Green news
Thursday, 7 February 2008
Last Updated: Thursday, 7 February 2008
What global execs think about climate change
Thursday, 7 February 2008
More than half of executives in companies around the world think climate change is an important issue for their companies, according to a new study published in McKinsey Quarterly.
The survey of executives across a range of sectors and regions found that 60% believe climate change is important to the companies’ overall strategy and 70% see it as important to their corporate reputation and brand.
And, interestingly, executives’ perception of the impact climate change is likely to have on their companies aren’t as negative as one might imagine. About one-third view climate change as representing an equal balance of opportunities and risks, while 61% see the issues associated with climate change as having a positive effect on profits if managed well.
Awareness of climate change is being driven at least in part by the rising prospect of government regulation in the area, with 80% of global executives saying they expect some form of climate change regulation to come to their companies’ home country within five years.
It is not clear that climate change consciousness has made it to the top of the corporate totem pole however: 44% of chief executives (as distinct from executives in general) say climate change isn’t a significant item on their agenda.
Computer chip powered by body heat
Thursday, 7 February 2008
US scientists have invented a computer chip that requires so little power to run that the heat from a human body is enough to make it go, Wired reports.
The new chip, invented by researchers at MIT, uses 70% less power than the current generation of computer chip technology.
The key benefit of the chip is that it could extent the battery life of portable electronic devices in areas like medical electronics, where pacemakers could be a perfect candidate, and the military, which funded part of the research.
The military could be keen on creating sensors to monitor soldiers’ health, blood flow, heart rate or thermal profile, but they would only be workable if the power required to run is very low.
The MIT researchers believe the power requirements for sensors attached to the body could be reduced to near zero using the chip, with the body's heat and movement generating the microwattage necessary to power the devices.
Booming motor vehicle FBT called into question
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Mike Preston
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A sharp rise in motor vehicle related fringe benefit tax concession claims has reinforced calls for tax reform to better reflect the environmental consequences of increased vehicle use.
The value of claims for FBT concessions on company cars will reportedly reach almost $1.5 billion in 2007-08, almost 50% higher than Treasury forecasts, and are predicted to top $2 billion by 2009-10.
The sharp increase in FBT concession costs comes as a coalition of taxation groups including the Taxation Institute of Australia and Taxpayers Australia call for reform of tax rules to reflect the environmental cost of car use.
Under the current FBT system, company cars receive a greater FBT concession if they travel a higher number of kilometres because this is deemed more likely to be work-related travel.
The effect, according to Taxation Institute of Australia senior tax counsel Michael Dirkis, is that businesses have an incentive to make sure work cars travel further.
“It makes good compliance sense but not good environmental sense because it tends to encourage car use – especially if they’re close to the threshold. You do see people taking the car for trips or moving them to a high user driver so they get the concession,” Dirkis says.
Dirkis says a move to a standardised regime, perhaps involving lower concession rates overall but requiring less travel, could be a way to improve the system.
“It just doesn’t make a great deal of sense to have people driving around the countryside just to avoid a tax liability, so we’re calling on the Government to implement a simple set of rules that provides the concession without the mileage requirement,” Dirkis says.
Profits and perils in green business
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Mike Preston
Most Australian business owners and executives see the need to reduce their business’s carbon emissions but are yet to begin taking action in big numbers, a new report has found.
According to PricewaterhouseCooper’s Carbon Countdown survey, while 80% of business leaders believe the business community needs to take an active role in responding to climate change, just 22% have taken action such as implementing new internal policies and procedures.
PWC climate services director Sean Lucy says the survey suggests Australian businesses are still processing the masses of information available about climate change.
“Organisations tend to become aware of the need to do something, then they think about it and then take action, so it’s a sign of where the business community is at in that cycle. They know there is a need for change and perhaps they are now looking for examples they can follow and who is leading the way,” Lucy says.
The need for leadership and more information on how to address climate change is another key finding of the survey, with many respondents suggesting they would like to see more government action on the issue.
Businesses are not waiting to take action where there is consumer demand for greater environmental sensitivity, however.
Lucy says one in four business leaders said they were responding to customer demand for more green services and products.
“We’re following the UK, where the trend for environmentally friendly products is most advanced, and now we’re seeing big retail players heading in that direction,” Lucy says.
The rush to pick up on growing customer demand for green goods and services is so significant that it may be leading some businesses to exaggerate their environmental claims for their products.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has recently successfully prosecuted three businesses for misleading consumers about the low carbon emission status of their products and is now conducting an inquiry into the issue.
ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel says the premium consumers are prepared to pay for green products has triggered the rapid emergence of businesses offering carbon-neutral goods or services.
“As always happens with a new market, you get claims being made and sometimes you get people making excessive claims,” Samuel told The Australian Financial Review. “I’d say it’s the beginning sign that businesses may be going a bit too far.”
Nick Bez, research director with green consumer research firm Mobium, says businesses that exaggerate their green credentials risk a customer backlash.
“Any business that chooses to take a green position in the market that is deceptive will find that consumers will react by punishing them for that behaviour,” Bez says. “Consumers want brands to stand for something. If that doesn’t stack up they will walk away.”
A new online community for the environmentally conscious, Green Thing, aims to inspire people to perform one green task each month.
Springwise reports that Green Thing hopes to set its members with an easy to perform task, once a month, that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
For example, October's task is to walk; users list the number of times they've done this month's thing, when they've done it and how, and Green Thing estimates how many kilos of carbon dioxide have been saved. At the end of each month, Green Thing announces the total reduction in greenhouse gas achieved by the entire community.
Green Thing hopes to make it easy and fun for people to do the “green thing” by recruiting various artistic types to provide the inspiration. In October, the site has podcasts available for people download to make their walks more enjoyable.
“Green Thing is an easy thing, a fun thing, a creative thing and a community thing. It's for anyone who wants to be a bit greener but hasn't found a way,” Green Thing’s founders, Andy Hobsbawm and Naresh Ramchandani, told Springwise.
A growing number of Australian companies such as St George Bank and EDS are offering employees incentives to live more environmentally friendly lives, both at home and at work.
St George Bank offers its workers interest-free loans for water tanks, public transport passes and environmentally-friendly appliances, and EDS allows its employees to offset their carbon emissions by paying into a tree-planting program. Employee contributions to the program are matched by EDS.
Employees at Energy Australia have received free packs of energy-efficient light bulbs, shower-timers and a 12% discount on the company's Pure Energy green-power product, while Origin Energy staff can salary sacrifice any electricity or gas bills they get from the company – and have, as an extra carrot for signing up, the possibility of winning a holiday in central Australia.
Transurban buys yearly tickets on public transport for its employees, who have the next 12 months to pay the money back.
Small and medium businesses are getting more worried about environmental issues and they are doing something about it, a survey shows. The Sensis Environment Report found that 37% of SMEs surveyed were trying to reduce their impact on the environment.
The result follows a survey conducted earlier this year by international business coaching organisation Shirlaws, which found that only 2.5% of SMEs believed that “reducing environmental impact” would be a key challenge over the next five years.
Another survey, the latest Commonwealth Bank-CCI Survey of WA Business Expectations, found that 44% of respondents were unsure about the most appropriate way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Christena Singh, the author of the Sensis report, says: "The most popular change was to introduce recycling, followed by trying to reduce water and energy usage." The main calls to action from Australians were for business to be more efficient with energy and water (14%) and to recycle and manage waste better (13%).
"These calls to action closely mirror changes already being made by SMEs," Singh told The Age. Of the SMEs that responded, 44% reported an impact on their business from drought, flood or water restrictions.
Australia's largest retailers are responding to consumers' concerns about climate change and global warming.
Woolworths is testing the use of canola-based biodiesel fuels in its fleet of delivery trucks, although sustainability manager Armineh Mardirossian concedes that availability of such fuels is an issue, reports The Australian Financial Review.
Meanwhile, Woolworths will open the first of three "green" supermarkets later this month. The new stores will aim to consume 20% to 30% less energy than existing stores. Coles Group has also opened "green" supermarkets, and like Woolworths it welcomes the suggestions of employees with regard to reducing carbon emissions.
Everybody likes the idea of being green, especially when someone else has to do all the heavy lifting.
According to a recent survey of 1741 US employees by Sun Microsystems published by Inc.com, 73% of workers want to work for businesses that are environmentally-friendly – but only 52% say they turn lights off when they leave a room at the office, and 34% report they turn off their computers at the end of the day.
Interestingly, people take more responsibility for conservation at home. The same survey found 92% of people conserve energy at home by turning off the lights and 58% shut down their computers.
Almost 40% of US teenagers online consider themselves environmentalists, with 15% subscribing to views that could be described as “hardcore” green, according to a recent Jupiter Research survey reported by Promo magazine.
And what appeals to these green teens? Well, online shopping and sweepstakes apparently. Teens who identify with green issues are 5% more likely than other teens to enter online sweepstake-style competitions, 6% more likely to shop online and 7% more likely to buy from a bricks-and-mortar store after seeing an online advertisement (so much more environmentally friendly than all those paper pamphlets).
And they like music – green teens spend a median of seven hours weekly listening to recorded music, compared to five hours for teens overall, and they spend $US100 annually on music – 25% above the average for all teens, according to the survey.
Get ready for the green office
Baby boomers get ready. Gen-Ys may change not only your office but office values as well.
A newspoll of 467 workers shows that 84% of employees want to work in an environmentally friendly office. And it is not just the Gen-Ys who want the change. While 81% of 18-24 year olds want to work in a green office, so do 86% of 35-49s.
But it is the Gen-Ys who are confident enough to demand the change.
“Australians think it is very important to work in a company that puts the environment as a top propriety – not just a priority. But young people are happy to speak up about it,” says Kim McKay, co-author of a new book out today True Green @ Work.
Other surveys also show that it is Gen-Ys that are leading the charge. In fact three quarters of 20 year olds say they would not even apply for a job if they were uncomfortable with the company’s values.
The survey mirrors one done by SmartCompany recently that found that Gen-Ys were much more likely than Gen-X and baby boomers to demand better office amenities and the latest technology in the office. They also wanted to work in smart offices.
Another survey out this morning from recruitment company LinkMe shows that 87% of people believe the Government should offer incentives to help staff work from home so there are less carbon emissions from cars travelling to work.
10 ways employers can make the office more environmentally friendly
- Mugs instead of disposable coffee cups: there are 400 million disposable cups still used across the country.
- Choosing recycled paper.
- Setting the printer to double sided.
- Bring lunch in recyclable containers.
- Unplug your phone charger from the wall when not in use, and receive communications electronically instead of by paper.
- Turn down the office thermostat and wear appropriate clothing to work.
- Turn off the lights at night.
- Turn off all computers when you leave.
- Maximise natural light and air.
- Travel on public transport or car pool.
Amanda Gome
Want to green your car fleet but the cost of hybrids putting you off? Norway’s new Think city electric car, about to hit the US market in the coming months, is revolutionising the auto industry by offering an owner financing package.
Manufacturers of the two-seat, electric-powered Think runaround are taking advantage of the auto industry’s transition to alternative fuel, in the face of oil-price hikes and consumer environmental concerns.
According to trend website Springwise, consumers will pay an estimated $US15,000 to $US17,000 for the vehicle, but the company plans to lease the Think’s battery for $US100 to $US200 a month. Smart idea, given the battery alone would cost around $US34,000 and would have a lifespan dependent on how the vehicle is used.