Sustaining sustainability

While the jury’s still out on supply chain sustainability initiatives, this much is clear: Unless these efforts make economic and well as environmental or social sense, they are doomed to fail.

The vast majority of climate scientists now agree that the earth is getting warmer and that the carbon humans pump into the atmosphere contributes substantially to that worrisome trend.

Where the debate now turns is to what the industrialized and developing worlds can or should do about it. While policy makers continue to debate that, many businesses have taken the initiative to begin reducing their carbon footprint and to otherwise develop sustainable business practices. The word «sustainability» has replaced «green» in much of the discussion around the topic because many of the things businesses are doing go well beyond measuring and reducing their carbon footprints.

La industria azucarera logró la meta de tener efluentes cero

Con los residuos de la producción se fabrican biofertilizantes y energía sustentable

Los ingenios azucareros de Salta y Jujuy (Ledesma, San Isidro y Tabacal) han logrado en los últimos años la largamente buscada meta de recuperar y transformar todos los residuos orgánicos que se generan en el proceso industrial de la producción azucarera.

Esto se concretó gracias a un trabajo conjunto que vienen llevando adelante a través de diferentes proyectos sobre el desarrollo de alternativas para el manejo de efluentes de la producción de bioetanol (vinaza, cachaza, bagazo, ceniza de caldera), para lograr un producto final de calidad sustentable ambientalmente.

Here Comes the Sun

For decades the story of technology has been dominated, in the popular mind and to a large extent in reality, by computing and the things you can do with it. Moore’s Law — in which the price of computing power falls roughly 50 percent every 18 months — has powered an ever-expanding range of applications, from faxes to Facebook.

Our mastery of the material world, on the other hand, has advanced much more slowly. The sources of energy, the way we move stuff around, are much the same as they were a generation ago.

But that may be about to change. We are, or at least we should be, on the cusp of an energy transformation, driven by the rapidly falling cost of solar power. That’s right, solar power.

El Instituto brasileño Ethos y la panadería y molino ecológicos EcoMonegros, Premios Desarrollo Sostenible de Ecodes

La organización por el desarrollo sostenible ECODES ha premiado en sus respectivas categorías a EcoMonegros, panadería y molino ecológicos de Leciñena (Zaragoza),  y al Instituto brasileño Ethos de empresas y responsabilidad social con los Premios Desarrollo Sostenible 2011, según informa la organización.

Why Sustainable Businesses Should Study Up On Women

Sustainability and women are inextricably linked.  This is not because of soft inclusive reasons, but for hard inclusive business reasons.  If interconnecting systems of operations, production, shipping, community involvement, environmental responsibility, and more are what we seek, the wider the variety of brains and human traits involved in corporate decision-making, the better. While we have a long tradition of rewarding linear and independent thinking, sustainability will demand a new priority on the relational and interdependent.

No one corporation will start to prioritize this new thinking in the same way. Taking steps in a new direction could mean hiring more women or hiring more people who demonstrate qualities like empathy or holistic perspectives.

NH Hoteles recibe el galardón TRI Award por su modelo de negocio sostenible

NH HOTELES HA CUMPLIDO CON UN AÑO DE ANTELACIÓN LOS OBJETIVOS DE SU PLAN MEDIOAMBIENTAL 2008-2012

NH Hoteles, compañía referente en sostenibilidad del sector turístico, ha recibido un nuevo reconocimiento a su política medioambiental, el TRI Award, otorgado por CETRI (Círculo Europeo para la Tercera Revolución Industrial). De entre las medidas sostenibles implantadas por NH Hoteles desde 2003, los premios destacan los esfuerzos realizados por la Compañía en eficiencia energética, uso de materiales biodegradables, diseño de habitaciones sostenibles, implantación de ascensores que ahorran y reutilizan energía y gestión de residuos.