Top Stories
"Water Scarcity a Bond Risk, Study Warns"—reliability
high.
A new report from Ceres, Water Asset Management and
PricewaterhouseCoopers says that some municipal bonds carry significant
unpriced water-related risk. The Times quotes the report announcement:
"Municipal bonds are bought and sold on the basis of their credit
ratings. Yet today these ratings take little account of utilities’
vulnerability to increased water competition, nor do they account for
climate change, which is rendering utility assets obsolete." The story
says: "Just as mortgage ratings reflected historical patterns but
didn’t capture recent market changes, water bond ratings tend to
reflect a past when water was plentiful, and not a future when supplies
of fresh water may be less abundant, the study noted." More highlights
and comments. See The New
York Times. [Study isn't
available yet on Ceres
site, but should be soon.]
"U.N. urged to freeze climate geo-engineering
projects"—reliability high.
"The United Nations should impose a moratorium on "geo-engineering"
projects such as artificial volcanoes and vast cloud-seeding schemes to
fight climate change, green groups say, fearing they could harm nature
and mankind." Pat Mooney, from Canada-headquartered advocacy
organization ETC Group, told Reuters: "It's absolutely inappropriate
for a handful of governments in industrialized countries to make a
decision to try geo-engineering without the approval of all the world's
support. They shouldn't proceed with real-life, in-the-environment
experimentation or the deployment of any geo-engineering until there is
a consensus in the United Nations that this is okay." From Reuters.
[But what about geoengineering
projects already under way?]
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
"Odwalla, Replenish Offer Eco-Friendly
Packaging"—reliability high.
"Odwalla plans to transition all of the brand’s single-serve natural
health beverage bottles to PlantBottle packaging in March 2011. The
high-density polyethylene (HDPE) is made of up to 100-percent
plant-based materials and is 100 percent recyclable." The original PET
PlantBottle was only 30% renewable material, though Coca-Cola said it
planned to transition to 100%. In related news, "Replenish has unveiled
its flagship eco-friendly household cleaning product in a reusable
bottle with a replaceable concentrate pod. The reusable bottle is also
made of 100-percent recyclable materials." From Environmental
Leader. [If
all it takes for a container to be "eco-friendly" is that it be made of
recyclable materials, mighty few containers are excluded. Headline
writer probably goes beyond what Replenish would claim.]
"Facebook, eBay share energy tips for data
centers"—reliability high.
Facebook got a $294,000 rebate from its energy supplier to upgrade air
flow management at it s Santa Clara, California, data center and saved
$230,000 a year. More details of the technical changes it made. Also
describes what eBay did at a server facility in Phoenix, Arizona, that
reduced power consumption by 16%. More details. See Computerworld.
"Autodesk, Granta Design Deliver New SW For
Sustainable Product Design"—reliability high.
Autodesk and Granta Design are working together to develop"Web-based
software that will allow businesses to assess the environmental impact
of their materials choices during the product design stage." Granta
brings materials information and eco-design technology. According to
the article, 80% of a product's environmental footprint is determined
during the design phase. See Environmental
Leader.
"Can sustainable investing beat the markets?"—reliability
medium.
Marc Gunther interviews Cary Krosinsky of Trucost. Cary says funds
investing in companies taking advantage of sustainability innovation,
and firms actively managing sustainability risks, do outperform the
market. "We found that for the 1, 3 and 5 years leading up to the end
of 2007, when looking at SRI funds with this positive,
opportunity-focused sustainable investing methodology, that they
consistently outperformed their mainstream index equivalents.
When updating this study for a UN Principles of Responsible Investment
academic paper in 2009, this still held true, both before, through and
after the recent financial crisis of 2008 into 2009." More comments and
examples. From Marc
Gunther blog.
"GreenBiz Salary Survey Takes a First-Ever
Look Inside the World of CSOs"—reliability high.
The GreenBiz Salary Survey based on interviews with 500 sustainability
professionals says that "Vice presidents of sustainability earn an
average of $192,064, whereas directors of sustainability earn an
average of $160,320 and sustainability managers earn an average of
$103,197." Other highlights. See GreenBiz.
Government and
Regulation
"India set to be first country to publish
'natural wealth' accounts"—reliability high.
India says it will be the first country to develop "a new set of
accounts which track the nation's plants, animals, water and other
'natural wealth'". Work on agreeing common measures, such as the value
of ecosystems and their "services" for humans – from relaxation to
clean air and fertile soils – will be co-ordinated by the World Bank,
which hopes it can sign up 10-12 nations and publish the results by
2015 at the latest. See The
Guardian.
"Incentives, tax to drive Japan low-carbon
push"—reliability high.
The Japanese government wants to pass a climate bill in the current
Diet session to make the country's pledge "to cut greenhouse gas
emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 if all major emitters
adopt similar targets" into law. The package includes both incentives
and taxes. Its fate in the upper house, where the DPJ government lacks
a majority, is uncertain. Reuters
story.
