Kaujalgi

In the past few weeks, Europe announced a slew of proposals on improving the efficiency of:

1. Buildings, applicances and transportation
2. Phasing out incandescent light bulbs
3. Wasteful water pumps
4. Power adapters that connect devices like laptop computers, modems and cordless phones to wall sockets – The enhanced performance standards for external power supplies means the E.U. could save enough electricity by 2020 to power Lithuania for a year. (Wow!)

What are we in the US doing?

• We still don’t have recycle bins in most public places – malls, airports, offices, starbucks (hello?). We have seen these all over Europe.
• Many cities/towns are still not recycling
• Most of our office buildings leave their lights ON all night. What exactly is the justification for that? Can technology not solve it?

Wake up, USA.

From the New York Times – An Opinion Piece by Gurcharan Das

CHINA and India are in a struggle for a top rung on the ladder of world power, but their approaches to the state and to power could not be more different.

Two days after last month’s terrorist attack on Mumbai, I met with a Chinese friend who was visiting India on business. He was shocked as much by the transparent and competitive minute-by-minute reporting of the attack by India’s dozens of news channels as by the ineffectual response of the government. He had seen a middle-class housewife on national television tell a reporter that the Indian commandos delayed in engaging the terrorists because they were too busy guarding political big shots. He asked how the woman could get away with such a statement…………..

Here is the rest of the piece

The US EPA has a Climate Leaders Program which companies can join as partners. Each company then sets their Green House Goal or GHG. Todate, there are 196 companies in the program and the entire list with their GHG Goals are listed below.

If you believe that the EPA is ….ahem…., the right stalwart of this program, do go ahead and read the list and share your views. The GHG goals companies have set themselves range from the pretty modest (see Abbott) to the fairly aggressive (See some of the companies aiming for net zero GHG). Of course, a majority of the companies below have yet to list their GHG goals.

We can only hope these are not just “logo” initiatives, as in stick the Climate Leaders logo on your PR material, set a “goal” to reduce GHG by 2% and then thump your chest with pride.

The program guidelines are at this link