I just received my GRI G3 reporting certification from the course I took last week. The course was delivered in Colorado for the first time due to the efforts of CORE with support from Deloitte. Lead, out of Canada, provided the training based on materials from the Global Reporting Initiative.
The instructor was well informed, as were the 26 attendees. Lively discussion, along with some good and some not so good exercises provided us all with a great understanding of the G3 framework and the processes companies should put in place to engage stakeholders, prioritize initiatives, disclose results, share goals and increase sustainability through management processes and transparency.
Global Reporting Initiative The Sustainability Reporting Framework – of which the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines are the cornerstone – provides guidance for organizations to disclose their sustainability performance. It is applicable to organizations of any size or type, and from any sector or geographic region, and has been used by thousands of organizations worldwide as the basis for their sustainability reporting.
William Kamkwamba, a boy in rural city in Malawi, Africa, is forced to drop out of school after the deadly 2001 drought nearly killed him and his family and destroyed the little value they had created farming corn and tobacco. Without the $80 to pay tuition, William turned to the library, where he became fascinated with windmills.
Determined to prevent his family from experiencing the drought driven hunger again, William decided he would produce the electric power needed to pump water to irrigate their fields.
With no money to buy parts, William used materials from a junkyard and his imagination to build this windmill. Improvising an old bicycle with flattened PVC pipe for blades and a bicycle generator to produce the electricity, William was able to light his room and tell his story to the world.
It appears Starbucks customers in New York are able to make intelligent decisions when provided with the information about the calorie content of food on the menu.
A new study by Stanford released Jan. 6 examined consumer behavior before and after calorie counts were posted, and determined that when restaurants post calories on menu boards, there is a reduction in calories per transaction. Based on transaction data provided by Starbucks, researchers from the Stanford Graduate School of Business found that calorie-posting in New York City in 2008 led to a 6% reduction in calories per transaction.
I suspect this surprises few of us. Yet, opponents of posting this information claim it is available elsewhere and therefore not needed in the cafe.
Studies continue to reveal this is just not the case. Information available in real time makes a difference in our buying decisions. The same is true for energy conservation efforts. Just presenting people with details about the energy they are using while they are using it, changes behaviors that on average reduce energy consumption by 3-5%. Give folks simple ideas to reduce consumption further and the vast majority of us will do so. That’s why we are working with companies to make energy usage information (and comparisons across companies, departments and work areas) available to employees.
In a move clearly designed to keep up the pressure on the US to take strong action on climate change, UN climate chief Yfo de Boer stated, “Whatever route is taken, the president of the United States committed to a 17 percent emissions reduction in Copenhagen. The president of the United States committed to more ambitious emissions reductions for 2030 and 2050. And it is those statements to which the international community will hold the government of the United States accountable.”
The term “smart grid” is shorthand for a number of technologies intended to automate and digitize management of electrical power. By computerizing the 20th century electrical system, utilities and others in the power industryhope to manage and control electrical output more efficiently and reliably. Though smart grid sounds like it’s a single system, it’s more an array of different tools and technologies, from smart meters to solar power, all designed to reduce costs, waste less energy, and provide better networking and communications between homes and utilities.
The U.N.\'s leading panel on climate change has apologized for misleading data published in a 2007 report that warned Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035. In a statement released Wednesday, U.N. climate chiefs apologize for glacier error – CNN.com the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said estimates relating to the rate of recession of the Himalayan glaciers in its Fourth Assessment Report were “poorly substantiated” adding that “well-established standards of evidence were not applied properly.”
In an attempt to put the proper spin on this, IPCC chairman, Rajendra Pachauri admitted errors and according to Agence France-Presse, stated, “Theoretically, let’s say we slipped up on one number, I don’t think it takes anything away from the overwhelming scientific evidence of what’s happening with the climate of this earth,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Errors and mistakes happen in science research as in all other areas of human involvement. And when they do, it is best to own up to them quickly and with humility. This seems to be as important for climate science, maybe even more important, because predictions are so difficult, hindsight is always 20/20 and there are so many groups wanting to poke holes in the research and predictions. Some may even claim that early predictions were intentionally exaggerated in order to gain more attention.
In any event, those wanting to really understand the issue are no more likely to take this error and believe all the science is suspect, than they would take the worst case prediction and ignore everything else.
The 45th Annual Event Sponsored by the Business Research Division in the Leeds School of Business and BBVA Compass The annual forecast of the state’s economy includes snapshots from specific counties and regions around the state, as well as updates on international trade, population, labor force and personal income growth, and a general outlook on the national economy. December 7 Grand Hyatt Hotel, 1750 Welton Street, Denver 1:00 p.m. Welcome by Leeds School and BBVA Compass 1:15 p.m. Colorado economic outlook for 2010 Richard Wobbekind, Economist, Leeds School of Business John Lymberopoulos, Professor Emeritus, Leeds School of Business 2:00 p.m. Question and answer panel session 2:30 p.m. Keynote address: Nathaniel Karp, Chief U.S. Economist, BBVA Compass 3:15 p.m. Concurrent discussion sessions: The Future of Uranium, Renewables, and Coal–Impacts on Colorado’s Economy Moderator and Speaker: Vince Matthews–Colorado Geological Survey Panel: Jim Burnell–Colorado Geological Survey Bob Burnham–Wood Mackenzie Jeff Lyng–Governor’s Energy Office 4:45 p.m. Networking reception There is no charge for this event. No RSVP is necessary. Download printable postcard invitation. More info:
During the third quarter of 2009, a total of 35 energy and environmental companies received $421 million in new venture capital financing, representing an 8% decrease in the number of companies being funded and an 8% decrease in the total amount funded to the four sectors of Alternative Energy, Clean Tech, Energy and Environmental.
Alternative Energy companies showed the only deal funding volume percentage increase of the four categories, with a 20 % increase quarter over quarter. The Clean Tech sector showed a sharp decrease in activity, with an 86% decrease in amounts funded. Energy funding amounts were also down, with an 18% funding decrease and the number of companies funded decreasing by 27%.
During the quarter, Software company fundings represented the second largest sector, raising $610 million between 97 companies. This activity represented an increase of 10% in total funding amount and a decrease of 22% in the number of companies funded. The average financing round size reversed its previous decline and rose sharply, from $4.7 million in Q2 09 to $6.3 million in the current quarter.
These grants are directed toward identifying and developing new geothermal fields and reducing the upfront risk associated with geothermal development through exploration and drilling projects and data development and collection.
In total, 123 projects in 39 states will receive funding from these grants.
The DOE is investing up to $1.18 million for a project in Boulder, Colo. to upgrade the 100-year-old Boulder Canyon Hydroelectric Project by replacing two older turbines with a single unit. The new turbine is expected to operate at a wider range of flows and higher efficiency ranges, resulting in an increase in annual generation of 11,000 MWh (30% increase).
Along with 6 other projects the DOE is investing $30.6 million to create an additional 187,000 MWh/year, while replacing turbines that are as much as 90 and 100 years old. Clean (cutting 110,00o tons of CO2 emissions/year), cheap (adding generation at less than 4 cents per kWh) and lowering operating and maintenance costs.
In Massachusetts, a proposed wind farm called Cape Wind was dealt a blow last Friday that will delay what would be the first offshore wind farm in the U.S. The Massachusetts Historical Commission agreed with local Indian tribes who claim that the location for the wind farm should be considered for listing in the National Historic Register because the Wampanoags’ history and culture are “inextricably linked to Nantucket Sound,” according to the opinion.
An offshore wind farm in north Wales, U.K.
(Credit: Vestas)
“If the tribes are successful, that would have a severe chilling effect (on the entire wind industry) because tribes up and down the coast could make the same claim,” said Mark Rodgers, the communications director for Cape Wind. “Never before has an open ocean been caught up in this kind of declaration.”
Then again, never before has a rare combination of private and government investment pumped so much into alternative energy projects. As these projects grow in frequency and scale, a new breed of NIMBY (not in my backyard) is emerging: Opponents of wind or solar installations who generally support renewable energy, just as long as they are built somewhere else. Coal and nuclear plants, it turns out, aren’t the only energy facilities people don’t want built in their backyards…or coastlines.
The Cape Wind fight, in particular, has brought together a testy combination of excellent wind conditions, opposition from well heeled local residents including members of the Kennedy clan, and a surprising assertion of Native American rights.
Head over to the EPA’s Fuel Economy website and learn ways to get the last few miles out of every drop. You’ll learn how to drive more efficiently, like taking the golf clubs out of the trunk when snow’s on the ground and slowing down just a bit. And ways to not only make the gallon go farther, but also your tires and car with a few regular maintenance actions.
The University of Mississippi is using data from SmartSynch’s smart meters and passing it to dashboards for campus operations personnel to monitor, analyze and act via RSS and social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook. As a part of the university’s Red, Blue and Green initiative, students and faculty can register with the school’s Green Initiative website and get real time view and comparisons of energy usage around the campus.
It appears that people don’t only wish to keep up with their neighbors with bigger homes and wider if flatter TVs. This seems to be true with energy efficiency as well.
From hotels to neighborhoods, the power of influence work by Dr. Robert Cialdini is being put to the test with positive results. Looks like water may be next.
Energy efficiency offers a vast, low-cost energy resource for the U.S. economy – but only if the nation can craft a comprehensive and innovative approach to unlock it. Significant and persistent barriers will need to be addresses at multiple levels to stimulate demand for energy efficiency and manage its delivery across more than 100 million buildings and literally billions of devices. If executed at scale, a holistic approach would yield gross energy savings worth more than $1.2 trillion, well above the $520 billion needed through 2020 for upfront investment in efficiency measures (not including program costs). Such a program is estimated to reduce end-use energy consumption in 2020 by 9.1 quadrillion BTUs, roughly 23 percent of projected demand, potentially abating up to 1.1 gigatons of green house gases annually.
2008 proved to be a year of extremes for both the economy and energy around the world. Not surprising since fuel prices are so closely tied to world economic growth and in 2008 one of the longest periods of sustained economic growth can crashing to a halt. This sent record oil prices of $140 per barrel plummeting by more than 70%. See the details in BP Statistical Review of World Energy – June 2009.
Department of Energy Secretary Chu announces $93 million from the Recover Act to support the development of additional wind energy in the United States. The money will support R&D and testing for wind turbine drivetrains, support university and industry consortia focusing on critical wind energy challenges, advanced technology development in the private sector and a National Wind Technology Center in Colorado.
Chu also announced the National Renewable Energy Laboratory will receive $100 million for infrastructure projects. The largest is the development of an energy efficient LEED Platinum certified office, constructed at the same cost as that of a low efficiency commercial office building. The others are to use solar and other green energy sources to reduce the labs carbon use and to upgrade the integrated bio-refinery research facility used to develop commercial scale cellulose to ethanol technologies.
During his visit to the Golden, CO facility Chu stated that $26 billion of the more than $100 billion in the Recover Act for renewable energy projects had already been authorized with the goal of 70% being authorized by early September. He also discussed streamlining the DOE loan approval process with the goal of reducing the time to getting a loan application approved to a few months. It has been known to take years under the current process.
It is great to see some of this huge spending bill is being directed to innovation and more importantly that this is being coordinated with private industry. There continues to be a gap in funding for the commercialization of proven technologies. Until this gap is filled, the great innovation from the labs and universities will be delayed in helping solve our energy issues.
Claiming typical savings in the 20-40% range with aggressive strategies able to save over 50%, the DOE has put out a report on how data centers can use the tools from the Save Energy Now program.
Not surprisingly, the key to generating these savings is to reduce the amount of energy used to support and cool the servers. Typical practice shows the majority of energy is used for things other than the IT equipment. Best practices enable up to 85% of total energy used to be used directly by IT devices.
Bob Metcalfe, using the history of the Internet as a guide, provided his list of things to look for and look out for in the changing energy sector.
Metcalfe gave an optimistic view of the environmental challenge suggesting not only are we in a Global Warming Bubble but that cheap, clean energy will be so abundant, it will easily be squandered.
He suggested the best place for research is in the research universities and not in government labs which are “nothing more than local earmarks”. In this model, professors along with their graduate students, will commercialize innovation with the help of entrepreneurs and venture capital.
Metcalfe warned that energy and environment are two overlapping issues and they should be viewed as two things. Otherwise, we may solve energy without solving the environment or vice-versa. Oh, and he offered a new color for clean energy, blue.
McKinsey’s Matt Hirschland interviewed economist Nicholas Stern in Brussels this past January. You can read the transcript here or click below to watch the video.
It is likely that the energy to power your car came from the Sun hundreds of millions of years ago and was converted by algae into simple sugars that eventually was pumped out of the ground as crude oil. Is it possible to shorten this cycle into a few weeks or even days and power our economy by cultivating algae today? Many people are betting that we will, as more and more investments are made in algal biofuel companies.
Why the interest in algae? The primary reasons is it grows fast, very fast. In fact, with ample sunlight, CO2 and the right nutrients, algae can double it’s mass in a few hours. And under the right conditions, algae can also be coaxed into producing a large percentage of its mass into fuel rich lipids. With no need to reach toward the sky algae spends little to no energy building the complex cellulosic structures found in land plants. This means a higher percentage of the plant can be converted to fuel. Some companies are focusing on genetically altering fast growing strains to directly produce hydrocarbons, in effect, eliminating the refining step.
Today companies are able to produce biofuel from algae for somewhere between $9 and $36 per gallon. Not barrel, per dollar. Huh? Yes, algal biofuel science still has some work to do. Algae grown in ponds get a free source of energy from the sun, but require a lot of water and the associated energy costs of moving it around and filtering the final product. These open ponds also have to be protected from natural strains which do not produce the desired lipids. Closed bioreactors are great at controlling the environment and preventing contamination, but require a lot of energy either via artificial light or in the case of GreenFuel, sugar.
Algae has advantages in addition to its ability to grow quickly. Acre per acre, algae outperforms any other biofuel source around. Compared to 60 gallons of diesel per acre from soybeans or 600 gallons per acre from oil palms, algae can produce 1850 gallons per acre and some experts are claiming 5,000 gallons per acre is feasible.
Algae also consumes a vast amount of CO2 and produces lots of oxygen. Three quarters of the oxygen in our atmosphere is produce by algae. Experimental sites are often located at coal fired utility plants in order to use the vast amounts of CO2 produces by burning coal to feed the algae. While this certainly does not sequester the CO2, it lowers the total emissions by recycling the CO2 and gaining energy from it twice.
There are forms of algae that grow in lots of types of water that we would find difficulty using for ourselves or our food supplies. This allows algae farms to use water that will not impact scarce water sources. These add up to a crop that can be grown on land not used for food, using water that would not be used for human consumption or food crops and suck up a lot of CO2 in the process. We simply have to find ways to do it more cheaply.
Trading activity picks up for carbon financial instruments (CFIs) after the release of President Obama’s budget. Even though the budget does not include revenue from carbon allowances until 2012, future contracts prior to this date moved higher. Some people believe these instruments can be used as early action credits in a federal cap and trade system.
Between 2012 and 2020, nearly $645 billion could be raised from the sale of emission allowances, the budget outline says.
According to Point Carbon (subscription) estimates, that would assume around 80 per cent of the economy would face caps on their greenhouse gas output starting 2012 at 2005 levels, or roughly 7.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
This means the budget is banking on carbon prices of nearly $13.70 per tonne by 2012.With the cap declining around 2 per cent per year after 2012, Point Carbon estimates the price of carbon in 2020 would go up to $16.5 per allowance.
So just what is a cap and trade system and how does it work? MSNBC has a Frequently Asked Questions page that answers this question. While President Obama signaled his desires in his budget, congress is required to pass the legislation and the details. Many experts are suggesting legislation is unlikely this, however “Powerful Democrats such as House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., have said they would work hard to get legislation passed by this summer.”
