Archive for the ‘Green Biz’ Category
Fuji Xerox Wins the Fuji Sankei Group Award at the 21st Grand Prize for the Global Environment Award for Its Power Conservation Initiatives
From Press Release:
SINGAPORE, April 25, 2012
For its energy conservation initiatives using the system it originally developed, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. received the Fuji Sankei Group Award of the 21st Grand Prize for the Global Environment Award, organized by the Fuji Sankei Communication Group.
The Award extends high recognition to the verification experiments conducted at the company’s R&D site, Fuji Xerox R&D Square, for EneEyes–a self-analysis system to visualize energy consumption–, with which all employees can analyze their energy consumption from various perspectives. During the power saving period in the summer of 2011, around 100 people who are in charge of saving electricity by each floor and organization conducted self-analysis of power consumption of their respective areas using the system. They developed and implemented detailed energy saving measures, thereby clearing the government standards and achieved nearly 30 percent energy saving year on year.
In its greenhouse gas mitigation targets for 2020 announced in 2009, Fuji Xerox pledged to reduce its CO2 emissions throughout the entire product lifecycle and to provide solutions to reduce its customers’ and social CO2 emissions by seven million tons. The EneEyes verification experiment is part of the company’s efforts to develop technologies and products to achieve the targets.
Fuji Xerox will continue to take new initiatives and promote activities to deliver the achievements to customers, thereby contributing to providing solutions to challenges of customers and the society.
About Grand Prize for the Global Environment Award
The Grand Prize for the Global Environment Award was established in 1992 with special cooperation from World Wide Fund for Nature Japan (WWF Japan) as a program to award industries, aimed at the symbiosis between industrial development and global environment. The award recognizes companies and organizations for their contribution to environmental conservation, with the aim of developing new technologies and products that contribute to global warming mitigation and the establishment of a recycling-oriented society, promoting environmental conservation activities and businesses, exploring the social system for the 21st century, and further heightening awareness on the conservation of the global environment.
Newsweek’s 2011 Green Rankings
GHG Protocol Launch – Opening Remarks by Manish Bapna, WRI
Instep Programme: Latest News
Hong Kong
Instep Programme registered as a Qualified Service Provider to the HKAEE Carbon Less Scheme.
Scheme encourages business to apply for a Carbon Less Certification and requires independent QSP to report on the reduction of overall Carbon Emissions. The scheme requires the business to monitor and reduce its Carbon Footprint.
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Australia
The Instep Sustainable Events Programme (ISEP) has been used in monitoring the recently concluded Australian University Games in Queensland Australia.
It was indeed a challenge with some 6700 student in 30 odd location covering 32 sports, but we came through well. Once again this positions Instep as a leader in Sustainable Events Monitoring.
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New Zealand
The ISEP programme will be used to monitor NZ Agricultural Fieldays.
This is an iconic event in NZ and is the largest Agricultural Trade Show in the Southern Hemisphere.
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More information about Instep Carbon & Sustainability Programmes
Singapore drops one notch in Asian sustainability rating
From Today:
SINGAPORE – Singapore has dropped one notch in an Asian report on sustainability disclosure. This year’s Asian Sustainability Rating (ASR) ranked Singapore sixth out of 10 Asian countries, down from fifth position last year.
South Korea retained its top ranking while Thailand moved up two notches to place second.
The third, fourth and fifth positions were taken by Malaysia, India and Taiwan respectively. China, Indonesia, Hong Kong and the Philippines filled up the remaining four spots.
At the company level, Singapore firms were not placed in both the top 10 and bottom five lists.
Hong Kong-listed China Light and Power Holdings received the highest ASR score of 91 per cent, while Indonesia-listed Sterling International Enterprise received the lowest score of 4 per cent.
The ASR is a benchmarking tool that looks at publicly available information of listed companies pertaining to environmental, social and governance issues.
Speaking at the 2011 Singapore Awards for Sustainability Reporting organised by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) yesterday, Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources Grace Fu said that while companies here should be commended for governance reporting, “there is room for improvement in the areas of social and environmental impacts”.
Ms Fu said: “Sustainability reporting is still voluntary. But when more businesses step forward, I understand that SGX will consider taking the next step of formulating formal rules to regulate disclosure.”
Keppel Land was the winner of this year’s Singapore Awards for Sustainability Reporting.
Mr Darryl Wee, country head of ACCA Singapore, said: “If we want to position ourselves as global players, we need to increase our efforts in producing more sustainability reports.”
Climate change not factored into companies’ value, warns UN chief
“As long as these companies [that emit large quantities of greenhouse gases] have a high value, we are giving out the wrong signals,” said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change, told an audience of carbon finance specialists in London. “It has got to be that those companies that are investing in the technologies of the future are recognised.”
World’s Major Stock Exchanges Demanding Sustainability Reporting
In Asia, the Singapore Stock Exchange was the first exchange to encourage listed companies to start reporting their sustainability performance, by issuing guidelines in August 2010. According to the Guide to Sustainability Reporting for Listed Companies, “The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines provides a valuable framework to assist listed companies with sustainability reporting. Companies may adopt an approach best suited to their industry and location.”
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Get in step with your organisation’s carbon footprint
Companies Get New Tools for Calculating Emissions
New York Times: In 2004 the World Resources Institute, a Washington-based environmental organization, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development released a final standard for Scope 1 and Scope 2. Scope 1 covers emissions from direct operations like running a factory. Scope 2 covers emissions from energy-related, indirect sources of emissions like the coal or natural gas burned to make the electricity that powers the lights at headquarters.
Scope 3 measures the emissions linked to the “value chain” of a company’s products as a whole. The life cycle emissions of individual products, including Scope 3 emissions, can be estimated using the second tool.
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Get in step with your organisation’s Carbon Footprint.
Top 5 Picks – Meanwhile in… News from around the world
Meanwhile in Germany, they have TOO MUCH WIND POWER!
From Grist: High winds — although not that high, only 15 mph — led to negative-price wind energy for nine hours on July 24, bringing Germany’s total to 31 hours of below-zero-cost energy this year.
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Meanwhile in Denmark, they have taxes on fatty foods
The Telegraph: Starting from this Saturday, Danes will pay an extra 30p on each pack of butter, 8p on a pack of crisps, and an extra 13p on a pound of mince, as a result of the tax.
The tax is expected to raise about 2.2bn Danish Krone (£140m), and cut consumption of saturated fat by close to 10pc, and butter consumption by 15pc.
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Meanwhile in New York, Zombies #occupywallstreet
TIME: Patrick Bruner, a spokesman for the group, says Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are being urged to dress in business wear with white faces and blood, and will march while eating monopoly money. He says financial workers should see them “reflecting the metaphor of their actions.”
Read the full story, and Full Coverage on Good
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Meanwhile in Japan, they’ve decided to continue killing whales. And New Zealand is not pleased.
CNA: “Japan’s decision is increasingly out of step with international opinion,” Foreign Minister Murray McCully said.
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Meanwhile in Singapore, only 1/3 of professionals clear their annual leave
Asia One: ‘The figures reflect that Singaporeans do not have a strong work-life balance,’ says Andrea Ross, Robert Walters’ managing director for Singapore and Malaysia. ‘Singapore is a fast-moving economy and to make the most of this, people tend to work longer hours so that they don’t miss out of any opportunities on the work front.’
