Author: Ben Debski

In 1972, Antoine Riboud made this ground-breaking statement: “The company’s responsibility does not stop at the factory gates or the office door. Its action has repercussions throughout the whole community and influences the quality of life of each citizen. (…) Through the energy and raw materials that it consumes, through the nuisances that it generates, it gradually changes the appearance of our planet.” Today, under Antoine’s son Franck, Danone has translated this vision into an action plan to slash its carbon footprint by an ambitious 30 percent by kilo between 2008 and 2012 in each business line.

Nature at the root of Danone’s mission
Environmental responsibility is in Danone’s DNA, in two ways. Firstly, it is closely linked to its mission, “to bring health through food to as many people as possible”. As healthy food comes from healthy nature, to achieve this mission in the long run Danone needs to preserve and renew resources.

Environmental responsibility is also deeply rooted in Danone’s corporate culture based on dual commitment to business success and social progress. That is why Danone took early action to formalise and quantify commitments, recognising protection of resources as a strategic priority at the beginning of the 1990s and adopting an Environmental Charter in 1996. In 2000, Danone set precisely defined 10 years targets for limiting water and energy consumption and reducing waste and packaging. After achieving nearly all of those targets earlier in 2008, the group shifted up a gear and defined five priorities for action: reducing its carbon footprint, protecting water resources, stepping up packaging research to transform waste into a resource, promoting sustainable agriculture, and supporting biodiversity. Danone chose to begin by radically accelerating its efforts for the broadest indicator of environmental impact – carbon dioxide – and set the ambitious target of reducing its carbon footprint by 30 percent in kilos by 2012, taking into account not only its own direct impact and that of its factories but all the downstream stages in product life cycles. To facilitate deployment, Danone set up a Nature management department to coordinate, assess and promote action throughout the group.

Fighting climate change
Danone plans to reach its goal ≥ reducing our carbon footprint 30 percent by 2012 ≥ through progress in three areas: measuring its emissions reliably, reducing them, and implementing carbon offsets.

Reliable measurement
Reliable Measurement is an essential first step.

Danone has been working with experts at PricewaterhouseCoopers to develop a method to measure carbon emissions and allow results to be both reliably audited and included as a fundamental component of corporate reporting. The group can now measure emissions for its four businesses (Fresh Dairy Products, Waters, Baby and Medical Nutrition). The method was already approved for the Waters division and is now being assessed for certification by Ademe in France and the Carbon Trust in the UK. The aim is to generate audited carbon performance statements just as Danone produces audited financial statements. Looking beyond Danone, standardising measurement is an important issue, since it is the only way to ensure that all manufacturers speak the same language.

Second objective: Reducing emissions
In 2009, Danone achieved a 7.4 percent reduction of its carbon footprint when the target was of five percent. Momentum is set to continue with targets of 6.5 percent for 2010 and 30 percent by 2012, achieved through a comprehensive approach covering every stage in production.

At production plants, a highlight of the year was the creation of Danone Energy Campuses: meetings bringing together experts from factories around the world to develop standard-setting models for energy consumption compare these with actual performances and identify areas with room for improvement. In Fresh Dairy Products, this allowed Danone to reduce energy consumption by 11 percent. The Ochsenfurt factory in Germany made a particularly strong contribution with 47 best practices, most of them suggested by plant workers. The group is now studying deployment of these practices in over 20 sites worldwide, with a special focus on renewable energy sources, production of methane from waste, co-generation and geothermal energy.

In packaging, the main initiative for the Fresh Dairy Products division was the “Foam” project which consists in using a technology that injects air into plastic packaging to reduce density by 19 percent and CO2 content. In 2009, 40 production lines participated in the project, and as many as 110 lines will be able to use the technology by 2011. In 2009, the Water division launched the first bottles made entirely of recycled PET (R-PET) in Mexico, thanks to a ground-breaking technology that converts old bottles into new ones without generating any fresh waste along the way.  Drawing on its successful partnership with PETstar, which supplies Bonafont with R-PET bottles in Mexico, Danone signed a contract with France Plastiques Recyclage to develop an R-PET factory in France to supply Evian Volvic Worldwide. In the long term, Danone’s objective is to produce 50 percent of bottles out of R-PET.

At Danone, concern for the environment extends beyond plants and products to include suppliers upstream and transport downstream. Because 85 percent of the emissions linked to its operations are indirect, working with suppliers is essential. The Danone Carbon Pact is a three-year action plan that helps its leading upstream partners measure and reduce emissions.

In 2009, Danone signed 20 agreements with top suppliers accounting for 40 percent of raw material and packaging purchases for Fresh Dairy Products, and it will be extending the programme to its other divisions in 2010.

Turning to transport, 2009 saw the implementation of a project which was adopted for bottled waters in the previous year, leading to a switch from road to rail for Volvic exported from France to Germany. The shift eliminated 26,000 truck deliveries, cutting carbon emissions by 30 percent, and business units in many other countries are now testing the programme.

Third step: Offsetting the carbon
However great its commitment and regardless of the efforts it makes, there will always be residual CO2 emissions that Danone simply cannot eliminate. In such cases, the group turns to carbon offsets to leverage the planet’s capacity to absorb emissions.

In this area, 2008 saw a major step forward with the creation of the Danone Fund for Nature in partnership with Ramsar and the IUCN and aiming at identifying and financing projects contributing to carbon absorption. In 2009, just six months after it became operational, Evian launched its first offset project with a programme for the restoration of mangroves in Senegal. Mangrove ecosystems are the planet’s richest sources of biomass. By offsetting the carbon remaining after a drastic slash plan, this programme will allow Evian to achieve its target of 50 percent carbon emissions reduction by 2011. Thanks to the fund’s money, the “Plant a Tree” campaign headed by the NGO Oceanium since 2006, was a major hit with more than 300 villages mobilised to replant 2,000 hectares (nearly 5,000 acres) or 36 million mangrove saplings. These aims are now an integral part of Danone’s business. Targets for reducing its carbon footprint are built into its management bonus system, which in turn has rallied employees as a whole to the cause. In the end, the challenge Danone faces in chasing the carbon is not just reducing its footprint, but effecting profound change in its practices to ensure that its future economic performance is lasting. Antoine Riboud was clear, “Public opinion is there to remind us of our responsibility.”

About farming
As Danone buys its milk from external suppliers, it cannot take all decisions on its own, but the group can develop partnerships with farmers and agricultural organisations and find ways to limit the environmental impact of its dairy business. Since 2004 Danone has worked with the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) and Vallorex, the flax-growers association, to demonstrate that adding flax to cattle feed significantly reduces methane emissions. In 2009 Danone’s France-based flax programme, dubbed Linus, was extended to Spain and the US. The group worked with the same partners to publish an article in the Journal of Dairy Science in 2009, demonstrating for the first time the links between certain amino-fatty acids and methane emissions. Measuring methane emissions from dairy herds – and thus better controlling them – could well become routine procedure in the near future.

Further information: www.downtoearth.danone.com

Lula vigorously insists the Belo Monte dam, which may cost as much as $17bn, will bring jobs to poor communities in the Amazon rainforest and ensure electricity supplies for one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

But activists and indigenous groups, including Hollywood director James Cameron, say the dam will destroy parts of the Amazon and displace up to 20,000 people, while financial analysts call the project a politically driven money-loser.

A Brazilian court delayed an auction to build the dam on the grounds that it may violate environmental law, slowing the flagship project of an $878bn public works crusade that is a key campaign platform of Lula’s anointed successor, Dilma Rousseff, for this year’s presidential vote.

“These big investment projects like Belo Monte have major design flaws and major management flaws,” said Luiz Vellozo Lucas, an opposition legislator. “There is no way this project can work, and that’s going to have a political cost.”

Lula has staked significant political capital on the 11,000-megawatt project. By 2014, the dam should begin generating as much as six percent of the electricity Brazil consumes, which the government estimates will soar 48 percent by 2018.

Supporters argue the dam is crucial to ensuring power for Brazilians from thriving automakers to homeowners, including low-income families that are quickly joining the ranks of the middle class.

“It is a project that generates very clean competitive energy, without even taking into account the environmental benefits of renewable energy that does not emit carbon dioxide,” Mauricio Tolmasquim, head of a government energy think-tank, said in an interview with local media.

Brazilian construction giants Camargo Correa and Odebrecht have walked away from the bidding process to build the dam, citing low returns, and left the government scrambling to bring in more companies.

The auction, meant to create competition between companies to offer the lowest price for power generated by the dam, was delayed by the court decision. The government is expected to appeal.

Oscar-winning director Cameron, who has compared the construction of Belo Monte to his environmentally tinged sci-fi thriller “Avatar,” has become the most high-profile critic of the project.

Cameron, donning an indigenous headdress and streaks of red paint on his face, has joined local indigenous leaders in a ceremony in the Amazon town of Altamira, near the proposed dam site.

Originally conceived some 30 years ago, progress on Belo Monte has been slowed over the years by protests, including an incident last year in which Kayapo Indians armed with clubs and machetes attacked a state electricity official.

“The dam will have a terrible social and ecological impact,” said Lucio Flavio Pinto, an environmental activist who lives in the Amazon city of Belem. “But the worst part is it’s a white elephant, it’s not economically viable.”

During the dry season, the water flow will fall so much that the dam will generate less than 10 percent of capacity. Still, supporters say it will help balance power generation because dams in southern Brazil have lower output just as Belo Monte would be generating at full steam.

Ricardo Correa, a power sector analyst with brokerage Ativa Corretora in Rio de Janeiro, said the possibility for work stoppages caused by protests or environmental lawsuits has made the project exceedingly risky.

Investors have been turned off by a ceiling on the amount the dam could charge for power along with high construction costs – which vary by more than 50 percent between government and private company estimates.

“This is a project with risks that are enormous and returns that are very low – and possibly negative,” Correa said. “It not a project that creates value, it’s a project that destroys value.”

The boat plows on through the brackish green river, taking Jose de Oliveira Quadro on a journey that may have been futile a few years ago.

Strangers have been fishing in his village’s lake and Quadro is on a two-hour ride to recruit help from the nearest police post in Brazil’s vast Amazon forest. He admits he probably wouldn’t have bothered before his river∞side community was made part of a pioneering scheme that pays each family about $30 a month to act as forest guardians.

“I can’t let them take the food off our plates,” said the nearly toothless 35-year-old. Thank God we have more help these days.”

Quadro’s journey is part of a new chapter in the long struggle to save the world’s greatest forest that were central to efforts in Copenhagen to frame a new global effort to curb the planet’s warming.

His tiny settlement is one of 36 communities and 320 families receiving the payment in the Juma reserve, an area the size of the US state of Delaware in Brazil’s Amazonas state that is the first official emissions∞reducing project in the Amazon.

Working schemes for REDD, which stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation and allows the sale of credits to offset carbon pollution elsewhere, are few and far between now. But a climate deal including REDD could be a potent tool to cut deforestation, which globally accounts for up to 20 percent of carbon emissions – more than all the world’s cars, ships and planes combined.

Response needed

“What the world needs to understand is that we have done our housecleaning, valued the forest as much as we can, tested good practice and now we need a response or the people will end up pressuring the forest for survival,” Amazonas state Governor Eduardo Braga told Reuters.

Versed in the minutiae of global climate talks, Braga is the modern face of a state nearly the size of Alaska whose previous government handed out free chainsaws to loggers.

The fresh-faced 48-year-old set up the “Bolsa Floresta” programme that hands out the monthly stipend to about 7,000 forest families, including in Juma. He said a strong accord on REDD could boost the programme to 60,000 families by 2014 or about half the population living in the state’s vast forest.

Concerns
REDD offers a possible way both to cut the destruction that has razed nearly a fifth of the forest and combat poverty that remains at African levels despite Brazil’s economic rise.

Yet hope is mixed with concern over the role of the private sector and whether forest dwellers have enough say in decisions about them sometimes being made thousands of miles away.

Banks, carbon-trading firms, and companies seeking to boost their green credentials are ramping up their interest, with estimates that REDD could bring in $16bn a year for Brazil alone. Coca Cola Co, Brazilian bank Bradesco and the Marriott Hotels chain are helping to fund the Bolsa Floresta project.

Environmental groups such as Greenpeace worry that too much reliance on carbon markets for funds could result in speculation or a flood of cheap credits, allowing rich countries to continue polluting at little cost.

Brazilian critics of REDD say it risks making high levels of Amazon deforestation acceptable. Brazil’s government has trumpeted the lowest deforestation rate in two decades, but the 2,700 square miles cleared in the first half of 2009 was still equivalent to nine New York cities.

Brazil’s government, after an initially luke-warm response to REDD, is expected to back it in Copenhagen.

In Amazonas, however, not everyone sees Juma and the private Sustainable Amazon Foundation that manages it in partnership with the state government as a desirable model.

“If this is REDD, we need to fight it,” said Rubens Gomes, coordinator of the Amazon Working Group, an umbrella group for Amazon social and environmental organizations.

Some 49 social groups published an open letter in October rejecting market-based REDD schemes.

Gomes complains civil society groups such as his were excluded from the creation of the foundation, which is headed by Braga’s former environment secretary Virgilio Viana. He worries social handouts will create a culture of dependency.

“Without another source of income, we won’t create opportunities and they will continue to exchange trees for food and for clothes,” Gomes said.

The foundation head Viana told Reuters that many critics of the project were simply ideologically opposed to markets.

Deep-sea exploration tends to be done via unmanned submarines; these are costly to operate and have limited capabilities.

A new technology developed by European researchers could help to change that. It enables explorers to coordinate “schools” of research submarines that can communicate with each other and work together.

That would be an important step. Most of the autonomous unmanned vehicles (AUVs) used in ocean exploration are highly specialised, cannot travel far alone, and only gather a narrow range of data.

Moreover, there simply aren’t very many of them.

The European GREX project is developing an underwater networking technology that enables individual AUVs to “talk” to each other beneath the waves, sharing information and coordinating their exploration efforts.

A team of AUVs working together in this way can cover more ocean and gather a wider range of data in more detail.

Seawater is a difficult medium for linking up submarine robots and bandwidth is very limited, which affects the quality and range of the signal – measured in the hundreds of metres.

But the GREX team have shown in trials that a line of AUVs can daisy∞chain a signal from one to the other, which means they can stretch out across the ocean over many kilometres.

“Underwater communication between vehicles is a very difficult area,” says Michael Jarowinsky, a member of the GREX project, “so we did not work with individual vehicles, we sought to create a ‘GREX’ box that incorporates communications.”

This box of tricks can be hooked up to the vehicle’s existing controls, which means that an exploration team could simply add the technology to its existing submarines, dramatically increasing their functionality.

There is high demand for the kind of exploration that GREX enables, says Jarowinsky, from studying hydrothermal vents and their rich, alien ecosystems to making new discoveries in biology, geology, magnetism and any number of other studies.

The ocean oil industry should take note too. Exploration and pipeline maintenance companies tend to use remotely operated unmanned vehicles that are controlled by cable.

But that requires a supply ship, which is expensive.

A school of longer-range AUVs equipped with a GREX box could provide huge savings, says Jarowinsky.

Spokesman James Gillies said the subterranean Large Hadron Collider (LHC), in which tiny particles of matter are smashed together at a fraction of a second under the speed of light, was functioning extremely well.

“It’s all looking pretty good. We are getting a mass of data for the analysts in laboratories all round the world to get their teeth into, even if it could take months or years for anything really new to emerge,” said Gillies.

Officials at CERN, the European Centre for Nuclear Research, are keen to get through the first two weeks at high power, recalling that in 2008, an earlier launch of the LHC at a lesser power was halted by a major coolant leak after 10 days.

Scientists keeping watch over the LHC’s 27-km oval-shaped ring under the Swiss-French border near Geneva said collisions were now being recorded at 100 per second, twice as many as on the first mega-power day.

Particle beams were first injected into the LHC and then collided at a previously unattained total energy of 7 tera – or 7 million million – electron volts (TeV) on March 30 in what scientists said was a huge step forward in cosmic research.

Primeval fireball
The collisions create simulations on a tiny scale of the Big Bang, the primeval fireball 13.7 billion years ago out of which the entire cosmos – emerged.

By tracking how the particles behave after colliding, CERN researchers hope to unveil secrets of the cosmos such as the make-up of dark, or invisible, matter, why matter gained mass, and if there are more dimensions to the four already known.

There could also be clues, but not before the middle of the decade after collision impact energy is doubled to 14 TeV in 2013, on whether ideas even more reminiscent of science fiction like parallel universes have any basis in reality.

This, like the additional dimensions proposition, figures marginally in the postulates of string theory – which suggests the basic ingredients of the cosmos are tiny strings of matter – over which scientists have argued for some years.

The theory also proposes the idea of supersymmetry, under which every particle has a massive unseen or shadow particle – a phenomenon that could explain why dark matter makes up nearly 25 percent of the universe while visible matter accounts for around only five percent.

Proponents say string physics, if shown to be correct, could provide the long-sought “general theory of everything” which would resolve contradictions between modern quantum theory and Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

We will always need electricity for our refrigerators, computers, lights, phones, you name it. We are an electricity-dependent world. Where we obtain it from is up for discussion, but we will have electricity.

We have to change not just what we drive, but how we drive.

Everyone has a role. This is a global, planet-wide issue, and every segment uses transportation, and therefore has a role in the success of “greening” mainstream automobiles: government, industry, academia, and consumers.

Here are recommendations for taking electric cars mainstream gleaned from experience including marketing the only comparatively mass market electric car company in business for over 11 years, Global Electric Motorcars (a Chrysler company, GEM, manufacturer of neighbourhood electric vehicles or NEVs), and the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Recommendations
To encourage the use of electric vehicles, we need to make it easy, attractive, affordable and convenient. We also need to perceive it as the popular thing to do. We need what Sunstein, Thaler and other behavioural economists call “choice architecture.”  That means, we need infrastructure, rewards, and communication.

1. Infrastructure:
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka “the stimulus bill, ARRA) takes important steps toward funding the infrastructure for electric and other alternative fuel vehicles. However, ARRA has flaws: minimum funding requirements are too high, which makes for complex projects (e.g. $5 million); the funding offset is too low (e.g. $2,000 on a $10,000 vehicle); some electric vehicles are ineligible (NEVs are ineligible for many grants); and the time frame to develop the programs and apply for the funds is too short. State universities called me at GEM wanting to use ARRA grants to buy GEM electric cars, but they didn’t have the cash to make up the difference per vehicle.

Speed limits: High speed roads drive higher gas consumption, encourage the use of larger vehicles, and are vulnerable to more and worse accidents. Lower speed limits are safer, more fuel-efficient and roads posted 35mph (or below) generally permit eco-friendly, 100 percent electric NEVs. They are also friendly to bicyclists, scooters, runners and other slower moving, eco-friendly traffic. If we truly want to encourage people to drive electric, and to start immediately, we need more lower speed roads on which they can drive electric today in the electric vehicles commonly available today – NEVs.

Mapping: Drivers should be able to map routes for low-speed NEVs on only 35 mph roads. There should be an entity in the Department of Transportation that collects and tracks local speed limits to enable more eco-friendly low-speed transportation, especially around urban areas, campuses, and master-planned and retirement communities.

Charging and building codes: To make it easy – and popular – for people to drive electric, people need to feel that it’s easy to recharge, just as easy as finding a gas station. Many NEV’s such as GEM cars, plug in to standard 110 volt outlets, and can be opportunity charged anytime – like a cell phone. Therefore, to encourage electric driving, we need external and accessible outlets (parking meters and street lamps?). Building codes could require external outlets, especially for retail commercial spaces, such as restaurants and shopping malls, and could require preferential parking for alternative fuel vehicles (similar to the model for handicapped parking) with charging access. Residential building codes could universally include outlets in garages dedicated to electric vehicles, avoiding the choice between plugging in secondary refrigerators and charging their car.

2.  Incentives and rewards:
To encourage and expedite the mass adoption of electric vehicles, we need an energy use standard and cash rebates, as well as communications strategies (others are talking about the gas tax and urban planning, so we’ll set those aside):

A. Energy use standard: Develop a government standard for energy use similar to the “recommended daily allowance” used in food labeling, with a corresponding energy facts label. It would rate the “carbon footprint” of products, including vehicles, against that standard.

B. Cash rebate: Provide a cash rebate for buying any alternative-fuel vehicle: The stimulus plan includes a tax credit of $2,500 – $7,500 for buying an electric vehicle, but the buyer still has to spend the same dollars to purchase the car, and the middle class especially in tough times, may not have the requisite income to offset the credit.
 
3. Communication and feedback:
Studies particularly among behavioural economists show that people change their behaviour based on immediate feedback, peer pressure and the belief that “everybody’s” doing it. As Sunstein and Thaler write, “the costs of pollution are hidden, while the price at the pump is quite salient.”  “People want to do what they think others will do,” Robert Cialdini, author of Influence is quoted as saying, and we all know the bandwagon effect.

A. Sell the electric vehicle message aggressively: The US government should do a better job of promoting the use of electric vehicles, making it the popular thing to do and emphasising “green” as the new status symbol. They could also promote the Energy Star and Green Light programmes more, and make participating in those programmes more valuable. The US Green Building Council has done a good job with their LEED-certification programme, for example – it has become a popular goal for builders, perceived as a competitive advantage.

Governments need to aggressively support the marketing and advertising investment of the private sector in encouraging the use of electric cars, especially with key opinion leaders, such as community leaders and women. Women are employers, employees, and heads of households, and actively and enthusiastically share good ideas with their friends and families.

The media also has a role. The trend-setting traditional automotive press can shift from focusing on and praising big, brawny, muscular, and fast vehicles to giving louder applause to more fuel∞efficient and smaller cars. Production companies can integrate electric cars into their television and movie productions on a regular basis. 

B. New Labels: Revise the labels currently on new and certified used vehicles in showrooms commensurate with the new “recommended daily energy allowance” standard described in the previous section, comparing the vehicle (or other product) to those standards. Since that label would likely be removed upon purchase, have a permanent label on the back window that other people could see reflecting how that car rates against the recommended standard energy allowance. These would provide information, make people think about the choice in relation to their overall energy use, and would provide feedback and peer pressure (everyone sees the rear label). Manufacturers could promote the “green” rating as a competitive advantage (similar to “100 percent of daily vitamins“ or the LEED-certification).

C. Energy Efficiency Card: A “green” vehicle identification card issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles certifying this vehicle is energy-efficient (based on the above new standards). This card could entitle the registrant to discounts on products and services from companies (much as they agree to accept credit cards).

In summary, there is much each of us can do. We can use “choice architecture” to help us drive “green” – one electric vehicle, one citizen at a time.

Today, governments can incentivise “green” driving with standards such as the “recommended daily energy allowance.” Each of us can stop before we jump in our SUV’s or gas-powered cars when running to the market. We can think about how to accomplish our daily tasks in a more environmentally sound manner – including driving electric – and we’ll likely save money too. 

It’s not just about flipping engines. We need to change how we drive, not just what we drive.  Can we change our ways? Yes, we can.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said that under European rules, suppliers are supposed to obtain a licence before selling products from cloned animals but added there was no suggestion they posed any health danger to consumers.

“While there is no evidence that consuming products from healthy clones, or their offspring, poses a food safety risk, meat and products from (them) are considered novel foods and would therefore need to be authorised before being placed on the market,” the FSA said.

It had traced two bulls born in Britain which began life as embryos harvested from a cloned cow in the US, and one was slaughtered in July last year.

“Meat from this animal entered the food chain and will have been eaten,” the agency said.

The second bull was slaughtered in July and action was taken before its meat entered the food chain.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2008 approved the sale of food from clones and their offspring, stating the products were indistinguishable from those of non-cloned animals.

However, the European parliament voted recently to exclude food from cloned animals from a list of approved products. A novel food application must be made before it can be sold.

Milk probe
The FSA said it was also continuing an investigation into reports milk from the offspring of cloned animals had entered the food chain in Britain.

It had found the offspring of a cloned cow which was believed to be part of a dairy herd, but had no evidence its milk had entered the food chain.

News of the probe has attracted widespread media coverage with food campaigners saying it raised a number of issues.

“Cloning involves applying invasive and cruel techniques on the surrogate mothers that are used for producing the clones,” said Emma Hockridge, Head of Policy at the Soil Association.

She said cloning also raised worries about the safety of meat and dairy products and the spread of diseases, “as well as concerns about the ethics of cloning”.

However, Brendan Curran, a geneticist from Queen Mary, University of London, said FDA tests had found no evidence that meat and milk from cloned animals or their offspring was any different from traditionally reproduced livestock.

“They have concluded therefore that it is safe for humans to consume produce from such animals,” he said. “There is no reason why the situation should be any different in the UK.”

Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, Head of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the National Institute for Medical Research, said he expected most consumed bananas were clones.

“I am not going to say that this story is bananas, as there could be some other issues, such as whether or not FSA and EU regulations have been complied with, and about the welfare of the cows used to make the clones and the cloned cows themselves, he said.

“I suspect the latter were very well looked after as they are valuable. As Abbie Hoffmann said: sacred cows make the tastiest hamburger.”

To break our dependence on gas-powered vehicles as soon as possible, electric vehicles are the leading alternative. “Electrification is a part of every automaker’s long term strategy, which is a good indication that it’s not a question of if, but rather how fast electric vehicles will go mainstream,” the Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) that represents various electric drive technologies explains. But, they added, “this is an emerging industry that requires support and cooperation among policymakers and industry at all levels over the long term.”  

It’s also a significant change for consumers, for whom cars play an integral role, financially and culturally, including being invested in the sense of freedom that cars and trucks provide. Alternative fuel vehicles such as electric ones, on the other hand, don’t provide that sense of “freedom.” Will it make it? What happens if I run out of “fuel”? If I break down, who can help me? What do I have to do to make it work? Therefore, there needs to be a transition. Based on an October 2009 study by the University of Michigan, hybrid vehicles are the most effective transition, which are available today.

This nationwide study found “a very high responsiveness of demand for hybrid vehicles”, and that providing high customer value is key – that is, reliability, durability and convenience, as well as fuel savings and affordability. A press release on the study states, “42 percent of consumers said there was at least some chance that they would buy a PHEV sometime in the future.” Hybrids have a gas engine and an electric motor that is powered by batteries (the gas engine typically regenerates the batteries). An electric vehicle is 100 percent electric (e.g. NEVs). Both also have regenerative braking, but the ultimate impact of that is negotiable and common in all EVs.

Ultimately, the automakers’ long term EV strategies include various vehicles not in production yet, only in development, except for low-speed neighbhourhood electric vehicles (NEVs). The first full-service electric vehicle expected out is the Chevy Volt, expected to hit showrooms in November 2010 at a sticker price of $40,000 with eligibility for a $7,500 federal tax credit. But the proof will be in the showroom as the production date, price and fuel economy have changed a number of times. It’s possible that the heavy marketing of these vehicles, the most intense of which has been for the Volt, promotes the use of electric vehicles to the mass market in a potent way. However, if the vehicle fails to meet performance expectations it could sour the public on EVs.

The University of Michigan study also validates the behavioural economics theories described in the first of this article series. “Social factors are just as important as economic factors in spurring the adoption of hybrid vehicles, and increasing social forces pushing toward the purchase of hybrids may be cheaper than using economic incentives”. People liked buying the Toyota Prius because its distinctive styling served as “badging” that its owner is socially responsible, for example. The key issues that potential customers repeatedly say are required for them to adopt electic cars are cost, convenience and performance. If the cars are perceived to be too expensive, then interest declines precipitiously (e.g. in the University of Michigan survey, at cost premiums of $5,000 and $10,000, adoption likelihood drops to 30 percent and 14 percent respectively). Fuel and environmental savings are not enough to compensate. Batteries are the big cost problem, as well as a key driver of infrastructure decisions, such as battery “swapping.” The “complexity of multiple pack configurations, for different customers, raise issues of complexity in design and operation of such battery switching stations,” according to a recent DOE/EERE report.

“Freedom” demands range and easy, ubiquitous access to recharging – at parking spaces, shopping centres, supermarkets, and rest stops. Building codes need to require it. A nascent GPS-based service that might make drivers feel in control, and thus “free”, is called Road2 and was developed by Celadon Applications. It allows you to monitor how much “fuel” the vehicle has remaining, where you will need to recharge (traveling at various speeds), and, importantly, where you can conveniently recharge along your route. In addition, we need our technicians properly trained so we have peace of mind if there’s a problem. As of February 2009, Portland (Oregon) was the number one city in the nation in terms of new hybrid sales per household, with 12.2 per 100,000 households, according to the DOE/EERE’s September 2009 report. They take a multi-pronged approach that includes infrastructure and statewide financial incentives on top of federal tax credits.

Oregon is now among leading states with respect to organised support for plug∞in vehicles” with statewide building codes in place for EV charging stations. Oregon’s Department of Transportation Office of Innovative Partnerships and Alternative Funding states that “having one common, open system for charging all types of vehicles is an important factor in making the transition successful. This effort will help gain public recognition and consumer confidence in the EV charging infrastructure by providing uniform performance and safety features throughout Oregon. Oregon is also developing an Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment installation manual for both residential and commercial sites.

Then there’s the increased demand on the grid of all these electric vehicles. These current reports show “a consistent conclusion that there is plenty of capacity to support a plausible market for many years”. The University of Michigan study validates the need for a more robust economic incentive programme, reflected in the decline of EV in purchase rates as the cost premium rose. The government tax credits are a nice boost, but the buyer still has to finance the full cost of the vehicle, which is a significant deterrent.

Prices of EVs and hybrids are driven by the battery costs, and the technology is still evolving. The $40,000 Volt is reportedly competing with cars in its class that are in the $20,000 range, even though Chevy is pricing the Volt well below cost for marketability. The Tesla sportscar, at $110,000, is clearly not a mass market vehicle purchase. Both vehicles use lithium-ion batteries, which are predominately responsible for the high cost, but as production of these batteries ramps up their cost is expected to fall. However, how these batteries perform in the long-run is still an unknown. The mass market demands performance – speed, range, smooth driving, reliability – which in EVs depends upon the battery technology and its efficiency. Industry sources point out that current incentives are based on battery size, which penalises efficiency, and they suggest rewarding “vehicle capabilities” instead, such as the amount of passengers or cargo the vehicle holds, or the speed and range (with caps), or safety tests passed.

The EDTA adds that policymakers can help by “establishing support for battery warranties and charging stations,” which will help reduce purchase prices and “overcome initial market barriers.” There is still a perception that all types of electric vehicles are unsafe and slow, but promotions emphasising the performance of current hydbrids, and the Volt, the Tesla Roadster and the new Fisker Karma sports cars hopefully will help those market barriers be overcome as well. According to the University of Michigan study, 54 percent of consumers cited “dependence on foreign oil” as the key driver for them to transition to EV’s – and this survey was conducted when gas prices were at their peak, between July and November 2008.

To transition from “gas guzzlers” to electric vehicles, we need to change “how” we drive, not just “what” we drive. We need to think before we reflexively get in our SUV to go to the market. Can we walk? Can we take a neighborhood electric vehicle? Can we bicycle? The technology absolutely needs to rise to meet consumer demands to take to the open road, but consumers also need to take responsibility for their habits. Hybrid electric vehicles don’t break old habits, nor train us to plug in our cars, since most function much like gas cars. NEV’s do train us to charge the car, at least in a 110 volt household outlet, and to think about our habits – so they are an important part of the transition.  

The know-how to build EVs and the required infrastructure exists, and we are motivated to drive them, so the transition to electric vehicles should be a no-brainer. But…will we? What has to happen for the quantity of “garden-variety consumers” who buy Fords and Toyotas today to put their money and lives into an electric vehicle?

If we want to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and save the planet, we must all embrace hard choices and risks, including challenging our own assumptions and changing our own habits, and pushing our governments and private companies to do the same.

Sometimes you need to face facts head on: like the fact that the electricity powering much of China and India’s fast-rising development is coal-generated. Yet coal is generally perceived as a “dirty” fuel. That means solutions like Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) are now being readied to help capture the carbon dioxide emitted by coal power, and safely pipe it underground. It could, say some, help save the planet.

Hans Bolscher, Project Director for CCS for the Dutch Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Economy says a good CCS programme connects all the three key stages of trapping, transporting and storing greenhouse gases. But it’s complex, not to mention expensive.

CCS in a nutshell
CCS is a three-step process includes the capture of CO2 from power plants and industrial sources. The transportation element is usually via pipelines to a storage site. The storage depositaries are usually deep saline formations, or depleted oil or gas fields. Some coal seams are unmoveable; enhanced oil recovery sites can also be used for storage.

So what about the nuclear route instead? “Nuclear energy,” says Bolscher, “cannot be harnessed quickly enough to fill the gap. Only CCS has the capacity to be readied quickly enough.”

“Actually, we would love to believe that reducing individual carbon consumption – by making our cars and light bulbs more efficient, for example, would be sufficient to fulfil the climate objectves”. That’s the argument Greenpeace puts forward. But new kinds of behaviour, such as the huge rise in cheap flying, completely destroy this idea. Flying has a truly terrible impact on our carbon footprint.”

The need for CCS incentives and investment
• A robust price for carbon needs to be established quickly so that investors have the incentive needed to develop low-carbon alternatives.

• Policy frameworks have to be established and made credible – businesses will only invest in CCS technology if the rules will not change further down the road.

• Governments need to provide business and consumers with the right mix of incentives and penalties. The right mix of rewards and regulations from government and business will all encourage consumers to play their part – and make Europe
a low-carbon world leader.

Ambitious targets set
Many countries have been successful with their alternative energy programmes. Germany, for instance, leapt in head first, developing innovative wind and solar programmes. However the Dutch have been pioneering their own CO2 reduction strategies says Hans Bolscher. “In many ways the Dutch route has been more effective, combining heat and power sources. Overall it’s been a more effective way of reducing CO2 emissions, we would argue.”

Much of the new Dutch attitude to CO2 emissions stems from a new Dutch cabinet formed back in 2007 determined to tackle climate change head on. It made CCS a core component of Dutch ambitions to slash CO2 emissions. “We had a very ambitious programme with CCS at the heart of the programme. Until 2020 our CCS programmes will see relatively modest gains. But from 2020 we predict our CCS programme will see our emissions cut by a third.” And by 2030 the savings will be even more significant.

The Dutch have given their CCS programme serious support: they’ve created a high level task force staffed by a mix of CEOs and high level ex-cabinet support, including a former prime minister and a former minister. “We [the Dutch government] published a letter two months ago describing very clearly our CCS policies and how we intend to achieve them. We don’t say CCS is more important than energy efficiency or sustainable energy. It’s a rather more joined∞up approach than that.”

Taking the initiative
The Dutch government is putting money on the table to back its CCS programme. It has allocated ¤90m to support five separate CCS demonstration initiatives. Three of these projects will capture CO2. The two other demonstrations will show how CO2 can be stored on land. “From that moment the public debate really began,” says Hans Bolscher. “We’ve also got to prepare legislation that will take care of infrastructure issues, as well storage issues.”

Meanwhile CCS needs major investment
funding – and quickly. “We need big investment as soon as possible,” says Bolscher. “The success of CCS depends on the carbon price and the expectation of higher prices in future. That’s why the government is keen to put money on the table. By 2020 the carbon price should be high enough to promote CCS as one of the most efficient measures for heavy industry.”

But if CCS isn’t up and running in time then Bolscher says it may have to be forced on mainstream industry. “Should industry adopt it or not? We think it should be adopted, regardless of the carbon price – and if necessary the Dutch government will be willing to force industry to adopt it, and backed by legislation.”

Not under my backyard
There’s also, of course, the public perception. Although CCS has won much support from the environmental community, support is not universal. “Already we have many people opposing it on the grounds of NUMBY-ism – Not Under My Back Yard.”

Organisations meanwhile like Greenpeace argue CCS diverts attention away from demand reduction and renewable energy; it also claims the technology is hugely expensive and carries significant liability risks. Which means that arguments for CCS need to be clearly explained and defined to the public.

“There are plenty of negative preconceptions about CCS,” acknowledges Bolscher. “The most popular is that CCS is unsafe. That’s a simplified conclusion but as it is a new approach we accept there is going to be discussion about it. Another pre-conception is that CCS bypasses sustainable energy. Again, untrue. CCS is also about maximising energy efficiency and sustainable energy as a joint package.”

Others meanwhile argue that CCS is hugely expensive – which it is. “Yes, but it’s much less expensive,” says Hans Bolscher, “than solar energy and about the same cost as wind power. Also, the costs will come down over time.” The main challenge for the moment is lowering the cost of capture and to get the scale of operations up and running so that the cost of transport and storage is reduced.

A timetable to bring results
So where will CCS technology be in the next five to 10 years, and how will it have changed in that time? “By 2015, we will have two major clusters of demonstrations up and running with 3-5 megatonnes of CO2 captured annually,” says Hans Bolscher.

“The public debate will have eased and we will have a worked-out strategy on how to use CCS in the next decade. By 2020, we will have implemented CCS with 50 percent of all major industry emitters. The amount of carbon dioxide stored will rise from 20 megatonnes by 2020 to 40-50 megatonnes up to 2030.”

The Netherlands’ own action plan calls for annual energy efficiency improvements of two percent by 2020, a 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 (baseline – 1990) and 20 percent renewable energy in the energy mix by 2020. The Clean and Efficient-programme expects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 212 million tonnes in 2005 to 158 million tonnes in 2020.

Although CCS has its drawbacks – such as cost and questions over its long-term viability – many environmentalists generally see it as the best short-to medium-term route for the planet. “I would say three countries – Norway, the UK and the Netherlands – are really ahead of the game regarding CCS,” says Hans Bolscher. “They’re certainly ahead of the rest of Europe.”

Further information www.vrom.nl; http://international.vrom.nl

Not by much, but spread over the vast depths of the deep the change is significant, adding to sea level rise and possibly heralding even greater impacts for mankind and the planet.

While scientists aren’t yet certain if the warming is caused by climate change, they are scrambling to learn more about what’s going on.

This is because the layer starting roughly 2km (one mile) from the surface makes up about half the world’s oceans and plays a key role in regulating the planet’s climate.

“A decade or so ago we had this picture in our minds that deep oceans were pretty stable and that things didn’t change much there,” said oceanographer Steve Rintoul of Australia’s state-backed science and research body CSIRO.

“What’s changed in the last decade is that we’ve started to accumulate enough measurements to show there are widespread changes happening in the deep ocean. And those include really remarkably widespread warming of the deepest layers of the ocean,” he told reporters from Hobart, Tasmania.

Water expands as it gets warmer and this, along with the melting of glaciers and ice caps, is a major force behind rising sea levels.

Seas, on average, are rising at a rate of 3mm a year but some studies suggest they could rise by up to a metre by 2100, inundating low-lying coastlines.

“The heat storage aspect is important because over the past 50 years, about 90 percent of the extra heat stored by the earth is now found in the ocean,” said Rintoul. The deep ocean takes up 10 to 20 percent of this.

Scientists say that extra heat is being trapped by greenhouse gases released by agriculture, deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels.

Warmer waters
The greatest warming of the deep oceans has been recorded near Antarctica and the North Atlantic.

These are the two regions where very cold, salty water sinks from the surface to the depths in a motion that helps drive a global circulation of ocean currents that regulates the climate, for example by giving northern Europe its mild weather.

The water that sinks off parts of Antarctica heads north into different ocean basins as it branches out. It can take centuries to make its way back to the surface.

“We’re seeing warming. We’ve only seen this pattern for a decade or two now,” said Gregory Johnson, an oceanographer of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

He pointed to the difficulties of taking measurements in the crushing depths, which have limited scientists to taking samples every decade on costly voyages that transect an area of ocean.

“When we go out and do these measurements, we go out and stop the ship and lower the instrument down to the bottom and bring it back. It’s sort of like going across the ocean at a slow jog because you spend more than half your time stopped and sampling”.

He said the observed warming rate for the deep layers of the Southern Ocean, between Australia and Antarctica, was about 0.03 degrees Celsius per decade.

“It seems very small but it’s actually a huge amount of energy uptake. Compared with mankind’s global energy consumption rate, it’s three times that rate going into the deep ocean,” he told reporters from Seattle.

“That’s about four Hiroshima bombs every five seconds, or five hairdriers for all 6.8 billion people on the planet going continuously,” he said.

Carbon impact
Some areas, such as the Southern Ocean, have been sampled more than others.

And what scientists have found is worrying.

The water sinking off Antarctica is becoming fresher and therefore less dense, though it’s unclear if this will lead to long-term changes in the speed of deep ocean currents.

Changes in wind patterns are also causing more deep, carbon-rich water to come to the surface.

The oceans are a major carbon “sink”, soaking up large amounts of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, including about a quarter of all the CO2 emitted by human activity.

Oceans store about 50 times the CO2 in the atmosphere. And most of this is stored in intermediate and deep ocean waters.

“There are huge amounts of carbon stored in those waters below the 2,000 metre mark,” said Bernadette Sloyan of the CSIRO’s Marine and Atmospheric Research division in Hobart.

“And changing the temperature changes the ability of the ocean to hold and store that carbon as a reservoir,” she said.

Mankind’s fossil fuel emissions are the equivalent of about six billion tonnes of carbon annually, a fraction of the estimated 38 to 40 trillion tonnes of carbon stored in the intermediate and deep ocean layers.

At present, while the ocean naturally releases carbon dioxide gas in upwelling currents off Antarctica and in parts of the tropics, the world’s oceans overall soak up more than they emit.

Putting the heat on
But scientists say that could change.

“The changes we project will happen in the Southern Ocean will tend to make the ocean less effective at storing CO2,” said Rintoul.

The deep oceans are also a major source of nutrients, such as iron, that ocean ecosystems need to survive.

“Changes in the circulation of the ocean and deep ocean and how it interacts with the upper ocean will have significant impacts on bringing nutrients back up to allow ecosystems to keep thriving,” Sloyan said.

For now, scientists are trying to speed up measurements to figure out if mankind has woken up a monster in the deep.

Rintoul and Johnson said more study was needed to pin down any direct climate change connection.

“At the moment we can’t really say that the pattern of deep warming that we see is a signal of human-caused climate change,” said Rintoul.

“And the reason we can’t say that is partly because we only have a few decades of observations and also because we don’t really understand the processes that control variability in the deep ocean as well,” he said.

Self-propelled gliders being developed to take deep water samples will help. Engineers are also working to expand a network of floats, which can presently sink to 2,000 metres to take data readings, with new models that can go even deeper.

“It’s said we know more about Mars than we know about the deep ocean. It’s absolutely true,” Sloyan said.

Displax, a company that makes interactive technologies, says it’s found a way of turning any surface – flat or curved – into a multi-touch screen. The surface can be made from glass, plastic, wood – any material that doesn’t conduct electricity.

The company, based in Braga in north-western Portugal, has developed a transparent polymer film, thinner than paper, that can be fixed to a surface, making it interactive. Significantly, the film can be applied to standard LCD screens, which means that existing television and computer displays can become touch sensitive.

The technology works by processing multiple input signals received from a grid of nano-wires embedded in the film. Each time a finger is placed on the screen, a small electrical disturbance is caused.

A micro-processor controller analyses this data and decodes the location of each input on that grid to track the movement. The film is so sensitive that users can interact with it not just through touch but by blowing on it. This, says the company, opens up new possibilities for future applications.

The lightweight film can be applied to any surface from 18 centimetres to three metres across the diagonal and can be safely used on outdoor displays. Currently, it can detect 16 fingers on a 50-inch screen, but that is expected to increase as development progresses.

The technology is extremely powerful, precise and versatile, says Miguel Fonseca, chief business officer of Displax.
“Almost everyone who sees it thinks of new applications, from converting LCDs into multi-touch screens, tables into multi-touch tables, to creating interactive information screens in stores, shopping malls or public areas, to developing new exciting gaming environments.”

Displax developed the technology primarily for commercial environments, but it now expects potential customers to come from industries as diverse as telecoms, retail, property, broadcast, pharmaceuticals and finance. The company expects consumer applications to be developed using the new technology as well.

“The technology will open up new opportunities for many market players, technology vendors as well as businesses,” said Fonseca.

In the last few years, Kerself has won the trust of investors and the market in which it operates, to become the Italian leader in the engineering, design, production, installation and distribution of photovoltaic energy plants.

Founded in 1998 by its current chairman and CEO, Pier Angelo Masselli, the company has gradually extended its operations and markets, by means of a growth strategy that has always aimed high – from photovoltaic systems to the new frontiers of renewable energy, the Italian market to Europe and beyond. Based in Correggio, near Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, this is an ecological company par excellence, offering products and solutions for the development of clean energy while safeguarding the environment.

Steady growth
Over the last few years, Kerself has expanded through organic growth and important, targeted acquisitions in the photovoltaic sector. The forecast turnover of the group for 2009 is €400m, with an EBITDA of €55m. It directly controls five companies, Helios Technology, Nuova Thermosolar, DEA, Saem and Ecoware, all of which operate in the solar energy sector. With a direct and indirect workforce of more than a thousand, the group exports its photovoltaic systems to the main Mediterranean countries, while at the same time keeping a careful eye on the non-European markets, America especially.

Kerself  has achieved its competitive advantage not only by means of technological and functional innovation, design and the availability of a broad range of products and solutions, but also by means of a vertically integrated group structure, using single specialist companies with experience in different stages of the process, from the production of cells and modules to the engineering, design, installation and distribution of photovoltaic plants of all sizes, from small units to major solar energy fields. Among the main success factors are the quality of the production processes, research and development, a strategy based on creating loyalty among installers of proven experience, and a sales network which operates throughout the country.

“Our company has always been environment∞ friendly, and we’ve always backed a sustainable energy model based on renewable sources,” says Angelo Masselli, who is proud of his business model and its ability to create value and employment.

Alliances
Another important point of the group strategy is alliances. In 2008, Avelar Energy, a company belonging to the Russian giant Renova, became a shareholder of Kerself, where it plays a role as a solid business and industrial partner, with an agreement to install more than 100 MW by 2011. In the meantime, Masselli has set up important negotiations with some of the biggest international market leaders in the photovoltaic sector and in the production of thin film (the latest frontier in the photovoltaic area) with a view to guaranteeing the finest technology available at all times. A number of cooperation projects are also going ahead in other renewable energy sectors, such as geothermal energy and eco∞compatible materials for building and energy∞saving applications, as is also taking place in other European countries.  

The internal R&D team, in cooperation with the most important Italian university research departments, is focusing on the applications front with a view to guaranteeing products of excellence at all times, tailored for the requirements of each customer.

Taking advantage of opportunities
The international development of Kerself is on-going, thanks to a few important agreements recently signed, which will contribute to the expansion of the group’s growth strategy. The first of these involves the setting up of a joint venture in Israel, along with important local enterprises operating in the renewable energy sector. The agreement aims at taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the Israeli market, thanks to the prospect of new, incentive-based tariffs and the excellent sunshine exposure of the country. Kerself will provide its know∞how in fixed structure technology and biaxial digital trackers, while the Israeli partners will share its commercial contacts network and will install the equipments directly on-site.

The latest important agreement is a contract signed with a fund in The Netherlands, for the development of renewable energy projects in Europe, involving the turnkey supply of photovoltaic plants with a total output of 25 MW in 2009. Financial funding has already been received from a major European bank, and the plants will be built in the Marche and Puglia regions, in central and southern Italy respectively. The agreement also extends into the years to come, and involves the supply of turnkey plants with an additional output of 75 MW by  2011.

Further information: www.kerself.eu