Today GE upped its 2010 commitment to renewable energy to $6B.
GE had previously planned to invest $4 billion in renewable energy by then, but upped the goal due to the increasing cost of fossil fuels and support of greener energy, among other factors, according to Alex Urquhart, president and CEO of GE Energy Financial Services.
Its “Ecomagination” PR and advertising campaign has been budgeted at $90M.
Story in GreenBiz
Duke University’s Focus the Nation activities will culminate when the Blue Devil men host NC State in a game to be nationally televised on ESPN2.
The Cameron Crazies, the pep band and the Blue Devil mascot will be given green t-shirts emblazoned with the Green Devil and the slogan, “Bleed Blue. Live Green.” Attendees will be encouraged to sign the Duke Sustainability Pledge, recycle any waste they generate and use alternative transportation to come to the stadium. Duke will also be offsetting the carbon footprint of the game.
World class standards for event greening established by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, and partner organizations. It is drawn from the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the WSSD’s 22,000 delegates.
The basic principles of greening” major events that should be incorporated by the host organization include:
With an urgency — and a sense of irreverence — reminiscent of the anti-war movement of the 1960s, a group of activists from Portland, Ore., has recruited students at more than 1,000 college campuses, K-12 schools, civic organizations, church groups and private companies to conduct a massive “teach-in” on global warming Jan. 31.
At most participating campuses, pledges are coming from many professors — in some cases 50 or more — who are planning to modify their lectures, create shorter presentations or attend the panel discussions. Rather than planning evening rallies, professors are being asked to do the teaching during regular class hours.
“If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we will do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.”
– Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
We are at a critical time when decisions need to be made on tackling the threats imposed by global warming,” says Gus Speth, Dean of Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. “Today’s youth who are inheriting this crisis need serious education on the issue and Focus the Nation has created a forum for learning and interaction with law makers.”
A cursory review of recently published public opinion polls:
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has noticed that American companies and citizens spent $54M on carbon offset credits last year. According to the New York Times, the commission said it was “growing increasingly concerned that some green marketing assertions were not substantiated.”
Unlike tangible goods like cars or breakfast cereals, carbon offsets and renewable energy credits don’t offer consumers an easy way to verify they’ve received the products sold to them. With this much uncertainty, there’s a heightened potential for deception. — FTC chair Deborah Platt Majoras.
In timely fashion, Seventh Generation has a recent blog post that provides consumers with questions they can ask to determine the quality and “additionality” of their purchases.
In the 12/31/07 New York Times Most Wanted section on the Marketing Page (print edition only), Shelly Freierman listed the companies who spent a total of $63M on last year’s title game (Florida vs. Ohio State):
The going rate for a 30 second spot during the 2006 BCS Championship game was between $268,000 to $530,000 according to TNS Media Intelligence cited by MediaPostPublications . The 30 second spot at last year’s NFL’s SuperBowl cost $2.5M.
Forbes determines value by computing on what the basketball programs contribute to (1) the university, (2) the athletic department, (3) the conference (4) the local communities (visitor spending).
So Manchester United has had the all storied players (Giggs, Scholes, Ronaldo, Solskjaer, Beckham), the storied ground (Old Trafford), and the storied trophy case (with the famous triple in 1999), and the storied coach (Sir Alex Ferguson).
But now, Manchester City, the oft-maligned cross-town rivals, have a 23 story windmill.
It generates enough electricity to power the equivalent of 1,250 homes and clearly makes City among the greenest franchises in the sports world.
Pete Bradshaw, Social Responsibility Manager for Manchester City Football Club said: “The wind turbine provides an exciting opportunity to help the Club and the city achieve significant carbon emission reductions. The wind turbine is a significant part of a range of energy efficiencies and recycling projects that the Club is involved in though its award-winning community and social responsibility projects.”
What’s more, City is currently in fourth place in the Premier League and have already won the first leg of the Manchester Derby. The lads are playing to win.
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