Energy and Sustainability Perspectives : Rio+20

All Quiet on the Carbon Front

Janne Koponen — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 14:16:00 GMT

It has been twenty years since the first Rio Earth Summit, and during those years, many things have changed. It is probably this constant flux in the world's economic power balance that has stopped its leaders from agreeing on measures to reduce our carbon footprint - I believe this happed yet again at Rio +20. Even the presence of the King of Sweden and Hilary Clinton was not enough to convince all parties to agree on a resolution. Although, they did decide that a document is needed. I'd say that is some progress, at least.

Nevertheless, this is a blow to the carbon trading market, and it seems that global policies are failing to achieve their objectives. Until all countries can finally be cajoled into signing binding pacts, suggestion is it will fall on regional and national policies to control and reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere. In my last blog, I touched on the subject by mentioning the UK governments Energy Efficiency Scheme and France's plans to introduce similar legislation. News is that the German federal government is planning an energy tax which would also force a phased implementation of an energy management system (ISO50001) between 2012 and 2015. As a result, German companies with large energy appetites would have to invest into software and pay tax on their energy.

Carbon Emissions

Carbon, once touted as the next biggest commodity market in the world, doesn't seem to featurein these plans, butwe should remember that other schemes like European Union Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), regulate the carbon side of things. In 2012 it even extended to the airline industry, whose executives must be whooping with joy.

I always wondered if these schemes actually work. Certainly, they bring revenue to national governments, but do they actually help us achieve any of the commitments from the Kyoto Protocol?

Source: British Energy

For the UK, the above picture is flattering, but not because of CRC or EES, or any other legislation of scheme.It is simply because of the price of energy.

The UK Department for Energy and Agricultures (DEFRA) states in their recent emission report that the 2010 - 2011 figures were in large part the result of reduction in residential gas use and the increased use of nuclear power. Residential energy use went down by 22% -- this does not include electricity reduction, which is calculated as part of the energy supply business - this was reduced by 6.1 %.

As a UK resident, I can tell why residential energy use is driving the reduction in carbon emissions. Prices are astronomical. My own energy bill has doubled over the last two years, and not because I've got a bigger house or more kids (Do you know how much an average child costs to bring up in the UK? An eye-watering £ 200,000). As a result, instead of boiling water on the gas stove, I boil it in a much more effective electric kettle. I switch off anything that is not needed. It has become a habit, to be frugal, and I'm even thinking of getting residential wind turbines or solar panels, although that investment still remains too costly. Figures suggest everyone else is doing the same.

To look at all this from my residential perspective it seems that if we want to save the planet from climate change, it is down to us normal people to change our energy habits. It can make a real difference. With failing summits, there is no point waiting any longer for national governments and heavy industry to make a difference - it is us that can make it. So switch off that TV set and upgrade the old computer to a more energy efficient one - it will pay off in the long term.

I challenge industry to look into their energy usage in the same way. As an example, I bet many, many organisations run servers, desktops and other energy-hungry machines without even knowing some of them are there, and this is the final point I would like to make today: Be aware that there is software that can help detect and pinpoint blind spots like this and help drive further savings in energy cost and of course, our total national carbon footprints.

Rio+20 Wrap-up: Corporate Leadership, Government Abdication

Cynthia Curtis — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 14:13:00 GMT

The one upside of a 24 hour trip home from Rio+20 (filled with delayed flights, missed connections, mediocre airport food and a vicious oncoming head cold), is that you have plenty of time to reflect. While my head was increasingly fuzzy, my thoughts were crystal clear: I came away from this conference (The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development) optimistic, more so than I was after the Cancun Climate Change Conference in 2010.

Surprised? Me too, actually. Let me explain. In 2010, governments didn't accomplish anything substantial to combat climate change and promote sustainability (not that anybody was expecting them to) and businesses, while interested and engaged, were still vainly waiting for governments to provide leadership and set the ground rules. Therefore, while businesses were doing interesting and some very important things, I didn't get a sense that there was significant leadership. Cut to Rio. Governments again didn't do anything meaningful (not that anybody was expecting them to). But this time businesses and NGOs were prepared and took up the mantle of leadership. They haven't been waiting around. Rather they came to Rio with serious, collaborative commitments to action.

Governments Abdicate Leadership Role on Sustainability

Let's start with the bad news. There was really no serious progress amongst governments when it came to the issues of climate change and sustainability. For a myriad of political and economic reasons, the negotiators at the conference had their hands tied and were not really given the green light to accomplish anything meaningful. It was also clear that there is a real and unfilled vacuum left by America's lack of leadership on this issue. As the International edition of the New York Times sums up the results of the conference:

The final statement from Rio, "The Future We Want," is 283 paragraphs of kumbaya that "affirm," "recognize," "underscore," "urge" and "acknowledge" seemingly every green initiative and environmental problem from water crises and creeping deserts to climate change and overfishing. Women's rights, indigenous peoples, children, mining, tourism, trade unions and the elderly also get shout-outs in the document.

The word "reaffirm" is used 60 times.

As Kumi Naidoo, the executive director of Greenpeace international said, "it was a failure of epic proportions." He summed up the final document by calling it "the longest suicide note in history".

Ouch.

Businesses, NGOs Step Up

Corporations and NGOs were at Rio+20 in force, highlighting progress, sharing ideas and demanding action. Understanding that they could no longer wait for governments to address the global challenges, corporations like Dow, Disney, Microsoft, Intel, GE, Unilever, Coke and many others, along with NGOs like The Nature Conservancy, The Climate Group, The World Wildlife Fund stepped up with major commitment, many of which I've covered here. Some other tidbits picked up during the sessions I sat in and conversations I had include:

Disney and Microsoft both have instituted an internal carbon tax and are using the proceeds to fund additional sustainability initiatives
Unilever has abolished quarterly guidance and quarterly reporting inside the company as CEO Paul Polman believes it diverts company focus from creating long-term value
Intel has scientists working on energy harvesting technology from ambient heat and a body's electrical current so that cell phones won't need to be charged as often

As inspiring as this is, I don't want to gloss over the fact that businesses and NGO's were - and are - still loudly calling for government action. Without guidance, structure and price signals (like a price on carbon), we are not going to reach the scale we need to create true, lasting progress.

Finally, I thought I would share a video recently released by the Corporate Eco Forum covering their most recent winners of the CK Prahalad Award (Unilever, The Sustainable Apparel Coalition, and Neil Hawkins from Dow Chemical). These are true leaders, and we need more of em. As Rob Swan said, "The greatest threat to the future of our planet is the belief that someone else will save it."

Dispatches from Rio+20 - Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD)

Cynthia Curtis — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 20:12:00 GMT

There are a number of what's called ‘side events' here in Rio, that are officially sanctioned by or in conjunction with the UN. One such side event was "Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD)," a well-organized day that brought together industry luminaries, and covered topics from transportation and water to cement and power utilities.

The theme of the conference was Scale Up; point being that we need solutions to address climate change that scale. In the opening plenary it was stated that even if we execute on all of the commitments being made in Rio, we'll still miss the mark needed. What is necessary are different business models, a different way of thinking and a commitment to keeping the human element at the center of our actions as businesses.

One of the 20 breakout sessions was led by the Corporate Eco Forum (CA Technologies is a member) and the Nature Conservancy. The session centered on the topic of valuing natural capital and infrastructure, extending the commitments made at the Clinton Global Initiative last year. The capper was the unveiling of 24 companies who have made significant commitments that recognize the interrelatedness of their business interests with ecosystems. You can check out the full report at: www.corporateecoforum.com/valuingnaturalcapital. Panelists from Dow, Disney, Coke and FEMSA (a Central and South American bottling company for Coke) all had the opportunity to speak and introduce commitments that they are making to change business as usual and provide environmental and sustainability leadership. Here are some of the highlights.

Dow

Neil Hawkins (the same Dow executive who spoke at the energy efficiency seminar), discussed the need for businesses to take the lead in sustainability and not only take action, but to show action as well. With this in mind, Dow's commitment is to lead the world in sugar cane to polyethylene development. This is the most sustainable polyethylene (read: plastic) in the world, and it sequesters carbon in the process.

In addition, they are developing the largest bio plastics plant in the world and are committing to share their learnings and methodologies as best practices with the broader business community. An impressive display of corporate leadership, innovation and sustainability.

Disney

In the vein of leveraging your core competency, Beth Stevens from Walt Disney explained that Disney is committed to helping kids develop lifelong conservation habits (good, they need to make up for that iCarly show!). As she mentioned, taking this leadership role is expected of them by their employees, the community and their shareholders.

On a more concrete level, Disney is committing to zero net direct carbon emissions, and plan on achieving this by focusing on forests. They have committed to reforesting 6,000 acres, funding an ‘improved forest project' and are running a pilot study to evaluate the reforestation benefits to an ecosystem beyond carbon sequestration.

What came up in the Q&A was that Disney, like Microsoft, has put in place an internal carbon tax to help drive choices and behavior. The desired outcome is it the tax generated fund will decrease over time. But in the interim, it funds sustainability initiatives.

Coca-Cola

Everyone knows that water is essential to Coke's business. But here is something that came up in the Q&A that shocked me - It takes 2 liters of water to produce a liter of Coke. No, that is not the shocking part. When you take into consideration the total embedded water (water used in agriculture for beet sugar, corn and other ingredients, transportation, etc.) it totals 70 liters of water to make one liter of Coke. Wow.

Jeff Seabright, the Coke executive on the panel, discussed their commitment to conduct a source water analysis (risks and vulnerabilities) and develop conservation action plans around the world to address this challenge. They have a previously articulated goal to give back as much water as they take in by 2020, and they are nearly at 100% in Mexico and India. With water supplies becoming an ever more vital concern for countries around the globe, leadership like this from a worldwide brand like Coca-Cola is critical.

FEMSA

Coca -Cola FEMSA, is the largest Coca-Cola bottler in the world, in terms of sales volumes, delivering more than 2.5 billion unit cases a year. That's a lot of Coke. Femsa is based out of Central and South America and has committed to establish three water funds in Brazil. Their efforts are on conserving watersheds, especially in the home of the Amazon Rainforest. They are working to coordinate the ongoing money necessary, engage the needed government capital and encourage community capital and involvement.

While the scale of the challenges we need to address has never been more apparent, it is critical that leading businesses take up the gauntlet and provide real leadership in corporate sustainability. This session was a great example of how to do that - and it only highlighted 4 of the 24 companies who are truly stepping up. Thanks to the Corporate Eco Forum, the Nature Conservancy and all the participants for making it happen.

Dispatches from Rio+20: Sustainia

Cynthia Curtis — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 16:43:00 GMT

Another very interesting session I thoroughly enjoyed attending was about Sustainia. According to their website:

Sustainia is a concept for communicating a sustainable future based on concrete and tangible know-how and technologies - a global collaborative platform for building a model and vision for a sustainable future. The model of Sustainia represents best practice, knowledge and technologies that already exist. It is inspired and designed by world leading companies, institutions and experts. It is a clear demonstration of the society we could create if sectors, companies, scientists, politicians and civil society worked together towards a common goal.

In essence, they are all about positive communications and workable solutions that will make an impact and are unique to specific geographies and regions. This week they will be unveiling the Sustainia100, a catalog of 100 solutions that are already available to help move cities and countries towards a sustainable future. They recently released a Guide to Copenhagen 2025, which provides a glimpse into the future in which Copenhagen may become the first carbon neutral city.

The way they describe their work is that they enable co-creation of innovative solutions by linking various dimensions of development. The resultant solutions need to be easy, fast to deploy and inexpensive. By positioning themselves as a one-stop toolbox for sustainable execution, they are enabling a self-service model in which governments, businesses, NGOs and citizens can all get involved, gather information they need, share best practices, innovate solutions together and execute effectively.

They base their work on three key pillars:

1. Create concrete solutions - This is the basis of the Sustainia100 announcement

2. Generate content that explains in a clear and simple manner what your city, home, energy system and transportation could be like in 2020. More sectors will be added as they expand - for example food, health, fashion and resources.

3. A virtual model that allows everyone with internet access to engage and have access to a vision of the future that is achievable and truly sustainable.

They have a lot of momentum with major partners like Cisco, Microsoft, Ikea, UBS, Philips, GE, Vestas and others.....not to mention the fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger is spearheading their "awards committee." Furthermore, any group that is dedicated to encouraging the sharing of sustainability best practices and empowering groups to work together towards a more sustainable future is OK in my book. Here's to a Sustainia future.

Dispatches from Rio+20 – Doubling the Rate of Energy Efficiency Improvements

Cynthia Curtis — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 13:31:00 GMT

While there has been plenty of inspiration to go around in Rio, the Corporate Sustainability Forum is focused on business after all. The good news is that there is plenty of opportunity for businesses in two of the key Corporate Sustainability initiatives that Rio+20 is focused on - doubling the rate of improvement in energy efficiency and the UN Secretary General's initiative to provide Sustainable Energy for All: Here are some highlights from the session I sat in focused on the energy efficiency challenge.

Energy Efficiency

This session moderated by Paul Simpson of the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), the discussion was focused on utilizing energy efficiency as a lever to create a Win/Win/Win for investors, businesses and consumers. The panelists from Siemens, the Sinopec Institute, Intel, Dow, China Minmetals Corp and Embraco (a Brazilian producer of refrigeration compressors) each brought different perspectives, but were all from companies that have embraced sustainability as a core aspect of their strategy and are on the cutting edge of implementing energy efficiency programs both in their operations and in the products they develop.

Each participant provided some terrific insights into what their businesses are doing and how they are turning energy efficiency into a strategic differentiator and an ROI-driver for their organization, but I thought I'd take a minute to speak about the Q&A session at the end of the event. The first question was about the need for radical innovation and how companies can be encouraged to implement radical solutions. The feedback from the panelists went back to the need for governments to do more to encourage the deployment of traditional innovation. There was general agreement that it is not about getting the small percentage of companies who are already drinking the Kool-Aid on energy efficiency to do more radical things, but to encourage all companies to take advantage of the low hanging fruit in energy efficiency and make themselves more efficient and profitable at the same time.

As Gabriela Werner from Embraco mentioned, "Payback on energy efficiency always pays back, but it is sometimes out of the timeframe for businesses. Common sense government incentives will help bridge that divide." These are big, multi-national companies that have saved billions of dollars via energy efficiency, agreeing that government regulatory standards are they key to increased energy efficiency across the global economy. If energy efficiency is the easiest, most effective way to lower our energy consumption, and big companies have proven it is profitable, what are our governments waiting for?

There was also a question that sparked a discussion about one of my favorite topics, employee engagement inside of businesses. Neil Hawkins from Dow spoke very eloquently to this point. As he mentioned, "There are vast numbers of people that we recruit that are ‘on fire' to be involved with sustainability. By unleashing the passion of employees to impact the world, we ignite innovation inside or organization and create opportunity on multiple levels."

So my takeaways from this event were: 1. Businesses have proven that energy efficiency is a profitable exercise; 2. Energy efficiency is THE most effective way to quickly lower our global energy consumption; 3. We need government involvement to encourage ALL businesses to invest in this money saving initiative and leading businesses agree; 4. By encouraging more companies to get involved, the passion of employees will be released and more innovation will occur, resulting in more opportunities to save energy.

Let's get going.