And now, for something work-related

[T]here is more to CSR than empty phrases and exotic conferences. Serious business gurus such as Michael Porter and the late C.K. Prahalad have lent their support to the movement. Most of the world’s big companies have entire divisions devoted to it. And CSR is evolving. Gone are the days when it was mainly about managing corporate reputations—or “greenwashing”, to its critics. It is now more about business fundamentals, such as how products are designed and how supply chains are managed.

The loudest CSR buzzword these days is “sustainability”. The proportion of managers who say they think that “sustainability” is a key to competitive success has risen from 55% in 2010 to 67% last year, according to an annual survey of 4,000 managers in 113 countries by the MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group. Companies have been busy creating “chief sustainability officers”, founding “sustainability units” and employing “sustainability consultancies”...

Keep reading Good business; nice beaches on the Economist.

More of the same: [iii]

Consider this

Green parties celebrating their success in last week's European Parliament election are gearing up for a fight over nuclear power.
The coalition of green parties, who are unanimous in their anti-nuclear position, increased their presence in the European Parliament from 5.5% to 7.1% (52 seats). Although not enough to force any changes, science-policy experts anticipate a major battle on the issue in the next legislature.
The European Parliament does not currently have the power to legislate on energy production in the European Union's 27 member states. But if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified later this year by the remaining few member states that have not yet signed up, parliament's power will extend into new areas. "If the Lisbon treaty is approved, it will give the European Union responsibility for energy security," says Ulrike Lunacek, who is president of the European Green Party and a newly elected member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Austria. "We will use this opportunity to make a stand in the European Parliament against nuclear power," she told Nature.

Brought to you by NatureNews, as Green boost in European elections may trigger nuclear fight.

Ad of the Day

Today: World Environment Day

The theme for WED 2009 is 'Your Planet Needs You - UNite to Combat Climate Change'. It reflects the urgency for nations to agree on a new deal at the crucial climate convention meeting in Copenhagen some 180 days later in the year, and the links with overcoming poverty and improved management of forests.
WED 2009’s host is Mexico which reflects the growing role of the Latin American country in the fight against climate change, including its growing participation in the carbon markets.
Mexico is also a leading partner in UNEP's Billion Tree Campaign. The country, with the support of its President and people, has spearheaded the pledging and planting of some 25 per cent of the trees under the campaign. Accounting for around 1.5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the country is demonstrating its commitment to climate change on several fronts.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon states that the WED celebration will “further underline Mexico's determination to manage natural resources and deal with the most demanding challenge of the 21st century – climate change.”

[from here]

The Coke in... Red Bull

About a year ago, the makers of Red Bull, the famous caffeine-loaded energy drink, decided to come out with a soda, unsurprisingly named Red Bull Cola. The shared name implied the same big kick. But could the cola's boost — supposedly "100% natural" — come from something else? Officials in Germany worry that they've found the answer — cocaine. And now they have prohibited the soda's sale in six states across the country and may recommend a nation-wide ban.
"The [Health Institute in the state of North Rhine Westphalia] examined Red Bull Cola in an elaborate chemical process and found traces of cocaine," Bernhard Kuehnle, head of the food safety department at Germany's federal ministry for consumer protection, told the German press on Sunday. According to this analysis, the 0.13 micrograms of cocaine per can of the drink does not pose a serious health threat — you'd have to drink 12,000 L of Red Bull Cola for negative effects to be felt — but it was enough to cause concern. Kuehnle's agency is due to give its final verdict on Wednesday when experts publish their report. [...]
But the problem is when it comes to coca and cocaine, it's not just a health concern, but a legal one. Since 1961, trade of coca outside the Andean region — where people have chewed or brewed coca in tea to stave off hunger and exhaustion for centuries — has been prohibited unless the cocaine alkaloid is removed. Few companies in the world have authorization to trade in the leaf and most are pharmaceutical companies that perform this decocainizing process. The most prominent is New Jersey-based Stepan Chemical Company which has been reported to supply Coca-Cola with its narcotic-free derivative. [...]

Intrigued? TIME.com shares the rest of the details here.

You might have heard by now that:

... At a scientific conference on climate change held this week in Copenhagen, four environmental experts announced that sea levels appear to be rising almost twice as rapidly as had been forecast by the United Nations just two years ago. The warning is aimed at politicians who will meet in the same city in December to discuss the same subject and, perhaps, to thrash out an international agreement to counter it.
The reason for the rapid change in the predicted rise in sea levels is a rapid increase in the information available. In 2007, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change convened by the UN made its prediction that sea levels would rise by between 18cm and 59cm by 2100, a lack of knowledge about how the polar ice caps were behaving was behind much of the uncertainty. Since then they have been closely monitored, and the results are disturbing. Both the Greenland and the Antarctic caps have been melting at an accelerating rate. It is this melting ice that is raising sea levels much faster than had been expected. Indeed, scientists now reckon that sea levels will rise by between 50cm and 100cm by 2100, unless action is taken to curb climate change....

More on the actual studies which had been carried out in supporting the above in The Economist's article.

... the silver lining of the economic crisis?

...

The new year (also) begins with hand-wringing about the economic crisis, and how it and the low price of oil are bad for investment into alternative energy. Others are moaning that China’s market for recycled paper has plummeted. But are we not forgetting that 2009 will see huge environmental dividends from our new, enforced austerity?

Everyone has suddenly stopped spending and started saving. And while this is bad for the economy, as consumption declines so too do the energy and environmental costs attached with that consumption. Companies are folding, people are being fired, and shops are closing. People are buying less, travelling less, and wasting less food. Attached to all these activities are CO2 emissions that will no longer happen and reduced use of land for supplying food, fuel and clothing. ...

Keep reading the remainder of this unusual opinion in The Economist's review, entitiled Good and Bad Green Resolutions.

Wall-E

You’ve already heard—Wall-E is a part of Hollywood’s go-green conspiracy to brainwash our children into obeying Overlord Gore. It’s certainly environmentally conscious, including a scolding speech near the end about a planet in trouble and a do-nothing populace, but such a reading of Pixar’s latest is too easy. Set well into the millennium, the film opens in the majesty of outer space (“there’s a world outside of Yonkers,” croons the soundtrack) before switching to an aerial survey of Planet Earth in ruin—rusted-over and littered, with a skyline of trash-cube skyscrapers. So, Wall-E is anti-waste, sure, but it has an odd and tender affection for artifact, as well—the titular robot, a Sisyphean garbage compactor with only a cockroach for a friend, collects Zippos, bubble wrap, Rubik’s cubes and other assorted tchotchkes from among humanity’s detritus with the same reverence with which we hoard pre-historic earthenware. (This might help to explain the apparent contradiction many commentators have noted between the film’s politics and its marketing, which includes more than its fair share of landfill-bound merchandising.) Above all, Wall-E is not a critique of the state of things but a condemnation of a mindset. It is not so much anti-waste as it is anti-wastefulness.

Keep reading this really nice review for a film I definitely enjoyed on Cinepinion, or watch the trailer:

theme: post-Thanksgiving reflections

10 Things To Be Thankful For This Year! [from globalexchange.org]

1. The Bush Era is over, we were spared a McCain sequel
   
2. The US elected its first-ever African American President - Barack Obama
   
3. 350,000 young people signed onto Power Vote - pledging to vote for candidates who support clean renewable energy
   
4. The Green Economy is the fastest growing sector of the US economy
   
5. The Iran War Resolutions were defeated - people power won over AIPAC
   
6. U.S. consumers are choosing hybrids over hummers and other gas guzzlers
   
7. Chevron is being brought to justice in a US law suit for human rights abuses committed in Nigeria
   
8. Democrats admit NAFTA needs to be amended
   
9. Green Festival has expanded to five major US cities and reaching more than 100,000 people every year
   
10. GX has been a leader in the social justice movement for 20 years, and is committed to continuing the struggle for 20 more

photography & sustainable development

Mr. Yann Arthus-Bertrand - (French photographer and) author of the "Earth from Above" exhibition - gets involved with the concept of sustainable development by chairing GoodPlanet.org and by addressing schoolchildren as one of the main audiences.

In my opinion, there's quite a bit of added value to flicking through the outcomes, even if only as a set of visual stimulants. Enjoy!

[copyright here]

here's a very simple 5 point grid meant to answer a similarly simple question:

How Green is Your City?

The five characteristics of a green city

it refers to:

• public transportation
• electricity
• actual green
• recycling, and
• green events/ attitude.

Happy over-viewing!