The Sustainability of Corn-Based Products

Corn-based products are considered to be environmentally-friendly because they are an alternative to petroleum-based products. Many products are made from corn, such as clothing items, carpet, food containers, tires, and now computers. But to be fully sustainable, we must consider the triple social, economic, and environmental impact of agriculture for use in manufacturing products. This is a summary of the ongoing debate.

Social Impact: Food Shortages

Jean Ziegler of the UN states, "Using land for biofuels would result in massacres" due to a reduction in the amount of food aid sent to developing countries by richer ones.

According to the Global Risks Report 2008 from the World Economic Forum, "Food security, at the nexus of a number of issues from energy security to climate change and water scarcity, may be emerging as one of the major risks of the 21st century....The consequences, particularly for the most vulnerable communities, may be harsh."

Other foods, such as agave plants (for tequila), are now being supplanted by the more profitable corn crop.

Economic Impact: Higher Prices

The Global Risks Report also states, "In 2007, prices for many staple foods reached record levels. The price of corn in late 2007 was 50% higher than 12 months previously. The price of wheat was double. Global food reserves are at their lowest in 25 years and, as a result, world food supply is vulnerable to an international crisis or natural disaster."

"In 2007, (UK) food and drink prices rose at their fastest rate in 14 years, at 4.7%. In the US, food prices were up 4.4% year-over-year at the end of 2007 – double the rate of non-food, non-energy inflation – partially due to increased acreage devoted to corn to make ethanol." Food prices increased even more in developing countries.

Environmental Impact: More Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Research has shown that US corn ethanol has a worse life cycle impact on the environment than gasoline, partly because it takes more energy to produce. And research has also shown that corn-based cups and food containers ranked 2nd (of 4 plastics products) in energy usage, only behind PET plastic containers (frequently used for soft drink bottles). And deforestation is occuring in order to plant palm oil and soya for biofuels.

In using corn and other agricultural crops for the manufacture of products, we must consider the triple social, economic, and environmental impact in order to be fully sustainable.

White Bear Racquet & Swim - Sustainable & Responsible Business of the Week

White Bear Racquet & Swim (White Bear Lake, MN) has fully embraced sustainability.

The sustainability section of their website outlines the many initiatives that they have undertaken in their quest for a more environmentally-friendly facility. Here is a sampling:

• They replaced incandescent lights and increased natural lighting, both of which resulted in decreased energy usage.


• Replaced chlorine with a salt water system.


• Replaced a five tennis court bubble with a permanent, super insulated tennis building featuring in court radiant heat, cooling and heating powered by ground source heat pumps, and a super efficient lighting system (courts 1-5 in the old bubble used $44,744 worth of natural gas to heat. During the same time, courts 6-10 in the new building used less than $300 to heat.)


• Installed water-saving showerheads.


• Made improvements outside, such as taking an acre of land they used to water, mow, and fertilize and restoring it to a short-grass praire.


• Reduced waste.


• Use local and organic foods.


• Switched from chemicals to natural green cleaning.


• Office furniture is made from renewable or recycled materials and can all be recycled.

White Bear Racquet & Swim was acquired in September 2007 by the "big box" of fitness centers, Life Time Fitness.

Why do we highlight sustainable and responsible businesses each week? To show the ways in which for-profit businesses are looking beyond profit and are seeking to address their environmental and social impact. Sustainability goes beyond the product sold or service offered and attempts to incorporate positive impacts through all aspects of the business. We hope to show the wide array of possibilities across various businesses and industries.

Sustainable & Responsible Business of the Week: If they can do it, so can you!

"People's Car" Unveiled

Tata Motor's much anticipated "People's Car" has been unveiled! As promised, Tata Motors has just revealed the car created for consumers in emerging markets at an Auto Show in New Delhi, India, despite much criticism and controversy. The Tata Nano will cost Rs 1 lakh (about $2700), meets Bharat Stage-III emission norms and can also meet the Euro 4 norms, has air conditioning but no power steering, gets 20 kmpl in the city and 26 kmpl on the highway, has passed the full-frontal crash and the side impact crash, and comes in one standard and two deluxe versions.

Tell Us What You Want: Help Us Improve Our Site

Do you have suggestions for what we should include on our site? We have put a brief survey on our site asking what items you would like to see increased on our site in 2008.


More "Sustainable & Responsible Business of the Week" features? Posts notifying readers of upcoming sustainability- and CSR-related webinars? More about the links on business education programs in sustainability and CSR? Keep you posted on upcoming conferences in sustainability and CSR? More coverage of the research on sustainability and CSR? More sustainability and green tips for businesses? More coverage of news items related to sustainability and CSR? More coverage of news and items related to the base of the pyramid? Other items (use the comment feature to suggest other items)?


Your votes will help us increase items of interest to our readership and decrease items of less interest. Hurry and get your voice heard! Voting ends January 30th.

Financial Incentives for Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency

If you are in search of financial incentives to help your workplace become more sustainable through energy efficiency, check out the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency (DSIRE). You can click on the map to find incentives for your state, you can sort data by project type (solar, net metering, etc.), you can sort data by incentive type (loans, grants, etc.), and you can search by sector (nonprofit, industrial, school, etc.).

The website database is an ongoing project of the North Carolina Solar Center and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Upcoming Webinars

There are several sustainability- and corporate social responsibility-related webinars coming up in January (offered through various companies) that may interest our readers.

• Sustainability Consulting 101 (Jan. 10)
• Convincing Management That CSR Is Important (Jan. 15)
• Sustainability Careers for MBAs (Jan. 16)
• Greening Your Office 101 (Jan. 16)
• Building a CSR Program (Jan. 22)
• Green Purchasing (Jan. 23)
• Tracking and Communicating Your CSR Performance (Jan. 29)
• Practical Tools for Life Cycle Assessments (Jan. 30)
• Carbon Offsetting (Jan. 30)

Also check out our site for a list of several archived webinars that are available on demand.

Sustainability Contests: Put On Your Thinking Caps!

Here are several contests related to sustainability that might interest you. Follow the links for more details, deadlines (some are just a few days away!), submission guidelines, and prizes.

ReVision offers several contests "generating visionary ideas for what can and should be in the design of urban space." Current contests cover energy, transportation, urban planning, architecture, and urban economies.

Super-Cars Shout Out Competition "allows you to place a simple, colorful flier on high mileage cars that you encounter, showing the vehicle owner that she or he has done something worthy by choosing a leading-edge (in fuel efficiency) vehicle." Snap a photo of your flier on the vehicle, upload it to their website, and wait to see if you've won!

Greener Gadgets and Core 77 are hosting a competition to" seek out design innovations for greener electronics." Your new and innovative solution should "address the issues of energy, carbon footprint, health and toxicity, new materials, product lifecycle, and social development."

The Rockefeller Foundation is co-sponsoring a contest search for a design of a solar-powered wireless router composed of low-cost, readily available hardware and software components. This router is to become part of a reliable Internet communication network connecting metropolises and remote towns in developing countries. The challenge requires only a written proposal that must be registered through InnoCentive (challenge 5644660).

Quantum Shift TV is hosting the New Year's Eco-reSolutions video contest "about what you plan to do for the earth this year. It could be personal, political, local or global. Any action you can think of that moves us closer to a sustainable future."

Quantum Shift TV is also hosting the Be the Change! Share the Story! contest for schools to showcase their "environmental, human rights or social justice project."

EcoCar The NeXt Challenge is open to university and college engineering students to "build and test advanced vehicles with a wide range of potentially feasible production technologies that can be used in future cars and light trucks to achieve much higher energy efficiency and lower GHG emissions."

Carbon Forum America Trade Fair & Conference

The Carbon Forum America Trade Fair & Conference will be held February 26-27, 2008 in San Francisco, CA. From their website, the conference "is a response to the demand for an organized and regulated market. Unlike others, CFA is the first US industry event which combines a Trade Fair with a Conference."

The conference will offer a broad selection of workshop topics, including corporate carbon footprint and strategies, solar energy and energy efficiency, and the carbon market.

Great Lakes Brewing Co. - Sustainable & Responsible Business of the Week

Established in 1988 by brothers Patrick and Daniel Conway, Great Lakes Brewing Company (Cleveland, OH) is a "principle-centered, environmentally respectful and socially conscious" microbrewery focused on the triple bottom line. They recycle waste, use recycled products, and have invested in energy efficiency.

To pursue sustainability even further, they have incorporated "zero waste initiatives" into day-to-day operations. "Our objective is to make full use of the by-products generated from the brewing process," says Patrick Conway. "By taking a 'full circle' approach, we are making the most of potential savings and income-generating opportunities as the raw materials used to produce our products are continuously transformed into a host of food-generating and energy-saving opportunities." The ultimate goal is to mimic nature, where 100% of resources are used in closed-loop ecosystems. This is accomplished in several ways. Certain bread and pretzels found on the menu are made using grains from the brewing process. Brewery grains are also used as a substrate for growing organic shitake and oyster mushrooms. And they also compost waste to create fertilizer to grow herbs and vegetables for menu items. In addition, their beer delivery truck, "The Fatty Wagon," runs on 100% pure vegetable oil.

All of this is quite impressive--and the beer is award-winning, too!

One Laptop Per Child & Intel Part Ways in Dispute

From The Times Online, Jan. 5: Laptop charity hits out as Intel leaves project after dispute

Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of a charitable project to provide cheap laptop computers to developing countries, yesterday accused Intel of trying to profiteer from the world’s poorest children.

His comments came after the chip maker angrily abandoned the non-profit venture that is trying to bridge the technology divide between rich and developing countries by selling $100 (£50.60) computers to some of the world’s poorest youngsters.

Mr Negroponte said: “We . . . have been disappointed that Intel did not deliver on any of the promises they made. While we were hopeful for a positive, collaborative relationship, it never materialised. We view the children as a mission; Intel views them as a market.”

This week, Intel said it has left the project, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). The chip maker joined the project in June and has been at loggerheads with it ever since. Intel had wanted the laptops — called the XO — to contain its own more expensive microchips, rather than those of its rival Advanced Micro Devices. The two parties also rowed over Intel’s conduct when it launched its competing laptop — the Classmate — in countries that had signed up to Mr Negroponte’s computers. OLPC accuses Intel of “disparaging” the XO to boost Classmate sales.

Walter Bender, OLPC’s chief operating officer, said: “Intel wants Intel [products] in everything. But if we had used Intel Inside [chips] in the XO laptop, it would have cost more and been less robust. That would have achieved the exact opposite of what we have set out to do.”
He added: “We have wasted a lot of time and energy with Intel. It has been a huge distraction, trying to realign ourselves with this elephant in the room. We are now in a much stronger position without them.”

Three years ago, Mr Negroponte, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announced that he aimed to devise a programme to supply cheap laptops to the world’s poorest children. He proposed to find a way to make laptops for $100 each and wanted to see 150 million school children with XO laptops by this year.

Mr Negroponte also sits on a committee to guard the editorial independence of Dow Jones, the media group acquired last year by News Corporation, parent company of The Times.
The XO has a web browser, a built-in camera and a word processor and is designed to last about five years. OLPC says it can withstand extreme temperatures and being dropped.
Intel says that if it abandoned selling its Classmate computers to countries such as Peru and Uruguay — a key demand of Mr Negroponte — it would harm relationships with its overseas manufacturers and suppliers.

Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman, was reported to have said that his company “had reached a philosophical impasse with OLPC”. Intel failed to return calls yesterday.

Research: How Green Are Biofuels?

In an article published in Science, "How Green are Biofuels?," authors Jörn Scharlemann and William Laurance have returned attention to a study from last summer by Rainer Zah. Zah and his colleagues' conducted a life cycle assessment for the environmental impact of bioethanol, biomethanol, biodiesel and biomethane. Zah et al. state, "While the use of a number of biofuels can reduce greenhouse gases by more than 30 percent, the cultivation, processing and conversion of the raw materials into usable fuels cause quite an impact upon the environment." The results of their life cycle analysis show that Brazilian soy biodiesel, European rye ethanol, European rapeseed biodiesel, and US corn ethanol all have a worse life cycle impact on the environment than petrol (read the Zah et al. summary or full study).

More "Green" Terminology

As I sort through the many items in my news reader from the holidays, I've run across some new (to me) terminology. So if you would like to expand your green vernacular, here are some terms for you:

1. "carbon advantage" - Dave Douglas argues in Business Week that "We need companies to go beyond carbon neutrality to something I call "carbon advantage." You can create a carbon advantage for your company in two ways: First, you can use efficiency and resource reduction to provide a fundamental cost advantage in your operations and products. Second, you can use innovation in green products and services to offer customers a competitive advantage, thus differentiating your offerings." Read his full article here.


2. "greenmuting" - Bob Langert, VP of McDonald's, states that "many companies are reluctant to talk about their environmental efforts because they are concerned they will be met only with criticism. After all, true progress is so hard to define, and achieving perfection on the environmental front is impossible because there will always be ways to improve. But not talking about environmental efforts, or "greenmuting," can be a sin as well." He goes on to offer his list of "The Six Sins of Greenmuting."


3. "greenflation" - James Kanter of the International Herald Tribune argues (in response to SERT's campaign to legalize alcohol sales in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions) that "in the wake of so much publicity, we (are) now undergoing a wave of “greenflation,” where the term “green” is used to justify almost everything and anything, as long as it can make the claim of lowering carbon." Read his full post here.

Save the World: Legalize Alcohol

Some residents of Sharp County, Arkansas have a novel idea to curb greenhouse emissions: legalize alcohol. The group Save Energy Reap Taxes (SERT) argues that residents of this dry county in northeast Arkansas can travel 70 miles round-trip to legally purchase alcohol, emitting 22 pounds of carbon dioxide for every gallon of gas burned; they argue that a vote to legalize local alcohol sales would help the environment. According to the SERT website, "Legalizing local alcohol sales and other government policies that encourage energy conservation will help save the world from possible catastrophic climate change."

You Can Help "Focus the Nation" on Global Warming Solutions

Focus the Nation is an educational initiative seeking to advance discussions on global warming solutions for America. The initiative consists of four components:

2% Solution - a free interactive webcast being shown at thousands of schools and faith and civic organizations around the country on Wednesday, January 30 at 8pm EST and available on demand afterwards. The webcast will feature Stanford University climate scientist, Stephen Schneider, sustainability expert Hunter Lovins and green jobs pioneer Van Jones and youth climate leaders, for a discussion of global warming solutions.

National Teach-In - on Thursday, January 31, educators are encouraged to engage in a national teach-in engaging millions of students and citizens with political leaders and decision makers about Global Warming Solutions.

Green Democracy - urges every Focus the Nation team to end their event the same way, in a round-table dialogue with elected leaders answering questions by a panel of students.

Choose Your Future - from the list of policies advanced on the Focus the Nation website, during the week of January 31st, 2008, students and citizens across the country will vote on five as priorities for action. This campus and citizen endorsed agenda will be held up to political leaders in Washington DC, and state capitals across the nation.

You can click on their interactive map to find Focus the Nation events being planned near you. It's not too late to get involved and plan a Focus the Nation event. Visit their website for more details and to register your event.

Our Top Stories of 2007

In case you missed it the first time around, here are our most viewed stories of 2007:

1. Keen Footwear & Simple Shoes - Sustainable & Responsible Businesses of the Week



2. One Laptop Per Child Goes BOGO



3. Green-Collar Jobs are Good Jobs



4. Have an Idea for a Solar-Powered Router for the BOP?



5. Richardson's New Energy Revolution to be Presented at GreenXChange Conference



6. What Toxic Chemicals Are Inside Your Cell Phone?



7. New CEO for Coca-Cola



8. Earth Class Mail - Sustainable & Responsible Business of the Week



9. 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics



10. GLOBE 2008 Trade Fair and Conference on Business and the Environment

Thanks for your readership and support in 2007! And here's to more sustainable business in 2008!