SustainabilityBlog.org

Introducing SustainabilityForum.com Blogs

Fabian — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:28:13 +0000

I wanted to let you know that there will not be regular posts from this blog in the next few months. I will from now on focus on my major website SustainabilityForum.com.

If you are interested in interesting blogs about Sustainability then you will find everything you need on the SustainabilityForum.com blog section here:

http://www.SustainabilityForum.com/Blog

Or visit my personal and professional blog where I blog about Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Social Media here:

http://www.FabianPattberg.com/

See you there.

Regards,

Fabian Pattberg, Editor of SustainabilityBlog.org

The Friday Sustainability Dilbert

Fabian — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 10:53:24 +0000

A funny end to the week. Or should I say a sad reality even though this Dilbert is obviously a lot over the top?

How can we start making sustainability a reality?

The UK sustainable economy is still viable

Fabian — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:52:43 +0000

The coalition Government’s emergency Budget began to stabilise the public finances and lay the foundations for economic recovery.

The next step is to ensure that what emerges from recession is a different kind of economy: rebalanced away from excessive reliance on household debt, property markets and banking, with prosperity spread more evenly across the country, supported by modernised and efficient infrastructure – all of which will support long-term, sustainable growth.

However, one of this Government’s crucial challenges is to ensure that this growth does not occur at the expense of the environment, but rather for its benefit. The balance must tip away from reliance on fossil fuels for power, heat and manufacturing.

Read the complete article here:

http://www.globe-net.com/articles/2010/july/5/the-green-economy-is-still-viable.aspx

Good article: UK’s challenge – Finding £550bn to build low-carbon economy

Fabian — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:36:29 +0000

Today I would like to point you to a very interesting and very relevant article on the aspect of financing the transition to a low carbon economy.

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If ever a time called for creative financing, now — 2010 in the UK — is the time. It’s a classic case of immovable object (the need to cut fossil fuel energy use and carbon emissions) meets unstoppable force (the government’s decision to slash the deficit with a £40 billion austerity programme). When the estimated cost to meet the UK’s 2020 climate and clean-energy goals stands at £550 billion, the funding mechanisms need to get very creative indeed.

The challenge looks even greater when you consider the vast array of projects and technologies that are needed to get from here, 2010, to there, 2020.

http://www.greenbang.com/uks-challenge-finding-550bn-to-build-low-carbon-economy_14643.html

Good article: How cynicism in the media can make us lose sight of our Sustainability goal

Fabian — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:44:48 +0000

“Focussing on problems and expecting the worst will have significant repercussions on how we deal with the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”

This is the key message from an interesting article in the Guardian this week. The article author has a fair point as well. We all need to be more positive about the future and make it happen. I know that this sounds hard. But is ist really? This is the beginning of the article.

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‘To further trample over an already well worn quote; Martin Luther King did not begin his famous speech with ‘I have a nightmare’. As far as I know, Churchill did not paint a picture of a ‘Broken Britain’ (as the Tories’ pre-election campaign did) when his desire was for solidarity and motivation. And a recent article in the Economist points out that Britain is far from broken. In fact, statistically, in the last 15 years we have seen improvements in almost every arena bar education.

Read the complete article here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainability/blog/8

The UAE demand for water grows but the reserves are depleting

Fabian — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:00:08 +0000

Water will be the gold of the future. This is something several people independely told me at an environmental event I was attending several months. This story on the water resources in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A very bleak picture is what the future seems to have in store for water reserves in the region. This is the beginning of the article.

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The Gulf Arab nation’s oil income has allowed it to subsidize extravagant water use for Emiratis, either those in gated communities sporting pristine pools and evergreen golf courses or for farmers clinging to ancient irrigation practices. Environmentalists warn the country, already reliant on costly desalination plants powered by its lucrative fossil fuels, must cut consumption by its 8.2 million people or risk depleting groundwater resources in 50 years.

“We need to convince them that water here isn’t a free resource. It’s not even a natural resource, it’s manmade. It is costly, and it has a big environmental impact,” said Mohamed Daoud of the state-run Environment Agency in Abu Dhabi.

Read the complete article here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65K3MK20100621

On the BP Oil Spill: What Obama should have said!

Fabian — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:57:18 +0000

A very powerful video on what Barack Obama should have said about the BP Oil Spill.

Can Sustainability / CSR help with cleaning up the BP PR disaster?

Fabian — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:19:00 +0000

An interesting article on how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). I really liked this sentence: ‘It’s important to point out that CSR isn’t about crisis management’ Very true. All in all a very interesting article.

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Back in the spring, the story of Toyota’s runaway cars looked like it would drag on for months. Then Goldman Sachs conveniently landed in the crosshairs of legislators and securities regulators, taking the heat off the automaker. In turn, the bankers on Wall Street got a reprieve at the expense of the pelicans, fish and residents of the Gulf of Mexico, courtesy of BP.

In all these cases, and the many others that have grabbed headlines in recent months, the damage has already been done. And for the most part companies have surrounded themselves with crisis-management teams and public-relations hired guns to deal with their short-term problems. But if they’re smart, troubled companies will also review their policies around the emerging field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to discover why things went so wrong, say sustainability experts. Doing so could even help avoid a repeat of their woes in the future.

Read the complete article here:

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/06/14/when-things-get-messy

Video: An insincere oil company

Fabian — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 12:52:38 +0000

Let’s hope BP are are sincere with their efforts to make it right in the Gulf of Mexico. Although sometimes it feels as if BP has been advised by people as insincere as this person played by Michael Caine:

Key Qualifications For A Job In The Sustainability Field

Foxconn and the need for technology companies to act more decisively

Fabian — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 12:12:44 +0000

The current discussion about the suicides at Foxconn are a sign of the things to come for technology companies such as Apple and HP that they need to act now to provide a higher degree of transparency within their supply.

This is an interesting article from SocialFunds highlighting this challenge ahead for these companies.

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Since January, at least ten employees of Foxconn, the giant contract electronics manufacturer whose facility in Longhua, China employs some 300,000 workers, have committed suicide, most of them by jumping from the roof of the four-story dormitories in which they lived. Foxconn manufactures products for such US-based computer companies as HP, Dell, and Apple.

Statistically, the number of suicides at Foxconn is not unusual for young people in China, although the frequency of suicides this year is alarming. An estimated 90% of Foxconn’s workers, who typically work 12-hour shifts and share living quarters with up to ten co-workers, are between 18 and 24 years old.

Of course, the precise causes of the suicides of Foxconn’s workers are unknown. As Dan Viederman, Executive Director of Verite , a US-based non-governmental organization (NGO), told SocialFunds.com, “It would be inappropriate at this point to blame the suicides solely on working conditions.”

Read the complete article here:

http://www.socialfunds.com/news/article.cgi/2962.html