Gem of the day

Walmart is often held up as a hero of green business - a company that will scale sustainability up to new heights through their aggressive supply chain standards.

Here's what Walmart bought in Mexico using bribes over the past decade:

• $341,000: Sam’s Club built in one of Mexico City’s most densely populated neighborhoods, near the Basílica de Guadalupe, without a construction license, an environmental permit, an urban impact assessment, or even a traffic permit.
• $765,000: A vast refrigerated distribution center built in an environmentally fragile flood basin north of Mexico City, in an area where electricity was so scarce that many smaller developers were turned away. 

Then again, what should we expect from a company that is clearly experienced at dealing with ethical grey areas, as the biggest customer of American gun manufacturer Freedom Group? 

Gem of the day

Breaking down the increasingly artificial barriers between how we define 'developed' and 'developing' countries is getting easier. It's now official that the UK:

• Is in food poverty.Thanks to soaring food prices and shrinking incomes, many families are going through a nutritional recession.
• Is in energy poverty. As the Big 6 utilities continue to increase energy prices by as much as 10% (funny that they all settled on similar hikes at such similar times), 7.2 million households are now living in fuel poverty.
• Is starting to experience water poverty. Scarcity of supply coupled with higher prices has already made 4 million households "water poor".

If that isn't proof to underpin the case for a truly green economy, I don't know what is.

Gem of the day

A classic case of how most big businesses still aren't asking the right questions to drive sustainable innovation at scale (via HBR):

"'What if I can change the game and make a car for one lakh?' Ratan Tata wondered, envisioning a price point of around US$2,500, less than half the price of the cheapest car available...He knew, however, he could still make money if he could increase sales volume dramatically, and he knew that his target base of consumers was potentially huge."

Imagine if Tata had instead asked "What if I can change the game and transform how affordable, healthy and low carbon mobility works in megacities?"

He probably wouldn't have gotten an answer that entailed selling about 170,000 passenger cars per year, flooding India with more traffic, more pollution and a big missed opportunity to transcend the impacts of car-centric development.

Gem of the day

There are many, many things that could be said about Chevron's new Aids Will Lose campaign. Here's one: it's a deliberately designed PR initiative to enhance Chevron's image and distract sustainability critics, after a particularly bad year revealing Chevron and BP represent the worst risk for investors given their respective oil spill records.

Case in point is this Tweet:

On the other hand, with global oil production continuing to plateau and no new conventional reserves in sight, maybe over the next decade it's Chevron that will lose.

That must be what Ian MacDonald, a VP at Chevron meant when he said this at the latest Kurdistan-Iraq Oil & Gas conference:

"I believe all of us stand on the threshold of a great adventure."

Gem of the day

If America's Ivy League universities can't get the intellectual argument behind 350.org's call to divest endowments from fossil fuels, they could at least do the math, right? After all, if schools like Harvard want to be around for another 375 years, it would be smart to recognise that abundant fossil fuels and the dollars attached to them sure won't be.

Or not (via NY Times):

"At colleges with large endowments, many administrators are viewing the demand skeptically, saying it would undermine their goal of maximum returns in support of education."

Even better, a spokesman for Harvard had this to say:

"We always appreciate hearing from students about their viewpoints, but Harvard is not considering divesting from companies related to fossil fuels."

Funnily enough that doesn't really seem to align with Harvard's mission:

"Harvard seeks to identify and to remove restraints on students’ full participation, so that individuals may explore their capabilities and interests and may develop their full intellectual and human potential."

Gem of the day

Case in point for why the sustainability/CSR community is partly responsible for BP's image leading up to Gulf of Mexico:

In 2010, 45% of 'global sustainability experts' polled by Globescan said they thought 'Beyond Petroleum' had an 'effective' or 'average' impact on BP's sustainability performance, despite the company's consistent record of oil spills and lack of serious investment in renewables.

Gem of the day

As one of the major service providers to BP's Deepwater Horizon rig, Halliburton has had a lot of big questions to answer to over the past few years.

That must be why in the Q&A on its website Halliburton is so open and honest about its role in the spill - provided you can find the information yourself:

"Halliburton’s contract with BP Exploration relating to the Macondo well is available on its website at www.halliburton.com. Halliburton’s responses to the various commissions and agencies investigating the incident are available in the form of press releases on Halliburton.com."

How useful.

Gem of the day

The concept of an 'Access to Medicine Index', comparing how well the world's big pharmaceutical companies are doing at providing people in developing countries with affordable drugs, could be just the shake-up this industry needs. Novartis continues its 6-year battle with the Indian government over pricing and patents, and GSK is still reeling from its record $3 billion settlement with the US government for fraud and civil liabilities (read: mislabeling drugs and covering up evidence in medical journals).

Instead, here's the quote the founder of the index chose to provide to sum up the challenge at hand (via The Guardian):

"Access to medicine is a multi-faceted challenge and therefore responsibility for improving it lies with a number of different actors, but the pharmaceutical industry has a critical role to play."

Gem of the day

Here's a gem that has to count in the top 5 worst forms of praise you can get in the business world (of Rich Kinder, CEO of American energy giant Kinder Morgan and former executive of massive, corrupt failure Enron):

“If Kinder had stayed on as president, Enron would still be here,” says Richard Smead, a veteran industry executive.

That seems just about right for a guy willing to say this about our global energy future:

Kinder says: "I’m not naive...I’m a huge believer in the genius of mankind, and I think we’ll continue to find new ways to utilize, explore for and produce more and more fossil fuels."

Another non-environmental wonder

London Mayor Boris Johnson has a solution to the UK's stagnant economy: sell cars to India (via The Telegraph):

"It is the economic partnerships that offer the most extraordinary prospects. Imagine selling a Jag to one in every 100,000 Indians. That’s a lot of Jags, and a lot of jobs."

Truly ingenious.

Another non-environmental wonder

News that Hostess, the infamous American manufacturer of sickeningly sweet snacks, has filed for bankruptcy, is attracting weirdly misguided analysis. Here's one gem (via Forbes):

"The company’s assets can become valuable properties of several of its rivals...I would imagine that its production machinery as well as several proprietary items such as recipes might make great additions to Kellogg’s, Kraft and even beverage giants CoCa-Cola and Pepsi. 'Have a Coke and a Twinkie' has a nice ring to it...Hopefully the brand can re-emerge as part of a company such as Keebler or Mondelez with proven track records that is able to make Twinkies the non-perishable item for which it is known."

Memo to Forbes: Twinkies are so artificial they can last up to 25 years without going bad. That's only one reason a nation facing 44% obesity rates by 2030 should never, ever eat them.

Gem of the day

The UK CFO of McDonald's on ethical sourcing (via FT):

“The health of farmers is important to us,” says Brian Mullens.

For a business that spends over £320m every year on produce from 17,500 British and Irish farmers, that statement could mean a lot.

In that case, given their record on health and their business strategy, which underscores "value will continue to be a key growth driver as we reinforce the affordability of our menu", they'd better not invest in feeding farmers McDonald's.

Gem of the day

There's been plenty of excitement about the Pentagon's growing interest in renewable energy. BP's astonishing return to "business as usual" in 2011 is case in point for why this shift could have a huge impact and change the game - because it really is a ridiculous game - for our global energy mix (via Businessweek):

"Since BP has admitted it violated criminal law, will the U.S. government stop doing business with the company? Not necessarily. BP is a big supplier to the federal government. It sold more fuel to the Pentagon in 2011 than any other company—contracts worth $1.35 billion...The military needs fuel for its tanks and trucks and planes."

Gem of the day

For the world's big food companies, there's an awkward cognitive dissonance at the heart of the sustainability agenda (via GSB).

It's the consumer's choice:

"Most large food makers have resisted government regulation, instead favouring self-regulation and emphasising the personal responsibility of consumers to make their own choices about diet."

But business markets to influence those choices:

"Marketing messages seen in food advertising strongly influence behaviour, especially among children who are forming eating habits that will last a lifetime."

Another non-environmental wonder

Just one potential reason why Microsoft lacks innovation (via Businessweek):

"The environment in Microsoft’s executive suite resembled something out of Game of Thrones, with division heads poaching talent from one another and thwarting attempts from other groups to collaborate on products."

Progressive.

Something that's actually good

Daniel Birnbaum, CEO of make-your-own-soda firm SodaStream, explains why the business models of Coke and Pepsi are out of date (via WSJ):

"If the beverage industry had to create itself now from scratch, it wouldn't do it the way it is. You don't need factories, trucks, bottles and cans. Transportation for carbonated drinks in the world utilizes 100 million barrels of oil every year. That is 20 times the BP disaster that hit the Gulf of Mexico. Every single day...[beverage companies generate] one billion bottles and cans, most of which just go to trash, landfill, the oceans or parks."

Gem of the day

Jeremy Leggett, CEO of renewables firm Solarcentury, reacts to today's report from the IEA predicting that oil will make the US the world's largest energy producer by 2020 (via Businessweek):

“It’s a comfortable narrative, and people are desperate to believe comfortable narratives."

And now for the uncomfortable narrative: as part of the report's launch, IEA head Fatih Birol called energy efficiency policy to date an "epic failure".

If Paul Ryan did the math, this scenario would probably add up.

Something that's actually good

Fantastic new report from nef makes the link between the economy's dependence on oil today and the banking industry in 2006, proving energy is our biggest barrier to prosperity:

"Unless nations prepare to break the relationship between fossil fuels and their economy, this will prolong or prevent recovery from the current economic crisis, in effect, placing a glass ceiling on recovery."

nef translates into clear policy terms what Kurt Cobb has described as "a financial system and physical infrastructure premised on continuous and rising levels of oil consumption."

In other words, it's the oil, stupid.

Gem of the day

Conservative MP Richard Bacon on HMRC's convenient tax relationship with Starbucks (via Guardian):

 "It smells – and it doesn't smell of coffee. It smells bad."

Another non-environmental wonder

An analysis of what it takes to win a campaign from one of Romney's advisors, almost as deep and meaningful as most of his "policy recommendations" (via NY Times):

“It’s one thing to say you are going to do it; it’s another thing to actually get out there and do it,” said Brian Jones, a senior adviser.

Another non-environmental wonder

Case in point for why our system for measuring prosperity is completely broken (via the FT):

"The storm that ravaged the north-east coast of the US last week will hit economic growth in the final quarter of 2012...However, economists are already looking forward to the likely boost to GDP next year from spending on reconstruction."

Another non-environmental wonder

McKinsey casts a dreamy look at the future for the world's emerging economies: replica USAs all around, with enough impersonal shopping experiences for everyone:

"Eventually, mom-and-pop stores may go the way of buggy whips, and the descendants of today’s village children in countries such as China and India may scoff at the idea of buying products and services anywhere but in climate-controlled malls or online sites. For now, though, manufacturers staking their futures on these booming economies must forge lasting relationships with a diverse set of retailers—before competitors do."

Gem of the day

Jack P. Williams, President of XTO Energy, shares some words of wisdom:

"Why am I so optimistic? Because I live in Fort Worth, which happens to sit on top of the most actively drilled shale play in the United States – the Barnett Shale. Where I live, shale gas activity is a familiar part of everyday life. You know that old saying, 'not in my backyard'? I don't have a shale well in my backyard ... but I can see one from my front yard."

Update

Eco Gems is in Brazil until the 5th of November...more gems from then!

Gem of the day

Why aren't more defence and counterterrorism analogies used in marketing and PR? Obvious answers aside, this HBR article unintentionally proves just how wrong that approach is:

"No longer passive audiences, [consumers] can organize to overturn even the most strategic initiatives. The result is a fundamental change that has put executive teams and board directors on high alert...We call this new dynamic 'customer insurgency'...how can organizations adapt to consumers armed with inexpensive weapons of mass collaboration? [...] Create your own volunteer army, and reduce the space for would-be insurgents to gain footing."

That's right, use corporate communications to silence or delegitimize what customers say. Because in the short term it's much easier than redesigning business to create value beyond profit.

Gem of the day

Conditions for offshore drilling and exploration in the Arctic are difficult - and even more so when your peers set the bar so laughably low for competence.

So what's Statoil's strategy, given that they intend to have a "strong focus" in the region?

"Memoranda of Understanding with various reputable institutions have been signed to learn and widen our expertise. Agreements range from UNEP Grid Arendal, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk Oblast to the Sami University College in Kautokeino and others."

This kind of tactical engagement for reputation must be what CEO Helge Lund is hoping will make his statement a reality:

"We see no long-term conflict between the interests of our owners and society’s expectations."

Another non-environmental wonder

Only the Economist would describe the financial system this way:

"Financial institutions are vulnerable to investigation, prosecution and litigation from every direction."

Or this way:

"If banks once did banking, now they practise law."

That must be why the leadership of banks have survived the financial crisis that crippled the global economy without a single prosecution.

Gem of the day

Was Deepwater Horizon a 'black swan' event? Unsurprisingly, not even BP can make up their own minds about that:

• CEO Bob Dudley says no: "It would be a mistake to dismiss our experience of last year simply as a black swan, a one-in-a-million occurrence that carries no wider application for the industry as a whole," he told an industry conference in March.
• EVP and Group Chief of Staff Dev Sanyal says yes: "Nassim Nicholas Taleb – the writer, academic and trader – defines a Black Swan as an event that occurs outside the realm of regular expectations...And BP – as you know – experienced such an event with the accident two years ago in the Gulf of Mexico resulting in 11 fatalities. It was a tragic accident and one that we deeply regret," he said at a symposium in May.

That must be the kind of cognitive dissonance BP is talking about when they define "what BP is looking for" on their global careers website:

"BP is an organisation as diverse as it is distinct."

Another non-environmental wonder

After a summer of over-the-top police aggression moments that felt more like the 1960s than 2012, one police force is making some changes. That's right, the Milwaukee Police Department is rebranding itself. A new, flashy website features images like the one below.

Great news. Because when I look at American police forces, the number one thing that clearly needs to change is their reputation.

Gem of the day

Integrating sustainability risks into decisionmaking is one of the most critical, but most complicated, challenges we face. After all, it's pretty clear that the system in place for publicly listed corporations and investors to deal with financial risks is a gross failure (see here, here and here). Regulators are constantly behind the curve trying to figure out where tomorrow's crisis is going to come from. Meanwhile, 'mutually beneficial' relationships between the big 4 accounting firms, those very regulators and the companies they are supposed to be keeping tabs on make it nearly impossible to reveal significant irregularities before they have an impact.

So why is the newly formed Sustainability Accounting Standards Board modeled after the Financial Accounting Standards Board? And what does it mean for the real task at hand: moving sustainability beyond simply 'talking the language' of the broken financial system, and making it a driver of financial transformation?

I'll leave it to HSBC Chairman Douglas Flint to reinforce that (via HSBC 2011 Sustainability Report):

"While the industry as a whole looks to reform, individual banks have their own story to tell about their role in the economy and society at large."

You can say that again.

Gem of the day

Reality check of the week:

8 out of the world's top 10 biggest companies are fossil fuel companies.

The good news is most of the people at these companies have no idea what they're doing and their most strategic challengers are starting to win big.

Another non-environmental wonder

Columnist Schumpeter of the Economist thinks this is a good way to sum up the influence of America on the world over the past few decades:

"America has been the world’s most important growth machine since the second world war...The machine was good for the world as well as America—it helped spread the gospel of capitalism and transform the American dream into a global dream."

In the words of novelist William Gass, "if Americans ever had a dictator they would call him Coach."

Something that's actually good

Computer scientist Sandy Pentland looks at how 'Big Data' is transforming the world and what that means for traditional organizations (big business and government, are you listening?). Via hub of genius Edge.org:

"The notion that it is connections between people that is really important is key, because researchers have mostly been trying to understand things like financial bubbles using what is called Complexity Science or Web Science. But these older ways of thinking about Big Data leaves the humans out of the equation. What actually matters is how the people are connected together by the machines and how, as a whole, they create a financial market, a government, a company, and other social structures...I expect to see that organizations with hard information boundaries will tend to dissolve, because there will be competition from things that are better that don't have the hard boundaries and don't try to own your data."

Gem of the day

The New Yorker reveals what's behind an NY Times hunch about the 'amazing' synchronization of ad campaigns against Obama:

"'To see many of the anti-Obama ads that have run on television recently, it would be easy to conclude that they were made in the same studios, by the same producers working for the same campaign,' Jeremy W. Peters wrote on Tuesday...New Federal Election Commission filings reveal a reason why the ads are so alike in style and substance: they do, in fact have a production firm in common. Guiding some fifty million dollars’ worth of anti-Obama television ads that ran in August and early September, sponsored by three major separate conservative groups, is the hand of Larry McCarthy."

We need this for pro-renewable energy.

Gem of the day

It's not like any sane person would pick up a feature on 'Capital Insights' sponsored and written by Ernst & Young and expect to find a remotely human view of the world.

But this gem blatantly saying 'active' investors need to be silenced still feels unreal:

"With investors increasingly taking a more active role in their investments, corporates need to make sure they are fully engaged with their shareholders in order to make certain that any potential problems are headed off before they begin."

Gem of the day

Al Gore's Climate Reality Project plans their next reality check on the climate: this time it's 'dirty weather' as the selling point for people to sit up and pay attention. But given the hard and depressing truth, where's the inspiration for the future? (via NY Times)

"...the event will focus not just on the fossil fuel industries but on organizations that sow doubt that climate change is under way, [Project CEO Maggie] Fox said. By filtering ideas, knowledge, and awareness of climate trends, she said, social media can be a tool for 'overtaking the noise' created by climate skeptics."

Competing with the opposition for air time on the issues is definitely a problem given the CRP's other key objective:

"More broadly, the Climate Reality Project’s goal is to forge connections between nongovernmental organizations working on climate change issues around the globe with individuals to spread awareness, Ms. Fox said in an interview. 'There are something like two million environmental N.G.O.’s around the world working on climate,' she said. 'We actually believe we have the numbers — but we don’t have the mass.'”

Right - and none of those 2 million NGOs have a positive, engaging way of talking about how we can address this reality. What they do have is plenty of post-Copenhagen depression.

No one should underestimate the need to transcend climate skepticism in the US. But we need more solutions, not just more talking points.

Gem of the day

More evidence that the digital/tech industry needs to seriously take stock of its role in sustainability: barrier or enabler?

In the case of Microsoft, 1970s-style tactics that confirm barrier status in a big way (via NY Times):

"Microsoft threatened to waste tremendous amounts of power by simply running giant heaters for no purpose, according to utility officials who said they were briefed on the matter by Microsoft, unless the penalty [$210,000 for running on back-up, highly polluting diesel generators] was largely forgiven. The idea was to burn the power fast enough to move closer to the forecast before year’s end...The Microsoft spokeswoman, Ms. Platt, said the company remained committed to the environment. 'Microsoft’s focus on efficiency and resource utilization has not changed,' she said."

And that would be economic, rather than environmental, efficiency Ms. Platt?

Gem of the day

It's so nice to see Spanish oil company Repsol catching up to the slick, empty corporate comms its peers use to avoid talking about real sustainability challenges (hello BP, Chevron, Exxon and Shell).

#avoidingclimatechange

Something that's actually good

Ingenious gem from Bill McKibben summing up everything that's wrong with behavior change + the environmental movement (via Rolling Stone):

"Since all of us are in some way the beneficiaries of cheap fossil fuel, tackling climate change has been like trying to build a movement against yourself – it's as if the gay-rights movement had to be constructed entirely from evangelical preachers, or the abolition movement from slaveholders."

Another non-environmental wonder

Mitt Romney's vision for America: every man for himself and zero human rights to a healthy, safe life (via The Guardian).

"All right, there are 47% who are with him (Obama), who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, to you-name-it."

That's a great plan Mitt, considering the latest US census shows 1 in 5 American children lives in poverty and unemployment benefits kept 2.3 million Americans from falling into poverty in 2011.

Gem of the day

Time to take another look at why renewables aren't getting the traction they need, especially in the US.

The American landscape (via NY Times):

"With nearly two months before Election Day on Nov. 6, estimated spending on television ads promoting coal and more oil and gas drilling or criticizing clean energy has exceeded $153 million this year." [Getting aggressively consumer-facing, such as this I'm an Energy Voter campaign]

The mindset of major American NGOs in response:

"The Climate Reality Project is not buying television ads at all, focusing instead on social media, training and organizing. 'Whatever we would spend, it would just be washed away in this sea of fossil fuel money,' said Maggie L. Fox, the group’s chief executive."

“We are being outgunned by orders of magnitude...There is just no way we can compete with some of the richest companies in the history of the world," said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club.

Right.

Gem of the day

Why we need Wikileaks for the oil industry (via the genius of Resource Insights):

"Many of these [OPEC] countries say that a detailed audit of their fields by independent observers is out of the question because oil reserves are a state secret...Are there reasons to believe that if we saw this data it would contradict the official overall number provided by some countries? In a word, yes."

And case in point:

"The United Arab Emirates has been reporting 97.8 billion barrels of oil reserves every year since 1997."

Gem of the day

Mitt Romney makes it clear, one last time, that he has no idea how big a threat climate change and environmental degradation are to the American economy (via MSNBC):

"I’m not in this race to slow the rise of the oceans or to heal the planet. I'm in this race to heal the American people."

Okay Mitt - go ahead and try doing that without dealing with the impacts of more natural disasters, rampant inequality, higher and more volatile prices from an oil-based economy, toxic pollution and food deserts for the poor.

And you can start by ignoring the $22 trillion the Clean Air Act has since saved the U.S. in healthcare costs.

Gem of the day

Beverage giant Coca-Cola has a new campaign: A Billion Reasons to Believe in Africa. And they're not shy about stating why their campaign is just as refreshing as their sickeningly sweet drinks:

"The world may choose to see Africa as dark, hopeless and a home to war, famine, corruption, poverty and disease, but we at Coca-Cola choose to see this beautiful continent through a fresh and colorful lens."

And why is Coke best positioned to do this campaign? See this gem which unintentionally sums up why this is so, so wrong:

"Coca-Cola has operated on this continent for several decades with footprints that extend to every country."

You bet, Coke. Here's to making those sugary footprints even bigger.

Gem of the day

One company's very special definition of why PR to attract employees is important to the business:

"We will not only be in a stronger position to win the war for talent, but will also increase the engagement of current employees."

Something that's actually good

Kurt Cobb via EnergyBulletin single-handedly debunks all of the myths we hold about oil:

• Half of all oil consumed since the beginning of the oil age has been consumed since 1985
• Peak oil does not mean that we won't find any more oil. We are finding oil every day. We're just not finding enough and putting it into production fast enough.
• Peak oil does not mean we are running out of oil...The rate of production is the key, not the size of the world's reserves.

Oh, and then there's this magical gem:

"Perhaps it will seem puzzling that experts inside the industry--with a few notable exceptions--cannot grasp that the rate of production is the central issue. The best explanation I can offer is to quote author Upton Sinclair: 'It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!'"

Amen.
 

Gem of the day

There are many, many things that could be said about former BP CEO Tony Hayward's latest venture. Here's one: it's the ultimate example of unsustainable, inherently risky business without purpose (via NY Times):

"Mr. Hayward, Mr. Metherell and Mr. Rothschild...set up what is known as a cash shell, a company with no business, just a promise that it will find one. It was called Vallares. Mr. Hayward then spent weeks in New York, London, Abu Dhabi and beyond, drumming up investors. Vallares eventually went public on the London Stock Exchange, raising $2.1 billion. That money, Vallares said, would be used to buy unspecified oil and gas assets in emerging markets, although Mr. Hayward hinted that he was interested in Kurdistan."

Even better is the quote from Mehmet Sepil, a 'pioneer' in Iraqi oil investment:

“I didn’t know anything about oil but the tank of my car,” Mr. Sepil recalls. 

Don't worry Mr. Sepil - neither does anyone who works in the oil industry.

Another non-environmental wonder

Only The Economist would write about the global arms trade like this:

"America’s exports in particular are helped by a long-standing client base, which orders upgrades, spare parts and support services every year."

Gem of the day

In a nutshell: why the totally broken, circular energy debate in America mirrors the global energy debate.

Mayor Bloomberg of New York positions natural gas as America's future (via Washington Post):

"The production of shale gas through fracking is the most significant development in the U.S. energy sector in generations...the hydraulic fracturing of shale rock that, together with horizontal drilling, unleashes abundant natural gas."

The global climate change legislation under debate in 2009 positions clean energy as America's future (via C-Span):

"This bill moves us towards a clean energy future...American innovation can unleash abundant clean energy resources and protect our national security."

Something that's actually good

Finally, a growing recognition that nearly every country deserves 'developing' status in the face of unprecedented global challenges (or even basic neglected infrastructure). Why hasn't anyone written this so bluntly before? (via GSB)

"Social entrepreneurship often focuses on finding solutions to problems in the developing world. But, as the European Union battles with the ongoing recession and the US experiences rising levels of poverty, social enterprise solutions are increasingly appropriate in advanced industrial countries as well."

Gem of the day

You don't always get agribusiness giants to admit in the global media that they care about profit more than anything else. But sometimes you do. Witness Chris Maloney, head of Glencore's food trading business (via The Guardian):

"In terms of the outlook for the balance of the year, the environment is a good one. High prices, lots of volatility, a lot of dislocation, tightness, a lot of arbitrage opportunities [the purchase and sale of an asset in order to profit from price differences in different markets]"

Gem of the day

New report from Deloitte on the extent of America's debt crisis notes that current conversations "lack the depth and nuance that such a complex topic deserves."

Too true. So it's all too tragic to see investment in real sustainability and green technologies completely MIA from the cute infographic Deloitte has assembled of six areas that could 'boost America's competitiveness'. And the selection of carbon offset markets as one of those six areas only adds insult to injury, considering most people outside the Big 4 are recognising that they, er, don't really work.

Then again, none of this can really be a surprise coming from a firm that spends its time not paying attention to things that don't work.

Another non-environmental wonder

Thank God the 'African consumer market' is finally catching up to the saturated, senseless, soulless standard set by the USA. And who better to report on this renaissance than the Economist?

"'Brands matter less than price in most of Africa,' says Simon Crutchley, the boss of AVI, a big South African consumer-goods firm with businesses across Africa. Many Africans are too poor to be brand aware, he says. They have not grown up bombarded with advertising and barely recognise even famous brands. But this is changing quickly, thanks to television and mobile phones."

At this rate, it won't be long before the wealthiest of these new consumers can start questing after essentials like Jimmy Choo shoes and Lacoste polo shirts, just two of the brands hawked by AVI.

Bonus gem

AccountAbility's 'Stakeholder Engagement Manual Volume 1: Practitioners' Perspectives', published ages ago circa 2005, is unsurprisingly chock full o' gems.

This helpful quote from Dermont Kirk of BP has to take the cake:

"BP’s Dermont Kirk notes that, 'Engagement is more about listening than anything
else.' Expect to spend time learning each other’s vocabulary. 'You may be using the
same words,' he observes, 'but they may have different meanings.'”

That's right Kirk, and when it comes to draining terms like 'clean energy' of all sustainability meaning, BP would know that nuance better than anyone else.

Gem of the day

New op-ed in the NY Times by Alan Riley gets the picture on energy and climate change awesomely wrong:

"The battle against runaway climate change is being lost. The green movement and the energy industry — while engaged in a furious debate on issues from nuclear power to oil sands — are missing the bigger picture...Broad development of shale gas resources — with proper ecological safeguards — could be the best way to achieve the quick cuts in carbon dioxide emissions that we need to maintain a habitable environment on Earth."

His proof points:

•  "Current" renewable energy supply can't deliver adequate carbon savings
•  Using shale gas in the interim will give us time to "develop" renewable energy globally

Aside from the obvious chicken-and-egg issue there - renewables will scale up to meet demand but we need investment now to seriously kick-start that - the biggest fault in this article is Riley's failure to understand shale gas is about propping up the fossil fuels narrative.

But that might be too much to expect from a piece written by an energy law professor.

Gem of the day

Ryan Schuchard of BSR manages to place Greenpeace activism and Walmart 'activism' in the same paragraph (via ClimateProgress):

"Low-carbon development can no longer wait for a price on carbon...This is evident in calls for business to be more engaged than ever before, from stepped-up campaigns by traditional activists like Greenpeace, to new initiatives targeting key sectors, to activism by companies such as Walmart, which is encouraging its suppliers to do more. What was once considered the leading edge—advancing initiatives around procurement, policy engagement, and creative partnerships—is now commonplace."

The day that Walmart's board risk their lives to demand a better world, that label just might be earned.

Gem of the day

In another episode brought to you by the media asleep at the wheel, The Telegraph documents an 'astonishing' turnaround time from government energy announcement to corporate reciprocation:

"The Treasury announced that new gas fields found at depths of less than 90 feet will be exempt from a 32 percent tax on the first £500 million of income. The pledge appeared to pay off almost immediately with British Gas owner Centrica saying that it had helped to unlock new investments worth over £1 billion."

Fantastic and unpredictable news!

Gem of the day

Fascinating-proof-of-American-cognitive-dissonance fact of the day (via NY Times):

Wind turbines are more common in Republican legislative districts than Democratic ones.

Gem of the day

There's a first time for everything in the vortex of corporate sustainability. But PPG Industries, a major manufacturer of paint products, really takes the cake by being the first non-oil company I've ever seen to include a photo of an offshore oil rig in its CSR report to bolster its performance credentials. Confusing.

Gem of the day

Time for a reality check on the Indian power cut last week (via the New Yorker):

"Though the headlines announced that seven hundred million people across twenty-one states had lost power, only about three hundred and twenty million of those had any electricity to begin with: in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and one of its poorest, sixty-three per cent of households, or about a hundred and twenty-five million people, lack access to electricity."

...and at a higher level, context around what needs to be read into from this fleeting but meaningful crisis:

"For many commentators, it was a minor inconvenience but a major international embarrassment—another brutal blow to the [Indian] growth story, on a scale so stupendously grand that the whole world took notice."

Bonus gem

England's environmental movement gets headlines for tackling the big issues at the root of the sustainability crisis - oh wait (via Guardian):

"Call for levy on single-use plastic bags in England: Environmental groups demand plastic bags should be charged after data shows rise in annual usage for second year in a row."

And we wonder day after day why the 'average consumer' isn't engaged in the agenda.

Gem of the day

More proof - as if we needed any - that the dirty, inefficient tools of the old system (energy and finance, for starters) are driven by elitism and inequality (via Jeremy Leggett):

"George Osborne was facing fresh questions yesterday over his controversial push to make Britain a worldwide hub for fossil fuels, after it emerged that his father-in-law is the head of a lobbying organisation for big oil and gas companies. Lord Howell of Guildford, who is an energy minister at the Foreign Office, is also the president of the British Institute of Energy Economics (BIEE), which is sponsored by Shell and BP – prompting suggestions of a conflict of interest."

Gem of the day

With over 26,000 megawatts of coal-fired power stations lying idle in India, and 600 million people without power, where's backup power coming from? Via NY Times:

“We are taking hydro power from Bhakhra Nangal Dam,” in northern India, said Sushil Kumar Shinde, the power minister.

Right, renewables. And in one of the best unintentional campaigns for energy efficiency, Indians have begun mobilising around the hashtag #benefitsofpowercut. Choice gems:

#benefitsofpowercut people will go out and hang out with each other in person rather than on google

#benefitsofpowercut Have you ever had a proper candle night dinner with your family?

Another non-environmental wonder

Best Olympic blooper so far (via Guardian):

"London 2012 organisers have apologised and blamed human error for Wednesday's flag mix-up when South Korea's flag appeared alongside North Korea's women's football team on stadium screens as players warmed up before their opening match."

Amazing demonstration of LOCOG's secret political transformation agenda?

Even better, the official reaction from the North Korean coach:

"If this matter had not been solved, continuing would have been a nonsense."

Something that's actually good

David Roberts (via Grist) nails the self-reinforcing loop between our global dependency on fossil fuels and the international agencies that crunch the numbers in support of them, propping up the industry and therefore the decisionmakers that are beholden to industry:

"The International Energy Agency and U.S. Energy Information Administration do not try to predict policy changes; they project based on the current policy regime. In 2000, there wasn't much in the way of clean-energy policy. Since then, however, there's been a great deal, and those policy changes are the biggest driver of renewable energy growth."

Something that's actually good

The case for a radically new information environment to move the true sustainability agenda forward (and breakthrough capitalism), in a nutshell (via James Henry in the Guardian, author of the 'The Price of Offshore Revisited' report):

"The very existence of the global offshore industry, and the tax-free status of the enormous sums invested by their wealthy clients, is predicated on secrecy."

Another non-environmental wonder

After a second week of humiliating stories of banks gone bad (remember, it's all of them - not just the ones who have been caught and grilled in the public spotlight), financial commentators start to ask the 'unaskable'.

Here's James Saft writing for Reuters:

"Never mind that our largest banks are too big to be allowed to fail, they show every sign of being too big for investors...they aren’t just risky and volatile, but often badly managed and highly likely to produce further scandals in which insiders gain at the expense of everyone else in the capital structure."

Maybe this head-in-the-sand mentality will finally be broken on the role of banks in financing an unsustainable future, too. Just maybe.

Gem of the day

Another classic triumph of the insidious fossil fuels narrative in supposedly 'progressive' media (via NY Times):

"Cheaper fuel produced domestically could reduce the cost of shipping and manufacturing, trim heating and cooling bills, improve the auto market and provide tens of thousands of new jobs...It might also pose new environmental challenges."

Oh and this one too, from the same article:

"For Americans battered by rising gasoline prices, frustrated by the dependence on foreign oil, skeptical of the benefits or practicality of renewable fuels and afraid of nuclear power, the appeal of plentiful domestic oil and gas could far outweigh the costs."

Another non-environmental wonder

In case anyone needed more proof of how systemic the problems with our financial institutions are (reality check: banking is broken), HSBC is this week's latest disaster (via The Guardian):

"HSBC's subsidiaries transported billions of dollars of cash in armoured vehicles, cleared suspicious travellers' cheques worth billions, and allowed Mexican drug lords buy to planes with money laundered through Cayman Islands accounts."

And in case anyone needed more proof that the banks themselves still don't get it, here's how HSBC describes the issue at hand:

"Structural problems with the bank's compliance function"

Right.

Another non-environmental wonder

HSBC Hong Kong's Chief Operating Officer on why the small persistent band of Occupy Hong Kong protesters need to leave the square outside HSBC offices (via NYTimes DealBook):

“As the occupation continues, the hygiene situation is deteriorating and will likely continue to deteriorate,” his affidavit said.

Too bad he wasn't instead talking about the state of Hong Kong's economy, which is currently beset by raging, record inequality:

"The city’s wealth gap has widened, property prices have soared and average citizens have become increasingly priced out, in many cases by well-heeled investors and visitors from the Chinese mainland. The average home price is around 13 times the median annual household income."

Healthy.

Something that's actually good

Choice quote from an interview with Jeremy Heimans, on what kinds of clients it takes to start a movement (that is, if you're a consultancy whose business it is to do that):

"A mayonnaise company came to us to build a movement around real food and local food. But we said you aren’t real and you aren’t local. We didn’t take the job."

Zing!

Gem of the day

Another astonishingly small environmental public affairs wonder, as the EU wrestles with its own bureaucracy to label its water management plans:

"On 23 October 2000, the "Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for the Community action in the field of water policy" or, in short, the EU Water Framework Directive (or even shorter the WFD) was finally adopted."

Another non-environmental wonder

In [yet] another episode of 'what recent crisis does this remind us of?', a summary of Jim Chanos' Chinese economic forecast (via NY Times):

"Chanos contends that China is headed for a hard landing of epic proportions because of its shaky financial system and an imminent collapse in its property market, which undergirds the entire economy. “'’m being conservative when I say that the coming bust in China’s real-estate market will be a thousand times that of Dubai,' he told Barron’s."

Unstable financial system? Real estate bubble? Nobody shout 'America'!

Gem of the day

Choice quote off of McDonalds UK's strange new 'stakeholder engagement' platform, 'What Makes McDonald's?', which encourages people to 'find the facts, share your views':

"Ultimately it’s up to individuals to make the right food, drink, and activity choices for themselves every day.”

See image above - where do they find these 'consumers'?

Gem of the day

Trendwatching.com's trend-of-the-month never fails to deliver a few laughs. This month's takes the cake:

"NEWISM. The ‘new’ has never been hotter, as the entire world, from emerging to mature economies, is now creating new products, services and experiences on a daily, if not hourly basis, in every B2C industry."

And what better picture to accompany the debut of NEWISM than one of this long line at H&M? It perfectly sums up the hell that this trend will drive: more mass-market, cheap and vacuous consumerism.

As with so many outputs from the marketing vortex, NEWNESS comes with the following disclaimer:

"It is also not just breathless, eco-unfriendly, product-replacing madness (see also driver 6): in fact, there's an absolute avalanche of new eco-friendly products and services out there as well."

So all we need to do is introduce more products with vague environmental credentials, on top of the pile of stuff we don't need, to buy our way out of our global sustainability crisis? That's right Trendwatching.com, you totally don't get it.

Another non-environmental wonder

Assessment of Bob Diamond by one Barclays employee (via FT):

“He engendered great staff loyalty right through the ranks...And he was always great with clients.”

That's right, clients - not your average Joe retail consumer, who have the most to lose from this latest scandal.

And the FT, never one to recognize its own irony, has this gem to add:

"However, Mr Diamond was not great with the authorities."

Another non-environmental wonder

Rupert Murdoch, one of the richest men in the world, weighs in on the American presidential election (via WSJ):

"The Romney campaign thinks it can play it safe and coast to the White House by saying the economy stinks and it's Mr. Obama's fault. We're on its email list and the main daily message from the campaign is that 'Obama isn't working.' Thanks, guys, but Americans already know that."

Murdoch clearly didn't get the memo that our economic system isn't working.

Gem of the day

Edelman, as always, has great intel on what really went wrong with the Fukushima nuclear disaster (via Holmes Report):

"Tepco’s handling of the communications aspects of this crisis contributed significantly to widespread anxiety,” says Edelman Japan CEO Ross Rowbury. “This led to severe reputation damage for the company and created a new low in the public trust of institutions in Japan.”

Something that's actually good

Jorgen Randers sums up everything that's wrong with the world from a generational perspective (via Club of Rome):

"They [young people] are already now beginning to wake up to the fact that their parents and grandparents are in the process of leaving them an exploited planet with degraded life-support systems, indebted economies, few jobs, and no affordable housing...In developed countries they also inherit the responsibility of caring for an increasing number of retired people who plan to receive pensions and health care for the next thirty to forty years."

Gem of the day

Barclays is going through the ringer this week as both its CEO and Chairman step down, following revelations that the bank manipulated key interest rates during the financial crisis.

In the words of one Barclays official to the British Bankers Associations:

"We’re clean but we’re dirty-clean, rather than clean-clean."

It's not hard to see where those grey areas of responsibility stem from when you take a look at Barclays' Citizenship Strategy. Two of its three pillars are essentially about increasing growth and profit:

• "Contributing to growth - We support economic growth and job creation by operating a strong, profitable business."
• "The way we do business - Our clients’ interests are at the heart of what we do."

For a business that clearly assumes growth and business as usual are the keys to responsibility, a crisis of this scale can hardly be a surprise.

Gem of the day

Tim Jackson sums up why Rio+20 turned out so, so wrong (via GSB):

"The most staggering linguistic turnabout for me is the one that equates green economy with 'sustained economic growth'...this language has set back by a decade any attempt to question the model that led us to the brink of financial disaster, perpetuates huge consumption inequalities and is driving us towards ecological collapse."

Gem of the day

Rajiv Shah, administrator of USAID, hands the future of Africa over to Monsanto (via Nation of Change):

“We are never going to end hunger in Africa without private investment. There are things that only companies can do, like building silos for storage and developing seeds and fertilizers.”

Yes, Rajiv. Those aren't the only things those kinds of companies can do.

Gem of the day

Peter Bakker, CEO of the WBCSD, has a killer message for unsustainable incumbents, literally (via GSB):

"The 20% of really bad guys we need to regulate out of existence."

Plus he delivers one of the best Rio+20 gems about the torturous negotiations process:

"I am not used to sitting in a room for 3.5 hours, asked to represent all business in the world, and like others there to not even get a voice."

Gem of the day

Worst line seen about Rio+20 so far, courtesy of EDF folks and their friends in a typically mild NY Times op-ed:

"With determination and the right policies, by the time Rio+30 rolls around, optimism might be the order of the day."

Because what could be a better time to start the long wait to Rio+30 than now, at Rio+20?

Another non-environmental wonder

At least one Cabinet officer in the UK government has a harsh appraisal for the allegedly errant behavior of Lord Fink, treasurer of the Conservative party (via the Guardian):

"It leaves a very nasty taste to suggest that you can buy access to the House of Lords, and it cheapens democracy", said the Cabinet's shadow minister.

Not quite, actually - you can only inherit access to the House of Lords.

Right.

Gem of the day

Following allegations of corruption and bribery in operations in the Congo, Mehmet Dalman, the embattled new CEO of extractives firm Eurasion Natural Resources Corporation, must have a great quote lined up about ENRC's approach to governance (via the FT):

"We want to be open and transparent,” Mr. Dalman says. “We’ve got nothing not to talk about. It is a new era of openness here."

Right. But who can blame Dalman for his lame defense when he operates in a market environment dominated by insights like this gem, courtesy of an analyst at Deutsche Bank:

“Trust takes time to build. The stock is very cheap, but [Mr. Dalman] needs to keep saying the right things, over a long period. It will be a slow value-improvement story.”

So we'll just keep on with the talking points then, shall we Mr. Dalman?

Another non-environmental wonder

Courtesy of former President Nixon, more proof that in the vortex of politics some things never change (a memo to his aides, via New Yorker):

"I want a study made immediately as to how many people in CIA could be removed by presidential action. . . . Of course, the reduction in force should be accomplished solely on the ground of its being necessary for budget reasons, but you will both know the real reason."

Gem of the day

Daniel Yergin, thought leader of the decade on all things energy-related, writes this assessment of America's oil and gas boom (which he ironically terms "America's New Energy Reality") that only an economist could think up (via NY Times):

"...what is striking is this great revival in oil and gas production in the United States, with wide impacts on jobs, economic development and the competitiveness of American industry. This new reality requires a new way of thinking and talking about America’s improving energy position and how to facilitate this growth in an environmentally sound way — recognizing the considerable benefits this will bring in an era of economic uncertainty."

Right, because surely the real estate bubble driven by natural gas speculation and the huge volatility in oil, from environmental disasters to corrupt profits, will help in the long-term with economic uncertainty. Let's hope Yergin isn't in charge of figuring out the "new way of thinking and talking" about energy in the US or anywhere else.

Joe Romm nails the technical analysis of why Yergin is wrong here, with choice quotes like this one:

"...[Yergin] has nothing to say about how we could do this in an environmentally sound way, in part, I suspect, because he knows that we can’t."

Another non-environmental wonder

The FT's 'Adventurous Investor' column makes the understatement of the year:

"Even adventurous investors need to remember that catastrophes don’t come in easy to spot cycles."

Another non-environmental wonder

Only in the FT would you find this gem of a lobbying rebrand, which asks three industry figures the question "Is offering advice to government worth the hassle?"

Strategist Brian Millar offers this fascinating response:

"...the key is to be very judicious about when and how you get involved. If an initiative perfectly matches your company's values, then your contribution can add weight to your brand. But if there is even the slightest chance that the message could go awry or that your agenda could be overwhelmed by political expedience...run from Portcullis House via the nearest fire escape."

Right, because that's how public affairs departments work...

Something that's actually good

As part of the Breakthrough Capitalism forum, Jeremy Leggett nails why energy is so much more than a just a commodity in the sustainability debate (via Guardian GSB):

"Energy brings into focus the systemic fault lines in society."

Gem of the day

The AA1000 stakeholder engagement standard helpfully clears up that age-old CSR question, 'what is a material issue?':

"An issue should be considered material if it influences or is likely to influence the decisions, actions and behaviour of one or more stakeholders and/or the organisation itself."

Thanks AccountAbility.

Another non-environmental wonder

Best quote I've seen about the 2012 Games to date, in response to what the Guardian labels the failed hope that "Olympic fever would mean queues of advertisers writing out large cheques on demand":

"They thought the Olympics was too premium to fail," says one media buying industry source.

Bonus gem

Marketing site BrandChannel has a gem of a take on the New York Times Magazine feature that ran on McDonald's new brand positioning a few weeks ago (see here for more on the chain's awkward quest for authenticity).

"There's no mention of how many jobs McDonald's creates and sustains in an era when joblessness is the huge vulnerability of the U.S. economic recovery, or of how its still-affordable prices help millions of consumers around the world eat every day amid financial conditions that continue to be difficult in many places."

More proof that when you reduce capitalism down to job creation and product prices, everyone looks like a hero.