Read more of this story »

This column highlights the top economic stories of the week.

One way in which today’s corporation is becoming enlightened to the fact that green manufacturing CAN equal more profitable manufacturing is through a new concept called “lean manufacturing“.   In the 1980’s, JIT, or just-in-time techniques became all the rage in management circles as they shaved costs from production by eliminating the need for high levels of inventories by focusing on using just what was needed, when it was needed. More on this story here.

Economists are examining the argument for imposing special taxes on goods and services whose prices do not reflect the true social cost of their consumption, are now considering a tax on junk food. But while it might seem obvious and logical, some argue that a tax on junk food might even increase obesity, especially among the physically active. More on this story here.

Does Cause Marketing thwart social change? In the “The Hidden Costs of Cause Marketing” in the Summer issue of theStanford Social Innovation Review, Angela M. Eikenberry argues that cause marketing is “consumption philanthropy,” connecting shopping with a social good, whereas high-levels of consumption in the developed world could be hurting philanthropists’ efforts to save rain forests, fisheries, etc. And it may be counterproductive in increasing empathy for people in need and a sense of responsibility to help. More on this story here.

China’s economy grew nearly 8% in the second quarter of 2009, the government said, in a stunning turnaround for the Asian powerhouse that offered some hope for the rest of the world. Analysts said the rebound in China would offer a boost of confidence for the global economy as it struggles out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. To fight the downturn, the government had begun implementing an internal infrastructure stimulus package that invest heavily in renewable energy.  More on this story here.

Hollywood has unleashed a new wave of disaster films that focus on what will happen after the apocalypse. But even when they tackle serious issues, most of the new disaster movies and TV shows take pains to avoid moralizing, which can be toxic at the box office. Issue-oriented films, such as “In the Valley of Elah,” starring Tommy Lee Jones, and Tom Cruise’s “Lions For Lambs,” have tended to fare poorly with audiences. More on this story here.

Much like California, Guangdong province in Southern China, is the incubator of a large, innovative and dynamic economy far from Beijing and Shanghai, China’s centres of political and financial power. With an official population of 95.4m, it leads the country in economic output and exports, though the latter have fallen about 20 per cent from pre-crisis levels. The Chinese Communist party’s leader, Wang Yang, uses this as an opportunity to carve a cleaner and greener Guangdong. More on this story here.

Prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics there was some concern by athletes about the air quality in China’s capital, so officials there passed a series of temporary measures to improve the air, including restrictions on the types of vehicles allowed into the city. Those measures now appear to be a permanent legacy of the Olympic games, as Beijing has announced that starting in June only low-emissions “green label” vehicles will be allowed inside the 5th Ring Road of Beijing’s inner city.

Read more of this story »

Starting Monday, April 13, cars will be banned from metro roads one day per working week, depending on the last digit of their license plate. There will be no restriction on weekend driving.

This measure represents the most strict action taken since lifting a ban that was put in place one month prior to and during the Olympics, wherein vehicles were prohibited from driving in Beijing every other day, as officials scrambled to achieve decent air quality and clear roadways for the competing athletes and attendees.

Read more of this story »

A top China central government think tank yesterday released a framework for quantifying countries’ historical emissions. Under this proposed framework, the State Council Development Research Center (DRC) would create a “historic account” of past emissions, used to benchmark developing countries with lower accumulated emissions - like China - against countries with higher accumulated emissions and assign emissions “deficits” to countries who have emitted less. Using this quantitative assessment, countries with emissions “deficits” would get the green light to emit, or trade emissions credits with countries that have already exceeded their allowance.

The release of this plan supports external analysis that China believes it should have the right to develop free from carbon reductions until their accumulated emissions are on par with industrialized countries. A recent Brookings Institute report: “Overcoming Obstacles to US-China Cooperation on Climate Change” articulated Beijing’s stance, which included the conviction that:

Countries should be held responsible not only for their current emissions but also for their cumulative historical emissions, given that greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere over many decades.

This plan is Beijing’s most comprehensive effort to date to both highlight and quantify development inequalities as a justification for releasing China and other developing countries from emissions reduction expectations.

Read more of this story »

Although the environment is hardly the priority issue du jour, China has not entirely changed its course with regard to the environment, despite the economic turmoil, as a “worst case scenario” might have suggested. Legislation on the management of electronic waste, signed into effect this week by China’s cabinet, the State Council, is a key example of China’s continued commitment to making progress on environmental protection.

The new law mandates the establishment of centralized funding for enlargement and improvement of safe electronic recycling facilities in China. It also places responsibility on manufacturers, retailers, repair and customer service providers and recycling companies to collect and responsibly handle electronic waste; though the wording of the scope of their responsibility as well as punitive measures for noncompliance is vague.

These regulations aim to reduce a stream of pollution that builds each year. The problem of industrialized countries’ illegal exportation of e-waste on China and other developing countries has generated significant attention and debate in recent years, both inside and outside China. While advocacy groups like Greenpeace point fingers at the corporations for not taking efforts to control the disposal of their products or designing them with fewer toxic components, insufficient legislation and monitoring by both sending and receiving countries has exacerbated the problem.

Read more of this story »

Beijing will ban some 353,800 vehicles with high emissions from anywhere within the fifth ring road, which circles the city center at a radius of 10-15 km. One in ten cars and trucks in Beijing will be subject to the ban. But, say city officials, those vehicles account for 50 percent of the city’s notoriously bad auto pollution.

The vehicles on the banned list are those that do not meet the Euro I emissions standards set in Europe in the early 90’s. According to Ren Lihong of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Science, these cars are a big part of Beijing’s pollution problem.

Read more of this story »

Around 800,000 fewer cars were on the road in Beijing, China this Monday, following the introduction of radical new traffic laws aimed at reducing pollution in the city.

The new laws came into force today, and stipulate that 70% of government vehicles, as well as all private and corporate cars, take turns off the roads on one out of five weekdays.

Read more of this story »

The water crises is nothing new for Beijing. Nearly 60 years ago, the seat of the People’s Republic was already hovering at the “water poverty line” of around 1,000 cubic meters a person. By 2007, it was down to less than 230 cubic meters. Today, with the city’s two largest reservoirs nearly running dry, it’s hard to see the glass as “10% full.”

“Due to continuous drought, the capital city of Beijing Laishui is facing a grim situation of relatively scarce water resources,” says the Hebei Water Resources department in an article announcing the emergency water plan.

It would seem that if ever a country could successfully enlist the support of its citizens to conserve water during a drought, it would be China. In 2006, residents were warned to save water or face shortage. While 20% of the city’s water goes into industry, a slim 3% goes into maintaining the urban environment. You won’t find Beijing residents hosing down the car or sprinkling manicured lawns.

Be that as it may, in the long run even this week’s emergency water project may not be sufficient to quench Beijing’s thirst. The municipality’s population–a staggering seventeen and a half million people–consumes 3.25 billion cubic meters of water a year for homes, farms, and industry. That’s 400 million cubic meters a year more than nature can restore. According to Hebei Water Resources, the total water contained in all five emergency reservoirs combined adds up to 860 million cubic meters. You do the math.

Read more of this story »

The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing are supposed to be the greenest yet. There has been some coverage on television, and despite all the attempts to clean things up beforehand and to limit especially the air pollution during the games, pictures from the city show it still in many ways to be a smoggy, grimy place. It’s not wholly bad, however. The buildings constructed for some of the competitions are architecturally striking, and they seem to be a functional success, as well. But how do they stack up as green buildings?

Read more of this story »

There have been serious concerns about air quality in the Chinese capital of Beijing ever since it was awarded the Olympic Games in 2001. Since then, the Chinese government has spent an estimated $15 billion dollars to address the air pollution problem in Beijing. The cash has been spent on shutting down factories, unleashing cloud seeders to encourage rain, and now, on paying people to not drive their cars.

Beginning today in Beijing, cars with license plates that end in an odd number are banned from the roads every other day, alternating with cars that have even-numbered plates. It is estimated that there are about 3.5 million vehicles on the roads in Beijing and the ban will reduce the numbers of cars on the road by about one million per day. Drivers will be compensated by not having to pay road and vehicle taxes for three months.

Beijing officials claim to have significantly improved air quality, with just over two-thirds of the days last year meeting national health guidelines, up from only 20% a decade earlier. But some question the validity of the data. An article in the Wall St. Journal suggests that pollution standards may have been loosened, air-quality-monitoring stations moved and data possibly manipulated with to show better results.

Read more of this story »

However, in recent months, Senator Obama has also expressed some mixed feelings about boycotting the Olympics.

Read more of this story »

We have heard about China’s air quality and pollution woes recently in the media , especially as the start of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games approaches. A new report released last week adds yet another dimension to China’s environmental concerns.

According to a report entitled Beijing’s Water Crisis: 1949—2008 Olympics, published by Probe International, China’s policy of transferring water from draught-ridden neighborhoods to the nation’s capital in order to meet water needs for the upcoming Olympics is harming China’s environment and local farming economies.

Moreover, the abuse of water supplies contradicts the games’ “green” theme and supposed commitment to sustainability.

Read more of this story »

Source: LA Times

Anyone else find this photo creepy?

Something about the sunglasses, I guess. Or the export of American culture.

The photo depicts clowns who were on hand to celebrate the opening of a McDonald’s in Beijing, and it was part of a New York Times article about the company’s record profits in February. McDonald’s profits jumped 11.7 percent internationally, fueled in part by Leap Year sales but also the weak U.S. dollar. You can get more Mac for your Yuan these days.

I’d like to use that story to play the Six Degrees of Separation game. But instead of people, in this instance, I’d like to look at the short distance between food news. We know McDonald’s is doing well – that’s one data point. Let’s put another marker by the story that University of Washington researchers determined that calorie for calorie, junk food is way cheaper than good-for-you food. According to the researchers, who compared foods in major grocery stores in the Seattle area, you pay $1.76 per 1,000 calories for sugary, fatty foods that have the most calories, but you pay $18.16 per 1,000 calories for the lowest-calorie foods (which are most often better for you, such as fruits and vegetables).

Read more of this story »