Enviance Blog

Earth Day 2012: A Look Back, And Thoughts on What is to Come

Today, 175 countries around the world join Enviance in celebrating the 42^nd annual Earth Day, a holiday that has helped garner support for pieces of environmental legislation like the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act.

We wanted to take a look back at progress made since Earth Day 2011, and provide our thoughts on the coming year.

We’ve seen some unexpected shifts in supporters, and opponents, of clean energy: In August the U.S. military, perhaps the most conservative organization in the country, set aggressive goals to become 25 percent renewable by 2025.

On the flipside, we saw environmental groups including the Sierra Club and National Resource Defense Council file a lawsuit to stall a renewable energy project, pitting allies against one another.

What about emissions and carbon reduction?

A report showed that the 10 Northeast states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) reduced carbon emissions in 2011 to their lowest level since 2009, and at a whopping 34 percent less than the RGGI cap.

What’s best is that, according to the report, this was achieved “without significant investment in new electric generation.” Encouraging news for our friends in the power industry.

Also, just last month the EPA proposed its first carbon emission standards for new power plants, which would replace a number of planned coal plants for cleaner-burning natural gas and renewables.

What will the rest of 2012 bring?

California, the eighth largest economy in the world, will hold its first carbon permit auction on November 14. It has the potential to generate more than $1 billion in 2012 alone and, if successful, could provide the template for national cap and trade legislation.

Speaking of national legislation, what will the impact of our next President be? President Obama has already made significant environmental progress, and if elected a second term, his motivation will shift from re-election to legacy, and environmental progress will increase even further.

That said, if Mitt Romney is elected, we would have a President who acknowledges the need to reduce carbon emissions, but is also extremely pro-business – would he be able to implement national cap and trade legislation?

What do you think the biggest environmental advances have been over the last year? Let us know in the comment section below!

The results are in! Find out what Enviance’s third annual EUEC survey revealed

It was great to see those of you who were able to make it out to the EUEC conference in Phoenix this week. As you may have noticed, we conducted an environmental survey addressing controversial topics ranging from readiness to report carbon emissions to reactions about cap and trade regulation.

This year, 237 attendees participated in our third annual EUEC survey. This morning, we released the results – here are just a couple highlights:

• This year’s survey showed that more than three-fifths of respondents now believe the imposition of a carbon tax will affect their business.
• Surprisingly, there was a substantial 17 percent increase from last year in the number of companies that have no system in place for tracking and reporting greenhouse gas emissions.
• While water management was an issue that 48 percent of respondents said was a concern for their organization (similar to carbon emissions), approximately 40 percent responded that they don’t measure or report on water at all.

Check out all of the results from the 2012 EUEC survey here!

3 Questions with... Jamie Johnson, Verde Sustainable Solutions

It’s time again for our 3 Questions series, where we ask industry experts about their organization’s environmental programs, opinions on environmental policy, and how they reduce their own environmental footprint.

This week, we spoke with Jamie Johnson, social entrepreneur at Verde Sustainable Solutions, to get his perspective on the environmental industry. Jamie has a background in environmental consulting, developing sustainability software for the iPad, and teaching. He’s run his own environmental technology company for two years, and before that worked in various capacities in the sustainability field. He holds an MS in Environmental Science Policy from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in Biology from Bradley University.  

Q: Do you believe policy will help drive the green economy, or do you think the government should leave it up to private businesses and market demand?
A: Both are essential to tackle the large environmental problems that we have before us. Government has a key role for certain policies, such as high-speed rail infrastructure and stability in energy markets. Ignoring the role that government plays in sustainability is not realistic, especially since the military is the largest consumer of renewable power in the world. 

However, private business will also play key roles in the green economy. My company recently released the Verde iPad app, an inexpensive way for consumers to conduct an energy audit on the iPad. We need innovation like this from millions of companies to increase energy efficiency, renewable power options and transportation options.  We cannot rely on government alone to be the source of innovation, but they must set policies to encourage it.     

Q: Are we doing enough to encourage the use of renewable energy through subsidies and incentives? If not, what more can be done?
A: Government has done enough in the form of subsidies and incentives for renewable energy.  What they have yet to do is increase the price on carbon to level the playing field between traditional and renewable energy.  

Historically, the idea of a carbon tax has been unpopular in our country.  However, with our increasing deficit problem, a carbon tax could bring in valuable revenue to our government and make renewable energy more competitive as opposed to the current tax incentives for alternative energy sources.  I think that after the 2013 elections, we may see some resurgence of interest in a carbon tax and the long-term benefits it would provide for both our economy and environment. 

Q: In your opinion, which industry sector has the greatest opportunity to impact the future of sustainable business?
A: While I am not personally involved in this sector, I think battery storage capabilities will have the greatest opportunity to impact sustainability.  I find this exciting space, not only because of the transportation issue, but also for the impact it will have on smart grid independent energy sources.   

Thanks to Jamie for participating in this week’s 3 Questions series. If you have any additional questions for him, feel free to comment below!

 

 

GHG and the Crystal Ball: The EPA’s (not so clear) Path Forward for Regulating GHG Emissions

It’s hard to believe that the EPA first proposed its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Mandatory Reporting Rule (MRR) over two and a half years ago with the hope that it would gather enough information to better understand the breadth and scope of GHG emissions.

Within just a few months of the initial proposal, so many things changed that the agency finalized its Endangerment Finding in December of 2009 and began creating new regulations—including vehicle standards to address GHG emissions from transportation sources. In addition, the EPA created guidelines around Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) and the Title V Gas Tailoring Rule for new major sources, and new source performance standards.

With all the new GHG regulations, many organizations are trying to understand how these laws will affect their business costs as well as their day-to-day operations, and are increasingly finding themselves trying to anticipate what sort of guidelines may be forthcoming.

To dive deeper into this topic, we are hosting a live webinar next week entitled “GHG and the Crystal Ball: The EPA’s (not so clear) Path Forward for Regulating GHG Emissions”.  John McManus, vice president of Environmental Services at American Electric Power (AEP), and Greg Gasperecz, vice president of Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) at Enviance, will take a closer look at the impacts of GHG regulations on U.S. companies, and discuss:

• Background of the EPA’s GHG regulations
• Key takeaways from the last two years under the current Federal Administration
• Considerations on the path the EPA might take in regulating GHG emissions in the future

Join us!

Time: 11:00am PT/ 2:00 p.m. ET
Date: Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Twitter Rashtag: #EPApredicts

Register Here!

Do you know your Environmental Compliance Vulnerabilities?

If you are visiting our blog, you are probably well aware of the existing and ever changing environmental regulations companies from all sizes and verticals need to comply with nowadays. You are probably also aware that many companies are still failing to understand the importance in determining their environmental impact to their corporate value and cost to operations. Left uncalculated and ignored, these risks place a company in jeopardy of extreme financial loss and devaluation.

To help you better understand your environmental compliance vulnerabilities and the level of risk associated with your environmental regulatory non-compliance we have put together an online assessment tool.  Please take a few minutes to answer our survey and determine if the systems you have in place meet your needs, or identify where you may have an opportunity to reduce your environmental compliance exposure.

Check our Environmental Compliance Risk Assessment Tool here!