Summary of interesting article in The Environmentalist written by Dr. Michael Gell.

Introduction

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) concluded for the first time in their 4th assessment of global warming, that global warming is undeniable and that human activity is the main driver, and very likely to have been causing the rise in temperature since 1950 (IPPC, 2007). There has been various studies conducted to give us insights into the magnitude of potential changes caused by global warming. “In their analysis of atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and carbon intensity from economic activity Canadell et all (2007) show that the carbon cycle is generating stronger than expected and sooner than expected climate forcing”.

Various suggestions have been made of the degree to which emissions should be reduced over various timescales. It is generally accepted that the rise of the global temperature associated with climate change should be kept within 2 degrees Celsius. “Schemes such as Contraction and Coonverge (Meyer, 2000) have been proposed which provide a means of achieving equitable stabilisation of emissions on an international scale”.

A number of business have already delivered significant emissions reductions mainly through waste minimisation and energy savings. “In this respect disclosure projects such as the Carbon Disclosure (www.cdproject.net) are playing an important role in raising the profile of issues surrounding the reporting and transparency of commercial emission reduction activities”.

Some companies have shown great succes in their emissions reductions but there are still significant innovation gaps associated with the delivery of a 2 degrees Celsius limit. Some of these gaps relate to the application of energy and environmental technologies, but many of them relate to market structure, business management, and organisational & consumer behaviour.

Whole-Business Carbon Footprint

Stakeholders, customers and the public are becoming more concerned about climate change so therefore business must take reponsibility for the climate change impacts = their Carbon Footprint. This is not only the impact associated with emissions from gas, electricity and oil. The footprint includes much else such as embodied energy in materials, equipment and infrastructure, travel, and services either supplied or used by the business.

There is a range of other forces developing which will stimulate the transition to carbon-constrained economies and commercial and industrial systems. One of them is environmental legislation, particurlarly producer responsibility will stimulate innovation.

The EuP Directive is now into force in Europe and intrduces a far-reaching legislation on the eco-design of energy-using products. The EuP Directive requires an assessment of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the product life-cycle. The EuP legislation embodies a form of climate-change legislation for certain type of products, and is likely to be followed with other product-oriented legislation.

There is now an opportunity for a business to unify its response and adaptation to the new environment by recognising common requirements within the various forces at work. For example, customers may require a supplier to reduce its carbon footprint and the footprint of the product its supplying. “By recognising that substantially similar requirements may be embodied within apparently diverse forces, a business has an opportunity to streamline its effort during the transformation into carbon-constrained markets”.

Carbon Reduction Plan

Stakeholders, customers and business networks are increasingly focusing on the whole business carbon footprint, so ot is important for a business to know what to do. Businesses are required to be able to respond to enquiries about their business carbon footprint, goods and services footprint, and the actions the business is taking to improve its environmental performance. In many cases the customer chooses the supplier they want to continue making business with based on the their reponses.

Carbon scoring is now as common as credit and insurance scoring. In terms of supply chain development, retention as a business partner my depend, for example, on a agreed plan for carbon footprint reduction over a specific timescale.  For businesses this will come through the implementation of a carbon reduction plan. The building blocks of a typical plan are:

• ecostructure including renewable energies & ecotechnlogies, adaptation, mitigation & sustainability.
• ecoconduct including energy conservation & efficiency, waste & emissions minimisation, eco-design (process, goods, services)
• ecoperformance including ecobusiness & ecomarkets, ecointelligence (ecometrics and KPIs) ecoleadership & ecocommunity

These are components of a firm, embodied with a framework of eco-oriented leadership, governance, communication and advocacy. The elements of the carbon reduction plan represent environmental added-value and business added-value.

Business Ecointelligence

“Ecointelligence is the ability to recognise the inherent intelligence (for example not to waste anything, interdependence, regenration and sustainability) of natural systems and processes and to apply what is recognised within the organisation”. For example, an ecointelligent management would recognise climate change trouble and environmental problems caused by human activity as indicators of faulty design in industrial and economic systems. It goes beyond standard environmental management and requires altering products design criteria, re-negotiating relationships with suppliers, developing new personnel skills, changing the company’s technology and manufacturing processes and developing new relationships with customers.

The emerge of highly-competitive carbon-constrained businesses may play an important role not only by carbon reductions in their own business but also potentially by displacing from markets those businesses choosing not to repsond to the carbon reduction challenge.  The market is shifting to incorporate carbon-constraints and will put pressure on businesses to conform.

Conclusions

Reducing the business carbon footprint is now being superseded by a phase of building low-carbon business constallations where businesses evaluate each other’s footprints and conduct business accordingly. It is therefore essential for organisations to asses their own development and strategy of carbon-constraint business.

If you want more advice on how to reduce your business carbon footprint and to build up a low-carbon business constallation please contact Giraffe on info@giraffeinnovation.com

If you have been keeping in eye on the environment news this week I am sure you have noticed the review Local Government Association (LGA) commissioned on supermarket packaging. The LGA commissioned the British Research Bureau to collect and analyse packaging for 29 common food items from 8 supermarkets. The study showed that Waitrose had the most packaging with 803g and Tesco the least with 646g. Lidl had the lowest percent of recyclable packging (58%) and Sainbury’s has the highest proportion of recyclable packaging with 66%. The LGA wants supermarkets to help pay for recycling services and reduce the 1.8bn councils will spend in landfill tax on rubbish sites up to 2011.

LGA said that while more people are recycling they are being held back by supermarkets. Families are fed up with having to carry so much packaging home from the supermarket. Reducing packaging would mean less cost at the tills and also less cost for taxpayers as there will be less packaging sent to landfill. Landfill costs the councils £32 for each tonne of rubbish, this will rise to £48 a tonne by 2010.

We at Giraffe often get images sent to us with examples of over-packaging. Here are a few examples:

This picture below was sent in to us by a person who had ordered a book online and received the book in a box so large the daughter could fit into it!

Source: The Guardian & The Times

Managing innovation has resulted in significant behavior change among consumers. In the UK, 17% of households now wash at 30 degrees, up from 2% in a similar 2002 survey. Further, 27% of all Ariel users washed at 30 degrees in 2007, twice the average of other leading brands.

The shift toward lower washing temperatures has brought substantial benefits to the environment. According to statistics calculated and validated by The Energy Saving Trust, 58000 metric tons of CO2 emissions have been prevented, saving 403,200 GJ of energy – enough energy to light 2,500 UK villages.

The Observer Ethical Awards 2009 has been launched (www.guardian.co.uk/observer-ethical-awards)! These awards are here to reward the individuals and organisations which represent the ethical best in class in the UK today. The judging panel includes UK’s top environmental and sustainability experts and also some well-known celebrities! We have the honour of having Rob Holdway from Giraffe Innovation judging at the Observer Ethical Awards for the 4th year running. Other include Colin Firth, Ken Livingstone, Deborah Meaden, Erin O’Connor, Mary Portas, David de Rotschild, Lucy Siegle, and Jo Wood to mention a few.

The categories are:

• Best Local Retailer
• Best Online Retailer Initiative
• Campaigner of the Year
• Politician of the Year
• Jupiter Big Idea Award
• Grassroots Campaigner
• Ecover Ethical Kids Awards
• Ethical Garden
• Fashion and Accessories, sponsored by Marie Claire
• Conservation Award, sponsored by National Grid
• Ethical Business Award, sponsored by Triodos

Closing date for votes and nominations is 9th March. If you would like to vote or nominate someone please click here.

Colin Firth and Rob at last year Observer Ethical Awards party

‘HABBIT’ are HOBBITS which represents HABITS

The Habbit is a representation of your environmental habits in three dimensions. Your habits and patterns of living can be measured, analysed and built as the limbs and body parts. Each part of the body represents a different type of environmental burden. The feet- transport, hands- home energy, mouth- water, stomach- consumption, bottom- waste, eyes/head- standby in consumer products and height reflects overall CO2 burden.

The image on the top represents a ‘worst type’ Habbit and the image below shows a person living sustainably.

The Habbit can be used to measure, analyse, and understand, and change individual patterns of environmental impact. It hopes to increase the individuals awareness of their personal contribution to global warming and climate change relative to other people. This will effect the necessary change in our system of consumption that will help us move towards the target of sustainability.

The Changing Habbits project was initiated, designed and developed by Giraffe’s Professor David Walker and Rob Holdway.  Check out the Changing Habbits website here to create your own Habbit. The website is still in Beta stage so we would appreciate all your comments to make it better.

The Evening Gazette featured two articles last week regarding Rob’s course launch for Teesside University. Have a look at the articles below.

University of Teesside sust-tees are launching two new sustainable design and technology degree programmes and are therefore running a broader series of lectures in that field 26-30th January 2009.

Rob Holdway from Giraffe will be holding a lecture on Design for a One Planet Economy. Giraffe’s approach to projects combines analytical thinking with science with the creative ability to synthesise between different industries, techniques and cultures. The majority of our work involves establishing a detailed lifecycle analysis understanding of the environmental impact of an organisation, an operation, or specifically a product or pack. This underpins Giraffe’s work in undertaking carbon-led eco redesign projects with opportunities for lifecycle reduction. We realise that, from a business perspective, there is little point making environmentally sensitive products and services if they are not commercially viable.

If this sounds interesting to you check out the events page for more information.

Giraffe has the great pleasure to announce that Rob Holdway has been elected a London Leader 2009. Rob was invited by the London Sustainable Development Commision to apply to become a London Leader 2009. He was nominated for his innovative sustainable design and business practices, raising awareness of issues such as waste management, and in recognition of projects such as the WEEE Man and projects with the RSA.

The London Leaders programme is dedicated to inspire and catalyse positive change, demonstrate sustainability in action and improve quality of life. The aim for the Leaders is to inspire all of us to take action in our own environment, homes and workplaces to make London better.

To read more about the London Leaders 2009 please click here.

Rob Holdway from Giraffe was interviewed for article ‘Why green logos are all greek’ in Packaging News Magazine

The article looks into the confusion regarding the different green labels. Many customers do not simply know what the labels mean. “A carbon logo on a packet of crisps isn’t going to affect which one I choose, and I work in the industry,” says Rob Holdway. At Giraffe we believe that a carbon label isn’t useful unless you have something to compare it to, it also needs to relate to something that the consumer can understand.
Read the whole article in Packaging News

The University of Auckland continues to run a NPD course across all disciplines using several Giraffe creativity tools…see their site