the environmentalist gives a round up of environment management news from companies including Cisco, Toyota and Marks & Spencer.
Communications equipment business Cisco has reported that between 1 August 2013 and 31 July 2014 it eliminated more than 86 tonnes of material from its packaging through 30 “Pack it green” projects. These include bulk-packing products, integrated product shipments, reusing packaging materials and expanding opportunities for customers to “opt out” of physically delivered products. Cisco says the initiative saved it $6.1 million over the 12-month period.
Toyota’s Burnside engine factory at Deeside, north Wales now boasts a solar array consisting of 13,000 panels. Designed and installed by British Gas, the array can produce up to 3,475,000 kWh a year and reduce the plant’s annual carbon emissions by more than 1,800 tonnes.
Sainsbury’s has agreed a “green” loan with Lloyds Bank and Rabobank, which the food retailer claims is the first commercial loan to be structured specifically to support environmental and sustainability initiatives. The £200 million deal will fund clean energy generation, energy efficiency and water saving projects.
Marks & Spencer, meanwhile, has agreed to purchase 35,000mWh of biomethane certificates from Future Biogas in a move to reduce its annual carbon footprint by more than 6,400 tonnes. Biomethane gas for the grid will be produced at the Vulcan anaerobic digestion plant near Doncaster using secondary break crops. Under the deal, M&S funds the production of the gas and receives carbon reduction certificates in return.
Kyocera has announced the start of construction on the world’s largest floating solar photovoltaic (PV) installation at Nishihira Pond in Kato City, Japan. The 1.7MW facility is part of plans by Kyocera to build 60MW of PV plants on reservoirs across the country over the next few years.
B&Q and Screwfix owner Kingfisher is partnering with IKEA and Tetra Pak on a two-year project to develop a method to assess the impacts of FSC forest management certification.
PepsiCo has unveiled Hydro-BID, a data management and modelling tool to estimate the availability of freshwater use in water-scarce regions throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
