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On Monday, I headed out to scenic Middleburg, Virginia for the 2015 Volkswagen Full-Line Drive.

As the name implies, the event showcased Volkswagen's full vehicle portfolio, from the sporty Passat to the classic Jetta, but one thing in particular got me excited: Our group of journalists and bloggers was the first in the world to hop behind the wheel of the 2015 e-Golf, Volkswagen's first fully-electric vehicle for the U.S. market.

As the morning sun basked across the Virginia countryside, I couldn't wait to hit the road. Read on for an up-close look at the e-Golf, which is set to hit the market in November.

e-Golf at a glance

Priced at around $35,000 (or a $299 per month lease), the e-Golf is not only cost-competitive with models like the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf, but also with more buzz-worthy rides such as the new BMW 3 series or forthcoming Tesla Model 3. Its range is nothing to shake a stick at either. It's officially set at 70 to 90 miles but has achieved over 100 miles in road tests, depending on driving style, Volkswagen's product strategy team said. For comparison, the Volt's range is around 38 miles, while BMW officially sets an 80- to 100-mile range for the i3.

At first glance, the car doesn't look much different from the original Golf hatchback, which has been in VW's portfolio for 40 years. (The similarity is a plus for some who complain that electric vehicles often resemble the Jetson family spaceship but may be a knock for others who enjoy the futuristic look of their EV.) A few differentiating factors: The e-Golf's front and rear bumpers were redesigned for improved aerodynamics; it features LED headlights in a unique C-shape; and, if you look closely, you'll notice it doesn't have a tailpipe.

After a few quick looks (and moment or two to snap pictures, of course), it was finally time to drive.

Behind the wheel

After a brief scuffle trying to get the motor running, my test ride partner and I were ready to roll. (As a fellow tester over at Clean Tecnica reported, this was a common occurrence; pro tip: press the button and hold.) I had dibs on the first leg of the trip, and within a few minutes, I was pleasantly surprised by the smooth ride.

I've had the chance to test drive a few EVs in recent years, and 'smooth' isn't always the operative word when it came to driving experience. In some cases, the ride can be downright jerky, especially for a first-time driver, as regenerative braking systems kick on and the vehicle abruptly downshifts to send energy back into the battery. The e-Golf, however, provides a fairly seamless experience, hugging the curves of Middleburg's country roads and slowing down gradually as I lift my foot from the accelerator -- saving energy without sending us jolting toward the dashboard.

The e-Golf has a fairly modest 115 horsepower, but its best-in-class torque of 199 foot-pounds really revs up the fun. As I punch the accelerator, the peppy e-Golf takes off and pushes us back in our seats. While it's by no means a racing car (it takes about 10 seconds to go from zero-to-60), it's noticeably quicker than the average hatchback or mid-size sedan -- which is probably enough for the average driver, myself included.

For battery optimization, the e-Golf offers “Normal," “Eco" and “Eco+” modes. Eco mode decreases the output of the air conditioner, which we didn't even notice on this pleasant summer day, and limits power by about 15 to 20 percent while increasing battery range. Eco+ is a bit more extreme: It caps speed at 55 miles-per-hour and deactivates most of the air conditioner compressor functions. Depending on your driving style, you can gain 10 to 20 miles of range in these modes, which can also help you get out of a jam if battery power is running low.

Drivers can also choose from three regenerative braking modes, meaning you can almost drive without using the brake pedal. These settings can take some getting used to -- and may send you into that jerky territory -- but they can also increase battery range by up to 20 miles, especially in the stop-and-go driving environment of the city.

While we had the pleasure of cruising around in 75-degree temperatures, some testers still had questions about winter driving -- a common concern with EVs. But VW's team was ready with the answers: To help ensure optimal performance in cold weather, a newly developed heat pump system uses both ambient air and heat from the drive system components to warm the cabin rather than relying solely on the high-voltage heater, which can help to reduce on-board electrical consumption, especially in winter driving.

The raw numbers

For the left-brainers among you, here are the need-to-know specs:

• Horsepower: 115


• Torque: 199 foot-pounds


• Battery: 24-kilowatt lithium-ion (made by Volkswagen in-house)


• Range: 70 to 90 miles


• Charging time: Roughly 20 hours for a full charge on a standard 120-volt outlet; less than 4 hours for an 80 percent charge on a 240-volt outlet; or about 30 minutes for an 80 percent charge on a DC fast-charge outlet


• MPG: 105 MPG equivalent


• Seating capacity: 5


• Cargo volume (trunk): 22.8 cubic feet


• Cargo volume (seats down): 52.7 cubic feet


• Total price: $35,445 for the fully equipped SEL Premium model; a home charging unit from VW partner Bosch Automotive Service Solutions costs around $550 extra, plus installation costs

The bottom line

Compared to other mass-market EVs that tap out at around 40 miles of battery range, the e-Golf is much more realistic for the average driver. When asked if the company plans to release an extended-range model, Volkswagen's product strategy team said yes -- but not for a while.

"That's part of our planning but that's obviously many years out as the technology and the price of the cells gets to where we need it to be," said Wade Harris, e-Mobility program specialist for Volkswagen of America. "The Volkswagen customer expects a really nice car at a certain price point, so we have to be able to meet those demands."

That said, if you're driving in the city, a 70- to 90-mile range is more than sufficient -- especially when you factor in the regenerative braking. However, as is always the case for city-dwellers considering an EV, it really only makes sense if you have the ability to charge up at home or work.

Volkswagen also offers a holistic package for folks experiencing range anxiety. In addition to the partnership with Bosch for home chargers, e-Golf drivers will have access to more than 18,000 ChargePoint stations around the U.S. The e-Golf will also have its own dedicated app, called VW Car-Net e-Golf. In addition to monitoring things like miles driven, journey time and estimated electric motor power consumption, the app allows users to plan out their days based on where charging stations are available. If that's not enough, a complimentary roadside assistance program will pick a driver up if he or she runs out of juice.

Those particularly interested in environmental impact will be pleased to know that VW's partnership with 3Degrees offsets greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the e-Golf's production and distribution, as well as those from battery charging for up to 36,000 miles of driving. The automaker also linked up with SunPower to to offer e-Golf owners “premier access” to SunPower’s upcoming home solar energy storage solution.

As with basically every electric vehicle on the market today, the e-Golf may not be right for everyone. But after testing it out for myself, I'd say it's worth going for a spin at your local dealership. You may just fall in love like I did.

Image credit: Interior and engine images courtesy of Volkswagen; Additional images by Mary Mazzoni

Editor's Note: Hotel accommodations for the two-day event were provided by Volkswagen of America.

Due to more consumers’ demands for transparency about the products they buy — and the fact social media can expose the difference between what companies say publicly and what goes on from the shop floors to the boardrooms — shopping and sourcing ethically is easier (or more confusing) than ever before. We at Triple Pundit have long traced the journey of ethical certifications such as fair trade, B Corporations and the controversial labeling of GMO and non-GMO products. Now consumers concerned about how women are treated in the workplace, as well as the global disparity between men’s and women’s wages, among other disparities, can consider gender equality when making purchasing decisions.

Switzerland-based EDGE (the Global Business Certification Standard for Business Equality) is banking its gender equality certification will resonate with businesses and consumers. Its mission is simple: to engage corporations all over the world in creating equal opportunities for both men and women within the workplace. Currently the organization is working with 60 companies in 14 various sectors on all continents.

Across the pond, EDGE has found success with some marquee firms, including the Switzerland divisions of Ikea and Deloitte. And this week, the organization announced that L’Oréal USA is the first American firm to obtain EDGE’s gender equality certification. That success follows in the footsteps of a White House summit in June that highlighted EDGE’s certification system as one way to improve gender equality in the workplace.

Analogous to the green building standardization system LEED, EDGE grants three different seals. ASSESS is given when a company makes a public commitment to gender equality and develops a plan to continue progress on this issue. The “silver” certification, MOVE, is possible if a company has actually executed such a framework and has taken clear, measurable steps in this direction. The highest certification, LEAD, is given by EDGE to an organization if it is absolutely clear that gender equity has been achieved and the company reaps results. All certifications are valid for two years.

For many women — and men who want their mothers, wives and daughters to be treated fairly in the office — this certification system should resonate when considering the data out there. Depending on how you crunch the numbers, women on average earn 70 to 90 percent of the wages compared to men. In the U.S., that figure ranges from 77 to 91 percent. And in many ways, the disparity widens even more up the corporate ladder. The United Nations is among many organizations that suggest the pay gap becomes deeper with experience, seniority and age. At the very top, only 9 percent of directors on global corporate boards are women; 4 percent of companies ranked within the Fortune 500 have a women CEO. Furthermore, as Lucy Marcus, corporate governance expert and CEO of Marcus Venture Consulting notes, gender equality is not only about fairness. The evidence suggests gender equality, and an overall diverse company starting from the boardroom and C-suite on down, is actually beneficial for a company’s bottom line.

Some companies are starting to notice and are making moves in this direction. As 3p writer Andrea Newell points out, Walmart, which does not have the friendliest history towards women, has started calling out products produced by women-owned businesses on their shelves. But watch for more consumers, and businesses, to inquire whether companies are committed to gender equality beyond public proclamations and eye-catching logos. EDGE is taking a bet that the world is more than ready to hold businesses accountable on this issue, and it will be interesting to see whether it catches on and how such companies embracing this standard will perform compared to their peers in the coming years.

Image credit: EDGE

Leon Kaye has lived in Abu Dhabi for the past year and is currently spending some time in Uruguay. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter. Other thoughts of his are on his site, greengopost.com.

Imitating nature's way of letting nothing to go to waste, materials researchers-turned-entrepreneurs are using the humble coconut husk to manufacture an expanding variety of useful, environmentally friendly products.

While husks are often discarded, they can be put to a variety of uses, such as binder-less particle board, sustainable packing material, automotive trunk liners and electric car battery pack covers. Additional applications include farm erosion netting, activated charcoal filters, potting materials and wall planters.

Also known as coir, the history of using coconut husks to manufacture a variety of natural bio-products goes back thousands of years. Today, it's progressing hand-in-hand with an inclusive model of international development centered on sustainable local market and business development, job creation and the opening up of new opportunities that could raise the living standards of millions of families living in the tropics.

Young research-driven companies in Texas, such as Essentium Materials in College Station, embody social-enterprise and triple-bottom-line values in which ethics and justice underpin environmentally, socially and economically sustainable product and business development.

An abundant, renewable resources

An abundant, renewable resource that thrives across a 2,800-mile-wide tropical zone, an estimated 50 billion coconuts are harvested annually across the tropics. Ninety-six percent are harvested by more than 10 million poor, small-scale coconut farmers subsisting on less than $500 per year, highlighted Baylor University's Dr. Walter L. Bradley and Stanton Greer in a research brief.

Bradley and Greer believe that by employing local, village-scale technology and labor, the value created by processing coconuts' constituent parts can be raised from less than 10 cents to more than $1 per coconut, “multiplying the income of 10 million coconut farmers worldwide from $500 per year to $5,000 per year.”

Lacking products and markets in which to sell, much of the value inherent in coconuts is being wasted, Bradley and Greer believe. The value of products produced from coconuts totaled just 16 cents per coconut, a total of only $3 billion in 2006, they note, with over 95 percent of that derived from coconut oil.

In addition to coconut meat, which is processed to produce coconut oil and a variety of other useful by-products that are sold locally and internationally, coconut husks “can be processed locally to create value, providing jobs and income to communities in under-developed, tropical nations worldwide,” they wrote.

Coconut husks as a substitute for synthetic fibers

Researching and developing ways of using fiber extracted from coconut husks to produce higher-value products has turned into more than a growing business for Elisa Teipel, her husband Blake Teipel and Matt Kirby. In addition to producing environmentally friendly products, the three founders of Essentium Materials see their business venture as a means of lifting small coconut farmers out of poverty.

As explained in a National Science Foundation profile, “Today their new company, the College Station, Texas-based Essentium Materials, is turning out automotive trunk liners, load floors (battery pack covers in electric cars), and living wall planters, among other things, with technology they developed that produces a composite material made of coconut husks combined with recycled plastics.”

The resulting coconut husk-based composite material, NSF highlights, “is greener and cost neutral, as well as stronger and stiffer, than the traditional all-synthetic plastic fibers, and with neutral anti-microbial properties due to a high lignin content.”

Another big benefit could be realized if coconut husk fibers were used instead of synthetic polyester fibers: an annual reduction in petroleum consumption of 2 to 4 million barrels and an associated reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 450,000 tons each year.

As Teipel said, "The coolest part is seeing something that was once just waste become a new resource ... Also, it is benefitting both the environment and the communities in developing nations where the coconuts are grown."

*Image credits: 1) AmazingData.com; 2) LocalForage.com

Editor’s Note: This is the final post in a series of three on dynamic governance, a new way to run either for-profit companies or nonprofit organizations.

Rainbow Community School is a private alternative school in Asheville, North Carolina, serving children from preschool through eighth grade. Lessons and staff meetings begin with centering – giving an opportunity to turn inward to find wisdom and personal power. The school uses positive discipline, an approach that builds self-esteem and empowers children to develop self-control and responsibility.

Although the school has incorporated holistic education throughout its 35-year history, the management hasn’t always been as cohesive as it is today. “When I came in 2007, the school was 30 years old, had been through a low point or two, and was definitely in one of the lower points in its history,” explains Renee Owen, executive director of the school. “It was struggling for a few years ... The board was a managing board and the executive director didn’t have clear power. The board didn’t think the executive director was competent and there was a lot of toxicity.”

Four years ago, a parent urged Owen to look into dynamic governance. “John Buck [consultant and CEO of The Sociocracy Consulting Group] came and did an introduction to dynamic governance for a few of us and we were really intrigued and inspired. We decided to pilot it with the faculty. I couldn’t believe how quickly it transformed everything.”

Dynamic governance is a method of governance and decision-making in which authority for policy decisions is delegated to small groups -- called circles -- with distinct aims and domains. Every voice in a circle is heard when creating policies, and there are opportunities for employees at all levels to give feedback -- making an organization more adaptable and responsive to change. In many organizations, this creates synergy that results in higher-quality decisions and greater agility.

Dynamic governance helped the school to undertake difficult tasks, such as rebranding and renaming the school. “With dynamic governance, you can propose an idea and people can make the idea better,” says Owen. “My experience is that things move more quickly, and people can really flesh out ideas. In addition, you can pilot an idea and try it out for a couple weeks.”

In dynamic governance, the hierarchy within a circle temporarily dissolves for gathering feedback and creating policy, but the hierarchy is intact for daily operations (see diagram below). “Hierarchies are very efficient,” explains Owen. “If there is an emergency, the person on top issues orders. Dynamic governance doesn’t throw out the baby with the bath water. When you need hierarchy, it’s still there.”

Feedback is another valuable aspect of dynamic governance, where input is gathered throughout the levels of the organization. “There’s a feedback loop of lead-do-measure,” explains Buck. “You sit back and make everyone equivalent through consent decision-making and ask, ‘How are we doing? Is this the policy we need to accomplish our aim?’ You can get feedback because the hierarchy is broken down.”

This feedback can make organizations more responsive to customer needs, employee concerns, the economic climate, environmental regulations and business conditions. “Once you get feedback, you get non-linear behavior. If you’re getting feedback from your employees and customers, you can get continuous change that may affect what you deliver. Introducing feedback makes possible a very responsive system.”

Before dynamic governance was used at Rainbow Community School, Renee Owen spent an excessive amount of time in meetings and managing miscellaneous tasks, such as planning celebrations and ensuring safe playground equipment. John Buck asked her to list all the tasks for which she was responsible, and then the entire staff used consent decision-making to distribute all the non-leadership items to other people.

“Dynamic governance made my job a lot more pleasant and I get a lot more done,” she explains. “It hasn’t decreased my work hours, but it has decreased the time I spend in meetings and I’ve been able to delegate more.” This frees her to focus more on longer term strategic issues. “Everything happens so much more quickly and runs so much better now.”

Buck says, “I have seen Rainbow Community School and for-profit companies alike increase their ability to adapt to changing conditions and respond to the market quickly as a result of adopting dynamic governance.”

The Rainbow Community School's difficult period has passed. The school is once again thriving and achieving major goals that seemed unobtainable before adopting dynamic governance.

“We went from a small private school struggling financially to being full with a wait list, having to turn away dozens of students and doubling the size of our campus,” she says. “We’ve done a lot in four years. I don’t know how we could have possibly done that without dynamic governance. It’s beyond what I thought was possible.”

Upper photo courtesy of Rainbow Community School

Lower Two Figures courtesy of Sheella Mierson of The Sociocracy Consulting Group

Editor's Note: The location of the Rainbow Community School was added to this post in response to a comment below. 

This post was updated on December 13, 2016.

Integrated resource management based on principles of sustainability is touted as a means of addressing numerous and varied challenges. Ecosystems and natural resource degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, and issues of social and economic justice are prominent among them. UTZ Certified has been putting these claims to the test with its Energy from Coffee Wastewater project.

Launched in 2010 in partnership with coffee farmers and communities in Central America, the Energy from Coffee Wastewater project proves that it's possible to generate renewable energy, tackle climate change, protect water resources, and raise locals' health and living standards at the same time.

Custom-built coffee wastewater and solid waste treatment systems have been installed at eight coffee farms in Nicaragua, 10 in Honduras and one in Guatemala as part of the project. The positive impact on over 5,000 people living in these communities has been substantial enough for UTZ Certified to reproduce the initiative in other countries.

The benefits of sustainable, integrated energy-water resource design

Zooming in on the agricultural sector, UTZ's research highlights the need for less wasteful, more sustainable and integrated energy and water resource planning and management.

Latin American countries produce 70 percent of the world's coffee, yet hold just 31 percent of the world's freshwater resources, UTZ notes. And while it takes some 140 liters of water to produce just one cup of coffee, just 1 percent of our planet's freshwater resources are available for human consumption. Moreover, over 70 percent of the water used in Latin America is returned to streams, lakes and rivers untreated -- jeopardizing drinking water supplies.

Growing coffee requires lots of water and results in the release of large amounts of untreated wastewater into waterways. All that coffee wastewater takes a toll on aquatic plants and animals, as well as downstream communities and eventually, coastal ocean waters.

Compounding the problem, the high-toxicity organic waste that comes with wastewater from coffee-growing taints local soils and produces methane -- a greenhouse gas that, though shorter-lived, is much more potent than carbon dioxide.

Sustainable farming, energy and water

UTZ's Energy from Coffee Wastewater project tackles each of these issues by taking a sustainable, holistic and integrated approach to resolving them. As UTZ elaborates, this entails:

• Treatment of essentially all water used in coffee processing;


• Over 50 percent less water used during coffee processing;


• Generation of significant amounts of biogas that's used to power households and coffee mills; and


• Prevention of the release of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

Han De Groot, UTZ Certified's executive director, had this to say:

“Coffee production is only environmentally sustainable when water is used efficiently and polluted water from the wet-mill process is treated. Local ecosystems do not have the capacity to clean the large amounts of contaminated fluids. Rural communities and coffee production depend intrinsically on a ready supply of fresh water. So if we want to talk about coffee produced in a sustainable manner then wastewater must be treated when released into the environment."

Moving ahead with its plans to replicate its Central America Energy from Coffee Wastewater project in other countries, UTZ has launched projects in Brazil and Peru. It is also working to attract additional funding to launch projects in Africa and Asia.

*Image credits: UTZ Certified

Researchers have long debated whether LEED certification provides a business advantage for hotels and motels, particularly in the U.S. Various studies have been conducted through the years that suggest that eco-certification programs do make a difference, particularly when it comes to customer patronage. Will customers seek out eco-certified accommodations, and can that loyalty be translated into higher revenue for the hotel or motel?

Last year we reported on Cornell University’s study of eco-certification of lodgings as a whole. The study, Hotel Sustainability: Financial Analysis Shines a Cautious Green Light, found that there were benefits to eco-certification, but they varied widely enough to be completely conclusive. The research also focused on results from a particular stream of data, specifically information obtained from Travelocity. In other words, it examined the outcome of eco-certified lodgings when promoted to a specific cost- and quality-conscious customer group.

This year’s report drills down a bit more, by focusing specifically on U.S. hotels that received LEED-certification. The three authors, Matthew C. Walsman, Rohit Verma and Suresh Muthulingam, looked at the revenue earned by LEED-certified hotels versus non-LEED hotels.

What they found was that “certified hotels obtained superior financial performance as compared to their non-certified competitors.”

To obtain their data, the researchers compared 93 LEED certified hotels with 514 non-LEED hotels. Because there is such a wide difference in hotel accommodations in the U.S., they used a three-step approach that allowed them to compare the data from hotels of similar structure, size and environmental parameters in order to isolate the revenue on a “difference-in-difference” comparison.

Since the LEED program rewards projects that are built in suburban or urban areas with supporting transportation systems (i.e., areas with high density that might benefit from eco-conscious commercial projects), the authors note that most of the comparisons were in suburban and urban areas. Interestingly, LEED certification was found more commonly with smaller hotels (75 to 146 rooms) than with larger, leading to the perception that “smallish hotels seem to be best suited for LEED certification,” an observation that vies with a study by CBRE that we reported on earlier this month. That report noted that most commercial properties in general that were either LEED or Energy Star certified were on the whole larger than those of the competitive non-certified set. Apparently, that may not include hotels certified between 2007 and 2012.

This year’s Cornell study, The Impact of LEED Certification on Hotel Performance, found that while the occupancy rate for LEED-certified hotels was slightly under that of non-LEED, the average daily rate (ADR) and the revenue gained per average room (RevPar) were both higher. The ADR tended to be $10 higher than non-LEED, and the RevPar was $20.

“The LEED hotels quickly made up the occupancy deficit recorded in the year prior to certification, and they outperformed competitors for two years following certification.”

The authors did note some limitations in the study, including the relatively new data, since the majority of the buildings were built between 2009 and 2011, when LEED really came into its own in the hospitality sector. This fact had some affect on how the properties were reviewed, e.g., a three-year period that included one year prior to certification and the first two years following. As well, LEED’s “boom” of 2010 appears to have taken a hiatus in 2011 and 2012. It’s not clear whether the drop in construction is on a solid rebound now that cities have been adopting their own green bylaws, many of which include LEED principles.

Lawrence Adams, vice president of the architectural firm ForrestPerkins, notes that while LEED has only been in existence in the U.S. as a certifying criteria since 2000, Europe has operated several similar programs since the 1990 and may have much more solid data on the benefits of architectural certification programs. It would be interesting to find out if the EU’s oldest programs, like the U.K.’s Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREAM) or the equally well known Haute Qualité Environnementale (HQE - English) of France, experienced the same kind of slow-down and if there are changes that the industry made to offset that change.

The Cornell team does note that this study leaves lots of room for expansion, including detailed studies of whether certification itself really makes a difference to the revenue of LEED-designed properties. Would LEED certification actually make a difference with structures that were built to LEED specifications, but which the owners opted not to certify, say because of added cost or time? With more cities adopting LEED concepts in their bylaws, this may be a great question to explore for a future Cornell hospitality study.

LEED Gold certified Hotel Aria, Las Vegas: Cygnusloop99

TriplePundit hosted a Stories and Beer Fireside Chat on Thursday, August 28 at 6:30pm Pacific (9:30 Eastern) at the Impact HUB San Francisco – and online via web cam. 

If you missed the live event, watch it here:

What do deforestation and labor rights have in common? What does your old mobile phone have to do with either? It turns out, a lot.  Three innovative organizations came to August’s “Stories and Beer” to talk about how mobile technologies,  including discarded phones, are being used to address a myriad of social and environmental problems.

Better World Wireless is a one-to-one wireless provider that gives a person in need a free mobile device loaded with content to help break the cycle of poverty and empower his or her life. Rainforest Connection transforms recycled cell phones into solar-powered listening devices that can monitor and pinpoint chainsaw activity at great distance – and contact authorities who can stop illegal logging. LaborVoices provides a warning system for labor violations based on direct feedback from workers by repeatedly polling workers through their mobile phones.

TriplePundit’s Founder, Nick Aster, led a conversation with Better World’s Matt Bauer, Rainforest Connection’s Nishant Bagadia and Labor Voices’ Kohl Gill.  They talked about each of their enterprises but also about the intersection of mobile services and sustainability. Most of the time was spent in an open Q&A with the audience! 

Schedule 

• 6:30 – 7:00 – beers and networking


• 7:00 – 8:00 – fireside chat and Q&A


• 8:00 – 8:30 – networking

Special addition:  In addition to Organic beer by Bison Brewery, we added some fabulous food to the mix this month with grilled cheese sandwiches courtesy of Feel Good, committed to ending hunger, one grilled cheese at a time.

 About Kohl 

Kohl Gill is CEO & Founder, LaborVoices, Inc. A quantum physicist turned social entrepreneur, he founded LaborVoices in 2010 after observing local labor conditions while working in several South Asian countries as an International Labor Affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility Officer with the U.S. Department of State.  Prior to that, he was a Senior Policy Analyst with the U.S. Department of Energy.  Before that, he was a Transparency and Anti-Corruption Fellow with Indicorps in the slum areas of Delhi, India.  Dr. Gill has a BS in Physics from Caltech and an MS and a PhD in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  He has led LaborVoices to operations in 4 countries on 3 continents, and many honors and awards including inclusion in the Purpose Economy 100, an Echoing Green Fellowship in 2013 and an invitation to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative in 2012.

About Matt

Matt Bauer, CEO and Co-founder, BetterWorld Wireless:  Matt’s major focus has been helping to lead the movement to leverage telecommunications as a force for impact. From his first position with U.S. House Telecom & Finance Subcommittee, he went on to found three companies and three nonprofits over the past 30 years, including the world’s first B2B telco focused on social and environmental impact, BetterWorld Telecom. His latest venture, BetterWorld Wireless, launched earlier this year and seeks to impact 1m people in the coming decade through its mobile service operator platform and Phone for Phone donation program. Prior to BWW, he helped lead a team partnered with the US Dept. of Commerce to co-found a workforce development company based in the U.S. Virgin Islands using broadband technology to create jobs in a distressed economy.   Matt has a BA in Telecommunications from Indiana University, an MBA from George Washington University and lives in SF with his partner Amy and their four hens.

About Nishant

Nishant Bagadia is a successful serial entrepreneur, where he has grown technology startups that are focused on implementing major change and innovation to global problems. His background includes consulting at Deloitte, executive leadership in digital health, and academic research at UC-Berkeley (PhD) and the London School of Economics (MS). At Rainforest Connection, he brings his experience, passion and dedication for creating a sustainable business solution to fight climate change and deforestation.

By Scot Case

The race to make defensible zero waste claims is well underway.

Lots of organizations, from city governments and universities to sporting venues and events to manufacturers and retailers, are pledging to drastically reduce or even eliminate any waste going to landfill.

Examples include:

• City governments: According to a survey of government officials, 14 percent of governments have a zero waste plan, including San Francisco; Seattle; and Austin, Texas.

• Universities: The American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), an association of college presidents addressing climate change issues, identifies waste reduction as an important part of any effort to reduce global warming pollution. Several universities are prioritizing zero waste initiatives, including Arizona State University, American University and the entire University of North Carolina system.

• Sporting events: The Green Sports Alliance promotes sustainability initiatives among sports teams, venues and leagues. Several of its members have aggressive waste reduction initiatives, including the Philadelphia Eagles, Ohio State football and the Waste Management Phoenix Open PGA golf tournament.

• Manufacturers: Lots of manufacturers, including Dell, Kimberly Clark, Honda, Procter & Gamble, Ford and others, have zero waste goals.

• Retailers: Walmart, Crate & Barrel, REI and other retailers have pledged to drastically reduce or even eliminate any waste going to landfill.

Some organizations are going beyond public pledges and having their zero waste and waste diversion claims certified by an independent, third-party certification authority like UL Environment.

Companies like GAF, Bridgestone, Mayer Bros. and the Waste Management Phoenix Open are getting claims validated to prove the accuracy of their claims and to gain a competitive advantage among consumers, business partners and investors who value waste diversion and the efficiencies it requires.

Interestingly, other companies are choosing not to have their claims publicly validated, but are opting to go through the same process and having their programs audited. Companies are finding value in the audit itself beyond the well-recognized public relations benefits.

Some of the additional value of a waste diversion audit, as reported to UL Environment auditors, includes:

Making money

Waste diversion is not just a “good for the planet” activity. It can also turn waste streams into profit streams because there is “cash in the trash.” A formal audit can identify potentially profitable waste streams that are not being captured or identify instances in which the company is not receiving full value for the materials it is recycling. Some companies capture only partial value from three or four waste streams, while others in the same industry earn maximum revenues from as many as 50 waste streams.

Saving money

During an audit at GAF, the UL auditor discovered the company was being inadvertently double-billed for some waste-hauling services. The mistake was discovered by reconciling waste volumes with billing invoices during the audit. Others have discovered savings by using audit results to demonstrate that the size or number of trash compactors or bailers can be reduced as a result of declining waste volumes.

Reinvigorating recycling and waste diversion programs

Many companies launch a zero waste or waste minimization effort with great fanfare, but over time management and employee focus shifts to other issues. Announcing that waste diversion claims will be audited is a way for a company to emphasize the importance of the effort, and turbo-charge the money-making and cost-saving opportunities associated with a zero waste or waste diversion initiative. Managers and employees always focus on whatever is being tracked and carefully scrutinized.

Ensuring consistent internal measurement

Large manufacturing companies collecting waste diversion information have discovered that different facilities are collecting, managing and reporting information differently. Some include cafeteria, break room and office waste when reporting waste diversion numbers; others only focus on manufacturing waste. An external, third-party audit of waste diversion numbers is one way to ensure companies are measuring things consistently so that the numbers reported by each facility are comparable. It is also a way of properly validating internal company processes and controls.

Creating a level playing field

Lots of organizations are announcing zero waste goals or high waste diversion targets, but they are frequently not comparable. Some organizations, for example, define zero waste as diverting at least 90 percent of their waste from landfills. While a 90 percent diversion rate is incredibly impressive, 10 percent can still be going to landfill; it is clearly not zero waste to landfill. When UL was developing its UL2799 waste diversion claim validation protocol, it discovered more than a dozen definitions of the word ‘zero.’ Auditing waste diversion claims against a clear, consistent, publicly-available protocol like UL2799 makes it possible to compare a company’s performance with others. Companies would not permit competitors to define their own independent financial reporting and auditing procedures; they should not permit competitors to do so with their waste diversion reporting or auditing.

Avoiding making exaggerated claims

Public zero waste and waste diversion claims invite public scrutiny. More than one facility manager has confessed something along the lines of: “We’ve been telling management our waste diversion rate is xx percent, but we’ve just been ‘eyeballing it.’ We’re not sure what will happen to our numbers after an actual audit.” An independent, third-party audit can help prevent public relations or legal headaches by ensuring public claims are accurate.

Earning Wall Street respect

Investors recognize that greener companies outperform traditional companies if for no other reason than that a company with strong environmental performance is an indicator of a well-managed company. Tracking, managing and auditing waste diversion metrics is an important environmental performance metric. Companies that carefully track an environmental metric like waste diversion rates clearly have a close eye on both environmental and financial performance.

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While some companies are seeking third-party UL validation in order to earn a UL Environment validation badge and make public claims about their waste diversion and zero waste successes, other companies see significant value in the audit itself.

They might not be interested in making or ready to make public waste diversion claims, but they are applying the old business adage that “what gets measured gets done."

They are also taking it one step further with the recognition that “what gets measured and audited gets done even better.”

Image credit: Kristian Bjornard via Flickr

Scot Case has been researching and promoting effective green marketing and responsible purchasing since 1993 and was co-author of the original “Sins of Greenwashing” study and advisor to subsequent editions. He is the Market Development Director for UL Environment. Contact him via Twitter: @scotcase, email: [email protected] or in Reading, PA, at 610-781-1684. This article represents the views of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of UL Environment or its affiliates or subsidiaries. This article is for general information purposes only and is not meant to convey legal or other professional advice.

A captain steers his ship using a compass. If the compass has become magnetized and no longer points north, the ship is likely to get lost. Likewise, governments use metrics and indicators to adjust policy to try and steer their economies. They depend on these metrics for reliable and meaningful guidance toward the direction that serves the greater good.

Gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the overall level of economic activity, has been the key indicator of growth which has long been considered the goal of economic policy. In recent years though, with multiple crises impinging on our world, many of which were created by ourselves, thoughtful people have suggested that maybe our course needs correction and maybe GDP growth no longer reflects what is most needed in our quest for economic progress. What kind of world are we striving for, and what measures can help us identify whether we are moving closer or further away from that goal?

What is it exactly that we are trying to grow? To what extent does GDP growth measure well-being, and what other metrics might more accurately reflect it?

The fact is, GDP makes no distinction between activities that enhance quality of life and those that diminish it. For example, expenditures related to recovery from a disaster or a crime are included as part of GDP, while all activities that take place within households, as well as actions by volunteers are excluded. It also includes the depletion of natural capital as income.

In 1972, Bhutan made Gross National Happiness its key indicator. Results are compiled by means of a nationwide survey.

Last week, a group of Nobel prize-winning economists met, for the fifth time, in the German town of Lindau near the Austrian and Swiss border. This year’s meeting featured a special guest, German chancellor Andrea Merkel. Joining the notables are young economists from 80 countries, hoping to learn, become inspired, and perhaps reflect deeply on what role their science might play in shaping the future.

Merkel, who has championed austerity, challenged the group. “Why were the economic sciences in the past several years of crisis so badly off the mark in terms of predicting or describing economic reality? Were the underlying economic theories wrong, or were we listening to the wrong people?"

She was referring, of course to the financial crisis of 2008. She also asked the group to consider new economic indicators that might be more useful in defining “the good life,” than GDP or unemployment rate. Germany has established a commission to study “growth, prosperity and the quality of life.”

Also in attendance was Joseph Stiglitz, who was also on the German commission. Stiglitz, a former head of the World Bank, has repeatedly challenged the establishment, raising issues of inequality well before it became fashionable to do so. Stiglitz reminded the group that 95 percent of the income gains in the U.S. went to the top 1 percent over the past few years, while median incomes actually went down. Inequality is strong in Europe as well, but less so than in the U.S.

Alvin Roth, another Nobelist, said that non-economists need to understand that economists don't always have solutions to economic or social problems. "Economics is a very young science,” he said. "We're still learning, the environments change, the challenges change."

The debates continues. What is the best approach? Outside, protestors lined the streets carrying placards decrying the current state of affairs: "Austerity blasts Europe," "Economic growth versus sustainability," and "Is ethical thinking foreign to economics?"

One thing that the economists seemed to agree on is that austerity, a favorite of conservatives both here and in Europe, would not work -- a position that the data seems to support.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has established a Better Life Index, an interactive tool that was launched in 2012. The index is comprised of 11 categories that include: housing, income, jobs, health, work-life balance, community, safety, governance, education, environment and life satisfaction.

What are your thoughts on economic indicators? What signposts would you like to see put in place to guide us to a better world?

Image credit: Refmo: Flickr Creative Commons

RP Siegel, PE, is an author, inventor and consultant. He has written for numerous publications ranging from Huffington Post to Mechanical Engineering. He and Roger Saillant co-wrote the successful eco-thriller Vapor Trails. RP, who is a regular contributor to Triple Pundit and Justmeans, sees it as his mission to help articulate and clarify the problems and challenges confronting our planet at this time, as well as the steadily emerging list of proposed solutions. His uniquely combined engineering and humanities background help to bring both global perspective and analytical detail to bear on the questions at hand.

Follow RP Siegel on Twitter.

In case you are unaware, Whole Foods is now selling rabbit meat at a limited number of stores across the United States. As far as more sustainable meat goes, rabbit is one of the better options (along with lamb) — especially considering the oft-quoted statistics suggesting the global meat industry is a larger greenhouse gas emitter than the world’s entire transportation sector. For urban and rural dwellers, rabbit is a far more efficient way to score protein than beef — and they will not wake your neighbors at the crack of dawn. Even the environmental blog Grist, which sniffs at many claims about “sustainability,” has sung the praises of raising rabbit meat.

But the thought of rabbit meat grilled, pan-fried or roasted (goes well with parsnips and baby potatoes) does not make everyone’s mouth water. As the Atlantic recently pointed out, New York’s Union Square Whole Foods has attracted a small but passionate crowd that wants more consumers to boycott the retailer for killing rabbits. One of the more emotional arguments against raising rabbits for meats is that, after all, they are pets.

But there is a problem with that argument: Whole Foods is not killing pets, but is sourcing meat from farms that meet what the company describes as rigorous standards.

The idea of eating rabbit easily conjures a bevy of horrors, from the boiled bunny scene in "Fatal Attraction" to the rabbit-skinning demo in Michael Moore’s "Roger and Me." As their popularity as household pets surges, the evidence suggests rabbits come in at No. 3 behind cats and dogs (if you dismiss fish and birds), and their popularity in turn has fostered many sites touting the benefits of keeping rabbits in the household.

And thus presents the moral ambiguity that inspires some to boycott Whole Foods while others roll their eyes. Just as the rabbit processed and sold at the Whole Foods meat counter will not be the bunny from the iconic "Monty Python" skit ... the Indian beef sold at meat counters in Dubai and Abu Dhabi is not the same cow revered by some religious groups in India. The same goes for dog meat found here and there in East Asia. (I don’t necessarily recommend it, as the meat can be tough and stringy.) Appetizing or not, these animals are produced to be eaten, not presented to kids as furry friends.

Unfortunate pet stories, such as one of a Turkish acquaintance of mine whose pet chicken Coco ended up being lunch one day, are indeed distressing to hear. They can trigger a lifelong objection to a certain dish or food. The grey area is whether one’s self-absorbed and self-indulgent views should be forced on others. And to that end, forget the argument about whether we should be eating animals in the first place — that was not the rallying cry of the New Yorkers protesting in Union Square. Are some animals fair game for our plates, while others should not be eaten in any circumstance? And if so, why?

The pull at our collective heartstrings to stop eating rabbits, because some have an emotional bond to their pets, could actually succeed, and Whole Foods should not view this matter as a distraction to be taken lightly. Just look what happened in California in 1998: Despite the fact that the closest most get to a horse is when we watch Season 1 of "Downton Abbey," Californians voted to pass an initiative banning the sale of horsemeat by almost 60 percent.

So pet appeal could doom the growth of rabbit meat in the U.S., which decades ago was once commonly eaten, and the consumption of which was viewed as patriotic during World War II. The scenarios of new factory farms killing rabbits to satisfy a new demand is highly unlikely, considering they have a low immune system and can die easily when under duress. If anything, Whole Foods’ entry into the market will raise awareness of this alternative, healthier meat — and could also provide future opportunities for small farmers who are currently struggling financially. Considering the same amount of resources can provide six pounds of rabbit meat versus one pound of beef, overcoming bunny guilt is a move retailers like Whole Foods, and their customers, should consider making.

Image credit: Wikipedia

Leon Kaye has lived in Abu Dhabi for the past year and is currently spending some time in Uruguay. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter. Other thoughts of his are on his site, greengopost.com.