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Do risk and compliance have a part to play in reducing pollution?

Do risk and compliance have a part to play in reducing pollution? EQ2 certainly thinks so.

Steve Burt, the founder and CEO of EQ2, is a former economist having worked at senior levels with Dun & Bradstreet and British Petroleum. His approach, which he calls Granular Resource Economics (GRE), enables companies to quickly see at a glance the entire spectrum of their emissions down to parts per million.

Why is this important?

Well, consider one of the verticals Steve is looking at – the aviation industry (see EQ2‘s excellent Sustainable Flying Report – PDF) . As Steve says, a single flight taking off from an airport, in pollution terms, is not a significant event. But when an airport handles hundreds of flights per day. What is the accumulated pollution from all the flights, incoming and outgoing, it has ever handled? Now project this forward for all the flights it is going to handle…

When you think of pollution from planes, you typically think in terms of CO2. EQ2 go well beyond that though and in the case of aviation, for example, you will also see the numbers for SOx, NOx, and other constituents emitted from jet fuel such as mercury, selenium, arsenic, particulates, etc. When you start to run those numbers for even moderately sized airports, the results can be quite sobering. For airports located near water this could be especially troubling.

And it is not just airports – all organisations need to find out what their liabilities are with respect to their accumulated emissions. A recent report for the UN has found that the world’s top firms caused US$2.2 trillion of environmental damage in 2008 alone. This is obviously unsustainable and is merely a preface to more restrictive pollution controls being enacted which:

is likely to argue for abolition of billions of dollars of subsidies to harmful industries like agriculture, energy and transport, tougher regulations and more taxes on companies that cause the damage

Imagine for a sec if communities in the vicinity of Drax or Kingsnorth coal-fired power plants in the UK decided to sue for the environmental damage wrought on them by these power plants. The kind of information EQ2 can provide would be invaluable in helping these facilities reduce their emissions and minimise the increasing risks associated with being a polluter.

With that in mind, how many firms can afford to remain ignorant of the full spectrum of their emissions?

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September 7th GreenMonk Energy and Sustainability show

This is the video from today’s GreenMonk Energy and Sustainability show – see below for the chatstream:

03:30 Tom Raftery: Do we have audio/video?
03:31 MikeTheBee: I weren’t
03:31 MikeTheBee: Video and Audio
03:31 iangb: i can see and hear
03:31 MikeTheBee: Yep
03:32 MikeTheBee: Bank Hol Last week in UK
03:33 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/sep/03/arctic-temperatures-climate-change
03:33 MikeTheBee: The more the merrier
03:35 Tom Raftery: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/15234166.html
03:36 Tom Raftery: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6821896.ece
03:36 MikeTheBee: increasing from the 1900’s by the look. the start of coal usage
03:38 Tom Raftery: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8240406.stm
03:39 Tom Raftery: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/04/drax-protesters-sentenced
03:41 Tom Raftery: http://www.youtube.com/talkingenergy
03:44 Tom Raftery: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/BP-announces-giant-oil-find-apf-2273328778.html?x=0&.v=1
03:45 Tom Raftery: http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/09/03/bps-tiber-find-fodder-for-oil-optimists-or-pessimists/
03:46 Tom Raftery: http://www.mnn.com/technology/research-innovations/blogs/uranium-the-new-foreign-oil
03:47 Tom Raftery: http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=1983
03:48 Tom Raftery: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8241016.stm
03:49 Tom Raftery: http://tcktcktck.org/stories/campaign-stories/when-it-comes-climate-change-londons-dropping-10-10
03:50 dahowlett: Was that Tara Aso or Tara Asshole?
03:50 Tom Raftery: http://www.1010uk.org/
03:51 Tom Raftery: http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/690868
03:52 liveireland: getting solar heating this week myself!! 🙂
03:53 Tom Raftery: http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2009/09/03/duke-leaves-coal-trade-group-over-anti-climate-bill-stance
03:55 Tom Raftery: http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/eco-tech-metal-reflector-to-make-concentrated-solar-power-affordable
03:57 Tom Raftery: http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/eco-gadgets-uganda-telecom-debuts-their-first-solar-powered-cellphone
03:58 Tom Raftery: http://www.idc.com/EI/research/UtiliQ.jsp
03:58 dahowlett: Screw solar heating, I want solar air con
03:59 Tom Raftery: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/defense-contractors-pursue-the-smart-grid
03:59 monkchips: bah missed the start of the show
03:59 Tom Raftery: Coolerado
04:00 dahowlett: Got it: http://www.coolerado.com/
04:00 monkchips: low energy aircon? talk about a global necessity!
04:01 Tom Raftery: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/09/gps-systems-real-time-traffic-data-save-drivers-carbon-emissions-four-days-per-year.php
04:02 monkchips: that is BOLLOCKS
04:02 monkchips: if everyone use it the bottleneck moves. this model wont scale
04:02 monkchips: this from GPS marketing board?
04:02 liveireland: ntl acting up here will have to watch repeat
04:02 cminion: @monkchips yeah i was just wondering if it would scale
04:03 monkchips: wanna cut carbon – cycle instead.
04:03 Tish Shute: Tom what do u think about the Plug Alliance in the US pushing Zigbee
04:03 MikeTheBee: from TomTom or GarmIn?
04:03 cminion: or move closer to your work
04:03 monkchips: we spoke to ford
04:03 monkchips: the other day though and they are all over zigbee right?
04:04 MikeTheBee: Did you discusss the Aussie Oil Slick
04:04 monkchips: ******* GREAT call.
04:04 dahowlett: I sue Google Maps on my Nokia N96 for GPS data
04:04 Tish Shute: Google Power Meter were making a case against the Zigbee and Plig Alliance approach
04:04 liveireland: I’ll plug you into the liveireland next week Tom..missed u this week
04:04 monkchips: “eevees”
04:04 dahowlett: use…not sue…doh!
04:04 Tish Shute: not Plig Plug hehe
04:05 dahowlett: I”ve doubled my distance for working…10 yards instead of 5 yards
04:05 monkchips: hey tish- interesting. the car people, part of the smart grid, atre definielt talking zigbee
04:06 monkchips: not a bad audience for the show this week, considering its a public holday in the US. well done tom.
04:06 cminion: Cheers for the show, time for home i think
04:06 Tish Shute: Google P M were making “you own your own data ” argument hehe!
04:06 dahowlett: TTFN
04:06 liveireland: slan
04:06 Tish Shute: bye thanks Tom!
04:06 MikeTheBee: Cheers Tom, and all
04:06 Tom Raftery: Thanks evertonre for interest, contributions & time