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Dr. David Wheat is an expert on sustainability issues for business and a co-founder of HaraBara, Inc. His career has included scientific research, management consulting in biotechnology and clean technology, and entrepreneurship. Doc holds a B.A. degree from Pomona College, an M.A. from Claremont Graduate University, and a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University. He is the primary author of the HaraBara Green Business Blog and, in his spare time, of the science and math blog Science In Action. He is in charge of the accession and editorial functions for HaraBara GreenBase and for publication of HaraBara Daily Brief.
Daily Brief
Doc Wheat on green issues
Feb 8, 2010
Does biodiversity affect your business? And other supply chain, company, government and research news
Loss of species hits economy; new U.N. goals
needed.—reliability high.
"Losses of animal and plant species are an increasing economic threat
and the world needs new goals for protecting nature after failing to
achieve a 2010 U.N. target of slowing extinctions, experts said Friday.
Losses of biodiversity "have increasingly dangerous consequences for
human well-being, even survival for some societies," according to a
summary of a 90-nation U.N. backed conference in Norway from February
1-5." "Apart from food production, less obvious sectors such as
tourism, medicines or energy production with biofuels all depended upon
nature and diversity of species." From
Reuters. [Can
loss of biodiversity be an issue for businesses? Maybe so, even if your
business doesn't depend on the vanishing Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (see
item below).]
Study: access to good public transportation
can make foreclosures less likely.—reliability medium.
A study found that in San Francisco, CA, Chicago, IL and Jacksonville,
FL neighborhoods with better "Location-efficiency" had lower rates of
foreclosure. "Location-efficiency is "a measure of the transportation
costs in a given area," and it includes not just car ownership, but
also if the area has reasonable public transportation." See
Autoblog Green. PDF of study here.
[HaraBara hasn't
analyzed the study, but notes that housing is often more expensive when
closer to public transportation. Maybe homeowners in
transportation-rich (mainly downtown) neighborhoods can afford more
expensive houses and can afford to keep up their mortgages. But if they
get in trouble they can sell one or all of their vehicles and keep
paying the mortgage with the savings, since driving costs more than
public transport. People in the suburbs can't sell their cars.]
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
FTC warns Wal-Mart, Target, others on bamboo
labeling.—reliability high.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission "sent letters to Wal-Mart, Target,
Kmart, Amazon and 74 other companies warning them that rayon clothing
and other products cannot be labeled as bamboo . . . . 'While we have
seen action by some retailers to correct mislabeled clothing and
textile products, our hope is that these warning letters will serve as
a wake-up call to all companies, regardless of their size,' said David
Vladeck, director of the agency's Bureau of Consumer Protection." From
Reuters. [This
is an old story (see Daily
Brief last October and our blog posts Bamboozled
and It's
Easy Being Green--If You Lie) and it is hard to believe any
responsible company hasn't come down hard on its suppliers to end this
misleading labeling.]