Sustainability Archives - Green Businesses

Will the Green Growth Strategy Lead to Promising Business Opportunities? Exploring the Future Five Years from Now

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about great changes in our society and business environment. To grasp the nature of the social transformation arising from this ongoing event, since May 2020 Nikkei BP has been conducting a series of surveys of Japanese businesspeople (more than 11,000 in total). The results unveil major alterations in their mindsets. Following the Japanese government's declaration on realizing "Carbon Neutrality by 2050" in October 2020, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) took the lead in formulating the "Green Growth Strategy through Achieving Carbon Neutrality in 2050," which was unveiled in December of the same year. The Ministry positions this strategy as "an industrial policy to lead the challenging goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, a vision that is upheld by the Suga administration and aims toward a positive cycle of economic growth and the environmental protection." The strategy emphasizes 14 sectors as priority fields (Fig…

In Case You Needed Another Reason To Visit Aruba

Aruba, like many countries, is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels for energy. Currently, nearly 85% of the energy is generated by heavy fuel oil but that is going to change. Aruba pledged to transition to 100% renewable electricity by 2020, particularly variable wind and solar. This 19 mile long island launched it’s Green Gateway Initiative in 2011 at the UN Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development. With the support of Carbon War Room, an international nonprofit, Aruba created its plan of action beginning with wind farm development, a waste-to-energy plant, and a Airport Solar Park. They are taking the Smart Growth Pathway that addresses many different areas of an expanding economy, such as; eco-tourism, incentives for household retrofitting and commercial energy efficiency, the sustainable agriculture practice known as controlled environment agriculture, urban planning that supports this transition, and investments in innovation. This plan focuses on three comp…

TreeHouse Aims to Make Homes Thoughtful, Sustainable and Healthy

Austin-based TreeHouse, a home improvement retailer focused on eco-friendly construction materials, has selected Dallas as its first stop outside its hip hometown. Tuesday, it will announce plans to open a store in early 2017 in a new shopping center in North Dallas. TreeHouse CEO and co-founder Jason Ballard believes he can sell the world on eco-friendly homes in the same way that Tesla is broadening the customer base for electric cars. As the first retailer that Tesla has authorized to sell the Powerwall, its battery for the house, TreeHouse is already a powerhouse of sustainable good. They are also one of the top-selling retailers of Nest smart-home products, Ballard said. “We resist being a niche company,” Ballard said. “We’re not just for customers with dreadlocks and card-carrying members of environmental groups. We’re going to prove with the Dallas store that we’re not a store for special people, we’re a store for everyone.” Single-store sales have increased 3…

How Big is Your Water Footprint?

Awesome new graphic from CustomMade that takes an in-depth look at the growing global water footprint and provides ideas on how we can cut back on our individual water consumption to help sustain this valuable resource for future generations. The average American lifestyle requires about 2,000 gallons of water every day. Fresh water consumption has doubled since World War II and is expected to rise 25% by 2030. All of this water use takes a toll on the planet and can create water scarcity which effects up to 2.8 billion people around the world at least one month out of the year. Explore ways you can reduce your water footprint in your home. Reducing our Water Footprint Dual flush toilets, turning off the tap while scrubbing dishes, and using a rain barrel to collect outdoor water are all great ways to reduce your water footprint. There are many simple changes you can make in your day to day life that can positively impact your water use and lessen the effects of water scarci…

It’s Not Just About Money Anymore – Top 100 Sustainable Companies List

Corporate Knights Top 100 Sustainable Companies List Corporate Knights is a business advisory company based in Toronto Ontario Canada. Since 2005 they have published a top 100 global sustainable company ranking list which has grown more popular over the years. Last month the new list (for which the judging starts each October 1st) was published. The USA took the top two spots and a total of twenty USA companies made the top 100 list. Twelve Canadian companies made the list with Tim Horton’s being the highest ranked at slot 11. USA Companies in the Top 100

Rank / Company Name / Industry

1 Biogen Idec - Biotechnology

2 Allergan - Pharmaceuticals

18 Johnson & Johnson - Pharmaceuticals

26 Coca-Cola Enterprises - Beverages

38 Sigma-Aldrich - Chemicals

Companies That Do Sustainabililty Right Make it Mainstream, Not Niche

By Jeana Wirtenberg. Originally published on Businessweek. Twenty-five years ago, sustainability was not a part of standard business discourse. Today it is—and business schools helped make that happen. But we’re reaching the natural limits of what B-schools started. Only a wave of innovation in management education will help businesses get fast enough to meet customers’ needs in a hotter, flatter, more crowded world. The first step is to take sustainability out of its silo existence and make it part of the core business school curriculum. Sustainability can’t just be an orientation exercise, an elective course, an institute, or a specialty degree. It can’t be something that some students go deeply into, while some just get familiar with it. Unfortunately, that’s where we are now. In management education, sustainability departments have produced lots of specialists. The knowledge those departments have accumulated should be brought into the mainstream to reach stude…