Infosys has ranked among the ‘Top Ten Greenest Brands in India’, according to a consumer survey conducted by WPP agencies, Cohn & Wolfe, Landor Associates and Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates (PSB), and independent strategy consulting firm, Esty Environmental Partners.
A study into spam has blamed it for the production of more than 33bn kilowatt-hours of energy every year, enough to power more than 2.4m homes.
The Carbon Footprint of e-mail Spam report estimated that 62 trillion spam emails are sent globally every year.
This amounted to emissions of more than 17 million tons of CO2, the research by climate consultants ICF International and anti-virus firm McAfee found.
Searching for legitimate e-mails and deleting spam used some 80% of energy.
The study found that the average business user generates 131kg of CO2 every year, of which 22% is related to spam.
A report by the group ForestEthics estimates that destroying forests to make paper for junk mail releases as much greenhouse gas pollution as 9 million cars.
Another way to look at it: Junk mail produces as much pollution as seven U.S. states combined, or as much as heating 13 million homes each winter.
While the estimates may or may not be accurate, the point is indisputable: Junk mail is a waste. (To most people, it's an annoying part of the trip to the mailbox, anyway.)
Not convinced? NASA climate scientist James Hansen, one of the most respected voices on the issue of global warming and our need to do something about it, had this to say about the report:
"20 years after I first testified before Congress on the threats posed by climate change, we have reached a point at which we must remove unnecessary carbon emissions from our lives, or face catastrophic consequences. It is hard to imagine waste more unnecessary than the 100 billion pieces of junk mail Americans receive each year, and these new findings, revealing that the emissions of junk mail are equal to those of over nine million cars, underscore the prudent necessity of a Do Not Mail Registry."
Other green celebrity-types to sign on with the group's Do Not Mail campaign include Leonardo DiCaprio, Adrian Grenier, David Crosby and Daryl Hannah.
Still not convinced? Also consider that junk mail takes a huge toll on boreal forests, where the migratory songbirds so many of us enjoy in our backyards spend part of the year. Without those forests, there will be fewer birds.
Actress Jennifer Aniston has given her Beverly Hills mansion a US$ 15 million eco friendly makeover using solar panels liberally. The 'Marley and Me' actress has installed a reflective metal roof in her house in a bid to conserve energy.
Aniston has even swapped her Range Rover car for a Toyota Prius doubling her fuel efficiency for half the price, a website reported. The US$ 15 million renovations are said to be just part of the 'Friends' star's environmentally friendly projects. The 40-year-old actress is also said to be equipping her new Malibu pad with eco-friendly devices including drought-resistant plants.
Despite owning a swimming pool, Aniston has confessed that she is keen on saving water and confesses to taking only three-minute showers. Prior to the launch of Al Gore's Live Earth concerts in 2007, Aniston said, "I take a three-minute shower.
I even brush my teeth while I shower. Every two minutes in the shower uses as much water as a person in Africa uses for everything in their life for a whole day." An avid environmentalist, Aniston added, "When you become aware of all the things you do, and the effect those things have, you want to make small changes."
"In a tough economic climate, senior executives from entertainment, media and advertising are seeking better results with great efficiency at lower costs.
That's why we invite you to join several hundred executives in Hollywood to learn how their business can be more profitable through innovation and corporate responsibility.
Discover how to go green and how Hollywood can use its influence to set the green standard for corporate America."
I came across this interesting article by John R. Ehrenfeld. He currently serves as Executive Director of the International Society for Industrial Ecology. He retired in 2000 as the Director of the MIT Program on Technology, Business, and Environment, an interdisciplinary educational, research, and policy program. He holds a post as Senior Research Scholar at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He continues to teach, do research, and write. His current projects focus on sustainability and industrial ecology.
Sustainability and Economics - By - John R. Ehrenfeld
"The way the global economic system distributes wealth over the present world and over generations to come will be a key determinant of sustainability. With all the talk about sustainability, I have yet to hear that this will be a subject at this G20 meeting. There are cetainly many bleeding wounds that need immediate treatment, but unless world leaders take a deeper and longer-term perspective alongside their political necessities, we are probably still on an unsustainable trajectory. The use of “probably” here is consistent with my view of a complex world where the future cannot be foretold. But deep in my heart away from any such intellectualizing, I do believe we are on such a trajectory, moving further from our noble and virtuous aspirations."
His website is a gold mine of literature on Sustainability and related economic development.
Vivek Kundra is President Obama’s Chief Information Officer.
He was earlier the Chief Technology Officer for the District of Columbia. During his tenure as the CTO, he cut more than $25 million in wasteful IT spending. He reduced the CTO Office’s headcount while improving its performance. He took on significant new projects in areas including procurement reform and Web 2.0 collaboration.
In the coming decades, trillions of dollars will be spent in the US on sustainability. President Obama and the Congress have made state and local spending on the green economy a centerpiece of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In addition, the President has set an ambitious goal of reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. Delivering on the nation’s commitments will require that state and local governments manage projects focusing on energy efficiency, harnessing renewable energy sources and developing innovative ways to minimize our impact on the environment.
Vivek Kundra's philosophy is "Sustainable management is the key to managing sustainability efforts"...
HP has launched a limited edition "Green IT for Dummies" pocket book as an introduction to help organizations go green. The guide is intended to give organizations simple and straight-forward ideas on how to reduce the environmental impact of IT systems and harness the power of IT to reduce the wider environmental impacts of climate change in society.
The guide, produced independently by research and analysis firm Freeform Dynamics, provides guidance for where to start in greening an organization and maps out a pragmatic, yet comprehensive course of action ranked according to expense and difficulty of implementation.
Is your organization ready to embrace and implement an IT-powered green strategy?
If you want to receive a copy of this book please Click here!
Today WIPRO issued a press release providing details on business opportunities. It talks in great detail about how "Ecological Solutions" vertical could rake in the moolah!
Snippet:
Wipro sees new thrust area inecological solutions!
Ecological solutions have emerged as the new thrust area for India’s second largest IT company, Wipro, as it looks at building a sustainable business enterprise around this segment. Wipro will be coming out with products and solutions in the area of renewable energy, water, CFL lighting and green IT to name a few...
On 28 March 2009 millions of people around the globe will unite for one hour and switch off their lights to show that they care about our living planet.
75 countries including India have committed to participate in WWF’s Earth Hour in 2009. The campaign, which hopes to reach out to more than one billion people in 1000 cities around the world, encourage individuals, businesses and governments to switch off lights for just one hour on Saturday March 28, 2009 at 8:30pm to convey their support for action on climate change. Cities already committed to Earth Hour include Los Angeles, Las Vegas, London, Hong Kong, Sydney, Rome, Manila, Oslo, Cape Town, Warsaw, Lisbon, Singapore, Istanbul, Mexico City, Toronto, Dubai and Copenhagen.
2009 is a critical year in terms of the political decisions that will be made at global climate negotiations in December 2009. Earth Hour, aims to highlight the voice of the people of the world and represent a visual mandate for meaningful policy on climate change.
Infosys took a significant step in fostering sustainable growth by publishing its Sustainability Report 2007-08. The Report discloses information on activities in economic, social and environmental areas. It will be published annually, in accordance with the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
Nandan M. Nilekani, Co-Chairman, Infosys says, "At Infosys, we believe that our future growth will only be viable and prosperous if we look at sustainability in all its dimensions - environmental, social, political and economic."
The Infosys Sustainability Report 2007-08 covers GRI parameters that impact business risks, opportunities as well as stakeholders: Economic performance, innovation in offerings, people engagement, and corporate social responsibility initiatives.
The Infosys Sustainability Report is aligned with the GRI sustainability reporting guidelines and meets the requirements of Application Level A+. The Report conforms to the principles of the UN Global Compact (UNGC), the world's largest global corporate citizenship initiative.
Corporate sustainability: What is it and where does it come from?
Mix sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder theory and accountability, and you have the four pillars of corporate sustainability. It’s an evolving concept that managers are adopting as an alternative to the traditional growth and profit-maximization model.
In recent years there has been significant discussion in the business, academic, and popular press about “corporate sustainability.” This term is often used in conjunction with, and in some cases as a synonym for, other terms such as “sustainable development” and “corporate social responsibility.” But what is corporate sustainability, how does it relate to these other terms, and why is it important?
An International Conference Integrating Business, Government, NGOs April 2 and 3, 2009
Student Day April 4th
Seattle University, Seattle, Washington
This international conference:
·is devoted to action
·focuses on government, business, and NGO collaboration ·challenges conventional wisdom of the Green movement ·has international, national, and regional speakers
This interesting piece of article just shows the application possibilities of the concept of Sustainability!
Here it goes.... "To achieve sustainability world-wide, a critical theme is Sustainable Culture. It is increasingly clear that with a culture of sustainability, with an omnipresent paradigm of values cohered by principles of sustainability, and only with that, will human civilization thrive on this Earth. Moving to this new requisite cultural form will require a shift, an evolution of human culture."
Proposed definition of Sustainability:
Sustainability is a state of organization, at any particular level, that ensures, without discontinuity, an opportunity for evolution, not just now, but well into the future.
This definition gets around very legitimate concerns about how "sustainability" may be mistakenly considered to be the equivalent of "stasis." Evolution is essential for sustainability to be possible well into the future. Sustainability can be considered at a number of different levels, including the individual, a community, an organization, or a planet.
You may have seen the ads – enough to make any football fan’s blood boil: “Germany 200, England 1”. No, this was not a report from the World Cup qualifiers, it was a straightforward calculation of how much further forward Germany is in implementing the clean-energy revolution. Germany has 200 times more solar power installed than the UK – and this is not because Germany gets any more sun. The difference is down to a simple piece of legislation called a “feed-in tariff”, which a coalition of environment groups and other campaigners is pressing the British government to adopt.
As this article went to press, a new Energy Bill was being debated in the Commons. Yet it seemed unlikely that the energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, would allow a cross-party amendment to introduce a feed-in tariff, even though 276 MPs have now signed up to an early-day motion supporting such a move. As Friends of the Earth’s Dave Timms says: “The UK’s feeble performance on renewable energy is a national disgrace. If we want families and businesses to tackle climate change by investing in clean technologies such as solar panels for their homes and offices they must get a guaranteed premium payment for all the renewable energy they generate.”
An interesting article by Stephen Asek a Cameroonian with a multicultural perspective in development, justice and social responsibility!
This article was really an eye opener!
It is weird how one can be given power but still has the inertia to wield it Political will remains a particular challenge for developing countries today. Though often invoked as a concept, political will refers to the desire and determination of political actors to introduce as well as embark on reforms that will bring significant and persistent changes in the society. It is difficult if not impossible to divorce political will from sustainable development....
I recently read this paper by David Grayson, Zhouying Jin, Mark Lemon, Miguel Angel Rodriguez, Sarah Slaughter, Simon Tay.
Really amazing!
This paper presents a vision of corporate sustainability, which places an emphasis on innovation as the means to add value, not just to the bottom line, but to the environment and society at large. The research and case studies summarised here build on more than three decades of experience and insight. As far back as 1972, the Club of Rome, an international think-tank, recognised that depletion of the Earth’s natural resources at the current rate would, eventually, lead to severe economic fallout. Fifteen years later, the Brundtland Commission to the UN laid down the most well-known definition of what had by then become known as sustainable development....
The world over, advertisers are concerned about appearing environment-friendly, and regulators are clamping down hard on advertising that is seen as false propaganda.
March 13 2008: Business Line
We seem to be suddenly waking up to the reality of global warming. By “we” I mean the advertising industry. In January the India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) had a distinguished speaker addressing its members . For once it was not a creative guru or a multinational agency head or a top media planner. This time the speaker was Dr R. K. Pachauri who received the Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore for the sterling work the organisation they represent had done in the field of global warming.
Dr Pachauri had a grim message for the advertising pundits seated in the exclusive confines of a five star hotel. Global warming is a very real threat and the sooner we wake up to this terrible reality and do something, the better for all of us. The good news, of course, was that it wasn’t too late for the world to take action.
All over the world, the colour green, which till a few years ago was associated with envy or emeralds, is now clearly associated with sustainable activity. So you have green cars and green hotels and green office buildings and green tourism and so on. There seems to be a push, if not a rush, to try and get sustainable activity going in every field of life. After all this is one problem that really concerns us all. Massive downpours of the kind Mumbai faced a couple of years ago, the possibility of the oceans rising and reclaiming coastal areas, climate change and polluted water and air are all beginning to claim increasing mindshare and gaining momentum as days go by. Green campaigns are not just the passion of some vocal minority any more. Nor are the issues confined to the realms of fad.
A few days ago, Porsche, the company that just opened a showroom in Mumbai and is hoping to grab some of the action generated by the great ‘India story’, was in the eye of a storm in London. The Mayor of London who has evidently been a pioneer in the area of strategies to curb traffic congestion announced a plan to triple the daily entry fee into the city of London for cars that generate the most pollution. An indignant Porsche responded that if the Mayor did not reconsider his plans, they would seek judicial review of his proposal. A newspaper article commented that Porsche’s stand was making it look like the stand the tobacco lobby took many years ago. The point is that public sympathies, at least in the developed economies, are clearly with the pro-green lobby and manufacturers would have to realise that they have to stay on the side of customers at all times. The tobacco lobby in the US first disputed the fact that tobacco was responsible for cancer-related deaths. They spent years fighting cases in courts and then coughed up billions when all the court cases went against them. Yet, all the while they earned billions as well and also ensured they catered to the addiction of younger generations as well.
In fact, advertisers in these countries have realised the importance of being perceived as “green” in the minds of their customers. So much so that regulators are now having to come down hard on advertising that they feel is wrongly exploiting the “green’ feeling.
In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority held a series of television advertisements released by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council as “misleading”. Evidently, the voice-over in the commercial claims “Malaysian palm oil. Its trees give life and help our planet breathe”. The real issue was that these oil-palm plantations have often been planted in illegally cleared natural rain forests. Apparently, in Indonesia, Malaysian palm-oil companies own large swathes of land where the operations are destroying the natural habitat of species like the Sumatran elephant. Throughout the Western world watchdog groups are now keeping an eagle eye out for what they call a practice of ‘greenwashing’. This is a new word coined to describe bogus environmental marketing. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) which oversees advertising claims is now conducting hearings to determine the kind of claims that can genuinely qualify as green marketing. In Norway, governmental regulators banned all car advertising from claiming their vehicles are “green”, “clean” or “environmentally friendly”. This was because they felt that all car production leads to more, not fewer carbon emissions.
Yet, the fact remains that marketers are making a special effort to reach out to the ever-growing market for greener consumers. In fact, there are steps being taken to map and measure the universe of Ecologically Conscious Consumer Behaviour (ECCB). Consumers seem to believe that they, as individuals, can help solve environmental problems and this belief appears to be the best predictor of ECCB.
In India, the launch of the Nano stirred up a storm when some people debated its possible effect on the environment. Yet, one does not see too much awareness and activism in this area yet. It was left to the judiciary to clean up Delhi’s air by mandating that buses and auto rickshaws must use CNG as fuel. Legislators and administrators seem to see environment as something that is certainly not on top of their agenda.
One noticed a television commercial of Honda for its cars where the central theme was the environment and how friendly Honda had been in the last ten years. The indifferent execution left the message more in the grey rather than the green area. Yet even such advertisements are few and far between. With competition increasing rapidly and differentiators harder to find, a green label, if acquired and emphatically touted early on in the game, could turn out to be a great advantage at a stage that is not too far away. Yet, that position demands a commitment from the manufacturer first, the marketer after that and the advertising consultant finally. There seems to be little knowledge or even awareness amongst advertising agencies about these important issues. I wonder what agencies would reply if they were asked whether they were carbon-neutral. For that matter, there is a debate whether advertising space in newspapers is carbon-neutral or not.
One would imagine it is fairly clear that as awareness about global warming and its effects on the world grows, consumers would definitely demand products and services that are green. There are a couple of Ecotels in the country and one reads about some “green” building being currently built, but that seems to be the exception rather that the rule. Obviously, marketers have not really joined the green bandwagon seriously. They are probably unsure whether the green consumer in India is a golden goose or a wild goose chase. One hopes they do not miss the green bus.
Just like anything else, probably this will also take time to take off in Corporate India.
The Bombay Stock Exchange is planning to evolve a corporate sustainability index which may well be the first such stock market parameter in any Asian market, BSE Managing Director and CEO, Rajnikant Patel, said.
Such an index, he said, existed in Brazil and while that model might be studied but “we may not necessarily follow it,” he told reporters. Mr. Patel was here to participate in a panel discussion on “Are corporate sustainability and social sustainability interdependent,” held under the aegis of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). The session was moderated by ITC Chairman, Y. C. Deveshwar.
He said the process of assessment was complicated and a robust framework would have to be evolved. It required co-operation from the companies and they would have to volunteer information, he said.
Mr. Patel’s announcement came on the back of a remark made by Mr. Deveshwar that markets have failed to reward companies that were looking at sustainability issues. This comment found its resonance in the observation by speakers like Harshavardhan Neotia, Chairman, Ambuja Realty Development, who said that there was need to evolve a mechanism by which stock markets recognised companies that laid emphasis on the triple bottomline concept.
Mr. Deveshwar said ITC had created business models whereby there was enmeshing of social well-being and shareholder-value. Emphasising on the need for convergence of societal sustainability and business sustainability, he said it would be difficult for business to thrive in isolation in the face of growing social inequity.
He also suggested that a new stock exchange could be created for developing `trust’ marks to denote a corporate’s sustainability achievements.
Is Barack Obama the Robin Hood of our times? Look at this man, stuck in a world of capitalists, but doing his best to get the wealth distributed.
Sustainability is his mantra! Not because he is pitching for clean energy via wind turbines, solar panels only but for also asking the corporate to be more responsible towards the society and environment as well. Making them spend the moolah* they have raked in over the last 100 years!
His speech at the Jt. Session of Congress evoked a flurry of responses in all the news channels and business newspapers. All the capitalists of new India cloaked in the disguise of “entrepreneurs” crying foul! US capitalists dwarfed us Indian’s by getting their own Bobby in WashingtonDC to lead the clarion call within minutes of the president’s speech!
Capitalists fear him and I too am fearful. There is a difference though. I am afraid that the one sensible guy whom we have found after almost a century to champion the cause of common man might be “silenced”! I wish and pray for the well being of Obama and his family.
This article is an unconventional didactic exegesis! So, it’s going to be a long one. And also, let me warn you, if you are not an Obama fan, you might just want to drop off here or dig in and comment your rebuttal!
“The fact is, our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank…we import more oil today than ever before…The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year,…And though all of these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt... we have lived through an era where too often short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity, where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election.”
How true? Didn’t we all know that Americans lived their life by the day? Is he wrong in coming out in public and admitting it? He just ripped off the band-aid buddy, nothing more!
“A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future… Regulations - were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway.”
Have you heard this from any of the banks who lent irresponsibly or the people who took them? No! Instead we were immersed in a usual US media blitz on “Subprime Mortgage crisis” – After all what can we expect from a country that calls its jails as “correction facilities” and killing innocent civilians as “collateral damage”. The common American was all along kept away from harsh realities by flooding him with such jargons which anyway the high school drop out wouldn’t understand. Their life was watched the world over as the biggest “True man show” ever! The Americans also were so gullible and at times I should say were high on grass!
“…they will be held accountable by me and the American people for every dollar they spend… I've appointed a proven and aggressive inspector general to ferret out any and all cases of waste and fraud…” which means nobody and nothing was ever held responsible in US. Some one said, “Nothing is guaranteed in the US but everybody gets a chance, but, not all get a chance in the UK, but once they do, it is guaranteed!” – So typical of the American lifestyle, which by the way they take pride in calling it “Our way of life” – what the heck! Here is a man who has never used this phrase! A man who criticizes with an open heart, the same “way of life” which has brought them to where they are today!
Read on, do you now wonder if Robin Hood is back?
“…It's a plan that won't help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, this time, CEOs won't be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks, or buy fancy drapes, or disappear on a private jet. Those days are over…”
“…It is time to put in place tough, new common-sense rules of the road so that our financial market rewards drive and innovation and punishes shortcuts and abuse…”
“…In order to save our children from a future of debt, we will also end the tax breaks for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans…”
And here comes the clincher!
“…I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders…”
I say, Robin Hood is Barack!
There are two things which I want to talk about, especially on the clincher. Obama is not against outsourcing. He suggests that any new technology / innovation done BY an American company, needs to happen in the US. This is fairly simple. He is willing to provide tax benefits for such firms and encourage them to utilize the resources of his country. In fact he is pitching to the big businesses to do work in the US and get rewarded as well for that.
Secondly, did you know that US business conglomerates are so big that their value is more than that of GDP of some of the nations put together and in certain cases equal to the GDP of some of the biggest developing nations? These businesses have moved from the US to cheaper cost of production locations and are charging a bomb from the other US businesses located in US. On top of that every year, these big companies, gross 300$ Billion from their “offshore” locations and take that money back into the US by paying a paltry 5% tax to the US Gov. In such scenarios, all he is suggesting is that he will not provide a tax heaven anymore and just pay the 35% corporate you are supposed to pay!
OK, incase you are the ‘Joe the plumber’, let me simplify it for you.
US companies (IBM, Accenture, Mc D, Pepsi, PWC, Mc Kinsey etc.,) had reached a saturation point in the US market.
The US Gov told the businesses, “You go out and start off your business in offshore locations, get more revenues and when you bring the money back into US, instead of paying 35% corporate tax, pay me just 5% tax. I will allow you to do this for a long, long time and you bring back wealth into America.”
These companies utilized the opportunities and ventured out.
When they realized the potential of countries like India (Services) and China (Manufacturing), they started shipping jobs to India and got a cost arbitrage and also utilize the tax haven in their country.
Double whammy** as they call it in US, Joe!
Now, for Indian “Ramu the IT guy”… I am sure you would have been immersed in the principle that offshore / onsite model, travels, free trade, global market, share market stories by now. Also, am pretty confident that you would have wanted to multiply your money and invested heavily in share markets! Suppose you had the shares of HLL (Hindustan Lever Ltd.,) which is a subsidiary of Unilever (UK). You would be glad that you invested in a multi-national company and since you are receiving dividends you would have become an advocate of free trade. If you carefully examine what the Unilever’s of the world are doing, you will realize that they are swindling money from your country (read India) mate!
Again, let me simplify it for you. It is day time robbery my friend! When HLL announces dividends, being the largest shareholder, Unilever (UK) gets money. It goes back to UK or if it were a US company it goes back to US. Poor Gov of the UK/US, in a move to encourage their so called entrepreneurs in a free trade practice, had announced that they can bring back the capital at 5% interest rate. Finally, the money lands in the company coffers and the CEO’s and top brass burp it away over champagne in a private jet somewhere in the south of Europe in a Mediterranean island with their girl friends! The point to note is that they are not investing enough money back into the country where they are consuming their resources from and also not paying appropriate taxes to their motherland as well! Double Whammy buddy!!
This guy Barack Obama, the US President, a sensible guy, finally, is not sticking up to his capitalist friends. He is talking about common sense and common people.
Look at the people whom he got inspiration from. Leonard Abess, a bank president from Miami who reportedly cashed out of his company, took a $60 million bonus, and gave it out to all 399 people who worked for him, plus another 72 who used to work for him, Greensburg, Kansas, a town that was completely destroyed by a tornado and its story of reconstruction, Ty'Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school he visited in Dillon, South Carolina who wrote a letter to his administration that she wants her school restored back!
He is trying hard to bring in the “Change” he promised. Unlike our Indian government he is not throwing “spare change” to the common man like farm loan waiver, fuel price cuts, some petty tax cuts, in the garb of stimulus plans. Our CEO’s and financial analysts need to wake up to the fact that he is the President of United States of America and not this planet!
I have confidence after listening to his speech that he will bring back the American economy to track! In his own words, in this very same speech says, he will restore faith in G 20 nations regarding American economy, “…for the world depends on us having a strong economy, just as our economy depends on the strength of the world's…”!
Let’s say “We want Change!” – Hail Barack - Robin Hood of our times and the true sustainability champion!
- Ciao
* Moolah – In Hindi translates to pile of cash/capital
** a twofold blow or setback (en.wiktionary.org/wiki/double_whammy)
Dear fellow evangelists! I have started a new group called Sustainability Evangelists in Linked in! Tried my hand at creating a logo for us!... Here it is and hope you like it!
Look forward to your membership in the group!
I would like to take this opportunity to invite you all to contribute your thoughts, opinions, ideas on Sustainability and if possible specifically on Corporate Sustainability!
Corporate sustainability is a business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments.
Corporate sustainability is an evolution on more traditional phrases describing ethical corporate practice. Phrases such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) or corporate citizenship continue to be used but are increasingly superseded by the broader term, corporate sustainability. Unlike the other phrases that focus on “added-on” policies, corporate sustainability describes business practices built around social and environmental considerations.
The phrase is derived from two keys sources. The Brundtland Commission’s Report – Our Common Future which described sustainable development as, “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This desire to grow without damaging future generations’ prospects is becoming more and more central to business philosophies.
Within more academic management circles Elkington (1999) developed the concept of the Triple Bottom Line which proposed that business goals were inseparable from the societies and environments within which they operate. Whilst short-term economic gain could be chased, a failure to account for social and environmental impacts would make those business practices unsustainable.
It is the inclusively of the term that makes it so attractive to business looking to fundamentally change the way they deal with social and environmental issues.
More frequently, companies focused on sustainability are appointing a Chief Sustainability Officer leading a department with a mandate to proactively develop and implement a corporate sustainability strategy. Corporate sustainability is an area where companies collaborate with competitors sharing ideas and tips using professional networking communities like Viridus.
Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the ability to maintain a certain process or state. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems. In an ecological context, sustainability can be defined as the ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity into the future.
Sustainability has become a complex term that can be applied to almost every facet of life on Earth, particularly the many different levels of biological organization, such as; wetlands, prairies and forests and is expressed in human organization concepts, such as; ecovillages, eco-municipalities, sustainable cities, and human activities and disciplines, such as; sustainable agriculture, sustainable architecture and renewable energy. For humans to live sustainably, the Earth's resources must be used at a rate at which they can be replenished. However, there is now clear scientific evidence that humanity is living unsustainably, and that an unprecedented collective effort is needed to return human use of natural resources to within sustainable limits.
Since the 1980s, the idea of human sustainability has become increasingly associated with the integration of economic, social and environmental spheres. In 1989, the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) articulated what has now become a widely accepted definition of sustainability: "[to meet] the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
The term "sustainability" is defined in many ways according to the context in which it is applied. As all human activity entails sustainability the word may be used to refer to any aspect of human behaviour. The fundamental integrated dimensions of sustainability are often taken to be: ecological, social and economic, known as the "three pillars". These are depicted as three overlapping circles, to show that these are not mutually exclusive and can be mutually reinforcing.
While this model was intended to increase the standing of ecological concerns, it has since been criticized for not adequately showing that societies and economies are fundamentally reliant on the natural world.
The economy is, in the first instance, a subsystem of human society ... which is itself, in the second instance, a subsystem of the totality of life on Earth (the biosphere). And no subsystem can expand beyond the capacity of the total system of which it is a part
As Herman Daly famously asked "what use is a sawmill without a forest?" this reason a fourth and outer "environment" circle is sometimes added that encloses the other three - or economy, society and environment are represented as three concentric circles with the economy in the centre (see diagrams).
The Earth Charter sets out to establish values and direction in this way:
We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations.
A simpler definition is given by the IUCN, UNEP and WWF:
Sustainabilty is: improving the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting eco-systems.
Sustainability can also be presented as a call to action, as:
... a means of configuring civilization and human activity so that society, its members and its economies are able to meet their needs and express their greatest potential in the present, while preserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems, planning and acting for the ability to maintain these ideals in the very long term.
The evolution of thinking about sustainability has paralleled historical events that have had a direct impact on human global sustainability.
Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the ability to maintain a certain process or state. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems. In an ecological context, sustainability can be defined as the ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity into the future.
Sustainability has become a complex term that can be applied to almost every facet of life on Earth, particularly the many different levels of biological organization, such as; wetlands, prairies and forests and is expressed in human organization concepts, such as; ecovillages, eco-municipalities, sustainable cities, and human activities and disciplines, such as; sustainable agriculture, sustainable architecture and renewable energy.
For humans to live sustainably, the Earth's resources must be used at a rate at which they can be replenished. However, there is now clear scientific evidence that humanity is living unsustainably, and that an unprecedented collective effort is needed to return human use of natural resources to within sustainable limits.
Since the 1980s, the idea of human sustainability has become increasingly associated with the integration of economic, social and environmental spheres. In 1989, the World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) articulated what has now become a widely accepted definition of sustainability: "[to meet] the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Reforestation: Using drones for tree planting
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Today I wanted to provide you with a short post about a topic that is also
important to me. Planting trees to reforest our woods ie. reforestation.
Yes y...
Empathy and Politics
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[image: new_age]
It’s Saturday. The sun is out. It’s early and my malaise hasn’t yet caught
up with me, so I will try to post something. Ever since I “re...
Elastic writing is all very well, but...
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Blogs and other online writing platforms allow people to write as much or
as little as they want. However, it shouldn't be about what 'they' want but
about...
