Group items tagged

Zion Research says the market for green building materials will reach $255 billion by 2020, about twice what it was in 2014. North American and Europe are the largest consumers of the environmentally friendly materials.

China's 13th Five-Year-Plan on Energy Development (Energy 13FYP) might be one of the most anticipated energy blueprints in the world for its far-reaching implications for the carbon trajectory of the planet's largest emitter. On Jan 5, 2017, the National Energy Administration finally unveiled the plan to reporters, with a set of 2020 targets covering everything from total energy consumption to installed wind energy capacity. Before we delve into details of the plan, one thing is worth noting: with the Energy 13FYP, China might have once again raised ambitions for its low-carbon future, highlighting the urgency that this smog-ridden country attaches to moving away from fossil fuels. This time round, policymakers seem even more determined to squeeze out coal's share in the country's energy mix, lowering its 2020 percentage in primary energy consumption from 62% to 58%. The country is also aiming higher for renewables: installed capacity of wind energy and solar energy should reach "more than 210GW" and "more than 110GW", respectively, by 2020; higher than what was declared at the end of 2014.

Global investment in water management solutions is projected to reach nearly $3 billion in 2025-up from $2 billion in 2016, according to a Navigant Research report.

HP has committed to powering its global operations with 100 percent renewable energy - and says it plans to reach the 40 percent renewable electricity mark by 2020 - because, as Nate Hurst, HP's chief sustainability and social impact officer says, "both cost-effective and low carbon sources of energy are essential to the future and the growth of HP's business."

AT&T says it has reached the halfway mark of its commitment to invest up to $565 million to deploy about 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles over the course of a 10-year period through 2018.

"MillerCoors, the second largest brewer in the US, announced on Wednesday that all of its major breweries have achieved landfill-free operations. The Fort Worth Brewery in Texas was the final of its eight sites to reach the milestone, after the facility engaged a 'Sustainability Employee Council' that focused on changing employee behaviors and making recycling easier and more accessible."

"MillerCoors, the second largest brewer in the US, announced on Wednesday that all of its major breweries have achieved landfill-free operations. The Fort Worth Brewery in Texas was the final of its eight sites to reach the milestone, after the facility engaged a 'Sustainability Employee Council' that focused on changing employee behaviors and making recycling easier and more accessible."

BCC Research reports the global market for anaerobic digestors and landfill gas equipment was estimated at nearly $4.5 billion for 2013. Its study, Waste-Derived Biogas: Global Markets for Anaerobic Digestion Equipment, projects the market to grow to $7 billion by 2018, and register a five-year compound annual growth rate of 9.4 percent 2013 to 2018.

The global volume of e-waste generated is expected to reach 93.5 million tons in 2016 from 41.5 million tons in 2011 at a compound annual growth rate of 17.6 percent from 2011 to 2016, according to a new report from Marketsandmarkets.

L'Oréal has outlined a new sustainability plan it hopes will help it reach its target of 1 billion new consumers by 2020 by producing more products with less environmental impact and helping customers make desirable but sustainable lifestyle choices.

L'Oréal has outlined a new sustainability plan it hopes will help it reach its target of 1 billion new consumers by 2020 by producing more products with less environmental impact and helping customers make desirable but sustainable lifestyle choices.

The Obama administration's rule leans heavily on renewable energy to meet its goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 32 percent by 2030, which is an increase of 2 percentage points from the draft it released in the summer of 2014. While states have two additional years until they must begin cutting emissions - 2022 instead of 2020 - they are expected to start devising ways to improve their environments, which will focus on shifting to cleaner burning fuels and away from carbon-heavy ones. "The trend we are on will get us there," says Rob Gramlich, senior vice president for government affairs at the American Wind Energy Association, in a phone interview. "As the nation moves from coal to gas, and as it adds more wind, solar and energy efficiency, we will reach that 32 percent target."

The Obama administration's Clean Power Plan rule will require states to begin cutting carbon emissions by 2022. "The trend we are on will get us there. As the nation moves from coal to gas, and as it adds more wind, solar and energy efficiency, we will reach that 32% target," said Rob Gramlich of the American Wind Energy Association. To comply, states can choose among options including boosting renewables, improving heat rates for coal-fired steam generators, and using more nuclear energy and lower-emitting natural gas. Forbes (8/4) 

Procter & Gamble has reached zero manufacturing waste to landfill at 85% of their sites globally and describes how they did it in a 2018 Citizenship Report published today. The company started the program a decade ago, and currently aims to achieve 100% by 2020.

Nike on Friday announced two efforts to reduce its environmental footprint and enable business growth: a collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Climate CoLab to bring innovation in materials to the forefront of the climate conversation, and a commitment to reach 100-percent renewable energy in company-owned and operated facilities by 2025.

More than 200 million gallons of contaminated wastewater from a fertilizer plant in central Florida leaked into one of the state's main underground sources of drinking water after a massive sinkhole opened up beneath a storage pond, a phosphate company said Friday. The sinkhole, discovered by a worker on Aug. 27, is believed to reach down to the Floridan aquifer, the company said in a news release.

The Coca-Cola Company, which uses about 300 billion liters of water a year - a quantity so big it's as if every person on earth donated 40 liters of the shared resource of water to its operations -  announced Monday that it reached a goal it set a decade ago: To "replenish" or restore the equivalent quantity of all the water it uses in a year in its global operations to produce, bottle and sell Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Minute Maid orange juice and hundreds of other beverages.

It's been almost 10 years since the Coca-Cola Company (PDF) vowed to "safely return to communities and nature an amount of water equal to what we use in our finished beverages and their production," with a deadline of 2020 for doing so. To get there, it teamed up with a broad array of NGOs and government aid agencies, who established clear rules for "replenishing" the aquifers and waterways that make up a watershed, and in 2015 the company announced it not only had reached its target five years early, but even surpassed it by putting 15 percent more water into the system than it took out. This tiny pack, however, is dwarfed by a massive herd of corporates that have made similar promises without offering any indication of how they'll deliver or whether they're making progress - and it's not just a water problem.

n what has been hailed as a far-reaching victory for global shark conservation, Air China has become the first airline in mainland China to ban shark fin cargo on its flights. The airline, which is headquartered in Beijing, announced the ban on Friday. "We were one of the first airlines in China to raise the awareness of the unsustainability of the global shark trade," says a message on the carrier's website. "We understand the community's desire to promote responsible and sustainable marine sourcing practices, and this remains important to Air China Cargo's overall sustainable development goals."

Seafood company Thai Union Group will ensure 100% of its tuna is sustainably sourced and plans to reach at least 75% sustainability by 2020. The company will invest $90 million in efforts to increase their supply of sustainable tuna and open 11 Fishery Improvement Projects.

The Minnesota National Guard installed solar panels and geothermal systems at its Camp Ripley base in an effort to reach zero emissions. The Guard earned a silver LEED rating for its readiness center and hopes to achieve a similar rating for all of its federally funded buildings.

Tunisia has set a goal to source 33% of its total electricity needs from renewables by 2030. Energy and Mines Minister Mongi Marzouk said Tunisia's installed renewable energy capacity would have to reach 16 gigawatts to meet that goal, requiring an investment of about $7 billion.

Wind generation in the US has the potential to reach grid parity with natural gas and other energy sources by 2035 without any federal support, according to consulting firm Macquarie Research. "We believe the US is now the most attractive wind market in the world due to the increased visibility of demand in the long term," Macquarie said.