Coca-Cola’s first electric refrigerated truck flee, which will be deployed by year’s end, will displace the conventional diesel-powered transport refrigeration units (TRUs) which create a significant source of air pollution in transport hubs. And Hewlett-Packard says it will decrease its first-tier manufacturing and product transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions intensity 20% by 2020, as its supply chain GHG goal developed in consultation with the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Climate Savers program. It is a first for the information technology industry. Read More

By Mary Catherine O’Connor in Green Biz.com

Published September 19, 2013

Coca-Cola launches first electric refrigerated truck fleet

By year’s end, 16 new Smith Electric trucks will deliver chilled Odwalla products around the Bay Area. Using electric chillers, the fuel-free fleet is a first and could stoke more interest among cold chain players.

While they make up a tiny slice of the automotive market, U.S. sales of plug-in electric vehicles are hot: up 147 percent between August 2012 and August 2013. But at an EV industry event Monday in San Francisco, the big news from Coca-Cola was cold. The beverage company announced it is launching a fleet of 16 refrigerated electric trucks, which will be used to transport Odwalla beverages around the Bay Area.

The trucks, manufactured by Smith Electric Vehicles in Kansas City, will be deployed by year’s end and will mark the first fully electric refrigerated truck fleet in the country, said Sonya Soutus, Coca-Cola’s senior vice president of public affairs.

The beverage company already operates a number of alternative fuel fleets in North America, including more than 650 hydrid trucks as well as vehicles that run on compressed natural gas. But the electric chillers displace the conventional diesel-powered transport refrigeration units (TRUs) which create a significant source of air pollution in transport hubs. The California Air Resources Board is working to better control these through graduated performance standards through 2019.

TRUs are “like a lawnmower running on top of your truck,” said Jim Neu, fleet manager for Coca-Cola’s Odwalla Market Unit.

Neu said the Smith trucks employ eutectic cold plate technology, which chills the air using a series of aluminum beams that circulate a refrigerant. The chiller is powered by a electric system that operates independently of the electric motor and batteries used to power the truck.

Electric-powered truck refrigeration is not new; it’s a 50-year-old technology, said Smith Electric CEO Bryan Hansen. But improvements to cold plate technology have made it much more compelling to fleet managers in recent years. The chiller system is powered overnight, while the truck’s batteries are recharging.

“Then, then you use the cold plate system as your source of refrigeration inside the truck all day, and you only need to run fans to keep the cool air circulating,” said Hansen. “You don’t need to add batteries to the truck, which saves weight and keeps costs down.”

The trucks can be driven 60 to 80 miles on a single charge, depending on the terrain and the amount of cargo being carried, he said. Using a 240-volt (level II) charging station, the trucks should take 8 hours to completely recharge. This fits into the truck’s use case, as it is can be charged overnight while not on the road.

“Frito-Lay and other companies use light electric-powered trucks for deliveries, but carrying perishable food [such as Odwalla beverages] is a specific challenge,” said Neu. “We piloted one of these trucks for 13 months” before deciding to purchase the fleet, he added.

That the trucks performed well is important, but perhaps a bigger trigger for Coca-Cola’s commitment was a combination of Department of Energy grants and discounts through the California Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project. While he did not share a specific price, Neu estimated that after these incentives the Smith trucks were roughly $10,000 more expensive than comparable diesel-powered alternatives. He expects that fuel savings and low maintenance costs will provide a return on the investment into the trucks within 3 to 4 years.

Of course, as with any new technology some long-term questions are as-yet unanswered. For Neu, one point of concern is how long the trucks’ batteries will hold up and how they will be disposed of, or reused, once they no longer perform adequately in the fleet. Used batteries have shown promise as energy storage for alternative energy systems or for electrical grid back-up.

Hansen said it has sold larger fleets of its electric trucks, but Odwalla’s, which will consist of the Smith Newton model, will be the largest fleet with electric chillers. “If you have an electric truck and you add a conventional diesel-powered compressor, it’s no longer a zero emissions vehicle. We see [electric] refrigeration as a growing segment for us. The Odwalla fleet will be a demonstration to others,” said Hansen. “When people see Coca-Cola committing to this, it will move the industry forward.”

Coca-Cola announced news of the fleet during a press conference following a private meeting between California Gov. Jerry Brown and a group of 50 corporate executives as part of a Drive the Dream media event hosted by the California Plug-In Vehicle Collaborative.

http://www.greenbiz.com

Environmental Leader (24 September 2013):

HP Supply Chain Goal: 20% GHG Cut by 2020

Hewlett-Packard says it will decrease its first-tier manufacturing and product transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions intensity 20 percent by 2020, compared to 2010.

The company says its supply chain GHG goal, developed in consultation with the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Climate Savers program, is a first for the information technology industry.

HP calculates intensity as its suppliers’ GHG emissions divided by HP’s annual revenue.

The company says it will provide business incentives for suppliers to set and achieve tangible GHG emissions-reduction goals. It will also publicly report, through its Global Citizenship Report, on supply-chain GHG emissions.

HP says by 2020, it will prevent 2 million metric tons of GHG emissions across its multitier supply chain, cumulatively, through specific supplier environmental improvement projects, including:

• Expanding its Energy Efficiency Program (EEP) for manufacturing suppliers;
• Instituting specific emissions reduction initiatives with suppliers with GHG-intensive operations, such as LCD panel manufacturing; and
• Creating product transportation-related efficiency initiatives.

HP’s GHG emissions reduction goal for supply-chain partners is the latest in a series of initiatives by HP’s supply chain Social and Environmental Responsibility program. For example, in 2008, HP became the first major IT company to measure and publish aggregated supply chain GHG emissions. Since 2008, HP also has implemented projects that cut emissions from product transport collectively by 190,000 metric tons CO2e, the company says.

The CDP S&P 500 Climate Change Report 2013, published yesterday, awarded HP 99 out of a possible 100 points for its disclosure score and an “A” — the highest ranking — in its performance band. The CDP disclosure score is based on how well a company tells its climate story, and the performance band indicates how fully a company has integrated a climate change strategy to drive significant reductions in emissions.

HP is also listed on a stock index of sustainability leaders launched last week by the UN Global Compact that shows a total investment return of 26.4 percent during the past year, surpassing the general global stock market. The GC 100, released in partnership with research firm Sustainalytics, is composed of a representative group of Global Compact companies selected based on their adherence to the Global Compact 10 principles as well as evidence of executive leadership commitment and consistent base-line profitability.

Source: www.environmentalleader.com

How to green the supply chain? How can consumers become truly green if suppliers – of fashion products and designer-brands – don’t come up with the goods? Here’s a band of designers who are opting out of the mainstream to spend time focusing on supply chains and waste prevention. Meanwhile, working with a global conservation organization, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Interface has created a partnership called Net-Works that works with local people in 26 villages in Danajon to collect, clean, and bale old nylon fishing nets. Carpet tiles out of the blue are the result. Read More

Amy DuFault in Guardian Professional (16 September 2013)

A band of independent, sustainable designers tired of keeping pace with mainstream fashion are opting off the traditional fashion calendar this season. Many designers who have routinely shown at New York fashion week in the past, have this year declined paying thousands for an opportunity they say doesn’t help generate sales.

Still presenting themselves to the buying public and boutique owners, these designers are now relying on multimedia catalogues, pop-up shops, film and creative collaborations, and are going on record declaring that by venturing away from the traditional fashion route, they are finally turning a small profit after years of barely breaking even.

Carrie Parry, a Brooklyn-based designer of an eponymous womenswear label and recipient of the Eileen Fisher 2012 business grant for women entrepreneurs, says she decided to recreate her fashion model this year, putting a stop to shows in order to spend more time exploring her supply chain.

“Consumers want to buy pieces that can be worn when they see them in the media. The fashion industry’s system of showing collections six months prior to shipment and selling collections out of season is no longer applicable to today’s culture,” says Parry.

Parry adds that by delivering meaningful design with quality workmanship and fabrication, her fashion business model no longer needs to sacrifice these points for pace. She explains that getting off the fashion calendar makes for increased flexibility in production time, more time to develop and produce during the off-season, giving her factories consistent work and managing inventory better to prevent waste.

Known for pioneering zero-waste garments, Tara St James, founder of Study NY, has shown during New York fashion week for the past three seasons but has also opted out of the spring/summer 2014 showing to take a closer look at her business model.

When St James started Study in 2009 with the Square Project, a collection of zero waste garments made using squares, it was intended to be more of a research project than a collection – hence the name of her line.

“I was quickly absorbed into the fashion system and therefore the calendar by buyers and press. It took until now for me to realise that I didn’t have to subscribe to anything, and I could create my own calendar,” says St James.

She says it has become increasingly obvious that not only do the production methods used by fast fashion companies and designers have a huge impact on the environment and the socio-economic wellbeing of other human beings, but our consumption has got so out of control that a statement needs to be made.

“My goal is to limit the availability of the brand to customers and hope they will carry these consumption values to other items. I only produce what I believe is beautiful and wanted,” she says.

But when it comes to creating limited quantities of cherished garments, the public might be scratching their heads wondering how that model equates to profit. St James says that her boutiques have been incredibly supportive of her changes and it has allowed her to learn more about their needs.

“If I’m being completely honest, not all designers – including myself – are good at all seasons or all commodities, and by eliminating those weaker points, changing the business model accordingly allows designers to focus their time, energy and money where it will be most beneficial and least wasteful,” says St James.

Adrienne Antonson of State draws parallels to St James and says she sees opting off the fashion calendar as not so much a re-creation of a fashion model, but more so charting her own course.

Coming to fashion from a background in art allowed Antonson a different path from the beginning. Whereas many fashion designers are taught to design on the calendar, Antonson realised early on that the frantic fashion pace never felt right.

“At the end of the day we’re just making clothes – it doesn’t need to be so stressful. I try to remind myself of that every day, though it’s difficult in New York. The pace is contagious,” says Antonson.

Antonson recently created a printed Secret Summer catalogue, which served as a fashion meets multimedia art project bringing together her favourite designers, photographers, and friends. More than a collaboration, she says it was a way to reach customers and get them excited about new ways of shopping.

“We’re all so over-saturated as consumers that as a brand it’s key to think of new, sideways approaches that get people engaged,” she says.

While interacting and selling directly to customers might seem only for the lucky or “in the know,” designers like Antonson see the relationship as vital.

“There’s a lot of talk in the design community about the ‘broken system’ and wasteful industry. But, ultimately, the calendar is how the money flows,” says Antonson, adding that stores buy on the calendar, and designers also need stores.

“A fellow designer recently told me I was brave for not doing market this season, and instead opting to slow down, take better care of myself, and focus on the online shop. I’m taking that as a compliment, and seeing where it leads.”

Amy DuFault is a writer and sustainable fashion consultant. In addition to being a former co-owner of an eco-boutique and a rep for sustainable designers, she coaches and connects the sustainable fashion community

Source: www.theguardian.com

How Net-Works fishes for a triple bottom line

By Mikhail Davis for greenbiz.com (19 July 2013):

How Net-Works fishes for a triple bottom line

An impoverished and spectacularly biodiverse region of the Philippines, Danajon Bank, boasts one of only six double barrier reefs in the world. But it is also one of the planet’s most degraded coral reefs due to unsustainable fishing practices and the dumping of enough worn fishing nets to circle the earth 1.5 times if laid out end to end.

Working with a global conservation organization, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Interface has created a partnership called Net-Works that works with local people in 26 villages in Danajon to collect, clean, and bale old nylon fishing nets. Thanks to the Econyl Regeneration System, an innovative process developed by nylon producer Aquafil, the nets can then be recycled into new carpet fiber.

Less trash in the ocean, new income for impoverished people and beautiful new carpet from recycled materials. What’s not to like? Could this nascent supply chain initiative be a path to the kind of triple bottom line fantasy we’ve all been searching for?

In last month’s column, I examined a commercial about turning PET bottles into carpet that sounded good until we took a closer look. How does this happy recycling story in Danajon Bank hold up under scrutiny?

1. Does using the recycled material reduce the use of virgin materials and reduce the life cycle environmental impact of producing the product?

This brings clouds of doubt over our Danajon Bank recycling fantasy when you consider that the fishing nets are shipped from the Philippines back to Aquafil in Europe, and then to one of Interface’s carpet factories in Europe, the United States or East Asia as finished yarn. Doesn’t all that transportation offset any environmental benefits of using recycled content nylon instead of virgin materials?

Actually, it doesn’t.

This is exactly the kind of comparison that life cycle assessment (LCA) is good at making. Patagonia has made these LCA calculations for its own global supply chain for polyester garment recycling. Even after accounting for transportation of recycled materials from California to Asia and back, using recycled polyester emits 71 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than making polyester from virgin petrochemicals.

The Net-Works global supply lines are bit longer than Patagonia’s, but the carbon footprint of virgin nylon is also about five times that of virgin polyester, so sourcing recycled nylon from the Philippines still has 56 percent less climate change impact than using virgin nylon. The Danajon nets become part of Aquafil’s Econyl nylon-6, made entirely from non-virgin sources by regenerating fishing nets, carpet waste and industrial scrap (including 50 percent post-consumer materials), yielding all the durability required for commercial carpet without the egregious environmental footprint associated with making this plastic from virgin oil.

2. Does using the recycled material reduce the negative impacts associated with end-of-life disposal?

If the first question took some serious explaining, the second is more intuitive. Just the removal of the fishing nets from reefs, beaches and other habitats in Danajon Bank would be ecologically beneficial, even if no one recycled them. Fishing nets discarded in the ocean do not know that no one will pull them up again. They continue entrapping fish, turtles, seals and other sea life. This phenomenon is known as “ghost fishing” and is one factor that has degraded the fisheries and damaged the economy of the Danajon Bank and other ocean-dependent communities worldwide.

In 2011, Aquafil launched a program to source new waste streams to feed its Econyl plant, including collection of used nylon nets from the aquaculture and fishing industries. This led Miriam Turner, Interface’s assistant vice president of co-Innovation, to ask, “Could we take this down to the community level and benefit some of the poorest people in the world? What if we could build a truly inclusive business model — buying discarded nets from local fishermen and giving them extra income — while cleaning up the beaches and oceans at the same time?”

Building in the right economic incentives, including community banking systems, ensures that Net-Works will not be a one-time, feel-good beach clean-up, but instead a viable system to keep nets from ending up on the beaches and in the water to begin with.

3. Is the recycled material used in a way that it is recoverable to cycle multiple times through a circular economy?

Once again, we come to the question of whether putting this recycled material in carpet is a dead end, inherently a “one and done” process, rather than a circular one.

The Net-Works material will live out its second useful life as the type of Aquafil yarn used for about half of Interface’s U.S. carpet tile production. At end-of-life, any nylon that can be separated from other carpet tile components can be sent back to Aquafil’s Econyl Regeneration System to become carpet yarn again, so the first challenge is not technological, but logistical. Our ReEntry program recovers our products from all over the United States and Europe for recycling, but we don’t get everything back and the technology to cleanly separate yarn from backing exists only at our facilities in Georgia (U.S.) and the Netherlands.

In the United States, separating nylon for recycling presents a second challenge in that a substantial amount of the nylon face fiber of the carpet remains bound to the backing, even after shearing. Sheared nylon-6 “fluff” from our carpet tiles goes back to Aquafil. The remaining bound nylon is still recycled with the backing into new carpet backing, but this represents a form of downcycling for this expensive and technical material. Innovation in product design and recycling technology are required to ensure that the nylon fishing nets recovered by Net-Works live on as carpet yarn for many cycles, rather than being shifted into the recycled backing material over time by imperfect separation.

At the end of the last column, I promised to show you our perfect recycling fantasy, and this is the best we can do right now. Did we nail it yet? Well, to be fair, only a single ton of Danajon nets has been processed by Aquafil, so our fantasy is still far from realized. We hope that Net-Works, though small and new, proves that it is possible to make a product that is a solution, not a cause of global problems, as Method is attempting to do with its ocean plastic bottle. The biggest promise of recycling is to help build a better economy, one that grows the things we want more of, such as healthy ecosystems and thriving communities.

The ultimate test of recycling systems is to imagine what the world would look like if we scaled them up dramatically. If we could spread the Net-Works template to fishing communities all over the world with the right local partners, we could grow our supply of raw materials while restoring fisheries and coastal ecosystems, creating more stable and diversified local economies and reducing the environmental footprint of our products.

There’s much work to be done to make this triple bottom line fantasy a global reality, but it’s one more step toward proving that we really can leave the world better with every yard of carpet we make and sell.

If a carpet company can do it, maybe any company can.

Mikhail Davis is director of restorative enterprise for Interface in San Francisco. Interface is the world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet and has promised to eliminate its negative impact on the environment by 2020.

Source: www.greenbiz.com

We have said it before and we say it again. There is a connection between art and sustainability. Art and nature.  And as this article clearly demonstrates …..”artists have unique knowledge and must claim sustainability power”. From the Guardian Sustainable Business newsletter is a report and interview with the artist and renewable energy entrepreneur, Olafur Eliasson, discusses his solar lamp project and the connection between art and sustainability. Also we remind readers that we have a chapter on “Art and Nature: Creatively Connecting Sustainability” in our book “Race for Sustainability” due out next month and ready to order now at: www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/8998  Read More

Elisabeth Braw in theguardian.com (17 September 2013)

Olafur Eliasson’s Little Sun solar lamps on display at at the Tate Modern. Photograph: Merklit Mersha

Icelandic-Danish installation artist Olafur Eliasson has achieved worldwide fame with his weather-related artworks: 2003 blockbuster Weather Project, The glacierhouse effect versus the greenhouse effect, the Cold wind sphere, the New York City waterfalls. But now he is taking his interest in climate into practical action with Little Sun, a project that aims to bring solar lamps to the 1.6 billion people who lack access to electricity. Tens of thousands of lamps have already been distributed in countries like Ethiopia and Uganda.

In an interview with Guardian Sustainable Business, Eliasson says westerners should learn to use more solar power too.

You once created the Eye See You installation for Louis Vuitton, and now your big new thing is solar energy. Is there a connection between art and sustainability?

Art is very good at reconsidering the systems with which we’re doing things. My own rule is that art is about art, but in our society today we’re trying to come to terms with how to understand and live sustainably, and I have confidence in art being one of the fields that show the possibilities of doing this.

When it comes to solutions to global climate issues, do artists have a credibility that business leaders and politicians don’t?

Their motivation for creating a work of art is not to profit at someone else’s expense. As a result, art enjoys credibility and trust. And remember that throughout history, art has combined thinking and doing. After all, art is about taking a vision and turning it into reality. By contrast, many problems on the world stage exist because there’s a huge disconnect between thinking and doing.

You’re moving more into practical action with Little Sun. How are the lamps getting to the people?

Our company is 14-months-old and has produced and delivered 165,000 lamps to date. Our business partners, for example micro-entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe and micro-financed domestic workers in South Africa, have been very successful in delivering the lamps. We compete with kerosene and petroleum, which gives us a benchmark price. We need to be attractive to local users. But we also try to raise the issue about renewable energy. Little Sun isn’t just about the 1.6 billion people who lack access to electricity. It’s about the notion of our shared responsibility for the Earth’s resources. I use it at home myself. It’s not about “us” who have electricity and “them” who don’t.

When we met at the World Economic Forum in Davos, you were wearing a Little Sun around your neck. Do business leaders take you seriously, or do they dismiss you because you’re an artist?

When I’m in Davos and wear the lamp, it’s a very efficient way of starting conversations with people. I went out in the mornings in Davos to charge my Little Sun outside my hotel room and could say, “I just picked up the sun this morning.” When people hear that, they take you seriously. And when I tell them that I started this project together with a solar engineer, I think they’re quite happy that I’m not some hedge fund boss doing it. And there’s another thing, as an artist I’m used to moving in many different circles: with NGOs, with politicians, with business leaders, with people at the bottom and the top of the pyramid. This gives me and other artists, unique knowledge. That creates respect.

You’ve worked with Ethiopia’s sustainability-focused, but rather authoritarian, government on the Little Sun project. Why Ethiopia?

It’s a country where around 80 million people live in relative density without access to energy. It’s also a country whose government is very environmentally committed and thinks big. Right now, we’re working with the government to try to open a factory in Ethiopia where we can produce Little Sun. Obviously, the government likes any business initiative, but particularly ones related to renewable energy, because most Ethiopian households currently use kerosene. Imagine if 80 million people went from using kerosene to using solar power! That’s a whole lot of petroleum that wouldn’t have to be imported to Ethiopia.

You have said you use Little Sun at home. How sustainable are you?

At my studio in Berlin, where we have 80 people working, we organise the way we cook and think about how we buy and eat it. We also have solar heaters, tubes on the roof where water passes through to be heated up by the sun. But it was only after having children that I started taking sustainability into a personal sphere. When I used Little Sun while reading bedtime stories to my daughter, we’d naturally start talking about how the light that naturally illuminates the book is the same sun that was outside in the garden earlier in the day. Like everyone else, I’ve been relatively sloppy, but in the past 10 years I’ve become less sloppy.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Engineers have a lot to answer for and a lot to give. So when the first World Engineers Summit gets underway in Singapore with the promising theme “Innovative and Sustainable Solutions to Climate Change” you would think that they would get off on the right foot and agree to subject the event itself to a very innovative and sustainable event management plan. Save energy, save water, manage waste, paper and all resources. Measure its carbon footprint. The lot. Yes, the organisers agreed in principle to it and the Singapore Tourism Board (SB) encouraged them to, but no-one has been able to find the money to fund a practical benchmark plan or sustainable assessment – desirably using the international gold standard ISO 20121 for event sustainability as the guiding principle.

Along with other events happening in Singapore this September – including the massively energy inefficient Formula 1 motor racing festival – will go ahead without a sustainable thought or plan in mind. Even the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), with its International Green Building Conference, cannot rustle up any funds to do a benchmark sustainable assessment of the event. And this is the same organisation which has set such excellent sustainable standards with its Green Mark for the property sector.

All is not lost. SASA will do an Omnibus sustainability study covering all Singapore’s September events – with or without funding – and make sure everyone sees the results. Opportunities lost. Lessons learnt. Recommendations made. But this is perhaps the sustainability story we have not told. Most countries, companies, cities agree that sustainability is a good idea. Most agree that it is something we should invest in to reap the rewards. But who pays?  Read More

Remember the adage “he who pays the piper calls the tune”? Well, if it’s a private sector or self-funded study, it will reveal all. Warts and all.  What’s being done right and what’s wrong with existing events. Sure it will propose recommendations and it will show where things can be done better. It will show conclusively – as much as is possible with available data – where energy can be saved. But it would be a much better report if there was co-operation – and funding – from the Government sector and private sector.

Governments in Singapore and elsewhere have come up with grants to fund energy efficiency improvements in the private sector, incentives are there for developers of green buildings, there are advantages if you switch to clean energy and rewards for those who buy low carbon, fuel efficient cars. But events – the very high profile conferences, exhibitions, occasions and festivals, which have such a big carbon footprint but also contribute so much to the economy – are not measured or managed with sustainability in mind.

Of course there are exceptions. Marina Bay Sands has moved towards sustainability, using Earthcheck benchmarking, introducing green meetings and ECO 360 plans, as well as embarking on an ISO 20121 plan for the facility. URA – the Urban Redevelopment Authority – has once again committed to a sustainability management plan for its i Light Marina Bay event, billed as “Asia’s only sustainable light art festival”, when it happens next March. SASA handled this is 2012 and will once again be involved working closely with Pico, the event manager.

If MBS gets its and URA gets it. Why cannot others see that sustainable matters?  Sustainability produces benefits and savings. Look at last year’s London Olympics – arguably the most sustainable “greenest” Olympics ever – which took sustainability seriously, adopting the new ISO 20121 standard and making it work.

Look at the FIA – the international motor sport organisation – they decided at their World Council meeting in London in June that all motor sport events around the world would work towards sustainability. Here’s the FIA decision on its ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY:

“Following the initial work undertaken by a dedicated Working Group mandated to develop a Sustainability Programme, the WMSC approved in principle the implementation of the FIA’s ‘Action for Environment’ programme. The FIA’s goal, within a decade, is that motor sport will be recognised as an exemplar of best practice in environmental sustainability and a world leader for environmental innovation creating a positive impact on both the track and road. Its strategy will focus on measuring and improving innovation and promotion.”

The message doesn’t seem to have got through the Singapore organisers who seem to be doing nothing more than paying lip service to the environment or sustainability. As we have said before, on energy use alone, the night-time event consumes massive amounts of energy and there is no measurement or management to speak of.

This is happening in a city which insists on industry getting to grips with energy efficiency in a big way; where Government incentives and grants funds for companies and  properties to “come clean and go green”.  Businesses, shops and households are encouraged to cut their energy and water use.

How can events be excluded? They contribute to the economy in a big way. They attract a lot of attention at home and abroad.

No one is suggesting we stop enjoying ourselves. Go ahead. Have a good time. Watch the cars and the entertainers. Enjoy and be inspired at conferences and exhibitions. Celebrate with champagne and fine food.

You can have all that and you can also save energy, save the environment and save the economy.

If just a very small fraction of what is spent on staging an event – like the F1, which is many millions – was put into an event sustainability management plan or even a benchmark or assessment study – it would demonstrate what can be saved next time. I’m prepared to bet that a minimum of 25% of the energy consumed at the F1 could be saved. Potentially much more.

We have reported before that we understand that the specially-installed street lights that power up the F1 in Singapore stay on for three days and nights. 24 hours a day! Hard to believe, isn’t it? But that information comes from a reliable source.

That’s incredibly wasteful. And this in a country where the Minister of the Environment and Water Resources says “energy efficiency is the only game in town”.  And in the same country where the chief economist of the International Energy Agency Fatih Birol said at the launch of the World Energy Outlook last December that it is “an economic sin” and “an epic failure of international energy policy” that only a third of economically-viable energy efficiency measures are actually achieved.

Singapore is doing a good job, but it is missing out on making itself a truly “liveable and sustainable city”, by not addressing the events industry.

Source: www.sustain-ability-showcase.com

Food, fuel and economic crises have pushed millions back into poverty and seen a wavering of commitments made by the international community – reflected in unfulfilled pledges and falling aid flows. “The risks of climate change threaten to reverse our achievements and to undermine future gains”. This from the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, who is a keynote speaker at the World Engineers Summit in Singapore this week. What’s needed is “low-carbon growth, that is high on decent jobs, high on poverty reduction, and high on reducing inequality….we need to address climate change and issues of volatility, ensuring that development gains are not lost due to natural or manmade disasters. Read More

Here’s what Noeleen Heyzer had to say last month (26 August 2013) in Bangkok at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Dialogue: From the Millennium Development Goals to the United Nations Development Agenda beyond 2015.

MDG’s: Uneven Regional Achievements in a Changed World

Long before the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted by the international community, Asia-Pacific countries were making great strides in transforming themselves and lifting millions of people out of poverty. It is no surprise then that our region has been an early achiever in halving the proportion of poor and in meeting other targets such as access to safe drinking water and gender parity at all levels of education.

The Asia-Pacific region still faces great challenges however – some are new and some are long-standing, whilst achievement of the MDGs remains uneven among our countries. Despite rising incomes and declining poverty rates, the region is still home to roughly two-thirds of the world’s poor. There are persistent and widening gaps in income and poverty, among and within countries, and among different social groups. Violence against women and girls remains a deep-seated problem in many countries of the region.

In other words, there is much unfinished MDG business, and we need a last big push to 2015 if we are to further reduce poverty and deprivation. We must, therefore, emphasize the importance of meeting international commitments and shared responsibilities, including those relating to Official Development Assistance (ODA), access to markets, technologies, and essential drugs as enshrined in MDG 8, notwithstanding the importance of mobilizing domestic and regional resources.

The world has changed.

The MDGs were conceived largely in a world of optimism given rise by the end of the Cold War and the “third wave of democratization”. We saw unprecedented consensus in the international community at landmark United Nations conferences and summits in the 1990s, which produced our internationally agreed development agenda, including the MDGs.

The sharp recovery from the financial crises of the late 1990s and subsequent boom in the global economy raised the prospect of continued progress at the dawn of the new millennium. It seemed that the era of boom and bust had given way to an era of “great moderation”.

In less than a decade however, great moderation tumbled into a great recession. Since 2006, we have seen excessive volatilities and hikes in key commodity prices culminating in the food and fuel crises in 2007, followed in 2008 by the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

These events have pushed millions back into poverty and seen a wavering of commitments made by the international community – reflected in unfulfilled pledges and falling aid flows. Furthermore, the risks of climate change threaten to reverse our achievements and to undermine future gains

So, it is indeed a great feat that many Asia-Pacific countries have been early achievers in reducing the incidence of poverty. Furthermore, this has been achieved despite the region being hit by many significant natural disasters since the adoption of the MDGs.

When we discuss moving “From the Millennium Development Goals to the United Nations Development Agenda beyond 2015”, we must be mindful of the changed circumstances which have made closing development gaps more challenging and which have strained global consensus.

A Transformative Agenda for Asia-Pacific

Addressing these challenges calls for a new development model based on structural changes for equality, inclusiveness, resilience and sustainable development, as a more integrated whole. The next phase of development has to be driven by a transformative agenda that is people-centred, cares for our planet, and which generates shared and sustained prosperity.

As you are aware, the report by the Secretary-General’s High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 United Nations Development Agenda, called for a universal agenda driven by five big, transformative shifts.

What do these key transformational shifts mean for Asia and the Pacific?

The reality is that the existing Asia-Pacific growth path has not seen the fruits of prosperity sufficiently shared, and has exacted a high toll on our fragile natural resources. Inequalities have widened in many countries, and the “race to the bottom” has seen a slide in labour standards and industrial safety, growing exploitation of migrant workers, women and girls, as well as environmental damage.

For Asia and the Pacific:

“Leaving no-one behind” means touching the lives of nearly two-thirds of humanity, of whom 1.7 billion live on less than $2-a-day, 763 million are extremely poor, and 542 million go hungry. We need to ensure that they have access to basic services, including modern and sustainable energy, fresh water, and adequate sanitation; good healthcare, educational facilities, and social protection services. It means promoting, protecting and fulfilling our commitments on human rights, including eliminating all forms of discrimination. Investments in people are needed to build resilience and reduce vulnerability. ESCAP’s 2013 Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific has shown that these investments for more forward-looking macroeconomics are within the means of most countries, although countries with special needs will require partnership.

“Putting sustainable development at the core of the development agenda” means changing how we live, produce and work. It means that the “grow first, distribute and clean up later” approach cannot sustain growth or meet the aspirations of both current and future generations, for an adequate standard of living within our planetary boundaries. A change of paradigm in key sectors such as energy, agriculture and fisheries, water resources management and urban development will be essential to meet the basic needs of people, in a way that promotes both resource efficiency and social equity. ESCAP’s Low Carbon Green Growth Roadmap for Asia and the Pacific provides examples of some successful practices in the region.

“Transforming economies for jobs and inclusive growth” means touching the lives of world’s 73% working poor, and the 1.1 billion workers who are in vulnerable employment in our region, with more than 80 million young people who are looking for jobs2. It also means that the belief that low wages are necessary to attract foreign direct investment and promote economic competitiveness and growth, has lost credibility. Low wages contribute to low domestic demand. Income insecurity and very low wages also hinders investment in human capital.

“Building peace and effective, open and accountable institutions for all” means recognizing freedom from fear of conflict and violence, as the most fundamental human entitlement. The Asia-Pacific region is still home to a number of long-term, internal conflicts, many of which are the results of prolonged deprivations, and injustices along different fault lines such as gender, ethnicity and religion. They are also the result of a lack of voice by the marginalized, coupled with an absence of accountability of those in power. We need open, effective and accountable public institutions to address social exclusion, gender inequality, injustice, crime and corruption – to ensure good governance and peaceful societies.

“Forging a new global partnership” means building genuine global partnerships, based on trust and not on conditionality. This is particularly critical for some of the most important development challenges faced by our region, including the need to rebalance trade, manage speculative flows of finance, ensure food security and livelihoods, secure appropriate development financing, promote technology transfer, and create conditions for fair trade. Many issues affecting human security, such as migration and natural disasters, also require both global partnerships and closer cross-border cooperation. Although the primary responsibility lies with individual countries, no country can tackle development challenges alone; we need a new spirit of solidarity, cooperation, and mutual accountability. It is ultimately about building greater levels of trust for humanity.

From Vision to Action

A universal global development agenda must recognize all the principles of Rio+20, and take into account the fact that countries and regions have different initial conditions and resources, and that there has to be sufficient flexibility to adapt the agenda at the local, national, and regional levels – with countries in the driver’s seat.

We also need to look very specifically at the means of implementation for this new development agenda. It will be critical to find innovative sources of financing and create fiscal space by making spending and taxation more progressive. Although, ODA will not be a basic pillar of the post-2015 development agenda, it is still an unfulfilled promise that needs to be addressed.

What we are looking for is low-carbon growth,  that is high on decent jobs, high on poverty reduction, and high on reducing inequality. In this context we need to address climate change and issues of volatility, ensuring that development gains are not lost due to natural or manmade disasters. We need to strengthen the resilience agenda.

Business has to be part of the solution. The business community cannot regard social and environmental concerns as external to their business. Modern business management should seek not only to increase market share, but to increasingly widen the market itself. In an age of diminishing resources, falling demand and shrinking revenues, the interests of our ‘bottom billion’ are the interests of business’ bottom line.

Sustainable growth means strengthening all three pillars of sustainability – economic, social, and environmental – and recognizing that long-term prosperity requires a careful balance between benefits reaped today and ensuring the well-being of our people and our planet tomorrow.

The argument which we are making in Asia and the Pacific is that inclusiveness and sustainability are both interdependent and mutually reinforcing. Growth can only be inclusive if it is more sustainable, and it can only ever be sustained in the long-term by ensuring that it benefits the widest possible number of people, across generations.

We cannot afford to race to the bottom on labour standards, industrial safety or environmental protection. We cannot allow loss of lives of workers, or for toxic pollution to simply be shifted from developed to developing countries. People from around the world, and across the Asia-Pacific region, are asking for a new social contract for sustainable development, between the state and its people, and between the state and the market.

This social contract has to promote citizens’ engagement, translating growth into productive employment for all. It has to adopt policies for the fairer redistribution of wealth, economic assets and opportunities – where there is better resource management and effective delivery of quality basic services to all. It also has to ensure better financial governance, addressing issues of money laundering and corruption, and encourage greater accountability of both the public and the private sectors, at the local, national, regional, and global levels.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this conference is the first regional Ministerial-level event to discuss the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015, following the release of the Report of the Secretary-General’s High-level Panel of Eminent Persons. With the General Assembly preparing to consider this report at its sixty-eighth session, and move towards finalizing a United Nations Development Agenda beyond 2015, a regional dialogue such as this could not be more timely for the countries of our region to articulate their concerns and aspirations.

Now is the opportunity for the Asia-Pacific region to lead on sustainable development and to contribute to the shaping of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Let us together create a region of which we can truly be proud – for ourselves and for our children and grandchildren.

Biography:

Noeleen Heyzer (Singapore) is the ninth Executive Secretary of the Economicand Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). Appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General in August 2007. Dr. Heyzer is the first woman to occupy this position since its founding in 1947. She leads the organization at the level of Under-Secretary-General.

Since taking office, Dr. Heyzer has positioned ESCAP, the regional arm of the United Nations, as a powerful comprehensive platform for promoting regional co-operation among member states to achieve inclusive and sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific. She has strengthened ESCAP’s capacity and effectiveness to support member states, using its convening and standard setting authority, sound strategic analysis, policy options and technical assistance, to build the economic and social foundations for shared prosperity, social progress and ecological sustainability in the region. She has improved the engagement of countries with special needs (least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states), redirecting policies, institutions and resources to reduce poverty and to address existing inequalities. With her leadership, ESCAP is building the capacity of Member States through technical support to implement international agreements, norms and standards. She has focused ESCAP to achieve stronger regional co-operation for transport and ICT connectivity, green growth, fair trade and ethical investment, financial stability, food and energy security, and social development.

The Executive Secretary has championed increased regional co-ordination, enhancing a co-ordinated Asian Pacific voice and leadership in shaping effective and strategic responses to the critical transnational and global challenges of the 21st Century. She has worked with key decision-makers to establish a number of regional co-operation mechanisms and institutional frameworks to address the food-fuel-finance crises and climate change, and to harness development opportunities in the region. These include her five-point agenda for regional connectivity presented to 16 Head of States during the 4th East Asian Summit; the Bangkok Declaration for intermodal transport development; the initiation of an Asia Pacific Energy Security Co-operation Framework; the Dhaka outcome for accelerated growth and poverty reduction in LDCs; and a regional approach towards achieving inclusive low carbon, green growth. At the request of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers, she is now working with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to support ASEAN’s development of a Master Plan for regional connectivity. She is also strengthening SPECA, the United Nations Special Programme for Economies of Central Asia, in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE). She strongly advocates for the adoption of a holistic approach to development based on socio-economic equity and ecological sustainability, and the strengthening and integration of the Asia Pacific region through intra-regional trade, financial stability, responsible investment, environmental sustainability, social justice and gender equality.

The Executive Secretary has worked to revitalize the United Nations’ Asia Pacific Regional Co-ordination Mechanism, improving the policy coherence of its 30 UN organizations to “deliver as one” in supporting the region to implement international conventions, declarations and development goals. She has promoted stronger strategic engagement with development partners including the ADB, UNDP, ASEAN, the Pacific Islands Forum and with civil society, business and regional think tanks. The tripartite partnership with UNDP and ADB has led to the development of a widely recognized statistical tracking system for MDG progress in the region. She has also established three new sub-regional offices for ESCAP to provide better support and outreach to all member states to realize the MDGs and other internationally agreed development goals.

Dr. Heyzer has led an unprecedented dialogue with Myanmar’s leaders, resulting in the Government of Myanmar requesting the formation of a development partnership that has allowed eminent international scholars, such as the Nobel Prize economist Professor Joseph Stiglitz, and local researchers to exchange experiences and ideas with government agencies and civil society. She has also worked closely with ASEAN, the Government of Myanmar and the UN for the ongoing recovery efforts assisting cyclone affected people in the Ayeyarwady Delta.

Career Highlights

(October 1994 – September 2007)

Prior to her appointment to ESCAP, Dr. Heyzer was the first Executive Director from the South to head the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). Through her leadership, UNIFEM assisted over 100 countries in the formulation and implementation of legislation and policies that promote women’s security and rights. This resulted in the removal of discriminatory practices, changes in inheritance laws for women, better working conditions for migrant workers, women’s full participation in several peace negotiations and electoral processes including in Liberia, Rwanda and Timor Leste, and the inclusion of women as full citizens in the constitution of Afghanistan. Dr. Heyzer played a critical role in the Security Council’s adoption and implementation of the landmark Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security undertaking extensive missions to conflict-affected countries worldwide. She was responsible for the establishment of the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women and for appointing Actress Nicole Kidman as UNIFEM’s Goodwill Ambassador to campaign against this violence. She led UNIFEM’s restructuring to maximize organizational performance. Consequently, UNIFEM has increased its resources tenfold, strengthened its programmes, ground presence and team leadership, and successfully advocated to put issues affecting women high on the agenda of the whole United Nations system.

Dr. Heyzer has served on numerous boards and advisory committees of international organizations, including the UNDP Human Development Report as well as the UNDP Eminent Persons Group on Trade and Sustainable Development. She convened and chaired the International Women’s Commission for a Just and Sustainable Palestinian-Israeli Peace and was on the High-Level Commonwealth Commission on Respect and Understanding chaired by Nobel Laureate Prof. Amartya Sen. Dr. Heyzer successfully mobilized private sector partners such as Macy’s, CISCO, and the Calvert Investment Fund to provide high value employment and market access to women and youth in conflict and tsunami-affected areas as well as in the Arab States, setting new standards for ethical investment.

Education

Dr. Heyzer has a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Science from the University of Singapore. She obtained a Doctorate in social sciences from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.

Prizes & Awards

Dr. Heyzer has received several awards for leadership, including

Women of the Year Award (2008), Singapore Press Holdings.

Women’s Equality Award (2007), American National Council of Women’s Organization, Washington, USA.

Global Leadership Award (2005), Global Summit on Women, Mexico.

Women Who Make a Difference Award (2005), American National Council for Research on Women, New York City, USA.

UNA-Harvard Leadership Award (2004), Boston, USA.

The Dag Hammarskjöld Medal (2004) given to “a person who has promoted, in action and spirit, the values that inspired Dag Hammarskjöld as Secretary-General of the United Nations and generally in his life: compassion, humanism and commitment to international solidarity and cooperation”. Upsala, Sweden.

The Woman of Distinction Award (2003) from the UN-NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New York, USA.

Spirit of Excellence and Lifetime Achievement Award (2000) by the Institute for Leadership Development, York University, Canada.

Global Tolerance Award for Humanitarian Service (2000), Friends of the United Nations, New York, USA.

She was listed by the Earth Times in 2000 as one of the most influential voices in the UN system. In recognition of her contribution to women, peace and justice, Dr. Heyzer was among the nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

Source: www.unescap.org

When the World Engineers Summit opens in Singapore this coming week, with the theme “Innovative and Sustainable Solutions to Climate Change”, there is no excuse for delegates not to be aware of the “clear and present danger”. Singapore’s Straits Times editorially urged everyone  to “Get on with it–global warming is real” days before unprecedented  flooding in the city state and Pacific Island nations last week urged greater support for climate action as their very existence was threatened. Read More

Editorial Desk , The Straits Times (3 September 2013):

The science of predicting global warming has its sceptics, among them vested interests like big industry.

An update on rising sea levels by the United Nations climate panel, which forecasts up to a metre’s rise by 2100, may not win new converts. But a graphic presentation of how coastal flooding could gut the economic assets of low-lying cities should persuade laggard governments that taking timely preventive measures is not a matter of choice.

Climate doubters can challenge the science, but not the visceral evidence of extreme weather phenomena. This is why a new climate study, which places 13 of the 20 most vulnerable cities in Asia alone, should concentrate minds.

Singapore is spared the dubious distinction, but its planners will want to evaluate the impact on the economy of flood damage to Guangzhou and Shenzhen in China, and Mumbai and Kolkata in India – besides Jakarta, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City. Shanghai, Tianjin and Xiamen are also at risk.

These are cities Singapore does business with. The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, calculates that flood damage to the 139 coastal cities assessed worldwide could reach US$1 trillion annually by mid-century if mitigating steps are not taken.

Building and strengthening defences like levees and storm barriers go beyond preparing for an apocalyptic event by the end of the century, when island chains in the Pacific could vanish.

Coastal flooding as a result of storm surges, land subsidence from groundwater depletion and urban growth will wreak havoc on an ascending scale well before sea levels rise.

Flood defences are not a recent invention. Tokyo has had them going back 400 years. But with typical technological acuity, the authorities are building an underground reservoir carved into rock to receive excess runoff. San Francisco is mulling a massive flood wall near the Golden Gate Bridge to save the bay area’s multi-billion dollar technology economy from going underwater. New York worries about its logistical operations.

Singapore has had the benefit of advice from the Dutch – reassuring as countless studies credit Holland with having the world’s best flood defences.

But the frequency of inner-city flooding would have alerted the authorities to the adequacy of its primary defences – stone embankments, the Marina Barrage and a requirement that new reclamations be raised in elevation.

These are periodic infrastructural works which governments plan for and execute as a matter of course. The “scientific” notion of countering the effects of climate change through treaty-mandated reductions in carbon emissions is on the other hand fraught with problems. It is clear what governments should focus on.

Source: www.asianewsnet.net/Get-on-with-it-global-warming-is-real-51128.html

Pacific countries adopt Majuro declaration, lead the world on climate change

By Sean Dorney, ABC Pacific Correspondent  (6 September 2013):

Leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum countries have adopted the Majuro declaration, leading the world in action on climate change.

The Majuro Declaration for Climate Leadership, named after the atoll in the Marshall Islands where this year’s forum has just concluded, describes climate change as one of the greatest challenges for the world.

The declaration commits the countries to increasing their efforts to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions by turning to alternative, sustainable energy resources.

Marshall Islands President, Christopher Loeak, says he hopes the declaration would be a game changer in the global fight to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“It is our aim to provide leadership to the world on climate change,” Mr Loeak said.

“It is only right that we do that because we are the most vulnerable to climate change even though we do not contribute much to it.”

President of Palau, Tommy Remengesau, host of next year’s Pacific Islands Forum, says climate change would be as important an issue at next year’s Forum.

“It’s always going to be an issue… whether it’s Majuro, whether it’s Cook Islands last year or whether it’s Palau next year,” Mr Remengesau said.

“This is the heart of our very survival as people and island communities.”

Attached to the Majuro Declaration on Climate Leadership is a list of the measures each of the 15 Member Countries are taking to reduce greenhouse emissions.

President Loeak of the Marshall Islands says New Zealand and Australia have agreed to reduce their emissions.

“I believe they will come up with more ambitious targets than currently are in place now…But Australia now is going to an election,” Mr Loeak said.

Australian Labor Government’s Minister for Mental Heath and Ageing, Senator Jacinta Collins, represented Australia at the Forum.

She says the Government was in caretaker mode and could not make any new commitments with the elections due.

Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, the President of the Marshall Islands, will be presenting the declaration to the Secretary General of the United Nations.

The declaration says it will be presented as a contribution to the UN Secretary General’s efforts to catalyse ambitious climate action and mobilise political will for a universal ambitious and legally binding climate change agreement by 2015.

Fiji’s re-admission to the Pacific Islands Forum

Leaders at the forum expressed commitment to revisit Fiji’s suspension from the Forum, welcoming the release of Fiji’s new constitution and its imminent approval by the President of Fiji.

They say the new constitution is an important step towards free and fair elections in Fiji next year.

Any invitation for Fiji’s re-admission to the Forum will not be made until after the Fiji elections which on the current schedule will fall just after next year’s forum in Palau.

Marshall Islands – US dispute on nuclear contamination issues

The Forum leaders welcomed the Special Rapporteur’s report that was submitted to the UN Human Rights Council last year, supporting the Marshall Islands in its efforts to engage the United States towards a justified resolution of the US nuclear testing program.

The report outlines measures that the United States, the United Nations and the Marshall Islands should take to address the Marshall Islands’ dispute with the United States over further compensation for the impacts of radioactive contamination as a result of the U.S. nuclear bomb tests in the Marshalls in the late 1940s and 1950s.

The forum leaders are considering submitting a letter to the US government urging the US to take action to “meaningfully address the ongoing impacts resulting from the US nuclear testing program”.

They are also going to speak to the United Nations Secretary General as they say the Marshall Islands was placed by the international community under a trusteeship of the United Nations to the United States.

Source: www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-05/majuro-declaration-pacific-islands-forum/4939520

There will be a lot to talk about when the International Green Building Conference starts in Singapore this week, including two recent announcements: A $200 million fund has been set up by Sustainable Development Capital Asia (SDCL) to fund energy efficiency projects in Singapore, including industry infrastructure, building retrofits and renewable energy installations, while CapitaLand Limited is the only company in Asia has been named both the Regional Sector Leader for Asia and the Global Sector Leader in the ‘Diversified’ property category by the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB). Read More

For the full programme of the International Green Building Conference as well as exhibitors at the BEX event, go to: www.sgbw.com.sg and www.bex-asia.com

CapitaLand is the only company in Asia to be named Global Sector Leader by the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark

By Eugene Tay in Green Business Times (5 September 2013):

Singapore, 5 September 2013 – CapitaLand Limited (CapitaLand) has been named both the Regional Sector Leader for Asia and the Global Sector Leader in the ‘Diversified’ property category by the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB). Among 74 real estate companies and funds surveyed in Asia, CapitaLand is the only organisation to be named a Global Sector Leader. This is also the third consecutive year that CapitaLand has been named a Regional Sector Leader for Asia since GRESB was incepted in 2011. Sector leaders are recognised for their outstanding performance among regional peers and their best practices in sustainability performance illustrate the way forward for the real estate industry.

GRESB today announced the release of its 2013 Report, which is based on sustainability data gathered from 543 real estate companies and funds, providing aggregate information on 49,000 properties in 46 countries across the globe. Together, the 543 real estate companies and funds surveyed represent US$1.6 trillion in gross asset value.

Companies were nominated by institutional investors to take part in the GRESB Survey. The survey is based on a broad view of sustainability indicators, comprising seven aspects: management; policy and disclosure; risks and opportunities; monitoring and environment management system; performance indicators; building certification and benchmarking; and stakeholder engagement. Collectively, these aspects provide important contributions to strong sustainability performance, beyond efficient use of energy and water and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and waste.

More than 50 institutional investors, representing on aggregate US$6.1 trillion of institutional capital, now use the GRESB benchmark results in the various stages of the investment management and engagement process, with a clear goal to optimise the risk/return profile of their real estate investments.

Mr Lim Ming Yan, President & Group CEO, CapitaLand Limited, said: “We are pleased to be recognised by GRESB as the Regional Sector Leader for Asia and the Global Sector Leader in the ‘Diversified’ property category. This achievement attests to our commitment to sustainability across our multi-sector real estate portfolio spanning over 110 cities in more than 20 countries worldwide.”

Mr Lim added: “Sustainability is integral to our business. We will continue our Group-wide efforts to develop and operate our properties in a ‘green’ manner, engage our stakeholders in our sustainability drive and contribute to the well-being of our employees and the community in a responsible and ethical way.”

Source: www.greenbusinesstimes.com

NEA’s Energy efficiency Singapore news bulletin (5 September 2013):

New way for companies to finance energy efficiency in Singapore

Singapore businesses in the manufacturing sector have another very good reason to embark on an energy efficiency drive.

With no upfront investment, companies can cover up to 100% of the capital cost of energy efficient technologies, systems and equipment. It is paid for out of the energy cost savings achieved through performance guaranteed agreements with suppliers.

All this is possible now through an approved $200 million fund set up by Sustainable Development Capital (Asia) Limited (SDCL), with the encouragement and support of the Economic Development Board (EDB).

SDCL Asia is focussed on the development and project financing of energy efficiency projects, primarily in Singapore’s manufacturing sector, where there is a recognised opportunity to achieve some significant energy savings.

Up until now there has appeared to be some reluctance by companies to embark on energy efficiency measures, either because of the perceived capital cost involved or because they were not convinced they would achieve genuine energy savings.

SDCL considers it has come up with the ideal solution as it is prepared to provide up to 100% of the capital costs to finance the installation of technologies, systems and equipment – without any upfront outlay by the host company – with a guaranteed return through energy cost savings.

How does it work?

Firstly, the host Singapore company enters into an energy service agreement (ESA) with the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) – provided by SCDL – to fund and implement the energy efficiency project in return for a share of the resulting energy savings.

Next, the SPV sub-contracts the implementation to the ESCO through an energy performance contract (EPC) and the investor provides debt and equity capital to fund the project capex (capital expenditure) and other costs.2

The EPC may incorporate a performance guarantee, on-going Operation and Maintenance (O&M) and Measurement and Verification (M&V) services. Alternatively some or all of these may be provided directly to the host.

Finally, the other terms of the EPC are designed to be back-to-back with the ESA, leaving the SPV with only the obligation to fund the project and the ESCO with the obligation to deliver the project.

Glen Plumbridge, the Managing Director of SDCL explains that under the project agreement – or Energy Services Agreement – the investment return is ‘paid from savings’.

“The investment return is typically based on a share of energy savings achieved for an agreed contractual term (typically 5 to 10 years). So at the end of the contract term, the installed systems and equipment and all the energy savings they generate are retained by the host company.

“We can even structure the contract so that payments are made only if and when measured and verified energy savings are achieved” says Mr Plumbridge, who welcomes the opportunity to offer its services and funds to Singapore companies.

The energy efficiency project size would typically range from S$1million to 40 million. It can cover a host of capital expenditure items, including industry infrastructure – for the supply, conversion, transmission, distribution or consumption of energy – building retrofits and renewable energy installations.

For Singapore companies, this can make perfectly good business sense. Improving energy efficiency is one of the most cost effective ways of reducing energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

It is a process and a plan that has worked very well in other parts of the world and SDCL has direct experience in handling energy efficiency finance in the United Kingdom where performance guarantees and 100% upfront capital investment has become more common.

Headquartered in London, SDCL is a specialist investment and financial advisory firm, focused on energy efficiency. In 2012 SDCL launched the innovative UK Energy Efficiency Investments Fund, in which the UK government’s UK Green Investment Bank made a GBP50 million cornerstone investment commitment.

SDCL is a member of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative and is authorized and regulated in the UK by the Financial Services Authority.

Energy efficiency projects SDCL has funded includes lighting upgrades, compressed air and extraction fans, metering, motor replacement, energy optimisation, installation of equipment and related services.

They can operate over multiple sites where there is a need for different approaches and equipment. Obviously in Singapore it could involve upgrading of chiller plant for air conditioning or industrial equipment required for processing, storage and packaging.

SDCL fund invests in non-domestic energy efficiency projects in the UK. SDCL Asia will be drawing on the specialist experience  and expertise developed within the SDCL Group both in the UK and Asia to implement energy efficiency in Singapore, which will  be a first of a kind for the region.

SDCL Asia, a joint venture between Sustainable Development  Capital LLP (“SDCL”) and First Eastern Investment Group (“First  Eastern”) of Hong Kong, which has committed to be the  cornerstone investor to launch the energy efficiency financing  process.

Source: www.e2singapore.gov.sg and www.sdcl-asia.com

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) says it is vital to reconcile sustainable development with developing countries’ urgent need for poverty allevation and growth – inclusive and green growth – to avoid irreversible and costly environmental damage. A key topic at the Clean Tech marketplace forum in Singapore which ADB is supporting. Armstrong Asset Management is heading in the right direction with the third close at $130 million of its Clean Energy Fund for South East Asia. Read More

The Clean Tech Marketplace Forum is on from Monday 9 September to Wednesday 11^th at Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore.

Sharing a common strategic vision of addressing climate change, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Global Cleantech Clusters Association (GCCA) which is composed of 48 clusters from across the world, representing 10,000 Cleantech companies, have joined forces to facilitate the creation of a low carbon technology marketplace in Asia through an objective forum that will bring together all relevant stakeholders to discuss new development, issues, challenges, projects, partnerships and prospects.  This global, cross-sectoral, multi-stakeholders and multi-dimensional forum is envisioned to pave the way for the creation of a successful and sustainable model for an efficient cleantech marketplace at the regional level to help spur sustainable economic development in the Asia Pacific region and the rest of the world.

This Forum is a global stage for all key stakeholders (private sector, government bodies, technical and research institutes, multilateral agencies and NGOs) to incorporate their perspectives in the creation and operation of a cleantech marketplace to accelerate cleantech development, innovation and adoption.

Event Highlights:

Asian Development Bank (ADB) Low Carbon Technology Marketplace Forum

Global Cleantech Cluster Association (GCCA ) Asia-Pacific Cleantech Cluster Managers Meeting

Presentation of findings of GCCA Survey 2012

Sharing of best practices and case studies

Singapore Cleantech Forum presented by Singapore High Technology Association – a Green Technologies Association

Pre-event Masterclass Training Workshop on Keystone Method for Cleantech Investment (used in  GCCA Later Stage Awards Judging), as well as Climate Smart and Power House Workshops

Guided Tour at BEX/WES on Sept 11

Networking session with Swissnex and visit to Swiss Future City Lab in Singapore

Business Matching sessions and meetings

Networking cocktails for Cleantech Partnerships

For the full programme, speaker and registration details go to: www.amiando.com/CleanTechForum.html

By Elga Reyes in eco-business.com (2 September 2013):

Clean energy fund raises US$130 million for regional solar, biogas projects

Singapore-based Armstrong Fund has received several financial commitments from various international monetary agencies interested in investing in renewable energy projects in Southeast Asia.

Pictured is the solar power project in Thailand, developed by Conergy, from which Annex Power originated.

Armstrong Asset Management on Thursday announced the investments of several financial institutions to the Armstrong South East Asia Clean Energy Fund which will channel US$130 million into different renewable energy projects in the region.

The IFC Catalyst Fund, the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), and the Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets (SIFEM) have committed to the Armstrong Fund, a private equity investment account dedicated to small-scale renewable energy and resource efficiency projects in emerging markets around Southeast Asia.

Singapore-based Armstrong Asset Management aims to invest in 10 to 15 projects that generate up to 10MW of power from sources such as solar, hydro, wind or biogas within ten years. The worth of each project can range from US$5 million to US$12 million.

With this upsurge of new commitments, the Armstrong Fund is closer to achieving its goal of US$150 million by end of September or its targeted final closing.

The IFC Catalyst Fund, managed by the IFC Asset Management Company LLC, a subsidiary of World Bank-member International Finance Corporation, invested US$20 million to the Armstrong Fund. Back in May, it also provided the same amount, which was the first investment by the multilateral organisation in a fund focused on mitigating climate change in Southeast Asia.

Reyaz Ahmad, head of the IFC Catalyst Fund, said, “The capital, expertise, and innovation [Armstrong Fund] will bring to clean energy in Southeast Asia exemplifies the role private equity can play in helping to address climate change while generating financial returns.”

Similarly, Jurgen Rigterink, chief investment officer of FMO, which is investing in the fund for the first time, said, “We are pleased to work with investors who are committed to clean energy and energy and resource efficiency.”

The Dutch development bank, which is one of the largest such banks in Europe with an investment portfolio of 6.3 billion euros, supports innovative solutions for economic and social growth. Aside from energy, they are also focused on two other high impact sectors – financial institutions and agribusiness, food and water.

SIFEM, on the other hand, invested in the Armstrong Fund through Obviam, an independent investment advisor in Switzerland.

“Obviam is looking forward to a long term partnership with Armstrong, who offers a unique blend of in-depth renewable energy and Southeast Asia investment experience. We expect the fund to a play an important role in fostering the application of clean and renewable energies in the region, working towards minimising fossil fuel-based dependence,” said Claude Barras, chief executive officer of Obviam.

Currently, the Armstrong Fund has investments in solar photovoltaic and biogas power projects in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines worth US$30 million in partnership with Annex Power. In addition, it has invested in the construction and development of a 30MW portfolio of solar power projects in Thailand with Hong Kong-based energy company, Symbior Energy.

According to Armstrong Asset Management managing partner Andrew Affleck, the firm will ensure that the environmental and developmental impact will be reported to the investing institutions, as well as the amount of generated clean energy.

He added, “The Armstrong team will work with our investee companies to adopt best practices that adhere to IFC’s environmental and social performance standards, in addition to delivering the projected financial returns.”

Source: www.eco-business.com

The victory of the Liberal party in the just-concluded Australian elections will see a new government formed under the leadership of Tony Abbott – the man who, in his campaign, vowed to dismantle the carbon tax introduced in the previous administration. This spells bad news in the fight against climate change, which was shown in a recent study to make extreme weather events more likely in the coming years.  Read more

Climate change to bring more sizzling summers, study says

By Wendy Koch in USA Today (5 September 2013):

Does climate change contribute to extreme weather such as last year’s record heat in the USA? New research suggests that, yes, it increases the likelihood these disasters will re-occur.

New research finds climate change will increase the risk of heat waves in USA

It finds that Sandy-like flooding will become more frequent along the coasts

2012 saw 11 “extreme weather” events costing more than $1 billion in damages

Brace yourself for more hot summers ahead. Extreme weather researchers report on Thursday that climate change makes the searing summer that the struck the United States last year much more likely.

In fact, July 2012-like heat is now four times as likely to strike the Midwest and Northeast as it was in pre-industrial America when less carbon dioxide warmed the atmosphere, according to a Stanford University study. Last year’s heat wave, which peaked in July — the warmest month on record for the contiguous USA — exacerbated the nation’s drought, ruined crops and contributed to more than 100 deaths.

“It was a very rare event. It’s now less rare given current greenhouse gas emissions,” says lead author Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment.

His research is part of a trove of 19 new peer-reviewed studies by scientists worldwide that look at the possible link between climate change and a dozen extreme weather events across the globe last year. About half of the studies say human-caused climate change — due to the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation — contributed to the event examined.

Climate scientists often caution that no single weather event can be blamed on global warming, but Thomas Peterson of NOAA’s National Climactic Data Center says that advances in climate modeling now allow them to “talk” about individual events.

“The models are improving,” agrees Thomas Knutson of NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J., adding they’re now able to simulate year-to-year climate patterns such as El Niño and La Niña and thus tease out the role of long-term global warming. The studies, edited by NOAA climate scientists, appear as a special supplement in today’s Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Knutson co-authored a study, based on historical data and 23 models, that estimates human-caused climate change contributed 35% to the extreme warmth that swept over the eastern USA from March through May last year. He says the risk of such an event occurring again is at least 10 times more likely.

Another study, led by NOAA’s William Sweet, finds that coastal communities will see “increased frequency” of flooding akin to that in New Jersey and New York after 2012′s Superstorm Sandy because of climate-induced sea level rise. “Events of less and less severity (from less powerful storms) will produce similar impacts,” the study concludes.

Yet these researchers still say that typical weather and climate patterns played major roles in the extreme weather events studied. Diffenbaugh says lack of rainfall was a prime reason for last year’s heat wave, and Knutson — like two French scientists who authored a similar study — sees natural variability as the main culprit in 2012′s warm spring.

The NOAA-edited studies looked at twice as many extreme weather events worldwide — including Kenya’s drought, southeast Australia’s wetness and the Netherlands’ cold spell — as did last year’s compilation of similar research. Indeed, in the USA alone, 2012 brought 11 such events that each caused at least $1 billion in damage.

Diffenbaugh, whose research was federally funded, says understanding the likelihood that these disasters will reoccur can inform efforts to reduce vulnerability and quantify the true societal cost of greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: www.usatoday.com

Explainer: What election result means for carbon pricing

By Elisa de Wit for RenewEconomy  (9 September 2013):

The Government has stated that its first order of business will be repeal of the Carbon Pricing Mechanism (CPM) (or the so-called ‘carbon tax’). In place of the CPM, the Government will address climate change and carbon emissions through its Direct Action Plan (Direct Action Plan). It is intended that implementation of the Direct Action Plan will provide the mechanism for the Government to achieve its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5% on 2000 levels by 2020.

Repealing the Carbon Price Mechanism

Assuming the Government sticks to its previously announced deadlines, the Government will introduce legislation to repeal the CPM (Repeal Bill) on the first sitting day of Parliament. The Honourable Greg Hunt has stated that the CPM will then be repealed by April 2014 or, at the latest, by July 2014.

However, as the Government does not currently have control of the Senate, in order to repeal the CPM before 1 July 2014 it will need Labor to support the passage of the Repeal Bill. It remains uncertain whether Labor will agree that the new Government has a mandate to repeal the CPM and therefore whether it will support the Repeal Bill.  Indications prior to the election were that Labor would not countenance reversing its position on this issue.

If Labor does not support the Repeal Bill, then the Government’s ability to pass the Repeal Bill through Parliament will depend on the final composition of the Senate. At the time of posting this article it remained uncertain whether the Government would have a majority in the Senate in its own right from 1 July 2014. If the Government does not achieve the required numbers it has committed to call a double dissolution election. The fastest possible time frame for repeal via a double dissolution is likely to be approximately 8-9 months from the election, but the repeal could potentially take several months longer than this.

Direct Action Plan

The Government aims to commence its Direct Action Plan by 1 July 2014. The Direct Action Plan is an incentive based policy designed to support emissions reduction activities through:

• a capped government fund which will purchase “lowest cost abatement” from projects that reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions (Emissions Reduction Fund), and
• the imposition of financial penalties on businesses which exceed their “business as usual” emissions baselines.

The details of the Direct Action Plan will be developed through a white paper process which the Government proposes to start by 7 October 2013. We note that legislation to introduce the Direct Action Plan will be subject to the same hurdles as discussed above for the Repeal Bill.

Although the exact details of the Emissions Reduction Fund will be finalised during the white paper process, it is proposed that Low Carbon Australia will buy the “lowest cost per tonne abatement” from entities which:

• reduce emissions through a project approved under the existing and/or expanded Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI), or
• create abatement by operating below their “business as usual” baseline.

Low Carbon Australia will purchase abatement through a reverse auction where entities can voluntarily place bids based on the lowest price they are willing to sell their abatement for. Low Carbon Australia will be able to enter into forward contracts with entities to purchase abatement which may be delivered up to 7 years in the future. Funding, however, will only be delivered once abatement is actually achieved. The Government is adamant that it will not pick and choose what types of projects it will purchase abatement from, but rather, will simply purchase the lowest cost abatement.

The exact details of who will be liable to pay financial penalties under the Direct Action Plan and the value of these penalties is expected to be finalised during the white paper process. The Government has, however, announced that the “business as usual” emissions baselines will be calculated on an individual firm basis, will be based on a firm’s average emissions over the past five years using data reported via the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme and may potentially be linked to a firm’s emissions intensity.

The Government’s targets and approach to emissions reduction will be re-assessed in 2015 when an eight year plan for post-2020 will be developed.

Carbon Farming Initiative

The CFI will continue under the new Government and will be one of the main platforms for developing abatement under the Direct Action Plan. The Government intends to retain the project types and methodology determinations which have been approved to date under the CFI and also proposes to expand the CFI by:

• expanding the types of projects which are eligible under the CFI (for example, adding types of projects which deliver abatement from energy efficiency, waste coal mine gas, transport, composting/recycling etc)
• expanding the methodology determinations which are available under the CFI and in particular speeding up the process to have a methodology determination approved (for example, methodologies from international schemes such as the Clean Development Mechanism are proposed to be imported into the CFI), and
• providing an option for carbon sequestration projects to be carried out with a shorter permanence period of 25 years (instead of 100 years).

Changes in institutional and governance arrangements

The Government has announced that it intends to merge the Commonwealth Climate Change and Environment Departments.

The Government has also committed to abolish the Climate Commission, the Climate Change Authority, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and the Energy Security Fund. In particular the Government intends to introduce legislation to Parliament which will shut down the CEFC within the first sitting fortnight of Parliament.

The Government intends to retain the following organisations:

• the Clean Energy Regulator, which will be responsible for administering the expanded CFI (including new powers to approve methodology determinations), Renewable Energy Target and the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme
• Low Carbon Australia, which will conduct reverse auctions on behalf of the Emissions Reduction Fund, and
• the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, however, the Government has announced that there will be budget cuts to the agency.

Implications for CPM liable entities and other participants in carbon markets

Assuming the CPM is successfully repealed, the termination date for the CPM will most likely be the first quarterly accounting day after the Repeal Bill is passed. Importantly, the Government has stated that it will not repeal the CPM retrospectively.

If the CPM is successfully repealed part way through the 2013/14 compliance year, the Government has announced that liability under the CPM will be calculated on a pro-rata basis. For example if the CPM is repealed on 1 April 2014, the CPM will have operated for 9 months of the compliance year and liable entities will be required to surrender eligible emissions units to cover three quarters of their greenhouse gas emissions for 2013/14 by 1 February 2015.

Moving forward, although liable entities will no longer be subject to liability under the CPM, it remains uncertain whether the same entities would then be covered by the “business as usual” baseline under the Direct Action Plan. If so, these entities would be able to either sell abatement to the Emissions Reduction Fund if they emit below their baselines or could be subject to financial penalties if they emit above their baselines.

Repealing the CPM will also have implications for the demand for Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) which are generated under the CFI. In the 2012/13 financial year, 97% of all ACCUs issued were purchased by liable entities under the CPM. The Government, however, is confident that there will be demand for ACCUs through the Emissions Reduction Fund and on international markets.

Elisa de Wit is a partner with Norton Rose Fulbright Australia.

Source: www.reneweconomy.com.au

Say ‘Aloha’ to energy efficiency! The state of Hawaii has once again topped the Energy Services Coalition ranking for innovative approach to implementing energy and water efficiency retrofits in buildings in the United States. The state can serve as a case for the bipartisan energy efficiency legislation “The Energy Savings & Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013” introduced in the United States, aimed at saving America billions in dollars  while creating domestic jobs and reducing carbon emissions. Read more

Hawaii takes Energy Service Coalition’s top award for energy efficiency

By Duane Shimogawa for Pacific Business News (6 September 2013):

Hawaii is tops in the nation when it comes to an innovative approach to implement energy and water efficiency retrofits in buildings using energy savings to pay for projects, according to the Energy Services Coalition, a national nonprofit made up of experts hoping to increase energy efficiency and building upgrades through energy savings performance contracting.

The state took the Energy Services Coalition’s Race to the Top award for the second straight year.

“Energy remains a priority of this administration, and Hawaii’s top national ranking affirms the significant progress we are making in the area of energy efficiency,” Gov. Neil Abercrombie said in a statement. “Our investments in energy savings performance contracting will not only reduce costs at state facilities, it is also expected to create several thousand jobs.”

Race to the Top ranks states by investment per capita in energy savings performance contracting. Hawaii leads with an investment of $132.25 per capita, with Ohio coming in second with $108.58 and Kansas in third with $97.77.

In August, the state Energy Office accepted the Race to the Top award at the annual Energy Services Coalition Conference in Denver, Colo.

At the event, the coalition recognized Hawaii for its outstanding commitment to energy efficiency, environmental stewardship, and economic development through energy savings performance contracting.

“Through performance contracting, we are saving $14.2 million and 60.9 million kilowatt hours per year,” State Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism Director Richard Lim said in a statement. “Over 20 years, these energy savings will be equivalent to powering an estimated 171,623 households for one year.”

Duane Shimogawa covers energy, real estate and economic development for Pacific Business News.

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/2013/09/06/hawaii-takes-energy-service.html

Slashing Energy Waste Could Create 174,000 American Jobs

by Beth Buczynski in Earth Techling (6 September 2013):

These days, politicians from opposing parties rarely agree on anything. At least in public. Until we’re all comfortable with admitting that fossil fuels are a dangerous, dying industry, and that we should have switched to renewables decades ago, the small victories must be celebrated.

Take the recently introduced bipartisan energy efficiency legislation known as The Energy Savings & Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013 (S. 1392), for instance. Introduced by Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Rob Portman (R-OH), the bill has the potential to save America billions while creating domestic jobs and reducing carbon emissions–all things this country sorely needs.

According to new analysis released by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE), S. 1392 would cut government and industrial energy waste and help homeowners finance energy efficiency improvements, among other energy-saving measures. ACEEE found that the proposals being considered could, in combination, save consumers and businesses over $65 billion on their energy bills by 2030. That translates into a lot of extra revenue, not to mention the ability to hire more Americans to meet increased demand.”

Highlights of the proposed legislation:

Strengthen national model building codes to make new homes and commercial buildings more energy efficient while working with states and private industry to make the code-writing process more transparent.

Train the next generation of workers in energy-efficient commercial building design and operation through university-based Building Training and Research Assessment Centers.

Require the federal government – the single largest energy user in the country — to adopt energy saving techniques for computers, saving energy and taxpayer dollars.

Help manufacturers reduce energy use and become more competitive by incentivizing the use of more energy efficient electric motors and transformers.

“Altogether, these provisions would support over 152,000 new jobs in 2025, increasing to 174,000 jobs by 2030,” states an ACEEE press release. “In addition to providing economic benefits, the provisions would prevent unnecessary electric generation and natural gas consumption. Energy savings from these provisions would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 676 million metric tons by 2030.”

So far, American businesses seem to be on board, but will Congress listen? “As users of one-third of our nation’s energy, manufacturers are directly affected by the cost of energy, and we believe policies should promote research, development, and deployment of energy-efficient technologies,” said Ross Eisenberg, vice-president of energy and resources policy at the National Association of Manufacturers.  ”Manufacturers support the Shaheen-Portman bill, a set of common sense, bipartisan energy efficiency measures that would create jobs by saving energy in industrial, commercial, and residential sectors.”

Source: www.earthtechling.com and www.aceee.org/white-paper/shaheen-portman-2013