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From Jess3
Sometimes a compelling picture of reality says more than any number or statistic can. Here, ABC News Australia presents a set of perfectly aligned, high-resolution aerial images taken before and after [abc.net.au] the recent Brisbane floods. Viewers can interactively hover and sweep over the images to get a better idea of how far the water rised and caused the devastation.
From Ceana Priest, stuff.co.nz
Reducing “vampire power” and paying taxes on time could make Kiwi businesses greener and more socially aware, international experts say.
Speaking at the International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability at Waikato University this week, Tom Bowman, of American firm Bowman Design Group, said many small business owners wrongly assumed green practices were cost prohibitive.
“The first step is to shut down your business completely at night,” he said.
“Turn everything off at the socket to avoid losing power overnight through vampire power (standby power) and save 10 to 15 per cent on electricity bills.
“Make sure your business relies on natural ventilation and lighting and when it is time to replace anything, equipment or cars, make energy consumption a top issue.
“The main thing is to do several things at once. These things pay for themselves in aggregate, not one at a time.”
The small design firm specialising in museum and trade show exhibitions adopted green principles in 2006 and aims to reduce carbon emissions by 95 per cent within 15 years. Within two years the firm reduced its annual operating costs for vehicles, paper, office machines and utilities by almost US$10,000 (NZ$13,200) and its carbon footprint by 12 tonnes.
The most successful green companies incorporate environmental philosophies into their business plan and set almost impossible goals for energy reduction, Mr Bowman said. “Owners need to make energy choices part of their daily decisions.”
University of Derby senior lecturer Paul Dexter said small businesses could boost their bottom line and become socially responsible by streamlining processes, developing customer relationships and paying taxes on time.
23-25 January 2013
International Conference Center Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
www.SustainabilityConference.com
Call for Papers
If you intend to present a paper at the conference, your participation begins with submission of a paper proposal. For information on proposals, presentation types, and other options, please see our website. To submit a proposal, please click here. If your proposal is accepted, you will then need to register for the Conference.
Registration
Those who submit paper proposals should register following the acceptance of
the proposal. Conference delegates who do not intend to present may register
at any time. For registration options or to register for the 2012
Sustainability Conference, see:
http://onsustainability.com/conference-2013/register/
From Daniel Albert, n+1
Thinking about becoming the kind of person who drives an electric car? It won’t be easy. Actually, owning the car will be remarkably easy: no more need for an auto mechanic (how often does your toaster need a repair?), no more emissions inspections, and no more trips to the gas station. You may miss standing at the pump, breathing the fumes next to the sign that warns against breathing the fumes. You may miss spending $20 or $30 or $40 a week on fuel. But oh, to be on the cutting edge!
The first thing to do is check your bank account. Got $110,000 to spare? Then you want a Tesla Roadster. It only seats two and has limited luggage space, but it accelerates faster than a Porsche and you get $7,500 back from the feds. You can use that tax rebate to buy the $2,000 fast home charger that puts 56 miles of range in the batteries every hour.
The Tesla will get you plenty of attention, based as it is on the sporty Lotus Elise—but if you really want attention, spend your hundred grand on a Tango. The Tango is either one of the coolest cars almost available or one of the silliest. It performs just like a Tesla, with lightning acceleration and go-cart handling. But it is narrower than some motorcycles—just one meter wide—and as with a motorcycle the lone passenger sits behind the driver. The result is a hatchback that makes a Honda Fit look like a Ford Excursion. Small just isn’t the word. The Tango has far less range than the Tesla, but this can be overcome by buying the Tango’s range-extending trailer, a small generator you tow behind. Still, unlike Tesla, which has opened dealerships and secured long-term backing from the founders of PayPal and Google, among others, Tango’s future may be limited to selling kit cars (still over $100,000, some assembly required).
Please join us at the Ta Rapa Racecourse for the conference dinner. With a park like setting, the Ta Rapa Racecourse is the prefect place in Hamilton to enjoy dinner with your fellow delegates.
Tuesday, 6 January 19:00 (7:00PM)
To register for the dinner please visit the 2011 Sustainability Conference web-site.
From Dan Sewell, The Huffington Post
The world’s largest consumer product maker announced Monday that it has set ambitious long-term targets for cutting the waste it produces and improving its energy efficiency.
Procter & Gamble said it eventually will use only renewable energy to power its factories and only recycled or renewable materials to make and package its products.
The manufacturer of Pampers diapers, Gillette shavers and numerous other top-selling products says it will take decades to achieve these goals. But it has set 10-year targets and will provide updates each year.
Bob McDonald, P&G’s chairman, president and CEO, said in an announcement webcast from Geneva that consumers applaud improvements to help the environment, and the new effort should help P&G’s business, as well as the Earth.
“I think when you do the right thing … the business just takes off,” said McDonald.
He said 173-year-old P&G recognizes its long-term impacts.
“It does us no good to grow our business today at the expense of tomorrow,” he said.
Environmental advocates have been pushing corporate giants to do more, especially because moves by P&G, retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and others can build momentum for sustainability by all kinds of businesses.
From Nathanial Gronewold, The New York Times
The recession taught many companies that “sustainability” can mean profits.
Slashing energy use and streamlining production in hard times, businesses learned that being green made a positive difference in their bottom lines and made a positive impression on Wall Street analysts and investors.
So companies are now zeroing in on a range of green targets — from curbing water consumption to analyzing the greenhouse gas emissions of suppliers — to show the Street that solid managers are in control.
Consider the case of Goldman Sachs Group. Three and a half years ago, the firm launched GS SUSTAIN, a research-advice service that looks to environmentalism as much as it does management talent and market share. At the time, the firm said it wanted to prove investors could achieve solid, long-term returns from equity holdings through a focus on a company’s performance on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG).
Although GS SUSTAIN began just before the 2008 financial crash, the effort has survived and thrived, tripling its staff through the period and generally outperforming the overall market by a significant gap. Goldman Sachs says the GS SUSTAIN Focus List, an index of the top tier of the 1,000 companies tracked, has outperformed the more generalized MSCI All Country World Index by 39.9 percent since the unit’s creation in June 2007.
We invite you to join us for an all day tour of the Maungatautari Ecological Trust. The Maungatautari Ecological Trust is an internationally significant restoration project, this 3,400 hectare forested, extinct volcano stands majestically on the landscape in the Waikato basin, between Cambridge, Te Awamutu and Putaruru, in the central North Island of New Zealand. This tour includes bus transport to Maungatautari Ecological Trust from Hamilton and back, a guided tour and information session, as well as lunch. For more information on the Maungatautari Ecological Trust please visit http://www.maungatrust.org/index.asp. Please wear appropriate walking shoes and sun hat.
The tour will leave from Hamilton on Saturday, 8 January at 9:00AM and return at 5:00PM.
*This tour has a minimum of 30 people. If we do not reach this number, we will notify you and refund your payment.
For more information please visit the 2011 Sustainability Conference Web-Site.
Eva Collins and Veronica Dujon will speak at the 2011 Sustainability Conference at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand.
Eva Collins is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Waikato, New Zealand (BS Hons, Portland State; MA, Essex; PhD, George Washington University). Her area of research and teaching is business strategy related to sustainability. She is an award-winning writer of sustainability case studies. In 2009, she and her research team received a prestigious Marsden Grant for a 3-year study examining the vulnerability of New Zealand’s global environmental positioning.
Veronica Dujon is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Portland State University, in Portland, Oregon, USA. She received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1995. She publishes in the area of natural resource use and Third World Economic Development. Her latest publication is the edited volume Understanding the Dimensions of Social Sustainability (2009) with colleagues Prof. Mary King and Jesse Dillard.
Prof. Dujon teaches courses in environmental sociology, sociology of globalization, social sustainability, and the sociology of women. One of her major research interest areas is the role of women in the global economy and how to build socially sustainable societies.
Prof. Dujon is a three-time winner of the John Eliot Allen Teaching Award. In 2005 she was nominated for the U.S. Professor of the Year Award. In 2008 Prof. Dujon received the PSU Distinguished Faculty Award.
For more information please visit the 2011 Sustainability Conference Web-Site.
From The Economist,
Why buy when you can rent? This simple question is the foundation stone of a growing number of businesses. Why buy a car (and pay for parking) when you can rent one whenever you need to load up at IKEA? Why buy a bike (and risk having it stolen) when you can pick one up at a bike rack near your home and drop it off at another rack near your office? Why buy a DVD when you can watch it and return it in a convenient envelope?
Renting is not a new business, of course. Hotel chains and car-hire firms have been around for ages, and the world’s oldest profession, one might argue, involves renting. But for most of the past 50 years renters have been conceding ground to owners. Laundromats have been closing down as people buy their own washing machines. Home ownership was, until the financial crisis, rising nearly everywhere. Rental markets grew ossified: hotels and car-hire firms barely changed their business models for decades. All this is now changing dramatically, however, thanks to technology, austerity and greenery.