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Early this month, Dow Jones and Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) launched The Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index (DJSGI). According to a number of research studies, many reported here, environmentally and socially proactive companies outperform the market average. In a “backcasting” exercise looking at the past five years, the DJSGI outperformed conventional indices by 5.5 percent with an added risk of one percent. Now it (we) will get an empirical test. SAM, a Zurich-based firm, is focused on integrating corporate sustainability into financial services through sustainability assessment and advisory services. The company’s Sustainability Rating method was used to select the 200+ companies that comprise the index. The rating method puts companies through an annual review, equally weighting economic, social and environmental criteria. SAM draws on the expertise of many people in our field through, for example, the United Nations Environment Programme core reporting guidelines, SustainAbility standards for environmental reports, and SA8000 standards on the social side. Companies in the index represent a cross section of 73 industry groups in 33 countries. Three regional indexes cover Europe, America and Asia-Pacific; a separate index covers U.S. companies. All companies are automatically screened for alcohol, gambling, and/or tobacco. It’s not a surprise that European […]
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A free video that documents the green design and construction process for Pennsylvania’s new 73,000 square foot Department of Environmental Protection building may be useful if you are exploring the idea for your own construction project or for use as a professional tool to educate potential clients. Pennsylvania plans to replicate the integrated planning and design process used here as a model for future state buildings. The video chronicles the construction process from brownfield remediation to installation of access floors and carpet tiles. You’ll see interviews with industry leaders like Ray Anderson of Interface and Rick Fedrizzi of Carrier, as well as the manufacturing process of some green materials; PET soda bottles turned into work stations, for example. At $78/sf for hard construction costs, the building consumes half the energy of a comparable conventional building and saves $50,000 annually. Some of its green features are: – energy-efficient building envelope, including argon-filled, low-e windows – access floors used for conditional air supply – highly reflective ceiling tiles, light shelves for daylight penetration, high efficiency indirect lighting – gas-fired absorption chillers – removable carpet tiles – recycled-content workstation fabric and natural fiber upholstery fabric – occupancy-sensing power strips and controls – recycled-content […]
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Despite economic growth of almost four percent, U.S. CO2 emissions rose only .4 percent in 1998, the smallest increase since 1991. Since CO2 emissions equal about 84 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions they are a good indicator of total emissions. Increased summer electricity use was offset by a very warm winter, reducing fuel use (the irony of global warming). The transportation sector, which constitutes about a third of emissions, increased by 1.8 percent while industrial emissions declined by 1.2 percent. Utilities used higher emitting, cheap oil instead of natural gas resulting in 3.2 percent higher emissions. Energy Information Administration
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“In little more than a decade, New York has gone from almost no recycling of our solid waste to recycling nearly half of the solid waste produced in the state,” Governor Pataki said when he announced that NY State had achieved its goal of recycling 42 percent by 1997. Out of a total of 30 million tons of waste about 12.5 million tons were recycled in 1997. Since 1988, New York state and local governments have invested almost $150 million in waste reduction, recycling and household hazardous waste management projects. Source: Environment News Service
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EPA data analyzed by The Foundation for Clean Air Progress shows that 10 cities have reduced the number of high ozone days by 75 percent (Rochester, NY.) to 40.7 percent (Los Angeles, CA.) over the last decade. The average reduction is 54.3 percent. The other cities, in order, are: Buffalo, NY.; Milwaukee, WI.; San Diego, CA.; Boston, MA.; Sacramento, CA.; Detroit, MI.; Chicago, IL.; and Newark, NJ. [sorry this link is no longer available]
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A draft electronics takeback plan is winding its way through German parliament, having cleared the environment committee. It requires that manufacturers of all types of electrical equipment (appliances, IT equipment, consumer electronics) take back, free of charge, an equal number of products as sold during the year, as well as products sold before the plan is enacted. Industry would be able to apply a surcharge to pay for the program. Municipalities would be responsible for collecting and sorting the items. The plan will likely be discussed by the plenary of the state chamber (Bundesrat) in September. If approved by both chambers, it could be law by the end of this year, giving manufacturers 1-2 years to comply depending on the product. Source: CutterEdge Environment
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European forest industry organizations formally launched the Pan-European Forest Certification Scheme (PEFC), a sustainable forest management program that competes with the globally accepted Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Now there are two labels for sustainable managed wood products. PEFC was initiated by small forest owners in Finland and other European countries who opposed FSC. Forest industry organizations in 17 European countries have endorsed PEFC, and organizers have received interest from Australia, Canada, U.S. and Brazil. The group expects 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres) to be certified by early 2000, possibly doubling by next summer.
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25 million refugees fled from drought, floods, deforestation and degraded land last year outnumbering people displaced by war, for the first time, according to the International Red Cross.Its 1999 World Disasters Report, an annual survey of humanitarian trends, says last year’s “natural disasters” were the worst on record, creating 58 percent of the world’s refugees. “Everyone is aware of the environmental problems of global warming and deforestation on one hand and the social problems of increasing poverty and growing shanty towns on the other,” says Astrid Heiberg, president. “But when these two factors collide, you have a new scale of catastrophe.” The cost of weather related disasters in 1998 exceeded the cost of all such disasters during the 1980s. International Federal of Red Cross FROM The Gallon Environment Letter
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Hoping that hemp production can help offset the decline of the sugarcane industry, Hawaii has passed a bill that makes planting commercial hemp legal. The Hawaii Strategic Industrial Hemp Development Act of 1999 allows private companies to fund industrial hemp research at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Hemp legislation has also passed in North Dakota and Minnesota and has been introduced in Kentucky, Montana, Virginia, Vermont, Illinois, Oregon and Colorado. The California Democratic National Party supports industrial hemp. In Kentucky, many farmers see hemp as a potential substitute crop for tobacco. Canada is in its second year of hemp production. This year, Health Canada received about 750 applications to grow industrial hemp. Roughly half of Canada’s 1999 crop of 25,000 acres is in Manitoba and is managed by one company, CGP Canada, a subsidiary of the U.S. company, Consolidated Growers & Processors. The certified organic acreage is estimated at only 1500 acres, but is considered to be a growing trend. Source: The Hemp Commerce & Farming Report
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