8.31.2011

Another non-environmental wonder

A new report from the Brookings Institution is yet another proof point for what America can't handle: the nation is becoming truly globalised.

Minorities now comprise at least 40 percent of infants in more than half of all states.

Here's Brookings' take on what that means for the next few decades:

"Our young, diverse population will be the backbone of our labor force and will provide future business and government leadership, in a new American demographic era."

Too true. First stop: Congress. 


Bonus gem

Here's a conservative approach to dealing with the demand for federal disaster relief dollars that sure isn't going to work over the long term (via NY Times):

"Holding fast to their push for lower federal spending, top Congressional Republicans have argued that any federal aid in the aftermath of the double whammy of an earthquake followed by a hurricane should be offset, if possible, by spending less on other programs."

So in an environment with increasing hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters (ahem climate change), we should cut spending on other domestic priorities.

Anybody see the catch 22 here?

By 2050 that'll be zero spending on any programs, 100% spending on disaster relief. Great math.

Gem of the day

Following the longstanding realisation that electric cars are really only as sustainable as the electricity they're powered with, the NY Times has a great article today about something else we should be asking.

What's going to happen to all the fancy batteries being used?

A good place to start is thinking about how many we're talking. Frost & Sullivan puts the number at 500,000 every year by the early 2020s.

That's a lot of batteries. Even if the impact isn't as big as the total carbon emissions spewed from the world's humongous fleet of cars each year, it's still toxic.

And it's a reminder of what the world's big auto companies don't want people to actually think about: the glass ceiling on cars as a truly sustainable form of mobility.

8.26.2011

Gem of the day

For anyone who hasn't looked at McDonald's plans for China recently, now would be a good time.

The company is amping up its presence across the company, hiring 50,000 more people and expanding faster there than in any other market in the world. Which is great news for their CR team, since awareness about the health impacts of eating what McDonald's generously calls "food" is much lower in China than it is across Europe.

Such impacts are apparently a learning curve for CEO Jan Fields too (via Fortune):

"Jan Fields, who started at McDonald's 33 years ago cooking fries and is now the fast food chain's U.S. president, was soon to turn 55 when, she says, "I woke up one day and said, "Oh my God, how did I gain this much weight?"

8.25.2011

Bonus gem

Yesterday I published an op-ed in Ethical Corporation responding to Al Gore's solutions for fixing what he terms a "Climate of Denial" in the sustainability debate.

Just to be clear: I think Al Gore is one of the greatest leaders we have on all things sustainability. His new project ClimateReality is going to be an important part of transcending the Climate of Denial.

But I don't think it's right to state, as Gore does, that the USA is "the only nation that can rally a global effort to save our future ... and the president is the only person who can rally the United States.”

My argument is that leadership potential sits in the hands of anyone who can access, analyse and strategically use information.

And that's just what ClimateReality is doing so well.

Gem of the day

It goes without saying that sustainable mobility is one of the biggest challenges we're facing.

So how are the big three automakers in Detroit defining leadership now, in the aftermath of near bankruptcy and a saturated car market? (via NY Times):

Accepting new fuel economy standards they'll have until 2025 to live up to (an average of 54.5 MPG).

Right. Although, unsurprisingly, not everyone in the vortex of all things automobiles in the States is bought into that compliance-driven move:

“'I personally saw it as political engineering',” said Sean McAlinden, the Center for Automotive Research’s chief economist. He said that government agencies were setting fuel targets based on a 'mass of extrapolated exaggerations' about the gains that new technology could achieve."

Ironic, when you compare that quote to the stated mission of the Center for Automotive Research:

"The Center for Automotive Research is involved in the research of significant issues that relate to the future direction of the global automotive industry."

8.24.2011

Gem of the day

A vertigo-inducing new high for Halliburton (via HuffPo):

"During a keynote lunch speech at the conference presented by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, Halliburton Co. CEO Dave Lesar talked about addressing public concerns about hydraulic fracturing, which extracts natural gas by blasting a mix of water, chemicals and sand underground.
He raised a container of Halliburton's new fracking fluid made from materials sourced from the food industry, then called up a fellow executive to demonstrate how safe it was by drinking it, according to two attendees."

I wonder how that executive's doing now.

"A Halliburton spokeswoman didn't respond to a question asking how that executive is doing now, or who he is. Instead, she referred a reporter to a web page on CleanStim."

8.23.2011

Gem of the day

You don't go to the op-ed section of the Wall Street Journal to harvest progressive wisdom. Still, the response by Harvey Golub, former CEO of American Express, to a genius call to action about tax reform published by Warren Buffet last week is still one in a million. Here's the gem from his wreckage pile of a diatribe about how "wrong" Buffett got it, and what we could possibly need taxes for anyway:

"Do we really need an energy department or an education department at all?"

Another non-environmental wonder

All of these are legitimate political action committees (PACs) in the States (via NY Times):

A) Citizens for a Working America
B) Make Us Great Again
C) Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow
D) We Love USA

8.18.2011

Gem of the day

Nominee for worst attempt of 2011 to innovate language around sustainability goes to the folks at Omnicom for this gem (via the Omnicom 2011 CR report):

"We know our business, like every business, impacts the soundness of the planet."

8.17.2011

Another non-environmental wonder

Rick Perry: just another day on the campaign trail...


Another non-environmental wonder

John W. Dean, former Nixon council and the only high-profile public attorney I can honestly say I like and respect, on assessing the Murdoch situation (via The Guardian, where else these days?):

"While not an ideal measurement of wrongdoing, I find there is usually a direct correlation between lawyers hired and the seriousness of the problem."

Gem of the day

Having CSR reporting updates like this one coast into my inbox really just gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling:

"This new Report clearly demonstrates that ethics and corporate responsibility is central to the Group’s transformation strategy, and play a crucial role in its overall risk management strategy. This proactive policy is a key driver to Group performance, which Thales intends to leverage as a competitive advantage in the marketplace."

Wait, what does Thales actually do as a business?

8.16.2011

Another non-environmental wonder

Ever wonder what a day in the life of a Wall Street trader responsible for managing $30 million looks like?

No, me either, but in the aftermath of last week's semi-crash it's worth having a look (via our friends at New York Magazine):

MONDAY, AUGUST 8, 2011
9:30 a.m.: Nice weekend, but now it’s back to reality: The downgrade is here. The market is in free fall. People are dropping the L word, as in Lehman. Everything is starting to look broken as can be.
2 p.m.: The S&P 500 is around 1150. The Dow is down 344 points. Decide it’s time to get in on this. Normally, I would be more quant-driven, but I’m playing with my gut and not my head. All aboard, we buy 1150, and wow, I am wrong, holy shit, I am wrong. Within minutes of my trying to call the bottom, the Dow drops 300 points. I’m down the price of two college educations in the time it takes to cook a lobster. Feel like a total moron.
3 p.m.: Miraculously, the S&P 500 bounces back up to 1150, and I’m able to recoup 80 percent of my losses and get out. Within half an hour, it falls back to 1120. Saved by luck! I should happy, but I’m too traumatized.

Bonus gem

Now that our friend Rick Perry, esteemed governor of the great state of Texas, is officially in the race for the Republican nomination, it can only do us some good to examine his environmental record.

On the other hand, his approach can basically be summed up by a very special initiative from this past April: praying for rain.

"I urge Texans of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers on that day for the healing of our land, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of our normal way of life."


No link to sustainability, of course, all those droughts.

Good times.

Gem of the day

Shell's 1970s-style press release really gives you that warm, fuzzy reassurance that they care:

“This is a significant spill in the context of annual amounts of oil spilled in the North Sea. We care about the environment and we regret that the spill happened. We have taken it very seriously and responded promptly to it.”

8.15.2011

Gem of the day

Global Witness on the sketchy underworld of oil deals rolling out of Angola (via the Economist):

"Buccaneers are cutting themselves a large slice of Africa’s resource cake."

8.09.2011

Bonus gem

Michele Bachmann has proved time and again she's not really playing with a full deck of cards. Which means this gem from a campaign rally earlier today isn't too surprising (via Joe Romm):

"I pledge to you I’m not a talker. I’m a doer... And I guarantee you the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) will have doors locked and lights turned off and they will only be about conservation. It will be a new day and a new sheriff in Washington, D.C.”

Yet another voice in Washington that's finally giving Al Gore's claims the credibility they deserve. Which means this gem from his speech at the Aspen Institute this week is even better:

"They pay pseudo-scientists to pretend to be scientists to put out the message: 'This climate thing, it's nonsense. Man-made CO2 doesn't trap heat. It's not -- It may be volcanoes.' Bullshit! 'It may be sun spots.' Bullshit! 'It's not getting warmer.' Bullshit!

Gem of the day

RIP Ray Anderson, probably the only real business leader in the sustainability vortex. One of the best things he ever said back in 2004:

"No one should be claiming sustainable products. There is no such thing yet in terms of zero footprint."

Another non-environmental wonder

Nixon on presidential power, to a TV journalist two years after he left the White House (via Hunter S. Thompson):

"If the president does it, it can't be illegal."

8.03.2011

Gem of the day

In Ogoniland, a small region in the Niger delta, there were two major oil spills in 2008 that essentially destroyed the ecosystems its habitants rely on to survive (via Guardian).

Shell hasn't tried to clean it up. After all, it's in a remote place that doesn't get much media coverage, right? Instead this is what they've done:

"In two years the company has only offered £3,500 together with 50 bags of rice, 50 bags of beans and a few cartons of sugar, tomatoes and groundnut oil. The offers were rejected as "insulting, provocative and beggarly" by the chiefs of Bodo, but later accepted on legal advice."

Did someone say corporate responsibility? Doesn't seem to fit with their "Let's Go" campaign, unless they're trying to get away from paying the costs for their environmental impact.

8.02.2011

Gem of the day

Here's how a few friendly folks over at Wharton decided they would put a value on stakeholder engagement in the mining industry (via TriplePundit):

"Henisz and his colleagues used data from 26 gold mines owned by 19 publicly traded firms between 1993 and 2008. By coding more than 50,000 “stakeholder events” found in media reports they developed an index of the degree of stakeholder cooperation or conflict for these mines. The researchers looked at the firms’ listings on the Toronto Stock Exchange...tracking the actions of media-relevant stakeholders allowed the researchers to study the degree of cooperation and conflict for each mine. Then they came up with a single metric that served as an estimate of these delays and disruptions."

Not surprisingly, the mines with the least stakeholder conflict also achieved the highest net value for their mines. Unfortunately there's a difference between a controversial industry seeking to reduce conflict, and a controversial industry trying to actually become sustainable by listening to stakeholders and acting on what they say. After all, anyone can reduce conflict by silencing critics through unlimited court costs and/or simply paying them off (Chevron in Northern Africa, anyone?)

Even worse, the research is biased towards those stakeholders who have the privilege of their concerns being reported on in the media. What about people who deserve to be heard, but aren't?

And here's an objective we could have easily answered without any of the research: "The researchers’ goal was to figure out what role these stakeholder events played in companies’ efforts to maximize profits."

Don't all say it at once: protect and defend reputation.

I look forward to the elusive day when we recognise every shareholder is also a stakeholder in our wider economy, society and environment. Stakeholder vs. shareholder is a tired debate.

8.01.2011

Another non-environmental wonder

When you work in a vortex as extreme as the United States Congress, sometimes the highlight of your day is ensuring the credit rating of your nation isn't downgraded for the first time in history.

Evidently it's exactly this kind of partisan crisis that really gets Mitch McConnell going.