Using outsourcing to help alleviate poverty in Africa and South Asia
A small number of companies, non-profits and foundations are looking into whether rapidly growing supply chains that process data and operate call centres can be deployed to help alleviate poverty in Africa and South Asia. New York-based non-profit Digital Divide Data (DDD) is a pioneer of socially-responsible outsourcing or “impact sourcing”. “Our ultimate mission is to alleviate poverty,” says Jeremy Hockenstein, 42, the founder and CEO of DDD. “We focus on students who are finishing high school, who are very motivated and very smart and who come from low-income homes.” The non-profit, whose clients including the Stanford University library and Google, operates for-profit data centres in Cambodia, Laos and Kenya, providing employees with jobs, education, training and career counselling they need to rise into the middle class. Similarly, the Rockefeller Foundation has committed $100 million to a project called Digital Jobs Africa that aims to improve one million lives in six African Nations. Digital outsourcing can “flatten the world, connect people into the global economy and raise up leaders to fight poverty and change communities,” says Cloud Factory, a company that operates in Kenya and Nepal. (The Guardian)
Circular Economy
Green skills ‘vital’ to make circular economy profitable, says IEMA
The Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA) has said that employing skilled sustainability professionals is essential if companies want to align better resource management with profitability. In its latest published practical guide, IEMA aims to help businesses adopt a circular economy approach when it comes to advancing resource efficiency. Its research shows that SMEs can achieve cost savings of more than £5,000 a year by appointing a dedicated sustainability lead, a figure which rises to over £1 million for larger corporations. This is backed by Defra research which has identified that over 80% of £23bn of ‘quick win’ resource efficiency savings within UK businesses result from smarter raw material use and waste minimisation efforts – with a payback period of less than a year. IEMA has issued guidance and evidence for IEMA members to turn their waste costs into revenue opportunities, and developed a Resource Action Maturity Planner (RAMP) which allows all sizes of business to assess what they need to do to achieve success through effective resource management. (Edie)
Neste Oil produces fuel from recycled lubricants
Petroleum products and biofuel company, Neste Oil, has said it has produced its first batch of traffic fuel from recycled lubricants. Following treatment, spent lubricating oil can be reused as a feedstock for producing gasoline and diesel fuel. Neste Oil successfully tested using spent motor oil in this way at its Naantali refinery at the end of May and now aims to begin using this material on a continuous basis. Using spent motor oil to produce traffic fuel is a continuation of the use of tall oil pitch as a feedstock that began at the Naantali refinery last year. Both materials represent waste that is otherwise difficult to reuse. Neste Oil also uses waste animal and fish fat and various vegetable processing residues as inputs for producing renewable diesel. During 2013, Neste Oil says it produced enough renewable diesel from waste and residues to power more than 1 million cars for a year. (Environmental Leader)
Environment
Ford cuts water use 30% two years ahead of schedule
Ford has reached its goal to cut the amount of water used to make each vehicle by 30 percent worldwide, two years ahead of schedule. Ford says it is furthering its commitment to aggressively step up water conservation programs at its global facilities and among its suppliers. Later this year, Ford plans to begin asking high water-use suppliers and those working in water-stressed regions to voluntarily report water consumption. Ford will then work with the suppliers to achieve reductions. The hope is that successful initiatives will be mirrored by other suppliers globally, helping Ford to significantly reduce its environmental footprint. The company cut global water use by 61 percent, or by more than 10 billion gallons, between 2000 and 2013. Another initiative the company is involved with is a partnership with Samsung to co-develop a dual-battery system for gas-powered cars that could offer significant fuel savings in future vehicles. The system is the product of a 10-year research partnership into battery technology. (Sustainable Brands)
Singaporean homeowners warm up to solar energy
Homeowners are warming up to renewable energy in Singapore, with the number of solar panel installations increasing nearly four times since 2011. In 2011, there were only 35 residential solar panel installations islandwide. Two years later, the number has increased to 129 with the government encouraging more to use solar power. Frank Phuan, director of local company Sunseap Leasing says that one reason is that prices have dipped by more than half since 2009. However, installation still represents a barrier to many homeowners, and an upcoming crowd-leasing initiative aims to allow for installation without any upfront costs. From late July, the online start-up SoparPVExchange will match investors with homeowners who want to install solar panels. Investors will pay for the installation costs, while homeowners will pay a percentage of the amount they save on electricity bills to the investors for the next 20 years. Investors can expect to get a minimum of five percent return from the initiative. (Channel NewsAsia)
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