Owner: In Balance URL:http://inbalance.wordpress.com/ Join Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2007 19:23:23 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: In Balance tracks environmental news in the UK and provide short comment pieces. Innovation in consumer goods and green branding are of particular interest. Site statistics:Click here
We Are What We Do is creating fashion accessories, not a green revolution 2007-03-21 00:42:52 We Are What We Do’s carrier bag went on sale today in London and sent bag lovers into retail frenzy. It is made of canvas, is reusable, and bears the Ronseal legend ‘I’m not a plastic bag‘.The designer, Anya Hindmarch, said of the disposable plastic bag problem:
“The key thing was to design something that people wanted. There seemed to be three ways through the problem. You could tax people. You could make it cheaper to use the better bags - biodegradable bags - which I feel is probably the best end solution. Or you could make it cool to act differently and correctly. So I had to make a bag that was desirable.”
We Are What We Do is one of several campaigning organisations, including iCount and Global Cool, that use fashionable branding to entice new people into the green movement and encourage them to take small actions. The real question is whether this level of activism serves as a springboard to more thoughtful engagement and more significant lifestyle ch Read more:revolution
Three issues with the Carbon Trust label 2007-03-17 13:58:16 The Carbon
Trust yesterday announced a significant step in green voluntarism. It has launched a label that will show the volume of greenhouse gases released in manufacture, transportation and disposal of consumer goods.
To use the label, manufacturers will have to undertake an assessment designed by the Carbon Trust and commit to reducing the product’s footprint. The long term aim is to establish the methodology as a national standard, allowing us to compare products.
Walkers Cheese and Onion crisps (75g of carbon dioxide) will trial the label next month.
Voluntary action is a large part of the government’s plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions. And the enthusiasm around the Carbon Trust’s label shows that the tragedy of the commons, which has for many years been the green movement’s understanding of human nature, is not entirely accurate. Some people do sacrifice short-term personal gain for long-term public sustainability.
There are three issues with the voluntary mode Read more:Three
Light pollution - small fry for greens 2007-03-13 10:26:40 Light pollution is generally seen as a conservation issue. Mainstream environmentalists are now concerned with threats to the human habitat rather than preservation of natural beauty, and findings published today by the British Astronomical Society are unlikely cause more than a ripple. The research showed that fewer than half of us can see 10 stars in Orion (on a clear night you should be able to see 50).
The green lobby pipes up from time to time about light pollution. Southampton City Council’s plans for a ‘Laser Gateway’, four high power lasers on the Clock Tower designed to brand the port, for example, were of course criticised by the local Campaign for Rural England and Friends of the Earth. But with greenhouse gas emissions on the agenda, most activists have bigger fish to fry.
There is an interesting trend here. While we are quickly waking up to the fact that we have ecological footprints, we are not becoming more aware of Earth’s natural rhythms - nor do we want to. Th
Dilemmas at the supermarket: Fair Trade and the environment 2007-03-09 21:08:56 Fair Trade
Fortnight is reaching an end and not everyone has been supportive. Liberal economists argue that fixing prices leads to overproduction, while some neo-Marxists believe that the programmes lock farmers into exploitative trade relationships. Many also argue that Fair Trade
regimes are corrupt and inefficient.
These criticisms – that Fair Trade is not an effective way to lift farmers out of poverty – are reflected in environmentalist concerns about the movement.
The arguments for and against the concept of Fair Trade are complex and value-driven. Some people will always disagree no matter what the evidence. But the criticisms of the regimes are objective and in many cases warranted. When consumers shop ethically they take on a duty to engage with the projects they are funding and decide whether they are worthwhile. If they don’t, the rather premature analysis that shopping for ethical brands is reminiscent of ‘indulgences’; money paid to the Catholic Church in th
Bad day for emissions targets 2007-03-05 20:37:38 Curmudgeon George Monbiot will tonight present a review, conducted by UCL, of the government’s plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
. While the government aims to cut emissions to around 70% of 1990 levels by 2020, according to the research only 83-88% will be achieved. The shortfall is because the government is optimistic about the impact its taxes will have on behaviour. And the figures omit aviation – the fastest growing source of green house gases.
(Monbiot is on Dispatches, tonight at 8pm, Channel 4)
Meanwhile in the States this weekend, an official report was leaked forecasting an increase in emissions of 11% between 2002 and 2012 – just 0.6% lower than the previous decade. This was upheld as proof of successful green federal policy because it represents lower ‘gas intensity’ (emissions per unit of GDP).
What does this news mean for Kyoto? The UK is still likely to hit its 2012 target, which is no longer stretching. But a second emissions protocol to the UN Framework Read more:targets
, Bad day
Current wave of green branding will be subject to increased scrutiny 2007-03-01 01:31:37 Products have been sold with green branding for some time, and now the biggest companies are joining in. Advertising agencies are gearing up to support a wave of green marketing campaigns, claiming that companies that do not demonstrate their environmental credentials will lose customers.
Some of the branding ideas currently going to market are quite remarkable.
Honda’s F1 team invite you to post a pledge on their website to make a small lifestyle change, and in return you become part of the bizarre irony of having your name and eco-promise printed on one of their F1 cars, which do around 1.5 miles per gallon, in lettering visible under a microscope.
Diesel’s typically tongue in cheek ‘Global Warming Ready’ campaign shows the sartorial opportunities of climate change - clothes to keep you ‘cool while the planet gets hot’. And the wider fashion industry is also using environmental concern in a brand exercise.
These companies are using the inverse principle to campaig Read more:Current
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Defra shows resolve on eco-labelling 2007-02-26 23:48:57 Good news from DEFRA today - the department is going to work with leading retailers to develop a standard labelling system for food. Consumers need reliable information to make meaningful ethical decisions, and standardised, regulated labels are central.
It will be interesting to see how these labels, which are likely to focus on greenhouse gases, relate to existing schemes with different criteria, such as Organic and Fair Trade.
Offsetting splits the green movement 2007-02-23 02:15:10 Political activists naturally balcanize and the growing green movement
is no exception. Serial corporate office invaders London Rising Tide (LRT) today occupied the CarbonNeutral Company which, among other things, provides offsets to its clients.
LRT believes that offsets are damaging because they are a moral hazard (encouraging people to continue their indulgent behaviour), the schemes are corrupt and because projects are often poorly designed and cause more harm than good. The activist group is certainly not alone in this opinion. Offsets have recently come under another round of criticism from more mainstream quarters, including the New York Times and the RSPB.
It does seem that they have a point. Offsetting
reduces environmentalism to another item on the shopping list. In an extreme example, Land Rover last year opened a scheme with Climate Care, one of the CarbonNeutral Company’s competitors, for purchasers of new Land Rover SUVs to offset their first 45,000 miles. And you can f
Too many labels! 2007-02-20 00:05:08 Product labelling is a hot debate. Green is big in the consumer world and retailers are looking for ways to show that their products are eco-friendly. Tesco last month ambitiously announced plans to label every one of its product lines with its carbon footprint.
Ecolabelling is not new. European governments have been running voluntary schemes for many years, including Der Blaue Engel in Germany, the Nordic Swan in Scandinavian countries and the EC-wide Flower, which is adminstered by participating governments. These schemes use complex, product specific criteria and aim to show that the certified goods meet a range of environmental standards.
Other publicly run schemes show more detailed data on the packet and allow you to compare products. The UK Fuel Economy Label and the EU Energy Label, which are required by law to be shown on new cars and white goods respectively, show a grading of energy efficiency. This is a similar concept to nutritional labelling that is becoming popular.
Ther
Chinese officials choose unpleasant shade of green 2007-02-17 20:30:43 For the past few days the world has been puzzling over a Chinese
local authority’s paint job on a barren quarry. Most speculate that the council was trying to improve the view from its office windows.
It looks to me like they chose Grecian Spa for their greenwash, a rather unnatural shade. Surely a more neutral colour, like Indian Ivy, would have been a better choice?
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Open skies pact is not a climate change issue 2007-03-25 20:39:44 Green groups lobbied against the open skies pact because more competition on the lucrative transatlantic routes will reduce fares and increase traffic and emissions. As the plans are currently set up, they are right. The EC estimates that over the first five years the deal will lead to 25m extra passengers (50% growth on the forecast baseline).
European transport ministers unanimously approved the first stage of the deal on Thursday. It will allow any European or American carrier to operate the routes. Greens have missed the point on this deal.
The question is not whether we should have open skies or not. Limited access means higher profits, which at the moment go to shareholders of the chosen carriers. If we want to control traffic, regulating open skies will mean that these proceeds can be released to the public purse instead. (And anyway the transport ministers had to agree to the pact – the bilateral agreements between the UK and the US over the routes were illegal under European Read more:issue
Rights and duties in a pressured ecosystem 2007-03-30 14:59:56 This week’s Economist led with an article about Amnesty’s growing focus on social and economic rights. The concept that humans have rights to basic levels of welfare has become popular since the end of the Cold War and many campaigning NGOs talk about access to sanitation, food and clean water in these terms.
Climate change, or at least human pressure on the environment, is a central issue in how these ‘rights’ are provided for. Our use of the global commons affects human habitats in other parts of the world. But unlike the political rights that Amnesty traditionally champions, there is no authority or legal process to arbitrate and enforce justice. Citizens should have a right to free speech and their governments can be pressured to sponsor it, but we can hardly demand that Mother Earth recognises our right to clean water.
This problem reflects the postmodern idea of citizenship, which is disproportionately focused on rights. The climate change debate is highlighting Read more:Rights
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Flatulence labels proposed for packaged food 2007-04-01 11:18:16 We have known for some time that methane in the atmosphere has a larger greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide – and emissions are increasing faster. Cow burps, which are rich in methane, are responsible for 4% of greenhouse gases; such a problem that a digestive aid has been developed to reduce the problem.
Scientists on Friday published findings in Nature showing that human flatulence is an equally significant problem. Taking population growth and diet changes into account, methane from British farts could account for up to 15% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, seriously throwing into question targets in the draft Climate Change bill.
The Carbon Trust was upbeat about the issue. “Of course this has added some extra beans into the stew”, said a spokesperson this morning. “But just as people are becoming more aware of emissions from their food’s supply chain, we believe that they will take responsibility for their downstream emissions”. The Carbon Trust ha Read more:Flatulence
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Biofuel disasters demonstrate the need for market based green policy 2007-04-05 10:51:33 Biofuels have attracted a lot of government intervention. The 2007 UK Budget extended the generous 20p/litre tax differential to 2010. In the States, corn ethanol is heavily subsidised and President Bush recently quadrupled the target for its use in transport fuels.
Demand for biofuels has skyrocketed and so have stories about their damaging consequences. Food commodity prices are soaring, leading to shortages in poor countries. Some types of biofuel emit more carbon dioxide through their lifecycle than fossil fuels. Today the Guardian reported that forests in South-East Asia are being cleared for timber, using the excuse that oil palms will be planted in the clearings. Biofuelwatch reports many more issues.
The problem here is that governments are using the wrong tools. Supporting specific types of technology or initiative means that they will be used indiscriminately. Biofuels can be low-emissions and sustainable, but governments should use market-based policy to support the
What exactly is the purpose of Live Earth? 2007-04-11 14:37:16 Live Earth
came in for a bashing from the blogosphere over the past few days for the carbon footprint it will generate by flying artists between its concerts in New Jersey, London, Rio, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Shanghai and Sydney. To the organisers, this is not significant – Live Earth
will leverage awareness and lead to change that far outweighs the concert’s impact.
Stop Climate Chaos said:
“Carbon will be produced, but it enables us to reach out to large numbers of people who will be encouraged to learn about how they can reduce their carbon footprint, so it will be worth the carbon.”
Like Live Aid and Live 8, the scale and line-up of Live Earth will generate huge demand and the concert will be deemed a success in terms of the people it reaches. But it is the music rather than the green message that attracts people. And unlike Live 8, Live Earth is designed to teach rather than demonstrate public opinion. Popstars never had a platform from which to suggest we rev
NGOs should put aside their independence and cash in on their expertise 2007-04-16 23:03:56 Business advisors are scrambling to position themselves as environmental experts. Many of their clients are looking for innovative products to take to the suddenly vibrant green market and trying to identify ways to meet growing CSR pressures to clean up their operations. These are big opportunities for management consultants and the usual suspects will make a lot of money. But they have only been interested in green business for a matter of months. Campaigning NGOs have been serious about it for decades.
If businesses are serious about going green, it is the NGOs they should approach for advice. They will get expertise built up over years, rather than a few Google searches by generalist consultant.
NGOs should grasp the opportunity to be ‘co-opted by the mainstream’. There is no reason why they cannot continue to scrutinise and criticise government and industry while offering tailored advice to fee-paying clients.
Read more:aside
British Gas exploits inefficient ethical market for solar energy 2007-04-21 01:00:41 British Gas launched a ‘New Energy’ business yesterday, which among other things will install household solar panels. UK suppliers of solar panels – particularly solar hot water – are young and fragmented and they must be worried.
PR is one driver, of course, but the main reason behind British Gas New Energy is that it will be incredibly profitable. People don’t use solar because it saves money; they use it because it feels green. On top of paying for expensive technology that takes decades to pay back, customers are prepared to pay an additional mark up that allows big margins.
The problem is that customers – corporates and homeowners alike – tend not to focus too carefully on environmental outcomes when they buy feel-good (which is why carbon offsetting is such a murky industry – there is not much demand for clearer information). Sanyo, Google and Tesco could surely have found greener uses for their cash than vast photovoltaic arrays. But they do look good, don’ Read more:British
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Is there a green bubble? Most likely, yes. 2007-05-04 20:54:20 Joel Makower yesterday listed 10 good reasons why ‘green business’ is not a bubble. Bubbles appear in markets - particularly new markets - where investors have misconceptions.
The dotcom bubble is of course the highest profile systematic overvaluation in recent years. Many investors suffered when it burst early in 2000. Of course, we now know that they had correctly recognised a revolution in the way people buy, sell and advertise, but made some mistakes about how the new business models would work.
Something similar is happening in ‘green business’. There is a lot murkiness around how the new markets will work and some investors are bound to be disappointed. In Balance picks out two industries that are particularly bubbly right now.
Generating carbon credits through forestry or other projects that are ‘carbon negative’. Despite environmental discrediation of this kind of project, investors continue to pour money into them. Emissions trading markets are becoming mo Read more:likely
Barclaycard Breathe: you can now spend the green pound on anything 2007-05-03 00:44:17 Barclaycard will launch a green credit card this summer. It is environmentally friendly because:
half the profits will go to “environmental projects dedicated to reducing carbon emissions around the world”. Credit cards make profits by charging transactions fees to retailers and charging interest on overdue payments.
consumers will get lower interest rates on “green products”.
it will use “a greener approach to account management” – including online statements and card recycling.
it features a picture of a forest on the front.
This won’t cost you anything
above a normal credit card and seems like it couldn’t possibly be a bad thing for the environment. Amex Red, which is based on similar principles, got slated by Robert Peston because “rather than simplifying the basic activities of donating and shopping, it complicates them”. Consumers exercise less choice over the charitable donation when these transactions are rolled together - and they also d
Are we really this ignorant? 2007-06-21 17:24:26 Buried in an article in Sunday’s Observer announcing Defra’s carbon calculator (discussed on In Balance earlier this week) was a surprising statistic. According to a poll commissioned by Defra, four out of five adults do not know that carbon dioxide is believed to be the main cause of climate change. Who did they poll?
Read more:ignorant
Carbon calculators are sales tools, so why has Defra built one? 2007-06-19 15:34:01 Later this week Defra will unveil a brand new… carbon calculator. Yawn. Just type “carbon calculator” into Google and you will immediately see that we already have plenty to choose from. Everyone seems to be getting in on the act. Worthy hippies the Woodcraft Folk have already designed one for mobile phones.
Similar inputs into a couple of calculators gave very different results. The Carbon
Calculator returned 6.2 tonnes per person per year, Carbon Neutral 4.0 tonnes and Carbon Footprint just 2.7 tonnes.
What are we supposed to do with this data? What is behind the calculations? Perhaps Defra will provide some technical notes with their version, but it seems unlikely that the average user will get to the bottom of it all.
The fact is: carbon footprints are just too complicated for individuals to measure and act on. Setting targets and planning how they should be achieved is the government’s job. The main function of calculators is to sell offsets and other green products to env
Honda have gone barking mad (rant) 2007-06-28 16:38:37 Honda have gone barking mad. I received an email from them today informing me that my name will be on their ‘Roll Call of Environmental Honour’, which means they are going to print my name on their new F1 car. Take a look at the intro sequence to their website, ‘My Earth Dream‘. Daft grandiose captions - “but we can do more than dream” - float above a picture of the earth, and then the car itself, in its earthy blue and green livery, zooms across the page. The bathos is extraordinary.
Next time you see Jenson Button or Rubens Barrichello at the Grand Prix, look out for my name. It’s printed on the spoiler in 4pt lettering.
Read more:Honda
Green consumerism is highly sensitive to the economic cycle 2007-07-17 17:14:15 Last week Tesco moved away from its recent focus on sustainability, health and quality, and launched a price-based marketing campaign. The supermarket’s commercial director said that the campaign reflects the pressure on household budgets, exerted by rising interest rates and retail price inflation.
This suggests that sustainable shopping is a very peripheral luxury and, if the economic cycle moves in the direction that Tesco forecasts, will quickly be cut back in favour of value products. In fact, most analysts do not expect such a harsh slowdown and year-on-year consumer inflation is at its lowest for eight months.
Tesco’s reading of the market sounds pessimistic, but it should be taken as a warning not to rely on the emerging environmental awareness of shoppers and their willingness to spend ethically. The fast moving consumer goods sector has been prolific over the past six months in its efforts to demonstrate that it can be self-regulating, but darkening economic skies will sh Read more:Green
Political intervention - not ethical investment - is the way to penalise polluting companies 2007-07-22 15:40:18 There are an increasing range of options on offer to the green capitalist. Trucost, a research agency, published a report last week ranking funds by the carbon footprint of their assets. The purpose of the ranking is to guide to eco-conscious investors. ‘SRI’ (Socially Responsible Investment) funds generally did better than those with other strategies – as you would expect – and, reflecting increased public awareness over the past year, retail sales for SRI funds in the first quarter of 2007 were three times sales in the first quarter of 2006.
A quick look at some of the funds’ assets shows that those leading Trucost’s table are weighted toward financial services and have relatively small holdings in the dirtier industries, such as utilities, that are preferred by funds further down the list. One of F&C’s mid-cap growth funds, for example, has no environmental element to its strategy and, simply because it favours service sectors, is five places above F&C’s high Read more:intervention
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“There is still hope, and the middle classes, with their composters and eco-gadgets, will be leading the way.” 2007-07-24 14:16:39 Today George Monbiot directed his rage at ‘ecojunk’; pointless consumer goods that are supposedly green but do not replace any unsustainable product. In Balance heartily agrees with him…
Two parallel markets are developing: one for unethical products and one for ethical products, and the expansion of the second does little to hinder the growth of the first. I am now drowning in a tide of ecojunk. Over the past six months, our coatpegs have become clogged with organic cotton bags, which – filled with packets of ginseng tea and jojoba oil bath salts – are now the obligatory gift at every environmental event. I have several lifetimes’ supply of ballpoint pens made with recycled paper and about half a dozen miniature solar chargers for gadgets
I don’t possess.
Last week the Telegraph told its readers not to abandon the fight to save the planet. “There is still hope, and the middle
classes, with their composters and eco-gadgets, will be leading the way.” It ma
Green tariffs lack transparency. Switch anyway. 2007-08-05 19:06:41 Switching to green electricity is a complex decision. You probably get all of your power from the national grid, which makes your electricity exactly the same as everyone else’s. So how can your electricity be greener?
There are two types of companies involved: suppliers and generators. Generators own the power stations, wind farms and other plant that provide electricity to the grid. Suppliers manage retail relationships and must either purchase wholesale electricity from a generator or operate their own generators. In fact, to manage capacity, all suppliers trade in electricity to some extent.
The mix of generation sources is what we are trying to change; suppliers are our levers. Pretty much every supplier now offers a green tariff. They work differently and some are more effective levers than others. Three key questions to ask of green tariffs are:
Does the supplier also cater for non-green tariff customers and ‘allocate’ its renewably generated electricity to a limited numb Read more:Green
What does tighter credit mean for greens? 2007-08-12 14:27:49 For the past few days the news has been full of a liquidity squeeze. Lenders are worried about their clients’ exposure to mortgage-backed securities that have been repackaged into tranched instruments, which are performing badly because the original sub-prime borrowers are not making repayments. The European crisis, which appears to be a response to BNP Paribas’ decision to freeze some its funds containing the bad assets, will probably blow over once we get a clearer picture of exactly who holds the losses. But it is certainly another sign that lenders are getting tighter and debt will not be so cheap in coming years.
What does this mean for green consumers? It means they will spend a greater proportion of their money on servicing debts, including mortgages, and will be more likely to save any of the remainder. A segmentation is a useful filter for looking at the issue. GfK Roper’s (a marketing consultancy) is one of many similar categorisations and consists of:
True Blue Gre Read more:credit
Why is Camp for Climate Action so afraid of delaying ‘ordinary’ holidaymakers? 2007-08-19 15:50:45 After several days of collective decision making, the Camp for ClimateAction
has identified BAA’s office near Heathrow as their main target for today’s direct action. BAA, part of Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial, owns and operates airports including London Heathrow, Gatwick and Stanstead. The protestors plan to blockade its office from 3pm today until midday tomorrow.
BAA has been singled out because it is planning to build a third runway and a fifth terminal at Heathrow. The Camp has maintained that its quarrel is with BAA and not “the ordinary passenger going on holiday”. “The day of mass action,” said a spokesperson”, “will highlight the appalling impacts of the third runway and lay the blame at the feet of BAA, the corporate profiteer most responsible.”
Partly, of course, this is simply activists’ preference for targeting large corporates, which are symbols of liberal economics and globalisation. But more importantly, the protestors are keen not to get Read more:afraid
‘Footprint’ calculations ignore capital activities, which could lead to bad investment decisions 2007-08-27 17:55:56 We tend to focus on emissions associated with running machines and ignore those associated with building them. The EU energy label for white goods, for example, tells you how much electricity the product consumes but nothing about its manufacture.
Emerging methodologies for calculating ‘footprints’ have similar problems. Defra’s calculator for personal emissions – which was designed to set a standard for such calculators – only considers the fuel used during your journeys by aeroplane, car or public transport (not the emissions generating during manufacture and disposal of the vehicles) and the electricity and gas used by your home appliances (not the energy involved in making them). The WRI’s GHG Protocol, a de facto international standard for reporting corporate emissions, follows similar principles in only recommending that companies consider the greenhouse gases generated by their operating activities
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The significance of this is greater than getting the size of footpri Read more:lsquo
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Daft ethics: we are insignificant, go and pester someone else (rant) 2007-09-18 11:50:01 A lot of the highest intensity sources of greenhouse gases seem to have been absent at their ethics 101 lecture. A common argument runs: it’s unfair to focus on us, because we’re only a tiny proportion of the problem.
A few comments demonstrating this logic:
On private jets. The CEO of Biggin Hill responded to protests at the airport in August by saying that “business aviation is a small percentage of aviation movements and its carbon emission is less than (more…)
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