How Business Influences Climate Change Policy

December 12, 2008

Kevin Tuerff
CEO
Green Canary Sustainability Consulting

Email this story Print this post Add your comments

(Poznan, Poland, Dec. 11, 2008) Unless your business tries to buy its way into political office (apparently this still happens in some countries), business and industry have limited ability to influence the outcome of next year’s Copenhagen Protocol, the successor climate change treaty to Kyoto. The negotiating parties are solely government ministers of some 190 countries.

One of the most influential non-governmental organizations successfully influencing climate change policy is the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. And the United States Business Council focuses on implementing pilot projects that turn into case studies that get elevated to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change Conference via the World Business Council.

Andrew Mangan, executive director of the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development, is proud to have watched one such pilot project, called By-product Synergy (BPS), become an official recommendation from the World Business Council.

“We bring together executives from the disparate companies in one region, in a non-regulatory setting,” said Mangan. “They talk candidly about their waste output and we help them find ways to turn one company’s by-product into the other company’s feedstock.”

An example cited in the WBCSD report is the process set up by US BCSD in Kansas City, which identified 29 commercially viable synergies with the potential to divert 30,000 tons annually from landfills. Cook Composites and Polymers is one participant in the Kansas City project. At first the company only wanted to find a better way to dispose of 500 tons of a material. But through the BPS forum they have begun to look at how they could change their products to meet the needs of new markets and are now developing alternatives to fiber-glass boat hulls using organic fibers.

Participating BPS companies are saving money, significantly reducing unused output, lowering carbon emissions and seeing opportunities for new products increase.

Mangan added, “We find that first-time participants in BPS frequently change their internal culture to set goals for “100 Percent Product,” without anything leaving their factories considered to be a waste liability.”

In addition to escalating their energy efficiency programs, companies can participate in one of several By-product Synergy programs, realizing a new day in manufacturing through an emerging circular economy: eliminating waste equals increasing profits.

More information is available at their Web site.

Kevin Tuerff is CEO of Green Canary Sustainability Consulting and cofounder of EnviroMedia Social Marketing.

Email this story Print this post Add your comments

Advertisers

Make sustainability part of your strategy.

Get equipped at the SAP Sustainability Resource Center. >>

Unclear about the EPA's new GHG Rule?

Learn how it could affect your business. >>

EPA mandatory emissions reporting starts Jan 1st

CSA Standards can help your organization get ready for compliance. Find out how. >>

Survey Results: Product Environmental Compliance Best Practices

How to achieve compliance at a significantly lower cost. Download the full report. >>

Join the Discussion

Recent Daily News [ see all ]

11/20/2009
11/19/2009
11/18/2009

Charts [ see all ]

European Paper Industry Cuts CO2 Emissions by 42% since 1990

S. America Takes Most Urgent View of Copenhagen Talks

Nike Tops Annual Climate Action Scores

Oceans May Trap more Carbon than Forests

Jobs

View All Jobs >> Post a Job >>

Comments and Discussions

Trade Association on Trade Group on EPA Chemical Regs: ‘If Everything is a Priority, Then Nothing is a Priority’
"Seriously… that..."

Gary Markowitz on Supermarkets Tackle Emissions Reductions, Fuel Efficiency
"Supermarkets waste over 10 percent of their energy through improper..."

peter in ireland on Ontario May Follow California’s Lead on TV Energy Efficiency
"Governor Schwarzenegger is shooting himself in the foot! 1...."

Environmental Leader on S. America Takes Most Urgent View of Copenhagen Talks
"The survey respondents (the PDF report mentions 4,000 respondents in 38..."

Jake on UPS Trying New Hydraulic Hybrid Trucks
"A point of clarification: the Reuters press release referenced herein reports that 20 UPS will purchase..."

Custom Organic Shirts on S. America Takes Most Urgent View of Copenhagen Talks
"90% of North Americans believe it is urgent to get a global climate..."

peter dublin on California City’s Green Building Ordinance Applies to Commercial Buildings
"Why energy efficiebnt regulation on buildings –..."

Environmental Leader