Home Archive by category "Sustainable Development" (Page 4)

Category Archives: Sustainable Development

Cleantech Companies Won 5 of 6 Largest Venture Capital Rounds in 2010

Five of six of the largest Venture Capital fundraising rounds in 2010 went to cleantech companies, based on data from Thomson Reuters: – Better Place: $350 million for electric car charging infrastructure – Solyndra: $175 in convertible debt for unique solar PV panels – BrightSource Energy: $150 million for solar thermal projects – Abound Solar: $110 million for solar thin-film – Trilliant: $105 million for smart grid networking Better Place even beat Twitter’s recently announced $200 million investment.  Worldwide cleantech investments peaked at $11.8 billion in 2008, then dropped off significantly to $6.8 billion in 2009, but thanks to strong growth during …

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Market for Sustainable Products Expanding Rapidly

Markets for sustainable products have expanded significantly over the last five years, growing much faster than those for conventional products, according to the State of Sustainability Initiatives (SSI) Review 2010, published last week. The SSI Review 2010 is a collaborative effort by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the International Institute for Environment and Development, Aidenvironment, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and ENTWINED–Environment and Trade in a World of Interdependence–research consortium. The SSI Review 2010 gives a comprehensive overview of major voluntary sustainability standards and initiatives in the forestry, coffee, cocoa, tea and banana sectors, including detailed …

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International Green Construction Code: Game-Changer in Sustainable Building

For the last decade, green building rating systems have been the top standard for designing sustainable buildings, but at the end of the day, they are non-enforceable guidelines. Because buildings are the largest contributors of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, it’s become clear in recent years that a more rigorous and complete set of rules are needed for green and sustainable building. The work needed to formalize a code to address sustainability has been a major industry challenge – that is, until now. A new proposal – currently being developed by the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the International Code …

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Exploring the Role of Business through Vision 2050

The Vision 2050study lays out a pathway leading to a global population of some 9 billion people living well, within the resource limits of the planet by 2050. The report ( 2.6 MB) was released at the 2010 World CEO Forum in New Delhi, India. Twenty-nine companies, led by Alcoa, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Storebrand and Syngenta, have come together to rethink the roles that business must play over the next few decades to enable society to move toward being sustainable. This endeavor has resulted in a call to action that aims to encourage companies to reinvent themselves, their products and services to …

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New Zealand business calls for urgent changes to waste recovery.

Business calls for urgent changes to waste Changes to waste recovery, so co-mingling of recycled materials which results in as little as 30% of collected glass being recycled into new bottles and jars and threatens some export-related jobs in Auckland were called for today at a seminar hosted by the Glass Packaging Forum as part of the 22nd WasteMINZ Conference. Key stakeholders from local and central government, the waste management industry and food and beverage brands visited Villa Maria Estate’s winery in Auckland and heard an impassioned plea from those involved in the wine industry to use the new “Supercity” …

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