Brussels – European Union leaders agreed on Friday to contribute to a €50bn annual aid fund that would help developing nations adapt to climate change – but failed to set a firm figure for exactly how much the EU would pay.
Source: News24: SciTech

OK, let’s be real. It took years for businesses to evolve into the resource-hungry, environmentally blithe entities that they are. Why should managers be charged with fixing things overnight, especially if you are a multi-branch, multi-warehouse, multi-whatever sort of operation.

A London businessman, James Doran, has embraced an idea to spread sustainability principles across his company in a phased approach, without biting off more than his team can chew. Doran, who is managing director of fire, security and electrical testing company First Choice Facilities, began running his Loughborough, Leicestershire, office in 2008 as what he calls an “Environmentally Managed Unit (EMUs).” Here’s the general statement about how his company using EMUs in its operations.

An EMU basically allows individual locations and staff to make decisions that are guided by environmental and business practices. The renewable energy resources available in one location, for example, are likely to be different than in another location. So, why should one office be forced to do something that doesn’t make sense?

The Loughborough office is a carbon-neutral operation located on a site developed by Beacon Energy that features multiple interlinked sources of renewable energy. The office is using biodiesel fuel in its vehicles and its striving also to be paperless.
Source: smartplanet

President Obama tried out a bit of political jiu jitsu last Friday, reframing the climate change debate from “green” to “competitive.”

In his MIT speech the President talked less about polar bears and more about markets such as lighting, solar panels, batteries and turbines, markets that can be retaken with the right incentives.

Don’t say green, say competitive.

Speaking this language is essential because former Bush DoE official Karen Harbert, now heading the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Energy Institute, continues pushing climate change as a business vs. government divide when it is increasingly a battle between industries.
Source: smartplanet

Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) offer consumers lighting through lamps that have a longer life and consume considerably less energy than conventional incandescent globes. As part of their strategy to introduce these globes, Eskom embarked on a national programme to exchange incandescent globes with CFLs in selected areas.

Since the programme began in 2004 more than 18 million CFLs have been exchanged for incandescent globes. The national programme was recently implemented in the Western Cape, Northern Province, Gauteng and Free State where four million CFLs were exchanged for incandescent globes.

The programme has reached more than 315 000 households and continues to reduce the energy demand from the household sector.
Source: Eskom

Power

• Solien
• Imison
• (re)SA
• National Energy Regulator of South Africa
• Loadshedding
• ESKOM Demand Side Management
• Engineering news – solar
• Global Carbon Exchange

Government departments

• National departments
• Department of Minerals and Energy
• Gauteng Department of Housing
• Science & Technology
• Mineral Resources

Other

• Sustainable Energy Africa
• Energy Research Centre
• African Energy News Review
• South African National Energy Research Institute
• Association for Renewable Energy Cooking Appliances
• The Southern African Association for Energy Efficiency
• Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies
• Human Settlements
• The Carbon Protocol of South Africa
• Cape Town Green Map
• Green Building

International

• smartplanet
• Wikipedia – Green building