Softbank's Yahoo! Japan refuses to take down ads selling elephant ivory, whale products
The Japanese telecommunications and internet company SoftBank Corporation has refused to withdraw its advertisements of elephant ivory, whale and dolphin goods from the Yahoo!Japan search engine, in which it is the majority stakeholder. Yesterday two environmental groups, the UK Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the US Humane Society International (HIS), said in a joint statement that SoftBank had refused their appeal to stop the sale of the goods. Despite the international trade ban in ivory, Yahoo! Japan has reportedly listed nearly 8,000 adverts for elephant ivory, three times the amount of advertisements in March, when Amazon and Google imposed a ban on the marketing of elephant ivory and whale products. In their statement, the EIA and HIS said that SoftBank’s recent $20 billion acquisition of the US telecommunications company Sprint should entail catering to a growing “international constituency” and “broader social responsibility.” (Eco Business)
Danish pension fund backs UK straw fuelled power plant
PensionDanmark, one of Denmark’s largest institutional investors, is investing £128 million in the construction of a straw fuelled power station in the UK county of Lincolnshire. It is estimated that the plant will provide enough renewable energy to supply 70,000 UK households by 2016. The Brigg Renewable Energy Plant is expected to result in an annual reduction of 300,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. PensionDanmark’s joint venture partner, the Danish industrial group Burmeister & Wain Scandinavian Contractor (BWSC), is committing a further £32 million to complete the funding of the £160 million project, which has been developed by Eco2, a UK renewable energy company. The plant has already received planning permission after Eco2 overcame local residents’ concerns about the heavy traffic needed to deliver straw bales to the facility. (Financial Times*)
Taiwan says nuclear plant may have leaked toxic water
According to a report by the Taiwanese Government investigatory agency, Control Yuan, the First Nuclear Power Plant near Taipei, has been leaking radioactive water from the storage pools of two reactors for the last three years. Taiwan Power Co. (Taipower), which operates the island’s nuclear power plants, said the water did not come from the storage pools, but may have come from condensation or water used for cleaning up the floor. Control Yuan has not accepted the explanations from Taipower and said that there had been a catalogue of errors, including a lack of a comprehensive plan for how to handle spent nuclear materials. Taiwan has previously had difficulties disposing its nuclear waste, which for many years was dumped on a small island off its southeast coast, to the anger of its aboriginal inhabitants. (Reuters)
Consumers
Coca-Cola launches new reuse and recycling initiative
Today, Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), the manufacturer and distributor of Coca Cola products in the UK, is launching its Don’t Waste, Create campaign, which is designed to boost recycling rates by encouraging families to reuse their waste packaging in useful ways, such as by converting them into bird feeders or self-watering bottle plant pots. The campaign also encourages consumers to make recycling pledges through its website, offering a 50 pence discount voucher towards their next purchase of CCE bottled drinks. The Associate Director for Recycling at CCE, Nick Brown, said that the campaign website “helps us to reach a wide audience, allowing us to communicate to customers across the UK” and that through asking customers to re-use and then recycle plastic bottles, Don’t Waste. Create encourages families to think more sustainably. (Business Green; Packaging News)
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