ClimateBiz
July 29, 2010

It’s Time to Give Up Spreadsheets for Tracking Carbon Emissions
By: Paul Baier

CFOs, CIOs and sustainability teams at large companies have used spreadsheets for years to track corporate carbon emissions.

We are now, however, at a tipping point where the benefits of carbon management software, also known as enterprise carbon accounting (ECA) software, outweigh the benefits of spreadsheets.

triplepundit
July 12th, 2010

CDP and GRI Collaborate For More Streamlined CSR Disclosure
By Leon Kaye

Last week the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) released a linkage document that demonstrates the growing collaboration between the two organizations. The 16-page document outlines how corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporters can use or adapt the same data for both reporting processes.

Carbon Pricing, Innovation and Productivity (PDF) is a policy briefing written by Roger Martin, Dean at the Rotman School of Management and Director of the Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship and Alison Kemper, Research Associate at the Institute.

Produced by Sustainable Prosperity, a national research and policy network based at the University of Ottawa, the brief defines three key messages for Canadian environmental policy makers.

Action amid Uncertainty (PDF), A report recently released by Ernst & Young demonstrates how global executives are speaking out against climate change. The paper surveys the thoughts of 300 executives with revenue spanning more than U$1B annually. The report defines five consistent global themes related to business and environmental action.

1. Executive leadership is critical to good governance - more than 90% of the executives surveyed said that climate change governance lies with C-suite executives or board members.

2. Business drivers are dominated by top-line and bottom-line impacts and are creating a race to innovate - two-thirds of the respondents have launched an enterprise-wide climate change program and a further 16% expect to do so in the next two years.

GreenBiz
Published June 24, 2010

On the Verge of a Sustainability ‘Tipping Point’
By Peter Lacy

I am in New York this week to launch the largest CEO study of its kind on corporate sustainability to date, conducted by the United Nations Global Compact and Accenture Sustainability Services. Nearly 1,000 CEOs, business and civil society leaders contributed to this landmark study.

ClimateBiz
Monday, May 10, 2010

Canada Moves Tough Climate Bill Closer to Law

OTTAWA, Canada — Canada’s House of Commons passed a bill last week that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

The Climate Change Accountability Act, or Bill C-311, would be Canada’s sole climate change legislation, mandating the government to set regulations to meet the stringent targets.

BusinessGreen
03 Jun 2010

Obama promises to throw full weight behind climate bill, “The votes may not be there right now, but I intend to find them in the coming months”
By: James Murray

President Barack Obama yesterday vowed to intervene personally to secure the Senate votes needed to pass US climate change legislation this year in a speech that attempted to harness the environmental crisis in the Gulf of Mexico to make the case for a low carbon economy.

National Geographic Daily News
Published June 4, 2010

Brazilian Water Protection a $100 Million Market?
By Theresa Bradley

Helga Hissa used to get soaked to promote better water management. In presentations to groups of Brazilian small farmers, she’d stand tall as her boss dumped a cup of water on her head, pointing as her wild, curly hair soaked it up. He’d then pour some on a bald volunteer, watching it roll off the man’s scalp and down his back.

The Economist print edition
May 20th 2010

A special report on water - Business begins to stir, But many water providers still have a long way to go

ALTHOUGH water is a universal human requirement, the use people make of it varies hugely. The average Malian draws 4 cubic metres a year for domestic use, the average American 215. Include all uses, and the figures range from 20 cubic metres for the average Ugandan to over 5,000 for his Turkmenistani counterpart. The statistics can be misleading: in places where rain falls copiously and evenly from the skies, withdrawals will be small. Moreover, water-blessed countries have much less reason to be careful with their resources than the water-starved. Yet high use of water is not necessarily bad. It depends how it is employed, and whether it is naturally replaced.

GreenBiz
Published May 20, 2010

Cradle to Cradle Enters Public Domain, Eyes Mainstream Acceptance
By Jonathan Bardelline

OAKLAND, CA — Cradle-to-Cradle design is going into the public domain and worldwide with the launch of the Green Products Innovation Institute (GPII), a nonprofit that will develop standards for individual products, intended to accelerate the transition to safer materials and advance California’s Green Chemistry Initiative.