Leading Businesses on the Line for Environment and Sustainability

Environmental Leader reports that BMW and Johnson & Johnson are among the members of a new US initiative promoting sustainable business practices. The Stewardship Action Council (SAC) aims to develop a performance-based sustainability index, and stimulate collaboration between business, government, non-profits and academia. Meanwhile, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and consultants Ernst & Young are creating a tool to help private equity (PE) firms improve the environmental performance of their portfolios. Under a pilot program called Green Ops for PE, participants will get assessments of the environmental opportunities within their portfolios, and suggestions for ways to maximize environmental and financial value.

Environmental Leader announces 31 January 2011:

Pfizer, BMW and Johnson & Johnson are among the members of a new initiative promoting sustainable business practices.

The Stewardship Action Council (SAC) aims to develop a performance-based sustainability index, and stimulate collaboration between business, government, non-profits and academia.

The SAC says that many existing corporate sustainability organizations limit those who may join, are cost-prohibitive, do not include performance standards and only focus on a particular topic, such as reporting or green building.

In contract, the SAC says, its initiative lays out a path for members to meet a specific sustainability standard and to improve their performance over time. Dues are up to $1,500 for an individual facility and up to $7,500 for a corporate membership.

Membership falls into two categories. Participating Members set improvement goals and report progress against those goals. Alliance Members, made up mainly of non-profits, government and academic institutions, do not set improvement goals.

SAC has not yet published any of the goals set by individual members.

But it does say that participating members must set goals beyond what is required by regulation. Participating membership is divided into four levels: members in Level 1 must set one goal, those in level 2 must set two goals (or one if they are a small business). At Level 2, one of the goals has to be for carbon reduction, if that is material to the business.

Members in level 3 must set four goals to improve their operational footprint (or two for small businesses). Two of the goals must be related to material aspects of operation.

Level 3 members must have an environmental management system in place and verified by a third party, with independent audits conducted every three years, and self-assessments in interim years. Level 2 members must commit to implementing environmental management systems.

Members at Level 3 must also have had no criminal violations in the past five years, no civil violations in the past three years, and no more than three notices of violation in any three-year period.

SAC has yet to determine the standards for level 4.

The founding members include:

• American University
• Audubon International
• BMW
• Calvert Asset Management Company, Inc.
• Campbell Institute of the National Safety Council
• CLF Ventures
• Covanta Energy Corporation
• DM Petroleum Operations Company
• Forever Resorts
• Georgia Department of Natural Resources
• Indiana Department of Environmental Management
• Matt Potoski, Iowa State University
• Johnson & Johnson
• Lockheed Martin Manassas
• Michelin North America, Inc.
• Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
• National Pollution Prevention Roundtable (NPPR)
• North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources
• Pfizer
• PRIZIM, Inc.
• Rockwell Collins
• Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation
• Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
• Washington State Department of Ecology
• West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
• Wildlife Habitat Council
• Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource

Source: www.environmentalleader.com

January 25, 2011 Environmental Leader

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and consultants Ernst & Young are creating a tool to help private equity (PE) firms improve the environmental performance of their portfolios.

Under a pilot program called Green Ops for PE, participants will get assessments of the environmental opportunities within their portfolios, and suggestions for ways to maximize environmental and financial value.

The pilot will build on practices developed through EDF’s Green Returns program for the PE sector. EDF has used that process with private equity investors the Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR).

In March 2010, EDF helped Carlyle launch EcoValuScreen, a due diligence tool to identify value creation opportunities through improved environmental management practices. Carlyle is applying the process to new transactions in the U.S. – including the recent acquisition of nutritional supplement company NBTY, Inc.

KKR’s Green Portfolio Program was developed in 2008, and now includes 16 portfolio companies. KKR and the EDF say the program has yielded $160 million in savings over two years, saving 345,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions, 8,500 tons of paper, and 1.2 million tons of waste.

The new joint initiative will involve advisers from Ernst & Young’s private equity and sustainability teams. Boutique consulting firm Quantis will also help with data and life cycle assessments.

“We have seen many companies recognize significant ROI from assessing and investing in environmentally sustainable business initiatives,” said Steve Starbuck, Ernst & Young’s Americas leader for climate change and sustainability services. “Green Ops for PE could make these business opportunities more accessible across the PE sector.”

Ernst & Young announced in September that it had achieved a 15 percent reduction in the overall carbon footprint of its member firms in the Americas from the 2008 to 2009 fiscal year

Source: www.environmentalleader.com