Pharmaceutal giant Abbott Laboratories did more than just throw money at the problem of malnutrition in Haiti. They built a factory that employs local workers for construction, uses local farm products and will employ local residents to run the plant. Monday, August 29, 2011
Abbott Labs: On the ground in Haiti
Pharmaceutal giant Abbott Laboratories did more than just throw money at the problem of malnutrition in Haiti. They built a factory that employs local workers for construction, uses local farm products and will employ local residents to run the plant. 
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Toyota, Ford to collaborate on hybrid trucks
Ford and Toyota plan to collaborate on product development for the future rear-wheel drive hybrid vehicles, as well as for telephone, Internet and entertainment systems. Read More at Reuters:
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
GE Data Center Achieves LEED Platinum Status
Only 6 percent of all LEED-certified buildings have achieved Platinum certification. Considering that GE’s new building is a data centre in Kentucky only exemplifies how impressive this latest award is.
A recent McKinsey study estimates that CO2 emissions from data centres will quadruple in the coming years, exceeding emissions from the airlines industry by 2020.
One GE exec sums it up: "Our new high-efficiency data center will help us manage energy costs so we can compete in a global marketplace.”
Read more at Green Building Elements
Responsible Companies Access Cheaper Funding
According to a new study, corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives do bring one very important benefit to their companies -- a superior ability to raise money for strategic investments and initiatives.
Researchers at the Harvard and London Business Schools analyzed the corporate social responsibility scores of 2,439 publicly traded companies. They found that companies with high CSR scores have a much easier time raising money than their less socially-responsible competitors.
They suggest that firms with great CSR scores can access capital at better interest rates than other firms, starting a ‘virtuous cycle’: Companies with great CSR scores are better able to raise money for their strategic investments and initiatives, which in turn improve their stock market returns -- and that makes it easier for them to raise money.
Read more at BNET
Researchers at the Harvard and London Business Schools analyzed the corporate social responsibility scores of 2,439 publicly traded companies. They found that companies with high CSR scores have a much easier time raising money than their less socially-responsible competitors.
They suggest that firms with great CSR scores can access capital at better interest rates than other firms, starting a ‘virtuous cycle’: Companies with great CSR scores are better able to raise money for their strategic investments and initiatives, which in turn improve their stock market returns -- and that makes it easier for them to raise money.
Read more at BNET
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
NextEra Energy plans billions of dollars for wind investments
US power producer NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE) intends to invest between $2.7 billion and $3.1 billion in wind farms over the next three years, according to CEO Lewis Hay, who spoke during a quarterly conference call last week.The company is the largest wind producer in the US with approximately 8.3 gigawatts (GW) of capacity and expects to add another 2 GW by the of 2012.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
How Southern Company keeps out solar competion
Georgia has about 12 laws on the books to make it difficult for solar power to compete head to head with fossil power. All twelve were lobbied for successfully by Georgia Power, and its parent Southern Company using a total of 63 lobbyists to fight the recent federal clean energy bill.
Read more at Clean Technica
Read more at Clean Technica
Sunday, July 31, 2011
What really matters to investors? Earnings or economics?
If you are like most investors, you dislike uncertainty.
The debt negotiations, the potential downgrade from AAA, and the most recent economic figures -- have given us plenty of uncertainty. But at least we investors have the luxury of being able to sell our shares today and buy them back tomorrow, right?
Business leaders don't have that luxury. They must invest with longer time periods in mind, and with scant opportunity to get their money back if conditions turn ugly. Is it any wonder then that leading indicators of business activity (durable goods sales, surveys of future expectations, and even unemployment) have looked more and more bleak in recent weeks?
Business leaders and US consumers both react to uncertainty by changing their spending patterns in the short term. High unemployment, declining real estate prices and high personal debt levels are all legitimate reasons for consumer spending to remain restrained. Unfortunately, much is riding on the consumer, since we account for about 2/3 of all US economic activity...
Contrary to US economic activity (which was already "slow" and is now merely "sputtering"), corporate earnings have held up rather well. Nearly 80% of earnings reports this quarter have met analysts' expectations. In other words, the economy is disappointing us, but earnings really aren't.
How does one reconcile weak economics with decent earnings?
Consider this: We consumers are more important to the US economy than we are to US companies. Domestic sales now account for less than half of the revenue of the S&P500. And most, if not all of the incremental growth for S&P500 firms is coming from overseas markets.
When China became GM's largest market, it told us that times have truly changed. The US market still matters, of course. But for many companies, other markets might matter more.
Perhaps as investors we should think a bit differently. Conditions might not be as dire as the headlines indicate.
The debt negotiations, the potential downgrade from AAA, and the most recent economic figures -- have given us plenty of uncertainty. But at least we investors have the luxury of being able to sell our shares today and buy them back tomorrow, right?
Business leaders don't have that luxury. They must invest with longer time periods in mind, and with scant opportunity to get their money back if conditions turn ugly. Is it any wonder then that leading indicators of business activity (durable goods sales, surveys of future expectations, and even unemployment) have looked more and more bleak in recent weeks?
Business leaders and US consumers both react to uncertainty by changing their spending patterns in the short term. High unemployment, declining real estate prices and high personal debt levels are all legitimate reasons for consumer spending to remain restrained. Unfortunately, much is riding on the consumer, since we account for about 2/3 of all US economic activity...
Contrary to US economic activity (which was already "slow" and is now merely "sputtering"), corporate earnings have held up rather well. Nearly 80% of earnings reports this quarter have met analysts' expectations. In other words, the economy is disappointing us, but earnings really aren't.
How does one reconcile weak economics with decent earnings?
Consider this: We consumers are more important to the US economy than we are to US companies. Domestic sales now account for less than half of the revenue of the S&P500. And most, if not all of the incremental growth for S&P500 firms is coming from overseas markets.
When China became GM's largest market, it told us that times have truly changed. The US market still matters, of course. But for many companies, other markets might matter more.
Perhaps as investors we should think a bit differently. Conditions might not be as dire as the headlines indicate.
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