Karin Ireton, director of group sustainability management at Africa’s Standard Bank, believes that the logic of sustainability and profitability are increasingly seen not as antagonistic but complementary. While there are still some people who say this is going to be at cost and at odds with straightforward ‘business as usual’, there is recognition now of the need to reduce energy costs and to increase investment in renewables. Read More

David Smith for the Guardian Professional Network (18 May 2012):

Africa’s Biggest Bank Takes a Sustainable Approach

Standard Bank’s sustainability head talks about the role her organisation plays in empowering the new South Africa

At 150 years of age, Standard Bank is one of South Africa’s oldest companies and no stranger to thinking in the long term. The group’s total assets of 1,497bn rand (£113bn) make it Africa’s biggest bank, a heavy burden of responsibility in the world’s poorest, least developed continent.

Standard Bank’s most recent sustainability report describes efforts to extend financial services, reduce environmental impact, support carbon trading schemes in Africa and, since 2007, help more than 300,000 South Africans on low incomes to buy homes.

Internally, in the past year the bank hosted a sustainability expo, ran awareness raising campaigns, offered discounts to staff to buy solar water heating systems and made its own offices greener.

The group says it is also playing a part in undoing the legacy of apartheid, which for decades systematically denied opportunities and wealth to South Africa’s black majority. It operates a community trust but admits that some of its black business beneficiaries have been forced into liquidation by the economic downturn.

Karin Ireton, director of group sustainability management, believes that the logic of sustainability and profitability are increasingly seen not as antagonistic but complementary. “There are still some people who say this is going to be at cost and at odds with straightforward ‘business as usual’,” she says at Standard Bank’s headquarters in downtown Johannesburg. “But I think what we are building in the organisation is a greater realisation that there is a new ‘business as usual’ and that for our clients, as well as for ourselves, the need to reduce energy costs and to increase renewables is significant.”

Eighteen years after the end of white minority rule, South Africa’s socio-economic problems remain deeply entrenched. An estimated one in three people is jobless while 44% of workers live on less than 10 rand (75p) a day, according to a 2010 report by the UN Development Programme. The economic bottom half of the population lives on 8% of national income, trade unions say, making this one of the world’s most unequal societies. Race is still a vital if slowly diminishing factor.

Ireton cites South Africa as an example of how business and government can work together to harness markets and deliver societal impact. “I think we have a slightly unique approach in this country; we are more collaborative than you get in most economies where there tends to be almost an ‘us and them’ approach. Maybe that’s born out of the absolute need that there was in South Africa to overcome some of these issues and get on with it.”

She adds: “There are a number of fundamental requirements. One is clarity around what are the rules, are they going to change, are they set, what is the framework within which you undertake these issues.

Second is some incentivisation to the private sector – and it doesn’t necessarily have to be financial incentives – to get involved and to be able to move quickly.

“I think the benefit from the government’s side has been that they have been able to move faster on some things than they would had it just been through state-owned enterprises. But there’s also an aspect of mutual recognition of the benefit of actually tackling some of these issues.”

This is illustrated by South Africa’s renewable energy programme, which had been hindered by the domination of a state-owned electricity provider focused on coal-fired and nuclear power stations. “In order to crack through into the renewable energy market we needed to bring on board some independent power production into the system,” Ireton says. “That was an obvious gap for the private sector.

“The way they’ve managed to unlock private sector funding is to create the rules framework. Of course there have been moments when there have been slanging matches on either side, but when we did finally find each other, what you’ve seen is a great surge of private sector funding.”

Standard Bank says its focus is on sub-Saharan Africa where it is on the ground in 17 countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. It invests in infrastructure development, finances and advises governments, helps trade between markets and partners with organisations that tackle social problems.

Ireton continues: “If you look at the African economies they’re very seriously linked to export of natural resources – whether those are crops or mining and oil or gas products – but all of them require water, require energy and, for us to project forward into a growth scenario, firstly the underlying economies need to grow, which means people need to start to see some benefits.

“You’ll see it in a social compact that we’ve crafted which basically says we’ll provide financial services and products responsibly, bearing in mind the needs of society and customers. That, I think, puts down on paper what we’ve known intuitively for a long time: if people are benefiting, they’ve got more to spend, more to save, and therefore you can offer them a diversity of banking products.

“But it’s also that wellbeing and [economic] growth are linked to our ability to grow. So for us it’s really important to get that through and start to recognise that it’s not just from our perspective as an operating entity but also, more importantly almost, from the perspective of clients. That could be individuals grappling with their first bank account, mobile services or whatever.”

One of the major hindrances to business development in Africa is the massive informal sector which offers little by way of credit history or securitisation. In response Standard Bank says it has launched an initiative to test entrepreneurial capability and likelihood of payback.

“Products like that help you to extend services and build small businesses which in Africa is absolutely crucial because a lot of the African economies are based on small businesses,” Ireton adds. “You look in any marketplace and people have put their kids into school and university on the back of informal market trading. But how do you lock those into a system where the money is more secure because it’s not in a shoe or in a box or under the bed but it is actually working for them, and then also enable them to access other financial services?”

One answer is banking via mobile phones, which has spread fast around Africa and transformed millions of lives. Another is a scheme of small “bank shops” in South Africa’s townships, which are often distant from major urban centres and bank branches. Standard Bank has opened roughly 9,000 such outlets so far. “So now instead of saying to people catch the taxi and go 10 rand’s of taxi ride to the local branch, this guy in your neighbourhood can provide you with some basic banking services.”

Ultimately, is it the job of business or government to heal the social and economic scars that persist in Africa? “It’s how you approach it,” Ireton replies. “Do I think it’s the primary role of business to stand on a street corner and hand out parcels? No. But by thinking through your business differently you can have a mature impact and a lasting impact by actually recognising that these are potential customers and, lifted out of poverty, they can do a lot more themselves and move from the downside of the balance sheet to the upside.”

Source: www.guardian.co.uk/

The Climate Markets and Investment Association (CMIA) has appointed local Australian carbon market expert, Jennifer Lauber Patterson as the Regional Head of the CMIA for Australia and New Zealand. And energy and carbon management firm Pangolin Associates have recently launched a Carbon Strategy & Risk Report service in Australia, to help organisations capture direct and indirect cost increases associated with the impending carbon tax. Read More

PRESS RELEASE, 8th May 2012: The Climate Markets and Investment Association (CMIA) has appointed local Australian carbon market expert, Jennifer Lauber Patterson as the Regional Head of the CMIA for Australia and New Zealand establishing a physical branch in Melbourne to more effectively support the needs of its members in this rapidly developing market.

Miles Austin, Director, CMIA is excited that Ms Lauber Patterson is representing the CMIA in the Australian market.

“Jennifer’s physical location and significant experience in the carbon markets will provide great support for our policy and advocacy work not only in Australia, but also in New Zealand and other Southeast Asian countries,” said Mr Austin.

Ms Lauber Patterson will build on the significant work already undertaken by the CMIA’s Australia and New Zealand working group under the leadership of Paul Curnow, climate change law expert and partner at Baker McKenzie.

“It is great to get involved with, and represent, the CMIA in Australia,” said Ms Lauber Patterson.

“With all that is happening in the Australian carbon market it is invaluable to have access to the expert knowledge of the CMIA.

“Another industry body supporting the establishment of efficient and robust carbon markets here in Australia is the Carbon Market Institute (CMI). An exciting development is that we have recently developed a partnership between the CMIA and the CMI to provide support for the transition to a low

About the Climate Markets and Investment Association

The Climate Markets and Investment Association (CMIA) is an international trade association representing over 60 companies that finance, invest in and provide enabling support to activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The CMIA’s membership accounts for an estimated 75% of the global carbon market, valued at USD 120 billion in 2010. Solely representing organizations what provide services to and invest in the environmental sector, the company is well placed to provide a unique advocacy platform which emphasizes environmental integrity of market mechanisms and climate change policies.

About Jennifer Lauber Patterson Jennifer Lauber Patterson, co-founder and executive director of Frontier Carbon, is one of the most influential people in the sustainability and carbon sector as voted in the ABC Carbon’s 100 Global Sustain Ability Leaders. A respected specialist in the energy, renewable and carbon markets and a thought leader in low carbon finance solutions and strategy, Jennifer’s reputation is built on a track record of more than 20 years’ experience. Before transitioning to banking in 2004 she held a number of senior roles in the energy industry. Jennifer established the electricity and carbon markets business at ANZ and recently developed the NABs carbon trading capability. Jennifer is Head of the Climate Markets & Investment Association for Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Indonesia, acts as a non-executive Director of Yarra Energy Foundation and is on the CMI Education Advisory Panel of the Carbon Market Institute.

Source: www.cmia.net

PRESS RELEASE 23 MAY 2012

Carbon tax looms – are you ready?

Energy and carbon management firm Pangolin Associates have recently launched a Carbon Strategy & Risk Report service. Pangolin helps organisations capture direct and indirect cost increases associated with the impending carbon tax.

Matthew Curnow, Joint Managing Director of Pangolin, says: “Australia’s Carbon Pricing Mechanism will be the biggest change to Australian business since the GST, yet with just over a month to go few companies have a strategic plan in place.

“The Carbon Strategy and Risk Report is a tool for strategic planning – a critical part of the budgeting process,” Mr. Curnow adds. “It allows a business to substantiate any price increases they may need to pass on to their customers due to the price on carbon.”

Pangolin’s auditors can interpolate potential costs through the most carbon intensive areas of a supply chain, as based on financial accounts and invoicing data. It was the University of Sydney’s Integrated Sustainability Analysis Research team that developed the robust modelling behind the report.

The Carbon Strategy and Risk Report includes:

• Calculations on financial data based on products and services procured over the course of a typical trading year.

• Detailed carbon risk exposure profile.

• Likely impact of the Carbon Pricing Mechanism over 4 years, starting from the first year of the fixed-price period (1 July, 2012).

• Quantifiable risks and the estimated impact on operating costs and your bottom line.

• Carbon risk management and cost and emissions mitigation strategies.

• Input/output: supply chain emissions

Questions you need to ask:

1. Do you understand how the carbon price will impact your organisation?

2. Do you understand how the carbon price might affect existing or new contracts you might be signing?

3. When your supply chain passes through higher costs due to the Carbon Pricing Mechanism, do you know how much is justified?

4. Do you know which costs and how much you can pass on to your clients?

5. Do you understand the ACCC guidelines for passing on these costs?

About Pangolin Associates

Pangolin Associates has offices in Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra and Perth. The firm helps organisations across Australia increase efficiencies, reduce costs and stay competitive in the carbon economy. Pangolin’s team has comprehensive, accredited experience in carbon and energy. Auditors leading the assessment team are registered with the Australian Government’s Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and the Clean Energy Regulator.

Source: www.pangolinassociates.com.

He increasingly advocates investment in projects which can create a beneficial impact on society. He is helping to organise the first social Impact Forum on 25/26 June Singapore, called Igniting Capital Markets for Social Good, bringing together people and global experts on social entrepreneurship and sustainable development. The angel investor, who has been a godfather to dozens of start-ups, now wants to do a good turn in more ways than one. Read More

By Grace Chng in Sunday Times (20 May 2012):

People outside of tech circles would find him an unfamiliar face. With his greying hair, goatee and slightly diffident air, he would pass off as any self-effacing academic.

Inside tech circles, however, Professor Wong Poh Kam, 60, is the godfather.

It’s a tribute to how he has used his instincts, contacts, knowledge and money to further the growth of technopreneurship in Singapore, say industry insiders.

Not only has he mentored and advised many a start-up founder over the past decade, but he has also taken on risk as an angel investor, dispensing precious seed money to about a dozen companies here as well as in India, China, Malaysia and California in the US.

He sees his role as someone who identifies gaps in the entrepreneurship ecosystem and initiates activities to plug them.

Insiders say the Ipoh-born son of a herbal tea hawker is the go-to man for advice or connections to the tech start-up industry in South- east Asia.

According to Singapore-based investor and technopreneur William Klippgen, Prof Wong is so plugged in that any foreign tech investor or corporate executive interested in start-ups in South-east Asia would want to meet him when they are in Singapore.

His picks are usually taken up by fellow investors because of his track record, said Mr Klippgen.

Prof Wong has used speaking arrangements at conferences and sabbaticals in California’s Silicon Valley to build an enviable global network of angel investors, venture capitalists, recruiters, corporate executives and tech entrepreneurs.

As a member of the International Angel Investor Institute, a by-invitation-only community of accredited investors, he attends their events in Silicon Valley as well as meetings organised by other angel investment groups.

He seeks out others like himself who can make a vital connection happen.

‘They are the people who can refer me to the movers and shakers,’ he said. ‘It’s difficult to know everyone, so you link up through the connectors.’

He taps his wide network to steer money, talent, ideas and advice to start-ups here. His connections also let him see the latest technologies, visit promising new companies and meet new founders, serial technopreneurs and venture capitalists.

Angel investors like Prof Wong provide initial seed money, usually ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, to kick off a start-up. About 5,000 new tech start-ups have been registered here each year since 2006.

Prof Wong learnt early the pressures of running a small business. His father owned four herbal tea stalls in Ipoh, in the Malaysian state of Perak, and all his seven children pitched in to help. Prof Wong is the youngest.

“I did the accounts and learnt how much he paid his employees, what he paid for tea, and so on,’ he said. ‘But the key lesson I learnt was that cash flow is king for a small business.’

It was a lesson Prof Wong would never forget.

He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and graduated in physics and electrical engineering before teaching at the Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang from 1974. He pursued postgraduate studies and obtained his master’s degree and doctorate in computer science and regional planning respectively.

But the call of entrepreneurship was strong and he left the university in 1984 to start an IT company called Seres with an MIT classmate in Kuala Lumpur. When the two men disagreed on the company’s direction, he left, moving to Singapore with his wife in 1988.

His wife, Madam Ong Huay Siang, 55, works for a multinational corporation. Their son, Ming Yu, 22, is in Oxford while their daughter, Hui Yu, 18, is attending the School of the Arts.

Colleagues and business partners describe Prof Wong as introverted but generous with his time, willing to hear out those who have new ideas or problems.

Perhaps it helps that he knows first-hand where an open door can lead.

He himself joined the National University of Singapore in 1988 because he was assured he would not have to give up entrepreneurship.

This led to him setting up a Centre of Management of Technology (CMT) to promote entrepreneurship for tech start-ups.

Things snowballed. He created and helped teach the first postgraduate programme in technology management in 1992.

‘I’d always wanted to be an academic but I was still interested in entrepreneurship,’ he recalled.

In 1998, he was asked by then- NUS vice-chancellor Lim Pin to head a task force to promote entrepreneurship. From there, the CMT became the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre – which Prof Wong is still director of – to seed start-ups. To date, it has supported and mentored about 170 companies. Around the same time, he himself started investing.

His years in both academic life and industry have lent him a special advantage, say his peers.

He is sought out for his advice because he can combine business theory with real-life angel investing experience. It is one of his greatest strengths, said Dr Lily Chan, CEO of NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the university, and Prof Wong’s boss.

She said: “He has the ability to see beyond the business plans and the experience to spot the entrepreneurs in young teams, and these are attributes of good angel investors.”

Ms Audrey Tan, co-founder of PlayMoolah, recalled Prof Wong’s detailed questioning when she approached him last year for angel funding for her financial literacy site for children.

“He grilled me on why I was working on this start-up. The ability to see through intentions is key to evaluating a start-up,’ said Ms Tan.

Immediately, he knew what was needed when he heard her business plan, she said. ‘He highlighted the need to engage a game designer in our early stages to design a game that would engage kids.’

He invested in Playmoolah, she added.

Prof Wong, who meditates every day as he says it clears his mind, said he has invested between $50,000 and $100,000 in each start-up, either on his own or with others. Finding a co-investor with different expertise from your own is a good idea for angel investors, he said.

Angel investors know that nine out of every 10 investments will probably fail. Like other investors, Prof Wong does not like to talk about the ones that got away. He also ploughs any profits from one company into investments in another.

Despite his workload in teaching and running various initiatives, he continues to research and publish papers in respected academic journals.

And after nearly 14 years championing technopreneurship, he is expanding into social entrepreneurship, hoping to do for it what he did for technopreneurship.

‘There’s a need to educate people in this new area,’ he reasoned. ‘I’m looking for investors who are not looking at huge financial returns but are prepared to accept smaller returns or incur no loss in the investment if their projects can create an impact on society.’

He will organise the first social impact forum on June 25 and 26. Called Igniting Capital Markets for Social Good, it will bring together people and global experts to discuss social entrepreneurship. He is co-organising this with Impact Investment Exchange Asia, a regional group that promotes social entrepreneurship.

Still, Prof Wong is not ready to quit the tech start-up scene just yet. There is still much to do, for example, in mentoring and getting investors to fund larger sums, he said.

‘I’ll only leave when there’s vibrancy in the tech ecosystem, meaning every start-up here has all the support needed to make it as big as it can go.’

That’s good news to young technopreneurs who say he lives up to the ‘angel’ part of such investing.

Mr Darius Cheung, co-founder of TenCube, a mobile security firm started in 2005, recounted how he had asked Prof Wong for a loan some years ago to settle a cash flow problem.

‘I told him honestly I wasn’t sure if we could repay him,’ said the 31-year-old entrepreneur. ‘He loaned us the money anyway.

‘He’s the only investor I know who would do this. It’s like he invests in people at the expense of his own profit.’

TenCube was acquired by software security firm McAfee in 2010 for an undisclosed sum.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

With climate discussions in a fragile state since the chaotic 2009 Copenhagen Summit, Raul Estrada – the Argentine ex-diplomat who steered the historic 1997 conference which yielded Kyoto’s framework – says political and economic problems at home are preventing many countries from tackling climate change with the urgency it needed. Meanwhile, the Group of Eight (G-8) leading industrialised nations formally joined a coalition that is working to reduce emissions of short-lived global warming pollutants. Read More

By Anthony Lucas and Mariette le Roux  for AFP  (23 May 2012):

BONN — UN climate talks are going nowhere, as politicians dither or bicker while the pace of warming dangerously speeds up, one of the architects of the Kyoto Protocol told AFP.

“It seems to me that negotiations are returning to square one,” said Raul Estrada, the “father” of the world’s only treaty to specify curbs in greenhouse gases, as the first talks for a new global pact took place in Bonn.

In a telephone interview from Buenos Aires this week, Estrada defended his beleaguered accord and said efforts to engineer a replacement were in trouble.

“We are throwing the dice and then we advance three or four places. Then you throw again and you go back. This is the exercise on climate,” said the Argentine ex-diplomat who steered the historic 1997 conference which yielded Kyoto’s framework.

Kyoto binds 37 rich nations to reducing carbon emissions but does not have any targeted commitments for poor economies.

It is a format that critics say is hopelessly out of date today, given that China, India and Brazil are now giant emitters.

Kyoto’s first roster of pledges expires at the end of the year. Renewing it is one of several keys to unlocking a wider deal to be completed by 2015 and take effect by 2020.

Kyoto “is an excellent source of experience for any successor treaty,” Estrada said.

He added he had “serious concerns” about the 2020 negotiations launched last December in South Africa under the 194-party UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Senior officials are meeting in Bonn for the first round of talks to follow up the so-called Durban Platform. The 11-day parlay runs until Friday.

“There is very little science in the discussion, mostly political interests or political arguments trying to use things that were decided 20 or 30 years ago,” Estrada said.

With climate discussions in a fragile state since the chaotic 2009 Copenhagen Summit, Estrada said political and economic problems at home were preventing many countries from tackling climate change with the urgency it needed.

New research recently predicted Earth’s temperature rising by as much as five degrees Celsius (9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels on current pledges, instead of the 2 C (3.6 F) limit targeted under the UNFCCC banner.

He pointed the finger at countries that had failed to live up to their Kyoto undertakings.

“I’m frustrated by those governments with whom we adopted the protocol unanimously in Kyoto, not by consensus but unanimously, and later didn’t ratify it like the USA or, having ratified the protocol, now they don’t comply with it, like Canada and Italy,” said Estrada.

Kyoto, which came into force in 2005, envisioned a five-percent reduction of warming gas emissions by rich countries by 2012 from 1990 levels.

Globally, though, emissions have leapt to ever greater heights, driven especially by emerging giants which are burning coal to power their growth.

The United States signed but did not ratify the accord, while Russia and Japan have said they did not intend to sign up after Kyoto expires this year.

Canada has become the only country to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, and recently said it would not achieve the target of reducing emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.

Estrada said the new 2020 pact must include emission targets not only for countries but for industrial sectors, too — “the amount of carbon you are going to emit by ton of iron or steel or 1,000 megawatts or something like that.”

Source: www.google.com/hostednews/afp/

B y Andrew Freedman on 23 May 2012

Climate Central

The Group of Eight (G-8) leading industrialised nations formally joined a coalition that is working to reduce emissions of short-lived global warming pollutants. The action took place during the G-8 summit meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat in northwest Maryland, which served as the annual gathering for the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK, and the US.

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition for Reducing Short-Lived Climate Pollutants, which was formed in mid-February, is now made up of 18 members in the developing and developed world. The coalition’s goal is to cut emissions of climate warming pollution that acts on shorter timescales than carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the main greenhouse gas responsible for global warming.

Pollutants like black carbon, methane, and hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) help trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere, warming the planet. Unlike CO2, though, they only remain in the atmosphere for a short time period, from days to weeks, in the case of black carbon, to about a decade for methane. By contrast, CO2 can remain in the atmosphere for a century or more.

In a fact sheet released on May 19, G-8 members said the reduction of short-lived global warming pollutants would “enhance our collective ambition in addressing climate change by complementing efforts to reduce CO2 emissions.”

Recent studies have identified the potential benefits of tackling short-lived global warming agents in addition to the long-lived pollutants. In a study published in January in the journal Science, researchers found that cutting black carbon emissions would reduce warming in the Himalayas and the Arctic during the next 30 years by as much as two-thirds, and would even help maintain the current South Asian monsoon. Black carbon, also known as soot, warms the air by absorbing radiation from the sun, and when it lands on snow and ice it darkens the surface, causing more melting. Another assessment from the UN Environment Programme also found major benefits to reducing emissions of short-lived greenhouse gases.

Black carbon also harms public health, especially in developing countries, where wood, dung and other fuels that emit soot when burned are used for cooking. Implementing soot-reduction policies would avoid 373,000 premature deaths each year in India and China alone.

“The President’s announcement puts the short-lived climate pollutant strategy where it belongs — firmly in the hands of the leaders of the world’s largest economies,” said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development in Washington.

The G8 leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to limit global warming to less than 2°C, or 3.6°F, above pre-industrial levels. This goal, though, is looking less and less achievable, according to recent studies. Climate negotiators meeting in Bonn, Germany, this week are working to hammer out details of a process that is intended to result in a new global climate treaty by 2015, which would go into effect by 2020. However, emissions reduction pledges are still running well short of what would be needed to achieve the 2°C target.

Source: www.climatecentral.org.

Britain announced plans to finance a new generation of nuclear power plants as well as renewable energy facilities, in a move that illustrates the differences in energy policies among European Union countries as the bloc grapples with the challenge of reconciling economic and environmental objectives. Read More

By Stephen Castle in New York Times (22 May 2012):

Britain announced plans Tuesday to finance a new generation of nuclear power plants and renewable energy facilities, in a move that illustrates the differences in energy policies among European Union countries as the bloc grapples with the challenge of reconciling economic and environmental objectives.

While Germany intends to phase out nuclear power, and France’s new president, François Hollande, says he hopes to reduce his country’s reliance on it, the British government appears to be moving in the opposite direction with its proposals, which are intended to attract $175 billion in investment to build new reactors and renewable energy plants.

The 27-member European Union sets climate change targets and coordinates efforts to reduce energy dependency, but decisions on energy sources remain with national governments.

Britain’s proposals, announced in draft legislation by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, appear to be calculated to sidestep European Union restrictions on government aid that might prevent direct subsidies for the construction of nuclear power plants. Instead, they would guarantee prices for low-carbon electricity and pay producers for backup supplies when renewable sources like wind power fail to meet demand.

Britain hopes that this guaranteed price, to be paid by businesses and consumers, will secure the financial commitment from energy utilities to construct nuclear reactors and clean-power projects needed to meet European targets and reduce Britain’s reliance on natural gas plants.

Recent developments suggest that it could be a tough battle. In March, Britain’s nuclear program suffered a serious setback when two German companies, RWE and E.On, announced they would not proceed with a £15 billion, or roughly $24 billion, joint venture in Gloucester, blaming the economic crisis and arguing that the German government’s plan to phase out nuclear power had put additional pressure on their balance sheets.

To add to the difficulties, the main architect of Britain’s energy policy, Chris Huhne, quit the government in February to fight charges stemming from a speeding offense in 2003.

His successor, Edward Davey, said Tuesday that the new plans were in the national interest and would support as many as 250,000 jobs.

“By reforming the market, we can ensure security of supply for the long term, reduce the volatility of energy bills by reducing our reliance on imported gas and oil, and meet our climate change goals by largely decarbonizing the power sector during the 2030s,” Mr. Davey said in a statement.

The proposals have intensified debate over the cost and safety of nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster in Japan and the decisions by Germany and by Switzerland, which is not in the European Union, to phase out nuclear reactors.

During the recent presidential election campaign, Mr. Hollande suggested reducing France’s dependence on nuclear power to around 50 percent from 75 percent and shutting 24 of the country’s 58 reactors by 2025.

Critics attacked Britain’s determination to renew its nuclear capacity. “This proposal has distorted policy in order to try to disguise the massive subsidies nuclear will need, but they remain so huge that the policy will fail anyway,” said Tom Burke, a former environmental campaigner and visiting professor at Imperial and University Colleges, London.

Industry reaction was far from euphoric. In a statement, Volker Beckers, chief executive of Npower, RWE’s British operation, said the required investment would amount to around £8,000, about $12,600, for every household in Britain.

“I remain concerned by the amount of change being implemented in the energy sector and the time it is taking,” Mr. Beckers said. “I applaud government’s appetite for reform, but pulling so many levers at once in such a complex area risks losing sight of your original objectives. What the energy sector needs now is simplicity and clarity.”

Source: www.nytimes.com

Apple plans to power its main US data centre entirely with renewable energy by the end of this year, taking steps to address long-standing environmental concerns about the rapid expansion of high-consuming computer server farms. And SunPower says it will “take a bite out of Apple’s environmental impact” with its highest efficiency solar. Read More

Poornima Gupta for Reuters (17 May 2012):

Apple Inc. plans to power its main U.S. data centre entirely with renewable energy by the end of this year, taking steps to address long-standing environmental concerns about the rapid expansion of high-consuming computer server farms.

The maker of the iPhone and iPad said on Thursday it was buying equipment from SunPower Corp (SPWR-Q5.08-0.51-9.12%)and startup Bloom Energy to build two solar array installations in and around Maiden, North Carolina, near its core data centre.

Is Apple too good to be true?

Once up, the solar farm will supply 84 million kilowatt-hours of energy annually.

The sites will employ high-efficiency solar cells and an advanced solar tracking system.

Later in 2012, Apple also intends to build a third, smaller, bio-gas fuel-cell plant.

The two solar farms will cover one square kilometre, among the largest in the industry, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer told Reuters. Apple plans on using coal-free electricity in all three of its data centers, with the Maiden facility coal-free by the end of 2012.

“I’m not aware of any other company producing energy onsite at this scale,” Mr. Oppenheimer said in a telephone interview. “The plan we are releasing today includes two solar farms and together they will be twice as big as we previously announced, thanks to the purchase of some land very near to the data center in Maiden, which will help us meet this goal.”

Concerns about the ever-expanding power consumption of computer data centers have mounted in recent years, as technology giants build enormous facilities housing servers to cater to an explosion in Internet traffic, multimedia use and enterprise services hosting, via cloud computing.

“Our next facility will be in Prineville, Oregon. This is still in the planning stages and we have already identified plenty of renewable sources nearby,” Mr. Oppenheimer said.

“We haven’t finalized our plans for on-site generation, but any power we need to run our center in Prineville that we get from the grid will be 100 percent renewable and locally generated sources,” the Apple CFO said.

Shares in SunPower leaped more than 9 per cent to trade around $5.55 on Thursday afternoon.

SunPower, now majority-owned by France’s Total SA, makes the most efficient solar panels in the world, according to industy analysts. Prices for solar panels — particularly at large-scale solar plants like the one Apple envisions — have been dropping rapidly, narrowing the gap with the cost of fossil fuel power.

“SunPower will take a bite out of Apple’s environmental impact with our highest efficiency solar at their North Carolina data center, the nation’s largest privately-owned solar array,” SunPower CEO Tom Werner said via email.

Greenpeace, which has also targeted Amazon.com (AMZN-Q213.85-4.51-2.07%) and Microsoft (MSFT-Q29.27-0.45-1.51%) with clean energy campaigns, hailed the move.

“Apple’s announcement today is a great sign that Apple is taking seriously the hundreds of thousands of its customers who have asked for an iCloud powered by clean energy, not dirty coal,” Greenpeace International Senior IT Analyst Gary Cook said in a statement.

Source: www.theglobeandmail.com

In our everyday life, we use gasoline, diesel, plastics, rubbers, and numerous chemicals that are derived from fossil fuels through petrochemical refinery processes. This is not sustainable due to the limited nature of fossil resources. Help is at hand. Korean research has come up with renewable non-food biomass for the production of chemicals, fuels and materials through bio-refineries. Read More

Eureka Alert release (18 May 2012):

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

Production of chemicals without petroleum

Systems metabolic engineering of microorganisms allows efficient production of natural and non-natural chemicals from renewable non-food biomass

In our everyday life, we use gasoline, diesel, plastics, rubbers, and numerous chemicals that are derived from fossil oil through petrochemical refinery processes. However, this is not sustainable due to the limited nature of fossil resources.

Furthermore, our world is facing problems associated with climate change and other environmental problems due to the increasing use of fossil resources. One solution to address above problems is the use of renewable non-food biomass for the production of chemicals, fuels and materials through biorefineries.

Microorganisms are used as biocatalysts for converting biomass to the products of interest. However, when microorganisms are isolated from nature, their efficiencies of producing our desired chemicals and materials are rather low. Metabolic engineering is thus performed to improve cellular characteristics to desired levels.

Over the last decade, much advances have been made in systems biology that allows system-wide characterization of cellular networks, both qualitatively and quantitatively, followed by whole-cell level engineering based on these findings. Furthermore, rapid advances in synthetic biology allow design and synthesis of fine controlled metabolic and gene regulatory circuits. The strategies and methods of systems biology and synthetic biology are rapidly integrated with metabolic engineering, thus resulting in “systems metabolic engineering”.

In the paper published online in Nature Chemical Biology on May 17, Professor Sang Yup Lee and his colleagues at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea present new general strategies of systems metabolic engineering for developing microorganisms for the production of natural and non-natural chemicals from renewable biomass.

They first classified the chemicals to be produced into four categories based on whether they have thus far been identified to exist in nature (natural vs. nonnatural) and whether they can be produced by inherent pathways of microorganisms (inherent, noninherent, or created): natural-inherent, natural-noninherent, non-natural-noninherent, and non-natural-created ones.

General strategies for systems metabolic engineering of microorganisms for the production of these chemicals using various tools and methods based on omics, genome-scale metabolic modeling and simulation, evolutionary engineering, synthetic biology are suggested with relevant examples. For the production of non-natural chemicals, strategies for the construction of synthetic metabolic pathways are also suggested. Having collected diverse tools and methods for systems metabolic engineering, authors also suggest how to use them and their possible limitations.

Professor Sang Yup Lee said “It is expected that increasing number of chemicals and materials will be produced through biorefineries. We are now equipped with new strategies for developing microbial strains that can produce our desired products at very high efficiencies, thus allowing cost competitiveness to those produced by petrochemical refineries.”

Editor of Nature Chemical Biology, Dr. Catherine Goodman, said “It is exciting to see how quickly science is progressing in this field – ideas that used to be science fiction are taking shape in research labs and biorefineries. The article by Professor Lee and his colleagues not only highlights the most advanced techniques and strategies available, but offers critical advice to progress the field as a whole.”

The works of Professor Lee have been supported by the Advanced Biomass Center and Intelligent Synthetic Biology Center of Global Frontier Program from the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology through National Research Foundation.

Source: www.eurekalert.org

When business professor Mark Ferris prepared the framework for his Sustainable Business Operations class, he put together a blend of academic coursework as well as a group of business leaders who could share hands-on knowledge with his students. “To meet the challenges of climate change, more efficient resource use and more humane treatment of our workers, we are going to need a different business model and in fact that is what we are starting to see”, so he modelled the creative/sustainability awards for students on the grasshopper — one of nature’s sustainable creatures. Read More

Jeanette Grider for Saint Louis University (18 May 2012)

Sustainability Meets Creativity in Decision Sciences Class

When business professor Mark Ferris prepared the framework for his spring semester class in Sustainable Business Operations, he put together a blend of academic coursework as well as a group of business leaders who could share hands-on knowledge with his students.

Over the course of the semester his 12 MBA and three undergraduate students heard lectures from climate scientists to economists and green building architects to solar energy experts.

But some of the real fun and opportunity for creative competition came when Ferris broke the class into three groups and gave them the assignment of creating a video highlighting some feature of sustainable business operations.

These videos were evaluated by the academic and business experts who had been leading and speaking to their class during the semester. The rating system was on a scale of one-to-five with five being the highest. There were three categories – message, creativity and quality. The assignment also included the task of marketing their video to maximize the number of views.

The ratings were compiled and students received the “Academic Sustainability Awards” at their last class session. There were awards in three categories plus a best video award. Ferris said the awards were modeled after the grasshopper — one of nature’s sustainable creatures – that is both nimble and able to leap tall obstacles.

In addition to the videos, the undergraduate students created a Facebook page and Twitter account called “Sustain SLU” for fellow classmates at the University.

The Academic Sustainability Award for “Best Message” went to Randy’s Recycled Cycles. The winning team included Samreen Mehar Ali, a full-time MBA student who is a physician originally from Sudan; Kareena Lozano, a Masters in Supply Chain Management student who is an agronomist originally from Peru and currently works for Monsanto; Curtis Elwood, a part-time MBA student who is in finance and works as a manager at Express Scripts; Bill Fuhrman, an undergraduate student majoring in leadership and change; and Tony Fratianne, a part-time MBA student who manages water quality for Anheuser-Busch.

Sustainability Pros and Cons, based on the popular Mac vs. PC ads, earned the “Most Creative” award. The winning students were Mike Davis, a full-time MBA student who is a former nuclear engineer; Poonam Verma, a part-time MBA student who is originally from India and is a business leader/director for Information Security Operations at MasterCard Worldwide; Brian Holdmeyer, an MBA student with a background in economics and mathematics who also happens to be SLU’s best distance track man and is going to work at A-B and will continue track racing; Alicia Beranek, a part-time MBA student working in accounting who was a former professional ballerina in Europe; and Kevin Stietz, an undergraduate who has a double major in information technology management (ITM) and accounting with a supply chain management minor.

Saint Louis Green Building Community took top honors for “Best Picture” as it had the most YouTube views. The winners were Chang Gao, an undergraduate student in supply chain management who is originally from China; Zhiyao “Sophie” Ding, a Masters in Accounting student who is originally from China and begins her new position at Deloitte in the enterprise risk service service; Greg Brown, a full-time MBA student with a background in finance who is Abraham Lincoln’s 12th cousin; Eric Leander, a part-time MBA student with a background in business who is a small business owner selling metalworking fluids and lubricants internationally; and Neeraj Verma, a part-time MBA student with a materials and metallurgical engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology who works at MasterCard International.

Leander said the class has broadened his perspective.

“The project gave us a chance to work outside of the classroom and connect withlocal businesses.” Leander said.

“We interviewed several St. Louis business leaders using Green Building techniques, and the response from them was overwhelming. We were all surprised when we found out just how many organizations in the community are leading by example with sustainable building and operations. It inspired me to further incorporate these techniques in my products and business model, and hopefully will do the same to others who watch our video.”

Ferris believes there is something about the field of sustainability that engenders new and creative thinking which is a valuable part of planning for the future.

“If we are to meet the challenges of climate change, more efficient resource use and more humane treatment of our workers, we are going to need a different business model and in fact that is what we are starting to see,” Ferris said.

Ferris points to early leaders who saw the need to make change happen. He says the words of Abraham Lincoln still ring true as an inspiration.

“The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”

Source: www.slu.edu

Ethical investing is on the rise worldwide with investors increasingly concerned about making a positive impact on society while generating decent returns. Such investments in Asia have been forecast to rise to at least US$1.5 trillion by 2015. The trend has caught on in Singapore, said managing director of Impact Investing Exchange (IIX) Asia Robert Kraybill: ‘More people want to integrate their investments and philanthropic donations.’ Next month see the first Impact Forum in Singapore with the theme ‘Igniting Capital Markets for Social Good. Read More

Financial service providers see rise in number of people who put their money behind their values

By Yunita Ong in Sunday Times (20 May 2012):

Ethical investing is on the rise worldwide with investors increasingly concerned about making a positive impact on society while generating decent returns.

Putting your money where your values lie can take a number of forms. It can mean excluding companies that make or deal in arms or those involved in gambling, alcohol or other ‘sins’. Or, it can be about supporting companies that strive to make a positive social impact such as on the environment.

Those calling themselves impact investors provide funds for social enterprises to help growth in less developed countries.

In 2008, socially responsible investments supported by the world’s major institutional investors were estimated at US$5 trillion (S$6.2 trillion).

Such investments in Asia have been forecast to rise to at least US$1.5 trillion by 2015.

The trend has caught on in Singapore, said managing director of Impact Investing Exchange (IIX) Asia Robert Kraybill: ‘More people want to integrate their investments and philanthropic donations.’

Syariah-compliant funds, which exclude ‘sin’ industries like gambling and alcohol, are among the more well-known ethical funds.

HSBC Insurance has been offering Takaful funds – insurance comprising a pool of funds – and products here since 1995.

Mr Walter de Oude, chief executive of HSBC Insurance Singapore, has seen a ‘steady participation rate’ by investors in its syariah-compliant investment-linked products (ILPs) and Takaful offerings and growing interest even among non-Muslims.

Environmentalists may warm to the HSBC Global Investment Funds Climate Change Fund launched in 2007.

Its fund manager, Mr Angus Parker, said it is based on ‘a portfolio of global companies across all sectors’ which are ‘managing their businesses in the face of climate change to maintain or enhance their competitive advantage’.

Investor John Lim, 51, had the chance to buy potentially lucrative Las Vegas Sands stock, which had been trading at $2 during the financial crisis, but decided to pass.

His Christian faith guides him away from ‘vice’ industries like liquor and cigarettes.

‘I was confident that the stock would rebound but I put my money in other stocks because the company did not agree with my values,’ said Mr Lim.

In a way, ethical investing is just like investing in any other fund – there is potential for the fund to perform poorly.

Since its inception in 1999, Aberdeen’s Ethical World Fund has lost about 8 per cent if dividends had been reinvested, according to Bloomberg. During the same period, the MSCI index rose about 10 per cent.

But Mr Lim shows that you do not have to give up financial returns to invest ethically. He bought shares from Sabana’s syariah-compliant REIT in 2010. It fits into his personal no-vice policy while giving him about 9 per cent in annual returns, he said.

Those wanting a share of the ethical investing pie can get help from banks like UBS, which set up an advisory team here two years ago in response to growing client demand.

Mr David Evans, its head of philanthropy and values-based investing for Asia-Pacific, said: ‘In Singapore, (investors) are now forming their own investors’ circles or working through umbrella groups to find deals and co-investors.’

One example is IIX’s Impact Partners network, created last year to connect members to investment opportunities in social enterprises across Asia-Pacific.

Barclays has MSCI, which provides tools like indices and analytics to investors to develop a set of fixed income indices that incorporate environment, social and governance factors.

‘We expect these new benchmarks to fill a gap in the market and facilitate the growth of environmental, social and governance investment,’ said managing director and head of the MSCI Index Business Baer Pettit.

Source: www.straitstimes.com and www.shujog.org/impactforum2012/

Australia has long been a rich source of ideas, but a barren land for those seeking venture capital to help develop them. While some A$9 billion is funnelled into research every year, only around A$100 million is available for commercialisation. That bottleneck is about to be eased following a major of injection of new funds into the venture capital market, specifically for renewable energy and clean-tech developments. Read More

By Giles Parkinson in Renew Economy on 23 May 2012

Australia has long been a rich source of ideas, but a barren land for those seeking venture capital to help develop them. Just to give an example, some $9 billion is funneled into research every year, but only around $100 million is available for commercialisation, creating what Graydon Smith, the manager of venture capital funds at AusIndustry, describes as a “massive hour glass effect.” Little wonder, then, that so many Australian technology developers and IT and cleantech entrepreneurs beat a path to the US, and Silicon Valley in particular.

That bottleneck is about to be eased following a major of injection of new funds into the VC market, specifically for renewable energy and cleantech developments. Southern Cross Venture Partners, the US-Australian VC fund manager which won the government’s Renewable Energy VC mandate with the help of $100 million from China’s Softbank, is expected to announce its first investments in the coming weeks.

Just to confirm the hour-glass analogy, Southern Cross managing director Gareth Dando says the company has been flooded with “hundreds” of applications, proposals and inquiries since the mandate was first announced last December. “There has been an avalanche of interest. People have been waiting on this for a while,” Dando told RenewEconomy in a rare interview. Interestingly, a lot had come from biofuels and waste-to-energy technologies, with a range of others relating to wind, solar, and enabling technologies. “We are seeing a lot of genuine innovation,” he said, before adding: “We have no particular view on which technologies (it would favour).”

The Renewable Energy VC fund will focus on generation, along with hybrid solutions and enabling technologies (such as batteries and grids). But Dando said the size of the fund – $200 million – is significantly bigger than any that have preceded it. “The other funds have not had the capacity to make the investment that we can… so it will change the game in that respect, and give them more certainty about the availability of funding.”

Essentially, it means more capital over a longer time frame. Dando told the Eco Innovation Forum in Sydney on Wednesday that the fund envisages making 10 to 15 different investments, and could invest up to $10-$20 million in each of them, over several rounds, targeting companies with revenues of up to $20 million. It will also consider smaller investments. It has a longer time frame than most VC funds, with an investment term of up to 13 years. “We are investing in stuff that can take a long time to come to fruition,” he said.

Dando says the role of Softbank was important. While Silicon Valley was the centre of the universe for IT and social media, the energy industry was more focused towards China, which offered more opportunities to sell technologies and develop business. “We see this as more of a Pan-Pacific opportunity,” he said. He added that likely strategic partners included a range of large energy companies, equipment manufacturers and industrial groups.

Interestingly, another VC fund involved in the renewable energy space, CVC Ltd, said it was particularly attracted to technologies that could reduce the cost for consumers – such as solar PV, energy efficiency technologies, and distributed generation, including gas.

CVC Investment Manager Philip Galloway told the Eco Innovation Forum the company was sitting on “a lot of cash” following recent exits, including from the ASX-listed Environment Group just last week. It already has investments in Wind Corporation, wave and tidal energy developer BioPower Systems, and a battery technology company.

CVC, which invested in geothermal aspirant Geodynamics before its listing, as well as bio-plastics group Plantic, said the sharp falls in the cost of solar PV in recent years had been bad for R&D and manufacturers, but presented excellent opportunities for those technologies or business models that could deliver energy to the customers cheaper than the grid.

He said it was clear that cost reductions and innovations in financing, along with the rising price of “black power,” meant that consumers – both retail and commercial – were looking for alternatives. Shopping centres and industrial parks were looking at long-term power purchase agreements that locked in the “green line” (his reference to the lower cost of green energy) and sharing the cost and benefits among all leaseholders.

“We like everything consumer-facing,” he told the forum. “Consumer demand is out there for ideas and ways of living greener – it is clear that that has survived all the brouhaha over carbon taxes and politics in Canberra. People want to live cleaner and simpler lives. In LA airport, where I was yesterday, they are advertising Nissan Leaf (electric vehicles), GE is advertising wind turbines. We don’t see so much of that being tapped into yet in Australia.”

He also noted that the industrial response to energy efficiency solutions was “incredibly slow”, particularly compared to Europe and the US. But any pitch to those large energy users had to be about saving money. “If you pitch to them on being green, nothing much will happen.”

Source: www.reneweconomy.com.au