I think that’s absolutely fantastic.

But what I love most of all is how the company is going about it.

The company is putting every department on the hook for reducing the carbon impact for their part of the business.

Managers will have to factor in carbon emissions impacts in their budgets.

Money talks.

Via triplepundit.com:

Microsoft Commits to Carbon Neutrality

The new accounting system at Microsoft will be based on an internal carbon fee that the company’s finance department will charge to all of the company’s business groups.

Each division will be tasked with finding a more efficient way to offset the carbon emissions associated with their fuel consumption and air travel. Hence the new carbon strategy at the company’s Redmond, WA headquarters and beyond will have three pillars: be lean, be green and be accountable. 

Employees within at all functions within Microsoft will be affected by the new carbon accounting rules, whether they work in data centers, software development laboratories, administrative buildings, or are traveling for the company.

If necessity is the mother of invention, I’m betting that the very smart people who work for Microsoft will come up with some truly innovative strategies to meet their targets while maintaining shareholder value.

Because the whole world is going to be watching.

If they pull it off, Microsoft will provide the business world with the show-it-can-be-done example needed to bring other companies along on the path to Sustainability.

Gather facts.

Inform citizens.

Listen to citizens.

Hold vote.

Sign bill into law.

Via ecopreneurist.com:

Hawaii Becomes First State in U.S. to Ban Plastic Bags

Following the City Council’s 7-1 vote in favor, Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle signed SB2511, a bill banning plastic bags in retail stores yesterday across Honolulu County, which comprises the island of Oahu and Hawaii’s capitol city of Honolulu. What makes the bill’s passage extra significant is that Hawaii’s other counties had previously banned plastic bags, meaning that Hawaii has just officially enacted the first full statewide ban on plastic bags in the nation.

Read the 2012 Status of U.S. Fisheries report.

Coverage of the congressional report comes via Gloucestertimes.com:

NOAA sustainability reports shows new gains

By Richard Gaines Staff Writer

NOAA made its annual report Monday to Congress on the status of the nation’s fish stocks, and noted that, in 2011 the so-called Fish Stock Sustainability Index — a kind of Dow Jones Industrial Average for 230 key fish stocks — continued improving for the 11th straight year.

The good news on top  is that progress is being made toward ending overfishing and rebuilding fish stocks, “due to the commitment of fishermen, fishing communities, nongovernment organizations, scientists and managers.”

Well enough.

But good enough, and more importantly, fast enough?

Probably not.

Here’s where things stand today with 2011 cod catch limits, and the forecast for next year:

Based on the 2011 assessment, the catch limit on Gulf of Maine cod for the 2012 fishing year that started May 1 is set at 22 percent lower than it was in 2011. But far more drastic cutbacks are expected from NOAA beginning May 1, 2013. The 22 percent cut is considered an interim measure.

It’s hard to stay positive about real, incremental positive improvement in recreational and commercial inshore stocks when offshore draggers are scraping the bottom of the Stellwagen Bank ocean clean of  fish. Read more on this.

How are these major commercial fishing operations getting away with this? By exploiting weaknesses in the Catch Share program rules. Read an article on some ways that draggers may be beating the rules.

It’s a very very complicated issue.

But at the end of the day, once the vastly diminished cod stocks are gone, they’re gone.

Ciao Cod.

Related article: If We Eat All the Fish, Whose Tragedy Is it?

At least as far as being a corporate buzzword.

Couldn’t ask for better news.

Nothing lights a fire under most of us than the threat of losing our job.

So businesses are getting down to reducing carbon outputs, decreasing water use, cutting transportation costs, slimming supply chains, and reducing risks.

Via ZDNet.com:

Sustainability is Dead. Long Live Sustainability

Corporations around the world are emerging from an extended period of economic duress by aggressively taking strides to gain even the slightest edge over their competition. Tough times have left companies leaner than ever, and they’re getting meaner every day by keeping a cold eye on their own operations: no excess energy consumption, no silly shipping routes, no bottom line bullshit. This is a business, and it should operate like one.

These don’t sound like sustainability stories, but that’s the point. The electricity grid improvement could reduce energy consumption. The fragrance manufacturing example could remove excess inventory from the distribution center. The airline example could avoid a costly accident.

The Sustainability mindset is about acting today in ways that preserve vital resources and prepare for future business success.

The faster this gets adopted at all levels of all organizations, the better.

A key success here in my mind–and hopefully a model for future development–is that this project required a lot of people with their own agendas and motivations to work together. It could not have been easy to coordinate this first-in-class project between a state-regulated public utility (PSE&G), a joint government/business  commission, private industry, and state government officials.

Via NJSpotlight.com and Tom Johnson’s reporting:

New Jersey’s Newest Solar Farm Is a Real Dump

Large-scale solar project built on former landfill in Meadowlands produces enough power for up to 500 homes

Public Service Electric & Gas and others yesterday dedicated a new 3-megawatt solar farm on 13 acres of the former landfill, producing enough electricity to power up to 500 homes.

The $17.8 million solar farm project, a joint effort between PSE&G, the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission, and SunDurance Energy, an Edison-based solar developer, is the first solar project built on a state-owned landfill.

Mr. Johnson, thank you for an informative article and a headline that made me smile.

As author Margaret Shaw notes in a blog post for CSRwire.com, the rapidly diminishing deep ocean fish stocks that lie outside national jurisdictions are out of sight, out of mind and beyond legal recourse.

Call it the tragedy of the oceans.

If no one owns them, can I take them all?

Who can stop me?

Is that fair? Is that right?

Does it even make sense for me to do that?

A new UN panel convened May 8 to discuss a new program that will tackle these questions and others regarding global fish stocks.

Via CSRWire.com:

Fisheries up for Grabs: Who Owns our Fish?

“At the United Nations yesterday, a Program on Global Sustainable Fisheries Management and Biodiversity in ABNJ was introduced to protect the biodiversity of this area, which some consider to be the last global “commons” on Earth.

A new program that will devote $44 million to manage the long-term health of this frontier which is depreciating rapidly. Throughout history, it’s been “every man for himself” out there beyond the watchful eyes of citizens, giving way to total anarchy dominated by highly sophisticated $10 billion dollar/year fishing operations equal to 6.3 million tons caught per year.

With millions of tons of fish brought to market each year, it’s a fair question to ask why this level of harvesting is a problem:

No deep-sea bottom trawl vessels or fleets have demonstrated that they can fish deep-sea species sustainably and prevent damage to deep-sea ecosystems.

On the table for Rio+20 next month, though not without conflict, is an end to government fishing subsidies, considered to be as damaging as fossil fuel subsidies. No agreement has been reached here, nor has a proposed phase-out of all deep-sea bottom-trawl fishing on the high seas by 2015.

And, what remedies and solutions could be enacted to help achieve sustainable goals:

Also at the negotiating table is a call for labeling, and for seafood buyers and retailers to only buy and sell fish from deep-sea fisheries that have clearly demonstrated no harm to deep-sea ecosystems.

Today, as global fish stocks decline, seafood becomes an increasingly expensive item for the rich and a rarity for the poor. With the world population expected to reach 8.2 billion by 2030, the planet will have to feed an additional 1.5 billion people, 90 percent of whom will be living in developing countries many of which depend on local fisheries.

When we over harvest fish beyond sustainable levels, there are inevitable downstream impacts. For one thing, eventually you won’t be able to catch any more fish yourself.

In the bigger picture, overfishing means less for people who depend on local fish for their survival.

I reject the Tragedy of the Commons thesis that individuals, acting from self-interest, will inevitably overexploit resources even when it’s cleanly not in our best interests to do so.

I believe this because humans have sustainably stewarded resources for millenia.

Farmers know to replenish their fields. Hunters know to leave the does. Fisherfolk know to release breeding lobsters back to the sea.

It’s only in the past few hundred years that technology has allowed us to take beyond Nature’s ability to replenish.

Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should.

This is especially true for kids and adults with asthma.

On days with poor air quality, people with asthma and other respiratory conditions can take care of themselves better by limiting outdoor air exposure and limited exertion.

So why not help communities keep their citizen informed? Like, say, by flying brightly colored indicator flags over schools and municipal buildings.

Sort of like how beaches post “Rough Surf” warning flags to advise swimmers of  dangerous conditions.

That’s where the EPA is going with their School Flag Program. This initiative is designed to help children, parents, school personnel and the community be aware of daily air quality conditions using brightly colored flags.

Each day, a flag is raised in front of participating schools that signals the level of air pollution for that day. By comparing the colored flags to the Air Quality Index (AQI), members of the school and the surrounding community can tell what the daily air quality is, and adjust their activities to reduce their exposure to air pollution. Green indicates good air quality, yellow is moderate, orange means unhealthy for sensitive groups (like children and those with asthma), and red signals unhealthy air for everyone.

But let me ask you…would your town go for it?

Could your public officials and business community stand the sight of a daily reminder of whether the air in your town is safe to breathe?

Especially if you lived in a town near an incineration plant or chemical refinery?

Your officials might well care, and care deeply, but feel limited in their ability to do anything about it.

Pardon the pun, but my cynical Jersey-native nose says this program doesn’t pass the smell test.

I wonder how many NJ schools participate in this program?

I hope I’m wrong and learn that this program is being well-received and helping communities work for better, clearer, safer air everyday.

I’ll update once I hear back from the EPA coordinator.

Learn more: EPA School Flag Program

And that palm oil production is a contentious, multifaceted problem.

I don’t eat much processed or packaged food. I’m mostly outside the junk and boxed food conversation.

Maybe that’s why palm oil wasn’t on my radar.

I never thought about where it comes from, how it’s produced, and most importantly, that it’s in many, many more products than I would have imagined.

(In the UK about 40% of manufactured food contains palm oil.)

I didn’t realize that palm oil has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere happens to be largely Indonesian plantations where carbon-sequestering, primate-dwelling rain forests used to grow.

Four palm oil problems:

1. Deforestation, with resultant CO2 emissions

2. Habitat destruction, with resultant impact on threatened species, including Orangutans.

3. Pervasive presence in processed foods, with resultant pressure to produce more and more.

4. Social justice issues with displacement of indigenous peoples.

Here are three articles from the past 5 years that talk about palm oil and its problems:

Via Treehugger.com

January 6, 2007 Palm Oil: A Rainforest in Your Shopping Cart

July 6, 2009 Rainforest Destroying Palm Oil Hiding in Far More Products Than Previously Thought

May 2, 2012: Palm Oil Even Worse For Deforestation, Emissions Than Thought

Now that I am aware of this issue, I will read labels more more carefully and keep learning about how palm oil sourcing and production can be made more sustainable.

I am fascinated by what activates each of us to make meaningful lasting change in our lives.

And by the shopping choices we make to support those changes.

If green marketing can play a role in helping Americans make buying choices that are healthier for themselves, their families and the planet, I’m all in.

So, how’re we doing?

A new Ipsos survey on green shopping shows, no surprise, that people don’t buy things that cost more and might not work as well.

Via treehugger.com

Big Surprise: Most People Don’t Buy Green Products If They Cost More

So then what’s behind these results? Writ old-school, let’s start with the customers’ objections:

7 Reasons Why We Don’t Shop Green

1. Cost: They cost more up-front

2. Perceived Effectiveness: They think green products don’t work as well

3. Fear of Change: Don’t want to try something new

4. Status: Attachment to a certain brand or product feature (scrubbing bubbles! mountain fresh scent!)

5. Short-term mindset/Small-view perspective: “What happens in my home/yard stays in my home. My actions don’t impact others or the environment.”

6. Irrational defiance: “I know that fast food is bad for me but it is my right to buy it when I want it.”

7. Absence of urgency: “There’s plenty of water coming out of my tap so there really isn’t a need to conserve.”

8. Impatience: “I want the bathroom spotless in 5 minutes.”

4 Reasons Why We Should Shop Green

1. Personal health and safety

2. Belief in a better tomorrow

3. Concern for our neighbors, near and far

4. Positive feedback from longer-term gratification

I believe that our dominant American culture values short-term quick results over better long-term outcomes.

I also believe we can change this conversation for the greener.

What are your reasons for shopping green, or not?

Via EnvironmentalLeaders.com:

Kraft Shaves 1oz from Kenco Coffee Jar

Packaging firm PI has created a jar for coffee brand Kenco that uses 28 g (1 oz) less glass than its predecessor.

The redesigned jar will be used on Kenco’s pure soluble line and incorporates redesigned elements such as corner chamfers and the “regal” closure from the previous jar.

The jar and cap were modeled in 3D and have been designed to increase label size and shelf standout for the product line that features 100 percent sustainably sourced beans.

PI also tried to create a visual link between the primary pack and its refill to assist consumer understanding of usage, and promote the use of less environmentally-damaging refill packs.

Kenco is a subsidiary of Kraft UK, whose parent company Kraft Foods has been on something of a sustainable packaging drive recently.

In April, Sonoco created a jar for Kraft peanut brand Planters that weighs 84 percent less than its predecessor. The packaging replaces Planters’ 16oz. and 20oz. glass peanut jars. It is made of 100 percent recyclable, BPA-free plastic and requires 25 percent fewer trucks for transportation than the old jars, Planters says.