Can Carbon Offsets Trading Rescue this Planet?
February 5, 2012 | 
Author Chinas current trade progress is unrivaled. For more than two centuries, the west has maintained an unchallenged hold over methods of production that, with the presently melting global order, is quickly spreading east. If Chinas population of more than a billion makes a shift for a better lifestyle, would the planet still manage to survive the surge?
the Pacific and Asia towns have expanding citizenship that is bursting at the seams. If they walk on the same bicentennial track as the west did, researchers are claiming the normal ecological control mechanisms will shatter. if Asia should be set the pace regarding power use or if the western hemisphere should take the lead is a great debate, raging throughout the world?
While it is right that the civilized world has begun working on emissions abatement , their attempts have been half-hearted at best . As civilized and advanced human beings, westerners are reliant on power.
While most civilized countries have approved the Kyoto Protocol, the basis for abatement of emissions, America, most likely the worst abuser of greenhouse gases, has yet to sign it. Under the Kyoto Protocol, the overall ceiling is honored, but a guideline for emissions trading gives flexibility as nations and the companies in them enjoy the choice to trade carbon offsets.
The theory surrounding carbon offsets exchange is easy: countries or entities that use all their emissions liberties can purchase extra rights from countries or industries that have rights to spare. Practically speaking, it doesnt matter who emits what degree of emissions; what counts is that the whole total is beneath the cap.
Emissions exchange looks for the least cost process of controlling GHG. Carbon offsets exchange will actually lead to an across the board reduction in emissions as large polluting states and companies begin to experience the pain of buying emitting rights forcing them to try ways to control its pollution.
The general public so far seems doubtful about the effectiveness of cap and trade. How exactly would the ability be first doled out? The current method selects rights on usage history and current demands. Such a grandfatherly method really tracks to loopholes, where a few companies can pull off bigger abilities while some, more value adding industries, may be deprived.
Posted in Climate Change | 
Tags: Carbon Accounting, Offsets, Planet, Rescue, This, Trading | 
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The Case for Renewable Energy
New Delhi, One of the most debated topics today is the future scenario of energy use. The focus is now on a range of technologies that are expected to emerge in the coming years and decades. There is universal recognition of the fact that new technologies and much greater use of some that already exist provide the most hopeful prospects for mitigation of emissions of gases that threatens our planet.
The good news, experts agree, is that renewable energy can deliver half of the world’s energy needs by 2050.Some reports show that it is economically feasible to cut global CO2 emissions by almost 50% within the next 43 years. They also agree that commercial production of renewable energy on large to massive scales is technically possible.
Alongside global warming, other challenges have become just as pressing. Worldwide energy demand is growing at a staggering rate. Over-reliance on energy imports from a few
countries and volatile oil and gas prices have together pushed security of energy supply to the top of the global energy-economy agenda.
Renewable energy is not a dream for the future – it is real, mature and can be deployed on a large scale. Decades of technological progress have seen renewable energy technologies such
as wind turbines, solar photovoltaic panels, biomass power plants and solar thermal collectors move steadily into the mainstream. The global market for renewable energy is growing dramatically; in 2006 its turnover was US$ 38 billion, 26% more than the previous year.
Supplies of all fossil fuels – oil, gas and coal – are becoming scarcer and more expensive to produce. Uranium, the fuel for nuclear power, is also a finite resource. By contrast, the reserves of renewable energy that are technically accessible globally are large enough to provide about six times more energy than the world currently consumes – forever.
Renewable energy technologies vary widely in their technical and economic maturity, but there are a range of sources which offer increasingly attractive options. These sources include wind, biomass, photovoltaic, solar thermal, geothermal, ocean and hydroelectric power. Their common feature is that they produce little or no greenhouse gases, and rely on virtually
inexhaustible natural sources for their “fuel”.
CRC catches franchises and bust companies
Businesses that have gone bust during the recession or operate through franchises could fall foul of controversial new “green tax” legislation, it has emerged.
Any company with a half hourly electricity meter installed at the end of 2008 has to report its electricity meter details to the Government by the end of September under the carbon reduction commitment scheme. If they do not, they face fines of at least £500.
Recession casualties: Britain’s construction industry counts cost of boom-and-bustThe Department for Energy and Climate Change requires qualifying companies that went bust since 2008 to register – although in a concession it has waived the £2,240 in fees it normally charges heavy energy users to take part in the carbon trading scheme.
Small-scale franchisors are hit by the legislation because they are obliged to collate the energy consumption of all the independent businesses trading under the franchise if their collective consumption exceeds 6,000MW per year or where one of those individual businesses uses a half hourly meter and the total exceeds 3,000MW per year.
The Environment Agency guidance states: “You will need to include emissions from all your franchisees as if they were emissions from your own organisation.”
Lawyers warned that the regulatory burden on small businesses was “disproportionate” to benefits of collating their energy consumption.
Geoffrey Sturgess, a partner, at solicitors Blake Lapthorn, said: “There is in my mind little doubt that the legislative impact of this on franchisors, many of which are small businesses with lots of other small businesses as their franchisees, is disproportionate.
He added: “The new Government has made much of its commitment to repeal unnecessary legislation. It might spend its time more profitably looking at the way in which much business regulation has a scattergun effect and amend it to ensure that it is both proportionate and targeted appropriately.”
DECC had been warned by the British Franchise Association that smaller businesses would be caught by the new regulations but this advice was rejected to make sure that larger franchisors like McDonald’s were included.
The scheme has three tiers. Around 4,000 companies consuming more than 6,000MW of electricity a year have to register and pay a “pollution tax” of up to £100,000 a year for the amount they use. So far around 1,300 have registered.
Those companies with a half hour meter that consume more than 3,000MW a year have to register their energy consumption and details but are not charged.
Smaller businesses that still have a half hour meter installed but use less than 3,000MW a year have to register their details. Failure to provide this information could incur a £500 fine.
Delvin Lane, head of energy 360 services at British Gas Business, said awareness of the reporting obligations among smaller businesses was limited.
“The lower down the energy spend you go there’s absolutely no awareness. It’s such a small part of their business at that level – it is just not core. So they have not given it any management attention.”
These businesses are likely to include small chains of hotels, restaurants and dry cleaners, often operating under franchise brands, as well as office or industrial unit landlords, small manufacturers and food processors, like bakeries.
DECC defended the inclusion of smaller businesses within the CRC scheme and the administrative burden it imposed.
“Analysis indicates that it should only take no more than three hours for information declarers to collate information on their half hourly meters and their energy consumption,” a spokesman said.
“It is estimated that making an information disclosure on the CRC registry will only take approximately 30 minutes.”
She added that companies that have ceased trading since 2008 would have to register for the scheme.
“The reason for requiring such organisations to register is one of data integrity – to ensure that all meters settled on the market have been accounted for; to enable the Environment Agency to audit effectively and thereby ensure that all organisation who should participate fully in the scheme have registered.”
The Environment Agency has said that as of Monday 16 August 1,398 of the 4,000 organisations that will take part in the trading scheme had registered, while 4,965 of the 15,000 information providers had registered.
Source: Telegraph Tues 16/08/10
Satellite Images and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) Help Monitor Global Warming and Climate Change
Since 1990’s a new generation of satellite sensors with powerful capabilities have been launched to collect massive amounts of data about our planet and the many changes it has experienced.
There are dozens of remote sensing satellites orbiting the Earth collecting invaluable information about the Earth’s surface, oceans and the atmosphere and how they interact. Satellite images have been collected for scientific and technical purposes as well as just appreciating its simple beauty. These satellites collect information that our eyes cannot, collections from 30M to 0.5M resolution is now available.
To view original story with images go here http://news.satimagingcorp.com/2009/10/satellite_image_technology_monitoring_global_warming_and_climate_change_.html
Satellite images provide important land coverage information for mapping and classification of land cover features, such as vegetation, soil, water and forests for monitoring and managing Earth’s vital natural resources and the current global climate changes.
The Earth’s climate has changed throughout history. From glacial periods (or “ice ages”) where ice covered significant portions of the Earth to interglacial periods where ice retreated to the poles or melted entirely – the climate and the Earth has continuously changed.
The shallow end of the Glaciers are melting swiftly. Glaciologists have determined that areas of the glacial lobe were 98 feet lower in 2004 than they were in 2000. That’s double the rate of pre-1999 thinning.
The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is very likely human-induced and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented in the past 1,300 years.
Scientists have been able to piece together a picture of the Earth’s climate dating back decades to millions of years ago by analyzing a number of surrogate, or “proxy,” measures of climate such as ice cores, boreholes, tree rings, glacier lengths, pollen remains, and ocean sediments, and by studying changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun.
Earth-orbiting satellites and other technological advances have enabled scientists to see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate on a global scale. Studying this data collected over many years reveal the signals of a changing climate.
Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere will increase during the next century unless greenhouse gas emissions decrease substantially from present levels. Increased greenhouse gas concentrations are very likely to raise the Earth’s average temperature, influence precipitation and increase in storm patterns as well as raise sea levels. The magnitude of these changes, however, is uncertain.
Digital Elevation Models
Satellite images allow scientists to remove vegetation, water and geological cover from the image data which allows them to produce the most detailed available Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of landscape topography. The creation of DEMs will revolutionize geological applications, land-use studies, soil science, and much more to better understand the global climate changes occurring around the world.
Digital elevation models provide details about landscape features which in result, will allow us to clearly make out the shape of our landscape and understand how water, ice, and soil might move across its surface, how it came to be its present shape and how rapidly the changes are occurring.
How Carbon Solutions Can Benefit Climate Change
Everyone have become familiar if not in tune with the term carbon footprint and reducing ones carbon footprint. The term has only recently been revealed to people as this is something we are all unaware of doing on a daily basis from the comforts of our home. Carbon solutions have been instigated in the form of guidance for people to follow as a way of reducing ones carbon footprint. However, in order to make this fully effective, the first thing that would need to be put across is letting people know what carbon footprint is.
Carbon solutions are all about climate protection. One leaves their carbon footprint by producing an increased amount of greenhouse gases, which is released into the atmosphere. This is measured by the amount of CO2 emissions, which is the main cause for concern over global warming. Human activity is believed to be the cause of the increasing risk of global warming. One can measure how much carbon footprint they leave behind by measuring how much energy they use in one year.
Each individual uses enough energy, through their normal daily activities, producing a certain of CO2. One can produce plenty of CO2 emissions from travelling by car to work, leaving their computers on, leaving the light on, washing their clothes at forty degrees as opposed to the recommended thirty, or even use aerosol deodorants as opposed pump sprays. This can cause a problem for people looking to reduce their carbon footprint and pose a problem for the solution to this problem.
Climate change has affected many parts of the world, with the people in the UK noticing the difference of weather change. Climate change is a relatively new concept to which even experts are working on ways of find solutions to this problem. With people consuming less energy and partaking in carbon solutions, this may affect the climate change and reduce the risks of global warming. Green electricity is also a new concept, which uses sustainable and reusable energy sources, to produce the amount of electricity.
The Christmas is possibly one of the worst periods for energy consumption due to the amount of lighting put up for decoration, high consumption of food, gift purchases and paper wastage, higher usage of travelling vehicles and more electricity used in the home. This produces up to 650kg of CO2 emissions; the government aim to reduce to just 250kg. This is a difficult solution to instigate, however, this is possible with people practising the concept of recycling and learning to use energy saving equipment.
Posted in Climate Change | Tags: Benefit, Carbon Accounting, Change, Climate, Solutions | No Comments »
Global Warming Solutions Act Of California
This briefly explains the essence of the Stationary Equipment Refrigerant Management Program which is the newest integration into the California Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32).
Information that is related to emerging and existing refrigerant gas monitoring, reporting, tracking and management legislation is communicated here. As with all other pending legislation, the refrigerant management is still subject to many changes.
The California Global Warming Solutions Act or AB 32 was first passed in 2006 taking effect in 2010, which is a comprehensive directive aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2010.
This goal is derived from the increase of greenhouse gasses in California since 1990. To reverse the pollution of 16 years in the United States in less than 14 years, the legislation aims to cut down greenhouse gas emissions to its 1990 levels.
As part of the California Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) the Air Resources Board (ARB) has approved an early action measure to reduce high-global warming potential (GWP) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by establishing new legislation and defining requirements related to improved monitoring of AC/HVAC systems, enforcement of regulations, reporting of refrigerant usage, and recovery, recycling, or destruction of high-GWP refrigerant gases.
The greenhouse gasses (GHGs) as defined by the California’s AB 32 are identical to those gasses already identified in the Kyoto Protocol and are already being regulated, monitored, and managed by many other countries around the World.
In addition to carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the most widely known GHG, the following gasses are also defined as GHGs with high global warming potential (GWP) carbon equivalent emissions by the AB 32 legislation:
* Methane (CH4): a byproduct of natural geological phenomena and decomposition of waste; the majority of methane is derived from natural gas drilling.
* Nitrous Oxide (N2O): a pollution from exhausts coming from motor vehicles, processes in industries and other industrial pollutants of the air; like methane, nitrous oxide can also be a product of waste decomposition in nature and agriculture.
* Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6): a gas used for various electrical applications, including gas insulated switchgear. Sulfur Hexafluoride is also being used for applications in experiments.
* Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) & hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs): a collection of commonly used refrigerant and aerosol gasses with a wide variety of other commercial applications.
Some Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) are CFCs and HCFCs which are identified in title VI of the US Clean Air Act (Section 608).
Being Carbon Neutral
Greenhouse gases are atmospheric gases that trap heat from the sun and warm the planet’s surface. The process is known as “greenhouse effect” and is responsible for allowing earth to warm sufficiently to support life. Although the greenhouse effect is certainly a necessary and very essential part of our earth’s environment if it is to sustain human life, too much of it and there is trouble. The higher the concentration of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the higher will be the Global Warming. Global warming, a gradual increase in planet-wide temperatures, is now well documented and accepted by scientists as a fact.
However the earth’s climate has changed many times during the planet’s history, with events ranging from ice ages to long periods of warmth; the current industrial development and human activities has accelerated the climate change and worsened the damage done to the environment. On Earth, human activities are changing the natural greenhouse effect. Many human activities are responsible for releasing much more greenhouse gases than the earth can possibly sustain. Over the last century the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of atmospheric CO2. This happens because the coal or oil burning process combines carbon (C) with oxygen (O2) in the air to make CO2. Atmospheric CO2 has increased about 25 percent since the early 1 800s.
High levels of greenhouse gas emissions are resulting in global warming and climate change and this climate change is very likely having an impact now on our planet and its life. Besides resulting in more hot days, many scientists believe an increase in temperatures may lead to changes in precipitation and weather patterns. Global warming may also affect wildlife and species that cannot survive in warmer environments may become extinct. The effects of global warming are very large in number and still there are so many that are still to be found out.
Being carbon neutral is increasingly seen as good corporate or state social responsibility and a growing list of corporations and states are eager to take active part in this direction. Being carbon neutral, or carbon neutrality, refers to neutral (meaning zero) total carbon release, brought about by balancing the amount of carbon released with the amount sequestered or offset. This is an innovative concept which should be adopted by everyone who wants to take his/her personal responsibility for the consequences caused by his/her actions. Becoming carbon-neutral is not only about reducing emissions, but off-setting those that cannot be avoided.
Becoming carbon neutral
When an individual or an organization sets out to become carbon neutral it’s usually achieved by combining the following three steps:
1. Limiting energy usage and emissions from transportation (walking, using bicycles or public transport, avoiding flying, using low-energy vehicles), as well as from buildings, equipment and processes.
2. Obtaining electricity from a renewable energy source
3. Offsetting the remaining emissions that can’t for the moment be avoided or generated from renewable in a responsible carbon project, or by buying carbon credits.
Last but not least, becoming carbon neutral is not the end of the road, but it is a good start in attempting to halt or even reverse climate change and its effect on the Green Planet.
Posted in CSR | Tags: Actions, being, Carbon Accounting, Concept, Innovative, Neutral, Personal, Responsibility, Take | No Comments »
Green Management- A Social Responsibility Of Corporates
Green Management which helps the corporate activities with a deep sense of commitment to environment protection. In the last few years, concern for safety is totality and concern for health of stakeholders in carrying out corporate activities, have been added to the concept of Green Management.
Based on the reverence for life all of our business activities need to observe our Green Management Policy that encourages respect for nature contributes to the protection and prosperity of human life and the conservation of the environment.
Green management consists of all activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchanges intended to satisfy business needs or wants, such that the satisfaction of these needs and wants occurs, with minimal detrimental impact on the people and the natural environment.
McDonald’s replaced its clan shell packaging with waxed paper because of increased consumer concern relating to polystyrene production and ozone depletion. The company plays a leading role in creating a sustainable society by recognizing and implementing the environment, safety and health as crucial factors in all our business endeavors.
It appears that consumers are not overly committed to improving their environment and may be looking to lay too much responsibility on industry and government.
Effective Green Management May Attain Through…
Each organizational unit is first required to identify their activities for factors that may have environmental impact and specific objectives are to be set for each of these factors and activities are to be monitored for continuous improvement is the set Green Management criteria.
Company should give training to all their employees towards Green Management relative to their organizational work assignment and internal audit system to be put in place to assess the results.
Green Management System (GMS)
In GMS the first and foremost thing is the framing of policies. In framing of policies the broad objective for GMS are taken in to consideration after the policies are framed the second step is planning. Planning includes set of action for GMS implementation.
After taking proper planning the actual activities actions are taking place. In the action stage we have to check and review whether all the activities are implemented and appropriated results are achieved. If not once again the above process should be revised to get the appropriate and accurate feedback. This three i.e. policy, plan and action are the most important phases in the GMS.
Our business objectives is based on three main categories i.e. Profit maximization, wealth maximization and social responsibility. To build the brand image and for having the smooth and good relationship with the public, the company or our business activities should consider the third cater i.e. social responsibility should to attain that the company and should concentrate in environment, safety and health activities.
ARMY INSTALLS BIO-DIGESTERS TO BURN HUMAN WASTE
Estimates indicate that 1000 kg. of human waste every day, besides other waste every, besides other wastes, pollute the cold desert environment, which environmentalist say would have disastrous consequences.
At Siachen, where temperatures reach minus 50 degrees to 60 degrees Celsius, the lack of oxygen inhibits enzyme-related bio-degradation action. This is compounded by lack of soil surface exposure and the inability of bacteria to survive below five degrees. Earlier, the human waste was carted away by porters, aerial cableway and helicopter, which were all expensive.
Providing an innovative solution to the environmental degradation, bio-digesters have been installed at every post, which burn and destroy the human waste. The bio-digesters are carried to an altitude of 21000 ft by air and surface transport. About Rs.3 crores has been spent so far for the exercise. In addition, the old method of waste disposal would continue. Kerosene pipe-lines have been laid in the glacier to obviate the use of jerrycans, which help reduce material waste.
Responsibility of the Corporate
What ever one does for the good cause of the society it needed to look back and monitor the situation, weather it is actually fulfilling the intention or it is just lying on the papers. As a person who has given thought a shape for upliftment of the society and oneself, it is our up most duty to keep checking the same, in terms of progress of the desired changes if needed.
For the same purpose there was a visit of Mr. Bill Gates the founder and Chairman of Microsoft Corporation and Bill Gates Foundation in India very recently. Bill Gates foundation is actively involved in various activities related to upliftment of the society across the world and provides funds and the assistance to remote corner places of India too. He Visited city called Amethi in the state of Uttarpardesh. Amethi is very popular place in India as the political representatives of Amethi, mostly belongs to Gandhi family for the past many decades and the Gandhi families are the pillars of Indian politics in India. As the largest political party of the country, and they are the one who have carried Indian tradition legacy for past many years and will continue in future too.
Indian National Congress is most respected political party in India, as the congress party is known to many peoples in the developed countries of the world. The principles of the party’s are totally different from the others like BJP, Janata Dal or the communist party (In India). The National Congress Party of India takes complete responsibility of upliftment the society and its related concerns. As the leader of the reputed member of the political organization and traditional experienced person, Mr.Rahul Gandhi was with Mr. Bill Gates through out the Amethi tour. He was doing the best as a leader to support another leader from the corporate world to provide all the necessary assistance to help the corporate visitor and show him the gesture of Indian tradition heritage.
The heat and the dust of Uttarpardesh at the present climate in the month of May one can imagine as how Mr. Bill Gate have manage the tour, as he is not Asian ethics by birth or the experience of this type of climate. Respecting to the corporate leader and social responsible person it was Mr.Rahul Gandhi’s duty to give the traditional value, simultaneously to be present with him to the Amethi.
It was his gesture that he manages to take out time from his busy schedule and traveled with Mr. Bill Gates and provided the required necessary assistance. He even did the language translation for Mr. Bill Gate as the local people were asking the questions in Hindi or their native language.
We need to learn from our leaders of such, as how improve our behavior and our responsibility towards the society. The Best Part is to learn as, how to implement and manage such things, despite heaving busy schedule.
As a responsible person one shouldn’t leave the things after kickoff, but we need to keep monitoring the developments on time to time. It is not possible to do the same on a daily basis by the people who are attached with the corporate world, because their responsibilities are diverted in many directions, but it can be manageable to access the situation and further directions.
Business Continuity and Climate Change
At the end of this decade, scientists discover that giant solar flares have caused the temperature of Earth’s core to increase at an incredible rate. As the fragile balance of the planet’s structure is tipped by this unprecedented event, cracks begin to appear in the Earth’s crust, creating earthquakes of increasing ferocity. Despairing governments hatch a plan to ensure the survival of life via the creation of modern-day Arks – but while this desperate plan unfolds vast swathes of the world are consumed by mega-tsunamis, gigantic volcanic eruptions and the clash of mountain against mountain. Billions die – and the fate of humanity rests in the hands of… John Cusack?
The more observant among you may well have noticed that this is not in fact a representation of the near future from the perspective of shared services and outsourcing; rather, a precis of the plot of disaster movie 2012. However, while such cataclysmic challenges remain (for the moment…) in the realm of Hollywood sci-fi, the threat posed to smooth back-office operations by smaller (but nevertheless potentially devastating) phenomena is very real. Organizations without clear, coherent and agile disaster-avoidance and disaster-recovery strategies are courting catastrophe – and in many respects the challenges will only intensify over the years to come…
If that sounds too doomladen for many readers’ palates, it’s worth taking a look at a few critical issues. Firstly, from an organizational standpoint a catastrophe doesn’t have to be global to have global implications: the amazing advances in technology that have paved the way for IT-enabled centralization and the rise of the shared services model have resulted in countless benefits but have also created incredible dangers for any companies foolhardy enough to put all their data eggs in one basket – the oft-imagined (and thankfully unlikely) scenario whereby Company X’s sole SSC is destroyed in an earthquake without that company backing up its mission-critical data is the archetypal nightmare here.
Secondly, the increasing interconnection brought on by globalization has similarly led to innumerable benefits but has also led to the possibility of almost unthinkable dangers, both natural and artificial: the headlines over the past year have been dominated by the consequences of the financial crisis, a “near miss” event in many ways which at one point looked as though it could result in systemic collapse with the global banking superstructure within hours of collapse; and by the avian ‘flu pandemic which – fingers crossed – appears now to be less problematic than was first feared but which could – thanks again to globalization and easy travel – have reached every corner of the earth more rapidly than any previous pandemic and with devastating consequences. In this case, disaster-recovery teams would have had to cope not with acute trauma at any one location, but the consequences of a significant proportion of the workforce being rendered unfit for purpose (ie, dead) and of the impact of a substantial depletion of the consumer base on profitability. Two near-misses in a single year: it’s easy to imagine the Sword of Damocles swaying gently overhead…
Coping with that kind of catastrophe might seem beyond the domain of shared services (as if they didn‘t have enough to cope with); however, it seems logical to assume that, in the case of a seriously destabilizing event like either of the last two mentioned could well have become, shared services would be perfect to lie at the heart of any recovery strategy developed by a global organization: a number of small, agile centralized groups (as long as they’re not too depleted or rendered useless by whatever’s transpired) are far better placed to mount coherent resistance to disaster than widely dispersed (and probably pretty terrified) local teams – as long, crucially, as the lines of communication remain open and the aforementioned mission-critical data is not lost. Any element of disaster-avoidance strategy dealing with major global events should therefore include well-defined roles for shared services teams maximizing the advantages conferred by this model.
However, such events remain, thankfully, unlikely in the short-term. Much more immediate and pressing is the risk of local catastrophes which threaten the shared services units themselves – and dealing with these, and minimizing their impact on the organization as a whole, is what disaster-avoidance and -recovery are really all about. After all, in the case of a truly disastrous global pandemic or systemic collapse we’re all probably going to have a lot more to worry about than whether the business processes are still up and running; however, a localized event could have very little impact on the world at large but prove fatal for an organization which hasn’t taken the time to take preventative measures. Unfortunately, in many ways it seems that the likelihood of such localized events – whether of natural or artificial origin – is on the up, for a number of reasons.
Foremost amongst these is the ongoing impact of climate change (and here it’s worth pointing out that while skeptics can rail against the assumption that humans are responsible, very few are actively denying that climate change is a reality) and other consequences of environmental degradation. Following the old adage that prevention is better than cure, a sensible starting-point for disaster avoidance would be to avoid locating critical infrastructure in areas likely to be worst affected by global warming in the foreseeable future – so global businesses are unlikely to be setting up shared services hubs on the beaches of the Maldives or the shores of the Ganges Delta, for example. The problem here is that nobody knows to what extent climate change is already impacting on what might previously have been thought “safe” areas via catastrophic meteorological events: anyone in the Philippines (an increasingly important shared services and outsourcing hot spot) during the fatal storms and floods earlier this year, or in New Orleans during the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, can testify to the effects of the weather on productivity. The bottom line is that now more than ever, location selection processes must include at their heart a full and rational assessment of the possible impact of climate change. In addition, once built, those responsible for a shared service center – no matter how sensibly sited – must also put in place contingency measures to cope with weather-related events of an intensity over and above what may have been expected only a few years previously. Back-up generators and plans to minimize the impact of disrupted communications and transport links are already an absolute minimum here.
At the other end of the spectrum, the possibility of a human-induced destabilizing event, which – thanks to an increase in terrorism targeting sites of commercial activity – has also increased over the past decade, is likely to rise exponentially if the worse forecasts for climate change are realized. Rising sea-levels and – ironically but no less catastrophically – increased drought are likely to see extreme population movements over the next couple of decades, fuelling existing social tensions and creating new ones. Predicting the stability of any given location ten years from now certainly isn’t an easy proposition – but it’s one that planners cannot now afford to ignore, especially as much new shared services activity is taking place in those fast-growing developing nations most likely to be worst affected by such pressures.
These points are by no means meant as an argument for keeping new shared services development wholly within the developed world (specifically within meteorologically “safe” locations); the benefits posed by siting infrastructure in the emerging hot spots are frankly too good to miss. The point is that those benefits will be for naught if they are not insured by robust disaster-mitigation practices which factor in the potential impact of climate change – and any board unwilling to face the realities of climate change, skeptical though its members may be about the underlying causes, is asking for the kind of trouble from which many businesses wouldn’t be able to recover. Splashing out a few bucks on getting a climatologist’s advice before investing millions in a new center might a few years back have been seen as verging on the lunatic; now it’s probably if not indispensable then pretty close to it.
Of course, it’s not just those looking at setting up new infrastructure that have to concern themselves with such gloomy matters: existing centers should also be assessed in terms of potential risks based on scientific data. But to a large extent such scrutiny will already have been carried out by most organizations – after all, severe weather events are hardly a new phenomenon: it’s their prevalence and intensity which are likely to increase over time. More crucially, firms now don’t just need to assess their own susceptibility to damage: thanks to the growth of outsourcing and the development of more disaggregated business structures, it’s increasingly vital to include in any due diligence an assessment of a potential provider’s ability to cope with the possible consequences of climate change. After all, the gains derived from a sweet outsourcing deal will look pretty paltry pretty quickly if your partner’s infrastructure is rendered useless by flooding or other weather-induced trauma.
For those who may be thinking all this is overly paranoid, it’s worth noting that the consensus within the business community is increasingly aligning itself with the climate-change evangelists. A survey conducted last year for insurance brokers Marsh found that 87 per cent of businesses consulted saw climate change as the single leading threat facing them over the next decade in terms of risks to future growth (while threats posed by the global economic downturn may well have risen to top spot in current thinking, it’s unlikely to have driven climate change off the agenda altogether). Regardless of cause – and that debate is unlikely to disappear despite the growing scientific consensus placing blame at humanity’s doorstep – in the minds of those running the planet’s economic engines, the threat posed by changes in the environment is more pressing than those offered by terrorism, pandemics or anything else. Shared services, so clearly at the heart of so much of the transformation to have revolutionized business over the past few years, simply can’t afford not to be at the forefront of this most urgent issue.