Carbon Credits - let’s buy our way to sustainability!

Perfect cartoon - unfortunately a lot of us think we can just shop to sustainability…..

Canada’s top 30 greenest employers

Maclean’s has published, for the first time ever, Canada’s 30 greenest employers. I’m excited to see this but honestly quite disappointed on the highlights for these companies.  I have included the list of companies and the links go to their respective “green highlights”.  It’s great to have policies like: employees can control their light (sask power) and employees gets rebates from the employer for purchasing high efficiency furnaces and hybrid cars (; it’s also great to have written plans to reduce energy consumption or purchase certified wood whenever possible.  But I’m just a little disappointed that they didn’t find any company that does anything above and beyond.  Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I was hoping to see policies that allows the employees to be part of the energy/ carbon footprint reduction activities at work through activities such as evaluating energy efficient heating/cooling systems (a huge carbon foot print for Canadian companies), reviewing building performance and develop energy efficiency measures, and last but not the least - publish and target GHG emissions and emission goals.  All these activities at work and then be translated to a smaller scale at home - big companies CAN make a big difference! I also think engaging employees’ families and communities at large is also a worthwhile activity that I didn’t see on the list…  But hey, i guess we start somewhere.  I hope next year the highlights will be more impressive.

Town of Banff
Bayer Inc.
B.C. Public Service
Busby, Perkins & Will Architects Inc.
Cascades Inc.
Enmax Corp.
Fairmont Hotels Inc.
Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co.
HOK Canada Inc.
IBM Canada Ltd.
IKEA Canada LP
Intrawest ULC at Whistler Blackcomb
Jacques Whitford Ltd.
KPMG LLP
McGill University
Nature’s Path Foods Inc.
New Flyer Industries Canada ULC
Rescan Environmental Services Ltd.
Royal Bank of Canada
SAS Institute Canada Inc.
Sapient Canada, Inc.
SaskEnergy Inc.
SaskTel
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Toronto-Dominion Bank
Toronto Hydro Corp.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc.
University of Alberta
Vancity Group
Zerofootprint Inc.

Obama’s Green Acheivements in 100 days

As much as we’re up in the “north”, Canadians really do care about what the US is planning in all areas of policy, including carbon!  Whether we follow US policy or develop our own set of policies is another matter, but whatever the Obama administration has/will have implement can affect us greatly.  This is a pretty good article summarizing what Obama has done in his first 100 days in the office.  I’ve extracted the summary section of it:

• Announcing plans to regulate coal-ash waste in the wake of last December’s catastrophic spill
• Signaling that they intend to take a closer look at permits for mountain-top removal, the controversial coal-extraction process (though they later made it clear that this should not be interpreted as eliminating the practice) 
• Cutting off funding for the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada
• Creating a Clean Energy Service Corps as part of the landmark expansion of AmeriCorps
• Streamlining the loan guarantee program at the Department of Energy, which gave out its first loanto a solar company on March 20
• Planting an organic White House vegetable garden.

I guess these initiatives are great, but haven’t really get down to the carbon business.  Carbon Tax?  Cap and Trade? Hybrid?  It’s interesting to see what’s going to happen!

Save the rainforests, save the planet

OK, it does sound a little cheesy, and yes I kind of copied it from the popular show “HERO”….  

But there’s no joke about the disappearance of rainforests around the world and the significant impact on climate change!  Rainforests have traditionally been some of the best carbon sinks in the world.  Unfortunately, with severe deforestation and occasional unusual draughts, we’re quickly loosing the carbon sink!  This is a great article by Steve Connor focused on the Amazon rainforest, the biggest rainforest in the world.  Some of the most interesting facts are extracted from his article here:

• The Amazon rainforest covers an area of some 600 million hectares (2.3 million sq miles), an area of land 25 times bigger than Britain. 
• Responsible for about 40% of the world’s rainforest absorption of carbon dioxide.
• About 5,800 sq miles of the Amazon rainforest is burnt or cleared each year for cattle ranching, farming, …etc.
• More than half of the world’s estimated 10 million species of plants, animals and insects live in tropical rainforests. One-fifth of the world’s fresh water moves through the Amazon basin.
• Scientists estimate at least 100 billion tons of carbon stored in the trees of the Amazon rainforest 
• Each year the Amazon absorbs about 2 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.
• During the extreme drought of 2005, the Amazon became a net producer of carbon dioxide, releasing an estimated 3 billion tons of the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere – a net increase of 5 billion tons.

Apart from Amazon, there are many other rainforests around the world and many projects to preserve the rainforests.  I came across “Replanting the Rainforest” and thought their campaign to raise $1 Mil by Earth Day 2009 is quite an exciting and ambitious venture!  Although their primary focus is to preserve wildlife, I believe that we should explore all opportunities that will make a difference to climate change whether it’s the primary objective or an “added value” to the project.  They are keen to kick off projects this year on Earth Day to replant three rainforests and need our help.  Please go to their website and have a look at their projects and understand the endangered species in some of the rainforests they work at!  

There is a really powerful and important message from Replanting the Rainforest:  

Replanting the Rainforests is not another “Plant a Tree” campaign.

- Replanting the Rainforests

Honestly I never thought much about the difference. It is quite interesting to note that planting trees in large scale, or “controlled forestry”, a methodology for forestry industries to continue generate revenue without severely harming the land.  I’m OK with that, because it’s not like we’ll stop using wood in many different capacities including fighting climate change through using wood pellet stoves and so on.  But controlled forests can’t increase it’s carbon sink capacity!  

And how do Replanting the Rainforests intend to replant the rainforests?  They developed a Sustainably Managed Permanent Rainforest Habitats.  The focus is to find under-producing agricultural lands, cattle ranches and degraded forests and restore them to more natural conditions. Read more about their projects here and chip in if you can!

Earth Day - do you know the earth day history?

Earth Day is April 20th, but how do we know that it’s Earth’s birthday?!  I have to admit that I don’t know why and how it came about.  Of course the logical spot to start is the Wikipedia, and yes, it has an answer for me most of the time….  including this article on Earth Day.

So this is how it starts and some interesting facts…

• 1969, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin announced that in spring 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment.  The concern then was about overpopulation.
• April 22, 1970, first ever Earth Day, which marks the beginning of the modern environmental movement.  
• Approximately 20 million Americans participated in the first ever Earth Day, with a goal of a healthy and sustainable environment.
• Many important laws were passed by the Congress in the wake of the 1970 Earth Day, including the Clean Air Act and the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Pretty impressive start and quite significant impact eh?