Top Stories
Seeing the Investor Value in Being Green.—reliability
high.
"Jamestown Properties, a German commercial real estate investment
company, has decided it will go 'green' in nearly its entire $4 billion
portfolio of buildings, all located in the United States. The overhaul
involves fixes as simple as installing low-flow water fixtures and as
complex as revamping heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems.
Jamestown expects to recoup costs through energy savings, the ability
to charge higher rents and higher resale values." Read New
York Times story.
Using Green Leases to Improve Building
Performance.—reliability medium.
"Projected energy efficiency has become the Achilles Heel of the green
building industry. Even buildings with outstanding design features,
extensive modeling, and expert commissioning many times fail to meet
expected energy efficiency targets. ... Green leases are one critical
tool that can be used to improve how humans interact with green
buildings over a building’s lifecycle. Green commercial leases can
provide incentives to reduce energy use and water, and increase
recycling and the use of sustainable materials." Good discussion at The
Green Economy Post. [You may occupy a
"green" building, with LEED certification, but do you have a green
lease to assure continued performance?]
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
Mitsubishi completes new giant solar cell
plant.—reliability high.
"Mitsubishi expects the global PV market to grow from 5,550MW in
fiscal 2009 to approximately 8,000MW by fiscal 2012, predicting that
"the introduction of new PV-related stimulus programmes in Japan,
feed-in-tariff systems spreading across Europe, as well as projected
growth in the North American market", would all serve to drive demand."
See BusinessGreen.
HP, Intel, General Mills Top List of Best
Corporate Citizens.—reliability high.
"Corporate Responsibility Magazine today released its 11th annual Best
Corporate Citizens list, putting Hewlett-Packard, Intel and General
Mills in the top three categories. The full list this year includes a
number of shakeups, including that Bristol-Myers Squibb, last year's
top firm, fell to the seventh position in the rankings. Coca-Cola,
which appears in eighth place this year, was ranked 56 last year."
Story at GreenBiz.
Access complete list here.
BYD, Daimler to Form Electric-Car Venture in
China.—reliability high.
"Daimler AG and BYD Co., the Chinese carmaker backed by billionaire
Warren Buffett, will jointly develop an electric vehicle to be sold in
China, the world’s largest auto market." Story at Bloomberg
Business Week.
Investment insight from DSM.—reliability
medium.
Interview with "insights coming from Erik Rutten, DSM Venturing's
senior investment manager, on how green chemistry companies can attract
strategic partners such as DSM." From ICIS Green
Chemicals blog.
Government and
Regulation
Obama spells out rebates for energy
efficiency.—reliability high.
"Consumers would collect on-the-spot rebates of $1,000 or more for
buying insulation, water heaters or other equipment to make their homes
burn energy more efficiently under a rebate program President Barack
Obama is promoting. Obama traveled to Savannah, Ga., on Tuesday to
outline the Home Star program, which was left out of the jobs bill in
December. Obama called for energy rebates in his State of the Union
address, and officials hope the plan will be as popular as last year's
Cash for Clunkers money-back program for autos." See MSNBC
from AP.
In India, a Clear Victor on The Climate
Action Front.—reliability high.
"On Feb. 19, a brief public statement in Delhi broke the news that the
Special Envoy of the Prime Minister on Climate Change, the austere
veteran bureaucrat, Shyam Saran, was to quit. ... Within hours, India’s
press was pointing to one man as the key to Saran’s departure: the
relatively junior figure of the Minister for Environment and Forests,
Jairam Ramesh. ... in the course of the last 12 months, from what might
be rated, at best, a medium rung on Delhi’s ladder of power and
influence, Jairam Ramesh has vanquished two senior rivals to emerge as
the voice of India’s transformed climate policy." More on India's
changing stance on global climate policy. See Yale
environment 360.
[Crossposted from HaraBara.com courtesy of HaraBara, Inc. Copyright © 2010 HaraBara, Inc.]
