Friday, December 05, 2008

Report Finds Millions of Birds will be Lost from Tar Sands Development in Canada’s Boreal Forest!

Each spring more than half of America’s birds flock to the Canadian Boreal forest to nest. There, just a few square miles of forests, lakes, river valleys, and wetlands in the Boreal can support as many as 600 breeding pairs of migratory birds. Yet almost all the biggest oil companies are mining and drilling important Boreal forest and wetlands—that could eventually cover an area the size of Florida —to access thick, low-grade petroleum.

Canada and the United States must protect migratory birds and bird habitat from this new form of high-impact energy development.



The report covers the various ways tar sands development affects bird populations, including:

-Habitat Loss
-Tailings Ponds and Oiled Birds
-Fragmentation of Habitat from Drilling
-Water Withdrawals
-Air and Water Toxins
-High Emissions and Global Warming

For more details on the impacts of tar sands oil development on birds read this Executive Summary.

Read the Report published by the Boreal Songbird Initiative.

For images, supporting facts and articles visit Borealbirds.org.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Newsletter: Learn about the new Green development in B.C. & What could we do with $4.1 trillion?

Click here for the original Newsletter E-mail

		Innovative B.C. development takes another green site! Dockside Green, already a groundbreaking green residential and commercial development in Victoria, British Columbia, has achieved another first in Canada: It's now treating 100 per cent of its sewage on-site and is using an integrated approach to water treatment and conservation to reuse treated water for flushing toilets, irrigation and... Read more!

If I had four trillion dollars Just think what you could do with $4.1 trillion! That’s how much the U.S. and 17 Western European countries are spending to bail out financial institutions involved in an economic crisis that began in the U.S. and soon reverberated around the world. Read David Suzuki's article.

Become a fan of Alternative Channel on Facebook and read our daily blog. Become a fan! & Join our group!

To subscribe to this newsletter, please contact Joanie Bergeron Poudrier.

Unique gifts ideas to help the planet!

Great gifts idea that will help the planet

OCEANA WaveMaker: adopt an endangered sea creature in someone's name, and they'll get a cookie cutter in the shape of the critter you select or a stuffed animal ($35-$100). Visit OCEANA's website.


HYmini: portable charger for cell phones and MP3 players that powers up using solar and/or wind energy. Has an LED light we've tested with good results on a couple of Biter bikes, and it'll help wean giftees off of not-so-eco energy such as coal or gas ($60). Visit Hymini's website

Unplug and treat yourself for the Holidays!

By Joanie Bergeron Poudrier

Winter is coming soon and we all know this rhymes with lots of eating, lack of sleep and cheating on our diet!

This year, we need to find some time to exercise if we don’t want to feel guilty splurging on all those Christmas goodies.

Yoga is such a good way to recharge between two late night parties. It is also famous for its detoxification effects, which is totally what we need during our Holidays!

Yoga is also much more eco-friendly than going to the gym, here is why:
If 10,000 Alternative Channel fans take a yoga class instead of hitting the treadmill for 15 hours each month, in a year we'll save enough energy to power a postworkout whirlpool tub for almost 29 years.

For Christmas, give yourself some time to unplug and treat yourself with a yoga class!

You’ll love it!

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

You Are My Sunshine

By Simplegreenaction.ca Staff

When I was taking my kids for a walk the other day, I noticed that a nearby house had newly-installed solar panels on its roof. This is great, I thought, there are other environmentally-minded folks like me in my seemingly conservative neighbourhood. I quickly knocked on their door to introduce myself and find out what made them go solar.

Unfortunately, no one answered the door.

However, I did take a few minutes to inspect their panels. They were about 3 metres in length and if they were for heating water, then they would probably get about 50% of their energy needs from these panels.* When you realize that heating your water can account for over 20% of your average homeowner’s energy needs, solar energy begins to make more sense.** But solar panels don’t just heat your water, they can also heat your swimming pool and your home.

According to the Canadian Solar Industries Association (CanSIA), green heat technologies, including solar thermal technologies, could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 84 MT (megatonnes) - almost one-third of Canada’s target - if there were greater government support for the technologies. Given that the average*** family home produces about 10 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year, using solar energy to heat the family pool can help reduce that load by half! Too bad that our government is more focused on oil, gas, and nuclear energies.

To read the entire article visit Simplegreenaction.ca

Dole Food Company a generous provider for students in the Philippines

Dole Food Company Partners with U.S. State Department to Provide Scholarships in the Philippines.

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dole Food Company, Inc. today announced that it will provide scholarships to students in the Philippines as part of a partnership with the U.S. State Department on the English Access Microscholarship Program.

To commemorate its 40th anniversary, Dole Philippines is matching $40,000 provided by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to fund scholarships, giving students the opportunity to develop English language skills, which leads to better jobs and economic growth.

“Public-private partnerships such as Access Microscholarships are critical to Dole’s long-term investment in the communities in which we operate,” said David DeLorenzo, president and chief executive officer of Dole Food Company.

Dole’s participation in the Access Microscholarship Program complements a number of community-focused initiatives Dole Philippines has implemented, including the highly successful “Chairs-for-Trees” program, which provides desks and chairs for local schools and has planted over one million trees in the Philippines.

Dole also provides social and education programs, health services and infrastructure to communities throughout the Philippines.

Learn more about Dole's CSR programs

Innovative B.C. development takes another green site!

By WorkCabin.ca Staff

Dockside Green, already a groundbreaking green residential and commercial development in Victoria, British Columbia, has achieved another first in Canada: It's now treating 100 per cent of its sewage on-site and is using an integrated approach to water treatment and conservation to reuse treated water for flushing toilets, irrigation and the creation of natural water features including a series of natural creeks and ponds that flow the length of the entire community.

The initiative will save 265 million litres of water and result in lower water bills for residents. How's that possible? Well, they will using less water and will be exempt from paying municipal sewage charges.

“By turning waste into a resource we are showing what is possible in any neighbourhood. The benefit to the environment is substantial as are the savings for residents and businesses. We are offering a progressive place for people to live and work and are leading the way for other developers to follow,” says Tamara Vrooman, CEO of Vancity Credit Union, owner and partner of Dockside Green with Windmill West, in a release.

Dockside Green has been winning acclaim for its leadership in creating a sustainable community. The project has received special recognition from the Canadian Home Builders’ Association through their CARE 2008 awards for outdoor environmental excellence, with the sewage treatment system and water conservation being key factors.

Dockside Green is a multi-million dollar mixed-use habourfront development that will feature residential, retail, office and light industrial uses. When finished over the next decade, the development will be home to about 2,500 people in three neighbourhoods. The first residents have already moved in.

The project is the first master-planned development to target LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification, the highest rating in the world at the Platinum level in the category of new construction.

The Canada Green Building Council has hailed the project as one of the most innovative green community developments in North America. The site is a former 15-acre brownfield on the city's inner harbour.

WorkCabin.ca is Canada’s green outpost for green jobs.

If I had four trillion dollars

By David Suzuki with Faisal Moola

Many of you are working to recycle, reduce energy consumption, and improve the world for your families and neighbours. The collective impact of these many small efforts is making a big difference.

Just think what you could do with $4.1 trillion!

That’s how much the U.S. and 17 Western European countries are spending to bail out financial institutions involved in an economic crisis that began in the U.S. and soon reverberated around the world. (The final amount will likely be a lot more. It’s difficult to fathom such a large number, but consider that one trillion seconds is about 32,000 years!) To top it off, most of the details are secret; we don’t really know what the money is being used for – although it probably hasn’t stopped your retirement savings funds from plummeting.

The effect on people in developing nations is even worse. Most of them didn’t have savings to begin with, and now the economic crisis, coupled with the effects of the climate crisis – including drought and food shortages – is causing more of our human family to suffer from extreme poverty and joblessness.

Just think what they could do with $4.1 trillion!

A report from the Institute for Policy Studies, Skewed Priorities: How the Bailouts Dwarf Other Global Crisis Spending, points out that the amount is 40 times what the U.S. and Europe are spending in developing nations on programs to deal with poverty ($90.7 billion) and climate change ($13.1 billion, none of it from the U.S.). In fact, the U.S. spent far more to bail out insurance firm AIG, $152.5 billion, than all the countries together spent on developmental aid last year.

And what did the AIG executives do after getting the taxpayer-funded bailout? They celebrated, with a $440,000 trip to a luxury spa resort. The cost of the trip is about what the U.S. spent on food aid last year to Lebanon, “a country struggling to recover from conflict”, according to the IPS.

If we think we needn’t worry about what happens to developing nations because it isn’t affecting us, we should remind ourselves that, just as everything in nature is connected, so is everything in our global economic and political systems. Increased international job competition and reduced export opportunities are just two of the smaller impacts mentioned in the IPS report.

But the worst meltdown isn’t of the global economy. Another report, Climate Safety, from the Public Interest Research Centre, shows that the Arctic’s late-summer ice is melting much faster than scientists previously predicted and may disappear within three to seven years. The cascading consequences of such an event could be catastrophic.

Just think what we could do with $4.1 trillion!

Instead of giving companies these huge sums of money so they can continue business as usual, buying and selling, merging, and paying their executives obscene salaries and bonuses, we could put it toward renewable energy, sustainable urban planning, and research into ways to lessen the impact of climate change – things that really would stimulate economies.

But, as the world’s nations meet at the UN Climate Change Conference in Poland this month, the focus remains on the false dichotomy of economy versus environment. Canada has continued to bolster its reputation as a country lacking in imagination and concern for the planet. Environment Minister Jim Prentice told Alberta business leaders recently that, “We will not aggravate an already weakening economy in the name of environmental progress.” His job is to protect the environment yet he sounds like the minister of finance!

But if Canada is hindering progress, other nations are showing more enlightened leadership. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said before heading to Poland that nations must keep their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “Climate change is so important that we cannot use the financial and economic crisis as a pretext for dropping it,” he said. Eminent economist Sir Nicholas Stern has already told us that meeting the challenge of climate change could cost about one per cent of annual GDP but doing nothing will destroy the global economy. Seems there’s only one thing we can do, and it won’t cost $4.1 trillion.

As citizens, we can and must do everything possible to keep our finite world alive and healthy. Along with the small but important changes we are making in our own lives, we must also call on our leaders to stop downplaying the unequivocal science that tells us failing to quickly address the climate crisis will make the economic crisis seem like a minor blip in history. We could tell them where to put that $4.1 trillion!

Take David Suzuki’s Nature Challenge and learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.

Links for reports and quotes:

Skewed Priorities.
Climate Safety.
Jim Prentice quote.

CRO’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens 2008—matters.

By the CRO (Corporate Responsibility Officer)

This list—CRO’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens 2008—matters.

If you think for a minute that it doesn’t, then get on the phone or sit upright at your computer to listen to or read some of the phone calls and e-mails CRO magazine received from irate companies that found themselves MIA from the list or lower in the rankings than they would have liked.

Somewhere in a corporate boardroom or in the compliance officer’s suite, rest assured that an Excel wizard is analyzing the category ranks and studying the algorithm, trying to figure out what Intel (No. 1) did right in Environment or Climate Change, or why a competitor ascended or nosedived this year in the ordering. And, although it may be about bragging rights for some firms, for many corporations their position on 100 Best may impact operations. It also translates into recognition for some of their policies and practices, a well-earned “attaboy” from an unbiased arbiter.

Dave Stangis, the Director of Corporate Responsibility for Intel, which has been on the list since Business Ethics magazine developed it nine years ago, characterizes Intel’s top-of-the heap ranking as “a really strong attribution.”

He adds that 100 Best over the years has had “a huge impact internally” at the company and executives view the category scores and rankings as a significant “learning opportunity.”

Business Ethics magazine published 100 Best for the first seven years, and CRO published 100 Best in 2007, and now presents 100 Best 2008.

In the nine years that 100 Best has been tabulated, just three companies—Intel, Cisco (No. 14) and Starbucks (No. 35)—have appeared on the list every year.

To view the 2008 list visit TheCRO.com.

Lessons Learned in Promoting CSR

Advice from experts at BP, BSR, McDonald’s, Sun Microsystems and Xerox.

By Garrett Glaser from Thecro.com

With a record number of companies around the world annually increasing staff and expenditures to publicize their corporate social responsibility (CSR) credentials, the time seemed right to survey some of the most experienced practitioners in the field about how they promote CSR achievements. The goal: to learn their dos and don’ts, the musts and must-avoids. Here’s a summary of what we found.

1. Don’t Stretch The Truth

The one question that elicited nearly identical answers was: “What should a company never do when promoting its CSR accomplishments?” The message was loud and clear: “Don’t exaggerate.”

Bob Langert, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility for McDonald’s: “There’s no place for fluff or exaggerated claims. CSR success depends upon tangible results, not rhetoric.”

David Douglas, Vice President of Eco Responsibility at Sun Microsystems: “A big mistake is to send the message that your company believes it has done all it can do. There is always room for improvement when it comes to developing business practices that create social and business value. To indicate otherwise brings the credibility of your company’s entire CSR program into question.”

Mary Jane Klocke, Director of North American Shareholder Marketing, BP: “Neither exaggerate the positive nor downplay the negative. Transparency and clear communication of the facts, along with the context, help to build trust and credibility with your stakeholders.”

Aron Cramer, President and CEO, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR): “Companies are never effective when they overstate the impact of their successes.”

2. Be Transparent

BSR’s Cramer: “Companies [succeed when they] acknowledge the complexity of the issues they’re addressing and acknowledge their own imperfections.” Sun Microsystems’ Douglas: “Trans¬parency is almost as important as the results themselves...being transparent about how we achieved our success—and our setbacks—enables Sun’s continuous improvement...”

McDonald’s Langert: “In order to have credibility, you need to focus on communicating results, performance and what more needs to be done.”

3. Use Third-Party Verification

A number of the respondents regarded outside monitoring of a company’s claims as crucial to their acceptance.

McDonald’s Langert: “Make sure you can back up your CSR efforts with facts and … Read more tips on the CRO's website.