Oil company chief concedes climate change, promotes solar energy
British Petroleum chief executive John Browne, in a speech May 19 at Stanford, said
"there is now an effective consensus among the world's leading scientists and serious and
well-informed people outside the scientific community that there is a discernable human
influence on the climate...it would be unwise and potentially dangerous to ignore the
mounting concern."
His prescription: Solar power. "Our aim is to extend the reach" of solar technology, he
said, noting that BP has a 10% share of the world market and sells solar tech in 16
countries. "Solar will make a contribution to the resolution of the problem of carbon
dioxide and the increase in temperature."
[Source: ENVENG-L List Server ; 27 May 97]
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A report by Gerard Van Rijswijk (Executive Director, (Australian) Association of
Liquidpaperboard Carton Manufacturers Inc.) of the R'97 Congress held in Geneva
highlighted the need to "Re-integrate" our thinking about waste and recycling back into
the evaluation of total systems, rather than separating them out.
This means examining the life cycle use of materials and energy to determine what is the
priority area for achieving reduction in materials and energy.
In some products the manufacturing process is relatively insignificant compared with the
environmental impacts of the use.
While the short report presented in the April 1997 Newsletter of the Environment Institute
of Australia, at times, can be interpreted as special pleading, it reminds us that it is not
sufficient just to keep materials out of landfill or environmental media, it is necessary to
develop uses and markets to properly re-use and re-cycle the materials which already have
energy invested in them.
Of course it is always necessary to continue to examine the life cycle environmental
impacts of products and to work to reduce those.
[Source: April 1997 Newsletter, Environment Institute of Australia]
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In a UK survey by Imperial College and Jupiter Asset Management, researcher Mr David
Edwards surveyed companies which met JAM's criteria for good environmental
performance and compared their profitability between 1992 and 1995 with similar
companies in the same sectors.
The green companies achieved substantially higher returns on capital, and even the best of
the non-green companies did no better than those on JAM's list.
The criteria for good environmental performance related to management, disclosure and
reduction in energy use and pollution.
Companies meeting the green criteria included Argyll, British Polythene, British Telecom,
Iceland, Kingfisher and London International. As one example, the green stroe groups
achieved returns of almost 26% over the four year period, ccompared with only 15% for
comparable non-green companies.
[Source: Reported in The Age; 9/5/97]
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Large Companies implementing EMS
A Coopers and Lybrand study of the environmental performance of the top 1000
corporations
in Australia, conducted annually, and in 1996 focusing on planning, found that:
- 2/3 (66%) of respondents had conducted some kind of environmental audit recently,
(while
80% of firms with > 2000 employees had done this);
- 39% had an EMS in place;
- Just over 40% have an environmental policy with measurable results;
[Source: EIA Newsletter (4) Sept. 1996]
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NEPC sets agenda for NEPM's
Australia's National Environment Protection Council has set the agenda for developing
what
are known as National Environment Protection Measures (NEPM's). The priorities will
be:
- Ambient Air Quality
- Transport of Hazardous Waste across State Boundaries
- National Guidelines for the Assessment of Contaminated Land
- National Pollutant Inventory
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Industry Waste Reduction Targets partly met in
1995/96
ANZECC has reviewed progress on the 1992 National Waste Minimisation and Recycling
Strategy (which together with the National Kerbside Recycling Strategy) which called for
reduction of waste by volume as follows (from the 1990 baseline figures):
- Aluminium - 65%
- Plastics - 25%
- Glass - 45%
- Steel cans - 25%
- Liquidpaper board - 70%
- Newsprint - 40%
- Packaging 71%.
The majority of the targets were achieved in 1995/96, although some including Plastics
and
Liquidpaper fell short.
[Source: EIA Newsletter (4) Sept. 1996]
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The Natural Step Program
Natural Step is an exciting learning, motivating and
strategic planning tool applicable to organisations
of all types and sizes which re-orients the organisation toward a truly sustainable
future.
Natural Step was started in 1988 in Sweden by Karl-Henrik Robert, the underlying
principles
and
ideas come from the consensus of around 100 scientists, developed in 21 iterations
(drafts).
It has been implemented with excellent results by a wide range of organisations (in
Sweden)
such as:
- IKEA
- Electrolux
- A major detergent manufacturing company
- McDonalds (Sweden)
- At least 50 municipalities in Sweden
- A Swedish nuclear power company
The Natural Step principles simplify, without reducing to triviality, the fundamental
underpinnings for sustainable life on the earth.
Click here for an overview of the Natural Step
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The future of environmental technology
A project leader for the Sustainable Technology Program in the Netherlands has said that
environmental technology is developing in three (more or less) parallel routes:
- 1. Over a ten year period current production processes become less wasteful and
remove
many of the leaks. "It's simply a matter of quality assurance and good housekeeping"
(Leo Jensen)
- 2. Also they are trying to incorporate new elements into the processes, either
end-of-pipe
or process-integrated technologies. This will take about twenty years (1990-2010) by
which time the national environmental policy targets will have been met, things will
be about two to four times more efficient than now, but this will not be enough.
- 3. After 2010, more efficient production will become an economic necessity. The
nature
of the task will have changed fundamentally. "At this stage we will have to reinvent
products and processes, taking the carrying capacity of the environment as the
starting
point."(Franz Vollenbroek)
[Source: Environmental News from the Netherlands; 1995 (4)]
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Three Phases of Corporate Awakening
John Elkington of the UK firm SustainAbility, reported at UNEP Global 500 forum held
in
Jakarta, believes that business goes through three phases of corporate awakening in
relation
to environmental management.
- Responsibility - Firms declare their commitment to the environment.
- Accountability - They realise that without accountability, the responsibility is
unworkable, so there is interest in environmental reporting.
- Sustainability - Businesses adopt life-cycle management and full-cost accounting.
[Source: Environmental Manager, 84, 7/11/95]
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A privately funded study, undertaken by Research International, titled A Map of the
Australian Green Market, and authored by David Said, found that the demand for "green"
products is higher than the supply.
Based on a survey of 1200 urban adults, the study divided the market into the following
groups:
- Living Greens - 28%
- See the environment as very important; Under 45;
Income
of >$40k; mostly tertiary-educated, and slightly left wing politically.
- Nurturing Greens - 21%
- Younger, traditional families, half are
tertiary-educated;
See the environment as affecting the future of the family and the community.
- Grudging Greens - 12%
- Wealthiest, best-educated segment; Green concern is
not
as high, but have made some behavioural changes, such as recycling.
- Lip-service Greens - 17%
- Mostly older "blue-collar" women; claim to be
concerned but do little to reduce environmental impacts of their daily lives.
- Light Brown Battlers - 12%
- Mainly young working class families; More
worried
about the price of school shoes than the environment.
- Brown Bombers - 9%
- Mostly young men under 30; Working class group who
bomb out of every level of environmental concern and behaviour.
Some interesting points from the report:
- Many business decision-makers tend to be in the "grudging greens" group and so
miss
out on business opportunities provided by the first three goups listed above, particularly
the
wealthier segment;
- When asked to name three companies regarded as environmentally friendly, 71%
could
not name one, indicating that Australian companies green credentials are
invisible.
[Source: Green Shopping is big business; The Age, 12/12/95]
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The United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
Development Watch program has developed a comprehensive set of indicators
aimed at monitoring progress on sustainable development.
In order to better understand the dynamics between the various types of indicators, UNDP
organises the indicators as follows:
Firstly, by the chapters of Agenda 21
Then, into three categories:
Driving Force Indicators, State Indicators , Response Indicators
This represents a (hypothesised) causal and chronological sequence and has been adopted
to
better enable analysis, an understanding of (some of) the causal links and to highlight the
pre-cursors and places for intervention to influence the State and Response factors.
The fill list of the core indicators is available via this link
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To contact PEM.
Updated May 13, 1997