how it could affect the archipelago, known as an idyllic getaway for the rich.

The president stunned the world last year when he announced he wanted to buy a new homeland to relocate the population of the Maldives in the event that damage from rising sea levels became too great.

The announcement had a major impact in India, Sri Lanka and Australia -- all potential destinations cited by Nasheed for what could be some of the world's first environmental refugees.

Nasheed has also been photographed at a submerged desk off the sandy white beaches of the Maldives.

The environmental activism of Nasheed, who came to power last year, follows efforts by his predecessor, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, to highlight the nation's predicament.

"Gayoom had been a very vocal campaigner so there is a political compulsion for Nasheed to keep the Maldives at the forefront of the global warming issue," said Ibrahim Ismail, for many years an independent member of parliament.

Gayoom, described by opponents as autocratic, ruled the islands unchallenged between 1978 and 2008 and repeatedly threw Nasheed in jail over a period of six years.

As a political activist, Nasheed was at one point an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience.

Educated in Sri Lanka and Britain, the president, a father of two young daughters and holder of a degree in maritime engineering, built a pro-democracy movement with local and foreign support, winning the country's first multi-party elections a year ago.

His latest dive in scuba gear was preceded by interviews to foreign television networks to talk about what he called his "sinking feeling."

Ismail said Nasheed's underwater cabinet meeting had little impact locally in a country whose 300,000 Sunni Muslim population was more preoccupied with immediate bread and butter issues.

"I think this is a good action as far as publicity is concerned. Not locally, but internationally," Ismail said.

Nasheed announced last month the Maldives had no money to pay for him to attend the Copenhagen summit, but Denmark has said it will fund him as his participation is considered essential

FED EX vs UPS Is Brown Greener? Again, you will have to judge for yourself.

2009-10-24T10:30:00.000-07:00

Well competition is good and sustainability competition can be even better. FED EX and UPS are competing on cost and on sustainability and the rest of us benefit.

FedEx: Pushing the Envelope on Sustainability
By Marc Gunther
Published October 23, 2009

When you need to ship a package, how do you choose between FedEx and UPS? Their services are similar, if not identical. While I’ve never compared prices, I assume they are roughly equivalent.

Could the companies' sustainability practices come into play?

I’m told that they do, for select customers. Their employees care as well -- people want to work for companies that are helping to solve the world’s big problems, like climate change. Regulators could also be paying attention.

Whatever the explanation, FedEx and UPS are competing to become known as the most sustainable shipping company -- which means we’re all winners.

Mitch Jackson, who is staff director of environmental affairs and sustainability at FedEx, met with me recently to make the case on behalf of FedEx. He says the company has identified four “building blocks” of its approach to the environment. They are:

Leadership

Innovation

Performance

Transparency

FedEx has room to improve in all four areas, he admits, but he adds, pointedly:

Importantly, FedEx is the only company in our industry striving at all four simultaneously.

Take that, Brown.

Last month, after interviewing a sustainability executive from UPS, I blogged about the FedEx-UPS competition. (See UPS to FedEx: We’re Greener Than You.)

Understandably, FedEx asked for equal time, so I met with Jackson, a longtime FedEx executive (and speaker at FORTUNE’s Brainstorm Green conference) during his recent visit to Washington.

I can’t say that he persuaded me that FedEx is greener than UPS. You can make arguments on behalf of either firm, particularly because there’s lots of disagreement between them about what metrics to use. Newsweek’s very flawed rankings put UPS slightly ahead of FedEx. By contrast, a nonprofit called Climate Counts ranked shipping companies and gave FedEx the edge over UPS and the U.S. Post Office.

There’s also debate about who got going first when it comes to the environment. FedEx likes to talk about its ambitious and successful partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund to create a market for hybrid trucks, which began back in 2000.

This, Jackson said, makes FedEx the pioneer when it comes to alternative vehicles. UPS followed, helping the market for hybrids to grow. “When UPS decided to buy some hybrid-electric vehicles, candidly, we were thrilled,” he said. UPS’s retort? They’ve been using electric cars since the 1930s.

Enough tit-for-tat. What seems clear to me after talking to Jackson is that FedEx is doing a lot of things right when it comes to sustainability.

Some highlights:

FedEx has promised to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft by 20% by 2020, on a pound per available ton mile basis. It was the first U.S. shipping company to do so. “UPS would not have set a reduction goal if we hadn’t not it first,” Jackson says.
It has set a goal of improving the fuel economy of its vehicles by 20% by 2020.
It has created a corporate citizenship blog, signaling a willingness to be open and to engage with critics.
It has engaged constructively in Washington. FedEx CEO Fred Smith lobbied a few years ago for fuel-efficiency standards for commercial vehicles.

Having said that, it’s clear to me that many of the steps taken by both FedEx and UPS to reduce pollution and emissions are driven more by economics -- specifically, by a desire to save fuel -- than by climate change worries.

FedEx, for example, recently took delivery of its first Boeing 777 freighter, uses less fuel and produces fewer emissions than the rest of its fleet. Even better, it can fly from FedEx’s Memphis hub to China without having to stop for refueling in Anchorage, as its older planes do.

In the end, motivation isn’t the issue. As Jackson put it: “We try not to separate the issue of “green” from economics. They go together.”

What’s encouraging is the competition. When UPS and FedEx, Coca Cola and PepsiCo, HP and Dell compete around “green,” the environment is better off. UPS recently took the shipping rivalry to a new level by deciding to offer customers a “green” option of paying a small fee, between 5 and 20 cents, to offset the carbon emissions of their shipping. Here’s the announcement.

Your turn, FedEx

CSR Produces Winners

2009-10-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

To me it is interesting that Honda and Toyota make the list and that Fed EX and UPS both make the list. Every one of these is on somebody's stock pick list. These are all top of class companies. I guess reputation means customers and revenue but these companies also make money. Some notables that are missing are Walmart and Interface. Walmart has made a valiant effort in sustainability but has not overcome it's issues with employees benefits and wages and communities that perhaps think there are some losers when Walmart comes to town. Interface, I think is just not a household name, but their focus is green not the social aspects of CSR. Now if we could get a list for Green companies that are CSR leaders, that would be a list.

Walt Disney Co., Microsoft and Google Deemed CSR LeadersBy GreenBiz Staff
Published October 16, 2009
CHESTNUT HILL, MA — With public trust in Wall Street at an all-time low, consumer facing companies ranked higher for their ethics, citizenship and workplace practices, according to a new analysis from the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and Reputation Institute.

Walt Disney Co. found itself at the top of the heap, followed by Microsoft, Google, Honda and Johnson & Johnson.

The institute created the index based on survey results from its Boston College-Reputation Institute 2009 Global Reputation Study, which captures public perception about corporate CSR practices. Consumer brands made up the bulk of the Top 50 companies (PDF) in the index, while banking, finance, oil and gas, utilities and telecommunications ranked below the global average.
Related News & Blogs

"While the overall reputation of the American business sector has been tarnished with a broad brush, many individual companies still stand out as responsible leaders in the eyes of the public," Chris Pinney, director of research and policy at the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, said in a statement. "To build a reputation as a leader in corporate social responsibility, companies should focus on strong governance practices, positive working conditions, and a commitment to supporting the needs of communities and the environment."

A new trend in the index is the addition of seven value-conscious retailers since the 2008 list was compiled: Target, JCPenney, Kroger, Kohl's and BJ's Wholesale Club. Publix, Coscto and Lowe's made the Top 50 last year.

The Top 20

1. Walt Disney Co.
2. Microsoft
3. Google
4. Honda of America Manufacturing
5. Johnson & Johnson
6. PepsiCo
7. General Mills
8. Kraft Foods
9. Campbell Soup Co.
10. FedEx
11. UPS
12. Toyota
13. Apple
14. Berkshire Hathaway
15. Costco Wholesale
16. Colgate-Palmolive
17. Cisco
18. Procter & Gamble
19. Levi Strauss
20. Kimberly-Clark

Produce Electricity while you drive???

2009-10-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

I had a friend a few months back come up with an idea for harvesting energy from vehicles moving over tanks of water, much like ice over a lake. I was impressed with the idea, however it did not seem like there was a very effective way to recover the energy. However, here is the same idea again. Instead of water, this more elegant solution uses piezoelectric materials. I would not be surprised to see this actually put to use. Gary,if you are still out there, take a look at the idea below. Piezoelectric materials are real.

Produce Electricity While You Drive
October 7th, 2009 -
This can be achieved by using piezoelectric materials under busy roads. The property is aptly known as piezoelectricity and it’s the ability to produce electric power in response to applied mechanical stress, and in this case this stress is the movement of vehicles on the roads. The concept was originally developed by Innowattech and now the company is laying down a sort of test road in Israel. Is it a solution to the global energy and environment crisis? It could very well be.

According to Innowattech (in fact, it should be common knowledge) massive amounts of mechanical energy go waste when millions of vehicles move on the roads. The piezoelectric generators harvest that energy and save them in roadside batteries that can be used by people. This process is also known as Parasitic Energy harvesting.

Under the upper asphalt there is a layer of piezoelectric crystals that produce electricity when squeezed.

According to people at Innowattech the Piezo Electric Generator (IPEG™) should be able to produce 200KWh, while a four-lane highway would produce about 1MWh of electricity, per kilometer, enough to provide power to 2500 households. Considering that Israel has about 250 kilometers of roadways suitable for the technology, in terms of volumes of traffic, and the mass of vehicles taking the roads, you can very well imagine how much electricity can be produced.

The same technology can be implemented on airport runaways and rail systems. The system also has the capacity to deliver real-time data on the weight, frequency and speed of passing vehicles as well as the spacing between vehicles.

Although initially revealed last year, this is a really exciting project and large green energy corporations and environmental organizations are closely monitoring its progress. No infrastructure is required. You don’t need to set up wind farms or solar panels and use up vast areas. You simply have to use the roads that you already have.

“The technology is based on piezoelectric materials that enable the conversion of mechanical energy exerted by the weight of passing vehicles into electrical energy. As far as the drivers are concerned, the road is the same,” according to Dr. Lucy Edery-Azulay, the project manager.

Sustainability and CSR

2009-10-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

As individuals, organizations, or governments we all must act responsibly to survive and prosper. This is the essence of sustainability and corporate social responsibility. You cannot be responsible without being sustainable and you cannot be sustainable without being responsible. As a result, it is good policy to combine the two.

Sustainability involves considering the future and it involves taking responsibility for our actions. Superior corporate governance, business ethics, community support, environmental protection, human rights policies, as well as how one deals with workplace issues, and executes sustainable services are all part of being sustainable. Of course we all realize there is nothing that is 100% sustainable and no individual or organization can be 100% sustainable. It is through continuous improvement that we can all become more sustainable, more responsible and more likely to survive and prosper.

However, because sustainability is a path and not a destination, it is easy to get lost. I once read something that said that because sustainability involves our ability to survive and prosper in the future, people are passionate about it. Leaders find it easy to find followers who will pursue sustainability, but leaders need to be careful, they must have a plan or they will fail. The point is that there are lots of sustainable actions that don’t take you far down the path. It takes a plan to make significant improvement. I believe the elements of that plan involve four important things, association, measuring, reporting, and development of the tools, techniques, and practices you will need to implement more sustainable actions. We need to associate with thought leaders and join organizations that identify and promote best practices. In order to know how far down the path you have gone, you need to measure your progress according to accepted international protocols. To maintain transparency and help yourself and others understand your progress, you need to also report your progress according to accepted protocols. And, you will need to develop tools and techniques to help you do your work in a way that results in more sustainable internal operations and services to your customers.

There are three important places to focus your attention and you will need to work in all three areas. They are you, your supply chain, and your customers. First, you will need to have a plan to improve everything you do so you do it more responsibly and more sustainably. This is the focus you will have on your internal operations. Find out where you are and set goals for improvement. Second, focus on your supply chain. Find out how you can influence the things you buy to be more sustainable. Have a procurement policy that focuses attention on all the sustainability and CSR issues. Third, your customers will use your services and the products or projects that result from them over a lifetime. They will want you to not only consider sustainability and CSR in the things you supply and how you supply them but they will also want to know that the resulting projects will operate sustainably throughout their lifetime.

Remember the focus is on continuous improvement, so the plan must include how you will identify baselines and set improvement goals, how you will measure improvement, and how you will report to employees, suppliers, customers and all of your stakeholders. The plan should also focus on how you will identify and communicate with stakeholders to find and create best practices. Your plan should identify whether you want to be a leader, helping to develop training, certifications, and best practices or whether you want to be a follower using these things developed by others.

ICLEI and its Five Milestones

2009-09-19T15:46:00.000-07:00

I have written about ICLEI and the Star Community Program previously. They seem to be making progress at identifying standards that can be used to measure attributes and characteristics that will lead to more sustainable communities. Their five point plan below makes sense and comes from the school of thought that says you need to measure something if you want to manage it and you need a plan so you know what to measure. It should work for any type of organization even though it is being used to develop more sustainable local governments.

Five Milestones for Sustainability

ICLEI’s Five Milestones for Sustainability provide a simple, standardized means of assessing sustainability challenges, establishing goals, developing and implementing a plan and monitoring, measuring and reporting performance.
ICLEI's Five Milestones provide a simple, standardized means of assessing sustainability challenges, establishing goals, developing and implementing a plan, and monitoring, measuring and reporting performance.

The methodology underlying the Five Milestones for Sustainability is based on the Five Milestones for Climate Mitigation and involves a more broad process for addressing both climate and sustainability.

Local governments that wish to develop a plan that not only addresses greenhouse gas emissions reductions, but also includes related measures to improve local sustainability, should follow the Five Milestones for Sustainability. The Five Milestones for Sustainability also complement the STAR Community Index, which is currently in development. Local governments will be able to follow the Milestones while also receiving credits through the STAR rating system.

Getting StartedPrior to launching into the Five Milestone process, you should take a few preliminary steps to get organized and to make a commitment. The chief elected official should publicly commit to developing a sustainability plan and should appoint someone to coordinate the planning process, typically a sustainability coordinator. To guide the plan development, local governments should form an external sustainability advisory board along with an interdepartmental team to participate in the development of the plan.

Milestone One: Conduct a sustainability assessmentTo begin the planning process, a local government needs to first research and assess environmental, economic, and social equity challenges within the jurisdiction, and the programs in place to address these issues. The sustainability assessment includes a greenhouse gas emissions inventory and forecast for local government operations and the community as a whole and takes into account other key sustainability indicators. The assessment is used to gather baseline data and to identify the challenges to be addressed in the plan. Local governments will be able to use the indicators in the STAR Community Index to help them define the scope of their plan.

Milestone Two: Set sustainability goalsThe sustainability goals define the overarching objectives and scope of the sustainability plan. The goals should address the challenges identified in Milestone One. The type and number of goals can vary by jurisdiction, but they should include an emissions reduction target along with other goals addressing issues such as affordable housing, natural resources conservation, or public transportation.

Milestone Three: Develop a sustainability planThe local government then develops a sustainability plan, ideally with robust public input from all stakeholders. The plan details the policies and measures that the local government will take to improve local sustainability and achieve the goals defined in Milestone Two. Most plans include a timeline, a description of financing mechanisms, and an assignment of responsibility to departments and staff. Milestone Three should involve a public participation component to solicit ideas from the public and to receive feedback from the public on measures being considered for the plan.

Milestone Four: Implement the sustainability planThe local government implements the policies and measures in the sustainability plan. Typical policies and measures include initiatives often found in a climate action plan, such as energy efficiency improvements to municipal buildings and water treatment facilities, streetlight retrofits, public transit improvements, installation of renewable power applications, and methane recovery from waste management. Other initiatives could include creating more park space, developing affordable housing, or creating a green jobs workforce development program.

Milestone Five: Monitor and evaluate progressMonitoring and verifying implementation progress is an ongoing process. Achieving Milestone Five involves annually reporting on implementation progress and monitoring the overall sustainability of the jurisdiction using the sustainability indicators identified in Milestone One.

Coal Companies Support Waxman-Markey

2009-09-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

I have been noticing leaders in the industry, those that offer a vision and I notice their actions, especially when they stick to their values. These moves by Alsthom and Duke speak mostly about the values of these corporations.

The joint letter mentioned at the bottom of the page also speaks volumes. Notice PG&E, Dupont, and FPL are there again.

Alstom Follows in Duke's Footsteps by Leaving Clean Coal GroupBy ClimateBiz Staff
Published September 10, 2009

OAKLAND, CA — A controversial clean-coal trade association lost another member Wednesday over its opposition to climate change legislation currently moving through Congress.

French firm Alstom Power will reportedly leave the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), a week after Duke Energy quit because some members of the group refuse to support the American Clean Energy and Security Act.

Also known as the Waxman-Markey climate change bill, the legislation is designed to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and by 83 percent by 2050, largely driven by a cap-and-trade program involving the country's largest emitters.

Alstom Power, an equipment and service provider for the electric power generation and rail transport sectors, told ClimateWire it was withdrawing from ACCCE to "remove any doubt about our full support" for the Waxman-Markey bill.

The legislation has created a fault line splitting the business commNunity, with groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) on one side working to ignite opposition to the bill, while corporations on the other side have joined forces to create pro-legislation groups, including the U.S. Climate Action Partnership and Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy. General Electric and Caterpillar remain members of both ACCCE and the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.

Duke Energy, one of the country's biggest utilities and largest users of coal, has been a steady proponent of climate change legislation in the U.S., which led to it breaking ranks with NAM in the Spring, citing budgetary reasons and a difference in opinion in the climate change debate.

Waxman-Markey opponents have courted controversy recently with their efforts to derail the bill, such as the American Petroleum Industry's recruitment of energy sector workers to rally against it at public forums. The Chamber, already at odds with some of its members, made headlines late last month over trying to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to hold a public trial on climate change science, reminiscent of the notorious Scopes Trial of the early 20th century over the teaching of evolution in U.S. public schools. ACCCE was linked to a series of forged letters sent to member of Congress purporting to be from community groups opposed to the Waxman-Markey bill.

"The coal industry has been actively fighting clean energy jobs legislation using any means necessary, including contracting with groups connected to admitted forgery scandals and ethically questionable astroturf campaigns," Bruce Nills, director of Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, said in a statement Wednesday. "Today's announcement by Alstom is just more confirmation that ACCCE has gone too far -- that the thin veneer of concern about the future of our country has cracked to reveal only concern for preserving the dirty status quo for coal."

Meanwhile, a group of a dozen major U.S. corporations sent an open letter this week to the U.S. Senate calling for climate change legislation and describing how their efforts to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions have improved their bottom lines.

"With this joint letter, we wish to make clear to the American public and their elected officials that leading voices in the business community believe it is in the best interest for the U.S. to act swiftly to address climate change," the companies wrote. "Passing legislation to cap greenhouse gas emissions will send a strong signal to the private sector unleashing new business opportunities, leveling the playing field for all U.S. businesses and ensuring that the U.S. economy can compete in growing global markets for clean energy."

Signatories include Bumble Bee Foods, Dell, DuPont, FPL, Google, HP, Johnson & Johnson, JohnsonDiversey, Levi Strauss & Co., Nike, PG&E Corp., and Xanterra Parks and Resorts.

Some Thoughts on Sustainability

2009-09-08T19:24:00.000-07:00

It is difficult for many to focus on sustainability. Here are some thoughts that might help

More and more people are becoming aware of and adopting sustainable practices everyday. That includes corporations, governments and individuals. Almost every person or organization can think of things they routinely do that contribute toward sustainability. Yet most of us still have trouble identifying something that is sustainable. That is because sustainable is not a state that can be achieved, rather it is a place that we are trying to get to. One individual can perform more or fewer actions that contribute to sustainability than another and you can be more sustainable today or tomorrow than you were yesterday, but you cannot be judged to be completely sustainable.

However, as more and more individuals and organizations strive to be more sustainable, organizations have identified a need to try to better define what constitutes a more sustainable action, methods to identify sustainable buildings, and ways to certify people as being more knowledgeable about sustainable practices. Other organizations are adopting standards and protocols for degrees of sustainability or aspects of sustainability, whether these are ways to measure a carbon footprint, to assign energy ratings to facilities or to define the friendliness of a consumer product. At the same time, methods and approaches are being established to report and measure the degree to which corporations are socially responsible. All of these approaches help us measure our progress as we continually improve on our progress to be more sustainable.

It is also true that we all are each progressing on the path toward sustainability at a different speed. Each of us is willing to invest more or less time or money to achieve perceived sustainability goals depending on our own personal or corporate or community values. Not everyone views the achievement or the investment required the same way. In fact that is another aspect of Sustainability, the focus on the future. Some will attach more significance to future or potential achievements than others will. My personal view of sustainability is that I am more aware of potential benefits of sustainable practices every day, I am more aware of ways to measure my progress toward sustainability every day and I seek to adopt more sustainable practices and invest more time and more money in future benefits every day. Corporations are similar, some are more or less aware and more or less willing to invest in the future. And corporations evolve and change based on the attitudes of their stakeholders. Their customers, employees, their suppliers and those their products or services impact all influence an organization.

Because of this it is difficult for an organization to identify a specific level of sustainability it wants to achieve. Organizations, instead must focus on identifying sustainable practices they want to adopt and sustainability metrics that help them identify their progress, and it is not reasonable for them to impose their specific values and practices on others they can only suggest best practices and offer customers methods to compare themselves to others. A project can be more or less efficient than an alternative, or an organization can seek to implement more or fewer community benefits than they did on a previous project, or a calculation can be made on a life cycle rather than a first cost basis. These things will make one more sustainable tomorrow than they were yesterday and that is my goal. I hope to help others identify the opportunities we all have for continuous improvement. Sometimes a customer will just do better than he did last time and sometimes he will create a new best practice for his industry. My job is to ask him if he needs more information, how he wants to measure himself and to suggest how he might improve against his baseline measure.

Social Compensation

2009-08-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

Social values means something different to everyone, just like sustainability means something different to everyone, but it is clear pure capitalism (money) is not enough for the next generation. Capitalism alone is not enough without values, and today's workforce wants its companies to have values it can identify with. Maslow would call this "Enlightenment". My mother would call it common sense. On March 25,I posted a prediction a while back that we would move from the "environmental movement" to the "Sustainability movement" to "Corporate Social Responsibility". The trends are apparent. I stand by my prediction.

‘What’s the Social Compensation Package?’ 5 Ways to Attract Talent Without the Checkbook
Saturday, 29 August 2009

Employee compensation packages are dropping in financial value—but this time, it’s not because of the recession alone. From MBAs to college graduates, potential employees are looking for more than stock options and dental care from their employers. In “Saving the World at Work” Tim Sanders calls this “Social Compensation—the purpose that comes with the paycheck.”

He posits that social compensation will top financial benefits as workplace incentives within the next 18 months. While I think this reversal will take a good bit longer, there is a documented shift in what employees seek from work. Without evoking Maslow or spending time on studies* and numbers substantiating what I feel many readers of this post know to be true, let’s dive into what type of social compensation packages you can use to reel in top talent.

*97% of nearly 1,000 graduating MBAs from the top-ten schools said they were willing to forgo financial benefits (up to a 14% decrease) to work for an organization with strong corporate social responsibility programs and values. (Stanford Graduate School of Business, David Montgomery and Catherine Ramus).

MORE http://www.chloregy.org/opinion/labor-a-workplace/61028-whats-the-social-compensation-package-5-ways-to-attract-talent-without-the-checkbook

Europe at it again

2009-08-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

It seems that Europe is showing the leadership in sustainability. Here is a story from Hamburg Harbor.

Sustainable Eco City Concept in Germany
August 27th, 2009

It seems the canvass of clean and green energy is getting bigger with each passing day. More and more products, vehicles, gadgets, homes and cities are being added to this ever expanding canvass. Germany’s Hamburg Harbor has announced the development of a world class Eco City. This eco city will be designed by Tec Architecture and the global engineering group ARUP. This city will encompass many industries and entrainment facilities.

The eco city will have the latest advancements in green design at its disposal. The developers and designers of this ambitious city want to set some standard that’s why they are seeking to achieve the highest level of environmental certification from LEED, BREEAM and DGNB. Eco City is one of the only projects in the world that is aspiring to accomplish the highest level of environmental certification from all three major green building rating systems. The project will assimilate efficient technology and building methods and at the same time nurturing social interaction and community resurrection.

This eco city will have 10 eco-friendly buildings. The eco city developers will use green materials, efficient facades and passive design techniques so that they can lower the energy consumption by as much as 30%.

The Eco City will use an alternative-energy mix for power generation. They will depend on wind turbines to meet the 10% of the power needs of the city. They will utilize solar power for hot water and lights. The vast majority of roofs and terraces will be covered with plants and flowers, making it pleasant for walking, recreation and open space for discussion. This greenery will keep a check on water runoff and make the interior cool. The developers will complete this Eco City in three phases. They will also rehabilitate the existing buildings with used materials. Eco City will cater to the environmental needs. It will not possess an exploitative nature and co-exist in sync with nature.

Tec Principal Sebastian Knorr shares his enthusiasm about the project: “Eco City represents a synergistic approach to urban development. By working in close cooperation with all the stakeholders and taking into consideration the immediate environmental context of the project, we’ve created a different type of sustainable, creative-industrial complex. We hope that iconic Eco City project becomes a model for sustainable urban development.”

Hamburg-Harburg Harbor has a history of German entrepreneurship and inventiveness, and the community anticipates Eco City to be a major contributor in its efforts towards renaissance.

The Lawyers Have Invaded LEED Certifications

2009-08-22T09:03:00.000-07:00

I imagine you can be sued for anything. But I am not sure how you design a building to get a given LEED rating and then miss the boat. I would think you could always think of one more feature to retrofit to make up for lost points. This points out that you need to use experienced organizations to do your work. This could only happen with sloppy interpretation of LEED guidance.

The Promise of Energy Ace's LEED Guarantee
By Chris Cheatham
Published August 21, 2009

When I first read about Energy Ace's LEED certification guarantee, I thought it was nuts.

Then I read a Co-Star article and realized Energy Ace's guarantee was brilliant.

When I read a green building regulation, I always look at the enforcement mechanism. And when I look at a green building contract, I always focus on the potential damages. Energy Ace's LEED certification guarantee is brilliant because it limits potential damages if certification is not achieved:

"If a project misses its LEED target level (like Silver or Gold) or fails to earn certification altogether, Energy Ace would refund its LEED administration fee, which is between 30 percent and 45 percent of its total fees, Robertson said.

Simply brilliant. Energy Ace provides a LEED certification guarantee that reassures owners while simultaneously limiting Energy Ace's potential damages.

The potential damages stemming from a project's LEED certification failure are much greater than the limit described by Energy Ace. For example, in Shaw Development v. Southern Builders, the owner sued for $635,000 when the project failed to achieve certification by a certain time. I have never heard of a triple digit LEED administration fee.

Brilliant, right?

By the way, I can help you write a similar contract...

the Dutch

2009-08-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

There are few examples of good industrial use of waste streams for energy production, here is a good one.

Waste to Energy — What Can We Learn From the Dutch?
Published on August 14th, 2009 by Chris Tobias

The Netherlands has a reputation for being progressive, from the environment to social initiatives. About twice the size of New Jersey, a large proportion of its landmass is below sea level. Protected (at least for the moment) by an elaborate system of dikes, the country is a center of creativity, efficiency, and diversity. It’s a place that is open-minded and broad thinking on everything from social programs to wind energy. A recent trip to Amsterdam also unveiled it is equally creative with its approach to waste management and water reclamation.
Waste management in the Netherlands is tricky. With limited land area available to landfill, conventional waste is either incinerated to produce energy or exported elsewhere for disposal. In the way of waste-to-energy (W2E), Amsterdam has created an incredibly efficient Afval Energie Bedrijf (AEB) plant capable of producing 1 million MWh of electricity annually. Beyond the energy factor, the plant is also being used to create district heating for several communities around Amsterdam, and produces 300,000 gigajoules of heat annually.

It gets better. Right next door to the W2E plant is the Waternet water treatment plant . The two plants work symbiotically: the incineration plant supplies energy and heat for water treatment processes; the water treatment plant injects its sludge and biogas into the incineration plant as an additional fuel source. In one narrow corridor of industrial landscape, Amsterdam manages a large chunk of its municipal functions.

The process looks like this: annually, 1.4 million tons of waste is brought to the W2E plant. This amounts to 600 trucks and 1 freight train per day of refuse from the Amsterdam metropolitan area. The trash is deposited into a large sorting room where it is sifted and put into the incineration process. When trash is burnt, the heat is used to boil water. The superheated steam from this process is used to turn several turbines to generate electricity. Aware of the environmental effects of the gasses from this process, the Dutch have installed a complex process of scrubbing the flue gasses. It starts with an E-filter to separate the fly-ash. Next, gas passes through a fabric filter to remove other residues before being passed to an economizer.

The gas then passes through a series of other scrubbers to remove harmful gasses and particulates so they do not become airborne: an HCl scrubber yields calcium-chloride, SO2 scrubber produces gypsum, and a polishing scrubber takes out much of the remaining water vapor.

For many of these byproducts, attempts are being made to close the loop so the material can be used in other industrial processes—from trace elements for manufacturing, to fly ash for construction. Whatever material is left becomes landfill.

By the time the gas makes it out the flue, what remains is mostly water vapor and clean flue gas. Any other emissions are monitored, and so far have been kept well within Dutch legal limits. Dioxin from the incineration process is captured and safely disposed.

Attention to carbon emissions has been a special focus of the W2E plant and its designers. As the plant performs several functions (elimination of waste, generation of electricity and heat) simultaneously, it stacks up positively to other disposal methods, actually avoiding 438 kilotons of CO2 per year. Because of these combined processes, the process reduces the net amount of carbon going into the atmosphere.

As an alternative scenario, if the same 1 million tons of waste were put in landfill, the amount of equivalent CO2 emissions per year would be 1036 kilotons. This would mainly be as a result of methane gasses developing at the landfill. If these gasses were either captured or burned off, it would reduce the total emissions to 404 kilotons—still a fairly large amount.

The efficiency of the W2E plant is a major positive factor in the equation. If waste across the European Union were handled in a similar fashion, engineers estimate that W2E plants could generate 8% of the total EU electrical production by burning 182 megatons of waste, and in the process avoiding 200 million tons of CO2 per year. It would also free up large amounts of land for other purposes, as from the U.K. to eastern Europe, landfill is unfortunately still the disposal method of choice.

The benefits of the W2E plant are compounded when you plug the Waternet plant into the equation. Waternet handles waste water for 1 million population equivalents, and sludge (e.g. effluents from toilets etc.) for another 2 million population equivalents per year.

The water treatment concept uses biological methods rather than chemical ones to remove phosphate and nitrogen from the water. Sludge digestion means that energy recovery from biogas is possible in the deep aeration tanks. This biogas is currently being used at the W2E plant, to provide gas to the natural gas grid, and also to power a small pilot fleet of 120 biogas vehicles. Annually, Waternet digester gas production equates to 7.5 million cubic meters of natural gas, enough for 5000 households and 3500 cars.

By looking holistically at the processes, services, inputs, and outputs of both the W2E and Waternet plants, the Dutch have come up with an elegant solution to many complex problems. There’s been a clear attempt to close the loop on byproducts, whether it be flue gas particles or biogas from water reclamation. Careful integration of both waste and water management processes has yielded many efficiencies and benefits that would not be possible under other conventional, stand alone systems. With this attention to detail and maximizing benefits across the board, both Afval Energie Bedrijf W2E and Waternet stand as excellent examples of what can be achieved with some careful infrastructure planning.

One would hope in the future that Dutch officials would spend equal time and attention to reducing the amount of “waste” that is produced to begin with, and give more emphasis to reduction, elimination, recycling, and composting initiatives.

Renewables and Transmission- Black & Veatch

2009-08-14T10:24:00.001-07:00

The B&V Walnut Creek Renewables group is quite proud of the work it has done for RETI. It is often quoted and seems to be well respected.

Phase 2A Final Report-Conceptual Transmission Plan for Access to Renewable Energy Announced
SACRAMENTO - 8/13/09

The Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI) today announced the availability of its Phase 2A Report -- a conceptual transmission plan that evaluates the usefulness of potential transmission lines in accessing and delivering renewable energy. The plan is intended to help enable development and approval of renewable energy infrastructure in ways that minimize the economic cost, environmental impacts, and number of new transmission facilities.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), California Energy Commission, and California Independent System Operator (CAISO) formed RETI, and were quickly joined by Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), the Northern California Power Agency, and the Southern California Public Power Authority. RETI is a unique public-private partnership to consider the feasibility of building new transmission lines to access renewable generation from various areas of the state or possibly adjoining states and bring the power to population centers.
The first phase of RETI identified areas of the state and adjoining regions that have high densities of biomass, geothermal, solar, and wind resources. These areas are referred to as Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ). RETI Phase 2 work expanded the evaluation and re-ranking of CREZs and focused on the development of a statewide conceptual transmission expansion plan to access the CREZ.

The conceptual transmission plan is designed to meet the goal of obtaining 33 percent of the state's electricity from renewable resources by 2020. It was created with valuable input from an engaged Stakeholder Steering Committee comprised of representatives of environmental groups; renewable developers; public and investor-owned utilities; state, federal, and local governments; Native American tribes; and consumers.

"Insufficient transmission is a major barrier to developing renewable power and bringing the power to where it is needed," said CPUC President Michael R. Peevey. "This report is the result of a process that has never been attempted before; a process that was designed to achieve consensus."

"Transmission planning will go hand in hand with the implementation of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan," said Commissioner Jeffrey Byron, presiding member of the Energy Commission's power plant siting committee. "The plan, as required by the Governor's executive order streamlining permitting and environmental review of renewable projects, will coordinate renewable generation and transmission development, while conserving precious habitat."
California ISO President and CEO Yakout Mansour added, "The ISO applauds the diligent efforts of the RETI parties. The work is foundational to successful implementation of California's renewable portfolio standard."

Jim Shetler, SMUD Assistant General Manager for Energy Supply on behalf of public utilities, lauded the stakeholders for their efforts in developing the Phase 2A Report. "The output from this report will assist those of us who have to plan, permit, and build transmission in making more informed decisions on integrating renewable energy delivery into our planning for grid reliability," he said.

In issuing this report, the RETI Stakeholder Steering Committee hopes that it will contribute towards building public understanding and support for the difficult task of building transmission. "Smart planning produces good results," said Johanna Wald of the Natural Resources Defense Council and member of the Stakeholder Steering Committee.
"RETI is the improved model for good planning: Anyone who plans a line from now on needs to realize that RETI has set a new standard for public involvement in all stages of transmission planning," according to Carl Zichella of the Sierra Club.

The report will be used by state and local agencies as well as utilities and members of the public in developing detailed transmission plans.

Based on information available today regarding the potential for renewable development, the report:

* Identifies additional transmission capacity to access and deliver
renewable energy to meet the state renewable energy goals in 2020.
* Evaluates relative usefulness of potential lines for accessing the
delivering renewable energy.
* Identifies potential transmission network lines for further
detailed study by the California ISO and electric utilities.
* Locates most conceptual lines in existing right of way and/or
designated utility corridors.
* Builds in environmental considerations and high level screening of
conceptual transmission lines.
* Incorporates a wide range of stakeholder perspective. However, the report does not preclude study of other potential renewable development areas.

For the RETI Phase 2A report, please visit http://www.energy.ca.gov/reti/documents/

Energy storage

2009-07-31T12:35:00.000-07:00

13 Jul 2009: Report
The Challenge for Green Energy:How To Store Excess Electricity

For years, the stumbling block for making renewable energy practical and dependable has been how to store electricity for days when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing. But new technologies suggest this goal may finally be within reach.by jon r. luoma“Why are we ignoring things we know? We know that the sun doesn’t always shine and that the wind doesn’t always blow.” So wrote former U.S. Energy Secretary James Schlesinger and Robert L. Hirsch last spring in the Washington Post, suggesting that because these key renewables produce power only intermittently, “solar and wind will probably only provide a modest percentage of future U.S. power.”Never mind that Schlesinger failed to disclose that he sits on the board of directors of Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private-sector coal company — a business with much to lose if a solar- and wind-powered future arrives. But at least he and his co-author got it partly right. The benefits from wind and solar are mostly intermittent — so far. But the pair somehow missed the fact that a furious search for practical, affordable electricity storage to beat that intermittence problem is well underway.

Cost will be key for determining which battery or other storage technologies prevail.

A more robust world of solar and wind power might be better served by some sort of giant battery — or, more likely, many of them, widely distributed. The basic concept has been proven. Since 2003, the world’s largest battery backup has been storing energy for an entire city: Fairbanks, Alaska. Isolated as it is, and not part of any regional electricity grid, the metropolitan area of about 100,000 residents needs an electricity backstop more than most: In its sub-zero winters, pipes can freeze solid in as little as two hours. Six years ago, the city installed a huge nickel-cadmium battery, the same technology used for years in laptop computers and other portable devices.Housed in a giant warehouse, the 1,300-metric ton battery is larger than a football field, and can crank out 40 million watts of power. Still, the Fairbanks battery provides only enough electricity for about 12,000 residents for seven minutes. That was enough to prevent 81 blackouts in the city in the battery’s first two years of operation.Yet effective storage of electricity from solar or wind arrays that generate power equivalent to one large coal plant implies batteries on a breathtaking scale — hundreds of units the size of the Fairbanks array.

One possible answer? In Japan, so-called “flow” batteries have been used for years to store backup power at industrial plants. Conventional batteries store energy in chemical form. With flow batteries, charged chemicals storage tanks, allowing still more chemical to be charged and pumped away, then pumped back into the active portion of the battery and drawn down as needed. One big advantage: Battery “size” can be expanded by simply adding more chemicals and more storage tanks. In 2003, the local utility on small King Island, off the coast of Australia, installed a large flow battery to sop up and later release excess power from a wind farm.

One big advantage: Battery “size” can be expanded by simply adding more chemicals and more storage tanks. In 2003, the local utility on small King Island, off the coast of Australia, installed a large flow battery to sop up and later release excess power from a wind farm.As with the alternative generation technologies, cost will be key for determining which battery or other storage technologies might prevail. Aside from such typical economic concerns as raw material and maintenance costs and durability, storage technologies all face some losses in “round-trip efficiency.” Inevitably, some energy is lost as it goes into storage, and more is lost as it comes out. Right now, hopes are riding high on lithium ion batteries, because they have impressive round-trip efficiencies, can pack in high densities of energy, and can charge and discharge thousands of times before becoming degraded. Because of those attributes, lithium-ion battery technology has become increasingly dominant in laptop computers and cell phones. On a far larger scale, a powerful lithium ion battery pack powers the pricey all-electric Tesla Roadster, and is slated to power the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt next year.

more

Corporate Examples

2009-07-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

General Electric seems to have its eye on the ball. Using sustainable practises and dialogue with stakeholders and NGO's to make more money.

GE: Cleaner, Greener and More Open

General Electric and Walmart are the two most important companies in America, for different reasons: GE’s reputation for management excellence means that its ideas spread widely, while Walmart’s size and clout put it at the center of the consumer economy. Last week Walmart announced its plans for a sustainability index, generating lots of excitement, and today GE releases a citizenship report that demonstrates that the $183-billion company is becoming not just cleaner and greener, but more open.

The company also reports that sales of ecomagination products, which are products identified by GE as helping to solve environmental problems, grew briskly, from $14 billion in 2007 to $17 billion in 2008. Ecomagination has had another big payoff, Jeff Immelt has told me -- it makes people feel better about working at GE and helps attract new people to the company.
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Walmart Sustainability Index

2009-07-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

Here is the set of questions Walmart will ask its suppliers as it initiates that audacious new sustainability index for all of the products its sells.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/07/16/business/WalmartSlide.pdf

More Utility PV

2009-07-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

Massachusetts large scale solar power projects

July 19, 4:47 AM
Massachusetts large scale solar power projects. Under an agreement between Attorney General Martha Coakley and Gov. Deval Patrick, the Administration announced last week a plan to create a new joint venture to manage the four utility distribution, investor owned utilities in Massachusetts under the Green Communities Act of 2008. The new joint venture will combine the requirements on each of the 4 utilities for better cost competitiveness and less redundancy of new solar power distribution grids. The joint venture is aimed at large scale photo-voltaic (PV) solar power projects 100kW or larger.

The goal of the new state backed, utility run joint venture is maximize renewable power for ratepayers under the Green communities Act of 2008. Gov. Patrick has a goal of 250 MW of solar power by 2017. The Green Communities Act of 2008 allows each of the 4 investor owned utilities in Massachusetts until the end of 2012 to develop up to 50 megawatts of solar photo-voltaic (PV) generating capacity. The geographic disparities and customer base between the 4 utilities - NSTAR, National Grid, Unitil/ Fitchburg Gas & Electric and Western Massachusetts Electric - could have created a less effective more costly solution as the smaller utilities faced larger economies of scale to surpass. The Attorney General's Office has agreed to work with the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) to develop a streamlined way to save consumers in all four communities requiring the joint venture to identify and develop the most cost competitive solar power projects.

Under the proposal, the new joint entity would be responsible for identifying, developing and financing solar power generation projects in all 4 communities. Instead of each utility developing new infrastructure to deliver its solar goals in its own service area, the new joint venture would be charged with developing the most cost competitive projects statewide through a series of procurements of large scale 100 kW or more projects. Photo-voltaic (PV) installation will occur on commercial and industrial rooftops, municipal and state facilities, and other suitable sites for solar energy development. The funding is being covered by the Obama Federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 otherwise known as the Stimulus Bill. Look for similar programs coming to your home state soon. (AP photo of Energy Secretary Chu at a Chinese solar manufacturing plant)

Desertec

2009-07-17T09:45:00.000-07:00

Check out Desertec

http://blog.cleantechies.com/2009/07/17/desertec-project-alternative-russian-gas-pipelines/

this ambitious effort has a lot of support in Europe. It will be interesting to see if it can get off the ground.

Coal Takes Another Hit

2009-07-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles to Stop Using Coal by 2020

The mayor of Los Angeles declared that from 2020 onwards Los Angeles will completely eliminate the use of power generated by burning coal and go for alternative energy sources such as wind and sun. In his inaugural speech for his second four-year term as mayor he said, “LADWP will deliver 40 percent renewable power, with the remainder coming from natural gas, nuclear, and large hydroelectric.”

LADWP stands for Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and it is the largest city-owned utility in the United States with 1.45 million electricity customers. The department has already been taking strides towards a cleaner energy usage during Villaraigosa’s first term. While renewable energy made up only three percent of LA’s power supply in 2005, as of July last year the figure was 8.5% and the city is on track to have 20% by 2010.

Although California does not have power plants that use coal, 40% of its current energy demand is being met by coal-fired power plants located out of the state. Based on 1990 levels LAWDWP aims to cut its carbon emission by up to 60% by 2020.

“We applaud Mayor Villaraigosa’s bold decision to move Los Angeles beyond coal,” said Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club’s efforts to end coal-fired power plants. “The decision to replace coal with cleaner energy alternatives is key to boosting job creation and economic growth.”

Along with reducing carbon emissions the city also plans to reduce the use of power by 1% every year for the next 10 years. This will be achieved not by using less power but using the available power efficiently.

The non-coal-generated power is going to be a bit more expensive and will go beyond the current benchmark of 12 cents per kilowatt-hour. But this is a very small price to pay to keep the planet cleaner and healthier for present and future generations.

World’s Most Ambitious Solar Plan in LA
The city of Los Angles is taking up the world’s most ambitious solar power project. Till date this project will be the largest solar power plan started by any city in the world. They are planning to install 1.3 Giga Watts (GW) of solar power and register their city’s name in the book of green economy. The plan was announced by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Council President Eric Garcetti, Council member Jan Perry and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). This program is known as Solar LA. They aim to replace the fossil fuels during peak energy requirement and the program lays out a far-reaching and long-lasting course of action for a network of residential, commercial and municipally-owned solar systems to replace fossil fuels during peak energy demand. The Solar LA plan covers three primary components: first one is the programs to boost residential and commercial customer solar systems; second one will be the LADWP-owned solar projects in Los Angeles; and the third one will be the large-scale solar projects owned by the LADWP outside of the LA basin.

They are taking other steps too. For example, LADWP will utilize $313 million in state funds for solar projects. Using this fund, it will expand its rebate programs by encouraging customers to install solar panels for their power needs. LADWP will provide free systems to a limited number of customers belonging to the low-income group. LADWP will also encourage residential customers to opt for low-interest loans for the installation of solar systems till now available to commercial customers. This project will incorporate a new feed-in-tariff (FiT). Using this FiT, Solar developers can sell power to LAWDP by engaging in a long-term contract.

Mayor Villaraigosa is of the view that it’s time to use the most abundant natural source to generate electricity and jobs for the future. He wants people to view LA as the shining example of green growth worldwide. Investment in green power will create new openings in the area of research and development, manufacturing, installation, maintenance and repair. A release from the mayor’s office stated that every 10 MW of solar energy would generate 200 to 400 jobs. Los Angles would be giving the necessary push to “cleantech” economy by generating varied types of jobs.

“Solar LA serves as more than a blueprint to a greener LADWP,” Mayor Villaraigosa said. “By sparking a broad movement to solar energy across a city of 4 million residents, we are priming the pump for Los Angeles to become a world leader in the solar industry and delivering on the vision of re-making Los Angeles into the cleanest, greenest big city in America.”

If this plan is completed by 2020 then LA will generate a tenth of Los Angeles’ power through solar energy by 2020. LADWP will put in 400 MW of roof-top solar systems on city-owned properties by 2014. It will also obtain 500 MW of utility-scale solar power from projects developed under agreement by third-party solar developers.

“L.A. has everything it takes to make this [solar plan] work,” said Villaraigosa, standing alongside environmentalists, union leaders and City Council members. “We have the sun in abundance. We have the space. We have the largest municipal utility in the country.”

3rd Annual Concentrated Solar Power Summit

2009-07-03T10:41:00.000-07:00

Over 450 attendees, representing all aspects of the industry attended this conference this week. Much more interest than last year at an attendance of 100. CSP is moving forward, innovation is occurring and options or choices are being created. The industry has grown substantially over the last ten years while I was away. Many new companies exist and many new advocates have been created. I expect costs to come down during the next decade as the new product offerings become proven. I believe we may be in a bubble of hype and interest and some of the new companies will not survive. But that is alright, consolidations and failures, revised strategies, and even new entities are inevitable as innovation occurs. Some companies have already reevaluated their strategies. Some product developers/project developers are moving to concentrate on their product offerings. This will be good for the industry. Developers focused on other technologies are becoming interested in CSP. They will create a market for CSP product suppliers and will likely be better developers of projects based on their experience in other technologies. This is the way an industry matures and acknowledges all that has preceeded it.