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Sunday, March 13, 2005 |
WorldChanging.com reports on Der Spiegel's 'astounding interview with Pan Yue, Deputy Director of China's State Environmental Protection Administration.'
We are using too many raw materials
to sustain this growth. To produce goods worth $10,000, for example, we
need seven times more resources than Japan, nearly six times more than
the United States and, perhaps most embarrassing, nearly three times
more than India. Things can't, nor should they be allowed to go on like
that.
That macro-economic comparison is stark and powerful. The micro can be
too. Do you know how your firm stacks up against its competitors?
Shouldn't you?
(We can help you. Ask me how.)
(This will be an element in my speech on 'Risk, Fiduciary Responsibilty, and the Laws of Nature' at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco April 6.)
9:23:13 PM 
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My New Bottom Line article this month looks the growing trend to corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting -- more than 2500 companies worlddwide -- and company performance, and asks 'How closely are they correlated?'
It turns out that the best reporters (as determined by the British consultancy SustainAbility) are not necessarily the best performers.
8:59:20 PM
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Another gem relayed by Good For Business, this one via the Wall Street Journal:
There are 26 doctors on staff at Quad/Graphics[~]internists, pediatricians and family practitioners that comprise a critical department within one of America's largest printing companies. There's also an in-house pharmacy, rehabilitation center and laboratory....[and spent] 30% less than the average company in Wisconsin, where Quad is based.
In fact, as WSJ reports, they've 'had such success that the company has started a business operating in-house clinics for other companies.' Not bad for a printing company.
Dupont has had similar results: as they pursue their 'zero waste' commitment, they're finding that their growing competencies in waste prevention and management can be exported to other companies, as a service, at a profit.
Which is why I like to ask companies 'What's in _your_ 'waste' stream?'
8:52:44 PM
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[Good For Business]: By blending magnesium oxide and conventional cements, TecEco's environment-friendly cement uses one of the earth's most abundant elements, lessens the need for burning fossil fuels, and forms clean, strength-giving minerals that can coexist with many different wastes acting as aggregates and fillers. Once it's in porous concrete form, eco-cement needs carbon dioxide to harden and set. Therefore, it absorbs large quantities of the very greenhouse gas that concrete is partially responsible for, contributing about 10% of global CO2 emissions.
8:45:39 PM
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© Copyright 2006 Gil Friend.
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