Beginning in July 2013, Procter & Gamble will work with eight transportation carriers to convert up to 20 percent of its North America truck load shipments to natural gas vehicles within two years. By meeting this goal, it is expected P&G will incur savings for the converted lanes and reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by nearly 5,000 metric tons (or the equivalent GHG emissions from 1,000 passenger vehicles for a year).
In the developed world, electricity is cheap and as available as the nearest outlet. But in off-the-grid Africa, energy poverty is endemic. With national grid expansion lagging well behind growth in demand, increasingly Africans are looking not to centralized, fossil fuel-based solutions, but to the sun.
Freight that moves by rail instead of highway is estimated to reduce emissions by two-thirds, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. If just 10 percent of the long-haul freight currently moving by truck could be switched to rail, it would eliminate more than 12 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year.
Unilever United States and Canada announced that all 26 of its manufacturing and non-manufacturing headquarter facilities are now zero waste to landfill (ZLF). Other countries in which Unilever has achieved this milestone reportedly include the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Japan.
The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has commended the administration for including in its FY2014 budget measures aimed at the promotion of energy-efficiency efforts in the public and private sectors.
Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, Del Monte Foods and MGM Resorts are among some 25 companies that have joined an Ecodesk campaign to improve supply chain efficiency and transparency, and make it easier for businesses to measure so-called Scope 3 emissions.
While more than half (53 percent) of all companies in the S&P 500 Index and Fortune 500 published sustainability reports in 2011 "” up from 19 percent the year before "” companies in the U.S. are less likely to obtain third-party assurance than their global peers, according to a report by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Assurance refers to third-party validation of a sustainability report's contents.
Analyst Insight: Sustainability is a global business megatrend with cross-functional implications that for-profit corporations cannot afford to ignore any more than IT or quality management. Sustainability means balancing environmental impacts, social welfare and profit-making activities to promote value along the so-called "triple bottom line." Given increasingly conscientious consumers and growing limits to resource availability, success in the era of climate change will be reserved for companies that have sustainable supply chains and operations. - Nada Sanders, Professor and Iacocca Chair, Lehigh University; Director of EcoNautics Sustainability Institute
Analyst Insight: Sustainability has been on consumer packaged goods executives' minds - and part of their strategic plans - for some time now. In the past, many companies have pursued sustainability because they saw it as the right thing to do. At the same time, sustainability also creates positive morale among employees, helps to meet regulations such as those for emissions, and boosts companies' reputations. But only recently has sustainability truly been connected and aligned with financial performance. - Bruce Tompkins, Executive Director, Tompkins Supply Chain Consortium
President Barack Obama is trying to persuade the United States to adopt a cap-and-trade system to curb greenhouse gas emissions. But the European Union's Emissions Trading System "” the world's flagship effort "” is sputtering. European carbon permits, which traded at about €30 ($40) per ton a few years ago, are now hovering at about €5 per ton or less.