1.31.2012

Gem of the day

Yale Economist William Nordhaus responds to a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week, which cited his work to claim that "nearly the highest benefit-to-cost ratio is achieved for a policy that allows 50 more years of economic growth unimpeded by greenhouse gas controls." [lovely idea]

In his view (via NY Times Dot Earth):

"The piece completely misrepresented my work. My work has long taken the view that policies to slow global warming would have net economic benefits, in the trillion of dollars of present value. This is true going back to work in the early 1990s (MIT Press, Yale Press, Science, PNAS, among others). I have advocated a carbon tax for many years as the best way to attack the issue. I can only assume they either completely ignorant of the economics on the issue or are willfully misstating my findings."

Right.

1.30.2012

Another non-environmental wonder

The New Yorker has delivered a masterful study of Newt Gingrich and his third wife, Callista. Two gems:

"[Callista] has not been granting interviews, with the exception of a brief on-camera conversation with the Christian Broadcasting Network. The resulting story, which also included interviews with Rick Perry’s wife, Anita, and Jon Huntsman’s wife, Mary Kaye, was called 'A Tale of Three Wives.' Until recently, the title appeared on the home page of Gingrich’s campaign Web site, leading many visitors to wonder if they could click through to an explanation of the candidate’s complicated marital history."

"According to Ginther [Gingrich's second wife], he asked Callista to marry him before he told Ginther he wanted a divorce—while he was championing the Personal Responsibility Act. 'He believes that what he says in public and how he lives don’t have to be connected,' Ginther said. 'If you believe that, then, yeah, you can run for President.'"

Zing!

Gem of the day

More news from the world of sustainable business double standards:

Honda, the pioneer of the first commercially viable hybrid vehicle, is expanding into a new line of products: small business jets (via NY Times).

Ironically, Honda's CEO sees this carbon intensive shift as analagous to the market impact from Honda's shift to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles in the '60s:

"'We're doing with HondaJet what the Civic did to American cars from the 1960s. Our competitors are still producing with technology from the 1990s,' he said, referring to Textron Inc's Cessna and Brazil's Embraer SA.'"

1.27.2012

Bonus gem

Just a note for anyone who tries to argue that climate change isn't real and therefore sustainable development is not a priority (oh hello Wall Street Journal, various other sundry publications):

Even if climate change wasn't happening we would still be confronting a planet full of unhappy consumers, unravelling economies, broken political systems and volatile ecosystems.

Right.

Another non-environmental wonder

Via the New Yorker , reality check:

"'The rules apply to everybody,' as one former adviser told Kantor, and complaining about how Washington works 'is like crying over the rain.' Obama was elected to lead 'a rational, postracial, moderate country that is looking for sensible progress,' a White House official tells Kantor. 'Except, oops, it’s an enraged, moralistic, harsh, desperate country. It’s a disconnect he can’t bridge.'"

1.26.2012

Something that's actually good

The second edition of the Carbon Tracker Initiative is out and it states its conclusion in unequivocal language:

"The growing number of coal mining companies listing in London exposes the financial market to a significant systemic risk."

The key difference here which makes Carbon Tracker a potentially radical tool for change is that it points to significant flaws in how both the third sector and international climate negotiations have dealt with the fossil fuel industry (NGOs on campaigning against development of coal on the ground across UK/Europe, and the UNFCCC in promoting national emissions reduction targets):

"The UK has only 0.02% of the world’s coal reserves, and campaigners have been largely successful in preventing new coal-fired power stations in the UK and the rest of Europe. However the UK continues
to play a major role in providing capital to support the development of the world’s coal stocks via the London stock market...The traditional focus of global climate negotiations has been on the carbon emissions emitted by different countries within their own borders. But the globalisation of capital markets means that investors can hold a coal company stock on the London market which has coal reserves in, for example, Australia, which is then sold in a third country, for example, China."

One word: system.
Nick Main of Deloitte clearly hasn't been to the US recently (via Forbes):

“I can’t think of a country that’s stepped back on this [climate-change] agenda,” Main said.

And for added insight:

"I suspect the economy is making it tougher in some ways,” he said.

Thanks Forbes!

1.25.2012

Another non-environmental wonder

Now here's a group that's been one of the biggest casualties of Occupy Wall Street and associated wrath towards all things finance industry-related: the Private Equity Growth Council.

But they're not going down without a fight (via Politico):

"“The objective of the Council going forward is to aggressively educate key audiences about the important contribution private equity makes to our economy and defend the industry against mischaracterizations and attacks," PEGC’s Ken Spain said.

1.20.2012

Gem of the day

George Osborne, chancellor of the exchequer, has been touring around China this week trying to get investment in the UK's ageing infrastructure.

The gem (via FT):

"Mr Osborne this week held what were described as 'very serious meetings of substance' during a short visit to Beijing."

1.19.2012

Gem of the day

The concept of reporting on sustainability impacts for a business like British American Tobacco is totally nonsensical. Witness this gem of self-contradiction in their submission to the GRI under the awkward area 'Consumer Health and Safety':

"All tobacco products pose real and serious risks to health.

Risk awareness among consumers is constantly reinforced by health warnings on primary packaging mandated by the majority of governments. Our approach to tobacco harm reduction is to pursue the research, development and test marketing of innovative tobacco products that will have consumer acceptability, and will be recognised by the scientific and public health communities and regulators as posing reduced risks to health."

So their core business hurts people. Their strategy is to make products that will hurt people a little bit less, pressuring stakeholders like the government and scientists to accept this as the best possible solution.

1.18.2012

Gem of the day

The head of Puntland's Petroleum and Minerals Agency looks forward to new drilling opportunities in Somalia (via BBC):

"I think in 10 years' time - if oil is found, we will see a better country, a stronger country that lives in peace and prosperity with its own neighbours and hopefully that produces what we have been all looking for - peace, prosperity, development and progress."

Right, because historically where there is oil, there is equitably distributed profit, peace, happiness and wellbeing.

1.17.2012

Gem of the day

Dear Apple

You are so '1970s' on all things environmental compliance. Please hire a Steve Jobs of sustainability.

Best wishes

"In the latest Progress Report on Apple Supplier Responsibility, which was released on Friday, for the first time Apple included the names of 156 companies that together account for 97 percent of Apple's outsourced manufacturing business. The company found facilities that had been breaking air emission and wastewater discharge limits, using factories that were releasing industrial effluent via unapproved outflow pipes and failing to register pollution. In the most egregious cases, Apple said it had suspended business with the violators until improvements were in place." (Via the Guardian)

1.16.2012

Another non-environmental wonder

A quarter of UK households are in fuel poverty; yet ministers and members of the royal family have been lobbying the prime minister for a new royal yacht since September (via the Guardian).

Right.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: "We are not making any comment on this."

Another non-environmental wonder

Jon Huntsman makes his "stepping down" face.

Another non-environmental wonder

Andrew Hill of FT Management fame reviews a new book that almost passes entirely as satire; really, it's all in the name - Calculating Success - but several gems of its contents deserve special airing.
  • The book is organised around a fictional business entitled just 'Corp'
  • As a solution to lack of leadership support within 'Corp', the book's authors state that "an employee’s commitment to her job derives from her experiences interacting with leaders through the filter of her own motivation and needs.”
  • The authors of the book all used to be 'human capital' consultants for IBM
If Don DeLillo penned a work of fiction as a sequel to his last tour-de-force about the emptiness of the business vortex - Cosmopolis - this would be it.

1.13.2012

Bonus gem

Via Yale 360, the need for solar power summed up in the world's smallest nutshell:

"The poorest fifth of the world pays one-fifth of the world’s lighting bill — but receives only .1 percent of the lighting benefits...The money is on the table. It’s just on the wrong plates. Purchase and finance of solar power for 1.2 billion people would cost about $10 billion a year over a decade. The 11 countries with the largest number of households without electricity spent $80 billion each year subsidizing fossil fuel — only 17 percent of which benefits the poor."

Gem of the day

Most sustainability reports are funny enough, in an ironic way.

But this translated one from Chinese manufacturer Foshan-Xinguang is really outstanding (hat tip to Elaine Cohen). 'Plenty of big stockholders'? Ah, yes.

Also worth noting is the company's disturbing imagery of leisure outlets and equipment available to employees, listed under '5.1 Care for employees'. I find the 'Entertainment arcade' especially alluring.

1.12.2012

Something that's actually good

Stop the presses: Ban ki-Moon proves in an NY Times editorial that the UN actually can create powerful and effective communications (although, yes, given this channel he is preaching to the choir):

He positions sustainable energy as an enabler:

"Energy transforms lives, businesses and economies. And it transforms our planet — its climate, natural resources and ecosystems. There can be no development without energy. Today we have an opportunity to turn on the heat and lights for every household in the world, however poor, even as we turn down the global thermostat. The key is to provide sustainable energy for all."

...and uses mobile phones as an analogy (new and 'untested' technology, required major government investment, encountered sceptical consumers):

"Twenty years ago, universal access to mobile communications seemed preposterous. Yet as governments put proper frameworks in place and the private sector invested resources and pioneered business models, the communications revolution exploded."

...and last but not least, emphasizes the reality that competitive renewable energy is already here:

"Capacity is expanding. Performance is improving. Prices are declining. New products are emerging that require less energy. This is a solid foundation upon which to build the next great energy transition."

Are you listening, Rio +20?

1.11.2012

Bonus gem

Irony of the day, from a manager of the Ceres insurance program (via Greenbiz):

"But, she notes, insurance is a conservative business. The industry is all about risk, but it doesn't want to take the risk of speaking out on climate change."

Gem of the day

Worst misinterpretation of what sustainability (or 'green') for that matter could possibly mean in 2012 I've seen so far (thanks WSJ):

"Corporate America has been touting green products for ages now. In 2012, however, 'jobs will be the new ''green,'' says Andrew Essex, chief executive officer of Droga5. 'We'll see advertisers focused on what their brands are doing for the economy.'"

1.10.2012

Another non-environmental wonder

The best of the worst of the jargon in 2011 that rang through boardrooms, cubicles and powerpoints in the business vortex (via the FT):
  • "Going forward, we are focused on aggressively managing short-term challenges and opportunities and we remain committed to delivering our mid-decade plan and serving a growing group of Ford customers.”(Alan Mullally of Ford - and we wonder why investors don't seem to be able to act on strategic risks like climate change)
  • “The challenge for me is to re-aggregate the big picture, while throwing my arms around as much of the density of complexities as possible, distilling them down to their most basic constituents and plugging them back into the big picture.” (A faithful senior partner at one of the Big Four)
  • "The assessment was based on international methodology and on ground-truthing.” (A consultant at McKinsey - where else?)

Another non-environmental wonder

News Corp has hired a new treasure to fulfill the role of general counsel, a man with a name you just couldn't make up for this kind of challenge (via NY Times):

Gerson Zweifach, a partner at Williams & Connolly. In his own words, a carefully prepared statement summarising just why he's so thrilled to be the newest Murdoch cheerleader (and proof in itself of why he deserves it):

"I could not be more thrilled to join the leader in global media at such a pivotal time in its history. It would be hard to imagine a more compelling opportunity to have far-reaching impact across a variety of legal issues and challenges."

Indeed.

1.05.2012

Gem of the day

Jack Gerard, president of the infamous American Petroleum Institute, never fails to deliver a great gem. The NY Times paraphrases his latest call to action:

"North America could be self-sufficient in gasoline and diesel fuel in 15 years if only the government would get out of the way, the president of the American Petroleum Institute said on Wednesday in a 'state of American energy' address intended to raise the industry’s profile in the presidential election."

1.04.2012

Gem of the day

Jeremy Leggett, Founder and Chairman of SolarCentury and general crusader for renewables, sums up energy developments in the UK last year:

"The British "Big Six" opted for so much gas that the installation rate of British renewables fell steeply: this despite conventional UK energy prices soaring so steeply that fully 1 in 4 of UK households fell into fuel poverty in 2011, up from 1 in 5 in 2010."

O common sense, where art thou?