With more than 70,000 delivery vehicles worldwide, traveling in excess of 3 billion miles per year, fuel efficiency is always on their minds at UPS. And while the company has toyed with natural gas, fuel cells and other technologies to improve efficiency, the company recently announced a seemingly low-tech plan to launch a line of trucks with plastic bodies instead of conventional aluminum paneling.
The decrease in weight (1000 lbs.) will permit a smaller diesel engine to be employed, and should reduce total fuel usage by about 40% A fleetwide rollout of this "technology" would save more than 84 million gallons of fuel.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Coke Appoints First Sustainability Officer
The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) has created a global Office of Sustainability and appointed its first Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) in an effort to better integrate ongoing initiatives.
Beatriz Perez, who is currently Chief Marketing Officer for Coca-Cola North America, will serve as CSO beginning July 1. She will work to integrate Coca-Cola's sustainability initiatives in water, climate protection, packaging and recycling. Read more at Sustainable Business
Beatriz Perez, who is currently Chief Marketing Officer for Coca-Cola North America, will serve as CSO beginning July 1. She will work to integrate Coca-Cola's sustainability initiatives in water, climate protection, packaging and recycling. Read more at Sustainable Business
Monday, May 30, 2011
$400 billion in California Pension Assets Take Another Step into Sustainable Investing
The $152.9 billion California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) announced that it would be taking “significant step” in its already broad sustainable investing program. From now on, all performance-related discussions with its external managers will include an analysis of how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues factor into their strategies.
"No matter what you’re doing with us, there are ESG risks that we think will have a long-term impact on the portfolio, and we want to be sure that you’re articulating for us how you’re looking at them,” said Jack Ehnes, CEO of CalSTRS .
Likewise for the California State Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the nation’s largest public pension fund with $236 billion under management. CalPERS’ CEO, Anne Stausboll, pledged that the behemoth pension plan would fully integrate ESG factors in all investment decisions, and across all asset classes.
As goes CalPERS, so goes the industry? Perhaps. As one of the world's most sophisticated investors, CalPERS has consistently led the industry in adopting what ultimately become more standard portfolio elements. New vehicles can't just "do good for society", but must meet strict return projections to keep their plans solvent into the next century.
Investing for the next century? Perhaps this is why CalPERS is so concerned about ESG risks.
Read more at Ceres.org
"No matter what you’re doing with us, there are ESG risks that we think will have a long-term impact on the portfolio, and we want to be sure that you’re articulating for us how you’re looking at them,” said Jack Ehnes, CEO of CalSTRS .
Likewise for the California State Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), the nation’s largest public pension fund with $236 billion under management. CalPERS’ CEO, Anne Stausboll, pledged that the behemoth pension plan would fully integrate ESG factors in all investment decisions, and across all asset classes.
As goes CalPERS, so goes the industry? Perhaps. As one of the world's most sophisticated investors, CalPERS has consistently led the industry in adopting what ultimately become more standard portfolio elements. New vehicles can't just "do good for society", but must meet strict return projections to keep their plans solvent into the next century.
Investing for the next century? Perhaps this is why CalPERS is so concerned about ESG risks.
Read more at Ceres.org
The Keys to Alcoa's Aggressive Sustainability Program
One year after setting ambitious sustainability goals, Alcoa is on track to meet its targets, says Kevin Anton, the company's chief sustainability officer.
Alcoa has already met greenhouse-gas-reduction goals originally scheduled to be achieved in 2020, Anton says, and now needs to focus on maintaining its momentum. "You want to set real stretch targets that may make operating people in the company feel uncomfortable because they're not sure how they're going to get there," he said. "A strong target and incentive compensation matched to it will drive innovation."
Twenty percent of variable compensation is tied to some aspect of sustainability, such as energy, greenhouse gas emissions, safety or diversity in the workplace. "If you want to get well-compensated at Alcoa, you need to be pulling the sustainability lever hard." Read more at Green Biz
Alcoa has already met greenhouse-gas-reduction goals originally scheduled to be achieved in 2020, Anton says, and now needs to focus on maintaining its momentum. "You want to set real stretch targets that may make operating people in the company feel uncomfortable because they're not sure how they're going to get there," he said. "A strong target and incentive compensation matched to it will drive innovation."
Twenty percent of variable compensation is tied to some aspect of sustainability, such as energy, greenhouse gas emissions, safety or diversity in the workplace. "If you want to get well-compensated at Alcoa, you need to be pulling the sustainability lever hard." Read more at Green Biz
Is Wal-Mart Tops in Cleantech?
Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer by revenue, and while it has often been criticized for its labor policies (among other things) it has recently received kudos for its sustainability efforts. Watershed Capital's Shawn Lesser believes that Wal-Mart is a model for other for other corporations in this area.
Wal-Mart has "saved $3 billion a year by reducing packaging size on all its products," he says. It has "installed electrical generators in its refrigerated trucks to cut down on engine idling." With more than 100,000 suppliers,Wal-Mart has unprecidented scale with which to change the face of sustainability across its supply chain.
In Wal-Mart's annual sustainability report, the company claims to have:
Wal-Mart has "saved $3 billion a year by reducing packaging size on all its products," he says. It has "installed electrical generators in its refrigerated trucks to cut down on engine idling." With more than 100,000 suppliers,Wal-Mart has unprecidented scale with which to change the face of sustainability across its supply chain.
In Wal-Mart's annual sustainability report, the company claims to have:
- Improved energy efficiency by 25-30% in model stores versus existing units
- Reduced plastic bag waste by nearly 48 million pounds
- Saved $20 million a year by reducing printouts of store reports
- Reduced its overall carbon emissions rate by 16% from ’05 to ’08.
- Donated over a million pounds of food to food banks each year.
Does Corporate Social Responsibility Build Customer Loyalty?
Corporate Social Responsibility intitiatives such as Pepsico's $15 million clean water program or Walmart's $2 billion in food bank support can surely create goodwill with customers. But after the cost of undertaking and publisizing such programs, what is the NET return to the company?
Advertising Age magazine sought to answer this question, studying the net financial impact of four dimensions of CSR performance -- environmental friendliness, treating employees fairly, community support, and sourcing from local growers and suppliers. Their conclusion: That consumers seem to modify their purchase behavior only when the CSR domain directly affects their actual experience with the company or brand. Broad initiatives like environmental friendliness and community support build only goodwill, but initiatives like offering locally sourced products and fair employee compensation -- actions related directly to the products and people that consumers face -- bring both goodwill and a higher share of wallet from consumers.
Read more at Advertising Age
Advertising Age magazine sought to answer this question, studying the net financial impact of four dimensions of CSR performance -- environmental friendliness, treating employees fairly, community support, and sourcing from local growers and suppliers. Their conclusion: That consumers seem to modify their purchase behavior only when the CSR domain directly affects their actual experience with the company or brand. Broad initiatives like environmental friendliness and community support build only goodwill, but initiatives like offering locally sourced products and fair employee compensation -- actions related directly to the products and people that consumers face -- bring both goodwill and a higher share of wallet from consumers.
Read more at Advertising Age
Google's expanding clean energy empire
Google has committed another $55 million to its expanding clean energy business, using an innovative "leveraged lease" structure to accelerate tax credits on the investment.
The company's involvement in clean energy stems from the company's fundamental belief that "things involving clean energy are good business opportunities," said Rick Needham, director of green-business operations and strategy for Google. "We've spent time and effort and have found ways to source what we consider "economic renewable energy" that provides us long-term price hedges. Others can do the same," Needham added.
Read more at Greentech Media
The company's involvement in clean energy stems from the company's fundamental belief that "things involving clean energy are good business opportunities," said Rick Needham, director of green-business operations and strategy for Google. "We've spent time and effort and have found ways to source what we consider "economic renewable energy" that provides us long-term price hedges. Others can do the same," Needham added.
Read more at Greentech Media
Germany accelerates nuclear decommissioning
Last week, Germany announced that it intends to close all of its nuclear plants by 2022, in the wake of Japan’s earthquake and tsunami that critically damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex. The country's main nuclear utilities, E.On and DWE expected their pre-1980 facilities to be winding down, but hoped for a longer time to do so. Alternative energy companies with large German businesses, including Vestas Wind Systems (Denmark) and Spanish wind turbine firm Gamesa, rose sharply on the news.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Bloomberg Claims 200% ROI on Sustainability Efforts
Every dollar that Bloomberg has spent on sustainability has saved two dollars in operating costs, according to the company’s first public sustainability report.
The media and financial services company said that demand reduction and capital investment projects have led to over $25 million in net savings since 2008. According to the report, last year Bloomberg met its targets on renewable energy credits, external energy star compliance, waste diversion and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, but missed goals related to on-site renewable energy, paper use and recycled content.
Read More at Environmental Leader.com
The media and financial services company said that demand reduction and capital investment projects have led to over $25 million in net savings since 2008. According to the report, last year Bloomberg met its targets on renewable energy credits, external energy star compliance, waste diversion and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, but missed goals related to on-site renewable energy, paper use and recycled content.
Read More at Environmental Leader.com
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