You’re invited to be a speaker, a sponsor, a media partner and/or a delegate to the very first World Engineers Summit in Singapore 9-15 September this year with the theme “Innovative and Sustainable Solutions to Climate Change”. The event is expected to be the first global conference conducted in accordance with the new international standard for event sustainability, ISO 20121. Singapore is also playing host to the eighth Eco-products International Fair (EPIF ) from 14 -16 March 2013 at Marina Bay Sands. Read More

World Engineers Summit, 9-15 September 2013

SASA – Sustain Ability Showcase Asia – is supporting the organisers of the first World Engineers Summit in  Singapore 9-15 September 2013 by reinforcing the call for papers from enthusiastic and sustainable engineers and other experts around the world.

Besides inviting speakers and sponsors to come on board this big international event with the theme “Innovative and Suistainable Solutions to Climate Change”, SASA is also undertaking for the first time in Asia , a sustainable event management plan based on the gold standard ISO 20121 as used for the London Olympics.

So lineup and be part of this event in more ways than one. As a speaker. As a sponsor. As a media partner. As a delegate or exhibitor. It’s the sustainable and innovative thing to do.

A message from the organisers, The Inistitution of Engineers Singapore (IES):

Singapore is pleased to play host to the inaugural edition of the World Engineers Summit 2013, which will be addressing “Innovative and sustainable solutions to Climate Change”.

If you believe that climate change is one of the most critical challenege4s facuing humanity and recognise the urgency to identify, develop and implement innovative and sustaimnable solutions to mitigate a spreading carbon footprint and ensuring efficient consumption of Earth’s fast depleting resources, WES 2013 is your ideal activation platform.

The organizing committee is inviting submissions of papers in the following areas

• Environmental policies
• Corporate social responsibility  climate change
• Innovative and sustainable technology
• Environmental engineering education
• Food and water security
• Women in engineering congress
• Sustainable energy
• Integrated environmental management systems
• Natural disaster mitigation and management
• Financing climate change opportunities
• Sustainable and innovative development
• Professional ethics and conduct: Key prerequisites for sustainability.

Deadline for submission of an abstract is 28 February 2013.

For more information go to www.wes2013.org

Eco Products International Fair

The Asian Productivity Organization (APO) and Waste Management & Recycling Association of Singapore (WMRAS), supported by SPRING Singapore, would like to announce the eighth Eco-products International Fair (EPIF ). The three-day fair and conference will be held in Singapore from 14—to 16 March 2013 at Sands Expo & Convention Centre, and will be graced by Ms Grace Fu, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for the Environment and Water Resources and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Themed “One Environment, One Future: Towards a Sustainable and Greener Asia” the event will showcase all that Asia has to offer in terms of environmental sustainability in the urban context. In the past, this event has been held in other parts of Asia. Singapore is proud to host this event for the second time in its history since 2004. The fair will bring together participants from across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, aimed at generating a wide range of exciting new business opportunities in this arena.

Environmental degradation is a constraint on future growth within the Asia-Pacific region and a barrier to efforts to eradicate poverty. By approximately 2020, over half of Asia’s population will live in cities. The speed of population growth in urban areas has outpaced the development of environmental infrastructure in many large cities. Problems range from lack of access to clean water to poor air quality, inability to manage solid wastes and transportation. Urban societies are becoming conscious of environmental problems and keen to learn more about the best practices, eco-products and technologies.

Eco-Products International Fair 2013 aims to exhibit these eco-products, services, technologies, materials, and components from around the world including Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. The exhibition will feature two sections: Eco Business & Green Personal Lifestyle.

In parallel with and further enhancing the value of the fair, an International Conference on “Opportunities and Challenges in Sustainable Urban Living” will be organised to address issues, opportunities, and challenges relating to sustainable urban living. The conference will feature international speakers who are experts in their specific areas and will incorporate exchanges of the most up-to-date information on topics such as eco-practices, eco-innovations, eco-technologies, sustainable consumption and production, green procurement, eco-lifestyle, and policy interventions to achieve sustainable urban living.

The three-day event will also feature a business forum, technical exchanges, business networking events and site visits. The event will target a total of 12,550 sqm of exhibition space and feature 150 international and local exhibitors.

As stated by Mr. Kazuyuki Sakai, Chairman of the EPIF Preparatory Committee of the APO Green Productivity Advisory Committee, “In this day and age when we are affected by serious global climate change, strong initiatives through private–public-sector cooperation such as the EPIF 2013 help steer us in the right direction of balancing consumerism with deliberate environmental consciousness and achieving ‘compassionate productivity’ that is not only profitable but also sustainable.

Jerome Baco, Chairman, WMRAS stated, “ “EPIF 2013 will be an excellent opportunity to have dialogue on various opinions and business opportunities identification amongst the Key players of Sustainable development in the region”.

Simon Lim, Group Director, Industry Development, SPRING Singapore said, “The cleantech industry has been identified as a strategic growth area for Singapore’s economy. SMEs play an important role in adding diversity and innovation to the industry, from both the solutions provider and leading adopter perspectives. EPIF 2013 will be a key opportunity for local and international players to showcase their know-how, understand the latest developments and discuss collaborations within the cleantech industry. ”

Issued by Asian Productivity Organization (APO) and Waste Management & Recycling Association of Singapore (WMRAS) on 25 January 2013.

APO

The Asian Productivity Organization (APO) is the sole nonprofit international organization in the Asia–Pacific devoted to productivity. Established in 1961 as a regional intergovernmental organization, the APO contributes to the sustainable socioeconomic development of the Asia–Pacific through productivity enhancement. Three strategic directions guide the APO: strengthen NPOs and promote the development of SMEs and communities; catalyze innovation-led productivity growth; and promote Green Productivity.

Website: http://www.apo-tokyo.org/

Waste Management and Recycling Association of Singapore (WMRAS)

Established on 8th of August 2001, the Waste Management and Recycling Association of Singapore (WMRAS) aims to professionalise and develop a leading waste management and recycling industry in Asia. With the aim to promote business networking opportunities and best practices amongst members, the Association has been organising activities such as talks, mission trips, conferences, exhibitions and members get together sessions etc. To foster information exchange, the Association has organised regular dialogue sessions with relevant authorities to keep members updated on the regulatory and policies developments. Meetings with the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, National Environment Agency, Economic Development Board, International Enterprise Singapore and SPRING Singapore, have allowed members to feedback their concerns and discuss how the public and private sectors could work together to address these needs.

Website: http://www.wmras.org.sg/

ABOUT EPIF

Eco-products International Fairs (EPIF)

With the full cooperation of the GPAC, the APO initiated the Eco-products International Fair (EPIF) in 2004. Through fairs designed to strengthen international cooperation in greening supply chains in the Asia-Pacific region, and through international conferences held concurrently, consumers are made aware of the importance of green purchasing, enterprises are provided opportunities to expand their eco-businesses, and governments can investigate methods for greening their policies. The EPIFs are held in a different APO member country each year. The first was in Malaysia in 2004, followed by Thailand in 2005, Singapore in 2006, Vietnam in 2008, the Philippines in 2009, Indonesia in 2010 and India in 2011. [SC1] Each fair has seen an increase in both scale and international attention. EPIF is now firmly established as the largest environmental exhibition in Asia.

Source: www.epif2013.com/

Photovoltaic solar panels available on the market now suffer from low efficiency, silicon based cells have an average of 17% currently, curtailing a more widespread adoption. However, a new silicon based solar cell from Dresden, Germany-based Apollon GmbH & Co has managed to achieve 28% efficiency – potentially remapping the adoption of photovoltaic solar power. Couple this with two breakthrough inventions – circuit breaker from ABB capable of converting energy to direct current and carry over long distances, and gravity-powered LED lamps – light can be brought to places previously deemed too remote or too expensive. Read more

“Game-Changing” Solar Invention Announced

By Nicholas Brown in Cleantechnica (30 January 2013):

Holographic film used with highly efficient solar cells to create “game-changing” solar panel.

I have seen my share of outstanding solar innovations, such as concentrated solar setups using tiny gallium arsenide cells that achieve an astounding 42% efficiency. However, I’ve been eagerly waiting for an outstanding innovation made from more abundant materials such as silicon.

The main reason is that silicon is the second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, so it should remain cheap and available as long as needed.

Almost all of the silicon solar panels (aka solar modules) on the market are between 10% and 20% efficient, so it is high time for a module that is both constructed from abundant materials and is much more efficient.

The Dresden-based company Apollon GmbH & Co. KG and Solar Bankers LLC, which is based on Arizona, claim that they have developed a new silicon-based solar panel with a holographic foil that is twice as efficient as typical models, and that they are so cheap they can be manufactured in Germany or the USA at a lower cost than factories in China manufacture conventional solar panels.

They said that their solar modules achieve 28% efficiency, which is considerably higher than the average 17% efficiency on the solar module market. They have done so through advanced Concentrated Solar Photovoltaic module development — in particular, the use of light selection, deflection, and concentration. And the companies expect an even better efficiency soon.

“Our solution addresses the major downsides that make today’s photovoltaic (PV) technologies unprofitable. These disadvantages arise mainly from the material silicon as well as from efficiency losses, which result e.g. through heat occurring from concentration,” declares Jost.

This translates into much lower silicon requirements to generate the same amount of power. The companies note: “Contrary to today’s PV modules, this system only needs a fraction of the semiconductor material while the performance per square meter of the module surface is almost twice as high as conventional PV. The module is based on a holographic optic, which is a strong contrast to other concentrator photovoltaic modules using expensive flat lenses (e.g. Fresnel lenses).”

Jost says: “The holographic element is printed on the cover glass and filters the sunlight hitting the solar cell. The printing process allows an economical duplication and simultaneously saves laser and development work, usually necessary when using holographic elements.”

Read more at http://cleantechnica.com/

By Alison Kemper and Roger Martin in Guardian Sustainable Business (23 January 2013):

Two inventions that have the power to transform energy use

Two very different companies have come up with innovative technologies that could transform how renewable energy and light are used

A circuit breaker invented by ABB could allow renewable energy to be converted to high voltage and carried long distances. Photograph: Michael Nelson/EPA

Late in 2012, we became aware of two very different companies that have created new technologies to change the way light and power are distributed. Their ideas gave us a renewed sense of the power of innovation, which we need to ensure a sustainable future.

One of the biggest issues for renewable energy is that few users live in the mountaintops or offshore areas where much wind power is generated, and no one needs electricity in the deserts of North Africa. Instead, the energy that is generated is often converted to high voltage direct current (HVDC) and carried long distances on HVDC lines. They are cheaper to operate and more efficient conductors than AC transmission lines.

This type of technology has been limited because no one had invented a HVDC circuit breaker, a critical component in a stable and safe grid.

But last November, ABB announced that they had invented a HVDC breaker. “ABB has written a new chapter in the history of electrical engineering,” said Joe Hogan, chief executive of ABB. “This historical breakthrough will make it possible to build the grid of the future.

“Overlay DC grids will be able to interconnect countries and continents, balance loads and reinforce the existing AC transmission networks … HVDC technology is needed to facilitate the long distance transfer of power from hydropower plants, the integration of offshore wind power, the development of visionary solar projects, and the interconnection of different power networks.”

No doubt ABB has added a certain level of trumpeting to their announcement, but it is exciting to see progress in this area.

One of the great distinctions between the world’s poor and poorest is the absence of electrical lights in the homes of the latter group. Throughout Africa, Latin America, and Asia, people light kerosene lamps, candles or oil lamps to see at night, risking burns, respiratory health and increasing their risk of cancer. They also spend a significant proportion of their income on kerosene and add CO2 to atmosphere.

The increasing availability and decreasing price of LED lights has a great deal of potential to change this landscape. But in terms of electricity supply, most people who live far from the grid have little cash to pay for the solar cells and battery storage systems that power solar lighting. People have less money to pay for ongoing maintenance and support of larger systems, so solar lighting becomes a project for communities rather than households.

While new microfinance schemes might provide a solution, microfinance institutions do not generally provide consumer product financing and have little infrastructure to allow for the installation and upkeep of solar lighting systems. And cheaper lamps with self contained batteries are low powered and have a limited battery life. In short, solar may not always be the best solution for lighting the homes of people on low incomes.

A skunkworks project by London-based industrial design company,therefore.com, has devised a completely different solution. GravityLightis a lamp powered by the descent of a 9kg (20lb) weight that is pulled up at 20-30 minute intervals by the user. Like the weights on a grandfather clock, the lamp’s weights store potential energy and release it to power the LEDs in their slow descent. There are no cells to gather energy from the sun, no batteries in which to store it; it’s a self contained unit.

The company hopes to be able to sell it for $5-10 (£3-6), a fraction of the cost of an equivalent solar powered lamp.

Innovations like these two are precisely why sustainable business is critical to our future. We need large scale, safe, reliable HVDC lines to transmit renewably generated power from deserts and sea beds to industrial and residential users. Thanks to ABB, we are now better able to gain renewable energy economies of scale impossible before their invention of the HVDC breaker.

And students, families, shopkeepers and farmers who need cheap, safe, non-polluting lighting, may soon be able to afford a reliable lamp.

Let’s hope that 2013 is a year of more far-reaching innovation.

Alison Kemper teaches management at York University in Toronto, Canada, and has worked with the Michael Lee-Chin Institute for Corporate Citizenship since 2005

Roger Martin is dean of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management and is academic director of the school’s Michael Lee-Chin Family Institute for Corporate Citizenship. His research work is in integrative thinking, business design, corporate social responsibility and country competitiveness. His most recent book is Fixing the Game.

http://www.guardian.co.uk

Carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft and ships contribute about 3% to 4% of global annual emissions each, and opportunities to reduce their impacts are abound. A test of a civilian jet running on 100% renewable biofuel shows sharp reduction in emissions, including a 49% drop in black carbon which contributes to climate change. Shipping line Maersk has also done well to reach its 2020 target to reduce CO2 emissions by 25% from 2007 level, eight years early! Read more

Demonstration Project is Next Step to 100% Renewable Jet Fuel

SustainableBusiness.com News (18 January 2013):

Until recently, the use of algae, oils and other renewable fuels have been introduced for jet fuel and gasoline in small amounts, usually 5-20% blended into petroleum. Still, it was pretty exciting when the first commercial flights ran on these fuels in November 2011.

But on October 29, 2012, the first civilian jet flew for an hour powered by 100% renewable biofuel.

Popular Science named the October 29th flight as one of the top 25 science events of 2012.

The airplane ran more efficiently than on petroleum aviation fuel and it produced half the aerosol emissions, 25% less particulates, and 49% less black carbon, all important climate change forcers, according to Canada’s National Research Council, which measured the results.

Now, a demonstration project will take that a step closer to commercialization of 100% drop-in renewable replacement for jet, diesel, and gasoline fuels. And the partners believe the fuel will be cost-competitive with petroleum around 2015.

The process, ISOCONVERSION, converts oils from plants and algae into Renewable, Aromatic, Drop-in (Readi) fuels known as ReadiJet® and ReadiDiesel®. These fuels are ready to use, without blending, in turbine and diesel engines designed to operate on petroleum-based fuels.

The low-cost process converts any non-edible fats and oils directly into renewable fuels that are virtually indistinguishable from their petroleum counterparts.

It does so by using water to convert renewable oils into a crude oil intermediate, which is then hydrotreated and fractionated with conventional refinery catalysts and equipment into alternative fuels.

Applied Research Associates and Blue Sun Energy are working together on the design, construction, and operation of the demonstration project, which will produce 100 barrels a day. That’s a big enough fuel sample to get ASTM certification for the fuels.

The project, in St. Joseph, Missouri, will break ground this quarter and be operational by fall. Blue Sun also operates a biodiesel facility there and is about to commercialize an enzymatic process that can produce the highest quality fuel from any feedstock at the lowest production costs in the US.

In March, competitors Airbus, Boeing and Brazil’s Embraer announced they will work together to develop affordable biofuels for the airplane industry.

Learn more about ReadiFuels:

Website: www.readifuels.com/

Environmental Leader (25 January 2013):

Maersk Beats 2020 Carbon Goal

Maersk Line has reached, eight years early, its target of reducing CO2 emissions by 25 percent from 2007 levels. The shipping company has now increased its 2020 goal to a 40 percent reduction.

The company says increased operational efficiency, network and voyage optimization, slow steaming and technical innovation helped it reach its CO2 target early, and will also help it achieve its new 40 percent reduction goal.

Additionally, Maersk Line COO Morten Engelstoft says the company will continue working with its vessel leasing partners to retrofit their ships, and will begin using Triple-E ships this year. These will be the world’s largest and most energy-efficient ships, according to Engelstoft, emitting 50 percent less emissions than the industry average.

Maritime shipping carries an estimated 90 percent of globally traded goods, Engelstoft says. While shipping is the most energy-efficient way to transport cargo, shipping emissions contribute 3 to 4 percent of the global annual CO2 total.

Cutting its own CO2 has made the company more cost-competitive because it has helped Maersk Line customers reduce their emissions, Engelstoft says.

Maersk Line, along with Cargill, DNV, Unilever, Wärtsilä and other major companies, is a member of the Sustainable Shipping Initiative, a global coalition of 20 companies that have pledged to improve the industry’s environmental impacts through a broad range of goals, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The company was also among the first to join the Port of Los Angeles’ Environmental Ship Index, an international clean air incentives program that rewards ocean carriers for bringing their newest and cleanest vessels to port.

In late 2012, Maersk Line became the first shipping company to receive global certification from the American Bureau of Shipping for energy management. ABS requirements for energy management are based on the ISO 50001 international standard.

The company saved almost $90 million in energy costs over three years by measuring the performance of individual vessels, Maersk Line announced in July 2012.

http://www.environmentalleader.com

Things are looking sweet now for non-fossil fuels. Researchers at the University of Michigan have pioneered a method of manufacturing high-grade silicon for use in solar cells cheaply, using a concept familiar to making rock candy at home. UK researchers have also found a way of growing willow, used as feedstock for biomass and biofuel production, which increases its sugar yield – making the process more efficient and cheaper. Read more

“Rock candy” silicon could make ultra-cheap solar power

By Tina Casey in Cleantechnica (28 January 2013):

Researchers at the University of Michigan have come up with a low-cost way to manufacture high-grade silicon, based on a concept familiar to anyone who has tried to make rock candy at home. If the breakthrough can be translated into a commercially viable process, it would make ultra-cheap solar tech like V3Solar’s Spin Cell (which we were just raving about the other day) even cheaper.

Ironically, funding for the research project came from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund, but maybe they know something we don’t.

Cooking Up a Batch of Low-Cost Silicon

Silicon is the key component of conventional solar cells. It comes from silicon dioxide, aka sand, which is one of the cheapest and most abundant materials on Earth, but converting sand into high grade silicon is a high cost, energy intensive process with a pretty significant carbon footprint.

As described by U Mich writer Kate McAlpine, the new process works at just 180 degrees Fahrenheit, which is a far cry from the 2,000 degrees needed for conventional silicon manufacturing.

The method basically consists of covering a liquid gallium electrode (gallium is a soft whitish metal that has a melting point around room temperature) with a layer of a solution based on silicon tetrachloride (a colorless, flammable liquid).

As in conventional silicon processing, electrons from the metal convert the silicon tetrachloride into raw silicon. The new twist is that by using soft metal with a low melting point, the research team was able to get the raw silicon to form crystals without exposing the solution to additional heat.

A Ways to Go for Low Cost Silicon

The team has observed films of silicon crystals forming on the liquid gallium electrodes, but so far the individual crystals are only about 1/2000th (yes that’s 1/2000th) of a millimeter in diameter.

There is still a long way to go before the process jumps from the lab into commercial viability, and the next steps include experimenting with other metal alloys that have low melting points.

Meanwhile, other routes to low-cost silicon based solar power are at or near commercial development, and they could go even lower if the U Mich research pans out.

One approach, illustrated by the aforementioned V3Solar Spin Cell (which by the way began life as Solarphasec), is to squeeze more power out of conventional solar cells by reconfiguring the solar module.

The Spin Cell reboots the typical flat solar panel into a 3-D cone. Along similar lines, MIT researchers have come up with a solar “tower of power” that takes advantage of 3-D angles.

The 3-D concept can also be internalized, as demonstrated by a company called (what else) Solar3D.

On a completely different note, the Obama Administration is also focusing on lowering the “soft costs” of solar power, which typically account for half the cost of a completed solar installation.

The Petroleum Research Fund

Well, here’s hoping. In any case, the really interesting part of the story is the involvement of the Petroleum Research Fund, which states at the top of its home page that its mission is to support “fundamental research directly related to petroleum or fossil fuels.”

In its vision statement following that declaration, the Fund waxes a little more expansive, describing itself as dedicated to “significantly increasing the world’s energy options,” though directly after the following note appears: “Proposals will no longer be considered in solar power, which includes photovoltaics and solar cells.”

Apparently the U Mich project got in under the wire, but it shouldn’t be surprising that a grant-making organization with roots in the petroleum industry was at least once open to solar power research.

Solar power has long been used as an economical way to provide energy to remote oil fields, where grid connections would be difficult if not impossible.

Given the energy intensity of harvesting unconventional oil, most notably from Canada’s tar sands, low-cost power in any form would be a welcome development for the petroleum industry.

This article was originally posted on Cleantechnica. Re-posted with permission.

http://reneweconomy.com.au

Sugar-rich willow can boost biofuels’ green credentials

By Mark Kinver for BBC News (25 January 2013):

Willow is widely grown as a feedstock for biomass and biofuel industries

Scientists have identified willow trees that yield five times as much sugar as ordinary varieties, “drastically reducing” the impact of biofuels.

UK researchers found that if the trees grew at an angle, they produced a special kind of wood that resulted in the higher sugar content.

Willow, a short rotation coppice crop, is widely grown as a source for the biofuel and biomass industries.

The findings appear in the Biotechnology for Biofuels journal.

“It would drastically reduce [the environmental impact of biofuels] because you would not need such a severe pre-treatment in the conversion process, which is currently one of the highest energy consumption steps in the process of converting woody biomass to biofuels,” explained co-author Michael Ray, a researcher at Imperial College London.

Energy intensive pre-treatment processes are used to soften the wood before it goes through an enzymatic stage to break down the woody matter in order to produce biofuel.

“Our feeling is that these varieties that we know yield more sugar will need a much less severe pre-treatment process,” Dr Ray told BBC News.

“Ultimately, we will work towards producing varieties that actually will not need any pre-treatment at all and will be able to dissolve them in enzymes without undergoing any pre-treatment processes.”

He added that the findings could also improve the environmental performance of biofuels by increasing sugar yields, making the whole process more productive and cost effective.

“What we are really working towards here is sustainability, reducing the energy inputs and improving the energy and carbon balances, and reducing the competition for land that you could use for food production,” he said.

We hopefully will be able to… generate new varieties that will be easier to break down and use the sugars to produce biofuels”

Dr Ray and his colleague Dr Nicholas Brereton said the latest work built on previous work involving a wider study on willow varieties at the national collection at Rothamsted Research, which is the longest running agricultural research station in the world.

“We found in that study that certain varieties released more sugar than others, and in that same study we discovered that it had nothing to do with the total amount of sugars that were there, so we knew that it had to be something else that was causing the differences that we were seeing,” Dr Ray recalled.

“The phenomenon we are investigating is a natural phenomenon that is observed in most trees. You get a special type of wood (known as reaction wood) laid down in response to environmental stimuli, such as tipping or wind, which induces these special woods to be formed.”

“We found that the trees we tipped, compared with control trees that were not tipped, the different genotypes responded differently. Some of them did not release any additional sugar, even if you tipped them. Yet in others, there were very big differences.”

Reaction wood has a different cellular characteristic to normal wood and is formed when branches or stems have been disturbed and the tree attempts to return to its original position. It is also known as tension wood in deciduous trees and compression wood in conifers.

Working alongside colleagues from the University of Highlands and Islands, Scotland, the pair found the same results in the environment as well, allowing them to conclude that it was the effect of tipping that was triggering the response in the trees.

Dr Ray said that more research was needed in order to understand the underlying mechanism and identify what advantages the production of “reaction wood” offered to naturally growing tree.

“We just know that it is a natural response that we hopefully will be able to utilise that in order to generate new varieties that will be easier to break down and use the sugars to produce biofuels,” he observed.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

The Sustainability Yearbook 2013 has published its list of top companies for sustainable business. The results act as a guide to investors on which companies are doing the most to address the risk and opportunities of sustainability. In this year’s list, companies from the USA, Germany and South Korea are top gold medal winners, with strong representation from European nations and increasing presence from Asian nations. Read more

22 January 2013:

Companies from the USA, Germany and South Korea are top gold medal winners for sustainable business according to The Sustainability Yearbook 2013

 Europe no longer the exclusive bastion of CSR: leading Asian and North American companies also perform strongly

 Unilever the first and only company to achieve “Sector Leader” status for 10 consecutive years

 Samsung Life Insurance Co shows biggest improvement in one year

Companies from the USA, Germany and South Korea are at the top of the 2013 international gold medal-table for sustainable business, according to The Sustainability Yearbook 2013.

The 10th edition of The Sustainability Yearbook will be published by RobecoSAM, the investment specialist focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing and KPMG International at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland on 23 January 2013.

Every year RobecoSAM rigorously assesses the sustainability performance of more than 2,000 companies across 58 sectors. Based on an in-depth analysis, each company is scored on up to 120 financially material economic, environmental, social and governance criteria specific to its own industry with a focus on long-term value creation.

The results are published in The Sustainability Yearbook as a guide to investors worldwide on which companies are doing the most to address the risks and opportunities of sustainability.

And the gold medals go to…

Gold medals are awarded to the top-performing company within each sector and to those companies whose scores are within 1% of their sector leader’s score. A total of 67 companies have been awarded gold medals in The Sustainability Yearbook 2013, which corresponds to just 2.5% of all companies assessed.

The country with the highest number of gold medal winners was the USA, with nine companies shining: Molson Coors Brewing Co (Beverages sector), Alcoa Inc (Aluminium), Sonoco Products Co (Containers & Packaging), Herman Miller Inc (Furnishing), UnitedHealth Group (Healthcare Providers), Baxter International Inc (Medical Products) and Waste Management Inc (Waste & Disposal Services). All these companies are leaders in their respective sectors. PepsiCo (Beverages) and MeadWestvaco Corp (Containers & Packaging) also scored highly enough to be awarded gold medals.

Germany and South Korea each account for six gold medal winners. German gold medalists are Siemens (Diversified Industrials), SAP (Software), BMW (Automobiles), Henkel (Non-durable Household Products), Adidas (Clothing, Accessories & Footware) and TUI (Travel & Tourism).

Each one of them is a leader in its respective sector.

In South Korea, GS Engineering & Construction Co (Heavy Construction), Amorepacific Corp (Personal Products), SK Telecom (Mobile Telecommunications), KT Corp (Fixed Line Communications) and Lotte Shopping (General Retailers) set the standard as industry leaders. In addition, Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co is awarded a gold medal, which in total puts South Korea in second equal place internationally.

Australia, Taiwan and Canada also feature on the list of top 10 gold medal-winning countries proving that Europe is no longer the exclusive bastion of corporate sustainability and that sector-leading sustainability performance can now be found all over the world.

Gold medal table

POSITION  COUNTRY  NO. OF GOLD MEDALS

1^st         United States      9

2^nd        Germany            6

2^nd        Korea               6

4^th         United Kingdom  5

4^th                  France             5

4^th         Spain                5

7^th         Netherlands        4

7^th         Australia            4

7^th         Taiwan               4

10^th       Canada             3

10^th       Italy                  3

Michael Baldinger, CEO, RobecoSAM, said: “Since we launched our first Sustainability Yearbook 10 years ago, it has become the reference book on corporate sustainability. Over the last decade, sustainability has become an essential item on corporate agendas and companies have made such great strides that today it is much harder for them to stand out against their peers and make into the Yearbook. We congratulate them on their success and are convinced that this competition benefits all stakeholders and shareholders.”

Yvo de Boer, Special Global Advisor on Climate Change & Sustainability, KPMG International, said: “Business is entering a period of unprecedented opportunity and risk due to a potent cocktail of megaforces including climate change, population growth, water scarcity, urbanization and ecological decline. Investors should consider the companies awarded gold medals in The Sustainability Yearbook 2013 as among the best prepared within their own sectors to manage these challenges and make themselves fit for the future.”

Other highlights of the jubilee edition of The Sustainability Yearbook 2013

 Unilever (Sector leader: Food Producers) is the only company that has achieved sector leader status every single year since The Sustainability Yearbook was first published in 2004

 The number of North American companies that have participated in the RobecoSAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) has almost doubled since 2004 from 111 to a total of 194 companies in 2012

 Among the five largest sectors, Banks and Real Estate have had the biggest improvement in average scores since 2004 (+14% for Banks and +8% for Real Estate)

 The five companies that have most improved their scores since 2012 are: Samsung Life Insurance Co (Insurance), Baker Hughes Inc (Oil Equipment & Services), Liberty Global Inc (Media), Infosys Ltd (Computer Services & Internet) and Microsoft Corp (Software)

Useful Links

 List of the RobecoSAM Sector Leaders in The Sustainability Yearbook 2013

 Full list of companies in The Sustainability Yearbook 2013

 Electronic version of The Sustainability Yearbook 2013

About RobecoSAM

RobecoSAM is an investment specialist focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing. Its offerings comprise asset management, indices, private equity, engagement, impact analysis and sustainability assessments as well as benchmarking services. Together with S&P Dow Jones Indices, RobecoSAM publishes the globally recognized Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI). RobecoSAM was founded in 1995 out of the conviction that a commitment to corporate sustainability enhances a company’s capacity to prosper, ultimately creating competitive advantages and stakeholder value. Headquartered in Zurich,

RobecoSAM employs over 100 professionals. As of December 31, 2012, RobecoSAM’s assets under management, advice and license amounted to a total of USD 11.4 billion.

About KPMG

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A Leonardo influence? The promotion of environmental sustainability can take multiple pathways, besides the familiar technological and business means. Promoting the idea of the arts as a form of activism by providing visual images that raises awareness of the issue of sustainability is the goal of the student art show “Art + Activism” collaboratively organised by organisations at Dartmouth College in the United States. By tapping into the striking emotional power that art has, the exhibition also hopes to spark a conversation among Dartmouth students and the community on how to better act on the challenges presented. Read more

‘Art + Activism’ links poverty and sustainability

By Simone D’luna (29January 2013):

The Dartmouth, founded in 1799, is the student newspaper at Dartmouth College and the campus’s only daily. The Dartmouth is published by The Dartmouth, Inc., an independent, nonprofit corporation chartered in the state of New Hampshire.

Featuring a perhaps unexpected combination of sustainability, poverty and art, the student art show “Art + Activism” will open this Thursday in the student gallery of the Black Family Visual Arts Center.

The show, which will run until the end of the term, is the result of collaborative efforts between the Office of Sustainability, the “A Monstrous Octopus: The Tentacles of Poverty” symposium team and “This Is Not a Group,” a student organization responsible for running, curating and installing exhibits in the gallery.

The theme “Art + Activism” originated when the Sustainability in the Arts interns and representatives from the “A Monstrous Octopus” symposium approached student gallery co-managers Luca Molnar ’13 and Sabrina Yegela ’13 about combining the arts with their respective focus areas.

Both student groups were especially eager to incorporate their ideas with the arts to align with the Hopkins Center’s Year of the Arts initiative, Sustainability in the Arts intern Anna Morenz ’13 said.

“We really felt that the arts can be a form of activism in terms of providing powerful visual images that get people thinking about social issues or raise consciousness about issues in a different way than say, a lecture or some of the other opportunities on campus,” Morenz said. “We were interested in tapping into that striking emotional power that art has.”

“A Monstrous Octopus: The Tentacles of Poverty” is a conference that will be held from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 by the Nathan Smith Society, the Geisel School of Medicine’s chapter of Physicians for Human Rights and the Tuck School of Business’s Center for Business and Society.

The symposium features several events in conjunction with the “Art + Activism” exhibit throughout this week, according to Anna Huh Med’15, co-chair of the Geisel chapter of Physicians for Human Rights.

“We want to spark a conversation among Dartmouth students, the entire Upper Valley community and beyond about what each of us as individuals, as an institution and as a community can do about issues of poverty, homelessness and social inequity,” Huh said. “We often think the world of alleviating poverty is for someone else to do or is incompatible with some career we choose, but the fact of the matter is it’s not. What we want is to show people that there is something we can do. We only have to think of a way.”

As part of the schedule of events, letterpress printer Amos Kennedy, whose work is currently displayed in Baker-Berry Library, will hold a printmaking session on Jan. 30. Photojournalist James Nachtwey ’70 will also hold a discussion about his career and social justice work that afternoon.

Thursday’s opening reception of the art show will follow a screening of the Academy Award-nominated film “Beasts of the Southern Wild” (2012) in Loew Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. The event will feature refreshments, discussion of the artwork and the unveiling of an original poster designed by Amos Kennedy for “A Monstrous Octopus.” The group will also be collecting donations for the Peruvian philanthropy organization Visionarios, according to Huh.

Because the student gallery — which opened this Fall — is relatively new, “Art + Activism” will be one of the first shows to be hosted in the space, according to Molnar. Nearly all pieces submitted will be able to be showcased. Along with formally submitted work, “This Is Not a Group” and the Office of Sustainability encouraged students and community members to gather in the gallery to create artwork from trash, found items and recycled materials in three open studio sessions held this past weekend, Morenz said.

“We really hope to bring people who aren’t necessarily arts students into the space and into the idea of making art, and we’re really hoping people who are more experienced experiment with these materials and viewers get the idea of art and activism,” Molnar said.

Inviting the community to participate in the show was in part inspired by the community-based art projects of artist Candy Chang, Morenz said.

Some of those who came to participate in the open studio sessions were students preparing to spend the summer on Dartmouth’s Big Green Bus who were looking for new and creative ways to teach sustainability, according to Morenz.

“I think a lot about who is alienated by sustainability because it’s definitely been consumerized into the American diet,” Meegan Daigler ’14, who came to the galery to make art from recycled materials, said. “I don’t think that sustainability should be alienating because the issues of sustainability are things that are affecting people across race and gender, and art is a very different mode of communication than numbers and stats so I’m interested in who you can reach.”

Participants at the studio sessions generally expressed a belief that art and activism complement each other.

“I think that art, especially throughout history, has been used a lot to make people step back and think about society and choices and the way we treat other people,” Amanda Wheelock ’13 said. “I think that’s also the main goal and spirit of activism in most places, so I think that they are often very intricately linked and I think that art can be used as a form of activism and vice versa.”

Source: www.thedartmouth.com