Event - EcoWorks 7th Annual Breakfast: Transformation

The EcoWorks 7th Annual Breakfast will take place on September 18 from 7:30-10:00 am at The Detroit Yacht Club, 1 Riverbank Drive, on Belle Isle.

More than 150 professionals from the energy industry, businesses, government, non-profits, financial firms, and the community are expected to attend. Registration for the breakfast is $75 per person; tickets are also included with event sponsorship packages.

Event - Discount on the Green CA Schools & Community Colleges Summit & Expo

As previously reported, the Green CA Schools & Community Colleges Summit & Expo will take place on October 29 - 31, 2015, at the Pasadena Convention Center 300 East Green Street in Pasadena California. Find out how the readers of the Green Market Oracle who wish to participate in this event can receive a substantial discount on the registration fee for the largest green schools event in California.

Readers of the Green Market Oracle, an outreach partner for the event, can receive a 20 percent price reduction if they enroll before the deadline using the discount code "OUTREACH". This applies to the registration rate at the time that it is used. The early bird registration deadline is Friday, September 11, 2015.

Event - New Metrics '15: New Quantitative Approaches to Business Risk and Value

This event will take place on October 6 to 8, 2015 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. This three day conference will offer insight into new metrics and practices that lead to better business performance in the rapidly emerging new economy. This conference is designed to provide metrics that facilitate the measurement of important dimensions of the new emerging economy. Being competitive requires expanded methods for identifying and quantifying entirely new forms of business risk and value. To help achieve these objectives the conference will explore the macro, corporate and investor landscapes through in-depth discussions with visionary leaders. This involves leading-edge work that expands the way business creates, quantifies and manages value.

Event - Greenbuild International Conference & Expo

This event will take place on November 18 & 19, 2015 at the Washington Convention Center in Washington DC. Greenbuild is the premier event for sustainable building. This is the world’s largest conference and expo dedicated to green building, it will feature more than 550 suppliers and top manufacturers of the latest green building equipment, products, services and technology available in today’s market. Last year over 17,500 people from more than 80 countries attended the event in New Orleans, and we expect an even larger turnout this year.

Obama Pledges Climate Leadership in Alaska (Video)

The President of the United States warns of the perils of climate change and pledges American leadership. He is committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions and radically expand clean energy in the US.

The President has put Alaska at the center of his climate tour because as Obama himself explains, "Alaska is on the front lines of one of the greatest challenges we face this century, climate change."

He points out that climate change is already a reality. As evidence he cites the melting of  glaciers and permafrost, longer droughts and wildfires, and the growing number of storm surges and floods.

Sustainable MBA Certificate and Degree: Bainbridge Graduate Institute

If you are seeking an MBA or a certificate in Sustainable Business, or a degree in Sustainable Entrepreneurship & Intrapreneurship, Bainbridge Graduate Institute may be what you are looking for. Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) is located in Seattle, Washington. BGI is a pioneer when it come sustainable curricula, their business studies offer dynamic and cutting edge courses focused on social and environmental responsibility. Programs can be flexibly pursued either full time, part time or in the evenings.

Sustainable studies at BGI enable students to keep pace with the rapidly evolving needs of the business world. They integrate sustainability into all facets of their programs and classes are based on scholarly research, case studies, and published articles on environmentally and socially responsible business methods and practice.

National Wildlife Day and Smart Conservation

Each year on September 4 we observe National Wildlife Day, this is a day to raise awareness about the diverse array of endangered animals that inhabit our world. National Wildlife Day was started by Colleen Paige, author and founder of the Animal Miracle Foundation & Network. The day is also about appreciating U.S. zoos, sanctuaries, farms, etc. for helping to preserve our wildlife.

We need to understand the importance of the animals that are part of the web of life on Earth. Even more importantly we need to do everything we can to arrest climate change, habitat destruction, poaching and pollution that are decimating vast swaths of the animal world.

Summary of Recent Reports on the Costs of Climate Action/Inaction

Reports are coming in that make it hard to ignore the economic benefits of action on climate change. This includes recent reports from Citi the world's third largest bank and the London School of Economics, one of the most prestigious and respected schools in the world.

In April 2015 the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Department of Energy published reports that demonstrate just how high the costs of inaction could be.

A Sustainability Focused Education Should Start Young

We need to start teaching sustainability at a much younger age. While we are seeing a number of universities and colleges offer sustainability training, we need to see more at the level of primary and secondary schools.

The world has changed and it will continue to change. Global warming and environmental degradation are major concerns today and there is no going backwards. The way most of us were schooled is no longer valid. We need to start inculcating important global issues into children's awareness from the earliest possible ages.

An LSE Cost Benefit Analysis Supports Climate Action

Research from the London School of Economics (LSE) makes the economic case for acting on climate change. This study along with many others (see related posts below) make the point that the costs of inaction on global warming are far greater than the costs of acting. This is in addition to the costs directly related to the damage caused by climate change.

Much has been said about the costs of combating global warming but a slew of independent research indicates that the benefits of climate action far outweigh the costs. This was also the conclusion of Citibank study published in August.

Two research institutes at the London School of Economics found that there are significant economic gains from limiting emissions. The LSE study published in July says that improved air quality, energy efficiency and energy security combine with falling renewable energy prices to make climate action the more economically compelling option.

Acting on Climate Change Makes Good Economic Sense According to Citibank

A recent Citibank report showed that if we act to slow climate change we could save as much as $50 trillion. This finding is significant because cost is one of the most common reasons put forth to avoid acting on climate change. The Citi report is but the most recent study to soundly refute the contention that acting on climate change is too expensive. Research shows that climate action offers excellent ROI not to mention saving trillions of dollars of additional costs associated with the damaging affects of a warmer world.

In a report entitled, "Energy Darwinism II: Why a Low Carbon Future Doesn’t Have to Cost the Earth," Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions (GPS), conducted a cost benefit analysis of a low carbon energy economy. The research explored the costs of inaction (business as usual) versus the costs of acting (transitioning to a low-carbon energy economy).

Sustainable University (SU)

Sustainable University (SU) is an open access site that promotes sustainability in higher education and education for sustainable development. On the site you can find dozens of links to sustainability oriented universities focusing primarily on the UK but also including universities in the US, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. The site provides links to universities that have incorporated sustainability principles into their vision, mission, strategy, planning, teaching and research, partnerships and operations.

Obama in Alaska Talking about the Arctic and Climate Change

On Monday August 31, President Obama was in Alaska as part of his climate change tour. “The point is that climate change is no longer some far-off problem,” Obama told an international meeting on Arctic issues Monday night. “It is happening here and is happening now.”

His presence in the Arctic follows a climate speech he gave in New Orleans on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Why Interest in Sustainability is Growing in Business Schools

Sustainability is an increasingly important part of contemporary business schooling. In response to student demand and the dictates of the modern workplace educational establishments around the globe are helping the business leaders of tomorrow to understand a wide range of complex environmental challenges.

The business community recognizes that new regulatory regimes and issues like climate change require a new knowledge set that was not taught to previous generations of business people.

Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation is not Optional

Pope Francis has designated September 1, 2015 as the inaugural World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. The Orthodox Church has been celebrating creation care since 1989 and now the world's 1.25 billion Catholics as well as Christians of every denomination are invited to do the same. The Church of England’s lead Bishop for the environment has called on churches to support the day of prayer and the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada has written a letter of support.

Water Management is Big Business: Carrots and Sticks

A wide range of companies are responding to the growing demand for responsible water stewardship.  This includes products like software, printing, and decontamination. There are also powerful disincentives that encourage responsible water manage water management.

The number of companies that see the importance of responsible water stewardship has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. This is due to both opportunities and threats. Those who engage responsible water stewardship stand to benefit from cost savings while those who do not get on board are vulnerable to a wide range of risks. These risks include penalties for failure to comply with their legal responsibilities.

Responsible corporate water efforts run the gamut from sustainable water programs to innovations that diminish water use. Here are some examples of products designed to better manage water and a couple of examples of what can happen when companies fail to do so.

Event - Green California Schools & Community Colleges Summit and Exposition

The 9th annual Green California Schools & Community Colleges Summit and Exposition will be held October 29 - 31, 2015, at the Pasadena Convention Center 300 East Green Street in Pasadena California. The Green Market Oracle is once again proud to be an outreach partner for this important event.

This is the first and largest green schools event in California it offers insights into achieving the full range of benefits associated with a high performance green school. Among the benefits are cost savings that can free up funds for core needs and improved student performance. Districts that have made a strong commitment to sustainability have also earned respect and gratitude from the communities they serve.

International Conference on Sustainable Development

The 3rd Annual International Conference on Sustainable Development on September 23-24, 2015, at Columbia University in NYC. This year’s conference theme is “Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Getting Started.” The aim of the conference is to identify and share practical, evidence-based solutions that can support SDGs, which will be adopted at the historic UN Summit immediately following the conference. World leaders, students, and professionals from around the world will come together for this conference.

Middlebury Institute’s IEP Program: Focused on Today’s Sustainability Issues (Video)

Middlebury Institute’s International Environmental Policy degree program is designed to attract students who want to play a part in setting international agendas for worldwide sustainability issues and initiatives.

Expanded Water Tool Reveals the Actual and Future Risks and Costs (Videos)

An expanded version of a tool has just been released that provides actionable information to help businesses manage their water risks. It obvious to everyone, including businesses that water is a finite resource that is in growing demand. It is becoming increasingly evident that water is a strategic asset. Now more than ever businesses want a better understanding of their exposure to water risks. In addition to risk mitigation water is increasingly being understood as a cost saving opportunity. Businesses are also concerned about water scarcity as a constraint to growth. While having the information to craft the right water policy can be instrumental to success, water is currently undervalued and the real price remains elusive.

A Brief History of Responsible Water Stewardship at Nestlé

Responsible water management is a critical issue for Nestlé and their stakeholders. In recent years the company has made great strides in water efficiency and stewardship. This is important with more than a third (38 percent) of their factories situated in water-stressed regions.

While Nestlé now claims that it welcomes the growing level of stakeholder interest in water issues this was not always the case. Nestlé now aims "to minimise the impact of our operations on natural water resources and the communities they support." However, these objectives were not always core concerns for the company.

Obama Ignores Jindal and Talks About Climate Change 10 Years after Katrina

President Obama was in New Orleans on Thursday to mark the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, but he did not heed Gov. Bobby Jindal's warnings to avoid the topic of climate change. Since the devastation that occurred on August 29th 2005, the city has undergone massive reconstruction, however, the threat of climate change induced extreme weather persists. Katrina was the costliest and most damaging storm in recorded history. The category 5 hurricane caused between $108 and $250 billion in damages and killed as many as 2000 people. In the city of New Orleans alone, the hurricane costs the city $6.6 billion and killed over 150 people.

Sustainable Systems Management Degree from the University of Minnesota

A new program has been created that is designed to prepare students for the vast number of green jobs that are now available. To reflect the increasing importance of sustainability, the University of Minnesota has recently changed the curriculum and renamed the Bioproducts Marketing and Management degree program. The degree is now named Sustainable Systems Management.

Sustainable Communities: Public Works (Infographic)

Performance Contracting Offers Water and Energy Savings for Schools and Governments

A new report suggests that western public school schools and government facilities can reduce energy and water usage and save vast sums of money by using performance contracting. The western states covered in the report are Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.

Performance Based Contracting is a results-oriented contracting method that grantees a particular outcome. This approach focuses on the outputs, quality, or outcomes that are tied to a contractor's payment. If the contractor fails to meet the contracted objectives the contractor must make up the difference.

According to a study released at the end of July by Western Resource Advocates and McKinstry, there are almost $1 billion worth of savings to be had.

President Obama's New Renewable Energy Initiatives

At the start of a national climate and energy tour President Obama has outlined plans to further his efforts to move the US away from fossil fuels and towards renewables. These plans include support for distributed energy and home based efficiency. The first stop of his tour brought him to Nevada, which has emerged as a hotbed of cleantech activity.

On Monday August 24th President Barack Obama and Senate Minority Leader, Nevada's Harry Reid attended the eighth annual National Clean Energy Summit. The conference took place in Las Vegas, a city that is surrounded by solar plants. The President delivered an address at the Mandalay Bay convention center which is part of a complex that includes a 20 acre solar array on its roof.

Water is a Key to Sustainable Development

The theme of World Water Week 2015, (August 23-28) is "Water for Development." This year's theme is crucially important issue as water is central to development issues around the world. There can be no sustainable development, nor can we hope to eradicate poverty in the absence of a keen focus on water.

Free Sustainable Water Management Software for Universities

Water and wastewater modeling software is now available for free to students and professors at universities around the world. The GIS-centric water and wastewater modeling software is a special student edition of both InfoWater and InfoSWMM. The software address every facet water management and protection. Essentially it contains everything that is need to plan, design, operate, secure and sustain water distribution. This includes predictive analytics, systems dynamics, optimization functionality. Some of the specific features are dynamic water quality simulations, valve criticality and energy cost analysis.

Water Purication for Developing Countries (Infographic)

Event - Colorado Green Schools Initiative September Meeting

This meeting will take place on September 16, 2015, from 7:30 AM MDT to 9:00 AM MDT at The Alliance Center, 1536 Wynkoop St, Denver, Colorado CO 80202. This is one of several meetings planned, these meetings are free for all to attend.

Agenda

Event - Water for Development: World Water Week 2015

The United Nations' World Water Week, takes place on August 23-28, 2015 in Stockholm, Sweden. The theme for this years Word Water Week event is "Water for Development." This annual event is designed to bring awareness to the globe’s water issues. While the event is taking place in Sweden, people around the world are supporting the event. Poverty eradication is intimately connected to water.

Chemical Plant Explosion in Shandong China (Video)

On August 22 another chemical plant exploded in China. This follows the explosion at a Chinese chemical plant in Tianjin on August 14. The two blasts were a bit more than a week apart and they occurred just a few hundred miles from each other. The August 22 explosion took place in Zibo city in Shandong province. It is known to have killed 1 person and injured 9. These two explosions raise some serious questions about the unlawful proximity of these chemical plants to residential areas. Here are two videos of the chemical plant explosion in Zibo city.

Underwater Pipeline Breaks and Catches Fire in Moscow (Video)

A pipeline belonging to Gazprom Neft burst and caught fire in the Moscow River on Wednesday August 12. Local news agencies reported that one child and two adults suffered burns from the incident. This amateur footage from the Guardian shows a large oil fire on the surface of the Moscow river.

The Water Crisis and Development: World Water Week 2015 (Video)

The scarcity of clean water in certain places around the world is one of the most daunting challenges in the world today. Each day almost 1000 children under 5 die from diarrhoea caused by contaminated water. More than 2.4 billion people – a third of all humanity – have no access to sanitation. And as populations grow, water is set to become a new source of danger, of conflict, given the rapid urban expansion of Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, as climate change accelerates, we are likely to see more extreme and frequent droughts, floods and typhoons. Again, people in emerging economies are likely to be the hardest hit by water-borne disasters.

Educational Tool Assesses Scientific Veracity of Online Content

An educational tool has been developed that can assess the veracity of climate related online content. The resource helps to separate fact from fiction in the complex world of climate science to the general public. This tool is an ideal companion for those engaged in climate education. The resource was developed by Dr. Emmanuel Vincent, a tropical cyclone expert at the University of California.

US Proposals to Cut Methane and Other Pollutants

As an extension of his Climate Action Plan President Obama through the EPA has announced a series of proposals that will reduce methane and other harmful emissions. While there are there are already some voluntary programs to reduce methane emissions, the EPA has proposed new regulations that will significantly reduce methane in the oil and gas sector as well as in landfills.

In June of this year the EPA announced that it was preparing plans to limit methane. On August 18, 2015, the EPA publishes more details of the new rules. The standards are intended for the oil and gas sector. They are designed to reduce methane, VOCs and other toxic air pollutants. Under the proposed regulations the oil and gas industry would have to cut methane emission by 40 to 45 percent from 2012 levels by 2025.

Colorado Parents Support Green Initiatives in Schools

Parents in Colorado support green values and want to support environmental initiatives in their children's schools. This was the finding in a 2014 survey by the Colorado Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

In addition to support for a range of green school initiatives the results of this study indicate that there is also strong support for the teaching of sustainability.

key findings from the survey

Global Temperature Data Underscores the Urgency of Climate Action

A large and growing body of evidence reveals that the Earth is getting warmer. Month after month, year after year, we are seeing above average global temperatures. Heat waves are smashing records all around the world. July 2015 was no exception even by the standards of a warming world. July is traditionally the hottest month of the calendar year, but all the hottest months of July have occurred in recent years and in 2015 the midsummer month went down in history as the hottest month ever recorded. However, if we want to come to an understanding of how temperature readings provide support for global warming we need to look at the longer term. When examined in a wider context, the heat records that were set in July are part of an ominous warming trend.

Certificate in Clean Energy from NYU

New York University (NYU) has an energy efficiency and renewable energy certificate program for experienced business professionals. The Clean Start program provides a comprehensive background for those who want to start a company or switch careers. The classes are part time and take place in the evenings and weekends allowing professionals to work while they attend school. Study involves hands on learning and mentor-ship.

El Niño and Global Warming are Locked in a Feedback Loop

Planetary warming is caused by El Niño and warming in turn increases the likelihood of an extreme El Niño event. Current warming can be largely attributed to El Niño and this effect will increase as the climate warms. Research reveals that rising concentrations of anthropogenic greenhouse gases are increasing El Niño effects and accelerating planetary warming.

The record breaking heat we experienced in July 2015 is being attributed to a building El Niño event. In August the ocean surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific were already 3 degrees Celsius above the long term average temperatures.