… financial backing, buy and erect the turbines, and begin generating electricity by 2010. For Walmart de México, becoming the wind farm’s off-taker accomplished a number of important … electricity at below the rates charged by Mexico’s state-controlled utility, shaving costs for the famously thrifty retailer. In addition, the project allowed Walmart de México to get closer to some of its sustainability goals. The wind farm would supply electricity to 348 Walmart de México …
… Harish Hande and the company he founded, SELCO, provide solar electricity for lighting and power to India's poor. For the work of his company, Hande has received numerous recognitions; he is frequently cited as one of the top social entrepreneurs in India and an example for the entire developing world. The road to SELCO’s …
… oil company PEMEX had to find ways to implement this policy. Nevertheless, in spite of efforts by various government agencies as well as PEMEX, by mid-2014 no ethanol had been … makers looked at the country's energy supply, they expected that substituting bioethanol for some portion of gasoline fuel would meet a number of the country’s needs. First, it could help extend the country’s supply of crude oil. The country's demand for gasoline was growing, but the production of crude oil from the country's shallow-water …
… most heavily traded edible oil in the world. Golden Agri Resources (GAR) has been in the forefront of this palm oil boom in Indonesia. Founded in 1996 by the influential Widjaja family (operators of the Sinar Mas business group), GAR became the holding company for the family’s agribusinesses, including its Indonesian subsidiary PT SMART. The company … had not significantly altered the way the company did business, since the company "had sustainability in its blood." GAR also downplayed the importance of the differences among …
… In 2014, the four largest palm oil trading companies signed an agreement to end deforestation, development of peat lands and exploitation of locals not only with their own operations, but also from all of their suppliers. For environmental NGOs, the Indonesian Palm Oil Pledge (as the agreement was named) represented a dramatic advance in their decades-long efforts to protect the Indonesian rainforest from further destruction. One year later the …
… had to decide how it was going to respond and how much it was willing to invest in its efforts to grow in the U.S. In Europe, the supply-constrained market during 2007-10 had … with some of the continent’s leading developers of solar projects. Trina supplied modules for a number of large, signature projects, developing a strong track record. Now, the … Japanese module maker Sharp had bought Recurrent Energies and its pipeline of projects. Before that, the world’s largest module maker, First Solar, had bought a large developer. …
… In early 2014 Alcoa announced that Ford's F-150 pick-up trucks, the best-selling vehicles in the U.S., would use … planned another $150 million on facilities in Tennessee to meet the demand generated by the Ford contract. The aluminum industry's growing success in the automotive sector reflected … the response of auto manufacturers to the increasingly rigorous fuel economy standards for U.S. vehicles and consumer preferences for high mileage vehicles. To meet those …
… named Sealed signed a $5-million loan-financing agreement as a way to broaden the market for home energy-efficiency upgrades. In New York State, those upgrades face two key barriers … adoption. The first barrier is that a whole-home upgrade is a high out-of-pocket investment for a homeowner. Homeowners who make upgrades often have to pay cash outright or take out … use energy savings in their underwriting criteria. So the cost per project can be too low for significant resources to be dedicated to vetting each one. Plus, the methods of …
… Ash award in policy innovation, the "Nobel of policy," upon the Connecticut Green Bank for its role in "sparking the green bank movement." The Green Bank used financial … subordinated debt, or warehousing facilities, the Green Bank lowered the cost of capital for consumers and businesses to install energy efficiency upgrades and renewable technology. It supported the banking industry in offering standardized products for consumers, and derisked larger stand-alone transactions. But back in Connecticut, …
… French-based insurer led the industry on a number of corporate social responsibility and sustainability indexes. Not content to rest on these laurels, AXA transferred its CR team … the business. AXA’s business had grown rapidly over the previous decades. The company was formed in the 1980s through the merger of a few mid-sized French insurance firms. From the … in the United States, Europe, Africa, and Asia. AXA was hailed in the business press for savvy deal-making. The company took over struggling franchises and utilizing its strong …