SustainabilityBlog.org » Sustainability

Introducing SustainabilityForum.com Blogs

Fabian — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:28:13 +0000

I wanted to let you know that there will not be regular posts from this blog in the next few months. I will from now on focus on my major website SustainabilityForum.com.

If you are interested in interesting blogs about Sustainability then you will find everything you need on the SustainabilityForum.com blog section here:

http://www.SustainabilityForum.com/Blog

Or visit my personal and professional blog where I blog about Sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Social Media here:

http://www.FabianPattberg.com/

See you there.

Regards,

Fabian Pattberg, Editor of SustainabilityBlog.org

The Friday Sustainability Dilbert

Fabian — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 10:53:24 +0000

A funny end to the week. Or should I say a sad reality even though this Dilbert is obviously a lot over the top?

How can we start making sustainability a reality?

The UK sustainable economy is still viable

Fabian — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:52:43 +0000

The coalition Government’s emergency Budget began to stabilise the public finances and lay the foundations for economic recovery.

The next step is to ensure that what emerges from recession is a different kind of economy: rebalanced away from excessive reliance on household debt, property markets and banking, with prosperity spread more evenly across the country, supported by modernised and efficient infrastructure – all of which will support long-term, sustainable growth.

However, one of this Government’s crucial challenges is to ensure that this growth does not occur at the expense of the environment, but rather for its benefit. The balance must tip away from reliance on fossil fuels for power, heat and manufacturing.

Read the complete article here:

http://www.globe-net.com/articles/2010/july/5/the-green-economy-is-still-viable.aspx

Good article: UK’s challenge – Finding £550bn to build low-carbon economy

Fabian — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:36:29 +0000

Today I would like to point you to a very interesting and very relevant article on the aspect of financing the transition to a low carbon economy.

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If ever a time called for creative financing, now — 2010 in the UK — is the time. It’s a classic case of immovable object (the need to cut fossil fuel energy use and carbon emissions) meets unstoppable force (the government’s decision to slash the deficit with a £40 billion austerity programme). When the estimated cost to meet the UK’s 2020 climate and clean-energy goals stands at £550 billion, the funding mechanisms need to get very creative indeed.

The challenge looks even greater when you consider the vast array of projects and technologies that are needed to get from here, 2010, to there, 2020.

http://www.greenbang.com/uks-challenge-finding-550bn-to-build-low-carbon-economy_14643.html

Good article: How cynicism in the media can make us lose sight of our Sustainability goal

Fabian — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:44:48 +0000

“Focussing on problems and expecting the worst will have significant repercussions on how we deal with the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”

This is the key message from an interesting article in the Guardian this week. The article author has a fair point as well. We all need to be more positive about the future and make it happen. I know that this sounds hard. But is ist really? This is the beginning of the article.

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‘To further trample over an already well worn quote; Martin Luther King did not begin his famous speech with ‘I have a nightmare’. As far as I know, Churchill did not paint a picture of a ‘Broken Britain’ (as the Tories’ pre-election campaign did) when his desire was for solidarity and motivation. And a recent article in the Economist points out that Britain is far from broken. In fact, statistically, in the last 15 years we have seen improvements in almost every arena bar education.

Read the complete article here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainability/blog/8

The UAE demand for water grows but the reserves are depleting

Fabian — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:00:08 +0000

Water will be the gold of the future. This is something several people independely told me at an environmental event I was attending several months. This story on the water resources in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A very bleak picture is what the future seems to have in store for water reserves in the region. This is the beginning of the article.

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The Gulf Arab nation’s oil income has allowed it to subsidize extravagant water use for Emiratis, either those in gated communities sporting pristine pools and evergreen golf courses or for farmers clinging to ancient irrigation practices. Environmentalists warn the country, already reliant on costly desalination plants powered by its lucrative fossil fuels, must cut consumption by its 8.2 million people or risk depleting groundwater resources in 50 years.

“We need to convince them that water here isn’t a free resource. It’s not even a natural resource, it’s manmade. It is costly, and it has a big environmental impact,” said Mohamed Daoud of the state-run Environment Agency in Abu Dhabi.

Read the complete article here:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65K3MK20100621

On the BP Oil Spill: What Obama should have said!

Fabian — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:57:18 +0000

A very powerful video on what Barack Obama should have said about the BP Oil Spill.

Can Sustainability / CSR help with cleaning up the BP PR disaster?

Fabian — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:19:00 +0000

An interesting article on how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). I really liked this sentence: ‘It’s important to point out that CSR isn’t about crisis management’ Very true. All in all a very interesting article.

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Back in the spring, the story of Toyota’s runaway cars looked like it would drag on for months. Then Goldman Sachs conveniently landed in the crosshairs of legislators and securities regulators, taking the heat off the automaker. In turn, the bankers on Wall Street got a reprieve at the expense of the pelicans, fish and residents of the Gulf of Mexico, courtesy of BP.

In all these cases, and the many others that have grabbed headlines in recent months, the damage has already been done. And for the most part companies have surrounded themselves with crisis-management teams and public-relations hired guns to deal with their short-term problems. But if they’re smart, troubled companies will also review their policies around the emerging field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to discover why things went so wrong, say sustainability experts. Doing so could even help avoid a repeat of their woes in the future.

Read the complete article here:

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/06/14/when-things-get-messy

Climate Change and the spread of malaria

Fabian — Mon, 24 May 2010 16:54:59 +0000

This is and will be a big and very difficult future topic once the climate actually goes down hill in a way we as humankind notice notably. Why? Well because the developing world will and is feeling this impact many times as strong . Therefore topics such as access to medicine, disease prevention and access to fresh drinking water will all have a very strong relation to climate change. At least this is what I think. In any case. Here is the article about the debate.

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Bednets and drugs will influence the spread of malaria far more than will climate change, according to a study that challenges fears that warming will aggravate the disease in Africa. Many researchers have predicted that rising temperatures will cause malaria to expand its range and intensify in its current strongholds.

But unlike usual models, which aim to predict how climate change will affect malaria in the future, researchers looked at how warming affected the disease throughout the last century.

Read the complete article here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/21/climate-change-insects

Nature at its finest – Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull

Fabian — Fri, 14 May 2010 13:46:30 +0000

You might have had travel problems because of the volcoano eruption in Iceland but this footage is just so good to be mad about. Nature as we love it. Enjoy ( Best watched in full screen mode).

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

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