ICIS NeWS
October 2004
in this issue:
Editorial
Ethics
- CSR Scorecards
- Ethics on the Job
- E-support
- NOVO Score
- Coca Cola has to curb its monopoly
Design/fashion
- Lifetimes
- Aniel
Technology
- MET stations for hydrogen cars?
- Solar power for whole city
- NASA ready to forecast droughts and floods
Award
- The Bremen Partnership Awards 2004
Short News
- PlanetArk
- Environmental Milestones
- Sustainable engineers
ICIS Activities
- Sustainable Architecture days in November
Contact ICIS
ICIS CENTRE
Hornbækgaard
Hornbækgaardsvej 2
DK-3100 Hornbæk
Tel (+45) 49 70 43 64
E-mail address: center@iciscenter.org
Editorial
Dear Subscriber
Sustainability is at the core of ICIS. Sustainability encompasses three
main considerations: the ethical/social, the environmental and the economic.
One part of sustainability is the ethical and social dimension of human
activity.
Ethics have risen to the top of the agenda for many companies, new consultancies
and organisations, and many NGO’s now benefit from this development.
ICIS believes that this is a very important aspect of sustainable development
and acknowledges all the companies, NGO’s, consultancies and organisations
that engage in ethical work.
However, sustainable development also includes environmental considerations and we wonder why the environment so often seems to be ignored or forgotten, as though we either are powerless or do not want to change direction or indeed pay any attention to the environmental consequences of our human activity.
It is easy to find stories about ethical issues but has become more difficult to find stories about people and companies who really make a difference in terms of environmental impact. Ethics have become trendy. We need to remember the other aspects of sustainability as well.
I was recently on the panel of experts that judged this year’s Bremen Partnership Award.
The list of entrants included numerous organisations and companies around the world who want to and indeed do make a difference, in terms of working towards sustainable development. They are not often read about in the media, however, they apply the sustainability model with an emphasis on environmental issues in their work, and thus could have a real impact on our world.
Ethical considerations are undoubtedly important. However, when combined with environmental considerations, the results count even more.
As always, this E-news includes stories about various sustainability issues, with web references for further reading.
Karen Blincoe,
Director, ICIS
Ethics
-
CSR Scorecards
So far, more than a dozen Danish companies have been included in a register of companies with high ethical standards. Businesses can apply for inclusion in the register at www.csr-scorecard.org. A state-sponsored consumer protection agency will then screen companies’ activities with regard to international conventions as well as rules and regulations on employee rights, health, and safety at work. Consumers are thus able to check the database before they decide to contact, visit or buy from a listed company – ranging from banks and car dealers, to supermarkets and zoos.
-
Ethics on the Job
Young graduates now require ethics in the jobplace. Research carried out by Moment A/S amongst approx 2,000 students at higher education establishments in Denmark shows that young graduates will want jobs with companies who have a good reputation regarding ethics. They do not want to work for tobacco companies or the weapon’s industry, nor for biotech and chemical companies. ‘It's the parents fault’, say Kiri Kesby from the consultancy Jøp, Ove and Mythu, who has been involved with the research, ‘we have taught our children to become demanding’.
Source: Berlingske Tidende
ICIS View: ICIS does not think that these demands are a ‘fault’. We totally applaud this aspect of the young generation of graduates. The future workforce will hopefully help shift company behaviour from being profit-based to become value-based.
E-support
Hundreds of e-stores in Denmark have joined a new initiative to promote and support green, religious and/or humanitarian organizations through a third party website. A percentage of your purchase through this site is forwarded to one or more organizations of your own choice. At www.engodsag.dk anybody can choose their own area/organization to support while also being given the choice from 175 stores in numerous shopping categories.
Many Danes prefer to support charities via their daily trade on the net rather than through door -to-door collections. A research analysis has shown that even if most people in this country believe that charity is the responsibilityof the government rather than individuals, they will contribute but prefer to do it through ‘net-dealings’.
NOVO Score
For many years, Novo Nordisk, a Danish multinational biotech company has been working towards sustainable development, both within the company and internationally. Their latest initiative is to fuse their environmental accounting with the annual accounts. Next year’s annual report will show both financial reporting as well as sustainability initiatives.
Novo Nordisk won the first prize for its sustainability report recently. During the prize-giving event, it was evident that companies with ethical values and who are seen to work for sustainable development take the top prizes.
Coca Cola has to curb its monopoly
Coca Cola now has to sell other products in its vending machines around the world. This means that customers in the future have a choice as to which products they want to purchase from a vending machine, even if the Coca Cola Company installed it. At present you can only buy Coca Cola from the Coca Cola vending machines which the company so successfully has been able to install everywhere around the world!
Design/fashion
-
LIFETIMES - sustainable clothing for adults
Fletcher & Tham in London think that environmentalists tend to regard fashion as irrelevant; an unnecessary extravagance and the chief cause of escalating consumption levels.
So F&T have established “Lifetimes” in the belief that this attitude neglects the potential and influence of fashion: “For too long the fashion sector has been indifferent to what happens to a garment beyond the point of purchase. We think that transforming people's relationships with their clothes can empower them, fuel personal creativity and reduce environmental impact.” they say.
“Lifetimes” wants to explore creative connections between fashion clothes, time and sustainability. More about “Lifetimes” can be found at www.lifetimes.info - investigating ‘fast and slow’ clothes, and fast and slow rhythms of use.
-
ANIEL – eco-clothing for children
Copenhagen store, Aniel aims to make children clothes available that sidestep the ephemeral trends of childrens clothing and are not made out of unhealthy fibres or plastic. Parents in the Frederiksberg area will now be able to enter a shopping universe designed in the name of Aniel, the angel of peace, love, harmony and beauty.
The store will sell skin products and equipment for children as well as their simple clothing collection. The store came second in an internet poll of best childrens’ clothes store.
Technology
-
MET stations for hydrogen cars?
The State of California and the Bill Clinton administration put political pressure on car manufacturers in the 1990s, as well as providing incentives to produce cars with lower emissions and higher burning efficiency.
Since then, hydrogen fuel cells have been particularly interesting to researchers and the car industry as a long-term alternative to conventional energy sources. In particular, Japanese companies like Toyota and Honda have continued to develop this fuel cell technology at a steady pace, without the political ups and downs that affect the commitment of EU and US car producers. But with the ominous perspective of looming oil shortage and supply problems, George W. Bush changed his earlier decision to cancel support of research into alternatives to gasoline fuel. Since early 2003, research has been at full speed - even a hydrogen-powered lawn mower is under way.
Hydrogen fuel cells are based on a chemical reaction between water and hydrogen with a release of energy, heat and water. Water for this reaction is relatively abundant and hydrogen is produced from organic sources - including potatoes and corn. However, it's a costly process, and currently the cheapest way of producing hydrogen is to split gas or water into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. This process in itself releases CO2 and thus advances the greenhouse effect it was meant to counteract.
What are some of the other challenges at the moment?
- Hydrogen is expensive to distribute and to contain, which means very large tanks of hydrogen gas form, at gas stations as well as in the cars. If fluid hydrogen is used, it requires cooling to absolute zero temperature; a very expensive and difficult process.
- Converting gas stations costs billions and billions of dollars (and the dollar is the key currency here).
- The car production price is very high and involves the use of platinum (Honda is currently testing their two million dollar FCX car in Tokyo and California).
But there may be a completely different technical solution based on methanol. As mentioned in ICIS NeWS 3/2004, Toshiba’s new direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) converts methanol and oxygen into carbon dioxide and water through an energy-releasing process. Other companies are developing similar cells for use in products such as mobile phones and laptop computers - and this is starting to look like a feasible technology for the car industry as well.
If cells can be fueled by methanol and converted into hydrogen inside the car, this would solve a number of the problems mentioned above. Methanol can be handled and transported easily, and may be distributed through the existing network. Besides, it's cheap and can also be extracted from potatoes - but at a much lower price.
ICIS View:
There is no doubt that things are moving in this field of research. There are many voices out there warning that only power plants will be able to benefit from hydrogen power, but the methanol perspective seems extremely promising in our view. But one also starts to ponder whether there are better alternatives than gm-grown potato and rice fields, as a supply source for future MET stations.
-
Solar power for whole city
SolAir is a new solar power concept. A range of earth-based mirrors reflect sunrays into an 80m high tower with air heated to some 800 degrees Celsius. A successful test plant in Spain is run by Spanish, Greek, German and Danish partners - including the Danish company HelioTech behind the all-important ceramic recipient unit which is exposed to extreme pressure.
The Spanish director, Manuel Romero Álvarez, says that SolAir can produce 1 kwh of energy at a much lower price than conventional, roof-based cells - just a quarter of a US dollar. This is still a far cry from the 5 cents of nuclear or coal-produced electricity, but one goal is to reduce this price to about 10 cents in 2010, according to Álvarez.
The Germany city of Jülich is fighting to make this EU-sponsored initiative into a real plant with a 40 mw heating capacity (10 mw of electricity), which would cover the city's entire needs.
Source: Politiken
More info: www.psa.es
-
NASA ready to forecast droughts and floods
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, USA, is optimistic about weather predictions in the future. The New Scientist magazine reported in August that the agency has located a series of "hotspots" in the middle of continents where changes in the moisture content in soils may signal droughts or floods to come.
The theory is that water evaporating from soil is a major source of the vapour that creates cloud and rain, so the drier the earth, the greater the chance of drought - and vice-versa. The researchers found that the southern fringes of the Sahara desert, northern India and the Great Plains of North America were particularly useful regions to observe when trying to predict weather in the medium term.
Similar signals from oceans are already well known; El Niño, the weather anomaly that distorts wind and rainfall patterns around the world, is generally predicted by changes in sea temperatures in the eastern Pacific months beforehand.
The focus on denser surveillance in selected areas on the globe fits in with NASA's immediate prospects well, as the agency faces decades where Mars and other space missions is likely to take priority on the agency agenda. However, NASA Senior Public Affairs Officer, Gretchen R. Cook-Anderson, informs ICIS NeWS that there are no official plans to cut back the agency's Earth Surveillance activities at this moment.
Source: Reuters
ICIS View:
Improved surveillance and data interpretation in this field could even improve agricultural planning, especially in areas of the world where genetic engineering is seen as the only means of feeding growing future populations.
Award
-
The Bremen Partnership Awards 2004
Some of the finalists in this prestigious annual award were:
BedZED (Beddington Zero Energy Development)
UK’s largest eco-village with 82 homes and office units. Electricity and heat is supplied by on-site renewable energy, and ventilation is wind-powered. Rainwater tanks and low-water-usage appliances reduce water consumption. Green transport includes a car club in which 40 members share three cars. The goal with the project was to provide a practical demonstration of creating a sustainable way of life by constructing environmentally sustainable housing and offices.
The A.B. Model – technology transfer for sustainable development.
This is a project based in India which aims to transfer cost-effective and environment friendly technology (CEEF) from ‘lab to land’, to promote lifestyles in tune with nature and ensure steady economic development. Through a network of grass root institutions, it promotes eco-friendly options in agriculture, water-management, housing, food and health, transportation, industry, tourism and other related sectors.
EcoMTex
Ecological textiles for the mass market.
By realising this project, the German based company OTTO has succeeded in launching a model project in which the entire textile production chain is optimised and meets first class environmental standards. To achieve this, OTTO has co-operated with a number of partners over the years.
Beach Solar Laundromat
The Canadian project uses solar thermal panels to heat water for radiant space heating, portable water and for the Laundromat. A coldwater air-conditioning system uses cold process water to chill the occupied air spaces.
Dosing Irrigation Project/Dip stick
The dip stick is a German invention; a unique self-regulating irrigation drip emitter which works by means of a specially modified polymer filament as a sensor. This enables plants to be irrigated very economically and efficiently.
Source: From the brochure of finalists of the Bremen Partnership Awards.
Short news
-
PlanetArk
Reuters hasan environmental news service in partnership with Planet Ark: www.planetark.com/dailynewshome.cfm, with a searchable archive.
-
Environmental Milestones: A Worldwatch Retrospective
Worldwatch Institute has outlined the development of modern environmental
key events in a neat web and poster version. Trace 89 key moments in the
modern environmental movement from the 1960s until today. Explore pivotal
events, scientific breakthroughs, and obstacles through an illustrated
timeline with links to further details and 449 resources on the Web.
-
Seminar: Sustainability for Engineers
The IMechE Energy, Environment and Sustainability Group of the ImechE (Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK) is hosting a November seminar on tools and resources that can help fellow engineers move towards sustainability. Engineers are instrumental in industrial development and, therefore, must play an important role in improving the sustainability of human activities.
The seminar will be held on 2 November 2004, One Birdcage Walk, Westminster, London. It will reiterate and clarify what the most critical issues are, including case studies presented by engineers whose companies have benefited from implementing sustainability principles. Delegates will be introduced to the tools and resources available, including detailed presentations of two such tools.
Info: www.imeche.org.uk/conferencesandevents
ICIS Activities
-
ICIS Sustainable Architecture Days
In November, ICIS has organised three master classes with three top English internationally renowned architects, Future Systems, Nicholas Grimshaw Architects and Richard Rogers Partnership. We have asked them to talk about sustainability as it relates to the very high profile work they do:
Richard Rogers are famous for the development of 'intelligent buildings', Future Systems for the Earth Centre in Doncaster, and Nicholas Grimshaw for the EDEN Project, a series of geodesic domes in Southern England which houses the world’s different climates, flora and fauna.
The three Sustainable Architecture days take place on the 4th, the 12th and the 18th of November.
More info here
Contact ICIS
ICIS NeWS:
info@iciscenter.org
Sign up for short ICIS NeWS regularly (by e-mail)
ICIS news editors:
Karen Blincoe & Henning Wettendorff
Copy editor: Trudy Folwell