Archive for the ‘climate change’ Category
Monday, July 23rd, 2012
For all those growing weary of grand proclamations, vision statements and big audacious goals that are made in the face of the world’s many sustainability challenges, consider this one: The United Nations General Assembly declared 2012 the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, recognising that “…access to modern affordable energy services in developing countries is essential for the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, and sustainable development, which would help to reduce poverty and to improve the conditions and standard of living for the majority of the world’s population.
All very laudable as a high-level objective, but what does this mean in practice?
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Tags: carbon, climate change, jon woodhead, power generation, renewable energy, utilities
Posted in climate change | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
I don’t think anyone should be surprised that Tesco has dropped its association with the carbon reduction label. The early reported costs of achieving the label beggared belief – and even with economies of scale, the approach was never going to grow legs. The whole scheme seemed like a pipe dream when it was announced, given the number of products on the average supermarket shelf.
And the problem was not only the reported costs of assessment, but also getting consumers to understand the results. Did we really think that consumers would understand or engage with the idea that 80g of CO2 for a bag of crisps was good or bad?
Let’s also be clear that Tesco has only ditched a carbon label, not a true ‘eco-label’ – i.e. one that seeks to take into account all manner of environmental impacts in a product’s lifecycle. A single issue label was always going to be controversial, particularly being promoted by only one of the big supermarkets looking for green hero status.
What’s the alternative?
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Tags: Assurance, chevrolet, climate change, environmental management, mark line, Two Tomorrows
Posted in Assurance, General CR and sustainability issues, climate change | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011
Last week was a food sustainability feeding frenzy for me. I participated in three events focusing variously on: food companies and sustainability, the role of marketing, and how to influence consumer behaviour. The first was a breakfast briefing, hosted by our friends at The Futures Company, where I was a panellist. Later that day I attended Unilever’s live webcast update on Sustainable Living hosted by Jonathan Dimbleby. The next day, I spoke at a Footprint Forum event at Innocent’s new HQ in West London, where we looked at sustainability issues and the food service sector. Richard Reed, one of the founders of Innocent, entertained us all with his take on sustainability in his unique business.
All of these events were well organised and the quality of the conversation was unusually high. It’s certainly the case that sustainability and the role of marketing is one of the issues du jour and rightly so. But certain aspects of this debate bemuse me.
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Tags: climate change, food sector, mark line, marketing, sustainability
Posted in General CR and sustainability issues, climate change | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 24th, 2011
I was speaking to a friend Tim Harford, ‘The Undercover Economist’ writer, columnist and presenter, the other day. He said most economists had been taken by surprise by the repeating financial crisis. Watching the events of the last six months unfold has been very revealing. It is not just the economists that seem to have been wrongfooted, it is the politicians, policy makers, regulators and supra-national institutions like the EC.
All of them seem to be flailing around desperately looking for ways to prop up the endless growth-based system that everyone takes for granted as being the only way. You can see the discomfort in their faces, it really is desperate. And the striking thing: no real solutions. The only thing on offer seems to be pumping ever more ‘money’, or liquidity, back into the system through the very channels which caused a great deal of the mess in the first place – the banks and financial institutions. This is like catching a band of robbers and then giving them even more bounty and asking them to redistribute it again to their victims!
I don’t want to get started on the banks, nor even the fundamental difficulties with the principle of endless growth based on finite resources. What I do want to offer is not a fully rounded solution, which would take some serious global coordination on a scale which has never been achieved so far, but moreover an option which could be developed into something workable if the political will was there.
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Tags: carbon, climate change, dave knight
Posted in General CR and sustainability issues, climate change | No Comments »
Monday, July 11th, 2011
The debate over whether increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases were resulting in climate change ended years ago. They are. More recently, the debate over whether humans are the primary cause of climate change also ended. We are.
The debate in the US has recently raged over who has the authority to curtail industrial greenhouse gas emissions – particularly from power generation, the largest source of emissions. Is it the job of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA – the federal regulation agency) or of individual states? Or is it up to companies to voluntarily curtail emissions?
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Tags: carbon, climate change, power generation, todd cort
Posted in climate change | No Comments »
Friday, October 22nd, 2010
With nearly two million miles of built pipelines in the U.S., the normally mundane world of oil and gas pipelines stays out of sight, out of mind and out of the headlines. This year, however, things have been different.
Already facing criticism over their role in climate change – largely guilt through association with their customers – oil and gas transport companies found their own practices thrust into the spotlight after a series of incidents plaguing the energy sector in 2010 culminated in the recent natural gas explosion in San Bruno, California. If the link between pipelines and climate change is a difficult concept for stakeholders to grasp, concerns over personal health and safety are not. Adding to the woes of pipeline companies is a rising level of stakeholder resistance to infrastructure projects in general, ranging from offshore wind farms to high-speed rail. In addition, where once government support for infrastructure projects was practically a given, that support can be more difficult to secure where financial or political costs are perceived to be too high.
As a result, new pipeline projects face hurdles and a higher level of scrutiny than ever before. Project managers will have to go beyond the call of duty if they are to overcome stakeholder resistance and avoid the risk of costly delays or the potential of derailment. As two of my colleagues wrote earlier this year, stakeholder collaboration can be a key to avoiding these pitfalls and building required support.
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Tags: climate change, doug bannerman, oil and gas, stakeholder engagement
Posted in General CR and sustainability issues, climate change, stakeholder engagement | 3 Comments »
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
I was at the ACCA/KPMG Climate Change Challenge event the other evening. I was there with captains of industry, entrepreneurs, leading practitioners and experts in accounting, business and climate change.
I came away challenged. On one hand there was a total acceptance of the basis of the science. Sure, as our enquiry widens and we become cleverer at piecing together inherently complex issues like climate change, we will improve on the detail. But the contention that humans are inducing climate change to a degree which warrants immediate attention and action simply wasn’t a matter for debate.
On the other hand, there was a lack of consensus on the speed and scale of change that’s needed to prevent the most adverse consequences predicted.
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Tags: climate change, dave knight, sustainability
Posted in climate change | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Are buying decisions now being influenced by a product’s carbon footprint? Guardian News and Media (GNM) is a Two Tomorrows client – we provide ethical assurance to them on a range of issues. Their recent decision to choose a paper supplier on the grounds of its relative carbon footprint has prompted a lively debate on their website.
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Tags: Assurance, carbon, climate change, guardian, Rob Pearson
Posted in General CR and sustainability issues, climate change | 4 Comments »
