Whatever you can do, or dream you can…begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Goethe
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Daily Archives: February 14, 2007
A World without Coal: The Anvil Hill Case
I am very intrigued with the Anvil Hill case.
To understand the issue, check out the Living on Earth story or the Tree Hugger post on this.
A landmark legal judgment in Australia has thrown the country’s huge coal industry and many other major projects into uncertainty, thanks to growing concerns about climate change. A court in New South Wales, the most populous state in Australia, has ruled that business and industry must consider the global warming impact of large developments.
The Australian Financial Review reported that (not available online), green fees of carbon costs suggested by the Stern Review of $85 per tonne would make the proposed mine costly and would not be financially viable to sell coal.
I think it is important to understand the downstream effects of products and coal being one major producer of CO2, it is important to understand that.
I always would like to look at both costs and benefits of everything. What is the benefit of coal? Ofcourse; energy which powers the world. What is the cost? The increasing greenhouse gases which created climate change and its negative impact.
What are the alternative options? Coal from other countries. Nuclear power, but not for sometime. Other alternative energies? May be.
But what are the costs of not using this coal in the meantime?
Atanu Dey once told me the importance of energy. He explained to me the rise of the modern world due to the cheap availability of oil.
It’s almost like, “If you give me enough energy, I can change the world”.
Now, Imagine a world without electricity. According to the US Dept. of Energy, Worldwide, some 2 billion people are currently without electricity.
Look at the following image from the ‘German Advisory Council on Global Change’.
Now think about this.
We can stop this coal mine from starting but what about the 2 billion people with-ought electricity in India, China, Africa and other parts of the world? How many lives are being lost because we do not have electricity? Imagine the standard of living without energy?
I understand the problem of climate change but we also need to understand the bigger issues of poverty.
Walmart’s Sustainability 360
Walmart is known for a lot of things – from everyday low prices, destroying local communities to creating imbalance in US-China trade. However, for the past year or so it has been creating ripples in the Sustainability field. The ripples were for two reasons. One, should Walmart be believed? and two, if what Walmart is saying is true then it can effect the whole business world due to the size and influence of the organization.
Last year, H. Lee Scott, the CEO of Walmart have a speech on Leadership in the 21st Century. In this speech he outlined the need for sustainability and three ambitious goals for the corporation.
1. to be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy;
2. to create zero waste; and,
3. to sell products that sustain our resources and the environment.
After this speech, Walmart took many steps forward(PDF) in the sustainability field.
In a keynote speech to the Prince of Wales’s Business and Environment Programme, Lee Scott unveiled a company wide program called “Sustain
ability 360″. The sustainability program will now be part of its associates, customers and more importantly suppliers.
In the realm of the supply chain Walmart can make a huge difference. For example, Walmart’s target to reduce 5% packaging in all its products by 2013 will result in its 60,000 suppliers changing and saving a whooping $3.4 billion in Walmart’s supply chain and the potential to save $11 billion in the global supply chain.
Walmart is clearly showing leadership in its short 1.5 year journey in the sustainability area. It is a matter of time other large organizations around the world take this up. Clearly, the discussion for the “business case for sustainability” is over. The time is now for ideas, strategies, frameworks and tools and ofcourse the right people to make this happen.
