IKEA Sustainability Report: Climate positive work and more

The Sustainability Report 2009 from IKEA is now public. It has been very interesting to work with IKEA and these are some of the projects that I find most interesting:

Climate positive opportunities
This project aims at mapping the opportunities IKEA has to create an overall positive climate impact, by also reducing emissions outside our conventional scope. We want to get a rough estimation of carbon dioxide emissions from every aspect of the IKEA value chain, from raw material extraction all the way to how customers use our products at home and how they are recycled. For instance, by providing products, solutions and information we can help consumers to live a more sustainable life at home.

Solutions for a more sustainable life at home (SL@H)
IKEA has decided to help customers take simple measures at home that contribute to a better environment and save on household expenses. We believe IKEA products can help customers adopt a more sustainable behaviour at home, and – as a collective of several hundred million people – reduce their overall climate impact. Working in partnership with WWF, our initial focus will be on solutions for kitchens, waste management and lighting.

Closing the loop
This project aims at identifying what IKEA can to do improve the recycling of IKEA products once customers no longer want them, in ways that are adapted to each market’s conditions and infrastructure. We also want to find ways to better utilise recycled materials in new products.

The 21st Century Office application is now up and running

This is a really amzing project and I hope to write more about it later. For now I just paste in the letter that was sent to different thought leaders that contributed to the project.

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This Earth Day April 22nd, a 21st Century office application will be launched together with a short movie about the possibilities of a 21st Century Office i.e. a transition towards new ways of working that will save time, money and CO2. This 21st Century Office application is targeting office workers everywhere and will be available on:
1. the web http://21st-century-office.net/

2. as an app for iPhone http://itunes.apple.com/se/app/21st-office/id366954683?mt=8

3. as an app for Android: market://search?q=pname:com.karmeye.office21

It is already featured as number 2 under "What's hot" in AppStore and as 9th Top free business app! (see attached)

The 21-st-Century-Office.net is an independent project supported by WWF, made possible through a grant from HP. It has been created as an open source project, written and distributed under the GNU General Public License.

The 21st Century Office application allows people to:
- measure their CO2, time and money savings from new technology solutions for smarter office work
- share, geotag, use and rate ideas how to achieve a 21st Century Office
- see where in the world ideas were first generated and then follow to see where the idea has been used
- twitter and e-mail ideas and test results to challenge others to participate and work smarter
- build up a database that can be used to create tailor-made roadmaps for a transition to a 21st Century office
- see a short movie that explains the difference between a 20th century and a 21st century infrastructure
- and a few more functions…

Too many functions in one app? Maybe, or maybe these kind of integrated solutions will contribute to new tools being developed to help society move towards a smart, low carbon, high-tech future. A development with solutions that nine billion people can use.

In the same way that the Wright brothers created something more than the sum of a propeller, wings, engine, etc we believe that today’s entrepreneurs have the possibility to combine different parts of the web to create the transformative tools we need for a better future. We have done a rough draft of a tool that we hope will contribute to the kind of transformative change we need. Please see for yourself. (attached is also a more thorough background document)

Thanks for your time,

the 21st Century Office team

PS.
We also have a teaser ready for the movie that we hope you will enjoy and if you like it, please spread to your network of people you think this might benefit. Full short movie will be ready 1st of May.

Suzanne Pahlman and I are exploring the possibility to launch a new web-page with “transformative applications” that will list and review the most transformative applications every Quarter. If you are interested, please let us know.

Booz report: ICT for a Low-Carbon World Activism, Innovation, Cooperation

Nothing new in this report as far as I can see and unclear what the companies have done to qualify in the different categories.

But good that they include the 98%/Greening with IT aspect (helping customers to reduce emissions beyond ICT). For the sake of transparency it would be good to list what the companies have to qualify in the different categories.

Probably the people writing this were either told to focus on the "2%/Green IT" or they have little experience in this field (as so much details are given to the 2%/Green IT discussion, and so little to 98%/Greening with IT).

I hope this is not because I discussed the work with transformative ICT that I did with Booz with the IT people at WEF (that resulted in this report)

In the Booz report the 98%/Green with IT is called "Green Innovation - Business potential of environmental sustainability products beyond ICT".

Download the report (was published 24th of March) here

Another report about low carbon ICT

Maybe not any groundbreaking new information, but an overview of many of the issues from Telecom TV and Guy Daniels in the new report "ICT for a Low-Carbon Future".

Download it here

Op-ed China Daily: Innovation the key for China in Bonn

Below is the op-ed from today's China Daily

Dennis Pamlin: Innovation the key for China in Bonn

In a few days the world's countries will meet in Bonn for a new round of climate negotiations. This presents an opportunity for China to support a more collaborative process with focus on solutions instead of problems.

Two major challenges face climate negotiations after the Copenhagen conference last year. First, climate negotiations are now so complex that no one has an overview of what's going on. Second, the culture at climate negotiations is one of short-term thinking where everyone wants others to reduce emissions and protect its own fossil industries.

China has an opportunity to put the negotiations on a positive track and demonstrate its willingness to deliver concrete results with the help of two suggestions. These two suggestions could be presented in Bonn in order to support future negotiations that will help the world deliver the reductions we need.

First, it could present ideas on how to make the process more open and transparent. New technologies with mobile applications and web-solutions allow experts and people all over the world to follow the negotiations in ways that was not possible a few years ago. Such tools could help the world to avoid a situation like the one in Copenhagen where many foreign experts and journalists misunderstood different countries' positions.

One of the key issues to be discussed in Bonn is "innovation in working methods, based on principles and models within the United Nations". A contribution from China could be to present ideas for tools to collect input from relevant stakeholders. It could develop its own mobile application and web-platform that could be launched after Bonn, which would help it in the process leading up to the big climate meeting in Mexico. This would allow China to better understand the stakeholders around the world, and provide tailor-made information so that companies, cities, countries and individuals can find ways to collaborate with it for a low carbon future.

The second idea is more ambitious, but also more important in the long run. China could introduce the idea of a track for transformative solutions in climate negotiations. Transformative solutions are solutions that the entire world can use and which provide the same or better services that old high carbon solutions do today. Examples of transformative solutions are e-books, tele-working, buildings that are net producers of renewable energy and intelligent public transport solutions.

Today much of the discussions focus on incremental improvements in existing systems. While such solutions have an important role to play, it is time for a truly global perspective where the focus would be on solutions that everyone on the planet can use. During the negotiations in Bonn countries will have to provide input to a discussion on "the potential environmental, economic and social consequences, including spill-over effects of tools, policies, measures and methodologies". China could use this opportunity to present the idea of transformative solution track with global focus.

The track for transformative solutions would develop measures that support companies with innovative solutions that society needs.

In Mexico, a lot of time would be spent on discussions on relations between rich and poor countries. During these discussions it will be very important to demonstrate the kind of solutions that the rich and developing worlds can develop and use. China and Mexico share many things in common so it would be fitting that they promote such a transformative solution agenda together.

The climate meeting in Bonn is around the corner and it's no time for major initiatives, but China could introduce the two ideas and begin discussions on both new smart ways to communicate as well as the structure of a transformative solution approach. This would demonstrate both innovative thinking and a global approach from China that many would welcome and which the world needs.