As climate change accelerates, leading investment groups are asking to hear more from corporations about their plans to adapt and survive in a changing world.

U.S. investors – pension funds, labor, religious and other institutional investors – filed a record number of climate change resolutions in 2009.

The 95 shareholder resolutions were filed with 82 U.S. and Canadian companies, some of which face special challenges from climate change, according to a news release by Ceres, a coalition of investors, environmental and social responsibility groups.

The number of resolutions represent a 40 percent increase over 2009 and were likely encouraged by recent guidance from the Securities and Exchange Commission on climate disclosure.

“As the SEC recently affirmed with its disclosure guidance, climate change presents clear material risks and opportunities for U.S. businesses – and investors have a right to know which companies are well prepared and which are not,” said Mindy S. Lubber, president of Ceres, which helps coordinate the shareholder filings.

Companies targeted by the resolutions include oil and gas corporations such as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, as well as the nation’s largest coal companies, electric utilities, homebuilders, “big box” retailers, financial institutions “and other businesses that investors believe are not adequately disclosing and managing potential climate-related business impacts,” according to Ceres.

Tar sands open mining, Alberta (Photo: U.S. Dept. of Interior.)

Investors want to know about the risks companies are taking with certain business practices that could increase a company’s carbon footprint and work against sustainability.

Resolutions, for example, targeted ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips over the companies’ plans to spend billions to extract fossil fuels from Canada oil sands deposits. The  shareholders want more information about the environmental impacts of this controversial practice, which faces legal challenges in both Canada and the U.S. They also asked for the companies’ assessments of potential risks to their reputation over oil sands extraction, a more complex, costly way to extract oil for petroleum.

Other resolutions asked big coal and electric utilities about their plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as the U.S. readies for possible regulation of GHGs.

“We want our companies to closely look at the impact climate change legislation and regulation have on them, to realistically assess those risks, and to consider the indirect consequences of climate change-driven regulation and business trends on their activities,” said Jack Ehnes, CEO of CalSTRS, the California teachers’ retirement pension fund, which manages $131 billion dollars in assets.

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, whose office oversees the state’s $129.4 billion pension fund and filed resolutions with CONSOL Energy Inc. and engineering firm KBR, also spoke out on behalf of more transparency.

“Investors cannot remain silent to the threats of global climate change, which has the potential to negatively impact businesses and their long-term profitability. The New York State Common Retirement Fund wants the companies it invests in to more clearly assess and better manage the far-reaching risks of climate change,” DiNapoli said.

AT&T today announced it will switch to more eco-friendly packaging for its wireless device accessories and the company will require manufacturers of its mobile phones to reduce the environmental impact of future handsets.

The Dallas-based company said it estimates that the packaging improvements for device chargers, cases, batteries and data cables will help to avoid more than 200 tons of wasted plastic and paper in 2010.

AT&T will work with its suppliers of mobile phone accessories to use less plastic and paper in packaging. Batteries and data cables will come in recyclable paper boxes rather than plastic “clam shell”-style packaging . The packaging for protective phone cases and car chargers will change to slimmer packaging. The changes will eliminate more than 60 percent of the paper and more than 30 percent of the plastic previously used for accessory products, AT&T said.

In addition to containing less paper and plastic, the improved accessory packaging will be printed using non-petroleum-based inks.

“These improvements are sound business decisions, but more importantly, they significantly reduce the impact of this packaging on the environment,” Jeff Bradley, senior vice president of devices, said in a statement. “This is a small but meaningful next step that AT&T decided to take, and we are pleased to deliver new packaging alternatives that are recycled, can be recycled, and generate less waste.”

In 2009, AT&T introduced environmental requirements and goals for the manufacturing of wireless devices. Those requirements begin to take effect for new wireless phones this year and must be fully met by the end of 2011. These include:

• AT&T’s suppliers must reduce packaging, use non-petroleum based inks and use recycled materials for in-box documentation of new devices.
• Seventy-five percent of new devices will be at least 65 percent recyclable. By weight, most of the new phones AT&T sells will be made of materials that can be recycled when the phones are retired.
• A majority of new devices will comply with the GSMA Universal Charging Solution. This change will allow consumers to use a single, more energy-efficient charger with most new devices.
• All new devices must comply with the European Unions’ Restriction of Hazardous Substances mandate. This directive restricts the use of lead, mercury, and other hazardous materials used in electronic equipment.
• Suppliers will be required to assert that all devices delivered to AT&T have avoided virgin materials mined in conflict zones within the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

You can get information about how to recycle with AT&T at www.att.com/recycle.

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Blame lawns. And Big Ag. A new study looking at the effects of the common pesticide atrazine has found that it emasculated three-quarters of the male frogs exposed to the chemical.

It turned one in ten of the male frogs into females.

African clawed frog (Photo: Columbia University)

The study suggests that a key reason for the vast worldwide decline of frogs could be their exposure to atrazine and similar pesticides. “The 75 percent that are chemically castrated are essentially ‘dead’ because of their inability to reproduce in the wild,” says Dr. Tyrone B. Hayes, a University of California-Berkeley professor and lead researcher of the study.

“These male frogs are missing testosterone and all the things that testosterone controls, including sperm….” Hayes says in a UC Berkeley news report.

The peer-reviewed study, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was released Monday.

Hayes’ earlier work with frogs and atrazine had shown that the chemical disrupted the development of both male and female frogs, creating hermaphrodites that had features of both sexes.

The new study of 40 African clawed frogs, which were housed in water contaminated with atrazine, shows that the hormonal imbalance can be even more extreme.

The frogs were exposed to a level of the chemical (2.5 parts per billion) below the level deemed safe by the EPA (3.0 ppb).

Syngenta AG, the large manufacturer of atrazine,  responded by calling Hayes’ work, past and present, flawed.

“For 50 years, atrazine has been used safely in agriculture with no effect to amphibians, fish, birds and other wildlife at concentrations found in the environment,’’ the company said in a statement. Syngenta maintains that independent research in labs has shown “no association between atrazine and declines in frog numbers.”

The European Union banned atrazine in 2004 over health concerns. The EPA is reviewing its use in the United States, and some states are suing over the use of the chemical, which leaches into groundwater and has been found above safe levels in drinking water supplies.

The Center for Biological Diversity has called for a U.S. ban on atrazine.

“It’s time to ban atrazine to protect our drinking water and our most imperiled wildlife,” said Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, in August, 2009. “There is no reason to continue use of this poisonous contaminant given the building evidence of harm to humans and endangered species.”

The chemical is used on corn and soybeans in the United States to control weeds and increase crop yields. Its tendency to contaminate streams and ground water caused the EPA to set a maximum level (3 parts per billion, ppb) for its presence in water. Water departments are required to test for atrazine at regular intervals and take action if levels rise above that.

The EPA reports that short-term exposure to atrazine can cause heart, lung and kidney problems; longterm exposure can cause cancer and other health effects.

Atrazine was the second most common pesticide found in well water by EPA researchers. It can break down in water and soil, but sunlight does not “reduce its presence,” according to the federal agency. (See the EPA fact sheet.)

Contamination is the Midwest is high, because of the proximity to agricultural use. Studies of atrazine and frogs in the Midwest have found eggs in the testes of native leopard frogs taken from atrazine-contaminated streams.

However, the chemical has been shown to travel hundreds of miles, with the EPA detecting unsafe levels in wells in New York and Delaware, as well as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Nebraska.

Atrazine also is found in many common products for home weed control. The EPA has put out a list of trade names of products that contain atrazine.

Other studies show that atrazine also acts as an endocrine disruptor in fish, birds, reptiles, laboratory rats and in human cells. Recent studies hint that is could produce human birth defects, according to the UC Berkeley news report.

Syngenta and others advocating conventional chemical farming argue that strong weed killers are needed to produce high crop yields and make U.S. farms more productive.

Recent research on soils and organic production has been challenging those assumptions. Studies on soil conditions in the US have found that the use of synthetic fertilizers and herbicides is depleting soils. Organic organizations, like the Organic Consumers Association, maintain that small, organic farms can produce enough to feed the world, without degrading soil or groundwater.

For more information on the dwindling world populations of frogs, see our previous story.

Walmart announced a plan to reduce carbon emissions across its global supply chain today, saying it intends to shave 20 million metric tons off its greenhouse gas emissions   through 2015.

Walmart CEO Mike Duke annoucing carbon reduction goals

The reductions will come from Walmart’s own operations and  from “the life cycle of the products we sell,” said Walmart CEO Mike Duke, adding that the savings would be the equivalent of taking 3.8 million greenhouse gas-emitting cars off the road for a year.

“It’s a very sizable goal, as we often do here at Walmart,” he said.

Calculated another way, the reductions represent 150 percent of Walmart’s anticipated carbon growth over the next five years.

The reductions will be done as Walmart works with suppliers and will come from reduced energy spent on manufacturing and transportation; from products redesigned to consume less raw material or last longer; from the reduction of disposable products and the increased use of recycled goods, Duke said. “All of this is part of the life cycle of products.”

“We will be the leader in retailing because we will be the first to look at the supply chain on a global basis,” he told an audience of partner groups, reporters and suppliers during the webcast announcement from the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark..

Duke explained that Walmart sees these carbon reductions as compatible with business growth.

“There are millions more customers around the world who really do want to save money and that Walmart could reach. We do plan and want to continue to build stores. We want to add square footage, that’s the reality of our business. Yet we know we need to get ready for a world in which energy will only be more expensive. And there will be a greater need to operate with less carbon in the supply chain,” Duke said.

He said he expects that the efficiencies found as suppliers reduce their carbon emissions will result in continued lower prices for customers. “Like everything we do around here at Walmart, this commitment ends up coming down to our customers, and helping our customers around the world save money and live better.”

More sustainable business practices also can help shield customers from high energy costs in their own lives, Duke said.

“That is why America needs comprehensive legislative policy that addresses energy, energy security, the country’s competitiveness and reducing pollution.”

Several environmentalists and advisors, including Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp, joined Duke and Walmart executives for the announcement.

EDF has set up at office in Bentonville, Ark., near Walmart headquarters.

The retailer also has worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council and World Wildlife Fund to develop its sustainability plan.

Tree Hugger and Planet Green co-sponsored the webcast. TreeHugger founder Graham Hill helped kick off the news conference by remote, with a video lesson on greenhouse gases, which he likened to a blanket that’s getting too thick and threatening to disrupt the climate humans are adapted to. He discussed ways products can be more earth-friendly, alluding to paper towels that can be ripped off in half sheets and proper sizing of food portions.

TreeHugger Editor-in-Chief Meaghan O’Neill talked with an invited panel about how business and sustainability can interact. A FoxHome Entertainment executive showed off a DVD package that has less plastic and Paul Kelly of Walmart-owned Asda in the UK talked about how more sustainable products can be low cost.

“You can decouple business growth from carbon growth,’’ said Asda exec Kelly.

Walmart, once widely derided as a merciless profit-seeker and crusher of small businesses, has in recent years taken a variety of steps, from using fuel-efficient trucks to buying more local food and daylighting its stores, to reduce its carbon footprint. Lately, it has been pushing its suppliers to operate more sustainably, and already gives points to products that come with less packaging and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Critics says that Walmart’s push is more about squeezing out costs than greenhouse gases. But others, including some leading environmentalists, vouch for Walmart’s sincerity and believe its scale gives it an incredible podium.

“Walmart is looking at the big picture,” said Krupp, by leveraging its vast vendor network to achieve change.

During a mock interview with a Walmart executive during the webcast, Krupp said Walmart is showing leadership by acting in advance of government mandates to reduce carbon emissions and also throwing out a challenge to consumer products companies around the world.

“What’s sensational is that you’re (Walmart) going to launch a process, a race, a treasure hunt among your suppliers to find ways to cut carbon pollution and cut their energy costs.”

For more information, see the Walmart Fact Sheet on how it intends to reduce carbon emissions.

Copyright © 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network

UL Environment, which provides environmental evaluation and certification, announced this week it will  develop sustainability standards for plastic materials used in consumer and manufactured goods. The standards will establish environmental requirements for common plastics based on scientific assessment and broad stakeholder collaboration.

This year, more than 300 million tons of plastic will be produced and 10 percent of all generated waste will be plastic—much of which ends up existing in landfills for centuries. Evidence is mounting that some chemicals in plastic pose health risks when absorbed by humans through food, water, air, dust and contact with consumer products. Environmentally preferable plastics can lead to fewer harmful chemical emissions being released in our environment.

ULE said it sustainability standards will consider environmental elements such as the use of bio-based materials, the use of recycled content, process chemistries and emissions. The standards will apply to thermoplastic, thermosetting, and elastomeric polymeric materials, and include the types of plastics used to make grocery bags, computers, sports equipment, toys, automotive parts, office furniture and construction materials.

The development of UL Environment standards for plastics will draw on input from UL Environment Standard Technical Panels comprised of stakeholders such as manufacturers, government entities, non-governmental organizations, consumer interest groups, environmental chemists, biologists and testing organizations. These standards will set minimum environmental requirements and create a progressive and tiered approach allowing sustainability leaders to highlight their achievements.

“By developing standards for environmentally preferable plastics, we have an enormous opportunity to affect the sustainability of materials and consumer products that affect our daily lives,” Stephen Wenc, president of UL Environment, Inc., said in a statement. “With more than a century of experience developing standards for safety, UL is uniquely positioned to lead efforts for the development of standards that support plastics that are better for people and the environment.”

ULE said it expects initial drafts of its sustainability standards to be completed in 2010.

While Washington leaders debate whether the stimulus money has done enough for the economy, Wisconsin has latched onto money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to kick start a wind turbine blade manufacturing plant in Wisconsin Rapids, a small city in the center of the state. The new factory is expected to be the most advanced in North America and employ more than 600 people.

The Energy Composites Corp. (ECC) facility will be built with the help of $238 million in municipal tax-free bonds from a pool of money (the state’s Recovery Zone Facility pool) created with federal stimulus dollars.

While the financial arrangements took several steps, including new legislation introduced by Sen. Julie Lass, D-Stevens Point, and supported by several other state legislators — the desired outcome is a straightforward effort by the state to capture manufacturing for the fast growing commercial wind energy sector.

“Tax-free bonds are a critical component of our financing plan for the 535,000 square foot plant,” noted Sam Fairchild, Energy Composites’ CEO, in a statement. “Development costs for our new factory are too large for traditional Industrial Development financing programs, and the Recovery Zone Bond program, which expires at the end of 2010, is precisely the right solution at precisely the right time.

“Senator Lassa recognized how critical tax-free financing is to our business model, and she moved with great agility and grace to ensure that we are eligible for this Federal program within a time frame that allows us to site the project in Wisconsin Rapids. For her diligence, foresight and confidence, we are most grateful.”

The 535,000 s.f. plant will be capable of making wind blades 65 meters in length that can supply both onshore and offshore wind farms, and will be build with “a maximum range of flexibility in production design” to be able to accomodate technological advances. The facility will partner with Mid-state Technical College, where prospective employees can get training in blade fabrication.

ECC’s founder and president Jamie Mancl, called the jobs that will be created “non-exportable” and thanked everyone involved from Lassa to Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Mary Jo Carson and many others for working beyond expectations to pave the way for the innovative project.

Fairchild said he expects the new plant to be in full production in the first quarter of 2011, in time to fill increasing demand for wind turbine blades.

Specifically, the company hopes to be a supplier for offshore wind operations in the Great Lakes region, said Adrian Williams, head of ECC’s WindFiber(TM) Division.  “…We believe that we will be in the right place at the right time.”

ECC already operates an automated 73,000 s.f. manufacturing facility in Wisconsin Rapids, WI, that creates “advanced composite materials” for a variety of clean-tech applications that touch on several industries, from wind to power plant operations. According to a corporate release, the company designs and engineers: wind energy system components, flue gas desulfurization for power plants, infrastructure for bio-fuel storage and processing, infrastructure for managing waste water and drinking water storage, advanced municipal utilities infrastructure, and caustic material storage and handling systems for the petrochemical, mining and the pulp and paper industries.

As governments wrestle with the rules of the game for a greener future, businesses are putting their own playbooks on the table.

Alcoa, a longtime champion of environmental action, helped lead a team of 29 global companies, representing 14 industries, in developing a coordinated plan for how the world’s burgeoning population could live peaceably, comfortably and sustainably on the planet.

The plan, released today and called Vision 2050 lays out what human inhabitants – 9 billion human inhabitants – will need to do to live within their means on Mother Earth.

“The world already has the knowledge, science, technologies, skills and financial resources needed to achieve Vision 2050. However, concerted global action in the next decade will be required to bring these capabilities and resources together, putting the world on the path to sustainability,” said Alcoa Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Dr. Mohammad A. Zaidi co-chaired the 18-month project.

All the companies participating were part of The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a global association of about 200 companies. The CEO-led group studies the intersection of business and sustainable development. Through the council, the companies share knowledge and best practices.

Vision 2050 spells out the actions and changes that must happen over the coming decade “to make a sustainable planetary society possible,” according to a news release. These include:

• Meeting the development needs of billions of people and enabling their education and economic empowerment, particularly of women.
• Developing radically more eco-efficient solutions, lifestyles and behavior.
• Incorporating the costs of “externalities” — starting with carbon, ecosystem services and water — into the structure of the marketplace. (In other words, putting a price on natural resources, thereby equalizing the playing field for businesses that practice careful use of those resources.)
• Doubling agricultural output without increasing the amount of land or water used
• Halting deforestation and increasing yields from planted forests
• Halving carbon emissions worldwide (based on 2005 levels) by 2050, with greenhouse gas emissions peaking around 2020 through a shift to low-carbon energy systems (i.e., renewable energy like wind and solar power) and highly improved demand-side energy efficiency (energy efficient buildings).
• Providing universal access to low-carbon mobility
• Delivering a four- to ten-fold improvement in the use of resources and materials. (Think recycle, reuse and reduce.)

Vision 2050, an 80-page document, calls out businesses’ role as integral to transforming world markets, but cautions that companies must not harm natural resources or reduce biodiversity. It is a self-described “best-case scenario for sustainability” intended not as a “definitive blueprint” but a launching point for developing strategies and dialogue with governments, the news release explains.

Alcoa has shown its own commitment to sustainability by reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by a 43% over its 1990 base year; setting up community programs worldwide and winning recognition for its ethical practices, ranking 11 out of 581 companies on the Covalence Ethics Index.

About 73 percent of the aluminum produced in the world is still in use, Alcoa reports, making the company’s core recyclable product more sustainable than many raw materials.

The company employs nearly 60,000 people around the world.

(Photo: Nissan)

From Green Right Now Reports

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today that the Department of Energy has made a $1.4 billion loan to Nissan North America that will pay for the modification of the automaker’s Smyrna, Tenn., manufacturing plant to produce the new all-electric Nissan LEAF.

In addition to producing the zero-emission EV at the existing plant, a newly built plant will make the lithium-ion battery packs to power the next-generation car.

Nissan said the loan will result in the creation of up to 1,300 jobs when the plants are operating at full capacity. Modification of the Smyrna manufacturing plant, which will begin later this year, includes a new battery plant and changes in the existing structure for electric-vehicle assembly. At full capacity, the vehicle assembly plant will be able to build 150,000 Nissan LEAF electric cars per year. The new plant will have an annual capacity of 200,000 batteries.

The loan is part of the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, a $25 billion program authorized by Congress as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The program is designed to accelerate the development of vehicles and technologies that increase U.S. energy independence, create cleaner means of transportation and stimulate the American economy.

Mary Kay – home of the pink Cadillac and many things pink — is going green.

Mary Kay headquarters in Addison, near Dallas

Turns out the skin care and cosmetics mega sales business that was born in 1963 and elevated and launched the career of the at-home beauty consultant has an environmental bent.

The company recycles compacts, builds nature classrooms at domestic violence shelters and for the past 20 years has been moving the culture at MK towards a greener future.

Crayton Webb, director of corporate responsibility, says Mary Kay Inc. was one of the first corporations in the U.S. to have internal recycling, as early as the late ‘80s.

“Our president at the time was Dick Bartlett, who believed that it made good sense for a business to be good stewards for the environment,” says Webb. “What we do today affects future generations.” Founder Mary Kay Ash also believed in doing well by doing good, Webb says.

A Mary Kay compact that can be customized.

In 2008, the global company, based in Addison, Texas outside of Dallas, introduced a new compact. But staff fretted about what women would do with their old ones. In keeping with the company’s new sustainability initiative, Mary Kay put together a compact on compacts — making compact recycling a part of its larger recycling program called Pink Doing Green. The makeup consultants brought old compacts to company events to be recycled. The compacts were broken apart and the end products went to a recycling contractor, thus avoiding the landfill.

“For every one we got back,” says Webb, “we planted a tree.” The company had partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation, the nonprofit conservation group whose mission is to nurture trees. Webb says the goal was for 200,000 compacts to be collected, but they received 300,000 by the end of last year, when the program ended.

As a result the company planted 200,000 trees in the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana. “It’s more than planting a tree,” says Janelle O’Haugherty, manager for corporate communication. “This area had been destroyed by fire. We are restoring the benefits that trees provide.” The reforestation will help clean the air and water and resore important environmental benefits to the area, said John Rosenow, chief executive and founder of the Arbor Day Foundation.

Mary Kay, which had worldwide sales of $2.6 billion in 2008 and operates in 35 markets around the globe, also recommends that women refill their compacts. The company suggests that women buy a compact for the long term and then reuse it with refills.

A Mary Kay "Nature Explore Outdoor Classroom" at Shelter Our Sisters in Hackensack, N.J.

Mary Kay’s involvement with the Nature Explore Classrooms and domestic violence shelters evolved from the company’s longtime interest in domestic violence. Mary Kay’s workforce and clientele are predominantly women and domestic violence is an issue the company takes  seriously. Statistics show, says Webb, that one in three women are affected by domestic violence at some point in their lives.

Since 2000, the Mary Kay Foundation has donated $22 million to shelters. (The foundation also contributes to causes fighting cancers affecting women.)

The concept of a nature classroom evolved much like music therapy which has been shown to improve kids’ outlook. “Nature is therapeutic to abused kids,” Webb says. “The nature classrooms were created as safe, fun places where kids could learn, play and heal from abuse at home.” Nature has been shown to lessen stress on kids who have faced adverse situations.The Arbor Day Foundation also partnered with Mary Kay on this project.

“These are not just playgrounds,” says O’Haugherty. “There is a curriculum, music, planting, digging and a lot of learning about nature that goes on.”

The company has built five nature classrooms so far. They are located in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Hackensack, N.J. In October 2009, the classrooms opened in Chicago, Hackensack and Atlanta. The ones in LA and Dallas will open in the first quarter of this year.

“As an organization, we believe that violence against women is simple unacceptable,” said Anne Crews last October during Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Crews is vice president of government relations for Mary Kay Inc. and a board member for the Mary Kay Foundation. “We know that helping women and children connect with nature during the healing process will empower them.”

Mary Kay’s hope, Webb adds, “is that these children have the opportunity to heal. If the nature classroom can play some small role in what they do, we’ve done our job,” he says. “It’s more than just writing a check.”

In addition to the compact recycling and nature classrooms, Mary Kay has introduced green initiatives in its Addison-based headquarters. Just by turning off the lights when leaving the office, Webb says the company has reduced its energy consumption by 13 percent. There are motion sensors in the offices and conference rooms that automatically go out after people leave the room.

Initially, says Webb, some employees were resistant because they didn’t want their colleagues to think they had gone home early. “So we created door hangers,” says Webb, “that said: ‘I’m in today. My lights are out to be green.’”

At Mary Kay’s distribution and packaging facilities, bio-peanuts are now used as the packing materials. They are made of corn and potato starch and can either be re-used or dissolve in water. Mary Kay uses product cartons made of recycled paperboard; the packaging of their individual products uses post consumer content, varying from product to product – in some cases up to 35 percent.

At its global manufacturing facility in Dallas, Webb says, 13 tons of alcohol waste is now being removed, reducing Mary Kay’s annual hazardous waste output by 25 percent.

Mary Kay, which is sold by 2 million Mary Kay consultants around the world,  has also been the recipient of the Dallas Blue Thumb Award for water conservation for several years, thanks to its reduced water use.

“We’re not perfect,” Webb says.  “There’s so much more that can be done. We don’t want to brag. It’s part of our responsibility.”

Copyright © 2010 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Plastics Color Corporation has launched a new line of color concentrates partially made with post-consumer and industrial plastic content, providing manufacturers with a way to meet recycled material requirements and trim their use of valuable natural resources.

The recycled colorants are offered in a variety of resin types and wide range of colors. PCC said the recycled content of the concentrate formulations range from 25 percent to 82 percent, depending on the color. The new color concentrates can be used for a variety of applications, including playground equipment, construction material, furniture, pallets, packaging and house wares.

“The product line was developed in response to customer requests for products that aid in their sustainability initiatives,” Joe Byrne, Plastics Color Corporation’s vice president of sales and marketing, said in a statement. “One of the key elements of sustainability is to reduce the use of products derived from limited resources, such as petroleum. Every pound of post-consumer resin we use helps to reduce consumption of virgin material, therefore minimizing the impact of depleting our limited resources.”

PCC said Walmart is just one end-user that is driving the creation of more earth-friendly products by requiring its 100,000 global suppliers to quantify their own sustainability programs by completing a survey and tracking their “green” efforts. PCC executives believe that as consumers demand more sustainability in the products they purchase, all manufacturers will be looking for more recycled raw materials and reduced energy usage in production.

The modern consumer’s penchant for buying the latest electronic gadget has certainly contributed mountains to landfills worldwide and led to other ecological sins, from chemical leaching to demand-driven, warp-speed obsolescence of products.

But the electronics industry once again showcased several eco-conscious items at the recent Consumer Electronics Association tradeshow (known as the Consumer Electronics Show or CES). Aside from lower energy TVs, the newbie offerings foretell of a world where we will control the power we use, much like we control personal electronics now, but with more precision and far less waste.

Here’s a look at some of the most intriguing green offerings:

A 52” LED LCD TV by Sharp that consumes less power than any LCD TV on the market. In fact, Sharp’s LE700 series of full array LED LCD-TVs beat out competitors in all screen size classes for power consumption.

These TVs include sensors that measure the ambient  light in the room and adjust color and brightness, delivering the appropriate picture for the setting, and saving energy.

The LEDs have a listed life of 100,000 hours, and the screen can be viewed from 176 degrees. See more on the TV’s specs page. The 52-inch version is available for around $2,300.

Who says America can’t take the lead in wind power? Not General Electric. The global corporation based in Schenectady, N.Y., announced today that it has signed contracts to supply 88 wind turbines to HECIC New Energy Co., Ltd., a leading wind energy developer in China.

The turbines are destined for three new projects in the Hebei and Shanxi Provinces in China, which is the world’s 4th largest producer of wind power (after Germany, the U.S. and Spain).

The American Wind Energy Association has predicted that China’s wind power capacity will soon overtake European nations that have built strong wind components into their energy infrastructure. This surge in Chinese wind power will help reduce the nation’s reliance on coal-fired electricity plants and also bolster sales of wind components from around the world. In addition to the United States, Japan and European nations are positioned to help supply China’s needs, according to the AWEA.

China plans to add 150 gigawatts of installed wind power capacity by 2020, which will require it to add about 11.5 gigawatts of installed wind power every year, GE reported.

U.S. based GE, a global leader in power generation technologies, has already committed to supplying China with 896 1.5 MW wind turbines.

The GE 1.5 Megawatt Turbine was the most commonly installed land wind tower in the U.S. in 2009, according to the AWEA. It is capable of powering some 400 “average” American homes.

GE reports that more than 12,000 of these machines have been installed for projects around the world.

The company also noted that it is well-positioned to serve China’s growing wind industry, having been in business in that country for more than a century. GE runs 36 wholly owned or joint venture companies in China that include manufacturing, service, research and development and financial services operations, with a total workforce of over 13,000.

“The development of wind power is a key economic growth area for China and plays a critical role in achieving our national target to increase to 150 gigawatts of installed wind energy capacity by 2020,” said Dr. Cao Xin, General Manager of HECIC New Energy Co., Ltd., in the news release. “As a corporate citizen of China, our strategy is to apply the most advanced and reliable technology and technological expertise for every project that will help China reach its goal of achieving clean energy.”

To read more about wind power, see this fact sheet, called Wind Basics, put out by the AWEA in 2009.