With the global recession, high unemployment and austerity measures staring them in the face, people have plenty to be worried about. When you throw in pictures of dead sea life from the Gulf of Mexico or polar bears swimming in the open ocean with nary an oversized ice cube in sight, it can be just too much. There are only so many things one person can worry about and, if necessary, the environment generally gets short shrift over more “personal” issues.
It has been a tremendous shortcoming of environmentalists and business leaders to not connect the two and show people that climate change and their general livelihood are inextricably linked. It is vital to focus on the fact that addressing climate change doesn’t just save some rare frog in the middle of a far off jungle; it is part and parcel of creating a better and more enjoyable life for everyone, humans included. That climate change communications have long remained in the realm of fear and doubt is tragic, and also, according to recent research, ineffective.
Going forward, it is imperative to connect climate change with progress and possibility. Mankind is facing a very serious problem, but there is hope! By making the connection between people’s individual challenges and climate change, by personalising the issue and making it a challenge, environmentalists and business leaders can help shift the debate from one about avoiding damage to one about the creation of a more vibrant world – effectively creating a moon shot for the 21st century. People like to be engaged, they like to be respected and challenged and this is the way forward. The most dangerous feeling regarding climate change is hopelessness. Business and the environmental movement would be wise to keep this in mind.
Matt Balestrieri has an MBA in Social Enterprise and Finance and is currently on an internship at Corporate Citizenship.
UK companies to up spending on climate change
Law firm Ernst & Young quizzed over 300 executives from 16 countries each with a revenue of over $1 billion to build up a picture of how much emphasis the corporate world plans to put on the climate in the next two years. Iin the UK, 77% said they would up spending, slightly higher than the global figure of 70%. Almost half of respondents said they planned to spend between 0.5% and 5% of their revenue on climate change plans. Regulatory and compliance issues present primary challenges in developed economies, while China and India rank product development as the top challenge to achieving goals. Other findings indicate approximately 66% of companies are discussing climate change programs with suppliers, with 36% already working directly with stakeholders to decrease the carbon in their supply chains; and transparent reporting is gaining momentum, as 64% of respondents report greenhouse gas data annually.
Consumer products group Unilever has been names the best carbon management performer on the new FTSE CDP Carbon Strategy Index Series, researched by ENDS Carbon and launched 23 June. The Series rates the carbon performance of all companies in the UK’s FTSE All-Share Index. Unilever has recorded a 20% carbon efficiency improvement in the last three years (CO2/turnover), a 40% intensity improvement since 1995, aims to reduce emissions intensity by 25% between 2004 and 2012, and is working hard to tackle the carbon footprint made by its products. Sixty companies in the index could not be assessed because they publish no information on carbon emissions. Second in the ranking was communications giant BT Group and retailer Morrison third. The top 10 was completed by Rolls Royce, gas distributor Centrica, mobile phone firm Vodafone, publisher Reed Elsevier, retailer Tesco, drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline and retailer Marks & Spencer.
Video conferencing cuts emissions, delivers quick ROI
Large UK and US firms will achieve almost $19 billion in financial benefits from deploying nearly 10,000 telepresence suites between 2010 and 2020, according to a new Carbon Disclosure Project study sponsored by AT&T and produced by independent analyst firm Verdantix. The ‘Carbon Disclosure Project Study 2010: The Telepresence Revolution’ report, released June 16, suggests that over the 10 year period cumulative CO2 emissions reductions equivalent to taking 1 million passenger vehicles off the road could be achieved. The analysis is based on detailed case study evidence from interviews with 15 Global 500 companies, including Accenture, Aviva, Deutsche Bank and PepsiCo, that are early adopters of telepresence suites. The study determined a business with $1 billion or more in annual revenue implementing four “telepresence” rooms could achieve a financial return on investment in as little as 15 months, saving nearly 900 business trips in the first year.
The latest Environment Agency figures, released 28 June, reveal that fewer than 10% of those organisations that will be included in full in the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) scheme have registered for participation. Energy firm npower has issued a warning to businesses and the public sector that they risk facing financial and reputational penalties unless they act fast to meet the deadlines. Those that are still to register are also at significant risk of missing out on the opportunity to disaggregate, which requires completed registration by 31st July. The disaggregation option allows businesses with several subsidiaries to register them as separate participants, providing each meets the qualifying criteria, meaning dissimilar organisations within the same group ownership can be separated to prevent one being unduly influenced by the other.
Symbols of hope rather than those of environmental catastrophe make more effective tools when trying to engage the public in the environmental debate, according to research into climate change communication. In the June edition of Meteorological Applications, Dr Kate Manzo of Newcastle University looks at the ways journalists, campaigners and politicians try to get the message across and which have been the most effective. The research explores how new ‘visual strategies’ can communicate climate change messages against a backdrop of increased climate scepticism, suggesting visually pleasing images have indirect value when they allow organisations that use them to raise money for climate action and science. Icons of renewable energy, such as windmills, change the frame of reference from either business as usual or visions of apocalypse to possible strategies of mitigation.
US business leaders call for energy technology innovations
The American Energy Innovation Council (AEIC) – whose members include Bill Gates, chairman and former chief executive of Microsoft; Norm Augustine, former chairman of Lockheed Martin; Ursula Burns, chairman and chief executive of Xerox; Chad Holliday, chairman of Bank of America and former CEO of DuPont; and Jeff Immelt, chief executive of GE – have released the report, ‘A Business Plan for America’s Energy Future,’ that calls for urgent action to begin the national transition to clean, affordable, and secure supplies of energy. The report lobbies for an increase in energy R&D spending to $16 billion, up from the current level of $5 billion, to reinvent America’s energy future, highlighting that defence R&D and health R&D spending are around $77 billion and $28 billion respectively. It also endorses a price on carbon emissions without siding with either a cap-and-trade or carbon tax approach.
Carbon Trust launches new carbon footprinting guide
The Carbon Trust has launched [15 June] a new guide to carbon footprinting for businesses. ‘Carbon Footprinting: The next step to reducing your emissions’ clearly explains how to manage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by understanding what emissions are caused by a business’s activities or products. The guide outlines the key steps that a business can take to: calculate its organisational carbon footprint by measuring greenhouse gas emissions arising from all its activities; assess, communicate and verify the carbon footprint of a product across its entire lifecycle; and use a carbon footprint for ongoing carbon management, putting together a carbon management programme to reduce emissions, encourage innovation and create cost-savings across a business.
Europe’s first advanced bioethanol from waste plant
INEOS Bio announced on 14 June that it has received an offer of a £7.3 million grant from One North East and the Department for Energy and Climate Change for the first commercial advanced bioethanol from waste plant in Europe. The plant, to be located in the Tees Valley, is designed to produce 24,000 tonnes per year (30 million litres) of carbon-neutral road transport fuel and generate more than 3MW of clean electricity for export from over 100,000 tonnes per year of biodegradable household and commercial waste, providing the biofuel requirement of around 250,000 vehicles per year and the electricity needs of 6000 households.
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