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GreenMonk news roundup 07/13/2009

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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GreenMonk news roundup 07/11/2009

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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SAP’s Peter Graf on the World Business Summit on Climate Change

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I spoke to SAP‘s Chief Sustainability Officer, Peter Graf about his attendance at the World Business Summit on Climate Change which took place in Copenhagen recently.

When you hear of businesses getting together to discuss climate change, you could easily be tempted to think they are trying to lobby for less regulation or for licenses to pollute. However, the mandate for attendees was for CEOs to:

discuss how their firms can help solve the climate crisis through innovative business models, new partnerships, and the development of low-carbon technologies

The result of the meeting was a document called The Copenhagen Call which sets out 6 steps to be implemented to set a firm foundation for a sustainable economic future

  1. Agreement on a science-based greenhouse gas stabilization path with 2020 and 2050 emissions reduction targets that will achieve it;
  2. Effective measurement, reporting and verification of emissions performance by business;
  3. Incentives for a dramatic increase in financing low emissions technologies;
  4. Deployment of existing low-emissions technologies and the development of new ones;
  5. Funds to make communities more resilient and able to adapt to the effects of climate change, and
  6. Means to finance forest protection.
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I wish I were a software developer!

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I was peripherally aware of Augmented Reality before attending the Mobile 2.0 conference in Barcelona a few weeks back but hadn’t really thought through its consequences/possibilities until I saw the video above by Dutch startup company Layar.

I realised that Layar’s offering was geographically limited but its potential (esp in the Green space) was enormous – how to tap it?

I mentioned Layar during a briefing with Krishna Kumar of SpaceTimeInsight a couple of weeks back in San Francisco and he immediately ‘got it’ and was very excited with the possibilities.

Then yesterday Layar co-founder Maarten Lens-Fitzgerald pinged me via Twitter to let me know that Layar has opened up its Augmented Reality platform and is giving out (a, for now, limited number of) API keys.

This means that any database with location data and a Layar api key now has the ability to create an Augmented Reality Layar! just stop and think about that for a sec.

This opens up enormous possibilities for Augmented Reality applications in the Green space. Imagine walking down the street and seeing emissions data for the companies/businesses simply by pointing your phone at them. Or pointing at machinery and seeing schematics, lifecycle emissions data, or…

A mashup of AMEE, the neutral aggregation platform which measures “the carbon footprint of everything on Earth”, with Layar would be an absolutely awesome. Or a wiki with a Green Layar UI. Or….

The possibilities are limitless!

I really wish I were a software developer right now – the applications of this technology are seriously awe inspiring!

[Disclosure] – AMEE are a GreenMonk client co.

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GreenMonk news roundup 07/09/2009

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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GreenMonk news roundup 07/08/2009

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Greenpeace score big wins against illegal deforestation in Brazil

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Deforestation in the Amazon to make way for cattle

Photo credit leoffreitas

GreenPeace released a damning report last month called Slaughtering the Amazon in which it detailed how the Brazilian cattle sector is the largest driver of deforestation in the world.

In this shocking exposé Greenpeace detailed how:

  • Cattle are responsible for about 80% of all deforestation’ in the Amazon region. In recent years, on average one hectare of Amazon rainforest has been lost to cattle ranchers every 18 seconds.
  • Analysis by Greenpeace of 2006–2007 satellite data and forest clearance permits reveals that more than 90% of current Amazon deforestation was illegal.
  • The Brazilian government has invested in many of the large beef producing companies.
  • Greenpeace identified hundreds of ranches within the Amazon rainforest supplying cattle to slaughterhouses in the Amazon region belonging to Bertin, JBS and Marfrig

The report goes on to name many well known brands who are buying the products of this illegal deforestation (often unwittingly) – names such as Unilever, Colgate Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, Nike, Reebok, Addidas, Boss, Geox, Gucci, Hilfiger, Louis Vuitton and Prada, amongst a long list of other extremely recognisable names.

Then comes news this week that:

Responding to allegations that major Brazilian cattle producers are responsible for illegal forest clearing in the Amazon, Brazil’s development bank BNDES will soon require processors to trace the origin of beef back to the ranch where it was produced in order to qualify for loans

Furthermore, as a result of the report:

Brazil’s three largest supermarket chains, Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Pão de Açúcar, last week announced they would suspend contracts with suppliers found to be involved in Amazon deforestation, while Bertin, the world’s largest beef processor, saw its $90 million loan from the International Finance Corporation withdrawn. Marfrig, the world’s fourth largest beef trader and one of the firms named in the report, said last week it will no longer buy cattle raised in newly deforested areas within the Brazilian Amazon. Meanwhile a Brazilian federal prosecutor has filed a billion dollar law suit against the cattle industry for environmental damage. Firms that market tainted meat may be subject to fines of 500 reais ($260) per kilo.

This is a spectacular win for Greenpeace, the Amazonian Rainforest, and all of us who depend on it for life on our planet.

It is not over yet. The traceability program depends on ear tags which are removable and so can be gamed. True traceability would use chips and would be independently verified. Still, this is a big step in the right direction and massive kudos are due to Greenpeace for this win.

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July 6th Energy and Sustainability show

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Yesterday’s GreenMonk Energy and Sustainability show went off without the technical hitches which plagued the previous week’s show. I fixed the chat app and the Google Calendar button so you can now add the show to your calendar (and be notified of any changes to the schedule).

Consequently with the chat app now working in Firefox, there was far greater audience participation in the show – something which was sorely missing from the previous week’s show!

Here is this week’s chatstream:

03:31 Tom Raftery: Hows is the audio, video & chat?
03:31 MikeTheBee: stopped
03:31 MikeTheBee: no audio or vid 4 me
03:32 MikeTheBee: back now
03:32 MikeTheBee: did a refresh
03:33 liveireland: all you need now is greenscreen
03:33 MikeTheBee: lol
03:33 MikeTheBee: oooh
03:34 Tom Raftery: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6620438.ece
03:35 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/29/rising-sea-level-new-orleans
03:36 MikeTheBee: google calendar link is now working for me.
03:36 PaulMWatson: I hope that water is sustainable…
03:36 MikeTheBee: that is why they are not really rebuilding then
03:37 monkchips: canada??? whats up with that?
03:37 monkchips: tom – the new setup is awesome! you look so much better
03:37 Tom Raftery: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/gleick/detail?blogid=104&entry_id=42949
03:37 monkchips: no need for american panstick makeup
03:38 monkchips: hello mikethebee
03:38 Roland: Calendar link works fine for me too!
03:38 MikeTheBee: hi mc
03:40 Tom Raftery: http://blog.taragana.com/n/58-percent-of-worlds-seagrass-meadows-on-the-decline-95347/
03:40 cgarvey: Re: Canada; Read up on Steve Harper and you’ll see he’s not to far removed from George Bush at all at all.
03:41 monkchips: as i understand it
03:41 MikeTheBee: And we were going to harvest that sea grass for fuel.
03:41 monkchips: coastal syndrome is often reversible
03:41 monkchips: *if* we get well off it.
03:42 Tom Raftery: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/us/04scotus.html?_r=2
03:44 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/01/exxon-mobil-climate-change-sceptics-funding
03:44 Tom Raftery: http://www.ecosalon.com/a-solar-powered-crime-wave-in-napa-valley/
03:45 MikeTheBee: sarcasm does not become you 🙂
03:46 Tom Raftery: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/01/2613841.htm
03:47 Tom Raftery: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2009-06/30/content_8335844.htm
03:47 MikeTheBee: You must need it for all your flights
03:48 monkchips: you love it you dirty carbon *****
03:50 Tom Raftery: http://www.3news.co.nz/Environment-commissioner-calls-for-smarter-smart-meters/tabid/419/articleID/110073/cat/68/Default.aspx
03:51 liveireland: me too.. i work in electrical engineering
03:51 MikeTheBee: Can we enhance the smart meter using CurrentCost type controllers
03:51 Tom Raftery: http://www.survival-international.org/news/4706
03:53 Tom Raftery: http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0701-amazon.html
03:53 monkchips: i would happily pay directly for that
03:55 monkchips: holy ****
03:55 monkchips: we have to write that up
03:55 Tom Raftery: http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_releases/waterboxx_grows_forests_desert
03:56 cgarvey: “The WaterBoxx gives them a head start, Hoff explains” .. g’wan The Hoff! Omni-present!
03:57 Tom Raftery: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/07/01/virtually-waterless-washing-machine-cuts-water-use-by-90/
03:58 PaulMWatson: Good for water treatment and run-off problems too
03:58 Tom Raftery: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/06/28/green.walls/index.html?iref=intlOnlyonCNN
03:59 Tom Raftery: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/06/29/no-fluke-new-survey-finds-4-gas-is-the-tipping-point
03:59 PaulMWatson: Water usage of vegitecture? Maybe use WaterBox condensation techniques
04:01 SukiFuller: Better late than never – howdy folks!
04:01 PaulMWatson: Could filter greywater through the walls? Like some green-homes
04:02 monkchips: they always overwhelm the sewers too
04:02 monkchips: so you get a LOT of pollution hits
04:02 PaulMWatson: Good point about storm drain problems. e.g. Dublin.
04:02 monkchips: the water supply
04:02 monkchips: thus for example the awesoem progress we made in thames
04:02 monkchips: really threw us back
04:02 Tom Raftery: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090706/bs_nm/us_autos_japan
04:03 Tom Raftery: http://environment.uk.msn.com/news/headlines/article.aspx?cp-documentid=148278848
04:05 Tom Raftery: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/opinion/05friedman.html?th
04:05 MikeTheBee: I’m still seeing people hard cover their gardens when they have the money, rather than using ‘old hat’ lime chippings
04:05 monkchips: where does that monkchips find the time?
04:06 SukiFuller: Who is that monkchips dude?
04:06 MikeTheBee: one cool dude, that guy
04:07 PaulMWatson: @MikeTheBee I’ll bet the builders-rubbish 1 foot down in most Irish gardens doesn’t help either.
04:07 MikeTheBee: Dublin is built on marsh like London is it not?
04:07 SukiFuller: Oh @mikethebee you are such a sucker – he’s a ponce!
04:08 MikeTheBee: <8 04:08 MikeTheBee: good news http://www.web4water.com/news/news_story.asp?id=16501&channel=4 04:08 liveireland: great show thanks 04:08 cgarvey: Cheers for the show again Tom 04:08 SukiFuller: BTW - I am going to China next month for 1 year 04:08 monkchips: well done tom 04:08 monkchips: loving the show 04:08 monkchips: and the new room is so much better 04:09 monkchips: 😉 04:09 MikeTheBee: good show, good luck suki, report back via greemonk 04:09 MikeTheBee: cherrs TOm 04:09 SukiFuller: Cheers Tom 04:09 PaulMWatson: Cheers Tom 04:09 SukiFuller: Mike I shall - that monkchips gets all my news first 04:10 Tom Raftery: Thanks everyone for your contributions - made all the difference to the show

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GreenMonk news roundup 07/07/2009

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.