Continue reading China seeks to cap and trade the American consumer

China seeks to cap and trade the American consumer originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Many of today's "investors" place their bets on the stock market's wheel of fortune. They hope that their number will come up. I have news for those stock players: the majority of their ranks are no longer true investors. They are gamblers, plain and simple.

Would those gamblers like a hot tip? Here's one in keeping with today's economic defeatist attitude. I suggest that they immediately dump shares they hold in anything that's associated with motor racing. The reasoning for my saying this is simple: NASCAR has a measurable carbon footprint.

Please understand that I'm playing the devil's advocate here. I myself have nothing against motor sports.

NASCAR has already made one move towards a green future by introducing a new hybrid pace car. However, that's not going to cut it for the peak oil crowd. Additionally, this week the government announced its disdain for corporate America, with the curt dismissal of Detroit executives by a Pelosi-led crowd. We must also consider that advertising money is drying up, and with that, may go some sponsorships. NASCAR is in dangerous waters, and I believe that the sharks are circling.

Continue reading Finally, they'll come for NASCAR

Finally, they'll come for NASCAR originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Looking at global warming, water scarcity, increasing pollution and population, and declining natural resources, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that these problems are too large and intractable, no matter how much money and effort we throw at them. Stuart Hall's Capitalism at the Crossroads: Aligning Business, Earth and Humanity, with a foreword by recent Noble Peace Prize recipient Al Gore, provides reason for cautious optimism. Just as concentrated human creativity and large-scale changes in behavior helped address holes in the ozone layer, so Hall provides a framework for how multinational corporations, not governments, can lead the efforts to guild a "sustainable global network," each word being equally important.

Hall is well known for his efforts to help businesses develop products and policies to serve the needs of the 4 billion people in the world who live at "the base of the pyramid." Rather than think of the 80% of the global population who live in the developing world as "the poor," Hall provides numerous examples of how businesses can use the developing world as a lab to develop clean technologies using sustainable practices, then scale those results up to the middle of the pyramid.

Now that "going green" has entered mainstream corporate thinking. Hall offers us plans to move "beyond green." It is not enough for the developed world merely to moderate its carbon footprint. We must rethink how we use the world's natural rsources to meet our needs in ways that do not make it impossible for future generations to meet theirs. Investors will want to read this book to learn which companies are on the leading edge of developing profitable sustainable technologies to create long-term value for the triple bottom line: social, environmental and economic.

Book review: Capitalism at the Crossroads originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) has made a pretty big PR push recently for all its "green" initiatives. From demanding smaller packaging containers to pushing eco-friendly light bulbs, the world's largest retailer wants to make sure that not only will it be a greener company, but that its customers will be greener too. Plus, it takes away from all the negative publicity Wal-Mart receives on so many fronts.

The company, regardless of motive, is doing things that really will be better for the sustainability of its locations, and also save the company money. One of the newer strategies features Wal-Mart's Canada division dimming store lighting by over 30% this summer. The retailer has a goal of reducing its carbon footprint by over 19,000 tons in 2007 -- this will help it get there.

Wal-Mart's Canada store count is 240, and the "dimming lights" project is expected to save an estimated 4,500 tons of carbon emissions over the course of the summer due to electricity savings that lead to less air pollution. It's interesting that Wal-Mart is not spinning this as a cost-savings measure but as a "saving-the-environment" measure -- and it's precisely what the retailer needs to do. Telling the world, consistently, that it's doing its part to reduce carbon emissions is a great leg on the good publicity show, which the retailer desperately needs.

Wal-Mart Canada dims the lights to save energy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 23 Jun 2007 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.