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Environmental Record

Volvo Cars' commitment to the environment covers the cars design, production, and recycling. Volvo Cars aims for a multienergy society. Some of Volvo's major contributions to a healthy environment are cars that are driven by alternative fuels, such as the bioethanol-powered Volvo FlexiFuel in the S40, V50, C30, V70, and S80 models. High-efficient diesel engines such as the 1.6D used in the Volvo S40, and the 2.0D Powershift, will work in reducing fuel consumption of about 8% compared to the conventional automatic. Weight reduction, rolling resistance, and aerodynamics are all being researched. [[Flexifuel] is one of Volvo's innovations. The fuel consists of 85% bioethanol and 15% regular petrol. Flexifuel was created in means of reducing dependency on fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel oil.

The Volvo Environment Prize was created by Volvo in 1988, in means of acknowledging people who have made outstanding contributions to our understanding of different aspects of environmental and sustainability issues.

Environmental Record

Nine years ago, Starbucks started "Grounds for your Garden" to make their business more environment friendly. "Grounds for your Garden" is a year round program that gives leftover coffee grounds to schools, parks, and nurseries for composting. In 2004, Starbucks made another contribution to improving the environment by reducing the size of their paper napkins, and reducing the size of their store garbage bags. In 2004 alone they reduced over 1.8 million pounds of solid waste.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted the first-ever approval to use recycled content in food packaging for Starbucks coffee cups. In 2005 the National Recycling Coalition Recycling Works Award went to Starbucks because of their major contributions to the environment.Coffee and Farmer Equity (C.A.F.E) practices guidelines that are economically beneficial. Starbucks gets all of their coffee beans from farms; this basically ensures that farmers are not negatively affecting the environment while producing coffee beans for Starbucks. On a different note, environmentalists argue that Starbucks is not doing all they can to make it the most environment friendly place it can be. "Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, says that Starbucks claimed they were using only 10 percent recycled material partly because the recycled material costs more."

Environmental Record

The Adidas corporation is strongly linked with Dick's Sporting Goods in means of creating environmental efforts to better their products. Currently they are in the process of preparing a technology center dedicated towards developing environmentally friendly footwear manufacturing technologies. This will be located in Germany. Adidas pays close attention to what goes in their products. Their goals are to use sustainable materials instead for materials that could lead to pollution. There is no use of raw materials from endangered species or leathers from animals that have been inhumanly treated. There has been heavy research on cotton, which has lead them to using only the finest organic cotton in their products, and they have put a lot of effort into using recycled rubber, and eliminating restricted substances. Adidas manages environmental standards on two concepts; improving the materials that go into their products, and lessening the pollution in their factories. The adidas group recently issued its latest publication on corporate responsibility for 2006. It is not however, an environmental report by any means. It is simply in a Q&A format tracking the companies in social and environmental impacts A framework has yet to be built that generates information on the environment and human resources. They planned on issuing a full report for 2007. As of May 2008, adidas joined with many international companies to promote public-private partnership known as "P2E2". P2EP stands for "pollution prevention and energy efficiency". One goal of P2E2 was tackling transportation. By cutting down on distances its goods travel, they reduce the amount of carbon emitted in the distribution process. They also try to use factories in China that are located close to port, cutting down trucking required to get products to the docks. It has largely achieved its objective of shipping mainly by sea. In 2006, 97 percent of their shoes and sneakers were moved by ocean containers.

Environmental Record

Verizon tries to improve the environment and conserve resources. They have developed an Environmental Health and Safety Policy and Energy Conservation and Recycling programs. Their Energy Conservation program works towards reducing GHG emissions, and its environmental impacts and energy costs. By using Fuel cells, Micro Turbines, and Hypalon roof, Verizon is helping curb energy use. By using paper billing, Verizon reduces paper usage. Verizon also collects used wireless phones or equipment to recycle.. The Verizon Business tree-planting program encourages signing up for paper-free billing, and the Verizon Telecom plan that has added 100 energy-efficient hybrid-engine sedans for its fleet of service vehicles. Verizon Wireless' Hopeline Program recycles no longer used cell phones to help victims of domestic violence. The company is reducing the amount of greenhouse-gas emissions by approximately 334,000 metric tons every year through energy conservation and recycling.By using thin client computers, energy consumption has reduced by about 30 percent. Verizon uses NightWatchman, a software that lets managers turn computers on and off remotely. The company is working towards using Sun Ray technology in all of their call centers. This could potentially lead towards $1 million per year in power savings. According to the EPA, Verizon is the only telecommunications company that has accurate energy data. They have conducted energy audits over 535 buildings, and have installed load profile meters in 100 location.

Environmental Record

S.C. Johnson & Son is the maker of Glade PlugIns, an air freshener. They recently defended the online rumors that have swept the internet saying that the air fresheners have caused house fires. S.C. Johnson & Son responded to these claims by saying they provide customers with safe products that meet safety requirements. However, the company said that they will continue to investigate the allegations.

S.C. Johnson & Son's Windex now has a Greenlist label on it. The Greenlist process is a classification system that evaluates raw materials on human and environmental health. The Greenlist logo is present to help customers identify what products are environmentally safe and deliver excellence. The Greenlist label is present in many S.C. Johnson & Son products. Although this is generally positive addition towards the traditional Windex bottle, they could potentially put the Greenlist logo on any of their products, no matter what the ingredients are, because they own the Greenlist label. This could lead to false representation of products ingredients. By using Greenlist, S.C. Johnson eliminated 1.8 million pounds of volatile organic compounds from Windex, and four million pounds of polyvinylidene chloride from Saran Wrap.

Environmental Record

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has awarded American Airlines its 2005 Governor's Award for its outstanding efforts in environmental protection and pollution prevention. American Airline's wastewater treatment plant recycles water used at the base of the wash aircraft, process rinse water tanks, and irrigates landscape. That alone has saved almost 1 million dollars since 2002. In addition to that, American Airlines has also won the award for the reduction of hazardous waste. That saved them 229,000 dollars after a 2,000 investment. A bar code system used to track hazardous waste. It has lead to reduction of waste by 50 percent since 2000.

Despite American Airlines positive reviews, Friends of the Earth accused them of an obscene waste of fuel. It is estimated that each passenger on a flight from Chicago to London, produced 43 tons on CO2.

Violations occurring over a four year period, targeted American Airlines for using high-sulfur fuel in motor vehicles at 10 major airports around the country. Under the federal Clean Air Act, high sulfur fuel can not be used in motor vehicles. American Airlines promptly identified correcting these violations of the Clean Air Act.

Environmental Record

On March 5 2008, Random House Inc. took home the SustainPrint.com Leadership Award in book publishing earned for their achievements in environmental sustainability. In May 2006, Random House Inc. received the "Newcomer of the Year" award for their substantial paper-policy change. Their paper-policy change has announced that in the next four years, a minimum of 30 percent of uncoated paper that Random House uses to print the majority of U.S. titles will be derived from recycled papers. Their paper policy will add up to an annual savings of more than 550,000 trees. Random House expects that in 2007 10 percent of paper is purchases will derive from recycled paper fibers. 15 percent in 2008, and 20 percent in 2009. Liz Perl of publishing group Rodale, has said that Random Houses' stepping up to make a difference from their paper-policy change plan, encourages everyone else in the publishing industry. Random House publishing group is now experimenting with sending books online to media outlets because it saves paper.<ref>http://climate.weather.com/articles/booksgreen031008.html?page=2 Forecast Earth New Study Says Book Production is Getting Greener ret. 5/8/08