Top Stories
"How Water Footprinting is More Complex than
Carbon"—reliability medium.
Marc Gunther posts about a new report from The Coca-Cola Co. and the
Nature Conservancy, "Product Water Footprint Assessments: Practical
Application in Corporate Water Stewardship". He says: "Coca-Cola has
recognized for years that water is a risk factor in its business; the
company got a wake-up call after it was accused of hogging too much
water in India. About five years ago, it set a number of aggressive
water conservation goals, mostly focused on the efficient use and
treatment of water when making its products." Coke says: "Research
found that the value of a product water footprint is its ability to
disaggregate water use by component, allowing both direct and indirect
water use to be examined, as well as the different types of water that
are used. The types of water are green water, which is rainwater stored
in the soil as moisture; blue water, which is surface and ground water;
and grey water, which is the volume of freshwater required to
assimilate pollutants based on existing ambient water quality
standards. Keeping the components of a water footprint separate allows
impacts to be assessed in the context of local watersheds where the
water is being sourced." See GreenBiz
blog. [The
concept of "gray water" used to dilute pollutants to
acceptable levels, hugely increases the "water footprint" of some
products, especially those derived from agriculture where fertilizer
runoff is an issue. That is why Coca-Cola says its orange juice has a
bigger footprint than Coke. This report provides a more sophisticated,
more complex, more difficult to quantify and perhaps more easily
manipulated model of water footprinting. I'm also a little confused by
the concept of "blue water", rainwater stored in the soil--do they have
to calculate the amount of soil water taken up by the cane used to make
the sugar they use, separately from the irrigation water? Better read
the report.]
"Poll: Businesses failing with sustainability
messaging"—reliability high.
BusinessGreen reports on results of an IBM-sponsored YouGov poll of
over 2,200 British adults that found business and government were
perceived as not providing useful information for consumers to be more
sustainable. "Only 12 per cent of respondents felt there was consistent
information available on how to develop and maintain a sustainable
lifestyle, while almost half said there was a lot of information, but
much of it appeared to be conflicting. Moreover, a fifth felt there was
not much information on sustainable living available and seven per cent
said they did not understand what was meant by the term 'sustainable
lifestyle'." Additional highlights of findings. See BusinessGreen.
IBM press release on the poll here.
"Kyoto Protocol to continue past 2012: UN
climate chief"—reliability high.
India's Economic Times quotes UN climate chief Christiana Figueres:
"Yes, it (Kyoto Protocol) will continue to exist as a second protocol
because it does not have a sunset clause. It does not end" and "What
the governments are negotiating now is the second commitment period.
But the Kyoto Protocol continue to exist-- whether there is going to be
a second commitment period or whether countries want to take all of the
elements of the Kyoto Protocol and put them in a different framework
that is for them to decide." More at Economic
Times. [Should
the Kyoto Protocol continue in force? Since any country seems to be
able to ignore it at will, I guess it wouldn't make much difference one
way or the other.]
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
"NYSE Euronext Combines With APX for
Environmental-Trading Venture"—reliability high.
Bloomberg article looks at the new joint venture between NYSE Euronext
and APX Inc. "to expand its trading volume in electricity, renewable
energy and carbon dioxide allowances." The joint venture, NYSE Blue,
will compete against London-based European Climate Exchange in trading
carbon emission allowances from the ECS, CDM, U.S. states and voluntary
markets. See Bloomberg.
[Good article about
carbon trading markets and trends.]
"Steelworkers Accuse China of Violating Trade
Rules"—reliability high.
According to the NYT, "The United Steelworkers union plans to file a
legal case with the Obama administration on Thursday, accusing China of
violating World Trade Organization rules by subsidizing exports of
clean energy equipment ... . ... The union says the violations have
helped Chinese companies expand their share of the world market for
wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear power plants and other clean
energy equipment, at the expense of jobs in the United States and
elsewhere. The filing asks the Obama administration to begin formal
proceedings at the W.T.O. in Geneva to force China to repeal the
subsidies." More at The
New York Times. [Timed to put
pressure on the Administration in the runup to November elections.]
"To Go Where Compact Fluorescents Cannot"—reliability
medium.
Matthew Wald says Zachary S. Gibler, chief executive of the Lighting
Science Group Corporation, a company that makes LED lamps, believes the
best applications for LEDs to replace compact fluorescents is in
directional lighting. Since LEDs are directional to begin with they
have an advantage over CFLs or halogens where reflector bulbs are used,
as in "high hat" ceiling fixtures. See New
York Times Green blog.
"Hyundai unveils its first electric car"—reliability
high.
Leading Korean carmaker Hyundai will introduce the "BlueOn"
battery-electric vehicle, based on its i10 hatchback. It expects to
supply a small number to public-sector customers this year and enter
the consumer market by 2012 with production of 2,500 units. The car
will use batteries from SK Energy. See Reuters.
Government and
Regulation
"Rebates available for first electric cars in
Tenn."—reliability high.
AP reports that "Gov. Phil Bredesen announced Wednesday that Tennessee
will offer a $2,500 rebate on the first 1,000 electric vehicles sold in
the state." Tennessee is home to a new Nissan battery plant. The rebate
fund, which uses federal money from petroleum industry fines, will
probably run out before the GM Volt reaches the market. At CNBC from AP.
Hawai'i decouples electricity revenues.—reliability
high.
The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission has decoupled the revenues
received by the state's electric utility Hawaiian Electric Co. from the
quantity of power it sells to consumers. The idea is to get the utility
to encourage energy conservation. See Bloomberg
Businessweek from AP. [This approach has
helped California keep per-capita electricity use level for many years.]
And from a sister blog . . .
Deepwater Horizon Fail.
From Doc's Green Blog: BP has provided its first analysis of what went wrong on the Deepwater Horizon that led to 11 deaths and the nation's biggest single maritime oil release. As expected, lots of things had to go wrong at once.
