The number of corporate sustainability programs grew markedly in 2011 according to Sustainability Nears a Tipping Point, a report released recently by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan Management Review. According to the report, about 70 percent of the nearly 3,000 executives who were surveyed said that sustainability was on their management agenda in
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ExxonMobil’s view of the world’s energy future through the year 2040 was recently published in The Outlook for Energy. According to The Outlook for Energy, the future of energy use and development will vary by region, reflecting diverse economic and demographic trends as well as the evolution of technology and government policies. ExxonMobil predicts that
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According to the Third Annual Sustainability Global Executive Survey, more organizations than ever before are putting sustainability on their business agendas, and businesses recognize the need to do so in order to remain competitive. Many companies that successfully incorporate sustainability principles into their business report increased profits as an outcome. However, the survey also revealed that most companies are struggling to define sustainability in a way that is relevant to their business…

Stabilization of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels has become widely accepted as necessary in order to limit the long-term warming of global temperatures by 2 to 3°C and thus avoid devastating environmental consequences. Because the use of fossil fuels is expected to continue to increase in the future, new, innovative strategies need to be placed
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In this “as good as it gets” economic recovery, companies are intent on growing the top line while minimizing costs. Corporate staffs are shrinking or disappearing entirely, and the traditional EHS role faces internal competition from other groups that are taking on parts of the broader sustainability agenda. In this context, EHS VPs who keep their heads down and do their jobs well may be highly skilled, highly valuable, highly overworked—and highly likely to be headed to extinction. In contrast, entrepreneurial EHS leaders are keeping and expanding their roles by moving beyond their traditional comfort zones . . . .

Boston’s Logan International Airport, New England’s largest transportation center, serves more than 20 million passengers per year and employs 12,000 people. Despite its size, Boston Logan is one of the nation’s most environmentally advanced transportation hubs. In 2008, the airport won the Environmental Management Award presented by the Airports Council International–North America (ACI-NA), in large
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By now, it is pretty obvious that India has a booming economy, which has helped numerous individuals and families have a far better quality of life than could have been previously imagined. However, is it fair to say that poverty is close to eradication in India? The clear answer is no. By most estimates, for more
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For years, those of us in the environmental and sustainability (E&S) profession have sought credible metrics to quantify the economic value of our efforts. Studies dating back to the late 1980s attempted to demonstrate “E&S value.” Most of these studies either showed rather tenuous links between E&S initiatives and valuation or used pseudofinancial metrics not
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SAM, the investment boutique focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing, and Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, announced on September 8th the 2011 results of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) annual review. 729 companies participated in the SAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment, a 40% increase since 2007. 41 companies will be added to the
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In November of 2006, Gartner Group, a leading information technology (IT) research firm, released a study that shocked the industry. Gartner predicted that by 2008, half of the world’s data centers would have insufficient power and cooling capacity to meet demand.1 Data center energy consumption, which accounts for approximately 1.5 percent of electricity consumption in
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