Scales of Green

Union of Concerned Scientists Automaker Rankings (2007)

Nov 26

Overview: In recent weeks, the Big Three automakers — GM, Ford, and Chrysler — have been under fire for asking for a bailout from Congress after spending years ignoring consumer interest in more fuel-efficient, environmentally-friendly cars.  Nearly a year ago, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released its fourth assessment of the top automobile manufacturers’ [...] [...more]

Posted: under Green Companies.

Overview:

In recent weeks, the Big Three automakers — GM, Ford, and Chrysler — have been under fire for asking for a bailout from Congress after spending years ignoring consumer interest in more fuel-efficient, environmentally-friendly cars.  Nearly a year ago, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released its fourth assessment of the top automobile manufacturers’ environmental performance, and for the fourth time since 1999 the three American companies had the three worst scores given.  But what about the UCS report itself?  How does it come out in terms of its transparency, governance, and coverage of environmental issues?

Transparency: Glass*

The 49 page report includes an extensive Appendix detailing the methods used to calculate its scores. While the data and calculations themselves are not provided, clear source references and explanations are.  It includes a discussion of both what is and is not covered by the scores, although the implications of the specific scoring method used are not discussed.

Governance: Oligarchy (with Monarchic, Republican, and Aristocratic Elements)

While the report is attributed to a single individual, Don MacKenzie, the acknowledgements state that UCS is solely reponsible for its contents.  Given that Mr. MacKenzie is a vehicles engineer and not a senior staff member at UCS, it is likely a group of people reviewed, edited, and approved the document.  Nevertheless, Mr. MacKenzie clearly played a key role in its publication, and furthermore, the report’s results are based on data gathered from government websites, which in turn include data gathered from the companies themselves.  Thus, while the report’s design was ostensibly controlled by a non-profit oligarchy, it was also indirectly affected by decisions made by other types of governance as well.

Coverage: Hedgehog

While more extensive in its coverage than fueleconomy.gov’s data, the UCS rankings are still limited in their assessment of environmental performance.  Their global warming scores only take into account carbon dioxide emissions due to fuel use, transportation, and production, and ignore other greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide, and HFC-134a and the climate impacts of automobile production.  The smog scores are limited in the fact that they are indeed smog scores, and only include smog-forming NOx and non-methane organic gases, while ignoring other pollutants such as ozone, particulate matter, and carbon monoxide.  Nevertheless, as individual measures of specific impacts, these scores are relatively robust.  And the fleet-wide assessments do provide a broader perspective on each company’s overall environmental performance than any other assessment currently in existence.

This Scale’s “Greenness:”

The UCS Report claims that its “analyses provide objective measures of each manufacturer’s true environmental performance,” but some important points should be remembered:

1. These rankings are based on proxy measures of each fleet’s climate and smog impacts, and have a high degree of uncertainty to them.

2.  The scores weight climate and smog equally – if we consider climate to be significantly more urgent than smog, for example, Volkswagen might be more highly ranked than Hyundai (or, if we weighted smog higher than climate, Nissan might do better than Hyundai).

3. The ratings are based on 2005 data (the most recent available), and each company’s performance may have shifted significantly since then.

4. The rating method looks at the average performance of each company’s models, rather than at the number of models above or below a certain performance threshold (e.g. GM frequently claims it has more models that get 30 MPG or more).  As a measure of overall performance, UCS’s model appears to be the correct choice, while the latter approach would be a better measure of “greener choices” provided to consumers.

5. Despite these caveats, UCS does provide the most comprehensive assessment of these automaker’s environmental performance, and its limitations reflect a general lack of data rather than an institutional emphasis.

* For an explanation of the Transparency, Governance, and Coverage “ratings” above, please click here.

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Green Icebergs

Oct 09

Since the density of pure water ice is ca. 920 kg/m3, and that of sea water ca.1025 kg/m3, typically, around 90% of the volume of an iceberg is under water, and that portion’s shape can be difficult to surmise from looking at what is visible above the surface. http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/i/iceberg.htm So-called “green products,” from “eco-pencils” to [...] [...more]

Posted: under Green Companies.
Tags: iceberg, Introductions

Since the density of pure water ice is ca. 920 kg/m3, and that of sea water ca.1025 kg/m3, typically, around 90% of the volume of an iceberg is under water, and that portion’s shape can be difficult to surmise from looking at what is visible above the surface.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/i/iceberg.htm

So-called “green products,” from “eco-pencils” to “hybrid SUVs,” have been proliferating in recent years, and the “Green Products” section of this site will be exploring this growth and their measurement in detail.  These products, however, usually only represent a very small portion of any one company’s total production — they are, in effect, only the tip of the iceberg.  It is the tip that remains out of water, the public face of the company that offers green solutions to “saving the world,” while most of the company’s products and processes remain submerged and out of sight, their environmental performance unseen and unknown.

If we want to know how the private sector is really affecting the planet, we must understand the overall impacts of corporations rather than just focus on their most innovative (but usually niche) products.  Many organizations, including companies themselves, recognize this basic fact, and regularly issue reports and ratings assessing corporate environmental performance. Companies issue Sustainability Reports, government agencies reward or punish companies for their levels of emissions, and non-profit organizations grade companies on their overall policies and programs.

But more often than not, these activities often have only a limited view of the iceberg’s underside, and fail to take a holistic view of its size, dimensions, and direction.  It is similar to the problem of the blind men and the elephant; each man is correct in describing the part he is touching, but all are radically wrong in describing the whole elephant.  We need to bring together these perspectives so we can accurately understand how green these icebergs, elephants, and companies really are.

So in this section, I will explore different efforts to measure the environmental performance of corporations, rather than single products.  I will look into who is doing this measuring, what they are measuring, and what they are not measuring.  Are environmental inputs, outputs and impacts being asssessed, as opposed to just policies and programs?  Are effects on air, water, and wildlife being evaluated, as opposed to only those on the most popular issue of the day, the climate?  For that matter, are all policies relevant to climate change being investigated, or only the most obvious (but perhaps not the most important)?

The state of the whole iceberg, and not just the one the penguins are frolicking on, must be known if we want to know how “green” it is, and how green it may become.  Ultimately it is more the trends of the mainstream market and not the “green products” market that drive corporate decisions and the private sector’s environmental impacts.  Since 90% of its mass is underwater, it is the currents of the ocean, and not the wind, that determine the iceberg’s direction.

Images: Iceberg is from http://www.davidiad.com/images/iceberg/iceberg_b.jpg and Elephant is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Men_and_an_Elephant

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