...green “The volume of global trade has more than doubled in the last decade – reaching six times the rate of growth of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP),” according to Mastering carbon measure emissions as a first step to limiting them. In many cases, it may be more cost effective to shift to lowercarbon practices now rather than wait for the inevitable regulations. As companies decide how to reduce the damage being done, it is understandable that they focus on the lowest hanging fruit first – their direct impact from their immediate operations. Increasingly, however, there will be an expectation to look beyond the emissions from an office block or a factory, to the extended supply chain. This adds its own complications. “There are questions about how and where boundaries are drawn when it comes to carbon emissions,” points out Iain Walpole, company environment manager of Castle Cement Limited. “For example, a UK-produced cement might produce 800kg CO2 direct emissions per tonne. If you then included the transportation of raw materials and electricity within the footprint, the total would be larger. As such, a cement produced in a similar plant in China would have the Insight and analysis from IBM Global Business Services But it’s worth it. Ben Schiller considers the climate change that’s driving business. same direct emissions, but the CO2 from transporting this tonne could add 160 kg/tonne in CO2 emissions to the total. Where do we draw the line in this equation...
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...Should I care about the environment ? Green Supply Chain As customers becomes more aware about the environmental changes, suppliers and buyers have to adapt and become environmental friendly to meet the customers needs. Companies will have to take into consideration about how green their manufacturing processes and supply chain are, their carbon footprint and how they recycle. Business have to learn how to green their supply chain and reduce cost. Business have to operate in a environmentally, ethically and socially responsible manner. Public scrutiny of business behaviour has led to rising expectations that companies are responsible for the environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices of their suppliers. http://www.unglobalcompact.org/issues/supply_chain/index.html A Green Sustainable Supply Chain can be defined as "the process of using environmentally friendly inputs and transforming these inputs through change agents - whose byproducts can improve or be recycled within the existing environment.( http://www.mhia.org/news/industry/7056/the-green-supply-chain ). A sustainanble supply chain can be created by developing outputs that can be reclaimed and re-used at the end of their life cycle .The main purpose of this sustainable supply chain is to reduce cost and help the environment. In today's "sustainable" world the thinking should be what is the life cycle costs of this part, piece of equipment or supply chain process.( (http://www.mhia.org/news/industry/7056/the-green-supply-chain...
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...waste generated by electronic devices. The Data centers are energy hogs which, represent about 25 % of total fixed corporate assets, and 50 % of overall IT budgets. People feel that sustainability is the right and the smart thing to for designing and operating a productive data center, for betterment of our environment. The mission-critical operational efficiency and stability is boosted and not sacrificed by Greening a data. A green data center is provided, which comprises: a utility power source for providing utility power, a facility electrically connected to the utility power source, a renewable energy provider electrically connected to the facility for providing renewable energy, an IT equipment electrically connected to the renewable energy provider. A heat transfer system having a circulating coolant, wherein the heat transfer system captures and transfers taste heat generated by the computer IT equipment and transfers heat from the heated coolant to at least one of the utility power source, for the IT equipment. The power consumption of the green energy data center system is half that of a conventional data center, and green energy accounts for another half for driving. The data center is green and energy saving, and also the profit margin of the data center is improved. Five Key words are 1. Global Warming 2. Green Technologies 3. Server Cooling Systems 4. Heat Transfer System 5. Energy Saving Introduction Global Warming It’s a phenomenon of observed...
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...The Link Between Competitive Advantage & Corporate Social Responsibility | Business and Society | | There is currently growing interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) among both companies and managers. It has become an important topic of theoretical concentration and one of the most widely accepted business concepts. The major issues in the field of CSR concern stakeholder analysis and corporate strategic management. Numerous attempts have been made to link CSR and financial performance. While the debate over CSR continues, it reveals that some additional research can be done on the link between CSR and competitive advantage (CA). CSR is understood to be the way firms integrate social, environmental, and economic concerns into their values, culture, decision making, strategy, and operations in a transparent and accountable manner (Berger, 2007). Thereby firms establish better practices within, create wealth, and improve society (Berger, 2007). CSR programs go beyond legal and ethical frameworks to include a wide range of issues for the organization (Berger, 2007). Specifically, CSR programs can impact a wide range of issues managed by the organization including: corporate governance and ethics programs; health, safety, and environment programs; attention to human and labor rights; human resource management policies; community involvement; respect for indigenous groups and minorities; corporate philanthropy and employee volunteering; adherence to principles...
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...The Smart Grid is a decentralized and interactive system. The interactive nature will involve two-way communication between the utility companies and the consumer. Through Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) consumers are able to make better energy use decisions, defer usage to off-peak periods, and contribute power to peak period usage. Utilities will be better able to detect problems within their own systems and react quickly to replace power sources from multiple possible sources. The “Prices to Devices” concept, based on the premise that energy is priced in real time, allows for ongoing transmission of power availability and pricing to “smart” home controllers and devices. The devices can interpret this information to alter energy usage accordingly – to defer usage to more amenable and less expensive times. The current U.S. power grid is no doubt an amazing machine, but it has many limitations and poses many challenges. One main drawback of the current system is that it was built to move power in one direction – from the plant to the consumer. Years ago this made sense, but today it limits the ability to handle power generated from wind turbines and solar panels. The smart grid uses two-way communication, which handles excess distributed power as well as detects and avoids potential power outages. Currently, power companies rely on customers to tell them if there is an outage or problem. The smart grid automatically detects the problem and instantly reroutes...
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...PVC plastics that create dioxins when burned. The quantities of the products are staggering and growing each year. Many of these unwanted components are shipped off to third world countries with little or no environmental regulation. What are some ways of alleviating the possible environmental and economic problems created from this “e-waste”? The toxicity of this waste is an often unknown/unacknowledged problem. Most people just don’t consider this when disposing of their old components or even worse don’t dispose of it and just store it away. Let’s look at eleven important facts from the following web page <http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-e-waste> 1. E-waste represents 2% of America's trash in landfills, but it equals 70% of overall toxic waste. The extreme amount of lead in electronics alone causes damage in the central and peripheral nervous systems, the blood and the kidneys. 2. The nation now dumps between 300 million and 400 million electronic items per year, and less than 20% of that e-waste is recycled. 3. Because computer processing power doubles roughly every two years, many old computers are being abandoned. Only 15% of people recycle their computers, which means the other 85% end up in landfills. 4. It’s energy efficient to rebuild old computers, but only about 2% of PCs ever find their way to a second user. 5. About 50 million cell phones are replaced worldwide a month and only 10% are recycled. If we recycled...
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...` Title: Go-Green with Cloud Computing: Benefits to HR Name: Mala Srinivas & Animesh Giri (Assistant Professor, Dept of Information Science technology, PEs Institute of Technology-BSc) Affiliation: III Semester, MBA – HR, PES Institute of Technology – BSc Email: Mala.s44@gmail.com animeshgiri@pes.edu Title: Go-Green with Cloud Computing: Benefits to HR Name: Mala Srinivas Affiliation: III Semester, MBA – HR, PES Institute of Technology – South Campus, Bangalore Email: Mala.s44@gmail.com ABSTRACT Cloud Computing is the hot topic in today’s World. Cloud computing comes with the great advantage of providing higher energy savings, a fact which translates into being environmentally friendly. In the last few years, technology has improved immensely, taking the environment into account and providing a solution for those worrying about carbon footprints and the impact of technology into the environment. In the last couple of decades, HR has re-invented itself from the mundane activities like Industrial Relations, labour etc. to the front of a Company’s Business radar on par with Marketing, Finance, Administration and other departments. HR managers today use hundreds of strategic and collaborative technology tools to keep up the HR function fast moving. But lot of these technology tools is not implemented in a large number of Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) who forms 75% of our country’s market. Why? Because many of the SME’s are of...
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...world becoming a very fast and life is becoming very easier. But in sense we using technological its manufactures the product and its resources come from our nature and its becoming also polluted. We are using vehicles for our transportation for moving forward easily and very firstly. In the world we have many more automobiles company those are manufactured millions of automobiles. But that’s harmful for our environment because of fuelled are burned and also polluted environment and reduce our natural resources. So, we need to save our planet and by researched we find out Hybrid cars are very effective way to reduce carbon emission. The currently popular paradigm for discussing the environment originated in the 1970s, when the ideas of global warming and finite oil reserves were first proposed (Minton & Rose 1997; Pelletier et al. 1998). While some debate continues on the veracity of these propositions, this thinking has influenced the way people live by increasing their efforts to reduce energy use and to have fewer by-products as a result of consumption. It has been suggested that this type of thinking has led some consumers to prefer products like the Prius (Jansson, Marrell & Nordlund 2009). An area that is related to a consumer’s choice of car is the choice of fuel. Four thousand Swedish drivers were surveyed on their level of eco-sensitivity and the type of vehicle fuel they used (Jansson, Marell & Norlund 2009). Many manufacturers now sell hybrid and low emission vehicles...
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...1. Introduction A paradigm shift currently indicates the global challenges that industries are facing and more companies are pressured to embrace sustainability as business conditions change. However, only recently corporations started integrating sustainability as the part of their business strategy as they came to recognize that it is an essential part in growing and establishing themselves as the leader in the competing environment. A well-executed sustainability strategy can enhance the company’s value and reinforce competitive advantage in the market while protecting the capital base. The balance of power has shifted between corporations and it is important to balance economic prosperity along with environmental and social dimensions. Sustainable business strategy represents a marked shift in traditional business practices and companies who do not adapt to the changes in these practices in order to achieve sustainable profitability will be more likely to face the brand value decline or even extinction in the future. For instance, the change represents the need to understand how all three dimensions affect each other and companies ought to consciously create new consumer preferences. However, a lot of companies still are missing guidelines to implementing a marketing strategy of sustainability as an essential part, which is at the core of ensuring organizational, social, economic and environment growth while managing overconsumption issues (White, 2011). Current researches...
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...store large amounts of data, instructions, and information more permanently than allowed with main memory. 3. Identify and briefly discuss the fundamental characteristic that distinguishes RAM from ROM memory. RAM differs from ROM memory by that RAM is a volatile storage devices but ROM is a nonvolatile form of memory. 4. What is RFID technology? Identify three practical uses for this technology. -RFID technology: a technology that employs a microchip with an antenna to broadcast its unique identifier and location to receivers. 5. What is a fuel cell? What advantages do fuel cells offer over batteries for use in Portable electronic devices? Do they have any disadvantages? Fuel cell: is a device that converts the chemical energy from a fuel into electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen or another oxidizing agent. The advantages do fuel cells offers over batteries for uses in Portable electronic devices are: * Steam reforming of gaseous hydrocarbons is seen as a potential way to provide fuel for fuel cells. The basic idea for vehicle on-board reforming is that for example a methanol tank and a steam reforming unit would replace the bulky pressurized hydrogen tanks that would otherwise be...
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...sustainable products and services. Others are making cross-industry partnerships to develop next generation products such as the elusive mass market electric car. Some are even enhancing their business models through mergers and acquisitions that seek to address, and capitalise on, sustainability trends. Drivers of Sustainability A number of factors are driving the adoption of corporate sustainability programmes in the global business community: * Regulatory Mandates: Growing regulatory pressures compel companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, industrial effluents, and other environmental hazards. * Operational Cost Efficiencies: Rising raw materials and energy prices incentivize businesses to invest in waste recycling, waste-to-energy, water conservation and related technologies. * Reputational Risks: Increasing scrutiny of corporate conduct induces managers to engage environmental, social and human resource problems that might damage the company’s public standing. * War for Talent: Intensifying global competition for talented employees boosts the value of corporate sustainability as a mechanism to attract and retain skilled workers. * Global Economic Shifts: Changes in the global economy (rise of emerging markets, demographic shifts, technological advances,...
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...sustainable products and services. Others are making cross-industry partnerships to develop next generation products such as the elusive mass market electric car. Some are even enhancing their business models through mergers and acquisitions that seek to address, and capitalise on, sustainability trends. Drivers of Sustainability A number of factors are driving the adoption of corporate sustainability programmes in the global business community: * Regulatory Mandates: Growing regulatory pressures compel companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, industrial effluents, and other environmental hazards. * Operational Cost Efficiencies: Rising raw materials and energy prices incentivize businesses to invest in waste recycling, waste-to-energy, water conservation and related technologies. * Reputational Risks: Increasing scrutiny of corporate conduct induces managers to engage environmental, social and human resource problems that might damage the company’s public standing. * War for Talent: Intensifying global competition for talented employees boosts the value of corporate sustainability as a mechanism to attract and retain skilled workers. * Global Economic Shifts: Changes in the global economy (rise of emerging markets, demographic shifts, technological advances,...
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...cycle costing (practitioners want instant incentives); and (c) mostly, because it is not a legal requirement for the vast majority of municipalities. Keywords: Green management, green business practices, barriers toward green management, encouragement & incentives for green management, LEED Certification. RESUMEN La gestión ambiental sostenible y el tornarse ecológico no es tan claro ni factible como lo pregona la prensa. Mientras que volverse ecológicamente “verde” es sin duda beneficioso y apropiado, el proceso y el procedimiento de hacerlo es todo menos fácil. En primer lugar, transformarse ecológicamente eficiente no es un requerimiento legal, sino un proceso voluntario. Entonces, mientras la certificación LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, que es con mucho la certificación ecológica estándar...
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...DIVERSIFICATION AND GLOBAL POSITION 3 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. is ranked as the as the world’s second largest PC chipmaker with a market share of just 17%, far behind Intel Corp. with 81% of the market (Buckman and Williams 2001, 1). However, in 2000 AMD’s sales jumped 63% to $4.6 billion, producing $983 million in net income and its first profitable year since 1995 (Streetwalker 2001, 1). AMD owns engineering, manufacturing, warehousing and administrative facilities where it produces not only PC chips but also microprocessors, memory circuits, logic circuits, flash memory devices, telecommunication products and embedded processors (Moody’s 2000, 2520). The company’s headquarters and research and development site are located in Sunnyvale, CA, while the wafer manufacturing plants are located in Austin, TX and Dresden, Germany. The test and assembly facilities are located in Bangkok, Thailand and Penang, Malaysia. The company has also established production at the Singapore’s test and assembly facility as well as an analysis and design plant in Suzhou, China. In addition, a new plant in Japan, a joint venture of AMD and Fujitsu, called AMD Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd. or FASB, will begin operations in the first half of 2001 (Dum 2000, 2). AMD, like many technological multinational enterprises (MNE), prefers to locate its factories and assembly plants in technology clusters in stable and democratic countries. However, AMD knows that East Asia is one of the best...
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...Lowitt and Jim Grimsley May 2009 Case Study Hewlett-Packard: Sustainability as a Competitive Advantage Having worked with thousands of corporate and government clients around the world, Accenture has long understood the special characteristics that enable organizations to outperform their peers—to become high-performance businesses. High-performance businesses are those that: • effectively balance current needs and future opportunities, • consistently outperform peers in revenue growth, profitability and total return to shareholders, • sustain their superiority across time, business cycles, industry disruptions and changes in leadership. In this case study, we investigate how a genuine commitment to sustainability— defined as environmental and social responsibility—is helping HP to grow its leadership in key markets. We look at how HP translates its green credentials into profitable new businesses and better-performing existing ones, all while advancing its long-term position as a model corporate citizen in the global arena. Transforming a good-citizenship heritage into contemporary sustainability credibility For HP, building a global sustainability program—one that is held to the same rigorous standards of accountability and profitability as its other business initiatives—is an ambitious and ongoing challenge. With little precedent in the IT sector and virtually none in organizations of HP’s size and complexity, the endeavor has required the company to continually innovate...
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