Environment and Sustainability news and comment CCB 112
July 28, 2010
It’s Monday 12th July 2010 – the day after the 2010 World Cup final. Spanish celebrations are in full swing, while the mood among the Dutch camp is likely to be much more sombre. The World Cup is one of the biggest global sporting events, capturing the attention of nations all over the world, and bringing people together. Three days ahead of the 2010 World Cup, FIFA, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the South African Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) launched an initiative to “green” the tournament and reduce carbon emissions.
On the face of it this sounds like a good idea – a major sporting event being used as a catalyst to influence a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy. The aim was to “make the players, officials and millions of fans around the world inspired to be part of a winning sustainability team”…. As a spectator of the World Cup I have my doubts over whether this message really came across. I, and I presume many others, didn’t even realise that this initiative existed until I read a press release – at the end of the World Cup.
Despite my apparent scepticism over the success of the recent “Green World Cup”, I am hopeful that this is the start of something bigger. Sport plays a central role in many societies and we are all aware of the vast sums of money involved in sponsorship deals and the large salaries of high profile sportsmen. These facts combined suggests that there is a huge opportunity for sports clubs, players and governing bodies to promote sustainable living and influence many people.
UNEP has been working on its Sport and the Environment programme since 1994 and is currently working with organisations such as the Indian Premier League, PUMA, Volvo and various Olympic Committees. The aim is to integrate environmental considerations into sports and to promote environmental awareness. Other leading sports teams and sports brands should take note. It is time for these types of projects to become more common place.
Katie is a senior research at Corporate Citizenship Email her on Katie.dodds@corporate-citizenship.com to discuss carbon footprints, environmental strategy and supply chain
A new era of sustainability: UN Global Compact-Accenture study
According to ‘A New Era of Sustainability: UN Global Compact-Accenture CEO Study 2010’, an overwhelming majority of corporate CEOs (93%) say that sustainability will be critical to the future success of their companies, and that, within a decade, a tipping point could be reached that fully meshes sustainability with core business. These are two of the key findings from a survey of 766 CEOs around the globe and in-depth interviews with 50 of the world’s foremost CEOs, released 22 June. CEOs identified consumers as the most important stakeholder in recognition of the increasing demand for products and services that address sustainability concerns. Challenges remain however, such as the integration of sustainability throughout the supply chain, with 88% believing this is required, but only 54% believing it is being achieved in their company.
Now in its third year, The Sunday Times Best Green Companies awards sets out to identify and celebrate the achievements of British businesses that are striving to improve their environmental performance. The awards measure corporate environmental performance and survey company employees to find out whether the company standards and procedures are executed all the way down to the shop floor. This year overall prize went to office supplies company UKOS – their reusable, fold-flat shipping containers received the highest overall green positive score from employees and are estimated to save the equivalent of 18 trees over a five year period. Second in the list was Skanska UK for encouraging sustainability and investing in video conferencing and web meetings to cut down travel costs. New entries earning a place include The Co-operative (4) Penguin Group (11) and B&Q (44).
Improving sustainability performance to enhance image
Findings from the 2010 Sustainability Survey by GlobeScan and SustainAbility show that while a majority of global thought leaders agree that improving sustainability performance improves overall brand image, significantly fewer believe that ramping up sustainability branding efforts results in improved sustainability performance. More than 1,200 experts were surveyed on a range of topics related to sustainability, including critical trends and issues, climate change, and the drivers of sustainability leadership. Key findings include: 88% of experts believe that improving sustainability performance leads to a stronger brand; 55% say that integrating sustainability into a company’s brand image results in improved sustainability performance; and 43% believe that sustainable brand claims are mostly “green washing”. Almost three-quarters of experts (73%) believe that there will be a great deal more sustainable brand initiatives from companies in the coming year.
A major initiative to green the World Cup and help reduce carbon emissions was launched in Johannesburg, on 8 June, three days before the Cup kicked off. The initiative is a result of a partnership between the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the South African Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA). The initiative included three major greening projects: renewable energy interventions in six World Cup host cities, an awareness-raising drive on green tourism both funded by GEF, and a UNEP programme to offset the carbon emissions of eleven World Cup teams. The greening project, entitled ‘Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Major Sporting Events, FIFA 2010 and the Green Goal’, aims to leave a lasting legacy that will be continued by the city municipalities post the tournament to save energy consumption by adopting renewable energy and energy efficiency practices as illustrated by solar retro-fits.
Contact: United Nations Environment Programme www.unep.org
Greening the Blue Website goes live
On 4 June, the United Nations announced the launch of Greening the Blue, a website providing information the UN’s progress in improving its internal sustainability performance. The website includes: the greenhouse gas inventories of most UN organizations; case studies from different UN organizations on what they’re doing to ‘go green’; a one-minute animation showing staff how they can help; detailed tips and tools for staff in reducing their personal carbon footprints; and toolkits for professional staff to help them embed sustainability into their workplace. Greening the Blue represents one part of the United Nation’s efforts to become more sustainable.
B&Q, UK’s leading home improvement and garden centre retailer has won The Observer’s Ethical Business Award 2010. The awards, which are now in their fifth year, aim to identify the quality and diversity of British eco ‘heroes’ with categories including a Lifetime Achievement, Conservation Project of the Year, Ethical Politician and Ethical Business Award. B&Q’s achievements include making all in-store lighting displays energy efficient, creating skip-less stores to reduce waste to landfill, reducing packaging and introducing double-decker lorries to substantially cut road miles. B&Q also works to demystify ecological ideas to the consumer with recently launched eco advice centres in its flagship stores, fronted by qualified eco-advisors offering tips on how people can lower their eco footprint at home.
Major retailers sign voluntary sustainable business code
The European Retail Round Table (ERRT) and EuroCommerce have announced a voluntary sustainable business code for Europe’s retailers one year after the launch of the Retailers’ Environmental Action Programme (REAP). Under the new business code, retailers commit to sustainable actions in six areas: sourcing, resource efficiency, transport and distribution, waste management and communications and reporting. The Code for Environmentally Sustainable Business has been signed by 17 companies including Asda Wal-mart, Marks and Spencer, and Tesco as well as nine federations. By signing the code retailers are committed to implementing measures to reduce the environmental footprint of their operations, for example through the reduction of energy, water and paper consumption, the increased use of renewable energy, use of efficient refrigeration and heating systems and retrofits to include more natural light.
Leading companies design pathway to greener products
The Designing Out Waste Consortium published a new report ‘A pathway to greener products’ on 28 June. The consortium, including Asda, Boots UK, Royal Mail, Unilever, Valpak and Veolia, calls on the government to help all businesses to improve the environmental impact of the products they produce and sell. The consortium believes that consumers want and expect businesses to provide them with better products with lower environmental impacts. It argues that commercial and policy drivers must be correctly aligned to incentivise the right products, with the government playing a catalytic role in the development of these drivers at EU and global level.
Commission sets up system for biofuels certification
The European Commission is encouraging industry, governments and NGOs to set up voluntary certification schemes for all types of biofuels, including those imported into the EU. On 10 June, as part of a set of guidelines explaining how the Renewable Energy Directive should be implemented, the Commission laid down rules on what schemes must do to be recognised by the EU, a key criterion being the use of independent auditors to check the whole production chain. The EU requires that biofuels must deliver substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and should not come from forests, wetlands and nature protection areas.
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