July 2011

Sustainability Reporting Methods 'Outdated'
The current once-yearly model of commercial sustainable development reporting is looking increasingly out of date and will be replaced by myriad forms of reporting, according to research by Acona and SABMiller.

Multiple Messages, a division of Acona, argues that discussions over the nature and practice of sustainable development reporting are taking place in the shadow of a “tidal wave of social and technological change” that is fundamentally transforming the way we communicate. Social media, instant access, handheld devices, syndication, and all-powerful search engines have conditioned users to find the content that they want when they want it, the report says.

At the same time the fast-rising BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India & China) economies are developing their own views on the role of companies in society and affecting the way global corporations think, the report argues. As a result, annual reporting on such issues is behind the times.
Multiple Messages concludes that the future of sustainable development reporting will be “plural, bespoke and continuous”: plural in that the content will be spread through multiple documents and channels; bespoke in that different audiences will require different content; and continuous in that companies will be expected to communicate regularly – and the development of the story will become as important as the facts themselves.

The annual report will be replaced by tailored multi-stranded communications to different audiences, using technology to allow regular updates, Acona and SABMiller argue. This, they say, requires a more nuanced view of verification, breaking the task into pieces dependent on the nature of the content and the requirements of the audience.

“Sustainable development reports may work as a ‘document of record’ but they fail when judged as an exercise in communication,” said Simon Hodgson, managing partner at Acona and one of the report’s authors. “They tend to be long documents full of information in search of an audience. To succeed in the new connected, plural future, they must recognize the audiences in search of the information.”

“Leading global companies are often at the forefront of efforts to tackle environmental and social issues but more and more stakeholders are looking for deep, up to date information on their specific issue, to understand its materiality for the business and to break performance down market by market,” said Andy Wales, global head of sustainable development at SABMiller. “It’s a significant communications challenge, but one which companies cannot shy away from.”  
July 11, 20011 Environmental Leader


Getting Americans to Buy In to Global Warming
I realize the idea of saving money by saving energy is nothing new. Everyone’s heard that tune. The question is, if it didn’t change consumer attitudes in the past, why should we expect it to work now? That’s an easy one. Most of the time, when people talk about preventing climate change, they focus on individual actions. This seems like a smart approach, after all there are over three-hundred million people in America. Getting them to be more energy efficient would pay big dividends.

Here’s the problem –for a typical consumer, the effort required to use less energy may not be justified by the savings. Suppose your monthly electric bill is around $100, excluding taxes and other fees. If you’re able to reduce consumption by 10%, you’ll save $10. That’s about the price of a burger and fries at a premium quick serve restaurant. For a lot of people, it’s just not worth the hassle.

To a large corporation, however, a 10% savings can quickly add up. One of the world’s leading apparel retailers spends over $100 million a year on energy for their stores in the U.S. and Canada. For them, a 10% savings is worth more than $10 million. Now, apply that same 10% target to the hundreds of thousands of commercial buildings in the U.S., a group that happens to be responsible for almost 20% of the nation’s annual energy consumption. Improving the energy efficiency of these buildings by even a small percentage will have a much bigger impact on the environment than arguing ad infinitum with the global warming skeptics.

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Here’s the good news: even if the cost of energy right now isn’t high enough to motivate action, it soon will be. Thanks to new technologies like smart meters, the utility industry has begun rolling out new pricing programs that penalize customers for using too much energy at the wrong time of day. These so called dynamic pricing programs include variable electricity rates that rise and fall in response to changing energy demand. Building owners who don’t invest in energy savings initiatives should expect significantly lower net operating income.

In summary, the threat of global climate change is very real, but continuing to argue about it won’t get us anywhere. If we want to save the earth, we have to change the message. Everyone cares about money, so let’s focus on that. Every commercial organization wants to reduce operating costs and increase profits. Once they grasp the financial consequences of doing nothing, they’ll quickly change their ways and operate more energy efficiently. The end result will be reduced greenhouse gas emissions and a healthier plant.

Corporate avarice may not be pretty, but in the words of Gordon Gekko, when it comes to saving the environment, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.”  
Michael Nark 7/11/11

Bloom Boxes Make Big AT&T Sale, But Sit 10^th in Fuel Cell Rankings

Remember Bloom Energy servers, those low-cost, energy-efficient fuel cells born out of a scrapped NASA project? The company made a splashy debut last year, starting with a spot on 60 Minutes and a long list of early-adopting corporate heavyweights like FedEx, Walmart, Google, Coca-Cola, Staples, and eBay. Since then, we haven't heard much from the company, but today she's back -- AT&T says it will be the first telco to use these refrigerator-sized servers to power its operations. For now, the company's planning on using the technology to run 11 sites in California, a move AT&T says will cut its carbon dioxide emissions in half and virtually eliminate SOx, NOx, and other smog-forming particles. Eleven AT&T sites in California will install 7.5 MW of Bloom Boxes, in one of the biggest deals ever for the fuel cell maker.

AT&T, which reached nearly 3 million kWh of solar energy production in 2010, is the first telecom company to use Bloom Boxes. They are expected to produce over 62 million kWh of energy annually – enough to power over 5,600 homes – and to reduce carbon emissions by about 50 percent compared to grid-sourced electricity, saving 250 million pounds of CO2. Despite being the best-known maker of fuel cells, Bloom Energy has been heavily outscored by, among others, FuelCell Energy and UTC Power, in a report that ranks the competitiveness of such manufacturers.

The "Pike Pulse Report: Prime Power Fuel Cells" by Pike Research evaluates 15 of the leading prime power station fuel cell developers and rates them on 12 criteria for strategy and execution, including go-to-market strategy, product portfolio, partnerships, innovation, reach, market share, pricing, and staying power.  FuelCell Energy attained the highest overall score in the Pike Pulse report due to a combination of a clear go-to-market strategy, geographic reach and partnerships, coupled with its cost-down systems and mass manufacturing, Pike says.  In this market, where high-quality, high-volume manufacturing is not the norm, FuelCell Energy’s ability to ramp up manufacturing based on market demand gives it a clear edge, according to research director Kerry-Ann Adamson.

UTC Power is the runner-up and is assessed as second in both strategy and execution. The highest-ranking residential prime power fuel cell manufacturer in the study is ClearEdge Power, with Ceramic Fuel Cells only one point behind.  Bloom Energy came in tenth in the ranking. The company, generally considered the market leader, fell into the report’s “challengers” category. FuelCell was the lone company in the “leaders” section. The report terms the companies ranked two to nine “contenders”.

“The prime power fuel cell market is in a fluid, vibrant phase of market growth. In the midst of this critical stage of development, we are seeing some new market trends appearing,” said Adamson. “These include the ‘electrons or hardware’ business model where adopters lease or buy the stationary fuel cell prime power unit. The benefits of both vary depending on the adopter and, interestingly, the country in which the company is operating.

“In terms of geography, we have seen some companies developing a single country-specific product, for example in the Japanese residential market. So although a company may be leading today, in terms of deployment, looking forward it could face significant barriers to entry for its product in other regions,” Adamson adds.

The top 15 vendors according to the report are as follows:

1.              FuelCell Energy

2.              UTC Power

3.              Hydrogenics

4.              POSCO Power

5.              ClearEdge Power

6.              Ceramic Fuel Cells

7.              Fuji Electric

8.              Panasonic; Toshiba Fuel Cell Power; Eneos Celltech

9.              Topsoe Fuel Cell

10.           Bloom Energy

11.           Intelligent Energy

12.           Baxi Innotech

13.           Ceres Power

14.           Hexis

15.          GS Fuel CellsTechnology   
Dana Wollman for Engadget/ EL  7/12/11

Earth's Population Will Hit 7 Billion People This Year

It seems like only yesterday that the planet’s population hit 6 billion, but in fact it was 12 years ago in 1999. This year, the planet will hit the next big milestone – the UN Population Division just announced that the world’s human population will hit 7 billion on Halloween 2011. Unfortunately, 7 Billion Day means that as we continue to dominate the planet, we are stretching natural resources, fresh water and food supplies to their limit while increasing our environmental impact exponentially.

The increase of a billion people in 12 years is worrying, especially since the global population only reached one billion in the early 19th century. In the following 150 years the earth’s population rose by 1.5 billion people, and in just the past 60 years the population has exploded with an increase of 4.5 billion people. This is not a good thing, as we continue to consume more water; food and fuel then we can create. That’s not even considering the increase in carbon and nitrogen we are responsible for and the natural species we have made extinct through our presence.

All in all this means that in the next 20 years, our population growth is predicted to see a ‘perfect storm’ as the population rises to 8 billion people and our demand for food increases by 50 percent, water by 30 percent and energy by 50 percent. It’s enough to make you start building a survival shelter in your garden right now. So what can we do? Adopt a one-child policy like China? Grow more food? Switch to renewable sources of energy? Well, yes to the last two. As each generation is born, we are going to have to adapt our diets, our energy sources and how we live if we are to survive a global humanitarian disaster. After all it is not our numbers that are the problem ( 7 billion people could fit into Los Angeles apparently) — it is the resources we currently crave. Our consumption grossly outweighs our needs and, unless we address that the world is not going to change.

According to UN scientists, our impact is creating an epoch called the Anthropocene. This is: “a break with the geologic past marked by humanity’s long-term alteration of the natural world and its biota.” In short, we are inadvertently bringing on the sixth mass extinction because our desires are too great, our technologies have had too great an impact on the environment, and our use of the land is unsustainable.  

Timon Singh 7/19/11  The Guardian, Images by Arenamontanus

June 2011

Building Owners Expect Energy Price Spike, Target 12% Energy Reduction
     Eighty percent of building owners expect double-digit energy price increases over the next year, which has prompted an average energy reduction target of 12%, according to Johnson Controls annual global energy efficiency indicator survey of nearly 4,000 building owners and operators around the world.  Lighting and heating, ventilation, air conditioning and controls improvements are the most popular energy efficiency improvements.
     The primary motivation for energy efficiency projects continued to be energy cost savings.  Government incentives and enhanced public image were also important, ranking second and third in the survey. Greenhouse gas reduction, which ranked as the second highest motivator in 2010, ranked fourth in 2011. Access to funding topped the list of barriers to energy efficiency projects for respondents in the U.S./ Canada (38%) and Europe (30%).

     Nearly 40 percent of respondents achieved at least one green building certification, twice as many as the prior year.  An additional 32 percent have incorporated green building elements.  There are 39 percent of building owners planning to pursue green building certifications for existing buildings, and approximately 35% have plans to certify new construction.
     The research also found that building owners have greater access to energy data, but few are taking advantage of it.  More than eighty percent measure and record data at least weekly or monthly, but fewer than 20 percent review and analyze that data at least weekly.  Those who have implemented smart grid/smart building technology such as advanced energy metering and management systems are nearly 3 times more likely to review and analyze their data frequently.
     Organizations that set a reduction goal, analyze energy data frequently, add internal or external resources and use external financing, were found to implement four times as many improvement measures as those who did none.  Seventy-seven percent of U.S./ Canada building owners plan to include green building elements in their facility plans in the next 12 months.  Further global and North America survey results were released June 16, 2011 during the 22nd annual North America Energy Efficiency Forum in Washington, D.C..  
Environmental Leader 6/2011


DOE Design Guides "Can Halve Energy Costs"
     The U.S. Department of Energy has released the first in a series of design guides aiming to cut the energy consumption of commercial buildings in half.  The first of the 50% Advanced Energy Design Guides focuses on small and medium-sized office buildings. The DOE says the guides provide a practical approach to help architects and engineers design buildings that achieve 50 percent energy savings compared to the commercial building energy code used in many areas of the country.
     The guidance also supports President Obama's goal to reduce energy use in commercial buildings 20 percent by 2020, and will help drive demand for energy-saving products made in the U.S., the department says.  The guides recommend ways that designers can choose energy efficient designs for daylighting, building envelope assemblies, and heating and cooling systems, among other technologies.  They also recommend commonly available equipment.

     DOE says the guides are designed to reduce the time and money that designers would otherwise spend to individually model energy use for high performance buildings.  The guides will also inform the development of future commercial building energy codes, according to the department.
      The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Condition Engineers (ASHRAE), American Institute of Architects (AIA), U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) are all helping to develop the booklets.
Three more guides, on large hospitals, medium to big-box retail buildings and K-12 schools, will be released in coming months.  
Environmental Leader 5/11

Subway to Submarine

     In what looks like an eco-disaster, retired subway cars are duped into the Atlantic Ocean to create artificial reefs.  For over a decade, the New York City metropolitan Transportation Authority has saved millions of dollars diverting old subway cars from the scrap yard into the Atlantic Ocean.  Instead of carting sweaty straphangers from borough to borough, the cars now serve as a haven for over 150 species of fish and marine life.  According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection , the reefs enhance the marine ecosystem by providing spawning, refuge, and feeding for aquatic creatures.  The cars are stripped of seats, light fixtures, ad banners, lead paint, windows, and doors before being submerged.  Studies show that within a few weeks, blue mussels, sponges, barnacles and after a year, soft corals attach to the structures, and the subway cars develop into fully functional artificial reef habitats.

     Delaware was the first state to participate, using the agency's oldest cars to create the "Redbird Reef."  The site takes its name from the 1,300 dark red subway cars dating back to the sixties that were donated by the MTA in 2001.  A second stage of deployment from 2008 to the present saw another 1,311 B-division cars sent to the ocean floor as reefing material.  Other debris making up these artificial reefs includes armored tanks, naval ships, tugboats, refrigerators, and even washing machines.

     Though some environmental groups initially opposed the process due to the small levels of asbestos in the glue and insulation of the older cars, state and federal environmental officials said the asbestos was not a risk for sea life and has to be airborne to pose a threat to humans.  
Green Source Magazine May/June 2011

Facts from The Sierra Club:

• The United States slips to third in clean-energy spending, behind China and Germany.
• U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2009 were 14 percent lower than they were in 2000.
• In 2010, renewables provided 11 percent of U.S. energy, the same amount as nuclear power.
• Cats kill more than a thousand times more birds than do wind turbines.   Sierra July/August 2011

Room with a View

The QTvan is the world's smallest carbon-neutral caravan.  It has bright green walls, a 19 inch TV, a bar cabinet, and a full-size bed.  Hook it up to a scooter, but don't expect to get anywhere fast: it goes about 5mph. 
Newsweek 5/15/11



Better Fans    
While browsing in a gift shop one day, Pennsylvania biologist Frank Fish came across a sculpture of a humpback whale.  He was surprised to find bumps on the "wrong" side- the front edge- of the flipper. Conventional engineering wisdom said that a smooth leading edge reduced drag, whereas a ragged edge increased it.  If the sculpture was anatomically correct, everything Fish had learned on the subject would be turned on its head.  And it was. Far from being a hindrance, Fish discovered, those flipper bumps, or tubercles, actually reduced drag and improved aerodynamics, allowing the whale to maneuver using less energy.  Today, Fish's WhalePower Corporation develops and markets tubercle-enhanced fan blades.                                                 Readers Digest 6/7/11

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May 2011

Scientific Conservation Inc. Enters Global Alliance with Intel to Improve Energy Use

     Scientific Conservation Inc. (SCI), a leading provider of energy efficiency solutions via Predictive Diagnostics and Analystics, announced a global strategic alliance with Intel to improve energy use in large campuses, optimize data center cooling, and collaborate on technologies to improve the energy efficiency of IT-intensive workspaces. 

     SCI's CEO, Russ McMeekin explained, "We are delighted to collaborate with Intel to enable smarter energy grids and more sophisticated demand-side management.  Intel is a global leader in the technologies that enable greater energy efficiency not only in IT equipment, but also in the facilities in which IT equipment resides."  Intel General manager of Eco-Technology Program Office, Lorie Wigle said, "Intel is excited to collaborate with Scientific Conservation to help commercial building owners and occupants reduce their energy use."  The combination of SCI's cloud-based artificial intelligence algorithms, and Intel's expertise in energy measurement and efficiency technologies, is a great example of smart energy solutions that are being brought to market through the Intel Open Energy Initiative.  
Tanya Blackburn, RTJ Consultants

Corporate Sustainability, Competition and Collaboration
     Sustainability has become a competitive battleground.  Companies like Starbucks and Darden Restaurants are building green credentials to compete for employees.  Firms such as Enterprise Holdings are implementing sustainability strategies to differentiate themselves from competitors.  Dell is gunning to become the "greenest technology company on the planet." News Corp. recently crowed about becoming the first carbon-neutral media company.  There is no question that many companies bring an intensely competitive spirit to the pursuit of sustainability, a point that others have also noted.
     Corporate sustainability ranking schemes fan these competitive flames.  Companies eagerly pour over the Newsweek Green Rankings and anxiously track their standing on the Dow Jone Sustainability Indes (DJSI).  Executive bonuses are sometimes tied to a company's rank in a key index.  One sustainability executive told me he'd get fired if his company slipped in the ranks o the DJSI.

     To be sure, the ranking schemes have their problems.  To begin with, there are too many of them.  Consultancy SustainAbility identified some 108 different corporate sustainability rating schemes.  Nonetheless, all this competition helps drive innovation and encourages companies to adopt advanced methods to improve sustainability and is ultimately good for people, the planet and for profits.
     Sustainability isn't all about competition, of course. Collaboration also plays an important role in helping sustainability executives reach their objectives.  Sustainability leaders recognize that collaborating with customers and suppliers can be critical.  And there are numerous examples of companies collaborating with competitors to address sustainability challenges.
     It's not uncommon for competitors to come together to set standards for their mutual benefit, for instance.  In organizations ranging from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to StEP (Solving the E-Waste Problem," whose focus is electronics recycling), competitors routinely work closely together to tackle problems that are too large for any one company.  I recently attended an event at Dell headquarters at which a Dell exec told me the company works with Hewlett-Packard "daily" on recycling standards.
     Sustainability execs have even come to each others' rescue.  I recently heard the story of a sustainability executive at a consumer packaged goods company who was getting heat from an NGO.  Knowing his competitor had had dealings with that NGO in the past, the executive called his counterpart at the other company and received some friendly advice on managing relations with the NGO.
      At the end of the day, companies will compete where they feel it's in their interest to compete and collaborate when that path is more effective.  Industry is adopting a mix of competitive and collaborative strategies in pursuit of greater sustainability, but what about the class of challenges that carries great potential competitive benefits but is too costly for any one company to pursue?  Perhaps that is where government steps in.  Government support for electric vehicles is a case in point.  Where do you draw the line between competition and collaboration in pursuit of your sustainability goals?  
David Schatsky, Green Research May 2011
  

Synthetic Trees Soak Up Carbon 1000x Faster than the Real Thing
     Each synthetic plant promises to do the work of a thousand old-style wooden trees-
Trees are great absorbers of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and inhibitors of climate change- that is why treehuggers hug them so much.  But leave it to humanity to engineer a better tree.  A synthetic tree, currently being tested as a prototype, ensnares carbon about 1000 times faster than a real tree.
     The "tree" uses plastic leaves that capture the carbon dioxide in a chamber.  The carbon dioxide is then compressed into liquid form.  The tree captures the carbon without the need for direct sunlight, which means that, unlike traditional trees, the synthetic trees can be stored in enclosed places such as barns, used anywhere, and transported from one site to another regardless of conditions.

     Klaus Lackner, a professor at Columbia University who is developing the tree, says the captured CO2 could be used to create fuel for jet engines and cars, the two most common carbon emitters.  In other cases, the CO2 could be used to enhance current production of begetable produce.
     Lackner met with U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu to talk about the concept.  In an interview with CNN, Lackner said the synthetic tree is "several hundred times better at collecting CO2" than windmill generators.  He says that for every 1,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide collected, the tree emits just 200 kilograms.  This ratio is more than enought to warrant the relatively high cost of building the trees (about the same as a new automobile) or retrofitting coal plants.  Each synthetic tree could collect about 90,000 tons of carbon per year.      
John Brandon for Popsci


Reducing our Carbon Footprint: Kindle Books Now Outsell All Print Books on Amazon
     Amazon announced this month that its Kindle ebooks are now officially outselling all print books, including paperbacks and hardcover editions.  For every 100 print books sold, Amazon sells 105 Kindle books, a trend that the company expects to keep increasing.  Amazon said it has already sold three times as many ebooks so far in 2011 than it did in the same time period of 2010.
     A study last year by the Cleantech Group found that a Kindle has a lower carbon footprint than print books once you replace the purchase of 22.5 new books with ebooks.  Now that Amazon is selling so many ebooks, it's clear that people are reducing their reading-related carbon footprints very quickly.  
Megan Treacy for Mother Nature Network

Life After Management by Spreadsheet:
     Let's face it, an ideal business world does not exist.  There isn't an environment where everything goes to plan, productivity is sustained at peak levels, and asset performance is unquestionable.  In an ideal situation, we would like to maintain 100% efficiency for each and every asset on the books and realize the best value for the money against our investment.

      In reality, we purchase assets according to their potential and often base our decisions on the track record of the manufacturing company, experience, testimonials and warranties.  We expect each asset to meet peak performance levels according to its specified purpose.  Asset ROI is a critical measurement, yet all too often we take a very poor approach to the science of gathering all the data needed to make our assessment.
     Management executives have to tread a delicate path on the road to profits and they must satisfy the needs of a wide variety of stakeholders along this path.  Investors expect ultimate return, customers expect perfect service, environmentalists expect accountability and employees expect the support and systems to be in place, to enable them to do their job.

     In order for executives to make the right decisions, they need to be in possession of the most accurate and up-to-date data.  Data gathering becomes a critical part of the mission statement because if the base information is inaccurate, the repercussions could be costly.
     Systems that are based on conventional spreadsheet input and audit are prone to significant errors, are static, and provide little opportunity for large-scale data mining.  Yet many organizations rely on this kind of approach when handling a critical part of their business intelligence.  Consequently, they base many important decisions on data which is far from reliable, let alone dynamic.
     Spreadsheets have inherent limitations.  They can serve only certain purposes and do not allow us to truly manipulate the data contained within as we try to make informed business decisions.   Excerpted from SRP/Verisae whitepaper
  













  

April 2011

Japan Disaster Proves Wind Power's Sustainability
     In the wake of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, Japan's food supply is being poisoned by nuclear radiation.  That's after oil refineries and natural gas storage tanks exploded and burned.  But wind power- whose reliability is constantly questioned by advocates of our energy status quo- survived the disaster without a scratch.

     While Japan's water-dependent nuclear power plants suck and wheeze and spew radioactive steam, "there has been no wind facility damage reported by any (Japan Wind Energy Association) members, from either the earthquake or the tsunami, says association head Yoshinori Ueda.
     Even the country's totally bad-ass Kamisu offshore wind farm, with its giant 2 MW turbines with blades as big as the wings on a jumbo jet, and only 186 miles from the epicenter of the largest quake ever recorded in Japan, survived without a hiccup, thanks to its "battle proof design."  As a result, the nation's electric companies have asked all of its wind farms to increase power production to maximum, in order to make up for the shortfalls brought about by the failure of certain other aging, non-resilient 20th century technologies.
     Wind's clutch performance is especially notable in light of how much Japanese power companies have resisted it.  Here in the United States, when we're making our energy choices, we ignore things like how well they'll survive a disaster, or how vulnerable they'll leave us to global price shocks, or how many cases of asthma they'll cause.  Instead we pick our energy sources almost solely on how cheaply they can produce a unit of electricity.  We get low prices in the short term, but like Japan's shaky nuclear construction, what long-term bills may come due?  
Miles Grant for The Green Miles  3/22/11



Talk Big on Sustainability? You May Have Higher Emissions
     Companies that use key words related to sustainability in their annual reports tend to have higher greenhouse gas emissions than those who don't use such words, according to new research.  The paper by University of Notre Dame management professor Sarv Devaraj and 2010 Notre Dame MBA graduate Suvrat Dhanorkar, recently won the prize for "Best Environmental Issues Paper," out of 1,100 entries submitted to the International Conference of the Decision of Sciences Institute.

     The paper also found that high use of the keywords correlated with poor performance in Newsweek's rankings of companies' environmental performance.  "One of the reasons for the negative finding could be that companies are including mentions of sustainability in their annual reports because the topic increasingly is important to investors, even though operational measures haven't yielded actual performance results as yet," Devaraj said.  But he said that over the longer term, the companies that "talk" sustainability now could turn out to be the ones that significantly improve their environmental performance.  The study is now being expanded to cover multiple years, to test that hypothesis.  
Environmental Management and Energy News 3/15/11




Green Roofs Up 29% in 2010, Survey Says
     The square footage of green roofs in the U.S. grew by 28.5 percent in 2010, according to an industry survey.  The 2011 Annual Industry Survey by Green Roofs for Health Cities (GRHC) found that the sector grew faster in 2010 than in 2009, when the rate of increase was 16 percent.  Last year, Chicago was the city with the biggest square footage of green roofs for the seventh year in a row, with more than 500,000 square feet installed.  It was closely followed by Washington, D.C., GRHC said.
     "Government investment in green roofs for their stormwater, air quality, green space and city cooling benefits largely fuels the growth of our industry," said GRHC founder and president, Steven Peck.  "Cities such as Chicago, Washington, New York, Portland, Seattle and Philadelphia continue to lead the way with incentives and regulations that recognize the many benefits from green roofs, including much needed green jobs in their communities.  "We are also seeing tremendous leadership within the federal government and its agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and General Services Administration."

     Green roofs are roofs planted with vegetation to absorb rainwater and help regulate temperatures.  In Chicago, more than 600 green roofs have been or are being built, the city Department of Environment said.  GRHC chair Jeffrey Bruce explained, "As the green roof and wall industry develops further, we will see costs come down and benefits to building owners rise, through the application of integrated design practices that turn wasted roof and wall spaces into value added urban farms, habitat, recreational spaces, horticultural therapy centers, energy conservation, green energy production, and stormwater management infrastructure."
Environmental Leader 4/1/11


Boston Area 12th in Energy Efficiency
     The Boston area has been ranked No. 12 among the nation's metropolitan areas for buildings with the Energy Star label, which is earned when certain efficiency standards are met.  In 2010, the area had 145 buildings that earned the designation, which the US Environmental Protection Agency estimates saved about $48.7 million in energy costs.  Across the rest of New England, another 132 buildings earned the label.  Energy Star is a program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save energy. It is run jointly by the EPA and the Department of Energy.   

Associated Press 3/20/11

Lifecycle Analysis: Moving from Black-box to Transparency
     Lifecycle analysis, or LCA, is all the rage.  Academics and consultants tout the amazing insights that an LCA can provide companies.  Labeling organizations solicit companies to run LCAs to produce carbon or other environmental footprint numbers.  And it's true- mostly- that LCAs can provide incredible and sometimes truly revolutionary insights into a company's impacts that highlight waste and illogical supply chain steps.
     There are two very real problems about LCA that everyone needs to know about (but which, in my opinion, shouldn't actually prevent anyone from running an LCA).  The more you know, the more you know- right?  So it makes sense to know as much as you can about your product's lifecycle.  However, you also need to know about LCA and the best way to make it work for you.

     Problem #1: Who's running your LCA and how are they doing it? The title of this piece references a magical, mysterious "black-box," because many LCAs today are shrouded in secrecy.  And the secrecy is being defended as "intellectual property" or "proprietary data" or "just too complicated" and "we're the experts."  And while some of that may be true, how can LCA become common practice if the only way to do it is to hand over your private information to a magician, pay him (or her) a vast sum of money, and sit back and wait for him to reappear with spreadsheets and spreadsheets of data in teeny tiny fonts that only he understands?  And when you pay him another vast sum of money, he'll give you his interpretations and recommendations about what he sees in all those numbers and you'll have to take his word concerning the data.  And then, hopefully, you go away with a feeling of satisfaction that now you have run an LCA and have some insight too.  (Of course, you've also got all those spreadsheets that you don't really know what to do with but that you suspect could possibly have additional insights somewhere in them but unfortunately, you've run out of your budget and can't afford to pay another vast sum of money to get another reading!)

     Problem #2- The data itself.  Building on Problem #1 is the common assumption that the data used in an LCA is precise and must be down to a bunch of decimal places and must be absolutely defendable in every instance.  For the vast majority of LCAs, that may be the line you hear; but that's not actually what's going on behind the scenes.  Imagine a wheat field on a hill.  If you're measuring the water footprint of wheat, should you measure the water use at the top of the hill or at the bottom of the hill?  What about in the shade of that tree? Or, what about in the last dry year?  Or during the 100 year flood year? What about calculating productivity (tons per hectare)? Which is the key variable? This depends on the soil type, texture and moisture level.  The reality is that productivity varies from plot-to-plot.  Despite the scientific community's efforts to relate LCA results and productivity, unfortunately there is no real correlation.
     There are so many problems and angles that it would actually be scientifically more reasonable to take an average of water consumption of this type of wheat, in this type of climate, in perhaps the past 10, 20 or 30 years.  Even though it may seem a little scary and difficult to defend, the average water consumption would actually provide more accuracy than the actual measurement of water usage in that field today.  And if we expand that example to carbon, do you really need to know the exact carbon emissions of a truck in Argentina versus the same type of truck used in Spain? Wouldn't it be more cost and time effective to use average measurements from readily available data?

     The key to a defendable useful LCA is transparency.  Transparency of methodology, transparency of data sources, and transparency of assumptions.  Without transparency, the results mean very little.  Recently, I went through a bunch of retailer's websites and pulled their published carbon footprints -from Japan, to France, to the UK and beyond.  There's actually quite a lot out there and definitely a lot of investment behind these numbers, but there is absolutely no transparency about how these numbers were calculated and what they actually mean.  Unfortunately, despite the hype and PR, the numbers end up being fairly useless and undermine real measurement models that can inspire real, sustainable change in a world that really needs it.
     So, do yourself a favor.  Recognize that LCA is going to become a common business practice in the not too distant future.  And demand transparency and full disclosure from your magicians and their assistants. 
Sara Pax, Bluehorse Associates, EL 4/12/11

Student Teams Compete for P3 Awards
     The 7th Annual National Sustainable Design Expo will feature EPA's P3- People, Prosperity, and the Planet- Program, which is a unique college competition for designing solutions for a sustainable future. The program offers students hands-on experience that brings their classroom learning to life.  P3 student teams will present technologies they have developed to address alternative energy, purification and distribution of drinking water, reduction of pesticide run-off, green buildings, and more.  The student teams can win up to $90,000 to develop their ideas and apply them to the real world.
     The Expo also provides a forum for government, nonprofits, and the business community to demonstrate their diverse approaches to sustainability.  All  are welcome at the Expo, which will take place on Saturday, April 16 and Sunday, April 17 on the National Mall between 4th and 7th Streets- NW in Washington, D.C.

March 2011

The Green Market:
Critcs argue that the phrase"Green Luxury" is a contradiction in terms- that you can't buy luxury goods and promote the environment at the same time.  To which there's only one response: Why not?

     What does Green Luxury really mean?  I was pondering that question not long ago while standing in the spiffy new Heritage Aviation terminal at Burlington Vermont International Airport.  Heritage had invited local luminaries, business people and New York journalists to witness the opening of the 79,000 square foot Fixed Base Operation.

     Company reps were proudly emphasizing that their new terminal was remarkably eco-friendly.  A young woman from their PR firm showed me its green roof- covered with grass to keep the building warm in winter and cool in summer- and the talked up the fact that the terminal requires almost no electricity for lighting during the daytime, collects 98 percent of the rainwater that falls on it for use in washing planes, and is mostly powered by solar panels and a wind turbine.
     Impressive, but not the only reality.  After all, this attractive smartly designed building is dedicated to promoting one of the least eco-friendly means of transportation on the planet: private jets, one of which I and a handful of other visitors would board that night to return to Manhattan.  Is it legitimately "green" to harness so much sophisticated technology  in the service of something so anti-environmental?
     Truth is, green luxury has benefits that its critics don't appreciate.  Many of its business practices-like, say Tiffany, refusing to use endangered coral in its jewelry- are unquestionably good.  And by displaying their consumption so consipicuously, affluent purchasers serve as thought leaders, promoting the sex appeal of environmentalism.  It is likely that technology first developed for green luxury items- a hybrid engine, for example- will eventually filter down to more mass-market models.  Because they're buying such technology first, and at a premium, green luxury consumers are subsidizing the development of green technologies for widespread adoption later.  That may not make them angels- but does it really make them evil?  
Excerpted from Worth Magazine, by Richard Bradley 3/11

Empire State Building's Windows Technology Now Being Sold for Commercial Use
     Serious Materials' energy efficiency technology for windows, used in the high-profile retrofitting of the Empire State Building , is now being sold for commercial properties.  The iWindow is a thin material frame containing the company's own Serious Glass, which is installed on the inside of existing windows. This then improves the thermal performance of single pane aluminum systems.  The company says that by warming glass temperatures in the winter and cooling glass in the summer, the iWindow can help building owners change temperature set-points, reducing heating and air conditioning costs.

     The iWindow evolved in part out of Serious Materials' work on the Empire State Building renovation.  In that project, Serious Materials replaced 96 percent of the building's 6,514 windows, rebuilding them using the original panes of glass but adding in spacers, a gas fill and a layer of coated film.  The $20 million energy retrofit project, primarily funded by energy and operational savings, is expected to reduce energy use by up to 38 percent, cut energy costs by $4.4 million annually, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 105,000 metric tons over the next 15 years.  The retrofit, due to be completed in 2013, will make the skyscraper more energy efficient than 90 percent of all office buildings, according to Serious Windows.
     Its product is available in a range of solar heat gain measurements, so it can be customized to a building's location and orientation relative to the sun.  Fine-tuning the amount of solar heat that gets into the building helps to further increase thermal efficiency.  The manufacturer says an iWindow can be put in place in 20 minutes, without replacing the existing glass or altering the exterior appearance, making the product ideal for renovations of historic projects.  Installation is priced at a fraction of the cost of full window replacements, the company says.  
Environmental Leader 3/7/2011

The Firefly: A Revolutionary- and Disruptive- Approach to Electrifying Africa

     A recent piece in the New York Times on a $12 solar panel at the heart of an emerging micro-economy in rural parts of Africa, caught my eye. The system, called the Firefly, comes with a panel, a four watt LED lightbulb, and an outlet for a cell phone charger.  It is far simpler, and far dinkier, than anything we might consider useful here in the U.S. but its potential in its markets, and beyond, is nothing short of transformational.

  Cell phones have revolutionized life around the globe, but in many rural parts of the developing world, people have to travel to centralized locations that have electricity to recharge them, and thus maintain connection with the outside world, with markets, with family.  This is understandably inconvenient; one Kenyan woman profiled by the Times had to walk two miles to catch a three hour ride just to drop off her phone to be recharged and then had to repeat the journey three days later to pick it up when it was ready. Furthermore, she, like far too many others in the developing world, did not have good options to light her home when darkness fell.  She lit her home with kerosene lamps, but they were dangerous, smokey, and their light quality made studying difficult.

     These were really strong, clear, primary needs- and a simple solar panel outfitted with extension cords to low-cost, long lasting bulbs and a plug- solved them.  Students of disruptive innovation know where this tale is headed:  this is a terrific human interest story, yes, but it can and should also be the seed of a terrific business opportunity.
The Firefly presents a disruptive entry point to a holy grail of economies around the globe, developing or developed; affordable, decentralized, renewable electricity.

     Once a business forms that is able to deliver on the need, it tends to take off; it gathers momentum, improves its performance, and ultimately enters mainstream markets- upending leading companies.  The Firefly is proof that disruption is finally happening in renewable energy.  
Excerpt from Josh Suskewicz- Innosight

Building Sustainability in Hard Times
     The triple bottom line concept for sustainability- addressing economic, environmental, and social business effects, is becoming well established in corporate boardrooms.  This is particularly evident in the case for companies with sensitive environmental, safety, and social footprints, where related operating costs are substantial, and failure to perform can impede an otherwise expanding license to operate.  The good news is that sustainability IT projects have strong business cases and that these can even be more compelling in a tough economy.
     Responsible companies maintain daily environmental, health, and safety compliance in an efficient, routine manner.  This proactive approach, often assisted by IT solutions, is far more cost-effective than allowing many non-compliance problems to occur and necessitates corrective actions.  There are many examples of cost savings tied to a systematic sustainability governance approach.

-Alcoa operations at a Tennessee facility, report facility-level savings of more than $160,000 per year as a result of reducing third-party inspections and faster discovery of equipment reliability issues.
-Campbell Soup at the Napoleon, Ohio facility reports having shortened EPA inspection times from days to less than one hour at their 65 acre food manufacturing site.
-Volvo reduced water usage by 10 million gallons a year, along with air emissions and the associated costs.
     In these cases and others, IT solutions play an important role in weaving compliance into daily operations, helping to achieve cost savings as compared to manual or ad-hoc approaches.  
Excerpt from an IHS White Paper by David Cox, PE and Neal Rosen


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February 2011

LEED as the Seed: Sustainability Beyond Certification
Congratulations. You have been LEED certified. Now what?

     That is the question facing the owners and operators of over one billion square feet of commercial space that have obtained LEED staus under the U.S. Green Bulding Council's (USGBC) Green Building Rating System.  What they (and you) decide will make a big impact- it will mean the difference between one billion square feet of truly sustainable real estate, and one billion square feet of 'potentially' sustainable real estate. 
     The gap between real and potential sustainability lies in the way LEED is perceived.  If you think attaining LEED is attaining sustainability, your answer to the "now what?" question might well ge "nothing," since you've already achieved your goal.  But you would be missing the point because LEED does not equal sustainability.  It merely opens the door to sustainability.  True sustainability is a process.
     Think of it this way.  Would you walk away from your garden after carefully planting your seeds? Or would you continue to tender and monitor it to make sure it thrives?  With LEED as the seed, what's next is to ensure that sustainability blooms.
     So back to the question. Now what?  Well, first go ahead and hang that LEED plaque up on your wall. You deserve it.  You've made a great start.  To reach your full, sustainable potential, here's what you must do beyond LEED:
1) Establish a long-term environmental management system:
In a nutshell, this means putting in place a plan to ensure the continued improvement of your building's environmental performance.
2) Measure and manage with a sustainability metrics:
Is your building saving as much energy as its LEED certification predicted?  Are the bathroom retrofits lowering water consumption? These questions can only be answered if a building's sustainability performance is being measured and managed.  USGBC research suggests that a quarter of new LEED building are not saving as much energy as expected, and that most buildings do not track energy consumption.

3) Communicate and educate:
Your building's tenants and employees have to realize that they do not just work in a LEED building, but that they are in fact part of the green process.
4)  Conduct management review:
As a process, sustainability has to be incorporated into your building's or comapny's overall strategy.  Sustainability has to be accounted for in capital budgets, risk management, corporate reputation and other decisions.  This will ensure that the sustainability process continues beyond LEED as part of your long-term vision.  
Richard Fuller and Anna Dengler, Great Forest Inc.



Yellow Pages Faces Another Ban
     Two cities are pursuing legislation to ban or restrict distribution of the Yellow Pages, as the directory publishers themselves launch a website to help customers opt out of deliveries.  In San Francisco, Board of Supervisors president David Chu is leading the push to ban the books, which he says are wasteful and becoming obsolete.  Chu has proposed prohibiting Yellow Pages distributers from leaving them on doorsteps without advance permission.  Distributors could be fined up to $500 for each violation.  The law would make San Francisco the first U.S. city to ban unsolicited distribution of the Yellow Pages, the San Francisco Chronicle said.  "If we're serious about the environment , it's time we recognize that phone books are a 20th century tool that doesn't meet the business or environmental needs of the 21st century," Chu told the Chronicle.

     Seattle City Council voted on Monday to keep pursuing plans to levy a 14 cent fee for every Yellow Pages book distributed, despite a federal lawsuit against the city, the Seattle Times reported.  Directory parent companies Dex One, the Yellow Pages Association and SuperMedia filed suit in November, saying the Seattle ordinance restricts their right to free speech.  The city is no longer pushing for the $148 tonnage fee it approved in October to help pay for recycling the books, the Times reported.  Also last October, the council voted to create a registry for people wanting to opt out of phone book delivery.  It plans to launch the site in April.
     But some distributors are trying to beat the city at that game.  The Yellow Pages Association (YPA) yesterday launched an upgraded website, www.yellowpagesoptout.com, to allow consumers to opt out of some or all Yellow Pages deliveries.  The association says the redesigned user interface makes opting out more convenient for customers by reducing the need to contact multiple publishers.  The website was developed together with the Association of Directory Publishers.  "The site, supported by directory publishers across the country, illustrates our ongoing commitment to not delivering a directory to someone who doesn't want one," YPA president Neg North said.
     The associations said that Yellow Pages companies have cut the amount of directory paper they use by 29 percent since 2006 and use paper that is either recycled or made from leftover woodchips from the lumber industry.  Three-quarters of U.S. adults use the print Yellow Pages every year, the association said.  "We believe print remains a central component of our industry's growing portfolio, which today includes digital and mobile platforms," Norton said.  
Environmental Leader 2/11



Site Lets Companies Sell Waste

     A service has been launched to help companies disposing of their refuse to make money in the process. RecycleMatch is an online business-to-business (B2B) marketplace that allows companies to buy, sell or give away large volumes of waste including plastics, textiles, paper, chemicals, food, metals and building materials. Companies can anonymously post messages on the site, listing materials that they wish to get rid of.  Prospective buyers interested in reusing or recycling the waste can then ask the sellers questions, get samples and make offers.

     Until now, companies have only been able to give away their waste on the site.  Now, they can sell their materials by asking for bids and judging offers on pricing and other factors.  Companies can choose offers based on the factors important to them, which could include the end-use of the materials or the distance the goods would have to travel.  Austin and Houston-based RecycleMatch says that U.S. companies spend $22 billion to landfill materials they no longer need, even though the value of those materials is about $20 billion. "Due to changing customer demands and supply chain mandates by industry leaders, companies are scrambling to reach zero waste.  70 percent of materials that get dumped into landfills can be repurposed, and the RecycleMatch marketplace finds those alternative uses," CEO Chris Porch said.
      Companies can also use the service to find better pricing for materials they are already recycling, Porch said. "We're the first marketplace designed specifically for the needs of large corporations who want control, protection, and trust in the entire process.  This is a large and exciting opportunity to help companies reduce costs, strengthen their brands and help the environment."
RecycleMatch was named on of Entrepreneur Magazine's Most Brilliant Ideas in 2010.  
Environmental Leader 2/11



Study: Companies Up Commitment to Sustainability

     More than two-thirds of businesses are strengthening their commitment to sustainability, according to a new  study by MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group.  This is the second annual study that the two have put together, and the new study is based on data gathered from more than 3,100 corporate leaders, representing every major industry and region of the world.  The new study is titled "Sustainability: The 'Embracers' Seize Advantage.

     The new study "found that a two-speed landscape is energing, with a gap between sustainability 'embracers'---those who place sustainability high on their agend---and nonembracers or 'cautious adopters,' who have yet to focus on more than energy cost savings, material efficiency, and risk mitigation," MIT Review and Boston Consulting Group said in a joint press release.  A commitment to sustainability can pay dividends: Nearly 50 percent of survey respondents said "improved brand reputation" is perceived as the biggest benefit of aggressively addressing sustainability issues. 
     The press release included a statment from Knut Haanaes, a Boston Consulting Group partner and managing director and co-author of the report.  "Most companies, whether currently embracers or not, are looking toward a world where sustainability is becoming a mainstream, if not required, part of the business strategy," Haanaes said.  "Those not already putting sustainability at the heart of their business will need to do so in the near term."  
Boston.com Business Updates  2/10/11



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