The market for voluntarily offsetting carbon emissions doubled between 2007 and 2008 to reach $700m. With forecasts suggesting that the market could double again to 2012 this new sector is now attracting the attention of more serious investors and traders, as well as more companies looking to offset their emissions. But despite all the excitement around these projections there has been no systematic analysis of where the demand in this new market will actually come from, if indeed at all. Nobody has stopped to ask the simple questions “why do organizations voluntarily offset their emissions?” “how much value do they get out of it”, and “when does carbon setting work and when doesn’t it work?“
A new MIT Energy Initiative report outlines clear steps the nation must take to develop cost-effective options for cutting carbon emissions at existing coal-fired power plants. According to the report, there is “no credible pathway” toward stringent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions worldwide without addressing coal-fired plants, according to the report released Friday at a press conference here. The recommend that any proposal must pass the “China test,” meaning its cost must be low enough “that China and other emerging economies can afford to implement it. The report reinforces the need to quickly start a cap-and-trade program; concludes retrofit technology is feasible but not enough is being done to implement it on a large scale; and provides action steps for policy makers.
This post, by Jerry J. Toman, ScM, ChE examines five policies that are setting our future up for failure. They are: Reliance on the old-time political religion of economic growth (usually defined as by economists as GDP growth); Continue to practice incrementalism above all else, as the dominant means of solving the problems; Embarking willy-nilly into mega-projects that utilize technologies that often are half-baked in terms of knowing what the overall costs, impacts and benefits would be; Ignoring the “carbon balance” aspects of current practices and future remedies; and relying on technologies that involve extensive “mining” of the earth’s solid surface for minerals, as a means to achieve sustainability.
For the second year in a row, ComputerWorld has showcased the achievements at 12 IT departments that are reducing power demands and using technology to create energy efficiencies. Thirty criteria were used to determine which organizations had the greenest IT departments. The IT departments selected include: Mohawk Fine Papers, State Street, Allstate, Citigroup, PricewaterhouseCoopers, State of Indiana, KPMG, Seventh Generation, Office Depot, Burt’s Bees, Marriot and Austin Energy. Find out why these organizations were selected.
The American Real Estate Society, in cooperation with and funding by the CoStar Group, announces a call for papers for a special issue of the real estate monograph series on “green buildings and sustainable real estate” called “Journal of Sustainable Real Estate”. The best research paper published will receive a $15,000 honorarium. All papers accepted for publication will receive $1,000. Authors are encouraged to submit original research that can help investors, developers, appraisers, lenders, asset managers, elected government officials and land use regulators improve their strategies, decision-making and understanding of the impact of sustainable real estate practices.
