Top Stories
Corporate carbon reduction efforts put at
risk by climate scepticism, finds new report.—reliability
high.
"The past year has seen an upsurge in public scepticism about climate
change, following the perceived failures of December’s Copenhagen
summit and rising concerns about the accuracy of climate science. This
is one of several factors that has stalled corporate progress on carbon
reduction over the past year, as highlighted in After Copenhagen:
Business and climate change, the latest in an annual sustainability
research series from the Economist Intelligence Unit. ... More than
one-half (52%) of executives agree that conflicting evidence on climate
change means the jury is still out on how serious this issue is. Just
31% disagree. ... Nearly half (45%) of executives agree that their
companies see carbon emission reduction as a way to gain competitive
advantage by cutting costs." Other highlights of report. From Economist
Intelligence Unit. PDF of report here.
Bowing to Pressure, Trader Joe's Adopts
Sustainable Seafood Policy.—reliability high.
"Trader Joe's will only sell seafood from sustainable sources by the
end of 2012, following a months-long Greenpeace campaign that dubbed
the retailer 'Traitor Joe.' Trader Joe's vowed to remove red-listed
fish in all formats from its shelves, including frozen, fresh and
canned seafood items. Trader Joe's will also begin adding more
information to its seafood labels, including catch or production method
and species' Latin names. Seafood labels are currently required to list
country of origin and whether the product is wild or farm raised. ...
Greenpeace took Trader Joe's to task for its seafood procurement
practices, even launching a mock website called 'Traitor Joe's'. In its
most recent report ranking the nation's top 20 retailers on their
seafood sourcing policies, Trader Joe's came in in 17th place. ...
Wegmans, Ahold USA, Whole Foods, Target and Safeway placed in the
report's Top 5 last year. Meijer, Price Chopper and H.E. Butt rounded
out the bottom of the roster after Trader Joe's." Story at GreenBiz.
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
Five Things to Learn From Texas About the
Smart Grid & Consumers.—reliability medium.
Texas has a deregulated electricity market where consumers can shop
among suppliers. "That means the state will potentially be able to
provide us with an early look at how consumers will react to new smart
meter and smart grid services, as electricity service providers in the
state will be experimenting with offering new services as a competitive
edge." Additional comments about smart grid issues. See earth2tech.
Colorado gas-coal fight could preview
national battle.—reliability high.
"A plan to clean up Colorado's air is pitting two powerful industries —
natural gas and coal — against each other in what could be a warm-up
for a national fight over how to confront climate change. The plan,
moving quickly through the Legislature, would require Xcel Energy Inc.,
the state's largest utility, to either replace several aging coal-fired
power plant units in the northern Front Range with cleaner natural gas
plants by 2018 or refit those smokestacks with emissions-restricting
technology or other green fuels before the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency imposes tougher air quality rules." Story at CNBC from AP.
Coal fuels much of Internet 'Cloud', says
Greenpeace.—reliability high.
"The 'cloud' of data which is becoming the heart of the Internet is
creating an all too real cloud of pollution as Facebook, Apple and
others build data centers powered by coal, according to a new
Greenpeace report. A Facebook facility will rely on a utility whose
main fuel is coal, while Apple Inc, expecting its Web-browser iPad
launch on April 3, is building a data warehouse in a North Carolina
region powered by coal, the environmental organization said in the
study to be released on Tuesday." See Reuters.
Genomatica bags $15M as green chemicals
trounce biofuels.—reliability high.
"Despite a rosy outlook early on, biofuels have hit a wall. Too
expensive and unwieldy to scale, most projects have stalled in the
demonstration stage, unable to make the leap to market. Several of the
companies that make them, however, have discovered a lucrative
loophole: green chemical manufacturing. Going a step further,
Genomatica, a company that scuttled biofuel ambitions in favor of
full-time chemical production, has just raised $15 million in a
third round of funding to make the industrial chemical business at
large more sustainable." From GreenBeat.
ArcelorMittal Saves $200,000 Annually By
Idling Machinery During Production Delays.—reliability high.
"ArcelorMittal's specialty rolling mill plant in Conshohocken has
implemented efficiency improvements such as automated systems that idle
electrical machinery during production delays, saving the plant more
than $200,000 a year on energy bills while reducing carbon emissions,
reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. ... The company replaced the high
energy consumption 3,500-horsepower motor that powers the descaling
pumps with a $300,000 variable-frequency drive that allows the motor to
idle when the pumps are not in use, according to the article. Although
descaling occurs only about 2 percent of the time, the 3,500-hp motor
was running constantly before the upgrade." See Environmental
Leader.
[Crossposted from HaraBara.com courtesy of HaraBara, Inc. Copyright © 2010 HaraBara, Inc.]
