Our new section gives you all the highlights from the latest company, NGO and multilateral organisation research
Recession’s riches
Weirdly, that’s also where the biggest proportion, 37%, say they’ll cut back in tough times. Non-monetary assistance, such as volunteering and using social networking sites, is where the social change energies of most adults are most likely to increase.
The 2012 Social Change Impact Report identifies some subtle geographical variations, too. Citizens in the US, Canada and Germany are the least likely to suddenly commit to giving back when the economy heads south. If you want recession-hit social champions, look to Jordan and India.
Almost across the board, however, non-profit groups feature among the two most popular avenues for people getting involved in social change. The only exception is Jordan, where the most popular conduits for social action are individuals or religious institutions.
Algae-based biofuel to boom
Biofuels have had a bad rap of late. People feel queasy about agricultural crops filling petrol tanks rather than dinner plates. Which is why algae-based biofuels are gathering so much excitement.
ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Dow Chemical and others like them are all piling into projects to develop fuel from this non-edible feedstock. So much so that SBI Energy calculates that the algae-based biofuel market is set to be worth $1.6bn by 2015. Also working in algae’s favour is its low environmental impact and its high yield – a single acre of the stuff can generate up to 19,000 litres of fuel per year.
Chinese emissions soar
The inevitable has, unsurprisingly, come to pass. China has caught up with Europe in per-capita carbon emissions. A recent study by the European commission’s joint research centre identifies a worrying 9.3% leap in Chinese emissions last year, making the world’s most populous nation responsible for almost one-third (29%) of global emissions.
China’s jump pushed up global emissions by 3.2% to 34bn tonnes in 2011, on top of a 5% increase in 2010. Its overall carbon footprint is above the US (16%) and the EU combined (11%), the Trends in Global CO2 Emissions report finds. India’s industrial economy has yet to follow the stratospheric rise of its Asian neighbour. Its 1.2 billion population remain responsible for only 6% of global emissions as a result.
Climate sceptics just got lonelier
They’re calling it the climate change survey to end all climate change surveys. Extensive research by the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (Best) project indicates that our planet has got 1.5C warmer over the past 250 years. And it argues that the cause “almost entirely” falls at the feet of mankind.
The findings of the Best researchers, who are based at the University of California in Berkeley, US, collected 14.4m land temperature observations from 44,455 sites across the world dating back to 1753. The findings chime with a new study by the Brookings Institution’s National Survey of American Public Opinion on Climate Change. A new poll of US citizens finds that 70% now believe climate change is occurring. Republican voters are still holding out, though, with nearly half (47%) staunchly staying in the naysayer camp.
Green ads dry up
Few magazines are more widely read by nature lovers than National Geographic. And, consequently, few places are more highly prized by green advertisers than the pages of the illustrious US magazine. Which is why researchers at Penn State’s College of Communications chose it to map what happens to environmental marketing in a downturn.
Correlating advertising volumes with GDP rates over a 30-year period, the researchers found clear evidence of less environmental messaging during economic downturns. The study, which appears in the Public Understanding of Science Journal, offers rare empirical evidence in support of Ronald Inglehart’s so-called “post-materialist values shift” thesis – a complicated way of saying that economic well-being and environmental concern go hand in hand.
As an aside, the report notes changes in the subject – not just the quantity – of marketing messaging. In the 1980s, green ads were all about the energy efficiency of products. By the 1990s, the focus had moved to conservation and greenhouse gases. Over the past decade, “image ads” promoting corporate responsibility have become much more the vogue. It’s all about the advertising continuum, apparently. Corporate marketers start by providing information to the public about their products, and graduate on to eliciting an emotional response to their brand.
Efficiency boosts brands
Improving energy efficiency at America’s businesses is as important to brand building as it is to improving the bottom line. At least, that’s what accountancy giant Deloitte maintains. The study, reSources 2012, shows that US companies believe electricity reductions are almost as much about bolstering their brand as cutting costs.
The study’s authors argue that US boardrooms are waking up to the strategic possibilities of energy efficiency. Yet there’s a sticking point. Most reductions in power use are easy wins. To get beyond the “low hanging fruit”, companies need to invest in new technologies.
Most don’t. Why not? The price of natural gas. It’s just too cheap, which makes payback periods too lengthy. That said, more than a third of US businesses have reached into their pockets and now generate some of their own electricity through renewable sources or cogeneration.
Disclosure differences
US corporations lag their global peers in environmental and social transparency, a new study by the Conference Board and the Global Reporting Initiative reveals. Only one in 10 US companies in the benchmark Russell 1,000 disclose triple-bottom-line performance data, the Sustainable Practices: 2012 Edition finds. The global average is almost double that (19%), according to the study’s analysis of 3,000 business organisations tracked by Bloomberg’s Environmental, Social, and Governance database.
The research identifies particular weak spots in US corporate disclosure. Only 2% of the Russell 1,000 reported the number of workplace accidents over the past year, for instance. This compares with an equally poor 4% that publish annual employee turnover rates, and 13% that reveal annual energy use figures (the global average is 47%).
Waste set to double by 2025
Growth is good, right? Not if waste is something you worry about.
The Worldwatch Institute, an independent research group, predicts global municipal solid waste could double by 2025. Fast-growing levels of prosperity and urbanisation could see solid waste hit 2.6bn tonnes per year by that date. Currently organic waste comprises 60% of solid waste in low-income countries. That compares with about 25% in wealthy nations. OECD states alone are responsible for 1.6m tonnes per day.
Worryingly, the world’s four main waste producers are all developing economies – Brazil, China, India and Mexico – whose waste footprints look set to continue increasing in the future. Roughly a quarter of the world’s garbage is diverted to recycling, composting, or digestion, the study finds.
Company insights
US jewellery company Tiffany was able to trace 100% of the rough diamonds it received in 2011 either directly to a known mine or to a supplier that sources from multiple known mines, according to the firm’s latest annual corporate responsibility report.
The Co-operative Group, the UK retailer and financial services provider, has cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40% since 2006, the company’s new sustainability report indicates. Over the past 12 months, meanwhile, the firm’s banking arm channelled £1 in every £4 of corporate and business lending into social, cooperative and environmental organisations.
Spanish oil company Repsol has reduced injury frequency rates for employee and contractor staff by 60% over the past five years, the company reveals in its latest corporate responsibility report.
Organisation snapshots
Governance information is the most relevant type of extra-financial information for investors and analysts, with 70% of respondents to a new Global Reporting Initiative report rating it very relevant.
“What Investors and Analysts Said”, GRI, Prince of Wales’s Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S) and Radley Yeldar.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development estimates that the cement industry could reduce its direct emissions 18% from 2005 levels by 2050. The news comes as India’s cement industry agreed to join WBCSD’s Cement Sustainability Initiative.
$513bn in funding has been committed at Rio+20 by governments, the private sector, civil society and other groups to achieve a sustainable future.
The share of urban residents in the developing world living in slums has declined from 39% in 2000 to 33% in 2012, the United Nations reports.
“2012 Report on the Millennium Development Goals”, UN