Environment & Sustainability news and comment CCB 106
August 06, 2009
Mayor awards London’s top carbon-busting organisations
On 11 June, Boris Johnson congratulated some of London’s top organisations for saving nearly 120,000 tonnes of carbon at the first annual Green500 & Better Buildings Partnership Awards. Both Green500 and Better Buildings Partnership are funded by the London Development Agency to help deliver the Mayor’s target to cut London’s emissions by 60% by 2025, create green collar jobs and stimulate a low carbon economy. Those receiving a Green500 award include the Natural History Museum, Fujitsu, Addison Lee, United Biscuits and Pret. Prospect House, a Hermes Real Estate property, won the Building Operational Improvement award for reducing its carbon emissions by 15%, water use by 18% and overhauling its waste management system. Contact: London Government www.london.gov.uk
Siemens expects 40% green technology stimulus orders
Siemens announced on 22 June that it is expecting $8 billion in new orders for green technology due to government stimulus programmes from around the world. In total, Siemens estimates it will receive $21 billion in new orders over the next three years (2010- 2012). Siemens believe green technology like wind turbines, lighting and building efficiency technologies for water, energy and light systems will make up 40% of those orders. Contact: Siemens www.siemens.com
UK firms urged to disclose their ‘forest footprint’
On 15 June, Minister of State Gareth Thomas launched a new scheme under which companies can declare their ‘forest footprint’ – the impact of their activities on global rainforests. The Forest Footprint Disclosure (FFD) project is an initiative aiming to generate awareness of the concept of a ‘forest footprint’ and encourage businesses and investors to account for the sustainability of products within their supply chains. The scheme, partly funded by DFID, is based on a similar model to that of the Carbon Disclosure Project. By raising awareness of the investment risks associated with sourcing commodities from unsustainable rainforests, the FFD project aims to encourage investors to push companies to disclose their forest footprints. Contact: Forest Footprint Disclosure www.forestdisclosure.com
“Green dining” best practices for food industry
The Environmental Defence Fund and Restaurant Associates (RA) – a New York Citybased foodservice, restaurant and catering company – released their Green Dining Best Practice on 23 June, containing recommendations for environmentally friendly foodservice. Covering sustainable food purchasing and dining facility operation, early results at two test RA clients, Random House and Hearst Corporation, show these two sites will save more than $85,000 each year, cut 275 tonnes of carbon pollution and reduce landfill waste by 60 tonnes annually. Contact: Environmental Defence Fund www.edf.org
Major firms to harmonise mobile phone chargers
The European Commission (EC) announced on 29 June that 10 mobile phone manufacturers and chip producers have signed up to an initiative designed to cut down on electronic waste and improve energy efficiency through the production of standardised mobile phone chargers. Companies signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will harmonise chargers in the EU on the basis of the micro-USB connector, limiting the need for every phone to come with its own charger. Signatories include Apple, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Texas Instruments. It is expected that the first generation of new chargers will reach the EU market from 2010. Contact: European Union www.europa.eu
Anheuser-Busch taps landfill gas for brewery
On 24 June the Anheuser-Busch brewery, which brews Budweiser and Bud Light beers in Houston, announced that it will begin using landfill biogas as an alternative fuel source. The gas will be carried through a sixmile pipeline from the McCarty Road landfill to the Anheuser-Busch brewery to help generate steam energy for the brewery’s power plant. More than 55% of the brewery’s fuel demand will be supplied by biogas. The project, developed as part of a partnership with Ameresco, which constructs and operates a biogas processing facility on the landfill’s property was completed in May of 2009. Contact: Anheuser-Busch www.anheuser-busch.com
Vehicles to be upfitted with alternative-fuel technology
On 30 June, AT&T and BAF Technologies announced that a conversion of vehicles purchased by AT&T to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is underway. BAF Technologies, provider of natural gas vehicle upfits, will convert 600 Ford E-Series vans to CNG technology in 2009. AT&T expects to spend an estimated $350 million to purchase about 8,000 CNG vehicles as part of a $565 million, long-term strategy to deploy more than 15,000 alternative-fuel vehicles over the next 10 years. AT&T’s investment represents the largest US corporate commitment to CNG vehicles to date. Contact: AT&T www.att.com
Reduced cost environmental permits will benefit SMEs
Environment Minister Jim Fitzpatrick announced on 30 June that small and medium size businesses will benefit from reduced regulatory charges. Businesses regulated by local authorities are required under air pollution regulations to have a permit to operate once they reach certain air quality limits. Defra has reduced the cost of maintaining these permits by 60% for businesses that have temporarily reduced their operations and fallen below the operating level that requires regulation or have ceased production. It is hoped this will help businesses while still ensuring environmental improvements. Contact: Defra www.defra.gov.uk
Corporate leaders aid Prince’s Rainforest Project
The Prince’s Rainforest Project (PRP), launched by Prince Charles, has gained the support of some key business executives through the PRP Partners sign up campaign. On 5 June, the PRP released a corporate leaders version of the ‘frog film’ featuring a selection of high profile business leaders voicing their support for urgent action to be taken against rainforest destruction. The campaign video includes, amongst others, appearances from Sir Richard Branson (Chairman of Virgin Group), Sir Howard Stringer (CEO of Sony), Justin King (CEO of Sainsbury’s), Steve Easterbrook (CEO of McDonalds UK) and Eric Schmidt (Chairman and CEO of Google). Contact: The Prince’s Rainforest Project www.rainforestsos.org
Unilever backs sustainable palm oil roundtable
Unilever’s CEO Paul Polman has re-stated the importance of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil as a crucial measure in reducing deforestation. Polman drew attention to the issue at the World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen, as part of a broader speech which called for governments to support a moratorium on deforestation as a crucial measure to tackle climate change. Specifically, he focused on the production of palm oil as one of the main drivers of deforestation in South East Asia. Unilever has assembled a coalition of international businesses including L’Oreal, Colgate and Tesco in an effort to tackle this issue. Contact: Unilever www.unilever.com
Electronics recycling move may halt unethical practices
In a move to help businesses ensure that they are ethically recycling their obsolete electronics, the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) now offers an electronics recycling national certification. The e-Stewards Standard is for organisations that have electronics recycling, processing, asset management, and refurbishment operations. ANAB, the US accreditation body for management systems, will provide oversight to third-party certification bodies that will become accredited to conduct audits and issue certificates of conformance to electronic recyclers that successfully demonstrate they meet the requirements of the e-Stewards Standard. Contact: ANAB www.anab.org
McDonald’s Europe promotes sustainable farming
McDonald’s Europe launched its Flagship Farms initiative on 18 June, designed to promote and share the benefits of sustainable agricultural practices among its suppliers and the wider farming community. Developed in conjunction with the Food Animal Initiative, the scheme will initially showcase innovative farming practices used at seven progressive farms across Europe, via a website. The belief is that demonstrating the benefit of sustainable practices will encourage broader adoption across the European farming community. The programme builds on the McDonalds Agricultural Assurance Programme, which uses existing farm assurance schemes to assess and improve the standards on farms. Contact: McDonald’s www.mcdonalds.com
Comment
Business-to-business collaboration on sustainability is becoming a more common part of the corporate responsibility agenda. These partnerships are interesting because it is companies which are the driving force. They clearly have a different dynamic from groups such as Rainforest Alliance and Conservation International which – although they have significant corporate membership – have grown from NGO roots.
These business-led groups can be industry-specific or have a wider membership, based on the particular issue in hand. Some notable examples are the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which has brought together a number of organisations to address sustainability issues associated with oil palm cultivation; the SAI Platform, which was set up by the food industry to support sustainable agriculture; and the Ethical Trading Initiative, which was founded to bring together companies, trade unions and voluntary sector members to ensure ethical supply chains.
However, WWF’s exposure of the failure of the RSPO in converting businesses to use a sustainable product raises real questions about the impact of these business-led groups. Members of the ETI also have been publicly criticised for various unethical supply chain practices. The interesting challenge is this – what measures are taken by companies to ensure their peers don’t breach these voluntary agreements in the future?
Those responsible for steering these groups will have to show a level of willingness to work with members who are exposed for bad conduct, alongside a level of energy to continue driving the agenda forward. This is particularly important in times when the business response to the issues may be tempered by the impact of the recession.
Acknowledging the WWF’s comments, Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever (which cofounded the RSPO) re-stated the fundamental role of the group and the great potential for progress at the World Business Summit on Climate Change. There is clearly much to be done to maintain the credibility of business-led consortia on CR issues, so we don’t have to rely on government or NGO-led groups to facilitate and monitor change.
COMMENTS