Sunday, November 21, 2010

Central banks The coming financial disaster in a nutshell

Central banks The coming financial disaster in a nutshell

Business goes solar

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Sustainability summary of SC companies

This high level over view studies the public stance of some of South Carolina’s major employers. As you will see it was very easy to find information leading to each company’s thoughts and actions on how to achieve profits and growth and still have a sustainable business practice. It is important to recognize that action now will not make South Carolina a leader but will put us somewhat on par with the region and prevent our economy from losing jobs and economic activity because we failed to act on building a 21st century energy economy.

Boeing
Boeing has implemented aggressive targets for improving its environmental performance both for its operations and the lifecycle of its products. Boeing has a record of commitment to regulatory compliance and a legacy of environmental performance improvements in its products and services. And by learning from and enabling its employees to drive change, Boeing is embedding environmental thought and action into everything we do.
Boeing is committed to operating in a manner that promotes environmental stewardship.
Boeing will strive to: Conduct operations in compliance with applicable environmental laws, regulations, and Boeing policies and procedures.
Prevent pollution by conserving energy and resources, recycling, reducing waste, and pursuing other source reduction strategies.
Continually improve our environmental management system.
Work together with our stakeholders on activities that promote environmental protection.
In addition to adopting this policy, Boeing has set aggressive and transparent enterprise wide performance targets to drive environmental thought and action throughout its operations.
2010 Web site

Duke Energy
“The global markets are clearly moving toward a low-carbon economy. This shift represents a unique opportunity for countries that develop and sell cleaner energy technologies. Nations that delay will lose more jobs and the ability to compete globally, and may end up buying clean technology from foreign suppliers.”
We have shared in the past two editions of this Sustainability Report our aspiration to reduce our 2006 U.S. CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2030. In 2009, our U.S. generation fleet emitted about 91 million tons of CO2 – down from 105 million tons in 2008. However, some of this reduction is a “false positive,” driven by the weakened economy and resulting lower demand for electricity.
We continued to invest in renewable energy in 2009 to diversify our fuel mix and reduce our carbon footprint. Including our renewable energy assets, our nuclear fleet in the Carolinas and our hydroelectric assets in North America and South America, we are now the third-largest producer of carbon-free electricity in the Americas among U.S.-based, investor-owned utilities. Almost 40 percent of the electricity we generated in 2009 was from carbon-free sources.

Jim Rogers CEO Duke Energy

Sonoco

Sonoco is working to shrink the environmental footprint at each of its more than 300 manufacturing plants in 35 countries by:
• Reducing wastes going to landfills
• Reducing energy consumption
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• Reducing hazardous air emissions
• Reducing water usage
• Implementing and encouraging internal recycling programs
Read Sonoco's Environmental Sustainability Policy.
2010 Web site
15% GHG reduction by 2013



Nucor Steel

“Sustainability—through profitable and responsible long-term growth. We are committed to being cultural and environmental stewards in the communities where we live and work. We are succeeding by working together.”
DANIEL R. DIMICCO
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
NUCOR TENURE 1982-PRESENT

Nucor Corporation is made up of 20,400 teammates whose goal is to take care of our customers. We are
accomplishing this by being the safest, highest quality, lowest cost, most productive and most profitable
steel and steel products company in the world. We are committed to doing this while being cultural
and environmental stewards in our communities where we live and work. We are succeeding by
working together.
2009 Sustainability report

BMW

BMW has tremendous economic impact across the entire state of South Carolina. BMW’s investment in South Carolina supports over 23,000 jobs and produces $1.2 billion in wages and salaries a year. Additionally, BMW creates a multiplier effect of 4.3 meaning that for every one job created at the BMW plant that almost four jobs are created elsewhere in the economy.
BMW is committed to doing our part to protect and preserve the local resources upon which we all rely. Through corporate initiatives that encourage environmental awareness, financial support and conservation, we’re playing a leading role in sustaining the fragile eco-systems that make the Upstate community so unique. Our environmental responsibility is one we take seriously, in order to make sure the give and take between nature and business is a balanced one.
GE
Historical examples support both sides. Railroads criss-crossed the country in the 19th Century in part because of sweetheart land grants from states and the federal government. The U.S. freeway system, created for national security, lead to a population boom and new cities in the Southwest. The Internet? It grew out of military research program. Companies like Yahoo, Google, eBay and Amazon wouldn’t have ever been born if the government hadn’t built the basic infrastructure.
“To do something, you’ve got to do something” Jeff Immelt GE CEO.
Ecomagination website

SCANA
“At SCANA, we believe that now, more than ever, we must continue to be a good corporate citizen and take a leadership role in helping solve some of the issues facing our communities and do everything we can to strengthen them – by investing in education, protecting the environment and working to improve the quality of life for everyone in our communities.
It’s not just because it’s good business. It’s because it’s the right thing to do.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, really. None of our SBA members want to damage our local economy or stop fossil fuel or nuclear based energy production. We want the sustainable and smart implementation of support for small business, job creating, renewable energy policies that will enable South Carolina to grow and prosper as fossil fuel constraints begin to impact how we do business. Nuclear fission has limited Uranium sources, fossil fuel is the sun’s energy stored underground. These resources are both finite, meaning at some point as demand exceeds supply costs will go up dramatically and quite possibly dangerously. Until Exxon buys the sun, renewable energy and specifically solar will remain free. A .01% investment in generating capacity is smart policy, diversifying your energy portfolio and creating jobs is what South Carolina needs.