New opportunities for measurement and verification.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil have today released a new certification process designed to allow sustainable producers to correctly label their products. This follows Sainsbury's move earlier this week to source all the palm oil used in their products sustainably.

The carbon trust has launched a business-specific carbon calculator today, designed to give businesses an idea of their emissions levels. A few bit of data are needed, but those are easily accessable. We approve. The Carbon Trust has also responded to recent comments by the NAO, their CEO writing "I believe this report gives us the green light to extend our work and has some valuable recommendations that we will examine as part of our ongoing commitment to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy.” GreenBang reports on signs that the hydrogen power sector is reaching maturity.

Palm oil and the chemicals industry (not all at once, though.)

Bayer launched their group-wide climate programme yesterday. It has, in fact, already begun working on the first lighthouse projects: a global concept for zero-emission buildings for offices and other industrial buildings known as the “EcoCommercial Building”, the development of stress-tolerant plants and systems to encourage the effective use of crops for biofuels, and the "Bayer Climate Check" for optimizing production processes. Bayer will also invest EUR 1 billion in climate-related research and development and other projects in the next three years. Find out more here.

Sainsbury's have finally taken the plunge and banned palm oil - I give the fellow supermarkets a week before they dive after them in a lemming-like fashion (though hopefully with a more pleasant end, for the orangutans anyway.)

Robotic goats and biofuel worries

Business

• Time to Get Tough - Terry MacAllistair writes about companies' CO2 emission disclosures, and why he thinks disclosure should be mandatory.
• IBM has started offering verification certificates to third parties who reduce their data centre energy use.
• Greenpeace has released a report on the impact of palm oil pantations in Indonesia which accuses a number of corporates including Nestle, Unilever, and P&G of irresponsible sourcing. I'm feeling slightly guilty about the kitkat bar on my desk, as they allege it has been produced using palm oil from uncertified sources. Supply chains, once again, are hitting the spotlight with a bang. Read the full report here.
• The NY Times includes a special section today on green business. Read more...
• E.ON launched its Carbon Footyprint campaign on Tuesday, which will encourage fans to make simple energy saving changes to help cut their own emissions. And yes, pledges, inevitably, mean prizes...

Politics

• An Environmental Audit Committee evidence session on the sustainability of Biofuels will be held on Tuesday. Attendees include: Biofuels Corporation, British Sugar, Renewable Energy Association, Environmental Industries Commission (run by a guy called Merlin!!!), The Energy Crops Company, Friends of the Earth and WWF.

Science

• The Telegraph reports on a proposal to increase sea alkalinity in order to boost its CO2 absorbing properties.

Education

• Living a paperless life? Well, you could be.. A light-hearted article from Micro Persuasion explains how.
• Treehugger has pushed the Hippo Works website into the limelight: a cartoon-based educational resource with a new section on climate change. Worth a look for teachers, parents, and anyone who still thinks lollipops and plimsols are cool.

And a crazy one to finish...

• Robotic Goats help the Japanese recycle...