2Sustain

Communications conglomerate AT&T, in collaboration with global sustainability consultancy Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), is continuing its march on environmentally-conscious business practices with the release of a new eco-rating system for its products.

In just a few months, consumers will find AT&T eco-ratings on simple, easy-to-read-and-understand labels included with AT&T-branded mobile devices.

As a recent Deloitte study showed, sustainability is becoming increasingly important for consumer purchasing decisions. In fact, more than half (54 percent) of surveyed shoppers said they consider sustainability to be one of their top decision-making factors.

To provide consumers with information so they can make more educated and environmental decisions, AT&T’s new eco-rating system will cover attributes such as: (more…)

New research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) shows that electric vehicles are not just environmentally friendly; they also have the potential to improve the bottom line for many kinds of businesses.

Granted, the up-front costs of electric vehicles can be significant. A company looking to purchase an electric-powered delivery truck today will likely have to shell out nearly $150,000 –compared to about $50,000 for the same kind of truck with a standard internal-combustion engine.

But, the researchers at MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL) found that electric vehicles used to make deliveries on an everyday basis in big cities can cost 9 to 12 percent less to operate than trucks powered by diesel engines. What’s more, as battery costs continue to drop, the business case for electric vehicles will only get better, according to Jarrod Goentzel, director of the Renewable Energy Delivery Project at CTL and one of four co-authors of the new study.

The CTL study was conducted using data collected by the international office supplier Staples, as well as ISO New England, the nonprofit firm that runs New England’s electric power grid.

Using that data, the researchers modeled the costs for a fleet of 250 delivery trucks, and they examined alternate scenarios in which the whole fleet used one of three kinds of motors: purely electric engines, hybrid gas-electric engines and conventional diesel engines.

The researchers analyzed outcomes if the trucks in the fleet were driven 70 miles a day for 253 work days per year, with diesel gasoline costing $4 per gallon. They found that: (more…)

A new partnership between Nike, Inc. and Netherlands-based DyeCoo Textile Systems B.V., is poised to introduce a revolutionary technology to the sportswear world.

DyeCoo has developed and built the first commercially-available waterless textile dyeing machines. Remarkably, this industry-altering technology eliminates the use of water in the textile dyeing process by using recycled carbon dioxide—supercritical fluid carbon dioxide (SCF CO2 ) to be exact—to adhere coloring to cloth. After exploring this technology for the past eight years, Nike expects to showcase the new apparel at several events later in 2012.

Here are some facts and figures on the textile industry and what changes this growing technology will bring: (more…)

Even though US housing starts have dropped dramatically since 2008, green construction is significantly increasing as a share of activity, according to new research from McGraw-Hill Construction, in conjunction with the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and Waste Management.

For example, in 2011, green homes comprised 17 percent of the overall residential construction market. The new study revealed that builders now predict this share of activity will grow to between 29 percent and 38 percent by 2016 — equating to a five-fold increase in five years (from $17 billion in 2011 to $87-$114 billion in 2016).

In addition, construction industry professionals reported an even steeper increase in green home remodeling. About one-third of remodelers (34 percent) said they expect to be doing mostly green work by 2016 –that’s a whopping 150 percent increase over 2011 activity levels.

The main driver of the transition to green building appears to be the current economic climate:

• Many home builders have shifted to the remodeling market due to the drastic drop in new home construction. Well more than half (62 percent) of the builders who do both new and remodeling work verified that the economy has increased their renovation work.
• 46 percent of builders and remodelers and 71 percent of firms dedicated to green home building said they find “building green” makes it easier to market themselves in a down economy.
• A 7 percent drop in green construction costs has encouraged more home owners to seriously consider green building.

Three regions in particular are seeing higher than average growth in green building: the West Coast, the Midwest’s northern region and New England. But, the trend nationwide shows no signs of subsiding. In fact, the report projects that by 2016: (more…)

After an in-depth study of 17 global IT services firms across 52 different criteria, the independent analyst firm Verdantix concluded that Accenture, Deloitte, IBM and Logica now lead the way in the highly competitive sustainable technology services market.

According to the Verdantix report, these four firms have distinguished themselves with superior corporate sustainability strategies and stronger commercial expertise across advisory and systems implementation capabilities for:

• renewable energy
• facilities energy management
• sustainable data centers
• environmental compliance
• sustainability performance management
• low carbon transport
• smart grid
• smart meters
• climate change IT services

In addition, the analysis revealed that: (more…)