Interview: Jacob Fontijne of DNV KEMA on Energy Efficiency
At this year's World Future Energy Summit, a lot of attention is falling on new forms of renewable power generation. However, using existing energy more efficiently is every bit as important. DNV KEMA's Jacob Fontijne puts this in perspective with a Dutch concept called "Trias energetica." Simply put, it's a guideline to achieve energy savings and sustainability by putting efficiency first, followed by the use of renewable energy, and only as a last resort, falling back on fossil fuels.
Rapid growth has begun to outstrip supplies of energy in the UAE and elsewhere in the region - a problem for sure, but also an opportunity for relatively inexpensive gains to be had in terms of energy efficiency. I had a chance to sit down with Jacob and talk a little bit about the energy situation in the middle east and to consider whether efficiency or new generation represents the better investment.
Video after the jump....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvPSHyibqV0
Ed Note: Travel expenses for the Author and TriplePundit were provided by Masdar.
35 Female CSR Leaders You've (Possibly) Never Heard Of
Men still dominate CSR, at least at the higher levels. GreenBiz's 2011 salary survey found that two-thirds of VP of Sustainability roles at large organizations are held by men - and it will surprise few readers to find that there was a 20 percent pay gap between men and women at the highest levels of sustainability.
Yet, the connection between gender diversity and CSR runs deep. Study after research study has found that simply having an executive team with gender diversity is highly correlated with having a strong CSR performance - even when those women aren't working in CSR.
And of course, despite the statistics, we've come across a number of inspirational women slowly but steadily inspiring sustainable change. Here are 35 of them. To keep things reasonable we limited ourselves to CSR leaders within organizations - those women cranking out the CSR strategy and CSR reports who you don't get to hear from very often. We also threw in a few thought leaders to round out the list. There are many more, of course. You should probably give these ladies a raise!
In alphabetical order and without further ado...
1. Pamela Alabaster, SVP Corporate Communications, Sustainable Development & Public Affairs, L'Oreal USA Pamela leads the CSR function for L'Oreal USA. L'Oreal was recently lauded by 3p correspondent Leon Kaye for their beautiful CSR report which goes far beyond skin deep.
2. Ephi Banaynal dela Cruz, Director, Social and Environmental Accountability (SEA) and Audit,
Microsoft Corporation
Ephi was recently tapped to head Microsoft's hardware supply chain, Social and Environmental Accountability and Audit program. Microsoft scooped her up from SAP where she led sustainability strategy and developed a stunning, in-depth CSR report.
3. Mary Capozzi, Senior Director, Sustainability/Corporate Responsibility, Best Buy For five years, Mary has led the CSR team at Best Buy, spearheading initiatives like Best Buy's innovative Buy Back Program.
4. Molly Cartmill, Director - Corporate Social Responsibility, Sempra Energy Molly directs and manages the corporate responsibility reporting function at Sempra Energy, including production of the company’s annual corporate responsibility report.
5. Ginny Cassidy, Corporate Citizenship Consultant, Medtronic Medtronic sets the bar extremely high for sustainability reporting and Ginny has managed their Corporate Citizenship Report project and related corporate citizenship communications for over six years.
6. Robin Connell, Manager, Sustainability Programs, Del Monte Foods Robin is responsible for the overall development and implementation of Del Monte Foods' sustainability strategy and initiatives.
7. Tamara "TJ" Dicaprio, Sr. Director, Carbon and Energy, Microsoft Corporation TJ drives Microsoft’s environmental strategy by establishing the long term environmental footprint reduction and renewable energy strategy.
8. Jacqueline Drumheller, Environmental Affairs Manager, Alaska Air In 2008, Jaqueline co-founded Alaska Airlines' corporate sustainability program and she is currently responsible for the corporate sustainability, environmental audit, and data management programs at Alaska Air and Horizon Air.
9. Jennifer Dudgeon, Principal Program Manager, Office of Sustainability, CA Technologies CA Technologies, a public IT management software and solutions firm, provides sustainability software to its clients, among other products. Jennifer is responsible for the development and execution of the company’s sustainability strategy.
10. Karen Hamilton, Vice President, Sustainability, Unilever Unilever has made a huge splash on the sustainability scene this year, thanks to bold proclamations from CEO Paul Polman. Karen is a key member of the sustainability leadership at Unilever, based in London.
11. Laura Hodgson, Director, Social Responsibility, Nordstrom Laura manages the team and program dedicated to improving working conditions in global sourcing communities.
12. Catherine Gunsbury, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, General Mills Catherine leads the CSR reporting efforts at General Mills. We recently sat down with her to talk about her role and General Mills' approach to sustainability.
13. Joanne Howard, Manager of Sustainability, Spectra Energy Corp Joanne manages and guides the implementation of enterprise sustainability practices at Spectra and creates a platform for the ongoing integration of these practices as part of Spectra’s business strategy.
14. Hannah Jones, VP of Sustainable Business & Innovation, Nike, Inc. Hannah stewards the Nike, Inc. sustainability strategy and leads the Sustainable Business & Innovation team.
15. Cecily Joseph, Senior Director, Corporate Responsibility & Compliance, Symantec Corporation Cecily oversees Symantec's Office of Ethics & Compliance, the Symantec Foundation, Community Relations and Symantec's global corporate social responsibility program, which includes environmental, social, and governance program development, integration, and alignment.
16. Gail Klintworth, CSO, Unilever Gail Klintworth has been with Unilever for over 25 years, including a stint as chief executive of Unilever South Africa. She's currently Chief Sustainability Officer and is responsible for driving Unilever's Sustainable Living Plan.
17. Hunter Lovins, President and Founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions Hunter was called a "green business icon" by Newsweek and a millennium "Hero of the Planet" by Time Magazine for her 30 years of work framing the sustainability movement, setting forth the business case for energy efficiency, renewable energy and resource productivity and climate protection. She is president and founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions and co-creator of the “Natural Capitalism” concept.
18. Annie Longsworth, CEO, Saatchi and Saatchi S Annie is CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi S, the sustainability arm of the global communications and consulting firm committed to creating lovemarks - high love, high respect brands and products.
19. Kim Marotta, Director of Sustainability, MillerCoors Kim has a multi-faceted role with the MillerCoors - the second largest beer company in the U.S. She is the sustainability brand manager, oversees sustainability reporting and policy, and also focuses on energy and water stewardship.
20. Jennifer Mattes, Director, Global Public Affairs, Johnson Controls, Inc. For the past five years, Jennifer has been responsible for global public affairs including sustainability reporting, global employee volunteer programs, and global philanthropy for one of the world's leading green building and energy efficiency companies.
21. Marilee McInnis, Senior Manager, Southwest Airlines Marilee founded the SWA green team and now manages the sustainability programs for SWA, including producing the ONE report - the company's integrated report on the triple bottom line of Performance, People, and Planet.
22. Susan McPherson, SVP/Director of Global Marketing, Fenton Fenton is a communications firm with a unique mission: to serve the public interest by creating powerful issue campaigns that make change, and Susan runs the CSR practice. She's also the leader of the popular weekly #csrchat on Twitter.
23. Bonnie Nixon, Senior Advisor, Sustainability Roundtable, Inc. Bonnie has 25 years of experience in this industry, including three years as the Director of Sustainability for HP and a stint as Executive Director of The Sustainability Consortium.
24. Beatriz Perez, Chief Sustainability Officer, The Coca-Cola Company Beatriz sets the overarching sustainability policies and strategies at The Coca-Cola Company and generates leadership systems around them.
25. Agata Ramallo Garcia, Senior Director, Sustainable Business & Innovation, Nike Inc. Agata is responsible for leading the integration of sustainable business practices in business operations across Nike, Inc. She oversees Sustainable Business & Innovation's strategic/business planning processes including the financial valuation of sustainability initiatives, sustainability performance management and reporting, sustainability data and analytics, and sustainable innovation portfolio/pipeline.
26. Stephanie Rico, VP, Environmental Affairs, Wells Fargo Stephanie is the lead for sustainability and environmental issues at Wells Fargo, including environmental and CSR reporting, communications and marketing.
27. Laura Rubbo, Director, Corporate Citizenship, The Walt Disney Company Laura manages the International Labor Standards department’s global factory monitoring program, external stakeholder engagement strategy, broad policy development, and creation of executive briefings and external communication materials, including the ethical sourcing section of the Corporate Citizenship report.
28. Beth Sauerhaft, Director, Global Environmental Sustainability, Pepsico In her role, Beth focuses on the connection between environment, agriculture, and health and nutrition policy. Her team has a unique approach to CSR - focusing on opportunities and risks presented by social and environmental issues.
29. Shauna Sadowski, Director of Sustainability, Annie's, Inc. Shawna leads the gourmet organic mac and cheese company's sustainability efforts including tracking and analysis and the development and implementation of programs to ensure that the company abides by its philosophy to source from trustworthy people and places they trust.
30. Kathleen Shaver, Director, Corporate Responsibility, Mattel Kathleen leads strategy and execution of Mattel’s public reporting of corporate responsibility initiatives.
31. Aman Singh, Editorial Director, CSRwire Aman directs content creation, distribution and syndication for CSRwire, a leading digital media platform for CSR and sustainability news, views and research.
32. Koann Vikoren Skrzyniarz, Founder/Chief Executive, Sustainable Brands Koann conceived of, launched and continues to grow Sustainable Brands - a learning, collaboration, and commerce community which now includes over 50,000 sustainable business leaders from around the globe.
33. Karen Solomon, Co-Founder & Advisor, Opportunity Green Media Karen is the co-founder and advisor to Opportunity Green, a multi-purpose media, event and consulting platform promoting innovative products, technologies and companies.
34. Andrea Thomas, SVP, Sustainability, Walmart Although many critique Walmart, it's clear that the super store retailer has changed the very meaning of CSR. Andrea leads Walmart's sustainability efforts.
35. Kindley Walsh-Lawlor, VP Social & Environmental Responsibility, Gap Inc. Kindley is responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive strategy to further integrate social and environmental objectives into the company's Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy brands.
Special thanks to Nancy Mancilla, CEO of ISOS Group, an integrated sustainability agency specializing in GRI sustainability reporting, CDP climate change reporting and external assurance, for suggesting many of the names on this list. She's a rock star sustainability leader in her own right!
This isn't an exhaustive list by any means. Share the female CSR leaders you know in the comments!
Masdar's Renewable Energy Desalination Plans Take Off
At the 2011 World Future Energy Summit, Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince famously declared that "water is more important than oil." That sentiment is taking on more meaning with water desalination comprising a large component of energy use.
Desalination accounts for the vast majority of the UAE's drinking water. It's an expensive and carbon heavy processs powered primarily by natural gas. As I discussed yesterday, the UAE has paradoxically become a net-importer of natural gas with demand for energy continuing to rise. This, combined with the country's 2020 goal to meet 7 percent of energy needs from renewable sources, makes viable desalination without fossil fuels something of a technological and economic holy grail.
Nonetheless, that is exactly what Masdar has set out to accomplish by 2020. The company, with as-yet-unamed partners, has launched a pilot project to build the world's first large scale, commercially viable, desalination plant powered completely by renewable energy. Exactly what "large scale" means isn't entirely defined, nor is the exact mix of solar, wind or other sources of renewable energy. However, the commercially viable aspect of the project is clear, and significant.
International Desalination Association president Dr. Corrado Sommariva summed it up during this morning's press conference as "bridging the gap between research and development and commercialization." Sommariva noted that although other renewably powered desalination plants exist, none have been set up with practical commercialization in mind.
Here's how it will work:
Masdar will launch 3 different pilot projects around Abu Dhabi over the next 3 years - each testing somewhat different technologies, geographies and partners. Each project will be funded 50 percent by Masdar and 50 percent by partners which will be chosen from an existing short-list of about 50 potential companies. By 2016 each project should be well into planning and construction with launch a launch date of 2020 - the same year that the country's 7 percent renewable energy goal comes into effect.
Like Masdar's many other projects, much is likely to be learned while planning and partnerships evolve. We'll be watching!
Ed Note: Travel expenses for the author were provided by Masdar.
Will the 2013 Inauguration Be the “Greenest” One Ever?
Washington, DC is now overrun with visitors in town to witness Barack Obama’s second inauguration. With all those people and events, the next few days should be a gold mine for local recyclers. We have had the greenest Super Bowl ever, the most “sustainable” Olympics and even the Oscars awards ceremony claims it has gone green.
If you have not experienced an inauguration, you’re in for lots of fun, booze, food, protestors, corporate sponsors and, in addition: Metro trains filled to capacity with people riding rail for the first time; an avalanche of fur coats that will turn you vegan; self-importance so thick you need a machete to slice it; the overhearing of conversations including, “Oh Michelle, she’s a friend of mine, too”; and lots of garbage.
This year most of the “greening” efforts focus on the low-hanging fruit: recycling. We are far away from hybrid limousines, FSC-certified wood grandstands and red carpets made out of Interface carpet tiles--though we like that last idea. Not that you can score a ticket to any events--if you’re lucky, your U.S. representative gave you tickets so far from the action that that the U.S. Capitol dome is the size of a gum ball--but in case you don’t notice on TV, event organizers are paying more attention to sustainability than in previous inaugurations.
The National Wildlife Federation, which hosts the 2013 Green Inaugural Ball, is a start. Working with its venue, the Newseum, and Wolfgang Puck Catering, the ball’s organizing committee goes so far as to say that there will be no need for trash cans at the event. The Newseum will only use compostable serving materials or reusable items such as glass and flatware. Wolfgang Puck Catering’s employees will separate frying oil so it can be recycled into biofuels; expired light bulbs will be broken down in a Lampinator to separate mercury from glass and metals; and all food scraps will be composted for use by DC residents and urban farms. The inauguration’s events throughout the city will also undergo similar efforts.
Pritchard Sports and Entertainment Group, working with the inauguration’s event organizer, C3 Events, is tackling waste diversion throughout Washington, DC. Led by David Meyer, Pritchard’s employees will work on sorting, recycling and composting everything from food scraps at cocktail parties to the horses who will traipse along the parade route on Pennsylvania Avenue.
For the most part, however, the inauguration and its infrastructure will proceed as usual. The DC municipal government has taken heat for spending $342,000 to build its own stand for local leaders, though the city department responsible for building the stand said 90 percent of the materials will be recycled.
In the end, this inauguration faces challenges similar to other mega-events: folks flying in from around the world who want to soak up the festivities and like most travelers, behave differently from how they behave at home. Nonetheless, this inauguration could be a stepping stone to more environmentally responsible events of this scale in the future.
Leon Kaye, based in Fresno, California, is a sustainability consultant and the editor of GreenGoPost.com. He also contributes to Guardian Sustainable Business; his work has also appeared on Sustainable Brands, Inhabitat and Earth911. You can follow Leon and ask him questions on Twitter or Instagram (greengopost). He will explore children’s health issues in India next month with the International Reporting Project.
Via Antioch University of New England blog, National Wildlife Foundation, Washington Post
Photo courtesy Leon Kaye
Google Grants $2.65M for Smarter Electricity Distribution
transmission lines
5 Reasons CSR Should Be on a CEO's Radar
The following is part of a series by our friends at CSRHub (a 3p sponsor) – offering free sustainability and corporate social responsibility ratings on over 6,500 of the world’s largest publicly traded companies. 3p readers get 25% off CSRHub’s professional subscriptions with promo code “TP25.″
As previously seen on the CSRHub blog.
By Bahar Gidwani
One of the smartest folks I know—one of my directors when I was at McKinsey—had time to have a cup of coffee with me last week. During a chat that covered topics ranging from board practices to roof leaks, I told him a bit about CSRHub and our efforts to encourage corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability.
After a while, my friend sat back and said, “But why would a CEO care about CSR?” He continued by pointing out that CEOs have to worry about profits, strategy, personnel…so many things that could push CSR off of her or his agenda.
I could have tried to pull a “study says” answer, and quote him data from a great Gibbs & Soell report. They estimated that more than 80 percent of Fortune 1000 CEOs wanted their companies to “go green.” However, my friend has done lots of studies himself. He knows they don’t always predict what will happen in real world situations.
I instead offered him my belief that three pressures will force CEOs to understand and evaluate how their businesses are performing, socially:
- License to operate. If a business abuses the trust of the community it resides in, it can eventually lose the power to operate normally. Communities can slow down and block company decisions to expand a facility or increase its use of power, water, and other resources. They can make it hard for a company to hire or fire. A CEO needs to be sure that her or his company’s behavior engenders support from its local communities.
- Supply chain pressure. Major companies have put pressure on their supply chains for years to deliver products faster, more cheaply, or with better quality. Now they are also asking their suppliers to deliver products that are made more responsibly. Even if a CEO’s company does not have this type of program, his or her company most likely sells products or services to a company that has set out sustainability goals and guidelines.
- Hiring and retention. In a recent MIT survey, 77 percent of graduating MBAs claim they would take a lower salary if necessary, in order to work for a company that had a clear sustainability strategy. In most major companies, attracting, training, and retaining employees is a critically important function. A CEO who does not encourage her or his corporation to be responsible, could lose key human resources.
At the time, I could only come up with one idea. I’ve since thought of a second:
- Pride and jealousy. CEOs track what other competing CEOs do. They meet their competitors at conferences, envy them when they get awards, and parse their speeches and pronouncements for clues on their plans for the future. When a competitor gets onto the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Glassdoor’s Top 50 Places to Work or is near the top of the CR 100 Best Citizen’s list, a CEO may ask her or his staff, “Why didn’t we get that award?” An answer of “we don’t know” or “who cares about awards” is not going to satisfy a CEO who is proud of her/his company and its performance.
- Children. I’ve heard several CEOs say that they became interested in sustainability and CSR when their children raised these issues. Like most parents, CEOs want to give their children a stable, comfortable life. A CEO should want to leave behind a legacy that her or his children can be proud of. And, if the CEO’s company is still around in twenty years, it could continue generating job opportunities (and stock market dividends?) that may directly benefit a CEO’s children.
[csrhubwidget company="PepsiCo-Inc" size="650x100" hash="c9c0f7"]
Bahar Gidwani is a Cofounder and CEO of CSRHub. Formerly, he was the CEO of New York-based Index Stock Imagery, Inc, from 1991 through its sale in 2006. He has built and run large technology-based businesses and has experience building a multi-million visitor Web site. Bahar holds a CFA, was a partner at Kidder, Peabody & Co., and worked at McKinsey & Co. Bahar has consulted to both large companies such as Citibank, GE, and Acxiom and a number of smaller software and Web-based companies. He has an MBA (Baker Scholar) from Harvard Business School and a BS in Astronomy and Physics (magna cum laude) from Amherst College. Bahar races sailboats, plays competitive bridge, and is based in New York City.
CSRHub is a leading source of corporate social responsibility ratings and information, creating direct comparisons of CSR and Sustainability performance among competitors and across supply chains, industries, and regions. CSRHub is the first to aggregate environmental, employee, community and governance data — 20 million elements from 200 sources covering 6,700 companies across 135 industries and 82 countries — into an open, integrated, accessible database platform.
Through subscriptions at multiple price points, we serve corporations, consultants, academics and NGOs. We resell reports, training and consulting. Our sustainability widget feeds data to news sites, blogs, and corporate intranets. We sell data to our partners for integration into their products, using our API platform.
The Year Ahead: Environmental and Sustainability Hotspots in 2013
On Tuesday, January 15, Dr. Andrew Steer, President and CEO of World Resources Institute (WRI), hosted an annual Stories to Watch in 2013 event in Washington, D.C. Dr. Steer identified six hotspots – topics that will dominate headlines in the coming year.
1. The evolving energy mix in the U.S. and worldwide
More than 55 coal plants were shut down in the U.S. in 2012. Yet over 395 remain, and global coal consumption continues to rise, particularly in India and China. The development of other energy sources – shale gas and renewables – has the potential to offset coal demand. What is unclear is how quickly countries will develop these alternative sources. The U.S. is the only industrialized country that does not have renewable energy targets.
2. China’s balancing of economic and ecological concerns
Although China’s growth has slowed somewhat, the country continues to consume a lion’s share of major raw materials. China represents close to 50 percent of the world’s consumption of coal, iron, and cement. This growth comes with costly environmental degradation; analysts estimate the environmental costs are almost 10 percent of the country’s GDP. Given this economic impact, and the very palpable evidence of Beijing’s air pollution index that was widely publicized last weekend, China has reiterated verbal commitments to renewable energy, carbon trading and shale gas. It remains to be seen whether China can deliver on these commitments.
3. Africa’s growth
While the world’s major economies suffer from sluggish growth, Africa is booming. Counties such as Sierra Leone, Angola, and Ethiopia have growth rates approaching 10 percent. Dr. Steer applauded the social benefit of this growth, but remains concerned. “Will these developing nations grow in a healthy green way?”
4. Sustained progress on deforestation
Deforestation has been an important world issue for decades. Over 32 million acres of forest are lost each year. Brazil and Indonesia together represent over half the share of tropical deforestation. The good news is that both countries have made strides to curb logging rates. Last year, Brazil’s deforestation rate was about half that of 2008, and Indonesia’s President Yudhoyono issued a moratorium on logging native forests. The concern is whether these policies can survive political shifts and leadership changes.
5. Green investments
Investors are generally risk averse, and even more so in a recessionary environment. Green investments tend to have a high risk profile; they involve technology and regulatory bets. Two positive developments are promising on the green investment front: (a) the long anticipated launch of the Climate Fund, and (b) a notable shift in the private sector towards longer term metrics that consider ecological as well as economic risks.
6. Obama’s action (or inaction) on climate change
Now that reelection pressures are behind him, the world is watching to see whether President Obama will deliver on his 2006 vow to take on climate change: “The issue of climate change is one that we ignore at our own peril.”
WRI’s list offers few surprises, except for several conspicuous absences. In trying to maintain a tight focus, WRI may have missed critical parts of the story. Here’s what we might see if WRI expanded the hotspot list to ten.
7. Water
Although water is mentioned in the discussion on energy, and as a hurdle to Africa’s continued growth, WRI does not give water much attention. Yet water, as a critical resource to cities and developing countries, food and agriculture, mining and energy production, warrants headlines of its own. Oceans might fall secondary to fresh water issues as a hot topic. Yet the health of our oceans may deserve its own category as the discussion escalates over marine fisheries, rising seas, and weather related events.
8. A different tack on global climate talks
Although the momentum around a global climate deal has dissipated, the imperative remains. WRI sees the greatest potential in mini-multilateral deals among nations with shared interest. As these networks of nations expand, we may see reinvigorated interest in a global climate deal.
9. India’s balancing of economic and ecological concerns
Like China, India continues to grow and become an ever more important consumer of world resources, and generator of environmental challenges. It will be critical to watch how India manages its growth and how India and China influence one another’s postures.
10. Game changing technology
Technologies are critical to solving our climate issues. Innovations in areas such as micro satellites, cloud computing and mobile telephony have enabled global economies to reduce costs and revolutionize access to information. These can be game changing events and trends. WRI released a mapping tool last year to track deforestation rates worldwide. This year, they will release Aqueduct, a similar tool to track global water resources. Technologies like these radically expand awareness and enable countries, and private concerns, to address critical environmental and sustainability issues and find new solutions.
Why We Must Harness Green Infrastructure—Not Concrete—To Secure Clean Water
This post originally appeared on the WRI Insights blog.
By Todd Gartner
Natural ecosystems provide essential services for our communities. Forests and wetlands, for example, filter the water we drink, protect neighborhoods from floods and droughts, and shade aquatic habitat for fish populations.
While nature provides this “green infrastructure,” water utilities and other decision-makers often attempt to replicate these services with concrete-and-steel “gray infrastructure”—usually at a much greater cost. Particularly where the equivalent natural ecosystems are degraded, we build filtration plants to clean water, reservoirs to regulate water flow, and mechanical chillers to protect fish from increasing stream temperatures. And even though healthy ecosystems can reduce the operational costs of these structures, investing in restoring or enhancing various types of green infrastructure is rarely pursued—either as a substitute for or complement to gray infrastructure.
Despite America’s history of reliance on gray infrastructure, now is a critical time to tip the scales in favor of a green infrastructure approach to water-resource management. Investing in the conservation and improved management of natural ecosystems to secure and protect water systems can keep costs down and create jobs. Green infrastructure can also provide a suite of co-benefits for the air we breathe, the places we play, the wildlife we share our landscapes with, and the climate we live in.
The time is ripe for green infrastructure
In the United States, most gray infrastructure was built 40-50 years ago with large federal grants and few provisions for maintenance. This aging infrastructure needs significant investment to keep pace with population growth and to repair wear and tear.
Yet funds for investment in water infrastructure are drying up in an era of fiscal austerity. Naturally, water utilities, reservoir managers, and storm water managers are seeking lower-cost solutions to meet water demands of the 21st century.
That’s where green infrastructure can play a significant role.
Green infrastructure’s success stories
Since the landmark green infrastructure investment in New York City’s Catskill-Delaware watershed in the late 1990s, there have been several similar breakthroughs across the United States. These cases illustrate how green infrastructure can secure clean water and other services at a lower cost and with greater benefits than traditional gray infrastructure. Just a few examples include:
- Denver, CO is investing in thinning and other fire risk management measures in its forested watersheds. Wildfires in Denver’s headwaters can cause massive sedimentation, which can clog the utility’s water intakes, reduce reservoir storage capacity, and increase treatment costs. Managing for fire risk also improves watershed function and reduces risk to local homes, wildlife, and fisheries.
- Medford, OR is saving an estimated $12 million by investing in riparian forest restoration to shade streams instead of installing mechanical chillers to meet its Clean Water Act obligations related to stream temperature. Riparian forest also provides benefits for habitat, carbon sequestration, and water quality.
- Portland, OR is saving an estimated $200 million by prohibiting logging in most of its Bull Run watershed. The city is closing logging roads and removing culverts and other infrastructure in order to maintain downstream water quality and secure ancillary benefits for wildlife. This investment has helped Portland to secure clean water and thereby qualify for a filtration avoidance waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), saving the utility the cost of a new filtration plant.
Barriers to expanding green infrastructure
Despite the growing number of success stories, the practice of green infrastructure investment has yet to reach scale, leaving substantial opportunities for enhanced services and cost savings unrealized.
The struggle to get to scale can be associated with a long list of institutional challenges, including knowledge gaps and old habits of defaulting to gray infrastructure. For example, water utilities are largely staffed with engineers trained to build gray infrastructure. Accounting standards currently do not allow water utilities to use the same finance mechanisms for natural capital that are typically available for gray infrastructure. And key enabling agencies like the U.S. EPA are sometimes slow to sanction innovative solutions like green infrastructure, due to standard operating procedures that often center on gray infrastructure.
Pushing for a tipping point
However, there are encouraging signs that the green infrastructure approach is nearing a tipping point in the United States. The American Water Works Association (AWWA) is increasingly engaged with its member utilities in the area of “source water protection”—which often centers on green infrastructure. Major cities like Denver, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco are starting to test out green infrastructure for water management, acting as models to inspire and educate other communities. And a growing number of conservation groups are now specializing in the development and implementation of green infrastructure investment programs.
There’s also a push to provide more resources to help water utilities and other decision makers invest in green infrastructure. At the recent ACES and Ecosystem Markets Conference—which brings together the science, practical, institutional, and decision-making sectors of the ecosystem services community—WRI announced a forthcoming document for green infrastructure investment, a joint effort with Earth Economics and the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences. With the working title “Investing in Green Infrastructure for Source Water Protection,” this guidance document is intended to provide water utilities, local conservation groups, and private businesses with a persuasive case, a road map of next-steps, and/or overarching guidance to integrate green infrastructure into decision-making. The guide is set to be released in 2013, and is just one part of a broader push by WRI and our partners to bring green infrastructure investment to a tipping point.
We’re in a critical moment—natural ecosystems continue to degrade, existing gray infrastructure continues to age, and costs continue to rise. Even if just a portion of upcoming water infrastructure investment is directed toward green infrastructure, the opportunities for cost savings and water-related benefits are immense.
Todd Gartner is a Senior Associate for the World Resources Institute’s People and Ecosystems Program. This post was co-written with James Mulligan, Executive Director at Green Community Ventures.
Ford Doubles Down on Small Business Owners
After a few years dedicated to launching and promoting compact cars, Ford has turned its focus to the other side of the spectrum: vehicles to get the job done. Especially if that job involves hauling stuff or people.
While you're probably more likely to find news about super efficient small cars on TriplePundit, there is no denying that there are certain jobs that require a bigger vehicle.
Ford has been the leader in commercial vehicle sales for 36 years, with its popular F150 truck. On Tuesday at the annual North American International Auto show in Detroit - the automaker announced that it is betting big on the commercial market in 2014 with the launch of the Transit family (a van and wagon) and the Ford Atlas - a new truck.
Commercial vehicles (like trucks, cargo vans and chassis cabs) represent 29 percent of global industry sales, a huge opportunity. This market is also projected to grow 28 percent by 2017 in Asia and the U.S. Many of those buyers are contractors, farmers, store-owners construction workers and plumbers - folks that need to do a lot of hauling as a part of their jobs. Small business owners make big business for Ford.
The Ford Atlas has a number of environmentally friendly features like Ford EcoBoost, which gives efficient engines more power and a front spoiler to make the truck more aerodynamic, improving efficiency.
Ford's a new Transit Connect Van and Wagon offer big fuel efficiency increases too - as much as 25 percent improvement in fuel economy over other vehicles in its class. The fuel efficiency is expected to exceed 30 MPG, (exact figures will not be available until the van reaches market at the end of the year.)
Ford has made a $1b investment in re-tooling a Kansas assembly line to produce the new vehicle, and will add 1,600 new hourly employees to its payroll to build these new vehicles.
Travel and accommodations to NAIAS in Detroit were covered by Ford.
[Image credit: Jen Boynton]
Skeo Adds a Brick-and-Mortar Dimension to the Sharing Economy
The rise of the sharing economy is providing us with an opportunity to see what happens when virtual walkability meets real walkability. On the one hand, the sharing economy refers to Internet-based social networking that creates a tightly knit, "walkable" global community, in which goods, resources and services can be shared with great facility over remote distances. On the other hand, you have actual walkability, which is based on the same geographically limited, brick-and-mortar infrastructure that people have been negotiating for millenia. Or is it?
The environmental consulting firm Skeo Solutions has recently completed an infrastructure and revitalization plan for a community called Bellemeade in Richmond, Virginia, and the results point to a deeper understanding of what the sharing economy means not only for the individual entrepreneurs that benefit directly from it, but also for the benefit of entire communities as well.
The sharing economy in a nutshell
The key benefit of the sharing economy is that it enables more people to start up and sustain a small business, even if their financial resources are limited and even if they live in small communities that simply don't have enough local foot traffic to support commercial activity.
The first thing that comes to mind, of course, is the opportunity for country-oriented people to sustain a good livelihood in thinly populated rural areas. That's especially good news for small, specialty farmers as well as rural craftspersons and artisans.
But the really interesting thing about the sharing economy is not only that it facilitates remote lifestyles, but that it also encourages closeness. When applied to disadvantaged urban neighborhoods, the sharing economy has the potential to spark more economic activity within the local community, and that's where projects like Skeo's Watershed Concept Plan for Bellemeade come in.
A new plan for a walkable community
Skeo's project is also called the Bellemeade Walkable Watershed, which dovetails with the City of Richmond's stormwater master plan. The Bellemeade neighborhood has been targeted as a priority for stormwater improvements because it is bisected by an urban creek that feeds into the James River, an important tributary of the Chesapeake Bay.
The city's infrastructure goal is to reduce polluted runoff from streets and yards, and to create more opportunities for fresh rainwater to infiltrate.
However, that is just one aspect of the project. Skeo, in collaboration with numerous partners, including the Green Infrastructure Center and the Altria Foundation, has broadened the stormwater management issue to include all aspects of community development. The ultimate goal is to turn one of the community's major drawbacks - the "impaired and neglected urban creek" - into a significant asset.
To accomplish that, Skeo's project merges stormwater management with the neighborhood's newly constructed Oak Grove Bellemeade elementary school, along with an adjacent community center and park.
Part of the challenge has been to transform the school transportation model from 100 percent busing to a pedestrian-friendly, walkable "schoolshed" that also serves public health goals for encouraging more routine physical activity. That includes improving pedestrian and biking routes with new sidewalks and intersection upgrades, and improving crossings over the creek.
The creek will also interact closely with the school, becoming an outdoor education opportunity along with the park. The school itself was designed by the firm VMDO as a sustainable building, so the creek adds a reinforcing context for the architect's goals.
The park itself, which previously had no amenities, will be upgraded to become a community focal point with facilities for neighborhood gatherings, community gardening, outdoor education and other amenities.
In essence, the project transforms the creek from an access barrier to a point of community connection.
Walkability and the sharing economy
When you apply the sharing economy to this kind of urban revitalization, it's pretty clear that a new dynamic is emerging between environmental protection, urban revitalization, education, public health and the potential for economic development in disadvantaged communities.
Ambitious revitalization projects are nothing new, but the sharing economy provides a new element of individual entrepreneurship to this scenario. By providing more people with a stronger economic anchor in their communities, the sharing economy has the potential to facilitate more financial support from local residents for improving shared public spaces and resources, namely parks, schools and community centers.
It's also worth noting that by bringing more money into distressed communities through commerce, the sharing economy also has the potential to spark growth in conventional brick-and-mortar neighborhood services, such as restaurants, corner groceries, convenience shops, hardware stores and laundries.
Gentrification from without, or within
The sharing economy might also help to expand the conventional pattern of gentrification, which has long been characterized by new, more affluent populations moving into disadvantaged communities.
In the integrated sharing economy/walkable neighborhood model of the future, there is a greater potential for long time residents to begin building up a financial stake from within the community, as well as attracting new residents.
[Image: Bellemeade Walkable Watershed Courtesy of Skeo]
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