Cleaning up the air is good for the planet and your health. China is taking a serious hard look at tackling air pollution, with many approaches that will reduce greenhouse gases. This could not come sooner, with a study linking benzene in polluted air to incidence of blood cancer. Another dangerous component of air pollution, PM2.5, is receiving increased scrutiny in a joint research program between Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp and China’s Tsinghua University. Read more

How Cleaning China’s Dirty Air Can Slow Climate Change

By Charles Kenny for Bloomberg (5 August 2013):

Air pollution in China is becoming a serious political concern for the country’s leaders. It is by far the biggest environmental issue in China, attracting considerably more public anger than does climate change. That should come as no surprise, since air pollution has killed millions there. As a result, China is embarking on a debate about controlling pollution, comparable to what the U.S. and Europe went through 30 years ago—a journey that led to pathbreaking legislation such as the Clean Air Act.

There’s a big difference with China’s situation—and it’s one the rest of us should welcome. While the U.S. and Europe dealt with local air pollution through power plant scrubbing technologies and catalytic converters, which don’t do much to slow CO2 emissions, China’s response involves many approaches that will reduce greenhouse gasses. The same is likely to be true for the rest of the developing world: As nations get richer, emissions from fuel will loom as the large public health issues. Cleaner air in Asia, Africa, and Latin America will be a win for planetwide sustainability, which is one reason for a little more hope when it comes to the global environment.

Bloomberg Businessweek’s Christina Larson noted earlier this year that the new normal in Beijing is “sending your kids to school wearing gas masks.” And she reported on the rising demand for pressurized canopies to cover school sports fields (so that children can play without coughing up black phlegm).

In part, the pollution problem is connected to a rapidly expanding vehicle fleet—including large diesel trucks burning dirty fuel. Also to blame is China’s coal industry: The country now burns about as much coal as the rest of the world combined. One reason for that is a discontinued policy that gave free coal for fuel boilers to everyone living in the north of China, much of which was consumed in inefficient indoor home heating systems. A paper co-authored by Yuyu Chen of Beijing University estimates that the 500 million residents of northern China lost more than 2.5 billion life years thanks to the free coal policy in the 1990s, and the policy’s impact lingers to this day, with higher levels of air pollution in the north.

Similar challenges afflict much of the developing world—and make air pollution by far the most serious, immediate atmospheric threat to health and welfare in poor countries. Forecasts (PDF) by the think tank DARA suggest that for the next 15 years, 80 percent of carbon-related deaths in the developing world will result not from CO2-related climate change but from local and indoor air pollution.

The West has shown the problem is manageable. In the 1980s, the U.S. and Europe faced similar (if not as catastrophic) air pollution trouble—with serious smog a recurring feature of life in Los Angeles, for example. America has seen a dramatic improvement in levels of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone, lead, and small particulate air pollution since then. In the 1990s, the U.S. largely dealt with the acid rain problem by controlling sulphur dioxide emissions from the nation’s largest power plants—and overall emissions are down 69 percent since 1980.

Three decades ago, however, the most cost-effective ways to reduce local air pollution from power plants involved using technologies that removed particulates and sulphur dioxide but left in the CO2. Catalytic converters that reduced pollutants like unburned hydrocarbons from cars did nothing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Today, a number of cost-effective approaches for dealing with local pollution problems also have a salutary impact on the climate. For example, in June, China’s State Council reacted to the rising discontent over air pollution with a series of measures that directly curb local air pollution from refineries but also put in place sharper environmental controls likely to slow the growth of high-pollution industries. In addition, the State Council said it would provide price supports for the sale of solar power to the grid and mandate all solar power be purchased by grid operators. Meanwhile, China’s National Development Reform Commission has proposed capping overall coal consumption in the country. Beyond reducing the immense health costs of local pollution, these measures should help China meet its target of reducing the amount of CO2 produced per dollar of output by 45 percent before the end of the decade.

Lower-income countries still face a trade-off between expanding access to energy and reducing carbon use. For much of the population of the developing world, the cheapest way to get that energy remains through large-scale fossil-fuel plants. But with declining costs of alternate fuel sources and the rising willingness and ability to pay for cleaner air, that calculus is changing. Add in further technology advances and subsidies from rich countries as part of a global climate deal, and clean-air, low-carbon technologies will become the most cost-effective option in ever more cases. That should allow children in the developing-world megacities and worldwide climate campaigners alike to breath a little easier.

Source: www.businessweek.com

Air Pollution Linked to Blood Cancer

Bahar Gholipour, Staff Writer, LiveScience.com (29 July 2013):

The blood cancer non-Hodgkin lymphoma may be linked with exposure to benzene from the environment, a new study finds.

The researchers found that among people living in Georgia, the incidence of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) was greater than expected among people living in regions near petroleum refineries and manufacturing plants, including in the metropolitan Atlanta area, and in the area surrounding one site in Savannah. With increasing distance from the benzene-releasing sites, the risk of the cancer dropped — for every mile there was a 0.31 percent decrease in the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

“This means that even moderate changes in distance can substantial change the incidence rate reduction,” said study researcher Dr. Christopher Flowers, professor of Pediatrics and Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University in Atlanta.

Metropolitan Atlanta, Augusta, and Savannah had the highest rates in the state of several types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Most low-risk regions were located in the southern part of the state, according to the study published today (July 28) in the journal Cancer.

Although the study suggests a link between a population’s benzene exposure and its rate of lymphoma, the findings may not hold true at the individual level, the researchers said. The presence of benzene in the environment is not enough to know how much any one person is exposed to, or to calculate risks on an individual level.

“Currently, there is insufficient data to determine whether individuals living in any specific location are at increased risk and should be concerned,” Flowers said.

“Our findings are limited without similar studies to corroborate our results, but we hope that our research will inform readers of the potential risks of living near facilities that release carcinogens into the air, groundwater or soil,” said study author Catherine Bulka, researcher at Emory University.

Benzene, classified as a hazardous, cancer-causing chemical by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is a colorless liquid that quickly evaporates when exposed to air. It exists in products derived from coal and petroleum, and is used in making products such as plastics, detergents and pesticides. People are exposed to benzene mainly by inhaling contaminated air.

While exposure to benzene is a widely recognized cause of leukemia (a type of blood cancer affecting bone marrow), its association with lymphoma is less clear. Lymphomas are a group of blood cancers that affect white blood cells. The rate of lymphoma has increased by 4 percent each year since 1970, the researchers said.

About 70,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2013, and about 19,000 will die of the disease this year, according to the National Cancer Institute. About 70 percent of people diagnosed with the condition survive at least five years.

Although the increase in lymphomas cases has been in part driven by better diagnosis techniques and the epidemic of HIV, which increases risk of the cancer, these factors account for just half of the additional cases of lymphomas. This suggests that expanded industrial production and exposure to chemicals in the environment may be risk factors for lymphomas, the researchers said.

“There is fair amount of data now indicating benzene does cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but it’s still not universally accepted.” said Dr. Richard B. Hayes, professor of epidemiology and environmental medicine at New York University, who was not involved in the study. “The evidence is growing, suggesting that benzene is associated with increased risk of lymphoma just as it is with leukemia.”

Hayes and his colleagues previously examined the link between benzene exposure and blood cancers. They followed 75,000 industrial workers between 1972 and 1987 in China,and found that benzene-exposed workers, who were employed in occupations such as painting, printing and footwearmanufacturing, were four times more likely to die from lymphoma than workers who were not exposed to benzene.

Currently federal regulations by Occupational Safety and Health Administration require benzene concentrations to be lower than 1 part per million parts of air in workplaces, during an eight-hour workday. But OSHA, along with other organizations, recommends levels be kept even lower, between two and ten times lower, because research shows levels that are currently legal can still be dangerous.

“There’s been successful attempts to regulate benzene exposure in the workplace, which has improved the environmental situation as well,” Hayes said. “But the fact that there are many people living in these areas close to releases, is something that needs to be further followed up.”

In the new study, the researchers used the population statistics of regions in Georgia, and the data gathered by the EPA on benzene releasing sites between 1988 and 1998.

They then investigated whether NHL incidence 10 years later, between 1999 and 2008, was higher in areas closer to benzene releasing sites where residents might have been exposed to benzene in the air or water for a long time. The data were adjusted for other factors such as population size, age and race.

When looking at rates of NHL across several subtypes of the disease, the researchers found that metropolitan Atlanta area was consistently identified as a hot spot, with more cases of each NHL subtype, whereas the smaller urban areas Augusta and Savanna had increased rates of only certain subtypes.

People living in urban areas are also exposed to other sources of benzene such as car exhaust and cigarette smoke, which may explain why urban areas had higher NHL incidence, the researchers said.

The researchers did not include in the study the levels of benzene concentrations in areas surrounding the sites, because it is disputed whether the amount of emissions reported by factories is accurate.

Source: www.weather.com

Toyota, China’s Tsinghua University jointly studying PM2.5 air pollutants

In Japan Times (11 August 2013):

BEIJING – Toyota Motor Corp. and China’s prestigious Tsinghua University are conducting joint research on air pollution, officials involved in the project revealed Saturday.

The research focusing on PM2.5, dangerous particulates with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns that are causing serious air pollution and health problems in China, is a rare instance of cooperation between the two countries at a time when the bitter sovereignty dispute over the Japan-held Senkaku Islands is intensifying.

Toyota and Beijing-based Tsinghua, one of the most renowned Chinese universities in engineering and technology education, intend to complete the research by March 2015, the officials said, adding that some interim results may be released earlier.

Under the project, Toyota, known for its hybrid vehicle technology, is providing data related to exhaust emissions and other information on automotive technology to Tsinghua. Based on the automaker’s data, Tsinghua is trying to discover the generating mechanism of PM2.5 particulates, the main cause of air pollution in China, according to the officials.

Toyota’s cooperation with the university dates back to 2003, when it launched a joint venture in China to make a full entry into its growing auto market. The two set up the Tsinghua University-Toyota Research Center in 2006.

The current PM2.5 project has been carried out at the center since April, according to the officials, although the start of the research has never been officially announced.

In 2009, China overtook the United States as the world’s largest auto market. As demand for cars and trucks is expected to expand for some time in China, particularly in inland areas, reducing exhaust emissions has become increasingly urgent.

Investment by the Chinese government alone in measures to combat air pollution over the next five years will amount to 1.7 trillion yuan (about ¥26.7 trillion).

By offering some of its know-how to the Chinese university, Toyota, for its part, is apparently trying to sharpen its environmental technologies to create future business opportunities.

Despite the soured ties between Asia’s two biggest economies, the Chinese government is also counting on Japan’s advanced technologies and expertise to alleviate air pollution problems that have stoked public anger toward the communist country’s leaders. When a Japanese business delegation led by then-Toyota Chairman Fujio Cho visited Beijing in March, Vice Commerce Minister Chen Jian said, “Japan has the most know-how to cope with pollution.”

The Sino-Japanese relationship has sunk to its lowest point in recent times since Tokyo’s purchase last September of a significant portion of the Senkakus, which China calls Diaoyu and claims as an inherent part of its territory, from their private owner in Saitama.

Although the 35th anniversary of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China will be marked Monday, there has been no high-level political contact for almost a year now amid the badly frayed ties. However, bilateral cooperation over environment issues is still taking place through various channels.

Source: www.japantimes.co.jp

What impact will charging of electric vehicles have on the grid? A question on a few minds. In the US, for the last few weeks, only one electric car has displaced the Tesla Model S from the top of news stories—it’s the 2014 BMW i3. In Singapore – where electric vehicles are being tested -  the same BMW arrived on the scene and the Minster for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan gave it the once over. So did Ken Hickson and Kannan Chandran. Read more

abc carbon express was invited to have its first look at the new BMW i3 electric car. It was an event organised by Storm Magazine and BMW Asia.

Kannan Chandran let everyone know on Facebook that:

Electric cars from BMW will be on the roads in Singapore next year. The reaction to the BMW i3 and i8 ranged from curiosity at the production model i3 to jaw-dropping appreciation of the i8 concept car. As a sub-brand, the aim is to roll out small numbers here, to keep pace with infrastructure development.

The experts from BMW were on hand to answer queries from guests, and later fielded queries from surprise guest at the specially constructed structure at ION2, Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.

While this new brand is going to define the future of mobility, the electric cars are expected to comprise about 8% of the BMW global business. In Singapore, there are likely to be around 10 units of the i8 by the time it hits the road in the second half of 2014, but all cars have already been promised homes.

It prompted us to look at progress here and aboard in readiness for the electric car revolution.

By Antony Ingram in Green Car (9 August 2013):

For the last few weeks, only one electric car has displaced the Tesla Model S from the top of news stories–the 2014 BMW i3.

That’s an impressive feat considering Tesla’s news-making abilities, but not without good reason: BMW has a reputation for pleasing driving enthusiasts and the badge-obsessed alike, so its first full production electric car is a significant event.

Some–not us, sadly–have been lucky enough to drive the pre-production i3 already, and early signs are good.

Even under interior and exterior camouflage, as all drives have been so far, initial impressions are positive. Car and Driver calls it “roomy” and “airy”, while Autocar described the cabin as “thoroughly modern”.

“Modern” appears more than once, actually. While not unusual for an electric car, the i3′s minimalist dashboard design and quirky fingertip-reach drive, parking brake and power switch pod are particularly deserving of the term.

There’s a flat floor and good visibility, though some have reservations over the rear door frames, which Road & Track called “awkward to climb into”–even if the suicide-style rear doors do help access for children or loading luggage.

Quality is generally good too–BMW itself is promising 5-Series levels of fit and finish–though one reviewer did note a slight echoey, tinny feel to the doors on the prototype.

Driving

With a rear-mounted motor providing rear-wheel drive, the i3 at least sends its power to the axle most familiar to BMW fans. At 184 lbs-ft of torque, there’s also plenty of power available as soon as you hit the accelerator pedal.

Autocar describes initial step-off as “instantaneous…entertaining pace”. Autoblog agrees, suggesting the i3 is “every bit capable” of reaching its near-on 7-second 0-60 mph time. Road & Track notes that its 0-37 mph figure of 3.8 seconds is the important one as that’s where it feels quickest–and says that “it actually has more torque than the Mini Cooper S, and it weighs less”.

Opinions are divided on the way the i3 handles.

Autoblog suggests, “If you try to make the i3 live up to the well-honed definition of “Ultimate Driving Machine,” you are categorically missing the entire point of the i3″, something backed up by reports from others that the little i3 lacks steering feel. It is however accurate, on the coned-off course of BMW’s early media drives, and weighting is well-suited to city driving.

The largest dissenting voice emanates from Motor Trend. Its early review uses the dreaded “golf cart” term shaken off by previous electric cars–not because the i3 drives like one, but because it isn’t entertaining enough for a BMW. “I would have fretted about the car’s vanilla EV-feel if it were a Toyota,” the reviewer says, “…coming from a BMW, it’s baffling.”

Ride quality isn’t oft discussed in the early reviews–there’s only so much one can assess on a smooth runway surface.

Likewise range, at the 80-100 miles (plus 80 miles for the range-extended car) promised by BMW, can only really be tested once longer drives take place.

It looks then like the BMW i3 should do well in its target environment, that of crowded city streets. But for the true BMW driving experience, well-heeled buyers might be better waiting for the i8 plug-in hybrid sports car.

Source: www.greencarreports.com

Could Electric Cars Threaten the Grid?

Some neighborhood grids just aren’t built for huge spikes in power demand. The rise of the electric car has utilities scrambling to adjust.

By Kevin Bullis in Technology Review (16 August 2013):

Why It Matters

Electric cars can draw large amounts of power from the grid.

Plugging in an electric vehicle is, in some cases, the equivalent of adding three houses to the grid. That has utilities in California—where the largest number of electric vehicles are sold—scrambling to upgrade the grid to avoid power outages.

Last year in the United States, only about 50,000 electric cars were sold. And researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have calculated that the grid has enough excess capacity to support over 150 million battery-powered cars, or about 75 percent of the cars, pickups, and SUVs on the road in the United States. But there’s a catch. While power plants and transmission lines have excess capacity, things can get tight when it comes to distributing power to individual neighborhoods. And this is especially the case since electric vehicle sales aren’t evenly distributed. In California, for example, they’re taking off in Silicon Valley and places such as Long Beach and Santa Monica.

Electric cars being sold today can draw two to five times more power when they’re charging than electric cars that came on the market just a couple of years ago. But the impact of charging one depends on where it is on the grid and how it is charged. They don’t pose a problem if they’re charged slowly at conventional 110 volt outlets. And public fast-charging stations don’t impact the grid much because they are part of commercial grids that have transformers and other equipment sized to accommodate large loads.

The trouble arises when electric car owners install dedicated electric vehicle charging circuits. In most parts of California, charging an electric car at one of those is the equivalent of adding one house to the grid, which can be a significant additional burden, since a typical neighborhood circuit has only five to 10 houses. In San Francisco, where the weather is cool and air conditioning is rarely used, the peak demand of a house is much lower than in the hotter parts of California. As a result, the local grid is sized for a much smaller load. A house in San Francisco might only draw two kilowatts of power at times of peak demand, according to Pacific Gas & Electric. In comparison, a new electric vehicle on a dedicated circuit could draw 6.6 kilowatts—and up to 20 kilowatts in the case of an optional home fast charger for a Tesla Model S.

Utilities are keeping a close eye on power demand—via smart meters—to identify neighborhoods that need an upgrade. They’re also working with automakers to get customers to tell them when they buy an electric vehicle—an approach that’s identifying about 40 percent of new electric cars for Southern California Edison.

Utilities say that the upgrades they’ve performed so far would have been made anyway as part of routine grid modernization. But telling the utility that you are buying an electric vehicle essentially brings your neighborhood to the top of the list. The upgrades are paid for by all rate payers, not the electric car owners.

Both PG&E and Southern California Edison are also working to avoid grid problems by offering special rate plans for EV owners. These give customers discounts for charging at night, during off-peak hours.

Electric cars can typically be programmed to charge at certain times, rather than just charging as soon as they’re plugged in. If car owners set their cars to be completely charged by a certain time, say 6 a.m., this has the effect of staggering when cars start charging. The start time depends on how depleted the battery is—to finish at 6 a.m. might require starting at 2 a.m. or 4 a.m., depending on how much charging is needed. So instead of a surge of power demand when people get home from work, the charging is spread out through the night.

It’s technically possible for utilities to communicate with cars to have them start charging when there’s excess power being produced, and stop when there’s a peak in demand. That way, utilities could use electric cars to help stabilize the grid, and avoid the need to use inefficient “peaker” power plants. Utilities could pay electric car owners to let them do this.

But such an approach depends on the choices that electric car owners make. If everyone decides to charge at home right away, and to charge at the fastest rate possible, that could strain the grid.

So far, it looks like most electric vehicle owners are often choosing to charge their vehicles slowly and at night, according to a study of electric vehicle owners by Southern California Edison. But as fast-charging, all-electric cars like the Model S sell in larger numbers, and as automakers seek to differentiate their electric cars by how fast they charge, that story could change.

Source: www.technologyreview.com

First fast charger for electric vehicles at mall in Singapore

Bosch Software Innovations announced last oth that the first fast charger for electric vehicles (EVs) located in a shopping mall has been set up at Changi City Point Mall. This will allow the EV test-bed participants to charge their EVs at the mall within 30 minutes instead of six hours at a standard charging station.

The fast charger was set-up by Bosch as part of the Singapore EV test-bed and is fully integrated into the network of more than 50 charging stations so far.

All EV test-bed participants are given access to a mobile app provided by Bosch Software Innovations. Amongst others, the app comprises a map to locate a charging station and displays its availability in real time.

“In a fast-paced city like Singapore it is important to keep up with the latest developments. We decided to set-up a fast charger in Changi City Point to make the shopping experience with us as pleasant as possible. While customers stock up on necessities, check out a good buy or dine in one of our restaurants, they can charge their EV and comfortably continue their journey afterwards”, says Emily Fong, Senior Centre Manager, Changi City Point Mall.

”In addition to the charging station infrastructure itself, software plays a crucial role to intelligently network charging stations. On the one hand this allows seamless usage by all drivers with a single subscription. On the other hand, it also allows for other value-added services to be provided. This includes for instance roaming across multiple charging networks operated by different service providers. Bosch Software Innovations has been involved in the area of electric mobility for several years now and offers easy-to-use and comprehensive solutions for service providers, EV operators and manufacturers as well as fleet operators“, explains Thomas Jakob, Managing Director Asia Pacific, Bosch Software Innovations.

The EV test-bed which is participated by 47 organizations is co-lead by the Energy Market Authority (EMA) and Land Transport Authority (LTA) to assess different EV prototypes and charging technologies based on Singapore’s urbanised environment and road conditions to determine the feasibility of using EVs in Singapore. This test bed was launched in June 2011 and will end on December 2013.

Source: www.theonlinecitizen.com

Straits Times Journalist (and part-time poet) Grace Chua (left) gets a well deserved award. And books – print and digital  – get a welcome boost at the Summit of the Book, where we meet the man – Ismail Serageldin (right) – charged with running one of the oldest literature treasure stores in the world at Alexandria, Egypt, where rioters come too close for comfort. We also come clean on three book projects we’ve kept close to our chest so far. Read More

Ken Hickson reports:

We met Ismail Serageldin, the keeper of the great Library of Alexandria at the Singapore Summit of the Book. An eloquent and educated lover of books and all literary treasures old and new. He told me – and  an audience at the National Library in Singapore  – of his mission to protect one of the great libraries of the world in The Library of Alexandra  along with the challenges faced every day in the troubled country of Egypt. He told us how library loyalists joined hands to circle the place and protect it from destruction. He told us of how some stray bullets came to close for comfort. We can read of his visit and his words in a Straits Times report, but first a report from the website of the library:

What Happened in the Library on the 14th of August

On August 14 2013, amidst the unfortunate violence and turmoil that Egypt has witnessed lately, the Library of Alexandria, a neutral cultural institution, was subjected to a number of attacks. The brave and heroic staff of the Library’s Internal Security team, alongside the Egyptian Police Force, protected the building from these irresponsible actions. Apart from the breaking of some glass panes on the Plaza, the bridge and the entrance to the Conference Center, as a result of random gunshots fired aimlessly, the Library remains intact. The Library’s security staff are competent and prepared to protect this international institution which so many Egyptians had protected, by forming human chains, during previous incidents. The Library of Alexandria hopes that peace, security and stability will reign for the benefit of our country.

Source: www.bibalex.org

By Janice Heng  in The Straits Times (19 August 2013)

Over 1,000 years ago, the ancient library of Alexandria in Egypt was destroyed. Two years ago, its modern counterpart seemed under threat again as an angry mob marched towards it during the Arab Spring.

But protesters themselves stepped forward to protect it, recalls Dr Ismail Serageldin, director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

In early 2011, protests against then-President Hosni Mubarak – with whom the library was associated – were sweeping Egypt. In Alexandria, Dr Serageldin watched one such protest approach.

“Standing there with a few of my colleagues, and watching 200,000 people coming and chanting… I think, ‘What am I going to try to tell them, will they listen?’

“Then out of the crowd, young people… start making a human chain, holding hands and saying, ‘This is the library! Nobody touches the library!’”

He and other library experts see a bright future for libraries even in the digital age: as archives, a means of connecting people with knowledge, and important community spaces people will protect.

Dr Serageldin and other experts are among 3,000 delegates from 150 countries in Singapore for two library-related conferences, the Second International Summit of the Book and the 79th International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions’ World Library and Information Congress.

The summit was held last Friday, with experts discussing the historical role of the book and the future of books and libraries. The Congress began on Saturday and runs till Friday. It includes an industry fair and free public talks. The congress theme is Future Libraries: Infinite Possibilities, and technology’s enabling role is a major topic.

To some, the rise of e-books may seem to sound the death knell for libraries, or even printed books. But librarians see no cause for alarm.

As Dr Serageldin says, classic texts of the ancient world were written and read on scrolls, before the codex – today’s book – arrived. “We don’t really care that, ‘My god, people have been reading scrolls for millennia, now they’re going to be reading codexes’.”

To librarians, it is content that matters, says Shanghai Library director Wu Jianzhong. “Printed books and digital books, they are all carriers of content.”

Mr Bill Macnaught, who heads the National Library of New Zealand, says that even if print gives way to e-books, libraries need not lose relevance. After all, many now lend e-books and even electronic devices to read them, making these available in the same way that they have long made available more books than anyone could buy.

Libraries are also archives, and technology aids this role in the digitisation and hence preservation of historical material, converting old documents into image files. This means someone elsewhere in the country need not go to the National Library in Wellington for research, but can look at a digital copy from their local library, says Mr Macnaught. “We’re making it easier to provide equity of access.”

So the digital age is not something for libraries to fear. But it does mean they have to go beyond being collections of books.

“In the past, we were just transactional,” says National Library Board chief executive Elaine Ng. You went in, borrowed a book, and that was it. “Today, the library space is about what people want, which is an experience.”

Before, when information was far less accessible, libraries were a source of knowledge. But with the rise of the Internet, libraries now have to reach out and work harder to get readers in, Mrs Ng adds. Architecture and design, for instance, have become more important in creating a “customer experience”.

Dr Serageldin lists four spaces which libraries should provide: “Noisy, messy, dirty, creative places” with a coffee bar, say, and whiteboards, where young people can let their imagination run wild; smaller rooms for group study; conventional quiet reading spaces; and a space which “reaffirms the role of the library as a centre of the community”, for events and exhibitions.

At Shanghai Library, creative space takes the form of a room with 3-D printers and a digital sandbox in which visitors can play with ideas. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina aims to recapture the spirit of its ancient predecessor, which was part academy, part archive. It now has research institutes, museums and art galleries, and a planetarium.

The library’s useful services and cultural vibrancy may have helped it earn a place in local hearts. But Dr Serageldin thinks there was more which spurred those young Egyptians to join hands to protect it. “The other aspect is the values we defended.” After all, the 700-odd lectures and debates at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina each year are not just interesting public events. They represent the library opening its doors to pluralism and discussion, and it is such values for which the library stands, he adds.

Freedom of expression, intellectualism, pluralism, rationality, science, debate, the arts – “We defend all of that,” he says.

Source: www.edvantage.com.sg and

Joanna Seow In The Straits Times ()16 August 2013):

SINGAPORE – Straits Times environment correspondent Grace Chua has been named Singapore’s winner of this year’s Siemens Green Technology Journalism Award.

Ms Chua, 28, triumphed for her commentary “Towards a robust clean air strategy”, which covered a wide spectrum of causes and effects of air pollution, strategies proposed by academics, and government and private sector efforts to manage it.

Dr Faizal Yahya, a research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies and one of the judges, said: “The article will be useful for policymakers and provides a brief but informative piece on an evolving clear air strategy in Singapore.”

This is Ms Chua’s second award in a year – last August, she bagged the City Developments Limited Environmental Journalist of the Year award.

She has been with The Straits Times for five years and was a recipient of the Singapore Press Holdings journalism scholarship in 2003. After her undergraduate studies, she completed a master’s degree in science writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has since covered a wide range of topics such as land use change and biodiversity.

“The environment beat is fascinating,” said Ms Chua. “A lot of issues can be boiled down to environment and science, and you’re always learning something new with every story.”

In the Siemens contest, the second of its kind, Ms Chua faced four other journalists in Singapore. In all, Siemens had more than 170 entries from the Asia-Pacific region, including those from local news dailies, trade publications and online media.

Ms Chua wins $1,000 and a trip to the award ceremony in London, where she will also attend an environmental conference. She will be considered for the regional round of the competition along with six other country winners from Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. The results of this round will be announced next month.

Source: www. news.silobreaker.com

Ken Hickson reports (23 August 2013):

Good things Comes in Threes

For those who might want to know what I’ve been up to on the writing front – after four years of relative quiet on the print front at least – this year I expect three books to see the light of day under my authorship.

1. 1.     “Race for Sustainability”

It is expected to hit the bookshelves and the digital reader library early October. It is being billed thus by the publishers World Scientific:

Ken Hickson advocates and entertains in this portfolio of stories, profiles

and case studies, covering what he calls the four E’s of Sustainability:

Energy   Economy   Environment   Ethics

He writes convincingly and persuasively that we need to get on the fast

track…

• • To clear the air and drive to a sustainable, low-carbon future.
• • To focus on renewable energy and energy efficiency.
• • To stop the burning and stop wasting resources.

“Even with the latest and best vehicles, machinery, technology and

buildings, if we continue to use resources irresponsibly — to waste

food, water and energy — we are not even in the race.”

Expect to hear more about this from me and others. It has a wide selection of sustainability stories from near and far.

1. 2.     “Forty: Building a Future in Singapore”

I’ll leave it to the publishers of this book to tell you more once it’s officially released by the end of this month. All I can say is: it is set in Singapore and profiles the people who have made a particular property company one of the best around when it comes to sustainability and safety, green buildings and green leases.

1. 3.     Business Leadership Series

The first in an expected series on business leaders and leading businesses. It focuses on the achievements and legacy of one leading businessman who was instrumental in creating an iconic Singapore brand and taking on the world.

Expect an official announcement with more details in the coming weeks. The book is expected to be released by the end of this year.

And if three is not enough, we are re-working “The ABC of Carbon” (first released in 2009) and giving it an updated introduction and some new material to come out afresh in e-book form in the near future. To those of you who missed the original first edition (in print), there are still some copies around in Australia and Singapore.

Email me direct for more information or to place your advance order!

kenhickson@sustain-ability-showcase.com

It had to come someday. The latest research that shows climate change is going to generate such anger that it leads to violence, even war. We expected climate refugees. We expected wholesale damage by extreme weather events and displacement of thousands by rising sea waters. We have had many health warnings of what climate change means. We see human deaths increase with higher temperatures even now in the hot seasons. Biodiversity loss and species in decline. Expect the heat to rise and diseases as well. Not a good prognosis and with climate wars on the horizon, worse is to come. This is part of the good, the bad and the plain ugly this issue. But always some hopeful signs.  Like the Australian report that 50% in energy savings which can be achieved in commercial and residential buildings. The advances in sustainability actions – and reporting – by the likes of Capitaland in Singapore and internationally, and the opportunity for carbon farming in the desert using jatropha as a fuel and a sink. More waste-to-energy plants and news of the global car industry taking sustainability to heart. But is it all enough? As the ex EPA bosses in the US are saying: It is urgent. We must do more to mitigate and adapt to climate change. At home and aboard. Maybe it needs us to get onto “war footing”. Listen to Carbon War Room, WWF, Rocky Mountain Institute and Beyond Zero Emissions. It is not a “war of words” we are talking about. This is for real. – Ken Hickson

We are loyal followers of Guardian Sustainable Business and could not resist passing on their list of the 30 most influential sustainability voices in America. Twitter-wise anyway. It is good to see serial climate change advocate, prolific speaker, writer and blogger Bill McKibben at the top. But there are many more you might or might not know or follow. Effective communication is the key and if we have to resort to Tweeting to get our messages across, let’s do it. But remember the Marshall McLuhan adage: “The medium is the message”. Media is a means to communicate, not an end in itself. Read More

Twitter list: the 30 most influential sustainability voices in America

Who is driving and shaping the sustainability conversation in the Twittersphere?

By Jo Confino and Hannah Gould in The Guardian (1 August 2013):

Twitter list: the 30 most influential sustainability voices in America

Ahead of the launch of the US edition of Guardian Sustainable Business, we thought it would be useful to check out the most influential sustainability Twitterati in America.

We turned to communications agency Fishburn Hedges and asked them to do some analysis on which individuals are having the most impact in the online sustainability debate.

As we believe in openness, we thought you too would be interested to see the results. Below are the 30 individuals in the sustainability Twittersphere with the highest Klout score. Klout is calculated using variables that include how many followers you have, who those followers are, and the number of retweets and responses your tweets receive. Measured on a scale from 0 to 100, the closer to 100 your Klout, the more influential you are.

Fishburn excluded organisations as well as full-time journalists, and manually checked that each twitter feed was centred around sustainability and actively engaged with followers.

Obviously, there are other ways of producing a league table, so please do tweet @GuardianSustBiz using #topsust with your suggestions, or join the comments section below and share with us anyone we’ve missed out.

Bill McKibben, @billmckibben, Klout 84

Author, Educator, Environmentalist and Founder of 350.org.

David Jones, @davidjoneshavas, Klout 80

Global CEO Havas. Co-founder One Young World. Led Kofi Annan’s tcktcktck campaign on Climate Justice. Author, Who Cares Wins. Creator, Social Business Idea.

Clayton Christensen, @claychristensen, Klout 78

Professor at Harvard Business School. Author of @MeasureYourLife. Tweets with occasional assistance from the Fellows at the Forum for Growth & Innovation.

Simon Mainwaring, @simonmainwaring, Klout 73

Author of NYT bestseller We First, founder of social branding firm We First, ex-Nike/Wieden ad creative, blogger, speaker, Dad, Australian.

Susan McPherson, @susanmcp1, Klout 71

Passionate connector who believes biz can be a force for good. SVP at Fenton. Angel Investor. Loves adventure, pups, the ocean & running. Host of #CSRChat

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, @RosabethKanter, Klout 66

Harvard Business School Professor and author of SuperCorp, a look at how a new generation of values-driven businesses do well by doing good.

Gil Friend, @gfriend, Klout 65

Strategic sustainability thought leader, consultant, coach. CEO Natural Logic. Author Truth About Green Business. Blogger.

Jeremy Heimans, @jeremyheimans, Klout 65

CEO/co-founder @Purpose. Co-founder @GetUp, @Avaaz, @AllOut

David Wilcox, @ReachScale, Klout 64

#GettingGoodtoGrow by bringing social entrepreneurs together with corporations. Columnist on CSRwire.

Julie Urlaub, @TaigaCompany, Klout 63

Sustainability & Social Media Consultant at Taiga Company; Social Media Wiz for Green Biz – Breathing life to social communications.

Tony Schwartz, @tonyschwartz, Klout 63

President and CEO, The Energy Project. Author, Be Excellent at Anything. Passionate about transforming the way the world works. Craves depth.

Adam Werbach, @adamwerbach, Klout 63

Co-Founder, http://yerdle.com , Founder, Saatchi & Saatchi S, Author, Strategy for Sustainability. Correspondent for http://TheAtlantic.com

Alice Korngold, @alicekorngold, Klout 63

CEO. Author: A Better World, Inc.: How Companies Profit by Solving Global Problems…Where Governments Cannot. Blog @FastCompany #CSR #corpgov #ABetterWorldInc

John Friedman, @JohnFriedman, Klout 63

I help companies live their values & tell their authentic stories. Huffington Post sustainability blogger.

Neil Hawkins, @neilchawkins, Klout 63

VP Sustainability & Environment, Health, & Safety (EH&S) for Dow. Champion for Sustainable Business, Collaboration, and Global Ecosystems. Opinions are mine.

Cynthia Hellen, @CynthiaHellen, Klout 62

Founder & CEO @SMPLCTLab | Writer @socentech | Ambassador and Co-Author @InnovatingWomen

April Rinne, @aprilrinne, Klout 61

Globetrotter. Chief Strategy Officer at Collaborative Lab: @collcons, sharing economy, Collaborative Cities. @YGLVoices. Love life, nature, sunshine, handstands.

Dave Stangis, @DaveStangis, Klout 60

VP Public Affairs/CR. Lead #CSR, #Sustainability, #Community & @CampbellCSR Fndation. Business focus, Bottom-line results. Family man, Runner when time permits.

Bruno Sarda, @bruno68, Klout 59

Global citizen. Sustainability Ops Director for Dell. Adjunct Professor & Consultant for ASU’s Global Institute of Sustainability. Views shared here are my own.

Jacob Harold, @jacobcharold, Klout 58

CEO at GuideStar USA; thinking about philanthropy, nonprofits, climate, strategy, design, and other nerdy but important things (writing as me, not GuideStar).

Tim Mohin, @TimMohinAMD, Klout 58

Author of Changing Business from the Inside Out, Director of Corporate Responsibility at AMD. Worked in #CSR at Apple and Intel & policy at EPA and the Senate.

Andrew Winston, @AndrewWinston, Klout 57

Globally recognized business consultant-speaker-writer. Hoping to change minds. Author: Green to Gold, Green Recovery, and The Big Pivot (2014).

Raz Godelnik, @ecolibris, Klout 57

Teaching green business, #csr, #sustainability & new product dev at @UDelaware, @CUNYSPS and @TheNewSchool, writer for @TriplePundit, co-founder of Eco-Libris.

Kevin Moss, @KevinIMoss, Klout 56

Head of BT’s net good programme and passionate about the role of business in society and the environment.

Janelle Heslop, @jayhesl, Klout 56

enviro sustainability & innovation consultant @green_order & @cleantechgroup | engineer | ny’er | christian | jamaican | knicks fan | runner | dancer | martian

Chris MacDonald, @ethicsblogger, Klout 55

Ethics educator, consultant, & speaker who blogs about business ethics, governance, CSR. Among ’100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics’ 4 years running.

James Epstein-Reeves, @jepsteinreeves, Klout 55

Business strategist who helps companies develop & implement the right strategies to build their business. Tweets on leadership, strategy, sustainability, & CSR.

Jacquie Ottman, @jacquelynottman, Klout 54

Green marketing expert and author on a mission to prevent household waste, use resources sustainably. Founder, the http://WeHatetoWaste.com global community.

Kate Olsen, @Kate4Good, Klout 54

#socialgood champion, #csr & #generosity blogger, insatiable consumer of content (VP Strategic Projects @Network4Good & @Companies4Good).

Hannah Jones, @hjones_nike, Klout 53

VP of Sustainable Biz & Innovation for Nike Inc; Mum of 2, type 3 diabetic (= mum to type 1 diabetic). Sustainability = worlds greatest innovation challenge!

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox

Source: www.theguardian.com/

Walk don’t drive. Use public transport and don’t drive private cars. Get serious about conservation. We must have designated places where only conservation takes place. She is noted for her directness. She advocates people power and led the civil society groups at the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. She became Minister for the Environment in Ecuador.  She is the President of WWF International and will be a keynote speaker at the World Engineers’ Summit in Singapore next month. Read More

To give some insight into the woman who heads WWF – World Wide Fund for Nature – internationally, we turn to an article which appeared in the Australian magazine, The Monthly, last November.

Jo Lennan  in The Monthly (November, 2012)

It’s a bright gem of a Sunday, and Yolanda Kakabadse is outing-ready. Cardigan, scarf, plus a wool coat on one arm. Satchel with camera, water bottle, Listerine strip PocketPak. From her bag swings a key ring with a familiar panda logo.

“That’s what I want to do,” she says, walking downhill on Sydney’s Macquarie Street. She points across a fence to where, in the Royal Botanic Gardens, three kids are climbing a Port Jackson fig. “Exactly what they’re doing.”

Kakabadse, 64, from Ecuador, is the eighth president of the World Wide Fund for Nature. The irony of her role, which is voluntary, is that saving Earth’s wild places means visiting mainly cities. “It’s the majority of my meetings,” says Kakabadse, laughing. “Like when you go to Washington to discuss the forest strategy for the world, and you’re locked up in a room with no windows.”

To get to Sydney, she spent 37 hours in transit from her home city of Quito. Her walking tour must be squeezed in between media commitments, for Sunday offers the advantage of being a slow news day (the day’s biggest story is the rescinding of Alan Jones’s S-class Mercedes), which matters if your message is, say, protecting forests in Borneo.

The rest of her week will be spent mostly in Canberra. Diary items include several speeches and meetings with the prime minister and foreign minister, to impress on them the need for Australia to take a leadership role in conserving the forests and fisheries of the Asia–Pacific region.

Though she’s not seen Sydney before, Kakabadse has been to Perth, for the 1990 congress of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, a body she later headed. “I left without seeing much, except some kangaroos.” Issued with a travel pass, she was surprised by the city’s empty buses. “We were the only people on them. It was a culture of one car, one person.”

She wanders on to the Opera House, for a happy snap with the sails behind. “You’ve got plenty of time,” says Kakabadse’s diary minder, an ex-diplomat named Lyn. “Your TV interview’s been pushed back.”

This means she has maybe an hour. “Super,” says Kakabadse, strolling past the quay’s buskers. She looks on in fascination as a guy ingests a metre-long red balloon. “I love street art,” she says. “It gives you so much flavour of a town.”

Kakabadse wants to know about immigration here. Her father, she says, was a migrant from Soviet Georgia, her mother “a typical Ecuadorean, which means a mix of everything”. At a didgeridoo performance, she asks about Aboriginal Australia. As Ecuador’s environment minister in the late 1990s, Kakabadse put her stamp on indigenous affairs by creating ‘untouchable zones’ around tribes who avoided contact. Ever since she’s wondered whether that was the right thing to do.

Having initially studied psychology, she got into conservation in her 20s, once she sensed something was rotten in Ecuador. “Rivers were polluted. Forests we had been visiting were no longer there.” The cause was oil extraction in the Amazon basin. In 1979 she formed Fundación Natura, which now operates across Latin America. But even then she was as much concerned with improving rural people’s lives as she was with protecting nature. Kakabadse is clear on this. “I am not a radical. My point is we should have designated places for oil extraction, and we must have designated places where only conservation takes place.”

She rose to international prominence during the original Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, where she organised the engagement with civil society groups, from Nepalese women’s collectives to Bulgarian carpenters and even an association of astronauts, who had seen the planet from a different angle.

Does Kakabadse get flak for not being green enough? “We are always criticised for that.” Still, many in the sector have come around to her mindset, including the WWF: whereas in its early years it focused on protecting high-profile species, these days it, too, is “talking the same language” of sustainable development.

On George Street, she spots a jacaranda. “You know where it comes from? The southern part of Brazil and the north of Argentina.” She steps under a sandstone arch to a lane traversing the old Sydney Hospital site. “How nice. The Nurses Walk.” She pauses at a souvenir shop, keen to buy some sheepskin boots for her grandson. Her diary minder, though, is pacing on ahead. Kakabadse commits the shop to memory and hurries on.

At the hotel a Prius awaits, from a green car-hire outfit. “Is the cost of a hybrid here more than a normal car?” she asks the driver, who nods. “Much higher? Is there any subsidy?” The driver replies, “Well, if the car is worth $60–80,000 and has a certain fuel consumption, you’ll get a little bit off the luxury tax.” “Hmm,” says Kakabadse.

Nearing the ABC studios on Harris Street, the city appears as eerily empty as a bus in Perth. At the end of her TV interview, Kakabadse is asked how she feels about the outcome of June’s Rio+20 summit, the sequel to her efforts in 1992. “Terrible,” she says. “It was all: ‘we recognise’, ‘we acknowledge’. Not enough of ‘we commit’.”

Jo Lennan is a writer based in Sydney. She contributes to TIME, the Economist and Intelligent Life.

Source: www.themonthly.com.au  and  www.wwf.com.au

Biography:
Yolanda Kakabadse Navarro
Ecuadorian

President

Yolanda Kakabadse is WWF’s International President and the former Ecuadorian Minister of Environment.

Career Snapshot

President Kakabadse’s work with the environmental conservation movement officially began in 1979, when she was appointed Executive Director of Fundación Natura in Quito, where she worked until 1990.

During this time she helped Fundación Natura become one of Latin America’s most important environmental organizations and, in 1993, she created Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano, an organization dedicated to promote the sustainable development of Latin America through conflict prevention and management. She was its Executive President until 2006 and remains as Chair of the Advisory Board.

From 1990 until 1992, Yolanda Kakabadse coordinated the participation of civil society organizations for the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (Earth Summit) in Geneva.

From 1996 to 2004 she was President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), and Member of the Board of the World Resources Institute (WRI) during the same period.

In August 1998 Yolanda was appointed Minister of Environment for the Republic of Ecuador, position she held until January 2000.

During 2001 she was a visiting professor at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environment, USA.

She co-Chaired the Environmental Sustainability Task Force of the UN Millennium Project, 2002 – 2005. She chaired the Scientific and Technology Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility (STAP / GEF) from 2005 to 2008.

Yolanda took office as WWF’s International President on 1st January 2010.

Formal Education

President Kakabadse was born in Ecuador and studied Educational Psychology in the Catholic University of Quito.

Ms Kakabadse’s second term of office expires in 2017.

Source: http://wwf.panda.org/

Australia announces the date for its cliff-hanger election between the party led by recently returned Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott’s Liberals who want to turn back the clock on climate change action and the carbon pricing. This week, Beyond Zero Emissions releases its landmark report on how commercial and residential buildings in Australia can cut their energy use in half. It can be done without political involvement and it will save money – and energy -  boost the economy and create jobs. Read More

Giles Parkinson on upcoming election and Sophie Vorrath on the release of the Zero Carbon Australia Building Plan

RenewEconomy (4 August 2013):

The date for the 2013 Federal election has been called, and set for September 7. For the next five weeks Australians will be assaulted with assurances by the leaders of the mainstream parties, Labor’s Kevin Rudd and the Coalition’s Tony Abbott , that they are best able to lead the nation.

It’s too much to hope for another hung parliament, which finally delivered a carbon price and some critical infrastructure such as a green bank and a “reserve bank” of carbon. But the polls have narrowed and the policy details of each mainstream party are about to held up to intense scrutiny.

On some key issues, such as refugees and education, it will be difficult to spot the difference. Superficially this could also be true of climate and clean energy: Both mainstream parties have committed to reducing Australia’s emissions by 5 per cent by 2020, and both mainstream parties say they are committed to the minimum 20 per cent renewable energy target, and its current expression as a fixed target of 41,000 gigawatt hours.

But that’s where the similarities end.

After being forced into action by the hung parliament and the bargain with the Greens and the country independents, Labor now appears comfortable with its climate change policy settings. It is committed to a carbon price, although Rudd has vowed to bring the traded (and less costly) version forward by a year. It says it will be advised on future reduction targets by the independent Climate Change Authority. Its main challenge is to convince votes that this is not a policy of convenience, and it won’t simply use climate and clean energy as a wedge to drive through the Coalition – as it did in the last Rudd government – however, tempting that might be.

The Coalition’s challenge is to show that its policy has credibility. Or more fundamentally, that it actually has a policy. After more than three years, it still can’t explain how Direct Action will work, or how it will achieve higher abatement targets. Is it a reverse auction, or a baseline and credit scheme? No one seems to know, least of all the Coalition, which promises a White Paper if elected.

The Coalition has vowed to repeal a carbon price, but its ability to do so is seriously question by the narrowing of the polls. It has also promised to disband the CCA and bring its advice “in house”. And suspicions that the Coalition does not take climate change seriously are sharpened by Abbott’s continued use of skeptic talking points to dismiss emissions trading, and the Coalition’s reliance on people more widely dismissed as apologists for fossil fuels to endorse Direct Action.The Skeptic rump that pushed Abbott into power is still influential.

One thing seems certain. The 5% bipartisan target seems certain to be made redundant within a year. The CCA is likely to recommend a 15 per cent reduction target at the very least – taking into account the latest science, the IPCC reports that are soon to be released, the cost, and the extent of international action. At least with an emissions trading scheme, this ambition is easily scalable.

Few people believe Direct Action could achieve a 5 per cent reduction target, let alone a more ambitious one. The Coalition does not appear to have the stomach to implement the sort of biting Direct Action imposed by the Obama administration in the US, with its strict emissions and energy efficiency targets. The recent Galaxy poll suggest even the voters find the Coalition’s claims dubious. Rudd is rated as having more credible climate policies by 45 per cent of voters, versus 31 per cent for Abbott.

The bipartisan support for the RET is also a mirage. The CCA last December dismissed the complaints of some of the big utilities, incumbent generators and conservative state governments, and said that the fixed 41,000GWh renewables target for 2020 should stand.

Labor has endorsed that, and has vowed to enact the other key CCA recommendation – to set the next review of the RET for 2016 –  if re-elected (although it is not entirely clear why they haven’t already done that). The Coalition say they support the 41,000GWh target, but, crucially, they want it reviewed again in 2014 – even though the last review was only completed in December.

This uncertainty has brought the $20 billion renewable energy industry to a virtual standstill, because bankers and utilities are convinced that the Coalition will weaken the target, given that they will disband the CCA, the independent body that has shown it can break through the appeals of the vested interests.

The Coalition knows the impact of their position. As the former, and likely future energy minister Ian Macfarlane said in 2010: “We understand, dare I say better that than those who sit opposite because we have actually done it, the importance of getting a scheme in place where there is certainty, particularly for wind farms.”

The other crucial element of the transition to a low carbon economy is the Clean Energy Finance Corp – another product of the Greens and the country independents and their negotiations with the Gillard government. The CEFC is considered crucial to greasing the wheels for companies to adopt clean energy technologies – be it energy efficiency, capturing waste gas from landfills and coal mines, refinancing renewable projects, or providing support for new technologies such as solar PV farms and concentrated solar power.

Labor says it will support the CEFC, but the Coalition says it will disband it as quickly as it can.

The Greens will not be in government, but their role will be crucial. The Greens want the emissions reductions to reflect the science, and have called for an emissions reduction target of between 25 per cent and 40 per cent by 2020, and for a 90 per cent renewable energy target by 2030. The fact that such goals are often dismissed as extreme says more about the level of political debate in this country, and the stranglehold on the discourse by vested interests, than it does about the Greens climate and clean energy policies.

Much is often said about The Greens refusal to endorse Rudd’s CPRS, and the impact that had on his political future, and the course of carbon pricing. Given what’s happened in Europe since then, it seems a moot point. But it should not be forgotten that the two most crucial institutions introduced with the Clean Energy Future package – the CCA and the CEFC – are there thanks to the Greens and the country independents, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott.

The independents are going, so the role of the Greens in protecting those institutions, along with the carbon price, the RET, and the impending issue of small scale solar, will be critical in coming years.

The Climate Institute gave the Greens 5/5 for climate policies in its “pollute-o-metre” assessment. Labor got a score of 2.5 and the Coalition just 1.5. Just as crucially, the climate and clean energy policies of the independents that could influence a tight parliament – Nick Xenophon, Bob Katter and Clive Palmer – fair even worse.

Energy Savings for Buildings

By Sophie Vorrath in Reneweconomy  (6 August 2013)

A nationwide plan to transform Australia’s existing building stock into models of energy efficiency and renewable power generation has found that residential and commercial energy use could be cut in half, and could reach zero emissions from their operations, within 10 years.

Launched on Tuesday, the The Zero Carbon Australia Buildings Plan – a joint effort from climate think-tank Beyond Zero Emissions and The University of Melbourne Energy Institute – sets out a strategy to retrofit Australia’s buildings, to reduce energy bills, generate renewable energy, increase comfort levels, and make workplaces more productive.

The plan finds the residential building sector would be able to achieve a 53 per cent energy use reduction overall, with some typical home categories seeing over 70 per cent reduction. Commercial buildings are estimated to be able to reduce energy use by 44 per cent overall.

A key element of the plan involves buildings going gas-free, with gas appliances deemed “too inefficient and polluting” compared to modern electric appliances which can replace them – namely heat pumps, or split-system airconditioners, as they are more commonly known.

Solar also features heavily in the plan, which says Australian households could effectively be transformed into renewable energy power stations, able to generate more than their whole annual demand from rooftop PV panels.

The report – which is slated as the next step in the Zero Carbon Australia transition first outlined in BZE’s Stationary Energy Plan, from 2010 – says that Australia’s existing buildings are not adequately designed to meet many of the challenges we face today – often being unnecessarily cold in winter, hot in summer, and expensive to run.

“We now have the technologies and know-how to make our buildings far more comfortable, while protecting us from rising electricity and gas bills,” the report says. “This plan contains detailed bottom-up research, modelling and analysis into Australia’s existing buildings and energy consumption. We have collaborated extensively with industry, ensuring our recommended suite of retrofit measures is practical and widely applicable.”

Under the plan:

– Residential energy use is halved. The measures in this plan will, together, reduce the residential sector’s annual energy usage by 53%.

– Homes become renewable energy power stations. There is enough solar exposed roof space on residential buildings to install 31 GW of rooftop solar photovoltaics. This installation will allow the average Australian home to generate more electricity than it uses over a year.

– Australian buildings go gas free. The use of fossil gas (conventional fossil gas, coal seam gas, shale gas & others) is completely removed from the buildings sector. Fossil gas appliances are replaced with higher- efficiency electric alternatives, eliminating gas bills and leading to significant reductions in energy use while avoiding the climate and environmental damage caused by gas.

– Households save money. Households currently spend approximately $15 billion per year on electricity and gas bills. The ZCA Buildings Plan will eliminate gas bills while significantly reducing electricity costs. The full upgrade can save $40 billion over the next 30 years.

– Non-residential energy use nearly halved. The energy used in non-residential buildings, on average, can be reduced by 44%. 2.5 GW of rooftop solar photovoltaics can be installed on non-residential buildings and the total cost is equivalent to business as usual over 30 years.

– Energy freedom is achievable. The plan shows that with the above actions, households and businesses can achieve energy freedom by generating more energy than they use and removing gas as an energy source.

– Tens of thousands of jobs will be created. From residential retrofits alone, around fifty thousand jobs can be created in the trades sector employing people to fix Australia’s buildings.

– The transition to 100% Renewable Energy is now $37 Billion cheaper and 15% more achievable. By detailed testing of the assumptions used in the ZCA Stationary Energy Plan, we show we need 15% less (excluding rooftop solar contribution) stationary renewable energy. By rolling out energy saving measures and rooftop solar we can make the transition to 100% renewable energy for Australia easier and cheaper.

Source: www.reneweconomy.com.au and  www.bze.org.au

Scientists say that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas could be an effective way of curbing greenhouse gas emissions, as jatropha seeds can be used to produce biofuel and the plants can absorb large amounts of CO2. Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers say the idea is economically competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage projects. Read More

Desert ‘carbon farming’ to curb CO2

By Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent, in BBC News (1 August 2013):

Jatropha seeds can be used to produce biofuel but the plant itself can absorb large amounts of CO2

Scientists say that planting large numbers of jatropha trees in desert areas could be an effective way of curbing emissions of CO2.

Dubbed “carbon farming”, researchers say the idea is economically competitive with high-tech carbon capture and storage projects.

But critics say the idea could be have unforeseen, negative impacts including driving up food prices.

The research has been published in the journal Earth System Dynamics.

Seeds of change

Jatropha curcas is a plant that originated in Central America and is very well adapted to harsh conditions including extremely arid deserts.

It is already grown as a biofuel in some parts of the world because its seeds can produce oil.

I think it is a good idea because we are really extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is completely different between extracting and preventing”

In this study, German scientists showed that one hectare of jatropha could capture up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. The researchers based their estimates on trees currently growing in trial plots in Egypt and in the Negev desert.

“The results are overwhelming,” said Prof Klaus Becker, from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart.

“There was good growth, a good response from these plants. I feel there will be no problem trying it on a much larger scale, for example ten thousand hectares in the beginning,” he said.

According to the researchers a plantation that would cover three percent of the Arabian desert would absorb all the CO2 produced by cars and trucks in Germany over a 20 year period.

The scientists say that a critical element of the plan would be the availability of desalination facilities. This means that initially, any plantations would be confined to coastal areas.

They are hoping to develop larger trials in desert areas of Oman or Qatar. Prof Becker says that unlike other schemes that just offset the carbon that people produce, the planting of jatropha could be a good, short term solution to climate change.

“I think it is a good idea because we are really extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – and it is completely different between extracting and preventing.”

Desalination

To make the idea work the trees would need brackish water from desalination plants like this one in Israel

According to the scientist’s calculations the costs of curbing carbon dioxide via the planting of trees would be between 42 and 63 euros per tonne. This makes it competitive with other techniques, such as the more high tech carbon capture and storage (CCS).

A number of countries are currently trialling this technology but it has yet to be deployed commercially.

Growing jatropha not only soaks up CO2 but has other benefits. The plants would help to make desert areas more habitable, and the plant’s seeds can be harvested for biofuel say the researchers, providing an economic return.

“Jatropha is ideal to be turned into biokerosene – it is even better than biodiesel,” said Prof Becker.

But other experts in this area are not convinced. They point to the fact that in 2007 and 2008 large numbers of jatropha trees were planted for biofuel, especially in Africa. But many of these ventures ended in tears, as the plants were not very successful in coping with dry conditions.

Lucy Hurn is the biofuels campaign manager for the charity, Actionaid. She says that while jatropha was once seen as the great, green hope the reality was very different.

“When jatropha was introduced it was seen as a miracle crop, it would grow on scrubland or marginal land,” she said.

“But there are often people who need marginal land to graze their animals, they are getting food from that area – we wouldn’t class the land as marginal.”

She pointed out that jatropha is highly toxic and can pollute the land it is grown on, even in a desert. And she also had concerns about the fairness of the idea.

“It is still somebody else’s land. Why go in and grow these massive plantations to deal with a problem these people didn’t actually cause?”

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Climate change produces many victims, but now a new survey finds that it could increase the likelihood of war and unrest by as much as 56% between now and 2050. And this is a relationship – between these climate variables and conflict outcomes – observed across time and across all major continents around the world, says the study’s researchers at the University of California. Read More

Climate change makes people want to kill each other, survey says

New study finds global warming heats up tempers, could increase war and civil unrest. Drought plays a part, too.

By Deborah Hastings for New York Daily News (2 August 2013):

Global warming heats up more than the weather.

A new survey finds that climate change could increase war and unrest by as much as 56 percent between now and 2050.

“This is a relationship we observe across time and across all major continents around the world,” said Marshall Burke, one of the study’s researchers at the University of California at Berkeley.

“The relationship we find between these climate variables and conflict outcomes are often very large,” he said.

The survey was published Thursday in the journal Science.

It analyzed 60 studies on wars, violent crime and the collapses of historical empires. It also looked at lab simulations documenting what provokes police to open fire.

Researchers found that violence and civil unrest increased in correlation with rising temperatures and extreme weather.

Children in London cool off this week during a mini heat wave. A new survey finds global violence may increase by as much as 50 percent because of global warming.

Children in London cool off this week during a mini heat wave. A new survey finds global violence may increase by as much as 50 percent because of global warming.

“It does change how we think about the value of avoiding climate change,” said Solomon Hsiang, the lead author and researcher at the UC Berkeley.

“It makes us think that avoiding climate change is actually something we should be willing to invest more in,” he said.

Burke said the results “shed new light on how the future climate will shape human societies.”

He also said the study suggests that “a global temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius could increase the rate of intergroup conflicts, such as civil wars, by over 50 percent in many parts of the world.”

In the U.S., it would mean that for every increase of 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit, the likelihood of violent crime goes up 2 percent to 4 percent.

The review also noted that historically, great upheavals tended to occur during periods of severe weather.

As an example, researchers noted that the collapse of the Mayan civilization occurred during unprecedented droughts about 1,200 years ago.

Source: www.nydailynews.com

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Quantifying the Influence of Climate on Human Conflict

Solomon M. Hsiang, Marshall Burke, Edward Miguel

ABSTRACT

A rapidly growing body of research examines whether human conflict can be affected by climatic changes. Drawing from archaeology, criminology, economics, geography, history, political science, and psychology, we assemble and analyze the 60 most rigorous quantitative studies and document, for the first time, a remarkable convergence of results. We find strong causal evidence linking climatic events to human conflict across a range of spatial and temporal scales and across all major regions of the world. The magnitude of climate’s influence is substantial: for each 1 standard deviation (1σ) change in climate toward warmer temperatures or more extreme rainfall, median estimates indicate that the frequency of interpersonal violence rises 4% and the frequency of intergroup conflict rises 14%. Because locations throughout the inhabited world are expected to warm 2 to 4σ by 2050, amplified rates of human conflict could represent a large and critical impact of anthropogenic climate change.

Source: www.sciencemag.org

It started with talk about sustainable fashion and led to issues and opportunities for eco products and green purchasing. The sustainable development of supply chains and the work of the International Green Purchasing Network. This issue we present a glimpse at “Better Cotton for Better Lives”,  some fashionably sustainable stories, what’s up with Forum for the Future, Positive Impact and the Centre for Sustainable Fashion. And our plan to attend the 4th International Conference on Green Purchasing in Kuala Lumpur 18-20 September. Read More

International Conference on Green Purchasing

September 18 – 20 2013 at Subang Jaya, Malaysia

International Green Purchasing Network (IPGN) is supporting and participating in the forthcoming conference “4th International Conference on Green Purchasing” that will take place in Subang Jaya, Malaysia, from 18-20 September 2013.

The conference will bring together world renowned experts and practitioners with more than a decade of green purchasing and green productivity experiences. Experts will share the critical factors and conditions for the successful implementation of green purchasing and green productivity, and how to formulate a strategic approach to resource productivity in industry, agriculture, retail and service sectors.

UCLG ASPAC Secretary General, Dr. Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, will take part as speaker in the conference. Her session will focus on “Towards a Safe and Green City” to be held on Day 3 (Friday, 20th September) at 4.30pm-5pm.

Source: www.uclg-aspac.org

For more on the International Green Purchasing Network go to: www.igpn.org

Better Cotton builds better lives for farmers

By Katherine Rowland  for Forum for the Future (5 August, 2013):

As international efforts are proving, sustainable cotton production doesn’t just benefit the environment – it also improves the lives of the farmers and their families. Katherine Rowland reports.

Cotton has a battered reputation as a thirsty crop, and one demanding high levels of pesticide and insecticide. But innovations in recent years reveal that these traits belong to agricultural practices, and are not inherent to the crop itself. Indeed, international efforts from the likes of the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) are steadily proving, not only that cotton production can be made more sustainable, but that decreasing the crop’s ecological toll can improve the lives and livelihoods of farmers.

Around 90% of the world’s 100 million cotton farmers live in developing countries, raising the crop on less than two hectares. These smallholders are especially vulnerable to market shifts and climate flux, and the performance of a single growing season can make or break a household. But global businesses are also tethered to the fate of these small plots. Smallholders comprise the basis of diversified and geographically dispersed supply chains, that offer greater resilience than relying on the performance of a single crop. To ensure future supply, several leading companies are intervening on the ground to safeguard the resources on which cotton cultivation depends.

The John Lewis Foundation, a charitable trust set up by the UK retailer, has invested in a three-year programme to train 1,500 farmers in Gujarat, India, in sustainable production techniques. Through a combination of field and classroom based sessions, the trainings address issues such as soil health and water conservation, pest management, reduced chemical use and decent labour standards.

The retailer is working with CottonConnect, a social purpose enterprise set up in 2009 by the Textile Exchange, C&A, and the Shell Foundation, which helps companies map sustainable strategies throughout the supply chain, from ground to garment. The organisation does not set standards for sustainability, but rather works with retailers to meet sourcing objectives, such as Fair Trade and Better Cotton. With the goal of cultivating one million acres of sustainable cotton by 2015, CottonConnect works with up to 80,000 farmers annually, predominantly in India and China.

According to Anna Karlsson, Sustainable Development Manager at CottonConnect: “Economic benefit will keep farmers interested in continuing the training and implementing the practices. Environmental gains are secondary for most farmers. In the short term, using fewer pesticides will save them money, and using them in the right way will have health benefits. In the long term, [better practice] improves the soil, reduces leaching of chemicals into water, and encourages biodiversity.”

While the economic gains come chiefly from spending less on inputs, which in some countries can make up 60% of cotton production costs, better land management strategies also play a prominent role. Techniques such as soil assessments, which let farmers know how much and what type of fertiliser to apply, manure composting, intercropping and crop rotations help to preserve soil health; rainwater harvesting saves on irrigation, and pheromone traps to catch insects reduce dependence on chemicals.

These approaches – already used in the US, Australia and Brazil – comprise part of a larger toolkit developed by the BCI, a non-profit multi-stakeholder initiative that aims to elevate sustainable cotton production around the world, and established the Better Cotton standard in 2009 to do so.

BCI seeks to counter the threats to the industry posed by soil erosion, water depletion, and unsafe working conditions, its principles are based on mainstreaming prudent agrochemical use, environmentally efficient production methods and improved labour conditions. Participating companies include H&M, Marks & Spencer, IKEA and adidas, alongside non-profit partners including WWF and Solidaridad. Collectively, they want 30% of the world’s cotton production to comply with BCI standards by 2020.

The 2010-11 growing seasons saw the first harvests of Better Cotton in India, Pakistan, Brazil and Mali, and Better Cotton is now grown in China, Turkey and Mozambique. Although the programme is in its infancy, it currently involves more than half a million farmers, and has had significant results.

In India, where BCI worked in nine states in 2011, the 35,000 Better Cotton farmers used 40% less commercial pesticides and 20% less water than conventional farmers, while at the same time having on average a 20% greater productivity and 50% higher profits. In Pakistan, 44,000 Better Cotton farmers similarly used 20% less water and 33% less commercial fertiliser than conventional cotton farmers while having on average a 8% greater productivity and 35% higher profits.

These efforts and advancements echo those of more developed cotton-growing countries. In the US, for example, national and local government organisations strictly regulate pesticide and irrigated water applications. Cotton growers and importers also contribute to a collective research and educational outreach program. Over the last three decades, this combination of oversight and outreach has enabled US cotton growers to reduce pesticide applications by 50% and irrigated water applications by 45%.

In addition to technical training, many of these international programmes also incorporate literacy training, women’s skill building, health and safety courses, and commitments to end child labour. Peter Salcedo, a trader for Plexus Cotton, the sixth largest cotton supplier in the world, says that retailers are responding to consumer interest in the welfare of producers, and are increasingly invested in issues like gender parity and community development. Consumers want to be able to trace where their goods are coming from, he says, and so brands need to be able to explain that their products have a “respectable provenance”.

In East Africa, Plexus Cotton sources its stock from BCI, and works with social business development organisations, such as Cotton made in Africa and the Competitive African Cotton Initiative, to offer supply chain traceability starting with raw materials and labour conditions.

Chimala Walusa, a farmer from the Balaka region of Malawi, is one of the 65,000 smallholders that Plexus is working with in the country. Walusa says, “My life style has changed since I became a lead farmer [in the training programme]. Before, I used to harvest less, like seven bales, but now I am harvesting more. This season I have harvested 60 bales of 90kg each. I managed to harvest all this because I followed the basic production techniques I was taught by extension agents [university employees who develop and deliver educational programmes].”

From last year’s sales, I built a good house and  bought four cattle and oxen

Increased yields result in direct gains for his wife and four children, Walsusa explains. “From last year’s sales, I managed to build a good house, and I bought four cattle and oxen. From this year’s [which totalled MK1,575 million / US$4,800], I am planning to buy a plot in town and build a house for rent.”

These gains resonate across the supply chain. For the US-based retailer Levi Strauss & Co., on-the-ground efforts to improve cotton production also serve to protect its business from some of the effects of climate change. Of the 100 countries in which cotton production takes place, many are already feeling the impact of weather shifts in the form of water scarcity and constraints to arable land. As a result, they also recognise the need to implement adaptation strategies, says Sarah Young, Levi’s Manager of Corporate Communications. For a company that depends on cotton for 95% of its products, addressing these challenges at the grower level is a necessary part of sustaining their business.

In the US, increasing weather variability, alongside growing demand, is similarly “cause for concern for cotton farmers and is generating strategies to adapt”, says Ed Barnes, Senior Director of agricultural and environmental research at Cotton Incorporated, a not-for-profit organisation whose work helps US cotton farmers manage input efficiencies and reduce environmental impact. In the past, he says, “if the field didn’t look like a clean construction site, you weren’t going to plant”. But now, 70% of US cotton farmers have adopted conservation tillage practices, a modern farming technique that allows the soil to hold more moisture and nutrients, thereby decreasing dependence on irrigation and fertilisers.

The beauty of these conservation techniques, says Barnes, is that farmers still reap the same, if not higher, financial benefits. With the price of fertiliser and water rising globally, “farmers are interested in using resources as efficiently as possible”, he says. “They are adopting more sustainable practices because they see the economic return, and that what’s good for the land is good for growers.”

Katherine Rowland is a freelance journalist specialising in health and the environment

Source: www.forumforthefuture.org

Forum of the Future

Forum for the Future – the sustainable  development charity – works in partnership  with leading businesses and public service providers, helping them devise more  sustainable strategies and deliver new  products and services which enhance people’s  lives and are better for the environment.

“We have been working with the fashion  industry for several years. In 2007 we published Fashioning Sustainability, which analyses  the social and environmental impacts of the  clothing industry.

The report identifies the  key issues that need to be tackled to make  sustainable clothing mainstream and highlights  what retailers, brands, designers, producers,  governments and consumers each need to  do to take action. Many of our retail partners have fashion ranges, and the sector has  continued to be a high priority for us.

Levi Strauss & Co. is one of the world’s  largest branded apparel companies and  the global leader in  its products in more than 110 countries  worldwide. The company designs and markets  jeans, casual wear and related accessories  for men, women and children under the  Levi’s®, Dockers® and Signature by Levi  Strauss & Co.TM brands.

Almost two decades ago, through the Terms of Engagement (TOE), Levi Strauss & Co.  was the first company to state that it would  only do business with suppliers who shared  its commitment to environment, labour, health  and safety standards. The company’s vision is to build sustainability into everything we  do so that our profitable growth helps restore  the environment.

Source: www.forumforthefuture.org

The Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London

Seeing, Knowing, Doing: Fashioning the Future Summer School

This year Centre for Sustainable Fashion and London College of Fashion are ran Fashioning the Future Summer School  from 1–19 July. The summer school is a unique opportunity for fashion students, tutors and practitioners to collaborate across traditional geographic, linguistic and disciplinary boundaries. Aiming to create an innovative, experimental learning environment for undergraduate fashion students , the summer school has brought together 30 students from 9 institutions across Europe: London College of Fashion, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, Goldsmiths College, Robert Gordon University, Hogeschool Gent, Aalto University, KEA – Copenhagen School of Design & Technology, University of Ljubljana, and University of Boras.

This three-week programme has placed London as the creative focus to expand and deepen knowledge about sustainability while providing skills for addressing design challenges in a resource stricken world. The global move towards urbanisation and the need for innovative design for sustainability is ideally suited to this focus due to the diversity of London’s multicultural urban environment. By the end of this century over 80% of us will be living in cities, through out the summer school students will discover what our greatest challenges are and what new possibilities this brings for fashion design. Students have been asked to consider key city locations: London, New York, Shanghai, Paris and Rio de Janeiro, thinking about how each city has reacted to urban growth, environmental changes, social cohesion and declining resources. We will look at what life like in these cities now and from this imagine London in 2025. Through out this project we will reference the past, present and future to create fashion that is informed, inspired and visualises what the future might be.

In the week leading up to the start of the Summer School in east London, we asked the participating students to carry out a series of daily tasks in the environment of their home cities, which took them through a process of seeing, knowing and doing:

Seeing – observe their surroundings

Knowing – identify and analyse their surroundings

Doing – interact with their surroundings

Students were asked to photograph surfaces they came across during a journey they took; record the feelings of strangers around them; observe and record all the sounds they heard through out the day; do something out of the ordinary; and think about and leave behind the objects they rely on in their everyday life. The images and words posted to the blog over the past couple of weeks has created a unique map for each participant and the variety of work posted has given us incredible insights into each of the student’s own experience of ‘their city’.

Earlier this year, The Centre for Sustainable Fashion also worked with each team to collate a book bringing to life their journey and outlining the, inspiration, insights and innovation that typified each individual concept. One representative from each team was selected by Nike to attend Launch 2020 and their work formed the centrepiece of an exhibition that accompanied the summit. It was huge pleasure to see the interest and intrigue elicited by our work and it served as a fitting reminder of the significant role education has to play in equipping designers with both the skills and thought processes required to tackle the major challenges of the future.

It was truly amazing to be in a room where the voices of our recent graduates were given equal relevance and space as those of chemical company CEOs and Nike Vice Presidents. Some of the highlights of the summit included astronaut Ron Garran talking about the six months he spent orbiting the globe on a space station and sharing his unique physical and a metaphysical view of the world; what he has achieved in space and on earth is awe inspiring. Joan Benoit, the first woman to win gold in an Olympic marathon, was another hugely inspiring speaker, at 55 she still runs 70 miles a week and is an avid campaigner for environmental issues.

We all left with a determination to recognise and respect the finite resources of our planet but at the same time remembering that there is no limit to human ingenuity; when we work together we can apply our collective intelligence and intuition to make better and to live better.”

Source: www.sustainable-fashion.com

And Singapore, we learn of what the Australian-founded business of Positive Impact is up to now that its focus is on Asia Pacific:

Positive Impact has a comprehensive range of green merchandise. We strive to provide your business with smarter, more environmentally conscious options for corporate gifts and promotions. Our products have been selected based on ethical sourcing principles, Fair Trade and environmental credentials enabling you to make a better choice.

It’s a fact of life that we all need to consume, but we all need to think before we buy. It is our choices that will either contribute to or reduce Climate Change. We aim for businesses like yours to use its buying power to bring about the change we need, to make and create brands of the future.

With a keen interest in pursuing environmental endeavours and a desire to balance work and motherhood, Miki Massey developed the Positive Impact range to help bring about this change.

Positive Impact is passionate about the environment. We minimise our carbon footprint by buying recycled and recycling, running our office on green power and using energy efficient lighting and appliances. We have signed an emissions monitoring agreement with our carbon partner CRI which means that all our business activities will be calculated and then offset at the end of every year. We have purchased 10 tonnes of the Karnataka Carbon Credits in advance and this has entitled us to 100% LowCO2 certification! To find out more go to Carbon

Vision

Our vision is a world where all products are manufactured with a “cradle to cradle” approach. This means considering the environmental impact at every stage of the product lifecycle, from manufacture to disposal, with the intention to minimise the use of natural resources at every stage.

With technology advancement in recycled and recyclable material there is no reason why we have to choose items made from cheap virgin materials that can only be used once. Collectively this method will significantly reduce the amount of rainforests being destroyed, it can ensure people are treated kindly in their work and ultimately can educate the next generation to do better than we have.

Values

We value being different, we value making a change. We value our customers and believe in providing personalised service, with integrity and enthusiasm.

We value walking the talk, we value greening our supply chain. We value our suppliers and partners and always try to deal with likeminded organisations that are doing their bit too.

We value the environment.

Source: www.positiveimpact.net.au