TheStreet Search RSS Feed: Melinda Peer

Making Garbage Greener

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 08:00:00 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Long before the noisy debut of Frito-Lay's SunChips compostable bag put sustainable packaging in the spotlight, corporate green teams had begun tinkering with ways to make their garbage less wasteful.

Katherine O'Dea, a senior fellow at nonprofit GreenBlue, which works with businesses to make industrial systems greener, said that although GreenBlue launched the Sustainable Packaging Coalition in 2004, it wasn't until Wal-Mart developed a sustainable packaging scorecard in 2006 that companies really started paying attention to product waste.

"Wal-Mart began asking its suppliers questions about its packaging: How it was made, if there's recycled content, if it's made with renewable energy, what the product package ratio is -- which gets at using too much package to pack and protect the product -- and cube efficiency both on the shelf and in the truck," she said. "That certainly gave a big push to sustainable packaging." ...

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Companies Form Green Packaging Group

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 09:10:00 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Dow components Coca-Cola, DuPont and Procter & Gamble are among some of the companies determined to pack a punch to environmentally damaging packaging.

Taking a cue from similar efforts in Europe and Britain, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, ConAgra Foods, Dow Chemical, DuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers, Kellogg, MeadWestvaco, Procter & Gamble, Sealed Air Corp. and Tetra Pak are coming together to form The American Institution for Packaging and the Environment, or Ameripen, environmentally-driven packaging organization.

The group plans to educate policymakers on packaging initiatives that are green, cost effective and socially responsible. ...

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Heinz Plays Catch-Up with Coke Bottles

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 09:55:15 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- H.J. Heinz is swapping its traditional plastic ketchup bottles for Coca-Cola's PlantBottle packaging, the companies said on Thursday.

Recyclable PlantBottles use plant-based materials for up to 30% of their packaging, Coca-Cola said in a statement. Currently, the company uses sugarcane ethanol from Brazil.

"PlantBottle is revolutionizing plastic, and our partnership with Heinz is paving the way for industry-wide collaboration," said Coca-Cola Company CEO Muhtar Kent. ...

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GE Enters Appliance Recycling Partnership

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 15:33:18 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- General Electric aims to cool global warming by minimizing the waste of discarded refrigerators. On Tuesday, GE became the first appliance maker to sign on to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's voluntary Responsible Appliance Disposal (RAD) program.

According to GE, 9 million refrigerators are trashed in the U.S. each year. The appliances are usually torn apart to reclaim only the metal, leaving the insulating foam to go to the landfill, emitting greenhouse gases and other environmentally harmful substances in the process.

As part of partnership, GE will work with Appliance Recycling Centers of America to reclaim 95% of the insulating foam, resulting in an 85% reduction in the typical landfill waste of a used refrigerator, GE said in a statement. ...

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Intel Claims Top Green Energy Spot

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:45:14 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Intel said it will purchase 2.5 billion kilowatt hours of renewable energy credits in 2011.

The commitment represents a 75% increase over last year's purchases, and seals the company's top spot on the EPA's Green Power Partner List for 2011 as the biggest voluntary buyer of green energy.

On Tuesday, the EPA issued its list of organizations that have made the biggest commitments to renewable energy. After Intel, Kohl's, Whole Foods and Starbucks occupied top slots while Best Buy debuted on the list, ranked 31st out of 50. ...

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GE, NRG, ConocoPhillips Establish Green Tech Incubator

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:11:49 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- General Electric, NRG Energy and ConocoPhillips are teaming up to form a joint venture that will support budding clean energy technology companies.

The three energy heavyweights have committed $300 million in capital to the new enterprise, Energy Technology Ventures, to provide funding to 30 start-up and growth-stage energy technology companies primarily in North America, Europe and Israel, over the next four years.

"Together with GE and ConocoPhillips, we can make a tremendous impact nurturing the most promising clean energy technologies our nation needs to excel in the 21st century green economy and commercialize them in a meaningful way," said Clint Freeland, a senior vice president at NRG Energy, Thursday -- just two days after President Barak Obama set out his goal to have 80% of the country's electricity come from clean energy sources by 2035 in his State of the Union address. ...

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FedEx Delivers First LEED Building

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:45:22 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- All of FedEx Express's new U.S. facilities will be LEED certified, the company said after unveiling the first example in its new structure in Las Vegas.

LEED certification, which was established by the U.S. Green Building Council, uses several criteria to verify that a residential or commercial building was created using environmentally sensitive strategies. The construction must also demonstrate efficient use of resources such as water and energy.

For its Las Vegas location, FedEx favored skylights over light fixtures and said most construction waste was recycled or reclaimed. Evaporative cooling and low-flow fixtures were also utilized to enhance efficiency. ...

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Boston Properties Announces 2010 Tax Treatment Of Its Distributions

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:08:00 EST

Boston Properties, Inc. (NYSE: BXP), a real estate investment trust, announced today the 2010 tax treatment of its distributions as described below. Shareholders are encouraged to consult with their personal tax advisors as to their specific tax treatment of Boston Properties distributions. Record Date Payable Date Total Distribution per Share Total Distribution Allocable to 2010 2010 Taxable Ordinary Dividends 2010 Qualified Dividends (1) 2010 Total Capital Gain Distribution 2010 Non-taxable Distribution (Return of Capital) Common Shares (CUSIP #101121101) 12/31/2009 1/29/2010 $0.500000 $0.500000 $0.291967 $0.000615 $0.000000 $0.208033 3/31/2010 4/30/2010 $0.500000 $0.500000 $0.291967 $0.000615 $0.000000 $0.208033 6/30/2010 7/30/2010 $0.500000 $0.500000 $0.291967 $0.000615 $0.000000 $0.208033 9/30/2010 10/29/2010 $0.500000 $0.500000 $0.291967 $0.000615 $0.000000 $0.208033 12/31/2010 1/28/2011 $0.500000 $0.000000 $0.000000 $0.000000 $0.000000 $0.000000 $2.500000 $2.000000 $1.167868 $0.002460 $0.000000 $0.832132 100% 58.3934% 41.6066% (1) Qualified Dividends is a subset of, and included in, the 2010 Taxable Ordinary Dividends amount.

The entire common stock distribution with a record date of December 31, 2009 is allocable to 2010 for federal income tax purposes. The entire common stock distribution with a record date of December 31, 2010 will be allocable to 2011 for federal income tax purposes. ...

Target Details 5-Year Green Goals

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 14:52:14 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Target plans to bring more environmentally-conscious products to shoppers, the retailer said as it outlined its environmental sustainability goals for the next five years on Wednesday.

In addition to broad efforts to educate customers and employees about environmentally sustainable lifestyles and operate out of smarter, greener buildings, Target detailed specific goals to be completed by 2016.

The company aims to cut water usage by 10%, lower greenhouse gas emissions by 10% per square foot and 20% per dollar of retail sales, increase the efficiency of merchandise transportation to distribution centers by 15%, and outbound by 20%, and reduce operating waste dumped in landfills by 15%. Target also aims to earn the Environmental Protection Agency's energy star label for at least 75% of its buildings. ...

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Deutsche Bank, EBRD Issue Green Bonds

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:18:11 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Deutsche Bank AG are teaming up to offer bonds whose proceeds will finance environmental sustainability projects.

The EBRD, which invests primarily in private-sector projects from central Europe to central Asia, and estimates that 20% of its annual investments are focused on sustainable energy projects, said the bonds will fund endeavors that aim to improve energy efficiency, water and waste management, environmental services and public transportation.

Deutsche Bank will arrange the first issue of the environmental sustainability bonds, which will be denominated in Australian dollars and pay at a monthly fixed rate of 4.8%, the EBRD said. ...

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GE, P&G, IBM In New Sustainability Index

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:14:44 EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Investors looking for a broader sustainability benchmark get their wish at the end of November when Dow Jones Indexes and SAM, a firm that specializes in sustainability investing, launch a new index.

The Dow Jones Sustainability World Enlarged Index will track the performance of 20% of the most sustainable companies of the 2,500 largest companies in the Dow Jones Global Total Stock Market Index. The new index will have 513 components and a market cap of $11.5 trillion, as of mid-November. Key holdings include Procter & Gamble, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric and Chevron.

Rodrigo Amandi, managing director of SAM Indexes, said the DJSI World Enlarged was prompted by investor demand. ...

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Intel Tops 'Fortune' 500 For Green Power

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 16:13:52 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Intel, Kohl's, Whole Foods, Starbucks and Dell purchase the most green power of the Fortune 500 companies, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's latest quarterly list, released on Monday.

According to the release, Intel, which tops the national list, uses more than 1.4 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of green power annually. The semiconductor chip maker uses a variety of renewables to power its U.S. operations including biogas, biomass, geothermal, small-hydro, solar and wind.

Starbucks landed in the top five for the first time after more than doubling its annual green power purchases to more than 573 million kWh of renewable power. ...

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7 Leading Companies in the Carbon Accounting Sector

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 09:17:51 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Companies like Caterpillar, Kraft Foods, Newmont Mining and Dell are all changing the way they calculate, monitor, report and utilize environmentally sensitive data thanks to a new crop of software programs that focus on sustainability performance and management.

Paul Baier, vice president of sustainability consulting at Groom Energy and author of an annual report on enterprise carbon accounting said that since investors, customers and regulators are increasingly demanding accurate carbon emissions data and asking executives to make expensive decisions based on that data, companies are investing in ECA software to automate the environmental data process the same way they bought financial accounting software to track financial data.

"Organizations are beginning to track carbon emissions as rigorously as they track revenue and expenses," he said. ...

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ECA: How to Measure a Corporate Carbon Footprint

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 09:16:27 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Tougher environmental and greenhouse gas regulation is on the horizon for the U.S., spurring an evolution in corporate accounting that publicly-traded companies will need to embrace in order to survive.

Executives of global corporations such as Coca-Cola, Lockheed Martin, News Corp, Pfizer and Royal Dutch Shell have seen the writing on the wall in the form of tougher environmental regulations in Europe and are already using environmental performance data to make multi-billion dollar operational and investment decisions.

Corporate environmental initiatives certainly aren't new, but the way that businesses capture, track and manage their sustainability performance is -- thanks to a crop of new software products offering carbon accounting and sustainability management programs. Taking their cues from traditional accounting software programs, greenhouse gas software products monitor a company's energy usage and carbon consumption as seriously as conventional accounting programs track input costs and sales metrics. ...

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Panasonic: Getting Older, Greener

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:37:28 EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Panasonic plans to celebrate its 100th birthday in 2018 by becoming the electronics industry's top green innovator, the Japan-based company said on Thursday.

Panasonic's enviro-centric action plan is two-fold: First, reduce the environmental impact of its own operations. Second: develop "green lifestyle" products to help people make similar, eco-conscious choices.

In addition to reducing carbon emissions, water usage, environmentally hazardous substances and resource consumption, the electronics maker also outlined specific sales goals for its green product lines. Over the next eight years, Panasonic aims to double the sales ratio of top-class eco-conscious products sold from fiscal 2010's level. The company also plans to expand sales within its energy systems business to at least 3 trillion yen, or approximately $36.4 billion at current exchange. ...

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