Enviance Blog

New Date and Time: Join us for the GreenBiz State of Green Business Live Webcast

UPDATE! New date and time for GreenBiz's sixth annual State of Green Business Live webcast

Date: Friday, February 15, 2012

Time: 10am/2pm

Sign up: http://info.greenbiz.com/state-green-business-webcast-01.html

Download free report!

 

The Results are in from our Annual EUEC Survey!

Now that EUEC 2013 has wrapped, we wanted to share with you some revealing feedback from the show floor.  We surveyed the environmental professionals at the show about how regulation and sustainability issues are affecting their companies and organizations – and wound up with some surprising results.

Here are the key takeaways from our 2013 survey:

• Carbon Tax: This year’s survey showed that two-thirds of respondents do not have a plan in place to manage the financial risk associated with the imposition of a cost on carbon, either through cap and trade or a tax.  In last year’s survey, more than three-fifths of respondents said they thought the imposition of a carbon tax would impact their organization.

• AB 32: Is AB 32—under which California initiated its first carbon credit auction in November 2012—a paper tiger or is it simply too early in its implementation for companies to feel its impact? At EUEC, 72 percent of those surveyed said they thought AB 32 would not have any sort of impact on their organization.

• Regulation Reporting Systems: Nearly half of respondents with emission reporting requirements indicated that they had no actual reporting system in place. Of the group without any reporting system, about one-third reported that they were not currently evaluating any systems to help them meet their reporting requirements.

• Water Management: Two-thirds of respondents said that water management is of equal or greater value to them as managing carbon emissions. This is a big increase from 2012 when more than half of respondents indicated that water management was either of no importance, or less important than carbon emission reporting.

• Election Results: 77 percent of attendees said they believe the results of the presidential election will mean an increase in environmental regulations over the next four years.

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Utilities Expect More Environmental Regulations

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Happy Holidays from Enviance

As 2012 approaches an end, I join the Enviance team in reflecting on the past year and the amazing organizations with which we've had the privilege of working.

 

At a time when many companies were forced to cut back, our customers have continued to pursue the achievement of better compliance and enhanced sustainability at ever lower costs. We salute the effort to preserve environmental programs as a core business strategy, and we are proud to serve the environmental leaders and visionaries that comprise our customer base.

Thank you for your partnership with Enviance in 2012. To honor your commitment and to thank you for your continued confidence in us, Enviance has made a donation to an organization that will have planted 60,000 trees by the end of 2013 in the name of our customers.

The Enviance family wishes you Happy Holidays, a wonderful New Year, and we look forward to working with you in 2013.

Best wishes,

Lawrence E. Goldenhersh
President/CEO
Enviance, Inc.

Enviance’s Second Annual Environmental March Madness Tournament Has Begun!

We’re proud to announce the call for entries has opened for our second annual Environmental March Madness (#EnviroU) tournament! The tournament is designed to recognize colleges and universities that are making sustainability a priority in the classroom and on campus.

In order to participate, department heads must fill out a survey detailing their school’s environmental and campus-wide programs by January 14, 2013. Our panel of industry experts will then select the “Sustainable 16”.

After being selected for the “Sustainable 16”, students and faculty will submit short video testimonials or other materials highlighting their schools’ on-campus and curriculum environmental achievements. The judges will use this info to narrow the Sustainable 16 down to the “Environmental Eight,” the “Final Four” and eventually “National Champion,” which we will announce on April 8.

The National Champion will receive a $5,000 cash prize, and an all-expenses-paid trip for the department head or another representative to attend our annual User Conference, April 22 to 26, in San Diego. The top two students from schools advancing to the Final Four, with the most compelling supporting materials and tournament participation, will be awarded Google Nexus tablets.

GreenBiz Group and Qualtrics, the survey technology provider, are also sponsoring the tournament this year. A new panel of distinguished judges featuring environmental experts from retail, energy, nonprofits, journalism and academia will join Enviance CEO, Lawrence Goldenhersh, in identifying the school that is working hard to prepare and engage the next generation of environmental and sustainability experts.

For more information on the tournament and how to get involved please click here. You can also download a complete survey by clicking on the “document” link. 

The Industry Speaks: What Mattered in 2012, and What’s to Come in 2013

Download Ebook!

2012 is coming to an end, and over the past year there have been many developments in the environmental compliance, energy and sustainability industry. In working with companies that need to track and report their environmental impact, and reduce those impacts in their supply chains, we felt we were in a unique position to distill a complete view of the state of the industry in 2012, and what to expect in 2013.

So we asked you, our trusted colleagues, partners, customers and members of the analyst and media communities, to give us your thoughts and insights on what were the most important aspects of 2012, and also what you see coming in 2013.

We received tremendous feedback, with more than 485 responses from professionals in a variety of verticals, including energy & utilities, manufacturing, and construction & development, to name a few.

We’ve consolidated the responses in our new ebook, which we invite you to take a look at. We’ve got industry numbers, statistics, and illuminating quotes, on the most important trends and issues from 2012 and predictions for 2013.

We hope you enjoy reading the ebook!

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Saving the Earth by cutting carbon kick

Price on Carbon Set in California

By Jon Costantino, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP

Six years after the passage of AB 32, the world finally knows what a metric ton of carbon emissions costs in California, when the California Air Resources Board (CARB or Board) released the results of the November 14, 2012, auction. The price is $10.09
per metric ton for 2013, just nine cents above the regulatory “floor.”  The official results were released via the Board website at noon this Monday.  In addition to the “Auction Settlement Price,” CARB disclosed other aspects of the auction such as how many of the state’s obligated entities signed up to participate and how many metric tons were sold.

The interest in the program was evident as the announcing website slowed down considerably when the clock struck twelve.  Additionally, there were three bids for every 2013 allowance available for purchase. That being said, there were fewer than 75 entities that signed up to participate for the first auction, which is only a small percentage of the over 350 entities representing over 600 facilities in California. 

CARB actually held two separate auctions simultaneously: one for 2013 “vintage” and one for 2015 “vintage.”  They can be thought of as current and future allowances, as the vintage refers to the first year in which you can use the allowance for compliance with the program. The results are summarized below.

Vintage	Allowances Available	Percentage Sold	Settlement Price
2013	23,126,110	100%	$10.09
2015	39,450,000	14.1%	$10.00

The impact of this price has ripple effects throughout the AB 32 and carbon reduction scheme. It is the benchmark on which the many other pieces of the program will be based, including the cost-effectiveness of industrial efficiency projects, an estimate of the future price-per-gallon increase on transportation fuels, the price of carbon offsets and the viability of future offset projects, and much more. 

The AB 32 Cap and Trade auction raised approximately $289 million for California’s efforts to reduce GHG emissions.  How to spend the revenue is already being debated. How this ultimately occurs will be decided in the next few months.

Jon Costantino is a senior advisor for climate change, environmental and clean energy policy, and government with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. His twenty-year professional career includes experience in both the public and private sectors. Twitter:@JonCost

Related articles

The price of carbon? $10.09 per metric ton

California's first cap-and-trade auction sells out, declared 'a success'

California sells out of first pollution permits.

California's first cap-and-trade auction sells out, deemed 'a success'

California Air Resources Board releases cap-and-trade carbon auction results

3 Questions with Alison Mickey, Clean Power Finance

Today we bring you the next installation of our “3 Questions” series, where we ask industry experts to share their perspectives on sustainable business practices, environmental policy, climate change and more.

This week we interviewed Alison Mickey, public relations and corporate communications manager at Clean Power Finance, an online business-to-business marketplace for residential solar financing. Alison’s professional background is primarily in public relations –  prior to Clean Power Finance, she spent four years at Schwartz Communications (now Schwartz MSL) working with renewable energy  and solar PV companies. Before starting her career in public relations, Alison spent two years teaching community health education in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in northwest Africa. Alison holds degrees in Chinese (BA) and International Studies and Diplomacy (MA).

Q: What do you define as the most serious environmental risk to our planet and why?
I think apathy and human nature are the most serious environmental risks to our planet. It’s kind of a global-scale tragedy of the commons: finite planetary resources are being depleted by individual nations, each acting in its own short-term self-interest, despite the unspoken recognition that such behavior will actually harm everyone in the long run.

People in the developed world are comfortable and accustomed to the convenience of a fossil fuel-based lifestyle. They don’t want to give that up. People in the developing world aspire to the security and convenience of a fossil fuel-based lifestyle, and it’s hard to make the case that they shouldn’t also enjoy it. So we have a world full of people who want what is slowly killing our planet; the fact that many of them won’t be around to see its death makes it even harder to convince them of the urgency of the situation.

Until recently, climate change was about melting ice caps and slowly evolving changes happening in some far corner of the globe, which made it easy for people to dismiss climate change as someone else’s problem. Studies have shown that humans evolved to address immediate threats—a sabre-tooth tiger about to attack—and, as a consequence, are very bad at addressing long-term, abstract threats.

Q: What policies and legislation would you like to see passed to protect our environment?
I’d like to see more aggressive support of renewable energy technologies and more international cooperation on combating climate change and reducing carbon emissions. I also think scaling back the policies and subsidies that support the coal, oil and gas industries would help. Overall, I’d like to see us treating climate change with the same urgency and bi-partisan support we accord national security threats—because, as the Department of Defense said in 2010, climate change is undeniably a national security issue.

Q: In your opinion, which industry sector has the greatest opportunity to impact the future of sustainable business?
That’s a tough question. I think many renewable energy industries are interconnected in that they enable and catalyze each other. Energy efficiency technologies—from smart thermostats to dynamic window glass—can do a great deal to improve sustainability for businesses, but I think we need to support those types of efforts with cleaner, sustainable energy generation technologies, such as solar or wind. So far, photovoltaic solar seems to be leading the field in terms of impact: solar PV has created thousands of local jobs around the U.S. (the solar industry as a whole now employs more than 100,000 Americans, having grown more than 13.2 percent in 2012); can dramatically reduce energy costs for both residences and businesses; and runs the gamut from utility-scale to small residential. It’s extremely encouraging to see major corporations like Wal-Mart installing more solar than any other company in the U.S., and for purely pragmatic reasons (to save money on energy costs). That kind of adoption sends a message to Americans of all income levels and all political persuasions that solar is really an effective way to both behave in an environmentally responsible manner and save money.

Have a question for Alison? Feel free to leave one in the comments section below or contact her directly at @alisonmickey.

 

3 Questions with Abbie Webb, Casella Waste Systems, Inc.

It’s time for the latest instalment of our “3 Questions” series, where we ask industry experts about their companies’ environmental programs, perspectives on environmental policy, and how they reduce their own environmental footprint.

This week we interviewed Abbie Webb, senior environmental analyst of Casella Waste Systems. In this role, Webb coordinates Casella’s carbon reduction initiatives, which entails conducting an annual greenhouse gas inventory and tracking the company’s sustainability performance. Webb joined Casella and its environmental compliance team six years ago. She holds a master of science in environmental planning and policy from Cornell University and a bachelor of science in environmental studies from Colgate 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?

All of the above. Amory Lovins’ new book Reinventing Fire outlines beautifully the business case for leading the transition from fossil fuel to renewables, and he argues that we would save $5 trillion in the process and can get there without any legislative support from Congress. I would strongly encourage anyone in the field of corporate sustainability to read his book. Businesses can lead the way. With that said, I still believe government has an important role to play, and we would all benefit from a cohesive and enlightened national energy policy.

Q: In your opinion, which industry sector has the greatest opportunity to impact the future of sustainable business?

Every industrial sector has an opportunity to rethink its products and services, its inputs and outputs, and the way it does business to drive the transition to a sustainable economy. As a waste/resource management company, my company is well situated to help transform the entire materials economy. By returning discarded products and materials to productive use, we can help reduce extraction of natural resources and reliance on fossil fuels. By improving the sustainability of our business, we help improve the sustainability of any other sectors that currently consume natural resource inputs or dispose of waste outputs.

Q: How has your opinion on climate change and environmentalism shifted over the last decade? 

Over the past decade I’ve developed a stronger sense of urgency for tackling the problem of global climate change, as well as a stronger appreciation for the many environmental solutions being implemented all around us. I try to live by the words of Donella Meadows, who when asked whether we have enough time to prevent environmental catastrophe said “we have exactly enough time – starting now.”

Have a question for Abbie? Feel free to leave one in the comment section below! You can also contact her on Twitter @abbiewebb19

October Monthly Poll

It's time again for our monthly poll, where we ask your opinion on a wide range of pressing environmental regulation issues. Our goal is to identify what matters most to you and present your unfiltered opinions on a host of hot button topics.

The election is rapidly approaching! So this month we'd like to know a little bit about the things that are important to you when choosing a candidate. Please take a few seconds to complete the poll below and participate!

Dirty Work Made Clean: Tracking Emissions for Los Angeles Airports

Environmental reporting and compliance is a necessary, but daunting task. To keep up with stringent requirements for monitoring gases and chemicals, many major emitters are quickly ditching inefficient internal reporting systems and embracing dynamic cloud-based systems.

One such organization is Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA). Being situated in one of the smoggiest yet heavily-regulated regions of the country, streamlining their compliance tracking and reporting was a top priority.

In our new white paper, released today, you’ll learn how LAWA was able to migrate its tracking, monitoring and reporting for air quality regulations to the Enviance System. Using Enviance, LAWA can now successfully track daily use of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) by the three airports and one facility it oversees —including Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the departure point for more trips than any other airport in the world.

In the whitepaper, you’ll learn how, with the Enviance System, LAWA was able to achieve:

• Accountability by tracking user entries

• Consistency and reduction of data entry errors by using templates

• Intelligence by applying roll-up calculations

• Visibility by generating reports 

Check out the white paper to take a closer look at LAWA’s case study detailing how institutions are using the Enviance System to satisfy Air Emissions Inventory Reporting Requirements.