There won’t be too many major decisions made at this week’s UN climate summit, but observers will be able to hear the conversation shift and watch battle lines being drawn for the new year and beyond.
Nine thousand delegates from 186 nations arrive in Poznan, Poland today to launch 12 days of talks. It’s the halfway mark in negotiations for the next version of the Kyoto Protocol, to be inked in Copenhagen next year. One of the main policy questions on the table is advancing work on REDD—carbon credits created by reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries like Brazil and Indonesia—which I wrote about last summer.
But concerns are looming about the impact of business and the economy on climate change, and vice versa.
The EU, which has been the leader in Kyoto negotiations so far, is having its own internal negotiations, concluding the same day as Poznan, which have been marked by “bickering” between France, Germany, and Poland about how to “share the effort” of reducing greenhouse gases.
Meanwhile, the UN’s own estimates on the cost of controlling global warming have nearly tripled over last year’s.
And in Washington DC, grassroots climate change activists mounted a spirited defense against the entire principle of carbon cap-and-trade schemes. They occupied the DC offices of Environmental Defense, presenting the large mainstream environmental organization with a “Corporate Greenwash Award” for partnering with companies like Duke Energy, Shell, BP, DuPont, and Dow Chemical to promote cap-and-trade through the US Climate Action Partnership.
Even though market mechanisms have become the centerpiece of international climate change negotiations, with support from the EDFs, Nature Conservancies, and WWFs of the world, a growing coalition of social and environmental groups charges that they are ineffective, unfair to poor and indigenous people, and a giant giveaway to the most polluting industries and companies. So far, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, the largest carbon cap-and-trade scheme in the world, has indeed achieved little in the way of overall additional emission cuts, and the latest European negotiations suggest the activists have a point. Activists charge France is giving away the farm, by putting forward a European compromise that includes free emission rights for coal plants, cash-back for the most polluting industries and extensive use of cuts achieved through projects in developing-world countries.
The one big beacon of hope for progress next year is shining, surprisingly, from the US. John Kerry is Obama’s man in Poznan, stating that America is ready “to pick up the baton and really run with it...to rejoin the world community in tackling the global challenge,” and the US is expected to take an Obaman position in this week’s talks, even though we, of course, only have one president at a time.
Six Apart, the leading blogging company, scored a New York Times story with a clever offer to set up all laid-off journalists with a free "pro" account. Retailing for $150 a year, the pro account can include revenue-generating ads on your blog. The Times quoted Johanna Neuman, a veteran White House reporter recently laid off by The Los Angeles Times, as saying she'd use her blog to try and score a book deal.
This is truly a market failure at work--call it the tragedy of the Creative Commons. While it may behoove the individual out-of-work reporter to try to scrape up a few dollars and some recognition by posting online, collectively we all hurt our economic prospects and the journalistic profession as a whole by providing content for free.
Just try to hang on. Join a dubious PR venture. Teach workshops to young freelancers even more desperate than yourselves. Ultimately a more efficient hybrid nonprofit model will put us back in business, perhaps in combo with an updated Federal Writers Project as part of the Obama New Deal.
Back in the '90s the giant bluefin swimming off Cape Cod were known as "Toyotas" because a lucky fisherman could buy a truck with the proceeds of a single fish.
But the worldwide appetite for sushi has driven this breed to the brink of commercial extinction. ICCAT, the international commission that's supposed to oversee the Atlantic bluefin fishery, has been so toothless that it was branded an "international disgrace" this spring by its own internal review. ICCAT's own scientists say the true sustainable catch would be half of current quotas, which is maybe a quarter of what actually gets caught--pirate fish, aka the unappetizing "gray tuna", is a huge problem.
This week ICCAT has been meeting in Morocco and the stage is set for a dramatic reversal. Historically, Japan with its love for sushi and whaling, has stood in the way of every international fishing agreement. Now, Mitsubishi Inc, the largest importer of tuna into Japan (which is the clearinghouse for much of the world's tuna) has issued a statement calling for "lower quotas, shorter seasons, an increase in minimum size of tuna that can be fished, and the protection of tuna spawning grounds…"
According to my friends at Greenpeace, Mitsubishi, part of the same family of companies better known in the US for cars, has actually seen the light and realized business as usual means no more bluefin. Following industry's lead, the Japanese ICCAT delegation is now leading the charge for an immediate moratorium on Atlantic bluefin and halving the annual catch. Now the question is whether ICCAT can make a meaningful change for the long term by cutting, and crucially, enforcing quotas. In a letter to delegates before the meeting began, Fábio Hazin, ICCAT’s chairman, said this is its “last chance to prove we can do our job properly.”
Barack Obama's incoming chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, addressed an audience of business leaders yesterday, promising to seize the crisis. He called the energy crisis of the early 1970s a "missed opportunity" that their administration won't repeat.
Emanuel promised a major economic stimulus package tout suite--"first order of business" after the inauguration in January. He hit a number of new green economy notes that will sound great to Fast Company readers, such as a cap-and-trade system to curb carbon emissions, and green infrastructure spending on bold moves like mass transit, green energy and smart grids.
He also pushed for universal broadband Internet access to "encourage telecommuting."
According to the latest numbers--released after gas prices spiked this summer--just 17% of Federal employees and 14% of private-sector employees work from home on a regular basis, and most of those who do, do it only part of the time.
The reason may have to do with basic human psychology. A recent survey of executives found that 61 percent believed telecommuters were less likely to advance—even though three-fourths said virtual workers were just as productive as their in-office colleagues. It seems bosses just tend to form better relationships with employees who show up. Savvy employees know that in even the most enlightened companies, you can still earn brownie points by being seen pounding your keyboard late into the night. And in this economy, nobody's going to risk being the one who asks to work in their pajamas, lest they be told to stay home for good.
Photo Caption: Maybe Emanuel would like to telecommute to his Chief of Staff job from Chicago, so he can stay home with his three adorable kids.
I’m sipping frothy pumpkin soup concocted by four-star chef Gray Kunz in a pristine white triplex at the Candle Building, 11 Spring Street, which used to be a street-art landmark before it was reborn as eight-figure luxury condos. I’ve just been introduced to some kind of envoy from Bahrain. No one is talking about the Dow’s sub-8,000 close at this semiprivate gathering thrown by Midtown Equities’ Steven Cayre, both as a very high-end open house, and to show off a little white battery-operated sports car parked outside that goes 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds.
Tesla went through layoffs a month or so ago, but it recently announced a new round of financing that should be able to see it through next year’s production run; this year’s is sold out, although only about 70 have been delivered to customers so far. Cayre, an environmental enthusiast who has been moving his father’s company toward more sustainable projects, is one of them. He generously offers me a spin around the block, and I quickly push away my wine glass.
With a chassis manufactured by Lotus in the UK, the car is so low and sleek, with a nipped-in waist, that you feel like you’re putting it on, not getting into it. It takes off silently, and is ultraresponsive. If you ease your foot off the brake, the engine greedily recaptures the energy and forward motion dies. Most exciting to me, since I’m not exactly a motorist, is the way it stops traffic. Random Nolita passerby already know its range--”About 200 miles, right?” and its namesake--“Nikola Tesla? That is so awesome!”
Senior sales manager Doreen Allen says a Tesla for the rest of us is coming by 2011—a domestically produced sedan at around half the six-figure cost of the roadster. It may not be a replacement for GM, but they make a pretty sweet ride.
I'm waiting to meet with an exec here. The low, white mid-century modern complex set among wooded hills resembles nothing so much as the campus of a public university--there's a lounge with a grand piano and even a full-sized library across a courtyard from where I sit. The hallways show many signs of a strong, not to say paternalistic, corporate culture--reminders about Internet security, volunteering, fitness, and several donation kiosks for various causes.
When I bought a yogurt-and-apple snack from the cafeteria, I was rewarded with a token. Each time you make a healthy choice, you get one of these--choose salads or fruit five times and your sixth healthy snack is free.
They're a 125-year-old company weathering the current economic storm. I guess they know how to motivate people.
Slate's The Big Money site takes up the question, noting that the recession might actually be good for the environment on balance. After all, the greenest shopping is not shopping at all. Next best is buying secondhand. Both of these, of course, are thrifty as well as green choices.
Energy-efficient choices like hybrid cars, CFL lightbulbs, EnergyStar appliances and insulation also save consumers money despite higher up-front costs, so demand for them should stay strong.
Where we've really seen a weakening, and are likely to see more, is in demand for products whose environmental claims are intangible and accompanied by hefty price premiums. This is especially true of organic foods which, the New York Times recently reported, have slowed from 20 percent annual sales growth in recent years to just 4 percent. Whole Foods Market, the flagship of sustainable groceries, is going through the toughest period in its history, with quarter-to-quarter net income slumping.
As an avid Whole Foods shopper myself, I find the objectives of sustainability, health, and good value often--but not always--converge. Vegetarian meal options are cheaper and better for the planet than meat (which we don't eat) or fish. Seasonal, local fruits and vegetables are simultaneously the cheapest, freshest, and lowest-carbon-footprint options. Literal "whole foods" such as bulk whole grains, dried spices, and canned beans are healthier and cheaper than processed, prepared meals and snacks. If I skip the organic raspberries flown in from Chile, I can splurge on the organic products that are most important to me from a health and ethical standpoint: eggs and milk.
Of course, I probably just described the lowest-profit-margin products in the entire store. How will you adapt your sustainable shopping habits to the recession?
Last week I noted Clorox's earnings successes, credited in part to its Greenworks cleaners brand. Today a press release from Earth Friendly Cleaners, a small 15-year-old company dedicated to award-winning, plant-based, cruelty-free products, trumpets similar success:
"In the last year, the company has added 50 staff members to its payroll, bringing its employee base to 120. Come the holidays, Earth Friendly Product staffers will be seeing even more green. That’s because the Vlahakis family, including CEO Van Vlahakis, President John Vlahakis and Kelly Vlahakis-Hanks Vice President of Media Relations, plan to reward them with $700,000 in Christmas bonuses – more than the company has ever handed out."
I have their Dishmate almond dish soap and their Floor Kleener in my house right now.
Yesterday Al Gore published a mega-op-ed in the New York Times outlining the necessary steps to address the climate crisis, energy independence and the economic crisis all at once. This is a message we've been hearing from many quarters recently--call it the New Green Deal. Gore, who's been whispered about for Energy Secretary in Obama's cabinet, mentioned several specific technologies and industries that have been covered here in Fast Company--for those that haven't, watch this space. Here are the elements of Gore's plan and the associated articles.
An investment Gore doesn't want to see? Clean coal. Despite the TV ads you may have seen, the former Vice President and Nobel Laureate calls the technology "imaginary."
According to the Times, IBM's CEO Samuel Palisano will give a much-anticipated speech at the Council on Foreign Relations today on how to restart the economy by applying high-tech intelligence to challenges in energy, transportation, food, water, even health care.
Fast Company had a preview of some of these plans in our October issue in my piece "Attack of the Green Tech Geeks." In a previously unpublished part of the interview, Corporate Director of Earth, Air, Fire, and Wind Colin Harrison used water as an example of where intelligent management can expand capacity. "In the US alone there are over 60,000 water utilities. Every little village has its own pump and its own water processing station. With pervasive capabilities to connect, analyze, and model you can bring ERP [Enterprise Resource Planning] to areas like water management that have not really invested in it in the past." In other words, IBM is proposing to provide the same kind of "just-in-time" insight that Walmart has built into its supply chain to the delivery of the world's most precious resource.
Palisano has compared the scale of these initiatives to the New Deal's massive rural electrification efforts under the Tennessee Valley Authority and to Eisenhower's construction of the national highway system. It's hard not to get excited about the application of what America does best--innovation and technology--to the economic and environmental problems that threaten not only the US, but the world.
