Torbjorn's Blog

In the first six months of the "Bag the Bag" program, IKEA Canada has reduced its Plastic Bag use by 90 per cent across the country. Last October, IKEA Canada conducted a survey with its customers and received more than 60,000 responses, which concluded that plastic bags were an environmental issue that needed action. Shortly thereafter, the retailer began charging for its plastic bags, donating

TD Canada Trust has announced an agreement with Bullfrog Power and The Pembina Institute through which the bank will annually purchase 6,432 megawatt hours (MWh) of clean, renewable power from emission-free generation sources such as wind power and low-impact water power. This renewable electricity will match the power used by the TD Green Machine network of nearly 2,600 Automated Bank Machines

Starting this month, IKEA will only sell and serve certified coffee at all its stores and offices globally. To ensure that all coffee sold and served at IKEA is produced under socially and environmentally responsible conditions, IKEA has decided to strictly use UTZ Certified coffee. UTZ Certified is an independent not-for-profit organization that sets a standard for responsible coffee growing and

More than 8 billion disposable cups are thrown out every year in Canada., according to Change The World For Ten Bucks: 50 Ways To Make A Difference. Buy a resuable mug for your coffee

Ah May: the leaves are opening, flowers blooming, your eyes are a watery haze and your nose is running like a faucet. Allergy season is here!

In its Spring edition, Allergic Living magazine looks at the hidden toll of spring allergies and finds a lot more than cases of the sniffles. In fact, there is widespread "presenteeism" on the job - in which allergic employees show up but are too irritable, congested and sleep-deprived to do a proper day's work. And the costs? One study puts it at a staggering $593 per employee a year - ahead of high stress.

Speaking of stress, Allergic Living for Spring also reveals the growing level of anxiety among children with food allergies. The problem, according to experts, starts with well-meaning parents who talk too openly with young children about the risk of death from anaphylaxis. Rather than preparing their children to manage the condition, the kids become scared, and by school age are mistrustful and anxious.

For excerpts from the issue, see www.allergicliving.com

 

CIBC is taking a major step towards preserving Canada's boreal forest by switching its office paper supply to FSC-certified paper. This includes copy, printer and fax office paper, and also client statements, statement envelopes, ABM envelopes, and annual reports. CIBC also has cut its office paper purchases by 22 per cent since 2004 by implementing environmental best practices.

On April 1, CIBC switched its office copy, printer, and fax paper to FSC-certified stock, equivalent to approximately 365 million sheets a year, across its Canadian operations.

Annually, CIBC is transitioning to FSC-certified stock:

            -   203 million sheets of client account statement paper

            -   116 million statement envelopes

            -   76 million ABM envelopes

CIBC has printed its annual report on FSC-certified paper since 2006. 

FSC is an international certification and labeling system that guarantees that purchased forest products come from responsibly managed forests. Under FSC certification, forests are certified against a set of strict environmental and social standards, and fibre from certified forests is tracked all the way to the consumer through the chain of custody certification system. The end result is products in the marketplace carrying the FSC logo.

FSC certification helps protect the long-term health of boreal forests found in Canada, Russia, United States, and Scandinavia. Canada's boreal forest, which covers more than one-third of our landmass, is the largest intact forest remaining on the planet, rivaling the Amazon in size and ecological importance. It stores twice as much carbon per acre as tropical rainforests, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Visiit: www.cibc.com.

A national magazine picked Planet Organic Markets as the top organic food retailer across Canada.

The survey of 14 major grocery retailers by Corporate Knights magazine gave Planet Organic an overall "Excellent" rating or an 'A', while Planet's most direct competitor, Whole Foods, garnered second spot with a 'B+'.

Other major retailers such as Loblaws, Safeway and Sobeys came in with distant 'C' ratings, meaning they were either "showing potential" with their organic food retail sections or were "average."

Corporate Knights magazine is distributed in a variety of ways across the country and specifically through the May 1st edition of the Globe and Mail. The magazine rated all of the 14 food retailers in five categories, ranging from the amount of local organic foods they carried, to consumer education and in-store conservation initiatives.

Visit: www.planetorganic.ca

Hudson's Bay Company (Hbc) has entered into a three year partnership with Canadian companies The Global Group and Harkel Office Furniture to furnish its newly redesigned head office in Brampton, Ontario, with eco-friendly products.

Hbc and The Global Group are Canada's largest companies in their respective fields. Harkel Office Furniture has a 28 year history of providing superior service in this country. This partnership is one of the largest of its kind in the Canadian market place. This announcement helps mark Hbc's 338th anniversary.

Through this partnership, The Global Group will manufacture eco-friendly furnishing for approximately 1200 new work units in Hbc's Brampton office. Harkel Office Furniture will distribute and service the office furnishings. Harkel is expected to have all the furnishings installed at the Brampton office by the Winter 2009. The newly designed office will house Hbc's buyers and retail operations personnel.

The primary products to be provided are manufactured out of recycled aluminum. These products will not get dumped in the landfill at the end of their lifespan. They are designed to be easily recycled to create new aluminum products.

The partnership signifies Hbc's ongoing commitment to social responsibility embodied in its Global Mind brand, which promotes social and environmental sustainability in its policies, processes and products.

Hong Kong will soon introduce one-off and accelerated tax cuts for environment-friendly machinery and installations, a 100-percent deduction under profits tax will be provided in the year of purchase for the capital expenditure incurred on the provision of eligible machinery.

The amendments will be made to the tax law upon the passing of a Revenue Bill by the Legislative Council, the HKSAR government said in a statement.

Environmental protection machinery includes low noise construction machinery or plant registered under the Quality Powered Mechanical Equipment system, certain waste treatment, wastewater treatment and air pollution control machinery or plant.

A deduction under profits tax for 20 percent of the capital expenditure incurred on the construction of eligible installations will be provided in each of the five years starting from the year of acquisition.

Environmental protection installations, mainly renewable energy installations, include solar photovoltaic installations, wind turbine installations, thermal waste treatment installations, and certain energy efficient building installations.

The reductions will also be available to those who own or have been using environmental protection machinery or installations before implementation of the proposal, according to the HKSAR government statement.

The Indian Government considers proper management of plant and animal genetic resources integral to sustainable development of agriculture. A number of steps have been taken to conserve the country’s rich genetic diversity and many more are in the offing.

This came out in the discussions in the Indian Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting held earlier this week. Parliamentarians and Government officials discussed the issues relating to genetic resource management in the changing global context.

Introducing the subject to the Members of Parliament, Agriculture Minister, Shri Sharad Pawar emphaised that it was imperative to conserve the vast genetic diversity available in the country for sustainable development of crop production and animal husbandry, phyto-pharmaceuticals and overall human well being.

On the importance of genetic resources in addressing ecological issues, Shri Pawar said: ‘Today, global climate change and loss of natural habitats through human activities have become solemn issues world wide. Ecological implications of climate change and of agricultural intensification are major constraints to sustainable development of agriculture-based systems. So far, there is little awareness among professionals of the close relationship between climate change and food security and the role genetic resource has to play. It is imperative to manage these resources in a sustainable way. Climate change-induced environmental stress may in fact go beyond the reach of adaptation and in situ approach of genetic resource conservation offers a great chance to shape a future worth living.’

Shri Pawar also highlighted the role of traditional farming practices in conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources in India. He advocated a judicious mix of traditional wisdom and modern technologies to harness the genetic wealth. He elaborated: ‘Deployment of greater genetic diversity in traditional production systems is expected to take care of both their sustainable use and conservation. Conservation of traditional crops and animal breeds could succeed when these are linked with the economic development of farmers/rural poor. Pragmatic multi-disciplinary research and policy support are needed to evolve farming systems which can provide enough quality food and economic security to the local people. In situ conservation on-farm and crop and breed improvement can complement one another in traditional production systems. Breeding programmes that evaluate farmers’ landraces and breeds and use them in local improvement efforts are expected to produce material of direct value for marginal agroclimatic zones as well as achieve significant local conservation. By including decentralized breeding as part of an in situ programme, farmers and scientists can become partners in local improvement efforts. This ‘grassroot breeding’ can build upon existing knowledge and skills of farmers and link farmers from different regions through the exchange of information and genetic resources.

‘Further, a blend of modern science and indigenous knowledge will be required to face the challenges of increasing agricultural production in decades ahead. We should be especially concerned with incorporating greater diversity within agricultural production systems. New approaches to agricultural research and development are being tried in various places around the world, and virtually all of them emphasize a much better harnessing and management of biological resources than has prevailed in the past.’

India is one of the twelve world mega-biodiversity centers. Three of the 34 hot-spots of biodiversity are present in India. Of the world’s total known species, 8.25% belong to India. Interestingly, over 10% of the world’s microbial bio-diversity exists in this country.

India has set up four Bureaus for conservation of genetic resources relating to plants, animals, fish and micro-organisms. The national seed gene bank has over 3.6 lakh accessions. Besides other things, the Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources maintains frozen semen, somatic cells and DNA samples of indigenous animal breeds. ICAR is establishing a Genomic Resource Centre to conserve DNA of indigenous life forms, especially the rare and endangered species. A Bureau for Conservation of Genetic Resources of Agriculturally Important Insects is also being established.