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| Driving Corporate EcoInnovation and Sustainability Strategy |
| IN THIS ISSUE: April 12, 2010 |
- Bold Eco Moves: Dong Energy, Sony, US Navy
- Notable: AT&T/Dow/Google/GE/HP/Intel/Verizon, Autodesk, BBMG/Passenger, ConAgra, Ecolab, HP, KB Homes, Sainsbury’s, Timberland, UPS, 3M/DOE
- ROI Success Stories: Marriott
- Government and Legal: UN climate talks, Tokyo’s cap-and-trade system, DOE smartgrid workforce funding, EPA expansion of carcinogenic chemicals list, data center efficiency standards, oil lobby’s anti-AB32 campaign
- Tech Innovations: Power strip, light bulb that lasts 25,000 hours, capturing cement emissions, lumber tracking
- Economic Indicators & Trends: China’s renewable mix, oil demand, wind power capacity
- NGO News: CDP’s Water Disclosure initiative, Dogwood KFC campaign
- New Research & Tools: Data center energy
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BOLD ECO MOVES
Dong Energy announced plans for a 400MW offshore wind farm in Denmark capable of powering 400,000 homes at a cost of $1.8 billion. It was the only company to meet the Danish deadline to bid for the project.
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Sony set a goal for a zero environmental footprint by 2050, with bold goals in four areas: climate change, resource conservation, control of chemical substances, and biodiversity.
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The US Navy announced an energy manifesto and plans for a “great green fleet,” including a commitment to power 50 percent of Naval shore installations with renewable energy by 2020, to make renewables 50 percent of the total energy used by its ships, aircraft, tanks and vehicles by the same date, and to cut petroleum use by half in its 50,000 non-tactical vehicle fleet by 2015.
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NOTABLE
AT&T, Dow, Google, GE, HP, Intel, Verizon and 40 other organizations sent a letter to President Obama soliciting federal support for technology and education to improve consumer access to information about their energy use and enable companies to build applications on top of the information.
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For the second year, Autodesk will award more than 100 “grants” of its design software, valued up to $150,000 per license, to cleantech companies in the U.S. and Europe that can potentially benefit from digital prototyping.
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Brand innovation firm BBMG and social software maker Passenger have partnered to launch a private online community “The Collective,” which connects values-conscious consumers with global brands and NGOs to co-create new marketing ideas and product concepts.
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ConAgra Foods announced several sustainability goals for 2015, including reducing per-pound-of-product emissions by 20 percent, water usage by 15 percent and packaging by 10 percent compared to 2008 levels.
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Ecolab committed to cut global water consumption, disposed waste and effluent water in operations by 18 percent per metric ton of shipped product from 2009 to 2015. It also pledged to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20 percent per dollar sales from 2006 to 2012.
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HP reduced GHG emissions from operations by 10 percent compared with combined totals for HP and EDS in 2008. The company also set higher targets to reduce energy use and GHG emissions by 20 percent by 2013, compared to 2005--up from its goal of 16 percent by 2010.
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Sixty-two percent of the homes built by KB Homes in 2009 were Energy Star qualified. Since 2001, the company has built more than 55,000 Energy Star qualified homes.
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Sainsbury’s is rolling out the sale of milk in plastic bags - packaging that uses 75 percent less material than traditional packaging - at all of its U.K. supermarkets at the same time that competing retailer, Waitrose, pulled bagged milk from its shelves due to low sales and wasted milk.
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The Timberland Company reduced its 2009 greenhouse gas emissions by 36 percent compared to 2006 and is on track to reach a 50 percent reduction by the end of 2010.
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UPS deployed 200 hybrid delivery trucks in eight additional U.S. cities. The company’s alternative-fuel fleet includes vehicles that use compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, propane, electricity, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and hydraulic hybrid technology.
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3M and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) established a public/private R&D partnership to foster innovation in three areas: thin-film photovoltaics, concentrating solar power and biofuels.
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ROI SUCCESS STORIES
Marriott’s environmental retrofit of its Bethesda, Md. Headquarters is expected to save the company $700,000 per year via lower energy costs, rebates and tax credits.
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GOVERNMENT AND LEGAL
Delegates from around the globe met in Bonn, Germany this past weekend for the first set of climate change negotiation meetings since the UN Copenhagen summit. Outgoing U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer told Reuters yesterday that the world will not finalize a climate deal this year and should focus on practical steps to help the poor adapt to climate change and save forests.
MORE 1, MORE 2, MORE 3
Tokyo launched Asia’s first cap-and-trade system, which requires 1,400 of the city’s most carbon intensive organizations to participate. During the first phase, participating organizations must cut their emissions by 6 percent by 2014.
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The DOE allocated $100 million in economic recovery funds to train approximately 30,000 Americans for jobs in the smart grid workforce.
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The EPA added 16 chemicals to its list of substances thought to be carcinogenic to humans, requiring firms to make information publicly available when they use them.
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The U.S., Europe and Japan agreed on standards for measuring data center energy efficiency.
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A group of Texas oil companies is funding a petition to block the rollout of California’s climate change law, Assembly Bill 32.
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TECH INNOVATIONS
Fujitsu Laboratories developed a power strip that reports the amount of energy used by each outlet in real time.
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General Electric developed a 40-watt light bulb that lasts 25,000 hours - 25 times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs - and plans to market the bulb in the coming year.
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Pond Biofuels became the first company to successfully capture carbon dioxide from a cement plant’s emissions in algae and use the algae to create high-value biomass.
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A Carbon Trust-funded U.K. firm, Helveta, developed software that combines satellite technology, RFID tags, barcodes and asset tracking to ensure lumber has been sourced legally.
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ECONOMIC INDICATORS & TRENDS
The Chinese government reports that low-carbon energy sources will supply more than one-fourth of China’s electricity by year-end 2010. Hydro, wind and nuclear will provide 250GW of capacity by the end of the year, with renewable energy sources now expanding faster than coal plants.
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The US Energy Information Administration is forecasting a global increase in oil demand this year, driven by strong demand from Asia. Pump prices are estimated to exceed the $3 gallon mark this summer.
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The U.S. increased its wind power capacity by 10,000 megawatts to a total of more than 35,000 megawatts during 2009 according to a report from the American Wind Energy Association.
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NGO NEWS
The Carbon Disclosure Project has asked more than 300 companies to disclose details of their water consumption. Also last week, Ford announced it would be the first automaker to join the CDP’s Water Disclosure initiative. PepsiCo and Molson Coors Brewing have also signed on.
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The Dogwood Alliance, an environmental group dedicated to preserving southern forests in the U.S., launched a national campaign urging Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to adopt sustainable sourcing practices for paper packaging.
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CEF MEMBERS ONLY
- Request a copy of a special CEF Briefing Memo on ARPA-E funding opportunities.
- A draft of the 2010 Annual Meeting Agenda is now available. Please request a copy then send us your feedback.
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NEW RESEARCH AND TOOLS
An EPA study finds data center uptime has little impact on energy efficiency.
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The CEF Weekly Eco Briefing is published by the Corporate Eco Forum, a network of leading Global 500 executives driving eco strategy and innovation worldwide. Click to subscribe. Inquiries: pj@corporateecoforum.com.
Executive Editor: P.J. Simmons, CEF Chair
Editors: Jeff Hittner and Maryann Jones Thompson |
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