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News & Views From the Front Line
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
What's a Green Investment Bank?
With today's UK Governmental budget expected to be all doom and gloom, one green diamond in the murk could be Mr Darling's well trailed Green Investment Bank. If you, like me, are wondering what such a bank might look like and operate, the Guardian has a useful compendium of opinions here. We shall have to wait and see what Mr Darling has in his red box...Labels: banking, economics, finance, investment
# posted by Gareth Kane : 10:03
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Monday, 7 September 2009
There's more to it than money...
Last Friday I was editing the nine interviews I have carried out with CSR/environment executives for book#2, The Green Executive. Reading through all nine in quick succession, it struck me how few of them were driven primarily by cost savings. While cost is a factor, the majority say that an overriding factor is company image. Building a trustworthy, progressive and friendly image will enhance sales, win contracts and attract and retain good staff. All of this will improve the bottom line. But there's more than this - the interviewees talk about bringing their values to the workplace and greater personal satisfaction that they are doing something for the greater good.So we have to remember two points:
1. The financial benefits to going green are much wider and greater than cutting utility and raw material costs. This has to be understood and factored into investment decisions (the next edition of The Low Carbon Agenda will address this in more detail).
2. We should not forget the deeper, philosophical questions about who we are and why we do what we do as soon as we enter our workplaces. We should not feel, or be made to feel, guilty for doing the right thing.
Labels: costs, economics, ethics, green executive
# posted by Gareth Kane : 08:26
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Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Will Gordon give us green green shoots?
It is budget day today here in the UK and it is probably the trickiest budget to pull off in living memory. The big question is whether Gordon Brown and his chancellor Alistair Darling will stick their neck out and go green in a big way. The world and his Portuguese water dog has been proclaiming that the recession/world economic crisis/credit crunch is the ideal opportunity to build a low carbon economy in place of the collapsed oil-fuelled one we've had for the last 100 years or so. The (now) environmental economist Nick Stern (he of the Stern report) has recommended 20% of financial stimulus packages for green measures as a minimum. So how well is this going in practice?According to the Financial Times the UK has committed a measley 7% , the US 12% and South Korea a whopping 81%. China, long blamed by Western politicians and NGOs for its environmental record, has the biggest single green investment of $221bn (38%). Gordon Brown has pledged to up the UK's game to 10%, but we'll have to wait for Darling to drone his way to the environmental part of today's speech to find if we'll meet even that.
It is interesting that, despite all the proclamations of world leadership on this issue from the White House and Nos 10 & 11 Downing St, it is the Far East which is leading the way.
+++ Update 13:15 +++
The chancellor has just announced an extra £1bn for green measures - if this is truly additional to that announced before, then this would boost the green incentivisation to 11.7%. The billion breaks down into £435m extra for energy efficiency measures, £525m for offshore wind. There will also be support for using waste heat from power generation by exempting them from the Climate Change Levy. Verdict so far: not bad.
Labels: credit crunch, economics, gordon brown, recession, uk budget
# posted by Gareth Kane : 07:59
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Friday, 5 December 2008
Another Perverse Incentive
A perverse incentive is an economic driver that encourages 'bad' behaviour. Examples in the sustainability field include the lack of tax on airline fuel (how do you think those cheap flights are so cheap?), the lack of VAT on building materials for new build when you pay VAT for refurbishment materials and the fact that, despite all the belly aching from the trucking industry, lorries do not pay road tax commensurate with the damage they cause.Well, when I had to adjust the VAT rate on the Green Business Bible on Monday, it struck me as odd that ebooks are regarded as 'software' by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and thus attract VAT when paper books don't.
Ebooks are eco-friendly, books require trees, pulping, glue, distribution, waste. It's perverse...
Labels: economics, perverse incentives
# posted by Gareth Kane : 07:32
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A highly accessible, practical guide to those who want to introduce sustainability into their business or organization quickly and effectively.
