NEW METRICS -
Taking action to mitigate climate change by investing in a low-carbon energy mix will save more money in the long run than inaction, even before accounting for savings from avoided climate damage costs, according to a new report by Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions (GPS), a division within Citibank.
NEW METRICS -
If you are a regular or even semi-regular reader of Sustainable Brands, you are likely familiar with our New Metrics (#NewMetrics) events and publications.
NEW METRICS -
In 14 earlier parts of this series, Claire Sommer and I developed 26 pitfalls in the sustainable business metrics field, based on the experiences of many mostly non-business fields (Find them here.)
CLEANTECH -
Welcome the latest innovation that might up the ante for “smart” in-home electronics: The Aspirational Lamp is a solar-powered desk lamp that, in addition to shining light, aims to generate its own return on your investment. The truly smart lamp has the ability to twist toward the sun to gather — and store — the maximum amount of energy; when not in use, it then sells excess energy back to the grid, and invests earnings in the stock market, with the goal of earning itself enough money over time to pay for upgrades and new parts for itself (but not enough to enable early retirement).
PRESS RELEASE -
JetBlue whitepaper: The Matter with Metrics - Measuring the ROI of Sustainability from Sustainable Brands
STAKEHOLDER TRENDS AND INSIGHTS -
Can a mainstream company have a conscience? As ridiculous as that might sound, more common-than-realized examples of bold sustainable business actions over the past few years may come to soften reasoning against the possibility of this possibility. We will look at some of the evidence for a conscience and the implied fundamental shift in the role of business, as it may eventually be difficult to continue to explain the motivation for certain actions in any other way. Then, having explored and given evidence for the idea here and in part 2, in a third and final part we’ll clarify what we’re not talking about, as less radical versions of this framing question are no longer so controversial, although potentially instructive.
NEW METRICS -
Ireland has made positive strides in sustainable tourism in the last decade, including the development of a globally recognized tourism eco-certification program and the Wild Atlantic Way touring route filled with agritourism food trails, naturalist-guided adventure activities and environmentally conscious boutique hotels.
LEADERSHIP -
If there is one aspect of coaching executive leaders that few truly understand well, it is the nature of humility. If you have been born and bred as an alpha-adult - commanding, controlling, dominating - and this is your leadership style, the very word itself can be perceived as a form of weakness, an undesirable quality in a world where lunch is for wimps.Fine, but for those who have this attitude, there are massive returns on investment for both the individual and their businesses that stand there screaming, while the executive hears and sees nothing.
CLEANTECH -
Impact Infrastructure has unveiled AutoCASE, a new cloud-based tool that enables triple-bottom line business case analysis to become an integrated part of a Building Information Modeling (BIM) project design workflow.The analysis tool goes beyond exploring only the engineering aspects of a design to embrace an accounting framework with three parts: social, environmental and financial. This makes triple bottom line business case analysis more affordable, easier to produce and more accessible to infrastructure professionals around the world.
NEW METRICS -
The Natural Capital Coalition (NCC) announced this week its selection of two consortia to develop what will be known as the Natural Capital Protocol.
WASTE NOT -
Pulp Green Tech Holding (PGT), an R&D-focused company that owns Thai Gorilla Pulp Ltd., announced this week that it has successfully achieved a high-grade paper pulp made from empty palm fruit bunches, which are most often treated as waste material from the palm oil extraction process.The company estimates that roughly 95 percent, or 300 million tons, of this raw material is currently discarded per year.PGT says the process is highly cost-efficient and will enable investors, palm oil producers and paper pulp mills to achieve ROI of over 100% in the first year of operation, assuming the pulp is sold at a price of comparable non-wood materials.
COLLABORATION -
Introducing the Communispace Client Index — an index designed to track the stock market performance of our top 25 clients (i.e., those clients investing the most in consumer collaboration) against the S&P 500. Our nerd-o-licious intent was to see if our clients — companies who are engaged in an ongoing collaborative relationship with their consumers — are doing any better than the rest of the companies out there.The Index by no means shows causality between our work and the share performance of any given company. However, it does say some pretty interesting things:
PRODUCT, SERVICE & DESIGN INNOVATION -
Mosaic, an online marketplace that connects investors to solar energy projects, is tackling more and more ambitious projects. Recently, it started the Golden State Series, a string of solar investments that will total $100 million. The first project, seeking a investment $153,000 in a solar charity in San Diego, sold out in just six hours.