Top Stories
80% of Firms to Increase Green Marketing
Spend.—reliability high.
"A new study conducted by Environmental Leader and MediaBuyerPlanner
has found that the majority of companies see their green marketing
efforts as creating real business value - and not as a fad to garner
consumer attention. 33% of respondents said green marketing was more
effective than their normal marketing efforts, with just 7% saying it
was less effective." From
Sustainable Life Media. PDF of executive summary here.
Study Raises Cost Estimate for Electric Cars.—reliability
high.
"The study, conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, said battery
costs were not expected to fall as much as automakers have projected,
making electric vehicles too expensive for most consumers even 10 years
from now. . . . It predicts that the cost of a battery pack about the
size of the Volt’s will fall by $10,000, or 64 percent, from 2009 to
2020. But even then it would take about 15 years for the cost of owning
an electric vehicle to equal that of a gas-powered car." From
The New York Times. BCG press release here.
PDF of report here.
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
Can the aviation industry ever be green?—reliability
medium.
"such is our addiction to flight that many believe it's more feasible –
not least politically – to make deeper cuts in non-aviation sources
than to accept being earthbound. The climate change committee has
floated the idea of introducing flying allowances as one way of keeping
aviation growth to an acceptable 60% by 2050 (as opposed to the
Government's estimate of 200%). Even so, just keeping emissions static
will be a huge challenge to the airline industry." Commentator doubts
industry can find ways to cut carbon that allow everyone to fly as much
as they want. Extensive discussion of options, plans, and
possibilities. From
The Guardian.
CES: Ford's Sync puts apps into cars.—reliability
high.
"At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Ford Chief Executive
Alan Mulally showed off how consumers could soon catch up on Twitter,
listen to Internet radio, check movie times and get free maps with
turn-by-turn directions, using Sync's voice commands or 8-inch color
touch-screen in the dashboard, in Ford's spring lineup of cars. . . .
This year, Ford gave outside developers a chance to integrate their
mobile applications with Sync so drivers could use the car's controls
to summon, for example, Pandora Internet radio. (The apps themselves
sit on an iPhone or other smart phone.) Ford is also pairing up with
companies such as AOL Inc.'s MapQuest and Google Inc. to wirelessly
bring street directions and other information to its cars." From
The Los Angeles Times.
Urban Wasteland: Tackling Energy Waste in
Skyscrapers.—reliability medium.
Story on energy waste and potential savings in big commercial
buildings, using example of Morgan Stanley's global headquarters in New
York and the savings they achieved with advice from EnerNOC. Tim Healy,
EnerNOC’s chief executive, "figures active monitoring of buildings to
save energy will be a $30 billion to $40 billion market in the U.S. in
a few years." See
Wall Street Journal Environmental Capital blog.
Government and
Regulation
EPA Puts Science Behind New Smog Standards.—reliability
high.
"Strict new health standards for smog will impose extra costs as the
Environmental Protection Agency rolls back the more lax Bush-era smog
standards. The new limits, proposed Jan. 7, are likely to put hundreds
of counties nationwide into violation, meaning that they will have to
find ways to clamp down on the pollution or risk losing federal highway
dollars, for instance" "The new limits are in line with what was
proposed by scientists during the Bush Administration, which instead
set a more relaxed standard after protests from utilities and
industry." From
Environmental Leader.
Canada to study biofuel's environmental
impact.—reliability high.
"The Canadian government has ordered a study of the environmental
impact of making ethanol and biodiesel just as a government regulation
mandating fuel blending is set to take effect." Environment Canada has
ordered the study. See
Reuters. [A
bold step, as an impartial study might reveal that biofuels produced in
Canada are worse polluters than some fossil fuels. Potential conflict
with powerful agricultural interests.]
Science
US should stop mountaintop coal
mining--scientists.—reliability high.
A technical paper published in Science says unequivocally that "An
analysis of recent scientific studies showed mountaintop coal mining,
which accounts for about 10 percent of U.S. coal production, does
irreparable environmental harm", and that the U.S. government should no
longer permit the practice. "They said research also shows that
mountaintop mining exposes local residents to a higher risk of serious
illnesses. 'Its impacts are pervasive and long lasting and there is no
evidence that any mitigation practices successfully reverse the damage
it causes,' said lead author Margaret Palmer of University of Maryland
at College Park in a statement. The scientists said no mountaintop
mining permits should be granted 'unless new methods can be subjected
to rigorous peer-review and shown to remedy these problems.'" The list
of authors includes several members of the National Academy of
Sciences. From
Reuters. [This
will be hard for regulators to ignore. EPA is still approving MTR
projects.]
The betting is that 2010 will be the hottest
year on record.—reliability high.
"IT MAY seem implausible at the moment, as northern Europe, Asia and
parts of America shiver in the snow, but 2010 may well turn out as the
hottest year on record." Discusses various predictions and the
difficulties of using climate models to make them. From
The Economist.
[Crossposted from HaraBara.com courtesy of HaraBara, Inc. Copyright © 2010 HaraBara, Inc.]