Archive for March, 2007
Twenty years ago, corporate social responsibility (CSR) consisted of donating money to good causes, adopting schools, or providing scholarships for the children of employees. However, with the rise of sustainability as a corporate issue, CSR has gravitated to the big stage where its performance is followed by investors. Now CSR has a different meaning — what impact does the existence of your company have on the world around you and what are you doing to assure sustainability of both the planet and the enterprise?
A new report by AMR Research points out that the United States is well ahead of Europe in integrating corporate social responsibility from IT data into the larger organizational framework for making decisions. However, even in America, most of the data on corporate social responsibility is being collected by ERP systems that can be reactive, but don’t have the capacity to be proactive.
According to AMR’s survey of 150 businesses, within the next two years, 89 percent of companies in the United States and 62 percent in Europe plan to use technology to manage their corporate social responsibility initiatives. My guess is that they will employ proactive tools to handle this properly.
Close to 70 percent of companies have a dedicated budget for CSR initiatives, with 48 percent of companies having a dedicated budget for environmental initiatives. In Europe environmental concerns take precedence over other forms of corporate social responsibility.
The report listed some interesting reasons why businesses are tackling these issues (and they are not just regulatory anymore). The biggest among them is customer loyalty, which means their customers want to do business with socially responsible companies. So CSR is another “feature” of their product offerings. Boards are pushing businesses in the direction of greater responsibility, and so are employees. Unlike the past, when CSR was considered just a “feel good” initiative, now it is seen as a competitive advantage and even a moral imperative.
Corporate executives are looking for a dashboard that shows their CSR initiatives along with the rest of their governance issues, so they can stay on top of this quickly-growing concern.
Tags: corporate social responsibility csr sustainability
March 30th, 2007
Big reporting changes are coming down the pike for public companies from the investment community regarding environmental compliance, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions management, and the risks associated with them. In case you are wondering who will be held responsible for failure to meet a company’s environmental imperatives, it will no longer be the plant manager. It will be the CEO. It’s moving into the corporate boardroom, where the investors meet management, that responsibility for environmental stewardship will be playing out.
CalPERS, the pension fund for California state employees, which was among the first institutional investors to require Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, now has committed itself to a Corporate Governance Environmental strategic plan. The objective of the plan is to improve timely disclosure and data transparency of environmental risks. CalPERS also participates in The Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), and has supported the Carbon Disclosure Project, an initiative that recently sent a questionnaire to more than 2400 companies worldwide asking them to report on the climate risk of their operations..
CalPERS’ participation in INCR means that the giant pension plan will support shareholder resolutions and company engagement to improve corporate disclosure and governance on climate risk, help investors assess climate risk, and encourage the Securities and Exchange Commission to require that companies disclose the risks associated with climate change as part of their securities filings. If anyone can force risk assessment, it’s a big network like INCR.
The network released its Global Framework for Climate Risk Disclosure, which is a new statement on disclosure that investors expect from companies, in October 2006. Companies now must disclose their total historical, current, and projected GHG; assess the physical risks of climate change; analyze their climate risk and emissions management; and analyze the risks related to regulation of GHG emissions.
It’s a good thing we developed the tools to collect, manage, analyze and report the data companies need in order to make these disclosures. ESS has its roots in building software for emissions management. We’re pleased that we are helping a growing number companies support their sustainability initiatives that address these investors’ concerns.
Tags: calpers climate change climate risk ghg emissions sarbanes oxley compliance
March 26th, 2007
The Oscars may have raised the issue of global warming, but it was already on the minds of both Europeans and Americans. A Harris Interactive poll conducted before the ceremonies and published in the International Herald Tribune found that citizens of five European countries and the US favor taxing polluters in proportion to the pollution they produce.
The online poll surveyed 6,576 people in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United States. Asked whether they supported the “polluter must pay” idea for industry, 92% said yes in France, Italy and Spain, 89% in Germany, 82% in the US and 81% in Britain. This is no surprise to us, because individuals have always been strongly supportive of environmental initiatives.
Fortunately, a growing number of businesses are taking action to address greenhouse gas emissions. One particularly encouraging development has been the formation of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, an organization featuring 10 prominent companies with combined market capitalization worth more than $750 billion, and four major environmental organizations that are calling on Congress to enact legislation to achieve significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. The group’s rationale is simple: Further delays to control greenhouse gas emissions increase the risk of unavoidable consequences that could necessitate even steeper reductions in the future. Waiting could seriously dampen future economic growth.
March 19th, 2007
From a New York Times article appearing today: An unusual coalition of industrial and developing countries began pushing Wednesday for stringent limits on the world’s most popular refrigerant for air-conditioners, as evidence mounts that the refrigerant harms the earth’s ozone layer and contributes to global warming.
The coalition is pitted against China, which has become the world’s leading manufacturer of air-conditioners that use the refrigerant, HCFC-22. Most window air-conditioners and air-conditioning systems in the United States use this refrigerant, as well.
International pressure has grown rapidly this winter for quick action. “We scientifically have proof: if we accelerate the phaseout of HCFC, we are going to make a great contribution to climate change,” said Romina Picolotti, the chief of Argentina’s environmental secretariat.
Experts believe that an accelerated phaseout of the refrigerant could speed up by five years the healing of the ozone layer of the atmosphere. It could also cut emissions of global-warming gases by the equivalent of at least one-sixth of the reductions called for under the Kyoto Protocol.
The United States joined Argentina, Brazil, Iceland, Mauritania and Norway on Wednesday in notifying the Ozone Secretariat of the United Nations Environment Program that they want to negotiate an accelerated phaseout of hydrochlorofluorocarbons, or HCFC’s, at an international conference in Montreal in September.
The conference is tied to the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Montreal Protocol, which has reduced emissions of most ozone-depleting gases but left a loophole for HCFC-22 production by developing countries. China has repeatedly said it will honor all current rules of the Montreal Protocol but does not want to add new ones.
Recent studies have shown that steeply rising production of HCFC-22 by China, India and other developing countries has slowed the healing of the ozone layer, which protects humans, animals and vegetation from the sun’s dangerous ultraviolet rays.
A report last week by five American and European scientists found that sharp cutbacks in emissions of ozone-depleting gases since 1987 have been far more effective in combating global warming than the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 agreement that was aimed directly at limiting climate change.
HCFC’s and other ozone-depleting gases are extremely powerful warming gases. Gram for gram, the ones used as refrigerants have thousands of times the global-warming effect of carbon dioxide. The ozone-depleting gases are released in far smaller quantities than carbon dioxide, which is emitted when fossil fuels are burned by vehicle engines, power plants and other users.
The report by the European and American experts, published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the Montreal Protocol had proved to be 5.5 times as effective as the Kyoto accord was intended to be in cutting emissions of global-warming gases. The Montreal agreement has been in force much longer and applies to developing and industrial nations alike, while the Kyoto Protocol has binding limits only for industrial nations.
The report has caught the attention of countries in the Pacific and Indian oceans that fear that global warming will lead to a rise in sea levels and a significant loss of their limited land.
This is why we started ESS. Our company has been tracking refrigerants since 1993. So is this what they mean by overnight success?
Tags: global warming HCFC 22 Kyoto Protocol Montreal Protocol ozone layer refrigerant
March 15th, 2007
As we have outsourced our production to Asia, have we outsourced our pollution, too? Apparently, emissions from Asia are generating stronger storms over the North Pacific and may have an impact on weather across the northern hemisphere, according to a team of researchers from the National Academy of Sciences who studied clouds and pollution over the last twenty years.
The researchers report that satellite measurements have shown an increase in tiny particles generated from coal burning in China and India in recent decades.
The particles cause changes in storm patterns, which in turn, creates a threat of increased warming of polar regions.
Fortunately there has been a reduction in ozone-depleting chemicals during the same time period that has slowed the rate of global warming. In 1987, the Montreal Protocol led to a reduction in the amount of chemicals released in the atmosphere. The goal was to preserve the ozone layer, a screen against the sun’s most damaging rays.
Ozone-depleting chemicals have been released into the atmosphere in much smaller quantities since 1987, which has offset the growth of emissions in Asia. However, we are at a delicate standoff on the issue of global warming, and we should really be doing more to slow its effect, rather than just neutralize it.
Tags: asia emissions global warming montreal protocol ozone layer pollution
March 14th, 2007
I returned recently from a business trip to Asia in January. I was in China, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, the Middle East and India visiting with our international partners and customers. One of my meetings was at PetroChina in Beijing where our complete EHS software platform has been deployed.
This is the first and largest enterprise-wide software system implemented in China for environmental, health, and safety. The deployment encompasses more than 10,000 ESS licenses used in 41 branches. Each of these branches supports between 2 to 10 plants across China. What is even more exciting is that we have localized their software platform so that it displays all their safety data in Mandarin Chinese.
IBM Global Services implemented the project. I am proud to say it was a success and is now expanding to its parent company, China National Petroleum Company. While there I met with the CIO of both PetroChina and CNPC who discussed how our products are being used to help protect employees’ health and safety and reducing the environmental impact of their oil and gas operations.
In the Middle East, I met with our customers Kuwait National Petroleum Company in Kuwait and Abu Dhabi Oil Company. They shared with me how ESS software is being used to not only help manage the environmental emissions of their assets, but also how the software is helping them show their communities proof of their environmental leadership. Here is what they had to say about their accomplishments in their own words.
Frankly, it is at times like these that I am taken aback when I realize what an impact ESS is having globally helping organizations execute on their corporate strategies and initiatives for environmental sustainability and health and safety. ESS is now positioned where I wanted it to be 14 years ago when I started the company.
But what does that mean for our customers? Simply put, decision makers from corporate leaders to government agency heads trust our solutions to help them mitigate operational risks, lower costs and reduce their environmental footprint. We have the full range of environmental, health, safety and crisis management solutions that will help your company meet its triple bottom line objectives. No other company comes close.
We have worked hard to earn the trust of customers, and our products and services are delivering on that promise. Now we’re taking additional steps to ensure that our products and services continue to meet our customers’ expectations as we grow.
ESS is making tremendous investments in our company to better serve both U.S. and global markets. We will continue our precedent of defining the market and demonstrating to our customers that we deliver our Operational Risk Management solutions both as enterprise solutions to meet the needs of global companies who want a centralized approach, and decentralized local solutions to address issues at a specific facility. We think this is a winning combination that will resonate among decision makers at all levels and in any organization.
This year, we also are looking to strengthen our top-tier partnerships, many that were forged in 2006, to take us further in both domestic and global markets. We’re especially eager to continue our growth among companies in the Asia-Pacific region, and we are moving into Europe as well. We think we have all of the components to make 2007 another banner year for ESS. I’ll continue to share details with you in the weeks to come.
Tags: cnpc ehs software environmental leadership health and safety knpc
March 6th, 2007
