Apologies for not writing an instalment on Sustainability
Inc. last week, I was tied up with working on a few other bits. Anyhow here we
are this week and its time for another article. This week I want share some
sustainability best practice and the top ten companies applying great
sustainability strategies.
Sustainability or Corporate Social Responsibility is the
buzz word in the Corporate world at the moment, as we have previously explored
in Sustainability Inc, it is connected to what the customer wants and is
becoming good business, not just for the PR reasons. Lets be honest it makes
sense to use less resources or to recycle, it makes producing good cost less,
impacting the P&L and makes the shareholders happy as it increase the value
of their investment and rewards them with better dividends in the long run.
Currently, the main area in the sustainable arena that is
growing is the big-ticket item, renewable energy. This takes time and
investment, as has been seen with Google with their $1 billion investment in
solar and wind projects. In the United States it has been the big thing that
both private and public sectors are spearing heading the move in this
direction. This list of large Corporations currently engaged is hopefully a
sign of things to come in the future, with other companies and countries.
Private and Public Sector Corporations
1.
Intel. Intel has been
the EPA’s top-rated Green Power Partner since 2008, and it's tried pretty much
everything. The company got 88% of its power from renewables in 2011. They also
purchased enough renewable energy certificates (REC’s) to finance green energy
for over 134,000 homes.
2.
Whole Foods, of
course. This is the company that started recycling its used canola
oil for electricity in 2012. This
plus on-site solar generation and REC purchases, the company produces 107% of
the energy it needs from renewables.
3.
The District of Columbia.
Through RECs, the nation’s capital went 100% green in 2012.
4.
Staples,
90% of the company’s emissions come from the supply chain so to off set this
they purchase REC’s and 20% of the energy comes from solar.
5.
The New Belgium Brewing Company. The Colorado brewery
has been purchasing its energy from a wind farm since 1999. Now, they have
developed a water treatment plant that cleans all the wastewater used in beer
production and have solar panels on the roof for energy generation and use the
methane produced to generate electricity.
6.
Pearson, Inc.
The educational supplier and owner of Penguin publishing have been
carbon-neutral since 2009. They purchase REC’s not only for the US plant but
also for ones in South America and India. They have invested in solar at their
New Jersey plant, which will save over 4,000 tonnes of carbon over the next 25
years.
7.
Wal-Mart
purchased nearly twice as much solar energy than its runner-up, Costco in 2012,
although due to size of the company this is only 4% of its total energy
consumption. But hey it's a move in the right direction.
8.
Hilton International.
The hotel chain is 94% powered by renewable energy; this is through purchase of
REC’s and is an increase of 239% from 2010. They also implemented a consumption
tracking system across building in 91 countries and this has dropped waste
levels by 23%.
9.
Kohl’s. The Wisconsin-based
department store chain uses 100% renewable energy, through a combination of
RECs and self-generation.
10. Chicago Public Schools.
The US’s third-largest school district gets 20% of its energy from renewable
energy. They also run a schools energy saving programme, where by any school
that saves 5% energy receive cash awards. Overall this saved the public purse
$500k.
Taken from:
Next week, I am going to start looking
at Sustainable Finance, after the bad press the finance sector has been
attracting and the serious loss of the industries social contract and quite
frankly its moral compass, can it recover? Is there a form of finance, which
can be sustainable and still create liquidity needed for business and the
global economy? This is something that I am becoming very interested in, and
will start to look at next week.
Interesting Reading
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