Gianna
Extinction Mystery
The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker is so endangered, that experts are not even sure if this species is actually extinct. It was declared extinct until 2004, when people believed to have sighted a few of the population. If some do exist, according to AllAboutWildlife.com, the group is most likely very small (less than 10) and very susceptible to completely disappearing forever.
It is sad because these beautiful birds are in the state they are in now due to over-hunting by humans who wanted their feathers.
If you want to learn more about this species, or if you want to see the top 10 most endangered species list, click on the link below.
Crude
SustPro is dedicated to protecting the environment, reducing C02 emissions, and saving polar bears. Humans are the reason why these things need saving in the first place. Not all humans are bad; in fact most of them aren’t.
However, oil excavation in Ecuador has cost human lives, as well as environmental damage that is irreparable. It is important for everyone to hear this story– that’s why I recommend the film: Crude, directed by Joe Berlinger.
It is available for Instant Play on Netflix, but you can also buy the film from the website listed below and part of the proceeds will go to the Clean Up Ecuador Campaign.
Sustainability Indicator: 74% Global-Warming Realists
Today’s sustainability indicator, 74 percent, is the proportion of Americans who acknowledge that ‘global warming is affecting weather in the United States.’ That’s 5 percentage points higher than a similar survey conducted in March.
Recent Indicators:
-5.8%: U.S. electricity needs met by non-hydro renewable energy.
-3.1%: electricity produced by non-hydro renewables in 2008.
-213: current measure of the UN’s world Food Price Index.
-210: the price threshold associated with a sharp rise in social unrest and food riots.
-50%: world transport fuels replaceable by converting 17.5% of farm waste to biofuel.
1.32 million square miles: Current Arctic sea ice, the least in 33 years of satellite records.
18%: decrease from the previous record-low Arctic ice, recorded in 2007.
330: consecutive months that global temperatures have topped the 20th century average.
626 million: people in India who will still defecate in the open, contributing to superbugs.
251 million: people who gained improved sanitation in the country from 1990 to 2010.
Read more…(Bloomberg)
Are GRI’s Next-Gen Guidelines Too Complex?
Framework LLC has worked hand-in-hand with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to foster and promote the GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines as a GRI organizational stakeholder since 2005 and as provider of reporting and advisory services to our clients for nearly a decade. We are staunch supporters of the principles of materiality, comparability, context, and completeness in public disclosure of environmental, social, and governance information. We have thus viewed the strict application of the GRI guidelines as a replicable pathway for all companies, large and small, to be accountable and transparent in their public communication of sustainability performance.
Read more…(GreenBiz)
Who’s the Greenest of Them All? With Sure Points, You Can Count Your Eco-Friendliness
It’s not easy being green, Kermit the Frog sang. A startup called Sure has a way to make it easier: Give people points for making green lifestyle choices.
The Sure system, which launched today at DEMO Fall 2012, is designed to help individuals, companies, and even whole cities reduce their contributions to greenhouse gas emissions. At every level, people get points for making more eco-friendly choices: buying organically-made bread, riding bicycles instead of driving cars, or using compact fluorescent lighting and environmentally-friendly manufacturing processes. And if you get more points, you qualify for discounts on future purchases.
In other words, Sure makes being green into a sort of game. But here’s where it gets interesting: You can gain more Sure points by frequenting businesses or working for companies that have a lot of Sure points, or by living in a city with a lot of Sure points. Conversely, companies get Sure points for having lots of employees with eco-friendly lifestyles, and cities’ scores rise if they have lots of residents who have high scores.
Read more! I highly encourage you to do so….(VentureBeat)
Ancient Advice for Today’s Sustainability Leaders
When men like Adam Smith founded modern capitalist thinking, did they also abandon earlier knowledge of what it takes to foster a sustainable world? Was the wisdom of ancients like Plato lost with the rise of ideas like free markets and the belief that the pursuit of self interest by itself creates a better world? Classical scholar and Princeton Philosophy Professor Melissa Lane makes that case in her book Eco-Republic, published by Princeton University Press.
Lane’s intriguing implication is that sustainability leadership is as much about fostering a new mindset as it is about adopting cleaner technologies or more equitable social policies. Leaders in the ancient world thought and made decisions differently. They understood that they were embedded in an interdependent social web and they knew that their decisions had to take into account not just self interest but the collective interest as well.
Read more…(Forbes)
Making Growth Sustainable
The sustainable development of the world’s rich and poor nations is a hot topic for debate, as world leaders meet at the United Nations general assembly in New York from 25 September to 1 October. A panel of experts appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met for the first time on Tuesday to begin defining a new approach to sustainable global growth. Jeffrey Sachs, a development economist at Columbia University, New York, is launching a worldwide knowledge network that will bring together businesses, academics and leading thinkers to help find hi-tech solutions to the development hurdles that the panel and others identify. Sachs spoke to Nature about the network’s goals.
Read more…(Nature)
Defining Sustainability in the Restaurant Industry
Without a doubt, U.S. consumers want sustainable food, and demand is growing quickly. According to the Organic Trade Association, the market for organics alone has gone from $1 billion in 1990 to $26.7 billion in 2010.
Interest in local foods is also on the rise. According to the USDA, as of mid-2011, there were 7,175 farmers markets in the U.S., a 17 percent increase from 2010. Restaurants like Lyfe, a new fast casual chain launched by former McDonald’s execs and Mission Local Eatery in San Francisco are leading the charge towards more sustainable restaurant options. But as the market continues to grow, these restaurants and others like them struggle to define sustainability for their customers and suppliers. Restaurateurs and consumers often don’t know how to weigh the various attributes that fall into the sustainability bucket.
Read more…(TriplePundit)
BMW i3 Concept Spotlights Sustainability
BMW’s electric i3 Concept – slated for production in 2013 – will get fresh play at the Paris Motor Show, and the automaker really wants you to stick your head inside the car this time.
That’s apparently where the work has been focused since BMW unveiled the concept in Frankfurt a little over a year ago.
In announcing its Paris lineup, BMW actually didn’t say a lot about the ‘new version’ of the i3 that it will put on display, beyond the interior upgrades – which got a less extensive preview in London this past June when the company opened its first BMW i Store.
If you missed that…BMW enthused about its efforts to bring sustainability to luxury. This was accomplished with the use of ‘leather, wood, wool, and other renewable raw materials’ in the car’s interior.
Read more…(TG Daily)
California Launches Online Voter Registration System
Californians can register to vote with the click of a mouse under a new online system launched Wednesday.
Secretary of State Debra Bowen said she hopes making the process easier will mean more participation in the Nov. 6 election. Some 6.5 million Californians who are eligible to vote are not registered, she said.
‘Today, the Internet replaces the mailbox for thousands of Californians wishing to register to vote,’ Bowen said at a Sacramento news conference.
The new system could have a week or more from the paper process, according to Dean Logan, the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder. Until now, every would-be voter had to fill out an application, sign it in paper form and mail or deliver it to elections officials before added to the voter rolls.
Read more…(LA Times)
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