A survey done to more than 750 top CEOs reveal that 93% regard sustainability as a critical issue to their company’s future success, reports Envido. A major global survey of 750 chief executives undertaken by Accenture in partnership with the UN Global Compact initiative, revealed that far from falling down the corporate agenda during the recession, the low-carbon economy is now firmly ingrained as a high priority for business leaders.
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Energy reduction and stakeholders expectations amid the more important factors that drive climate change investments, reports Envido.
A new survey from Ernst & Young on C-suite attitudes towards climate change shows that leading companies are taking their cues from the market by investing in climate change initiatives, reporting on their performance and leaning on their supply chains to reduce carbon emissions, rather than waiting for regulatory conditions to solidify…
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EPA has put itself on the path toward greenhouse gas regulation, but in Congress, the courts, and the international community, the debate rages on. On Dec. 7, 2009, EPA moved one step closer to imposing the first ever set of enforceable greenhouse gas (GHG) standards on tailpipe emissions from vehicles, and a requirement that large power plants and industrial emitters install best available control technology (BACT) to reduce emissions…
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Carbon Solutions America, a project development, asset management and climate change engineering firm headquartered in Deerfield Beach, has named Sakis Asteriadis chief executive. Asteriadis was most recently managing director and head of environmental markets at APX…
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As part of the GreenBiz 10 Year anniversary, I was asked to review the progress that has been made in carbon footprinting and carbon accounting during the past decade. In short, we’ve made stunning progress and learned much as a collective industry and community.
Ten years ago, none of the basics existed — the standards and tools we all take for granted today. In 2000, we had very little awareness and no adoption, no registries and no carbon regulation, either direct or cap-and-trade. The World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) did not publish its first corporate standard for carbon calculation, including boundary conditions, Scopes 1 and 2, etc., until 2001. Today, this standard is used internationally for corporate carbon footprints and is an essential tool for companies and their stakeholders to understand carbon risk and quantify abatement activities.
The recession has pushed the green movement into a bottom-line endeavor. But running an environmentally conscientious business still has far-reaching ramifications, from employee recruitment and retention to attracting customers and cutting operational costs, according to a panel of experts gathered by the Business Journal to discuss the state of the green sector.
The seven-member panel included experts from the fields of retail, health care, energy, marketing, real estate and entertainment for the paper’s sixth Critical Conversation of 2010.
David Clarke, managing partner of Miami-based BGT Partners, an interactive marketing and branding agency, explained how the recession affected the green movement: “It wasn’t that green initiatives weren’t happening. They just weren’t at the forefront. I think, especially with this BP oil spill, it’s going to jumpstart these green programs.”
Two down, one to go?
Of the three major legislative initiatives advanced by the Obama administration, health care reform has become law, and the U.S. Senate finally passed its version of financial regulatory reform last week. Social investors and shareowner activists will be relieved to learn that an effort by Senator Tom Carper of Delaware to remove important corporate governance provisions from the Senate bill failed.
The bill passed by the Senate includes authorizing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to grant shareowners proxy access to nominate directors. It also requires that directors win majority votes in uncontested elections, and allows for nonbinding votes by shareowners on executive compensation.
With two legislative victories over the party of “Hell, no,” only meaningful legislation addressing climate change remains to be accomplished. Because meaningful climate change legislation will have to direct a significant retooling of the U.S. economy away from its dependence on fossil fuels, extravagantly funded interest groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have devoted millions of dollars to opposing its passage.
May 24, 2010 – The world’s largest home furnishings retailer released their 2009 report on global sustainability initiatives last week, reporting an overall carbon emissions reduction of 5%, a 10% reduction in emissions from transportation and highlighting their latest improvements to IWAY, the IKEA supplier code of conduct.
The report, entitled “The Never Ending Job,” puts a lot of focus on the company’s partnerships around climate change activities, including four new climate projects with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The four initiatives will focus on measuring supply chain emissions, helping customers tackle climate change through transport initiatives, reducing emissions from IKEA food product transport, and improving the reuse and recycling of used products. The company has also launched an internal program to assist its largest suppliers in reducing energy use 30% by 2011.
Carbon trading could soon become the biggest commodity market in the world, Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) founder Richard Sandor told the Energy Risk USA conference in Houston yesterday.
Emissions are already the largest commodity type traded in Europe, Sandor said, with open interest of around 910,000 contracts compared with the second largest, Brent crude oil, which settled above 800,000 contracts (at 817,977 contracts) for the first time in January this year.
Pointing out that global open interest in emissions is second only to West Texas Intermediate crude oil, Sandor added: “After only a couple of years, emissions trading has become the largest market in Europe; soon it will be the largest in the world . . . These markets will expand. They are currently inefficient, but they are realistic and have great social objectives.”
Green sector bonds could help drive financing to ensure large capital investment flows into low-carbon technologies in developing countries, IETA said in a draft document seen by Reuters.
“We are seeing consolidation and a rapid pullout because the private sector cannot deal with political uncertainty post-2012,” said Imtiaz Ahmed, executive director at Morgan Stanley and IETA member, referring to when the U.N.’s Kyoto Protocol agreement expires.
“Clean technology has not seen a surge in finance. Money is going into traditional fossil fuels. This mechanism ensures scaling up and provides a bridge between the public and private sector.”
Under IETA’s proposal, green sector bonds should be issued with the approval of an international body, which would administer the mechanism.
The oversight body would apply standards to the bond, which should remain unchanged for a certain period of time, after which they could be reviewed, IETA said.