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)
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)
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)
UN Economic and Social Council Launches Online Forum on Sustainable Development
The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has launched a global online forum where audiences can ask questions to Government officials from around the world on the steps needed to address challenges on sustainable development issues.
The forum, which is being conducted through various social media platforms, seeks to provide people with the opportunity to be part of ECOSOC’s Special Ministerial Meeting on Monday, which will focus on making progress on the issues discussed at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil in June.
Selected questions from the forum, which has theme of ‘Building the Future we Want,’ will be answered by experts during an interactive dialogue at the Meeting, which will also be broadcast live from UN Headquarters in New York.
Read more…(UN.org)
Financial Costs of Climate Change Seriously Underestimated by US Government Calculations
…A new study in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences shows that current calculations on the future financial impacts of climate change are being underestimated by the US government somewhere between 2.6 and 12 times.
Report co-author Laurie Johnson from NRDC explains the full economic reasoning in two thorough blogs, but the gist of it is that the government uses a figure for the damage caused by carbon pollution at $21 per ton of CO2, whereas a more accurate estimate is in the range of $55-266 per ton- and that’s a middle-of-the-road climate scenario, not worst case.
Read more…(TreeHugger)
19 Companies, Including Starbucks and Levi Strauss, Ask Congress to Extend Wind PTC
19 companies including Starbucks, Ben & Jerry’s, Johnson & Johnson and Levi Strauss have sent a letter to Congress requesting that it extend the wind production tax credit (PTC) before it expires at the end of 2012.
They also plan to escalate contact with lawmakers over the coming weeks.
The companies seek to counterbalance the letter sent by 64 conservative groups last week which argues for Congress to let the PTC expire.
Read more…(SustainableBusiness)
Business Leaders Urge Congress to Extend Renewable Energy Tax Credits
Today, 19 companies, including major consumer brands and several Fortune 500 firms, wrote to Congressional leaders encouraging them to extend the Production Tax Credit (PTC), a key provision supporting renewable energy.
The PTC provides a tax credit of 2.2 cents per killowatt-hour of renewable power generated and, if lawmakers fail to act, is set to expire in 2012. Originally signed into law by George H.W. Bush, the tax credit has helped to strengthen energy diversity, reduce reliance on fossil fuels and keep electricity costs low for homes and businesses across the country.
When Will the Candidates Talk About Creating a Sustainable Economy?
In case you haven’t heard, it’s political convention season. Delegates from all 50 states have gathered in Tampa and Charlotte with their respective parties to officially nominate their candidate for president.
Much of the rhetoric from both campaigns has been focused on how to stimulate the U.S. economy and middle class jobs. But largely absent from the discourse has been any reference to creating sustainable jobs or building a more sustainably focused economy in the United States. It’s not surprising as Greenbiz readers who have read any of the annual State of Green Business reports know, since the sustainability revolution is being led by corporate executives and not by politicians.Read more…(GreenBiz)
China Invests $327B to Cut Pollution, Energy Use
China is spending $327 billion on energy conservation and anti-pollution measures over the next three-and-a-half years, reports Reuters.
The measures, meant to reduce China’s dependence on fossil fuels and slow down its carbon emissions, are part of the so-called 12th five-year plan. They will center on energy efficiency, emissions reduction and recycling projects, says the China State Council.
The investments will help the country get halfway toward its goal of cutting energy intensity by 16 percent below 2010 levels by 2015, says the council.
Read more…(GreenBiz)
What’s the Long-Term Impact of EU’s Carbon Market Crisis?
The European Union’s new plan to shore up its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) following a plunge in carbon prices underscores just how volatile-and vulnerable- the carbon emissions trading market has become.
Battered by global economic uncertainty, an overuse of allowances and political polarization, the ETS will probably remain in limbo until at least September. That’s when the EU’s climate change commission next meets.
Read more… (GreenBiz.com)
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