tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71715074097581767932016-12-12T12:22:34.645-08:00MANAGEMENT & SUSTAINABILITY- PietruszkiewiczJon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.comBlogger130125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-66854193592642099062009-07-03T10:41:00.000-07:002009-07-03T10:55:44.790-07:003rd Annual Concentrated Solar Power SummitOver 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.<div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-11318642878193451562009-06-27T09:55:00.000-07:002009-06-27T10:28:56.510-07:00Waxman-Markey Moving<div>Get ready, here comes carbon trade. Many doubted it could be done but the House has passed Climate Change legislation. Apparently the way to sell it is through job growth. Those arguing that it will kill the economy are not winning. Let's see what the Senate will do.<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>House Passes Landmark Climate Change Bill, Now Heads to Senate<br /></strong><span style="font-size:78%;">By </span><a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/users/ClimateBiz-Staff"><span style="font-size:78%;">ClimateBiz Staff</span></a><span style="font-size:78%;">, ClimateBizPublished June 26, 2009</span><br /><br />WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a sweeping climate change bill today that will significantly change the way Americans use and produce energy.<br /><br />The <a title="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c111:1:./temp/~c111l5Fmr3::" href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c111:1:./temp/~c111l5Fmr3::" target="_blank">American Clean Energy and Security Act</a> (ACES), which passed on a 219-212 vote, now moves to the Senate, where experts predict another battle. Environmental groups hailed the bill's passing. "This vote was a major hurdle, and we've cleared it," Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a prepared statement. "President Obama can walk into the G8 summit of world leaders in Italy next week with his head held high. Now we have momentum to move and improve legislation in the Senate and put it on President Obama's desk so he can go to December's international summit in Copenhagen with the full backing of the Congress and the American people." Before the vote, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told her colleagues "we cannot hold back the future." She offered four words that she said represent the meaning of the legislation."Jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs," she said.<br /><br />Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit <a title="http://www.greenforall.org/splash" href="http://www.greenforall.org/splash" target="_blank">Green For All</a>, which was a driving force in securing green job training funds in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, called the bill a significant step forward in creating a more equitable and secure country. The bill includes a $860 million allocation to the Green Jobs Act.“This legislation will not only position America at the forefront of the clean-energy economy but will also create jobs and opportunities for communities that are too often at the margins - and the smokestack end - of our current economy,” Green For All CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins said in a statement.<br /><br />Coalitions of labor and environmental groups praised the House of Representatives for approving key investments in domestic clean energy manufacturing to be part of the Waxman-Markey legislation.“The American Clean Energy And Security Act is a giant leap forward to establish energy security, reduce harmful carbon emissions,and create millions of green jobs that will put our citizens back to work and get our economy back on track,” said Phil Angelides, chairman of the Apollo Alliance.He called the inclusion of investments to help the country’s manufacturers retool plants and retrain workers for the clean energy economy “a major victory that will keep millions of new, green jobs here at home and help revive America’s long suffering manufacturing sector.”<br /><br />As expected with such a heated issue, many groups came out with statements of concern in the wake of the vote. In a prepared statement, James C. May, the president of the Air Transport Association of America, said, "The nation's airlines have an impressive environmental record and are committed to working with the administration to address climate change, but we have strong concerns about the Waxman-Markey bill and its punitive one-size-fits-all approach. This cap-and-trade bill creates an onerous fuel tax on the airline industry."<br /><br />The bill aims to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change: 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, with other measures promising additional reductions. At its core is a greenhouse gas <strong>cap-and-trade program</strong> that gives away about 85 percent of the carbon permits to utilities, heavy industry, refiners, among others, and includes provisions to shield consumers from rising energy prices. Among the key provisions in the bill, <a href="http://www.majoritywhip.gov/index.cfm?p=DailyWhipline&ContentRecord_id=d25d92dc-3ad1-45c0-bf2e-a4526ddf76a3&ContentType_id=e950cf56-93b1-491f-8fe2-3e2bd68d6236" target="new">according to House Majority Whip James Clyburn</a>:<br /><br />• Require electric utilities to meet 20% of their electricity demand through renewable energy sources and energy efficiency by 2020.<br />• Invest in new clean energy technologies and energy efficiency, including energy efficiency and renewable energy ($90 billion in new investments by 2025), carbon capture and sequestration ($60 billion), electric and other advanced technology vehicles ($20 billion), and basic scientific research and development ($20 billion).<br />• Mandate new energy-saving standards for buildings and appliances, and promote energy efficiency in industry.<br />• Reduce carbon emissions from major U.S. sources by 17% by 2020 and over 80% by 2050 compared to 2005 levels. Complementary measures in the legislation, such as investments in preventing tropical deforestation, will achieve significant additional reductions in carbon emissions.<br />• Protect consumers from energy price increases. According to estimates from the Environmental Protection Agency, the reductions in carbon pollution required by the legislation will cost American families less than a postage stamp per day.<br /><br />CBO calculates that the legislation will cost the average household less than 50 cents per day. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates the bill in its current form would cost American households between $80 and $111 per year, which equals 22 cents to 30 cents per day. A separate analysis from the Congressional Budget Office projected an annual cost of $175 for U.S. households by 2020.The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy concluded the bill's energy provisions would <a title="http://aceee.org/press/0906waxman2.htm" href="http://aceee.org/press/0906waxman2.htm" target="_blank">save U.S. households up to $1,050 </a>cumulatively and produce more than 300,000 jobs by 2020.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/06/26/cisco-telecommuting-cuts-costs"><strong>Cisco's Telecommuting Program Boosts Productivity, Cuts Costs and Emissions</strong></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">By </span><a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/users/GreenBiz-Staff"><span style="font-size:78%;">GreenBiz Staff</span></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Published: June 26, 2009</span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span>SAN JOSE, Calif. -- In a survey of almost 2,000 employees, the company found that, in addition to increasing job satisfaction among teleworking employees, Cisco saved $277 million as a result of its flexible work program.<br />»<a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/06/26/cisco-telecommuting-cuts-costs">Read More</a></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div><strong> US EPA Issues Clean Energy Action Guide for States<br /></strong><a href="http://blog.cleantechies.com/author/ceylan/" border="0"></a><span style="font-size:78%;"> Published on June 26th, 2009 by </span><a title="Posts by ceylan" href="http://blog.cleantechies.com/author/ceylan/"><span style="font-size:78%;">ceylan</span></a></div><br /><br /><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 246px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5352060165884982130" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_IHD5uRoZ8/SkZWXUwXs3I/AAAAAAAAAFA/ZmFaJ32it38/s320/EPA.jpg" />The US EPA issued a report that outlines a strategy to deliver clean, low-cost, and reliable energy to state residents through the use of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and clean distributed generation. The intent is to provide states with the information they need to determine what energy options would be the most beneficial, practical, and cost-effective.<br />The potential energy savings achievable through state actions is significant. EPA estimates that if each state were to implement cost-effective clean energy-environment policies, the expected growth in demand for electricity could be cut in half by 2025, and more demand could be met through cleaner energy supply<a style="POSITION: static; TEXT-DECORATION: underline !important" id="KonaLink2" class="kLink" href="http://www.enn.com/business/article/40103#" target="undefined"></a>.<br /><div><br />This would mean annual savings of more than 900 bil­lion kilowatt-hours (kWh) and $70 billion in energy costs by 2025, while preventing the need for more than 300 power plants and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equivalent to emissions from 80 million of today’s vehicles.</div><br /><div> Read <a href="http://blog.cleantechies.com/2009/06/26/us-epa-clean-energy-action-guide-for-states/">more</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-21961273626537497752009-06-20T10:40:00.000-07:002009-06-20T10:45:02.336-07:00Follow the MoneyThe money always knows where its at and that is why investors are investing in companies that manage environmental impacts. Carbon management stragies are taking off and so are the investment indices.<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>CDP, Markit and NASDAQ to Offer New Green Investment Indices<br /></strong><span style="font-size:78%;">By </span><a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/users/GreenBiz-Staff"><span style="font-size:78%;">GreenBiz Staff</span></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Published June 19, 2009<br /></span><a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/rss-feeds"></a><br /><a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/06/19/cdp-markit-nasdaq-new-indices#comments"></a><br />OAKLAND, Calif. -- Investors who want to put their money behind companies that manage environmental impacts responsibly received news of two new options this week.<a title="http://www.cdproject.net/" href="http://www.cdproject.net/" target="_blank">Carbon Disclosure Project</a> and <a title="http://www.markit.com/" href="http://www.markit.com/" target="_blank">Markit</a> said Thursday they will launch a family of investment indices tracking the performance of companies with robust carbon management strategies. Meanwhile, a new index that tracks leaders in sustainability reporting was unveiled Monday by <a title="http://www.nasdaq.com/" href="http://www.nasdaq.com/" target="_blank">NASDAQ </a>and <a title="http://www.crdanalytics.com/" href="http://www.crdanalytics.com/" target="_blank">CRD Analytics</a>.<br /><br />The indices enter an increasingly crowded field of investment vehicles that track corporate environmental performance. <a title="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/01/22/ftse-launches-global-eco-index" href="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/01/22/ftse-launches-global-eco-index" target="_blank">FTSE</a>, <a title="http://www.climatebiz.com/news/2008/08/29/emissions-and-sustainability-indexes-launched" href="http://www.climatebiz.com/news/2008/08/29/emissions-and-sustainability-indexes-launched" target="_blank">Dow Jones</a> and <a title="http://www.climatebiz.com/news/2007/09/27/hsbc-launches-climate-change-investment-indices" href="http://www.climatebiz.com/news/2007/09/27/hsbc-launches-climate-change-investment-indices" target="_blank">HSBC</a> offer green-focused indices, while Standard and Poor’s launched a <a title="http://www.climatebiz.com/news/2009/03/10/pg-wal-mart-chevron-join-sp-carbon-efficient-index" href="http://www.climatebiz.com/news/2009/03/10/pg-wal-mart-chevron-join-sp-carbon-efficient-index" target="_blank">U.S. Carbon Efficient Index</a> earlier this year in addition others already in place. <a title="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/06/17/stimulus-boosts-energy-efficiency-firms" href="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/06/17/stimulus-boosts-energy-efficiency-firms" target="_blank">HSBC reported this week</a> that companies in the Energy Efficiency and Energy Management sector have earned 16 percent returns this year, compared to the 6.7 percent return of the global equities market as a whole.<br /><br />CDP is a U.K.-based nonprofit that has aggregated a wealth of corporate climate change data from the questionnaire it sends to global companies every year seeking information on their greenhouse gas management strategies. The highest scoring carbon-intensive and non-carbon-intensive companies make it to the <a title="http://www.cdproject.net/carbon-disclosure-leadership-index.asp" href="http://www.cdproject.net/carbon-disclosure-leadership-index.asp" target="_blank">Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index</a>, which will serve as a basis for the new CDP-Markit indices launched this year.<br /><br />Examples of companies that made it to the Index include BASF, Lafarge, Barclays and Tesco. CDP and Markit, a financial information services firm, will first launch a U.K. and European index before unveiling U.S. and global indices.<br /><br />Meanwhile, a new index that tracks leaders in sustainability reporting was launched Monday by the NASDAQ and CRD Analytics.<br /><br /><a title="https://indexes.nasdaqomx.com/data.aspx?IndexSymbol=" menuindex="0" href="https://indexes.nasdaqomx.com/data.aspx?IndexSymbol=QCRD&menuIndex=0" target="_blank">NASDAQ OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 Index</a> will include companies that voluntarily and publicly report information for their areas such as carbon footprint, energy and water consumption, waste, and community investment.<br /><br />The data disclosure must conform to the (GRI) G2/G3 guidelines, including at least 20 percent each of the core environment and social performance indicators, as well as 70 percent of the total financial performance indicators.<div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-26357732647424177922009-06-19T09:08:00.000-07:002009-06-24T15:56:39.874-07:00Industrial Efficiency and WasteMike Sutton at <a href="http://www.bv.com/">Black & Veatch </a>would love to start a movement toward industrial efficiency. A continuous improvement of manufacturing and industrial design that would change the industry. He envisions that industry leaders could team with an organization such as RMI to develop a set of standards for industrial design in much the same way as LEED has developed their consensus standards. Eventually these standards would be accepted to the degree that they would be adopted in codes and regulations much as is beginning to happen with LEED. The following might help you see where Mike's vision comes from. I am sure he would love to start identifying industrial leaders. Thought leadership is where it begins.<br /><br /><strong>Unleashing the Next Wave of Engineering Innovation</strong><br /><br />Throughout the <a title="http://www.rmi.org/" href="http://www.rmi.org/" target="_blank">Rocky Mountain Institute</a>’s (RMI) 27-year existence, its staff has sought to influence the design, building, and retrofitting of power and industrial plants, commercial and residential buildings, and vehicles and transportation systems early in the development process so they’re designed correctly upfront, eliminating costly late redesigns and inefficient outcomes.<br /><br />One of the basic challenges our practioners run into, year after year, is that the people creating inefficient processes and systems are simply unaware they are doing so, and they don’t know how to do things differently. The reasons are many and complex, but often boil down to a few familiar parameters: assumed cost (e.g., capital resources, risk, reward, etc.), time (e.g., regulatory requirements, demand, etc.), tradition (e.g., what has worked before), and skills.“Engineering schools don’t specifically teach bad engineering design,” notes RMI’s Alok Pradhan, “It’s just that current engineering practice is very siloed and there’s a lack of integration and whole-system consideration. Designs are typically optimized for the wrong parameters. That is, they will optimize the component individually, and the pieces -- when they fit together -- don’t work that great as a system.”Pradhan is the project manager for <a title="http://www.greenbiz.com/10XE%20project" href="http://www.greenerbuildings.com/10XE%20project" target="_blank">10xE</a>, which is short for Factor Ten Engineering.<br /><br />Several years ago, RMI kicked off this modest project to address these problems in engineering. This RMI initiative is fairly straightforward: The goal is to create a series of teaching tools that will help engineers design the things they design using radically less energy and resources than they otherwise would have, without compromising performance. These teaching materials -- revolving around a casebook of extremely efficient projects and systems -- will be used to teach efficiency concepts and design to both engineering students and practitioners.<br /><br />10xE has its genesis in the Factor Four notion put forth by Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins in their 1995 report to the Club of Rome, “Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use.” In the report, the authors argue that energy and resources can be used much more efficiently, to the tune of at least four times as efficient. “Factor Ten represents Amory Lovins’s belief that we can do even better,” notes Alok. “It might not necessarily be 10 times the efficiency. It might be eight times or six times, but the basic premise of this project is to see, when these principles are applied, what’s possible.”This year, the effort has gained some financial support and is picking up momentum.“It’s something we’ve been thinking about for a long time at RMI, but now, with Alok, we have a full-time project manager, a little seed money, and the momentum to move forward,” notes Lionel Bony, who heads the Office of the Chief Scientist at RMI. “We are going from concept phase to implementation, which is very exciting.”<br /><br /><strong>A Different Kind of Engineering Ideal</strong><br /><br />The main focus of the 10xE project is the casebook. In it, RMI and the Institute’s research partners, including university engineering schools, engineering firms, and their customers, are assembling several dozen case studies in which regular, dis-integrated engineering will be compared with highly efficient engineering design, laid out on facing pages so the reader can easily compare them and understand why the superefficient design typically costs less to build.The cases themselves will span the range of engineering disciplines and main applications. More importantly, they’ll be chosen to illustrate and develop practical principles of design integration to achieve big energy and resource savings more cheaply.“We do want to make these cases broad so they cover multiple disciplines, and, more importantly, demonstrate the whole-system considerations that have gone into the design,” Alok notes.<br /><br />A case study of a data center that is currently being developed is a good example of the types of projects the book will include, he says. Researchers will compare the superefficient data center design with a normal one.“In that particular data center they managed to eliminate chillers, which is a huge energy savings; they made the computer code more efficient so the center didn’t actually have to do as much computing; they removed extra load and unnecessary servers; they changed some of the electrical hardware to make the servers ‘best in class’; and they retrofitted the buildings,” Alok notes. “The project was made much more efficient in terms of at least three disciplines: mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering.”While the cases will compare efficient engineering projects with projects that weren’t designed to be efficient, not all the comparisons will be parallel.<br /><br />With Amory Lovins’s 1982 superefficient home in Snowmass, Colo., for example, researchers plan to do some energy modeling and compare the building as it exists (including an elaborate data-monitoring system now being commissioned) to a hypothetical version of the building built simply to meet the local building code.At present, RMI researchers are working with partners along the engineering value chain to refine how the casebook will come together during the next few months, with the possibility of a “summer study” in July or August, convening researchers for intensive collaboration over a two-week period. The book itself will likely be published in 2010.“It’s very important that we drive change as soon as possible,” Lionel says. “The things we design now have a lifespan of anywhere between 15 and 20 years for a car and 50 and 100 years for a building. The more we wait, the longer it’s going to take to have an impact.”<br /><br />Perhaps more important will be 10xE’s influence on people. Some leading professors and practicing engineers are already using the term “brown engineering” for standard engineering practices, and engineering students who’ve been exposed to “green engineering” quickly become diehard advocates, helping to build momentum for superior design. Once these young engineers enter the marketplace, their very existence will help create further demand for green engineering.“10xE will hopefully foster an entire generation of newly and better educated students who will go on to do amazing things because they have been properly trained,” notes Lionel. “This won’t just change the built world around us; it’ll change our fundamental relationships with both what we build and the Earth itself.”<br /><br />Do you have any worthy case studies or do you know about any? If you don't what does that tell you? If you do, why not see what you can do to join Mike's vision.<div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-35331785227721608382009-06-13T09:33:00.000-07:002009-06-13T19:36:14.993-07:00Sustainability Goes Mainstream.... Perhaps!I have been writing about sutainability for a while now. I have noticed more industry involvement and more and more organizations seeking Chief Sustainability Officers and similar. I noticed this advertisement. It got my attention because of the location. I can't imagine that the Appalachian area is known for its leadership in this area. I don't know if this is a signal, but perhaps those that have not moved in this direction are going to get left behind. Now its not just California, big cities, and the Fortune 500, but sustainability is moving to the "low wealth" areas of the country.<br /><br />Job: <a href="http://greenjobs.greenjobsearch.org/a/jbb/job-details/97210">Executive Director</a><br />Organization: <a href="http://www.asdevelop.org/">Appalachian Sustainable Development</a><br />Location: Abingdon, Virginia<br /><br />An excerpt of the job announcement follows below. The complete job announcement and application information is available <a href="http://greenjobs.greenjobsearch.org/a/jbb/job-details/97210">here</a>.<br /><br />Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD) seeks an experienced, creative, visionary, and entrepreneurial leader to fill the position of Executive Director. The ideal candidate is a dynamic and flexible individual with a personal interest and investment in sustainable development. The candidate should additionally have a distinguished record in leading organizations and a history of working effectively within and across low-wealth communities, public institutions, and private business.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">ATT is a much more likely place to find a CSO and they don't disappoint</span></strong>.<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Dallas, Texas, May 14, 2009</span><br /><br /><strong>AT&T Appoints First Chief Sustainability Officer<br /></strong>Company Names Charlene Lake to New Post as Part of its Ongoing Commitment to Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability<br /><br />AT&T today announced the appointment of Charlene Lake as senior vice president public affairs and chief sustainability officer. In this capacity, Lake will lead AT&T’s efforts to achieve a wide range of specific, sustainable business objectives, working with the Public Policy Committee of the Board of Directors, the Chairman’s office, and AT&T’s executive management team to further integrate sustainable business practices across AT&T and its supply chain.<br /><br />“Our appointment of a chief sustainability officer reflects our commitment to our long-term future and the communities where we live and work,” said Randall Stephenson, chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T Inc.<br /><br />AT&T has taken a number of steps in the last 18 months to strengthen its commitment to sustainable business practices and operations, including:<br /><br />Establishing accountability with the AT&T Board of Directors. At the end of 2007, AT&T changed the charter of its Public Policy Committee of the Board of Directors to establish clear oversight in the area of citizenship and sustainability.<br /><ul><li>Creating a cross-functional steering committee made up of senior executives and officers from across AT&T to better integrate sustainability into its business operations.<br /></li><li>Launching AT&T Aspire, a $100 million philanthropic program to help strengthen student success and workforce readiness and begin impacting the labor pool for all businesses.<br /></li><li>Making tangible commitments to environmental stewardship, such as an investment commitment of up to $565 million to deploy more than 15,000 fuel vehicles over the next 10 years, as well as additional investments to support the use of wind and solar power for facilities in California and Texas, and energy-saving software for 310,000 desktop computers across domestic operations.</li></ul><br />AT&T also is building on its history of <strong>collaborating with industry groups and government</strong> to develop new approaches to measuring and improving energy efficiency. Examples of their leadership include:<br /><br /><ul><li>Working with The Green Grid, a global consortium, to advance energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. </li><li>Assisting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the development of a new ENERGY STAR rating for data center infrastructure. </li><li>Collaborating through the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), a global organization of ICT companies, to improve the sustainability impact of the ICT industry. With GeSI, AT&T helped launch the U.S. Addendum to the “SMART 2020” report, which found that ICT-enabled solutions could cut annual emissions in the U.S. by 13- 22 percent by 2020.</li></ul><p>A <strong>Kansas native,</strong> Lake began her career at Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in 1986 in Topeka, Kan., and served in management roles in financial communications, media relations and employee communications in Kansas, Missouri and Texas. Lake took over the leadership of SBC Communication’s corporate advertising and sports marketing department during the mid-90s, and managed the organizations through the mergers of Pacific Bell, Southern New England Telephone and Ameritech. She then became responsible for leading the public affairs unit, and after the AT&T merger, she assumed AT&T’s philanthropic and volunteerism initiatives. In 2008, Lake was tapped to lead the development of AT&T’s centralized corporate citizenship and sustainability function.</p><p>For more information about AT&T’s sustainability efforts, visit <a href="http://www.att.com/sustainability">www.att.com/sustainability</a>.</p><p>With AT&T's move, it made me ask the question, who else has recently appointed a CSO? I found this brief article written in March.</p><p>March 2, 2009, 1:25 pm — <strong>Companies Add Chief Sustainability Officers<br /></strong><span style="font-size:78%;">By </span><a class="url fn" title="See all posts by Kate Galbraith" href="http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/author/kate-galbraith/"><span style="font-size:78%;">Kate Galbraith</span></a></p><p>Amid mounting job woes, at least one position seems to be gaining currency: chief sustainability officer.<br />“The accountability structures are more clear, and these executives have real influence over the other business lines.”<br />— <a href="http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/companies-add-chief-sustainability-officers/#ceres">Andrea Moffat,Ceres</a></p><p>This week, SAP, the multinational software giant, announced that it was appointing its <a href="http://www.sunherald.com/prnewswire/story/1172733.html">first-ever chief sustainability officer</a> as part of an effort to reduce carbon emissions and save energy.<br />Last month, <a href="http://www.innovationintextiles.com/articles/PGI017.php">PGI</a>, a maker of materials for medical and industrial uses, announced the creation of a similar post, and <a href="http://www.flowserve.com/fls/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=278792d9cb08f110VgnVCM1000004f181eacRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&locale=en_US">Flowserve</a>, a Texas-based maker of pumps, valves and seals, announced that its vice-president for public affairs would also take on the newly created title. </p><p>A number of other big companies, like <a href="http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/ceo/bio.jsp?name=David%20Douglas">Sun Microsystems</a>, <a href="http://www.environmentalleader.com/2007/11/06/georgia-pacific-names-chief-sustainability-officer/">Georgia Pacific</a>, Dow Chemical, and <a href="http://www2.dupont.com/Our_Company/en_US/executives/fisher.html">Dupont</a>, have also appointed chief sustainability officers. The Sustainability chiefs hail from widely disparate backgrounds. <a title="Owens Corning" href="http://www.nytimes.com/mem/MWredirect.html?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=OWENQ">Owens Corning</a> plucked its chief from research, while <a title="More information about Home Depot Inc." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/home_depot_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org">Home Depot</a> dipped into its merchandising ranks. Ms. Fisher of DuPont once worked for the <a title="More articles about the Environmental Protection Agency." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/environmental_protection_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org">Environmental Protection Agency</a>, while Francis Sullivan, deputy head of group sustainable development for the <a title="More information about HSBC Holdings P.L.C." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/hsbc_holdings_plc/index.html?inline=nyt-org">HSBC</a> Group, came from the World Wildlife Fund. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-16919908625522438092009-06-05T11:58:00.000-07:002009-06-05T12:12:22.059-07:00More Telecommunication, Less Travel, More Effective use of timeI have blogged about teleconference substituting for travel in the past. I have noted that while our children are into webcams, they have not yet overtaken the business world. I think maybe times are changing. In my short time at <a href="http://www.bv.com/Markets/Energy/Renewables/Default.aspx">Black & Veatch</a>, I have noted a significant amount of use of webinar type format and routine use of teleconference. I saw some data that spoke to their significantly increased usage over the past few years. It would be my observation that they are able to take advantage of intellectual assets anywhere in the world to solve clients problems without the need for travel. Digital reporting is also eliminating the need to send numerous copies of printed documents.<br /><br /><strong>Virtual Meeting Technologies Take Center Stage in AT&T Event<br /></strong><span style="font-size:78%;">By </span><a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/users/GreenBiz-Staff"><span style="font-size:78%;">GreenBiz Staff</span></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Published June 4, 2009<br /></span><br />HONG KONG, CN -- Telepresence -- the use of high-quality video terminals instead of face-to-face meetings -- has made the news several times in recent days, showing how companies are looking at alternatives to business travel as a cost-saving and footprint-reduction measure.<br /><a title="http://att.com" href="http://att.com/" target="_blank">AT&T</a> announced that its semi-annual AT&T Asia Pacific Group meeting was conducted entirely through Cisco TelePresence suites bringing 21 customers from 15 countries together virtually. As a result, AT&T saved more than $100,000 in travel costs and saved 62 metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from avoiding air travel.<br /><br />Will Thomas, the customer chairman of AT&T's Asia Pacific Regional Advisory Council, said that the meeting served as a positive test case for demonstrating how well telepresence meetings can be put to use.<br /><br />"Aside from the cost savings we achieved by meeting in this way, we were able to be more productive and improve our work life balance by avoiding the need to travel, as well as reduce the impact on the environment," Thomas said.<br /><br />This type of meeting is proving to be a growing trend among cost- and environment-conscious businesses. A report out last week from <a href="http://haddock-research.com/" target="new">Haddock Research</a> suggested that business travelers would be willing to cut their physical travel by 35 percent or more and use telepresence solutions instead.<br /><br />The survey asked over 3,000 individuals in the United States, Canada and England about their business travel and telepresence-use habits, and found that the willingness to switch to virtual meetings is highest among American travelers: 35 to 40 percent of Americans' flights , 25 percent of Britons' flights, and 20 percent of Canadians' flights could be replaced by telepresence as the technology becomes more readily available.<br /><br />Recent news certainly backs up companies' willingness to shift to virtual meetings; last year, <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/03/20/tandberg-aims-cut-air-travel-and-energy-use-10-percent">Tandberg announced a goal</a> to cut business travel by 10 percent through virtual meetings, while Deloitte <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/07/11/deloitte-looks-telepresence-cut-costs-and-carbon">signed up with Nortel</a> to spread telepresence across its global operations. At the end of 2008, Wachovia announced that its use of telepresence had <a href="http://wallstreetandtech.com/it-infrastructure/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212002345&cid=RSSfeed_WST_All" target="new">saved the firm $1.5 million</a> in costs.<br />And the growth of telepresence technologies is on the rise; just over a year ago, Cisco announced a <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/05/14/cisco-launches-telepresence-mid-sized-businesses">TelePresence system for mid-sized businesses</a>, and earlier this week as part of a larger <a href="http://www.greenercomputing.com/news/2009/06/02/hp-eco-solutions-additions" target="new">rollout of green initiatives</a>, Hewlett-Packard announced it was developing a telepresence-lite technology called SkyRoom. That new tool aims to bring virtual meeting technology to employees' desks for less than the cost of one cross-country business trip, and is sure to bring telepresence to the masses.<div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-63212719894875654942009-05-31T09:39:00.000-07:002009-05-31T09:41:24.744-07:00Counting the dropsThe <a title="http://www.nrdc.org/" href="http://www.nrdc.org/" target="_blank">Natural Resources Defense Council</a> published a comprehensive report this week about the array of water-saving opportunities available for the commercial, industrial and institutional sector (CII) in the nation’s most populous state. <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/files/document/cii.pdf">download</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-20039542343292849702009-05-31T09:15:00.000-07:002009-05-31T09:28:06.206-07:00Home Depot Pursued by ShareholdersHome Depot is failing to address energy efficiency in a systematic manner, yet it is winning awards for efficiency, What's up. Why are shareholders up in arms. They feel Home Depot is losing a competitive advantage to others. The article below is from Green.biz.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Shareholder Effort to Force Home Depot to Set Energy Plan Fails, Talks on Issue Possible<br /></span></strong><span style="font-size:78%;">By </span><a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/users/GreenBiz-Staff"><span style="font-size:78%;">GreenBiz Staff</span></a> <span style="font-size:78%;">Published May 29, 2009</span><br /><br /> ATLANTA, Ga. -- Investors voted down a shareholders resolution that would have required <a title="http://ir.homedepot.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=" href="http://ir.homedepot.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=63646&p=irol-IRHome" target="_blank" p="irol-IRHome">Home Depot</a> to develop an energy efficiency plan for its buildings, transportation and supply chain, but talks on the issue may be possible."There's certainly the opportunity for continued follow up," Donald Kirshbaum, the investment officer for policy at the Connecticut State Treasurer's Office, told <a title="http://greenbiz.com" href="http://greenbiz.com/" target="_blank">GreenBiz.com</a> and <a title="http://GreenerBuildings.com" href="http://greenerbuildings.com/" target="_blank">GreenerBuildings.com</a> today. The treasurer's office is principal fiduciary of the state's $20 billion pension fund, the Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust, which filed the <a title="http://www.onlineethicalinvestor.org/eidb/wc.dll?eidbproc~reso~8677 " href="http://www.onlineethicalinvestor.org/eidb/wc.dll?eidbproc~reso~8677" target="_blank">shareholders resolution</a>. The resolution asked that Home Depot assess its energy use companywide, set targets for reducing consumption and report its progress toward meeting those goals to shareholders. (We don't have the facts, but why wouldn't any company agree to this?)<br /><br />The resolution, which had support from the proxy advisory firm RiskMetrics Group and investors in the $7 trillion Investor Network on Climate Risk, was brought before investors at the company's annual general meeting on Thursday amid the proponents' mounting concerns that competitors such as <a title="http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=" href="http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=pg&p=PressReleases/environmental.html" target="_blank" p="PressReleases/environmental.html">Lowe's</a> and <a title="http://walmartstores.com/Sustainability/9090.aspx" href="http://walmartstores.com/Sustainability/9090.aspx" target="_blank">Wal-Mart</a> have trumped Home Depot by pursing aggressive energy efficiency initiatives -- efforts that are saving facilities and fuel costs as well as driving up perceived value by consumers. Lowe's and Wal-Mart were among 35 U.S. companies that consumers singled out for having top notch eco-sensibility, <a title="http://www.greenbiz.com/resources/resource/bringing-consumer-perspective-csr-reporting" href="http://www.greenbiz.com/resources/resource/bringing-consumer-perspective-csr-reporting" target="_blank">according to a report on an Earthsense Eco-Insights Survey</a> of consumer perception and corporate environmental responsibility. The findings were published earlier this year by Earthsense and GreenBiz.com.<a title=" http://www.greenbiz.com/podcast/2009/05/18/walmarts-sustainability-journey" href="http://www.greenbiz.com/podcast/2009/05/18/walmarts-sustainability-journey" target="_blank"> In a recent interview, Rand Waddoups</a>, Wal-Mart Stores' senior director of Business Strategy and Sustainability, provided GreenBiz.com with an update on its environmental initiatives. In addition to savings realized from corporate efforts, an idea from employees to switch off the lights in vending machines saved about a million dollars in electricity costs, he said. Home Depot is the No. 1 home improvement retailer, Lowe's is No. 2 and Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer. Earlier this week, Connecticut State Treasurer Denise L. Nappier called for Home Depot to "step up to the plate," set up an energy efficiency plan and provide shareholders with the "information and transparency that we have requested." "By failing to address energy use in a systematic and high-level manner, Home Depot is putting itself at a competitive and operational disadvantage," Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres and director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), said in a statement before the investors meeting.According to the organizations, when faced with a similar shareholder resolution three years ago, Home Depot agreed to improve public reporting of its energy efficiency efforts -- including policy, performance targets, results and related financial outcomes -- and shareholders withdrew their resolution.<br /><br />The company did not follow through on the agreement, prompting the resolution from the pension fund as a shareholder. The proposal was one of five shareholder resolutions five placed before investors. All were voted down. However, Kirshbaum, who made a presentation on the resolution at the meeting, said he came away from the session and conversations outside the meeting with Director Bonnie Hill and Home Depot CEO Frank Blake with a sense that talks with the company about the issue would continue. In the meeting, the question and answer period was "very open and no discussion was cut off," he said -- apart from a protest on behalf of the <a title="http://internationalrivers.org/" href="http://internationalrivers.org/" target="_blank">International Rivers</a> environmental group regarding a dam project in Chile. People had "every opportunity to speak ... there was a tenor of openness and inclusiveness," Kirshbaum said.It was a marked contrast to meetings under previous leadership, which other shareholders noted, according to the <a title=" http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/05/25/daily61.html" href="http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2009/05/25/daily61.html" target="_blank">Atlanta Business Chronicle</a>. After the meeting, Home Depot posted a <a title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8I6i2JOhuA " href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8I6i2JOhuA" target="_blank">You Tube video</a> and a statement on its website regarding activists' demands that the firm take a stand in the controversy over a proposed hydro-electric dam in Chile. The company says it does not buy wood within 1,000 miles of the affected region and does not have involvement, expertise or influence in the matter. The company did not respond to requests for comment today on the energy efficiency issue or the potential for further discussion on the subject.<br /><br />"We are cautiously optimistic that Home Depot will work with shareholders to address critical energy concerns and improve its competitive positioning, but we have been down this road before with no results," Rob Berridge, manager of investor programs at Ceres, said in a statement provided to GreenBiz today. "The proof will be in the pudding." The Home Depot website lists the <a title="http://corporate.homedepot.com/wps/portal/!ut/p/c1/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3gDdwNHH0sfE3M3AzMPJ8OAEBcDKADKR2LKmxrD5fHr9vPIz03VL8iNKAcAJzsP4g!!/dl2/d1/L2dJQSEvUUt3QS9ZQnB3LzZfMEcwQUw5TDQ3RjA2SEIxUEdEMDAwMDAwMDA!/" href="http://corporate.homedepot.com/wps/portal/!ut/p/c1/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3gDdwNHH0sfE3M3AzMPJ8OAEBcDKADKR2LKmxrD5fHr9vPIz03VL8iNKAcAJzsP4g!!/dl2/d1/L2dJQSEvUUt3QS9ZQnB3LzZfMEcwQUw5TDQ3RjA2SEIxUEdEMDAwMDAwMDA!/" target="_blank">principles of its nearly 20-year-old environmental program</a>, which emphasizes products, aspects of its supply chain and support for sustainable forestry. "By far, the most important way to positively impact the environment is through <a title="http://www.greenbiz.com/podcast/2008/04/14/home-depots-eco-options-six-months-in" href="http://www.greenbiz.com/podcast/2008/04/14/home-depots-eco-options-six-months-in" target="_blank">the products we sell</a>," the company says. The company's tenet on resource efficiency says, "We will conserve natural resources by using energy and water wisely and seek further opportunities to improve the resource efficiency of our stores." Although specifics aren't detailed in the environmental section, the company highlights its efficiency efforts in its media kit.<br /><br /><a title="http://corporate.homedepot.com/en_US/Corporate/Public_Relations/Online_Press_Kit/Docs/environment.pdf" href="http://corporate.homedepot.com/en_US/Corporate/Public_Relations/Online_Press_Kit/Docs/environment.pdf" target="_blank">Home Depot says it has reduced energy consumption</a> per square foot in stores by 12 percent and that changes in design and construction have produced an average of 34 percent energy savings when comparing company stores built before 2003 to those built after 2003. The Environmental Protection Agency's <a title="http://www.energystar.gov/" href="http://www.energystar.gov/" target="_blank">Energy Star</a> has recognized Home Depot twice for "superior energy efficiency" by naming the retailer a Partner of Year in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, the company received an Award for Excellence for its promotion of Energy Star products.Shareholder resolutions are becoming increasingly popular vehicles to bring environmental concerns before corporations -- and place them prominently in the public's eye.<br /><br />Sixty-seven climate change resolutions were filed with 58 U.S. companies and 2 Canadian firms as part of the 2009 proxy season, according to Ceres. On Tuesday, the eve of the Chevron annual meeting, the Sisters of St. Dominic of Caldwell, NJ, announced that a group of interfaith investors would withdraw their shareholders' resolution as a result of the <a title="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/05/27/shareholders-chevron-track-carbon-content" href="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/05/27/shareholders-chevron-track-carbon-content" target="_blank">oil company's agreement</a> to track the carbon contents of its products, as the proposal had asked. In response to shareholders, <a title=" http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/04/01/mcdonalds-reduce-potato-pesticides" href="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/04/01/mcdonalds-reduce-potato-pesticides" target="_blank">McDonald's agreed in March</a> to survey its potato suppliers in the U.S., compile best practices in pesticide reduction, recommend them to the firm's global suppliers via the McDonald's Global Potato Board, report best practices findings to the shareholders and include those findings in the company's annual corporate social responsibility report. The shareholder resolution filed by the Bard College Endowment, Newground Social Investment and the AFL-CIO Reserve Fund was the first of its kind to be filed by a college or university endowment. It was withdrawn following the agreement that was developed with support from the <a title="http://www.iehn.org/" href="http://www.iehn.org/" target="_blank">Investor Environmental Health Network</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-8858445536197498232009-05-27T18:39:00.000-07:002009-05-27T18:44:45.038-07:00Chevron Agrees to Monitor Carbon<strong>Shareholders Convince Chevron to Track Product Carbon Cont</strong>ent<br />By <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/users/ClimateBiz-Staff">ClimateBiz Staff</a>, ClimateBizPublished May 27, 2009<br /><br />DALLAS, Texas -- A group of faith-based investors will back off a resolution it filed to get <a title="http://www.chevron.com/" href="http://www.chevron.com/" target="_blank">Chevron</a> to track its products’ carbon contents after the oil company agreed to comply.<br /><br />The Sisters of St. Dominic commended Chevron for being the largest company to voluntarily track product carbon content, and pointed out another oil giant -- <a title="http://www.exxonmobil.com/corporate/" href="http://www.exxonmobil.com/corporate/" target="_blank">ExxonMobil</a> -- is still resisting similar proposals.“ As shareholders, we appreciate the difficulties that Chevron management faces in the long-term in confronting the task to reduce GHG emissions,” Sister Patricia Daly, executive director of the <a title="http://www.tricri.org/" href="http://www.tricri.org/" target="_blank">Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment</a> and a member of the <a title="http://www.iccr.org/" href="http://www.iccr.org/" target="_blank">Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility</a> (ICCR), said in a statement. “The recent advancements Chevron has made in reducing its carbon footprint and preparing the company for viability in a low-carbon business environment cannot be ignored.”<br /><br />Daly made the announcement the day before San Ramon-based Chevron’s annual stockholders meeting, where reports suggest it may address concerns about a <a title="http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/05/07/chevron-legal-troubles-environment" href="http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/05/07/chevron-legal-troubles-environment" target="_blank">legal case in Ecuador</a> that could lead to a multi-billion dollar judgment against the company. The case stems from alleged environmental violations committed by Texaco, which Chevron later acquired.Carbon-intensive companies in recent months have felt increasing shareholder pressure to communicate to investors the financial and physical risks they may face from climate change and future regulation. Earlier this month, for example, about 30.5 percent of ConocoPhillips shareholders voted to make the company account for the potential environmental damage created by its Canadian tar sands development, which represents one of the dirtiest and most carbon-intensive forms of oil exploration.<br /><br />Nearly 46 percent of Massey Energy’s shareholders recently voted in favor of a climate change resolution, while last week, 52 percent of shareholders at Idaho Power voted in favor of the company establishing greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals and report on its strategy to meet its targets.More than 60 climate change resolutions were filed with nearly 60 U.S. companies and one Canadian company as part of the 2009 proxy season, according to the nonprofit <a title="http://www.ceres.org/Page.aspx?pid=" href="http://www.ceres.org/Page.aspx?pid=705" target="_blank">Ceres</a>.<br /><br />The coalition of investors, NGOs and public organizations included Chevron, ExxonMobil and Massey Energy on a <a title="http://www.climatebiz.com/news/2009/02/19/exxon-massey-climate-laggards" href="http://www.climatebiz.com/news/2009/02/19/exxon-massey-climate-laggards" target="_blank">“Climate Watch”</a> list of companies lagging behind their industry peers in addressing climate change risks.Others on the list include Southern, Consol Energy, Ultra Petroleum, Canadian Natural Resources, General Motors and Standard Pacific.<br /><br />Customers and shareholders are driving corporate America. Slowly but surely.<div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-63786464436323868212009-05-26T18:14:00.000-07:002009-05-26T18:19:22.035-07:00Warren Buffet's Big Battery PlayEnergy Storage can be an enabling technology. While there is still much work to be done. MidAmerican Energy is positioning now.<br /><br />As Washington debates climate change, a lot of utility company CEOs have assumed high-profile roles: Jim Rogers of Duke Energy is <a href="http://www.asmartcap.com/page.cfm?tagID=40866" target="_blank">appearing in commercials</a> with the Environmental Defense Fund, David Crane of NRG Energy has emerged as a leading advocate for nuclear power and Michael Morris of American Electric Power, the nation's biggest coal-burning utility, naturally talks up clean coal.<br /><br />David Sokol, the chairman of an Iowa-based utility holding company called <a href="http://www.midamerican.com/default.asp" target="_blank">MidAmerican Energy Holdings</a>, which is 80 percent owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, has for the most part been quieter. But Sokol and MidAmerican Energy have been positioning their business for a low-carbon future. MidAmerican's investments in wind power mean that it generates more power from renewable source than any other regulated utility, as best as I can tell. It was Sokol, at Buffett's request, who engineered MidAmerican's investment in BYD, the Chinese battery-maker and auto company that is building low-cost electric cars. (See <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/13/technology/gunther_electric.fortune/" target="_blank">Warren Buffett Takes Charge</a>, my story about BYD that ran last month in FORTUNE.) And now there's more news from MidAmerican, and you heard it here first: The company will soon begin testing batteries from BYD that, if all goes well, could store electricity on a large scale at a reasonable cost. <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/05/26/warren-buffets-big-battery-play">More</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-9185119376160627682009-05-22T16:41:00.000-07:002009-05-22T16:46:10.076-07:00NGO/business PartnershipsLeading companies know that: “Business as usual” has changed. Investors and customers want companies to address social and environmental concerns. Leading companies in the private sector recognize that they should develop strategies to meet these needs while remaining profi table. At the same time, many of the most effective non-governmental organizations (NGOs) recognize that they can achieve widespread and lasting change by harnessing the power of the market. To achieve these goals, companies and NGOs are finding ways to work together. <strong>The GEMI-Environmental Defense Fund Guide to Successful Corporate-NGO Partnerships </strong>was born out of the belief that these partnerships, if designed and executed effectively, can achieve remarkable business and environmental results—and inspire the next generation of successful partnerships.<br /><br />Examples discussed in the report include: Johnson Controls recently developed in 2007 its new corporate vision to provide solutions for “a more comfortable, safe, and sustainable world,” a vision that captures the company’s growth focus. As part of achieving this vision, Johnson Controls has pledged to work with the Clinton Climate Initiative, headed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, on its Energy-Efficiency Building Retrofit Program.and The Green Power Market Development Group (GPMDG) is a partnership between the non-profit environmental organization World Resources Institute (WRI) and a number of leading corporations, including GEMI members Dow Chemical Company, DuPont, and FedEx. Initiated in 2000, the partnership has established a goal to develop corporate markets for 1,000 megawatts of new, cost competitive green power by 2010.Here is the report that talks about partnerships between NGO's and Corporations.<br /><br />While the focus is on environmental projects, they feel the lessons learned can apply to any type of sustainability-driven partnership that involves active engagement between businesses and NGOs. <a href="http://www.gemi.org/resources/GEMI-EDF%20Guide.pdf">report</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-38466531663705749322009-05-22T15:58:00.000-07:002009-05-22T16:01:46.613-07:00Sustainability reporting metricsCoca-Cola, Toyota, France Telecom, ABB and Stora Enso are among the highest ranked companies for sustainability reporting based on a <a title="http://www.roberts.cmc.edu/PSI/SectorReports.asp" href="http://www.roberts.cmc.edu/PSI/SectorReports.asp" target="_blank">series of analyses</a> from Claremont-based <a title="http://www.roberts.cmc.edu/" href="http://www.roberts.cmc.edu/" target="_blank">Roberts Environmental Center</a>.<br /><br />The companies with the highest overall scores include:<br />• Consumer food and beverages: Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and InBev<br />• Forest and paper products: Stora Enso, International Paper and Weyerhauser<br />• Industrial and farm equipment: ABB, Cumming, Black and Decker<br />• Motor vehicles and parts: Toyota, Johnson Controls, General Motors and Daimler AG • Telecommunications: France Telecom, Vodafone and Telecom Italia<br />• Energy: Mirant, Constellation Energy and American Electric Power<br />• Utilities: Pinnacle West Capital, Wisconsin Energy and Duke Energy<br /><br />The reports also ranked companies based on highest environmental reporting scores, highest social reporting scores and lowest overall scores.<br /><a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/05/20/coca-cola-toyota-france-telecom-among-top-scoring-csr-reporters">more</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-68010063203829179212009-05-22T14:48:00.000-07:002009-05-22T14:53:50.044-07:00EthicsMoving towards an ethical business world. Progress comes a step at a time.<br /><br /><a class="contentpagetitle" href="http://www.chloregy.org/home/business/35372-economy-may-be-down-but-activity-by-corporate-compliance-and-ethics-professionals-is-up-ppc"><strong>Economy May Be Down But Activity by Corporate Compliance and Ethics Professionals Is Up </strong></a><br />Thursday, 21 May 2009 12:00<br /><br />Even as the economy continues to struggle, corporate leaders are taking steps to protect their companies by investing in compliance and ethics. With the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics reporting a 40% increase in membership in 2008 and a 10% increase already in 2009, it's apparent compliance and ethics professionals have recognized the value in furthering their education, skills, and professional network. Recently, when SCCE signed up Michael Samonas, Esq., Compliance Solutions Specialist with LexisNexis, its 1,500th member, "SCCE became the nation's largest industry-wide association made up of corporate compliance and ethics professionals," explained Roy Snell, SCCE Chief Executive Officer.<br /><br /><strong>Impressive Record of "Firsts"</strong><br /><br />SCCE has an impressive record of achievement. In September 2006, the association introduced Corporate Compliance and Ethics Professional (CCEP) certification, and in 2007, the organization adopted the SCCE Professional Code of Ethics. In 2005, the SCCE held the first International Corporate Compliance Professionals Awards Program and this September, the SCCE will hold the 5th Annual International Compliance Awards Dinner on Monday, September 14, 2009, during the 2009 Compliance and Ethics Institute, September 13-16, 2009, Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas, Nevada.<br /><br />"We've made tremendous strides," said Snell. "Just under 600 compliance and ethics professionals have sought and achieved our Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional designation in less than 3 years."<br /><br />"It certainly helps that we are led by a visionary and dedicated Board of Directors made up of recognized leaders in the compliance and ethics field," adds Snell.<br /><br />Background<br />Corporate excesses and resulting legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act have produced a new C-level executive in today's modern corporation -- the Corporate Compliance and Ethics Officer. The Corporate Compliance and Ethics Officer is now found in every industry, in public and private companies, and in nonprofit organizations. Corporate compliance and ethics professionals are generally responsible for developing and overseeing corporate compliance and ethics programs to ensure their organization's compliance with regulations governing their industry.<br /><br />"I feel privileged to have the opportunity to join this remarkable and prestigious organization." said Michael Samonas, Esq. Mr. Samonas first became familiar with the SCCE through other SCCE members and through attending the Compliance and Ethics Institute. "I look forward to participating in its Social Network, interacting with other members, and taking part in SCCE events."<br /><br />"The SCCE is committed to providing its members with tools and services to enhance and further develop their skills and the profession," adds Snell<div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-15202229358183418962009-05-18T19:25:00.000-07:002009-05-22T14:14:00.185-07:00Walmart - Sustainable LeadershipWalmart seems to be recognizing the power of a leadership vision that is a moral imperative, a vision that breeds passionate followers, a magnet for stakeholders. Walmart has discovered a version "<a href="https://www.box.net/shared/g58vco2f4k">Jon's Management Philosphy 2.0</a>". They have discovered the power of the communication, the branding, the mutual values and employee development all at once. Perhaps this is a form of validation.<br /><strong><em></em></strong><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong><span style="font-size:100%;">Wal-Mart Strives for Sustainability Through Innovation and Collaboration</span></strong> </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>By </em><a href="http://www.greenerdesign.com/users/Leslie-Guevarra"><em>Leslie Guevarra</em></a><em>, May 18, 2009</em> </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br /><em>Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from a podcast interview Leslie Guevarra conducted with Rand Waddoups, senior director of Business Strategy and Sustainability at </em><a title="http://walmartstores.com/" href="http://walmartstores.com/" target="_blank"><em>Wal-Mart</em></a><a title="http://walmartstores.com/" href="http://walmartstores.com/" target="_blank"><em> Stores Inc</em></a><em>. To read the full transcript, or to listen to or download the podcast, see "Wal-Mart's Journey Toward Sustainability and Greater Value."]</em><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Rand Waddoups</strong>: One of the best things about sustainability is that as soon as you start into it, you realize that it's impossible to know everything. It's impossible to truly be an expert in sustainability because it's huge. And so what you do is you immediately start to reach out to more and more people, and you realize the number of stakeholders that want to help you in this space -- non-governmental organizations, the government, industry organizations, other suppliers, your own people who are really excited about this topic. All of these people start coming to you and saying, "Wow, we can go make a difference like this, and I've got ideas, and we can do this together." That openness of dialogue has really changed the game for us, and really, that's how we're staying ahead as it relates to sustainability, as it relates to a lot of our business decisions today. We are innovating differently than we've ever done before, because we get to hear from our stakeholders, and they teach us, and they give us new perspectives that really are advantageous to our business.<br /><br /><strong>Leslie Guevarra</strong>: This sounds so much more collaborative than the traditional business model. Is this the way business will be going entirely, or is this simply the sustainability core?<br /><br /><strong>RW</strong>: You know, I can't help but think that this is the new model for how business will be done, and I don't think by any means was it a model that Wal-Mart created, or anything like that. I would never say that the credit is ours for it, but I really believe that this networking style with the way the world has become so flat -- as you know, some very smart authors of recent months like Thomas Friedman have said because of the flatness of the earth, because of the fact that the connections between people are so much better than ever before this ability to learn from anyone, anywhere at any time and -- oh, by the way, do it with extremely mobile devices where it's no longer hard for me to learn this stuff -- it's changing the game.<br /><br />It's changing the game, one, because we can be much more collaborative, and we can learn from one another, but two, because I think the customer, the general public, is beginning to expect a lot more transparency, and that transparency in how you do business and why you do business that way is going to make it so that people feel much more comfortable sharing. A good example of late is -- two good examples, actually -- is Patagonia, and the way that they set out <a title="http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/05/11/why-traceability-matters" href="http://www.greenerdesign.com/blog/2009/05/11/why-traceability-matters" target="_blank">their Footprint Chronicles</a>. If you haven't seen this I'd recommend you go take a look at them -- or <a title="http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/03/16/sc-johnson-coming-clean" href="http://www.greenerdesign.com/blog/2009/03/16/sc-johnson-coming-clean" target="_blank">SC Johnson,</a> in the last couple of weeks they announced that they actually now have a website up where you can see every ingredient in the chemicals they sell. And just a couple of days ago, <a title="http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/05/14/lays-local-potato-chips" href="http://www.greenerdesign.com/blog/2009/05/14/lays-local-potato-chips" target="_blank">Lay's</a> announced that they were going to start telling you where their bags of chips are coming from and where the potatoes were farmed.<br /><br />This ability to see your product and to be able to see the stakeholders that are in the chain of your product is really -- it's game changing, and it's making it so that we have an opportunity to collaborate more openly. It's also making it so that we all learn better from one another.<div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-4185550785890606202009-05-17T11:37:00.000-07:002009-05-18T19:20:48.572-07:00Waxman-MarkeyCongress continues to move forward. It remains to be seen what we will end up with. Is there a vision behind this leadership? or, is the leadership being watered down by politics?<br /><br /><strong>Waxman-Markey Climate Change Bill Advances</strong><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">By </span><a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/users/ClimateBiz-Staff"><span style="font-size:78%;">ClimateBiz Staff</span></a><span style="font-size:78%;">, ClimateBizPublished May 15, 2009</span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"></span><br />WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) formally introduced the latest version of the <a title="http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090515/hr2454.pdf" href="http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090515/hr2454.pdf" target="_blank">American Clean Energy and Security Act</a> (PDF) today, paving the way for the bill to move toward the markup stage Monday.The congressmen hope to have the bill ready for a full House vote by the end of next week. The bill aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and would give away up to 85 percent of the pollution permits in a proposed cap-and-trade program.Here is the breakdown of the permit allocation:<br /><br />• 15 percent of the carbon permits will be auctioned off (proceeds will go toward helping low- and moderate-income families)<br />The rest will be given away as follows:<br />• 35 percent for electric utility sector, including 30 percent for distribution companies and 5 percent for privately owned coal companies<br />• 15 percent for carbon-intensive industries, such as steel and cement, in 2014 (reduced by 2 percent every year)<br />• 10 percent for states for renewable energy and efficiency investment from 2012 to 2015 (reduced to 5 percent between 2016 to 2022)<br />• 9 percent for local natural gas distribution companies (reduced to zero between 2026 and 2030)<br />• 5 percent for tropical deforestation projects<br />• 3 percent for automakers toward advanced technologies through 2017 (reduced to 1 percent from 2018 and 2025)<br />• 2 percent for domestic adaptation to climate change between 2012 and 2021 (increases to 4 percent between 2022 to 2026, to 8 percent in 2027)<br />• 2 percent for international adaptation and clean technology transfer from 2012 to 2021 (increases to 4 percent between 2022 to 2026, to 8 percent in 2027)<br />• 2 percent for carbon capture and storage technology from 2014 and 2017 (increases to 5 percent after 2018)<br />• 2 percent for oil refineries from 2014 to 2026<br />• 1.5 percent for programs helping home heating oil and propane users (reduced to zero between 2026 and 2030)<br />• 1 percent for Clean Energy Innovation Centers for R&D funding<br />• 0.5 percent for job training from 2012 to 2021 (increases to 1 percent after 2022)<br /><br />There is a combined renewable energy and energy efficiency standard of 20 percent by 2020 (15 percent for renewable energy and 5 percent in energy efficiency). If a state cannot meet the requirement, its governor may cut the renewable target to 12 percent and boost the energy efficiency goal to 8 percent."This bill marks the dawn of the clean energy age," said Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey (D-Mass.) in a statement. "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to revive our economy and create millions of good-paying clean energy jobs.”The bill, however, has some environmental groups expressing concern or outright rejection."Congressmen Waxman and Markey have done an admirable job satisfying a lot of competing interests,” Liz Perera, Washington representative for Union of Concerned Scientists' Climate Program in a statement. “But now, as the bill moves forward, Congress needs to<a title="http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/allowance-deal-waxman-markey-0239.html" href="http://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/allowance-deal-waxman-markey-0239.html" target="_blank"> strengthen many of the bill's provisions</a> to ensure that we dramatically cut emissions, save consumers money, and strengthen our economy with a well-designed climate and energy policy."Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Public Citizen and TheCLEAN.org coalition are calling for politicians to dump the bill and start over.“Despite the best efforts of Chairman Waxman, this bill has been seriously undermined by the lobbying of industries more concerned with profits than the plight of our planet,” Greenpeace USA Executive Director Phil Radford said in a statement. “While science clearly tells us that only dramatic action can prevent global warming and its catastrophic impacts, this bill has fallen prey to political infighting and industry pressure."<div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-89820420857721938262009-05-17T11:18:00.000-07:002009-05-17T11:35:01.260-07:00EPA vs Congress; Where will it end up?<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E_IHD5uRoZ8/ShBWFtoVCwI/AAAAAAAAAEY/Vvj2L3L5oCo/s1600-h/Integrity.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336860214582119170" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 148px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 197px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E_IHD5uRoZ8/ShBWFtoVCwI/AAAAAAAAAEY/Vvj2L3L5oCo/s320/Integrity.bmp" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://http:/www.policyintegrity.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Institute for Policy Integrity, New York University School of Law</strong></a> Published: May 11, 2009<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">With the anticipated finalization by EPA of its "endangerment finding" for greenhouse gases the agency has triggered action to regulate CO2 and other heat-trapping gases under the Clean Air Act. With this move, President Obama has created a set of responsibilities and obligations, as well as a range of options and powers to control emissions. The questions now are: What road will he take? Will he be met by success or setbacks?<br /></span><div><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">This report offers an in-depth analysis of the relationship between the EPA and Congress. If EPA pursues traditional "command-and-control" regulation under the Clean Air Act, it may set itself on a collision course with Congress, which has been moving to design "cap-and-trade" legislation. If EPA adopts mandatory control regulation and Congress later enacts a cap-and-trade system, there will be significant and unnecessary transition costs for the American economy. Under the Clean Air Act, however, EPA gas a great deal of flexibility to design regulatory programs. It must use that flexibility wisely to avoid a conflict with Congress. </span></div><div><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">If Congress fails to act, President Obama has the power under the Clean Air Act to adopt a cap-and-trade system that auctions greenhouse gas allowances. President Obama also has the power under the Clean Air Act to implement an executive agreement at the international level, rendering Senate approval of a climate treaty unnecessary. EPA's first priority must be to meet its legal obligations without impeding the work being done in Congress. But if Congress fails to act decisively, then putting those powers to use will be an essential stop-gap to avoid complete inaction on climate change. <a href="http://www.greenbiz.com/files/document/TheRoadAhead.pdf://">download</a> report</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-59664317670087267542009-05-17T11:12:00.000-07:002009-05-17T11:34:20.272-07:00Large SolarEverybody wants to be the largest but these days, its not for long before somebody else comes along.<br /><br /><strong>County to host world's largest solar project. Company set to build 340 megawatt plant<br /></strong>By Jayne HansonSunday, May 10, 2009 6:38 PM MST<br /><br />The largest solar project in the world is in the works in Mohave County and has a goal of producing renewable energy by the end of 2013. The projects organizers are scheduled to meet with the Arizona Corporation Commission Monday.Mohave Sun Power, LLC is a company of experienced developers who construct, own and operate utility-scale solar power projects. Mohave Sun Power has created a single-purpose company called Hualapai Valley Solar LLC to develop a 340 megawatt solar project using parabolic trough solar technology with molten salt storage in Mohave County, according to documents provided by Mohave Sun Solar.“We have been working on this for over a year,” Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson, R-Dist. 3, said Sunday during a telephone interview. Johnson credits Don Van Brunt, former executive director of Mohave County Economic Development Division, for his instrumental efforts in propelling the huge project forward.Van Brunt has been a leader in locating sufficient and available land for the project and in navigating the county’s many hurdles in relation to a project of this type and of this magnitude, Johnson said.The solar project site is proposed to be located approximately 25 miles north of Kingman on approximately 4000 acres of land. The project could create as many as 1,500 jobs during the two-and-a-half to three year construction stage and at least 100 full-time jobs for plant operations once completed, Mohave Sun Solar documents said.Furthermore, the county and state will see additional benefits from goods and services purchased for the project, taxes generated by employment, property taxes, and other taxes paid to that state and local governments, the documents said.<br /><br />“This would just be the beginning…there are other projects in the works to go along with this,” said Johnson. Mohave County has the opportunity to attract other renewable energy projects or supporting industries by establishing a reputation of treating such endeavors fairly and efficiently, Johnson explained.Financing for the project would be funded largely with stimulus money, according to Johnson. However, the project would need to abide by a strict development schedule and be operational by a specific date to be eligible for the funding.The generated energy reserves would be purchased by one or more utilities in California, Nevada, Arizona and Colorado through a negotiated Power Purchase Agreement, Johnson said.According to Mohave Sun Power documents, the project is striving to design, permit and finance the project through the third quarter of 2010 and would like to begin the construction phase during the fourth quarter of 2010. Mohave Sun is expecting the plant to be operational in the second half of 2013.<br /><br />The project organizers are currently working to satisfy the requirements set forth by the National Environmental Policy Act process to analyze the environmental, cultural, and social impacts and benefits. Other regulating agencies for the project include Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and Arizona Department of Water Resources, the documents said. Representatives of the project will meet Monday with the Arizona Corporation Commission with the hope of acquiring a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility, Johnson said.The project will require an amendment to the county’s general plan, which was filed in March, and will be subject to the discretion of the Mohave County Board of Supervisors in upcoming general meetings.The public will have opportunities to provide input in regard to the project and the various public entities that will be permitting the progression of the project. Initial public meetings are expected in June, according to Mohave Sun Power.The solar project is the second one of its kind proposed to anchor in Mohave County, the first being the Albaisa Corporation’s 200MW solar project also proposed for development in the Kingman area.<div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-48034570098459043732009-05-17T10:58:00.000-07:002009-05-17T11:09:04.967-07:00Climate Legislation Hits PoliticsClimate legislation is making progress, but we don’t know the outcome because of the political compromise that must be obtained.<br /><br /><a href="http://watthead.blogspot.com/2009/05/climate-bill-heading-for-markup-will-it.html"><strong>Climate Bill Heading for Markup - Will it Invest in a Clean, Prosperous Energy Economy?</strong></a><br />May 14, 2009<br /><br />As sweeping climate and clean energy legislation is readied for debate in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, details are emerging on the deals and compromises struck between the bill's architects, Congressmen Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) and the group of reluctant swing members of the committee who hail largely from states reliant on coal and heavy industry. The " breakthrough deal " struck between Waxman, Markey and the swing E&C Committee Dems will enable a full subcommittee markup of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) beginning Thursday and likely proceeding through next week (markup = votes on a series of amendments on the proposed bill followed vote to pass the bill out of (sub)committee). The deal apparently involves a series of concessions that either incrementally weaken the objectives of the bill or give free greenhouse gas pollution permits to utilities and heavy industry in order to blunt the impact of the proposed cap and trade program on these sectors of the economy. The concessions reportedly include: Lowering the 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target from 20% below 2005 levels to 17% below 2005 levels. The final 2050 target ..More <a href="http://watthead.blogspot.com/2009/05/climate-bill-heading-for-markup-will-it.html">Climate Bill Heading for Markup - Will it Invest in a Clean, Prosperous Energy Economy?</a><div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-15309180227332370222009-05-10T10:40:00.000-07:002009-05-10T10:49:14.050-07:00Climate Change Policy<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_IHD5uRoZ8/SgcTURTeRiI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/zagew20Imig/s1600-h/0508pew.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 150px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334253522607031842" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_IHD5uRoZ8/SgcTURTeRiI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/zagew20Imig/s320/0508pew.jpg" /></a> Pew center has published a report that argues that good policy can overcome the shortcomings of climate change alternatives that would otherwise decrease competiveness of some industries or cause industry to move outside the US. Check for their <a href="http://www.pewclimate.org/docUploads/competitiveness-impacts-report.pdf">report</a> .<br /><div></div><br /><div>It is clear from this analysis that fear of competitive harm should not stand as an obstacle to strong climate change policy. Further, policymakers have available to them a range of policy tools to mitigate the modest economic impacts that may be foreseen. Under a cap-and-trade system, for instance, emission allocations can be used to cushion the impact on energy-intensive sectors. As the authors argue, any policy response should be narrowly targeted to vulnerable sectors. In the long run, the best safeguard against competitiveness impacts is a comprehensive and effective international climate framework. In the meantime, smart policy can mitigate the potential economic risks. </div><br /><div>Also, in the mean time, China is giving consideration to its own legislation, evaluating alternative that make sense for themselves. This may provide a stimulus for action at the upcoming round of climate change negotiations.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-12567770077840682622009-05-08T09:43:00.000-07:002009-05-08T09:47:58.713-07:00Nevada Utilities Seek Help for Renewable Energy<img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 208px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 281px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333495347341728738" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_E_IHD5uRoZ8/SgRhwqWAm-I/AAAAAAAAAEI/e2793vQb23c/s320/ssp_enr_renew_program_support.jpg" /><br />Client:<br />Sierra Pacific Resources (Nevada Power and Pacific Power)<br />Project:<br />Renewable Energy Program Support<br />Location:<br />Nevada<br />Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) are common tools state governments use to support the development of renewable energy in the United States. Nevada’s RPS requirement, 20 percent by 2015, is one of the more aggressive state targets, with a rapid implementation timetable well above the national average. Nevada also has one of the highest requirements for development of incremental renewables, which are new renewable sources required in addition to existing sources, as well as a set-aside for solar development of not less than 5 percent of the RPS.<br /><br />Because Nevada-based electric utilities are required to meet these goals, both Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power have been working with Black & Veatch to support the aggressive expansion of their renewable energy commitments. Black & Veatch is providing a wide range of consulting and project management services, from strategic advice on how to best meet the RPS, to site-specific investigations of the feasibility and cost of building commercial-scale wind projects on remote mountain ranges.<br /><br />Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power face a number of complex challenges in meeting their RPS targets. In the past, the utilities had difficulty contracting for renewable energy because of financial strains resulting from the California energy crisis. Furthermore, wind resources, which other states have used to meet RPS requirements, are relatively expensive in Nevada because of the state’s modest wind resources, remote site locations and difficult construction. Wind projects can be difficult to permit as well, given the vast extent of federal land ownership in Nevada and restrictions arising from military use of low altitude airspace. Recent supply constraints in the renewables market also have driven up prices and made renewable energy development more complex.<br /><br />Working with Black & Veatch, the utilities are taking a number of steps to ensure RPS compliance in the future, including developing a more conducive environment for renewable developers, implementing best practices for renewable energy procurement and consideration of joint or direct ownership of renewable energy assets — along with continuing to purchase renewable energy. In support of these efforts, Black & Veatch has developed several proprietary models to assist with strategic business decisions and implement a streamlined process to evaluate renewable energy proposals for technical, commercial and economic merit, across all technologies and ownership options.<br /><br />Black & Veatch also is helping Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power develop RPS plans and projects that are not only environmentally sustainable, but also economically sustainable. Instead of just viewing the RPS as another regulatory requirement, Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power now look at renewable energy as a business opportunity that can benefit all of their stakeholders.<br /><br />Black & Veatch is Building a World of Difference by helping Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power to meet their RPS objectives with consideration for climate change issues in a way that benefits the companies, their customers and communities and the environment.<div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-5925694451351298842009-05-08T09:19:00.000-07:002009-05-08T09:23:57.815-07:00Johnson Controls issues Energy Efficiency ReportHere is a <a href="http://johnsoncontrols.mediaroom.com/file.php/3717/JCI+EEI_2009_Master_Deck_Final_Final_for_Show.pdf">slideshow</a> presentation by Johnson Controls, which identifies what is going on in the building efficiency market. 38% want Green certification of new construction. It has some interesting data about the percentage of organizations that would rather own their own energy supply than buy (57%) and also about the percent interested in energy efficiency, renewables etc. There is an 8% increase in those wanting solar. They predict a resurgence of activity after the downturn is over to make up for current laggard activity.<br /><br />"I think we'll see substantial change next year," said C. David Myers, president of Building Efficiency for Johnson Controls. "And I think that change will be action where activity was laggard this year. I also think there will be a better economic environment next year compared with what you see today."<br /><br />Here is their press release:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>2009 Energy Efficiency Indicator: Report<br /></strong></span><a href="http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:78%;">Johnson Controls Inc., IFMA</span></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Published: May 6, 2009</span><br /><br /><a title="http://www.greenerbuildings.com/s?sort=" filter0="johnson%20controls&filter1=" href="http://www.greenbiz.com/s?sort=date&filter0=johnson%20controls&filter1=**ALL**" target="_blank">Johnson Controls Inc.</a> and the <a title="http://www.greenerbuildings.com/s?sort=" filter0="IFMA&filter1=" href="http://www.greenbiz.com/s?sort=date&filter0=IFMA&filter1=**ALL**" target="_blank">International Facility Management Association</a> have released results of their third annual survey of how business leaders view energy efficiency in their buildings -- what's been done to improve it and whether they plan to do more in the coming months.<br /><br />Survey results this year reflect the challenges and constraints that the troubled economy has imposed on operation and investment decisions related to buildings in North America: While interest and enthusiasm for energy efficiency remain high, actions and investments to improve buildings have lagged.<br /><br />Despite that trend, <a title="http://www.johnsoncontrols.com" href="http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/" target="_blank">JCI</a> and <a title="http://www.ifma.org/" href="http://www.ifma.org/" target="_blank">IFMA</a> pointed to successful largescale efficiency projects at New York's historic <a title="http://www.greenerbuildings.com/news/2009/04/06/empire-state-building-energy-efficient" href="http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/04/06/empire-state-building-energy-efficient" target="_blank">Empire State Building</a>, the <a title="http://www.greenerbuildings.com/s?sort=" filter0="oak%20ridge%20national%20&filter1=" href="http://www.greenbiz.com/s?sort=date&filter0=oak%20ridge%20national%20&filter1=**ALL**" target="_blank">Oak Ridge National Laboratory</a> in Tennessee and the <a title="http://www.greenercomputing.com/news/2006/02/28/ibm-spearheads-global-network-excellence-corporate-citizenship" href="http://www.greenercomputing.com/news/2006/02/28/ibm-spearheads-global-network-excellence-corporate-citizenship" target="_blank">Manpower Inc.</a> headquarters.<br /><br />The research sponsors as well as representatives for the Oak Ridge lab and the Empire State Building also expressed optimism that both action and investments in energy efficiency initiatives will rebound in the next 18 months.<br /><br />Highlights of the three efficiency projects were included in the presentation made today that summarized the research findings. The slideshow of the presentation is available as a PDF that can be downloaded by clicking <a title="http://johnsoncontrols.mediaroom.com/file.php/3717/JCI+EEI_2009_Master_Deck_Final_Final_for_Show.pdf" href="http://johnsoncontrols.mediaroom.com/file.php/3717/JCI+EEI_2009_Master_Deck_Final_Final_for_Show.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br />A PDF of the <a title="http://johnsoncontrols.mediaroom.com/file.php/3716/EEI_Executive_Summary_2009.pdf" href="http://johnsoncontrols.mediaroom.com/file.php/3716/EEI_Executive_Summary_2009.pdf" target="_blank">executive summary</a> and other resources based on the 2009 survey can also be found on the Johnson Controls website by clicking <a title="http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/publish/us/en/products/building_efficiency/efficiencynow.html?WT.mc_id=" href="http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/publish/us/en/products/building_efficiency/efficiencynow.html?WT.mc_id=123566" target="_blank">here</a> or going to <a title="http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/publish/us/en/news.html" href="http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/publish/us/en/news.html" target="_blank">http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/publish/us/en/news.html</a>.<br /><br />The material includes the full 2008 Energy Efficiency Indicator Report for comparison.<div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-23682958600688035382009-05-03T09:41:00.000-07:002009-05-03T09:45:29.799-07:00California Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative, RETI<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E_IHD5uRoZ8/Sf3KGSFV63I/AAAAAAAAAEA/GO3atzuBoPk/s1600-h/California-Renewable.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 208px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 280px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331639743158807410" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_E_IHD5uRoZ8/Sf3KGSFV63I/AAAAAAAAAEA/GO3atzuBoPk/s320/California-Renewable.jpg" /></a><br /><div>Black & Veatch was chosen by the University of California’s California Institute for Energy and Environment, in conjunction with the California Public Utilities Commission, as the technical consultant for Phase 1 of its Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI). This multi-phase project is designed to identify, characterize and assess the renewable resources and necessary transmission needed for California to meet its 33 percent renewable energy goal by 2020. <a href="http://www.bv.com/wcm/success_story/Success_Story_90.aspx">more</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-80404165487496399282009-05-02T11:58:00.000-07:002009-05-02T12:04:07.765-07:00New HorizonsI am sorry that I have not posted this week. I started at Black and Veatch in the Renewable Energy Consulting area this week. I will likely alter my posting schedule from everyday to once per week. Iam excited to be active in the corporate world again, providing my expertise in the Renewable Energy arena. I am also excited about what I see happening at Black and Veatch in the Sustainable Development area, both internal and customer focused activity. Corporate America seems to have gotten the message and most of the BV customers are actively seeking sustainable development objectives. BV is striving to put in place the ethic that will serve these customers. I am hoping to contribute to both the internal and external efforts.<div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-18492811746296864552009-04-24T12:39:00.000-07:002009-04-24T13:21:37.101-07:00Offshore WindA new <a href="http://www.doi.gov/ocs/ExecutiveSummary-final.pdf">report</a> from the secretary of the Interior promotes offshore energy development. Included, is the potential for offshore wind on the continental shelf. So far all offshore wind development has been in Europe. Perhaps we will do something in the US. The report estimates 20% of coastal power could be supplied by wind. Economics may be an issue; platforms will be expensive. Perhaps the oil and gas experience can help or perhaps floating platforms can be used in deeper more wind intensive waters. We will see.<br /><br /><strong>History's Lesson: Sustainability Requires Everyone in the Trenches</strong><br /><strong></strong><br />"Our republics cannot exist long in prosperity. We require adversity and appear to possess most of the republican spirit when most depressed." -- Benjamin Rush Before making any judgments about this quote, let me reassure you that it has a positive aspect. Before I get to that, however, some might be asking <a title=" http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/rush.htm" href="http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/rush.htm" target="_blank">who Benjamin Rush was</a>. He was one of America's lesser known Founding Fathers. He was an associate of both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, and a prominent physician in his day. And, the context of the quote, from a letter to John Adams, was in reference to some of the darkest days of the American Revolution.What's the relevance of the quote? As the historian David Hackett Fischer wrote in <a title=" http://www.americanrevolution.com/WashingtonsCrossingBook.htm" href="http://www.americanrevolution.com/WashingtonsCrossingBook.htm" target="_blank">"Washington's Crossing</a>," "He (Rush) thought it was a national habit of the American people (maybe all free people) not to deal with a difficult problem until it was nearly impossible." But, the positive aspect of this is that we do rise up and deal with problems, and eventually solve them.That's what is needed for the current vexing problems of the economy, energy security and the environment. Just as the nascent nation relied upon state militias to supplement those Continental soldiers in the field month after month during the Revolutionary War (sometimes to the Glorious Cause's detriment), so, too, this nation requires everyone in the trenches to fight this action in transforming and sustaining our economy.What do I mean by this? In <a title="http://citizenshipblog.fedex.designcdt.com/node/601" href="http://citizenshipblog.fedex.designcdt.com/node/601" target="_blank">a previous post</a>, I stressed the importance of teamwork in business to address sustainability. However, to transform society, it's larger than business. We must all be working together. Having an "us versus them" mentality isn't helpful. It's not just about business having to take actions to reduce their environmental footprint. It's not a NIMBY ("Not in my backyard") attitude when renewable energy projects are proposed, sited and, more often than not, opposed. It's not government overlaying multiple regulations that, in essence, do the same things in different ways, but at significant complexity, impacts and costs. Again, it's about governments, businesses and citizens working collaboratively to become more efficient, to develop new, "greener" technologies that are economically viable, and to use these new innovations across our society.I spoke at a summit some weeks back for The Economist magazine, titled "The 2009 Sustainability Summit -- The New Climate: Global Warming and Its Implications for Corporate Strategy." This is a big title for a big societal challenge. I was particularly struck by an innovation that could result in big environmental benefits. Procter & Gamble has done much in their sustainability efforts, even conducting life cycle analyses on their products. They found that their biggest environmental impact from energy usage was not their product manufacturing; it was not their materials, not their transportation of materials or products, not even material disposal; none of these were even close. No, it was the use of their laundry products in homes that was their biggest impact, primarily from the energy used to heat water. So, they developed Tide Cold Water.Procter & Gamble has calculated that washing laundry in cold water in every U.S. household would save 70 to 90 billion kilowatt-hours of energy every year -- they say this is 3 percent of the nation's total household energy consumption, equating to a reduction of 34 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. Oh, yes, another interesting fact is that they calculate that the average consumer would save $63 annually on their utility bills. All of these numbers are large in total. And, importantly, they're all trending the right way -- reduced energy usage and environmental impact, reduced costs for consumers, and increased product sales potential for Procter & Gamble. A "win-win-win", which is invariably better than "win-lose" scenarios -- always the result of "us versus them" strategies.What's the point? Well, just as during the American Revolution when states were often less than forthcoming with militias and funding for the Continental Army until the pain of the revolutionaries' defeats was unbearable, so, too, attempts to "pass the buck" to others on economic, energy security and environmental considerations will result in pain for some. But, here's the "not-so-secret" secret of a democracy: Pain for some effects all. So, it's going to take everyone -- governments, businesses and citizens -- to implement those solutions that involve shared action like the example above -- and those that are responsible, both environmentally and economically. It's time for our republic to prosper with everyone in the trenches, working together.<br /><br />Mitch Jackson is staff director of <a title="http://about.fedex.designcdt.com/our_company" href="http://about.fedex.designcdt.com/our_company" target="_blank">FedEx Corporation</a>'s Environmental Affairs & Sustainability. <a title="http://citizenshipblog.fedex.designcdt.com/trenches" href="http://citizenshipblog.fedex.designcdt.com/trenches" target="_blank">This posting</a> originally appeared on the <a title="http://www.blog.fedex.com" href="http://www.blog.fedex.com/" target="_blank">FedEx Citizenship Blog</a>. It and other posts can be found at <a title="http://www.blog.fedex.com" href="http://www.blog.fedex.com/" target="_blank">http://www.blog.fedex.com/</a><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Idea of the Day</strong><br /><strong></strong><br />Are you using the information resources available to you. Check out the links on this blog page. There is a lot of useful information available. If you run out, check out the resources in <a href="http://www.doi.gov/ocs/ExecutiveSummary-final.pdf">Management and Sustainability</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7171507409758176793.post-67004452529399070682009-04-21T09:09:00.000-07:002009-04-22T07:06:06.457-07:00Peer Pressure, Offer a Vision<a class="contentpagetitle" href="http://www.chloregy.org/home/politics-a-society/18770-using-peer-pressure-as-a-tool-to-promote-greener-choices"><strong>Using Peer Pressure As A Tool To Promote Greener Choices </strong></a><br />by Richard Conniff, Yale Environment 360<br /><br /><em>Environmentalists, utilities, and green businesses are turning to behavioral economics to find innovative ways of influencing people to do the right thing when it comes to the environment. Is this approach really good for the planet or just a fad?</em><br /><br />Let’s say that every time you ride public transit, your fare card with its unique number also buys you a ticket to a periodic $50,000 lottery. Your number can turn up any day of the week, but you only win if you rode public transit that day. Think you might start taking public transit more often? It’s an idea straight out of behavioral economics, an unconventional field of research that examines how human nature really works and uses it to shape the choices people make. The lottery idea, for instance, capitalizes on the human tendency to overvalue outcomes with extremely low probabilities, according to George Loewenstein, a behavioral economist at Carnegie Mellon University. The possibility of finding out that you missed the big payoff also exploits our innate regret aversion.<br /><br />This new way of thinking about — and some would say manipulating — behavior is likely to be an important tool for addressing environmental issues over the next few years. Behavioral economics is the theory behind a variety of measures now being promoted by environmental groups, power companies, and green businesses — from smart meters for cutting electricity consumption to the use of social networks to promote weatherization.<br /><br />The Obama White House is packed with true believers in behavioral economics, including economic advisor Austan Goolsbee, budget director Peter Orszag, and regulatory czar Cass Sunstein, a constitutional scholar and co-author of Nudge, a popular treatment of subtle ways to influence the choices people make. And while the Obama administration has yet to unveil environmental initiatives based on behavioral economics, Orzag recently told Time magazine, “It really applies to all the big areas where we need change."<br /><br />For those who skipped Economics 101 — or took it before behavioral approaches began to coalesce into a theory in the 1980s — a primer is in order: Traditional economics holds that people act rationally. We sort through all available information, balance the pros and cons, and arrive at the best possible decision to maximize our own self-interest. Behavioral economists say that we are quirkier and more complicated than that. Instead of carefully weighing the choices, we often make decisions based on gut instinct. Or we get overwhelmed and do nothing. We also do irrational things like acting altruistically toward total strangers. Unless you happen to be an economist, this may not come as news. Some psychologists carp that the economists are just putting a new spin on basic social psychology. But by any name, taking account of normal human tendencies promises a more realistic way of predicting and influencing how people act. For instance, in one study, researchers asked each of four groups of utility customers to cut energy consumption for a different reason — the good of the planet, the well-being of future generations, the financial savings, or because their neighbors were doing it.<br /><br />‘People don’t just want to conserve energy,’ one psychologist says, ‘they want to be acknowledged for conserving energy.’<br /><br />By comparing electric meter readings, the researchers determined that only the last message had any effect, eliciting a 10 percent drop in consumption. A subsequent study found that when electric bills compared a customer’s energy consumption against the neighborhood average, profligate customers scaled back. In fact, the social norm was so powerful that thrifty customers also responded, by splurging. The weirdly effective fix was to add a smiley face to the thrifty bills — like a gold star from teacher. “People don’t just want to conserve energy,” says Arizona State University psychologist Robert B. Cialdini, “they want to be acknowledged for conserving energy.” A dozen utilities around the country have contracted with Positive Energy Inc., where Cialdini is a consultant, to use the billing technique. Cialdini is also testing the social norms approach to boost recycling and water conservation. He has found that even if most people in a community don’t actually practice water conservation, you can persuade them to reduce water use simply by telling them that their neighbors at least approve of the idea. “As long as you’re giving people honest information that they don’t already have,” he says, “this is not manipulation. This is education.” One of the most successful experiments using the social norm dates back to the 1980s in Hood River, Ore., where local civic groups campaigned to enroll entire neighborhoods in a weatherization campaign, so contractors could move efficiently from house to house. “It wasn’t about the marketing budget,” says Ralph Cavanagh of the Natural Resources Defense Council, “it was about creating the impression that all your neighbors were doing it and that it was really unacceptable not to do it. If you didn’t do it, the Boy Scouts showed up at your door wondering what was going on.” Despite original estimates that 20 to 30 percent of the 3,500 homes in Hood River would participate, the actual results were closer to 90 percent. Cavanagh says that officials from other areas in the U.S. have recently expressed interest in replicating the program. Some behavioral tweaks — like giving people information in a form they can understand — might seem woefully obvious, except that hardly anyone does it. “Why is the electric meter on the outside of the house, and why is it in units that are meaningless to people?” asks Tony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change. “I don’t know what a kilowatt hour is. Why not display it in dollars?”In some Alaskan communities, power companies install electric meters that require pre-payment with a credit card. Along with telling people how much they’re spending right now, these meters also tap into innate loss aversion, says Leiserowitz: “You’ve invested and want to keep it from running down to zero.” Electricity consumption typically drops 15 percent. Because so much of the human brain is wired for sight, making consumption visible also works. A British startup, DIY Kyoto, is planning the U.S. launch later this year of its Wattson, a wireless device that displays electrical consumption both numerically and by glowing different colors, from blue to red, as usage increases. Customers can also toy with the social norm response by connecting to a website for comparisons with other Wattson owners.<br /><br />Some approaches from behavioral economics aim to make pollution more painful — or at least to distribute the pain more equitably. For instance, in the current auto insurance system, you pay the same premium for driving 5,000 miles a year as your neighbor does for driving 30,000. An alternative approach, Pay As You Drive (PAYD) insurance, matches the premium to the mileage, as reported by GPS or periodic service station inspections. A recent Brookings Institution study calculated that PAYD would save money for two out of three U.S. households, reduce driving by 8 percent, and cut carbon emissions nationwide by 2 percent. Other behavioral proposals involve making environmental choices painless to the point of being invisible. For instance, many airlines now encourage customers to mitigate the carbon footprint of a flight by buying offsets; it’s an opt-in system. But including the offsets in the ticket price — with customers free to opt out — would dramatically increase participation, and get Virgin Atlantic, say, a lot closer to bragging rights as a genuinely green airline.Turning a green choice into a status symbol also motivates people disproportionately; in California, for instance, hybrid vehicles get to bypass traffic with a special label giving them access to High Occupancy Vehicle lanes.Critics complain that behavioral solutions are often more cute or clever than effective, particularly given the scale of a problem like global warming. They tweak the system, but they can’t match $4-a-gallon gas for changing behavior.<br /><br />The influence of social norms, says Paul C. Stern of the National Research Council, tends to be demonstrated “on behaviors that have miniscule environmental effect, and it’s not clear how long the effect lasts.” A technological fix like installing a more efficient furnace, on the other hand, continues to work regardless of what the neighbors are up to. But Stern acknowledges that weatherization programs with exactly the same incentives have elicited dramatically different consumer response, depending on how they are designed — witness the Oregon program. The trick, says George Loewenstein, is to take conventional economic tools like pricing, subsidies, technology, and taxation, and use behavioral thinking to “supercharge” the way they get delivered. That may include reshaping the central message of the environmental movement itself. “We know from a lot of psychological research that people are loss averse,” says Leiserowitz, “and the environmental community has done a terrific job of depicting the problem in terms of loss — endangered species, climate change, deforestation. The flip side is that the environmental community has been pretty bad at describing solutions, which often get framed in terms of loss as well: Get rid of your car, turn down the heat, get by with less. It’s disempowering. It makes people give up and do nothing.” Human nature demands a positive alternative, he says, like the British Transition Towns movement, in which residents of a community together devise a plan for greater resilience, and even happiness, in the face of climate change. For instance, Totnes, in Devon, uses its own currency to encourage reliance on local retailers, and has also developed community-wide campaigns for weatherization, energy-efficient lighting, tree-planting, and gardening.<br /><br />“Martin Luther King didn’t say ‘I have a nightmare,’” says Leiserowtiz. “He said, ‘I have a dream.’ And that’s what made people willing to put their bodies on the line, to bring that vision into being.”<br /><br /><em>The basic lesson from the behavioral approach, Leiserowitz says, is that the environmental movement also needs to present a vision, to show people what a sustainable world could look like, and what we can do now to make it a reality. </em><div class="blogger-post-footer">go to www.jonpietruszkiewicz.blogspot.com
or visit www.managementandsustainability.com</div>Jon Pietruszkiewicznoreply@blogger.com0