Agricultural Photovoltaic Greenhouse - Power Innovation By Antek Solar Power

 Agricultural Photovoltaic Greenhouse - Power Innovation By Antek Solar Power  

The age of electronic environmental reporting is here to stay

The age of electronic environmental reporting is here to stay. Reporting a company's air emissions inventory electronically has emerged as a viable method of efficiently and effectively processing air emissions data and submitting it to the appropriate regulatory agencies.

While some organizations struggle to create a centralized reporting system and are overwhelmed tracking air emissions inventory using spreadsheet and linked worksheets, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Read through our new white paper, and learn more about a company's real-life experience designing and implementing an air emissions inventory electronic reporting system, and how they streamlined the reporting process while minimizing human error.

Get inside information about:

• The starting point, approach and implementation phases of the project
• Creating custom processes to meet unique needs
• Practical lessons learned

This email was sent to: sustain2green by Enviance

The Metro - Is it a panacea for all transportation woes?

The transportation issues we face daily are no secret. Infrastructure development is unable to keep pace with the increase in traffic. The traffic mainly constitutes personal vehicles which people are forced to use in the absence of good public transportation. In fact, as per CSE reports more than 90 per cent of the 1,200 vehicles sold every day in Delhi are personal vehicles. There is hardly any place to walk or even cross roads safely. The existing public transportation is overcrowded and in no way near world- class facility. From a safety point of view for women, public transportation facilities seem even more pathetic. The metro, especially the Delhi metro is a silver lining in the cloud of public transportation woes. It has a huge carrying capacity, is efficient and the facilities are in line with global standards. Seeing the success of the metro from the commuters’ mobility perspective, every city now wants it! But is the Metro a solution for all our traffic woes? The answer would be both yes and no. Metro is ideal for where the population is large, such as the NCR, but it is not suited for cities having a small population. But if we see the transportation plan for any city – the metro seems to be a standard inclusion, irrespective of its viability. Another issue with the metro is last mile connectivity - which if missing (as in most of the cases) limits the usage of the metro to a large extent. As per our studies, the Metro is also not found to be ideal from a climate- change mitigation perspective if the major sources of power are thermal power plants. It can be the worst option if they are being made underground, especially when all the auxiliary consumption is considered. Reckless recommendation of the Metro without proper integration with other forms of transport for last mile connectivity can create new bottlenecks in a city! There can be other options which can give us similar benefits as the metro and also with a much lower capital cost. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is a case in point. BRT, if coupled with better infrastructure that can match metro stations for example, can provide much more mobility at lesser cost and in a more environmentally efficient manner. The need of the hour is to not see each mode in isolation for being able to solve mobility issues. What our planners have to do is to look at all options available to them and then see how these can be integrated. In existing cities, one can achieve substantial improvements in mobility even without major investments. Along with this we also have to consider all plans formulated from the perspective of the impact they are going to have on air and noise pollution levels, green-house gas emissions and the possibilities of accidents. These can be local as with road transportation or global as in the case of pollution caused by power generation to run electric vehicles or the Metro. An ill-conceived metro which is not being properly integrated with other forms of transportation can be a bane for a city which could have done better with proper utilization of existing facilities. We need to ensure that some original thinking goes into planning transportation, and second vested interest and lobbies are kept at bay while deciding what is best for a city. Author: Vinaya Bansal. Head- Business Development India Emergent Ventures India www.emergent-ventures.com contact@emergent-ventures.com

Press Release: FE-EVI Green Business Leadership Awards 2011-12

In an effort to spread awareness and help mitigate climate change risks, Emergent Ventures and The Financial Express initiated the FE-EVI Green Business Survey. The fourth edition- FE-EVI Green Business Survey 2011-12 continued to track the evolution of sustainability initiatives of corporate India. It witnessed the participation of 75 companies from the top 500 Indian companies across 13 sectors including cement, power, metals & mining etc. The jury panel consisted of K Subramnaya- Former CEO of Tata BP Solar, V Subramaniam- CEO & Secretary General of the IWEA, Dr. Prem C Jain- Chairman & Founder of Spectral Services Consultants, Vinod K Kala- Founder & MD of Emergent Ventures India, and Subhomoy Bhattacharjee- Deputy Editor at The Indian Express. Companies were asked questions on four dimensions of sustainability: 1.Climate Change & Environment 2.Natural Resources Management 3.Stakeholder Engagement & CSR 4.Corporate Governance & Disclosure Calls were made to participating companies to better understand their sustainability approach and data accuracy and process flow related aspects were verified by our independent validation partner SGS. The responses were filtered through an in-house scoring system that had been whetted by the jury. The FE-EVI Green Business Survey & Leadership Awards was held on 5th June 2012, at the Hyatt Regency. The ceremony was presided over by Veerappa Moily, Minister of Corporate Affairs. The winners of the 2011-12 FE-EVI Green Business Leadership Awards are: • Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd- Automobile • Shree Cement Ltd- Cement • Tata Chemicals Ltd- Chemicals & Fertilizers • Tata Coffee Ltd- FMCG • Cognizant Technology Solutions- Information Technology • Essar Steel- Metals • Larsen & Toubro Ltd (Heavy Engineering)- Other Manufacturing • Jain Irrigation System Ltd- Other Services We congratulate the winners and thank the participants for their enthusiastic response. They deserve tremendous appreciation for trying to incorporate sustainability into their business practices. Founded in 2004, Emergent Ventures India (EVI) was established with the twin goal to accelerate fight against climate change and to foster sustainable development. With presence across 15 countries globally, EVI is one of the leading fully integrated climate change mitigation and sustainable development advisory firms in the world. for full report please send mail to contact@emergent-ventures.com or visit www.emergent-ventures.com

Foreword: FE-EVI Green Business Leadership 2011-12

We are facing serious financial problems worldwide, growth rates have slumped, and economic recovery seems difficult. In India, we have added problems of policy paralysis, high inflation and rising inequality. The world of today is different than what we have seen in many decades. Yet despite the challenging economic and political context we haven’t seen any slowdown in actions on sustainability aspects by Indian companies during 2011-12 as part of this survey. This is undoubtedly good news; however we also haven’t seen any remarkable improvement in performance since last year. Our research suggests that a small but increasing number of companies are making strategic investments into sustainability and are also reaping significant value from such investments. We have also found that though companies have their own unique ways of tackling these issues, there are a couple of points of commonality: a) Sustainability is becoming a Board level issue b) They are evolving their business-models to balance environmental,stakeholder and economic priorities. We initiated the FE-EVI Green Business Survey in year 2008-09 to assess how Indian businesses are responding to climate change issues. In last four years we have expanded the scope of this survey to include all important aspects of the broader sustainability agenda including climate change & environment, natural resource management, stakeholder engagement and corporate governance. The survey aims to provide platform to Indian companies to learn from each other, keep track of the latest trends in corporate sustainability and adopt best practices. During last year’s survey we had moved away from evaluation based on awareness and intent to evaluation based on actual performance & actions. The Fourth Edition of the survey extends it further by evaluating performance of various companies on sector specific parameters as well. We hope insights from this survey will help companies further develop their sustainability plans. Ashutosh Pandey President Emergent Ventures India (EVI) About EVI: EVI was founded in 1999 and in year 2004 EVI started its advisory business to help find ways to devise market based solutions to environmental problems. Less than three years later, EVI received its first private equity investment from IDFC Private Equity. IDFC (Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation), is India’s largest infrastructure asset management firm. Since then, EVI has developed into leading player in the area of sustainability. It has global presence in 15+ countries and is engaged with more than 300 projects. It manages carbon credit projects with > 150 million T of Co2e emission reductions. It advises governments, regulators, UN bodies, Development Financial Institutions, Investors and Corporates on issues relating to Sustainability. It is also amongst the largest global developers and traders of high quality VER credits for voluntary markets. Its sustainability services cover issues such as NAMA (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions), Bilateral Credits, ECERTs under Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) Schemes, Smart Grids and Demand Side Management strategies, Renewable Energy Certificates and RPO compliant power, trading of renewable energy, afforestation, outsourced environmental services, sustainability training, sustainable transportation etc. It is developing a large portfolio of renewable energy projects. It has leading position in India in Wind and Solar areas as Integrated Solution Provider, combining Development and Engineering work.

Stakeholder Engagement – the ‘Secret’ of Sustainability

Stakeholder Engagement is a formal process of relationship management through which companies or industries engage with a set of their stakeholders in an effort to align their mutual interests, to reduce risk and advance the company's performance in terms of people, planet and profit (the 'triple bottom line') Why worry about engaging stakeholders? Large-scale corporate collapses have eroded public trust and confidence in the ability of businesses to regulate themselves, whilst issues such as sustainability and climate change increasingly galvanise large sections of the population. Consequently, the media and stakeholders (including, but not exclusively, customers, employees, shareholders and communities where companies operate) now have much higher expectations of how a business should behave and how it should demonstrate its willingness to minimise the real (or perceived) consequences of its operations. Stakeholder Engagement helps to foolproof the acceptance of an organization's plans by its stakeholders and thus ensuring successful implementation. Am I already not engaging stakeholders? Of course, nearly all organisations interact with customers, employees, suppliers and investors every day, but few carry out systematic stakeholder engagement. Through carefully planned engagement, a company learns about the perceptions and expectations of its stakeholders, and can use this insight to manage and report its key social and environmental issues. A systematic stakeholder engagement programme gives companies new access to the expertise and ideas of their stakeholders so these can be integrated into core business strategy and decision-making. What are the benefits of systematic stakeholder engagement? Powerful tool for Risk Management - Helps in early identification and avoidance of future problems Enhances brand value by increasing trust and confidence in the brand Helps to innovate & develop new business ideas Strengthens the communication channels - heart & soul of Sustainability Reporting How to do a Systematic Stakeholder Engagement? Stakeholder Engagement is a progressive journey which starts from risk management and eventually leads to a strategic position where stakeholders themselves helps a corporate find solutions to sustainable development challenges. EVI Approach to Stakeholder Engagement EVI offers two types of Stakeholder Engagement services: Organization-wide Engagements EVI helps organizations to conduct organization wide stakeholder engagement using the Stakeholder Engagement standard, AA1000SES. This type of engagement is used widely for preparing a sustainability report as it helps in identification of stakeholder’s expectations from the corporate. EVI helps its clients to assess their current levels of engagement and assists them to reach their desired levels of engagement. The framework used under AA1000SES has three main stages: Issue-based Engagements A lot of times clients have specific issues on which they want to engage with their stakeholders to reach a common consensus. Some common examples could be Implementation of ISO 14000 in the supply chain, Addressing employee attrition, Human Rights Issues etc. In such cases, EVI helps its clients to formulate a comprehensive stakeholder engagement plan which specifically addresses the issue at hand. This plan includes which stakeholders to target, what mode of engagement channels to be chosen, what kind of questions to be asked and ultimately, how to respond. About EVI: Established in 2004, EVI has grown from a carbon advisory firm to one offering comprehensive solutions that contribute to the key vision of the company, “Sustainable Solutions for The Environment”. Currently EVI has more than 120 consultants working on over 300 client engagements in over 15 countries across 5 continents. EVI's expert team owill guide you through the often stakeholder engagement process, help you create awareness at all level of the organisation, devise robust plan for engagement and also help you during implementation. please visit www.emergent-ventures.com or contacts us at contact@emergent-ventures.com

FE-EVI Green Business Survey 2011-12

http://www.facebook.com/emergent.ventures.1 For FE-EVI Green Business Survey 2011-12 report please contact@emergent-ventures.com In an effort to spread awareness and help mitigate climate change risks, Emergent Ventures and The Financial Express initiated the FE-EVI Green Business Survey. The fourth edition- FE-EVI Green Business Survey 2011-12 continued to track the evolution of sustainability initiatives of corporate India. It witnessed the participation of 75 companies from the top 500 Indian companies across 13 sectors including cement, power, metals & mining etc. The jury panel consisted of K Subramnaya- Former CEO of Tata BP Solar, V Subramaniam- CEO & Secretary General of the IWEA, Dr. Prem C Jain- Chairman & Founder of Spectral Services Consultants, Vinod K Kala- Founder & MD of Emergent Ventures India, and Subhomoy Bhattacharjee- Deputy Editor at The Indian Express. Companies were asked questions on four dimensions of sustainability: 1. Climate Change & Environment 2. Natural Resources Management 3. Stakeholder Engagement & CSR 4. Corporate Governance & Disclosure Calls were made to participating companies to better understand their sustainability approach and data accuracy and process flow related aspects were verified by our independent validation partner SGS. The responses were filtered through an in-house scoring system that had been whetted by the jury. The FE-EVI Green Business Survey & Leadership Awards was held on 5th June 2012, at the Hyatt Regency. The ceremony was presided over by Veerappa Moily, Minister of Corporate Affairs. The winners of the 2011-12 FE-EVI Green Business Leadership Awards are: • Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd- Automobile • Shree Cement Ltd- Cement • Tata Chemicals Ltd- Chemicals & Fertilizers • Tata Coffee Ltd- FMCG • Cognizant Technology Solutions- Information Technology • Essar Steel- Metals • Larsen & Toubro Ltd (Heavy Engineering)- Other Manufacturing • Jain Irrigation System Ltd- Other Services About EVI EVI was founded in 1999 and in year 2004 EVI started its advisory business to help find ways to devise market based solutions to environmental problems. Less than three years later, EVI received its first private equity investment from IDFC Private Equity. IDFC (Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation), is India’s largest infrastructure asset management firm. Since then, EVI has developed into leading player in the area of sustainability. It has global presence in 15+ countries and is engaged with more than 300 projects. It manages carbon credit projects with > 150 million T of Co2e emission reductions. It advises governments, regulators, UN bodies, Development Financial Institutions, Investors and Corporates on issues relating to Sustainability. It is also amongst the largest global developers and traders of high quality VER credits for voluntary markets. Its sustainability services cover issues such as NAMA (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions), Bilateral Credits, ECERTs under Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) Schemes, Smart Grids and Demand Side Management strategies, Renewable Energy Certificates and RPO compliant power, trading of renewable energy, afforestation, outsourced environmental services, sustainability training, sustainable transportation etc. It is developing a large portfolio of renewable energy projects. It has leading position in India in Wind and Solar areas as Integrated Solution Provider, combining Development and Engineering work. Visit us at www.emergent-ventures.com

GREEN SUPPLY CHAINS – THE SNOWBALL EFFECT

Green Supply Chains: The Basics A Green Supply Chain can be thought of as a supply chain that has integrated environmental thinking into core operations from material sourcing through product design, manufacturing, distribution, delivery, and end-of-life recycling. While the "greening of the supply chain" has been in the works (or may be words) for decades, the movement has really taken off in 2010. In the last few months, a number of corporate giants have announced new initiatives that pressure suppliers to do much more to measure and manage their environmental impacts. The big guns asking the questions include the likes of Pepsi, P&G, and IBM. Motivators for a green supply chain – Why the push? The next logical question to follow is why not in-house? Why include the suppliers? Let us take the example of Wal-Mart. It is estimated that, for Wal-Mart, as much as 90% of a product’s associated carbon emissions (transportation, manufacturing, farming, etc.) are from the suppliers. So for a company like Wal-Mart, if they want to reducing their emissions overall, they need to find a way to affect their supply chain. It is not just relevant for the retailers, the bulk of the emissions for computers (more than 80 %!), is from embodied emissions of the purchased parts. Same holds for motor vehicles. Hence, as more and more companies look at concentrating on part of their value chains, more and more activities being outsourced supply chains now hold the key. Green Supply Chains enable organizations to:  Improve product, process, and supply quality and productivity  Specialize and concentrate manufacturing efforts in a way that manages environmental risks and costs of compliance with existing or new regulations;  Make innovative decisions that respond to “green economy” requirements;  Gain access to key markets through ISO 14001 registration or other certifications;  Improve or create brand differentiation and customer loyalty by offering unique capabilities to address environmental related requirements and expectations;  Reduce customer pressure and even gain preferred status EMERGENT VENTURES INDIA is a leading Strategic Climate Change Management Consulting Firm. We recognize that a low carbon economy is inevitable and that companies must prepare to compete in the new environment that it will create. We help organizations integrate climate change considerations including legislation into business practices, design targets and report performance against targets. EVI helps companies uncover efficiencies, optimize revenue streams using environmental markets, and identify & address potential risks and opportunities - all with a view to maximizing returns. EVI has created various tools such as SCM JUmpStart to help companies green their supply chain. please visit us at www.emergent-ventures.com

Climate Change Scenario Planning for Indian Businesses

Climate Change Scenario Planning for Indian Businesses Climate Change regulations are now a certainty and that they are going to impact the businesses is now a foregone conclusion. Corporations are faced with new risks, and they will need to act proactively to mitigate these risks and capitalize on opportunities presented. No longer can Indian businesses claim immunity against climate change regulations as domestic actions like National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCCC) are set to put carbon constraints for businesses. In current paradigm, CXOs ability to understand and to create a vision to address climate change will be critical to ensuring long term sustenance of competitive advantage and market share. Scenario Planning helps CXOs to address climate change concerns in their business strategic plan and reap the financial & associated benefits associated with it. Our proprietary tools help you answer- What does climate change mean to my business? What is my Carbon Foot-Print, is it comparable to others, is it as per standard requirement for present as well as future? What kind of Regulatory & Policy risks does my business face directly or in-directly? What are the most significant climate change trends related to my businesses across geographies? Are there direct/indirect risks to my products/services due to changing customer’s preference? Is there a scope to attain sustainable competitive advantage by becoming a climate leader in my industry? What kind of skills & capabilities do I need in my organization to cope up with Climate change challenge? Climate Change Scenario Planning thus becomes the first step in preparing the business for these impacts. This should become part of their risk management culture. It is also important to identify the interdependencies between climate change risks and other risks relevant to the organisation. Long-term business-planning strategies should take into account global and local climate scenarios, aided by scenario analyses and event simulations. Resources should then be allocated (accordingly) to identify and monitor indicators of how these scenarios are being realised, as well as to develop the organisational agility to address any issues that arise. Winning Benefits of Climate Chane Scenario Planning •Early Warning: Climate Change regulations are changing fast; there are indirect impacts also been witnessed by almost all businesses. Such rapid change in situation desires that businesses get early warning signs so that prompt actions could be taken to mitigate risks •New Opportunities: As your competitors struggle with changing conditions, your business will be poised to survive and thrive. •Risk Reduction: Running your small business with the assumption that change cannot impact your business will impact your business. Preparing for possible changes can reduce over exposure of capital and resources to uncertain risks. EMERGENT VENTURES INDIA is a leading Strategic Climate Change Management Consulting Firm. We recognize that a low carbon economy is inevitable and that companies must prepare to compete in the new environment that it will create. We help organizations integrate climate change considerations including legislation into business practices, design targets and report performance against targets. EVI helps companies uncover efficiencies, optimize revenue streams using environmental markets, and identify & address potential risks and opportunities - all with a view to maximizing returns. please visit us at www.emergent-ventures.com

Need for Sustainability Reporting

Sustainability Reporting is a structured, continuous process of collecting, monitoring & reporting information on the company’s economic, environmental & social performance. The information to be disclosed must be in alignment with the stakeholder’s expectations. A good sustainability report gives a clear picture of corporate values, principles, governance and management practices, as well as performance. By analyzing the key sustainable development challenges facing a company, and how it is responding to these, a report will enable users to better evaluate a company’s risks and viability Companies are under increasing pressure from key stakeholders to be transparent about their values, principles & performance as regards sustainable development. Sustainability Reporting is an effective response to this need for greater accountability and transparency. It has now become established as an important element of business communication by the world’s leading companies, with over 2,500 reports published in 2007 and with over 3,100 reports published in 2008. Reporting on sustainable development issues is currently a voluntary process. However, this is changing with mandatory requirements being introduced for aspects of sustainable development in certain countries such as France, Germany and the Nordic countries. In addition, many codes of conduct and normative developments are acting as drivers for corporate transparency. Some of the reporting guidelines or frameworks currently being used by companies are: 1. The Global Reporting Initiative 2. The UN Global Compact 3. OECD guidelines These developments point toward the establishment of more standardized reporting formats in future that may reduce a company’s flexibility to experiment and innovate with reporting. Out of all the current reporting frameworks, GRI Reporting framework is the most popular due to its simplicity and wide applicability. GRI guidelines facilitate higher accountability and comparability as it requires disclosure on a comprehensive list of performance indicators which can be benchmarked against the industry leaders. GRI reporting framework is currently seen as the gold standard for reporting and is being increasingly favored by companies in communicating their sustainability performance. Emergent Ventures India (EVI)'s certified team of professionals will guide you through the often arduous reporting process, creating a report that accurately reflects the organizations vision and sustainability performance. We also provide third party sustainability assurance services. EVI is working on several such assignements with clients such as ONGC, GAIL, HPCL, Jain Irrigation, HDFC Bank, First Resource and Tata Metallics etc. For more details visit http://www.emergent-ventures.com/what-we-do/sustainability-98.html

Stockholm based Hennes & Mauritz AB has been able to increase its sales which are more than what the analysts expected

Hennes & Mauritz AB has been able to increase its sales which are more than what the analysts expected. The clothing retailing organization has been opening more stores and has kept its prices down. By doing so the company has been able to gain customers. The company is based out of Stockholm. 

Greece exit from Euro may not affect the world as much as the collapse of Lehman Brothers did

Greece exit from Euro may not affect the world as much as the collapse of Lehman brothers did. The governments and various financial institutions have been planning accordingly. Lehman Brother’s collapse was sudden which had taken every one off guard. 

Barnes & Noble Inc. founder Leonard Riggio has agreed to pay money to settle Delaware Chancery Court lawsuits

Barnes & Noble Inc. is the biggest book store in U.S. shareholders of the company had filed a lawsuit which claimed that the founder Leonard Riggio had pushed the firm to buy its college – textbook firm for $596 million in 2009. The transaction had rewarded him unfairly. He has agreed to pay $29 million to settle the Delaware Chancery Court lawsuits.

Nokia’s dropping share and market value could attract companies like Microsoft for takeover

Nokia’s share prices declined 18% yesterday after the company announced that it will cut 10000 jobs to reduce losses. The company was once the most valuable company in Europe. The company was once valued at about $100 billion and now is trading 38% discount to the net assets. This could attract a whole lot of companies like Microsoft for takeover. It has 10000 patent families. 

Australia has announced to build the largest network of marine parks

Australia has announced to build the largest network of marine parks. The objective is to project marine life. The government will place limitations on fishing, oil and gas exploration near the coast. The marine park network is expected to cover 3.1 million square kilometers, which will cover breeding and feeding grounds. 

Kogan.com, Australian online retailer has introduced tax for customers who use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 ( IE7) browser to buy goods from its website

Kogan.com is an Australian online  retailer. The company has introduced tax for customers who use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 ( IE7) browser to buy goods from its website. Chief executive Ruslan Kogan thought about this idea after he found that his technical team is spending a good amount of time to support IE7.

Microsoft Corporation is discussing with Yammer Inc. which operates social networks which are used by business houses and has features like Facebook

Microsoft Corporation is discussing with Yammer Inc. to buy it Yammer operates social networks which are used by business houses. It has features similar to Facebook. More than 200000 companies use yammer. The company was started in 2008. The deal is expected to be valued at $1 billion. 

Different Versions of Plan Data are required by an organization.

Different Versions of Plan Data are required by an organization. The Plan goes to various levels like the working plan, original plan, revised plan, goal plan previous year plans. A IT system which can create and store different versions of the plan. IT system should be able to plan top down, bottom up or middle out.  

Sears Holding Corporation which is controlled by Edward Lampert is exploring various options to turnaround the company

Sears Holding Corporation the retailing organization which is controlled by Edward Lampert is exploring various options to turnaround the company. He is even open to selling assets. Sears has opened small store formats and has made a profit of $189 million last month. The company had posted $3.1 billion loss last year. 

Retailer Inditex founder Amancio Ortega become the richest manin Europe followed by Sweden’s Ingvar Kamprad founder of IKEA and France’s Bernard Arnault

The founder of the retailing organization Inditex SA has become the richest man in Europe. His weatlth increased to $39.5 billion. He owns the Zara clothing chain. He has been opening stores in emerging markets which enabled Inditex to increase the profits by 30%. The shares of the firm rose by 12%. Sweden’d Ingvar Kamprad weltha stood at $37.2 billion for the second place and France’s Bernard Arnault  had a wealth of $22.7 billion.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is very keen on purchasing the Latin American Assets (Colombian and Brazilian) of French retailer Carrefour SA

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is very keen on purchasing the Latin American Assets of Carrefour SA. Wal-Mart has been talking to the company to sell its Colombian and Brazilian stores.  However the move is very slow as the French retailer now focused on its European Business. The company is keen to focus on its French business. 

Shares of the Retailer Esprit Holdings Ltd. dropped as the CEO Ronald Van der Vis left the organization

The retailing organization Esprit Holdings Ltd. has been struggling to turn around. The shares of the company dropped in Hong Kong trading after Chief Executive Officer Ronald Van der Vis left the company. The shares dropped by 21%.

ComScore says that growth in U.S. for Facebook is slowing down

ComScore says that growth in U.S. for Facebook is slowing down. Facebook just managed to increase number of visitors by 5% in April. During the same period last month it was 24%. The time spent by each person climbed by 16% where as in the last year it was 23%.

Amazon, AT&T Cloud Architect, Rackspace Hosting Inc., Microsoft Corporation and Google Inc. look to get as much market share in Cloud services market

AT&T Cloud Architect has been trying catch up with Amazon in the cloud services. Amazon has a heads up of 6 years. Rackspace Hosting Inc., Microsoft Corporation and Google Inc have been trying to catch up with the market leaders. The market is expected to grow to $10.5 billion from $3.7 billion.

Big fast food chains like McDonald’s Corporation and Yum ! Brands Inc. which owns KFC and Pizza hut chains have been banking on the Asian growth for their overall growth strategy

Big fast food chains like McDonald’s Corporation and Yum ! Brands Inc. which owns KFC and Pizza hut chains have been banking on the Asian growth for their overall growth strategy. However the as the growth in countries like China slowing these companies are now having doubts if they will be able to meet the numbers. 

Enterprise Planning affects all the major functions of a retail company. It touches Promotions, Cash Flow , Resource Management , Product Flow , Timings of Receipts , Timing of Returns.

Enterprise Planning affects all the major functions of a retail company. It touches Promotions, Cash Flow , Resource Management , Product Flow , Timings of Receipts , Timing of Returns. It can be used a good planning tool for the organization. It also optimizes the planning process. 

Luxury car brands like Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), Daimler AG are trying to win customers by focusing on online strategy

Luxury car brands like Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), Daimler AG are trying to win customers by focusing on online strategy. They constantly try to woo bloggers and people who are active on twitter and have good following. BMW says it has gained about 88 million euro gain for its 1-Series. 

Walmart ropes in KPMG in India to audit suppliers and to make sure it adheres to Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)

Walmart Stores which is under severe criticism for its involvement in corrupt practices in Mexico is now trying to put its house in order. The company has now focused on in India.  They have roped in KPMG to audit its suppliers and make sure that none of its suppliers indulge in corrupt practices. They also have to adhere to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). In India it is into Wholesale retailing and is into a joint venture with Bharti Enterprises.

Tesco Plc investors are getting restless with dropping sales. They have given their Chief Executive Officer Philip Clarke another six months to revive the sales. The company is gets about 66% of its sales from its home country U.K. 

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. runs the Tmall website is trying to fight it out with 360buy.com and Tencent Holdings Ltd. for China’s 193 million Internet shoppers

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. runs the Tmall website. The website has a market place which is similar to EBay. The company has plans to spend about $47 million which is equal to about 300 million on summer promotions. They are trying to fight it out with 360buy.com and Tencent Holdings Ltd.. According to the Boston consulting Group ( BCG )  China has 193 million Internet shoppers. 

Founder Richard Schulze has 20% stake in Best Buy the electronics retailer and is willing to sell it

Richard Schulze has 20% stake in Best Buy the electronics retailer. It is said that he is willing to sell his 20% stake. The valuation of the company has dropped and the shares are now trading at 4.8 times the earnings. The company could be a very cheap buy for private equity firms. 

Economists are predicting the retail sales in United States dropped in May. The Commerce Department to release data on June 13

Economists are predicting the retail sales in United States dropped in May. It would be the first time that the in the last one year that sales have declined. The Commerce Department is about to release the data on June 13. The prices have cooled as gasoline prices have dropped. The increase in wages has also remained lackluster.

Apple is trying to now compete with Google, Microsoft and Facebook by releasing new computers and software tools at Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco

Apple is trying to now compete with Google, Microsoft and Facebook by releasing new computers and software tools. Apple will launch the offerings at Worldwide Developers Conference which will be starting in San Francisco today. The company will release Mac computers with high definition screens and release new features for softwares that are used in the iPhone and iPad.

Philip Clarke ,CEO of Cheshunt, England based retailer Tesco has been trying hard to win customers as sales dropped for the fourth consecutive month

The retails sales in Tesco Plc decreased for the fourth months. The sales in U.K. based stores which were open for atleast open for the last one year decreased by 1.5% ( which excludes fuel and value – added tax). Tesco is based out of Cheshunt, England. Philip Clarke who is the Chief Executive Officer ( CEO ) of the company is trying hard get back customers. 

Ozono y su capa rota visitó la parroquia Santa Rosalía—El Cementerio

Ozono y su capa rota visitó la parroquia Santa Rosalía—El Cementerio

Más de 300 alumnos en compañía de sus maestros y profe-sores disfrutaron de la obra educativa “Ozono y su Capa Rota” patrocinada por el Ministerio del Poder Popular para Industria a través de su organismo adscrito el Fondo Vene-zolano de Reconversión Industrial (FONDOIN).

Ozono y su Capa Rota es una pieza teatral producida por Tabla Mágica, compañeros de la UNEARTE, quienes cons-truyeron una historia divertida de Títeres bajo el contenido literario revisado por la Unidad Técnica de Ozono de FON-DOIN. La historia transcurre entre juegos, adivinanzas y cuentos para atrapar la atención de los niños.

En esta oportunidad, visitaron la Escuela Bolivariana Prudencio Diez ubicada al final de la avenida de Bogotá del Cementerio y la Escuela Bolivariana la Gran Colombia. A la actividad asistió la pre-sidenta de FONDOIN, Alejandra Puerta, quien hizo entrega de unos combos educativos al plantel. Entre el material entregado están: afiches, guías didácticas, CD de música y software interacti-vo con temas de preservación de la Capa de Ozono. Dicha activi-dad está contemplada dentro del Plan de Comunicaciones 2012.

El director del plantel Prudencio Diéz, Jesús Manuel Morales, in-dicó que todas las propuestas educativas del Gobierno Bolivariano

Escuela Bolivariana Prudencio Diéz

son excelentes, además argumentó que los niños vienen trabajando en diferentes proyectos de preservación am-biental.

Morales explicó que los estudiantes de primer a tercer grado, están realizando diferentes actividades en temas que tienen que ver con la naturaleza; y de cuarto a sexto grado están trabajando en los temas de Capa de Ozono y Agua. Las tareas consisten en hacer carteleras, maquetas y manualidades para comprender mejor los diferentes temas ambientales. De igual manera agradecieron la presencia de FONDOIN con la obra de teatro.

“Ozono y su capa rota” es una obra infantil que transcurre con los personajes Pepe, Gloria, la Bruja Maruja y Ángel entre otros donde con música e historias se entretiene a los alumnos y sus maestros utilizando juegos participati-vos.

Los actores cautivan a los niños con los temas musicales como el que se titula: “Danza de los dientes” y “Limpia”. Los alumnos se mostraron felices y muy participativos durante la función.

Por su parte, la coordinadora de la escuela bolivariana Gran Colombia, Ketty Bolívar Palacios, calificó la actividad como positiva y excelente. Además felicitó a FONDOIN y al grupo actoral por la bella jornada ambientalista efectua-da a través de títeres.

FONDOIN seguirá visitando varios centros educativos bolivarianos en diferentes parroquias de la Gran Caracas.

Fuente: FONDOIN, Venezuela,

India’s challenges , DE L’ÉTRANGER : INDE

DE L’ÉTRANGER : INDE

India’s challenges

Originally published in French Magazine- "Echanges" 

By: Rajendra SHENDE

Former Director in United Nations Environment Programme

Chairman, Terre Policy Centre

OLDEST CIVILIZATION WITH THE YOUNGEST POPULATION, INDIA IS A LAND OF CONTRAST AND ADVERSITIES. WITH AN AVERAGE AGE EXPECTED TO BE 29 YEARS IN 2020, IT HAS A “YOUTH ADVANTAGE” COMPARED WITH OTHER COUNTRIES. THIS WILL HELP THE COUNTRY TO ADDRESS NEXT BIG CHALLENGE: THE 2100 BUG, CALLED Y2.1 K.

THE THIRD LARGEST ECONOMY in the world on the basis of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) yes, that is India. The land of fastest growing group of billionaires and millionaires, yes, that is India again. When the world was hit by the most serious economic crisis in the history, one country doubled its number of billionaires in single year, yes, that country is India too. And, world’s largest number of poor people – more than half of the country’s population, at 612 million, lives in one country, that is again resounding India! The country where access to mobile phones is much easier than access to the toilets, yes, that too is India. At the time of European crisis when 27 European countries are struggling to keep themselves together politically and economically, the country which has nearly equal number of states each with population far greater than any of the EU member states has remained almost without any  is integration possibilities, is once more, yes, India! ‘Unity in diversity’ is how India’s forefathers described India’s strength. ‘Diversity of wealth’ seems now to be mantra for describing India’s success story. But make no mistake, that wealth is not to be measured in terms of GDP or number of millionaires and billionaires. It is to be measured by the values India represents. India’s wealth is not to be measured by the reserves of underground oil and with financial figure of export surplus. But it is to be valued by above-ground ‘people power’ and the “expert-surplus”. India’s assets are not the number of off-shore drilling platforms but on-shore talents of young entrepreneurs.

THE OLDEST CIVILIZATION WITH THE YOUNGEST POPULATION!

The real potential of India, for the outsiders interested in the business association with India can be summed up in one line: the oldest civilization with the youngest population! India is now second most populous country in the world, with over 1.2 billion people, more than a sixth of the world’s population. India is projected to be the world’s most populous country by 2025. It will surpass China, its population reaching 1.6 billion by 2050. But more importantly, India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% hovers below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan. This shows that Indian working age population will be younger and younger. In another 20 years, another about 240 million of working age population will be added. No other country has such “youth” advantage. But what does it mean in terms of the crisis in front of us? Does this scenario and numbers add to the crisis? Or does it help in resolving the crisis? Firstly the Indian youth has a “genome” that integrally maps the values of the nature and our mother Earth. The teachings and the philosophy of the Indian Civilization are ingrained in its ancient Vedas. Respect of five elements i.e. fire, water, air, land and spirit of the soul (called Panchmahabhuta in Sanskrit) is essence of the living with them and to ensure the sustainability. These heritage thoughts are part of the Indian genes. The present paths that India is using for its development are the aberration of its values, and will undergo correction factor sooner than later. The teachings of Vedas that promote living with the nature and valuing nature are now resurfacing all over the world in the form of ‘Green Economy’.

SOLVING TECHNIQUES WITH BUSINESS-UNUSUAL

Contrasts and adversities are the drivers of the Indian innovations. Today what the world needs is the crisis solving skills. Bailouts and building walls of the security are the archaic methods of facing the challenges. India is engaged in the problem solving techniques with business- unusua. Take for example Y2K episode. Also called Millennium Bug issue which scared the IT industry of the world at the end of last millennium. Contribution by Indian young IT entrepreneur in addressing that epoch size issue was remarkable. India turned that millennium crisis into opportunity. It was indeed the tipping point for Indian IT industry, which engaged itself to contribute in solving the problem, and in the process increased the revenue in that sector nearly 100 fold. That single opportunity put Indian IT industry and its youthful energy into spiraling motion and its annual export rose from USD 120 million in 1990s to USD 12 billion and now expected to reach USD 100 billion soon. There were indirect benefits as well, like gaining confidence and acquiring much needed expertise in working with the global companies. Probably for the first time after India became independent from British Colonial Raj, the world changed its perception about the image of India, from the land of elephants and snakes to the land of people-power fuelled by the brain-drive!

The story of green revolution in India in 1970s has similar dimensions. In that post-Independence era India was victim of the food shortages and famine. Huge amounts of the wheat and other grains were imported to feed the Indian population. It was very pitiful and despotic situation. That time hard working farmers and the policy makers aided by the bureaucrats and scientists used the special seeds of hybrid varieties and fertilizers to transform the Indian Agriculture. India is now self sufficient in its food. Even though its population has doubled since then, India continues to feed well its growing and prospering population. This green revolution was followed by another mega achievement i.e. white revolution  i.e. production of the milk. In 1970s at the time of food shortages the annual milk production in India was just about 20 million tonnes. Today India is the largest producer of milk in the world with estimated milk production of 121 million tones, close to 17 percent of world milk production. While the population doubled since then, milk production increased 6 times. The secret? The method of collection of milk, value addition through processing and its marketing were enhanced. Cooperatives and association of milk producers worked together to achieve this fete. It was the transformation in the methods and approach that triggered the change.

ADDRESS THE Y2.1K CHALLENGE

Now India faces yet another challenge which can be called as Y2.1K bug, in the years leading to 2100. Almost parallel to Y2K bug, also known as Millennium Bug, in September 2000, United Nations charted the Millennium Declaration with its eight goals .called as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). 193 Member States of United Nations adopted a series of measurable indicators for each target in the process of meeting the goals. MDGs had time-targets to be achieved by 2015. It deals with quantifiable targets related to eradicating extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting disease epidemics such as AIDS, primary education for all, women health, environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development. India has another opportunity to set itself on inclusive growth and address the poverty of the people at the Bottom of the Pyramid out of poverty. And here is where the skills, experience and commitment of Indian farmers, IT brains and Indian Genome of working in partnership and cooperation would be critical capital.

The youth of India would be of paramount importance.

So called Shining India is still 129th as far as GDP per capita on PPP, 132nd in the world in terms of ease in doing business doing and 134th in terms of the human development index (HDI) of UNDP, which assesses long-term progress in health, education and income indicators. However, the demography of India, genome of it young generation have the skills and experience to create business unusual to take India to sustainable development. The Y2K bug started pinching the world by the end of the 20th century. Y2.1K bug by end of year 2100 or even earlier, will start biting India along with many other countries due to climate change, threatening the natural ecosystems, putting India’s forest cover to the dangerous level, imperiling India’s energy, water and food security. Many predicted that Y2K had potential to cause catastrophes. Y2.1K has even more potential to cause irreversible and permanent damage to Indian society. To address the Y2.1K challenge, India must develop a technology road map for new service models for energy efficiency, agricultural productivity, healthcare, education and public services. Fortunately the young demography of India is an advantage for facing these challenges. India’s confidence in dealing with formidable challenges through its brainpower house makes it perfect leader and the country to do business with.

How sustainability can give your company a competitive edge

Pressure from customers, shareholders, governments and the general public pushes firms to improve their environmental performance -- but what about a firm’s competitors? What role does competition between companies play in influencing environmental practices?

Christian Hofer (University of Arkansas), David E. Cantor (Iowa State University) and Jing Dai (Iowa State University) asked the same questions. They looked at the two largest firms in 48 different manufacturing industries from 2006 to 2009 and found that competition within an industry does affect environmental performance.

Specifically, the trio found that businesses are likely to undertake new environmental practices if their rivals had improved their own environmental performance in the previous year. The reason for this is straightforward: environmental performance is a valuable source of competitive advantage and companies don’t want to fall behind.

The study also found that smaller companies respond faster to their competitors’ environmental moves, possibly because they are less constrained by bureaucracy. Similarly, more profitable companies are more responsive to competitors’ environmental strategies, likely because they have the necessary financial slack.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the study found that industry leaders generally show worse environmental performance than their nearest rival. This may be because leaders become complacent and their rivals actively leverage environmental performance to narrow the competitive gap.

There are three practical lessons that managers can take away from this study:

1. Use environmental activities to get ahead of competitors. Environmental performance makes up part of an industry’s competitive landscape. Managers need to actively seek out and analyze the environmental actions of their competitors – for much the same reason they analyze competitors’ financial and marketing undertakings.
2. Don’t let the size of your company become a disadvantage. Larger firms respond slower to the environmental actions of their competitors, putting them at a strategic disadvantage. To overcome this strategic pitfall, larger companies need to trim their bureaucracies and allow for the timely implementation of environmental initiatives.
3. Maintain industry leadership with environmental activities. To maintain the top spot, industry leaders must recognize and counter the strategic moves of their competitors. Industry leaders consistently have inferior environmental performance, which puts them at a strategic disadvantage. Closing this performance gap is vital, especially considering the growing emphasis put on the environment.

Recognizing the importance of environmental management and following these simple recommendations allows managers to improve their competitive standing and the environment at the same time.

Future research should include: investigating more than just the top two competitors in the industry; exploring the environmental practices of both diversified and private firms; and tracking the relationship between competition and environmental performance over a longer time period.

Source: Hofer, Christian, Cantor, David E. and Jing Dai. (2012). The competitive determinants of a firm’s environmental management activities: Evidence from US manufacturing industries, Journal of Operations Management, 30: 9-84. Summarized by Patrick Shulist and the NBS Team.

Retrieved from Network for Business Sustainability. Businessman image via Shutterstock.

Contributed by  email , San Murugesan

“The Car is the problem!”

SIAM members

Cities have always been built for cars and not for people.  And more cars (irrespective of whether they are green or not) mean reduced green cover in the city and increased cover of asphalt, roads and concrete. And that is the challenge of sustainability - how to cause change without affecting change to the other ecosystems. A car is a big ticket item for many. And a green one takes it a few more notches up. Even if the payback period gets justified and the worthy consumer actually rewards a Toyota Prius or a Nissan’s Leaf or a Chevy Volt or a Ford Fusion,  that will solve one challenge and create a problem somewhere else – which stands against the whole systems thinking that sustainability calls for.

Urban Mobility v/s Personal Use Car

There are 2 ways to look at the sustainability of the auto industry at large within Indian context: One from the Urban Mobility viewpoint and the other from the respective car manufacturers internal sustainability initiatives. There’re no cars in a sustainable urban mobility viewpoint, while personal use car is the only thing that keeps the car makers in the business.

For making a sustainable Urban Mobility a reality for all, a different set of questions call for an answer:

• How can we reduce the personal use cars?
• How can we reduce the miles driven/trips made?
• How to redefine how people live and work?
• How do we increase the walkability on our roads?

A sustainable city of the future is not what we see in some “futuristic” sci-fi flick. It is the whole redefinition of capitalism at large. Conscious Capitalism Institute is doing just that. Clean Air Initiative (CAI) and Embarq, a WRI body are working towards improving the quality of lives in our cities through sustainable transport solutions.

Vehicle production numbers

Lofty goals of Indian Automotive sector

The Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) mission is to become a growth engine of Indian economy by propelling the Indian Auto Industry to a global $145 billion industry by 2016 whilst promoting sustainability by addressing multiple challenges arising out of emissions, climate change, energy and security.

And when we see the car penetration in India which is barely 30 per 1000 people as compared to 750 per 1000 people in US and other developed world - India has not even started driving yet and the SIAM’s mission may well over exceed its target (whether such growth will actually solve the climate change and energy problems is another issue). Point to note is that the ratio of fuel price per capita income in India is the highest in the world.  

Car makers delimma

While a car maker may introduce a number of Pollution Prevention and Resource Recovery strategies within its plant and the supply chain and finally come up with a hybrid or a clean-fuel run car – it will eventually use the premium road space, thus escalating the problem of walkability which is already scant in the Indian cities.  So, even if the car industry succeeds in making a carbon-neutral car, it isn’t necessarily one – it is affecting the change in urban and rural landscape.

It is a well know fact that 90% of carbon impacts over the entire life cycle of a car happens at the user stage (becasue of petrol use) and the 10% happens at the manufacturers side. So, when a company says that it is reusing its paint sludge, treating its waste effluents, making its plants landfill-free, recylcing its scrap, removing VOC’s and other hazardous chemicals, reducing its energy (fossil fuels) consumption, greening its data centers/servers (Green IT) and all the other programs of stakeholder and employee engagement - it means that this will only affect the 10% of the carbon impact!

So, when you have a car that runs on battery or some other alternative fuel, those 90% of the impacts at the consumer stage suddenly disappear and the 10% manufacturing impacts suddenly appear very big (which are humungous in absolute terms). So, whatever sustainability initiatives car makers are taking suddenly gain importance and become a fierce competetive edge. And you can say goodbye to a company that does’t yet have some form of Environmentally friendly vehicle in its product mix.

The Car is the problem

Now, let’s see what SIAM has in mind for driving car penetration in India. They have 3 Aternative Fuel Strategies:

• Short term: CNG, LPG, Ethanol
• Medium term: Bio-diesel, hybrid and electric
• Long term: Hydrogen and Fuel cells

This clearly means  that car is not going anywhere. The road to the low carbon future very much includes cars. Car was invented more than a century ago and are still in use…come to think of it, the technology of making a car hasn’t evolved much since its invention (you still got the 4 wheels and you still got to build the roads). But there are people who are talking about building our futures without cars, which I personally feel will be a fantastic thing to have in a city that will be for people and not cars.

So, we need to understand that carmakers are in the transportation/mobility business and not in the “green car” or technology business. While the auto industry served its purpose for decades and decades, it’s now time to rethink the whole transportation and personal mobility paradigm. India is at a point where it can keep powering ahead with its economic growth while ignoring the environmental impacts, or it can define a new path, a new path to building more sustainable cities – potential is huge in both directions.

Contributed by Pankaj Arora over email.

http://linkingsustainability.com/2012/06/01/the-car-is-the-problem/

How can you become part of the Green Economy @ World Environmental Day ’12

The tagline for this year’s 40th World Environment Day is “Green Economy: Does it include you?”

For an ordinary person, this may seem a bit complicated. Well, to begin with, it’s a bit complicated to define what Green Economy is. UNEP defines it as one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. In its simplest expression, a green economy can be thought of as one which is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive.

So…one might ponder. What do I have to do with it? How does it effect my work, my life, my family, my income, my security? Isn’t this the job of the government to manitain social equity along with low-carbon, resource-efficient economy – whatever that means.

For people who read about environment, who write about sustainable issues, who are in the field  – in other words, “the already converts” are the ones who actually understand this definition and know what needs to be done to reach this wonderfully exotic and safe haven of Green or Green-er economy. It is more like preaching to the choir.

And when we boil it down to a single day of actions and celebrations like this World Environment Day or The Earth Day, we inherently build a backfire button into them.

So, does it mean “I will not put on the car AC on my way to work today?” – I am a concerned citizen and care for my planet…so goes the thinking. And the argument is “What if everybody does it?” Well, everybody knows that everybody will never do it. And that is premise of the whole argument.

There’s a famous law called the “Pareto’s Law” named after an economist of the same name. This law is more commonly known as the “80/20 rule”. You will wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time. 80% of your business will be given by 20% of your clients. Or, 80%  of the results come from 20% of the efforts.

So, 80% of the changes we want in the environment, sustainable practices, consumer behavior and choices will flow from the 20% of those who have the maximum impact in bringing that change. In other words, if all the high-impact (carbon) companies of the world come together to reduce their C-footprint by half in next 5-10 years, the world would’ve solved its challenge of the century.

While it is all well and good to let this environmental awareness permeate into the masses and the next generation who will inherit this planet, but it is the companies that impact the choices what consumers make. And if they give low-carbon choice, then guess what, that is what the consumer will buy and reward. Period.

So it is not a surprise that UNEP thinks there are 10 important sectors that would make a different in our race for a Greener Planet – Buildings, Fisheries, Forestry, Transport, Water, Agriculture, Energy Supply, Tourism, Waste, and Manufacturing and Industry. Millions of jobs can be created in this Green Economy era. Old industries will be gone and new industries will take shape. In other words, what we call Green Economy today will be “business as usual” tomorrow. That is the aim, isn’t it?

But coming back to this year’s theme of Green Economy, in a way, each one of us in included in it – but we don’t want to. Here are 5 things that is in our control to make us part of the Green Economy:

• Refuse to take stuff put in the plastic bags from local retailers
• Separate your household waste at home by having 2 garbage cans – one for all burnable rubbish, other for non-burnable (plastic, cans etc.)
• While picking a product of the shelf, care to see if it carries any Eco-label on it. Buy only those product where ever possible
• Stop eating junk food. Trust me, this one action alone will have huge carbon reduction impact while keeping you healthy
• Learn a bit about what your favorite brands are doing in the sustainability space and reward them accordingly

But here’s what you must not do – carpool, switch off your AC (home/car), plant a tree, use less water for bath…such initiatives are hard on one’s conscience, riding on the guilt factor. They look and feel good, but are unsustainable by their sheer nature.

What else do you think one can do to be a part of the Green Economy…that is doable – not this Environment Day, but for the rest of your life?

Contributed by : Pankaj Arora

http://linkingsustainability.com/2012/06/04/how-can-you-become-part-of-the-green-economy-world-environmental-day-12/

Voluntary Carbon Offsetting Hits Three-Year High on US Action, Wind Farms, and Clean Development

Voluntary Carbon Offsetting Hits Three-Year High on US Action, Wind Farms, and Clean Development

http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=9070&section=news_articles&eod=1

Also, here is a story that focuses on clean cookstoves, which is a space that saw major growth in the last year.

Voluntary Carbon Report To Show Surge In Carbon Funding For Clean Cook Stoves

http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=9069&section=news_articles&eod=1

 

Ecosystem Marketplace is following up the report with a series of stories relating to the report's findings, so feel free to check the website for more information.

Contributed by:

Kelli Barrett

Editorial Assistant

Ecosystem Marketplace 

International Green IT Awareness Week is being held from 1st-7th June 2012. FFITS.ORG

International Green IT Awareness Week is being held from 1st-7th June 2012. FFITS.ORG, the initiative organiser, will be hosting a major virtual (online) conference during the week that will be scheduled live across global time zones.  As in previous years, International Green IT Awareness Week will engage the global network of green IT professionals, experts and organisations to present a series of engaging, pragmatic and thought-provoking presentations. The aim of the presentations will be to equip attendees with a range of skills and the knowledge necessary to take action on green IT, however big or small.

There will be speakers from across the globe including green IT experts, IT industry heavy weights, celebrities, government officials, our board of advisors and our founder. Speakers will be presenting through live video conferencing and webcasts; and will be addressing critical issues including the cultural change around green IT, showcasing case studies, discussing research, presenting on practical implementation and tips for implementing best practices for both home and business technology users.

The week of education and action was developed to encourage individuals and organisations to demand more from themselves and their partners, holding each other to account for our impact on the environment. The initiative also aimed to encourage those individuals and organisations to bring together their CIO, IT Directors along with their business managers, CFO and COE’s to start the discussion around what their organisation can do to green their IT infrastructure.

Some of the topics covered during the week will include:-

• What is Green IT?
• Where do we start?
• What are we doing about Green IT?
• What is the latest in Green IT research?
• Why set up Green IT initiatives?
• What do we have to gain from implementing Green IT measures?
• What are the Green IT Quick Wins?
• What actions can we implement at home and in small business?
• How can ICT make our company and our staff more sustainable long term?
• How do we become Green IT Champions?
• How do organisations undertake cultural change for green IT?
• What are the top examples of organisations achieving an environmentally sustainable IT?
• What are the risks if we wait too long to take actions?
• Why we as individuals and businesses need to address these issues to help fight climate change?

And talking about solutions including:-

• Developing a Green IT Strategy
• Data Centre optimisation and consolidation
• Corporate Governance
• Cultural Change
• Lifecycle Management
• Paper
• Water
• Reduce Energy usage
• Energy Efficiency
• Green IT financial incentives
• Storage
• eWaste
• Best practices, metrics
• Assessing, Measuring and Monitoring
• Cloud computing
• Technology replacements for travel
• Green Procurement
• Current standards, legislation and associations.

http://www.greenitweek.org/green-it-week-2012

Emailed by :  San Murugesan