Greenpoint joins Grayling

Posted on March 2, 2013 by msaxton1

We are delighted to announce that we have joined Grayling with immediate effect. With our integration into Grayling, we are expanding and strengthening the group’s award winning sustainability practice, Future Planet, with our proven expertise in cleantech. As one team with unrivalled national and international resources, we are well-placed to realise the ambitions of cleantech and sustainability clients.

Grayling Future Planet has been recognised as a leader in the sustainability field, winning more than 20 national and international awards over the past five years, including Business Green Leaders Green PR Company of the Year 2012. Future Planet acts as the official communications partner of 2degrees, the global online community for sustainable business, and currently chairs the PRCA CSR and Sustainability working group.

Alison Clarke, CEO UK & Ireland, Grayling said: “Grayling Future Planet has a strong track record in advising global FMCG companies and the automotive sector on sustainability strategy. The expansion of the team through Greenpoint means we have an immediate footprint in clean-tech, a fast-growing area of sustainability.”

To find out more about Grayling Future Planet, why not visit the website or better still give Michael Saxton a call on +44 (0)20 7592 7933.

Please update your contacts with our new email addresses and phone numbers, as our details will change from 1 March 2013.

Zero to landfill

Posted on February 2, 2013 by msaxton1

In November 2010, Unilever committed to a ten year journey towards sustainable growth with its Sustainable Living Plan. The plan applies right across the value chain. As a result, Unilever voluntarily decided to take responsibility not only for its own direct operations and for its suppliers and distributors, but also for how consumers use its brands.

In India, Unilever sells brands like Dove and Surf in sachets making it more affordable for consumers. However, it wanted to reduce the environmental impact of millions of sachets going into the waste stream.

A pilot programme is now well underway that takes spent sachets and puts them into a Pyrolysis process, which heats up the plastic laminate sachets to produce fuel oil. Almost 60 per cent of the energy is recovered through the process. Unilever buys back the polymer oil from the processing plant.

The advantage of Pyrolysis is that it can be applied to almost type of plastic laminate. The challenge, which Unilever recognises, is to create a system that delivers waste to the plant. To this end, it is working with the Indian government and NGOs to develop ways to collect sachets.

Closer to home, Unilever this week announced that it has achieved zero waste to landfill at all of its factories in the UK and Ireland. This has been achieved through the elimination of waste in the factories and greater waste reduction, reuse, recycling and recovery of waste.

Indeed, over 130 Unilever factories across the world now send no non-hazardous waste to landfill. Unilever has reached the milestone of 100% of sites in 18 countries sending zero waste to landfill. This is the equivalent of removing more than one million household bins of waste every year.

By the end of 2015, Unilever aims to almost double the number of its factories sending zero waste to landfill.

Green light for Green Deal

Posted on January 28, 2013 by msaxton1

Today marks the date that finance packages come into play that will enable work to start on accredited Green Deal schemes.

The Green Deal means home owners and tenants (with their landlord’s agreement) can make their properties more energy efficient without paying up-front. The repayments come off the electricity bill. The so-called ‘Golden Rule’ of the scheme is that the loan repayments made by the property owner must be less than, or equal to, the savings on their energy bill. There are 45 different home improvements for installation available under the deal. These range from loft and cavity wall insulation to draught-proofing, secondary glazing and heating controls.

In an uninsulated home a quarter of heat is lost through the roof according to The Energy Saving Trust. As loft insulation is effective for at least 40 years, it should be the first thing that people address to become more energy efficient.

So how does the scheme work?

The first step is to request a home visit from a Green Deal assessor, who will identify any improvements that are suitable and would pay for themselves. Some assessors may charge for the assessment. Homeowners/tenants can then go to as many providers as they like for quotes. The Green Deal assessor is likely to quote, but as with most things, it is likely to pay to shop around. To find approved assessors and providers visit www.greendealorb.co.uk/consumersearch The Energy Saving Trust can also help in England, Wales and Scotland (the Green Deal only applies to these three parts of the UK for now).

The question that worries everyone is ‘will the savings made be greater than the cost of the work?’ The scheme works like this: Green Deal repayments must be pre-agreed, based on the assessor’s estimate of your future cost savings. So the actual savings will depend on how much energy you use and how fuel prices change. The property owner/tenant can do a lot to control the former, especially if they use a smart meter with an energy monitor. However, there is nothing they can do about the latter. Therefore, there is a risk that repayments will end up costing more than any savings.

There is one further thing that will worry property owners: The Green Deal commitment stays with the home and passes on to the new owner. This could restrict saleability as potential buyers might not understand or welcome an extra debt. And if the buyer does not feel comfortable taking over the Green Deal loan then the owner may be forced to repay the Green Deal off early. Should this arise, the Green Deal provider is allowed to charge a fee for early repayment if they want. This is because under the regulations for the Green Deal the provider is entitled to claim for the interest that would have been paid by the homeowner should the Green Deal have run its course. According to Which? magazine this early repayment fee could be substantial.

It’s hard to imagine that any homeowner is against making their property more energy-efficient. And purchasers should take comfort that the property is energy-efficient. Clearly, they would want to see evidence of the work that had taken place and that any measures were resulting in cheaper bills. There’s also ample protection available to buyers and sellers around Green Deal installations. Government regulations mean that measures carried out under the Green Deal are guaranteed for a minimum of five years.

One final thought from us: it is worth remembering that the Green Deal it is not the only way to pay for energy-efficient installations – increasing your mortgage is an option. And savvy property owners will be able to weigh up the options soon enough when the Green Deal interest rates and terms are known.

Cleantech East Africa

Posted on November 10, 2012 by msaxton1

East Africa is shaping up to be one of the emerging markets for cleantech. Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda possess significant renewable energy resources that span small hydro, solar and wind to geothermal and biomass.

Take Kenya. It is looking to raise its 1.3GW of clean energy capacity to 18GW by 2030. The nation already has Africa’s largest wind farm with the 300MW Lake Turkana project. This is due to be completed in 2014, and has an estimated geothermal capacity between 7,000MWe and 10,000MWe concentrated in the Rift Valley.

Ethiopia is thought to have 45,000MW hydroelectricity capacity, more than 10,000MW of wind and 5,000MW geothermal. However, to date it has tapped just over 2,000MW of green energy. The Ethiopian government has a five-year plan in place to change that, with the goal of increasing the current power generation capacity to 10,000MW by 2015.

In Tanzania, the Tanzania Domestic Biogas Programme (TDBP) is providing finance assistance to low-income farmers who wish to electrify their homes and have the capacity to support a biogas plant. Through an anaerobic process, cow manure and urine are stored in an underground digester and separated into methane gas and fertile slurry. The gas can be used to produce a small amount of electricity for stove cooking. The slurry can then be used as a fertilizer for the farms. The gas stoves also significantly reduce the harmful smoke inhaled b while preparing and cooking food. TDBP has been highly successful to date and expects to install 12,000 plants by 2013.

However, financing cleantech remains a barrier to deployment in the East African region where the majority of the populations do not have access to electricity. Understanding what type of Grid-connected and off-grid solutions can be deployed will be vital to bring power to rural regions. Ultimately, supplying sustainable energy is a crucial challenge in the economic development of this resource-rich region.

There are signs that investors are taking the region seriously.

In June 2012, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation announced the launch of the U.S. – Africa Clean Energy Initiative (US-ACE) in collaboration with the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. The Initiative consists of $20 million in available funding for environmental impact assessments, finalisation of power purchase agreements (PPA), preparation of feasibility studies and other project development. OPIC identified a number of key factors for attracting investment. These included establishing a renewable energy framework, a creditworthy offtaker with a strong PPA, and a stable regulatory, political and economic environment.

The World Bank offers another route via its Clean Technology Funds. They have a total envelope of $4.5 billion. To date, these funds have been used to leverage over $37 billion of additional investment for projects such as energy efficiency programmes and the creation of renewable energy installations.

The UK government too is exploring the potential. Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker recently took a delegation of cleantech companies and investors on a whistle stop tour of the region with a view to expanding trade links between the UK and East African countries.

Cleantech USA

Posted on November 5, 2012 by msaxton1

West Coast cities are at the forefront of the cleantech sector according to a new report that brings together nearly two dozen metrics such as hybrid electric vehicles, certified green buildings and cleantech venture capital investments.

Devised by Clean Edge, the US Metro Cleantech Index provides a comprehensive and objective analysis of how the fifty largest metropolitan regions compare across the cleantech spectrum.

“West Coast metro regions, which have been at the forefront of regional cleantech efforts and have strong state support, dominate the inaugural U.S. Metro Clean Tech Index,” said Clean Edge Managing Director Ron Pernick. “But other regions show significant strengths and assets, from Chicago and Washington D.C. to Austin and Salt Lake City, representing the diversity of clean-tech leadership and activities across the nation.”

Six of the top seven metro regions in cleantech are on the west coast. The top 10 are:

San Jose, California
San Francisco, California
Portland, Oregon
Sacramento, California
Seattle, Washington
Denver, Colorado
Los Angeles, California
Washington, DC
Boston, Massachusetts
Austin, Texas

Other headlines from the report include:

Portland, Oregon has more LEED-certified green-building projects per capita than any other metro region, but Las Vegas earns the green-building crown for total LEED square footage per capita.
The top metro regions with the largest share of electric vehicles on the road are all in California – San Francisco/San Jose, Los Angeles/Riverside, Sacramento and San Diego.
Raleigh, North Carolina has the lowest carbon emissions (metric tons per capita) from large facilities.
Boston, San Jose and Salt Lake City lead the nation with the most licensable clean technologies coming out of their university labs, per capita.
Just four metro regions have the presence of a Department of Energy lab, a Clean Energy Alliance Incubator and a top-ranked green MBA program: Chicago, Denver, New York and San Jose.

The US Metro Cleantech Index is primarily aimed at providing cleantech data and insights for local policymakers, economic development agencies, service firms, nonprofits, foundations and corporations.

In devising the report, quantitative indicators were levelised to account for population size/activity and included a broad range of benchmarks. These ranged from green building deployment, clean vehicles in use, advanced transportation infrastructure and public transportation ridership to regional electricity mix, GHG emissions, venture capital investment, clean energy patents and clean economy jobs.

Sustainability adds up

Posted on October 30, 2012 by msaxton1

Financial reporting and tax are pushing sustainability issues up the corporate agenda according to a survey by Deloitte among CFOs. And an increasing number of CFOs are becoming involved in sustainability as it adds up to a competitive advantage.

The Deloitte survey Sustainability: CFOs come to the table reveals an increased involvement by CFOs in sustainability. Two thirds of CFOs say they are involved in driving sustainability strategies in their organisations, and more than half say their involvement has increased over the last year. The findings suggest that more CFOs are engaging with sustainability to support their business goals, and operationalising sustainability to gain a competitive advantage.

Sustainability seems to be becoming increasingly operationalised, with the percentage of CFOs and COOs accountable to their company’s boards for sustainability issues nearly doubling from 20 percent to 36 percent in the past year. As such, CFOs have become focused on a number of sustainable operating practices:

Increased focus on sustainability in tax and financial reporting: As integrated reporting gains momentum, along with a growing number of green credits and incentive measures, CFOs placed greater importance on sustainability aspects of reporting. The majority of CFOs reported a meaningful impact from sustainability concerns on both financial reporting—74 percent—and tax matters—54 percent.

Increased investment in technology: To further reduce the footprint of company travel and energy use from data centers, CFOs plan to invest in three specific areas: video conferencing (56 percent), data center efficiency equipment (52 percent) and electric vehicles (35 percent).

Respondents cited plans to invest in three specific areas in order to reduce their company’s environmental impact: 56 per cent stated plans to use video conferencing and more than half stated plans to look at data centre efficiency. More than a third said they planned to invest in electric vehicles.

The survey took in 250 CFOs in 14 countries across five continents.

Read about Deloitte’s Business Simulation Game by clicking here.

Powering the UK

Posted on October 29, 2012 by msaxton1

A new report by Energy UK points to concern among investors about supporting renewable energy projects in the UK.

According to a survey conducted for the report, Britain has slipped down the global rankings of attractiveness for investors as a result of this policy uncertainty. In 2010, investors scored the UK 3.5 out of 5, but in its latest survey give Britain a score of 2.8.

Projects to build new power plants, marine energy parks and wind farms are stalling or in some cases have been abandoned because developers do not know whether they will be profitable.

The energy sector is vital to the UK. Energy companies’ investment is at a 20-year high. £43 billion has been invested in new power plants, electricity and gas networks over the past four years — more than any other sector.

Direct employment has increased with it, from 83,000 in 2008 to 137,000 last year. A further 654,500 jobs are reliant on the sector.

Investors’ appetites have weakened due to the recession, which has reduced electricity demand as well as created problems in obtaining finance, and a perception that the government has dithered over planned reforms to the electricity market. Therefore, all eyes will be turning to the Energy Bill, which is scheduled for publication next month. It’s been two years in development and for many in industry it cannot come a moment too soon.

In May, Siemens warned the Government that it would not build a planned £80 million factory in Hull if ministers reneged on commitments to offshore wind subsidies.

This summer carmakers urged the Prime Minister to get on with the energy reforms because they need clarity about future energy costs. And the CBI has said that Britain’s growing exports of green goods and services could halve the trade deficit by 2015, but not if the Government keeps sending mixed messages that are frustrating power and engineering companies.

Clearly, it must be hoped that the Energy Bill will improve revenue certainty in low carbon generation, making it easier and cheaper to secure finance.

More information on Energy UK’s Powering the UK survey is available by clicking here.

Solar’s ‘Space Race’

Posted on October 1, 2012 by msaxton1

The US Energy Department has launched the SunShot competition to make it faster, easier and cheaper to install rooftop solar energy systems.

At the heart of SunShot, which is inspired by JFK’s Moon Shot programme that put the first man on the moon, is the bold ambition to make solar energy competitive with other forms of energy without subsidy by the end of this decade.

The US Energy Department is making $10 million in cash awards available to the first three teams that repeatedly demonstrate the non-hardware costs, or price to plug in, can be as low as $1 per watt (W) for small-scale photovoltaic systems on US homes and businesses.

During the first phase of the competition, winning teams will successfully deploy 5,000 small-scale (2–15 kW) rooftop photovoltaic systems with non-hardware costs averaging $1/W. Phase two, which is intended to assess the business sustainability of the winning teams, calls for the installation of an additional 1,000 qualifying systems. The competition will run through 2015.

The first-place winner will receive $7 million, second place will receive $2 million, and third place will receive $1 million for successfully achieving these goals.

It will be fascinating to see if the SunShot Initiative can create a new momentum for the solar industry by highlighting the need for American competitiveness in the clean energy race. Perhaps it could become a blueprint for European nations like the UK.

Certainly, the US Energy Department is not lacking in confidence.

“This race to the rooftops is designed to inspire innovative teams including installers, local governments, and utilities to make solar energy systems more affordable,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “This aggressive target is an important step that will help bring us significantly closer to reaching the SunShot goal of cost-competitive solar energy by the end of the decade.”

Mapping US Renewables

Posted on September 30, 2012 by msaxton1

A new website reveals which US States have the most renewables in play. Click on the image below and discover the investments made in solar, biomass and wind. The data was compiled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.