| ECO-EFFICIENCY
|
| |
- The US EPA estimates:
- Energy represents 30% of the typical office building's
costs and is a property's single largest operating expense.
- Commercial buildings generate 18% of U.S. carbon dioxide
emissions.
- Industrial facilities generate 33% of U.S. carbon
dioxide emissions.
- Thirty percent of energy consumed in buildings is
used unnecessarily or inefficiently.
|
| |
- Saving 30% of energy costs is equal to increasing Net
Operating Income by 5%. (US. EPA)
|
| |
- Organizations that have adopted effective energy management
strategies and built successful energy programs have had
positive results:
- Ford Motor Company has saved over $75 million through
effective energy management.
- USAA Real Estate has realized a 5% annual energy savings
and increased the asset value of a California building
by $1.5 million due to energy efficiency upgrades.
- Eastman Kodak saved more than $8.6 million in operating
costs in 2002 from its energy management efforts.
- Hines estimates the difference in operational costs
between its energy efficient buildings and inefficient
buildings at more than $13 million.
|
| |
- US organizations can save a total of $130 billion by 2010
through strategic investments in energy efficiency. (US
EPA)
|
| |
- Behind nearly every sustainability strategy is a measurable
rate of return. For example, organizations that improve
energy performance outperform their competitors by as much
as 10%. (US EPA)
|
| |
- A ton of paper made from 100% post consumer recycled
content instead of virgin fiber saves:
- 17 trees
- 7,000 gallons of water
- 60 pounds of air pollutants· 4100 kwh of energy
- 3 cubic yards of landfill space
|
| |
- Recycling and remanufacturing produce substantially more
jobs than landfilling or incinerating -- usually at a lower
cost to local government and residential and business ratepayers.
In fact, according to Californians Against Waste, recycling
results in up to 36 times more jobs than landfilling.
|
| |
| FINANCIAL
PERFORMANCE
|
| |
- Investors see a definite link between good corporate governance
and shareholder value:
- 84% of investors are more likely to invest in a mutual
fund if it engages in ethical business practices in
its operations and reporting
- 71% of those surveyed said that they either strongly
agreed (35%) or somewhat agreed (36%) that companies
operating with higher levels of integrity carry lower
investment risk.
- 68% of those surveyed said that they either strongly
agreed (31%) or somewhat agreed (37%) that companies
operating with higher levels of integrity deliver higher
investment returns.
(Conducted by Harris Interactive® for Calvert)
|
| |
- Total investments using at least one social investment
strategy have grown from $40 billion in 1984 to $639 billion
in 1995, to over $2 trillion today.
|
| |
- Recent reports have identified a correlation between quality
corporate energy management and increased performance in
the stock market.
- In the real estate sector, leaders in energy management
outperformed laggards by nearly 3,500 basis points,
or 35 percentage points.
- In the retail food sector, leaders outperformed laggards
by nearly 2,000 basis points, or 20 percentage points.
- In the retail-merchandising sector, leaders outperformed
laggards by nearly 7100 basis points, or 71 percentage
points.
|
| |
- Researchers at University of Michigan and Harvard recently
found that of 95 studies of the relationship of social and
environmental performance to financial performance, three-quarters
showed it to be neutral to positive.
|
| |
- There is an increasing gap between the book value of a
firm (the initial shareholder investment) and its market
value (the shareholders’ assessment of the firm).
Portfolio managers reveal that 35% of an investment decision
is determined by non-financial information – social
and environmental concerns are taking an increasingly large
role.
Centre for the Management of Environmental and Social
Responsibility; www.insead.fr
|
OPERATIONS
AND PROCUREMENT |
| |
- As government shifts ultimate responsibility for the environmental
costs of manufacture, use, and disposal of a product, manufacturers
will have a direct financial incentive to produce "cleaner"
products – ones made using less energy, materials,
and toxics, and which result in less waste and use less
energy to operate. (Northwest Product Stewardship Council)
|
| |
- There is economic value in thinking about products before
they become waste so they can be resources rather than garbage.
Businesses that use recycled material in producing their
products contribute billions of dollars to the economy through
the jobs they produce, taxes they pay and other factors.
This is a much greater return than if those products were
simply managed as waste and thrown in a landfill. (Northwest
Product Stewardship Council)
|
| |
- Take Back/Buy Back Programs and Life-Cycle Management
Programs are ways to extend a company’s sustainable
supply chain to its suppliers and customers. Examples:
- Ford Motor Company takes back bumpers and recycles
them into new bumpers. They are recycling approximately
1.5 million pounds of Xenoy plastic (the stuff bumpers
are made of) per year.
- Rochester Midland Corporation, a chemical specialty
manufacturer of cleaning products for institutional
building cleaning, developed a new line of cleaning
products with environment, health and safety in mind,
then formed a "life-cycle partnership" with
an institution cleaning service, a government building
manager and the tenants of a large government building.
Through their program, they address the entire lifecycle
of their products from product redesign to end user
support.(Northwest Product Stewardship Council)
|
| |
- In 2002, The Xerox Corporation announced that its efforts
to design environmentally friendly products and manufacturing
processes over the past ten years have resulted in more
than $2 billion in costs saved or avoided, and the equivalent
of 1.8 million printers and copiers reused or recycled.
|
| |
- Corporations, governments, international organizations,
universities, and other large institutions are key in fostering
a shift towards environmentally sustainable economies. In
the US alone, colleges bought some $25 billion in goods
and services in 1999 — equivalent to nearly 3 percent
of U.S. GDP. Because of the large-scale, systematic approach
that most institutions take in their purchasing, a single
decision made by one professional buyer or purchasing department
can have a tremendous ripple effect, influencing the products
used by hundreds or even thousands of individuals.
|
| |
