on Mon, Mar 01, 2010
On Thursday I went to an event at the Ministry of Justice to hear a talk by
the world's first ever green ombudsman, a Hungarian called Dr Sandor Fulop.
Officially his title is the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for Future
Generations which sounds beautifully sci-fi. His role is to scrutinise
legislation to ensure that it doesn't damage the right of Hungarian citizens to
a healthy environment.
This might sound duller than watching the English rugby team, but was in fact
fascinating. The highly entertaining and engaging Dr Sandor made it clear from
the outset that he fights for the rights of citizens to a healthy environment.
This is far different from the UK's view of an ombudsman who invariably act
as honest brokers in disputes. It was also interesting that he has to consider
the environmental rights of future generations. This inter-generational
responsibility is a whole...
on Tue, Feb 23, 2010
The latest Carbon Disclosure Project aims to provide companies with improved data to allow them to reduce their carbon emissions.
on Tue, Feb 23, 2010
People who are looking to buy used cars could benefit from new certificates which will explain the carbon emissions and fuel efficiency of the vehicle.
on Fri, Feb 26, 2010
Wal-Mart - one of the biggest supermarket chains in the world - has announced plans to green its supply line.
on Mon, Oct 26, 2009
One in every five US jobs could be green by 2030, according to a major new
report published last week by the American Solar
Energy Society (ASES) that estimates the emerging energy efficiency and
renewable energy (EE&RE) industries could employ 37 million people over the
next two decades.
The report,
Tackling
Climate Change, argues that even when the jobs lost from carbon
intensive sectors such as coal and oil are taken into account the development of
a low carbon economy will deliver a net boost in employment of around 4.5
million jobs.
It also warns that failure to develop effective low carbon policies will lead
to further job losses as emerging clean tech industries migrate overseas.
"If we fail to invest in EE&RE, the United States runs the risk of losing
ground to EE&RE programs and industries located in other nations," said the
report.
While many...
on Thu, Oct 22, 2009
BusinessGreen.com staff, BusinessGreen, Thursday 22 October 2009 at 15:56:00 Interactive map illustrates dire consequences of four-degree increase in global temperatures The Met Office has today unveiled a new interactive map designed to illustrate the impact of an average rise in global temperatures of four degrees Centigrade....
on Thu, Oct 22, 2009
The Impact of the October changes to the Carbon Reduction Commitment and Energy Efficiency scheme came under the spotlight at a breakfast briefing in London this week.
on Wed, Oct 21, 2009
CA next week will unveil an integrated sustainability suite designed to track carbon emissions, environmental assessments, metering, and compliance to policies in one dashboard.
CA calls the suite EcoSoftware and will launch it Monday, according to Christopher Thomas, vice president of energy and sustainability. I ran into Thomas at the Gartner IT Symposium, where the carbon-monitoring software caught my eye.
There are other efforts designed to track carbon emissions. For instance, Hara and SAP have various applications and others use metering to measure sustainability efforts.
Read more of "CA jumps into eco software market; Plans to launch carbon tracking suite" at ZDNet's Between the Lines.
Larry Dignan is editor in chief of ZDNet and editorial director of CNET's...
on Thu, Oct 15, 2009
General unemployment may be on the rise, but the clean-tech sector should be a bright spot for job seekers, according to a report released Thursday by Clean Edge research.
The clean-technology sector was one of the largest recipients of venture capital last year, raising about $3.35 billion in the U.S., according to New Energy Finance statistics in the the "Clean Tech Job Trends 2009" report (PDF).
Unlike most reports from research firms, this one is free to download in full.
The 29-page report, which also draws on statistics from other organizations such as the Pew Charitable Trusts, includes a plethora of useful information for the clean-tech job hunter, including schools offering green career training, job posting and social media sites dedicated to clean-tech jobs, a list of the largest clean-tech employers, and a list of the best
green-tech blogs.
Based on the number of job...
on Wed, Oct 14, 2009
An updated software tool combines energy-use evaluation with Google's 3D-modeling program to help improve building design in its early stages.
OpenStudio, a free, open-source tool introduced last year, now integrates EnergyPlus building analysis with Google SketchUp, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory announced this week.
"OpenStudio is lauded around our office as one of the most complicated plug-ins ever written for SketchUp," Christopher Cronin, Google's strategist for SketchUp, said in a statement.
While Google may see OpenStudio as a plug-in for SketchUp, OpenStudio's creators may instead see SketchUp as an add-on to its simulation program.
The NREL, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy, launched the original version of OpenStudio in April 2008. NREL reports an average of 700 OpenStudio downloads per month.
OpenStudio's first version combined a graphical...
on Thu, Sep 24, 2009
Business will soon have access to a simpler way of assessing how global
warming could affect their operations, thanks to a new series of online tools
launched this week by Google.
The internet giant announced on its
company
blog that it has teamed up with the Danish government in the run-up to the
crucial Copenhagen climate change conference to produce a series of layers and
tours for its Google
Earth tool that allow users to analyse the potential impact of rising
temperatures.
The new tools will also let users assess some of the measures proposed for
adapting to inevitable levels of climate change.
Writing on the blog, Benjamin Kott of Google's green business operations
division and industry analyst Jonas Vang said that the company had worked with
data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to show "the
range of expected temperature and precipitation...
on Fri, Sep 18, 2009
Global revenue at firms providing climate change-related products and
services grew by a record 75 per cent during 2008 to $530bn (£324bn), making the
fast-growing sector larger than the aerospace and defence industries.
That is the conclusion of HSBC's annual review of its climate change indices,
which assess the financial performance of firms that provide goods and services
designed to cut carbon emissions or support climate adaptation measures.
The report found that climate change-related revenue at listed firms has
already exceeded the $500bn a year that economist Lord Stern predicted would be
generated by the sector in 2050, while the number of people employed in
climate-related activities globally has doubled since 2004 to more than 2.4
million.
According to the report, there is now "compelling data" to indicate that
climate change-related products and services...
on Thu, Sep 17, 2009
More than 180 of the world's largest investment firms and pension funds
yesterday lent their voices to calls for a global deal to combat climate change
to be agreed at the forthcoming UN conference in Copenhagen, signing up to a
joint statement
signalling their support for a robust international treaty built around binding
emission targets and increased investment in clean technologies.
The statement, which comes days ahead of a crucial meeting of world leaders
in New York intended to revitalise the stalled negotiations to agree a successor
to the Kyoto Treaty, is the largest of its kind and has been signed by investors
with more than $13 trillion (£7.8tn) in assets under management.
Speaking at the launch of the joint declaration at an event in New York,
Peter Dunscombe, Chairman of European Institutional Investors Group on Climate
Change (IIGCC), said that a robust deal...
on Thu, Sep 17, 2009
16 September 2009: This month the Environment Agency is distributing qualification packs to all UK electricity billing addresses with settled half hourly meters.
on Fri, Sep 18, 2009
The EU's high profile emission trading scheme (ETS) has had "minimal" impact
on businesses competitiveness and in some cases has delivered commercial
benefits, according to nine of the largest companies affected by cap-and-trade
scheme.
That is the conclusion of a report carried out by
The Climate Group think tank and
commissioned by the German
Marshall Fund of the United States lobby group, which is likely to be seized
upon by US environmental campaigners currently attempting secure support for a
proposed US cap-and-trade scheme modelled on the EU ETS.
The study, entitled
The
Effects of EU Climate Legislation on Business Competitiveness: a Survey and
Analysis, was based on interviews with executives at blue chip firms
that combined account for five per cent of the emissions covered by the ETS. It
found that, to date, initial fears that the scheme would damage the
competitiveness...
on Thu, Jan 01, 1970
As part of the BRE Group’s continued drive to cut its carbon emissions, it has signed up to a new voluntary carbon initiative 10:10. In doing so BRE joins hundreds of other forward thinking individuals and organisations from across the country to deliver one goal – to cut 10% of CO2 emissions in 2010.
Manager of BRE’s sustainability plan (the S-Plan) Stuart Blofeld commented ‘10:10 will sit very well alongside BRE’s current S-Plan targets. We are currently on track to meet our 2009 electricity emissions target. Signing up to 10:10 will give us the added impetus in 2010 to ensure we don’t take our eye off the ball.’10:10 was launched at the Tate Modern on 1st September and is backed by major national media partners. It is already supported by some of the biggest names in business, the arts, sport and politics.To find...
on Thu, Sep 17, 2009
Hundreds of organisations that report their greenhouse gas emissions to
The Climate Registry (TCR) will
experience a new and improved online system next year that its makers say will
generate more useful emissions reports.
TCR, a government-supported nonprofit that also plays a role in setting
standards to calculate and verify emissions, plans to debut the next version of
its
Climate
Registry Information System (CRIS) in early 2010.
The enhancements to CRIS include easier use and navigation, bulk data upload,
a more robust verification module, the ability to manage both voluntary and
mandatory reporting programs, and will help TCR manage the system more
efficiently, according to Jennifer Weiss, TCR's communications director.
The nonprofit recently landed a contract to help the State of Massachusetts
develop a new mandatory emissions reporting program, in addition to a data
collection...
on Tue, Sep 15, 2009
The transition from high to low carbon energy infrastructure will deliver a
net increase in global employment of 2.7 million jobs by 2030, despite the
inevitable loss of jobs in declining fossil fuel industries.
That is the conclusion of a
major
new study released yesterday by Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy
Council, which predicts that fast-expanding renewable energy industries, as well
as energy efficiency programmes, will prove more labour intensive than the
conventional energy technologies they replace, helping to boost employment
worldwide.
The report is partly based on research from the Institute for Sustainable
Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney and a low carbon scenario set
out by Greenpeace last year which outlined how the world could deliver a
nine-fold increase in renewable energy supplies by 2030.
It calculates that a global switch to renewable...
on Thu, Jan 01, 1970
On October 26 BRE Global will run a free event discussing how to validate claims about the environmental performance of building products. BRE experts will explain the assessment process of the Environmental Profiles Certification Scheme which was established by BRE Global to provide ongoing independent, third party assessment and certification of construction materials and products for their environmental performance. Victoria Blake, BRE Global Associate Director, who will be speaking at the event said, "This will be a great opportunity for delegates to understand the process of Environmental Profiling. Manufacturer Gradus Ltd will talk about how approval has helped them enter new market sectors and Isabel Carmona, Code Assessor and Green Architect will discuss how important it is for Specifiers to be able to clarify if a construction product...
on Fri, Oct 09, 2009
Paul Gibbon, BRE Global Director of Sustainability, presented John Sanford, Wienerberger's technical director, with their BES 6001 Responsible Sourcing1 Certificate at their Warnham site. Gibbon, said "We are delighted to be awarding Wienerberger with their first Responsible Sourcing Certificate. It illustrates their commitment to providing sustainable solutions. All of the bricks currently manufactured at Wienerberger's Warnham factory in West Sussex have achieved the accreditation. This recognition allows their customers to source with even greater confidence." Sandford said: "This certification will ensure that we can meet the increasing customer demand for responsibly sourced products. It provides independent approval of our bricks, making it easier for housebuilders, contractors and architects to specify our products."Importantly,...
