Sustainability: Sustainability

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Sustainability, a key factor at 2022 World Cup Qatar

The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy has ensured that all sports facilities in Qatar will be accompanied by 850 square metres of green space.

Sustainability is one of the basic concepts which underlines all of the initiatives being undertaken by the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (the department in charge of overseeing development projects for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar). Every sports facility which will by used for the tournament must included 850 square metres of green space (parks and lakes) in the surrounding areas.

Material will be recycled once the tournament is over - for example, seating in the upper areas of the stands at the World Cup stadiums will be dismantled once the event is over and given to other countries who need it for their own football development projects.

To remodel the new Al Rayyan stadium, 90% old of the old seating was recycled. All of the new World Cup stadia use 40% less water than in other sports stadia around the world.

Singapore—The Liveability Challenge on 10th January launched a global call for innovative clean energy and circular economy solutions for cities in the tropics, dangling Asia’s biggest prize for sustainability solutions with up to S$1 million in project development funds, as well as exclusive crowdfunding campaigns and mentorship opportunities up for grabs. The global call for submissions will close on 5 April 2019, 11:59pm (GMT+8) Singapore time.

The need for transformative action has never been greater. Humanity only has 12 years to curb its carbon emissions and keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius—or risk an irreversible climate crisis, according to the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Micro combined heat and power or micro-CHP or mCHP is an extension of the idea of cogeneration to the single/multi family home or small office building in the range of up to 50 kW.

As it turns out, most homes already have half of a miniaturized power plant. Electricity is just a part of our daily energy consumption - we also need heat to keep us warm. We need thermal energy to heat our homes, hot water and food. And so, in the US, more than 60 million homes are heated by natural gas and there are 100 million gas boilers installed in European homes.

Now, technologies are becoming available to complete the rest of the miniaturized power plant. This is called micro-combined heat and power (CHP). Micro-CHP generates both electricity and heat simultaneously at the size of a home. The heat meets the demand for space heating and hot water, while the electricity provides power for home appliances.

http://sustainable.onbeon.com/2014/08/the-iafor-north-american-conference-on.html

The International Academic Forum in conjunction with its global university and institutional partners is proud to announce the First North American Conference on Sustainability, Energy & the Environment. (11th to 14th September 2014, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America)

Hear the latest research, publish before a global audience, present in a supportive environment, network, engage in new relationships, experience the US, explore Boston, New York and New England, join a global academic community.

By joining Leading for sustainability you will learn key leadership and sustainability tools including Theory U and Systems Thinking. You will also graduate as a Lead Fellow and be a part of a global network and community of 2500+ sustainability leaders, all from a diverse selection of sectors and regions from around the world.

Lead is a non-profit organisation dedicated to building leadership capacity for sustainable development. Over the past 20 years, they have trained more than 2,500+ leaders (Lead Fellows) across 90 countries.

Gallowglass starts sustainability company

Events crewing firm Gallowglass and Olympic consultant and managing director of KLH Sustainability Kirsten Henson have launched Gallowglass Sustainability.

Increase commitment

The company will assist clients, suppliers and contractors in planning events with environmental and social considerations.

Gallowglass managing director Nick Grecian said: "Clients such as the BBC and Eve Trakway have already pledged to embed sustainability throughout their organisations’ working practices, and we are committed to sharing their values.

"Kirsten is ideally-placed to ensure that sustainability policies convert into practical reality throughout the supply chain."

Thomson Reuters and UKSIF, the sustainable investment and finance association, announced the results of the ninth annual Thomson Reuters Extel/UKSIF Socially Responsible Investing & Sustainability Survey at an event held at the Thomson Reuters Building in Canary Wharf, London.

The 2011 Survey represents the views of over 400 investment professionals from 23 countries, making it the most extensive assessment of socially responsible investing (SRI) in the European investment community. Voting was conducted from 05 March to 03 June 2011. It reflects a contribution from 209 buyside firms and 20 brokerage firms/research houses.

Image via Wikipedia

Making the decision to invest in green companies can be intimidating. There's a lot of information in cyberspace - some of it encouraging investment and some of it weary of the ROI on sustainable investments. I've offered some do's and don't's for would-be green investors and in this post, we'll take a look at the factors that make green investing a wise decision in 2011.

The Think-Tank CSR Asia announced yesterday that, despite the recession in 2010, investments in green energy reached nearly $200 billion, up from $162 billion in 2009. Most of the new investors are coming from places outside the United States. Brazil, China, and India have the most number of new green investors. CSR Asia notes that these non-OECD countries have recognized the climate change threat and are investing in green energy in efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

10 Trends Driving Action on Climate Change in 2011

[Editor's note: This article originally appeared at SocialFunds.com.]

Viewed through the lens of growth, 2010 can be seen as one in which sustainable investment moved closer to acceptance by the mainstream investment community, in the US and elsewhere.

By the end of the year, three reports detailing regional states of sustainable investment -- in Europe, the United States, and Australia and New Zealand -- had been published, and each showed that uptake of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors in investment decision-making was on the increase. (Here are articles on the reports: Growth in Sustainable Assets Outpaces Mainstream, Sustainable Investment in Australia and New Zealand Outperformed Market in 2010 and Principles for Responsible Investment Publishes 2010 Report on Progress.)

Furthermore, the number of signatories to the United Nations' Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has grown to include over 800 signatories with a total of $22 trillion in assets under management. The number of new signatories since July 2009 now stands at 268, "evidence," the PRI states, "of the increasing recognition by institutional investors worldwide of the need to consider environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues when investing."

Considering that many observers had cautioned that consideration of ESG factors by investors and corporations would decline in the wake of the financial crisis, such results are encouraging for practitioners of sustainable investment.

However, 2010 was a year in which the political winds in the US in particular turned sharply to the right, and the year's top stories indicate that the engagement practices of sustainable investors, both with companies and legislative and regulatory processes, will be if anything even more crucial in 2011. Here are the top five sustainable investment stories for 2010.

The acceleration of sustainable development initiatives across the global marketplace has stimulated a variety of responses from both global companies and business schools as they race to adapt to increasingly powerful demographic, economic and technological changes.

Yet the direct relationship between companies and business schools remains uneven, both in actions and in results. This is reflected in the often ad hoc nature of their collaboration, the differing approaches to teaching sustainable development, and the burgeoning need for new skill sets among graduates.

KPMG Headquarter on 345 Park Avenue in New Yor...

Image via Wikipedia

With increasing global attention being paid to issues of environmental protection and social responsibility, companies are beginning to issue sustainability reports.

According to estimates, the number is picking up and will involve some 3,000 companies worldwide this year.

Such reports allow investors to look beyond a company's standard financial reporting to their management of environmental and social matters.

In Europe, some analysts estimate that 17 per cent of investments are in sustainable-related funds, and in the US, they make up around 11 per cent.

Comparatively, the numbers in Asia are small. But experts say there are signs of growing investor interest in such funds.

Sharad Somani, executive director, Global Infrastructure & Projects, KPMG, said: "There are a lot of funds now which are socially responsible investors ...

Image by New America Foundation via Flickr

A new book, Sustainable Excellence, shows that for companies to deliver lasting value for investors, they must create strategies that include solutions to the biggest social and environmental challenges of the twenty-first century. You might wonder though. Aren't social and environmental concerns for NGOs or governments to worry about? Aren't companies supposed to build shareholder value?

According to authors Aron Cramer and Zachary Karabell, social and environmental challenges are vital to businesses for the following reasons:

the availability and prices of the natural resources that businesses use,

the new era of "radical transparency" with real-time scrutiny and mobilization by individuals and NGOs,

major new market opportunities in developing countries

The authors speak from experience. Cramer is President and CEO, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR). Karabell is an author, money manager, and CNBC contributor.

In Sustainable Excellence, Cramer and Karabell provide five compelling ways that executives are positioning their companies "to excel over the long run and to produce lasting prosperity that preserves natural resources." One of the ways is to "use sustainability to drive innovation." An example the authors point to is that "there are signs that Detroit's auto industry is looking afresh at transportation, designing alternative fuel vehicles and exploring radical ideas like car sharing and public transport ... .Each of these innovations is propelled by the pursuit of profit."

Another of the five successful approaches is to "embrace the transparent world--and collaborate." The authors show the benefits to businesses and the community by using the examples of Coca-Cola and Greenpeace, Walmart and Conservation International, Clorox and the Sierra Club, and many others.

Sustainable Excellence surely makes the case that it's in shareholders' interests for companies to address social and environmental challenges in their business strategies. That the dark side is the potential for violent conflict with governments fighting over scarce resources, and eventually further tensions related to security and trade.

And the bright side of businesses engaging in global solutions? That companies will increase their value as people in developing countries emerge from poverty and become consumers, and companies will have sustainable access to resources that are necessary for production. Learn more from Cramer and corporate leaders at BSR's 2010 Conference in New York City in two weeks.

The authors lead us to the conclusion that sustainable excellence is simply excellence.

Sustainable Development

Vision: Sustainable development. Moving forward without Sustainable approach to global trends and events takes us nowhere. That is why we think in sustainable way: right Solution, on right Time for right One, rather than offering cutting edge solutions with huge funds and resources to be involved.

Mission: to respond to environmental [business/political] changes in right manner and adequately. "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change" Charles Darwin