Richest 10% create bigger ecological footprint

The richest 10 percent of Canadians create a bigger ecological footprint – a whopping 66 percent higher – than the average Canadian household, says a new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

The study, Size Matters: Canada’s Ecological Footprint, By Income, is the first Canadian study to link national income and consumption patterns with global warming.

“When we look at where the environmental impact of human activity comes from, we see that size really does matter,” says Hugh Mackenzie, CCPA research associate. “Higher-income Canadians create a much bigger footprint than poorer Canadians.”

Among the study’s findings:

The richest 10% of Canadian households create an ecological footprint of 12.4 hectares per capita – nearly two-and-a-half times that of the poorest 10%.
While the size of an individual’s ecological footprint increases as household income increases, the real jump is at that top 10% level. When it comes to environmental impact, it really is a case of the rich and the rest of us.

The bottom 60% of Canadian households’ ecological footprint is below the national average but even the lowest-income Canadians create an ecological footprint that is several times the average for those in poorer nations.

“All Canadians share responsibility for global warming,” says co-author Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence. “But wealthier Canadians are leaving behind a disproportionately larger footprint – and should be expected to make a disproportionate contribution to its reduction.”

Mackenzie says the study contains lessons for policy makers: “Clearly ecological impact is stongly related to income. Greenhouse gas emissions policies should reflect that reality or risk being less effective and unfair to low- and middle-class Canadians.”

Greendex, a sustainable consumption index

You've read the news—everyone wants to be green now. But do you really know how your personal choices are adding up? What about the choices of your fellow citizens? How well are people around the globe adopting behaviors that can make the world a more environmentally sustainable place?

National Geographic and the international polling firm GlobeScan have just conducted a study measuring and monitoring consumer progress toward environmentally sustainable consumption in 14 countries around the world.

Why? We wanted to give people a better idea of how consumers in different countries are doing in taking action to preserve our planet by tracking, reporting, and promoting environmentally sustainable consumption and citizen behavior.

This quantitative consumer study of 14,000 consumers in a total of 14 countries asked about such behavior as energy use and conservation, transportation choices, food sources, the relative use of green products versus traditional products, attitudes towards the environment and sustainability, and knowledge of environmental issues. A group of international experts helped us determine the behaviors that were most critical to investigate.

The result: the National Geographic/GlobeScan "Consumer Greendex," a scientifically derived sustainable consumption index of actual consumer behavior and material lifestyles across 14 countries. The Greendex will be tracked over time and will be comparable across the selection of countries representing both the developed and developing world.

To provide context for the Greendex results, we developed a "Market Basket," an index of actual consumption in four areas important to environmentally sustainable behavior—energy, transportation, travel, and consumer goods. A Market Basket for each country was assembled using a set of independently collected macroeconomic indicators, gathered by the Economist Intelligence Unit, which mirror, in part, the consumer behavior measured by the Greendex survey. The purpose of the Market Basket is to provide an external estimate of the results of changes in consumer behavior over time. The Greendex, for example, measures things consumers are doing to save energy in a country; the Market Basket measures whether total energy consumption in the country is actually going up or down. The Market Basket will also establish a framework for comparing the relative environmental impact of each country's size and rate of growth, over time.

Patagonia is First to Track Environmental and Social Impact of Its Products

'The Footprint Chronicles' Website Launches with Unprecedented Corporate Transparency

Patagonia is the first major apparel manufacturer to track and expose the social and environmental impact of specific garments through The Footprint Chronicles, an interactive website that reveals to consumers the good and the bad involved in manufacturing outdoor clothing such as Synchilla fleece vests and rain shells. In a bold move that might make most companies nervous, Patagonia is determined to be candid and forthright about its impact on the environment and created the site to encourage dialog with its customers who are concerned about the environment.

"We believe that to avoid complacency, we must constantly examine our internal processes to improve upon the positive and mitigate the negative," said Casey Sheahan, president and CEO of Patagonia. "The Footprint Chronicles allows us to do this publicly -- sort of learning out loud." He points out that the idea behind the website is to encourage thought and discussion. Each season the site will examine new products, so that the more that is exposed, the more harmful practices the company can change. Five new products will be added on Earth Day, 2008.

"Our customers are scientists, activists, professors, doctors and more -- they have the collective experience and knowledge we're looking for," said Sheahan. "We're highlighting exactly what happens in the manufacturing process and asking customers for their suggestions and help in efforts to find solutions to our less sustainable practices. It's a unique dialogue to engage in -- but one that will ultimately allow us to cause less harm to the planet."

According to Jill Dumain, Patagonia's director of environmental programs, the research involved in developing the Chronicles has proved to actually drive major business decisions at Patagonia.

"The Chronicles revealed that transportation makes up only about 1 percent of our overall energy use," said Dumain. "Had we listened to the current media buzz touting transportation as the largest factor in energy consumption, we might have greatly misplaced our efforts by making strides to geographically shorten our supply chain -- which would have massively impacted our business financially, logistically and perhaps even effected product quality -- and we would only have reduced our energy savings by 1 percent. Instead, we are focusing our energy on areas where we can truly make a difference -- right in the heart of the manufacturing process."

The launch of The Footprint Chronicles puts into practice a prototype that they hope will inspire other companies to increase their transparency, and at the very least, raise awareness.

"We've been in business long enough to know that if we can reduce or eliminate a harm, other businesses will be eager to follow suit," said Sheahan. "Many companies will be pleasantly surprised that when they delve into their manufacturing processes, they will be able to present a balanced expose of their practices. Customers will appreciate their honesty and reward them for it."

The Footprint Chronicles includes more than 35 filmed interviews and slideshows of factory workers, farmers, owners, designers and third-party auditors to provide an unprecedented level of transparency both internally and externally -- from the factories and manufacturing partners that create its products, to the end of the product's lifespan.

About Patagonia

Patagonia, with sales last year of over $280M, is noted internationally for its commitment to product quality and environmental activism. Incorporating environmental responsibility in to product development, the company has, since 1996, used only organically grown cotton in its clothing line. With its most recent launch of synthetic fiber-to-fiber recycling -- Patagonia is taking back worn-out polyester and nylon clothing and reincarnating it as new products, forever capturing the raw materials used in making virgin fiber.

CSRwire

Hitachi to launch Super Eco-factory

On June 25, 2007, Hitachi Group announced its new "Super Eco-factory" standards for environment-conscious plants and the first nine Super Eco-factories. The group aims to reduce CO2 emission by 7% by FY2010 compared with FY1990.

The Hitachi Group has proposed "emission neutral" status, in which the "direct loads" including energy used in production activities such as the acquisition of basic materials and processing and refining of components, greenhouse gases emitted from factories and energy used for transportation, and the reduction of "social loads" referring to the electricity consumed by products and energy used for recycling end-of-life products are balanced out.

Hitachi is striving to implement this status by FY2015. In accordance with this goal, the above-mentioned Super Eco-factory certificate has been formulated since FY2006.

The Hitachi Group defines Super Eco-factories as "environmentally friendly facilities that further promote energy conservation, reduce chemical substance emissions and implement advanced resource recycling measures."

Super Eco-factories are required to be six times more energy efficient than the lowest standard applied by Japan's energy saving laws. The Hitachi Group looks to certify 30 Super Eco-factories out of about 300 factories generating heavy environmental loads by 2010.

The group has already started "Super Eco-product" standards for products that have achieved more than 10 times higher "environmental efficiency," an index that represents "how much product or service value is generated, while lowering environmental loads and resource consumption," compared with relevant products manufactured in around 2000, and authorized 40 Super Eco-products by the end of March 2006.

The group has also authorized 1,012 Eco-products as of the end of fiscal 2006 and aims to increase sales of Super Eco-products to 30% of total Eco-product sales.

In FY2007, the Hitachi Group is moving forward to authorize more Super Eco-factories and about three times more Super Eco-products than 2006 toward the goal of emission neutral status in 2015. Through these measures, the group plans to reduce CO2 emissions by 850,000 t combining direct loads and social loads from the FY2006 level.

via Tech-On