IKEA has reduced its total CO2 emissions by 5 percent and CO2 emissions from goods transport by 10 percent in fiscal year 2009 compared to the previous year, according to the company’s 2009 Sustainability Report. Ninety-five percent of the home furnishing retailer’s CO2 emissions is attributed to material extraction, suppliers, customer transportation and the use of products.

In 2010, IKEA will participate in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol by road testing a new global framework for measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

IKEA also is committed to reducing emissions in its supply chain. A pilot program is in place to help suppliers reduce their energy use by 30 percent or more by 2011, focusing on the largest suppliers with the highest energy consumption. As an example, in China, two glass suppliers have already reduced their carbon footprint and energy consumption by more than 40 percent.

IKEA also is expanding its effort with four new climate change projects with WWF. These projects will focus on measuring supply chain emissions, helping customers address climate change through transport initiatives, reducing emissions from IKEA food product transport, and improving the reuse and recycling of used products.

IKEA and WWF are also partnering on sustainable cotton projects. In 2008, IKEA and WWF projects generated 34,000 tonnes of cotton grown in a more sustainable manner, and IKEA suppliers bought 12,500 tonnes for use in IKEA products. In 2009, the total available volume was 150,000 tonnes and IKEA suppliers bought 23,000 tonnes (the target was 50,000 tonnes).

The retailer also has partnered with American Forests to plant more than 1.3 million trees in U.S. parks and forest.

During FY09, only IKEA distribution centers reached their recycling goal of 90 percent. Swedwood, the industrial unit of the retailer, and IKEA stores recycled, reclaimed or used 74 percent and 86 percent of their waste, respectively.

The amount of renewable materials used in IKEA products remained relatively stable at 71 percent, missing its goal to reach 75 percent in FY09. However, the company has separate targets for two key raw materials — wood and cotton.

Swedwood has all of its forest leases certified and is close to having implemented chain-of-custody certification in all its industrial units, which has increased IKEA’s share of FSC-certified wood from 7 percent to 16 percent. However, IKEA did not reach the target of 30 percent of solid wood from verified responsibly managed forests by FY09. The new goal is to reach a 35 percent share of wood from forests certified as responsibly managed by 2012.

During the year, IKEA used about 21 percent less solid wood compared with FY08, which is attributed to the company’s increased use of board material instead of solid wood.

The retailer’s approved wood supply chain audits have increased from 80 percent to 92 percent with almost all wood suppliers now complying with the retailers’ minimum requirements.

The company is also implementing measures to reduce water consumption during manufacturing. As an example, IKEA is implementing a printing technique called Soft Pigment Printing (SPP) that reduces water consumption by 60 percent compared to traditional printing techniques. Today, 40 percent of its printed textile products are produced with techniques that require less water.

To help meet its long-term goal of powering all IKEA buildings with 100 percent renewable energy, the company has plans for several solar panel projects in eight countries over the next four years. The solar panels for up to 150 stores and distribution centers are expected to provide about 10 percent of their electricity need. For distribution centers, it may be as high as 25 percent since they use less electricity, says IKEA.

Today, only nine IKEA buildings have solar panels installed with the plan to reach 30 to 40 buildings by the end of FY11.

IKEA recently announced the addition of solar panels to its retail store in Tempe, Arizona, that will generate about one million kWh of electricity.

The company is also working to use alternative energy sources for heating such as ground source heat pumps, air heat pumps, biomass boilers and solar panels, and is progressing on its alternative fuel project for transport service providers.

Twenty-one members of Canada’s forest industry signed an agreement suspending new logging on almost 29 million hectares of the Boreal Forest, according to an announcement yesterday. The Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, made with nine environmental groups, will help protect threatened woodland caribou. Environmental organizations Greenpeace, ForestEthics and Canopy, meanwhile, will suspend their “Do Not Buy” campaigns while the agreement is being implemented.

The agreement also applies to 72 million hectares of public forests licensed to members of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC). According to the agreement, the FPAC signatories will commit to the highest environmental standards for the area. Signatories have agreed to adopt the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) standards for managing the region. The FSC is an international, non-governmental, not-for-profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests.

Signatory environmental organizations, FPAC, and the Association’s companies have begun meetings with provincial governments, First Nations and local communities across the country to seek their leadership and full participation in advancing the goals of the Agreement. Participants recognize that governments, including First Nation governments, are decision makers within their jurisdictions.

The progress made to reach the objectives laid out in the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement will be regularly measured and reported on by a jointly agreed-upon independent auditor.

About 79 power generators could face carbon costs totaling $56 billion, which equals to almost 12 percent of revenues on average, according to a Trucost survey on the environmental performance of more than 107 utilities worldwide.

As a result, investors and businesses could be exposed to environmental costs passed on by utilities in their supply chains, posing significant financial risks.

The report, “Power Utilities: Who’s Hot,” finds that energy-intensive sectors such as aluminum, industrial gases, cement and iron and steel are at the highest risk of being impacted by these rising costs.

While carbon prices will vary nationally until global carbon trading is in place, Trucost says it used the average carbon price under the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) over three months to January 4, 2010 ($19.23) to model potential exposure to carbon costs worldwide. If the 79 power generators were to pay $19.23 for each tonne of CO2e emitted, their carbon costs would total over $56 billion.

In addition to greenhouse gas emissions, other environmental costs could come from managing sulphur dioxide (SO2) nitrogen oxides (NOX) emissions, nuclear waste, and water use, according to the report.

The report also reveals that renewable power generators have the lowest exposure to costs for CO2e, SO2 and NOX. However, several conventional power generators have lower exposure to process water costs, which reflect varied fuel types, generation processes and efficiency within the sector, says Trucost.

Here’s the ranking of utilities by carbon intensity.

HP’s research arm, HP Labs,  has designed a system that combines cow manure with the heat output of data centers to create an environmentally sustainable operation. The research paper shows how a farm with 10,000 dairy cows can meet the power requirements of a medium-sized, 1-megawatt (MW) data center with enough power leftover to support other electrical requirements on the farm.

The report was released at the ASME International Conference on Energy Sustainability in Phoenix, Arizona. Click here for the presentation.

HP says the heat generated by the data center can be used to increase the efficiency of the anaerobic digestion of animal waste, which results in the production of methane that can be used to generate power for the data center, solving the waste problems faced by dairy farms and the high-energy demands of data centers.

The manure that one dairy cow produces in a day can generate 3.0 kWh of electrical energy, and a mid-sized dairy farm with 10,000 cows produces about 200,000 metric tons of manure per year, estimates HP.  Approximately 70 percent of the energy in the methane generated from this manure could be used for data center power and cooling, say HP researchers.

In addition to the environmental benefits such as eliminating groundwater contamination and air pollution as a result of unmanaged livestock waste, using manure to generate power for data centers also could provide financial benefits to farmers, say HP researchers.

They estimate that dairy farmers would break even in costs within the first two years of using this  system and then earn roughly $2 million annually from selling the power to data center customers.

Chandrakant Patel of HP Labs explains the research in a video.

Green Energy Live, which develops on-site biomass-to-energy conversion solutions for livestock operators in the U.S., reports an increase in demand for manure management solutions.

Driving some of the demand is the new partnership between the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Agriculture, which will provide up to $3.9 million over the next five years to help farms implement biogas recovery systems. Currently, about 150 on-farm manure or anaerobic digesters are now operating at livestock facilities in the U.S.

China recently announced the world’s largest cow-manure fueled biogas power project at a dairy farm with 250,000 cows. The farm will generate 38,000 mWh of power annually, which will be sold to the state grid in China. The project is expected to reduce about 180,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually

The European Logistics Association has launched a web site for sharing knowledge and improving supply chain practice in Europe.

Deutsche Post DHL is looking to its DHL business to drive growth for the group in the future – reflecting a switch in emphasis from its domestic mail business to logistics and express parcels

Short video of John Elkington, founder of SustAinability, discussing the shift in corporate sustainability from push reporting to pull reporting.

Even if you don't have a job title that has the word green or sustainable in it, there are countless ways to bring sustainability into your job.

Multi-user business park located in the greater Beijing-Tianjin area

Partners’ ideas of quality and service are totally congruent

Year to date deliveries are down 12.0% in Europe

TNT Post takes next step in its e-commerce strategy

Generates significant synergies with Toll’s existing businesses

Warehouse and distribute clothing and general merchandise to 80 stores

Volume forecast is approximately 1,000 TEU per month

Speaking at the 23rd annual PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Forest and Paper Industry Conference on May 11 in Vancouver, WBCSD president Björn Stigson said innovation was crucial to ensure forests support a sustainable future.

EDF's Climate Corps will send 51 fellows to 47 companies this summer to further the drive for energy efficiency in business. The fellowship program has grown more than seven-fold since its start three years ago. 

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