Most people think of Waste Management as simply a garbage company. But inside the organization itself, its employees see themselves as an environmental services company that “provides the sustainability platform for families, businesses and municipalities.” When it comes to waste, they know what’s going on. In fact, according to Waste Management, the U.S. population generated more than 250 million tons of garbage in 2007, and that in the most recently reported year, business and industry also generated 38 million tons of hazardous waste.

Waste Management’s stated goal is “to help ensure that we pass on the planet to the next generation in better shape than we inherited it.” This year, they’ve decided to “Think Green®” and to increase the amount of power they produce from waste.

According to the President’s letter, “2007 was the year Waste Management elevated Think Green® from a company theme to a strategic plan for sustainability. We see sustainability as our fundamental service — providing environmental solutions and protection for our customers and communities, while maintaining a successful and growing business.”

Waste Management hopes to turn more landfills into natural preserves. Photo: Forcechange.com

Get Trashed

Most of us don’t think of it this way, but garbage is a renewable energy source from which Waste Management creates enough energy to power over a million homes each year. It uses plants that convert methane, a powerful greenhouse gas (whose odor is quite recognizable), into a power source. By 2020, the company expects to double that output – the equivalent of 18 million barrels of oil. Last year, they added 22 megawatts of production and are in the process of constructing 10 new plants that will produce another 50 megawatts of power, from your garbage and mine.

But Waste Management also likes to think of a world where everyone reduces, reuses and recycles. That’s another business opportunity for them. They know a lot about minimizing waste, and as the nation’s leading recycler, the environmental movement is a boon to them; by 2020, they expect to triple the amount of recyclable material they will manage to almost 20 million tons, partly by convincing Americans to recycle more through their single-stream technology. They would love everyone to set a zero-waste goal and achieve it.

Although a majority of its revenues still come from managing discards (ie: dumping stuff), 49 percent of the company’s revenues came from “green” services:

• 14 percent from recycling
• 13 percent from green energy-producing landfills
• 21 percent from collection for recycling and green energy production

Get Busy

But first, the company has to lower its own carbon footprint. With 26,000 vehicles in its fleet, it’s no wonder they are asking their suppliers to develop trucks that improve fuel efficiency and reduce fleet emissions by 15 percent. And because Waste Management expects to spend more than $450 million per year on new trucks, they can create significant demand for manufacturers to create a breakthrough technology for a new hybrid engine. They are already working with four suppliers on different technologies for hybrid trucks and heavy equipment, each in a different stage of testing but all showing promise.

And what about all those landfills they’ve been filling all these years? As of November 2008, they received certifications from the Wildlife Habitat Council for 49 landfills and protected a total of 21,000 acres. And by 2020, they hope to certify four times as many landfills as wildlife habitats. Right now, about two dozen of their landfills have acreage set aside for conservation. By 2020, they want 100 landfills to have more than 25,000 acres set aside for wildlife.

Waste Management started as a company that collected garbage and dumped it in a landfill far away. There, you wouldn’t have to look at it and remember all the stuff you wasted, used and threw away. Now, the company has found a business opportunity in helping the country re-tool its lifestyle for a new generation of sustainability.

Recognized as one of the “must attend” annual meetings in the country for energy and environment,  professionals learn about cutting-edge technologies and strategies concerning renewable energy and carbon management.

Sam Napolitano, 25-year veteran of the U.S. EPA, is now in charge of its cap-and-trade program. During a speech yesterday, he congratulated the EUEC conference for looking at the future and holding three days of high-level technical discussions on how to get there. There are many tracks to sustainability at EUEC, from solar to GHG (greenhouse gas) management, to carbon trading, to emissions testing.

The new Phoenix Convention Center, where EUEC is happening.

On One Hand

Napolitano’s presentations showed that during the last 25 years, power companies have actually been leading in energy efficiency programs and bringing air quality non-attainment areas into compliance. Over the past five years, there has been a major change in the way both consumers and producers use energy, shifting consumers away from oil to natural gas, and utility companies from coal to natural gas.

States are now engaged in their own cap-and-trade climate control programs. Especially in the Western states, many governmental initiatives are under way. The heart of the action for utility companies is in coal-fired generation. Since 1980, there has been a 50 percent reduction in SO₂ (sulfur dioxide) emissions. Massive reductions have also happened in the East and in Ohio, where acid rain was the largest problem. Additionally, the West uses relatively low-sulfur coal, because its power plants are newer. NOx (nitrous oxide) reductions have also been made in Tennessee, and in the East.

The power of Internet applications such as Google Earth was also discussed, demonstrating that we can now see the largest sulfate emitters from satellites in space. According to Napolitano, sulfate emitters are a cause of acid rain, and they also cause the aggravation of pulmonary and cardiovascular conditions in the American population. The EPA estimates it saved 20,000 premature deaths so far from the success of its sulfate reduction program.

On The Other

But Napolitano’s speech was not all about the successes in the industry. He also added that utilities contribute a full third of the total GHG emissions in the entire country, mostly because of coal-fired plants.

He said the EPA is still in the midst of transition, with its new leadership, Lisa Jackson, still getting her people into place. According to Napolitano, there will be new ozone attainment plans to be developed by states, federal legislation to determine and a revisit of the California waiver needed. Everyone is going to be very active because of consumers driving the demand for cleaner air. Napolitano predicts an enormous amount of activity in Washington on the subject of mercury as well.

At the end of his speech, the applause was lukewarm. Now, the audience realizes they, like the rest of the country, have more work on the horizon.

For them, if the “big” polluters don’t meet their goals, climate change can mean the destruction of  fragile ecosystems, food scarcity and decimation of  both human and animal populations. For these countries, risk, disaster management and insurance strategies will be necessary for the 2009 Copenhagen agreement that will lock in a policy to counteract climate change.

Insuring less developed countries against risk from climate change is a fundamental requirement to meet adaptation objectives. Currently, an insurance mechanism is being formulated to address loss and damage from climate change.

The debates on UN-REDD (the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in Developing Countries) are focusing on establishing a baseline for forest degradation, and how to offer market incentives to avoid deforestation.

There was also discussion on how deforestation and degradation affect indigenous people. The suggestion has been raised to organize special consultations on this issue during next year.

The good news is that countries seem to be trying to find out-of-the-box solutions instead of sticking with their commonly held positions, a plus in negotiations that are often stalled by Parties unwilling to compromise.

This is tantamount to the discussion heard recently at the Conference, where Parties are essentially saying “we’ll do what we can, but don’t make us do anything that jeopardizes our economies.”

This is could be problematic if we want to make big strides on a global basis. Industrialized nations have the responsibility of taking the lead on preventing climate change, and developing countries are the ones most likely to be affected if climate change persists. But as the developing countries embrace development itself, they also contribute to the climate change problem.

However, they do agree that, when it comes to sustainable development: everyone has a right to it, and everyone should engage in it.

According to Amanda Chiu of the Worldwatch Institute, who is attending the conference:

“China, citing the equity language of Article 3, mentioned the need for eventual ‘global per-capita emissions convergence’ – the idea that, at some point in the future, all countries in the world should have similar per-capita emissions as a matter of climate equity. But this concept did not pick up momentum, at least not in the workshop. We’ll see if anything changes, because this is still an ongoing discussion. India has long been a supporter of convergence as well.

Developing countries spoke up as they applied more pressure to industrialized countries to take the lead in addressing climate change, a principle also stated in Article 3. Brazil, however, called for non-Annex I Parties (i.e., developing countries) to deviate from their baseline emissions and start reducing their emissions as well. The EU seconded this call, but I think the statement from Brazil resonates a little more with developing countries.”

As discussion goes on, it seems to revolve around the same basic issues: a sense of urgency to get an agreement before Copenhagen, a rift between the developing nations and the industrialized nations, and constant pressure to get some consensus because the Kyoto protocol is outdated…”

Who is in attendance? Governments, research institutions, environmental organizations and industry groups. Industrial countries and developing countries alike are going to have to make trade-offs, unless – as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in his opening remarks – we want the slow rise in temperatures to cause irreversible changes that destroy our ecosystem.

Already, Yu Qingtai, China’s special representative for climate change talks, has told Reuters that he is not optimistic about negotiations to seek a global treaty on climate change. Yu says the climate pact could fail because rich countries are failing to deliver on promises of technological and financial assistance to poorer countries. China and the developing countries want rich, industrial nations to pay for the technology and technical assistance to help them develop sustainably.

However, industrial nations won’t play unless China and India promise to make concessions in the speed and type of their development plans.

Once again, the U.S. could be an important arbiter in the process, although it is not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol. President-elect Obama has committed himself to preventing climate change, telling voters that he recognizes global warming as real and dangerous.

Obama has pledged to reduce U.S. emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and then a further 80 percent by 2050. To do that with the smallest economic impact, Obama favors a cap-and-trade program.

In the next few days, the participating parties will review a distillation of proposals each country has made for an agreement. The summary is 82 pages long, and will be broken down further until it becomes a series of points that can be negotiated before the Copenhagen meeting in 2009.

The company that holds 30 percent of the market share for bottled water is looking to begin improving its operations and lessen it’s impact on the Earth.

Nestle has what it calls a “Creating Shared Value” report to tally how well it achieves those objectives (its version of a corporate citizenship report). And because it has had a skeptical audience in the past, this report is vetted by an outside assurance agency that helps the company write the report. The auditors then tells us where the report succeeds and fails at being transparent and complying with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), as with other CSRs like Pepsi’s.

Like most , Nestle tries to reduce its environmental footprint and lower its operating costs simultaneously. Here are highlights from the company’s own 2007 statistics:

• 76 percent increase of production volume
• 22 percent reduction of packaging material for bottled water
• 3 percent reduction of energy use
• 16 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
• 28 percent reduction of water withdrawal

Water, Water Everywhere…

For Nestle, their key environmental issue is water use, especially in developing nations. Obviously, water resources are critical to Nestle’s operations, however, their reporting software may not be up to the level it needs to be at this time, according to the report’s auditors.

Providing resources for workers in countries where Nestle operates is also a high priority. According to the chairman of Nestle, the company is “increasingly focused on providing affordable, nutritious foods to lower-income populations in developing countries. In 2007, working with national governments, we opened large, state-of-the-art factories in rural areas of Brazil, China and Pakistan, to produce food with high nutritional value at an affordable cost for the local population.”

On the other hand, Nestle’s factories use a great deal of water and resources, especially precious in those countries. It is a tight rope that they walk.

Nestle’s goal is to have a complete life cycle assessment of all of its products (from extraction of raw materials to manufacture, distribution and end-of-life management) by 2011, through the use of its proprietary environmental management system.

…And Not a Drop to Drink

Nestle also looks to improve its environmental impact through increased recycling. The company is dedicated to doubling the recycling rate of PET plastic bottles to over 60 percent by 2018 by working closely with recycling stakeholders. Simultaneously, the corporation hopes to produce a “next generation” bottle made entirely of recycled materials or renewable resources by 2020.

Nestle’s Eco-Shape bottle already uses 30 percent less plastic than conventional bottles, driving the organization in the right direction to meet its goal. Also utilizing a label that is 35 percent smaller than typical bottles, Nestle expects to save 65 million pounds of PET and 10 million pounds of paper annually through the Eco-Shape.

In 2007, Nestle recycled 86 percent of its solid waste in its factories, including cardboard, boxes, rejected bottles, bottle pre-forms, low-density polyethylene wrap, shrink-wrap and pallet strapping.  Nestle looks to further green its operations by recycling 90 percent of its in-factory waste stream by 2009 and 95 percent by 2010.

This will be complicated. There are 183 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (a treaty to the UNFCCC), which the U.S. did not sign. The UNFCCC itself has 192 Parties (the U.S. is a Party here). 

Under the Protocol, 37 Parties, consisting of both industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments to stabilize greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.

How Will They Do It?

In addition to the obligation to adopt climate-friendly business practices, one of the easiest way to meet these obligations is for industrialized and developing countries to trade emissions with undeveloped countries.

The Protocol allows industrialized countries to meet their emission targets through trading emission allowances on a newly created carbon market. Countries that reduce emissions below their targets can sell some of their surplus allowances to other countries that have deficits. 

Companies in these countries investing in climate-friendly projects, such as reforesting the Amazon, can obtain additional carbon credits in exchange for every ton of emissions saved. These credits can be freely traded on the emerging carbon market. 

Unfortunately, the UNFCCC has received data that emissions of 40 industrialized countries with GHG reporting obligations under the Convention rose by 2.3 percent between 2000 and 2006.

For the smaller group of those industrialized countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, emissions in 2006 were about 17 percent below the Protocol’s baseline, but still growing, after the year 2000.

In Poznań, new legistlation to replace the Protocol once it expires in 2012 will begin to be determined.

PepsiCo is an international conglomerate that employs approximately 185,000 people worldwide, and its products are sold in approximately 200 countries. With this clout, PepsiCo has the means and incentive to drive environmentally conscious changes in its industry.

Pepsi released its CSR report, “Performance with Purpose,” at the end of last year. Since it’s almost time for the next one, the company recently released an update to tell investors (and consumers) how it is doing on the goals set in the last report. Keep in mind that PepsiCo’s CSR is written within a “reporting framework” called GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), which larger companies follow so their reports can be measured  “apples to apples.”

Like many companies today, PepsiCo is trying to make the world better a better place, while at the same time helping its bottom line. This dual mission includes meeting consumer needs for convenient foods and beverages, but also reducing the company’s impact on the environment through water, energy and packaging initiatives. It also supports its employees through a diverse and inclusive culture that recruits and retains world-class talent.

Pepsi has made significant progress toward its long-term environmental sustainability goals, which include making the following reductions by 2015, as compared to 2006 levels:

• Water consumption by 20 percent
• Electricity consumption by 20 percent
• Fuel consumption by 25 percent per unit of production

In order to attain these goals PepsiCo has launched a number of initiatives:

Recycling

Among these environmentally conscious programs, the company practices a wide variety of recycling strategies:

• PepsiCo’s beverage cans are made from 40 to 50 percent recycled aluminum.
• At Frito-Lay, cartons used to transport bags of chips to retail stores are reused several times before recycling, reducing the demand for paperboard in the U.S. by 250,000 tons annually.
• Its paperboard recycling  saves more than 4.5 million trees from being harvested and diverts about 500 million pounds of cardboard from landfills annually.

Water

Across the world, PepsiCo has saved nearly 1.5 billion gallons of water in 2007 compared to 2006. To do this, the company uses a combination of new technology, information sharing and employee initiatives that reduce water consumption and increase reuse.

In the U.S., the company is using a proprietary air-rinse technology to clean newly manufactured Gatorade and Propel bottles with air instead of water, saving almost 150 million gallons of water per year.

Comprehensive “water mapping” was instituted at manufacturing facilities at the Walkers crisps business in the United Kingdom, reducing the amount of water used per kilogram of crisp by 42 percent between 2001 and 2007. Additionally, its India beverage business conserved over 500 million gallons of water in the last two years.

Electricity

PepsiCo also purchased renewable energy certificates (RECs) to equal 100 percent of purchased electricity used by all of its U.S. facilities. The three-year purchase of more than 1 billion kilowatt-hours annually became the largest purchase to-date.

Additionally, at the Tropicana facility in Bradenton, Fla., the orange juice storage system was converted from an ultra low-temperature freezer system to cool refrigeration that preserves the juice’s freshness without freezing it. Ironically, this change improved the taste of the juice, while it saved the equivalent electricity needed to power over 7,000 houses.

At the Quaker facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the development of an innovative milling process saves almost three million kilowatt hours of electricity per year – the same amount used by 250 typical American homes.

Fuel

The Frito-Lay manufacturing facility in Modesto, Calif., inaugurated a solar concentrator field made up of large curved mirrors that move with the position of the sun, focusing the heat into tubes of glass filled with water. The water is converted into steam, which helps heat the cooking oil used to make SunChips.

In addition, there are two U.S. PepsiCo manufacturing facilities that use landfill gas, thereby reducing their consumption of fossil source fuels. At several facilities in India, PepsiCo uses local biomass material to run plants more efficiently with less impact on the environment. Similarly, Frito-Lay is installing a new biomass boiler in its Topeka, Kan., facility that will use wood waste for fuel. In Mexico, the Sabritas business conserved enough fuel in one year to serve 3,400 homes.

Overview

GE looks at the concept of sustainability from a global perspective. Because of this, the company refers to its report as its “Corporate Citizenship Report (CCR).”

GE is a global company with a worldwide view. Therefore, the sustainability efforts this year in its report dealt with countries outside of the U.S., such as Mexico, India and China.

Highlights

GE launched an initiative called “Ecomagination,” focused on addressing the world’s energy and environmental challenges. Through this initiative:

• GE invests in products and services that solve environmental problems
• Became a founding member of the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), which urges action on climate change legislation
• GE also engaged in climate change dialogues in the EU and China and made internal greenhouse gas and energy reduction commitments.

In measuring its successes, GE compares itself in 2007 with its own 2004 performance. As of the end of 2007, the company:

• Reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by eight percent
• Reduced GHG and energy intensity by 34 percent and 33 percent

GE also announced a new goal to reduce its water use 20 percent by 2012 from a 2006 baseline.

In Mexico, GE negotiated a partnership with Mexico’s environmental enforcement agency, aimed at encouraging companies to implement environmental compliance and quality assurance systems. Because of this, it received a prestigious environmental award from the Mexican government.

In China, GE also hosted its third annual Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Forum in Shanghai to discuss Chinese regulatory trends and share best practices, including “ways to reduce water consumption while meeting business goals, shrinking environmental footprints and increasing operational productivity.”

Additionally, GE contributed its environmental technology to many infrastructure projects built for the Beijing Olympics, including a filtration system to ensure clean water for human consumption and recycled water for landscaping.

Afterthoughts

An outside Stakeholder Report Review Panel worked with GE to help point out their need to take a closer look at some of their carbon-intensive fossil fuel extraction businesses. This action is needed in order to align GE with their promise to become a lead member of the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) by reducing emissions 60 to 80 percent by 2050.

When you think of a world with four billion mobile phone connections, you are certainly looking at the potential for an enormous environmental footprint. This will be the world in 2009 according to Nokia.

For the past decade, Nokia has been trying to responsibly realize its vision of a world where everyone can be connected. Its 2007 CSR positions Nokia as a global company with an eye toward environmental, as well as social, initiatives.

Efficient Opportunities

Nokia says it views environmental responsibility as an opportunity, rather than a constraint, and believes it can help people make more sustainable choices, as well as reduce the environmental “footprint” of its products and operations. On this note, the company began offering educational environmental content through its mobile devices.

In 2007, Nokia placed emphasis on energy efficiency in both its manufacturing processes and its consumer products. Although its own CO₂ emissions are relatively minor, the company is trying to reduce the impact of its products on the planet.

For example, Nokia is the first mobile device manufacturer to work to reduce the energy lost by a charger plugged into a fully charged device. Once the device is fully charged, it sounds alerts to remind people to unplug their chargers.

The alerts may not seem like a big step, but multiplied by hundreds of millions of people owning Nokia devices, the potential is huge. The energy that could be saved globally by all Nokia phone users unplugging their chargers when no longer needed is enough to power 100,000 average-sized European homes.

Responsible Supply

Nokia also worked with suppliers to set energy efficiency targets that go beyond its current environmental supplier requirements. It is committed to “greening” its supply chain: in other words, if you are a supplier to Nokia, you must maintain certain Nokia-dictated standards. To that end, Nokia has become a full member of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry’s Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and extended an already-existing partnership with World Wildlife Federation’s ClimateSavers program.

The company also says it takes a “cradle-to-cradle” approach to reduce environmental impact through the life cycle of its products, including recycling. Here’s a video on mobile phone recycling and how it is done.

Other Initiatives

Here are some further strides Nokia has taken toward sustainability:

• Bought 25 percent of its electricity from renewable sources
• Shipped over 250 million devices using a compact ecological package, taking the equivalent of 5,000 trucks off the road and saving about 100 million euros during 2007
• Removed PVC from its mobile devices and gave a time line for removing brominated flame retardants from its products

Another aspect of Nokia’s corporate social responsibility outside the environmental arena is their development of a new phone, the Nokia 6131. This phone can be used instead of a credit card or as a travel ticket to provide social security and banking services in areas where there are no computers or internet services.

Pilot studies in Africa and Asia have demonstrated the potential for mobile devices to deliver basic financial services in developing countries. Nokia partnered with Vodafone and Nokia Siemens Network to publish a report on “The Transformational Potential of M-Transactions,” which encourages policy-makers to build a new regulatory framework for financial transactions by mobile phones that will increase access to banking services in the developing world.

Moving Ahead

Further into the future, Nokia research teams are looking to create a device that could be made entirely from recycled materials, avoiding the use of virgin materials and diverting waste from landfill. Its design team created the Remade concept device which uses recycled materials from metal cans, plastic bottles and car tires. The concept will inspire and stimulate further thinking on how mobile devices might be made in the future.

Nokia research teams also conceived the Eco Sensor Concept – a mobile phone and sensing device that will collect environmental data that can be shared with others, increasing environmental awareness.