FEATURES AND NEWS
Rezidor, a member of the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, has launched a group-wide energy-saving initiative – Think Planet – to reduce energy consumption 25 percent by 2016 in all Rezidor hotels across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Santander Brasil, Indian IT firm Wipro, Brazilian financial company Bradesco and US-based IBM topped this year’s Newsweek Green Rankings for global companies, while Singapore food company Wilmar, Coal India and agribusiness giant Monsanto took the bottom spots in the annual environmental ranking of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in ... Read more »
Thirty-nine percent of water executives say demand is “highly likely” to outstrip water supply by 2030, while 54 percent say such a risk is moderately likely, according to research released today by Oracle Utilities. Water for All?, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, surveyed 244 senior water utility executives across ... Read more »
In 2011, Heineken’s water consumption decreased just under 4.5 percent from 4.5 hl to 4.3 hl per hl of product. Among the major contributors was the company’s Bergamo, Italy, facility, which improved its pasteurizer and wastewater treatment plant efficiency. A plant in Lagos, Nigeria, produced “a significant saving” by further ... Read more »
Volkswagen Group has been named the leading vendor in the clean diesel vehicle market, according to a report by Pike Research. In Pike Pulse Report: Clean Diesel Vehicles in the United States, the German automaker scored highly on both its strategy, which covers company vision, production and geographic reach, and ... Read more »
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Green roofs and green walls will grow from a $5.3 billion market in 2011 into a $7.7 billion market in 2017, driven by mandates and incentives in cities worldwide, according to Lux Research. But while installations will increase 70 percent to 204 million square meters, costs and lack of validation ... Read more »
The California Paint Stewardship Program has launched its statewide recycling system, allowing residents to bring unused cans of paint to designated retailers and other drop-off sites for recycling. Customers buying paints will also be charged a fee, ranging from 35 cents to $1.60, to cover some costs of the program, ... Read more »
Levi’s has introduced a new denim collection made from recycled plastic bottles and food trays. In what the jeans brand calls the next chapter in its sustainable design initiative, each WasteLess product will include a minimum of 20 percent post-consumer recycled content, or, on average, eight 12- to 20-ounce bottles ... Read more »
The New York State Public Service Commission is beginning a formal proceeding to assess retail energy markets after internal reviews have reported that “many residential and small non-residential ESCO customers paid a higher price than they would otherwise have paid as full-service utility customers.” It is seeking comments addressing possible actions that could ... Read more »
At this year’s Sustainable, Responsible Investing (SRI) Conference, Rinaldo S. Brutoco, president of the World Business Academy, spoke with Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres, about the state of the world economy, sustainable investing and the practice and politics of aligning business interests with human interests.
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Arizona State University recently installed solar panels over the University Services Building parking lot. I captured the 2 months of construction and condensed it into a 5 minute time lapse.
Cofely District Energy has won a 25-year contract to operate the Coventry City Council’s heat network, and a new report says district heating must play a “massive role” if the UK is to reach its carbon reduction and energy targets. Cofely will operate Heatline, buying heat from a waste-to-energy plant ... Read more »
A new program in New Jersey will allow large commercial and industrial facilities to offset surcharges on their gas and electric bills to pay for energy-efficiency projects, NJ Spotlight reports. The program gives some commercial users a credit against their Societal Benefits Charge (SBC) to pay up to one-half of ... Read more »
Panasonic Eco Solutions North America and Macerich have partnered to begin the first phase of a multi-property retail real estate solar power program. Over the next 12 months, Panasonic will install solar systems expected to yield 10.2 to 12 MW of energy at 12 Macerich shopping centers in Arizona, California, ... Read more »
Some 35,000 buildings that used the Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool to track and manage energy use between 2008 and 2011 realized an average annual savings of 2.4 percent with a total savings of 7 percent, according to EPA. Buildings that consistently benchmark energy performance do, in fact, save energy, ... Read more »
The University of Arizona hopes to cut its energy bill by 5 to 10 percent a year by showing students campus usage in real time via an online dashboard, KVOA Tucson reports. The school spends about $37 million on utilities annually, Dan McCrady, a member of the UA Energy Management ... Read more »
Bridgeport Hospital expects to save $357,108, or 2.2 million kWh annually, after partnering with Energize Connecticut and the United Illuminating Company and completing a series of energy efficient upgrades, the hospital says. The hospital, which is one of the largest employers in Bridgeport, Conn., also expects a lifetime energy savings ... Read more »
The majority – 60 percent – of the world’s 250 largest companies lack a long-term water strategy, according to a KPMG analysis of corporate responsibility reports. This may mean companies do not see the need to detail water strategies in their CR reports, according to Sustainable Insight – Business Responses ... Read more »
Buyer sustainability management budgets in the defense industry are expected to rise by 7.3 percent over the next 12 months, compared to respondents’ previously expected increase of 7 percent in 2011 and 6.8 percent in 2010, according to a report by Strategic Defense Intelligence. Energy-efficient facilities and composite stack materials ... Read more »
Solid waste specialist Republic Services is investing $25 million to expand and improve its fleet of compressed natural gas-powered trucks for use around the St. Louis area, reports the St. Louis Business Journal. Of the $25 million, $22 million will be spent on 72 new CNG-powered collection vehicles, the web ... Read more »
Poor corporate environmental and social governance disclosure remains the number one challenge to investing in emerging markets, according to a survey of global investors by research firm EIRIS. For Evolving markets: what’s driving ESG in emerging economies?, EIRIS received 44 responses from asset managers, asset owners, index providers and other ... Read more »
A coalition of eight conservation organizations has called on the US Fish and Wildlife Service to make changes at a wind energy facility in Western Maryland to reduce bird and bat mortality. The groups say that the 28-turbine Criterion Wind Project now ranks as the deadliest to birds in the ... Read more »
The number of federal LEED-certified projects has skyrocketed about 51 percent this year, from 544 completed in 2011 to 821 in just the first eight months of 2012, the Federal Times reports. US Green Building Council director for technical policy Lane Burt says the growth in LEED-certified federal buildings mirrors ... Read more »
The Pepsi Beverages Company’s Latham, NY bottling plant has launched a $10 million energy efficiency project that replaces merchant-supplied bottles with energy-efficient, onsite, plastic bottle production, The Troy Record reports. Pepsi received $286,000 from NYSERDA for the project. PBC is using state-of-the art, energy efficient blow molding equipment estimated to reduce ... Read more »
One of the themes from CEATEC 2012 was how major appliances, CE devices and energy management systems are all starting to be integrated into one grand control scheme. Each company seems to be developing its own ecosystem solution with little thought about interoperability. Panasonic seems to be representative of this ... Read more »