Goal For The Green

On September 10, 2008, World Wildlife Fund announced that Johnson Diversey, which is one of the world’s largest providers of commercial cleaning products and services, had joined their Climate Savers Program.

Johnson Diversey announced their plan to invest $19 million over the next five years, to achieve their commitments, but they anticipate an operational savings of about $31 million over the same time period.  This proves that sustainability is the right approach for both the environment and the bottom line.

Recently, I was given the opportunity to speak with Jon Matthews, of Johnson Diversey.  Given the recent award by WWF, and all the accomplishments Johnson Diversey has achieved, I could only come up with these three questions.

1. Where do you go from here when,  you are already at the top?

2. What plans does Johnson Diversey have for further and future sustainability?

3. Did you know that you were being considered for such a prestigious award?

During the interview, Jon Matthews, stressed that ” Our objective has always extended beyond financial growth to promoting the health and well being of our planet and the people who share it. We are excited about helping customers and our clients to become more sustainable, by helping them provide a cleaner and healthier environment.  It is our goal and commitment to reduce our individual carbon footprint and CO2 emissions.  On the path of sustainability, we are never done.”

Johnson Diversey was called upon to help fight the MRSA scare last year, that showed up in several high school sports locker rooms.  There was a high demand for sustainable solutions to eradicate the viral and bacterial germs.  Johnson Diversey makes a solution that contains excellerated hydrogen peroxide. During this time they found that they could not keep the product on the shelf. They discovered that they needed to treat the schools like a health care facility. They took on the job, and were successful in treating the spread of MRSA in the affected schools.  It has also been proven that the use of toxic free solutions in a school environment, enhances student performance and over all health and well being.

Johnson Diversey, was one of 18 companies world wide, to be considered for the award from the WWF. The entire process was two years in the making.  WWF hired an analytical firm to review the applications, collect and validate data, set a baseline, and test emissions. The entire process required meeting certain criteria and third party approval.

Tomorrow is officially Summer. But, here in the Puget Sound area, we got gypped out of Spring.  We can count on one hand, well maybe not quite two hands the few days that have come close to 70 degrees.

The truth is, it has been flat out cold.  In this month of June, Fairbanks ,Alaska has already had 10 days above 70. The “Icebox of our Nation,” International Falls, Minnesota has had four days top 70 degrees so far this month.  The mercury has been topping seventy in Oslo, Norway nearly every day recently.

Even Tomsk, Russia, in Siberia was warmer than Seattle on the 10th of June. They hit the 70’s in Siberia and we were still sporting our sweatshirts and hoodies at 55 degrees. The snow plows were back out on Snoqualmie Pass, clearing another 7 inches of snow, just last week. That’s happened only two times in the last 30 years. This has been a record year for snow in our mountains.

We are praying for a slow thaw, or we will be looking at terrible flooding like we had in December. It was the worst flooding here in over 100 years.

Perhaps we shouldn’t complain too loud, at least we don’t have to be looking for relief like they were on the East Coast last week, sweltering at more than 100 degrees in places. Not to mention, an early start to the fire season in California, in April, and an already record number of hurricanes, tornados and severe storms in the Midwest, doing billions of dollars of damage.

According to the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, which is a combined effort of more than a dozen government agencies, we can expect to see more severe and intense weather patterns ocurring. There will be more severe droughts, more disastorous (stormier) storms covering wider and more diverse places,plus more and deeper flooding as part of our changing climate.  Events that are rare to an area, can and will become commonplace. A rise from moderate to high sea surface water temperatures have been linked to increasing power and more hurricane activity.  Last season there were approximately 900 hundred hurricanes, this year they are expecting at least 1800 to pass through the Midwest.  The season started in April, and as evedent by the damage so far, has been relentless.

CO2 emissions have caused the global average temperature to rise 15-60 times faster than the natural historic rate. Our Earth’s climate system is changing more rapidly than some species are able to adapt.  These changes are already affecting more than half of Earth’s wild species.  More than 16% of all coral reefs have become damaged, or even died because of high sea water temperatures. Coral reefs may even become extinct in this century, if we don’t concentrate on controlling and stabelising CO2 emissions.  There is no time to waste on this issue.  It affects all life, even our own.

Image via Wikipedia

Our Earth, is in a Fragile Condition.

Cutting greenhouse gas emissions, in order to ward off a dangerous rise in global temperatures, may be more of a challenge than previously thought.

Scientists, have published studies in the last month, suggesting that it would require the world to cease carbon emissions altogether by mid century.  This means, that both industrial and developing nations, must use other fuel sources, instead of fossil fuels, during this same suggested time frame. We must do this, in order to prevent warming, that could change weather precipitation patterns, and greatly alter or dry up water sources, globally.

There was a meeting on the issue in Paris, France last week, that involved the countries of China, India , France, Germany,and the United States, among others. The countries represented, produce 80% of the world’s greenhouse gasses, and are among the worlds fastest growing economies.

President Bush, stated in his speech, that the United States would cut it’s CO2 emissions, and other heat-trapping gases by the year 2025.  Most of the world arena, considered his speech to be a huge disappointment. Many nations consider President Bush, as an obstacle to the fight against global warming. Over the past year, he has shown more awareness of the dangers of planetary warming, and human-caused carbon emissions. Although, it was the first time he has set a specific target date. The problem, is we need to address these problems well before the year 2025.  Several attendees, felt the speech “takes a huge step backward.”  Other critics feel, the United States needs to “cut emissions, – not just limit their growth.”  If we set the example, and cut our emissions, perhaps other developing nations would follow our lead, because some countries still look at us, as having the world’s largest economy.

During this conference, there was also a push, for ways to expand the use of bio fuels, beyond the use of corn and other food crops. The growing use of bio fuels, has been blamed for rising food prices and grain shortages, which have caused riots in some countries.

Since the first Earth Day in 1970, much has changed.  Now, we find our Earth in crisis. There are answers, even if it does seem like too little to late. We need to stop our dependence on fossil fuels, and have a government more willing to look at the other options, that have been on the shelf for far too long.  We need to wake-up and push for green energy policies, in hopes of turning back the clock, on our Fragile Earth.

When you apply here for a personal bank loan, you not only get the best loan for your circumstances, but it is paid out with the minimum fuss and as quickly as humanly possible.