http://www.enn.com/ ENN RSS News http://www.enn.com/business/article/36426 A recent annual survey into the carbon reduction efforts by suppliers has revealed that business leaders dread the potential impact of emissions legislation on their activities. The survey, carried out by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a transatlantic not for profit organization, covered responses of 144 supply companies to multinational corporations. http://www.enn.com/business/article/36422 Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens has placed an the largest ever order for wind turbines: he ordered 667 wind turbines from GE, each costing $3 million dollars, making the total order $2 billion. Picken plans to develop the world’s largest wind farm in the panhandle of Texas. The $2 billion order is just one quarter of the total amount he plans to purchase. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/36420 The Brazil Greenhouse Gas Protocol Program was launched today and its 12 founding corporate members have voluntarily agreed to report their global-warming emissions. “The program provides options for sound measurement and allows members to take action to reduce their GHG emissions,”¯ said Thelma Krug, secretary of climate change, Brazil Environment Ministry, at the launch event here in the IBAMA Auditorium. http://www.enn.com/business/article/36344 Sitting in a warm Capitol Hill office building last week, a panel of green-collar job activists attempted to rally support among a room of sleepy Congressional staffers. At the end of the briefing, Van Jones, a civil-rights lawyer-turned-green jobs champion, delivered the message that jolted many audience members out of their afternoon haze. "We are about to enter stagflation," Jones said. "That means people get voted out of office." http://www.enn.com/business/article/36343 The ongoing food crises in 36 countries around the globe are a cause of worry for major institutions such as the World Bank because the problems signal profound problems of disbalance in the world economy. The main reasons behind the high food prices in poor countries are the high oil price and market liberalization shocks. Biofuel crops are hardly a factor. Climate change is something that has played a role for as long as everyone can remember and it's only being recognized now. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/36341 Did you know that UPS trucks have a “No Left Turn”¯ policy on deliveries? The company has taken another step toward energy conservation by ordering 500 more hybrid and compressed natural gas (CNG) delivery vehicles. UPS calls its trucks the Green Fleet, and is expanding from 50 hybrid electric trucks to 250 (the largest commercial order of such trucks by any company). The CNG-run fleet will increase from 800 to 1,100 as well. http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/36273 In recent years, scarcity and pollution of water have become the paramount environmental woe in China. Numerous reports and books have exposed China's water crisis, depicting a nation suffering in the face of black-running rivers and dried-up waterways. Nationwide, the per capita availability of fresh water is only one-quarter of the world average. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/36272 If you've ever been on a road trip, you've probably seen this sight at a rest stop: one, or many big rig trucks, just...idling. Not going anywhere. What is this, like a computer on "sleep," ready to go? No. The answer may surprise you. At least in the US, truck drivers are required to rest 10 hours for every 11 driven. A reasonable thing, but this often necessitates them sleeping in their cabins. And that requires power for the heating or cooling, and other comforts of "home" on the road. Power that comes from a running truck. http://www.enn.com/business/article/36269 The average cell phone life is only 18 months. Many obsolete phones find their final resting place in a landfill, where hazardous chemicals pose a threat to the environment. Nokia’s new We: Recycle Program allows consumers to send in old cell phones to be properly recycled. The company mails the donor a prepaid envelope so the process is completely cost-free. http://www.enn.com/business/article/36267 New U.S. energy legislation mandates the use of renewable fuel but calls for continuing current biofuel subsidies that will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. The subsidies -- tax credits -- by themselves encourage ethanol production as a replacement for oil-based gasoline consumption. Instead, the tax credits will play a major role in unintentionally subsidizing gasoline consumption. This contradicts the new energy bill's stated objectives of reducing dependency on oil, improving the environment and enhancing rural prosperity. http://www.enn.com/business/article/36207 Efforts to replace oil with biofuels in the United States are at a critical juncture. Double-digit growth in the production of corn-based ethanol has contributed to a sharp increase in grain and soybean prices while failing to deliver the environmental gains that had been hoped for. It's time to reduce the incentives for food-based biofuels and accelerate the transition to more sustainable alternatives - the so-called "next-generation" cellulosic technologies, which are expected to become viable in the coming years. http://www.enn.com/business/article/36206 California's fascination with solar power has created thousands of jobs in the state and will probably add thousands more, according to a new survey of the industry. The survey, by two community college researchers, estimates that solar companies in California now employ between 16,500 and 17,500 people and may hire another 5,000 in the next year. http://www.enn.com/business/article/36204 Corporate America and major green groups are starting to build ties as companies see the benefit of getting ahead of a trend toward environmental responsibility. While partnerships have been emerging case-by-case, environmentalists are starting to ramp up their efforts to target money mangers and investors in an attempt to change how corporations do businesses. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/36137 Every month when I see the magazine Seed in my mailbox I can’t wait to sit down and read it. This month I found a DVD inside the magazine with the oil company Shell’s short movie, Clearing the Air on it. My attention peaked, and I watched the movie. Clearing the Air is a fictional account of the development of gas to liquid (GTL) or liquid natural gas (LNG). The California Energy Commission defines LNG as “fuels that can be produced from natural gas, coal, and biomass using a Fischer-Tropsch chemical reaction process.”¯ However, in the movie LNG is used to refer to converting natural gas into liquid for fuel. http://www.enn.com/business/article/36109 Forty years after he helped rescue the world from growing famine and a deepening gloom over the future of food supplies, Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan is once again agitating for revolution -- this time a perpetual one. The 82-year-old scientist, dubbed here the father of the Green Revolution for helping development a hybrid wheat seed that allowed Indian farmers to dramatically increase yields, says the current food crisis offers the world a chance to put farmers on the right road to unending growth. http://www.enn.com/business/article/36049 American Apparel, a company well known for sexual harassment suits, scandalous barely legal marketing imagery, and de rigeur retro basics, is quietly known among environmentalists for something different”¦setting the bar for fair wages in manufacturing and incorporating solid steps towards environmental sustainability. Now clearly, a manufacturing behemoth is going to have a tough time calling itself “sustainable,”¯ but American Apparel doesn’t even try. They do. Since 2006, 20% of their electricity for their factory in downtown LA is produced by solar energy, there’s recycled content in their shopping bags, and a majority of their manufacturing scraps get reclaimed for the making of their smaller items, like thongs and such. http://www.enn.com/business/article/36047 If anyone had doubts about the importance of the voluntary carbon market they would certainly have been overcome by the announcement last month by Merrill Lynch of a new carbon offset service to assist businesses to reduce emissions through voluntary offsets. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/35982 Consumer companies are getting greener, but they are still quite carbon-intensive, according to a study to be released today. Nonprofit group Climate Counts will release its second annual rankings of 56 consumer companies today on how they measure greenhouse gas emissions, their plans to reduce them and how fully they disclose their efforts. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/35943 Located in Vargem Bonita, Brazil, the Celulose Irani Project demonstrates how one paper manufacturer is finding economic value in what was once considered waste. The facility uses byproduct biomass from their paper production process to generate sustainable energy for their facility. Irani thus provides a model for biomass projects that reduce both waste and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), promoting sustainable development through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). http://www.enn.com/business/article/35942 BALTIMORE (Reuters) - Carolyn Stanley, a single mother with five children, receives $327 in food stamps each month to feed her family. With prices for staples like bread and cheese going ever higher, each month is harder than the last. She buys hot dogs over higher-quality meat and feeds her kids cereal, but even with other government support she often has to seek help from local churches and from friends. http://www.enn.com/pollution/article/35941 A newly formed watchdog of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is proposing that the U.N. establish a new authority to regulate emissions from high-carbon international activities such as aviation and shipping. The International Scientific and Business Congress on Protecting the Climate, a group of climate change policy negotiators, scientists, and business stakeholders, suggested that the UNFCCC establish a World Carbon Authority to oversee a global emissions cap-and-trade scheme that would apply initially to the transport sector. http://www.enn.com/business/article/35939 It’s called the GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall, and with 2,292 individual color LEDs, comparable to a 24,000 sq. ft. monitor screen, it’s said to be the largest color LED display in the world. The wall is solar-powered too — photovoltaics are integrated into the wall’s glass curtain, and it harvests power during the day, to illuminate the display at night. Designed by, Simone Giostra & Partners Architects, the GreenPix wall is part of the Xicui Entertainment Complex in Beijing, near the site of the 2008 Olympics. http://www.enn.com/business/article/35932 A distinct set of global institutions governs the international economic system: the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank. Each has its specialty, and they are complemented by a number of even more specialized institutions with more restricted membership, such as the Bank for International Settlements and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Each institution is aware of the others, but none is responsible for the overall coherence of their various policies, let alone the achievement of international objectives. http://www.enn.com/business/article/35873 Lately our news feeds about the business sector, government and development activities in Latin America have painted a stark picture; mostly surrounding resource competition between filling bellies and producing biofuels. The current crises elucidates the range of dilemmas faced when business and development needs are out of harmony, when they are placed in competition to one another. What results is negative local community development, compromised business outcomes and strained relationships between governments, industry and civil society. http://www.enn.com/business/article/35813 One of the biggest complaints women have about "going green" concerns the challenge of dressing "green," and that means more than the color. Apart from the occasional organic cotton nightgown sold at Wal-Mart, or the jackets and vests Patagonia remakes from recycled soda bottles, it's been hard to find eco-friendly clothes at an actual store -- where you can feel them, compare them and try them on. Most "green" clothes shopping has had to be done on-line, an experience that leaves very little to be desired when choices are limited, sizes are unpredictable, and the delivery lag sometimes seems interminable.