White Paper - Redefining Value: The New Metrics of Sustainable Business

This complimentary report provides a recap of key themes and takeaways from New Metrics '12, in the form of reflections on recent lessons, leading case studies and forthcoming opportunities.

We are seeing rapid shifts in the following three areas:

1. The degree to which citizens trust business
2. The degree to which people care if any individual brand persists,
3. The degree to which society is beginning to hold business accountable for addressing many of the social and environmental challenges we face.

The metrics by which we define and measure value must change if for no other reason than to respond to these shifts.

We are on Track for a 6 Degree Rise in Temperature

According to a new analysis released on November 5 and reported in the Guardian, the world is on track for "at least six degrees of warming" by the end of the century. The new research was conducted by consultancy giant PwC. Their investigation concluded that we will need a "5.1 per cent annual cut in global emissions per unit of GDP, known as carbon intensity, through to 2050 if the world is to avoid the worst effects of climate change and meet an internationally agreed target of limiting average temperature increases to just two degrees above pre-industrial levels."

10 Charts on Climate Change

Comprehensive Review of Climate Change Science

The evidence for anthropogenic global warming is unassailable. In 2009, 18 scientific groups — including the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Meteorological Society — issued a joint statement indicating that human activities are the “primary driver” of climate change. The National Academy of Sciences (the gold standard for objective scientific assessment) have also clearly supported the body of evidence on anthropogenic global warming.

“Some scientific conclusions or theories have been so thoroughly examined and tested, and supported by so many independent observations and results, that their likelihood of subsequently being found to be wrong is vanishingly small. Such conclusions and theories are then regarded as settled facts. This is the case for the conclusions that the Earth system is warming and that much of this warming is due to human activities."

September 2012 was the Warmest in Recorded History

A wide range of temperature data indicate that the earth continues to get warmer. September 2012 was tied for the warmest September since the dawn of temperature records. These were the findings of the State of the Climate Global Analysis, September 2012 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center.

Global Averages

The average combined global land and ocean surface temperature for September 2012 tied with 2005 as the warmest September on record, at 0.67°C (1.21°F) above the 20th century average of 15.0°C (59.0°F). Records began in 1880. The globally-averaged land surface temperature for September 2012 was the third warmest September on record, at 1.02°C (1.84°F) above average. The globally-averaged ocean surface temperature tied with 1997 as the second warmest September on record, at 0.54°C (0.97°F) above average. The average combined global land and ocean surface temperature for January–September 2012 was the eighth warmest such period on record, at 0.57°C (1.03°F) above the 20th century average.

2012 is but the Latest Year Marked by Heat and Drought

With its heatwaves and drought, the summer of 2012 has been hot. In fact, the Northeast has experienced the hottest period from January to July ever recorded and July 2012 was the hottest month ever in the contiguous US. Although the weather has been balmy this year, extreme heat and drought are not anything new.

According to an EPA report, seven of the top ten warmest years on record for the continental U.S. have occurred since 1990. The frequency of heat waves have also steadily risen since the 1960’s and the percentage of the US population experiencing heat waves has also increased. Perhaps most convincing is the fact that seventeen of the warmest years in recorded history have occurred over the last twenty years and the warmest years on record occurred in the most recent decade.

Heat in the US Northeast and Drought Around the World

Against a backdrop of wildfires and droughts, heat records are being broken across the US but nowhere more than in the Northeast. After a winter with very little snow, people in the Northeast have been subjected to record breaking heat for the first seven months of 2012. The period between July 2011 to July 2012 was also the warmest 12-months in the Northeast ever recorded. The weather is making headlines across the nation with more than half of the country suffering from high temperatures and little rain. The drought is driving up the cost of agricultural commodities and contributing to price volatility, they may even lead to a food crisis. Although it is abnormally dry in the Northeast, they have escaped drought conditions, what they cannot escape is heat.

Video: Lightening Electric Motorcycle Goes Over 200 mph for 18 Cents

Here is a motorcycle that proves you can have radical efficiency and extraordinary performance. In this video you will see just how fast the Lightening electric motorcyle can go (apparently the previous run was even faster at 218.6 mph). This is the first electric motorcycle to go over 200 mph. The black and orange markers on the sides of the track fly by even though they are 1/4 mile apart.

State of the Climate Global Analysis Nov 2011

Anyone who remains unconvinced of the veracity of climate change need only review the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) State of the Climate Global Analysis for November 2011.