Weighing the environmental impact

The CoClear Calculator is due to come out in June to help businesses identify sustainability factors of their operations. The product began as a collaboration between Columbia University and PepsiCo.

This calculator will also help businesses understand the impact of alternate ingredients and methods. A feature of the calculator is to analyze any single product or brand, but it will also be able to assess entire corporate portfolios to project the impact of sustainable strategies.

CoClear is an interactive and rather comprehensive tool with financial and environmental metrics. In short, it appeals to the business sense of corporations, while still meeting sustainable goals.

As an example, CoClear could analyze a fictional yogurt company’s ingredients and identify that coconut milk is its top ingredient. It could also analyze that this ingredient makes up 37.14 percent of the company’s greenhouse gas emissions while also accounting for 22.57 percent of the product line’s expenses. With that information, the calculator can then assess changes in these percentages if the company used dairy, nut, soy, or other coconut milk substitutions.

“Substitution scenarios can be run through the application to search for alternatives that may lower both GHGs and cost, and result in a supply chain optimization opportunity,” adds Paridis, CoClear’s CEO.

Source: http://www.inquisitr.com/2097702/coclear-calculator-tracks-business-sustainability/

ZYPHO - Drain water heat recovery

ZYPHO Drain Water Heat Recovery is a compact and highly efficient heat exchanger that is installed under the shower tray. It absorbs the heat energy from the drain water and uses it to preheat the cold water, allowing you to reduce your energy consumption by up to 40%. Thanks to its unique design, the ZYPHO is versatile and therefore suitable not only for domestic bathrooms but also for non-residential applications like sports facilities, hotels, campsites, hospitals, prisons, factory shower rooms, etc.

source: http://zypho.eu

GreenHotelWorld - The Green Booking Platform

The Green Booking Plataform - Eco Conscious Booking

GreenHotelWorld is a booking plataform that lets costumers find green certified hotels around the world.

To do so they built a green rating algorithm that sorts the hotels based on the their certified green practices, defined by the standards introduced by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.

This practices include environmental protection, social responsability, preservation of cultural heritage and support for the local economy.

https://www.greenhotelworld.com/

Corinthia Hotel Lisbon - The Energy Efficient Hotel

The Corinthia Hotel Lisbon, currently the biggest five star hotel in Lisbon, claims to be the most energy efficient hotel in the city.

A refitting project started in 2011, developed in a partnership with Galp Energia and ISQ Energia, two energy companies operating in Portugal, increased its energy efficiency dramatically.

The company was committed to reduce its energy consumption and at the same time its CO2 footprint by implementing efficient systems, and by the use of renewable energy sources.

The measures included the optimization of the water heating and acclimatization systems, lighting hardware and software and installing both a cogeneration and solar stations.

By the end of the refitting, the hotel was able to save 2,02 GWh/year. That’s 22% of its previous yearly energy consumption.

Replacing around 6300 halogen light bulbs for LED alone, granted a 202.599€/year save. The equivalent of 635.181 KG CO2/year or 31.753 trees.

Source: http://www.galpenergia.com/PT/Media/Noticias/Documents/2011/Apresenta%C3%A7%C3%B5es%20Evento%20Hotel%20Energeticamente%20Eficiente_Hotel%20Corinthia.pdf

Sustainability: from a nice-to-do to a must-do

The inspiring insights of IKEA's CSO on Sustainability

source: https://www.ted.com/talks/steve_howard_let_s_go_all_in_on_selling_sustainability#t-8690

Nearly zero, nearly there

The Nearly Zero Energy Hotels (neZEH) is an initiative inspired by the European Union's targets for the greenhouse gas reduction and co-funded by the EU's Intelligent Energy Europe Program.

Its purpose? To accelerate the rate of refurbishment of existing hotels, namely the small to medium, helping them to become Nearly Zero Energy Buildings by:

- providing technical advice to committed hotel owners

- demonstrating the profitability, feasibility and sustainability of investments towards nearly zero energy

- undertaking training

- promoting front runners at national, regional and EU level to increase their market visibility

The neZEH claims as benefits for the hospitality sector:

- energy savings and thus reduction of operation costs

- an improved image and service for guests

- access to a new "sustainability" market segment

- achieving Corporate Social Responsibility targets and sustainable balance

The initiative, a consortium of European institutes and agencies and the UNWTO, will run for three years (2013-2016) and includes several pilot projects in 7 countries.

In the next few weeks, we'll try to unveil more about those particular projects.

source: http://www.nezeh.eu/home/index.html

Planet People Profit

Understanding Sustainable Development as a triple-bottom line idea - economic, social and environmental, disambiguates the concept from an anti-capitalistic dream. In the words of Hevré Houdré, Sustainable Development is definitely geared toward profitability and the future. Thus without profit no business would be sustainable.

That, we think, is the best argument to convince shareholders to invest in sustainable planning for their companies.

It may seem difficult to balance planet and people aspects on one hand and profit on the other. In fact, history tells us that the industry's success was built in a large extent, since the late 18th century, at the expense of environment and social exploitation.

Environmentalism and the broad acceptance of human and labour rights brought some protection to planet and people.

However, it has been difficult to convince decision makers that long-term economical success can pair up with environmental and social prosperity. We're far from George H W Bush's "the American way of life is not negotiable" stand, but still far from a consensual agreement that preserving our natural assets may well be the only way to guarantee our long-term economical success.

Some factors though seem undeniable:

- The market is getting more conscious and demanding on environmental and social aspects of business and in the long run that can be an important factor of customer choice.

- Governments are progressively engaging in stick and carrot strategies to persuade companies to become greener.

- Whether because utilities and other input costs rise or competition pressures companies to lower their prices, improving operational efficiency is imperative to guarantee the desired margins.

Hence, acknowledging triple-bottom line sustainable development plans can only be seen as a triple-win situation: The company, by becoming more efficient, will reduce costs and meet the demands of both market and governments. That and CSR initiatives will create brand notoriety and differentiation from competitors. All put together will ultimately broaden the company's profit margins.

As this can be considered a virtuous cycle, the increased cash flow should enable new investments whether on social or environment performance. 

Improving the process' efficiency through a sustainable triple-bottom line point of view can only be seen as a source of competitive advantage.

image source: http://newgensurgical.com/environmental-stewardship/