• Research, case studies, and surveys on topics such as incentives for category managers, key issues for buyers to consider at the product level, the efficacy of third-party labels and certification, and more
• Metrics analysis that focuses on integrating sustainability into existing approaches such as “total cost of ownership”
• Educational guidelines, webinars, and web content for companies to share with internal sourcing teams
• One-on-one and collaborative consulting projects for a small group of BSR members to examine current purchasing processes, develop solutions for integrating sustainability into decisions, and share lessons collectively

The idea for the Center originated with the procurement and supply chain work BSR supported over a two-year period with Hilton Worldwide during which the company developed an analysis and comparison tool focused on quantifying product sustainability to help inform buying decisions. The criteria looked at nearly 100 different measures, including core lifecycle-assessment components such as inputs, manufacturing, packaging, logistics, use, and end-of-life. In total, the company collected and assessed nearly 1,700 SKUs across multiple product categories such as food and beverage, property operations, and rooms representing over US$165 million in spend.

Hopefully programs like this one will help companies of all sizes to incorporate sustainability goals and objectives into their procurement strategies.

Keynote presenter Margaret Wente, award-winning columnist with the Globe & Mail, will discuss Ontario’s green energy policies. The agenda also includes a dynamic panel on the highs and lows of using social media to communicate sustainability.

Speakers represent Natural Resources Canada, University of Waterloo, Holcim (Canada), PricewaterhouseCoopers, Quantis, LoyaltyOne, Rogers Communications, CarbonZero, Heenan Blakie, Energent, and more!

Session topics include:

• Energy management and incentives;
• Sustainable supply chains and transportation;
• Carbon and cost control;
• Social media and green;
• Carbon policy.

These kind of events not only raise awareness, but provide a valuable forum for sharing new sustainability program best practices.

“Green economy employers have very specific needs and requirements for their workforce,” said Greg Schreiner, Clean Tech Recruitment Manager at RedFish Technology. “This field is becoming very competitive, and we see the demand for highly qualified employees with broad based knowledge of green technologies increasing. Getting the right people in the right roles is every company’s first responsibility, and we are looking to sites like KleanJobs.com and CleanTechRecruits.com to help us identify the right people.”

In addition to offering a search site for green-collar workers, KleanJobs will also be branching out into related services, such as job certification in green economy skills and resume writing and editing services. Company co-founder, PJ Stoural, says he hopes to address a need for employers in this field to locate the talent they need. “There’s a huge unmet need for US workers, as well as returning US service members, to get trained in these fields. There are estimates of up to 46,000 new clean jobs in the US this quarter, and we have employers who want to hire.”

“Frameworks with governments is a good example. If you have clear goals on CO2 emissions and carbon trading globally, if you have governments saying no to illegal deforestation, things would move a lot faster,” he said.

This week, Unilever published the first results of its ten-year Sustainable Living Plan, a program of initiatives designed to reduce its impact on the environment while the company grows. Unilever has made progress, notably on sourcing more of its agricultural raw materials more sustainably and reducing the amount of energy used throughout its operations. However, the report also lists areas where the company is “off plan” (including the sustainable sourcing of sunflower oil) and where it missed its target (on improving heart health).

Polman insisted the Sustainable Living Plan had, for Unilever, become “the way we do business” and he claimed the company’s strategy had “galvanized” others into action. He acknowledged that getting others to act “is not always easy” but said he had seen signs that industry had been able to “transform markets”.

And, although the Unilever chief believes government intervention is needed in some areas to encourage more sustainable behavior from industry and consumers, he believes business can go further. At the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, Polman arranged a meeting of CEOs on sustainability, which he says will lead to a range of businesses making commitments at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio in June. “At Rio, you will see business pushing much harder and faster than governments as they will be tied up in election cycles,” he says.

“Decarbonization of the electric power sector is critical to achieving greenhouse gas reductions that are needed for a sustainable future,” said Daniel Kammen, Distinguished Professor of Energy in UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group. “To meet these carbon goals, coal has to go away from the region.”

To achieve this level of decarbonization, policy changes are needed to cap or tax carbon emissions to provide an incentive to move toward low-carbon electricity sources, Kammen and the other study authors said.

While some previous studies have emphasized the high cost of carbon taxes or caps, the new study shows that replacing coal with more gas generation, as well as renewable sources like wind, solar and geothermal energy, would result in only a moderate increase to consumers in the cost of electric power – at most, 20 percent. They estimate a lower ratepayer cost, Kammen said, because the evolution of the electrical grid over the next 20 years – with coordinated construction of new power plants and transmission lines – would substantially reduce the actual consumer cost of meeting carbon emission targets.

“While the carbon price required to induce these deep carbon emission reductions is high – between $59 and $87 per ton of CO2 emitted – the cost of power is predicted to increase by at most 20 percent, because the electricity system will redesign itself around a price or cap on carbon emissions,” said Kammen. “That is a modest cost considering that the future of the planet is at stake.”

Fortunately, Groom Energy Solutions provides some needed clarification with its new report, The Enterprise Smart Grid – a Corporate Buyer’s Guide for Energy Management Software. Responses from 65 interviews with corporate energy, facility and sustainability managers and vendors offering Enterprise Smart Grid related technologies identified 11 distinct functional areas and categorized the range of vendor solutions to assist companies as they develop their own energy management strategy.

For example, Groom Energy found that:

• More large corporations are seeking solutions to provide an enterprise view of energy use and associated costs that can also be implemented across multiple facilities.
• Emerging technologies are reducing the burden and the implementation costs of the Enterprise Smart Grid.
• Enterprise Smart Grid solutions with submetering are helping to drive behavioral changes that save money and reduce energy consumption.
• Most organizations start with basic visibility from utility bills then move to load-specific or facility-specific submetering.
• Utilities are increasingly offering financial support for Enterprise Smart Grid projects including demand response, energy management software, control technology and submetering.
• The term “energy management” is malleable and can mean the procurement of electricity, utility bill analysis and the implementation of a building management system.
• Traditional vendor lines have blurred as larger providers acquire existing products and re-categorize as “energy management.” Newer companies have introduced niche solutions.
• When evaluating a particular vendor solution, managers should focus on the functional needs within their industry type and a vendor’s installed base.

Groom Energy also evaluated vendors by their innovation, customer proof points, strong market momentum, aggressive product development and increased emphasis on enterprise-wide and multiple-site implementations, and then generated a list of “Smart Grid Vendors to Watch.” The list includes: C3, CA Technologies, ecova, EnergyCAP, EnerNOC, Lucid, Phoenix Energy Technologies, Schneider Electric, SCIenergy and Siemens.

“Applying the principles of the Enterprise Smart Grid, large organizations can effectively drive energy efficiency performance across their operations,” said Paul Baier, report author and Vice President of Research for Groom Energy Solutions. “Our report helps corporate energy managers navigate an overwhelming number of emerging vendor offerings, each with its own capabilities, benefits and limitations.”

You can download a free excerpt or order the report at the Enterprise Smart Grid Research page.

The survey, entitled Working Together: Linking sustainability and tax to reduce the cost of implementing sustainability initiatives, included responses from 223 senior executives at companies predominantly in the US. 19 percent of those polled were Chief Sustainability Officer (CSOs), while the remaining 81 percent were tax directors or their equivalent. Responses from each group were vastly different, highlighting the lack of coordination between the two groups. For example, only 28 percent of tax directors believe their company has a sustainability strategy or is developing one, compared to 90 percent of CSOs surveyed. In addition, the survey results showed that:

• Integration of sustainability programs and tax departments is poor. Only 16 percent of companies that either have or are developing an environmental sustainability strategy said their tax or finance departments are actively involved in it.
• Awareness levels for tax incentives are low. More than 37 percent of survey respondents said they were unaware of tax incentives for sustainability initiatives. For some incentives, such as federal tax deductions for energy efficient buildings and incentives for renewable energy, awareness levels were over 80 percent. However, for state tax credits and incentives, awareness levels hovered around 50 percent and were even lower for local credits and incentives. Even for those who are aware, only 17 percent of respondents said their companies actually use available green incentives.
• Most aren’t effectively using ROI targets. Only 19 percent said their company uses different payback or Return on Investment (ROI) targets to evaluate expenditures related to environmental sustainability projects as compared to required payback period or ROI requirements for typical internal capital expenditure approvals.

As Ernst & Young LLP points out, with all of the tax and other incentives available for environmental sustainability programs, it is important for businesses to analyze the opportunities within the context of their sustainability and revenue goals, as well as factors that may be unique to their region. When developing a sustainability platform, businesses need to start planning early, as many incentive programs require pre-approval and have finite timeframes.

For more information, including examples of tax incentives that may be available for your business, see this press release.

The report, Surging Seas, is not only the first to analyze how sea level rise caused by global warming is compounding the risk from storm surges throughout the coastal contiguous US, but also it’s the first to generate local and national estimates of the land, housing and population in vulnerable low-lying areas and associate this information with flood risk timelines.

Here are a few of the report’s sobering conclusions:

• During the last century, the sea has already risen eight inches globally, and projections point to a steep acceleration in sea level rise.
• States in particularly precarious situations include Florida, Louisiana, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.
• By 2030, storm surges combining with sea level rise could raise waters at least four feet above the local high-tide line, affecting nearly five million US residents living in 2.6 million coastal homes.
• By 2050, widespread areas five feet above the high-tide line will experience coastal floods, affecting more than 6 million people.
• In 676 towns and cities spread across every coastal state in the lower 48 except Maine and Pennsylvania, more than 10 percent of the population lives below the four-foot mark.
• Floods high enough to formerly be called worse than once-a-century events have more than doubled in likelihood.

The report is complemented by a remarkably comprehensive website that includes a searchable, interactive online map capable of zooming to neighborhood level and showing risk zones and statistics for 3,000 coastal towns, cities, counties and states affected up to 10 feet above the high tide line. Fact sheets laying out the risks for each coastal states, downloadable data for all the cities, counties and states studied, embeddable widgets, republishable graphics and links to dozens of local, state and national planning documents for coping with rising seas are also available.

“Escalating floods from sea level rise will affect millions of people, and threaten countless billions of dollars of damage to buildings and infrastructure,” said Dr. Ben Strauss, the report’s lead author of Climate Central. “To preserve our coastal towns, cities and treasures, the nation needs to confront greenhouse gas pollution today, while also preparing to address sea level rise that can no longer be avoided.”

Results from a 2011 Ernst & Young LLP/GreenBiz Group comparative survey, “Six Growing Trends in Corporate Sustainability,” determined an increasing financial focus by executives on corporate sustainability efforts affecting core business objectives.

For example, the replies of 272 sustainability executives from 24 industry sectors provided several illuminating statistics centered on six major trends:

1. Sustainability reporting is growing, but the tools are still developing. Though software is available, 75 percent of respondents still use spreadsheets, emails and phone calls for data collection.
2. The CFO’s role in sustainability is on the rise.
   • 65 percent of respondents stated their CFO has become involved in sustainability.
   • 80 percent said new revenue opportunities will be driving sustainability initiatives.
   • 74 percent said primary drivers of their sustainability programs are cost reductions.
   • 66 percent have witnessed an increase in sustainability-related inquiries from investors and shareholders in the past year.
3. Employees are a key stakeholder group for sustainability programs and reporting. Employees rank just under customers as a primary driver and audience of sustainability efforts.
4. Greenhouse gas and water reporting are increasingly strong considerations despite regulatory uncertainty.
   • 76 percent publicly report their greenhouse gas emissions, and another 16 percent plan to do so within five years.
   • 62 percent publicly report their water usage.
   • More than 50 percent have a water footprint reduction goal.
5. Awareness of the scarcity of business resources is on the rise. More than three-fourths (76 percent) of survey respondents anticipate natural resource shortages will affect their core business objectives over the next 3-5 years.
6. Company executives rely on rankings and surveys.
   • 55 percent mark surveys and rankings as a primary mode of communication with investors about sustainability performance and initiatives.
   • To companies currently involved in sustainability efforts, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the Carbon Disclosure Project were the most valued rankings.

These results echo those from  earlier research that showed sustainability can drive value across several dimensions, particularly when CFOs are involved. Since the finance team has visibility into all aspects of the business, it can help determine the role sustainability initiatives play in efficiency, cost control, compliance, risk management and competitive advantage.

“These findings suggest sustainability efforts are becoming integrated into the corporate fabric of most large companies,” said Steve Starbuck, Ernst & Young LLP Americas Leader of Climate Change & Sustainability Services. “However, sustainability projects may be challenged by the fact that two-thirds of companies require them to meet the same financial payback requirements as other investments. While sustainability initiatives can provide financial returns, their intangible benefits, such as employee retention and reputational advantages should also be factored into the return on investment.”

The full report can be downloaded at www.ey.com/climatechange.

In response to consumer demand revealed through earlier focus groups and a study with GfK Roper examining green attitudes and behaviors, SC Johnson has announced the expansion of its Mini line of concentrated cleaners. This new product line allows buyers to combine one bottle of concentrate with regular tap water in a reusable trigger bottle, eliminating the need to buy new trigger bottles of the same product.

The Mini line includes five of SC Johnson brands:

• fantastik® Mini concentrated kitchen cleaner
• Pledge® Mini concentrated furniture cleaner
• Scrubbing Bubbles® Mini concentrated bathroom cleaner
• Shout® Carpet Mini concentrated carpet stain remover
• Windex® Mini concentrated glass and surface cleaner

Overall, concentrated refills use less packaging, decrease shipping impacts and reduce waste.  In fact, the use of 3.5 million pounds of virgin plastic and the transportation of nearly 11.5 million gallons of water could be avoided each year if just 20 percent of the 320 million cleaning products sold in trigger bottles were refilled.

In tandem with the Mini line, SC Johnson launched its new Green Choices Marketplace, an online shop for all the concentrate brands with a wide variety of options for purchases. Shoppers can mix and match single concentrates ($2.50) or order starter kits ($5.00) including two concentrates and a reusable bottle. Empty trigger bottles are also available.

“We’ve been working to crack the code on what would make concentrated refills a more popular choice,” said Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO of SC Johnson. “Now we’re adding improvements that reflect the feedback we’ve heard from Windex® Mini users and move us closer to an option that we hope will create greater demand for these products. The resource savings with refills are hard to deny, and that’s something we really want to communicate and encourage.”