Nature, just like any corporation can only produce so many resources and absorb so much waste each year.  The problem is our demands on nature are exceeding what it is capable of providing and putting at risk the critical life-supporting systems which we all depend on for our very existence.

This year the date of 27th September 2011, symbolised the day of the year when peoples demands exceeded the Earth’s ability to supply resources and absorb the demands placed upon it.  The date changes each year depending upon the natural resources being consumed in that year.

The first “ecological debt day” fell on Saturday 19th December 1987, but economic and population growth has seen it fall earlier each year.

The interesting manner in which to describe the impact humanity has on the planet and the data to support the findings was produced by a US-based think-tank, Global Footprint Network.

Interestingly, but unsurprisingly, the nations responsible for incurring this environmental overdraft or overshoot on behalf of the global population are developed and developing countries.

Do we fit on the planet?

Today humanity uses the equivalent of 1.5 planets to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste. This means it now takes the Earth one year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year.

Moderate UN scenarios suggest that if current population and consumption trends continue, by the 2030′s, we will need the equivalent of two Earths to support us. And of course, we only have one.

Turning resources into waste faster than waste can be turned back into resources puts us in global ecological overdraft or overshoot, depleting the very resources on which human life and biodiversity depend.

How many Earths we require

Can the Planet feed us?

The recent rapid increase in human population over the past two centuries has raised concerns that humans are beginning to overpopulate the Earth, and that the planet may not be able to sustain present or larger numbers of inhabitants. The population has been growing continuously since the end of the Black Death, around the year 1400^; at the beginning of the 19th century, it had reached roughly 1,000,000,000 (1 Billion).

The United Nations indicated Monday 31st October 2011 as the day world population hit 7 billion. Many find the Halloween date appropriate given the frightening prospect of this demographic milestone. As if 7 billion weren’t scary enough, the U.N. projects 10 billion people by 2083, the addition of roughly three more Indias.

The findings are based on the concept of “ecological footprints”, a system of measuring how much land and water a human population needs to produce the resources it consumes and absorb the resulting waste.

Global Footprint Network

Global Footprint Network’s executive director, Mathis Wackernagel, said humanity was living off its “ecological credit card” and was “liquidating the planet’s natural resources”.  “While this can be done for a short while, overshoot ultimately leads to the depletion of resources, such as forests, oceans and agricultural land, upon which our economy depends,” Mr Wackernagel said.

Fredrik Erixon, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy (Ecipe), a Brussels-based think tank, said he applauded the authors on their innovative way of focusing attention to the issue of resource depletion.

“When it comes to using footprints as a way to follow the micro effects of various economic behaviours on the environment, it can be quite good,” Mr Erixon said.  However, he added that history had shown that technological advances had led to more efficient uses of natural resources, and had sustained economic growth.

Efficiency holds the solution

Just as efficiencies in production and agricultural processes has enabled global population to grow 7 fold in less than two hundred years, humanity has the capability and technology to drive efficiencies into the use of the Earth’s resources and reduce the waste we force it to process.

However, the political will has been lacking to provide an international context within which this capability and technology can be applied to the challenge.   The most notable being the US refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and more recently the difficulties in getting broad international agreement on a new Kyoto II Protocol.

Consumers providing the Context, Business fear the Risk

The consumer dimension offers both opportunity and risk. Today’s consumers know, and care more about what they buy, how it is made, what it is made from, how far it travels and how it is packaged.

The way consumers gather and share information has also changed; they are empowered and linked as never before by the internet. Information can spread globally in an instant. The consequences of being found to be operating unethically, or in an environmentally unfriendly manner, can be damaging and long-term to businesses.

Equally important to retail and consumer goods businesses are the operational, cost and regulatory impacts of sustainability issues. These are having tangible effects upon every aspect of the business model, from the availability and price of raw materials to the types of products on the shelf and beyond.  Those organisations moving first and fastest, are building sustainable solutions that create value. These leaders are starting to change the rules of the game. The risks of being left behind are becoming too great to ignore.

Sustainability issues are higher on the UK consumer agenda than ever before. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) commissioned independent research into the attitudes and habits of 4,000 UK consumers and the results clearly demonstrate the existence of mainstream public awareness and concern about sustainability issues.

Over 60% of consumers stated that sustainability issues (climate change, poverty, food and water shortages) were the most important issues facing the world. When asked about climate change, 80% said they were ‘worried’.  Drivers of awareness and concern are varied. The ordinary and everyday are being impacted and consumers are feeling economic pressure in food, fuel and utility prices. In addition they are seeing increased volatility in global and local weather patterns.

Awareness has clearly been influenced by an explosion of media coverage. The number of articles appearing in the mainstream national UK press has increased ten-fold over the past decade and doubled between 2005 and 2007.  This awareness and concern is motivating action and changing behaviour. When asked if they had made significant changes to their lifestyle over the past two years as a result of their environmental concerns, 75% of the population claimed they had.

Corporate Collaboration is Key

Businesses are beginning to exploit the opportunities presented by current consumer sentiment by searching for opportunities to reduce waste, packaging, energy use, water and to identify and understand the environmental and ethical risks embedded within their supply chain with respect to the same.  Businesses are beginning to compete not only for access to resources, but on their ability to extract the maximum value and reuse of the resources they consume.

Have you ever wondered how we got to where we are with regards to climate change?   This short animation takes a comical look back in time to when we first started to consume fossil fuels and traces how our appetite for fossil fuels has driven and been driven by consumerism.

Frank Pyne, Applegreen Sustainability spokesperson on the project, said: “This is not something that we’re legally obliged to do but we see it as an important component to delivering on our commitments on carbon reduction. As a significant business in the UK and Ireland we feel we have a responsibility to demonstrate leadership in the area of climate change.

“We have selected the online Nootrol service as it is the only one that can provide us with visibility deep into our entire supply chain, not just direct Tier-1 suppliers. It is intuitive, easy to use and most importantly equips us and our suppliers with the means to achieve real reductions in energy, carbon and costs across our entire supply chains.”

Mark Kearns, CEO of Nootrol added, “Although there is currently no mandatory obligation to report a company’s carbon emissions there is increased public, investor and stakeholder pressure to integrate carbon management within Corporate Social Responsibility programmes that usually involve suppliers. More and more companies are now realising that by measuring their carbon emissions substantial cost savings can be generated for both businesses and suppliers.”

The news follows a recent report* by management and technology consultancy BearingPoint which found that green supply chain initiatives across Europe are being increasingly driven by bottom line issues rather than regulation.

Applegreen’s new climate change and green procurement standard encourages suppliers to use energy efficiently and reduce carbon during the production, delivery, use and disposal of products and services supplied to the company.

Applegreen’s Climate Change and Green Procurement standard is at the cutting edge of green procurement. Suppliers will be encouraged to undertake the following:

• To have a policy in place to address the challenge of climate change;
• To actively measure and report carbon;
• To set challenging targets to reduce carbon emissions and to report on progress.

Applegreen has a strong track record in addressing the challenges of climate change, taking action to reduce emissions from its own operations through the delivery of lower carbon products and services. For example, the six Applegreen Motorway Service Areas on the M1 at Lusk and Castlebellingham and the M4 at Enfield all use CHP (combined heat and power) units. The implementation of CHP solutions on each site, powered by LP Gas allows for the efficient simultaneous generation of water heating, central heating and electricity in a single process. This not only reduces energy costs but also minimises the impact on the environment.

The company is now taking its activity to the next level by committing to buy products and services that have lower environmental impacts. While many companies are currently working to reduce their own carbon footprint, Applegreen joins a growing list of global businesses extending their focus to their supply chains.

Ahead of the introduction of the new Climate Change and Green Procurement standard, Applegreen in collaboration with Nootrol, has since August 2010 been trialing the programme with some of Applegreen’s largest suppliers both in Ireland and abroad.

*Source BearingPoint: http://bit.ly/jHFf2K

Press Queries to:
Mary O’Brien, Simpson Financial & Technology PR
T: 01-260 5300
E: mary@simpsonftpr.ie

About Applegreen

Applegreen is a private Irish company and is Ireland’s largest independent forecourt retailer with over 80 sites trading in the Republic of Ireland and United Kingdom. It currently employs over 1,000 people and continues to grow rapidly since the brand was established in 2004. For more information see: www.applegreen.ie/press

About Nootrol
Nootrol is a cloud based service that enables customers and suppliers to collaborate, calculate and share their emissions and climate change performance and objectives in a transparent and standards based manner.

Subscribers’ access an online self-forming network of businesses, enabling them to manage and monitor the sustainability of their supply chains in real-time. Changes that occur deep within the supply chain percolate throughout the entire network, providing instant visibility of the environmental impacts of their supply chain.

Nootrol is an Irish software company based in Dublin and is supported by Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start Up (HPSU) unit. Established in 2009 and led by Mark Kearns, it is the only environmental management and green procurement service that provides instant, real-time and deep visibility into businesses supply chains. For more information see: www.nootrol.com

The video also covers how to get started building your supply chain, by searching for existing companies. If they cannot be found, we’ll show you how to invite them. We’ll also show you how to specify an Intensity so you can start making claims for goods and services connected with your supply chain.

Lastly, we’ll show you how each component in the dashboard gives you a unique view into your carbon footprint. We hope you enjoy this introductory video.

Reviewing and managing your activity records is now done using a slide-down window to display all of the details of particular records, replacing what was originally a pop-up. The particulars of how the emissions for each record were calculated is available to view on the slide-down along with data on when the record was created and which time period it applies to.

The process for adding a new activity record has been completely refurbished. The previous six-step pop-up window has been removed and replaced with the new window below, combining all the involved in creating an emission activity record.

When you select an emission activity category from the eight icons on the left you will then be presented with a tree to select the measurements to be used to calculate the emission. Once the rest of the details have been entered the activity record can be created and the emissions calculated for that activity.

A new feature that’s been added in this release is the Quick Footprint calculator. This calculator allows you to enter a fast estimate of any facility’s emissions for a chosen year. The calculator has three steps for data entry: direct emissions, indirect emissions and commuting and business travel emissions.

Direct Emissions records your fuel usage from stationary combustion (e.g. natural gas or oil burned on-site) and from mobile combustion (e.g. transport and freight from company-owned vehicles). Indirect Emissions records your use of electricity. Commuting and Business Travel Emissions records your employees’ commutes (using public or private transport) and any business travel.

Using the Quick Footprint calculator with just a few clicks and keystrokes you’ll have an estimate of an entire year’s worth of emissions. With more and more user feedback we will be able to make our future releases more efficient and even easier to use.

Nootrol has been selected as a finalist for the prestigious Green Awards 2011 in three categories:

• The Green Supply Chain Award
• The Green Product / Service Award

Additionally, Mark Kearns, Nootrol CEO has been shortlisted for the Green Entrepreneur Award.

The 2011 Green Supply Chain Award is awarded to providers of supply chain solutions and services that are assisting their customers in achieving measurable sustainability goals in the areas of Sourcing/Procurement, Fulfillment/Logistics, Operations, Product Lifecycle Management, and other areas of the supply chain. Submissions for the 2011 Green Supply Chain Awards are judged based on the clarity and content of the goals and strategy (30 percent), the extent of the steps being taken (30 percent), the impact of the results to date and projected results (30 percent), and the form and presentation of the information submitted (10 percent).

The awards ceremony takes place on Thursday 14th April in The Burlington Hotel.

Nootrol helps businesses measure, manage and reduce the emissions, energy and therefore the costs embedded within their supply chains.   Nootrol provides a cloud based Software-as-a-Service that enables customers and their suppliers to collaborate, calculate and share their emissions and climate change performance and objectives in a transparent and standards based manner.

Subscribers’ access an online self-forming network of businesses, enabling them to manage and monitor the sustainability of their supply chains in real-time.  Changes that occur deep within the supply chain percolate throughout the entire network, providing instant visibility of the environmental impacts of their supply chain.

BT Should be applauded for being one of the few UK based businesses taking the lead by engaging with their supply chain to understand the impact their operations have upstream of their businesses.   Similar to the efforts undertaken by Baxter, BT have started small by requiring only 6,000 of their direct suppliers to measure their carbon and sustainability goals and objectives.  However, they need to follow the lead taken by Procter & Gamble and quickly extend this requirement to all their suppliers.

Their lead can help small and medium sized businesses which are the backbone of the UK economy to adopt and implement energy and sustainability policies.   Only by engaging with the SME sector can BT, P&G, Baxter et al. really impact the emissions and sustainability profile of UK businesses.  Which is according to BT one of the objectives of this programme.

The sustainability team in BT is led by Liz Cross.   Liz said: “This is not something that we’re legally obliged to do, but we see this as key to delivering on our commitments on carbon reduction. We set our first carbon reduction target in 1992 and so initiatives like the workshops are a way for us to share what we’ve learned along the way. We’ve had really positive feedback from our suppliers on the workshops and we’ll continue working with them on their own carbon plans.”

BT has recruited the Carbon Trust to assist in them in this endeavor.  For more information see the BT press release:  BT extends carbon commitment to suppliers.

These and 3,000 other global businesses are actively managing their carbon emissions and disclosing them annually to the Carbon Disclosure project.  The main drivers for doing so are:

1.     Joint process improvement to improve collaboration and efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and ultimately generate costs savings for both businesses and suppliers;

2.     Increased public, investor and stakeholder pressure to integrate carbon management within Corporate Social Responsibility programs that usually involve suppliers;

3.     Increased customer interest that creates opportunities for differentiated products;

4.     Risks facing suppliers that ultimately threaten sourcing activities.

However, these global businesses face significant challenges putting their good intentions into practice.  Their ability to measure and effect positive changes in their supply chains is constrained by the financial cost and logistics of collaborating and mobilising thousands of suppliers, many of who are deep within the supply chain and unknown to them.

Suppliers too face difficulties; primarily in the cost and complexities of applying the carbon accounting standards in a consistent manner that enables them to respond to their customers in a timely and uniform manner.

This webinar aims to provide you with a quick yet detailed introduction to the process of determining your carbon inventory.  It is based upon the Carbon Accounting Standard as prescribed by the GHG protocol and the World Resources Institute.