Mindful Living Festival – Sponsorship and Exhibition Information

Instep Carbon & Sustainability Programme Brochure

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More information here.

From SEC:

The Singapore Environment Council (SEC) is happy to announce the re-branding of its volunteer programme, we are now called Earth Helpers!!

We hope that you will continue to support us in our efforts to spread the green message across Singapore. We have launched a self-service portal that now allows you to sign-up for activities online and allows you to update your profile and to keep track of your past volunteer experience, activities and programmes.

To inject some excitement, we are implementing a new recognition system for all our volunteers. We shall not spoil the surprise, so do stay tuned for more updates on this.

We invite both corporations and individuals to sign up as Earth Helpers with us and they will be able to choose from an array of projects with different communities and industry groups. Short stints will be available for those who have limited time to commit to a project.

We need you as our current volunteer to create an account with us so we can both keep in touch better. We request that you provide us with some details such as your personal areas of interests in volunteering for the environment and if you have any special skills that can help us in matching you to the right activity. Please help us fill in the online form, it will only take a few minutes.

Don’t wait! Sign up as an Earth Helper today.

From: Press Release (Singapore, October 20, 2011)

Fifty lucky taxi drivers and their passengers can look forward to more comfortable rides, while at the same time, participate in an exciting initiative to reduce carbon footprint and contribute to environmental sustainability. 3M is sponsoring the installation of 3M™ Crystalline Solar Films in a fleet of 50 taxis, which will result in a natural reduction in temperature of up to 2.8 degrees Celsius in the vehicles.

“3M™ Crystalline Solar Films feature a proprietary, multi-layer optical film technology that combines over 200 layers in a film that is thinner than a Post-it® Note. Each optical layer is specially designed to reflect the infrared and UV rays while allowing visible light to pass through. This technology is the reason a clear film can reject more heat than darker films, without changing a car’s appearance. The premium product combines technology with clarity and is eco-friendly too,” said Mr Edmund Tan, General Manager of 3M Singapore’s Industrial & Transportation Business.

Solar heat comes from two primary sources, the visible light that one sees and the infrared light that one feels. Crystalline solar films reject up to 97% of the sun’s heat-producing infrared light and block up to 60% of the heat coming through the windows. These industry-leading, spectrally-selective films are designed to keep one cool, comfortable and protected. Each degree Celsius less will save about 10% on energy use.

To comply with the Land Transport Authority’s car tint law, crystalline films allow up to 90% of the natural light into the vehicle. As these films are non-metallized, there is zero interference with GPS and cell phone signals. Some 8,000 sq ft of the solar films, costing $75,000, will be used in this exercise.

“3M’s technologies are being applied by customers worldwide to enable them to meet their own environmental challenges. A vital component of 3M’s sustainability strategy is to develop product solutions, and our portfolio of hundreds of products, is a living example of our expertise in inventing products for a better tomorrow,” Mr Tan elaborated.

This green initiative is in conjunction with the launch of the 3M eCommerce Platform (www.3Mmarketplace.com.sg), where car owners can directly purchase solar films from 3M online. Members of the public can recognised the 50 designated taxis as they will carry 3M advertising with the taxi wrap media, in addition to being installed with the crystalline solar films.

Mr Soh Piak San, 54, who has been driving a Comfort Delgro cab for 11years and one of the 50 at the wheel of the designated 3M taxis, said, “Singapore is so hot and humid. We are in our taxis for at least eight hours a day. With the 3M™ Crystalline Solar Films installed, we can feel the difference – it is much cooler and helps us save energy as we don’t have to turn up the air-conditioning. Add to that, it also protects us from harmful UV rays!”

Mr Lim Ser Teck, 39, concurred, “I’ve been driving a taxi since I was 25 and 3M window films do stand out. Not only do they make the cab cooler when it’s really hot, they also do not affect radio signals and GPS unlike some other films!”

GHG Protocol Launch – Opening Remarks by Manish Bapna, WRI from World Resources Institute on Vimeo.

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.

Read the Full Story

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Get in step with your organisation’s Carbon Footprint.

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.

Read the full story

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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.

Read the full story

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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.

Read the Full Story

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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.’

Read the Full Story

From GHGprotocol.org:

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) is the most widely used international accounting tool for government and business leaders to understand, quantify, and manage greenhouse gas emissions. The GHG Protocol, a decade-long partnership between the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, is working with businesses, governments, and environmental groups around the world to build a new generation of credible and effective programs for tackling climate change.

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Check out this WRI & WBCSD video on the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Protocol.

Very nice!

CLICK TO find out more about how you can understand, quantify, and manage your organisation’s greenhouse gas emissions, and get in step with your carbon footprint.

Check out our range at CHOOSE.

From ISO:

ISO has just released a new brochure in preparation for the Rio+20 summit on sustainable development in 2012 on how voluntary ISO International Standards, developed through the strength of consensus among stakeholders from business, government and society, have provided tools for translating the global desire for a sustainable world expressed since the Earth Summit in 1992 into practical actions that achieve positive results.

The brochure provides a concise description of ISO and how it works, and concrete examples of achievements by the international community, who will be represented at Rio+20, working within the ISO system. The examples illustrate how ISO standards serve as tools in the three dimensions of sustainable development.

Examples include the following:

• In the environmental dimension, the ISO 14000 family of standards for environmental management which translates into action ISO’s commitment to support the objective of sustainable development discussed at the first Earth Summit
• The ISO 14064:2006 and ISO 14065:2007 standards which provide an internationally agreed framework for measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and verifying claims made about them (Brief note: We provide ISO 14064 standard, and there is a grant for this for Singapore SME’s).
• More than 650 International Standards for the monitoring of such aspects as the quality of air, water, soil and nuclear radiation. These standards are tools for providing business and government with scientifically valid data on the environmental effects of economic activity. They may also be used as the technical basis for environmental regulations
• Other environment-related work includes standards for designing buildings, or retrofitting existing ones, for improved energy efficiency
• In the economic dimension, ISO standards provide solutions and achieve benefits for almost all sectors of activity, including agriculture, construction, mechanical engineering, manufacturing, distribution, transport, healthcare, information and communication technologies, food, water, the environment, energy, quality management, conformity assessment and services
• In the societal dimension, ISO standards help governments, civil society and the business world to translate societal aspirations, such as for social responsibility, health, and safe food and water, into concrete realizations. In so doing, they support the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals.

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Read the brochure in it’s entirety [.pdf]