CSR Bulletin: IBM, MillerCoors, Friedman on Climate Change & U.S. Power Companies Eye Chinese Technology

Its just about 10 a.m. on the East Coast and news is already flooding in from everyone on climate change, from utility companies trying to open up the U.S. market for Chinese investment, and much more. So, here in a quick summary are some of the more interesting news developments in the energy fiefdom today.

Thomas Friedman, over that at Times, today once again shushed the naysayers of climate change. "My argument is simple: I think climate change is real. You don’t? That’s your business. But there are two other huge trends barreling down on us with energy implications that you simply can’t deny. And the way to renew America is for us to take the lead and invent the technologies to address these problems," he writes adding later, "So, as I said, you don’t believe in global warming? You’re wrong, but I’ll let you enjoy it until your beach house gets washed away. But if you also don’t believe the world is getting more crowded with more aspiring Americans — and that ignoring that will play to the strength of our worst enemies, while responding to it with clean energy will play to the strength of our best technologies — then you’re willfully blind, and you’re hurting America’s future to boot."

Read the complete editorial here.

IBM announced its consulting service today serving sustainable assets. Called Sustainable Asset Analytics, this unit will focus on IBM's clients' sustainable questions, including carbon accounting and asset lifecycle maintenance. Rich Lechner, IBM's energy and environment VP had this to say, "Buildings alone are a source of huge waste and inefficiency, accounting for 70 percent of all energy use and 38 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S. Squeezing out that inefficiency and cost requires new 'smarter' technologies and business analytics."

MillerCoors launched their Corporate Responsibility public website today. Interestingly, it has a section called Alcohol Responsibility, where the brewer discusses social marketing and youth access prevention. What is even more interesting is that this website is meant to engage the company's stakeholders, i.e., its consumers, its investors, its employees and its social components. A basic rule of CSR reporting, this step is a leap for any company looking to take the lead in becoming more responsible.

Check out their website at www.greatbeergreatresponsibility.com.

And finally, energy companies Duke Energy, AES Corp. and Progress Energy are busy forming alliances with their Chinese counterparts in an effort to access the country's cash, equipment and technology in the solar panel and renewable energy market. Besides the deeper pockets of Chinese power utilities, it is their "can do attitude" that has companies like Duke knocking on their doors. An excerpt from the WSJ reports, "Duke's Mr. (Jim) Rogers said he thinks Chinese companies are more likely than those in the U.S. to build big factories and develop the new technologies needed to wring carbon out of the economy, in part because 'Chinese companies have the can-do attitude we have lost.'"

Read the complete report at WSJ.