The Revolution ID Blog

GRI Sustainability Reporting

2010-06-02T09:54:00.014+12:00

The GRI Sustainability Reporting Module in FoundationFootprint™ -
Navigating through the GRI Performance Indicators

This week we released our GRI Sustainability Reporting module. The GRI module forms the backbone of a customer’s existence in FoundationFootprint™. Everything they do, carbon footprint, energy, water, supply chain management, regulatory compliance, stakeholder engagement projects etc, will automatically be available in the relevant GRI performance indicators in the module.

Online Publishing and Stakeholder Engagement

The FoundationFootprint™ GRI module opens a new era of "social" sustainability reporting (Sustainability Reporting 2.0 anybody?) by integrating with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social applications.

Once a reporting year is “closed off”, for example at the end of a calendar year, the GRI information (I.e. their GRI sustainability report) for that period can be locked, verified by a third party and automatically published online.

FoundationFootprint™ can enable dialog around a customer's sustainability report and its stakeholders including the public. People can log in (through their Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn accounts) and place feedback on individual performance indicators or the report in general.

Time Saving Auditing and Assurance Tools

Organisations that already publish CSR and sustainability reports know that collating information for the report (and later for auditors) is a big task. The GRI module allows the user to upload documents, link news and blog articles and other information to individual performance indicators through the course of the year making the final task a lot less time consuming.

This feature allows internal staff and third party auditors of reports to access all the supporting documentation in a single place, again saving many hours. Auditors can rate and comment on each performance indicator whilst the system keeps track of the auditors progress automatically.

XBRL Compatibility

GRI Sustainability reports in FoundationFootprint™ can be exported as XBRL compliant documents. Furthermore, individual sections of a report can also be exported either manually or by third party systems. For more information visit the XBRL page on the GRI website.

Sustainability and case study presentation to NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants

2010-05-28T11:47:00.001+12:00

Here are the slides from the sustainability and case study presentation that Michael Field and I did for the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants

Nzica sust pres michael field & chris lindley

View more presentations from Michael Field.

Tiers of Emission Factors and Activity Data

2010-03-27T13:29:00.003+13:00

Following the 2006 IPCC guidelines FoundationFootprint™ includes the ability to specify a "tier" to rate the reliability and methodological complexity of emission factors and activity data.

Three tiers are described for categorizing both emissions factors and for activity data. Tier 1 is the basic method, frequently utilizing IPCC-recommended country-level defaults, while Tiers 2 and 3 are each more demanding in terms of complexity and data requirements.

It is possible that a mixture of tiers will be needed to complete one emissions inventory, reflecting the availability of information in different parts of a country or organisation. In some cases calculation of the emissions from a single source will require use of different tiers of activity data or different tiers of activity data and emission factors especially when calculating supply chain or product emissions.

It is good practice to report tiers for all emission sources included in the inventory. In some cases where aggregate reporting is a significant goal, Country/Regional Supplements may make this a mandatory requirement. In any case organisations should strive to utilize the highest tier of data which is available.

I most cases FoundationFootprint™ assigns the tiers for you. For example, the default emission factors pre loaded for your location(s) are tiered. When adding your own emission factors you can set the tiers as you see fit. And activity data that comes into FoundationFootprint™ from invoices from your supplier are also automatically tiered.

Some standards and regional environmental programs recommend or insist on the use of tiers in inventories. Nevertheless, tiering gives an organisation and their stakeholders more confidence in the accuracy and validity of their GHG Inventory.

US SEC issues guidance on disclosure of climate change risks

2010-01-30T10:15:00.004+13:00

On Wednesday the US Securities and Exchange Commission voted to provide public companies with interpretive guidance on existing SEC disclosure requirements as they apply to business or legal developments relating to the issue of climate change.

The guidance highlights 4 key points:

Impact of Legislation and Regulation: A company should consider whether the impact of certain existing laws and regulations regarding climate change is material. In certain circumstances, a company should also evaluate the potential impact of pending legislation and regulation related to this topic.
Impact of International Accords: A company should consider, and disclose when material, the risks or effects on its business of international accords and treaties relating to climate change.
Indirect Consequences of Regulation or Business Trends: Legal, technological, political and scientific developments regarding climate change may create new opportunities or risks for companies. For instance, a company may face decreased demand for goods that produce significant greenhouse gas emissions or increased demand for goods that result in lower emissions than competing products. As such, a company should consider, for disclosure purposes, the actual or potential indirect consequences it may face due to climate change related regulatory or business trends.
Physical Impacts of Climate Change: Companies should also evaluate for disclosure purposes the actual and potential material impacts of environmental matters on their business.

The announcement on SEC's guidance on disclosure of climate change risks.

Categorising emission sources, facilities and assets with "Tags"

2010-01-04T14:35:00.005+13:00

Over the Christmas break we added the ability to further categorise emission sources, facilities and assets in FoundationFootprint™ through the use of "tags".

In the same way that blog posts are tagged or labelled, resources and production items and organisation and facility items can be classified with as many different tags as desired.

For example, you may wish to tag facilities that come under the mandatory reporting requirements of regional or national regulations or that have recently had energy audits performed there.

You may wish to tag electricity accounts with more information than just whether they're time of use or none time of use accounts. For example whether they have data provided by smart meters or include a break down of usage data at the asset level.

Tags are also made available in reports where appropriate.

Tags are over and above the existing three levels of classifications already available to inventory and organsiation items as well as other labels such as emission scopes and types.

Tags provide for a limitless level of catogorisation on almost every aspect of your data in FoundationFootprint™.

What happened in Copenhagen?!?!

2009-12-21T09:04:00.002+13:00

I was fortunate enough to be born and raised in the English Lake District and spent the early years of my life travelling the world and living in different countries. I experienced the beauty of the Borneo and Costa Rican rain and cloud forests and the awe of the Yukon plains and the Australian Outback. This was contrasted with the all-encompassing poverty of South and South East Asia and Africa and the destruction of the human spirit and the environment that comes with it.

These experiences are the reason I started Revolution ID, because I care deeply about our planet and the way we treat each other, animals and the environment. I believe that the majority of people who are lucky enough not to have to struggle to survive each day do think about the state of our world and the plight of the impoverished and want to see a change.

These people work in businesses and governments all around the world. The catalysts of change. So why is there not more change happening? I think it's because we perceive the problem to be too big for us as individuals to have an effect. And I also think it's perceived as being just too difficult. But you've heard all this before. Hearing it again may bore you or it may frustrate you. It frustrates me. Incredibly so.

But that frustration drives my vision. A vision to embrace the problem and provide the means for businesses and governments to enable themselves, their value chains and their communities to make the change to a truly sustainable and responsible existence.

For businesses and governments to make these changes we have to focus on the bottom line at every stage or it simply won't happen. This multi faceted process of organisational change has to provide clear benefits and quantifiable returns on investments at every step of the way. This is what I am creating at Revolution ID with our software and resources. The tools to provide meaningful timely information clearly and concisely. Tools we provide to our customers as well as responsible third party climate change and sustainability advisory organisations to assist their own services and add further value.

If this process of change is fraught with unpredictable costs and risks then adoption will be slow and limited. But it doesn't have to be that way.

I'm bitter about the COP15 outcome and the Copenhagen Accord is a big disappointment. I saw it is an opportunity for the goodness of human nature to shine through but alas, greed and lack of leadership and commitment won the day.

Not even an agreement to protect our forests could be decided.

We must now concentrate on supporting those businesses and countries like Japan, the UK and other European countries who continue to lead the plight dispite Copenhagen. Those millions of us working in governments and businesses around the world can directly or indirectly influence their organisation and shout louder and fight harder for the change we all know must happen.

It's times like this that we need to channel our anger and frustration into constructive action. I have been told I have an altruistic and sometimes niaive perspective on the world and what I want to achieve. My response to those people is: So be it. Now get out of my way and let the rest of us get on with it.

The Business Implications of the Copenhagen Accord

2009-12-20T08:53:00.001+13:00

With no deadline to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, no legally binding emission targets, no coverage of aviation or maritime emissions and no reform of the CDM market, what are the implications for business of the Copenhagen Accord?

For a brief overview and link to a free indepth report go here.

Enhanced Reports

2009-11-18T14:58:00.000+13:00

We've been busy enhancing our report features in FoundationFootprint™ over the last three months.

In the past we were very conscious not to inundate our users with reports that are configurable in every way imaginable as it often deterred the user from using them. I've seen it in many applications-it simply takes too much effort to understand how to use the features and get anything meaningful out of the system.

So we concentrated on having a selection of reports that were based on whatever business unit, facility, asset or supplier was selected in the page. Likewise with the emission sources. Two clicks away was the same in depth analysis whether it was electricity, gas, fuel, water, raw materials or mobile phone use.

And to compliment these automatic reports we created plenty of "half done" reports where the user simply needs to select the items of interest and two or three other parameters such as a date range and click go. Both methods gave users virtually instant access to really useful and meaningful information.

But that being said we were getting a steady stream of requests for a full blown report builder. So we did it. And as well as creating your own reports for personal use you can share them with another user, your team, your business unit or everyone and also have FoundationFootprint™ send the reports to you on a schedule that you define.

And users can now make real time reports available to the general public. Reports such as their absolute carbon footprint as well as the ongoing carbon intensity of their products, services or supply chain.

Introducing Granite™ for the Construction Industry

2009-11-14T16:13:00.000+13:00

Something else we've been working on over the last few months, in partnership with Beckstones Services, is Granite™, an online document, project and timesheet management system for the construction industry.

The built environment makes up a large proportion of emissions globally as does the actual construction process. Granite™ reduces the costs and environmental impact of the construction process in many ways:

it improves communication between designers, architects, drafters, builders and the client reducing the likelihood of errors and costly modifications
it significantly reduces fuel costs and time for trips between offices and sites to deliver drawings, and obtain mark ups, alterations and signatures
and it significantly reduces printing costs as modifications can be made and viewed online

Furthermore, FoundationFootprint™ can be used to forecast and track the carbon footprint of the full lifecycle of buildings and whole developments from concept, through construction, operation and decommission.

For more information on Granite™ contact Beckstones.

Back again

2009-11-13T14:41:00.000+13:00

It's been sometime since I last published a blog post. We've been busy to say the least.

From an engineering perspective we've been busy building the Report Builder in FoundationFootprint™. More about that in a later post. We also released a local government edition of FoundationFootprint™ that follows the draft GHG Protocol Public Sector Standard.

Operationally we've been moving our infrastructure to a new cloud provider. Now we have dynamic scalability meaning a million users can hit FoundationFootprint™ at the same time and the resources will automatically scale up to meet demand. We have automatic offsite backups three times a day and uptime is guaranteed 99.999%. Great peace of mind for our customers.

On the business development front we've been busy talking to local councils in the Auckland area regarding the upcoming SuperCity move and the Rugby World Cup 2011 preparations. We've been developing our FoundationFootprint™ Reseller Program across Australasia which has met with a lot of enthusiasm and we've also been moving into the dairy, forestry and transport sectors with great results. This has coincided with the release of our NZ ETS Compliance module for the Forestry sector.

GHG Protocol Scope 3 and Product Accounting and Reporting Standards

2009-11-12T14:30:00.005+13:00

The first drafts of the GHG Protocol Scope 3 and Product Accounting and Reporting Standards were released to the Technical Advisory Group today of which Revolution ID is a member.

I'm really excited about these two new standards. As well as giving businesses globally a direction on how to manage these, often difficult exercises, it means we can move forward with more certainty on these features within FoundationFootprint™.

Up until now we had been using our best guess / common sense ideas of how to manage supply chain emissions in FoundationFootprint™ and the British PAS 2050 for product life cycle.

The drafts are not available for general release (yet?) but more information can be found at http://www.ghgprotocol.org/standards/product-and-supply-chain-standard.

Declaration of Energy Independence

2009-07-01T07:52:00.004+12:00

WeCanSolveIt.org is the home of the We Campaign which is a project of The Alliance for Climate Protection -- a nonprofit, nonpartisan effort founded by Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore. The goal of the Alliance is to build a movement that creates the political will to solve the climate crisis -- in part through repowering America with 100% of its electricity from clean energy sources within 10 years.

We all have too much to do but often we have the best intentions. Through emails and online forms, the We Campaign create easy ways to make your individual voice heard by the leaders of the US. Sometimes it is about just filling in your email address and hitting send. A pre-written message with your details are then sent to the politicians who are debating important climate and clean energy related bills at the time -- such as the American Clean Energy and Security Act which wassed passed in the House of Representatives last Friday and is now moving to the Senate.

Right now they are asking people to sign a petition over at the sister site RepowerAmerica.org in support of clean energy and energy independence. It just needs an email address. The petition will then be sent to leaders in the US Senate. To sign it go to http://act.repoweramerica.org/us/declaration.

And consider staying informed about how you can help by signing up at WeCanSolveIt.org. While you're drinking your morning coffee you can be having a real effect on the future of our global society, environment and economy.

If you're not an American citizen or resident ( like me ), for those times you need an address, just make up one with a valid zip code (check out the address of your favourite American company or landmark!).

It's easy, it's important and hey, it feels good to have a voice and to be helping out with something as important and historic as this.

Thanks.

The Forest Footprint Disclosure Project

2009-06-18T07:44:00.001+12:00

A new initiative called the Forest Footprint Disclosure Project (FFD Project) has been launched with help from the UK government and with the backing of 12 major financial institutions with over $1.3 trillion in assets under management.

The FFD Project will run in parallel to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the world’s largest resource of corporate greenhouse gas emissions data. The aim is to get corporations to disclose how their activities and supply chain practices lead to tropical deforestation.

A forest footprint is defined as “the total amount of deforestation caused directly or indirectly by an individual, organisation or product.”

TEDx - self-organized TED events

2009-06-16T10:10:00.003+12:00

I’ve talked about TED a number of times in this blog. It’s an excellent resource and my substitute for TV which is abysmal here in New Zealand. (And no, I don’t have Sky/cable because I’m shamelessly addicted to the Discovery Channel, NGS, History channel etc).

TED has recently launched a new initiative called TEDx which allows fans everywhere to hold their own TED events under the TED banner. Over 30 such events have already been held around the world with another 120 planned for the future.

TEDx events can last up to 1 day in length and are usually a combination of recorded TED talks and local live speakers. The events cannot be used to promote commercial, religious or political agendas, and there are a few other simple rules that seek to ensure the experience is as TED-like as possible.

It’s a very exciting project and one I intend to get involved in personally. Watch this space.

More on the cost and ROI of corporate carbon footprint-ing

2009-06-08T13:16:00.002+12:00

Following on from David Schatsky's post on The Cost of Corporate Carbon Footprinting, an Impact Assessment form is available on the recently published web page for the UK DEFRA's "draft guidance on how to measure and report your greenhouse gas emissions".

It includes example costs and time scales of performing a GHG Inventory based on company size. The hourly rates used in their calculations may be a bit low but you can substitute those for your own figures.

It also includes estimates of savings in resources through improved efficiency and case studies supplied by the UK Carbon Trust.

Available here - http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/greenhouse-gas/index.htm

The Return On Investment of Corporate Carbon Footprinting

2009-06-02T11:31:00.004+12:00

This post is in response to a blog post by David Schatsky titled The Cost of Corporate Carbon Footprinting.

There should be as strong a focus on the return on investment of performing a carbon footprint project as the cost. Most large organizations will likely need to perform such a project in the next three years so if we concentrate on making it economically beneficial for them there will be more commitment.

The cost of developing and maintaining a GHG inventory (carbon footprint) can be fully recuperated through effective reduction projects (usually the next step after developing a carbon footprint) and software that provides more than just a carbon footprint report.

For example, electricity, gas and fuel are often major elements of a carbon footprint. Many large companies will have hundreds and sometimes thousands of accounts. These invoices can be sent to a system electronically each month which will automatically check for anomalies such as incorrect tariffs and any spikes or troughs on each account based on historic data and trends. Value add features such as providing an electronic approvals process for staff are common with invoices ultimately being sent electronically to your ERP system for payment and your carbon footprint system for reporting.

There are examples of return on investments of less than 12 months from projects like these without including the labour cost savings (from the automation), follow on projects such as energy, water and waste audits (Google GE energy treasure hunts), leaner manufacturing processes and increased customer loyalty. And by providing the extra visibility of invoices on fuel and other costs such as mobile phone use, it discourages misuse of these assets by staff.

Finally, if a company thinks they may have a high dependency on external consultants then consider having a member of staff (or several) involved in the project so that you develop expertise internally.

Clearly this is a major topic that warrants more than just a few paragraphs. I will endeavour to post further resources and comments on this topic in the future.

Forget GDP. Bhutan and Gross National Happiness

2009-05-27T08:01:00.002+12:00

I recently watched Michael Palin’s travel documentary Himalaya. He visited Bhutan in the far east of the Himalaya, a country that only fairly recently opened its borders.

Bhutan has strict environmental and social policies. Not in response to major problems, rather because they’re simply the right thing to do. The Former King Jigme Singye Wangchuck coined the term Gross National Happiness (GNH) in 1972 and deemed it more important than the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

From Wikipedia: “The concept of GNH claims to be based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of sustainable development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance.”

Bhutan ranked 8th out of 178 countries in Subjective Well-Being, a metric that has been used by many psychologists since 1997. In fact, it is the only country in the top 20 "happiest" countries that has a very low GDP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_national_happiness

New US Cap and Trade Bill released

2009-04-01T11:16:00.003+13:00

A new cap and trade bill was proposed in the US this week. The American Clean Energy and Securty Act of 2009, or the Waxman/Markey Bill, replaces the Lieberman-Warner Bill from last year. It contains for sections that cover

Clean energy - promotes renewable sources of energy and carbon capture and sequestration technologies, low-carbon transportation fuels, clean electric vehicles, and the smart grid and electricity transmission
Energy efficiency - increases energy efficiency across all sectors of the economy, including buildings, appliances, transportation, and industry
Global warming - places limits on the emissions of heat-trapping pollutants (regulation of GHG emissions for facilities that generate 85% of GHG, proposed regulatory threshold is 25,000 metric tons CO2/yr per facility
Transitioning - protects U.S. consumers and industry and promotes green jobs during the transition to a clean energy economy

The summary of the draft is available here and a Wall Street Journal article is here.

Close the carbon pollution loophole

2009-04-01T11:03:00.000+13:00

Here's the latest ad from repoweramerica.org about closing the carbon pollution loophole.

The convergence of the energy, financial, food and water crises: A Perfect Storm

2009-03-24T08:31:00.002+13:00

At the World Water Forum (WWF) in Istanbul this week, Jamal Saghir, director of the energy, transport and water (ETW) department at the World Bank, called the unprecedented convergence of the energy, financial, food and water crises a ‘perfect storm.’

Other topics at the WWF included a call by the Crown Prince of Japan, Naruhito, for organizations, governments and business to work together on long term visions for river basin management. Johan Kulenstierna, chief technical advisor of UN-Water, discussed the decreasing availability of funds for water projects around the world. And other discussions covered topics about how water utilities and managers-both public and private-can develop effective supply chain and manufacturing capabilities. The highlighting some lessons learned included the fact that many failed water projects are the result of not incorporating sustainable distribution measures as part of the process. Successful projects require long-term vision, cross-sector collaboration and local community participation.

A series of updates on the WWF are being provided by the Environmental Leader website.

UK Carbon Reduction Commitment Scheme Officially Launched

2009-03-13T09:28:00.002+13:00

The Carbon Reduction Commitment, the UK's new carbon emissions trading scheme, has now been officially launched in the UK. (http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/business/crc/index.htm)

It will start operating in April 2010 and around 20,000 large public and private sector organisations will be involved based on how much electricity they consumed in 2008. Participant organisations will have to monitor their emissions and purchase allowances, sold by Government, for each tonne of CO2 they emit.

Proposed US Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule

2009-03-12T08:39:00.003+13:00

This week, the US Environmental Protection Agency, released a proposed mandatory reporting rule. It will affect about 13,000 facilities in the US who collectively account for as much as 90 percent of greenhouse gases emitted nationwide, according to the release.

The rule would apply to:
• fossil fuel and industrial chemicals suppliers
• motor vehicle and engine manufacturers
• direct emitters of greenhouse gases who emit 25,000 metric tons or more per year. Such sources of emissions might include cement production, iron and steel production and electricity generation

More here - http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ghgrulemaking.html

Shades of Environmentalism - Bright green, Light Green, Dark Green and Gray

2009-03-07T12:02:00.006+13:00

Bright Green is a phrase I've been hearing more and more of and is one of four terms used to describe different types of environmentalism. They were coined by Alex Steffen, executive editor at worldchanging.com. Worldchanging.com is one of the planets leading sources of information and thinkers on sustainability and world changing solutions. The content below is taken from this page on their website.

My personal position on environmentalism is a combination of each of the bright, light and dark green types of environmentalism: Yes, the future must be about sustainable innovation that creates lasting prosperity and well being for all. But lifestyle/behavioral/consumer change is still critical to getting there. Our current level of consumerism is a result of a society that is trained to believe this is what we want. This not only creates the strains on our eco systems but also creates the growing disillusionment in our communities...

Bright Green -- In its simplest form, bright green environmentalism is a belief that sustainable innovation is the best path to lasting prosperity, and that any vision of sustainability which does not offer prosperity and well-being will not succeed. In short, it's the belief that for the future to be green, it must also be bright. Bright green environmentalism is a call to use innovation, design, urban revitalization and entrepreneurial zeal to transform the systems that support our lives.

Light Green -- this type of environmentalism emphasizes lifestyle/behavioral/consumer change as key to sustainability, or at least as the best mechanism for triggering broader changes. Light greens strongly advocate change at the individual level. The thinking is that if you can get people to take small, pleasant steps (by shopping differently, or making changes around the home), they will not only make changes that can begin to make a difference in aggregate, but also begin to clamor for larger transformations. Light green environmentalism, as a call for individuals to change, has helped spread the idea that concern for sustainability is cool. On the other hand, it is the target of much of the "green fatigue" we're now seeing.

Dark green -- in contrast, dark green environmentalists tend to emphasize the need to pull back from consumerism (sometimes even from industrialization itself) and emphasize local solutions, short supply chains and direct connection to the land. They strongly advocate change at the community level. In its best incarnations, dark green thinking offers a lot of insight about bioregionalism, reinhabitation, and taking direct control over one's life and surroundings (for example through transition towns): it is a vision of collective action. In a less useful way, dark greens can tend to be doomers, warning of (sometimes even seeming to advocate) impending collapse. Some thinkers, of course, (for instance, Bill McKibben and Paul Glover) blend a belief in the rural relocalization efforts of dark greens with the more design- and technology-focused urban solutions of bright greens.

Grays, of course, are those who deny there's a need to do anything at all, whether as individuals or as a society. They range from the most blatantly dishonest and self-interested people (climate scientists who take oil company money to dispute the clear scientific consensus on climate change, or "contrarians" like Bjorn Lomborg who make up specious "skeptical" arguments in order to make money) to principled, smart people who lack the facts (an increasingly small minority) or whose worldviews are just too set in an earlier way of thinking to understand the present-day realities of living on planet in overshoot.

Why societies collapse

2008-11-04T11:06:00.004+13:00

Nobody denies that all our eco systems are in decline, globally. From clearing out the oceans to desertification, over population blah blah. You hear about it so much it probably just bores you by now.

A video on Ted.com from Jared Diamond about “Why societies collapse” (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jared_diamond_on_why_societies_collapse.html) discusses the events leading up to the sudden (a decade or two) decline of societies like the mayans, the Greenland Norse, Easter Island and even modern day Montana.

An interesting question is posed. "What were these people thinking as they cut down the last tree on Easter Island? Or as they used up the last of their remaining resources to build their final pyramid in Yucatan?"

It sounds incredibly short sighted and stupid of these people. But then this happened hundreds of years ago when our species wasn’t as smart as today right? (Just as another tuna fleet rolls into Auckland harbor and BP signs an agreement to exploit Canada's tar sands).

Jared Diamond has a five point list of general issues leading to these phenomena but the one that sticks out for me is the short term gain mentality of the people in power in any society, be it governments or business.

We need a way to establish hard policies for the long term benefit of a society that all parties have no option but to adhere to should they come into power.

This isn’t going to happen soon but in the meantime you should look into the policies of the equivalent Green party in your country. Here in NZ they are focussed on the longer term needs of the country instead of the same old institutions who, despite rallying for change, want anything but.

UK Launches Product and Service Carbon Footprint Standard

2008-11-01T08:42:00.003+13:00

BSI British Standards, the Carbon Trust and Defra have launched a new standard to help businesses assess the carbon footprint of their goods and services. The standard, called PAS 2050, measures the GHG emissions in goods and services throughout their entire life cycle, from sourcing raw materials, through to manufacture, distribution, use and disposal.

The aim of the new standard is to help businesses move beyond managing the emissions their own processes create and to look at the opportunities for reducing emissions in the design, making and supplying of products.