Torbjorn's Blog

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion says he doesn't think the Green Shift environmental company is being hurt by his party's use of the same name for its carbon tax policy and "it will be OK."

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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

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.

In line with its strong commitment towards preserving the environment, the philanthropic arm of GE, the GE Volunteers India launched a tree plantation drive "Green Environment" in partnership with the Defense Services.

More than 20 volunteers from the Delhi chapter of GE Volunteers India actively participated in the drive flagged off by Mr. William Blair, the Country Director of GE Aviation, India and Chairman, Delhi Chapter, GE Volunteers India. Around 2,000 saplings of different trees like Ashoka, Silver Oak, Arjuna, Bottle Brush, Alistonia and Jamun were planted across the Army Cantonment area.

Elaborating on GE’s commitment towards environmental conservation, Mr. Blair said, “This is part of GE’s effort to bring our teams together and give back to the community where we work and live. The tree plantation is an excellent initiative to increase the green cover, which is great for the community and positively impacts our environment”.

The GE Volunteers India comprises of GE employees and retirees who help improve their community by donating time and money to community based projects. More than 4,000 GE volunteers are currently engaged in over 40 on-going projects and 25 one-day events across the country.

Each region has a separate council of people dedicated to GE’s CSR projects. These teams of four to six people work with various project leaders to arrange funding from the business. Focusing on areas like education, environment and healthcare, the project activities range from cleaning, painting schools, blood donations and tree plantations to visiting visually challenged institutes and orphanages and donating toys and books.

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.

Elected officials, environmental organizations as well as ordinary Canadians of all political backgrounds should take note of the lifetime achievements of recently-deceased U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day. Nelson's work prompted the head of the Washington-based Wilderness Society to describe Nelson as "the founding father of the modern environmental community". Earth Day,

To understand carbon offsetting, one must first have at least a general understanding of carbon emissions, also commonly known as "greenhouse gases".

These are atmospheric components-like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane gas-that contribute to the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is responsible for the warming of the atmosphere that, in respectable levels, makes our atmosphere

TD Canada Trust is increasing the cash rebate on its Green Mortgage and Green Home Equity Line of Credit for qualified purchasers who apply between April 25th to July 31st, 2008.

Customers will continue to receive 1% off the posted interest rate on a
five-year fixed rate mortgage or on a five-year fixed rate portion of a Home
Equity Line of Credit AND will now receive a cash rebate up to 1.5% (up

 

 Electronic waste, also known as e-waste, is a growing concern, especially as we start replacing our old TVs with new digital, high definition models. Add the mountains of cell phones thrown out (130,000 per year) along with computers (20 million just in the USA) and it's easy to see why e-waste is such a problem. The UN Environment Program estimates we generate 20 to 50 million metric tonnes of