Sustainable Energy News: 03/15/12

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Should It Be About More Than the Bottom Line?

Sustainability: It Should Be About More Than the Bottom Line - Forbes

Going green can be profitable – that is the conclusion of multiple studies that have looked at the financial outcomes of corporate efforts to improve their environmental impacts. By reducing emissions, packaging materials, and waste, Walmart, Unilever, and many other companies have been able to reduce their costs and improve their environmental impact. This has led some to conclude that the best way for corporations to serve society and to operate sustainably is to focus on reducing costs and maximizing their profits.

U.K. ‘Wasted’ 4 Years on Failed $1.6 Billion Carbon-Capture Plan

U.K. ‘Wasted’ 4 Years on Failed $1.6 Billion Carbon-Capture Plan - Businessweek

The U.K. must learn from a failed 1 billion-pound ($1.6 billion) carbon-capture funding program that “wasted” four years, as it prepares to open a second financing competition, the head of a panel of lawmakers said. “Government cannot afford to miss this crucial environmental commitment,” said Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the Committee of Public Accounts, after the National Audit Office published a review of the program terminated last year. “It must learn the lessons from this failure to avoid squandering any more time and money.”

New Zealand spot carbon slips

New Zealand spot carbon slips on weak energy prices | Reuters

(Reuters) - New Zealand carbon prices slipped from last week, tracking sluggishness in the European carbon market on weaker oil prices, but losses were limited as many investors were wary of selling, given prices hovered near the lowest in four weeks. Spot permits under New Zealand's emissions trading scheme, or New Zealand units (NZUs), were seen trading at NZ$7.40 ($6.06) on Friday, brokers said, down from NZ$7.90 a week ago.

Just how much greenwashing is there in the energy industry?

Just how much greenwashing is there in the energy industry? | GreenBiz.com

As many companies work to green their businesses, greenwashing -- the practice of deceptively marketing a company's products or policies as environmentally friendly -- runs rampant. And it's taking its toll on the energy industry. Here's how:

Direct air carbon capture

Direct air carbon capture: Oil's answer to fracking? | GreenBiz.com

Since 1999, when Columbia University physicist Klaus Lackner wrote the first scientific paper [PDF, download] about capturing carbon dioxide from the air, his unlikely idea has grown into a nascent industry. Four startup companies, including his own, Kilimanjaro Energy, are working on technologies to extract CO2 from the atmosphere using chemical processes. The air-capture startups are funded by billionaires (Bill Gates, Edgar Bronfman Jr.) and venture capitalists (Arch Venture Partners), and they are attracting interest from private equity firms (Warburg Pincus), investment banks (Goldman Sachs), energy companies (Summit Power) and a military contractor (Boeing).

US corporate solar market heats up

US corporations heat up solar market | GreenBiz.com

The U.S. solar industry smashed the record for new installations last year, deploying 1,855 megawatts of new solar PV capacity, more than doubling the previous annual record of 887 MW recorded during 2010.
According to the latest U.S. SolarMarket Insight report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and analyst firm GTM Research, new installations grew 109 per cent in 2011, marking the first time the industry has deployed more than a gigawatt of new capacity in a single year.

Cracking the glass ceiling: Its a start . . .

Cracking the glass ceiling: Women finally represent 10% of corporate boards | GreenBiz.com

Thursday marked International Women's Day, which means, among many other things, that GovernanceMetrics International (GMI) has published its annual Women on Boards report. The survey, which includes data on more than 4,300 companies in 45 countries, concludes that there has been "incremental improvement in most measures of female board representation" since GMI's 2011 report. This year's report marks some milestones for the representation of women on corporate boards, which, according to a 2010 report from GMI, "increases the conscientiousness of board oversight, and leads to more accurate value assessments." For the first time, "women hold more than one in ten board seats globally: 10.5% of the directors in our coverage universe are now women, a 0.7 percentage point increase from last year," according to this year's report.

How Google gets the most from green buildings

How Google gets the most from green buildings | GreenBiz.com

Much has been written about Google and its millions upon millions in investment in renewable energy. But until recently, the public seldom got a peek into the inner workings of the Silicon Valley juggernaut and its own energy practices. That changed last fall when the company lifted the veil on its energy consumption, efforts to make that more efficient and other work to reduce the environmental impacts of operations.
In addition to releasing a white paper on data center energy efficiency, the company launched its Google Green site, which provides a broad view of the firm's overall footprint. Included is a look at what the company is doing at its campuses.

Sustainability in World Apparel Industry

Sustainability in World Apparel Industry Reviewed in New Textiles Intelligence Report Published at MarketPublishers.com

With companies having come under close scrutiny for the adverse impact of their operations on the environment and on society, the textile and apparel industry has become highly eco-conscious. During the most recent conference in Barcelona, Spain, hosted by TextileExchange - a dynamic professional community of experts, solution providers, and industry peers dedicated to advancing sustainable practices across the global textile value chain, the latest trends and innovations in textile sustainability, as well as apparel and textile impacts in areas such as water, energy/carbon, waste, toxics, biodiversity, were vividly discussed.

Wind farm investors sought by E.ON

Environmental Finance | News | Capital costs lead E.ON to seek wind farm investors

The capital intensity of building wind farms will mean a change of strategy at German energy giant E.ON, it reported today, with the firm looking to sell stakes in existing installations. E.ON plans to invest €7 billion ($9 billion) in renewable energy over next five years, with more than €2 billion earmarked for three offshore wind farms.

ERA and Wildlife Works announce REDD venture

Environmental Finance | News | ERA and Wildlife Works announce REDD joint venture

Canada’s Ecosystem Restoration Associates (ERA) has teamed up with Wildlife Works to complete a project to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition, ERA announced today that it has become the first REDD project developer to sign up to the Code REDD campaign which aims to boost corporate demand for forest carbon offsets.
ERA’s Vancouver listed vehicle ERA Carbon Offsets acquired the carbon rights for 25 years in an avoided deforestation project in the DRC in August, and will now cooperate with California-based Wildlife Works on project finance, technical development, implementation and carbon credit sales.

Barry Callebaut pushes sustainable cocoa with CHF 40 million global initiative

Barry Callebaut accelerates drive towards sustainable cocoa with launch of CHF 40 million global initiative

Zurich/Switzerland, March 15, 2012 - Barry Callebaut, the world's leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa and chocolate, has launched a CHF 40 million cocoa sustainability initiative to boost farm productivity, increase quality and improve family livelihoods in key cocoa producing countries in West and Central Africa and Indonesia over 10 years. In fiscal year 2011/2012 the company will invest CHF 5 million in farmer training, infrastructure and community education and health programs. The activities will be undertaken in cooperation with agricultural and development experts and government institutions. Barry Callebaut will focus first on large producer countries including Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, Cameroon and Brazil, and aims to expand the initiative, called Cocoa Horizons, to other cocoa producing countries with high development potential over the coming years.

US to add 25GW of solar power

Environmental Finance | News | US to add 25GW of solar power by 2017

The US solar market will continue to experience significant growth over the next five years, despite the expiration of a key federal subsidy programme, according to a report released on Wednesday. The industry installed a record of nearly 1.9GW of photovoltaic (PV) capacity in 2011, more than doubling the annual record of 887MW in 2010, according to the latest US Solar Market Insight report by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). The US solar market’s total value surpassed $8.4 billion in 2011, with the industry exceeding the 1GW mark in a single year for the first time, as the rate of growth more than doubled compared with the previous year, according to the report.

Carbon financiers eye donors as new source of finance

Environmental Finance | News | Carbon financiers eye donors as new source of finance

Carbon project developers are looking to tap into the growing emphasis by donors on ‘results-based’ aid to help finance emissions reduction projects in poor countries that offer health or other social benefits.
ClimateCare, an Oxford-based project developer, has been in discussions with leading donor agencies “for six or seven months” about monetising some of the co-benefits of its projects in Africa, said director Edward Hanrahan.

Buffett Plans More Solar Bonds

Buffett Plans More Solar Bonds After Oversubscribed Deal - Bloomberg

Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. is planning a second round of bonds to finance its $2.4 billion Topaz Solar Farm in California after investors sought more of the debt than was offered in the first public issuance for a U.S. photovoltaic power project. The first Topaz bond offering, for $850 million, was oversubscribed by more than $400 million. Fitch Ratings, which gave the deal its lowest investment-grade rating of BBB-, said the second tranche will probably cover the balance of the $1.265 billion in debt MidAmerican needs to complete the 550-megawatt project.