Connectivity: Interactions beyond a Physical Realm

With the advent of electrical communication, starting from the telegraph to the internet, humans have relied less and less on direct, physical interactions. Two major avenues allow us to reduce our impact on the world while maintaining our current lifestyle, off-site work and central offices.

Technology has allowed employees to conduct day to day work activities from the comfort of his/her own home as opposed to the traditional style of working in the office. This model is effective for businesses because it will help reduce: office costs by using more electronic rather than paper communication, real estate costs by needing less office space, and attract/maintain top talent by offering flexible work arrangements. This is also appealing to employees because it allows them to work from home and reduce the inconvenience of commuting. Finally, this is helpful for the environment because it reduces paper consumption, alleviates the pressure on urban land use, and eliminates a significant portion of traffic congestion and the emissions associate with it.

With better connectivity, both physically and electronically, businesses are able to consolidate offices and data centers. What used to require several locations due to proximity reasons now only require one. This undoubtedly enhances many of the same benefits as describe above. For example, a company named Rackforce consolidated its many data centers into one, energy efficient, scalable datacenter. This decreased its overall energy consumption by 40%.

Connectivity: Interactions beyond a Physical Realm

The Death of Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporations and its officers are often portrayed as fat cats and while this is an accurate depiction of some, others are working against that image through corporate social responsibility (“CSR”), the act of giving some profits back to society. However, the era of CSR is coming to an end and should be replaced by a new method, sustainable business; a model that balances social and environmental protection with corporate profit to enlarge the overall pie instead of dividing it between the environment and economics.

This method is both preferential and realistic. Currently CSR is often seen as an expense, a ploy to gain goodwill, or an attempt to do some good at the detriment of the company. As such, CSR efforts are often the first to be cut during an economic downturn. This framework also lends companies to donate money to sensational issues rather than genuinely seek to better the planet. Under sustainable business, companies will seek ways to reduce impact on the Earth while simultaneously reducing cost. These practices will be both economically and environmentally sensible, ensuring their survival even during a recession.

This model is realistic as shown by Ray Anderson and his carpet company Interface. They have been able to reduce net emissions by 82% while also cutting costs. The goodwill gained helped to double the company’s profit. Through recycling and using renewable energy, companies will be able to cut costs in the long run, improve performance through goodwill, and lead the way to a brighter tomorrow.

Tourism SME

Our client is a Tourism SME and delivers exceptional value add through its ability to take tourists through the off - roads and outback.

SITUATION:

Client wanted to understand how the firm could be more sustainable by contributing to a greener world and also contributing to local societies he visited during his tours.

RECOMMENDATION:

Provided the client with a solution that covered broad spectrum of sustainability.

Conducted a GHG audit and helped understand what the business emissions were and how they could be offset.

Provided the client with a variety of tools he could use to better market sustainability to his customers which boosted revenue even further.

A SINGLE MARKET, CURRENCY AND A SINGLE EUROPEAN SKY?

The Single European Sky (SES) enables a single European Airspace through the integrated management of air traffic.

The European Air Travel market has expanded tremendously over the past few decades. Even after various efforts, the Air Traffic Management (ATM) System remains safe but fairly costly and inefficient. The cost of traffic control per flight is almost twice as high in the EU when compared to that in the USA (Lufthansa, December 2010). This initiative effectively breaks these borders and demands a free airspace. A unified approach to Air Traffic Management (ATM) is an essential step before any sort of emissions trading schemes are implemented (Eurocontrol, 2009). The scheme is forecasted to reduce carbon emissions by 16 million tones and save 5 Billion Euros in wasted air traffic management costs (Bateman, 2010).

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WHAT IS A WELL DESIGNED EMISISONS TRADING SYSTEM?

ü A well designed ETS is non-discriminatory and whatever the geographical scope of the ETS, should include all operators and should treat them equally regardless of nationality. This imposes a lot of problems as international airspace is governed by international laws and thus causes political clashes in the global airspace

ü It should also be an open system where all aircraft operators have reach to exchange and trade permits seamlessly. This might be achieved with the establishment of an effective exchange mechanism

ü Other market based policy tools should be renounced. Research already indicates that environmental taxes and subsidies are inefficient and create deadweight losses to society (AEA). Thus if an ETS is established, to ensure maximum efficiency, all other policy tools should be retired

ü Administration costs should be kept at minimum and verification processes should be transparent. A central administration authority should be established and monitoring costs should be kept in check

SHOULD THE AVIATION INDUSTRY BE INCLUDED IN THE EMISSIONS TRADING PROGRAM (EU - ETS)?

Policy makers in the EU have taken steps to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions ever since the Kyoto protocol, but their ability to understand how such schemes would impact the aviation industry remains lackluster. Including the civil aviation industry in the Emissions Trading program is an excellent step towards a greener world, but policymakers must understand the underlying issues and deliver on its previous commitment of establishing the Single European Sky (SES) program before it implements such schemes.

The current policy stance of including the aviation industry in the scheme from 1^st Jan 2013 must not be a way to side shift existing issues and potential problems with the scheme. In fact, some parts of the scheme are not well thought in terms of international law and are based on false forecasts.

The climate conference in Copenhagen was the last chance to discuss these concerns but unfortunately, the conference yielded nothing and aircraft operations were left waiting for policymakers to act on the SES Scheme.

· This brief calls for immediate action towards implementation of the SES initiative

· Steps towards development of multilateral and not just EU (unilateral) emissions trading scheme must be taken. All flights regardless of origin must be included in the ETS

· Allowance limits must take into account airline industry growth and oil price shocks

· Permit auctioning must be done in a fair manner

· There must be plans for the revenue generated from these permits purchases to invest in green and efficient technology for the aviation industry. So far it seems like the cash might just get pocketed by lobbyists