2Sustain

Yesterday, SustainableBusiness.com released its 2009 list of the world’s top sustainable stocks. The eighth annual Sustainable Business 20 (SB20) List consists of 20 public companies that have emerged over the past year as sustainability leaders, based on the critique of a panel of green stock analysts. All 20 of these companies have made significant progress in either greening their internal operations or growing a business based on green technology. It’s also worth noting that these companies achieved this progress during the recession, and that more than one-third of the 20 are listed as “corporate pioneers” –companies with conventional products and services that are greening their product lines.

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Earlier this month, Greenpeace released a new report on the destruction of the Amazon, the world’s most important forest carbon store. “Slaughtering the Amazon” shines a spotlight on the cattle sector in the Brazilian Amazon, which according to Greenpeace, is the largest driver of deforestation in the world, responsible for one in every eight hectares destroyed globally. In addition, the report also alleges that some leather sourced from Brazil originates from illegal cattle ranches that contribute to deforestation. Naturally, a claim like that caught my eye because it raises the fundamental question that now plagues any company committed to greening its products: If you don’t control all aspects of the supply chain, how can you be sure your product is as sustainable as possible?

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Earlier this week, Ford Motor Company released its tenth annual sustainability report. The 2008/9 report, “Blueprint for Sustainability: Our Future Works,” contains detailed updates about the company’s progress in key areas of climate change, fuel economy, mobility, vehicle safety, and human rights.

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Debate over “The American Clean Energy and Security Act” –better known as “Waxman-Markey,” after its sponsors, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) –is heating up. And, if you’re looking for a source to bring you up to speed on the pros and cons of this legislation from an environmentalist’s perspective, you won’t find a better place than today’s post at Yale Environment 360.

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Union Pacific Railroad announced last week that its entire fleet of 4,950 refrigerated rail cars is now compliant with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) standards that take effect July 17. The company has invested approximately $18 million in its environmentally-friendly refrigerated boxcars over the past two years. That investment includes installing new Tier IVi diesel refrigeration units on more than 700 boxcars, and Union Pacific estimates that these new units will reduce diesel particulate emissions by 50% over  previous refrigerated boxcars.

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