Energy Efficiency

Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world’s largest leisure travel company, today released its eighth annual sustainability report, announcing that in 2017 the company achieved its 25 percent carbon reduction goal three years ahead of schedule and is on track with its nine other 2020 sustainability goals. The full 2017 report, “Sustainability from Ship to Shore,” was developed in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative format and is available online at www.CarnivalSustainability.com.

This summer, the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Safeway stores are partnering to help save shoppers energy and money on their lighting with “Lighten Your Load” events.

“Do you want to help save the planet?” CLP Power graduate trainee Crystal Kwan asked a group of kindergarten students. In a split second, more than a dozen hands shot up into the air as the boys and girls cried out in unison: “Yes, I do. I do.” CLP Power Hong Kong is sowing the seeds of energy efficiency and conservation in children through kindergarten visits while motivating the community to live a low-carbon life.

Over 40 Consumers Energy employees, residents and police officers hit the streets to help a neighborhood in Consumers Energy’s hometown of Jackson, Mich., on Thursday night – the start of an effort to promote public safety and a strong community.

Now that clean energy has gone mainstream, there is an array of existing and emerging opportunities to scale up clean energy investments while also meeting investors’ risk-return requirements. Across asset classes, clean energy opportunities are available that align with investment fundamentals such as long-term risk diversification. Savvy investors are now moving to understand the expanding opportunities in the clean energy sector, recognizing that this market is growing in terms of the breadth and quality of available opportunities.

Influential investors, companies, hospital systems, colleges, and universities called on Northeast and Mid-Atlantic governors to take steps to modernize the region’s transportation system and keep the local economy thriving.

“As businesses and investors with operations throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, we urge you to prioritize policies and investments to create a clean, equitable and efficient transportation system,” more than 70 signatories wrote in letters delivered this week to governors throughout the region. “Our system for moving people and goods throughout the region has a clear impact on business productivity and costs, and our region stands to benefit significantly from making investments today to modernize that system.”

Many companies face internal barriers such as siloed departments or expertise that prevent them from reaching their energy and sustainability potential. To clear these hurdles, organizations are starting to integrate how they buy and use energy with sustainability initiatives, an approach that maximizes investments, delivers greater returns and builds more robust, viable operations.

Officials hope to brighten up Michigan neighborhoods with the Light Up the City initiative. Volunteers will go door to door this summer, asking to install lightbulbs on porches. Consumers Energy donated 1,500 lightbulbs to the program.

People may be more willing to pay for clean energy and strategies that dramatically reduce emissions than previous studies have suggested, according to new research by Michigan State University Professor Douglas Bessette and University of Michigan Professor Joseph Árvai, “Engaging Attribute Tradeoffs in Clean Energy Portfolio Development,” published in Energy Policy. Árvai is the Erb Institute’s faculty director.