Guest Columns
The Quiet Clean-Mining Revolution
Few industries have such a black eye, literally and metaphorically, as mining.
After centuries of environmental effects ranging from toxic emissions to unsightly tailings ponds, acid mine drainage, massive energy consumption and other impacts, mining is ...
Recent Trends in Sustainable Building
Sustainable building has had its ups and downs lately. Many building owners and professionals complain about the USGBC’s LEED standards, ranging from, "It’s too expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to get certification," to, "It does ...
Cleantech Innovations Continue to Thrive
Cleantech innovations continue to thrive, a sign that viability for eco-friendly energy technologies is continuing. With increasing opportunity to innovate in this sector, many wonder which technologies areas are most likely to prevail. A recent analysis ...
Sustainability Boosts Returns for Private Equity Funds, Part II
Maximizing Earnings through Environmental Management
In the first installment of this series, we provided a brief overview of why sustainability matters to private equity fund managers and how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) management can be ...
Lessons from Kraft and Tesco on Making LCA Count
There have been two particularly "mediatized" stories recently in the food industry that I felt needed some reality checking. The first was the coverage of Kraft’s news that after many months and dollars spent their environmental ...
Channeling Surplus IT Promotes Sustainability
Connect to Compete, an initiative led by the FCC with help from private and non-profit organizations, gives large businesses and government agencies the opportunity to re-channel used, surplus computer equipment to help provide support to the one-third of ...
Sustainability as Economic Game-Changer, Part III
Companies that rely on out of date, caustic economic modeling rather than engaging in embedded sustainability may find themselves limiting their future profits and positive market perception. This can lead financial institutions into the situation of overexposure ...
Six Lesser-Known Climate Facts
Climate change seems to have taken a back seat lately both in policy debates and business strategies. But this is generally not the case in the research community, where rigorous analyses of climate change mitigation proposals are being published ...
For Explosive Growth in Solar Energy Industry, Prices Must Come Down
I was delighted when someone sent me this Time Science piece on The Coming US-China Solar War because it finally lays bare the conflicting arithmetic confronting the US solar industry -- arithmetic that typically gets lost ...
Environmental Management, Financial Performance Go Hand in Hand
Newsweek's Green Rankings in November compared the environmental footprints, management and reporting of the 500 largest US companies, and our analysis shows that the "greenest" companies are on the gravy train.
Findings suggest that financial performance and environmental management ...
How Third-Party CSR Ratings Impact Share Price
Being added to external corporate social responsibility indices enhances a company’s reputation and can affect its share price, but not always in ways expected. This article examines how the stock prices of 121 companies changed after being added ...
Using Environmental Data for Business Value
It’s early in the calendar year, a time when many environmental professionals gather their 2011 environmental data to generate reports that your regulatory agencies require. How much fuel did your stationary combustion sources burn ...
California’s Climate Change Laboratory: AB 32
"It is one of the happy accidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory, and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to ...
Delivering Sustainable Supply Chains
Regulation, along with a drive to improve efficiency and enhance corporate reputation, has encouraged the majority of large organizations to look at how they can measure and reduce carbon in their own business. As this becomes ...
Sustainability as Economic Game Changer, Part II
For CEOs, the passport of sustainability delivers clear environmental, social and economic governance. As such, the sustainability passport assists in the protection against economic vulnerability through the momentum of changing market forces and mandatory reporting.
And, whilst most ...
Eco-mode UPS for Data Centers
Microprocessor based loads for computer hardware need high fidelity voltage for continuous fault-free operation. For more than 20 years that power quality profile has been mandated by the CBEMA curve (Computer Business Equipment Manufacturers Association) that was ...
Tools of the Manufacturing Trade, Part V
Software to the rescue...
In part 4 of this series, I introduced the idea of the "design to production pipeline." This was to illustrate the design to manufacturing continuum and show a strategy whereby ...
Could Efficiency Help Iron out the Bumps in Ore Prices?
Many manufacturers now see raw materials as their biggest risk. Carmakers are among industries caught between volatile commodity prices and cash-strapped customers. Companies making the most of what's available can help drive more sustainable growth.
UK manufacturers across sectors ...
Will Customers Pay More for ‘Green?’
Will people pay to go green? That's a key question - maybe the question - for any company committed to sustainability. At Walmart, we’ve learned that the answer is a bit nuanced: Basically, usually not – but it ...
Organizational Change: The Swiss Army Knife of Sustainability
On December 8, 2011, TSSS attendees heard from an industry veteran who has been in the field of corporate sustainability for more than 20 years. Kevin Brady from PE International and Five Winds Strategic ...
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Texas Instruments Sustainability Report: Normalized Emissions Jump 23%
