Inform Finance


Around 30,000 people are now each the proud owner of an acre of Amazon rainforest as a result of a unique initiative by an energy company. The rainforest res- cue scheme, launched by new power firm Ovo, shares the cost of sponsoring land maintenance with their customers. Ovo says the initiative is the first of its kind and is a partnership with environmental char- ity Cool Earth and aims to help the area’s indigenous people. Half the £6 cost of sponsoring an acre is met by Ovo and the other half is already built into tariffs.


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The UK Government has come under fire for delivering 75% of its climate finance for developing countries as loans, which cam- paigners warn threatens to reverse hard- fought progress on debt relief. Rich countries claimed a key success of the Copenhagen Accord was the announcement of $30B of new climate finance that would be given over 2010-2012 to developing countries. But the World Development Movement warns that the UN Adaptation Fund, set up specifically to manage climate finance, has received just one percent of money committed so far by donors, leaving it with insufficient resources to respond to the urgent need of countries to adapt to climate change.


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Pakistan has applied to the UN Fund for help so that it can improve drainage sys- tems to help cope with events such as the floods currently ravaging the country.


UPDATE GLOBAL RESEARCH PROJECT


and its aim to help businesses accelerate the transition to a sus- tainable, low-carbon economy. In the previous issue, we shared insights from the first case stud- ies, where the best performers have reduced operational costs by up to 40%, while delivering increases in margins and doing their bit to help save the planet. We have now established a new online community to share the outputs from the Project and to develop a network of people and businesses looking to learn more about the challenges and benefits of becoming more sustainable. Membership is free and enables


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access to a developing portfolio of case studies, best practice infor- mation, forums, blogs, events and the latest news on the Global Research Project. We aim to go further than other initiatives and websites in exploring how to make sustainability work, prove


Michael Townsend


egular SB readers may already be familiar with the Global Research Project


Come and join our global sustainable business arena


the business case and share the real lessons, ‘warts and all’. We have gone live and I invite


all SB readers to join www. globalsustainablebusiness.org. We welcome people from all businesses interested in advanc- ing this challenge. This arena is not just for the big players, as the best innovations often occur in SMEs. But smaller companies still need to link up with the right cus- tomers, gain exposure for what they offer and follow through to deliver solutions. We’ve got some great stories on the site; some well known names along with emerg- ing players, each offering a fresh insight and something to inspire. The business of becoming sus- tainable is no done deal yet, so we


also want to encourage debate. We have established a Forum on the theme of “What is a sustain- able business? What does it look like? How does it work? Is there such a thing yet?” We invite you to share your views and experi- ences to help advance the project agenda and The Rough Guide to Sustainable Business, another key output from the Project. We are developing a dialogue with other initiatives and web- sites. The idea is to work in concert in advancing a common agenda to enable freethinking and innovation. We are pleased to have the support of our part- ners, including the Supply Chain Carbon Council, Tomorrow’s Company and WWF-UK and


look forward to working with others on the most fundamental challenge of our time.


At this time, when there is a danger of sustainability slip- ping down the list of priorities in boardrooms, the need is great to articulate in business terms what is possible and the tangible business benefits that follow. We want to share this work with leaders in all companies around the world and to help inspire the change we all know is possible.


Michael Townsend is the founder and CEO of Earthshine Solu- tions. For more information on the Global Research Project and online community visit


> www.globalsustainablebusiness.org


BRIEFS OF THE $30B PLEDGED AT COPENHAGEN, JUST 26% HAS ACTUALLY BEEN COMMITTED TO SPECIFIC BILATERAL OR MULTILATERAL PROGRAMMES Sustainable Business | October 2010 | 11


BANKS REFUSE TO LEND


Some of the world’s big- gest banks are making it increasingly difficult for companies involved in con- troversial industries – such as mountaintop removal – to get project funding, according to market analyst, Datamonitor.


The firm has found that growing environmental scru- tiny is making it harder for lenders to finance polluting industries without suffering a blow to their reputation. Other industries that could see an exodus of funding include oil and gas, nuclear power, coal-fired electricity generation and oil sands.


BRIEFS


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