Green Options

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from David Hone, Climate Change Adviser for Shell.

I have been in Sao Paulo this week at Sustentavel 2009, perhaps the premiere Sustainable Development event in Brazil, if not all of South America. At the opening I represented the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and then on the first day of presentations I participated in the main climate change panel session.

What is clear is that there is a passion in Brazil for sustainability – from the huge issues they face in the Amazon region to the road congestion in Sao Paulo. Talking with delegates at Sustentavel, it is also clear that the country faces an interesting future in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

Bosch, Du Pont and Xerox have joined the Eco Patent Commons, an international effort to speed up the progress of sustainable development.

Their paticipation brings the number of free patents available for use by anyone in the world to 69, more than doubling the original number.

Hosted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) the Commons was established in January this year by IBM, Nokia, Pitney Bowes and Sony in response to a growing dilemma among large businesses.

1. MAS Holdings, Sri Lanka’s biggest apparel company, has a new lingerie factory backed by Marks & Spencer (M&S), who is one of their best clients. The undergarment factory uses 40% less energy than a factory of the same size and the electricity is from renewable sources like 10% from on-site solar panels and the other 90% from hydro-power plant energy. MAS is reported to be the world’s first carbon-neutral clothes factory.