By Guest Author

by Susannah Harris, 2014 Climate Corps Fellow

I received quizzical looks from family and friends when I told them I was working on water efficiency projects at Verizon this summer. They paused, racking their brains about where water is used within the telecommunications industry. “Like in the bathrooms?” they’d ask.

Susannah Harris pictured here on site at Verizon headquarters in Basking Ridge, NJ

The reality is that domestic telecom companies rely on billions of gallons of water per year to cool, clean and maintain the buildings and equipment that support their expansive networks. And because customers require networks to operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, much of that equipment is running around the clock. From cooling tower adjustments to grey water recycling, there are a number of water-saving opportunities available for the telecommunications industry. Implementing these practices – thereby reducing municipal water, sewer and energy bills – can also make a noticeable impact on the company's bottom line.

As an EDF Climate Corps fellow, my job was to chart a path forward for Verizon’s water efficiency efforts. The company has already made significant strides to reduce its carbon intensity – by 37 percent through 2012 over a 2009 baseline. “Verizon is taking a deeper dive into water efficiency to save critical resources for future generations,” says James Gowen, Chief Sustainability Officer and vice president of supply chain at Verizon. “Reducing our utility bills and increasing the effectiveness of our assets is a win-win for our business and the environment.”

Here are some lessons learned from my time at Verizon, which I hope will help other professionals developing corporate water strategies. The key is to gain a better understanding of how and where your company uses water – a critical building block for an effective program:

1. Expect water bills to be a handful: If your company is serious about water tracking, invest in bill paying software that summarizes utility data into easy-to-pull reports. This will help you avoid the data analysis nightmare of manually normalizing billing cycles, units, fees, etc., and make it easier to calculate usage across a range of facilities billed by different water providers. 

 2. Calculate water use intensities: Normalizing a building’s water use by its square footage – or total number of employees for administrative buildings – is a helpful way to prioritize facilities for water savings projects. This is similar to how one might use an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) metric to prioritize energy efficiency projects. Of course, it’s most useful to compare water use intensities among buildings with similar use profiles and climates to account for cooling needs.

3. Leverage benchmarking resources: Some interesting resources are popping up that you can use to compare your buildings’ water use to that of similar facilities. Use these resources to give your key decision makers a sense of where your buildings stand against average buildings of the same type.

• ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager published a data trends document that aggregates water use statistics from all of the companies that track their water use through this tool.
• The EPA’s WaterSense program’s commercial web page has benchmarking resources for different facility types as well as a robust best practices document.
• The Green Grid developed a Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) metric for data centers. Become an early adopter of this measurement to gauge how your data centers are performing.

4. Make a lot of friends: Water efficiency projects will require data, insights, and buy-in from multiple teams. The sooner you get all necessary parties in-the-loop, the better it is for your project. At Verizon, I am coordinating among the sustainability, real estate, network, facilities, and finance teams to get pilot water efficiency projects in administrative and technical buildings off of the ground.

As the California drought worsens, there is no better time for companies like Verizon to kick off robust water efficiency programs. EDF estimates that improving the efficiency of cooling towers in all large U.S. buildings alone could save 28 billion gallons of water annually. Now is the time to baseline, benchmark and get to know your company’s water use. There is a good chance that water is flowing through many more places than just the bathroom.

Also of interest:

• No Water Means No Beer, and Other Insights from an LA Water Conference
• What We Build Together: Collaborating to Scale up Sustainability

By EDF Staff

by Alex Duff, Corporate Affairs Manager, Kingfisher – Net Positive

Can you tell a story about climate change that’s as memorable as Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, True Lies, Titanic or Avatar?  James Cameron, the acclaimed director of all of those blockbusters, clearly thinks it’s worth a shot given his involvement in a nine part docu-series that had its premier screening in London this week.  He’s not alone – a long list of movie stars, movie makers and many others have joined him in creating "Years of Living Dangerously" which has already been launched to critical acclaim in the USA.

Hollywood glamour

Whilst we weren’t at the Leicester Square Odeon, there was no red carpet and not a Hollywood movie star in sight, for those of us in sustainability more familiar with finding our stories knee-deep in a peat bog or skip-diving, the London premier held at the Soho Hotel certainly provided more than a glimpse of Hollywood glamour.  Perhaps more importantly though, it served as a powerful reminder of how clever interventions and effective storytelling can reach an audience beyond (excuse the pun) "The Usual Suspects."

Happy endings

"Years of Living Dangerously" is a beautifully shot series told from those already coping with the destruction of climate change yet it’s a far cry from the doomsday endings of the likes of "The Day After Tomorrow."  Indeed, one of the series’ most refreshing aspects is that it offers hope and shows how working solutions are being put into place – we just need to do more of it and faster.

Humanising climate issues

None of us know how our climate change narrative will unfold or who it will touch as it does but what ‘Years of Living Dangerously’ does is humanise climate issues, make them accessible through film and help galvanize people on the need for climate action now.  I left the theatre feeling optimistic, having been shown not only what’s at stake but what we can do to help ourselves.  You don’t have to take my word for it though – you can check out the first episode for yourself and, if you enjoy it, please spread the word: www.yearsoflivingdangerously.com

Premier screening

Kingfisher sponsored the London premier screening of "Years of Living Dangerously," which was kindly hosted by Rt Hon Greg Barker MP, former Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change and supported by Tom Murray from Environmental Defense Fund – an organisation working to accelerate environmental innovation in business products, services and operations.

Blockbusting carbon and cash savings

The episode screened at the London premier showed how in the last six years, 600 MBA students have been placed by Environmental Defense Fund into major U.S. corporations where they analyse the energy waste of that business and then propose efficiency solutions to save them carbon and cash.   Those placements have saved each organisation on average $1 million and avoided the equivalent yearly carbon emissions from 260,000 cars.  Environmental Defense Fund opens a London office this autumn.  With its track record in helping corporates save significant sums of carbon and cash, I’d imagine that, just like a blockbuster movie, people will be queuing up to see them.

By Michael Reading

Summer at EDF is always an exciting time as EDF Climate Corps fellows fan out and begin their placements at organizations across the country. This year we're thrilled to see a dozen fellows working with private equity firms and their portfolio companies, the highest number of such placements in a single summer. In total, EDF has now placed 44 EDF Climate Corps fellows in the private equity sector to date.

CC 2012 fellow Sarah Stern presents her work to CD&R's Daniel Jacobs, left, and Thomas Franco, right

Managing investment dollars equivalent to roughly 8 percent of U.S. GDP, the private equity sector is critical to sharing, replicating and advancing corporate environmental best practices, so it's gratifying to see the level of activity continue to build. New hosts this year include portfolio companies Associated Materials, Avaya, Floor & Décor, Philadelphia Energy Solutions and Taylor Morrison. Private equity firms KKR and Warburg Pincus are also hosting fellows this year, as they have previously.

Since EDF and KKR first partnered in 2008 to launch the Green Portfolio program, KKR’s portfolio companies have achieved more than $900 million in financial impacts while avoiding 1.8 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, 4.7 million tons of waste and 19.5 million cubic meters of water use. Out of this work, EDF developed and made available to companies a free tool for identifying and managing environment, social and governance (ESG) issues.

As to Warburg Pincus, for the second year in a row they are sponsoring an EDF Fellow to work with several portfolio companies during the summer on energy efficiency and sustainability projects.

Watch this space later this summer for updates on this year's EDF Climate Corps fellows as they find ways to save money and reduce emissions by cutting energy waste, making the case that what is good for our planet is good for business. Their success is the best evidence of the strategic shift among investors, who increasingly recognize ESG management as a powerful tool for improving investment practices and creating value for both companies and the environment.

Also of interest: Private Equity Firms Realize the Value of Participating in EDF Climate Corps

By EDF Staff

by Kate Rack, marketing & communications intern

The Obama Administration is developing new fuel economy standards for trucks, and last week, Ceres and Environmental Defense Fund hosted a webinar outlining how implementing strong federal standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks would be truly a win-win situation.

Our organizations, along with other leaders, are calling for strong standards that cut fuel consumption by 40%. A recent analysis of such standards shows that they would reduce both greenhouse gas emission levels and expenses to ship goods via freight.

Why make truck efficiency a priority?

Currently in the U.S., the trucking sector is the fastest growing single source of greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. businesses spend $650 billion a year on freight trucking services, which equates to over half a billion tons of GHG emissions. It is essential that as fuel efficiency standards for cars becomes more stringent, trucks follow suit, especially since 70% of tonnage shipped within the U.S is by truck. In particular, retail and consumer products are the largest consumers of trucking in the United States. Chances are, the computer screen that you are using right now to read this blog post was brought to you on a truck!

Results

Jason Mathers, senior manager with the Corporate Partnerships program at EDF and Carol Lee Rawn who directs the transportation program at Ceres, framed the study around the following two questions:

1. Will strong truck rules raise or lower the cost of owning and operating a truck?
A strong truck rule will lower the cost by $.021/mile by 2040. The rule will deliver yearly savings and the amount saved will increase over time.

2. Will strong truck rules increase or decrease the cost of hiring trucking services?
It is clear that strong truck rules decrease the costs of hiring truck services. Freight shippers will save 7% by 2040 compared to 2010 baseline.

In both instances, the results were overwhelming. Strong truck rules will make owning and operating a truck cheaper due to reduced fuel costs, and the price of hiring a truck service will be driven down, as well.

Available Technologies

Currently, commercial tractor-trailers get about 6 miles/gallon, but according to Mathers, “we have the technology available to dramatically improve the way we transport freight.” Trucks developed under the DOE SuperTruck program have already been able to raise that to 10.7 miles/gallon. Technologies that are available to boost truck efficiency include trailer aerodynamics, such as truck skirts and boat tails, improved transmissions, advanced engine designs, such as waste-heat recovery, and single-wide, low rolling resistance tires.

What can you do to help?

To learn more about how your company can support a strong truck rule and/or request a briefing about the cost-per mile implications of a bold standard and the technology pathways available to achieve the bold target, please contact Jason.

Also of interest:

• Save Your Company Costs: Support Stronger Truck Efficiency Standards!
• Co-Loading Your Way to Green

By Namrita Kapur

by Thomas Murray, VP of Corporate Partnerships, and Namrita Kapur, Managing Director of Corporate Partnerships

Too often, environmental performance gets labeled as the responsibility of one team within a company – whether that of a dedicated sustainability staff, external or public affairs, legal or compliance, etc. As a result, a company’s staff can often think of environmental and social governance (ESG) issues as what Douglas Adams once famously termed an SEP – Somebody Else’s Problem.

With the release of its 2013 ESG and Citizenship Report, private equity firm Kravis Kohlberg & Roberts (KKR) shows it’s taking a different approach:  KKR has adopted a new global policy that makes identifying and addressing ESG risks in both the pre-investment and investment phases, for its staff, everyone’s problem.

Notably, KKR’s private equity investment professionals are being integrated into the ESG risk assessment process: first, in assessing risks during the diligence phase, and second, working with portfolio companies, consultants and subject matter experts to set performance goals and measure against them during the typical five to seven years a company remains part of its portfolio.

KKR’s latest report also outlines how the firm is starting to apply its principles of responsible investment to other sectors, including real estate, energy and infrastructure, taking factors into account like current and future water availability, waste disposal, greenhouse gas emissions, energy conservation and other environmental concerns as they assess investment opportunities. KKR mentions in the report how it is developing sector-specific guides for its staff that encompass a broader set of ESG concerns beyond energy or water efficiency, including climate change impacts.

Integrating these methods  across KKR’s organization builds on the progress of its Green Portfolio Program, the result of a partnership between KKR and EDF. Since 2008, the program has helped KKR’s 19 reporting portfolio companies achieve more than $917 million in cost savings and added revenue, while avoiding 1.8 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, 4.7 million tons of waste, and 19.5 million cubic meters of water use.

The goal of initiatives like KKR’s new policy and the Green Portfolio Program isn’t just to achieve short-term reductions; they’re also aimed at changing the culture of companies, demonstrating the ability to square financial and environmental performance.

Reducing our impacts on the planet is everyone’s problem, and KKR is leading the way in demonstrating the importance of everyone being part of the solution.

You might also enjoy:

• Raising the Bar for Private Equity ESG Reporting
• PitchBook Survey Highlights Growing Importance of ESG

By Steven Goldman

By: Christina Wolfe, Ports and Transportation Analyst

Day-to-day operations at ports are often associated with negative impacts on public health. For example, heavy-duty equipment and on road trucks play a critical role in the movement of cargo around the globe, but they also emit diesel exhaust, a known carcinogen. There is certainly room for improvement, and some ports are making efforts to be good neighbors by increasing transparency with respect to their environmental performance.

Source: green-marine.org

I had an opportunity to learn about these leading ports at the Green Marine GreenTech 2014 conference, held in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. The purpose of Green Marine’s conference is to share both environmental successes and challenges, as well as to recognize participants (ship owners, ports, terminals, and shipyards in the US and Canada) for their leadership in the voluntary Green Marine environmental program. This program provides a framework for participants to identify specific environmental goals, establish baseline environmental metric values, self-report progress that is verified by a third-party, and earn recognition for their efforts. I wanted to share two notable examples of how some ports are opening their lines of communication and sharing their environmental performance.

First, Port Québec presented on a controversial environmental incident. In 2012, a cargo-handling facility released red dust containing heavy metals that dispersed beyond port boundaries into areas of Québec City; the dust contained high levels of nickel, which can cause short-term respiratory problems, according to the EPA. While the cleanup is still ongoing, to help the public stay up-to-date, the port provides status updates for all information requests on their website. Other Canadian ports, such as Port Metro Vancouver, Port Montreal, and the Prince Rupert Port Authority, have also adopted the approach of proactively disclosing information.

In contrast, we are not aware of any U.S. ports that have taken similar steps to provide the public with easy access to information that has already been shared through information requests, although there are federal laws in both Canada and the U.S. (and state laws in the U.S.) that give the public legal access to information. The extra step to proactively disclose information advances sharing between ports and the general public and reduces the need for citizens to make repeated requests for the same information.

Second, a unique aspect to Green Marine’s environmental recognition program is its annual performance report, through which the organization verifies the achievement of program participants (ports, terminals, and shipyards) in each of the Green Marine environmental areas. Scores in the areas of air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and community impacts are given, and then are presented in the annual report and on the website. Some of the program successes for 2014 included 93 percent of the participants restricting idling in port communities, 67 percent completing a greenhouse gas inventory, and the global program average of all environmental areas rising steadily since the program’s inception in 2008. By publically disclosing environmental performance—using common metrics in a similar fashion to sustainability reporting—participants in the program are held accountable to their commitments and receive recognition for their successful efforts.

There are obvious benefits to ports sharing information with their neighboring communities, namely building community trust and soliciting suggestions that can be used to help address complicated problems. Crowdsourcing ideas has been used effectively among ports to share sustainable design and construction guidelines, as an example, and this approach can be applied on a local level too. Community members can help decide between two emissions reduction projects that have similar air quality benefits, but one may be perceived as a preferred alternative for the community. For instance, cutting truck emissions has the added benefit of reduced noise and congestion if the project involves a route change, even though it might be equivalent in improved air quality as a project to convert heavy-duty equipment from diesel to electric.

EDF has been and continues to work with ports to identify environmental performance metrics and pursue projects that improve air quality for surrounding communities. We encourage ports and port stakeholders to strive to be good neighbors by committing to transparency and environmental performance improvement, especially when it comes to protecting the health of their communities.

By Steven Goldman

As July 4th fades away, grills cool down and the remains of fireworks are swept away, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get back to work. In my case, I’m preparing for a webinar Ceres’ Carol Lee Rawn and I are holding this Wednesday, sharing the findings of our recent report on how strong medium- and heavy-duty truck standards would cut freight costs and emissions.

It’s a topic we’re both passionate about – and think you should be too —  and with good reason: U.S. businesses spend $650 billion a year on freight trucking services, which account for over half a billion tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions a year, the fastest growing single source of GHG emissions. Fuel is the single largest cost of owning and operating a heavy-truck, accounting for 39% of total costs.

Our report finds that new, bold fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty trucks could end up reducing the cost of moving freight by 7% and owners of tractor-trailer units could save $0.21/mile, an annual savings potential in excess of $25 billion given that class 8 trucks in the US logged 120 billion miles in 2013.

The Obama Administration is in the process of developing new fuel economy and GHG standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, and its determination will affect both your company’s freight costs and GHG emissions.  Join us on July 9th for this webinar, where we’ll walk through the savings associated with strong standards and how you can help ensure that stringent standards are adopted.

Register now for the webinar!

By Sitar Mody

At EDF, all our advocacy and education around climate change aims to change behaviors — of individuals, corporations, utilities, governments and communities. But in order to change behavior, we must first change their belief systems.

That point was made eloquently in last month's final episode of Years of Living Dangerously, the Showtime documentary series about the human impact of climate change. The episode featured a conversation with President Barack Obama, a report on the impact of accelerated glacier melt in the Andes and the far-reaching effects of human-induced ecosystem changes in Bangladesh on the economy and society.

For me the takeaways were:

• It's vividly clear that climate change is an issue of national security in poor countries, where extreme weather creates huge groups of impoverished, resource-strapped people who easily end up in slums and ghettos, often refugees in countries far from their homes. For instance, the incursion of ocean water in Bangladesh is disrupting rice farming.
• Abrupt climate events can destroy overnight the societies and self-sustaining lifestyles that agrarian communities have built up over many generations.
• The United States is responsible for a tremendous amount of greenhouse gas emissions, and it's only a matter of time before we become a target of worldwide anger for the damage climate change is wrecking on our planet.
• We must guard against cynicism, especially among the youth. Obama's recently released energy plan paints an optimistic vision of an achievable future with reduced dependence on foreign oil, affordable clean energy technologies and improved energy efficiency.
• Putting a price on carbon is one way to change mindsets, by forcing people to recognize the true cost of a resource differently.

The notion of changing beliefs in order to change behavior has been front and center at recent meetings EDF has held with various academic partners whose work focuses on social, behavioral and organizational sciences. So often, environmentalists focus so much on scientific evidence of problems and technological solutions that we neglect overt discussion of the human element and how to successfully convince decision makers to apply the science to their decisions and use the best technological solutions.

This is well-trodden ground for social scientists, who study and systematically research effective methods for changing minds and habits. It was exciting to brainstorm with highly respected academic scientists and scholars about projects to deploy social science tools to achieve desired environmental outcomes. It would truly break ground for an environmental nonprofit like EDF to collaborate with social scientists in research and the practical implementation of that research.

When it comes to changing beliefs, we're about to see a living experiment in the rollout of government mandated carbon pollution standards for power plants across the U.S. The proposed standards have already run into opposition from people with entrenched ideas about the challenge of sustainable energy and viable solutions. In the court of public opinion, the trial has begun.

Also of interest:

• Changing the methane numbers game
• EDF Climate Corps fellows – right where they need to be
• Want to market the realities of climate change? Get a handsome vampire 

By swright

Environmental concerns about methane emissions continue to grow as more people understand the negative climate implications of this incredibly potent greenhouse gas. Now the financial community is taking note of not only the environmental risks but the impact of methane emissions on the oil and gas industry’s bottom line. Methane leaks not only pollute the atmosphere, but every thousand cubic feet lost represents actual dollars being leaked into thin air—bad business any way you look at it.

Source: Ash Waechter

Last week the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)—a collaborative effort aimed at improving corporate performance on environmental, social and government issues—released their provisional accounting standards for the non-renewable resources sector, which includes oil and gas production.

These accounting standards guide companies on how to measure and disclose environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks that impact a company’s financial performance. Their work highlights the growing demand amongst investors and stakeholders for companies to report information beyond mere financial metrics in order to provide a more holistic view of a company’s position.

Setting a New Standard

In the newly released standards, SASB writes that “the management of highly potent methane emissions from oil and gas [extraction and processing] systems has emerged as a major operational, reputational and regulatory risk for companies.” This language signals a shift in the way the financial sector views the impacts of the oil and gas industry.

Moreover, these standards are developed through a rigorous, multi-stakeholder process involving participants from the energy industry, investment community, accountants and NGOs, including EDF. According to SASB, participants in this industry working group represented companies with a combined market cap of more than $2 trillion, and investment firms with more than $3 trillion in assets under management. Such broad participation implies that a considerable portion of both industries now consider methane emissions a major environmental and financial issue. 

Why Now for Methane?

SASB’s approach to creating these standards comes from the traditional accounting and auditing focus on materiality. In layman’s terms, an issue is material if its omission in reporting would potentially influence the economic decision of an investor. Methane emissions—both their quantification and disclosure—are now being seen as a significant data point for making an investment decision.

SASB’s standards come on the heels of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s very public comments about methane emissions. Speaking on The Charlie Rose Show following Goldman Sachs’ North American Energy Summit last month, Blankfein discussed the importance of methane emissions to the oil and gas industry, stating that getting permits without strong methane rules is a “very hollow victory.” He asserted that it’s in the industry’s interest to get strong, sensible regulations in place now because in the long run industry is going to need to address this issue one way or another. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Having worked in both accounting firms and on Wall Street for a number of years prior to EDF, I can tell you from firsthand experience that these are communities where, traditionally, environmental issues are not top of mind. Wall Street is wholly and entirely focused on gauging and understanding risks, and creating returns for clients, period. When financiers and accountants start expressing public concern about an environmental issue, you can be sure that it has a direct impact on a company’s competitiveness.  The oil and gas industry should pay special attention to this dynamic.

The EPA will make a decision later this year on how to best obtain methane reductions from the oil and gas industry, including whether to move forward with new national rules.   Given the growing risks to the industry’s social license to operate and bottom line, it’s in their own interests to proactively address methane as suggested by Blankfein. The best way to do this, in our view, is by supporting smart, cost-effective national policies that will achieve signification reductions of methane emissions.

• Clearing the Air: Environmental Groups Push for Clean Air Standards for Oil and Gas Industry
• A New Study Measures Methane Leaks In The Natural Gas Industry
• Natural Gas: A Question Of Sustainability

By Alexandra Deprez

Dunkin Donuts. Johnson & Johnson. Kellogg’s. Procter & Gamble. Walmart. What do these companies have in common? They’re just a few of the global companies that have committed publicly over the last few years to source their products with zero deforestation.

Global deforestation is responsible for roughly 12 percent of world-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (IPCC)—more than double those generated by the entire U.S. electricity sector (EIA). In addition, deforestation is the greatest driver of biodiversity loss in the world, displaces indigenous populations and can drive major regional changes in weather patterns. Agricultural production drives 85 percent of global deforestation (Union of Concerned Scientists).

You may be thinking, “Why should that concern my company? We aren’t in a sector tied to agriculture or buy, sell or use commodities from countries engaged in deforestation.” That may be true if you only consider your company’s direct operations. If your company, however, produces or sells personal care or food products, or uses paper packaging, chances are high that deforestation causing commodities like soy, palm oil, timber, cattle, or derivative products of them are part of your supply chain.

The challenges of not only identifying, but also addressing these impacts built into a company’s supply chain led us to develop a new resource, “Food Without Destruction: Eight Strategies to Overcome the Environmental Impacts of Global Agricultural Commodity Production,” which synthesizes the literature on actions that companies, investors, non-profits and governments are taking to address deforestation and other environmental impacts from agriculture.

Why are all these companies taking on sustainable sourcing commitments? Pressure from the likes of Greenpeace, which has launched major consumer campaigns, is one reason. A recent campaign against Nestle resulted in over 1 million views on YouTube and over 200,000 petitions from consumers, asking the company to stop sourcing palm oil connected to deforestation.

More recently, investors have also pressured companies, emphasizing not only the reputational but also the systemic risks associated with sourcing commodities that directly cause deforestation. The Norwegian Pension Fund, the largest in the world, made waves last year when it announced its divestment of holdings in numerous companies whose activities were connected to deforestation. Shareholder resolutions from sustainable investment funds and institutional investors like the New York Pension Fund have successfully convinced companies like Dunkin Donuts and Kellogg’s to commit to sustainable sourcing policies.

It isn’t only individual companies that are making commitments: the Consumer Goods Forum, with 400 member companies and combined sales of around $3.5 trillion, pledged in 2010 that it would help its member companies achieve zero-net deforestation by 2020.

Leading companies that are taking action are not just seeing unsustainable commodity sourcing as a reputational risk: they are also viewing it as an opportunity for leadership.

They understand that as a growing global population and changing diets increasingly drive demand for these agricultural commodities, pressures on forests are projected to significantly increase. .

If you’re wondering how to get started, EDF’s new white paper can help your company better understand what strategies it can consider to alleviate pressure on forests and promote sustainable production in its operations.

By Andrew Hutson

As I write this blog, it’s hot outside.  I mean really hot.  At 97 degrees today here in the North Carolina Piedmont – with a heat index of 100 degrees – it’s thirteen degrees above the average high for June.

Summers have been getting hotter here, as they have in most parts of the world, since I moved to the South from my native Michigan fifteen years ago.  And the weather has gotten weirder. Way weirder.  Too much rain at times, not enough at others.  Hot when it should be cold, cold when it should be hot.  Bigger storms. You get the picture… you’re experiencing it too.

Yet, somehow, I’m hopeful.

Despite years of political rancor and inaction, the wheels are once again starting to turn.  Two weeks ago, the Obama Administration unveiled its plan to reduce carbon pollution from power plants using its authority under the Clean Air Act – an action supported not only the usual choir of green groups, but four former Republican heads of EPA and 87% of the American public.  This is welcome news.

And while not enough to solve the climate crisis on its own, adds to other bright spots across the globe. Namely, China’s five pilot regional carbon markets that are up and running, aiming to help reach the nation’s ambitious targets to reduce emissions 40-45% by 2020, and Brazil’s progress in cutting deforestation rates by 70% – and become the world’s leader on actions to curb global warming – since 2006.

And there was more positive news today as well from the private sector.  This week in Paris, CEOs from The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) – a consortium of 400 of the world’s largest retailers, brands, and other companies involved in the production and sale of products we use (and eat) everyday – meet at the 58th Global Summit. This morning, these leaders called on governments around the world to agree on a legally binding climate deal. This call builds on existing commitments that many CGF companies have made to end global deforestation and phase out the use of climate-harming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in refrigeration.

While there is a lot work to be done to achieve these commitments and specific plans to do so have not been thoroughly fleshed out, these calls signal recognition by global companies that the climate crisis is real, costly, and can be solved if everyone pulls their weight.  But, this can only be done if governments do their jobs too.  We’ll be hearing more about how companies plan to meet their targets and further calls to action as we near the United Nations Climate Summit in September.

Such leadership from the business community is crucial if we are to see comprehensive actions from individual governments and I’m hopeful these voices will be loud enough to drown out those of their peers who decry any meaningful action.

For now, I’ll bear this heat, think of Paris, and dream of milder days to come.

By Steven Goldman

At the invitation of Alan Scott, Verizon’s leader of energy and sustainability, I was thrilled to participate in the Verizon Ventures Powerful Answers Award Dinner two weeks ago, a gathering of entrepreneurs, sustainability executives from large corporations, and nonprofit leaders.

The dinner was part of the run-up to Verizon's multi-million dollar global competition for creative solutions to the world's problems in the areas of education, healthcare, sustainability and transportation. The competition, for which the entry deadline is June 30, rewards innovators for finding more efficient, sustainable, and accessible solutions that lead to better outcomes.

It was fascinating to hear the variety of conversations in the room, which appropriately was held at Foreign Cinema restaurant, a San Francisco Bay Area restaurant known for its sustainable practices. Across the evening, two key themes resonated with me: cross-learning and networks.

The power of cross-learning

The exchange of ideas hinted at the tremendous potential for multinational companies and entrepreneurs to learn from one another and collaborate, with each side bringing unique assets to the table. I could see people's thinking being pushed and stretched in beneficial ways.

For people with cutting edge business savvy, sustainability represents another promising vertical in which they grow a nascent business opportunity. That's a good thing. Nimble entrepreneurs can learn from Fortune 100 executives about opportunities within sustainable supply chains, and can experiment at less cost or risk than might be possible within a large corporation.

Similarly, large corporations can learn from entrepreneurs: for example, what products are coming to market or what trends entrepreneurs are convening around that companies should pay attention to. Verizon Ventures is an avenue for entrepreneurs to gain visibility for their ideas… and eventually attention from investors.

Cross-learning is also an important theme at EDF. Finding unconventional partners to solve the world’s most challenging environmental problems is necessary. One great example is the Building Energy Initiative in Chicago. Our goal is to accelerate the creation of and transactions in new energy markets in Chicago by inviting 50 buildings to participate in EDF Climate Corps and implement advanced energy management projects from tenant engagement to frequency regulation.

By showing other building owners and large users of energy what’s possible, the Building Energy Initiative in Chicago is part of a larger EDF Clean Energy initiative across the country designed to accelerate the nation’s transition to a cleaner, smarter energy system.

Network building is key

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the dinner was watching connections form and interpersonal networks grow over the course of just one evening. Good ideas can spread easily when the right people are connected and open to working together.

This is one of the main goals of EDF Climate Corps – a program which embeds trained graduate students in companies, cities and universities to help them save money and energy by investing in smart energy management. Since the program’s inception in 2008, our fellows have identified $1.3 billion in cost savings and the EDF Climate Corps network has grown to include more than 800 fellows-turned-sustainability professionals and representatives from host organizations.

These folks, like Alan Scott from Verizon and his former EDF Climate Corps fellows (2010, 2012, 2013), champion sustainability across the country, spreading their knowledge base and broadening the networks of people familiar with the kind of tools that can make a real difference in the fight against climate change.

By Jason Mathers

New, bold fuel-efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for heavy-duty trucks could end up reducing the cost of moving freight by 7% and owners of tractor-trailer units could save $0.21/mile. These are among the key findings of a new report from EDF and Ceres.

The report, which is based on analysis by MJ Bradley and Associates, examines one potential technology pathway to achieve the stringency target of 40% over 2010 set forth by our groups and other advocates.

Fuel is the single largest cost of owning and operating a heavy-truck, accounts for 39% of total costs. Strong fuel efficiency standards will target these costs largely by requiring the use of cost-effective, fuel saving technologies. As the new analysis demonstrates, fuel savings will be significantly greater than increases in equipment costs.

A $0.21 per mile savings, for example, has an annual savings potential in excess of $25 billion given that class 8 trucks in the US logged 120 billion miles in 2013.

Our finding of significant financial benefits of strong fuel efficiency and GHG standards is consistent in magnitude with previous analysis. A recent report by the Consumer Federation of America looked at similar Phase 2 standards and found net savings of $250 to consumers, rising to $400 per household in 2035 as fuel prices and transportation services increase.

Retailers, manufacturers and other suppliers should take particular note of these results. Some of the cost-per-mile savings of strong standards would likely be passed along to them as major consumers of trucking services. Thus, the total cost of moving freight (including fuel-surcharges) could be reduced significantly over the coming years.

In order to realize gains of this magnitude, large corporate consumers of trucking services need to join the call for bold, truck efficiency and greenhouse gas standards. Companies can do this is by issuing public statements of support for a truck efficiency stringency target of 40% over 2010 by 2025.

Detailed information about the 40% stringency target is available in a fact-sheet issued by EDF and other advocates.

To learn more about how your company can support a strong truck rule and/or request a briefing about the cost-per mile implications of a bold standard and the technology pathways available to achieve the bold target, please contact me.

By Emily Reyna

Beer lovers – now that I have your attention – let’s talk water. Nowhere in the country is water more critical an issue and looming risk than in my home state of California… critical to farmers, utilities, businesses, and yes, even breweries.

The San Luis Reservoir, facing low levels in 2008

The current drought has brought a host of challenges for our growing state, including more wildfires, collapsing delta ecosystems and fisheries, decaying infrastructure and declining water quality. While California is on track to reduce carbon pollution due to our progressive climate and energy policies, our water challenges are the elephant in the room.

So it was inspiring to attend a daylong event convened by the Pacific Institute in Los Angeles, where leading corporate, nonprofit and technical water experts honed in on water stewardship and shared innovative solutions to the business and environmental challenges we face with regard to water scarcity.

The companies represented there – including AT&T, Deloitte, MillerCoors and Veolia – see water scarcity as a current business risk, as well as a critical component to economic growth in California, the Colorado River Basin and around the world. The World Economic Forum even ranked water crises as the third most pressing global risk for 2014. “Often, the greatest risks come from conditions over which the company has the least influence,” noted Jason Morrison of the Pacific Institute, whose Water Action Hub offers a powerful guide with tools and resources for collective action.

The day’s far-reaching discussion would be impossible to capture in a single blog post, so I'll highlight here just a few of the challenges and solutions that stuck with me after a full day of information sharing.

It’s time for new ideas

The Pacific Institute's water director, Heather Cooley, emphasized the limits of old thinking, and the importance of rethinking demand, supply and management of water. Many participants agreed, stressing that we can’t just do more of the same such as building bigger centralized infrastructure or pumping more ground water when it’s not being recharged at the same rate. Instead, we need to reduce waste and increase efficiency, rethink economic priorities and choices in both urban and agriculture uses, treat and reuse wastewater, capture storm water, and improve data collection and monitoring.

Collaboration is key

Another theme that surfaced throughout the day is the importance of partnerships to achieve lasting results. Operating a brewery in the Irwindale section of Los Angeles, MillerCoors is constantly reminded how its ability to operate is tied to the city’s water resources, said Kim Marotta, director of sustainability. Water risk is a material issue for the company; no water means no beer. To create change, companies like MillerCoors have to share the responsibility alongside communities.

If Marotta’s talk was any indication, they are taking action. Partnerships with farmers have dramatically cut water use, runoff and energy use through innovations such as planting tall native vegetation, retrofitting irrigation systems and implementing best practices for water management. Through these and other measures, MillerCoors was able to reduce water use by 1.1 billion gallons as a company, equivalent to the annual needs of 11 million people.

Follow the energy-water nexus

Campbell Soup Co. has been tracking the intersection of energy and water use since 2012, analyzing water efficiency at each point from well to discharge, according to Dan Sonke, manager of sustainable agriculture programs. As a result, the food company has identified numerous opportunities to improve performance, through testing different irrigation scheduling practices and sharing data and best practices with Campbell’s growers.

As a result, the company has lowered water use by 34 percent by changing irrigation practices and consequently weathered a drought year with minimal impact. The company is also looking at reusing "tomato water" that contains low-level organic matter.

The need (and dearth) of data

As many exciting solutions as the speakers identified, they kept coming back to the reality that businesses need to get much more serious about assessing their own water performance and risks. The scarcity of data – both on the risk side and top-line – remains a huge obstacle; many stakeholders are reluctant to publicly release data and there is a lack of standardized data collection.

Ultimately, the reality of water scarcity and climbing demand will leave no choice for stakeholders who are reluctant to part with data sets. Advances in technology like water smart meters may provide a promising path to better and easier data collection, lowering the cost and hassle factor for water users including farmers.

The theme here is that stewardship starts with measurement: if they haven’t already, businesses need to start assessing their water performance, set a baseline and work towards reducing use.

For commercial and institutional water users, tools like the Water Efficiency Toolkit that EDF developed with AT&T can offer a first step toward assessing water performance and mapping out actions they can take to improve it.

We’ve all been raised to see water as something renewable, infinite and nearly free. But unless businesses, communities and governments work together now to be better stewards of our shared water resources, we may find ourselves with nothing left to fill beer bottles, soup cans, water glasses or irrigation pipes.

You might also enjoy:

• What We Build Together: Collaborating to Scale up Sustainability
• Cut Water Use for Today’s Drought—And Tomorrow’s
• EDF Blogs on the Energy-Water Nexus

By Ben Ratner

Adding to the drumbeat for action on the supercharged climate pollutant methane, Showtime’s “Years of Living Dangerously” series recently spotlighted methane emissions leaking from America’s oil and natural gas infrastructure.

One theme of the May 19 episode hinged on a numbers question: Just how much methane is getting out? This question, a common one in the methane arena, refers to the national methane leakage rate for the entire oil and gas supply chain.

Various numbers, as low as 1 percent, were suggested for the national average with 4 percent, 11 percent and even 17 percent reported by scientific studies in some oil-and-gas producing regions. The problem is, it’s the wrong question.

We should stop fixating the debate on just how bad the problem is, when we know there is a problem and we can address it with confidence today.

Methane is initially more than 100 times more potent than carbon dioxide when released into the atmosphere.

Environmental Defense Fund is nearing the final stages of a multi-year methane research series to better understand and quantify methane emissions from all across the natural gas value chain. Among other things, those studies will help inform an answer to the show’s original question.

In the meantime, we know – and literally no study can refute – that:

• Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that is accelerating climate change;
• United States methane emissions are significant, with the oil and gas sector being the largest industrial source;
• Every ton of methane emitted undermines the potential of natural gas to serve as the cleaner fossil fuel; and
• Solutions are within our grasp, with some leading states, along with oil and gas companies, beginning to show the way.

Zeroing in on the right goal

So while the science assessing the problem marches on through EDF’s direct work and that of our partners and other experts, let’s focus on one simple, aspirational number for the goal: zero. As in zero emissions.

Zero emissions would mean zero tolerance for the avoidable wasting of a natural resource.

It would mean an airtight American oil and gas system, with record-setting efficiency that could spur other nations to follow suit.

And critically, zero emissions would mean zero direct contribution to climate change from a pollutant that is initially more than 100 times more potent than carbon dioxide when released into the atmosphere.

We can cut 40% of emissions today

Mark Boling, an officer at natural gas producer Southwestern Energy, got it exactly right at the show’s conclusion when he said “Let’s go out and fix the problem.” The undeniable fact is that we have the technologies and approaches to do just that and to do it cost effectively.

The ICF International economic report that EDF commissioned earlier this year, which consulted industry to ground-truth the data, shows how we can cut emissions by 40 percent – more than enough gas to cook 10 billion dinners. And with methane controls representing less than 1 percent of industry total capital expenditures, and in many cases paying for themselves through improved efficiency, there’s no reason to wait.

The technology already exists

The emission-slashing strategies are as straightforward as swapping in valves designed to minimize emissions, and sending inspectors with handheld cameras to detect and fix leaks. While today’s technology doesn’t yet permit reaching zero emissions, it will get us much of the way there, and EDF, industry leaders and innovators have taken on the challenge of finding the tools to speed up that journey.

Technology innovation and the relentless spirit of continuous improvement – both hallmarks for the energy industry – can propel America onward in the race to zero.

Let’s change the methane emissions numbers game. Let’s aim for zero. That’s the only zero-regrets move.

• How science and policy are joining forces to reduce methane pollution
• Natural gas: Five areas of concern [INFOGRAPHIC]
• Solutions exist to reduce methane emissions [ANIMATION]

By mmonast

Corn is a common hog feed.

First, the facts: We will have 9 billion people on the planet by 2050. That's 2 billion more than we have today – stretching Earth's land and water resources to meet nutritional needs in a dramatically changing climate.

In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency calculates that agriculture is the fifth-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, contributing 8 percent of total GHGs. Fertilizer use and soil management are responsible for half of those emissions.

Next, the challenge: Many farmers encounter difficulties in determining the precise amount of nitrogen fertilizer their crops need. It gets tricky. Using too little fertilizer can limit crop production. Too much fertilizer pollutes water and emits a potent greenhouse gas called nitrous oxide, which is 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

The stark reality is that crop production must increase approximately 70 percent by 2050 to feed our growing human population. We cannot choose between agricultural productivity and sustainability – we must have both.

To address the challenge, Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork producer, and its hog production subsidiary, Murphy-Brown, are working with grain farmers to reduce excess fertilizer on crops grown for hog feed. The project will help farmers save money on fertilizer, while maintaining high crop yields, improving water quality and reducing climate impacts. The initiative is the first of its kind among animal agriculture companies.

EDF helped Smithfield design its program, which recently received a “best in class” award from Walmart at its Sustainability Expo. Smithfield is a major supplier of pork products to Walmart, which is asking suppliers who use commodity grains like corn, wheat and soy in their products to develop plans that reduce fertilizer loss on farms.

EDF's initiative with Smithfield is an important part of a comprehensive effort to ensure agriculture production meets human needs for food and contributes to the resilience of our environment. So far, EDF's Sustainable Sourcing Initiative has helped optimize fertilizer use and reduce loss by an average of 20 percent on nearly half a million acres, while maintaining or increasing crop yields.

Animal agriculture consumes about 40 percent of the corn grown in the United States, which makes companies like Smithfield key to reducing the greenhouse gas and water pollution footprint in grain supply chains. Smithfield plans to enroll 75 percent of its grain sourcing acreage in the Southeast and Midwest into optimal fertilizer practices by 2018.

The company will start with grain farmers in North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina and extend to Midwest farmers in 2015. We estimate that the collaboration will improve fertilizer use on 450,000 acres nationally and reduce GHG emissions from agriculture by 60,000 tons, which is the equivalent of taking 13,000 cars off the road.

The challenge before us is to feed a growing global population while sustaining the natural resources on which we all depend, including agriculture itself. Solutions must also be economically viable for the farmers who grow the crops to feed us.

EDF’s collaboration with Smithfield is an important step in that direction. We hope other companies in the agriculture supply chain will follow.

• Shaping fertilizer's footprint via the marketplace
• From field to table, how companies and farmers are working together to feed the world sustainably

By Tom Murray

As the old management adage goes, “what gets measured gets managed.” Private equity firm Apax Partners took an important step toward embodying that concept this spring by releasing a sustainability report rich with key metrics from its portfolio companies' progress in environmental, social and governance (ESG) management.

As last year’s Pitchbook survey showed, ESG management is increasingly a mainstream issue for private equity firms. The detailed data that Apax portfolio companies are gathering — and reporting as a group — form the foundation for companies to manage ESG issues, as well as benchmark and then measure any advances.

This is all part of an important, ongoing shift in the private equity industry: from questioning if firms can create value through ESG management, to how can firms capture the value.

Apax gathered responses from more than 80 percent its targeted portfolio companies (i.e., majority owned and not planning an exit). That pool of companies represents nearly 90 percent of Apax’s 2012 revenue, with a total of $21 billion in global revenues, $4 billion in EBITDA and 166,000 full-time employees by year-end 2012. The responding companies represented a cross section of the key Apax investment sectors: consumer, healthcare, services, technology and telecommunications.

Apax’s report offered insights into how its portfolio companies are working to address ESG issues in their operations:

• Plantasjen increased insulation in all new built stores and installed heat pumps in six stores, with insulation saving approximately one-third of stores' energy consumption compared to the old format and heat pumps reducing energy consumption by about 20 percent.
• Capio invested in solar panels, low-energy bulbs, green cars and automatic light switches and considers energy efficiency an important parameter in the construction of new buildings.
• Tnuva began changing processes to reduce paper and packaging usage, including swapping hard cheese packaging from PVC to Pet, using foamed polystyrene sheets instead of just polystyrene, replacing disposable egg cartons with plastic washable packages, reducing plastic packaging weight through a new manufacturing technique and phasing out wood pallets in favor of plastic.
• GHG hired a water savings consultancy to audit all site bills, benchmark water consumption and focus on those sites whose consumption is excessive. As a result, the company has reduced lavatory flushing, fixed failed valves and faulty equipment and is reviewing opportunities for capital investment.

This kind of data-rich report offers an example to PE firms on how to lay a foundation for solid ESG management, one that EDF would encourage other firms to learn from. We look forward to following the progress of Apax and its portfolio companies as they work to improve sustainability measurement, management and reporting.

Also of interest:

• Read about EDF’s history working with private equity firms like KKR and Carlyle Group
• Learn about EDF’s ESG Management Tool, which outlines the key elements of a successful ESG management program

By Victoria Mills

Watch the episode featuring
EDF Climate Corps
Monday May 26th at 8 pm on Showtime

When the producers of Years of Living Dangerously – Showtime’s groundbreaking new series about climate change – were looking for a story of hope, they turned to EDF Climate Corps. The series, which brings the reality of climate change into your living room every Monday night, does not spare the viewer the devastating impact on people of wildfires, superstorms and droughts. But it also shows how people can be part of the solution to climate change. The three EDF Climate Corps fellows featured in this Monday’s (5/26) episode are protagonists in that story of hope. They show how saving energy benefits both the environment (by cutting carbon emissions) and the bottom line.

One exchange that Showtime caught on camera goes something like this:

Jessica Alba:  “Can you can walk into any organization and tell them how to save energy and money?”

Climate Corps fellow:  “Yes.”

EDF Climate Corps fellows are turning up in all kinds of interesting places this year. In January, Tyrone Davis joined the first lady to watch the State of the Union address. This month, fellows will appear on television to give people hope about solutions to climate change. And this week, we announced the 2014 class of Climate Corps fellows – 117 top grad students chosen from close to 700 applications – all going to where the biggest opportunities are to save energy.

EDF Climate Corps Working in Key Geographies

This year, we’ll have six Climate Corps fellows in China, now the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gas. About two-thirds of our 117 engagements will be in the nine U.S. states that consume over 50% of the nation’s energy. And 16 of those will be in Chicago accelerating progress toward the city’s 20% energy reduction goal.

EDF Climate Corps Helping Key Sectors 

Climate Corps fellows continue to work in large commercial buildings like the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. But we’ve also expanded the sectors in which we work to include manufacturing (with Legrand, Lockheed Martin and Owens Corning), cities (Baltimore, Boston and Los Angeles) universities (Clark Atlanta and the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center), data centers (RBS Citizens and Comcast), utilities (Pacific Gas & Electric), and even military bases (US Army at Fort Bragg).

EDF Climate Corps Tackling Diverse Projects

The 2014 class of Climate Corps fellows are working on a wider range of projects than ever before. About half will be working on building energy efficiency. The rest of the projects include:

• Energy strategy, data management and employee engagement
• Water efficiency – implementing the unique toolkit that EDF developed with AT&T
• Supply chain logistics – integrating our expertise in green freight and operating more efficient warehouses

EDF Climate Corps is recruiting, training and deploying the sustainability leaders of tomorrow; a viral solution that gives us hope that we can bend the curve on carbon emissions and avoid the worst impacts of a warming world. But don’t just take my word for it. Tune into “Years of Living Dangerously” on Monday May 26th at 8pm on Showtime. See for yourselves how our fellows helped Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Texas Southern University and Office Depot scale their energy management efforts.

Also of interest:

Years of Living Dangerously: Two producers, coffee and a vision for climate action

Behind the Showtime cameras with EDF Climate Corps fellows

EDF Climate Corps, creating a new generation of leaders

By mreading

“Be humble; be bold,” said David Browning of TechnoServe, offering his advice on developing partnerships at the 2014 Shared Value Leadership Summit. By that, he explained, your goals should be aspirational, but that you should “ground-truth” your strategies before getting too far ahead of yourself.

As a manager in new project development with EDF’s corporate partnerships team, I was drawn to the Summit to learn from other organizations working to harness the power of markets to drive societal and environmental progress, creating “shared value” for all involved. Browning’s talk was just one of the highlights of the Summit, where an inspiring combination of expertise, experimentation and uncommon alliances was on display.

Redefining shared value

Shared value is a still-evolving idea, first defined in 2011 as “a management strategy focused on companies creating measurable business value by identifying and addressing social problems that intersect with their business.” While the terminology is new, the concept of creating it through corporate-NGO partnerships thankfully isn’t.

What is new, as noted in the opening plenary, is the rapid shift of companies from launching many small-scale pilot projects to “developing the playbook”–codifying and scaling best practices across business units and entire sectors.

Honing the playbook

The term playbook itself captures the diversity of efforts that companies at the Summit described as necessary to drive real results. “You have to take a variety of approaches to do something big,” said Beth Keck of Walmart in summing up the company’s wide-ranging efforts with international NGO TechnoServe to incorporate one million smallholder farmers into its supply chains. JPMorgan Chase & Co and the Nature Conservancy announced the launch of NatureVest, an innovative new platform drawn from both organizations’ strengths to drive impact investment in conservation.

Partnerships that require both expertise and experimentation to scale up impacts are never easy and speakers offered their hard-won insights. According to Zia Khan of Rockefeller Foundation, partners need to not only care about the problem to be solved, but see it as important to their organization. Our partnership with AT&T came quickly to mind; water scarcity represents a critical operational issue for the company and an important issue for EDF, which has driven us to work together to help AT&T and other companies in five water-stressed areas reduce their water use.

Applying lessons learned

At EDF, I work with colleagues to develop new models to engage business in addressing critical environmental issues, including efforts to reduce pollution from fertilizer and emissions from deforestation, and EDF’s playbook’s getting richer and more diverse with each new project. At the moment we’re ramping up a competition to identify innovative technologies to make it easier for the oil and gas industry to find and quickly fix methane leaks, as well as working with Walmart to phase out toxic chemicals from their supply chain.

With exciting challenges ahead, I look forward to applying lessons learned from the Summit: to be bold in seeking transformational change; be humble in learning from the expertise around me; and to seek alliances, however uncommon, with those willing to work together.

By Brendan FitzSimons

Brendan FitzSimons (2nd from left) speaking at Accelerating Sustainability

Today’s environmental challenges are bigger, thornier and more interconnected than ever. Meeting these challenges will require more effective collaborations among businesses, governments and NGOs to discover and deliver solutions.

That’s why it was so encouraging to see the focus on partnerships between these sectors to scale up sustainability at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation's 2014 Accelerating Sustainability Forum.

I participated in a panel entitled “Sustainability and the Return on Collaboration” with Eunice Heath, Dow Chemical’s global director for sustainability, Ann Klee, GE’s vice president of environment, health and safety, and Monique Oxender, Keurig Green Mountain’s senior director for sustainability. Chris Guenther of SustainAbility, the panel’s moderator, asked us to share our perspectives on collaboration and how they have evolved over time.

During the panel, I spoke about EDF’s more than two decades of experience working with leading companies to unlock environmental benefits, starting with our first corporate partnership with McDonalds to identify opportunities to cut waste and save money. That approach—identifying opportunities that deliver both environmental benefits and business value—has characterized our other corporate collaborations, including those with FedEx, Walmart, and AT&T.

For example, our work with AT&T has focused on identifying ways to cool their buildings more efficiently, saving both water and energy. Based on our work together, AT&T has publicly committed to saving 150 million gallons of water and 400 million kilowatt hours of electricity from building cooling each year by 2015.

Increasingly, companies like AT&T are also recognizing the influence collaborations like these can have on environmental performance beyond their own walls and operations:

• AT&T is using its influence and resources to drive further water and energy reductions, including by encouraging its suppliers to reduce their water use.
• AT&T and EDF worked together to develop a set of tools to help other organizations save water and energy—and they are available for free online for anyone to download and use.
• In addition, we’ve pooled resources to spur the adoption of these tools in five water-stressed cities—Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles and Phoenix—to scale up additional water savings in areas where they’re vitally needed.

Guenther noted that while collaboration is needed to develop environmental solutions that can overcome industry and competitive boundaries, these efforts can also be challenging. An audience member took that opportunity to ask the panel what we thought were the key elements for successful partnerships:

1. Take the time to build relationships and understand your partner’s concerns.
2. It’s important to understand the business case for making environmental improvements. Often, the business case is based on cost reductions, but other compelling arguments include risk management, the creation of new business opportunities, or brand/reputational benefits.
3. Be clear on goals and objectives of a partnership to avoid any confusion or disappointment among both parties.

While collaborations to realize environmental benefits among companies and NGOs can change over time and require care and attention, they hold the potential to address problems affecting not only a single company, but an entire industry.

Additional reading:

AT&T, EDF Promote Conservation Toolkit In Water-Stressed U.S. Cities:  bit.ly/1jLX9Ww

When Social Good Trumps Competition: shar.es/SVZWQ