- Home
- Articles posted by: Rona Fried (Page 2713)

Top 20 for EnvironmentThis was the first year the Financial Times included an environmental category in its annual survey of the world’s most respected companies. 914 CEOs from 65 countries and 110 media commentators and nongovernmental organizations were asked which 20 companies they perceived as having the best environmental reputation. Surprisingly, both camps chose BP (British Petroleum) as number one! Apparently, both groups gave BP an “A” for effort. A CEO commented, “They have got this ‘beyond petroleum’ tag these days, but I think they do live up to it.” And an activist summed it up, “Although they have a long way to go, they deserve credit for their effort.” CEOs picked Royal Dutch/ Shell as number two, another highly regarded oil industry leader; the media/activist group chose The Body Shop. Toyota placed third with CEOs; Honda and Ford placed third and fourth with the media/activist camp, and Shell rated fifth. Toyota and Honda won praise for taking the lead on efficient vehicles and for recycling car parts. Ford received support for its Michigan factory roof garden, its recycling efforts and support of national parks. From here, the groups diverged. CEOs like ExxonMobil, media and activists like McDonald’s (for their […]
Read More
The Federal Network for Sustainability (FNS) is a new initiative to help agencies across the federal government implement sustainable practices. It functions as a trade group and consists of representatives from the Department of Energy (DOE), EPA, General Services Administration (GSA), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), National Park Service, U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy, Bonneville Power Administration, and NASA. There have been a number of attempts to direct the single largest purchaser of products and services in the world – the U.S. federal government – toward environmental purchasing. The Environmental Preferable Purchasing program launched in 1993 and President Clinton’s 1998 “Greening of Government” Executive Orders have met with only modest success. Recently, the EPA conducted a study to find out why. They found that surprisingly, federal employees do not perceive the programs as mandates because they were issued government-wide, rather than by top management in their own agencies. Also, few employees understand the “environmentally preferable purchasing” or how to do it. FNS hopes to rectify these problems. FNS has four initiatives slated for 2001-2002: 1. Electronic Products Stewardship: FNS is supporting EPA’s efforts to develop and promote electronic product stewardship initiatives. 2. Green power: promote the use […]
Read More
What's the status of organic food certification is China?
Read More
It's not hard to imagine why the U.S. Defense Department is the nation's largest energy user ( 1% of all energy) when their tanks get .56-mpg and aircraft get 17-feet-per-gallon. Amory Lovins tells us how they can root out waste, potentially saving us $10 billion a year.
Read More
Beantrees, one of the few purely organic coffee companies, is positioned to rapidly expand the company as well as the organic coffee market. Coffee is a huge market - with equally huge environmental and social ramifications. Try a cup!
Read More
Victory! Illegal Mahogany Logging Stopped in Brazil Amazon & Dutch banks pull out of palm oil plantations.
Read More

The Alameda County Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California (see photo) will host the largest roof-top solar electric system in the U.S. (the fourth largest in the world). PowerLight Corporation will expand the Jails existing solar array from 640 kilowatts to 1.14 megawatts – to provide 30 percent of the facility’s power needs. Along with energy efficiency improvements, the system will save the county $400,000 the first year, and $15 million over its 25-year lifespan. [sorry this link is no longer available]— — —For the past seven years, Vestas Wind Systems (Denmark), the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, has owned a 40 percent stake in the second largest manufacturer, Gamesa Eolica (Spain). The companies have parted ways and Gamesa bought its shares back. Gamesa is also purchasing the Navarre government’s nine percent stake to buy back 100 percent of the company. Analysts say Gamesa’s plans to expand in the Danish company’s markets caused the rift. Will Vestas buy Enron Wind, the only U.S.-based manufacturer of utility-scale wind turbines? Vestas plans to begin manufacturing wind turbines in the U.S. if the U.S. Production Tax Credit (PTC) is extended. The company’s goal is to increase its world market share from 18 percent […]
Read More
This month's Ecos Insight Column: Creating value is the most powerful driver for business action.
Read More
Read More
EU Tax Reform Campaign Launches“Getting the Prices Right,” is a new 18-month campaign by the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) to build broad support for environmental fiscal reform at both the EU and country levels. Its ambitious goals are :* a minimum 10 percent revenue-neutral shift from taxing labor to taxing natural resource use by 2010; * removal of all environmentally harmful subsidies by 2005; * financial incentives for environmental protection; and * stronger energy-efficiency policies. The EEB is also pushing for approval of the long-controversial minimum EU energy tax rates proposal. If the EU fails to reach agreement on energy tax rates, EEB Secretary-General John Hontelez said that countries should go forward on their own to coordinate environmental taxation outside EU structures. http://www.eeb.orghttp://www.ecotax.info: goes live January 1, 2002— — — OECD Releases U.S. Economic Survey, Urges Environmental TaxesThe Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) last week released its annual U.S. Economic Survey which concluded that the U.S. should implement environmental taxes to encourage citizens to reduce gasoline use and other carbon-emitting fuels. The authors recommend using the revenues to offset social and environmental costs from vehicle-use, including road maintenance, noise and pollution abatement, and automobile accident response. The OECD […]
Read More
Page 2,713 of 2,804« First«...102030...2,7112,7122,7132,7142,715...2,7202,7302,740...»Last »