ABC Carbon Express 
Who's Winning Gold for 
Sustainability? 

Express 216     31 August  2016
Events 2016
 













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Last words: Connectography, Coral Castles, Cruising Circles, Climate Contagion
Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards 2016
New Sustainability Academy for Singapore
Earthlings to Colonise "Proxima b"
Might sound like science fiction, but hasn't a lot of that turned out to be science fact? Discovering that there is another planet out there - a mere 4.2 light years away - that could well be as habitable as earth. Named "Proxima b", read more about it in this report in the Guardian. Could this be our saving grace as we show signs of destroying life on earth?  Earth-bound clean energy champions like Richard Branson and Elon Musk might be doing their best to improve life on earth through various means - solar, electric vehicles, energy storage, climate war room, etc - but the two of them are also the most prominent in the new private enterprise space race.
"Save us from ourselves"
could well be the new rallying cry. Elon and Richard could lead the way to the new planet and hopefully set in place a new life for millions of us threatened with extinction on earth - or at least provide a place more habitable than what our own planet is showing signs of becoming. Liveability might be a thing of the past as we progress through this century. So let's move lock, stock and barrel to another place - let's call it NewEarth. Or how about Planet Ark? 
But before anyone thinks of leaving our current planet, let's look at what's happening here. For a change in this issue, we present a total of 16 categories/sections/headlines with 4 or 5 our items of interest in each. So there's about 70 slices of news/events from the world of climate, energy, environment, sustainability and innovation. -    Ken Hickson
Global New Energy News: 
UK, Australia, China & California
Could UK follow Germany's example to move away from fossil fuels and nuclear to a clean energy future with Prime Minister Theresa May's decision to delay approval for Hinkley Point? She has more reasons than ever to pull the plug, according to the Mail on Sunday.  Read this commentary. 

Reports from Australia show that producing energy from renewables - most notably solar - is definitely cheaper than fossils fuels and nuclear. The latest from RenewEconomy.


China is moving even faster towards a low carbon future when you hear that, among other things, LeEco plans to build a $1.8 billion electric car factory, the latest in China's ambitious plan to clean up the air at the same time cutting fossil fuel emissions. Read all about it.

California's not dreaming. A progressive culture and Silicon Valley-style innovation a decade ago thrust the state  ahead of the world on clean energy futures. Last week, the state's leadership was strengthened when lawmakers approved two key bills. Here's Climate Central. 
On the Frontline of Clean Energy
Could this 100 MW solar farm become Australia's biggest by output? Sun Brilliance is getting energetically underway in West Australia. Read the latest from RenewEconomy.

Vietnam gets moving to capture more wind power, thanks to The Blue Circle, one of the Singapore based investors/developers with a focus on South East Asia. Read the report in Renewable Energy Magazine.

When Elon Musk opened his gigafactory a month ago, he saw it as critically important for the company - the cornerstone to all of what Tesla hopes to achieve: To accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy. Read the Fortune Magazine report. 

The Swiss-designed and built Solar Impulse showed that energy from the sun can take you around the world. If not a practical means of flying people and freight, the lightweight solar machine shows the power of solar even with feet planted firmly on land! The Long Tail Pipe tells the story.
Asia on Green Growth Business Track 
Singapore Minister of State for Environment and Water Resources and Health Ms Amy Khor set the scene at the second Green Growth and Business Forum by documenting Singapore's progress towards a low carbon, zero waste, car lite and energy efficient future. Read what she had to say. 

Copenhagen's Mayor for Technical and Environmental Affairs Dr Morten Kabell showed how the Danish city has progressed to set a shining example for Green Growth and Business in Europe  - on the streets, in industry and for the environment. Learn more from his conference presentation. 

Startups up collaborate with "old school" to make a difference to Green Growth and Business. We learnt from Michael Abundo of the pioneering work of OceanPixel to assess and promote the Ocean and Marine Renewable Energy resources/opportunities in SouthEast Asia. Find more about OceanPixel. 

Michelle Farrell, architect and Smart city expert from IES spoke on creating sustainable cities through the reduction of energy consumption and carbon emissions. She has worked on developing innovative and green solutions that become part of the design process to improve the comfort, usability, energy consumption of buildings in different climates.  See her presentation here.  

As was highlighted at Green Growth and Business Forum,  the British High Commission - one of the organisers - filmed the event and produced a series of short YouTube videos with the main points from panel sessions, as well as a highlights video of some of our featured presenters. Ken Hickson and Adam Lyle acted as conference chairmen for the two day event. You can find them all on the British High Commission's YouTube channel.
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 Will Adaptation become more important than Mitigation?
A Productivity Enhancing Climate Change Mitigation Strategy - Doubling Energy and Resource Productivity by 2030, That's what Dr Michael Smith has come up with, showing that productivity could well make all the differences in reaching funding goals to deal with climate change action. From the Climate Change Institute at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Michael has done a tremendous amount of research. Read the summary here.

The Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EIANZ) wins an 
adaptation award - link to the announcement here - and looks ahead to its Brisbane conference 3-4 November. This year's theme is Foundations for Tomorrow. Exploring environmental trends and their influence on the environment industry through to 2050. Read all about EIANZ and the conference

Singapore's Climate Action Plan is ideal as a regional model as it is for the city-state to meet Paris agreed targets. It's pragmatic and ambitious but as always expect Singapore to deliver the best outcome.The National Climate Change Secretariat is promoting the plan and climate change action throughout the nation. Read what Jessica Cheam has to say about it. 


Sindacatum's Assaad Razzouk tells it the way it is - again. Read what he has to say about the Green Climate Fund and what needs to be done to increase awareness and spend wisely.He urges, among other things, that it should push for legislative changes around the world, co-ordinating the efforts of NGOs currently too scattered to make an impact.Energy laws are still way too biased towards fossil fuels, not taking into consideration the devastating impact dirty energy has on all parts of society.  Read the HuffPost article. 

 Resilience & Liveability top of mind at World Cities Summit
The World Cities Summit in Singapore in July brought together city and national leaders from around the world. Resilience, sustainability, smart and liveability were the key words which kept cropping up in presentations and discussions. Here's a summary report from the organisers 

Here are four items which came to our attention since, which we think are worth sharing:
 
The Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities, represented at the summit by its CEO Michael Berkowitz, has since come up with this report  on How Passenger Behavior Can Improve City Mobility. Cities must engage citizens to develop efficient transport infrastructure that meets the urgent challenges facing cities today. Read more

 

In he World's Most Liveable Cities ranking -  according to the EIU - Melbourne stays in the lead. Read which other cities made the grade. The Economist has the report in its Daily chart column. 


Parag Khanna has a different view of the world and sees the role of Megacities as greater even than countries that house them, in his latest book "Connectography". We're all much the wiser if we dip into what he writes about and what he says. Go to his most informative website with links everywhere

And just to show how biased we really are, you can listen to (and see) an interview with Ken Hickson, conducted by Parag Khanna, which turned out to be a wide ranging discussion on books, airline bosses, airports, cities and countries in the sustainability stakes. Here's the link to the Facebook live interview,� 
 
Asia Launch to Boost Investing in a Changing Climate 
Meeting energy demand:  
At the launch of the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change in Singapore on Tuesday 6 September, we'll get to hear something like this:  In the years leading up to 2035, USD 7.7 trillion will be needed for renewable energy and energy efficiency to meet the demands of China, India, Japan, and South-East Asia if the world is to meet a 2�C warming target." Emma Herd, CEO of the Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC) will have more to say on this. 

Investing for the Climate of Asia  - release of report which promises to be the most comprehensive analysis to date of climate finance sector activity in Asia. It will reveal a significant shift toward embedding climate risk and responsible investment into core business activities by the financial sector in Asia. But financial regulators needing to take steps to help catalyse the shift to low carbon investment in order to reduce systemic risks and improve competitiveness. Go here for more on the full report.
Andrew Affleck has this to say: "Many parts of Asia are at the frontline of the adverse impacts of climate change. The AIGCC - Asia Investor Group on Climate Change -  is uniquely positioned by its focus and collective objective to highlight key challenges against, and create benchmark solutions for, scaling climate finance and investment throughout Asia." Managing Partner of Armstrong Asset Management and AIGCC member. To show what's happening already in Asia to fund clean energy projects, see the latest EnergyEyes newsletter. 

PRI in Person: Where the global responsible investment community meets. Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI), is a UN affiliated organisation. Its Conference in Singapore has a focus on Responsible Investing. For more, go to PRI website. 



Net Zero aim for Building sector, Sustainable Built Environment, Green Building in Asia Pacific & Green Space Awards
Buildings should be net zero: Buildings account for 40% of global energy consumption and 40% of carbon dioxide emissions.If those of us in the know "do not push the limit to compensate, then as planet earth, we're doomed". This from one of the keynote speakers at the forthcoming International Green Building Conference in Singapore. Professor Professor Lam Khee Poh tells Eco-Business in a conference preview. 
Sustainable Behaviour? Singapore Sustainable Build Environment Conference on 5-6 September. Organised by the Building Construction Authority (BCA) and National University of Singapore (NUS), as a lead up event to next year's World Built Environment Conference. Ken Hickson, one of the speakers at the conference, will talk about: "Beyond Green to Blue: Changing Behaviour to Cut Energy, Water and Waste for the Health of People and the Planet". More on the programme and speakers is here. 
The Green Space Award is a prestigious awards programme inaugurated at BEX Asia  - Build Eco Expo - to recognise the efforts of participating companies that have displayed excellence in creativity and innovation, and use of green elements in their booth design. Look out for what Taiwan will have on show. All about BEX and exhibitors here.
Green Building boom in Asia Pacific? Did you know that in Asia Pacific there are Green Building Councils in 18 countries, with more than 4,000 member companies in total. 
Plus 11,500 green buildings have been registered, 
covering more than 320 million m2 in area. 
Green building training has reached 19,000 people. 



Music to our Ears! Scotch boosts Mushrooms, Greenhouses get cooler, Opera House saves Energy & Australians compete on cleantech
Aurora Sustainability in Scotland - which has a partnership agreement with Sustain Ability Showcase Asia (SASA) - is in line for three big awards, including the prestigious European prize for clean tech, with its innovative project: "Green Grow Mushroom - growing taste from waste". There's more to this than meets the eye, so read on. 

Australian Technologies Competition  is underway with an strong emphasis on clean tech, as you'd expect with John O'Brien in charge. He's the man who runs the CleanTech Index for Australia and China. Read all about it.

As the world heats up as the greenhouse effect kicks in, a group of Singapore researchers have come up with a way to keep plants in greenhouses cooler while still letting in sufficient light to grow. The cool glass coating is not only helpful to plants but humans.  A test at Nanyang Technology University (NTU) showed it can reduce temperatures by as much as 8 deg C in buildings. Get the full story here. 

Sydney's iconic Opera House launched its new Environmental Sustainability Plan (ESP) 1 August aiming to achieve 80% recycling rate for construction works as part of its Decade of Renewal upgrading programme. The World Heritage-listed building also set a 15% energy saving target and a 7% greenhouse-gas reduction by 2019. Music to our ears! Hear some more. 
Sustainability of Olympic proportions. How did Rio rate compared to London? Tokyo makes promises. Gold Coast aims high.

We saw green shoots at Rio - and Olympians doing some well-meaning planting - but there was no Gold medal for sustainability or environmental management in Brazil. The demands on the Games hosts are tough, but "there is a more sustainable and less ruinous path" to Olympic quality management, writes Michael Powell in the New York Times

Tokyo is setting the scene four years out with sustainability a key component in its planning. See what's in store. 
London got Gold and Green awards in 2012 and developed a set of new standards for event sustainability, launching the new ISO 20121, which has been adopted as the Gold standard globally. We refresh the London sustainability report here
Gold Coast, Australia plans to make the 2018 Commonwealth Games the best ever for sustainability.  It's already won an award two years' out. Read all about it. 
Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards 2016 - the search is on
Entries are already coming in for this year's Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards, organised by CSR Matters. Deadline is 15 September. Full entry information is here. 

Read all about last year's leading sustainable organisations in this prize winning book of case studies available online for free. Get the full report here. 

One company which stood out in 2015 was the Philippine company Maynilad Water Services, Inc. (Maynilad), recognised for its Sustainability Reporting Excellence, winning in two categories: "Best Stakeholder Reporting" and "Best Environmental Reporting". Maynilad President and CEO Ramoncito S. Fernandez was a speaker at the Green Growth and Business Forum too. Read about this award winning company.

To coincide with the 2016 ASRA presentation of awards on 28 November, there are plans for a one day conference in Singapore, bringing together participants from at least 15 countries and territories. ABC Carbon is a Media Partner for the Awards and SASA is a Supporting Organisation. 

Singapore to Build a Sustainability Academy 
Sustainable Energy Association Singapore (SEAS) joins forces with CDL to launch the region's first Academy to teach sustainability in Singapore:
  • First major 3P ground-up initiative to promote sustainability among the industry and community
  • First-of-its-kind facility by a private property developer and a non-profit organisation expected to be completed in March 2017. Read all about it here. 
  • First in Singapore to have its construction materials, Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) and Glued Laminated Timber (Glulam) verified by the Nature's BarcodeTM system as coming from responsible sources. Venturer Timberwork provides specialist contracting services for this Engineered Wood Structure.
  • The 4,300 sq ft zero-energy building will feature solar technology with some 3,230 sq ft of photovoltaic panels coming from REC's Singapore plant. Read more about solar and REC
Energy Literary: University of Queensland has plans to introduce its Master of Energy Studies course to Asia. This was previously promoted through the International Energy Centre in Brisbane. Learn more about the course here.
  
Last Words:
Connectography Coined, Coral Castles, 
Circle Cruising & Climate Contagion,

Connectography is the word and book title coined by Dr Parag Khanna, in which he packs so much valuable information and illustrations, you're left asking for more. When you meet this man on a mission or listen to him talking - check out his Ted talks - you'll soon realise why he has spent the best years of his life studying and writing about the ways of cities, nations, business and people from time immemorial and into the future. Already on best-selling book lists, this is a must-have companion where-ever you are in the world to read, to share, to guide you on your way. Go here to read more on Parag Khanna and his book.


Coral Castleslike other reefs throughout the Pacific, have been endangered by lots of 
things - rubbish and run off from land and industry, as well as unrelenting climate change, which brings with it a rapidly warming oceans, air temperatures and raging, rising seas. But the amazingly resilient corals and other marine life seem to be surviving against all odds and showing that they will outlast humans in a globally warming world. Researchers from America and Australia  have been "stunned and overjoyed" by what they've seen of Coral Castles, halfway between Hawaii and Fiji. See this New York Times science report.  

Cruising in a Circle, in the Arctic that is, might sound like fun, even if a little cold, but cruise companies are delighted that they can now venture further than ever to give their passengers many more ice bergs and ice floes to see. Thanks to climate change, which is impacting this region with temperatures rising twice as fast as anywhere else on earth.  While it means cruise ships can now venture right through the Northwest passage across the roof of the world, formerly impossible before the big melt, now organisations like WWF are insisting that cruises - and all shipping for that matter - take extra care not to impact an already fragile environment that a changing climate has made all the more accessible. Read what the Washington Post has to say
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Climate Contagion could come in many ways, but scientists from Russia and else where in the cold north regions at the top of the globe are fearful of what they might find as the permafrost melts. Russia is experiencing warming 2.5 times faster than the world average. A recent anthrax outbreak in the far north seems likely to have come from the long-buried carcases of reindeer uncovered as the permafrost melts. The "dead-and-buried" disease emerged and infected grazing herds.  Read all of about in in this Straits Times report. 
                  
Six Books You Should Have in Your Collection!
     
People keep asking me "where can I get hold of your books?" Here's the full range and all can be found in libraries somewhere in the world - most likely in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. Some you will find in bookstores, too. Just ask and name the author and title. Most are available from various online sources, new and used, mostly in print, some as e-books: Try Amazon, Abe Books, World Scientific, Book Depository or even Books Kinokuniya.  We are even in the process of setting up a online book selection and distribution service ourselves. For these books and, in time, many more, go to our dedicated websites:
www.abccarbon.com or www.fifthavenue.asia 
Ken Hickson
Managing Editor,abc carbon express & the avenue for creative arts
Director, ABC Carbon & Blue by Design