A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a review of the Dell CSR report, and the subsequent announcement of its “carbon neutrality”, that resulted in a few emails/ comments expressing I had set a bar too high.

Well, fortunately for my defense HP has recently released a new Eco Solutions program that exceeds a number of the things I was hoping to see from Dell through their sustainability programs.  to be fair, the products do not match apple against apples, however I think that through HP’s programs there are lessons for others that should be followed:

the core pf the program consists of 4 points, as per the announcement:

• an enterprise printing assessment service and a carbon calculator that together comprehensively address energy and paper use, related carbon emissions and projected cost savings for optimized printing environments;
• a global paper policy governing the sustainable manufacture and use of paper HP sells to customers and uses for packaging, collateral and its own office printing;
• a new HP inkjet printer made almost entirely from recycled materials; and,
• an HP Eco Highlights label that will help customers identify environmental attributes of a given HP product or service.

For me, #3 is something that I was hoping of Dell. Particularly in its towers and laptop casings.  Both firms highlight their strong recycling programs, but where HP goes one step further is that they point out the following about their new product:

Finding new uses for recycled materials, HP introduced the HP Deskjet D2545 Printer, the company’s first printer made almost entirely from recycled plastic material. Eighty-three percent of the printer’s total plastic weight is made from recycled plastics and it uses HP 60 ink cartridges, which are molded from recycled plastic resins. Additionally, the overall packaging for this printer is 100 percent recyclable.

One of a few new products, my hope is that this becomes a standard for HP, Dell, and others.  that when designing the products for next year, they are not just looking at how to use recycled parts from previous models.. but that they are developing designs that can be leveraged in futher generations as well.

It is a system that is win - win - win for the company as it reduces waste, it reduces materials spend, and it reduces energy consumption

In a special report on China’s quest for resources, back in March (free to view), the Economist has some interesting perspectives; though i would argue rather too negative on the potential for renewable technology. I think we are going to see some very disruptive technology and whether is is distributive (i.e. installed on each person’s house or used alongside each piece of technology) or centralised (i.e. large power generation and then distributed by power cables), with such high resource prices, something drastic has got to happen. They do, though, provide, an excellent summary and overview of the environmental price China is paying for its growth here.

The Carbon Trust has signed an alliance with the China Energy Conservation Investment Corporation (CECIC) that will see the two organisations begin work on introducing carbon footprint labels to products manufactured in China.

The Carbon Trust said it would initially work with CECIC to measure the embedded carbon footprint of 10 Chinese-manufactured products using the PAS 2050 standard, which is being developed in the UK in conjunction with firms such as Tesco and Boots and is designed to assess the full lifecycle emissions of individual products.

The project – which will be accompanied by a second feasibility study into how the Carbon Trust can promote UK cleantech firms within China – is expected to act as a forerunner for a full-blown joint venture committed to establishing a carbon labelling scheme across China. more

Interesting stuff; let’s see how it turns out. There is a big market for companies that can provide these services -and plenty of players starting to sell these services. Interestingly in the same news article:

A report, which was undertaken by the Stockholm Environment Institute and the University of Sydney, assessed the emissions arising from CO2 emissions created by goods and services imported into the UK. It found that while emissions from within the UK fell by about five per cent between 1992 and 2004, taking imports, exports and international transport into account revealed that overall CO2 emissions associated with UK consumption of goods and services rose 18 per cent over the same period, an increase of nearly 115 mtCO2.

Even if the UK meets its Kyoto agreements (still a big IF), it just shows that this is just a smokescreen, since it is outsourcing its emissions (and pollution etc) to China. About time the UK tried to help reduce those emissions, pollution etc. Even if it is through blatantly trying to promote UK businesses here, there is no doubt that businesses will be a big part of the solution (as well a big part of the problem).

Not only is China actually making more of an effort to enforce its labour law, finally; but it is also rapidly increasing minimum wages, due to rising inflation. The problem is if increasing utilities and raw materials (for food for humans/animals and for industrial manufacturing) increase, and the response is that salaries increase, this will lead to a spiral of increasing inflation.

I am no economist, but this seems a bad thing -yet the government cannot hold salaries as they are as prices are increasing so much. One reason why prices are increasing (admittedly a very small reason) is that prices are not starting to reflect their true costs; i.e. without subsidies. Few prices actually reflect their real cost, including the environmental footprint, but it is a start.

This start is good for CSR, in that prices that take into account so-called ‘externalities’ is what is needed, and as desperate as the World is for fast change, such sudden change might be too sudden, leading to rising inflation and related social tensions. What will happen as prices continue to rise? Will consumption start to drop? This is what is desperately needed. We need a society that is not based on consumption, as we do not have enough resources to consume! If the end result is a society that is less consumption dependent, that is much more sustainable.

Unfortunately in the process to that new system (which we can barely even envision, consumption is so fundamental to our current economic system), there will be many shocks affecting employment, food security and poverty. As always, the poorest will be the ones least able to weather these shocks, and most affected by them. Read the rest of this entry »

When talking to someone from Chongqing, or someone who has spent a lot of time there, the topic of pollution will inevitably come up. It is the San Francisco of China (hills) matched with some of the worst water and air pollution around. But, as I recently found out through the World Bank report Chongqing: A More Livable City, there has been an effort to change this, and changes for the good are occurring.

Starting in 2000, a World Bank-financed project backed the construction of a vast collection network intercepting sewage before it pollutes the rivers and channeling it towards two new large wastewater treatment plants a few kilometers from the city center. More than 900,000 cubic meters of wastewater are now treated each day

and according to the report

in 2006, data indicated that 90% of the river water in Chongqing city met class II drinking water source standards and 100 % of the water met class III standards (on a scale of I to V, where III is still safe for drinking after treatment). The figures were the best recorded over a 10-year period (In 2000, for example, only 30% of the water met class II water source standards.)

now to be honest, I am not sure i would buy into the readings 100% (and I defiantely would not drink the water), but through this program it is clear that improvements have been made at the source - something very important. the next step would be to replace the water pipes from the treatment facilities to the tap… something that Shanghai is currently in the process of. to learn more about the business of city water treatment, I suggest reading the Eurobiz article The Business of Water and visit the Veolia Website. They have been very active in China