April 21st, 2009
by Will Sarni
This past week was filled with news stories regarding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “endangerment ruling.”
Some background, and how this latest move “fits” within the quickly evolving U.S. policy:
On April 2, 2007, in Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497 (2007), the Supreme Court found that greenhouse gases are air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act. The Court ruled that the U.S. EPA Administrator must determine “whether or not emissions of greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles cause or contribute to air pollution which may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare, or whether the science …
Tagged: Clean Air Act, environment, EPA, greenhouse gasses, Renewable Energy
Posted in Climate Change, Renewable Energy, Sustainability
April 13th, 2009
by Will Sarni
I participated in a panel discussion titled “Communicating the Business Value of Sustainability” at the Food Processing Environmental Conference in San Antonio a couple of weeks ago.
Tim Carey from PepsiCo (Director, Sustainability) participated on the panel and presented “Sustainability in a Recession: Keys to Performance in a Capital-Constrained Environment.”
Tim presented a very clear and concise case for aggressively pursuing a sustainability strategy in the “middle” of this economic downturn.
His key theme was that during the recession it is essential (yes, essential) to leverage sustainability to drive innovation and increase resource efficiency. Why, you ask, would this be critical during a …
Tagged: business value, PepsiCo, resource efficiency, supply chain, Sustainability
Posted in Business, Sustainability
April 1st, 2009
by Will Sarni
Today we were inundated with e-mail alerts and blogs that provide details of the Waxman- Markey plan drafted by the House.
The plan outlines a cap and trade program to regulate greenhouse gases. The draft proposal will use 2005 as a base year and require that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions be reduced by 20 percent by 2020, 42 percent by 2030 and 83 percent by 2050. This draft legislation is a bit more aggressive than the timetable proposed by the administration.
In addition the legislation would require utilities to generate 25 percent of their electricity from renewable energy by 2025.
Key provisions, yet …
Tagged: Climate Change, greenhouse gas, markey, Renewable Energy, U.S. Climate Action Partnership, USCAP, waxman
Posted in Business, Renewable Energy, Sustainability
