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  When Oil Majors Embrace Material Flow Analysis, New Hope for a Su ...

  February 18, 2013  

  There are manifold approaches to close the apparent gap between a shrinking resource base on the one hand and the ever rising human resource demand on the other. For the longest time, the world's big industrial players have followed a strategy to successfully ignore the former, since environmental and social costs were merely negligible external effects. We could call this approach a procrastinating one, because it is future generations who are forced to deal with the outcomes of today's ignorance. In the course of the last 20 years, however, corporate giants have shifted their strategy. It ...

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  67 Quick-Payoff Measures to Reduce Urban Carbon Emissions

  January 30, 2013  

  Transforming the energy supply from fossil to renewable sources is a goal that makes sense, but even so, it is not enough. As I wrote last week, the entire energy system needs a transformation, embracing a maximum of energy efficiency. A suitable approach would not be an isolated one, but rather one that integrates both the supply and the demand sides. This is one of the conclusions drawn from the last “synthesis report” published recently by the Low Carbon Society Research Network. The report summarized their fourth annual meeting, held in September in Oxford. Despite the fact that the three ...

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  The Outweighed Efficiency Gain – 13 Rebound Effects in Detail

  December 12, 2012    5 Comments

  According to Tilman Santarius, one essential concept is missing in all the scenarios that lead toward a green economy. It is, so he wrote, that expectations for reduced energy consumption from efficiency gains need to be lowered by 50 percent because not all the energy that could be will actually be saved. How come? The story is called rebound effect and Santarius has researched it profoundly, as his paper “Green Growth Unravelled – How rebound effects baffle sustainability targets when the economy keeps growing” shows. The English version was published in October by the Heinrich Böll Foundati...

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  19 Industry Reports - How Global Compact Promotes Efficiency

  December 3, 2012  

  Energy costs are on the rise. Their increase is so steady that now even the United Nations has established a program to promote energy efficiency in the private sector. Sustainable Energy for All is the newest set of goals for the United Nations Global Compact. The Global Compact claims to be the world's largest corporate responsibility initiative and its newest set of goals has three objectives for business in 2030. First, universal access to modern energy services is sought. Second, energy efficiency is to be doubled. And third, the aspiration is to double the share of renewable energy. In ...

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  31 Innovations for Maximum Resource Efficiency in Manufacturing

  November 21, 2012    1 Comment

  The amount of manufacturing in Germany is vast. To guarantee survival in the global rotation of who is who among industrial nations, companies in Germany are forced to innovate. Every company that aims to stay competitive has to innovate? Yes, of course. But that goes even more so for the ones in well-established economies, than for their emerging competitors. Since the nature of innovation is multifarious, making the choice of what measure to invest in is far from obvious. What's clear, though: true innovations are those that not only save money, but also generate savings in resources – the ...

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  5-Fold Increase in Efficiency - Not Delusional at All

  October 28, 2012    2 Comments

  Some of my recent articles have circled around an apparent antagonism between different schools of thought in sustainability. I mentioned the two main contemporary concepts for leading business and society through the transformation to sustainable development: efficiency and sufficiency. The former aims at getting the same output with less input, whereas the latter calls for reducing output (mainly by reducing consumer needs). If there was a slight disposition to support sufficiency hidden between the lines of my blog posts, I want to clarify once more that we absolutely need both strategies. ...

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  Carbon Neutral Online Shopping – How Green are Mail Order Compani ...

  August 29, 2012    7 Comments

  In the last 150 years, three major trends have changed the way humanity consumes. First, industrialization shifted production from self-sufficiency to consumerism. Second, ongoing economic development allowed local economies to expand across entire countries, which was followed by globalization and worldwide markets. Globalization started with colonial powers trading goods between continents and has not yet achieved its peak, even if it has been more than 30 years now since China opened its markets. The third important development marking a substantial shift in the way we consume is telephone ...

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  Only 16.7% of Global Energy Consumption Is Renewable – Ways for I ...

  June 26, 2012    6 Comments

  You know studies. You know reports. You know data collections. But you don't know Ren21? You should. Ren21, calling itself an international policy network promoting renewable energy, publishes an annual global renewable energy status report supported by 39 renewable energy professionals plus numerous regional researchers who verify the precision of the global coverage. In the report you find detailed diagrams for any renewable power source and more diagrams showing their development from 2010 to 2011. Because both government officials and NGO representatives, both intergovernmental organizatio...

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  Program Highlights at ACHEMA 2012: What Not to Miss at the Green ...

  June 17, 2012  

  Green chemistry is a relatively young science in its own respect. Interest in this subject, however, is growing rapidly and, although no concerted agreement has been reached as yet about the exact content and limits of this interdisciplinary field, there appears to be increasing interest in umpteen environmental topics, which are based on chemistry embodied in this subject. To the pleasant surprise of all, this increased understanding of the principles that are the backbone of green chemistry has spurred many outstanding efforts to implement chemical processes and innovative technologies that ...

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  A Challenging Task: Promoting Energy Efficiency in Tajikistan

  May 28, 2012    3 Comments

  knowtheflow: Marjolaine, you work for the French organization GERES, which deals with promoting energy efficiency. Marjolaine Boitard: Yes, it was founded in 1976 after the oil crisis. And you spent a year in Tajikistan, researching domestic energy consumption. I imagine that a Tajik household is very different from a French one. Yes, I used to spend 2-3 days a week with 20 Tajik families in two different regions. And actually, even between these two regions, you can see a difference. Tajikistan is a mountainous country and just from one valley to another you can note big differences. For s...

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  7 Measures for Efficient Climate Control on the Factory Floor

  May 15, 2012    3 Comments

  How, exactly, can a medium-sized industrial company save on energy without negatively affecting production? What are the concrete measures that were taken by a textile company in Germany to increase energy efficiency by ten percent? What approach is needed to calculate the true amortization period for investments in efficiency? Find the answers in this article. Tobias Viere, the brain behind the Enhipro project, knows many ways to achieve “Energy and additive optimized production”. That is what his project deals with, dubbed after the German, “Energie- und hilfstoffoptimierte Produktion” (E...

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  Last Chance for a Powerful Shift – On Quarrels About the EU's Ene ...

  April 23, 2012  

  In July 2011, knowtheflow covered the possible failure to reach the EU's energy efficiency target. Of all 20-20-20 goals, efficiency was the only one in danger of not being achieved. In the meantime, not much has changed; energy efficiency remains as much an issue in Europe as before. What's more, there is a currently proposed revision of the energy efficiency directive that threatens to seriously water it down. 3% Public Building Renovation Goal in Question One of the three main points included in the European commission's proposal for an energy efficiency directive was the improved energy ...

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  9 Months of Certified Energy Management: ISO 50001 Starts Out

  April 15, 2012  

  In July 2011, the promising ISO 50001 energy management standard was launched. This certificate rewards companies and public organizations willing to continuously reduce their energy consumption by providing a guideline on energy management systems. This article explains how the norm works, which companies have adopted it and what achievements have been made since its introduction nine months ago. Referring to the advantages of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, Paul Baier of enterprisesmartgrid.org describes the new norm's virtues: We’ve seen that business benefits from a more systematic focus on qua...

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  "Everybody Should do Their Share" - The Long Road to Sustainabili ...

  March 17, 2012    1 Comment

  knowtheflow: Prof. Dr. Inci Gökmen, you offer a course named "Sustainable Living and Green Chemistry" at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. Prof. Dr. Inci Gökmen: Yes, I just started, this semester. Does it provoke a positive response? Yes, I think so. First, I started with a discussion on the "limits to growth". I guess everybody knows that there are limits in this world. We watched the movie "The Story of Stuff" with my students in class and I tried to get some feedback from them. The students said "yeah, the movie is presenting all the problems, but it is not proposing a...