Gem of the day

Rajiv Shah, administrator of USAID, hands the future of Africa over to Monsanto (via Nation of Change):

“We are never going to end hunger in Africa without private investment. There are things that only companies can do, like building silos for storage and developing seeds and fertilizers.”

Yes, Rajiv. Those aren't the only things those kinds of companies can do.

Gem of the day

Peter Bakker, CEO of the WBCSD, has a killer message for unsustainable incumbents, literally (via GSB):

"The 20% of really bad guys we need to regulate out of existence."

Plus he delivers one of the best Rio+20 gems about the torturous negotiations process:

"I am not used to sitting in a room for 3.5 hours, asked to represent all business in the world, and like others there to not even get a voice."

Gem of the day

Worst line seen about Rio+20 so far, courtesy of EDF folks and their friends in a typically mild NY Times op-ed:

"With determination and the right policies, by the time Rio+30 rolls around, optimism might be the order of the day."

Because what could be a better time to start the long wait to Rio+30 than now, at Rio+20?

Another non-environmental wonder

At least one Cabinet officer in the UK government has a harsh appraisal for the allegedly errant behavior of Lord Fink, treasurer of the Conservative party (via the Guardian):

"It leaves a very nasty taste to suggest that you can buy access to the House of Lords, and it cheapens democracy", said the Cabinet's shadow minister.

Not quite, actually - you can only inherit access to the House of Lords.

Right.

Gem of the day

Following allegations of corruption and bribery in operations in the Congo, Mehmet Dalman, the embattled new CEO of extractives firm Eurasion Natural Resources Corporation, must have a great quote lined up about ENRC's approach to governance (via the FT):

"We want to be open and transparent,” Mr. Dalman says. “We’ve got nothing not to talk about. It is a new era of openness here."

Right. But who can blame Dalman for his lame defense when he operates in a market environment dominated by insights like this gem, courtesy of an analyst at Deutsche Bank:

“Trust takes time to build. The stock is very cheap, but [Mr. Dalman] needs to keep saying the right things, over a long period. It will be a slow value-improvement story.”

So we'll just keep on with the talking points then, shall we Mr. Dalman?

Another non-environmental wonder

Courtesy of former President Nixon, more proof that in the vortex of politics some things never change (a memo to his aides, via New Yorker):

"I want a study made immediately as to how many people in CIA could be removed by presidential action. . . . Of course, the reduction in force should be accomplished solely on the ground of its being necessary for budget reasons, but you will both know the real reason."

Gem of the day

Daniel Yergin, thought leader of the decade on all things energy-related, writes this assessment of America's oil and gas boom (which he ironically terms "America's New Energy Reality") that only an economist could think up (via NY Times):

"...what is striking is this great revival in oil and gas production in the United States, with wide impacts on jobs, economic development and the competitiveness of American industry. This new reality requires a new way of thinking and talking about America’s improving energy position and how to facilitate this growth in an environmentally sound way — recognizing the considerable benefits this will bring in an era of economic uncertainty."

Right, because surely the real estate bubble driven by natural gas speculation and the huge volatility in oil, from environmental disasters to corrupt profits, will help in the long-term with economic uncertainty. Let's hope Yergin isn't in charge of figuring out the "new way of thinking and talking" about energy in the US or anywhere else.

Joe Romm nails the technical analysis of why Yergin is wrong here, with choice quotes like this one:

"...[Yergin] has nothing to say about how we could do this in an environmentally sound way, in part, I suspect, because he knows that we can’t."

Another non-environmental wonder

The FT's 'Adventurous Investor' column makes the understatement of the year:

"Even adventurous investors need to remember that catastrophes don’t come in easy to spot cycles."

Another non-environmental wonder

Only in the FT would you find this gem of a lobbying rebrand, which asks three industry figures the question "Is offering advice to government worth the hassle?"

Strategist Brian Millar offers this fascinating response:

"...the key is to be very judicious about when and how you get involved. If an initiative perfectly matches your company's values, then your contribution can add weight to your brand. But if there is even the slightest chance that the message could go awry or that your agenda could be overwhelmed by political expedience...run from Portcullis House via the nearest fire escape."

Right, because that's how public affairs departments work...

Something that's actually good

As part of the Breakthrough Capitalism forum, Jeremy Leggett nails why energy is so much more than a just a commodity in the sustainability debate (via Guardian GSB):

"Energy brings into focus the systemic fault lines in society."

Gem of the day

The AA1000 stakeholder engagement standard helpfully clears up that age-old CSR question, 'what is a material issue?':

"An issue should be considered material if it influences or is likely to influence the decisions, actions and behaviour of one or more stakeholders and/or the organisation itself."

Thanks AccountAbility.

Another non-environmental wonder

Best quote I've seen about the 2012 Games to date, in response to what the Guardian labels the failed hope that "Olympic fever would mean queues of advertisers writing out large cheques on demand":

"They thought the Olympics was too premium to fail," says one media buying industry source.

Bonus gem

Marketing site BrandChannel has a gem of a take on the New York Times Magazine feature that ran on McDonald's new brand positioning a few weeks ago (see here for more on the chain's awkward quest for authenticity).

"There's no mention of how many jobs McDonald's creates and sustains in an era when joblessness is the huge vulnerability of the U.S. economic recovery, or of how its still-affordable prices help millions of consumers around the world eat every day amid financial conditions that continue to be difficult in many places."

More proof that when you reduce capitalism down to job creation and product prices, everyone looks like a hero.

Gem of the day

Insider take on the Heartland Institute's annual conference on all things climate skepticism (via Climate Progress):

“There’s not a lot of science here,” said Scott Denning, an atmospheric scientist from Colorado State University who attended the event last year.

Gem of the day

Toughest job on the market is now open: Head of Sustainability Strategy for...Heathrow airport.

No wonder the description expressly states "outstanding communication and influencing skills are a must".

Gem of the day

British Gas received rather unfavorable coverage last week when it announced in a statement that the company predicted wholesale gas prices to rise this winter by 15%, in addition to £50 extra for the average homeowner for 'non-commodity costs' such as 'environmental levies'. This prediction sat alongside a quiet announcement of a £4.4 million package for the CEO.

Whenceforth for the utility giant then? Ah yes, brand repositioning to boost corporate reputation. Let's hope the customers buy it!

Bonus gem

MIT's annual Sustainability & Innovation Executive Study asks corporate leaders around the world to provide their two cents on the companies they believe are making sustainability good business sense.

It's a great way to frame a survey, but this year's results say a lot about the disinformation clouding the sustainable business landscape, in particular an astonishing failure to look at businesses from a truly global perspective: the highest scoring industry was autos.

More sustainable cars? That might be true in saturated markets like the US and Europe, but you better believe sustainability has nothing to do with the strategy carmakers are adopting in emerging consumer markets like China: selling millions of luxury vehicles.

Gem of the day

Mitt Romney confidently puts his finger on the reason why the fishing industry in New England is in a crisis, proving once and for all that he understands nothing about A. The environment and B. Why America is decaying (via TreeHugger):

"It's a tough time to be in the fishing business in America. Not just in that industry, but in many industries, Small business has really felt like it's been under attack over the last several years...Across America regulators are just multiplying like proverbial rabbits and making it harder for enterprises to grow and to understand what their future might be."

Treat yourself to some Overfishing 101, Mitt.

Another non-environmental wonder

The extremely nutshell concept of the PR industry conducting PR for itself reaches new levels, thanks to PRCA Chief Executive Francis Ingam with the following promise to Britain's intrepid journalists (via PR Week, where else?):

"I want to say to them if you've got a story about PR you can come to us for commentary - we will always give you an answer."

Gem of the day

BASD 2012, the organisation bringing the business community together to drive progress at the Rio +20 summit, must have an effective message to bring to the table on all this.

Or not (via GSB):

"When governments discuss between themselves, there are only governments represented," says Kris Gopalakrishnan, chair of BASD 2012. "Maybe, by broadening that and getting other stakeholders into the discussion, especially the civil society, we can look at a different way of approaching this challenge."

Another non-environmental wonder

A gem of an interview with the [retiring] CEO of manufacturer 3M, charmingly entitled 'The View from the Top', offers more proof that capitalism in its present form is basically an old white men's club (via the FT, where else?):

"Q: You're stepping down as CEO in the summer. What are your plans?"

"A: I'm not really interested in stopping work, so I'm going to do a couple more boards. I've been asked to be a consultant to a couple of other companies. I'm going to do a little bit of private equity. And I'm going to do some more fly fishing."

Here's to the rolling paychecks and plenty more free time then, Sir George Buckley! 

Another non-environmental wonder

A great definition of what counts as the beloved business holy grail, 'innovation', from an unlikely place (Philip Auerswald in the Harvard Business Review):

"If you're not pissing someone off, it's probably not innovation."

Another non-environmental wonder

The New York Times occasionally gets carried away with its descriptions of American politics.

Here's one macho byline that makes for an instant classic:

"Mr. Mourdock, who defeated Senator Richard G. Lugar in Indiana’s G.O.P. primary, rides motorcycles, runs marathons and believes that only one party must prevail."

Gem of the day

Another thorn in the side of air travel for the U.S.of.A. (and yet another reason to, er, build some trains that can actually cross the country efficiently, via NY Times)

"The average American man weighs nearly 194 pounds, while airplane seats are designed for those of 170 pounds."

Bonus bonus gem

The NY Times Magazine is running a glossy feature this weekend exploring the sickening quest for 'authenticity' that has defined the shiny cubicles of McDonald's HQ over the past year.

This is the kind of stuff nightmarish corporate PR cliches are made of:

"It was a simple plan. McDonald’s would pay to appear at the top of the trends list on Twitter’s home page, using the social-media site to drive people to its new commercials highlighting some of the real-life farmers and ranchers who supply McDonald’s with its ingredients. Executives at the fast-food company loved the commercials; the word in-house was 'authenticity'...McDonald’s wasn’t about fast food, the commercials suggested, but real food, born of the earth."

And what about how this drive for an undeservedly wholesome image is impacting the restaurants themselves? This one really takes the cake:

"The restaurants themselves are changing, too, adding...flat-screen TVs playing the McDonald’s Channel.  The content on the nascent channel is breezy (think Top 10 lists) and anodyne. The objective is 'an agnostic view of the world,' according to Lee Edmondson, the founder of ChannelPort Communications, the California company building the channel for McDonald’s (its only client)...the audience, Hunter says, 'is everyone.'"

A TV channel that doesn't believe in anything, just like the profit machine that dreamed it up.

Bonus gem

Why I am not surprised that every single planned speaker except for one at the Heartland Institute's upcoming conference is male?

I'm sure that between John Dunne, who "has practiced medicine in several states", Tom Harris, who has experience writing "letters to the editor and open letters to government", Harrison Schmitt, who has claim to fame as "chairman of Interlune Intermars Initiative Inc., an organization whose goal is to advance the private sector’s acquisition and use of lunar resources", and a handful of other ageing white men, great ideas will be had.

Gem of the day

Web 2.0 rarely delivers the gift of blog comments worth reading, but here's one example. An anonymous user wrote this in response to an article touting the community work of UK supermarkets (ah yes, the undying corporate aspiration to become a 'pillar'):

"If supermarkets really want to act responsibly to communities nationwide they would keep out of already happy, thriving and cohesive communities which have good shopping facilities well established in their centre."

Zing!

Gem of the day

The Economist is no place to look for insights that put sustainability in the same league as profit. Here's columnist Schumpeter's latest recommendation to the world's board (bored) rooms:

"Companies need to keep hammering away at the simplicity mantra. Gareth Penny, a former boss of De Beers, a diamond company, says that: 'The role of a CEO is to simplify the complexity and stick to a few themes.'”

Sorry boys, but figuring out how to deal with the growing pressures of climate change, degradation of the natural environment, human rights and everything else that fits into the sustainability big tent ain't simple.

Then again, that kind of blind mantra is no surprise coming from De Beers' Penny, who once stated under the title 'Sustainability' in a De Beers CSR report this rather simple interpretation:

"Following a profitable 2008, in 2009 De Beers will focus on running a sustainable business at a lower level of sales."

Gem of the day

A Yale doctoral student on the solution to palm oil emissions and deforestation in Indonesia (via NY Times):

"We do need more protections, but a good place to start would be enforcing the rules that already exist.”

Indeed.

Bonus gem

Tesco's marketing team has a fantastic grip on reality (via The Grocer):

"We want our customers to feel that they are buying these products through choice, not necessity,” said Tesco’s UK marketing director David Wood.

Gem of the day

Gary Cambre, who has the unfortunate distinction of heading up communications on EHS issues at defense stalwart Lockheed Martin, clearly enjoys a missile-inspired quote (via EL):

"[Environmental targets] will be both substantive and meaningful, and will propel us on a path of continuous improvement."

But what's a glorified press release-turned-article in Environmental Leader without nauseating irony?

"Lockheed appears to be open to ideas. Its 2011 Corporate Sustainability Report, released Friday, includes an interactive back cover where readers can share their ideas."

Let the bells of progress ring!

Bonus gem

The whole 'it's a journey' frame is nauseatingly overused in the vortex of corporate greening. Here's a tragic example of McDonald's awkwardly trying to get on board (at the 2012 Skoll Forum):

"McDonald's says corporates are more confident about being open and realising it is a journey and they do not have to meet targets."

Memo to McDonald's: For a business that sells 75 unhealthy hamburgers per second and serves 1% of the global population every day, underdelivering on sustainability doesn't really work that way.

Something that's actually good

Jeremy Leggett makes the case for aggressive investment in renewables and energy efficiency (via Guardian tracker on Skoll Social Forum):

"The other pillars are gas and carbon capture and storage which, respectively, are an unproven prospect and increasingly a dream. If government does nothing the lights are going to go out."

Literally.

Gem of the day

When times are up, the world's hedge fund billionaires are more than happy to tout the success of their bespoke approach [luck] to churning capital.

But when they're down...

"Mr. Paulson — the $5 billion manager in 2010 — failed to make the list this time. One of his largest funds lost more than 50 percent, after bets on the economic recovery soured. A spokesman for Paulson declined to comment." (via NY Times)

Gem of the day

It's hard to pick just one gem from writer Will Self's editorial skewering The Economist's new glossy hardcover tome, The World in 2050, but here goes:

"For [The Economist], the world in 2050 is pretty much business as usual, ie: bigger, faster and more profitable. I suppose it's hardly surprising that those who write for a magazine called 'The Economist' are so sold on the notion that sheer quantity is itself a sufficient measure of the good life. In this rabid utilitarianism – which understands the price of everything but the value of nothing – they are the unlikely bedfellows of that arch-moderniser Josef Stalin, whose mantra it was that 'Quantity has a quality all of its own'. However, if you ask me, that quality is largely … bullshit."

Amen!

Gem of the day

Umair Haque sums up the rotten state of our global economy and society. And what better analogy to use than the highway system, which is responsible for creating so much of this urban decay? (via HBR)

"Institutions are a little like highways, whose destination is prosperity: get on the highway, take the right exit, and voila. Or at least they were: today, those highways are crumbling, and more and more of us are slowly beginning to find out — sometimes, the hard way — that too often, they just might be roads to nowhere."

Gem of the day

Key stakeholders of BP (show your faces, you must be out there somewhere!) managed to show up to a couple of closely-managed roundtables last year to make carefully worded recommendations like this one:

"Review BP's leadership positioning and options to articulate the company's vision, ambition and roadmap, particularly regarding sustainability imperatives."

...and in return they got this:

"BP’s objective is to create value for shareholders by helping to meet the world’s growing energy needs safely and responsibly."

Translation: the objective is to generate short-term profit by exploiting the waning share of oil BP have control over.

Sorry stakeholders, but there's no sustainability in that.

Bonus gem

This is the kind of quote about our global energy use that will go down in history as truly stupid (via NY Times):

'"To not be concerned with where our oil is going to come from is probably the biggest home run for the country in a hundred years,' said Scott D. Sheffield, chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources, which is operating in West Texas."

Who's going to be the first to break it to Scott that oil spills, volatile costs and less than 100 years of secure resources are hardly a 'home run'?

Gem of the day

America, the land of environmental nonsense, does it again:

Las Vegas is drinking itself to death. No, not in terms of booze - water. It's going to run out in 20 years.

 Enjoy that drink, Sheldon Adelson.

Another non-environmental wonder

Newt Gingrich, high school bully (via NY Times):

"In a Twitter message Newt Gingrich wrote, 'Etch a Sketch is a great toy, but a losing strategy.'"

Something that's actually good

Loving Michele Simon's dedication to putting a tougher spotlight on PepsiCo's greenwashing. Of course, anyone who really wants to know how far the company's commitment to sustainability (especially human health-related issues) goes need only look at how PepsiCo has been talking to its shareholders. Where's the money really going?

Memo: they're upping investments into marketing the saltiest and most unhealthy snacks, to children in particular, at any cost. That's no exaggeration. In the words of Frito-Lay's division director, PepsiCo is "maniacally focused about gaining share in all of these segments [snacks] in 2012."

Simon's key proof points:

• Last year PepsiCo spent $3.2 million on lobbying. The company also joined a group of food lobbyists with a classically normal-sounding name, the "Sensible Food Policy Coalition," whose sole purpose was to derail an effort by the U.S. government to improve the food industry's voluntary guidelines for marketing to children.
• A complaint filed with the US Federal Trade Commission alleges PepsiCo engaged in "deceptive and unfair digital marketing practices" by invading the privacy of unsuspecting teenagers who engaged with an online Doritos ad campaign that encouraged sharing personal information.

Oh dear. Is this kind of activity what PepsiCo means when they state unequivocally in their most recent sustainability report that "a healthier future for all people and our planet means a more successful future for PepsiCo. This is our promise"?

Gem of the day

What could be less progressive than naming American Express, the credit card business that drives the engine of consumerism at any cost to the actual consumer, to a list of the world's most ethical companies?

Then again, that's what rankings are for - to relentlessly promote a 'better' approach using business in usual as a benchmark. Or, as Ethisphere prefers to call it, "shape future industry standards by introducing best practices today."

Yawn.

Another non-environmental wonder

Julian Assange delivers a masterful summary of why he believes radical transparency is the only way we can truly create a desirable future:

"The information that is the focus of my attention now...is the information that people are actively working to prevent from entering into the record...with regard to all this suppressed information, we’ve never had a proper understanding of it because it has never entered our intellectual record, and if we can find out about how complex human institutions actually behave, then we have a chance to build civilized behavior on top of it."

Gem of the day

Obama assigns some talking points to his supporters (via NY Times):

"There are a few places, Mr. Obama noted with a smile, where he has not authorized drilling: the National Mall; the middle of Chesapeake Bay; or underneath the houses of the people in his audience. When politicians tell you, 'Drill, Baby, Drill,' the president said to the crowd, answer, 'We’re doing that. Tell me something new.'"

Bonus gem

Here's something that doesn't make sense:

Via Jeremy Leggett, as many as 12 of the UK's 19 civil nuclear sites are at risk of flooding and coastal erosion because of climate change.

And yet today the Guardian reports this new development:

"The UK government wants nuclear power to be given parity with renewables in Europe, in a move that would significantly boost atomic energy in Britain but downgrade investment in renewable generation."

Thanks for lobbying that into place, EDF.

Gem of the day

Peter Voser, chairman of Shell, is confused. Maybe if he took a step back and looked at the extraordinary direct and indirect negative impacts of fossil fuels, from gas to oil to coal, against a backdrop of climate change, he would 'get it' (via NY Times):

“I am still puzzled that with Canada in the north, with oil sands and Keystone, plus the gas revolution in the United States, plus the Gulf of Mexico successes in exploration, with Alaska coming, the United States is sitting on so many energy resources. I can’t see why there is not more drive,” he said. “It’s puzzling, frustrating. Any other country in the world would jump on this.”

Another non-environmental wonder

The delusion of PR climbs to new highs (lows?) in the vortex that is the Public Relations Society of America (via NY Times)

“Like beauty, the definition of ‘public relations’ is in the eye of the beholder,” says Mr. Corbett, the 2012 chairman and chief executive of the PRSA.

And what could be more ironic than the PRSA's attempt to crowdsource a 'new definition' of PR to suit the age of social media? I'll let Mr. Corbett spin his own story:

“We tried to engage everyone who would be engaged, and it generated a tremendous amount of dialog,” he said, adding: “Maybe the best way to capture it is to say it was a very transparent and open process. It was basically an exercise in making sausage.”

Maybe, Mr. Corbett, just maybe. Which is surely why the three finalists for the definition are based on minute iterations of the exact same sentiment:

• “Public relations is the management function of researching, communicating and collaborating with publics to build mutually beneficial relationships.”
• “Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”
• “Public relations is the strategic process of engagement between organizations and publics to achieve mutual understanding and realize goals.”

Another non-environmental wonder

In last week's Republican presidential candidate debate, Ron Paul accused his rival Rick Santorum of being “fake”.

Mr Santorum pinched himself and said: “I’m real, Ron, I’m real,I’m real.”

Gem of the day

Make the missing link between this fact...

"...the number of secondees in DECC [the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change] from EDF and British Gas/Centrica – a fellow member of EDF's nuclear consortium – far outweigh any other company." (via The Guardian)

...and this headline:

"New Wind Down, Nuclear Up as UK Rethinks Energy Mix" (via CleanTechnica)

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."

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!

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.

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.

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?

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.

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."

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.

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!

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.

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.

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."

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"?

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.

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.

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.

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.'"

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.'"

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!

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.

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."

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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?

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.'"

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.

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."

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?