• Bold Eco Moves: Bill Gates and Toshiba, Chevron
• Notable: EPA WasteWise awards, 2010 World’s Most Ethical Companies, Avon, GE, UPS, Volkswagen, World Water Day commitments
• ROI Success Stories: Cisco, Honda
• Government and Legal: Climate bill delay, US GHG emissions reporting, EnergyStar, UK green investment bank, French carbon tax, Heathrow ruling, AB-32 economic impacts
  
• Tech Innovations: Briefcase-sized emissions tracker
• Economic Indicators & Trends: Global clean tech market, China leads clean energy investing, US paper recycling, Green toy sales, EV market forecast, US utility efficiency spending
• NGO News: Greenpeace
• New Research & Tools: Sustainable enterprise social media software, deforestation rates, industrial water use

BOLD ECO MOVES

Bill Gates and Toshiba are partnering to build small-scale nuclear reactors that burn spent uranium. Gates is investing “several billion dollars” into creating these “hot tub-sized” reactors, which will only need to be refueled every 60 to 100 years.
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Chevron launched a multi-million dollar project to test cutting-edge solar technology from seven potential partners at an 8-acre former refinery site in the California desert. Chevron plans to spend at least $2 billion more over the next three years on renewable power ventures and research.
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CEF MEMBERS ONLY

• Register for the members-only conference call on “Tapping into Stimulus Funding for Green Projects,” - Tuesday March 30, 11am-Noon EST.
• Request a copy of a special CEF Briefing Memo on ARPA-E funding opportunities.

NOTABLE

EPA announced WasteWise awards, including: NEC (Hall of Fame-the highest award), The Walt Disney Company (Very Large Business Partner of the Year), Allergan (Climate Change), ConEd (Industrial Materials Recycling), Kohl’s (Green Purchasing), Harrah’s (New Partner of the Year), Krueger (Packaging Reduction), Steelcase (Product Stewardship) and the San Diego Padres (Public Venue Recycling).
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Ethisphere’s 2010 World’s Most Ethical Companies list includes CEF members Cisco Systems, Duke Energy, Ecolab, Ford Motor Company, FPL Group, GE, Hewlett-Packard, Jones Lang LaSalle, PepsiCo, Symantec, Waste Management, Xerox.
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Avon announced a $1 million initiative with The Nature Conservancy to "empower a women's environmental movement," which will include replanting one million trees in Latin America and a related global fund-raising push using Avon’s 6.2 million reps around the world. The company also set a goal to purchase 100% of its paper from certified and or post-consumer recycled content sources within 10 years.
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GE announced a $450 million expansion in its wind energy manufacturing, engineering and service facilities in four European countries.
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UPS has deployed a “Smart Pickup” system expected to cut 8 million miles of travel and reduce fuel usage by 793,000 gallons annually. The technology enables small businesses to notify UPS when they need pick-up service rather than stopping by every day.
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Volkswagen will debut its first hybrid car this week, the Touareg.
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World Water Day saw several new corporate commitments on water, including: Coca-Cola announced a joint program with the U.S. Agency for International Development to invest $12.7 million to support water scarcity and quality in Africa. Dole aims to reduce water use tenfold in Costa Rican banana production. Pepsi pledged by 2015 to help 3 million people gain access to clean water, create more water than it uses in water-depressed areas and reduce water consumption per unit of production by 20 percent.
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ROI SUCCESS STORIES

Cisco’s water conservation techniques have reduced water consumption by 10 percent or 42 million gallons. The reductions have resulted in substantial annual savings, including $70,000 from HVAC optimization and $90,000 from high-tech landscaping irrigation controllers.
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Honda’s first mass-market hybrid sports car exceeded its sales forecast by 10 times since it debuted last month in Japan.
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GOVERNMENT AND LEGAL

Senator Graham said the next draft of the Graham/Kerry/Lieberman Senate climate bill will appear soon after Congress’ two-week spring break. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said that the Senators’ new approach to limit emissions cap-and-trade to the utilities sector "makes more sense."
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EPA proposed to expand mandatory US GHG emissions reporting requirements to include the oil and gas sector, electronics manufacturers, and other industries that emit fluorinated gases or inject and store carbon dioxide underground.
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DOE and EPA announced plans to tighten Energy Star testing and enforcement, following Government Accountability Office findings that the EPA’s EnergyStar program is vulnerable to fraud. The GAO submitted four fictitious products for EnergyStar status, which the EPA granted with few challenges or questions.
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British policymakers are proposing about $3 billion in funding to launch a “green” investment bank that would finance sustainable transport and renewable energy projects.
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After months of debate, the French government abandoned plans for a carbon tax. Currently Sweden, Denmark, Ireland and Finland have carbon taxes.
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A U.K. judge ruled against the expansion of Heathrow Airport until the government reassesses its impact on climate change.
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A new California Air Resources Board study of the economic effects of California’s climate law (AB-32) predicts modest impact on the economy and savings of billions in avoided fuel expenses.
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TECH INNOVATIONS

California startup Picarro is working on a briefcase-sized trace gas analysis system that measures facility-level greenhouse gas emissions.
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ECONOMIC INDICATORS & TRENDS

Worldwide revenue for the solar photovoltaics, wind power and biofuels markets grew 11.4 percent to nearly $140 billion in 2009, according to a new Clean Edge report. Solar industry revenue, however, actually fell for the first time in 10 years by 20% to 30.7 billion — about half the revenue generated by wind.
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China has overtaken the U.S. as the global leader in clean energy investments, according to a new report on “Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race?” by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
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US paper recycling set a record last year, with 63.4 percent of paper consumed recovered for recycling.
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Green toy sales may exceed $1 billion, or 5 percent of toy sales, in the next five years. The growth of eco-friendly toys has been hampered by higher prices, but Walmart’s focus on the opportunity may change that.
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Researcher Frost & Sullivan predicts commercial vehicles will dominate the electric vehicle market for the next five years, accounting for 70 percent of the market in the EU and North America by 2015.
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US utility companies investments in energy efficiency programs rose by 43 percent to $5.3 billion in 2009.
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NGO NEWS

Geenpeace International launched a campaign against Nestle for sourcing palm oil from suppliers that are contributing to deforestation and habitat loss.
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NEW RESEARCH AND TOOLS

GreenNurture.com launched a social media software system aimed at incentivizing employees to discuss, suggest and implement sustainability initiatives at their companies.
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A new UN Food and Agriculture Organization study finds that deforestation continues at an alarming pace in many countries but the global average deforestation rate is slowing down, thanks largely to major reforestation efforts in China, India and Vietnam. The average global net loss of forest area since 2000 has been 5.2 million hectares per year, compared to 8.3 million in the 1990s.
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A Carnegie Mellon study on US industrial water use found, among other things, that it takes 300 gallons of water to produce about a dollar’s worth (about two pounds) of sugar.
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