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January 2007
Nau's legally enforceable Triple Bottom Line
I'm interested in how businesses can be more responsible, and one of the challenges is the presumption that a corporation acts ONLY for the benefit of its shareholders. In many jurisdictions, directors can get sued if they look after the environment in a way that detracts from shareholders value.
I found this interesting piece on Green Counsel, about clothing company Nau....
Corporate attorney Robert Hinkley influenced Nau's founders. Hinkley incorporated the work of management expert W. Edwards Deming and systems theorist Peter Senge to develop new ideas pertaining to the notion of a corporation as citizen. Deming had written that "most of the time it's the system that causes the problem, not the people in the system." He combined this idea with the insight of Senge, who said that to change any system you should "look to make the smallest change possible that will generate the biggest effect." From these theories, Hinkley created a code for corporate citizenship. In only 28 words, it stated that henceforth the "duty of directors shall be to make money for shareholders but not at the expense of the environment, human rights, public health and safety, dignity of employees, and the welfare of the community in which a company operates." Nau chose to follow Hinkley's guidance and include similar language in its corporate bylaws.
Get the full article from Green Counsel or there is also material on Grist.
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Half of energy from renewables by 2050
Greenpeace has a new report showing how we could get 50% of our energy from renewables by 2050, thus halving our emissions rather than the massive growth that would come from not making any changes.
The BBC has a good summary, or you can get the full report.
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Powerful new video on Global Warming
This is a powerful new video on global warming, less information than Inconvenient Truth but makes up for it in emotional power and brevity, from the Ministry of Sound.
Make sure to watch it right to the end (past the titles).
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LA Times investigation leads to investment rethink by Gates foundation.
The Guardian is reporting that Bill and Melinda Gates are reconsidering how their foundation invests its money after the LA times found that much of the income of the foundation comes from investments that cause some of the very problems the foundation is supposed to be fixing!
Its about time this kind of scrutiny is applied, Any investor that is investing blindly of the ethics of their investments should be being held responsible for the crimes and misdemeanours of the companies they invest in. This in particular applies to the investments of foundations that are supposed to be doing good!
Hopefully Bill and Melinda's prompt reconsideration of this will cause other foundations to review their own practices.
Even better would be to remove the wall that is often erected between the investments of the endowment and the philanthropic side and start actively considering how their investments can be used to drive positive change, for example at this time investing a foundation's assets in renewable energy will drive the move towards climate neutrality far quicker than donating the typical 5% return (over inflation) that the investments generate.
And ... as many studies have shown, ethical investments are consistently delivering as good returns as unethical or neutral investments, so there is no need for a sacrifice to be taken in the amount available for donations.
- Mitra
(Read on for the full story from the guardian)
Continue reading "LA Times investigation leads to investment rethink by Gates foundation."
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Where might we get the energy from
One question I'm asked is where we might get the energy, below are a few links to some of the significant technologies I see coming along. I plan on updating this post as technology develops.
Overview
This paper from the Australian Solar Energy Society shows how a variety of renewables can meet the needs for a 60-80% reduction by 2050. The executive summary is a quick relevant read. In particular it points to over half the savings coming from Energy Efficiency.Solar
The big improvements in Solar come not from efficiency (watts per square meter) but from cost-efficiency, (watts per dollar). Typically this means low cost devices that take advantage of the large area available on homes. Interesting examples include.
Roof tiles combining solar hot water, with solar electricity to reduce overall costs - status: research project.
Nanosolar announceed 100m funding and costs as low as 10% of current.
Wind
For wind there are huge economies of scale in building large, high, windmills in ideal spots, and we are seeing a lot of this in the UK and the US.
An interesting area is, as for Solar, domestic wind generators. The plus side is that the windmill is competing with the retail, rather than wholesale, cost of power. The minus side is that winds near houses are usually turbulent, and noise and vibration issues are significant. A number of companies have formed to address it. Some interesting ones include:
Skystream: Tower mounted (35-110 feet), 3 blades with an unusual shape. (Jan 07) In production.
Aerotecture: This is a vertical or horizontally mounted turbine using a unique combination of rotor and aerofoil to allow starting at low speeds, and low noise/vibration. (Jan 07) Still in pre-production.
Mag Wind: An interesting shaped windmill on magnetic bearings, though there are some questions about their claims?
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