"While most executives agree that a green strategy is a good idea, few know how to value or prioritize their initiatives," said Kimberly Knickle, Practice Director, Emerging Agenda, Manufacturing Insights, an IDC company. "They struggle with the business case, waiting to implement strategies until outcomes can be predicted more reliably."
According to a McKinsey survey [1] , environmental issues including climate change top the agenda in executive suites worldwide. But measuring and managing environmental impact is difficult, intricate work that stretches across an organization's operations.
Causal relationships connecting issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, use of scarce resources, ethical sourcing and regulatory compliance make it extremely complex to invest in green technology and expand sales of products and services with measurably better environmental performance.
"Lessening our impact on the environment and mitigating the future risk of depleting our planet's natural resources is becoming a priority in shaping every organization's strategy," said Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS. "With SAS, organizations can optimize business strategies for minimizing risks and costs, developing new lines of business, and improving resource use, environmental or otherwise."
Cisco is using SAS to support its sustainability efforts. "Cisco believes that new innovative technologies and the power of collaboration are keys to achieving our sustainability goals and minimizing our impact on the environment," said Laura Ipsen, Co-chair of Cisco's EcoBoard and Senior Vice President of Cisco Global Policy and Government Affairs. "By partnering with SAS and utilizing SAS for Sustainability Management, Cisco can better prioritize projects and resources that create a positive return for the environment, shareholders, and our employees. The SAS solution will enable us to simulate the impact on carbon footprint, waste reduction targets, greenhouse gas emissions and other goals so we can more effectively predict and manage the impact of our operations on the environment."
SAS for Sustainability Management, based on the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform, uses the Global Reporting Initiative
framework to report on Triple Bottom Line indicators. These indicators
relate to the three spheres of sustainability – environmental, social,
and economic, using SAS' predictive abilities to validate strategies,
identify causal relationships, forecast improvement scenarios and drive
innovation.
The SAS Corporate Social Responsibility Report (PDF) conforms to the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines developed by the Global Reporting Initiative.
Based on a survey of state water departments, the U.S. General Accounting Office concluded that 36 states will have “water shortages in average rainfall years by 2010.”
Meeting future water demand requires that we act immediately to
conserve 25% of our current water supply,
according to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the nation’s largest water provider.
Grappling with other water-related issues, many agencies have decided to delay conservation projects until the public perceives a critical shortage.
According to WeatherTRAK, who draws on years of experience in designing and implementing landscape conservation programs, some agencies face political barriers or consumer resistance to saving water. Past conservation programs have produced largely disappointing results, causing enthusiasm to dwindle.
SUCCESS STORY: 25% Savings
The widespread implementation of low-flow plumbing devices has saved significant amounts of water in the past decade. In Los Angeles, California, the powerful combination of a federal code requiring low-flow plumbing devices in new developments and rebates for installing these devices in homes and commercial sites has reduced water demand by twenty-five percent.
New Conservation Efforts Transitioning from the Indoors to the Outdoors
Water agencies must ensure that their water infrastructure can satisfy peak demand and emergency flow requirements. Peak usage is in the hottest weather period when demand for landscape water is greatest.
Analysis has shown that agency demand curve peaks have been pushed to artificially high levels because landscapes need significantly less water than is typically applied to them.
If landscape water use were efficient, the water infrastructure and supply would accommodate many more customers without costly upgrades. Moreover, customers would pay less for water. The result is a win-win for elected water officials: a more reliable water supply and satisfied customers.
SUCCESS STORY: 45% Savings
Examining current agency programs and past studies data, we see that it is likely that as much as 50% of current landscape water could be saved. For example, in Irvine, California, landscape water conservation programs have reduced commercial irrigation by 45%.
The advantages to landscape water conservation are far-reaching. Not only is the need for expensive infrastructure upgrades reduced, but there are also measurable environmental benefits. Efficient landscape water use yields significant dividends by reducing the tremendous costs incurred in pumping and transporting water.
It is estimated that it requires 10 TO 30% of California’s total energy supply to move water from its source to the regions in which it is consumed (California Urban Water Conservation Council, 2001).
Landscape water runoff contains pollutants from fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides that are now being measured in our lakes, streams, bays, and oceans. Metropolitan Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) conducted a peer-reviewed study that documented the relationship between landscape water waste and non-point source water pollution.
Consumer support can be quickly won through significant cost savings in individual water bills and overall water delivery system costs.
Landscape water efficiency is likely to be a water provider’s cheapest supply of new water.
Weather Based Irrigation Controllers can Save 35% of Landscape Water Use
Based on results of a California pilot program that were extrapolated across a larger customer base, one water district found that the installation of weather-based irrigation controllers would save 35% of water currently applied to landscapes in the service area.
The water district determined that installing the controllers would cost 29% less than securing more water through infrastructure expansion and water purchases.
Indoor water savings have been realized in most communities. But the American Water Works Association (AWWA) reports that 58% of non-agricultural water is applied to residential and commercial landscapes, whereas toilets use just 11%.
Low-flow toilets save water automatically with every flush, but they were a tough sell to many consumers. By contrast, convincing consumers to adopt effective outdoor conservation appliances has been easier because people enjoy spending time in their gardens.
for enjoyment, environmental benefit, or enhanced property value
(National Gardening Association survey, 2003).
Water district staff reports that water use is actually higher today in new homes than in older homes with comparable lot and structure sizes. This is despite:
1) increased agency conservation programs,
2) mandated installation of low-flow plumbing devices into all homes built since 1992, and
3) use of low water need plants suggested by state legislation (AB 325).
Efficient indoor water use is considered a widespread practice in the area, which points to increased landscape water use, despite conservation measures.
Traditional methods for reducing landscape water demand have proven to be difficult to enforce and monitor, expensive for long-term use, politically unpopular, and, in some cases, actually counter-productive. In light of study results about typical landscape watering behavior, these lackluster results are not surprising.
Study after study has shown that nearly everyone, from novices to experts, over-waters.
Why? Scheduling irrigation requires complex scientific equations that must be calculated daily as local weather changes. The fact is that accurately setting and adjusting irrigation schedules is difficult and time-consuming. Add to that, many homeowners mistakenly believe that the more water applied, the healthier the landscape. It’s time to stop deluding ourselves about the willingness and ability of homeowners and professionals to calculate efficient irrigation scheduling. Water providers are charting a new course for achieving their goals.
Introducing Weather-based Irrigation Management
In 1998, the first weather-based controller was tested for its ability to accurately schedule and adjust irrigation by MWD and the Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD). Existing residential controllers were removed and replaced with WeatherTRAK-enabled controllers in forty homes. New levels of water usage were compared against historical water usage for the same households.
Following are the results of this study:
- Landscape water use in average water use households was reduced by sixteen percent to twenty-five percent.
- Plant health and appearance improved.
- Water bills were reduced.
- Customer satisfaction was measured at ninety-seven percent.
A broad range of studies with varied settings and objectives has proven the benefits of weather-based irrigation management. WeatherTRAK-enabled controllers, now available from The Toro Company, Irritrol Systems, and HydroPoint Data Systems, have been tested more than all other products combined.
One of many programs worthy of note is the California EPA-funded study of the use of WeatherTRAK-enabled controllers in micro-watershed areas. Study methodology tested the controllers in neighborhoods of three-to-four-hundred homes with street landscapes as well as homeowner association common areas and parks.
The goal was to measure the ability of weather-based irrigation controllers to reduce urban runoff and non-point source water pollution through precise calculation of water applications.
The study found that:
RUNOFF in neighborhoods with WeatherTRAK-enabled controllers was reduced by 71%, when compared to control neighborhoods.These impressive results led directly to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation providing $1.5 million in rebate funds for Orange County-based water agencies to distribute to consumers who install approved smart controllers.
Mass loading of pollutants into the waterway was correspondingly reduced by 71%.
The ability to broadcast weather-based data (local evapotranspiration, or ET, values) and automate plant-specific irrigation scheduling provides additional benefits, including:
Peaking Management Service: daily, wireless transmission of ET data for maximum water use efficiency.
Rain/Winter Shut-off Service: automated irrigation suspension during rain and the winter season, particularly useful in colder climates.
Drought Management Service: broadcasting during emergency drought conditions, is a powerful tool for enforcing water conservation.
To read the full explanation of adopting and implementing a new water conservation program for your community, contact WeatherTRAK for their white paper by Tom Ash, entitled, "How to Implement a Cost-effective Landscape Water Efficiency Program".
WeatherTRAK
www.weathertrak.com
A key lesson is that companies seeking to develop their strategies
should first analyse their value-at-stake under a variety of
scenarios. Among the objectives that matter most in preserving
natural resources for raw materials and support of human life (and
other species) are strategies such as:
- Energy performance of buildings
- More efficient use of electricity and natural lighting and ventilation
- More efficient use of materials in buildings and furnishings
- More environmentally effective use of chemicals in maintenance, production and packaging
- Vehicle fleet and transport reduction of miles traveled and emissions produced
- Reduce total number of miles traveled by staff, goods movement and consumers
- Muse of more efficient vehicles and more sustainable modes of transport
- Replace non-renewable sources of energy and raw materials with renewable sources that are sustainable produced.
To increase understanding and awareness of our impacts upon the
environment and how we can all reduce those impacts for long term and
distributed social responsbility.
The rapid emergence of the carbon market has significant commercial and
reputation impacts for companies. It provides a strong rationale for
taking a proactive approach to designing and implementing strategies to
manage their emissions of GHGs. Over the past decade, ICF Consulting
has worked with approximately 50 companies among the Global Fortune 500
to help develop climate change strategies that are aligned with broader
commercial and corporate responsibility strategy.
ICF is an International, professional services firm that partners with government and
commercial clients to deliver consulting services and technology
solutions in energy, climate change, environment, transportation,
social programs, health, defense, and emergency management.
RESOURCE:
www.icfi.com
The threat is dire. "No tropical forest on earth has come closer to total destruction," says Claudia Picone, an information resource coordinator for The Nature Conservancy.
The Atlantic Forest is a spectacularly complex and biologically diverse expanse of tropical rainforest on the coast of Brazil. Once twice the size of Texas, only 7 percent of the original forest remains—it has been ravaged by ranching, illegal logging, agriculture, and other pressures.
The campaign to plant one billion trees in the Atlantic Forest continues The Nature Conservancy's mighty efforts to preserve the very special ecosystem. According to Picone, "We've finally turned the corner, and people are starting to realize that there are economic benefits to leaving the forest standing instead of cutting it down."
Since The Nature Conservancy's founding in 1951, it has protected more than 117 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers around the world. The group has more than a million members and works in all 50 states and more than 30 countries.
Give to the Conservancy's Plant a Billion Trees campaign
www.plantabillion.org
US Federal Government Issues EPEAT Purchasing Requirement
The US Federal Government has integrated an EPEAT requirement into the Federal Acquisition Regulations – the 'rulebook' of the federal purchasing sector. The Federal Acquisition Regulations require federal agencies to purchase at least 95% EPEAT-registered products in all relevant electronic product categories.San Francisco ICT EPEAT Policies for 2008
San Francisco city studied the environmental impact of information and communication technology (ICT). Based on the experience of commercial buildings, approximately 20-25% of building energy is attributable to ICT. Because of this impact, ICT has significant potential to enable innovative solutions to the environmental challenges of energy use and can be an effective tool to advance sustainable economic development.- Beginning in April 2008, city departments shall only purchase personal and notebook computers and monitors that meet at least the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Silver standard, with a preference for the Gold standard.
- The Committee on Information Technology (COIT) shall ensure technology projects are reviewed for environmental impact and support the City’s environmental goals.
- By June 2008, the Department of Technology and Information Services (DTIS) shall implement a paper reduction pilot program with the goal to reduce general office paper consumption by 20%. At the conclusion of this pilot program, the City’s Chief Information Officer will recommend a paper reduction policy to COIT for immediate implementation.
- By September 2008, DTIS shall report on the results of a pilot program to implement centralized power management systems for personal computers. This will strengthen Executive Order 05-104 (September 23, 2005) which mandated the installation of power management functions.
- Finally, the City’s Chief Information Officer will develop a baseline measurement of energy consumption and environmental impact of the City’s overall ICT operations to be able to measure and fully implement supporting steps that will enable us to continue to find new strategies to address the environmental challenges of energy use and waste creation.
EPEAT Computer Products Environmental Organization
EPEAT is a system to help purchasers in the public and private sectors evaluate, compare and select desktop computers, notebooks and monitors based on their environmental attributes. EPEAT also provides a clear and consistent set of performance criteria for the design of products, and provides an opportunity for manufacturers to secure market recognition for efforts to reduce the environmental impact of its products.The EPEAT Registry on this web site includes products that have been declared by their manufacturers to be in conformance with the environmental performance standard for electronic products - IEEE 1680- 2006. The standard is summarized here, and may be purchased from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. EPEAT operates a verification program to assure the credibility of the Registry.
Some of the participating manufacturers include:
Apple, CTL Corp, Dell, Enano, Fujitsu, GETAC, HP, Hyundai IT America, Lenovo, LG Electronic USA, MDG Comptuers Canada, MPC Computers, NCS Technologies, NEC Display Solutions, Northern Micro, One Laptop Per child, Panasonic, Philips Electronics, Prosys Tech, Samsung Elec. America, Sony Electronics, Toshiba, Transource, ViewSonic, Zonbu.
Your PC Can Save CO2 by Reducing Electricity
With Free Tool
that manages your computer's power
usage when it's idle,
saving energy and decreasing the demand on your power utility.
Save Computer Power Every Day! When a computer is running, energy providers supplying power to it are burning fossil fuels and emitting harmful Carbon Dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. Although CO2 is a normal component of the atmosphere, elevated levels of it are likely to cause future climate change (global warming). Although there are other types of emissions from burning fossil fuels, CO2 makes up over 99.6% of emissions by weight.
So...the less electricity produced, the fewer harmful emissions and greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) are released into the atmosphere.
The green-conscious folks at Snap.com developed this handy little tool and is giving it away to help reduce CO2 emissions.
- It's quick to download
- Windows XP and Vista compatible
- Works on desktops and laptops
- Displays savings in US or Metric
- No spyware or adware...just a helping hand for you and Mother Earth!
In a matter of seconds you can reduce the amount of energy your computer and monitor use when they are idle and prevent extra CO2 emissions from being generated. What's more, CO2 Saver shows you the amount of CO2 you've saved single-handedly, as well as all other CO2 Saver users combined!
Because each computer is different, we currently use averages. CO2 Saver detects the type of computer you're using (for example, desktop vs. laptop) and uses that information to help calculate how much energy it normally uses (and how much the program will save).
In the Options menu under "Computer Details," you have the ability to enter more information about your computer and monitor(s) so this can be taken into account, as power consumption also varies widely across monitor types and sizes. In the future, the developers plan to allow more precise measurements, and they're working on those features now.
Download CO2 Saver
More info...and download CO2 Saver at:co2saver.snap.com
To prepare businesses for this new landscape, three organizations have launched a set of guidelines designed to help companies proactively develop strategies to manage risks and opportunities arising from ecosystem degradation.
The guidelines, called the Corporate Ecosystem Services Review (3.5 MB)
were developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in collaboration
with the Meridian Institute and World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD). Five WBCSD members - Akzo Nobel, BC Hydro, Mondi,
Rio Tinto, and Syngenta - "road-tested" the methodology and provided
input to its design.
 |
Ecosystems provide companies with a wide variety of benefits or services including
- Freshwater
- Wood
- Pollination
- Climate regulation
- Protection from natural hazards,
"Ecosystem services are often unacknowledged, yet they underpin many corporate activities," said John Ehrmann, Managing Partner of the Meridian Institute. "I am pleased with the feedback from company managers who are finding the guidelines helpful for developing strategies that improve both corporate performance and ecosystem stewardship."
Guideline Benefits
The road-testers found that the guidelines can provide a number of other benefits as well.- They can help companies anticipate new markets and government policies that may emerge in response to ecosystem degradation.
- They can strengthen corporate environmental impact assessments by adding considerations traditional methods may overlook.
- They also can help companies better manage conflicts over resources, identifying options for better trade-offs between ecosystem services.
"The methodology helped us identify and rank emerging problems, and provided us with a framework for turning risks into opportunities," said Peter Gardiner, natural resources manager at Mondi, a leading international paper and packaging manufacturer.
Mondi's newfound strategies include a number of operational changes that will increase the company's efficiency in using freshwater, a scarce ecosystem service, and lead to new markets for the company's byproducts.
"The Corporate Ecosystem Review helped us to better understand how a number of emerging environmental changes are likely to affect our business and how our company might best position itself to respond to these changes," said Steve Hunt, Senior Vice President, Asia-Pacific, Eka Chemicals, a division of chemical giant Akzo Nobel.
Some road-testers, such as Mondi and BC Hydro, used the guidelines to gain insight into the direct implications that ecosystem trends pose for them.
Other road-testers, such as Akzo Nobel and Syngenta, applied the methodology to understand the risks faced by a segment of their customers due to ecosystem degradation and, in turn, discovered opportunities for new products or services that address these risks. The guidelines profile these and other road-test experiences.
"We're going to be hearing a lot about the Corporate Ecosystem Services Review. A couple dozen more WBCSD members are already taking it up this year," said Björn Stigson, President of the WBCSD. "Leading companies realize that they need to be prepared for the business challenges posed by ecosystem decline."
Download Corporate Ecosystem Services Review"
About the sponsors of this ecosystem review
The World Resources Institute is an independent, non-partisan and nonprofit organization with a staff of more than 100 scientists, economists, policy experts, business analysts, statistical analysts, mapmakers, and communicators developing and promoting policies that will help protect the Earth and improve people's lives.The Meridian Institute is a neutral, nonprofit organization that helps decision-makers and diverse stakeholders address society's most contentious public policy issues through process design and facilitation.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development brings together some 200 international companies in a shared commitment to sustainable development through economic growth, ecological balance, and social progress.
 |
ENERGY-RICH
VIBRATIONS. Engineer Paul Wright and his students put this temperature
sensor under a wooden stairway, where it scavenged all the energy it
needed from vibrations generated by students clomping up and down. |
ENERGY-RICH VIBRATIONS. Engineer Paul Wright and his students put this temperature sensor under a wooden stairway, where it scavenged all the energy it needed from vibrations generated by students clomping up and down. Wright The sensor, which was about the size of a quarter, had no power cord or batteries. Instead, the device extracted the energy it needed from the vibrations that shook the wooden staircase as students clomped up and down between classes.
"The 1990s marked this very interesting period in which devices for computing, communication, and sensing all became much cheaper and much, much smaller," explains Wright. He's an engineer who has worked in robotics and computer science and is currently chief scientist at the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interests of Society, a multicampus program supported by the state of California.
The most obvious result of the miniaturization was a wild proliferation of cell phones, personal digital assistants, MP3 players, and other portable gadgets. But in parallel, Wright says, "researchers were led to this picture of wireless sensor networks everywhere"—in effect, an electronic nervous system that reports on both the built environment and the natural landscape.
In the not-so-distant future, for example, bridges could tell us whether they had been damaged in an earthquake.
Office buildings could track the locations of their occupants, automatically adjusting the lights and air conditioning for maximum comfort and minimum energy use. Automobiles could talk to each other—and to the road—in an effort to avoid both accidents and traffic jams. Implantable sensors could continuously monitor blood-glucose levels and a host of other medical conditions. And webs of environmental sensors could monitor the health of remote ecosystems, tracking moisture, temperature, micronutrients, pollutants, and many other variables. All these developments would rely on networks of minuscule sensors
Energy scavenging is not a new idea. Self-winding wristwatches, in which a tiny mechanical oscillator extracts energy from the wearer's arm movements, first appeared in the 1920s. And, of course, windmills and water wheels have been harvesting natural energy for thousands of years. But the current wave of interest in energy scavenging for microelectronics began in the late 1990s—initially because researchers were looking for a better way to power the newly devised portable devices.
Energy-scavenging researchers turned their focus from relatively power-hungry portable electronic devices to a new generation of far-more-thrifty gadgets made with microelectromechanical-systems (MEMS) technology.
From an energy-scavenging standpoint, the great advantage of MEMS sensors is that they typically require only about 100 microwatts of power—a thousandth of what portable consumer electronic devices typically need. Such minuscule quantities of energy abound in the environment: in vibrations, temperature gradients, sunlight, and so on.
The challenge is to make effective use of that energy. The first thing to keep in mind is that there is no all-purpose solution.
SOURCE: Read the entire fascinating article at ScienceNews.org
CALIFORNIA RESOURCE:
Paul K. Wright
5133 Etcheverry Hall, Mail Stop 1740
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
"Congress is seriously considering taking insurance coverage for wind
damage away from private insurers. Lobbyists for the industry are battling
to keep the business where it is. The tug of war began in 2005 with
Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed the homes of Rep. Gene Taylor (D) and
some of his relatives and friends in Bay St. Louis, Miss. Taylor was and
remains irate that he and others were compensated only for flood damage and
not -- until they sued -- for the ravages of wind. ... Taylor wrote
legislation that would add wind damage to the flood coverage that is
already underwritten by the federal government. His proposal passed the
House of Representatives last year as part of a broad renewal of the
soon-to-expire National Flood Insurance Program. The plan, which is backed
by Gulf-state lawmakers and House Democratic leaders, is pending in the
Senate."
Columnist Jeffrey H. Birnbaum writes for the Washington Post
March 25, 2008.
What do you do when you see the scope of the damage happening around us today? Getting past denial is step one. This short film will help us face reality.
This is a preview from "Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction," a feature documentary now in production.
