Earlier this week, Mongolia’s parliament announced that it was permitting the Mongolian government  re-open talks with international mining companies about the Oyu Tolgoi gold and copper mine and the Tavan Tolgoi coal deposits.

Potential investors include Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto, claim that an agreement on the Oyu Tolgoi gold mine would increase Mongolia’s GDP by 34%.

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SPRANQ creative communications has developed a new font that is good for the environment, designed to reduce the amount of printer ink used by up to 20%.

How did SPRANQ accomplish this? By developing a font style that looks a bit like you are writing with swiss cheese!

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An earth-shattering deal currently being finalized between Shell and Jordan’s Natural Resources Authority will potentially allow Shell to survey and develop nearly one quarter of Jordan in order to access about 40 billion tonnes of oil shale.

“Negotiations with Shell to sign a deal to process oil shale in Jordan are nearing an end,” said Maher Hjazin, head of the state-run Natural Resources Authority.

If our plans succeed, it would be one of the country’s largest projects to help the Jordan become energy self-sufficient, with a possibility to export oil in the future.

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What do you do with your old jeans when you’re done with them? If you’re one American manufacturing company (Bonded Logic), you make household insulation out of them.

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On November 11th, Argentinian President Cristina Fernández vetoed a previously passed bill aimed at protecting Argentina’s glaciers.

The bill, entitled The Law of Minimum Budgets for the Protection of Glaciers and Periglacial Environment, had been passed overwhelmingly despite concerns from governors of affected provinces and Argentina’s Secretariat of Mines that the bill’s provisions would prevent mining development.

The glacier protection bill would have:

1. Established basic standards to preserve glaciers as strategic reserves of hydric resources and water supplies; and
2. Prohibited activities that would prevent the glaciers from acting as water supplies.

Some of the activities that would ...

One Million Acts of Green is a new website from the Canada Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), to promote and encourage Canadians to take steps to make the environment greener.

While not a radical approach, One Million Acts of Green is encouraging website viewers (and Canadians in general) to take the small steps, the small actions, that cumulatively add up to something significant.

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Amazon has launched the second version of the popular XO Laptop campaign. The what campaign? Basically, this:

• Buy an award-winning laptop for $199, which is donated directly to a child in the developing world; or
• Buy two for $399, and keep one.

Why a laptop? Well, the very impressive mission statement says it all:

To create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own ...

According to an article in the Khaleej Times, the Middle East’s largest photovoltaic manufacturing plant is going to be built in Dubai’s Technopark.

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EWA Technologies Group has developed a new technology that harnesses the natural humidity in the air, and converts that moisture into drinking water.

Basically, the process works in three stages:

1. Adsorption of water from the air (or, getting the water out of the air);
2. Desorption of the water (releasing the water out of containing material); and
3. Condensation of the drinking water.

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Great Britain’s Eco-towns initiative is a result of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s previous commitment to build five (subsequently changed to ten) zero-carbon eco-towns should he become Prime Minister. These towns of up to 15 000 homes are meant to be built on unused brownfield land such as former industrial sites. 

The initiative is meant to respond to the UK’s housing shortage, as well as help partially fulfill climate change commitments. It is also meant to be an opportunity for housing developers to change the way they do business, and work with the proposed site’s local communities ...

An open question to our readers: do you read annual sustainability reports?

Well, it turns out that the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) were curious as well. So, they went ahead and hired a few consulting companies (SustainAbility and KPMG) to go ahead and survey sustainability report readers.

While some of the responses were not all that surprising, the survey’s results did speak to the trends within the reporting industry.

SustainAbility Chairperson Sophia Tickell discussed the strategic use of sustainability reports.

Reporting was once a way to get sustainability issues onto the corporate agenda. Today the situation is reversing as ...

US Firm Better Place is working with Australian power company AGL and investors Macquarie Capital Group to develop a $667 million Australian electric car charging network.

Under the plan being developed, Better Place will use its scalable model (currently adopted in Denmark and Israel) to build the electric vehicle network, AGL will deliver electricity from renewable resources and Macquarie will help raise the investment dollars needed.

Electric vehicle networks would be developed in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, each with between 200 000 and 250 000 charging stations. As well, switching stations will be built in each city and on the ...

Global sustainable development consulting company SustainAbility and KPMG released a report earlier this year detailing the results from a survey conducted of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Readers’ Choice members.

Conducted from October 2007 through the end of January 2008, the Readers’ Choice Survey looks for the first time at the readers, their preferences and behaviour. Nearly 2300 readers and non readers from around the world answered the survey questions.

And some of their answers may surprise you.

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British energy and climate minister Ed Miliband said last week that he was in support of proposals calling for Britain to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent of 1990 levels by the year 2050 (contrasting the current target level of 60 percent).

The Minister plans on making the new target binding by amending its Climate Change Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament.

This new target is based on the government’s Committee on Climate Change, which recommended that Britain reduce its emissions by 80% of 1990 values, as part of Britain’s overall strategy to participate ...

According to a recent Reuters report, China will miss its 2010 ethanol as fuel target. This is because China is not relaxing control over non-grain feedstocks, at the same time as restricting ethanol production through grain.

“We are unable to meet the ethanol target. The major reason is because of a shortage of raw material,” said Ren Dongming, a deputy director with Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission.

This is quite significant, since China has been ranked as the third largest ethanol producer in the world.

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