The City of Fortaleza has 2.500.000 inhabitants and an area of 314 km². Located in North-eastern Brazil, has semi-humid tropical climate according to Köppen-Geiger[1] climate classification and the average annual temperature is almost 27° C. The Cocó River is born in the mountains Sierra Aratanha (City of Pacatuba) and travels 45 km to reach the sea and 25 km of its course in the city of Fortaleza. Along its route crosses 17 districts of the capital that have a population of approximately 340.000 people. It has 45 tributaries, 15 dams and 16 ponds. The Cocó River Basin occupies 60% of the municipal area and the total area of vegetation (10%), 3%...

ZeroMission has ten years’ experience of working with over 150 companies of all sizes and types. Our customers express their reasons for offsetting in different ways but essentially they do it for two reasons: to follow the ”polluter pays” principle to drive their business The polluter pays principle is enshrined in law, both nationally and at EU level, for environmental impacts such as toxic waste. The scope of the regulations is gradually being extended, for instance to include the costs of recycling packaging and taking back products at the end of their useful life. Companies that pay for their climate pollution are contributing on behalf of all of us to reducing the risk of...

Last Monday, 18th of January 2016, Stockholm Resilience Center organized an open symposium with the theme: “Earth’s Safe Operating Space for Humanity” at the Natural History Museum, with the participation of 5 speakers: Kate Raworth (Doughnut Concept), Jean-Pierre Ometto (INPE-Brazil), Katrin Zimmer (Naturvårdsverket), Eva Karlsson (Houdini) and Josefine Skerk (Sami Parliament). The presentations brought the perspective from a variety of actors in respect of the use of the Planet Boundaries Concept, created by the Rockström et al. In her presentation, Kate Raworth showed how she developed the Doughnut concept from the Planet Boundaries. As a social foundation, food, water, income, education, resilience, voice, jobs, energy, social equity, gender equality and health...

      - the Governor of the Bank of England on tackling financial risks related to climate change. Last September Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, made a key speech on business and climate change. I finally got around to reading it over the Christmas break. Mark Carney was talking to the insurance industry but his speech has been published far and wide. It’s oft-quoted, both because of the position he holds and because it described so well the paradox of our inaction in response to climate change and what can be done about it. First he addressed the sceptics, quoting the 2014 IPCC report and referring to recent increases in insurance...

According to Wikipedia, the traditional roles of ambassadors are protecting citizens, supporting prosperity and working for peace. What do these laudable aims have to do with sustainable business?  An ambassadorial role within the Swedish government suggests the answer is that diplomacy and sustainable business go hand-in-hand. On April 1 2015 the Swedish Foreign Office appointed a new ambassador. Rather than being an envoy to a foreign government, the appointee, Diana Madunic, has a cause – sustainable business. Although the appointment was made on April Fools' Day, Diana Madunic explained at an NMC seminar last week that her role reflects a serious commitment to encouraging, supporting and challenging Swedish businesses to act...

Last Friday we attended a seminar organised by SEI/Nordea and Haga Initiativet. The topic was Corporate Choices in a Changing Climate and one question we were asked to consider was this: ”what is needed for business to place big bets on going green?” Many excellent ideas were put forward but the question was put in perspective during a later panel discussion. According to the report ”Unburnable carbon 2013: wasted capital and stranded assets” (Carbon Tracker & Grantham Research Institute) between 60% and 80% of the coal, oil and gas reserves of publicly listed companies are ‘unburnable’ if the world is to have a chance of not exceeding global warming of 2°C....