The country’s opposition leader, Malcolm Turnbull, has made it clear that his coalition will vote against the nation’s first-ever climate change legislation next month, unless the bill is amended from its current form. Known as the Carbon Reduction Pollution Scheme (CRPS), the bill was originally presented to the upper house Senate in June, 2009. The bill is slated for a second vote on August 13^th and according to Australia’s laws, if the bill does not pass on it’s second time through, the Australian Labor government will have reason to call for a snap election.

Originally proposed by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Labor government, the bill requires an extra seven votes to pass through the upper house, which is controlled by opposition parties. It was hoped that Rudd would be able to pass the legislation through the Senate before the American Clean Energy and Security Act, and before the UN climate talks in Copenhagen. Turnbull has offered the support of his opposition coalition if the bill is amended to provide more economic support to power generators who leverage coal as a fuel source to generate roughly 80% of the country’s electricity. Additionally, Turnbull is seeking to exclude the agricultural sector from the trading scheme. Those who oppose the amendments proposed by Turnbull argue that if accepted, the bill will do little to affect the country’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.

The legislation contains 11 bills that have become highly controversial in the country’s political arena as politicians and industry leaders debate the impacts that the laws may have on the economic health of the nation. As it now stands, the bill will regulate 1,000 of Australia’s largest companies and will price carbon initially at $5 (USD) per ton, giving businesses a financial incentive to reduce their emissions over time. Opponents of the bill claim that the economic impacts will be too great and that the nation’s industries won’t be able to compete with foreign nations who have either have less stringent climate change laws or, none at all.

Although the opposition is largely against the proposed cap and trade scheme, they have a vested interest in passing the bill because if they don’t, they are fairly certain that Rudd will call for the early election which polls project he can easily win. Instead, many opposition leaders are interested in passing the bill now and holding out for the previously scheduled election in late 2010, when they will have a better shot at winning.

Despite Turnbull’s admonitions that he controls the votes of the opposition, the Labor party only needs seven more votes to pass the bill. Unfortunately, what it might come down to is that Australia’s political leaders may vote on their nation’s first ever carbon trading scheme not based on the scientific and economic merits of the legislation but more so, out of their personal interests in political survival.

In order to realize the exciting new opportunities that lay ahead, what we need most are entrepreneurs and policy makers who are willing to create an innovative and compelling vision for alternative modes of transportation. Most importantly, what we need is a leader that can engage the public in being a part of creating and supporting a new way forward.

There is a worldwide need to stabilize global carbon dioxide emissions, prepare for decreased oil production, alleviate traffic congestion and reduce air pollution. The truth is, we don’t have to look very far for transportation systems that accomplish all of these goals. A potential leader to look towards is Japan and the country’s high-speed bullet trains that travel up to 190 miles per hour, carrying almost one million people each day. As a pioneer in this arena, Japan’s high-speed rail network spans over 1, 350 miles, linking the nation’s major cities with trains that depart roughly every three minutes.

Indicators for progress on this issue in the United States include California’s 2008 passage of Proposition 1A which will provide a statewide high speed passenger train system and President Obama’s vision for a national high-speed rail system in the U.S. Ultimately, an impactful solution will require unprecedented partnerships between land use and transportation planners who have the knowledge and tools required to construct housing centers that are located within proximity to centers of employment and adequate transportation routes.

It will be some time before these types of partnerships are realized and the resulting solutions become available to passengers. In the meantime, the best solutions happen to be our own two feet.

When Gavin Newsom announced last week that the city’s new sustainable food policy calls for more urban land to be used to grow food, many residents wondered where the additional land would come from. According to Garden Fare, a new and growing business in the Bay Area, most residents don’t need to look any farther than their own front and backyards.

As more and more companies emerge with offerings of urban agriculture services, their emphasis is often largely placed on the conversion of abandoned lots and unused parking areas. What makes a company like Garden Fare unique is that they focus on converting existing ornamental lawns into edible gardens that provide ample amounts of healthy, local produce. In addition to providing easy access to healthy food, Garden Fare founder Patrick Rodysill also highlights the fact that residents see a greater return on their investments in lawn care when those lawns are being used to grow edible foods versus the more typical, non-edible plants.

Currently, the majority of Garden Fare’s customers are middle class homeowners in the Oakland area. The business model that Garden Fare is built upon incorporates a process that begins with an initial consultation, followed up by a garden design, implementation of the design and in most cases, long-term maintenance and care of the garden. In fact, Garden Fare indicates that roughly 90% of their customer base is looking for more than just a pretty garden they can eat; they’re also looking for someone to care for that garden. Although the company philosophy is based on the belief that people should be empowered and educated enough to grow their own food, the company also believes in empowering communities through providing needed gardening services that most residents simply don’t have the time for.

Drawn in by cost savings in lawn maintenance fees and increases in property values, most customers are staying on board because they’re drawn to the easy access that an edible garden provides to healthy produce that is either not available from a local grocer or, is not available at cost-effective prices. Although most customers are homeowners, renters are also coming on board by signing up to have large container boxes of produce installed in their yards. That way, when the renter leaves, they take their investment in garden infrastructure with them.

The details of Newsom’s new food policy are still unclear but the company leaders remain hopeful that Newsom’s announcement may signal a shift towards city-based tax incentives for converting decorative lawns into edible lawns. In nearby regions such as Marin County, residents are taking advantage of subsidies on materials such as drip irrigation supplies, which greatly reduces the upfront capital costs of investing in an urban garden. Hopefully, the same will be true for San Francisco and so far, Newsom’s commitment to providing city residents with secure access to high nutrition produce has received citywide support thus far.

Garden Fare intends to grow the business slowly with an incremental approach to acquiring new customers and servicing new regions. Like any good company, they’re looking for ways to optimize their operations with strategies such as stadard garden layouts and contents so that the same garden may be replicable across a number of yards.

However, with Rodysill and his staff, it’s not just about growing the business for the sake of revenue. According to Rodysill, growing Garden Fare means that more urban residents are being better fed, at lower prices and that more green jobs are becoming available to urban youth.

Whether or not sustained growth is possible given the current economy, one thing is clear: Garden Fare plans to weather the storm, one yard at a time.

The company’s 2008 Corporate Social Responsibility Report outlines the 159 distinct initiatives that were undertaken to realize the company-wide savings. Entitled, “Building a Better Future,” the new report organizes the company’s environmental performance into eight categories including air quality, climate change, energy use, alternative transportation, water use, materials usage & recycling, sustainable site policies and principles.

However, the most captivating elements of the report are the environmental performance highlights.

2008 indicators of success at Texas instruments include but are not limited to:
• Reduced total energy use by 5% from 2007.
• Reduced total water use by 7.3%.
• Recycled 1.4 billion U.S. gallons of water (16% of the company’s global water use).
• Recycled 88% of non-industrial waste.
• Recycled 91% of total waste.
• Constructed the first LEED Silver certified building in the Philippines.
• Set a goal of being LEED certified at all of their major existing buildings globally by 2011.

Of the 159 initiatives that TI embarked upon to accomplish these savings, the key projects include:
• A well-water cooling system in Germany, which leverages an underground aquifer to balance the site’s heating and cooling system. This system alone saved TI roughly $1 million in energy savings and reductions in annual water consumption by nearly 33 million gallons.
• Reusing 228 million gallons of water at a North Texas facility to scrub manufacturing exhaust enabled a savings of $937,000.
• In some instances, TI cut energy costs in half through targeting energy-intensive chillers and vacuum pumps and replacing the targeted system components with more efficient machinery and parts.
• TI avoided a 14% rise in employee commuting-related CO2 emissions through increasing the use of employee carpooling systems, mass transit and onsite shuttles.

Despite these accomplishments, the company still faces challenges in the years to come. The latest report identifies the challenges ahead, which include increased operating costs from greater regulatory assessments. Specifically, the company is concerned that increased regulations may result in a market in which necessary replacement materials for semiconductor manufacturing either won’t be available at cost-effective prices or, the materials won’t be available at all.

TI is currently exploring renewable energy sources and efficiency strategies as a means of determining a clear path to remaining profitable in a low-carbon economy. Given the company’s ability to achieve such significant savings in 2008 is a clear indicator that despite whatever challenges may lie ahead, the company is well-poised to create innovative and cost-effective solutions to maintaining it’s status as an industry leader while also reducing the environmental impact of doing business.

Microsoft’s entrance into the field comes only one month after Google released similar software, known as PowerMeter. Hohm is being launched with four utility partners including Puget Sound Energy, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Seattle City Light and Xcel Energy. At this time, it’s unclear as to whether or not Microsoft intends to deliver a similar offering for enterprise customers. What is certain is that Microsoft believes in the pivotal role that technology will play in addressing energy issues.

Detailed, fine-grain tracking capabilities of Hohm will only be available to residential customers who have opted into the program with Microsoft’s initial four utility partners. However, other U.S. consumers can use Hohm to gauge the efficiency of their homes and appliances. With a specific emphasis on heaters, air conditioners and lighting, the data behind the software was licensed from the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and the Department of Energy. Leveraging this data, users will also be able to estimate the overall CO2 emissions associated with their energy usage. To accomplish this, the Hohm backend examines the makeup of generation sources that service the customer’s region.

A key feature of the new offering is that in addition to delivering near-real time usage information, it also provides users with actionable strategies and recommendations for adjusting energy practices that save money and reduce environmental impacts.

Microsoft intends to expand the reach of this new application and is pursuing partnerships with a half dozen other utilities that they expect to sign on by the end of 2009. Although most utilities are just beginning their implementation of smart meters, there’s already a heated competition among companies to be the leading providers of the interface that communicates the energy usage data.

Hohm, however, has had a rocky start. Beta users who signed up this week have complained about being unable to log into the service and that they’re receiving internal server error messages. Microsoft is aware of the issues and is working on fixing problems caused by issues ranging from postal code discrepancies to incompatibilities among browser languages. Other users have complained that some of the manual data entry required is too laborious and that what’s really needed is a more automated system for capturing historical data.

Perhaps Microsoft was not quite ready to launch Hohm and, perhaps, they launched early as an attempt to keep pace with Google. Either way, consumers can rest assured that Microsoft will fix the known problems and that the evolution of home energy management software is now another arena in which Microsoft and Google’s fierce competition will drive innovation.

As progress towards an international agreement stalls, climate change policy critics are gaining a stronger voice in the debate over the issue. In fact, an international group of academics are now encouraging world leaders to simply abandon their current climate change policies. Instead, the authors advocate for the G8 nations and developing countries to emphasize improvements in energy efficiency and to deploy low-carbon technologies.

The report, entitled, “How to Get Climate Policy back on Course” was published on July 7th as a joint publication from the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford. Ultimately, the report claims that there is evidence that carbon trading schemes such as those executed by Kyoto and proposed by the American Clean Energy and Security Act “have no meaningful effect whatsoever.” Instead, the authors claim that effective policies should be based on strategies that have proven to work in the past and that policies should not be based on untested systems that require the creation of bureaucratic systems for oversight.

While some environmentalists have praised the report for acknowledging a lack of urgency in the political arena’s response to climate change, others have harshly criticized the report, claiming that shifting the focus of current climate negotiations would slow down the negotiation process even further.

Advocates for policy-driven improvements in energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies typically look to Japan as evidence of how emissions reductions can be accomplished without complex trading regimes. Japan’s energy policy model, known as “Mamizu” serves as a model for an approach that is based on goals that can clearly be accomplished without relying on indirect initiatives such as trading schemes.

An international team of researchers led by Princeton academics is proposing another alternative approach, which is considered to be a direct strategy to reduce emissions. The focus of this approach moves away from the traditional emphasis on national emissions and instead, targets a global class of roughly one billion individuals who they claim are responsible for a vast portion of the world’s carbon emissions. This strategy is derived as a means of avoiding the disagreements among nations as to what nation-based targets are fair and effectual.

Either way, a catalyst is needed to spark forward progress on the talks leading up to the Copenhagen climate conference. As mentioned earlier, one cause of the current gridlock is the issue of equity. Governments are unwilling to agree to ambitious reductions targets because it could mean high costs to their taxpayers and because leaders are afraid of losing market advantages to countries with weaker reductions targets. Typically, countries with weaker targets would be developing economies that don’t have the financial strength to invest in clean technologies to the extent that industrialized nations are able to.

As a result, we now have a political conversation where industrialized nations are seeking equitable reductions targets across all nations as a means of protecting their competitive advantages. Conversely, developing nations argue that they should have weaker targets because per capita, they contribute less GHG emissions and because the industrialized nations have been polluting carbon for longer periods of time. As a result, equity is at the heart of the stalled progress.

Debate over the efficacy of proposed targets is also a central factor in the mired talks as nations differ on what reductions levels will make a meaningful difference in mitigating human-induced climate change.

Although these findings align with the existing beliefs of numerous business managers and policy makers, the conclusions issued in the report are significant because this is the first time the WTO and UNEP have collaborated to examine the connections between trade and climate change. These types of multilateral cooperation and findings are critical measures to ensure the success of the upcoming UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen (December 2009).

In summary, the report illustrates that it is within the scope of WTO rules to enact trade policies that address climate change at the national level, but that the efficacy of these policies are determined by the design of the policies and the implementation conditions in the local regions. Although the report does not highlight specific examples, it does assert that the energy intensive sectors of our global economy (agriculture, forestry, fisheries, tourism and transport) can reduce their contribution to GHG emissions if we increase the diffusion of mitigation technologies through free trade policies.

In support of this notion, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy and UNEP’s Executive Director Achim Steiner are urging nations to adopt policies that open up trading for environmental goods and services as a means of reducing GHG emissions. Specifically, Lamy and Steiner issued a joint news release, urging the international community to finalize the stalled Doha trade talks that began in 2001 in hopes of and opening trade reducing barriers for innovative products and services that support cleantech economies.

The comprehensive, 161-page report examines the relationship between trade and global climate change through four perspectives:
1) Climate change science
2) National and international economics
3) Multilateral efforts to combat climate change
4) The implications of national climate change policies on trade.
The report provides an overview of the traditional regulatory instruments, economic incentives and other financial measures that have been used worldwide to increase energy efficiency and to reduce emissions. More in-depth coverage of the mainstream pricing mechanisms (carbon tax and emissions trading) provide insight into how to prevent emissions leakage through off-shoring production and how to protect competitiveness across markets.

A common concern among policy makers is that new taxes and tariffs could be put in place, which protect domestic industries and exclude products and services that are made available through countries with weaker environmental standards. The new report indicates that these types of border adjustment measures would become trade barriers that negatively impact the shared international goals of increasing income and reducing harmful impacts to the environment.

Environmentalists, economists, business leaders and policy makers may differ in their beliefs regarding the potential for free trade policies to successfully address increasing global GHG emissions. However, the consensus seems to be that climate change and free trade are intricately linked and that there is a critical need to address both arenas when shaping a new, clean energy economy.

The World Resources Institute estimates the total number of potential refugees to be 144 million in China alone. Countries such as India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, Egypt and the United States also have massive numbers of vulnerable people in low lying areas. Urban centers such as London, New York, Shanghai and Kolkata are at risk, along with the agricultural regions of Asia, which supply food throughout the world.

As a result, there has never been a more compelling reason to support international policies that seek to regulate human-induced climate change. Exciting progress is being made along this front, as exemplified by the American Clean Energy and Security Act and the upcoming UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen. Supporting climate change legislation that regulates greenhouse gas emissions not only protects our limited and valuable natural resources, it also protects the livelihood of one eighth of the world’s urban population. Getting involved today by learning about and lobbying for your country’s climate change legislation can help to ensure the safety of millions of potential climate refugees worldwide.

Found in everyday products such as refrigerators, insulation foams and air conditioning units (including units in homes, building and cars), fluorocarbons were designed by chemical engineers to trap heat in modern cooling appliances. In this light, hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) are the quintessential greenhouse gases. The intention behind the design of HFCs was to combat the impact of cooling chemicals such as Freon on the depletion of the ozone layer, and they were developed before the impact of human-induced climate change was widely understood.

The environmental impact of F-gases
F-gases are roughly 20,000 times more potent in contributing to global warming than carbon dioxide, and the IPCC has determined that the accumulation of these gases in our atmosphere was responsible for roughly 17% of human-caused global warming in 2005. The NAS study stipulates that the usage of HFCs is on the rise with increased consumption in developing nations. Specifically, the NAS study projects that these chemicals could be heating the atmosphere with an impact equivalent to that of seven or eight billon tons of carbon dioxide.

The market opportunities
So that’s the bad news. The good news is that the recent findings open new opportunities for businesses to emerge with innovative product alternatives and new service offerings such as retrofitting of existing equipment, appropriate disposal services and consultation for finding alternative product options.

One such example is an HFC-free refrigerant technology known as Greenfreeze, which was developed by Greenpeace in 1992. Companies such as Whirlpool, Samsung and Electrolux now have roughly 300 million HFC-free refrigeration units being used worldwide. This number of units is estimated to have removed 43,000 pounds of fluorocarbons from our atmosphere, which is equivalent to the pollution contribution of 10 million automobiles. However, due to concerns over the flammability of Greenfreeze’s hydrocarbon system, the EPA has not certified the technology for use in the United States.

Nonetheless, the U.S. market for this type of technology is quickly emerging. Last year, Greenpeace came to an agreement with the EPA that allowed them to test 2,000 Greenfreeze freezers in Ben & Jerry’s retail stores in Boston, Washington D.C. and Vermont. In October of 2008, General Electric petitioned the EPA for approval to sell its new Monogram line of refrigerators, which use isobutane as the refrigerant and hopes to launch the new line to the United States in 2010. Allowing for product alternatives to enter the market directly combats the impact that increased emissions of HFCs may have on global climate change.

Support for substituting harmful fluorinated gases reaches much farther than just Ben & Jerry’s, Greenpeace and GE. Refrigerants Naturally is a corporate initiative to reduce the use of F-gasses such as CFCs, HCFCs and HFCs. Its sponsors include IKEA, McDonalds’s, Coca-Cola and the United Nations Environmental Programme. The European Union also currently has plans to phase out HFCs in new automotive air conditioning systems in the coming years. All these signs indicate that there is strong international support to curtail the impact the f-gases will ultimately have on heating the Earth’s atmosphere.

The opportunities for policy development
In addition to federal approval for product alternatives, it is also critical that we adopt policies to regulate the emissions of these harmful chemicals. Existing treaties such as the Montreal Protocol represent opportunities for national governments to limit the emissions of what is a significant and now a documented threat to the health of our planet. Whether or not regulation of HFCs will make it into the American Clean Energy and Security Act and the upcoming climate negotiations in Copenhagen remains to be seen.

The Tin Shed, Patagonia’s latest sustainability communication tool is no exception. The Tin Shed is an interactive web application that combines the stories and dispatches of Patagonia’s sustainability ambassadors from around the world. The “tin shed” is a reference to Patagonia’s origins which was an old shed that Yvon Chouinard began forging his pitons in. Today, Patagonia’s virtual tin shed serves as the platform from which the company integrates the breadth and depth of their environmental and human sustainability initiatives.

The Tin Shed provides site visitors with easy access to exploring the wide variety of Patagonia’s environmental efforts ranging from community relief in regions affected by natural disasters and political struggle to the journeys of surf mavericks fueled by waste vegetable oil. Additional highlights include Patagonia’s work to establish wildlife corridors for threatened species as well as their advocacy for the protection of endangered marine mammals. When it comes to providing access to a company’s philanthropic work and building a passionate and loyal customer base around their values, we can all take a page from Patagonia’s sustainability playbook.

Patagonia has built an outstanding and justified reputation founded on the company’s guiding principles that inform their business practices. Patagonia has taken the core values of their mission and has applied them to product design and manufacturing, employee programs as well as customer service. Additionally, Patagonia demonstrates their environmental and social commitment through a high impact outreach effort that supports an elaborate network of company ambassadors.

Patagonia’s history is rooted in the 1960’s California counterculture that embraced environmentalism and today, the company has been able to retain these core values while also maintaining a dedication to running a profitable company. At Patagonia, there’s no question whether or not the company is about affecting social change or making profit; it’s clear that company is about both. Fortunately for Chouinard, the two go hand in hand. The full story of Patagonia and Chouinard’s approach to business management are detailed in Chouinard’s biographical book, “Let My People Go Surfing” which has become a cult favorite among aspiring and established sustainable business leaders.

Patagonia has an impressive list of environmental and social sustainability programs. After reviewing the list, I’m not sure what’s most impressive; the breadth of their activities, their ability to adhere to a strong environmental commitment while maintaining profits or, their ability to communicate and leverage the company values towards growing and ensuring a loyal customer base. The question I am left is, “Is Patagonia’s success founded in their ability to connect with an audience that shares their values or, is it found in their ability to shape and inform the values and interests of their expanding customer base through their innovative approaches to product marketing?”

A full listing of Patagonia’s sustainability programs can be found here.