Business class costs, domestic energy use and smaller paw prints for pets

Plane speaking

High-flying executives might be alarmed to learn that business-class air travel has a carbon footprint three times greater than economy class. A World Bank study has found that business class is significantly more environmentally damaging largely because per-passenger emissions “depend heavily on the average class-specific occupied floor space” – in other words because jet-setting business people get more leg room.

For financial institutions, “air travel comprises a very large share of the overall greenhouse gas emissions,” the report notes, meaning that sticking to economy class can lead to a significant cut in the organisational carbon footprint, and also to a reduction in the carbon offsets bill. And carbon-conscious executives should definitely avoid first class: it has a footprint up to nine times greater than economy.

Canal controversy

The Nicaraguan National Assembly has given the green light to a $40bn project to bisect the country with a canal that could displace the Panama Canal as the main route between the Caribbean and the Pacific. But the project is set to provoke huge opposition because of concerns about its impact on the environment and on indigenous people.

The assembly approved the granting of a licence to a Hong Kong based group, which will build the canal and associated port and rail facilities, and an oil pipeline. According to opponents, Lake Nicaragua, the country’s main source of fresh water, will be threatened by intensive shipping criss-crossing it to access the canal. But government congressman Jacinto Suarez says opposition to the project is “unpatriotic”. Work could start on the canal in May 2014.

Transparency triumph

The European parliament has rubber-stamped a new European Union law that will require companies extracting resources from developing countries to disclose their payments to the governments of those countries. The rule will apply on a per project basis to any payment of €100,000 (£85,000) or more, including royalties, dividends, bonuses, fees and payments for infrastructure improvements. European lawmakers hope the disclosure requirement will prevent shady dealings and backhanders in the oil, gas, mining and logging sectors. The parliament got a thumbs-up from rock band U2 singer Bono, who says the law would be “a great game-changer for activists fighting extreme poverty” in countries such as Angola and Nigeria. The law will come into force in 2015.

Wash for victory

Retailers, consumer groups, non-profits – in fact all organisations concerned with reducing energy use and emissions from laundry – are encouraged to join a pan-European campaign to persuade consumers to reduce wash temperatures, which will start at the beginning of 2014. Overseen by the International Association for Soaps, Detergents and Maintenance Products, the I prefer 30° campaign will kick off in Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy and the UK. Potential participants can sign up to access a campaign toolkit and look for partners via the initiative’s website. According to the campaign, the average wash temperature in Europe is 41C. Reducing it to 30C will have environmental benefits and is “good for people’s clothes and their electricity bills”. 

The price is right

The introduction of a carbon price in Australia has already had “remarkable” results, according to the country’s minister for climate change, industry and innovation, Greg Combet. In a June speech to the Australian National Press Club, he said that the carbon price, though only introduced in mid-2012, had already led to a 7.4% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation, with emissions from the most-polluting power plants falling by 14%. Meanwhile, electricity generated from renewables in Australia is up 30%. Australia has elections in September. Opposition leader Tony Abbott says he will scrap the carbon tax, but Combet argues that carbon pricing is so successful that Abbott “cannot and will not repeal the carbon price”.

Cloudy outlook

European Union anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese solar panels could cost the continent 1.3 gigawatts of solar power installation in 2013, according to calculations from IHS Research. The EU decided at the beginning of June to impose an initial duty of 11.8%, rising to 47.8% after two months, on the basis that Chinese solar panels are being sold at below market price and are damaging European sun-power companies. Ash Sharma of IHS says the duty will result in higher prices and “dampened demand,” with new installations of solar capacity down 33% on 2012. The anti-dumping measure has split the European solar industry, with EU ProSun, a group of solar panel producers, lobbying forcefully for it, but the 600-company-strong Alliance for Affordable Solar Energy predicting that it will lead to European job losses, especially among solar panel installers.

Animal magic

Dog and cat owning could become a little greener thanks to the Colorado-based Pet Industry Sustainability Coalition in the US, which has published the first version of its Pet Industry Sustainability Toolkit. The toolkit adapts existing tools, such as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s Higg Index, and is designed to help relevant companies develop a sustainability plan and monitor its implementation. The launch of the toolkit comes in the wake of a study published in the academic journal Advances in Nutrition that found the $55bn global pet food industry to be generally lagging on sustainability. The study noted that pet companies should tackle issues such as “formulation of [pet] diets to provide nutrients in excess of physiological requirements, the use of ingredients that compete directly with the human food system, or overfeeding by owners resulting in food wastage”.

The name’s bond

It’s boom time for climate bonds – investments in infrastructure that pay fixed interest – according to the 2013 Bonds and Climate Change review published by the Climate Bonds Initiative. The initiative, which promotes large-scale investment in the low-carbon economy, now estimates the global universe of bonds with a climate link at $346bn, with $74bn of new bonds issued in 2012, a 25% increase on 2011. The initiative’s definition of “climate infrastructure” is rather broad, with three-quarters of the issued bonds made up of investment in rail transport, as an alternative to air and rail. China’s railways ministry is responsible for $117bn of the bonds. Other investments are in energy, buildings, industrial low-carbon initiatives and environmental projects.

Climate Bonds Initiative chief executive Sean Kidney says that increasing interest can be expected, especially if institutional investors affiliated to the Global Investor Coalition on Climate Change start to direct some of their $21tn in assets towards climate bonds.

CSR news  Stephen Gardner  Sustainability news 

comments powered by Disqus