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.
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.
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.
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.
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
