David Young, Masters of Science in Management, “New Artisan Foods – The Great Ferment.”

January 9, 2011 by admin
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gradschool.marlboro.edu Capstone project description My capstone project will provide a business plan for New Artisan Foods – a seed business initiative to build local food system capacity and resilience. The plan will detail the functional aspects of a small dairy processing facility and outline its part in a system of integrated regional value-added food production and agricultural processing, preservation, storage and distribution centers. The goal is to provide an impetus for change toward sustainable lifestyles and livelihoods grounded in place-based regenerative economies, developmental educational and civic processes, and regenerative land and resource use.

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Power Management Questions for Every CIO

November 23, 2010 by admin
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Swardson partial to green, gold – and blue
Comedian Nick Swardson admitted to having dinner with Packers QB Aaron Rodgers at Chambers on Saturday. KQ’s Tom Barnard , no stranger to ribald humor himself, was in the audience for Swardson’s show.

City Ends Free Distribution Of Leaf Bags
Bloomington residents who want to go green as they corral their leaves will have to pay for biodegradable paper bags themselves this year as the city promotes composting and tries to save money.

MANAGEMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION ACCOUNTING:

November 21, 2010 by admin
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MANAGEMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION ACCOUNTING:

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MANAGEMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION ACCOUNTING:

By: Dr. S.K Modak

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Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – MANAGEMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION ACCOUNTING:

INTRODUCTION

The main cause of environmental degradation world over has been the relentless industrialization resulting in the release of huge amount of effluents, emission of various chemicals and creation of hazardous wastes by industrial units endangering quality of life and unmindful of the future social and economic consequences of their managerial decisions. This necessitated a global movement for environmental protection, the beginnings of which can be traced to the Stockholm Declaration in 1972, followed by Vienna Convention for the Protection of Zone Layers in 1985 and the signing of Montreal Protocol in 1987 to reduce the layer of Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) from atmosphere.

The movement truly gathered momentum after the hugely successful First International Earth Summit in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, with more than hundred heads of nations attending and signing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The aim was to stabilize the density of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, whose increase triggered Global Warming and the attendant climate change issues. Sustainable development since then has become an ubiquitous theme of discussions the world over. The buzzword today is Kyoto Protocol of 1997 under which the signatory countries have agreed to accept Environmental Degradation Accounting (EDA) as a mandate for action. As of November 2007, 175 countries including Brazil, China and India have ratified the Kyoto Protocol signifying that EDA has now become an essential feature of environmental policies of most governments of the world.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Currently, the phrase Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER), like Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), has attained ethical overtones in the pronouncements of industry leaders. Corporate releases often make it a point to express their allegiance to the CER concept out of a sense of duty, if not a sense of guilt. It is agreed by all that economic growth is accompanied with increase in industrial production, rise in income levels and greater exploitation of natural resources as raw matter; but unhappily it also brings with it the curse of environmental degradation irrespective of whether the country is developed or developing. It is the industrial organizations which are both the ‘users’ and ‘polluters’ of environment and they spoil the quality of air, water and land disfiguring landscapes, distorting skylines and debasing water bodies in the process. Obviously they have to be held answerable for their sins of commission and omission.

The damage to environment has serious implications for human life: for instance, air pollution can cause serious health problems affecting work efficiency of people, increasing medical care expenses and causing loss of earnings. Water pollution – both surface and ground – due to discharge of unprocessed effluents may pose health hazards.. River and sea water contamination due to oil spill can affect fish yield and production of other sea foods. Deforestation and stone quarrying can lead to soil erosion and destruction of ecological balance. Degradation issues like green house effect, destruction of rain forest, acid rain, floods and hurricanes, irreversible depletion of natural resources and high levels of all kinds of pollution therefore need to be accounted for in terms of their social and economic costs. It is also incumbent to fix the moral responsibility for ecological damage control and mitigation.

METHODOLOGY OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING

It has to review activities which affect the environment by continuously gathering relevant data and information about the company’s environment related assets and liabilities.

Difficulty arises in imputing monetary values to loss of welfare associated with pollution of air, water, soil or sunlight. Specialized valuation techniques have been evolved for this purpose, although they have their own limitations. Most cost benefit analyses follow the method of shadow pricing under which values are assigned for items having no market price. Shadow price techniques certainly need to be adopted to fix monetary denominations for items of environmental degradation.

Environmental accounting is done in three stages (i) a comprehension of the business environment (ii) identification of impact of industrial activities on environment and (iii) the determination of environmental costs and expenditure for inclusion in financial accounts.

EVIRONMENTAL REPORTING

One of the important tools of environmental management is the Annual Report of a company incorporating and disclosing all activities having environmental implications. The Report has to be published and circulated by the company to all its stake holders with in order to communicate and furnish to them details of pollution effects of the company’s activities along with various measures adopted by it to mitigate the adverse effects. The Report has also to delineate company’s policy regarding environment protection and the specific areas where it may have failed to make amends. It has to provide information on compliance with government legislation on the use of clean technologies, trademark and discharge of effluents, disposal of waste material, ventilation for light and air, noise reduction – in short, all measures relating to safety and health of the workers and the welfare of local community.

The report has to carry quantitative information about the total expenditure incurred by it item wise for the protection or improvement of environment both within the company premises and the surrounding area, as also an assessment of the costs and benefits of having an environmental budget. In fine, the company should disclose in its report both the positive and negative impact of its activities on environment,

REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

In India, due to increased public outcry and also judicial intervention, the attitude towards compliance of environmental, health and safety regulations by companies has undergone a favourable change in recent times. The regulatory provisions laid down under various Acts like Factories Act (1948), Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act (1974), Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act (1981), Environment (Protection) Act (1986), Hazardous Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules (1989/2000), Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemicals Rules (1989), Public Liability Insurance Act (1991), Bio-medical Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules (1998), Noise (Regulation and Control) Rules (2000), Ozone Depleting Substance ( Regulation and Control) Rules (2000), Chemical Accidents (Emergency Planning, Preparedness and Response) Rules (1996), and such other Rules relating to explosives, petroleum, electricity, boilers, diesel engine emissions etc have all been updated from time to time in conformity with world standards.

The government has specified the obligations and responsibilities of companies in regard to limit of discharge of pollutants, furnishing of information to prescribed agencies, permission of entry by officials for inspection and collection of samples, submission of Environmental Statements and obtaining of prior clearances for new projects or modernization and expansion of projects. The government is also encouraging the integration of environmental issues at the planning stage of a plant as also the use of pro-active compliance related tools like voluntary agreements and charter on corporate environmental responsibilities

In 1994, the Government of India had issued a notification requiring industries to undertake Environment Impact Assessment (EIA). It had also issued a list of 29 categories of polluting industries needing special attention. For purpose of illustration, an effort has been made here to throw light on the environmental performance of two industries viz. steel and cement which are included in the polluting category.

INDIAN STEEL INDUSTRY

The Steel Industry today is having a good time with private and public sector units enjoying greater volume of turnover, better capacity utilization and higher sales and profit margins. Global market conditions are also favorable with great upsurge in steel consumption by sectors like construction, real estate, infrastructure and transportation.

The National Steel policy, announced by Government of India on 3rd November 2005, aims at modernizing the steel industry to global standards by improving efficiency and productivity in all areas of operation including environmental management. It is notable that in the post deregulation period 1991 onwards, the private sector has expanded much faster than the public sector in terms of capacity creation and today it accounts for 59 percent of country’s total crude steel output and 71 percent of finished steel output. Currently, India is the largest producer of sponge iron in the world thanks to rapid expansion in the small scale coal based units.

Considering the industry from the environmental point of view, concern is often expressed about the relative neglect of Research and Development by our steel industry resulting in non-application of such technologies as are relevant to our natural resources endowment and which could minimize the damage to environment. The priority areas where R&D efforts need to be directed are effluent control in coke ovens, development of technology for ultra low carbon dioxide steel making, waste recycling and utilization, reduction of power consumption etc. The National Task Force for steel industry on environment, constituted by the Government of India in 1989, had identified certain critical areas for R. & D. with a view to optimize raw material consumption, minimize generation of pollution and also energy consumption. The idea was to make the whole process of steel making more eco-friendly.

Steel making is basically an energy intensive process. The Indian plants consume energy in the range of 6.45 – 8.5 giga. cal per tonne of crude steel, while the world consumption norm is 4.5 – 5 giga cal. We therefore need to evolve energy- saving and conservation technologies and put them to use urgently. Re-use of internally generated fuel gases or utilization of waste gas can help in minimizing energy consumption.

Green House Gas (GHG) emissions are a matter of great concern for the steel industry it being the third largest contributor of GHG in India. Our steel plants emit an average of 2.7 tonne of carbon dioxide per tonne of crude steel as against a Japanese and German plant average of less than 1.5 – 1.8 tonne. The sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide emissions are also much higher in India and need to be reduced through desulphurization of fuel gases and use of efficient combustion system.

The steel industry should hitherto be more resourceful in the utilization of raw materials and in waste minimization. The generation of slag in blast furnace and steel smelting operations needs to be further reduced. Ways and means should be found for recycling of wastes like sludges and dusts through import of technology from other countries. By the end of Eleventh Five Year Plan the estimated dust emissions from steel production overall are feared to rise to over 500 tonnes per day. This needs to be brought down by installing high efficiency fabric filters.

The Report of the working group on steel industry for the Eleventh Five Year Plan states that recycling of steel is environmentally friendly and since steel is 100% recyclable and maintains its properties through successive product cycles without loss of quality, it can be recycled unlimited number of times. Recycling can also help avoid environmental degradation involved in iron ore mining operations. Of course, recyclability will depend very much on the availability of used steel.

Progressive manufacturers of steel in India are nowadays trying to improve their environmental performance by following the currently available Integrated Management Systems like: for Quality (ISO 9001), for Environment (ISO 14001), for Safety and Occupational Health (OHSAS 1800) and for Social Accounting (SA 8000). The government has in recent years introduced several laws pertaining to Handling of Hazardous Wastes, Application of Emission Standards and Corporate Responsibility for Environmental Protection (CREP)

According to the Working Group Report, the technology initiatives of Indian steel industries include: Environmental Accounting, Carbon Accounting, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), Eco-restoration of Degraded Land, Phasing out Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS), Clean Technology Development, Greenery Development etc.

The costs of installation of measures for pollution control, energy conservation and safety and health are generally high and have to be borne by the industry in the interest of social good. A right strategy needs to be evolved for controlling various physical hazards in the form of noise, vibration, heat stress, dust stress and radiation, chemical hazards caused by inhaled gases, fumes, vapors, asbestos etc, safety hazards from electrical, mechanical or pneumatic sources of energy and accident hazards caused by cranes, hoists, falling weights etc, with the help and advice of experts and in keeping with the legislations enacted by Central and State Governments.

INDIAN CEMENT INDUSTRY

The Indian Cement Industry made up of 125 large and over 300 small plants and having an installed capacity of 165 million tonnes enjoys the second largest market, next to China. Although the dominant players have brought about consolidation of units, the industry still remains pretty fragmented. The industry was freed from price and distribution regulations in 1989 and subsequently de-licensed in 1991.

Production of cement takes place in five stages: (i) quarrying, (ii) preparation of raw mixture from limestone in silo, (iii) kiln processing, (iv) grinding in clinker silo with flash ash and blast furnace slag as additional material, and (v) The packing and transportation of cement to end-user or consumer.

The energy intensive character of cement industry and the release of heat and significant amounts of carbon dioxide have serious Global Warming implications. The manufacturing process releases oxides of nitrogen (NO and NO2), dust including PM10, mercury, cadmium, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and green house gases like carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. The environmental degradation caused by all these pollutants has a material impact on air quality, land quality, habitats, biodiversity and human health. The transportation of cement either in bulk or in bag packs – the latter being the normal mode of delivery in developing countries – also causes air borne pollution in the form of dust. Besides, noise and vibration is caused while operating heavy machinery and blasting in quarries. In fact, all stages of cement production – sourcing of raw materials, on-site manufacture and distribution to the end user – have the potential to exert pressure on environment.

It is time we in India learn from the happenings in China where a study of air quality in the heavily industrialized Pearl River Delta Region of Southern China has revealed that cement factories have given rise to a choking pollution that blankets the entire region. The construction materials including cement have contributed heavily in terms of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and soot in the air. Similar exposure to hazardous air pollutants in our country can cause untold permanent harm to the health of not only our factory workers but also the community in the surrounding region.

Environmental damage by cement industry can be mitigated by using new equipments to reduce dust emissions during quarrying and manufacturing, using modern technology to trap and separate exhaust gases, by returning closed down quarries to nature or re-cultivating them. Concentrations of CO2 and SO2 could be periodically measured through tests for emissions and kept under control as per the government regulations.

The CO2 emissions, which are the main culprit in global warming, need special attention.. They fall in 3 categories (i) those derived from de-carbonization of limestone, (ii) from kiln fuel combustion and (iii) produced by transport vehicles within the plant and outside as part of distribution chain. The typical value worldwide for CO2 from category (i) is 0.50 kg of CO2 per kg of cement, from category (ii) it is 0.24 kg of CO2 per kg of cement in the case of an efficient plant, and for category (iii) it is insignificant at 0.002 – 0.005. All the three add up to around 0.80 kg of CO2 per kg of finished cement. Similarly the typical energy consumption in cement production is around 90-150 KWh per tonne of cement. With the use of hydro-electric or nuclear power and introduction of efficiency in manufacturing, the energy consumption can be brought down to a sufficiently low level.

Data available for the years 1991, 1992 and 1993 for CO2 emissions in India vs. Best Practice give some idea of the relative position. As can be seen, our CO2 emissions at least during the 1991-93 period were higher than the Best Practice.

Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Cement Production: India Vs Best Practice

Tonne Co2 per tonne cement

1991 1992 1993

India 0.86 0.91 0.89

Best Practice 0.63 0.63 0.63

Source: Katja Schumacher and Jayant Sathaye E.O.L.A.N. Laboratory Berkeley, USA (1999)

Happily the Indian Cement Industry today is seized with the problem. Since the wet process consumes excessive energy, 96.3 percent of the cement kilns have now switched to using the energy efficient dry process for clinker production and the wet process is gradually getting phased out. Shift to low carbon fuels, application of alternative waste fuels like lignite, pet coke, tires, rice husks, groundnut shells as substitute for coal in cement kilns, are some of the emission mitigation measures which are being adopted by the industry today.

The Indian cement industry is actively pursuing policies which improve productivity and energy efficiency. Technology is being upgraded in all sections of plants like quarrying, manufacturing, equipment and machinery, packaging and transportation. Detailed diagnostic studies of production processes and energy audits are being carried out. The Central and State Pollution Control Boards have laid down standards for CO2 emission levels at different stages of manufacture and the industry is cooperating in sheer self-interest.

SUMMING UP

There are two ways in which environmental degradation can be dealt with: either the companies or authorities should try to prevent it before it happens, or reverse it once it has happened. This is what is meant by avoidance and restoration. However, managerial decisions in regard to measures of avoidance and restoration need the support of dependable data from company’s environmental degradation accounts. The crux of the matter therefore is a faithfully carried out evaluation of environmental performance of the company and its proper audit from the angle of pragmatically applicable laws and regulations laid down by government for the corporate sector.

Mandatory corporate environment accounting statements can alone reflect the environmental losses, costs and liabilities of a company and help in allocation of investment to salvage the situation. It is time the government agencies, regulatory bodies and accounting associations come together to evolve a fool proof system of proper disclosure of environmental degradation accounts based on well formulated guidelines for measurement, costing and appraisal..

The first thing to do in laying down guidelines is to explain how the environmental effects can be identified and then measured and reported in the statement. The second is to spell out how to allocate for hidden environmental costs. It is also necessary that an exhaustive inventory of cost related items like liquid effluents treatment, waste gas, solid waste, recycling, safety measures, preventive devices, employee training for environmental awareness, R&D costs of innovation of environment-friendly processes and products is also prepared . In a parallel step, the environmental benefits of new processes or products, and other fiscal benefits etc. should also be quantified to complete the accounting exercise.

In fine, corporate environment accounting statements should have the quality of transparency, inclusiveness, neutrality, accuracy and audit ability to make them purposive and meaningful.

REFERENCES :

Dr. Bhabhatosh Banerjee, 2006, Corporate Environmental Accounting and Reporting, the Chartered Accountant, April 2006. Dr. Bhaskar Bora, ‘Environmental Accounting for Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Proposed Seismic Survey of Oil in Assam, North-Eastern India

http://ne-cord.org/.

-Environment Agency, November 2005, Measuring Environmental Performance, Sector Report for Steel Industry, Bristol, U.K. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Guidelines, June 2000 Jonathan Reuvid (Ed),2007, Sustainable Enterprise – Profiting from Best Practice, Simmons and Simmons, London Katja Schumacher and Jayant Sathaye, July 1999, India: Cement Industry: Productivity, Energy Efficiency and Carbon Emissions, E.O.L.B.N. Laboratory, Berkelay, USA . Planning Commission, G.O. I., 2007, Report of the Working Group on Steel Industry for the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2006-2011) Quality Council of India, Workshop on Auditing for EHS Legislation Santimoy Patra: Accounting and Reporting for Environment – A Case Study of TISCO Siddhartha Mitra, “An Accounting Framework for Environmental Degradation: An Attempt to Bridge Gaps in EKC Literature” www.ssrn.com Swapna Mujumdar, 2005: Heard of Green Accountancy?” Women’s Feature Service, http://www.infochangeindia.org Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, Portland Cement A Report by Crisil for IAEF (India Brand Enquiry Foundation)

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WYANDOTTE: Waste Management returns after five years off

November 16, 2010 by admin
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Students pledge to recycle as part of America Recycles Day
Students were encouraged to take a life-long pledge to recycle Monday as part of America Recycles Day.

Why Should a Fabless Chip Company Roll out an Environmental Management System for ISO 14001 compliance

November 12, 2010 by admin
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Why Should a Fabless Chip Company Roll out an Environmental Management System for ISO 14001 compliance

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Why Should a Fabless Chip Company Roll out an Environmental Management System for ISO 14001 compliance

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Why Should a Fabless Chip Company Roll out an Environmental Management System for ISO 14001 compliance

By: Cees Links

About the Author

Cees Links is CEO and founder of GreenPeak Technologies, based in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Cees ["case"] Links is a pioneer of the wireless data industry, a visionary leader bringing the world of mobile computing and continuous networking together. Under his guidance, the first wireless LANs were developed which ultimately became house-hold technology integrated into the PCs and notebooks we are all familiar with. He also pioneered the development of access points, home networking routers and hotspot base stations, all widely used today.

He was involved in establishing the IEEE 802.11 standard, the Wi-Fi Alliance, and IEEE 802.15 standardization committee.

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Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ – Why Should a Fabless Chip Company Roll out an Environmental Management System for ISO 14001 compliance

Why Should a Fabless Chip Company Roll out an Environmental Management System (ISO 14001 compliance)

Starting with Small steps to save the world

by Cees Links, CEO and Founder of Greenpeak

The implementation of a Quality Management System within the organization has been the next obvious step in GreenPeak’s maturity model.

Everybody in the organization has been well aware of the benefits and the introduction of a formal quality system, under the ISO 9001 denominator. It assisted us with improving our processes and supporting operations to make way for more efficiency, allowing for overall better products and services to be delivered to our customers. Our QMS has motivated our team to comply with our mission of providing a truly outstanding customer experience, in the broadest sense of the term.

Since GreenPeak carries its green vision as of day one of its foundation, the implementation of an EMS (Environmental Management System) seemed to be the logical next step. However, as a fabless semiconductor company, with no production facilities, the environmental impact of our activities is limited; a strict interpretation of the ISO 14001 standard could be limited to development and office activities only.

Also staying abreast of mandatory regulatory compliance requirements is very limited when it comes to environmental considerations of office activities. In short, the EMS introduction would result in counting sheets of paper and batteries used in the office.

This is indeed a noble cause, but one might wonder if it is worth the expenditure and staff time to implement the EMS to completion. Penny wise, pound foolish…

So where is tangible merit to such a time and money intensive EMS implementation for a fabless semiconductor company?

First is the obvious cost saving impact of reducing depletion of natural resources and energy for in-house activities: awareness creation and some simple guidelines in the office allow for measurable cost savings which reflect in lower bills for electricity, water, paper and office supplies. Small steps, big difference!

But there is more room for a fabless semiconductor company to improve its environmental impact in the management of materials and processes of its supplier’s operations. This system is called “upstream control” and has become more important over time as more and more semiconductor companies are outsourcing the production of their products and critical components. The production process of semiconductors is burdened with a heavy carbon footprint. Semiconductor manufacturing requires various resources (e.g. special gases and chemicals and large amounts of energy). As the micro fabrication technology progresses, there is a corresponding call for reduction of the environmental impact of the semiconductor industry. GreenPeak carefully selects its critical suppliers based on their green commitment.

And there is even more room for improvement. GreenPeak is not the average fabless semiconductor company, so we also manage to reduce the environmental impact of our activities on several levels of our product development. First is the design of smaller surface chips, which require fewer resources during the manufacturing process.

On a second level is the actual energy use of the devices in which GreenPeak chips are integrated in. Remote controls, which require no battery replacement throughout the expected product lifespan, can significantly slash battery consumption. This means over 90% reduction in total battery usage and results in a lot less heavy metals and toxic chemicals in our environment.

And last but not least, the LCA (life cycle assessment) – the environmental impact evaluation in product life cycle – of the green applications we promote, have a serious impact on energy management and consumption in the home. GreenPeak enabled remote controls become a home control dashboard, measuring, controlling heating, cooling, lighting and hence reducing overall electricity consumption.

In short, GreenPeak’s development focuses on the core of what it takes to make our activities so-called “carbon neutral”. The implementation of an environmental management system is therefore a valuable lesson of environmental modesty for a fabless, and green, semiconductor company.

===================

Cees Links is a pioneer of the wireless LAN industry, a visionary leader bringing the world of mobile computing and continuous networking together. With his leadership, the first wireless LANs were developed which ultimately became house-hold technology integrated into the PC’s and notebooks we all use today. His group also pioneered the development of access points, home networking routers and hotspot base stations, all widely used today.

GreenPeak (http://www.greenpeak.com) is a fabless semiconductor company and is a leader in ultra low power wireless and battery-free communication technology for consumer electronics and wireless sense and control applications. This revolutionary technology, based on the IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee wireless networking standard, utilizes energy harvesting to facilitate battery-free operation in a totally wireless environment, without the need for either communications or power connectivity.

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He was involved in establishing the IEEE 802.11 standard, the Wi-Fi Alliance, and IEEE 802.15 standardization committee.

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Insight Management Corporation Mobilizes Additional Revenue Stream Through the Launch of Its Photovoltaic Solar …

October 1, 2010 by admin
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Greener Expressions Attracts Seed Funding, Start-Up-Seasoned Executive
The First Integrated Consumer, Business, Non-Profit, and Government Platform for Local Market Sustainability, Start-up Greener Expressions Makes Leap Toward Launch via Newly Acquired Funding and Marketing Executive.

Environmental Management

September 21, 2010 by admin
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The perception of visitors of an unspoiled environment underpins the tourism industry making environment protection one of the greatest challenges.

The tourism industry has an important role to play for management of environment.

What is Environmental Management?

The term ‘environmental management’ not only means managing the environment but managing the interaction of human societies with the environment and its impact.

Thus, environmental management is not only for the sake of environment but it is for the sake of mankind.

What does Environmental Management involve?

Managing all components of the environment: biotic and aboitic is what Environmental Management involves.

Management of all the components of environment becomes necessary because of relationships between the species and their habitats.

Why Environmental Management?

Hotels and resorts all over the country consume large amounts of water, energy and other items. Lot of waste whether wastewater or solid waste is generated from hotels.

The reason why Environmental Management has become important is that it is a systematic approach to find practical ways or methods that can be used to save water, energy etc and reduce their negative impacts on environment.

A proper environmental management program can be a win-win situation as it helps to save money and preserve environment.

Environmental Management: Win-Win situation

Proper Environmental Management is a win-win situation for both you and your property. It helps to reduce operating costs and improves profitability.

Substantial cost savings can be done with a modest investment.

Apart from cost savings, environmental management guarantees that you will stand out from competition and will be recognized. Environmental Management helps you to get recognized through certification programs, awards and other promotions.

Other benefit is the image of your property gets enhanced with guests that are conscious about environment.

Environmental Walk-Through is from where you should start

The process of managing the environment and its components starts from An Environmental Walk-Through involving assessment of opportunities for improvement.

A walkthrough may be conducted by a single assessor or a team that inspects facilities and operations and identifies the key areas for environmental improvement.

Steps towards Environmental Management

The following steps when followed properly or kept in mind can make you save enormously:

Adoption of an environmental policy Appointment of an environmental officer, Establishment of a team known as The Green Team, Establishment of a maintenance program, Adoption of practices that conserve the environment and minimize the production of waste Development of a monitoring program for utilities.

Environmental Management System

To make your hotel environment friendly what is required is improvement of the facilities provided by the property and its equipments.

The effort required is to improve the standard of operating procedures and training and motivating the staff members for efficient use of resources.

The system that helps you achieve above goals is Environmental Management System.

Environmental Management System (EMS) can be said as a framework that helps the management to assign responsibilities, motivate the staff members, implement the best practices and monitor the performance as a whole.

Other activities included in the Environmental Management System include conducting meetings, training the staff members and monitoring and reporting progress.

Parisi is a veteran hospitality professional with over fifteen years experience with major hotel chains, such as Intercontinental, Starwood, Hilton and Choice Hotels. Most recently, Parisi served as Vice President of Operations at New Generation Hospitality, helping to not only grow the company, but was part of the original formation in 2006.

For more information visit: www.ecogreenhotel.com

Tags: Environmental, Management

Green Logistics, Urban Air Quality Management And Biofuels Use By Dr. S. K. Modak

July 26, 2010 by admin
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Introduction

Logistics constitute a vital link in the present day transportation systems. They have improved the cost, efficiency and reliability aspects of our delivery systems comprising the end part of supply chain. However, the negative environmental impact of transport movements leading to high fuel consumption emissions, enhanced noise levels, movement vibrations and accident rates have now reached such high proportions that the sustainability issues have inevitably come to the forefront of discussions all the world over. Logistics, including the reverse distribution logistics, have to be made environment friendly. In this context, ‘Green Logistics’ assumes great significance.

Present day transportation owes much to modern technology which has indeed helped develop a high degree of organization and control over freight movements not only within a country but also across the seven seas. Technology could be called the most effective driver of growth of transportation industry today. It is however paradoxical that logistics providers in their eagerness to serve own narrow and commercial interests have lost sight of the objectives of green logistics. The conflict between industry’s self-interest and the much-avowed green objectives therefore deserves serious debate and action.

The objective of this paper is to discuss the significance of the concept of green logistics, transport industry related green house gas (GHG) emissions, air quality management in urban agglomerations, modal shift issue, use of bio-fuels and sustainability issues in general.

What is Green Logistics?

The concept of ‘greenness’ came to be discussed in relation to the transportation industry during the eighties and nineties, especially after the World Commission on Environment and Development Report, 1987 announced environmental sustainability as a goal for international action. The transportation industry was identified as one of the culprits contributing to environmental degradation. Studies and reports had also suggested that environment ought to be incorporated in the logistics framework or supply chain paradigm. The term ‘green logistics’ has since then become a catchword.

Traditionally, logistics takes care of the forward distribution of products which includes transport, warehousing, packaging, inventory management and information processing starting from the producer to the retailer and end user. Environmental considerations require that, as a corollary, care has also to be taken of ‘reverse logistics’ which involves recycling and disposal of waste and used materials. Reverse flow logistics have, in fact, opened up a new market for the take back (10). In fine, the entire life cycle of a product – production, distribution, consumption and disposal – has to be considered as part of logistics. Since quite a few related operations like inventory, materials handling, packaging etc may be outsourced to other agencies, operational integration assumes great significance in the total supply chain. In other words, the various independent operations linked together on a transactions-to-transactions basis are buffered by inventory. The focus is on maintaining a continuous flow of desired velocity by synchronizing all the activities which form part of the supply chain.

The key benefit of establishing an effective connectivity is the minimization of transport costs incurred by firms. The logistics expenditure is comprised of following elements: (a) In-bound logistics cost (operations), (b) Out-bound logistics cost (marketing and sales), (c) Service cost, and (d) Management profit (12). The hallmark of an effective integration in supply chain is (a) Transit time compression, (b) Reliability of service,, (c) Just in time (JIT) delivery (d) Good information systems support, (e) flexibility in operations (f) Customization and (g) Minimization of ‘back haul’ or empty trucks in return journey. The same criteria apply to reverse logistics which require management of products returned by customers, their recycling or reuse, repair or removal of products and finding alternate channels to sell impaired assets (18). All these have environmental implications.

Transport administration, as part of supply chain is also of great significance. It involves expertise in vehicles and equipment scheduling, load planning, routing of freight, advance shipment notification, consolidation of cargo, tracing the movement of cargo as part of control and an efficient information system. It also involves documentation in terms of bill of lading and shipment manifest and what is quite important, a competitive pricing strategy (2, 4).

In modern times international trade has become a bigger part of world’s economic activity. The role of transportation in the global supply chain is now all the more important. Transporters may use a combination of modes like air, road, rail, water, pipelines and inter-modal. Trucking is normally more expensive than rail or water but it provides the advantage of door-to-door shipment and shorter delivery times. It also eliminates the need for transfer or transshipment between pick-up and delivery points. Shippers therefore often prefer road transport over rail for all short distance movements within the country. When it comes to global trade, water transport becomes the dominant mode, although air transport is also preferred for light-weight and perishable cargo.

Transport Industry and Green House Gas (GHG) emissions

Transport is certainly an energy- intensive industry involving high levels of direct and indirect GHG emissions. According to Carbon Budget and Trends Annual Report, 2007, global carbon emissions rose rapidly during 2007 with industrializing nations like China and India producing more than half of mankind’s output of carbon dioxide CO2 which happens to be the main cause of global warming (11). The Report states that emissions from burning fossil fuels was the major contributor to CO2 increase and India would soon overtake Russia to become the world’s third largest emitter of CO2. It should be noted that 450 parts per million (ppm) of CO2 leads to two degrees Celsius increase in atmospheric temperature with disastrous consequences in terms of global warming. A wake- up call to industry, business and our wily politicians is given by recent figures of atmospheric CO2 concentration in general which rose to 383 ppm in 2007. This was 37% higher than the mean level. China, India, Russia and Japan are considered as the big players in CO2 emissions and in that the vehicular pollution is the main culprit(6). Country wise figures in the accompanying table 1 illustrate the severity (23).

.Table 1 : Showing GHG emissions for select countries

Country CO2 Emissions Growth Rate

(In million tones) (1990-2004)

United States 6,046 25

China 5,007 109

Russia 1,524 23

India 1,342 97

Japan 1,257 17

Germany 808 -18

Canada 637 54

United Kingdom 587 01

Korea 465 93

Italy 450 15

World 28,983 28

_________________________________________________-

Note: Share of developed countries is 15% in world population,

but 50% in CO2 emissions.

It is also felt that since Russia is effectively reducing the emission rate, India may soon rank as third greatest polluter after U.S.A. and China.

Addressing Urban Transport Air Pollution

Transport no doubt plays a crucial role in the proper and efficient functioning of our cities.\, but it is also responsible mainly for air pollution. Vehicle emissions are considered a serious issue in most metro cities of the world including India. The levels of Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) is much higher than the standard of 90 (as in 1992) set by the World Health Organization (WHO). A comparison of the SPM concentration in selected Indian Cities with that in other Asian cities is given in Table 2.

As can be seen, in 1992 each of the three Indian cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata had exceeded many times over the WHO limit of 90 SPM and our national capital was the worst offender.

Table 2: Figures of Average Annual SPM Concentration in Cities of Asia- During 1990-1999 (WHO SPM limit 90 as in 1992) _________________________________________________________________________

Bangkok 215 Hong Kong 55 New Delhi 490

Beijing 380 Kolkata 394 Seoul 101

Busan 100 Manila 198 Shanghai 250

Chonguing 250 Mumbai 252

The blame for rising pollution levels can be laid at the door of steeply rising vehicle population in Indian cities as show in Table 3.

Table 3: Total Number of Registered Motor Vehicles in India during 1951-2004

(Figures in thousands)

Year All Two Cars, Jeeps Buses Goods Others

Vehicles Wheelers & Taxis Vehicles

1951 306 27 159 34 82 4

1961 665 88 310 57 168 42

1971 1865 576 682 94 343 170

1981 5391 2618 1160 162 554 897

1991 21374 14200 2954 331 1356 2533

2000 48857 34118 6143 562 2715 5319

2001 54991 38556 7058 634 2948 5795

2002 58924 41581 7613 635 2974 6121

2003 67007 47519 8599 721 3492 6676

2004 72718 51922 9451 768 3749 6829
_______________________________________________________________________-

Source: (19) and Transport Research Wing, Ministry of Road Transport, G.O.I.

Motor vehicles are prone to emit large quantities of Total Organic Gases (TOG) including hydrocarbon (HC), Carbon Mono oxide (CO), Fine Particulate Matter (PM), Nitrogen Oxide (NOx), and Sulphur Oxides (SOx). These air pollutants cause severe health and environmental effects. The fine Particulate Matter (PM) results in aggravating respiratory and cardio vascular diseases and impairing lung function. Besides, the environment may get degraded by way of acid rain, eutrophication, visibility impairment and, of course, climate change. According to a study published in Current Science (5), while the Indian economy grew by 2.5 times during 1975-1995, the vehicle pollution level increased by 7.5 times. This is disturbing indeed. It shows that transport system and air pollution are directly co-related. The emissions from motorized vehicles in practical terms depend on vehicle kilometers, vehicle speeds, life of vehicles and composition of vehicle fleet. The emission rates of different categories of vehicles are shown in Table 4.

Table 4: Emission Rates of Different Categories of Vehicles in Typical Indian City in gms/km

Vehicle category CO HC NOx SO2 Pb TSP

Two- wheeler 8.3 5.18 - 0.013 0.004 -

Motor car 24.03 3.57 1.57 0.053 0.012 -

Three-wheeler (autos) 12.25 7.77 - 0.029 0.009 -

Bus 4.38 1.33 8.28 1.441 - 0.275

Truck 3.43 1.33 6.48 1.127 - 0.450

Light commercial vehicle 1.30 o.50 2.50 0.400 - 0.100

Note: (-) indicates negligible quantity

Source: (21)

Here one can see that emission rates in terms of CO and HC for personalized modes of transport like motor car and two wheelers are very high suggesting the need for their substitution by public passenger transport modes lie bus or metro rail. The figures of average efficiency of different categories of motor vehicles as expressed in terms of kilometers per litre are as in Table 5.

Table 5:

Vehicle category _Fuel type Kms. per litre__

Bus Diesel 4.30

Two wheeler Petrol 44.40

Three wheeler Petrol 20.00

Motor car Petrol 10.90

Source: (21)

An idea of the vehicular emission loads in selected Indian cities can be had from the figures in Table 6.

Table 6: Estimated Vehicular Emission Load in Selected Metropolitan Cities of India

Name of city Vehicular pollution load (tonnes per day)

_________________________________________________________________________ Particulates Sulphur Oxide of Hydrocarbons Carbon Total

Dioxide nitrogen monoxide

________________________________________________________________________

Delhi 10.30 8.96 126.46 249.57 651.01 1046.30

Mumbai 5.59 4.03 70.82 108.21 469.92 659.57

Bangalore 2.62 1.76 26.22 78.51 195.36 304.47

Kolkata 3.25 3.65 54.69 43.88 188.24 239.71

Ahmedabad 2.95 2.89 40.00 67.75 179.14 292.71

Pune 2.39 1.28 16.20 73.20 162.24 255.31

Chennai 2.34 2.02 28.21 50.46 143.22 226.25

Hyderabad 1.94 1.56 16.84 56.33 126.17 202.84

Jaipur 1.18 1.25 15.29 20.99 51.28 88.99

Kanpur 1.06 1.08 13.37 22.24 48.42 6.17

Lucknow 1.14 0.95 9.68 22.50 49.22 83.49

Nagpur 0.55 0.41 5.10 16.32 34.99 57.37

Grand Total 35.31 29.84 422.88 809.69 2299.21 3597.20

Source: (3)

The air pollution levels in our cities are disturbing indeed. The number of motor vehicles moving on Indian roads today is certainly much more than the figure of 7.2 crore in 2004 (See Table 3). What is more alarming is their concentration in metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Delhi, for instance, which had 1.4 percent of Indian population accounted for 7 percent of total motor vehicles in the country. Another worrying feature is that while the share of mass transport (buses) is quite below the desired range of 60-85 for two million plus cities, the share of personalized transport (cars and two wheelers) and para- transit (autorikshaws and taxis) is above the optimal range of 10-20 in most cities.

The impact of such a rapid growth of vehicle population in the background of grossly inadequate road space, poor street furniture, illegal encroachment by hawkers, parked vehicles and pavement dwellers can be easily imagined. Most Indian cities today face severe traffic congestion, especially during peak hours when vehicle speeds slow down to 5-10 kms per hour in central business district areas. Vehicular emissions in the form of CO2, HCs and NOx drastically increase the pollution levels.

Mass transport services like buses and suburban rail systems are generally overcrowded. They are irregular and involve long waiting times. This naturally leads to a massive shift to personalized transport and para-transit modes. In India owning a motor car is still considered a status symbol. As a result the neo-rich are fast joining the car-owners club and it is feared that the situation may worsen after the rupees one-lakh nano car arrives on Indian roads. All this may also lead to a soaring up of accident rates to dizzy heights. It is time we listen to the wake up call and save ourselves from turning into a car-oriented society.

Air Quality Management – Measures

It is obvious that we need to act without delay through effective intervention in the transport sector. Green transport through green logistics should be our goal. Maintenance of air quality standards is possible through setting an ambient air quality monitoring network for vehicular emissions and simultaneously helping motorists to make the transition. The variety of measures that need to be undertaken can be on following lines:

(a) Diesel engines emit carbon particles TSP, heavy hydrocarbons, sulphate and other by-products of combustion, and petrol engines also emit CO, NO and other volatile compounds. However, diesel engines are considered as relatively dirtier and government should discourage their use through suitable policy measures including differential pricing (14).

(b) The government should promote the use of alternative cleaner fuels like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas (CNG). Thankfully, it is already doing this gradually and effectively. The air quality in Delhi and Mumbai has certainly improved after their use in public transport buses and autorikshaws. It should also take care to establish CNG filling stations along all major roads. Another good news, according to a Research Report by Frost and Sullivan ( ), is that car makers in India are soon likely to roll out models that run on alternative fuels like CNG and LNG. They are also developing a converter kit which will transform an existing petrol and diesel vehicle into a CNG/LPG driven vehicle. Such converter kits for three-wheelers are already in the market. After this conversion India will actually need 10,000 CNG pump stations whereas today their number is less than 5000 across 15 cities.

(c) Use of old vehicles should be effectively curbed. Shortage of finance or fear of unemployment should not come in the way of enforcement of government directives. Petitions for judicial intervention should be quickly dealt with. Obsolete models, except those used for vintage car ralleys, ought to be made to retire.

(d) Improvement in fuel quality in terms of lower surphur content in diesel and lower benzene and aromatics in petrol should be enforced. The Department of Road Transport of the Government of India has rightly promulgated Rules in April 1995 regarding use of unleaded petrol and fitting of catalytic converters in new petrol-driven cars. Similarly, the norms for sulphur content in petrol have been fixed at 0.1% and for diesel at 0.25%

(e) Setting up of emission standards for all kinds of motor vehicles is necessary. Happily, the next generation emission norms for two-wheelers and three-wheelers have been made effective from April 2005. If feasible, the government may start conducting emission testing of motor vehicles prior to their registration. It may be stated that the automotive sector of Indian industry is quite sensitive to environmental risks and safeguards.

(f) The local enforcement agencies should launch sustained drives against smoke-belching vehicles which abound in small and medium sized Indian cities. For this purpose they should bring emission testers to roadsides for inspection of vehicles. Forced retirement of older high-polluting vehicles may be resorted to. The government should also bring in pedestrian safety laws and clear footpaths of all encroachments to allow pedestrians their right to walk safely.

(g) Better integration between rail transport systems and other ‘feeder’ bus services and water transport facilities should be brought about by linking them together. Common ticketing and information systems to offer seamless connections between different transport modes can also be thought of. Elevated railways integrating LRT and MRT lines may be constructed to discourage private car ownership. (20)

Modal Shift

The question of changing the modal split in favour of railways and waterways also needs to be addressed seriously. It is a well-established fact that road freight vehicle movements give out greater carbon emissions per tonne kilometer than rail or water borne freight. The road arteries in India these days are getting more and more congested affecting climate change. The share of rail transport in freight movements, not in absolute but relative terms, has been declining relative to road transport, because of the accessibility and door-to-door delivery advantage enjoyed by road transport. This however does not augur well from the environment and sustainability viewpoint. There is no doubt that Indian rail freight traffic during the last decade has increased in absolute terms thanks to the Container Corporation of India – a subsidiary of Indian Railways- playing a more customer-friendly role in providing ISO containers both at port terminals and inland container depots (ISDs). However, for logistics providers road transport still continues to be the favoured mode for the reason that their criterion of measuring transportation costs differs from that of the government. The costs of environmental degradation for them are external and do not need internalization for business accounting purposes.

It is here that policymakers should use their ingenuity in evolving such fiscal, regulatory and organizational measures which will bring about a modal shift from road to rail and water transport. Unfortunately, there is no evidence yet of serious thinking on the part of policymakers to bring about such environmentally desirable modal shift from road to rail and water. The reason is not far to seek. The decision about mode choice by shippers of freight involves many complex issues. It depends upon a variety of factors influencing performance of rail freight movements and the costs in terms of money and time that is to be borne ultimately. It is therefore necessary to identify the barriers that prevent the desired modal shift and evolve suitable measures to achieve the objective. It is the logistics managers who can really enlighten us on the eco-friendly way of influencing mode choice.( )

Switch to Bio-fuels

Due to soaring prices in the world oil market during the last few decades, need arose to break free from oil and use alternative energy sources like bio-fuels which would cut oil demand, provide energy security and prevent climate changes. Simultaneously, efforts were begun to promote research and development in clean alternative energy options like wind, water, solar and hydrogen resources. However, a switch to bio-fuels- specifically ethanol – was looked upon as the easier way to achieve the objective (7)

The question often being asked is whether reliance on bio-fuels would prove a good strategy. Researches undertaken by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) reveal a different story (17). During the period 2000-2007 there was a boom in ethanol production. Brazil and USA controlled the market producing 90% of ethanol. European Union (EU) also followed suit. Large tracts of land were diverted towards production of palm and soya-bean to produce bio-diesel and towards corn and sugarcane to produce ethanol. This led to a surge in commodity prices throughout the period. According to IFPRI, if this trend continues, by 2020 prices of corn are estimated to rise from present 26% to 72%, of sugar from 12% to 277% and of oilseeds from 18% to 44%. This scenario is bound to have a serious impact on the poor strata of society with diet quality getting reduced and malnutrition spreading to large parts of Asia and Africa.

In this situation, rich countries may continue to emit majority of green house gases (GHGs) and the poor countries will bear the burden of climate change in terms of hotter climate, lesser rain, and deforestation, and also low incomes, malnutrition and greater dependence on agriculture and natural resources for living.

It is feared that the risks in switching to agro-based fuels are real. The switch may trigger further deforestation and destruction of the ecosystem. Warnings are therefore being given that agro-fuel policies should not be pursued further without a proper risk analysis. (1). According to a UNIDO document, “the key concern here is the competition between land use for bio-energy production and food and animal food production.” The fuel versus food issue is really enigmatic. The document further states that “the coupling of energy market with food market can increase food prices and hence worsen the access to affordable food for many” (25). This warning can be ignored only at our peril.

It should be clearly understood that increased prices may result in increased incomes for farmers and give them their food security, but the overall effect would depend upon the distribution of increased incomes. In the opinion of the Food and Agriculture Organization (2006) the food versus fuel issue needs detailed analysis of the possible outcomes of bio-fuels policy. The Stanford University’s Wood’s Institute for Environment claims that reliance on bio-fuels as part of America’s new energy plan is not a good strategy. It is a fact that USA’s Ethanol-from-Corn Program has led to a rise in prices of food crops due to farmland diversion. (23) This can happen anywhere and in India too. Lands can be diverted for production of soya-bean and sugarcane. The decision to switch from fossil fuels to crop-based fuels has therefore to be taken with extreme caution. Scientists state that agro-fuels production from oilseeds and corn has the potential to damage our climate catastrophically.

Researches are being carried out to produce liquid bio-fuels for transport as such. Here the ‘first generation fuels refer to bio-energies made from sugar, starch, vegetable oils or animal fats using conventional technologies. ‘Second generation’ fuels refer to those from lingo-cellulose biomass feedback using advanced technologies. In India, we have resorted to gasification of solid bio-mass through setting up small scale plants mainly in rural areas which produce heat and energy. We should upgrade the technology so as to feed the gases into pipelines or alternatively compress them for use in transport vehicles. In this respect Brazil has a success story to report. The production of sugarcane ethanol has reduced that country’s dependence on fossil fuels and also ‘cleaned’ the industry. ( )

In fine, as long as the thrust is on producing ‘clean’ energy and on scaling down petroleum consumption, bio-fuels can be considered as welcome. But we must carefully assess the fall outs of switching to bio-fuels. President Obama’s New Energy Plan for USA supports greater use of ethanol produced from maize. This has led to increase in food prices, especially of wheat. If we in the same way produce sugar ethanol in India, it may deplete our water levels and degrade soil quality. Bio-fuels may not prove to be so ‘green’ after all. (23) The sustainability of bio-fuels does not seem to be as strong as it appeared earlier.

References

1. Almuth Ernsting, Deepak Rughani, Dr. Andrew Boswell (2007): “Agro Fuels Threaten to Accelerate Global Warming”, UNFCCC, Bali Version, www.biofuelwatch.org.uk 2. Bowersox, Closs, & Cooper (2008), Supply Chain Logistics Management, McGraw Hill, 2nd edition 3. Central Pollution Control Board: National Ambient Air Quality Statistics of India, different years 4. Chopra Sunil and Peter Meindl (2007) : Supply Chain Management- Strategy, Planning and operation, Prentice Hall of India 5. Current Science (1999): “Urban Air Pollution- Commentary”, Vol.77, No.3, August 10, 1999. 6. Financial Express, November 3, 2008, Emerging Ventures India 7. John Browne (1997): “Bio fuels – A Solution for Climate Change- Our Changing Earth Climate”, A Presentation in the Council of foreign Relations, New York, Nov.13, 1997. 8. John Pucher, Nisha Korattyswaropan, Neha Mittal, Ninu Ittyerah (2005): “Urban Transport Crisis in India”, Transport Policy 12, Elsevier, pp. 185-198. 9. Prodosh Mitra (2009): “Biofuels are not so green- Counter view”, Times of India, February 17, 2009 10. Rodrigue Jean-Paul, Brian Slack, Claude Comtois (2001): “Green Logistics (The Paradoxes of)”, in The Handbook of Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Brewer et al (eds.), Pergamon/Elsevier publishers, London Greening Business Survey 2008 11. Financial Express, September 22 & 29, 2009: “Global Carbon Emissions Rise Despite Abatement Steps” – Carbon Budget and Trends Report, 2007 12. G. Raghuram and N. Rangaraj (2005): Logistics and Supply Chain Management- Cases and Concepts, Macmillan, Delhi 13. Hindustan Times, December 19, 2007: “India is on an eco drive”. 14. House of Representatives, Phillipines Policy Advisory No.2004-03 (2004): Addressing Urban Transport Pollution. 15. Indian Express, November 16, 2007:International Energy Agency (IEA) Report on World Energy Outlook 16. Jain, A.K. (2009): ” Retrofitting Cities and Built Form to Meet the Challenges of Climate Change and Carbon Emission”, Akruti Journal of Infrastructure, Vol. II, No. 2, pp. 101-121 17. Joachin von Braun (2008): “Food Prices, Biofuels, and Climate Change”, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 18. Sahay B.S. (Ed.) (2004): Energy Issues in Supply Chain Management, Akruti Journal of Infrastructure, Vol. II, No. 2, pp. 122-1 19. Sanjay K. Singh (2005): “Review of Urban Transportation in India”, Journal of Public Transportation, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 79-97 20. Warwick J. McKibbin (2009): “Climate Change Policy for India”, 21. Sibal and Sachdeva (2001), “Urban Transport Scenario in India and Its Linkage with Energy and Environment”, Urban Transport Journal, Vol.2, No.1, pp.34-55 22. Sudarsanam Padam & Sanjay K. Singh (2002), “Urbanization and Urban Transport in India- The Sketch for a Policy, Central Institute of Road Transport, Pune 23. Times of India, November 28, 2007, “Global Warming- Earth on Fire”- Subodh Varma 24. Tiwari Geeta (2007), “Urban Transport in Indian Cities”, Urban Age, Newspaper Essay, L.S.E. 25. UNIDO (2007): Bio Energy Strategy- Sustainable Industrial Conversion and Productive Use of Bio Energy – Report

e-mail: shankermodak@yahoo.co.in

Dr. S.K.Modak is an eminent educationist with over 4 decades of teaching and research experience at college and university level. He has authored 12 books, 4 monographs and over 100 articles in journals and periodicals. He has pioneered a new discipline: Human Orientation Science dealing with guidance systems and signage at public places.

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