Verdantix Blog

Large procurers such as BT, McDonalds and Wal-Mart are increasingly requiring evidence of suppliers’ environmental credentials while multinationals such as Apple and Unilever are shifting from a narrow ‘enterprise sustainability’ view to focus on product level sustainability. Both of these developments lead back to thinking about the best use of voluntary environmental product labels....

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On January 11, 2012 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) publically revealed the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of over 6,700 US emission-intensive facilities and fossil fuel suppliers. This is the first time the US EPA has released comprehensive GHG data accounting for over 80% of the country’s total emissions. Under the US EPA’s GHG Mandatory Report Rule (MRR) facilities emitting more than 25,000 tCO2 per year (as well as entities supplying fossil fuels) have been mandated to monitor and report emissions since January 2010....

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The central governments of Canada and the US have up to now failed to introduce meaningful greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction legislation, stalling sustainable business spending because of regulatory uncertainty. With Canada officially withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol in December 2011, the renegade continent could seem a hopeless case, unable to provide the necessary legislative incentives for heavy polluters to decrease their GHG emissions. But in the shadows of federal inertia, a pocket of state-level authorities have stepped up to take leadership over GHG reductions....

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The Chinese government continues to send mixed messages over plans for a carbon tax on energy-intensive industries by 2015. The past six months have seen a series of state-backed news agencies suggesting China will introduce a carbon tax....

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Cities rely to varying degrees on their citizens’ efforts when implementing sustainability initiatives. Motivating mass behavioural changes can be a smart way of achieving sustainability targets at low cost, but a lack of individual accountability can lead to communal inertia and result in low project outcomes. To bypass this issue, several organizations are using IT to bring to life the mass of scientific data available today and reach out to wider stakeholder segments....

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The energy management software market is evolving rapidly as new customer requirements trigger the launch of a new generation of enterprise-scale applications. Customers are buying software to find cost savings (87%), track financial data on energy spend (53%) and consolidate consumption data (47%). Customers should focus on "energy domain" expertise and data management scalability....

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Since Green IT burst onto the scene in 2006, IT systems integrators have struggled to understand the best organizational and go-to-market strategies for the confusing "market" for IT services linked to energy management, environmental compliance and sustainability strategies....

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For many firms today, even consolidating their energy consumption and spend data is enough of a headache, let alone actively managing their energy at the organisational level. Avaya uses Hara’s EEM software application, implemented as part of HP’s Energy and Sustainability Management solution, to deliver this organizational view. With the launch of C3 in August 2011 competition in the enterprise energy management software market has reached fever pitch....

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On September 29, 2011, the UK government recalled the launch of its Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme for non-domestic generators, which was due the following day. Announced in March 2011, the £860 million subsidy scheme’s aim is to incentivize the installation of renewable heat technologies, including biomass, solar thermal, and ground source heating, to cut a tentative ten of the 38% of the UK emissions that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) ascribes to heat . The RHI was delayed as the European Commission expressed concerns about the tariff for biomass being too high, which is currently placed at 2.6 pence per kilowatt-hour for the next twenty years....

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When the International Organization for Standards (ISO) launched its energy management framework, ISO 50001, in June 2011, Verdantix identified several barriers to adoption that needed to be overcome if it was to succeed. But even within the first three months there are signs that certification under ISO 50001 is resonating....

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The real estate industry in the UK, hindered by woefully limited data, continues to discuss sustainability from the side lines. For instance of the 1204 properties in the Investment Property Databank’s UK Commercial Office Sustainability Index sample, only 61 had sufficient data to be considered sustainable (based on 21 questions only). Without a significant data set with which to justify investment in sustainability, the market has, by and large, remained circumspect....

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EU member states are committed to reducing their GHG emissions by 20% compared to 1990 levels, and ensuring 20% of electricity consumption is from renewable energy by 2020. With cities concentrating large amounts of energy consuming assets and transport links, the European Commission launched the Smart Cities and Communities Initiative and the European Energy Efficiency Fund (EEEF) which aim to assist EU member countries in meeting these targets....

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Energy management, until recently an operations backwater is getting a technology injection as tech entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and a broad range of services firms pile into this emerging space. Historically dominated by tactical applications deployed at a facility level by firms like Entech USB and TEAM, enterprise-class energy management applications have now arrived in force....

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A new front has opened up in the long-running battle between arch-rivals Oracle and SAP in the enterprise application market. Oracle has entered into the sustainable business software market with two new applications developed from its acquisition of Ndevr’s IP in February. These early forays into the fast expanding market are Oracle Environmental Accounting & Reporting and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Environmental Accounting and Reporting. Can Oracle catch up with SAP?...

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Cloud computing – the virtualization of computing power – is being advanced by IT suppliers such as AT&T, Microsoft and Salesforce.com as a computing service which saves costs and reduces CO2 emissions compared to dedicated computing equipment. Our recent report, conducted on behalf of the Carbon Disclosure Project, reveals that widespread adoption of cloud computing will deliver significant business and environmental benefits over the next ten years....

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The UK government has just proposed the biggest shake up in the electricity market in two decades in the Electricity Market Reform White Paper published on July 12, 2011. Regulatory changes will come into effect in 2013. These include the replacement of the Renewable Obligation with a contracts for difference (CfD) feed-in tariff for low-carbon generation, an emissions performance target for new fossil fuel power stations and a capacity mechanism to improve energy supply security. ...

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The media is awash with pledges from blue-chip firms to cut their CO2 emissions. Despite the backwards slide in carbon regulations around the world, even US firms continue to make voluntary commitments without any prospect of mandatory reduction targets. The fact that global CO2 emissions increased to 30.6 gigatonnes (Gt) in 2010 compared to 29.3 Gt in 2008 adds fuel to the fire. ...

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Carbon leakage has been debated ad infinitum in the context of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. The concept refers to the risk that by imposing additional costs on CO2 emissions within the boundaries of a country or region, business activity will be displaced to other regions and CO2 emissions will continue as before. Now the broader issue of “sustainability leakage” looms on the horizon....

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The decision by California's Air Resources Board (ARB) to delay the implementation of California's cap-and-trade programme by a year is symptomatic of carbon policy delays around the world. Even the flagship EU Emissions Trading System has seen constant delays and dilutions since its launch in 2005. What does California's delay mean for US carbon policy?...

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Only in the last decade have customers been sufficiently interested in the environmental benefits of telecoms services to be receptive to marketing messages that go beyond speed, reliability and convenience. Verdantix telecoms sector benchmarks have tracked sustainable telecoms marketing since 2009. Recently we have seen a step-change in sustainability marketing....

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According to the June 2011 World Bank report ‘State And Trends Of The Carbon Market’, between 2005 and 2010 the value of trade in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) grew from $7.9 bn to $119.8 bn; a CAGR of 72%. By contrast the primary CDM market, representing trade in Certified Emission Reductions from Kyoto projects, has fallen from $2.6bn in 2005 to $1.5bn in 2010; a CAGR of -10%. Back in December 2008 our analysis of the CDM project developers flagged up the risks of a market meltdown. And it happened. Between 2008 and 2010 the primary CDM market fell from $6.5bn to $1.5bn; a 77% fall in traded value....

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Will power utilities in the United States move beyond smart meter programmes to wider smart grid implementation? Through the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, the Obama administration directed $4.5 billion to fund smart grid projects, matched by $5.5 billion in private funding. Almost all of this was channelled into smart meter projects which are considered the first step to implementing a smart grid. In reality, to maximise the grid’s efficiency, reliability and flexibility, they have to form part of a wider smart grid programme including smarter distribution and substation automation systems, grid sensors and controls....

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Since the failure of the UN Copenhagen negotiations in December 2009 the prospects for pure-play carbon management software have tanked. Technology providers like EnerNOC, Enviance and Infosys have responded through innovation meeting the needs of firms in specific market segments that do face mandatory GHG regimes and the bulk of firms that now focus their attention on slashing energy consumption....

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One of the criticisms frequently levelled at electric vehicles is that they merely shift emissions from the tailpipe to the power station by increasing demand for electricity which is generated from fossil fuel burning power stations. Better Place, the global EV infrastructure firm, aims to directly answer this criticism head on. It has recently signed a $60m deal with ActewAGL, an Australian utility, to supply renewable energy to its electric car charging network in Canberra, Australia for the next 10 years....

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Smart cities use technology to create more sustainable urban developments. Great in theory, but creating a solid business case is challenging because of critical uncertainties about which technology will be adopted by the population. The city of Amsterdam is finding this out through its program of 18 pilots (see Verdantix Defining The Sustainable Urban Development Market). It is in this context that on May 26 2011 Fujisawa City announced a partnership with a consortium of nine firms to redevelop a 19 hectare brownfield site located 50 kilometres from Tokyo....

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Will Australia ever implement a carbon price? The debate on the Australian emissions trading scheme continued to rage, following the release of ‘The Garnaut Review 2011’on 31 May. Ross Garnaut, the Australian Government's top climate change adviser, proposed a starting price of A$26 per tonne of carbon for the carbon pricing system starting in July 2012....

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