SunCorp

Bend it, write on it, read it — just don’t try to fold it into a paper plane.
Electronic paper is Japan’s answer to rising raw material costs, depleted resources and booming demand for printed matter from emerging markets such as China and India.
At a high-tech fair in Tokyo this week, Japanese firms showed the latest versions of what is still considered a niche product, ranging from thick, sturdy readers to thin displays that look like plastic sheets and can be bent.
E-Ink, which manufactures Sony’s Reader tablet, says consumers will eventually embrace the energy-saving technology as the cost of paper and fuel goes up. Japan, known for its beautiful hand-made paper as well as its cutting-edge technology, has already been trying to combine the two.
Firms such as Fujitsu and Sony use electrophoretic displays, or EPD, for everything from watches and mobiles to electronic readers. The display sends electronic charges along a grid embedded in the e-paper which cause tiny black and white particles to move, creating text and images.

 The idea of turning farms into fuel plants seemed, for a time, like one of the answers to high global oil prices and supply worries. That strategy seemed to reach a high point last year when Congress mandated a fivefold increase in the use of biofuels.
    But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people. Biofuels are fast becoming a new flash point in global diplomacy, putting pressure on Western politicians to reconsider their policies, even as they argue that biofuels are only one factor in the seemingly inexorable rise in food prices.
    In some countries, the higher prices are leading to riots, political instability and growing worries about feeding the poorest people. Food riots contributed to the dismissal of Haitis prime minister last
week, and leaders in some other countries are nervously trying to calm anxious consumers. At a weekend conference in Washington, finance ministers and central bankers of seven leading industrial nations called for urgent action to deal with the price spikes, and several of them demanded a reconsideration of biofuel policies adopted recently in the West.
    Many specialists in food policy consider government mandates for biofuels to be ill advised, agreeing that the diversion of crops like corn into fuel production has contributed to the higher prices. But other factors have played big roles, including droughts that have limited output and rapid global economic growth that has created higher demand for food.
    That growth, much faster over the last four years than the historical norm, is lifting millions of people out of destitution and giving them access to better diets. But farmers are having trouble keeping up with the surge in demand.
    While there is agreement that the growth of biofuels has contributed to higher food prices, the amount is disputed.
    Work by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington suggests that biofuel production accounts for a quarter to a third of the recent increase in global commodity prices. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations predicted late last year that biofuel production, assuming that current mandates continue, would increase food costs by 10 to 15%.
    Ethanol supporters maintain that any increase caused by biofuels is relatively small and that energy costs and soaring demand for meat in developing countries have had a greater impact. “There’s no question that they are a factor, but they are really a smaller factor than other things that are driving up prices,’’ said Ron Litterer, an Iowa farmer who is president of the National Corn Growers Association.
    He said biofuels were an “easy culprit to blame’’ because their popularity had grown so rapidly in the last two or three
years. Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, called the recent criticism of ethanol by foreign officials “a big joke’’. He questioned why they were not also blaming a drought in Australia that reduced the wheat crop and the growing demand for meat in China and India.
    “You make ethanol out of corn,’’ he said. “I bet if I set a bushel of corn in front of any of those delegates, not one of them would eat it.’’ The senator’s comments reflect a political reality in Washington that despite the criticism from abroad, support for ethanol remains solid.
    Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, said he had come to realize that Congress made a mistake in backing biofuels, not anticipating the impact on food costs. He said Congress needed to reconsider its policy, though he acknowledged that would be difficult.
    “If there was a secret vote, there is a pretty large number of people who would like to reassess what we are doing,’’ he said.
    According to the World Bank, global food prices have increased by 83% in the last three years. Rice, a staple food for nearly half the world’s population, has been a particular focus of concern in recent weeks, with spiraling prices prompting several countries to impose drastic limits on exports as they try to protect domestic consumers. While grocery prices in the United States increased about 5% over all in the last year, some essential items like eggs and milk have jumped far more. The federal government is expected to release new data on domestic food prices Wednesday, with notable increases expected.
    On Monday, President Bush ordered that $200 million in emergency food aid be made available to “meet unanticipated food aid needs in Africa and elsewhere,’’ a White House statement said.
    His spokeswoman, Dana M Perino, said the president had urged officials to look for additional ways to help poor nations combat food insecurity and to come up with a long-term plan “that helps take care of the worlds poor and hungry.’’
    Skeptics have long questioned the value of diverting food crops for fuel, and the grocery and live- stock industries vehemently opposed an energy bill last fall, arguing it was driving up costs.
    A fifth of the nation’s corn crop is now used to brew ethanol for motor fuel, and as farmers have planted more corn, they have cut acreage of other crops, particularly soybeans. That, in turn, has contributed to a global shortfall of cooking oil. Spreading global dissatisfaction in recent months has intensified the food-versus-fuel debate. Last Friday, a European environment advisory panel urged the European Union to suspend its goal of having 10% of transportation fuel made from biofuels by 2020. Europe’s well-meaning rush to biofuels, the scientists concluded, had created a variety of harmful ripple effects, including deforestation in Southeast Asia and higher prices for grain.
    Even if biofuels are not the primary reason for the increase in food costs, some experts say it is one area where a reversal of government policy could help take pressure off food prices. C Ford Runge, an economist at the University of Minnesota, said it is “extremely difficult to disentangle’’ the effect of biofuels on food costs.
    Nevertheless, he said there was little that could be done to mitigate the effect of droughts and the growing appetite for protein in developing countries. “Ethanol is the one thing we can do something about,’’ he said. “It’s about the only lever we have to pull, but none of the politicians have the courage to pull the lever.’’ But August Schumacher, a former under secretary of agriculture who is a consultant for the Kellogg Foundation, said the criticism of biofuels might be misdirected. Development agencies like the World Bank and many governments did little to support agricultural development in the last two decades.

The world needs a new development model

 Two big questions are blowing in the wind about the way the world is going. The first is, “Is it sustainable?” There is concern with the state of the environment, and realisation that the paradigm of economic growth that has made the rich countries wealthy is not sustainable. Mankind’s global footprint — which is a measure of the pressure human activity exerts on the resources of the earth — was 60 per cent of the earth’s capacity to renew itself in 1960. It has now reached 130 per cent of the earth’s capacity. We are no longer living off the earth’s revenue account. We are eating into its capital. Scientists project that if China and India grow in the way the West has, within 25 years they will require another whole planet earth to support them alone. But we have only one earth to share amongst all of us.
    The second question is, “Is it fair?” This is a question asked not just by people in the developing countries, but even in the US, the bastion of free markets and capitalism. In his book Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life, Robert Reich, a member of former President Bill Clinton’s cabinet, observes that the wealth of the two richest Americans — Bill Gates and Warren Buffet — is equal to the combined wealth of 100 million poorer Americans.
    He argues that this is a result of the capitalist process. He does not grudge the two their wealth. But he says a system that can result in such huge disparities cannot be completely right. In India, the wealth of the richest Indians now equals the wealth of the richest Americans. One may wonder how many hundreds of millions of poorer Indians’ wealth would equal one of these rich Indians’ wealth?

    Bill Emmott, former editor-in-chief of The Economist, in his book 20:21 Vision: 20th Century Lessons for the 21st Century says, “Capitalism in its present form is unpopular, unstable, unequal, and unclean”. These critics of capitalism are not communists. They are capitalists. Yet, they are calling for a better way. Therefore, let us not be stuck in ideologies. Let us face realities. Why is it ‘socialist’ and wrong to forgive the loans of struggling farmers in India, while it is ‘capitalist’ and right to help Bear Stearns’ rich investment bankers on Wall Street pay off their loans?
    When we consider how to transform capitalism to make it more inclusive and more sustainable, we must consider the role of business corporations in society. They are the engines of capitalism. Therefore, business
leaders must consider the footprints of their corporation’s activities on the human community and on the environment. We cannot remain stuck with the super capitalist notion that the business of business must be only business, and that corporate leaders are responsible only for creating shareholder value. We need a new framework for business management for the 21st century and here are five ideas to consider.
    The first is the distinction between consumers and citizens. Each of us is first a citizen and then a consumer. And even the very poor who cannot consume much are equal citizens. Corporations are good at relating to the consumers within us, but have not developed the skills to relate to us as citizens.
    The second is the distinction between having access to a product or service and owning it. The more business models are geared towards providing access rather than insisting that people must own the stuff, the less stuff we will put through our production and supply processes and the less the pressure we will exert on the earth’s resources.
    Third, we must realise that the primary need at the bottom of the pyramid is to earn and not to buy. Therefore, business models must see people as earners. Then, in addition to the dignity they will get, they may buy not just a shampoo sachet but the whole shampoo bottle!
    Fourth, Corporate Social Responsibility and philanthropy can never be an adequate response to the huge challenges of inclusion and sustainability that capitalism and business must address. The question is not how much of your profits you will give to social and environmental causes, but the processes by which you make those profits. The huge potential to do harm or do good lies in the mainline business operations of corporations.
    Fifth, remembering the old dictum that you can manage only what you can measure, means to measure the impact of business on society and the environment must be developed very quickly so that business managers can improve the way they benefit the lives of everyone.
    If GDP per capita is a principal measure of development of a society, then the glasses of the rich countries have already been filled. In comparison, China’s glass may be half full and India’s only one-third. We have yet to fill our glasses. The empty part of our glasses is both our need and an opportunity. And we must fill this empty part with a new model of development that is less toxic, more inclusive as well as sustainable. Indian business managers and business schools must take the lead in developing the new paradigm for business the world needs.

Honda, Toyota Step On Hybrid Pedals As Crude Prices Near $100

 At a dinner for scores of journalists and dealers from the Asia-Pacific region hosted by him on the sidelines of the Tokyo Motor Show last week, Honda Motor President and CEO Takeo Fukui stopped by for a chat at a table with Indian journalists. A veteran auto journo was quick to grab the opportunity to pop a question: How are you going to reconcile your professed commitment to environmental efficiency with the promise of making your cars fun to ride? Fukui was unfazed by the question: “You’ll find out for yourself tomorrow,” he came back with a confident smile.

 

What the Honda CEO was referring to was the fact that the Indian journalists invited by his company to visit the Motor Show, would be test driving the FCX concept car at Honda proving grounds about 100 km north of Tokyo the next day. With a maximum speed of 160 kmph and a sleek design, the new concept car is already a significant improvement over its earlier version. What’s more, it costs less to produce. A day earlier, Fukui had ridden in to the Honda stall for a press conference on a Puyo, another eco-friendly fuel-cell concept car while the other car on the dais was a hybrid, this one a sport model, the CR-Z. The brief speech he made at the start of the conference was almost entirely focussed on the clean technologies that Honda intends to bring to the market.
    These include a commercial vehicle based on the FCX concept to be launched in Japan and the US next year and one based on the CR-Z by 2009. It’s obvious that Honda sees cars that use alternatives to fossil fuels as the future of the automobile industry. Honda is not alone in this respect. Other carmakers at the show also displayed their green technologies. Toyota, which was the first to make a major push into hybrids with its Prius about a decade ago, showcased concept cars like the hybrid Crown, the I/X which it says is engineered to be twice as energy efficient as the Prius and the hybrid sports car FT-HS.
    Nissan’s Green 2010 Plan envisages that by the end of this decade only one-third the cars sold will be combustion-engine powered, the remaining twothirds made up of a mix of electric, fuel cell and hybrid cars.

A Devon town that sparked off a national movement to ban plastic bags from its shops is making the initiative a permanent one.

 

All 43 shops in Modbury joined the town-wide ban on 1 May and after a six-month trial it is becoming a permanent plastic bag-free zone.

Instead shoppers are asked to buy 100% biodegradable alternatives made from corn starch, canvas, paper or cotton.

A number of towns around the country have followed suit.

The Modbury initiative was started after a local resident saw the damage plastic can cause marine life.

Rebecca Hosking, who works as a wildlife camerawoman, said she had been inundated with calls from around the world including Australia, Russia and America following Modbury's ban.

Modbury's bags are offered at cost price of £1.50 for a small bag and £3.95 for a large bag.

The reusable bags are imported from a small factory in Mumbai and printed in the UK using water-based organic ink.

The town also has "amnesty" points for people to recycle their old plastic bags.

SOUTH Dorset MP Jim Knight has added his voice to a campaign to rid Portland of all plastic bags.

Portland mayor Tim Munro wants to banish them from the island to protect the environment and reduce litter. Now he has the backing of his MP.

Mr Knight said: "It's a really good aim to have, and something we should work together to achieve.

"There is still some work to be done with retailers on this but if they can take on the challenge it will be good for visitors, but more importantly it will make residents feel good about the island.

"Hopefully, it will capture people's imagination."

The men met at the Aubergine healthy living store in Easton - somewhere that has taken the lead in banning plastic bags.

Instead, visitors are encouraged to use cotton bags available at the store, or bring their own.

Portland volunteer group Ivy is now helping to distribute the eco-friendly bags across the island.

 

Al Gore cut through the jargon to reach out

“You look at that river gently flowing by. You notice the leaves rustling in the wind. You hear the birds, you hear the tree frogs. In the distance you hear a cow. You feel the grass. The mud gives a little bit on the riverbank. It’s quiet, it’s peaceful. And all of a sudden, it’s a gearshift inside you. And it’s like taking a deep breath and going: ‘Oh yeah, i forgot about this...” Al Gore’s opening monologue of An Inconvenient Truth makes you sit up and take notice.
    More people know more about Gore and his Oscar-winning film than they do about the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UNIPCC). Don’t get me wrong; the IPCC’s achievement is remarkable — nearly 3,000 scientists putting together that huge tome, the Fourth Assessment Report released this year on the state of the planet and its future, based on sound science and mathematics, a humongous task. Without such received wisdom, it is difficult for governments and businesses to craft policies and strategies to help us overcome the problem of climate change that is, according to the IPCC, probably 90 per cent driven by irresponsible human activity.
    The reason why Gore’s campaign is in many ways as significant as the IPCC’s report is simply because Gore has been able to reach out to people across cultures and continents, even if they don’t understand the science behind the issue. By grabbing the attention of individuals across the globe, Gore has managed to make climate change part of family dinner table conversation. That’s no mean achievement. And so individuals who can afford it switch from gas-guzzling SUVs to the more eco-friendly hybrid cars, and others replace their incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lamps, opt for car pools and public transport, and choose eco-friendly holiday destinations. And impressionable youth get passionate about saving the planet.
    Effective communication is all about reaching out and convincingly. Media reports peppered with terms like adaptation, mitigation, carbon sequestration and sustainable development tend to simply bounce off readers’ or viewers’ consciousness, as other, more appealingly presented stories vie for their attention. Governments have an important role to play in directing development activity to be more environment-friendly, preferably without unduly compromising economic growth vital for poverty eradication. However, when individual action is added up, the overall effect could be dramatic.
    The media’s approach to global warming tends to swing from sensationalism and doom-gloom scenarios to boring accounts of deliberations taking place in the frequently held UN-led conferences on climate change. One day we’re warned of the plight of species that might go extinct on account of melting polar ice caps — illustrated by pictures of cute but vulnerable looking polar bears teetering on thinning ice sheets — and another day we’re left to figure out what reads like a dictionary of acronyms. UNFCCC, COP, MOP, SAABSTA, LULUCF — yes, completely unintelligible cryptic terminology that only the experts can comprehend. What purport to be writings to inform and advise readers turn out to be incomprehensible, with liberal usage of legalese like adaptation, mitigation, and emission commitments and protocols.
    That Gore could skilfully navigate the sea of climate change science and politics and come straight to the point in a way the man on the street can understand the central message — of what is arguably today’s most pressing security issue — is testimony to the importance of effective communication in creating a global mood for collective corrective action.
    To be able to communicate to a large number of people from different persuasions — to be able to get across a complicated message to the common citizen — is a more onerous task than, say, sophisticated technology transfer between countries or even planning a space mission. News is about what impacts people the most and what people can do to maximise benefit and minimise risk. That’s what adaptation and mitigation are all about — adapting to climate change to turn it to your advantage and minimise human vulnerability as well as set in motion ways to stave off what is popularly being referred to as the ‘tipping point’.
    In the course of recognising and dealing with global-scale problems, we tend to look for ‘big’ solutions, forgetting how little things can make a big difference. An Inconvenient Truth not only presents scientific findings with a human face, it also informs viewers of the many little ways by which as individual, responsible consumers inhabiting a common home, Planet Earth, we can make that difference. If, as some quarters allege, Gore’s film is not always accurate in its presentation of scientific facts, does it really matter? Discrepancies of a few degrees in temperature or a few centimetres in sea level rise means nothing — at least not to the lay person whose primary concern is the safety and security of his close circle of family and friends.
    That the Nobel Committee chose two very different candidates espousing the same cause — saving Planet Earth — for this year’s peace prize is also an acknowledgement that future security and peace issues are no longer about conventional wars; it’s all about man’s conflict with environment and his fight for survival.

Brighton has announced its plans to be the first British city to ban plastic bags.

City councillors from all parties have voted to do away with the bags, which have become the focus of green efforts to reduce waste and the nation's carbon footprint.

The council has no legal powers to enforce a ban, however, so its members have passed a motion to 'encourage' retailers to stop giving away the bags and reduce packaging.

Councillors have also agreed to lobby the Government, the city's three MPs and the Local Government Association for a change in the law to allow a legal ban.

The proposal, which has put the issue of bags on the agenda, was proposed by a Conservative councillor and supported by members from all other parties.

In April, the Devon town of Modbury set the trend by becoming the first in Britain to ban plastic bags from its shops.

All 43 traders and shopkeepers voluntarily switched to paper bags or others made from biodegradable cornstarch.

Earlier this month, traders in Overton, in Hampshire, including the Co-op, agreed to support a voluntary ban on plastic bags with a switch to the biodegradable versions.

Brighton councillors were originally asked by a Green Party member to give their support to the imposition of a national 20p tax on plastic bags, similar to a scheme that operates in the Republic of Ireland.

This was subsequently replaced by the tougher proposals from Conservative councillor, Maria Caulfield.

The motion adopted by members reads: "This Council seeks to support and encourage retailers, businesses and commercial manufacturers to eliminate excessive packaging, in particular the widespread use of plastic bags."

It asked council officials to write to the Government asking it to commission a report on the options for eliminating plastic bag use.

Members said the proposals were designed as a 'move towards Brighton & Hove becoming a plastic bag free city'.

Coun Caulfield said the motion 'sends a clear message to consumers, retailers that plastic bags are not good for the environment'.

The final vote to pass the motion was unanimous with Labour group leader Gill Mitchell adding: "We support any move to bring about some action on this issue."

Marks & Spencer has led the way among retailers in terms of reducing the use of plastic bags.

Earlier this year, it launched a trial in Northern Ireland which involved giving customers free re-usable bags and then introducing a charge of 5p for plastic bags.

The company also switched production of all of its UK clothing and home carrier bags to 100 per cent recycled plastic from April - a move that will reduce the amount of virgin plastic used each year by 2,000 tonnes.

IKEA introduced a 10p charge for its bio-degradable plastic bags last year. The discount retailers, Aldi and Lidl, also charge, although this is mainly a commercial measure.

Annually an estimated 17.5 billion plastics bags are given away nationally by supermarkets - enough to cover the combined area of London, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and West Yorkshire.

Each bag can take anything between 400 and 1,000 years to break down and rot away.

In Britain at least 200 million bags end up as waste on beaches, streets and parks every year.

European waste directives require the UK to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill by more than half by 2013 and to around a quarter of the current level by 2020.

Waitrose has run trials at 14 outlets where it has removed free carrier bags from a proportion of its checkouts.

Tesco is cutting its use of plastic bags by a quarter over the next two years. This includes incentives for shoppers to re-use their old bags.

Holders of its Clubcard get extra points, which can be redeemed through money-off vouchers, if they re-use their bags.

Sainsbury's initiatives have included the sale of the £5 'I'm Not a Plastic Bag' cotton and rope bag, designed by Anya Hindmarch, and giving away re-usable bags. Asda's efforts include a 10-week trial of bag-free checkouts.

Reusable shopping bags are coming to Wal-Mart. The world's largest retailer plans to unveil its first recyclable cloth shopping bag this weekend, part of the discount chain's latest efforts to become eco-friendly.

The black bags touting a slogan— "Paper or Plastic? Neither."—will be available near checkout counters for $1 each as an alternative for shoppers averse to using plastic bags.

Once the realm of high-end health food stores, reusable shopping bags have started to show up in mainstream grocery stores. Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s participation in the eco-bag trend signals how much green has gone mainstream.

Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott told a standing-room-only crowd of 500 suppliers gathered in Bentonville to learn about Wal-Mart's environmental initiatives that sustainability "is here to stay."

The pending arrival of the shopping bag was disclosed after a daylong "sustainability summit" at a conference center near Wal-Mart's headquarters. The event, the first of its kind for Wal-Mart, focused on how Wal-Mart is changing its practices to help the environment, from working with suppliers to use less plastic packaging to cutting back on electricity usage.

Another Quebec town has vowed to outlaw the distribution of plastic bags at grocery stores and other retail outlets.

The announcement by the town of Huntingdon this week that it plans to ban non-biodegradable bags on Jan. 1, 2008, came as part of an ambitious green plan tabled by Mayor Stephane Gendron at a council meeting Tuesday night.

It follows on the heels of a similar announcement by the town of Amqui, Que., last week.

Huntingdon, which is located about 75 kilometres southwest of Montreal near the New York State border, voted in January 2006 to stop its recycling operations because the private recycling company serving the town was planning to triple the city's fee for the service.

The town then took some time to reconsider how it was managing its waste.

The result is a green plan that would have Huntingdon operating its own recycling plant, opening an "eco-centre" that will serve the surrounding region, and a composting facility with curbside compost collection.

Gendron says his plan will allow the town of 2,666 to meet the Quebec government's goal for all Quebec municipalities to divert from landfill -- by recycling, composting or otherwise reusing -- at least 65 per cent of divertible waste by 2008.

Halting the recycling program was "the best decision we've ever made," said Gendron in a written statement.

"The cost of recycling has exploded over the past few years and nobody was asking the question: who is profiting from this new fad and this sentiment of guilt?

"Obviously, it is an oligopoly of a few deep pockets grabbing the taxpayers' money in the name of the environment. This situation is a real scandal. Despite the prevailing winds, we refused to be a part of this and we took some time to think about how we were doing things."

Gendron says his plan will bring jobs and business to the region, will cost less than paying private companies to do the work, and will even generate some profit for the town.

As for the plastic bags, a draft bylaw was tabled Tuesday, and Gendron hopes to pass it at a special council meeting to be held next week. If it passes, the law would come into effect on Jan. 1, 2008, and Huntingdon would beat out Amqui by about a month.