• Bold Eco Moves: Hitachi, IBM, LG Group
• Notable: Abercrombie & Fitch/Weight Watchers, Agilent, BIER, BP, Cemex, Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers, Dow Jones, GM, Google/MSFT/Nokia/Amazon, Heineken, Intel, Major League Baseball, McDonald’s, PepsiCo, SunTech/Trina Solar, T Boone Pickens, UPS, Verizon
• ROI Success Stories: Chrysler, General Mills, Nissan, Target, TXU Energy
• Government and Legal: Bonn climate meeting, US Climate bill, Safe Chemicals Act, Energy Star, hydrogen sulfide reporting, French/Italian push for EU carbon tariffs
  
• Tech Innovations: Diesel emissions
• Economic Indicators & Trends: World Bank green bond, U.S. geothermal growth, grid-tied solar market
• NGO News: E-Stewards electronic recycling certification
• New Research & Tools: utility supply chain sustainability, natural gas-powered trucks, CFO strategy for carbon

BOLD ECO MOVES

Hitachi, after posting a $2B loss, announced plans to make green innovation the core of its revival and growth strategy. The company will develop business lines around smart grid technologies, energy-efficient data centers, nuclear power, high-efficiency thermal power generation, hybrid rail systems and hybrid vehicle batteries.
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IBM will require its 28,000 global suppliers to define a management system around three areas: energy conservation, greenhouse gas emissions, and waste management/recycling. Suppliers are expected to create a system, set goals, measure their performance, and publicly disclose their results.
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The LG Group will invest $17.9 billion into energy-efficient product R&D, renewable energy businesses and facilities modifications to achieve two main goals by 2020: generate 10 percent of revenue from green products and reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent compared to 2009 levels.
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NOTABLE

Abercrombie & Fitch and Weight Watchers were included on Corporate Responsibility (CR) magazine’s first “Black List” of the 30 least transparent companies within the Russell 1000.
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Agilent reduced its water consumption by 24 percent and its waste by 15 percent from 2008 to 2009.
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Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER) members, including CEF members Coca-Cola and Ecolab, released a sector guidance document for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reporting - the first GHG guidance document to incorporate both enterprise inventory and product carbon footprinting approaches for a single industry.
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BP faced significant pressure from investors at its annual general meeting regarding its environmentally controversial Sunrise oil sands development project in Canada.
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CEMEX UK became the first cement company in the world to put a Carbon Trust label on products that tells customers how much carbon emissions were generated during the products’ entire cradle-to-grave lifecycle.
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The Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers became the first hotel to incentivize guests to help generate renewable electricity, offering guests free meals for every 10-watt hours of electricity they generate on exercise bikes.
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Dow Jones & Company, a News Corporation company, plans to install a 4.1 MW solar power system at its corporate offices in New Jersey - one of the largest installations at a single US commercial site.
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General Motors will spend $8 million to double the size of its Global Battery Systems Lab, accelerating development and improving testing of current and new battery cell technologies.
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Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Amazon and other technology organizations voiced their opposition to the new American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) standards for energy efficiency in buildings, citing their impact on data center energy initiatives as too prescriptive.
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Heineken announced its sustainability goals for 2020, including a 40 percent reduction in direct and indirect brewery emissions and a 25 percent reduction in water consumption.
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Intel has developed a low-cost wireless sensor for homeowners to monitor energy use.
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Major League Baseball will begin collecting and analyzing environmental data on the operations of all of its 30 stadiums.
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McDonald’s board of directors are opposing a shareholder proposal that would require five percent of its egg supply be cage-free. McDonald’s Europe plans to be 100% cage free by 2010 in advance of an EU requirement that outlaws conventional battery cages by 2012.
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PepsiCo will invest $30 million over the next three years in on-site renewable energy projects so it no longer has to rely on purchasing renewable energy credits (RECs).
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SunTech and Trina Solar, two of China’s leading solar manufacturers, secured over $11.7 billion in loans from the China Development Bank, which can be drawn upon over the next 5 years.
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T Boone Pickens’ wind power partnership, the American Wind Alliance, is reportedly in the permit stages for installation of a 78 MW wind farm in Minnesota.
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UPS launched a green packaging assessment and labeling program, which allows certified companies to ship their goods with an “Eco Responsible Packaging Program” label.
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Verizon committed to add 1,100 alternative fuel-powered trucks and sedans to its fleet and to increase biodiesel and ethanol use in another 470 vehicles.
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ROI SUCCESS STORIES

Chrysler’s first LEED Gold certified engine plant in Michigan is projected to save the company $1.25 million a year in energy savings.
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General Mills expects to save over $500,000 a year by powering a biomass-powered plant in Minnesota with oat hulls used to make Cheerios.
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Nissan achieved $10 million in annual energy savings at a Tennessee plant by deploying a variety of manufacturing changes, including installing variable-frequency drives, lowering air pressure settings and shutting down production line robots when not in use.
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Target’s deployment of LED lighting in display cases at about 500 stores is forecast to save the company nearly 16 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year.
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TXU Energy expects to save 30-40 percent on its lighting bill, approximately $25,000 a year, by installing florescent lighting and motion occupancy detectors at its Dallas headquarters.
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GOVERNMENT AND LEGAL

The Bonn climate change meetings ended with senior figures downplaying the chances of a deal being delivered in Mexico later this year. Meanwhile, a document misplaced by the US delegation suggested US plans to make the Copenhagen Accord the main framework for upcoming negotiations.
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The new U.S. Senate climate bill (Kerry-Graham-Lieberman), slated for debut on April 26, will reportedly target 2020 emission reductions of 17 percent from 2005 levels, ban the EPA from regulating emissions, eliminate regional cap-and-trade programs and expand offshore drilling and nuclear power plants.
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A new chemicals bill introduced in the US Congress, The Safe Chemicals Act, would require chemicals companies - not the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - to prove the safety of their products.
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The EPA will now require lab test data proving energy usage claims before receiving the Energy Star certification and labeling.
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The EPA is considering requiring industry facilities, including concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), to report releases of hydrogen sulfide to the Toxic Release Inventory.
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi sent a letter to the European Commission president asking for carbon tariffs to be levied on countries that don’t adopt binding emission targets and carbon regulations.
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TECH INNOVATIONS

General Electric and Tenneco have developed a catalyst that reduces nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel engines by up to 95 percent.
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ECONOMIC INDICATORS & TRENDS

The World Bank issued a $200M fixed-rate bond designed to raise funds for investments in low carbon projects in developing countries. This adds to the more than $1B in green bonds the World Bank has raised since late 2008.
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The number of U.S. geothermal projects grew 26 percent to 152 in 2009, driven by federal stimulus investment, tax incentives and strong state renewable standards. Seven new projects were completed in 2009 adding 176 MW of geothermal energy capacity in five different states.
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California accounted for nearly half of the new 441 megawatts of grid-tied solar power added in the U.S. during 2009.
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NGO NEWS

The world’s first global e-waste recycler “E-Stewards” certification was launched, backed by more than 70 environmental organizations and major corporations including CEF member Wells Fargo.
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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.

NEW RESEARCH AND TOOLS

Only 20 percent of U.S. utility suppliers are measuring their carbon emissions and setting goals for reduction.
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A new Center for American Progress report says the U.S. could eliminate the need to import 1.2 million barrels of oil per day by 2035 if commercial fleets replaced 3.5 million vehicles with natural gas-powered trucks.
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A Verdantix study “The Energy Efficiency Imperative: Why CFOs Need a Financial Strategy for Energy and Carbon” highlights four reasons why finance executives need a multi-year efficiency strategy to maximize cost savings, meet carbon reduction goals and make financial decisions based on total cost of ownership.
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