Top Stories
Record proxy season as shareholders crank up
climate demands.—reliability high.
"Pressure on US firms to develop climate change policies has reached
record levels, according to new figures from ethical investor coalition
Ceres showing that more than 100 climate and energy-related shareholder
resolutions were filed during this year's proxy season. The lobby group
said shareholders filed an unprecedented 101 climate and energy-related
resolutions with 88 US and Canadian companies, marking an increase of
nearly 50 per cent on 2009. The resolutions are having a clear impact
on the environmental policies of many firms with half of those facing
resolutions agreeing to the proposals put forward by shareholders
without taking the resolution to a vote at their annual general meeting
(AGM)." More at BusinessGreen.
Japan asks firms to find clean tech projects
abroad.—reliability high.
"Japan, the world's fifth largest greenhouse gas emitter, wants to
encourage the use of home-grown technologies in projects that cut
greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries, investments that
could be worth billions of dollars. In return, the offsets could be
used to help Japan meet a pledge to cut its emissions by 25 percent
from 1990 levels by 2020. A senior government official has said
domestic measures alone would make it very hard to meet the target.
Japan's trade ministry said on Thursday is it is recruiting up to 10
firms to study the feasibility of emission-cutting projects abroad."
See Reuters
story. [Voluntary
commercial efforts as alternative to Kyoto's tarnished CDM.]
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
Next-Gen Lights Inching Into Homes, Taking
Over Government.—reliability high.
Highlights of "a report out today from Lux Research. The firm
anticipates that by 2020, LEDs will provide 60 percent of low bay
lighting for commercial, industrial, government and public buildings,
while advanced lighting controls will be put to work in an impressive
90 percent of government and public spaces. Advanced lighting tech will
be less dominant in homes, according to Lux, with LEDs providing 42
percent of the lighting in the residential market " From earth2tech.
But: Energy
Department Lags in Saving Energy.—reliability high.
"the department is having trouble taking its own advice, according to
an internal audit released on Wednesday; many of its offices are still
installing obsolete fluorescent bulbs. And very few have switched to
the most promising technology, light-emitting diodes, which the
department spent millions of dollars to help commercialize. Many of the
changes would generate savings that would pay back the investment in
two years or so, according to the report, by the department’s inspector
general." See New
York Times story. PDF of IG's report here.
Where the Quality and Sustainability
Movements Converge.—reliability medium.
"David Lubin and Daniel Esty highlight commonalities in a recent
Harvard Business Review article, which is good reading for executives
and sustainability leaders. Highlights include: Most corporations are
flailing around with a hodgepodge of sustainability initiatives;
Sustainability, like quality, is a mega-trend for corporations for
which adoption moved from defense to offensive tactics; The
sustainability movement, like the quality movement, will follow four
stages . . . ; Value creation is driven through executive buy-in and
execution throughout the organization". See Greener
World Media blog post. Underlying HBR item here.
["Our research
into the forces that have shaped the competitive landscape in recent
decades reveals that 'business megatrends' have features and
trajectories in common. Sustainability is an emerging megatrend, and
thus its course is to some extent predictable. Understanding how firms
won in prior megatrends can help executives craft the strategies and
systems they’ll need to gain advantage in this one."]
In a World of Throwaways, Making a Dent in
Medical Waste.—reliability high.
The trash problem created by the health industry's switch to
disposables, and various efforts to deal with it. "Only recently has
the industry begun grappling with the amount of waste it generates, and
one reason is that financially stressed hospitals are seeking ways to
cut costs. ... Ascent estimates that its 1,800 hospital clients
diverted 2,650 tons of garbage from landfills in 2009; one major
customer, the Hospital Corporation of America, which owns 163
hospitals, eliminated 94 tons of waste last year through reprocessing."
Story in The New
York Times.
Government and
Regulation
CBO says climate bill would cut deficit by
$19B.—reliability high.
"Congressional budget experts say a climate and energy bill now
stalled in the Senate would reduce the federal deficit by about $19
billion over the next decade. The report by the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office was the second positive analysis of the
bill by a government agency in a month, but is likely to carry more
weight than a similar report issued by the Environmental Protection
Agency. ... the CBO said the energy bill would increase federal
revenues by about $751 billion from 2011 to 2020, mostly though the
sale of carbon credits in so-called a cap-and-trade plan to be applied
to utilities and other sectors of the economy." See MSNBC
from AP. [Analysis
isn't on CBO site yet. Will post when it shows up. CBO still confused
about intertubes.]
