Driving Corporate EcoInnovation and Sustainability Strategy
IN THIS ISSUE: May 10, 2010
  • Bold Eco Moves: Kaiser Permanente
  • Notable: Alcoa, Chemical industry/Walmart goals, Gap, GE, Google Finance, Hormel Food, JCPenney, Marks & Spencer, McDonald’s, Siemens
  • Members Only: Register your team, Members only call
  • ROI Success Stories: Campbell Soup, Kaiser Permanente
  • Government and Legal: Oil spill, US climate bill, chemicals and cancer, coal ash regulatory proposal, EPA “whole building” pilot, DoE industrial energy efficiency funding, Canada climate bill, EU cities’ climate commitment, Walmart settlement
  • Tech Innovations: offshore turbines, tire recycling, biomass energy, synthetic jet fuel
  • Economic Indicators & Trends: Google’s wind investment
  • New Research & Tools: IBM transportation industry software, DOC’s Measuring the Green Economy, Lloyd’s water scarcity report

BOLD ECO MOVES

Kaiser Permanente debuted a new Sustainability Scorecard that requires suppliers in its $1 billion supply chain to report environmental data on all medical equipment and products. Kaiser’s main supply chain partner, Broadlane, rolled out the Scorecard to its $9 billion supply chain in September.
MORE »

back to top ^

NOTABLE

Alcoa announced that it would tie annual incentive compensation to annual emissions reduction targets across all businesses and detailed new environmental goals in its 2009 Sustainability Report.
MORE »

The chemical industry signaled its approval of Walmart’s sustainability goals to eliminate 20 million tons of GHG emissions from its global supply chain.
MORE 1, MORE 2

Gap got customers to donate a record 270,000 pairs of jeans in two weeks, which the company recycled into housing insulation.
MORE 1, MORE 2

GE is teaming up with the Liaoning Huishan Cow Farm in China to create the world’s largest cow-powered biogas plant in the world, which will produce 38,000 megawatts of power annually.
MORE »

Google Finance added “Carbon Disclosure Rating” to the list of metrics reported in its investment section under “key stats and ratios.”
MORE »

Hormel Food reduced water consumption by 9 percent and solid waste to landfills by 16 percent in 2009 compared to 2006 levels.
MORE »

JCPenney pledged to reduce energy usage per square foot of real estate by 20 percent by 2015 with investments in smart meters and other building technologies.
MORE »

Marks & Spencer will sell its line of mini wine bottles in environmentally friendly plastic instead of glass to cut 525 tons of packaging a year.
MORE »

McDonalds launched a website highlighting sustainable best practices from its supply chain and restaurants: http://www.bestpractices.mcdonalds.com/
MORE »

Siemens launched a “Sustainability Month” during which its U.K. businesses will donate savings from sustainability initiatives to employee-selected community and environmental organizations.
MORE »

back to top ^

CEF MEMBERS ONLY

back to top ^

ROI SUCCESS STORIES

Campbell Soup Company’s 2010 CSR report details several areas of sustainability savings, including $4.5 million from sustainable packaging, nearly $1 million annually from energy-efficient lighting retrofits, and $869,000 from a heat and water recovery project at a Canadian plant.
MORE »

Kaiser Permanente is saving approximately $20 million annually from switching to more environmentally friendly products in 2009.
MORE »

back to top ^

GOVERNMENT AND LEGAL

BP is granting $100 million to the states impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill has caused many Washington lawmakers and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to abandon support for new offshore drilling.
MORE 1, MORE 2

Senator Lindsay Graham called for a “pause” in considering the Graham-Kerry-Lieberman climate bill, while Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman said they planned to forge ahead without him.
MORE »

The President’s Cancer Panel, citing the threat of "grievous harm" from largely unregulated chemicals, called for a new national strategy on chemical threats in air, food, and water.
MORE »

The EPA issued a proposal to regulate coal ash, a toxic byproduct of coal production that contains mercury and arsenic.
MORE »

The EPA launched the “Building Performance with Energy Star” pilot program to help utilities and state energy-efficiency programs achieve greater energy savings and reduce GHG emissions by tackling energy efficiency projects from a “whole building” perspective.
MORE »

The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $13 million to 48 R&D winning projects of the Industrial Energy Efficiency Grand Challenge to help spur “transformational industrial processes and technologies that can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout the industrial sector.” CEF members 3M, Alcoa, and GE were among the recipients.
MORE »

The Canadian House of Representatives passed a climate change bill that would cut 2020 greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent over 1990 levels.
MORE »

Over 500 European mayors signed the “Covenant of the Mayors,“ which commits participating cities to reduce carbon emissions 20 percent by 2020. Over 1,600 cities across 36 countries representing 120 million citizens are now part of the agreement.
MORE »

Walmart will pay $27.6 million to twenty California jurisdictions to settle charges that it improperly stored, transported and dumped hazardous materials over 4 years ago.
MORE »

back to top ^

TECH INNOVATIONS

American Superconductor expects by the end of this year to license its SeaTitan offshore wind turbines, which deliver 40 percent more electricity than today’s largest versions by using high-temperature superconductor wire.
MORE »

Slovakia’s Carbon Green says it has developed an economically viable method for recycling scrap tires using “pyrolysis,” which converts the tires into gas, oil and carbon char.
MORE »

Joule Unlimited said it will produce biofuel from gene-altered organisms that absorb sunlight and CO2 in order to “sweat” hydrocarbons - an advantage over fuel-from-algae methods, which require an energy-intensive process to remove the fuels.
MORE »

United Airlines flew the first commercial flight in the U.S. using a mix of 40/60 synthetic “ultra clean” jet fuel.
MORE »

back to top ^

ECONOMIC INDICATORS & TRENDS

Google invested $38.8 million in a $190 million round of financing for two wind energy projects in North Dakota developed by NextEra Energy Resources, a subsidiary of FPL.
MORE »

back to top ^

NEW RESEARCH AND TOOLS

IBM released a series of software solutions to help make the transportation sector more efficient and less carbon-intensive.
MORE »

A new Department of Commerce report, Measuring the Green Economy, measures the size and economic impacts of green products and services.
MORE »

A Lloyd's 360 Risk Insight report, Global Water Scarcity, produced with World Wildlife Fund reviews the impacts of water scarcity on business.
MORE »

back to top ^
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