Gem of the day

Reality check of the week:

8 out of the world's top 10 biggest companies are fossil fuel companies.

The good news is most of the people at these companies have no idea what they're doing and their most strategic challengers are starting to win big.

Another non-environmental wonder

Columnist Schumpeter of the Economist thinks this is a good way to sum up the influence of America on the world over the past few decades:

"America has been the world’s most important growth machine since the second world war...The machine was good for the world as well as America—it helped spread the gospel of capitalism and transform the American dream into a global dream."

In the words of novelist William Gass, "if Americans ever had a dictator they would call him Coach."

Something that's actually good

Computer scientist Sandy Pentland looks at how 'Big Data' is transforming the world and what that means for traditional organizations (big business and government, are you listening?). Via hub of genius Edge.org:

"The notion that it is connections between people that is really important is key, because researchers have mostly been trying to understand things like financial bubbles using what is called Complexity Science or Web Science. But these older ways of thinking about Big Data leaves the humans out of the equation. What actually matters is how the people are connected together by the machines and how, as a whole, they create a financial market, a government, a company, and other social structures...I expect to see that organizations with hard information boundaries will tend to dissolve, because there will be competition from things that are better that don't have the hard boundaries and don't try to own your data."

Gem of the day

The New Yorker reveals what's behind an NY Times hunch about the 'amazing' synchronization of ad campaigns against Obama:

"'To see many of the anti-Obama ads that have run on television recently, it would be easy to conclude that they were made in the same studios, by the same producers working for the same campaign,' Jeremy W. Peters wrote on Tuesday...New Federal Election Commission filings reveal a reason why the ads are so alike in style and substance: they do, in fact have a production firm in common. Guiding some fifty million dollars’ worth of anti-Obama television ads that ran in August and early September, sponsored by three major separate conservative groups, is the hand of Larry McCarthy."

We need this for pro-renewable energy.

Gem of the day

It's not like any sane person would pick up a feature on 'Capital Insights' sponsored and written by Ernst & Young and expect to find a remotely human view of the world.

But this gem blatantly saying 'active' investors need to be silenced still feels unreal:

"With investors increasingly taking a more active role in their investments, corporates need to make sure they are fully engaged with their shareholders in order to make certain that any potential problems are headed off before they begin."

Gem of the day

Al Gore's Climate Reality Project plans their next reality check on the climate: this time it's 'dirty weather' as the selling point for people to sit up and pay attention. But given the hard and depressing truth, where's the inspiration for the future? (via NY Times)

"...the event will focus not just on the fossil fuel industries but on organizations that sow doubt that climate change is under way, [Project CEO Maggie] Fox said. By filtering ideas, knowledge, and awareness of climate trends, she said, social media can be a tool for 'overtaking the noise' created by climate skeptics."

Competing with the opposition for air time on the issues is definitely a problem given the CRP's other key objective:

"More broadly, the Climate Reality Project’s goal is to forge connections between nongovernmental organizations working on climate change issues around the globe with individuals to spread awareness, Ms. Fox said in an interview. 'There are something like two million environmental N.G.O.’s around the world working on climate,' she said. 'We actually believe we have the numbers — but we don’t have the mass.'”

Right - and none of those 2 million NGOs have a positive, engaging way of talking about how we can address this reality. What they do have is plenty of post-Copenhagen depression.

No one should underestimate the need to transcend climate skepticism in the US. But we need more solutions, not just more talking points.

Gem of the day

More evidence that the digital/tech industry needs to seriously take stock of its role in sustainability: barrier or enabler?

In the case of Microsoft, 1970s-style tactics that confirm barrier status in a big way (via NY Times):

"Microsoft threatened to waste tremendous amounts of power by simply running giant heaters for no purpose, according to utility officials who said they were briefed on the matter by Microsoft, unless the penalty [$210,000 for running on back-up, highly polluting diesel generators] was largely forgiven. The idea was to burn the power fast enough to move closer to the forecast before year’s end...The Microsoft spokeswoman, Ms. Platt, said the company remained committed to the environment. 'Microsoft’s focus on efficiency and resource utilization has not changed,' she said."

And that would be economic, rather than environmental, efficiency Ms. Platt?

Gem of the day

It's so nice to see Spanish oil company Repsol catching up to the slick, empty corporate comms its peers use to avoid talking about real sustainability challenges (hello BP, Chevron, Exxon and Shell).

#avoidingclimatechange

Something that's actually good

Ingenious gem from Bill McKibben summing up everything that's wrong with behavior change + the environmental movement (via Rolling Stone):

"Since all of us are in some way the beneficiaries of cheap fossil fuel, tackling climate change has been like trying to build a movement against yourself – it's as if the gay-rights movement had to be constructed entirely from evangelical preachers, or the abolition movement from slaveholders."

Another non-environmental wonder

Mitt Romney's vision for America: every man for himself and zero human rights to a healthy, safe life (via The Guardian).

"All right, there are 47% who are with him (Obama), who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, to you-name-it."

That's a great plan Mitt, considering the latest US census shows 1 in 5 American children lives in poverty and unemployment benefits kept 2.3 million Americans from falling into poverty in 2011.

Gem of the day

Time to take another look at why renewables aren't getting the traction they need, especially in the US.

The American landscape (via NY Times):

"With nearly two months before Election Day on Nov. 6, estimated spending on television ads promoting coal and more oil and gas drilling or criticizing clean energy has exceeded $153 million this year." [Getting aggressively consumer-facing, such as this I'm an Energy Voter campaign]

The mindset of major American NGOs in response:

"The Climate Reality Project is not buying television ads at all, focusing instead on social media, training and organizing. 'Whatever we would spend, it would just be washed away in this sea of fossil fuel money,' said Maggie L. Fox, the group’s chief executive."

“We are being outgunned by orders of magnitude...There is just no way we can compete with some of the richest companies in the history of the world," said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club.

Right.

Gem of the day

Why we need Wikileaks for the oil industry (via the genius of Resource Insights):

"Many of these [OPEC] countries say that a detailed audit of their fields by independent observers is out of the question because oil reserves are a state secret...Are there reasons to believe that if we saw this data it would contradict the official overall number provided by some countries? In a word, yes."

And case in point:

"The United Arab Emirates has been reporting 97.8 billion barrels of oil reserves every year since 1997."

Gem of the day

Mitt Romney makes it clear, one last time, that he has no idea how big a threat climate change and environmental degradation are to the American economy (via MSNBC):

"I’m not in this race to slow the rise of the oceans or to heal the planet. I'm in this race to heal the American people."

Okay Mitt - go ahead and try doing that without dealing with the impacts of more natural disasters, rampant inequality, higher and more volatile prices from an oil-based economy, toxic pollution and food deserts for the poor.

And you can start by ignoring the $22 trillion the Clean Air Act has since saved the U.S. in healthcare costs.

Gem of the day

Beverage giant Coca-Cola has a new campaign: A Billion Reasons to Believe in Africa. And they're not shy about stating why their campaign is just as refreshing as their sickeningly sweet drinks:

"The world may choose to see Africa as dark, hopeless and a home to war, famine, corruption, poverty and disease, but we at Coca-Cola choose to see this beautiful continent through a fresh and colorful lens."

And why is Coke best positioned to do this campaign? See this gem which unintentionally sums up why this is so, so wrong:

"Coca-Cola has operated on this continent for several decades with footprints that extend to every country."

You bet, Coke. Here's to making those sugary footprints even bigger.

Gem of the day

One company's very special definition of why PR to attract employees is important to the business:

"We will not only be in a stronger position to win the war for talent, but will also increase the engagement of current employees."

Something that's actually good

Kurt Cobb via EnergyBulletin single-handedly debunks all of the myths we hold about oil:

• Half of all oil consumed since the beginning of the oil age has been consumed since 1985
• Peak oil does not mean that we won't find any more oil. We are finding oil every day. We're just not finding enough and putting it into production fast enough.
• Peak oil does not mean we are running out of oil...The rate of production is the key, not the size of the world's reserves.

Oh, and then there's this magical gem:

"Perhaps it will seem puzzling that experts inside the industry--with a few notable exceptions--cannot grasp that the rate of production is the central issue. The best explanation I can offer is to quote author Upton Sinclair: 'It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!'"

Amen.
 

Gem of the day

There are many, many things that could be said about former BP CEO Tony Hayward's latest venture. Here's one: it's the ultimate example of unsustainable, inherently risky business without purpose (via NY Times):

"Mr. Hayward, Mr. Metherell and Mr. Rothschild...set up what is known as a cash shell, a company with no business, just a promise that it will find one. It was called Vallares. Mr. Hayward then spent weeks in New York, London, Abu Dhabi and beyond, drumming up investors. Vallares eventually went public on the London Stock Exchange, raising $2.1 billion. That money, Vallares said, would be used to buy unspecified oil and gas assets in emerging markets, although Mr. Hayward hinted that he was interested in Kurdistan."

Even better is the quote from Mehmet Sepil, a 'pioneer' in Iraqi oil investment:

“I didn’t know anything about oil but the tank of my car,” Mr. Sepil recalls. 

Don't worry Mr. Sepil - neither does anyone who works in the oil industry.

Another non-environmental wonder

Only The Economist would write about the global arms trade like this:

"America’s exports in particular are helped by a long-standing client base, which orders upgrades, spare parts and support services every year."

Gem of the day

In a nutshell: why the totally broken, circular energy debate in America mirrors the global energy debate.

Mayor Bloomberg of New York positions natural gas as America's future (via Washington Post):

"The production of shale gas through fracking is the most significant development in the U.S. energy sector in generations...the hydraulic fracturing of shale rock that, together with horizontal drilling, unleashes abundant natural gas."

The global climate change legislation under debate in 2009 positions clean energy as America's future (via C-Span):

"This bill moves us towards a clean energy future...American innovation can unleash abundant clean energy resources and protect our national security."

Something that's actually good

Finally, a growing recognition that nearly every country deserves 'developing' status in the face of unprecedented global challenges (or even basic neglected infrastructure). Why hasn't anyone written this so bluntly before? (via GSB)

"Social entrepreneurship often focuses on finding solutions to problems in the developing world. But, as the European Union battles with the ongoing recession and the US experiences rising levels of poverty, social enterprise solutions are increasingly appropriate in advanced industrial countries as well."

Gem of the day

You don't always get agribusiness giants to admit in the global media that they care about profit more than anything else. But sometimes you do. Witness Chris Maloney, head of Glencore's food trading business (via The Guardian):

"In terms of the outlook for the balance of the year, the environment is a good one. High prices, lots of volatility, a lot of dislocation, tightness, a lot of arbitrage opportunities [the purchase and sale of an asset in order to profit from price differences in different markets]"

Gem of the day

New report from Deloitte on the extent of America's debt crisis notes that current conversations "lack the depth and nuance that such a complex topic deserves."

Too true. So it's all too tragic to see investment in real sustainability and green technologies completely MIA from the cute infographic Deloitte has assembled of six areas that could 'boost America's competitiveness'. And the selection of carbon offset markets as one of those six areas only adds insult to injury, considering most people outside the Big 4 are recognising that they, er, don't really work.

Then again, none of this can really be a surprise coming from a firm that spends its time not paying attention to things that don't work.

Another non-environmental wonder

Thank God the 'African consumer market' is finally catching up to the saturated, senseless, soulless standard set by the USA. And who better to report on this renaissance than the Economist?

"'Brands matter less than price in most of Africa,' says Simon Crutchley, the boss of AVI, a big South African consumer-goods firm with businesses across Africa. Many Africans are too poor to be brand aware, he says. They have not grown up bombarded with advertising and barely recognise even famous brands. But this is changing quickly, thanks to television and mobile phones."

At this rate, it won't be long before the wealthiest of these new consumers can start questing after essentials like Jimmy Choo shoes and Lacoste polo shirts, just two of the brands hawked by AVI.

Bonus gem

AccountAbility's 'Stakeholder Engagement Manual Volume 1: Practitioners' Perspectives', published ages ago circa 2005, is unsurprisingly chock full o' gems.

This helpful quote from Dermont Kirk of BP has to take the cake:

"BP’s Dermont Kirk notes that, 'Engagement is more about listening than anything
else.' Expect to spend time learning each other’s vocabulary. 'You may be using the
same words,' he observes, 'but they may have different meanings.'”

That's right Kirk, and when it comes to draining terms like 'clean energy' of all sustainability meaning, BP would know that nuance better than anyone else.

Gem of the day

New op-ed in the NY Times by Alan Riley gets the picture on energy and climate change awesomely wrong:

"The battle against runaway climate change is being lost. The green movement and the energy industry — while engaged in a furious debate on issues from nuclear power to oil sands — are missing the bigger picture...Broad development of shale gas resources — with proper ecological safeguards — could be the best way to achieve the quick cuts in carbon dioxide emissions that we need to maintain a habitable environment on Earth."

His proof points:

•  "Current" renewable energy supply can't deliver adequate carbon savings
•  Using shale gas in the interim will give us time to "develop" renewable energy globally

Aside from the obvious chicken-and-egg issue there - renewables will scale up to meet demand but we need investment now to seriously kick-start that - the biggest fault in this article is Riley's failure to understand shale gas is about propping up the fossil fuels narrative.

But that might be too much to expect from a piece written by an energy law professor.

Gem of the day

Ryan Schuchard of BSR manages to place Greenpeace activism and Walmart 'activism' in the same paragraph (via ClimateProgress):

"Low-carbon development can no longer wait for a price on carbon...This is evident in calls for business to be more engaged than ever before, from stepped-up campaigns by traditional activists like Greenpeace, to new initiatives targeting key sectors, to activism by companies such as Walmart, which is encouraging its suppliers to do more. What was once considered the leading edge—advancing initiatives around procurement, policy engagement, and creative partnerships—is now commonplace."

The day that Walmart's board risk their lives to demand a better world, that label just might be earned.

Gem of the day

In another episode brought to you by the media asleep at the wheel, The Telegraph documents an 'astonishing' turnaround time from government energy announcement to corporate reciprocation:

"The Treasury announced that new gas fields found at depths of less than 90 feet will be exempt from a 32 percent tax on the first £500 million of income. The pledge appeared to pay off almost immediately with British Gas owner Centrica saying that it had helped to unlock new investments worth over £1 billion."

Fantastic and unpredictable news!

Gem of the day

Fascinating-proof-of-American-cognitive-dissonance fact of the day (via NY Times):

Wind turbines are more common in Republican legislative districts than Democratic ones.

Gem of the day

There's a first time for everything in the vortex of corporate sustainability. But PPG Industries, a major manufacturer of paint products, really takes the cake by being the first non-oil company I've ever seen to include a photo of an offshore oil rig in its CSR report to bolster its performance credentials. Confusing.

Gem of the day

Time for a reality check on the Indian power cut last week (via the New Yorker):

"Though the headlines announced that seven hundred million people across twenty-one states had lost power, only about three hundred and twenty million of those had any electricity to begin with: in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and one of its poorest, sixty-three per cent of households, or about a hundred and twenty-five million people, lack access to electricity."

...and at a higher level, context around what needs to be read into from this fleeting but meaningful crisis:

"For many commentators, it was a minor inconvenience but a major international embarrassment—another brutal blow to the [Indian] growth story, on a scale so stupendously grand that the whole world took notice."

Bonus gem

England's environmental movement gets headlines for tackling the big issues at the root of the sustainability crisis - oh wait (via Guardian):

"Call for levy on single-use plastic bags in England: Environmental groups demand plastic bags should be charged after data shows rise in annual usage for second year in a row."

And we wonder day after day why the 'average consumer' isn't engaged in the agenda.

Gem of the day

More proof - as if we needed any - that the dirty, inefficient tools of the old system (energy and finance, for starters) are driven by elitism and inequality (via Jeremy Leggett):

"George Osborne was facing fresh questions yesterday over his controversial push to make Britain a worldwide hub for fossil fuels, after it emerged that his father-in-law is the head of a lobbying organisation for big oil and gas companies. Lord Howell of Guildford, who is an energy minister at the Foreign Office, is also the president of the British Institute of Energy Economics (BIEE), which is sponsored by Shell and BP – prompting suggestions of a conflict of interest."

Gem of the day

With over 26,000 megawatts of coal-fired power stations lying idle in India, and 600 million people without power, where's backup power coming from? Via NY Times:

“We are taking hydro power from Bhakhra Nangal Dam,” in northern India, said Sushil Kumar Shinde, the power minister.

Right, renewables. And in one of the best unintentional campaigns for energy efficiency, Indians have begun mobilising around the hashtag #benefitsofpowercut. Choice gems:

#benefitsofpowercut people will go out and hang out with each other in person rather than on google

#benefitsofpowercut Have you ever had a proper candle night dinner with your family?

Another non-environmental wonder

Best Olympic blooper so far (via Guardian):

"London 2012 organisers have apologised and blamed human error for Wednesday's flag mix-up when South Korea's flag appeared alongside North Korea's women's football team on stadium screens as players warmed up before their opening match."

Amazing demonstration of LOCOG's secret political transformation agenda?

Even better, the official reaction from the North Korean coach:

"If this matter had not been solved, continuing would have been a nonsense."

Something that's actually good

David Roberts (via Grist) nails the self-reinforcing loop between our global dependency on fossil fuels and the international agencies that crunch the numbers in support of them, propping up the industry and therefore the decisionmakers that are beholden to industry:

"The International Energy Agency and U.S. Energy Information Administration do not try to predict policy changes; they project based on the current policy regime. In 2000, there wasn't much in the way of clean-energy policy. Since then, however, there's been a great deal, and those policy changes are the biggest driver of renewable energy growth."

Something that's actually good

The case for a radically new information environment to move the true sustainability agenda forward (and breakthrough capitalism), in a nutshell (via James Henry in the Guardian, author of the 'The Price of Offshore Revisited' report):

"The very existence of the global offshore industry, and the tax-free status of the enormous sums invested by their wealthy clients, is predicated on secrecy."

Another non-environmental wonder

After a second week of humiliating stories of banks gone bad (remember, it's all of them - not just the ones who have been caught and grilled in the public spotlight), financial commentators start to ask the 'unaskable'.

Here's James Saft writing for Reuters:

"Never mind that our largest banks are too big to be allowed to fail, they show every sign of being too big for investors...they aren’t just risky and volatile, but often badly managed and highly likely to produce further scandals in which insiders gain at the expense of everyone else in the capital structure."

Maybe this head-in-the-sand mentality will finally be broken on the role of banks in financing an unsustainable future, too. Just maybe.

Gem of the day

Another classic triumph of the insidious fossil fuels narrative in supposedly 'progressive' media (via NY Times):

"Cheaper fuel produced domestically could reduce the cost of shipping and manufacturing, trim heating and cooling bills, improve the auto market and provide tens of thousands of new jobs...It might also pose new environmental challenges."

Oh and this one too, from the same article:

"For Americans battered by rising gasoline prices, frustrated by the dependence on foreign oil, skeptical of the benefits or practicality of renewable fuels and afraid of nuclear power, the appeal of plentiful domestic oil and gas could far outweigh the costs."

Another non-environmental wonder

In case anyone needed more proof of how systemic the problems with our financial institutions are (reality check: banking is broken), HSBC is this week's latest disaster (via The Guardian):

"HSBC's subsidiaries transported billions of dollars of cash in armoured vehicles, cleared suspicious travellers' cheques worth billions, and allowed Mexican drug lords buy to planes with money laundered through Cayman Islands accounts."

And in case anyone needed more proof that the banks themselves still don't get it, here's how HSBC describes the issue at hand:

"Structural problems with the bank's compliance function"

Right.

Another non-environmental wonder

HSBC Hong Kong's Chief Operating Officer on why the small persistent band of Occupy Hong Kong protesters need to leave the square outside HSBC offices (via NYTimes DealBook):

“As the occupation continues, the hygiene situation is deteriorating and will likely continue to deteriorate,” his affidavit said.

Too bad he wasn't instead talking about the state of Hong Kong's economy, which is currently beset by raging, record inequality:

"The city’s wealth gap has widened, property prices have soared and average citizens have become increasingly priced out, in many cases by well-heeled investors and visitors from the Chinese mainland. The average home price is around 13 times the median annual household income."

Healthy.

Something that's actually good

Choice quote from an interview with Jeremy Heimans, on what kinds of clients it takes to start a movement (that is, if you're a consultancy whose business it is to do that):

"A mayonnaise company came to us to build a movement around real food and local food. But we said you aren’t real and you aren’t local. We didn’t take the job."

Zing!

Gem of the day

Another astonishingly small environmental public affairs wonder, as the EU wrestles with its own bureaucracy to label its water management plans:

"On 23 October 2000, the "Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for the Community action in the field of water policy" or, in short, the EU Water Framework Directive (or even shorter the WFD) was finally adopted."

Another non-environmental wonder

In [yet] another episode of 'what recent crisis does this remind us of?', a summary of Jim Chanos' Chinese economic forecast (via NY Times):

"Chanos contends that China is headed for a hard landing of epic proportions because of its shaky financial system and an imminent collapse in its property market, which undergirds the entire economy. “'’m being conservative when I say that the coming bust in China’s real-estate market will be a thousand times that of Dubai,' he told Barron’s."

Unstable financial system? Real estate bubble? Nobody shout 'America'!

Gem of the day

Choice quote off of McDonalds UK's strange new 'stakeholder engagement' platform, 'What Makes McDonald's?', which encourages people to 'find the facts, share your views':

"Ultimately it’s up to individuals to make the right food, drink, and activity choices for themselves every day.”

See image above - where do they find these 'consumers'?

Gem of the day

Trendwatching.com's trend-of-the-month never fails to deliver a few laughs. This month's takes the cake:

"NEWISM. The ‘new’ has never been hotter, as the entire world, from emerging to mature economies, is now creating new products, services and experiences on a daily, if not hourly basis, in every B2C industry."

And what better picture to accompany the debut of NEWISM than one of this long line at H&M? It perfectly sums up the hell that this trend will drive: more mass-market, cheap and vacuous consumerism.

As with so many outputs from the marketing vortex, NEWNESS comes with the following disclaimer:

"It is also not just breathless, eco-unfriendly, product-replacing madness (see also driver 6): in fact, there's an absolute avalanche of new eco-friendly products and services out there as well."

So all we need to do is introduce more products with vague environmental credentials, on top of the pile of stuff we don't need, to buy our way out of our global sustainability crisis? That's right Trendwatching.com, you totally don't get it.

Another non-environmental wonder

Assessment of Bob Diamond by one Barclays employee (via FT):

“He engendered great staff loyalty right through the ranks...And he was always great with clients.”

That's right, clients - not your average Joe retail consumer, who have the most to lose from this latest scandal.

And the FT, never one to recognize its own irony, has this gem to add:

"However, Mr Diamond was not great with the authorities."

Another non-environmental wonder

Rupert Murdoch, one of the richest men in the world, weighs in on the American presidential election (via WSJ):

"The Romney campaign thinks it can play it safe and coast to the White House by saying the economy stinks and it's Mr. Obama's fault. We're on its email list and the main daily message from the campaign is that 'Obama isn't working.' Thanks, guys, but Americans already know that."

Murdoch clearly didn't get the memo that our economic system isn't working.

Gem of the day

Edelman, as always, has great intel on what really went wrong with the Fukushima nuclear disaster (via Holmes Report):

"Tepco’s handling of the communications aspects of this crisis contributed significantly to widespread anxiety,” says Edelman Japan CEO Ross Rowbury. “This led to severe reputation damage for the company and created a new low in the public trust of institutions in Japan.”

Something that's actually good

Jorgen Randers sums up everything that's wrong with the world from a generational perspective (via Club of Rome):

"They [young people] are already now beginning to wake up to the fact that their parents and grandparents are in the process of leaving them an exploited planet with degraded life-support systems, indebted economies, few jobs, and no affordable housing...In developed countries they also inherit the responsibility of caring for an increasing number of retired people who plan to receive pensions and health care for the next thirty to forty years."

Gem of the day

Barclays is going through the ringer this week as both its CEO and Chairman step down, following revelations that the bank manipulated key interest rates during the financial crisis.

In the words of one Barclays official to the British Bankers Associations:

"We’re clean but we’re dirty-clean, rather than clean-clean."

It's not hard to see where those grey areas of responsibility stem from when you take a look at Barclays' Citizenship Strategy. Two of its three pillars are essentially about increasing growth and profit:

• "Contributing to growth - We support economic growth and job creation by operating a strong, profitable business."
• "The way we do business - Our clients’ interests are at the heart of what we do."

For a business that clearly assumes growth and business as usual are the keys to responsibility, a crisis of this scale can hardly be a surprise.

Gem of the day

Tim Jackson sums up why Rio+20 turned out so, so wrong (via GSB):

"The most staggering linguistic turnabout for me is the one that equates green economy with 'sustained economic growth'...this language has set back by a decade any attempt to question the model that led us to the brink of financial disaster, perpetuates huge consumption inequalities and is driving us towards ecological collapse."

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)