RobecoSAM in partnership with Bloomberg released the percentile ranking results from its 2016 Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) to the Bloomberg Terminal today. Criteria level rankings will be provided later in the year. Rankings of non-participating organizations assessed by RobecoSAM are included in the Bloomberg data.
Read MoreFor one country, China, the impacts are a bit startling. Asthma ratings up 40 percent over the last 20 years, prevalence up to 11% in some cities and 1.6 million related deaths annually (1 in every 1000 people). What is even more startling is no one even knew how bad the pollution was until 2008 when the US Embassy in Beijing installed a rooftop air-quality monitor that would tweet out data every hour.
Read MoreThis past Friday, Newsweek released its annual Green Rankings list of the top 500 companies (based on market capitalization) in the US and World based on market cap. Overall, there were a few new faces in the bunch and a lot of familiar ones. The largest story in 2016 is Hasbro jumping into the #1 position in its first year on the list. While this makes Hasbro seem like a sleeping sustainability giant, the data provides a clear explanation.
Read MoreAs a parent concerned about the negative impacts of lead paint on brain development, how do I know the brightly colored paint on x,y,z toy does not contain lead? I understand Amazon is somewhat bound by the level of information provided by its vendors, but if the result is a lost customer, what is to stop Amazon from innovating - innovation is in the DNA of the company after all. This intersection between product and customer is where I believe Amazon could positively incorporate Product Stewardship.
Read MoreThe Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) opens tomorrow (April 5th) and as in previous years, RobecoSAM has modified portions of the CSA to better align with performance outcomes and recent industry trends. For those not familiar, the CSA is the survey conducted annually by the Switzerland-based RobecoSAM, an investment agency specializing in sustainable investing. The first CSA was conducted in 1999 and is now considered the most robust and reputable gauge of sustainability performance. Over the past month, RobecoSAM has released details on the changes to this year's CSA and I endeavor to summarize them in this post.
Read MoreCurrently CHP remains the more carbon friendly approach in nearly all regions within the United States (and globally); the current sole exception is the NYUP region with Niagara Falls hydro power. However, Clean Power Plan or not, the grid is becoming cleaner with renewable energy making up over 60 percent of new US generation capacity in 2015. The future is even brighter with speculation that 80 percent of electricity produced in 2050 will be from renewable sources. Extrapolation of this trend will see eGRID emission rates dropping to that of NYUP and below. The inflection point where the grid turns the story of CHP from an efficient carbon saver to an unsustainable fossil fuel approach is likely well within the typical 30+ year lifespan of new installations.
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