2.28.2012

Gem of the day

I disagree with David Owen on his assertion that renewables 'just don't work as well as fossil fuels do'.

But he is right about this (via Mother Jones):

"Usually there's more funding behind the problems than behind the solutions."

2.27.2012

Bonus gem

There's a reason why it's right to be highly skeptical whenever a big utility makes noise about a sustainability initiative. This gem reveals yet an author that forgot the golden rule (via Guardian Sustainable Business Hub):

"Once in a while you come across a company initiative that makes you think: 'Here's a firm that's putting sustainability into action.' That was my reaction (and that of many others) this week when British Gas announced a new incentive to help the most vulnerable members of society cut their energy bills through free loft and cavity wall insulation."

Providing free or low-cost insulation to fuel-poor households is required for all energy providers under the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target. That's why it's so funny to frame the new British Gas scheme, which offers £50 for locating people who could benefit from free insulation, as a laudably sustainable innovation. For a business that made £3 million in profit per day in 2010, it's paying pocket change to the public to help them comply with the law.

Speaking of which, the choice of timing around this scheme's announcement is nicely strategic. Big 6 profits will be announced within the next day and are expected to skyrocket £2 billion over last year's to total £15 billion, as a quarter of UK households remain in fuel poverty.

Gem of the day

Liam Halligan offers one way of looking at the challenges associated with securing a sustainable energy future:

"While there's lots of hype about tar sands and shale fuels, these new technologies often expend more energy than they create, while causing horrendous environmental and water-supply problems. Conventionally-produced crude will remain absolutely critical, and demand for it will spiral, until mankind bans the internal combustion engine, outlaws ammonium-based fertilisers, dismantles the global pharmaceutical industry and learns to live without plastic. I can't see that happening anytime soon."

Zing!

2.23.2012

Gem of the day

The Earth Day Network's Billion Acts of Green campaign, classic clicktivism at its finest, was proud this week to have reached 500 million recorded acts. And there's just something about the top four that's hard to stomach on a Thursday morning (via the vortex that is TriplePundit):
  • Plant a garden at school or home (3412)
  • Change out light bulbs (1854)
  • Organize an Earth Day event (1673)
  • Eliminate the use of toxic chemicals in home and garden (1227)
But the 1970s-inspired quote from president Kathleen Rogers really takes it to the next level of gems:

“There are so many wonderful stories from this campaign, from the mother who started a recycling program in a small Louisiana town – to the guy who said that he broke up with his girlfriend because she wouldn’t recycle."

Another non-environmental wonder

No one would ever use the National Security Agency as a case study in liberal management or even decent fairness. But alongside News International and BP, the NSA lends itself all too well as an example of stifling, self-defeating bureaucracy in action. Hence this gem from last year's New Yorker investigation into the government's case against Thomas Drake, who is accused of leaking documents to the old warhorse The Baltimore Sun, that embarrassed the NSA (the worst thing anyone can do to a government agency).

Here's what General Michael Hayden, who took over the agency in 1999, did when he found out Drake and several of his colleagues had criticised the NSA's extraordinary waste, illegal behaviour nad ineffective bureaucracy to a Congresswoman:

"Hayden...sent out an agency-wide memo, in which he warned that several 'individuals, in a session with our congressional overseers, took a position in direct opposition to one that we had corporately decided to follow. . . . Actions contrary to our decisions will have a serious adverse effect on our efforts to transform N.S.A., and I cannot tolerate them.'”

Now there's a man who really understands how innovation happens in an organisation.

2.21.2012

Gem of the day

Dear Western Strategies & Lake Research Partners,

I invite you to meet me at the local Walmart and test out your theory (via TalkingClimate):

"Western Strategies & Lake Research Partners (2009) argued that ‘our deteri­or­ating atmo­sphere’ was a more tan­gible and evoc­ative term [than 'climate change' or 'global warming'] for most people."

Bring tissues.

2.20.2012

Another invaluable lesson in the art of politically motivated spin (is there any other kind of spin?) from one of the businesses that does it best (via FT):

"Companies have been lobbying to remove a series of conditions that they claim are onerous, unfair or in contravention of local laws and which campaigners say would undermine their value. Executives have attacked the thresholds above which they must disclose and argued that they should not be required to violate laws in countries, such as Qatar, which deem information on resource payments to be confidential for reasons of national security."

Here's another view for Shell to consider: do they want to disclose the information while they still have control over how it is received, or do they want to wait for Wikileaks to just disclose it for them in the next few years?

2.17.2012

Gem of the day

The corporates revealed as funders of the Heartland Institute in this week's big leak have been working hard to deflect widespread criticism that accuses them of blatant hypocrisy.

Microsoft, for example, managed to churn out this statement yesterday, via Think Progress Green (about two days too late):

"As part of our global nonprofit software donation program, Microsoft provides free software licenses upon request to any eligible non-profit organization. In Fiscal Year 2011, Microsoft donated $844 million in software to 44,000 nonprofits around the world. As part of that program, the [Heartland Institute] requested free software licenses, and Microsoft provided them, just like we do for thousands of other eligible non-profits every year...Microsoft’s position on climate change remains unchanged."

On top of that, there's this:

"The Microsoft spokesman also explained the the 'Gold Sponsor' contribution that Microsoft made to Koch’s Americans For Prosperity in 2011 was similarly in the form of free software licenses."

Here's the issue with all of this. Sure, it's 'just' free software. But regardless, it's a donation that's 100% incompatible with Microsoft's stated position on climate change. Perhaps Microsoft is too dense to understand that one of the biggest impacts it can have on sustainable development as a technology company is to distribute its products and services to enable progressive organisations to do more, and do better.

But I really doubt it.

In fact, it's probably because none of the job descriptions for Corporate Affairs directors at Microsoft include climate change in the list of focal policy issues.

2.15.2012

Another non-environmental wonder

After nearly a century of providing tax-free havens for millionaires and billionaires that lack the storage space for suitcases of cash, you can assume Swiss banks aren't going to take the newest demands to change their way of doing business lying down.

Via the Economist comes this gem:

"As they fight off attacks, Swiss bankers are trying to come up with an alternative business model. 'Plan B' is to focus more on rich customers in politically unstable developing countries."

Right.

Gem of the day

What's not to love about the £27.3 billion budget Obama is proposing for the Department of Energy that opens with this:

"The United States is competing in a global race for the clean energy jobs of the future...Do we want the clean energy technologies of tomorrow to be invented in America by American innovators, made by American workers and sold around the world? Or do we want to concede those jobs to our competitors?"

...and contains proof points like this:

"The department’s printers and photocopying machines are now set for two-sided printing."

2.14.2012

Bonus gem

The work of the Carbon Tracker initiative has been a significant force in helping to refocus the sustainability conversation on markets; specifically, on the role they play in determining the value of assets that the world's stock exchanges rest on, and the 'carbon bubble' that is being created from assuming these assets will be valid in the long term (if ExxonMobil gets its way, the assumption will stick as long as is humanly possible).

But let's not forget Bob Litterman, a veteran of the Goldman Sachs risk scene (yes, there is one) who was raving about this stuff to audiences of [mostly sceptical] wealth fund managers nearly two years ago.

I leave it to Bob to single-handedly dismantle the American political 'debate' and countless other ones over the real risks posed by sustainability in this gem (as described by the National Journal in 2010):

"In the United States, a growing number of lawmakers and candidates have adopted the belief that manmade climate change does not exist, a view that Litterman calls 'insane.' 'How can you be 100 percent sure?' he asks. 'The right question is, What's the probability?'...It's not a question of ethics or environmentalism, he says. 'I'm saying, this is where prices are going.'''

Indeed.

Gem of the day

Ever since Newt Gingrich agreed to sit on a sofa with Nancy Pelosi to plug cap-and-trade, we've known sustainable development can be promoted by unlikely sources. Even so, this one is beyond the pale (via McClatchy):

"Solar-powered lights serve as sentries where U.S. Marines once faced-off along the Cuban frontier. A team of Navy cops now rides bikes rather than gas-guzzling patrol cars in the searing Caribbean sunshine...'From my perspective certainly the greening of Gitmo [Guantanamo Bay] is important,' says U.S. Navy Capt. Kirk Hibbert, the base commander."

Um.

2.13.2012

Another non-environmental wonder

After month upon month of relevations about just how committed News Corp is to covering up evidence, you'd think a feature article in the Guardian would be an opportunity for Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt to really put his foot down on corrupt business (via The Guardian):

"I think it's greatly to their credit that News Corporation are co-operating fully. I wish they had done so a bit earlier."

Guess not!

2.09.2012

Gem of the day

Anybody looking for a painfully useless job now has an opportunity (via the Guardian):

The London 2012 sustainability watchdog is urging the IOC to appoint an ‘ethics champion’ for future games.

Another non-environmental wonder

It's too easy to find non-environmental wonders in the New York Times' style section, but one gem in particular deserves special airing:

"Tory Burch, another distracted designer with a runway show coming up Tuesday, sounded a note of patriotism as shoppers eyed her red, white and blue $75 tote bags. 'I think you should be supportive of politics regardless of your affiliations,' she said."

That's right Tory, 'politics' is what political institutions are and should be all about. And we should support them for that.

2.08.2012

Gem of the day

Ken Cohen at ExxonMobil unintentionally underscores the evidence behind a huge carbon bubble in the global economy; in one of his choice proof points intended to show the benefits of the company's record profits, he instead reveals the systemic risk posed by fossil fuel reserves, which are directly and indirectly backed by millions of Americans:

  • "Public sector and teachers retirement funds hold ExxonMobil stocks in some of the biggest states in the country – New York, California, Texas, Ohio, Colorado, Alabama, Tennessee, Alaska, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Utah."
  • "Many more retirement funds, 401-Ks and IRAs hold shares in ExxonMobil and other major publicly traded oil companies – including those for government workers and members of Congress."
That makes me nervous.

2.07.2012

Another non-environmental wonder

Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. Hector Sants, chief executive of the FSA, the UK's financial regulatory body, has a dream too (via the FT, where else?):

“We would like firms not to just take the narrow perspective of what can they get away with within the rules and how long can their lawyers delay, but take the broad perspective. When the right way forward is clear, they should get on with it.”

Good luck, Sants, you revolutionary.

Another non-environmental wonder

Raymond Chandler gem, from his classic novel 'The Long Goodbye':

"...as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you could find anywhere outside an advertising agency."

2.06.2012

Sierra Club in the US is coming under fire for accepting millions of dollars from the natural gas industry, the lastest in a string of environmental NGOs to be embarrassed for total compromise on flagship issues (also known in the sustainable development community as 'coming to the table').

First of all: sigh.

Second of all: why? In a long apology on the organisation's website, director Michael Brune explains why Sierra Club allowed big utilties like Chesapeake Energy to control their campaigning agenda through large checks. After making it clear that he's not responsible - ahem - he writes the following:

"...natural gas, while far from ideal as a fuel source, might play a necessary role in helping us reach the clean energy future our children deserve. It was also during this time, in 2007, that the first contributions to the Sierra Club were made from entities or individuals associated with Chesapeake Energy. The idea was that we shared at least one common purpose -- to move our country away from dirty coal."

Key phrase - 'the idea'. When a dirty industry's entire license to operate is being questioned, it's almost laughably naive that an organisation like Sierra Club assumed that a business within it could share a common objective; using natural gas temporarily before shifting wholesale to clean - read: not coal, not gas, not anything Chesapeake offers - energy. You only have to look at the section of Chesapeake's website attributed to their CEO and titled 'Fueling America's Future', which doesn't mention climate change a single time, to see that.

The Sierra Club aren't the only ones to blame. The sustainable development community's work to begrudgingly support producers of natural gas, with precisely this assumption in mind, has enabled the traditional energy industry to massively derail (and in America nearly destroy) the renewable energy industry (keyword: renewable).

So what exactly has Sierra Club done recently that it's proud of? Brune has his choice proof point:

"This Beyond Coal initiative has continued to have unparalleled success working with literally hundreds of other organizations, small and large, and using grassroots power to stop more than 160 new coal plants and prevent 500 million tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere."

Right. Because now that this coal is becoming less and less viable in the US, it's simply being shipped abroad to thirsty emerging industrialists like China. Which could actually lead to an increase in emissions. While Sierra Club is now campaigning against the development of coal-export terminals, it's probably going to be too little, too late.

Did somebody say "please can NGOs around the world work more in partnership someday"?

2.03.2012

Umair Haque's gem-filled summary of what it means to live meaningfull well (and what it means to not):

"Think about it this way: if your quest is mediocrity, then sure, master the skills of shuffling Powerpoint decks, glad-handing beancounters, and making the numbers; but if your quest, on the other hand, is something resembling excellence, then the meta-skills of toppling the status quo — ambition, intention, rebellion, perseverance, humanity, empathy — are going to count for more, and the sooner you get started, the better off you'll be."

Another non-environmental wonder

Mitt Romney's response to the gilded Las Vegas ceremony that was the setting for Donald Trump's official endorsement of him (via NY Times):

“There are some things that you can’t imagine happening in your life,” Romney said. “And this is one of them.”

Something that's actually good

Nobelist Mario Molina sums up why deniers of climate science are so misled in their assumptions (via NY Times Dot Earth):

"They convey the idea that the science in question behaves like a house of cards: if you remove just one of them, the whole structure falls apart. However, this is certainly not the way the science of complex systems has evolved. A much better analogy is a jigsaw puzzle: many pieces are missing, and some might even be in the wrong place, but there is little doubt that the overall image is clear, namely that climate change is a serious threat that needs to be urgently addressed. It is also clear that modest amounts of warming will have both positive and negative impacts, but above about 4 or 5 degrees Fahrenheit most impacts turn negative for many ecological systems, and for most nations."

Right.

2.01.2012

Gem of the day

God bless the Global Institute for Tomorrow for being disappointed that Davos failed to deliver 'radical new thinking', especially in a business strategy context:

"At corporate sessions on sustainability, it was striking that the conversation was mainly about growth."

How surprising. What's really bizarre, however, is the way the report ends with this recommendation:

"The barrier to transformation in corporations seems to be at the level of sustainability and CSR managers who tend to attempt to second guess what top management wants to hear. This...lends weight to the case for companies to drop the term sustainability and instead talk plainly about how they will grow, manage externalities and increase efficiency."

So removing the entire frame of sustainability and allowing growth to continue to sit at the center of business strategy, decorated with a touch of efficiency, will get us where we need to go?

Right.