The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Waste reared its ugly head during Singapore International Water Week. But like most things in life on earth there is the good, the bad and the ugly whether we consider water, energy, climate, carbon or waste. What’s encouraging is that so much more time, effort and money is going into finding sustainable solutions to benefit mankind and the planet. We report on what’s happening in Singapore and globally from the Week’s events, as well as news of the formation of the Singapore Sustainability Alliance and plans for the first Waste Management and Environmental Technology event – or WasteMET Asia 2012 – to be co-located with the World Cities Summit and Water Week in Singapore first week of July 2012. So as not to appear too parochial, we also have the world covered, with views from the Washington Post on EPA and NOAA’s state of the climate report. Europe gets in the picture with moves to deal with traffic congestion, we hear what a famous Ford has to say and electric vehicles go on trial. How bad are set top boxes and what’s happening with biofuels in Australia? We get an update on the carbon tax from Giles Parkinson and veteran political commentator Barry Jones gives vent to his feelings. Now that Singapore gets back its railway land from Malaysia, there’s hope it will become a welcome green corridor and SGX calls for sustainable reporting. Which reminds us to remind you – don’t forget to send in your nomination for the 100 Global Sustain Ability Leaders’ quest. So it can’t be all bad! – Ken Hickson

Profile: Bill Ford

Sustainability is the biggest issue facing global business in the 21st century, according to Bill Ford. While breakthroughs like improved battery technology will likely provide a solution to the CO2 challenge, another issue – Global Gridlock – is quietly taking its place. So says the grandson of Henry Ford who is chairman of Ford Motor Company.

Why the world faces a massive traffic jam

By Bill Ford, Special to CNN

June 26, 2011 

 Sustainability is the biggest issue facing global business in the 21st century. While breakthroughs like improved battery technology will likely provide a solution to the CO2 challenge, another issue — “Global Gridlock” — is quietly taking its place.

Global gridlock can be defined by numbers. The world’s population is growing and is becoming more affluent. There are approximately 6.8 billion people in the world today. Within our lifetime, that number will approach 9 billion. Today, there are about 800 million vehicles on the road worldwide, but by mid-century that number could grow to between 2 and 4 billion.

If we continue to follow the personal mobility model that is now in place, the world’s roads are going to become too crowded. Commutes will become longer; traffic jams will become larger and more ubiquitous. Economic opportunity will be stifled. More time and resources will be squandered while people try to get from point A to point B. This all threatens the promises of both physical and social mobility, which in turn lessens opportunities to improve the world’s standards of living.

There’s no single answer to this new threat to our mobility, and it isn’t going to be solved by one person or group. It’s going to take corporations, entrepreneurs, NGOs, universities, governments and other interested parties all working together to build a global, interconnected system of transportation and mobility solutions. Smart businesses, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists will see this as a tremendous opportunity and a job creator.

Ford: A future beyond traffic gridlock If we continue to follow the personal mobility model that is now in place, the world’s roads are going to become too crowded.

We need to develop better mass transit systems and strive to find new forms of individual mobility. Cars will continue to evolve, but they will need to work in harmony with other cars, city infrastructure and other forms of transportation.

We need smart cars and smart infrastructure that communicate with each other while using real-time data to maximize their efficiency. We also need to tie in innovative and unique solutions that in their own way address global gridlock. Some of these solutions already are already being developed.

Masdar City is a carbon-neutral city in Abu Dhabi, being built from the ground up, where no internal combustion vehicles will be used within the city limits. People will get around on foot or bike above ground or with driverless pods beneath the city.

In Manhattan, 34th Street traffic will be managed better through dedicated bus lanes, private automobile restrictions, and optimally timed traffic lights. In cities across the United States, smart parking is already being enabled by phone applications that can alert drivers to parking spots — and even reserve them in advance. This will work to eliminate one of the largest contributors to inner-city gridlock: drivers trolling around for parking.

At Ford, we are rapidly expanding our commitment to intelligent cars that can wirelessly talk to each other to help make driving safer, more efficient and more enjoyable. We’re doubling our intelligent vehicle investment in 2011, and we’ve initiated a new 20-member task force of scientists and engineers to explore the technology’s broader possibilities.

Other automakers also are investing in related technologies. The goal is for all intelligent vehicles, one day, to be able to talk to each other, no matter what name is on the grille.

Just as we all embraced the green energy challenge, we must now start attacking global gridlock with the same passion. We are starting to make progress, but we’ve got a long way to go.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

Bill Ford is a car guy — his great-grandfather was Henry Ford, and he grew up inside the massive Ford Motor Co. So when he worries about cars’ impact on the environment, and about our growing global gridlock problem, it’s worth a listen. His vision for the future of mobility includes “smart roads,” even smarter public transport and going green like never before.

William Clay Ford Jr. is the executive chair of the Ford Motor Company, founded by his great-grandfather, Henry Ford, in Detroit. This massive company found great success selling cars to the world. Now, Ford is looking toward a future that’s not simply about selling more and more cars. Ford looks to a future where cars are greener and cleaner, move more efficiently on better, smarter road systems — and sometimes are replaced by mass transit and other forms of mobility.

Ford joined Ford Motor Company in 1979 as a product planning analyst.  He subsequently held a variety of positions in manufacturing, sales, marketing, product development and finance.  During the breakthrough 1982 Ford-United Auto Workers labor talks, which launched the employee involvement movement that revolutionized the industry, he served on the company’s National Bargaining Team.

Mr. Ford joined the Board of Directors in 1988 and has been its chairman since January 1999.  He serves as chairman of the board’s Finance Committee and as a member of the Sustainability Committee.  He also served as chief executive officer of the company from October 2001 to September 2006, when he was named executive chairman.

As CEO, Mr. Ford improved quality, lowered costs and delivered exciting new products.  During his time in that position he took the company from a $5.5 billion loss in 2001 to three straight years of profitability.  Through the years, his vision for the company has remained unchanged.

He says: “The ongoing success of Ford Motor Company is my life’s work. We want to have an even greater impact in our next 100 years than we did in our first 100.”

Source: www.ted.com

FORTUNE — For more than 30 years, Bill Ford, 54, has pushed his company and the auto industry to be more environmentally friendly. Soon after the great-grandson of Henry Ford first went to work in 1979, he was asked by Ford’s CEO to stop making nice with environmentalists because it was causing too much trouble. (Later Bill Ford got heat from the environmental community, especially in the 1990s, for building gas-guzzling SUVs.) Now the company’s executive chairman, Ford is seeing his efforts to make his company greener come to fruition this year with the global launch of a new series of battery-powered vehicles, including the all-electric Ford Focus. In this article Ford writes about the future of the electric car, the need for a more comprehensive U.S. energy policy, and how a network of cars connected by Wi-Fi technology will revolutionize the way we drive and even the way our cities are designed. –Brian Dumaine

Source: www.management.fortune.cnn.com

Big Benefits with Energy Cuts & Carbon Price

Energy Efficiency Opportunities report found that many of the most energy-intensive industries in Australia were finding they could reduce their energy consumption by 20% or more and get a return on their investment in less than two years. Giles Parkinson in Climate Spectator says there’s more: There is no doubt that delinking carbon and growth is the biggest structural shift in the global economy for decades, but most economies that already have a carbon price have achieved this decoupling with surprisingly little pain.

Giles Parkinson in Climate Spectator

1 July 2011

A few days after last year’s federal election, I welcomed the prospect that a hung parliament presented, for the first time in living memory, an opportunity to deal with the substantive policy issues that had been ignored in the preceding campaign.

The electorate, I suggested, had chosen well by not choosing at all. Sometime in the next week or two, as the Greens take their influential position in the Senate, and the negotiated agreement on a carbon price is finally unveiled, we will find out if that really was a choice well made.

The signs are that it will be. The fact that we are having a discussion at all about the carbon price is due to the leverage that the Greens and the country independents brought to the table. The benefits of a carbon price, that mysterious commodity that dared not be spoken of before the polls, are now self evident.

Energy Minister Martin Ferguson repeated the obvious on Thursday when he said it was clear that, without a carbon price, investment in the tens of billions of baseload energy that is required had stalled. And would continue to be so without one.

Treasurer Wayne Swan says Treasury modeling will show that the transition towards a low-carbon economy will occur at a modest cost, but having a carbon price will lay a path for emissions from the electricity sector to decrease by 60 per cent by 2050, rather than increasing by 60 per cent. “It is very difficult to imagine a first-rate economy in the future that hasn’t successfully made this transition,” he said.

There is no doubt that delinking carbon and growth is the biggest structural shift in the global economy for decades, but most economies that already have a carbon price have achieved this decoupling with surprisingly little pain.

In the UK, Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Huhne said the UK economy had already cut its emissions by 28 per cent since 1990, while growing the economy by 48 per cent. “We would be mad to miss this boat,” he said in a speech on Wednesday night underlying the case for a “Green Deal;” increasing the country’s emissions reduction target to 50 per cent and grabbing a share of the green economy, which he estimates is already worth $5 trillion. “Turning our backs on the next global growth sector when the world’s economic dynamos are pursuing it so strongly would be economically suicidal.”

Some have protested that Australia should not act, or at least not introduce a carbon price, until the likes of the US and China have done the same. But Australia’s coal-fired generators should count themselves lucky. Some might even get paid to close down. In the US, where partisan politics has succeeded in blocking a market price and the administration has to resort to the hammer effect of regulation, about 60GW of coal-fired energy will be closed in the next five years without a single dollar in compensation .

As for sovereign risk, James Mackenzie, the chairman of the $1.5 billion Gloucester Coal, put it in some perspective on Thursday. “I was in London last week on a roadshow for Gloucester Coal, so I would have seen 20 institutional investors. There was not one grizzle about the carbon tax. Not one mention of it,” he said in comments reported in The Australian. “We are talking about $1-a-tonne in the coal industry.  We are all going to be operating in a carbon-constrained environment, therefore I applaud anyone who is dealing with the policy that needs to be put in place to operate in that environment.”

And it may not be so difficult as one might think. The annual results of the federal government’s Energy Efficiency Opportunities, released on Thursday, found that many of the most energy-intensive industries were finding they could reduce their energy consumption by 20 per cent or more and get a return on their investment in less than two years.

The EEO program, which involved 207 energy-intensive companies, identified energy savings equivalent to abating around 11 million tonnes of greenhouse emissions, and delivering a financial benefit of $1.2 billion.

Of these, just over half  “have been, are being or will be adopted” and would deliver abatement of around 6 million tonnes and financial benefits of around $700 million a year, or around $117 per tonne of CO2-e reduced.

That percentage of the identified savings that have actually been implemented broadly reflects the anticipated pay-back period, most of which would deliver a full pay-back within two years, and all but a small fraction within four years. The Department of Energy noted that a carbon price will clearly improve the economics and the motivation even further.

The department found that 18 per cent of the companies had identified savings of more than 20 per cent of their annual energy consumption, and a further 24 per cent had identified savings of more than 10 per cent. Most of the savings – in absolute and percentage terms – came from the oil and gas and metal manufacturing sectors.

Just as an example of what could be done, Australia’s three major car makers – Ford, Holden and Toyota – had implemented measures that would cut their energy use by 13.7 per cent. This came from things such as improved maintenance of compressed air system, and a reduction in unnecessary paint shop energy use during non-production periods and the subsequent use of compressor waste heat.

It is a small snapshot of what might be possible. But as Europe has discovered with its ETS, the price of abatement will likely end up cheaper than expected. That would be good news for Australia, because it has more catching up to do than just about any other developed economy.

Source: www.climatespectator.com.au

Investing in Sustainable Water Solutions

The journey towards water security “will always be a ‘work-in-progress’, as new challenges emerge in the urban environment”. This from Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the launch of Singapore International Water Week when an extra S$140 million was committed to water research, as cities around the world contend with issues such as weather extremities in the context of urbanisation, increasing water demand and higher public expectations.

For more reports on Singapore International Water Week go to www.siww.com.sg

Jessica Cheam in Straits Times (5 July 2011):

Singapore has pumped fresh money into local water research to keep its edge as the leader in water technologies.

Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Monday announced that the National Research Foundation (NRF) will allocate another $140 million to promote research and development (R&D) in the water sector and to convert these ideas into practical water solutions.

Such investments are “imperative”, he said, “even if this means taking a long-term view, as the gestation periods can be long before the pay-offs to new technologies are realised”.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Singapore International Water Week, Mr Tharman shared with a 1,800-strong audience that the journey towards water security “will always be a ‘work-in-progress’ for Singapore, as new challenges emerge in the urban environment”.

These challenges are not unique to Singapore, he added, as cities around the world “will have to contend with issues such as weather extremities in the context of urbanisation, increasing water demand and higher public expectations”.

His comments come as Singapore has been experiencing flash floods across the island recently, which have caused traffic snarls and damage to properties worth millions of dollars. A panel of experts has since been set up to review Singapore’s drainage system and flood-prevention measures.

The new funds announced yesterday brings the total R&D budget for the water sector to $470 million.  In 2006, when the NRF was set up with a five-year $5 billion budget, it had set aside $330 million for water research.

Last year, the NRF received a $16.1 billion top up for research, innovation and enterprise under the Singapore Government’s recently heightened R&D push.

With these fresh investments, Mr Tharman said Singapore is hopeful that it will hit its goal of growing the economic contribution from the water sector from $500 million in 2003 to $1.7 billion by 2015. It also hopes for a doubling of jobs to 11,000 in the industry by then.

The NRF will allocate the funds to the Environment and Water Industry programme office, which was set up to convert research ideas into commercial water solutions.

Mr Tharman noted that under the NRF’s initiatives, some water projects funded include research into advanced membrane processes, bio-mimicry (technologies that mimic nature) and low-energy seawater deslination.

Mr Tharman told industry leaders at the four-day conference that collectively, the water community can surmount present challenges by improving on three areas.

The first is investment in technology and R&D. Secondly, cities can look at the challenges as opportunities to rejuvenate urban living, he said. He cited the Delta Programme in the Netherlands which acquires land for the temporary storage of excess river water. This doubles as parkland for recreational activities for most of the time when it is dry.

Singapore’s Active, Beautiful, Clean or ABC Waters programme – driven by national water agency PUB –  is a similar initiative which transforms “utilitarian drains and canals into beautiful and vibrant rivers and streams,” he said.

Thirdly, the industry needs closer collaboration between the public sector, academic and private firms, he said. One example is the Singapore-Delft Water Alliance set up in 2007 by the National University of Singapore, consultancy firm Deltares and PUB, which aims to develop solutions for the urban water cycle.

To date, there are 23 water research centres in Singapore set up by top industry firms such as Siemens and GE Water, he noted.

“By working across boundaries… we can potentially fast-track the development of solutions at a lower total cost, and make the challenge less daunting for everyone,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Environment Minister Vivian Balakrishnan told the Southeast Asia Water Ministers Forum that issues of water management have become increasingly important across Southeast Asia as it is particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events, due to their extensive and heavily populated coastlines.

“(The) forum is a stepping stone towards greater commitment in resolving some of these issues,” he said.

Source: www.sggreendrinks.wordpress.com

Business Times (7 July 2011):

Water and energy are inextricably linked and solutions to manage their scarcity ought to be better coordinated, industry leaders at the Water Leaders Summit yesterday said.

‘There is a growing realisation that we can no longer think about energy and water separately,’ said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, California.

He explained how it used to be believed that to cut dependence on imported oil, countries should look to biofuels to produce their own energy. But that led to water constraints and changes in food prices – implications beyond energy production.

‘The good news is that integrating energy, water and even food and climate policies, can yield much benefit,’ Dr Gleick said. He was part of the Water Leaders Roundtable yesterday, attended by more than 550 participants.

McKinsey & Company director Andrew Grant too, believes that the unprecedented pace of urbanisation brings ‘planning opportunities for joint development of urban water and energy solutions’ that has ‘never been seen before’, encouraging deeper private sector engagement too.

Siemens Water Technologies CEO Lukas Loeffler said that Siemens’ R&D innovations, based on future scenarios, include ones exploring the possibilities of integrating desalination and solar energy. And the use of dry cooling systems in oil refineries can be another means of bridging the water-energy nexus, said Alex Zehnder, director of the Alberta Water Research Institute.

Even in Saudi Arabia, where water is scarce and fuel plentiful, the fact that fuel is still finite drives regulation holding water players to certain standards of energy efficiency, said Thamer S Al-Sharhan, president & CEO, Marafiq Power and Water Utility Company.

Wrapping up the summit, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan, too, stressed integration of water and energy solutions. Singapore’s new Tuaspring desalination plant, being built by Hyflux, will be co-located with a combined cycle gas turbine power plant, raising energy efficiency and cutting costs, he said.

And, large scale public private partnerships, such as this one, are examples of another form of integration – that between the public and private sector’s expertise and effort, Dr Balakrishnan said.

‘As far as policy is concerned, I have the strong impression that people know what to do, the key problem is the politics of implementation,’ he said. Singapore has had the ‘political luxury of rational decision making’ in shaping water policies, a key element of which has been to price water at its true cost.

It is crucial to exploit new technologies too, and Singapore will continue to ‘test-bed new technologies’, said Dr Balakrishnan.

Agreeing with one participant’s concern over the paucity of shared data, he added that the Singapore government is making datasets available on the data.gov.sg portal for the private sector to create new applications, sieve out new insights, and churn out solutions.

Source: www.greenbusinesstimes.com

It Gets Worse Before it Gets Better

If you needed confirmation, here it is: Worldwide, 2010 was one of the two warmest years on record according to the 2010 State of the Climate report, which NOAA released. The peer-reviewed report, issued in coordination with the American Meteorological Society, was compiled by 368 scientists from 45 countries. And no surprise: Major greenhouse gas concentrations continued to rise. Carbon dioxide increased by 2.60 ppm, which is more than the average annual increase seen from 1980-2010.

June 27, 2011

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s State of the Climate in 2010

Worldwide, 2010 was one of the two warmest years on record according to the 2010 State of the Climate report, which NOAA released. The peer-reviewed report, issued in coordination with the American Meteorological Society, was compiled by 368 scientists from 45 countries. It provides a detailed, yearly update on global climate indicators, notable climate events and other climate information from every continent.

This year’s report tracks 41 climate indicators ― four more than last year ― including temperature of the lower and upper atmosphere, precipitation, greenhouse gases, humidity, cloud cover, ocean temperature and salinity, sea ice, glaciers, and snow cover. Each indicator includes thousands of measurements from multiple independent datasets that allow scientists to identify overall trends.  

While several well-known cyclical weather patterns had a significant influence on weather and climate events throughout the year, the comprehensive analysis of indicators shows a continuation of the long-term trends scientists have seen over the last 50 years, consistent with global climate change.

“We’re continuing to closely track these indicators because it is quite clear that the climate of the past cannot be assumed to represent the climate of the future. These indicators are vital for understanding and making reliable projections of future climate,” said Thomas R. Karl, L.H.D, director of NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.

Last year was marked by important climate oscillations like the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the Arctic Oscillation, which affected regional climates and contributed to many of the world’s significant weather events in 2010.

Highlights of some of the climate indicators include:

•Temperature: Three major independent datasets show 2010 as one of the two warmest years since official record-keeping began in the late 19th century. Annual average temperatures in the Arctic continued to rise at about twice the rate of the lower latitudes.

•Sea Ice & Glaciers: Arctic sea ice shrank to the third smallest area on record, and the Greenland ice sheet melted at the highest rate since at least 1958. The Greenland ice sheet melt area was approximately 8 percent more than the previous record set in 2007. Alpine glaciers shrank for the 20th consecutive year. Meanwhile, average sea ice extent in the Antarctic grew to an all-time record maximum in 2010.

•Sea Surface Temperature and Sea Level: Even with a moderate-to-strong La Niña in place during the latter half of the year, which is associated with cooler equatorial waters in the tropical Pacific, the  2010 average global sea surface temperature was third warmest on record and sea level continued to rise.

•Ocean Salinity: Oceans were saltier than average in areas of high evaporation and fresher than average in areas of high precipitation, suggesting that the water cycle is intensifying.

•Greenhouse Gases:  Major greenhouse gas concentrations continued to rise. Carbon dioxide increased by 2.60 ppm, which is more than the average annual increase seen from 1980-2010.

Several major cyclical weather patterns played a key role in weather and climate in 2010:

•El Niño-Southern Oscillation:  A strong warm El Niño climate pattern at the beginning of 2010 transitioned to a cool La Niña by July, contributing to some unusual weather patterns around the world and impacting global regions in different ways. Tropical cyclone activity was below normal in nearly all basins around the globe, especially in much of the Pacific Ocean. The Atlantic basin was the exception, with near-record high North Atlantic basin hurricane activity. Heavy rains led to a record wet spring (September – November) in Australia, ending a decade-long drought.

•Arctic Oscillation:  In its negative phase for most of 2010, the Arctic Oscillation affected large parts of the Northern Hemisphere causing frigid arctic air to plunge southward and warm air to surge northward. Canada had its warmest year on record while Britain had its coldest winter at the beginning of the year and coldest December at the end of the year. The Arctic Oscillation reached its most negative value in February, the same month several cities along the U.S. East Coast had their snowiest months ever.

•Southern Annular Mode:  An atmospheric pattern related to the strength and persistence of the storm track circling the Southern Hemisphere and the Antarctic led to an all-time maximum in 2010 of average sea ice volume in the Antarctic.

The State of the Climate report is peer-reviewed and published annually as a special supplement to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. The 2010 report is edited by J. Blunden, D.S. Arndt, and M.O. Baringer. The full report and a highlights document are available online.

Source: www.noaanews.noaa.gov

Washington Post asks: Will US ever get an effective climate policy?

Since the Republicans took control of US Congress, Republican lawmakers have repeatedly attempted to derail rules on the greenhouse gases that cause climate change, as well as new restrictions on conventional air pollutants that the EPA has regulated for decades. Instead of blasting the EPA, Congress could craft climate policy that is both more efficient and more effective — upping energy research budgets and putting a price on carbon. The Washington Post fears that won’t happen anytime soon.

Washington Post Editorial Board Opinion

By Editorial, Sunday, July 3, 7:15 AM

Practically every day on the campaign trail, Republican presidential hopefuls blast President Obama’s “job-killing regulations.” Atop their list are rules from the Environmental Protection Agency, one of which the EPA will finalize this week.

The would-be presidents aren’t alone. Since the Republicans took control of Congress, GOP lawmakers have repeatedly attempted to derail rules on the greenhouse gases that cause climate change, as well as new restrictions on conventional air pollutants that the EPA has regulated for decades — gases and particulates that contribute to asthma, heart attacks and other health problems. Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have announced that they will introduce a bill in August designed to roll back pending regulations on toxic air pollutants from utilities and industrial boilers.

Yet predictions of EPA-induced disaster are wildly overblown, at best.

Government released a study on greenhouse gas regulation last month, finding that the first phase of the EPA’s efforts will cost little and produce little in terms of emissions reductions, since power plants are becoming more efficient and therefore producing fewer emissions anyway. Bloomberg found that forthcoming greenhouse gas rules might be tougher, but that, among other things, utilities will respond by simply burning more cheap natural gas instead of coal.

Meanwhile, the Center for American Progress pointed out that many coal power plants — the sort of facilities that an EPA crackdown on toxic air pollutants such as mercury would affect — already have relevant pollution control technologies installed or in construction. And dozens of those that don’t are old, inefficient, rarely used and, in many cases, slated for closure. Last year a Credit Suisse study found that EPA anti-air-pollution rules might encourage some additional coal plants to shut down — but that the closures would actually help utilities in oversupplied power markets, not to mention improving ambient air quality.

There will, of course, be costs. But there will also be benefits. The EPA asserts that for every dollar spent on measures to cut particulate and ozone pollution, there will be $30 in economic benefits to public health — fewer sick days taken, fewer chronic illnesses, fewer early deaths. On greenhouse gases, a fair reading of the EPA’s new air pollution rules suggests that, if anything, they won’t do nearly enough to address the risks associated with climate change, perhaps cutting emissions a few percentage points relative to business as usual. And since the EPA is using an old statute to tackle carbon emissions, which it hasn’t done before, its effort to do even that will be subject to years of legal challenges.

Instead of blasting the EPA, Congress could craft climate policy that is both more efficient and more effective — upping energy research budgets and putting a price on carbon. But, judging from the rhetoric on the campaign trail and in the House, we aren’t optimistic that will happen anytime soon.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Sustainability Reporting Desirable but not Compulsory

In a significant move, the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) has released a how-to guide so firms can prepare ‘sustainability reports’ that show how they are reducing carbon emissions or improving labour relations, believing an increased emphasis on a firm’s impact on the environment and society will help the community and give companies a leg-up for long-term growth. It wants all listed companies to release such reports but is not making it compulsory.

Jonathan Kwok in Straits Times (28 June 2011):

THE Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) has released a how-to guide so firms can prepare ‘sustainability reports’ that show how they are reducing carbon emissions or improving labour relations.

The SGX believes an increased emphasis on a firm’s impact on the environment and society will help the community and give companies a leg-up for long-term growth. It wants all listed companies to release such reports but is not making it compulsory.

Some companies, including Olam International, Wilmar International, City Developments, Hyflux, Sembcorp Industries and Keppel Corp, already produce such reports.

The SGX is encouraging firms in industries that significantly impact the environment and local communities – such as agriculture, forestry, mining, energy and shipping – to issue the reports.

Investors pay a lot of attention to sustainability reporting, said SGX chief executive Magnus Bocker.

Responsible investing – which uses strategies that seek to achieve social good as well as financial returns – may be a niche in Asia-Pacific, but the field is growing rapidly, he noted.

Mr Bocker quoted estimates from asset manager Robeco Group and consulting firm Booz & Company, stating that responsible investments will make up between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of all assets under management worldwide in less than five years.

‘Since 2003, responsible investment has grown by 22 per cent (per year), in terms of assets under management, compared to assets under management generally growing by 10 per cent,’ said Mr Bocker. ‘Responsible investors’ will be a major group that will be evaluating businesses in the years to come, he added.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, was at yesterday’s launch of the guidelines.

He said the shift to sustainable production and development will offer significant cost savings to firms in the form of energy efficiency, waste reduction, increased recycling and higher productivity from a more engaged workforce.

‘All these translate, in very real terms, into improvements in companies’ performance and ultimately the bottom line,’ said Dr Balakrishnan. He added that sustainable practices and reporting will also help firms to build up their brands.

There has been an increasing focus in the region on corporate social responsibility practices. In 2007, Malaysia legislated that all companies listed on Bursa Malaysia must report on their social responsibility efforts, including the impact of their businesses on the environment.

What is involved

SUSTAINABLE reporting involves a firm disclosing aspects such as labour practices, policies on issues like corruption, diversity and what action it takes if one of its products causes injury.

The company should also report its steps taken to cut greenhouse emissions and energy use, and its management systems for the environment and biodiversity. Firms should record their progress in these areas against stated goals and industry benchmarks.

The SGX is particularly encouraging firms in industries that significantly impact the environment and local communities to undertake sustainability reporting.

These include those in agriculture, air transport, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, construction, food and beverages, forestry, mining, oil and gas, shipping and water.

Firms are encouraged to adopt globally accepted frameworks, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. They can also use guidelines specific to their industries.

Sustainability reports may be verified independently by external assurance providers. Companies can embed sustainability reporting in their annual reports or produce standalone reports.

They can make timely announcements via the SGX website.

Source: www.singaporelawwatch.sg

Set Top Boxes Set to Consume more Energy than Air Conditioning

Those little boxes that connect you to the world of cable TV and allow you to record your favourite shows could be eating up a lot more electricity than you think. The latest ‘set-top boxes’, together with high-definition TV sets and high-tech digital video recorders (DVRs), have been shown to consume more power than some new refrigerators and central air-conditioning systems, according to a new study by the US Natural Resources Defence Council, with some typical home entertainment configurations the single largest electricity drain in many American homes.

New York Times and  Straits Times, (27June 2011):

US study finds they use more power than some fridges, central air-con

NEW YORK: Those little boxes that connect you to the world of cable TV and allow you to record your favourite shows could be eating up a lot more electricity than you think. In the United States, the latest ‘set-top boxes’, together with high-definition TV sets and high-tech digital video recorders (DVRs), have been shown to consume more power than some new refrigerators and central air-conditioning systems. According to a new study by the US Natural Resources Defence Council, some typical home entertainment configurations have become the single largest electricity drain in many American homes.

This is because many homes have multiple cable boxes for different providers, with add-on DVRs. The study shows that a DVR and a cable box made for high-definition TV use an average of 446 kilowatt hours (kwh) a year – about 10 per cent more than a 0.6 cubic m energy-efficient refrigerator. The set-top boxes and DVRs are energy hogs mostly because their hard disk drives, tuners and other components are generally running full tilt, or nearly so, 24 hours a day even when not in active use.

So, while these devices have lower power ratings than, say, the air-conditioner or a ceiling fan, they draw more power per year because they are always left on. The study concluded that the boxes consumed US$3 billion (S$3.7 billion) in electricity per year in the US – 66 per cent of which is wasted because no one is watching and shows are not being recorded.

There are about 160 million set-top boxes in the US, or one for every two people. The study is likely to focus attention on the design of set-top boxes, and raise pressure on manufacturers as well as media providers to cut the energy consumption of these devices. ‘People in the energy-efficiency community worry a lot about these boxes, since they will make it more difficult to lower home energy use,’ said Mr John Wilson of the Energy Foundation, a partnership of foundations that promotes energy efficiency and renewable energy.

‘Companies say it can’t be done, or it’s too expensive. But in my experience, neither one is true. It can be done, and it often doesn’t cost much, if anything.’ One simple solution is to have these devices switch off or draw less power when they are not needed. Analysts note that the perpetually ‘powered on’ state of set-top boxes is largely a function of design and programming choices made by electronics companies and cable and Internet providers.

Cable boxes are generally not designed to be turned completely off, as programme schedules and other information have to be downloaded even when they are not being actively used. But the Natural Resources Defence Council noted in its report that pressing the so-called power button on many set-top boxes to put them into ‘standby’ mode has minimal impact on power consumption.

‘Box manufacturers and pay-TV system operators maintain that set-top boxes need to remain operational even when the user presses the ‘off’ button because they need to stay connected to the network to receive programme guide and software updates,’ the report noted.

‘This means that in most set-top boxes, the difference between ‘on’ and ‘off’ power may just be a watt or two.’ In some European countries, set-top boxes can not only automatically go into standby mode when not in use, but also enter an optional ‘deep sleep’, reducing energy consumption by about 95 per cent.

Some device manufacturers say that some media providers in the US do not take advantage of these reduced energy options because of worries that the lowest energy states could disrupt service. Cable companies counter that customers will not tolerate the time it takes to reboot the system once the system has been shut down or put to sleep.

Energy-efficiency experts say, however, that technical fixes could eliminate or minimise the waiting time. Pace, a British manufacturer, makes set-top boxes that use less power while not in active use, and says that energy consumption can be cut by remotely adjusting software over a cable.

Pace engineer Robert Turner believes that the biggest challenge could be maintaining the rapid response time that users now expect of home entertainment systems. ‘People are used to the idea that computers take some time to boot up,’ he said, ‘but they expect the TV to turn on instantly.’

Source: www.ytlcommunity.com

Green Light Changes in Europe for Urban Mobility and Liveability

In the United States, there has been much more of a tendency to adapt cities to accommodate driving, says Peder Jensen, head of the Energy and Transport Group at the European Environment Agency.  But in Europe there has been more movement to make cities more liveable for people, to get cities relatively free of cars.

By Elisabeth Rosenthal in New York Times (26 June 2011):

Zurich – Cities including Vienna to Munich and Copenhagen have closed vast swaths of streets to car traffic. Barcelona and Paris have had car lanes eroded by popular bike-sharing programs. Drivers in London and Stockholm pay hefty congestion charges just for entering the heart of the city. And over the past two years, dozens of German cities have joined a national network of “environmental zones” where only cars with low carbon dioxide emissions may enter.

Likeminded cities welcome new shopping malls and apartment buildings but severely restrict the allowable number of parking spaces. On-street parking is vanishing. In recent years, even former car capitals like Munich have evolved into “walkers’ paradises,” said Lee Schipper, a senior research engineer at Stanford University who specializes in sustainable transportation.

“In the United States, there has been much more of a tendency to adapt cities to accommodate driving,” said Peder Jensen, head of the Energy and Transport Group at the European Environment Agency. “Here there has been more movement to make cities more livable for people, to get cities relatively free of cars.”

To that end, the municipal Traffic Planning Department here in Zurich has been working overtime in recent years to torment drivers. Closely spaced red lights have been added on roads into town, causing delays and angst for commuters. Pedestrian underpasses that once allowed traffic to flow freely across major intersections have been removed. Operators in the city’s ever expanding tram system can turn traffic lights in their favor as they approach, forcing cars to halt.

Around Löwenplatz, one of Zurich’s busiest squares, cars are now banned on many blocks. Where permitted, their speed is limited to a snail’s pace so that crosswalks and crossing signs can be removed entirely, giving people on foot the right to cross anywhere they like at any time.

As he stood watching a few cars inch through a mass of bicycles and pedestrians, the city’s chief traffic planner, Andy Fellmann, smiled. “Driving is a stop-and-go experience,” he said. “That’s what we like! Our goal is to reconquer public space for pedestrians, not to make it easy for drivers.”

While some American cities — notably San Francisco, which has “pedestrianized” parts of Market Street — have made similar efforts, they are still the exception in the United States, where it has been difficult to get people to imagine a life where cars are not entrenched, Dr. Schipper said.

Europe’s cities generally have stronger incentives to act. Built for the most part before the advent of cars, their narrow roads are poor at handling heavy traffic. Public transportation is generally better in Europe than in the United States, and gas often costs over $8 a gallon, contributing to driving costs that are two to three times greater per mile than in the United States, Dr. Schipper said.

What is more, European Union countries probably cannot meet a commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions unless they curb driving. The United States never ratified that pact.

Globally, emissions from transportation continue a relentless rise, with half of them coming from personal cars. Yet an important impulse behind Europe’s traffic reforms will be familiar to mayors in Los Angeles and Vienna alike: to make cities more inviting, with cleaner air and less traffic.

Michael Kodransky, global research manager at the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy in New York, which works with cities to reduce transport emissions, said that Europe was previously “on the same trajectory as the United States, with more people wanting to own more cars.” But in the past decade, there had been “a conscious shift in thinking, and firm policy,” he said. And it is having an effect.

After two decades of car ownership, Hans Von Matt, 52, who works in the insurance industry, sold his vehicle and now gets around Zurich by tram or bicycle, using a car-sharing service for trips out of the city. Carless households have increased from 40 to 45 percent in the last decade, and car owners use their vehicles less, city statistics show.

“There were big fights over whether to close this road or not — but now it is closed, and people got used to it,” he said, alighting from his bicycle on Limmatquai, a riverside pedestrian zone lined with cafes that used to be two lanes of gridlock. Each major road closing has to be approved in a referendum.

Today 91 percent of the delegates to the Swiss Parliament take the tram to work.

Still, there is grumbling. “There are all these zones where you can only drive 20 or 30 kilometers per hour [about 12 to 18 miles an hour], which is rather stressful,” Thomas Rickli, a consultant, said as he parked his Jaguar in a lot at the edge of town. “It’s useless.”

Urban planners generally agree that a rise in car commuting is not desirable for cities anywhere.

Mr. Fellmann calculated that a person using a car took up 115 cubic meters (roughly 4,000 cubic feet) of urban space in Zurich while a pedestrian took three. “So it’s not really fair to everyone else if you take the car,” he said.

European cities also realized they could not meet increasingly strict World Health Organization guidelines for fine-particulate air pollution if cars continued to reign. Many American cities are likewise in “nonattainment” of their Clean Air Act requirements, but that fact “is just accepted here,” said Mr. Kodransky of the New York-based transportation institute.

It often takes extreme measures to get people out of their cars, and providing good public transportation is a crucial first step. One novel strategy in Europe is intentionally making it harder and more costly to park. “Parking is everywhere in the United States, but it’s disappearing from the urban space in Europe,” said Mr. Kodransky, whose recent report “Europe’s Parking U-Turn” surveys the shift.

Sihl City, a new Zurich mall, is three times the size of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Mall but has only half the number of parking spaces, and as a result, 70 percent of visitors get there by public transport, Mr. Kodransky said.

In Copenhagen, Mr. Jensen, at the European Environment Agency, said that his office building had more than 150 spaces for bicycles and only one for a car, to accommodate a disabled person.

While many building codes in Europe cap the number of parking spaces in new buildings to discourage car ownership, American codes conversely tend to stipulate a minimum number. New apartment complexes built along the light rail line in Denver devote their bottom eight floors to parking, making it “too easy” to get in the car rather than take advantage of rail transit, Mr. Kodransky said.

While Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has generated controversy in New York by “pedestrianizing” a few areas like Times Square, many European cities have already closed vast areas to car traffic. Store owners in Zurich had worried that the closings would mean a drop in business, but that fear has proved unfounded, Mr. Fellmann said, because pedestrian traffic increased 30 to 40 percent where cars were banned.

With politicians and most citizens still largely behind them, Zurich’s planners continue their traffic-taming quest, shortening the green-light periods and lengthening the red with the goal that pedestrians wait no more than 20 seconds to cross.

“We would never synchronize green lights for cars with our philosophy,” said Pio Marzolini, a city official. “When I’m in other cities, I feel like I’m always waiting to cross a street. I can’t get used to the idea that I am worth less than a car.”

Source: www.nytimes.com

Electric Car Test Run & Sustainable Funding Flagged

The Energy Market Authority (EMA) and Land Transport Authority (LTA) flagged off nine battery-powered cars: four Smart two-seaters from Daimler and five Mitsubishi iMiEVs, the first test fleet which will eventually have about 90 vehicles, comprising 25 iMiEVs and 20 Smarts, plus an assortment of models from Renault, Nissan and possibly other manufacturers. And the Government has committed S$400 million to spearhead research and development for a sustainable Singapore, with three-quarters of the amount to go towards energy solutions.

By Christopher Tan, Senior Correspondent, Straits Times (26 June 2011):

A long-awaited trial to test the durability, running cost and long-term performance of all-electric cars here was plugged in and switched on yesterday.

That was when the Energy Market Authority (EMA) and Land Transport Authority (LTA) flagged off nine battery-powered cars: four Smart two-seaters from Daimler and five Mitsubishi iMiEVs.

All in, the EV (electric vehicle) test fleet will have about 90 vehicles, comprising 25 iMiEVs and 20 Smarts, plus an assortment of models from Renault, Nissan and possibly other manufacturers.

Most of these cars will be arriving from next month to next year.

The $20 million, three-year trial is open only to companies and organisations, not individuals.

For now, the cars will juice up at five charging stations set up by Bosch. It will expand its network as more such vehicles arrive.

Cost-wise, it is just as well that this test is a restricted one. Despite the tax-free status of the electric test fleet, the all-in costs – compared to those for similar-size petrol-driven cars – will not appeal to common folk, even if they are environmentally conscious.

First off, the cars are costly, even without the taxes and levies that conventional cars attract here. A Mitsubishi iMiEV test car, for instance, is around $90,000 – about the price of a slightly bigger petrol-driven Honda Jazz.

The Smart two-seater, which is not for sale, leases for $1,400 a month. The rate is similar to that of a full-size Korean family sedan.

Next, unlike most cars here, electric cars are not entitled to any scrap rebate.

Also, there is a $1,600-a-year special fee that users have to pay, which is more than the road tax of many mid-size cars.

As for running costs, a flat monthly charge of $180 is levied for using Bosch’s electric stations; that is equivalent to what many small petrol cars incur monthly at the pumps.

Insurance rates are also slightly higher than the coverage for normal cars.

Still, the LTA and EMA seemed optimistic at yesterday’s flag-off. LTA chief executive Chew Hock Yong said: ‘We are encouraged by the support of the business community for this test-bed.’

Firms that signed up for the cars are Clean Mobility Singapore, Daimler South East Asia, GP Batteries, Mitsubishi Corp, Mitsubishi Electric Asia, Mitsubishi Elevator Asia, Senoko Energy Supply, and Vestas Asia Pacific Wind Technology.

The LTA and the Ministry of Manpower also signed up.

EMA chief executive Chee Hong Tat said: ‘The purpose of the electric vehicle test-bed is to gain a better understanding of EV technologies, business models and user preferences which will give us more information to determine the feasibility of using EVs in Singapore.’

At the end of the three years, the Government will decide if it is worthwhile to incentivise the use of EVs, and if so, how sizeable its incentives should be.

Observers feel that electric vehicles are non-starters without government carrots, as they cost twice the price of normal cars or more.

Motorist Shreejit Changaroth, 54, added that makers of electric vehicles need to overcome two other hurdles: their range and charging time.

Right now, most can cover only 200km or less on a full recharge, which takes around eight hours at a normal charging point and 45 minutes at a high-voltage quick-charger.

‘I often clock over 100km a day,’ the engineer said. ‘I come home late, and sometimes, I even forget to charge my cellphone.’

Most drivers here clock less than 60km a day. But the main proposition of electric cars is their relative ‘greenness’.

The EMA reckons electric cars charged by electricity generated from natural gas power stations (as is the case in Singapore) will account for 66 per cent less carbon dioxide than petrol equivalents.

After all, electric motors are more efficient than fossil fuel-driven engines.

Source: www.app.nccs.gov.sg

By Vimita Mohandas for Today (28 June 2011):

In the search for urban sustainability here, energy resilience looks set to be the key focus.

Of the S$400 million the Government has committed to spearhead research and development for a sustainable Singapore, three-quarters of the amount will go towards energy solutions that can be deployed within 20 years.

The announcement yesterday at the inaugural Urban Sustainability R&D Congress highlighted five priority areas of sustainable urban living, urban mobility, green building, urban ecology and food.

Already, projects could soon be underway to meet Singapore’s future food demands, with proposals now under evaluation by the National Research Foundation under a S$50-million programme set aside for this.

Another S$50 million will come from the National Development Ministry, which is doubling its research fund to cover other aspects of urban sustainability for the nearer term.

But long-term cost competitive energy solutions that can improve efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and increase energy options will get the most resources.

And yesterday’s R&D congress kicks off a new platform for government, research institutes and the private sector to discuss which R&D responses can best overcome Singapore’s urban sustainability challenges.

Some 800 participants, including from 12 government agencies, participated yesterday.

Opening the congress, Minister of State (National Development) Tan Chuan-Jin said space constraint was another key challenge.

“Every year, we have many young Singaporeans going into the workforce, setting up families. We need to house them and we need to find a creative way to organize ourselves from an infrastructural perspective,” he told reporters.

“But it’s not just the building space, it’s really about the living space — how do you integrate everything together.”

The set-up of the congress will allow for collaboration on some specific projects, such as Punggol Eco-Town, CleanTech Park, Jurong Lake District and Marina Bay.

These “living labs” present different opportunities: Punggol is a residential test-bed, CleanTech Park is an industrial test-bed, while Marina Bay and Jurong Lake District are mixed-use settings.

And as these sites undergo development, the Government wants companies and researchers to focus on applying cutting- edge technologies that can come onstream in the near term.

“The next chapter of the Singapore Story must be about us confronting these challenges with the same human ingenuity as we did before,” said Brigadier-General (NS) Tan.

“Because there are few city states in the world that will feel the pressures of urbanization more keenly than us, Singapore cannot rely on ready solutions from others and must lead the way to find innovative solutions.”

To recognise and support such efforts, he presented the Minister for National Development R&D awards yesterday for three technological innovations.

The Housing and Development Board’s Treelodge@Punggol and the Building and Construction Authority’s Zero Energy Building received the Distinguished Award, while the Vertical Farming project by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority won the Merit Award.

Source: www.app.nccs.gov.sg