Read this Jan. 21 article from the New York Times, by Andrew Martin, to learn about the implications of companies’ carbon counting initiatives. Recently, PepsiCo launched a project to determine the carbon footprint of orange juice made by their subsidiary brand, Tropicana.

While carbon counting is an important step in beginning to take responsibility on climate, how that information is used — in relation to a company’s supply chain and consumer base raises — a number of questions. By scoring companies, Climate Counts aims to distill public information pertaining to a company’s climate actions. This allows you, the consumer, to distinguish companies taking the issue seriously from those that are doing little or nothing at all. Stay tuned to our blog, as we continue to track companies climate actions.

This article from Harvard Business Publishing, published Jan. 22, delves into the importance for companies to be open with their consumer-base. At Climate Counts, one the key areas we look at is whether companies are being public and transparent about their climate actions, including information about their climate footprint, and steps their taking to reduce that footprint.

Check out this Jan. 22 article from Eye For Transport on DHL’s climate commitment. And see how the rest of the shipping companies rank up here.

Below is a link to a neat article on ways to make smart climate choices wherever you can get a cell phone signal. At Climate Counts, we realize people have busy schedules and don’t always have time to look up information on a company before shopping. So for anyone that works on-the-go, Climate Counts On-the-Go let’s you use your phone to get company’s climate scores anytime, anyplace.

Click here to check out today’s Ideal Bite tip on Textual Healing.

And while you’re getting the lowdown on company’s climate scores, you can also fight climate change on-the-go by texting FIGHT to 30644, to sign our petition to activate serious climate action from the world’s largest fast food companies.

Here’s a few book suggestions from the Climate Counts team. Written by Lynne Cherry and Gary Braasch for teachers, students, parents and kids who want to become more informed about climate change information, education, and action. Enjoy!

How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming, an illustrated story about climate change, which won the AAAS*/Subaru/Science Magazine Best Middle School Science Book for 2009.

Earth Under Fire: how Global Warming is Changing the World, hailed the “essential reading for every citizen” by Al Gore. Due out in paperback this March.

To find these books, go to: www.howweknowclimatechange.com and www.earthunderfire.com

For more information, check out the author’s website: www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org

Business Green, in a 1/9/09 article below by Danny Bradbury, reports Apple’s rejection of requests for sustainability reports in the wake of “green” laptop debut. To learn more about Apple’s climate actions see their Climate Counts score here and previous blog post here.

According to a news post from the Environmental Leader, as Coca-Cola nears the completion of a project to retrofit their facilities, the company announces new plans to tackle climate change and implement sustainability projects.

Jan. 12, 2009

Coca-Cola Enterprises has announced that they’re almost done with a significant part of their overall corporate sustainability project. Over the past several months, the company has been working on a major lighting retrofit of its California facilities, including a large production facility in Downey, CA. The result will be a savings of 5.6 million kilowatt-hours annually.

The energy saved from the project will result in a savings of 113 million kilowatt-hours over the 20-year life of the system. With that amount of energy, California could power 537 average homes every year. That’s equivalent to planting a 1,038-acre forest or saving almost half a million gallon of gasoline every year. Coca-Cola achieved these results by replacing over 4,000 lights with a new high-intensity fluorescent system from Orion Energy Systems at 24 locations. They also installed solar panels on the roof of its Los Angels facility.

Coca-Cola’s CSO John Brock has announced a number of new sustainability plans, including a fleet of large-scale, hybrid electric trucks, pushing new recycling programs (which have been shown to be working), and adding energy-efficient coolers to reduce carbon footprint.

Other beverage companies have also joined the effort to go green.

The article below from the Environmental Leader, highlights a few fast food chains that are making strides in green design, securing LEED certification at individual store locations. Check out their Climate Scores: here.

Jan. 12, 2009

Quick service restaurants are incorporating green design techniques into some of their locations.

Subway, McDonald’s, Chipotle and Dunkin’ Donuts stores have received LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), reports QRSWeb.com.

McDonald’s, which has required installation of Energy Star-rated kitchen equipment for years and has networked equipment to save energy, is constructing a pilot store in the Chicago area with a storm water management system and a vegetative green roof. Executives will study the return on investment of the features and examine the overall energy savings for the entire store before replicating it elsewhere.

Subway’s LEED store has solar tubes that replace indoor lighting with sunlight as well as high efficiency heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems.

In October, Chipotle opened a green restaurant in Gurnee, IL, which features a six-kilowatt wind turbine on-site to generate about 10 percent of the restaurant’s electrical needs.

Dunkin’ Donuts, which opened its LEED store in St. Petersburg, FL in October, is using insulated concrete foam walls and a climate control system to be up to 40 percent more energy efficient.

Chains that are not designing with LEED are still making changes to increase energy efficiency. Hardee’s, for example, recently began a lighting retrofit in over 300 of its restaurants. Taco Bell plans to install new “Grill-To-Order” cooking machines in all of their locations to reduce water and energy use and improve cost efficiency. Starbucks says that by 2010 it wants 50 percent of the energy used at its stores to come from renewable sources and wants to incorporate green building standards in all of its new building construction.

According to some, chains should be looking at more than just LEED and energy efficiency. The Dogwood Alliance released a report — “The 2008 Fast Food Packaging Report” and a new website called “No Free Refills!” — focused on what it calls the destructive legacy of fast food packaging and called on some the country’s largest restaurant chains to overhaul the use of paper packaging or risk being the target of a national campaign.

Last month, Climate Counts scored airlines and hotels on their climate impact. Check out this article from Environmental Leader, to read more on how to travel green.

Jan. 7, 2009

Though some 85 percent of travelers consider themselves to be “environmentally conscious,” they are no longer willing to make sacrifices or pay more for travel, according to a recent YPartnership survey of travel trends for 2009.

Rather, travel companies are expected to be “good stewards” of the environment in which they operate, the study found (via NBC Los Angeles).

The proposed rules of green travel, according to the column:

No more carbon offset programs. Japan Airlines recently introduced a carbon offset program, joining competitors Continental, SAS, British Airways, Air Canada, Qantas, JetStar, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin America. But travel companies should be offsetting their own carbon, not guilt travelers into paying a surcharge for it.

Question the reasons. A fuel-saving initiative on a cruise line, for example, might seem like the perfect “green” initiative. But perhaps that company is doing so just to save money, or is under investigation from regulators. And maybe that initiative is not consistent across geographies - only those where people pay attention to their actions.

Read between the lines; know the history. A hotel that advertises how green it is and boasts of recycling programs or energy-saving appliances should be examined to find its history. Before it was officially green, was it “consuming energy like there was no tomorrow as late as 2007?” the columnist writes.

The best companies are not the late adopters but those who have a solid history of being consistently - and quietly - green, he concludes.

Check out the article (and links!) below from the Environmental Leader, to learn about what McDonald’s is doing to tackle energy spending and efficiency within their supply chain. To see the company’s most recent Climate Counts score, released in May 2008, click here.

Jan. 5, 2009

Engenuity Systems Inc. is now supplying McDonald’s with equipment to help the fast-food giant cut energy costs and increase efficiency in its restaurants worldwide, the Arizona Republic reports.

With the help of Engenuity and a few others, McDonald’s is expected to cut its annual energy costs of $1.5 billion by about 14 percent.

McDonald’s will use features such as lighting controls to shut off lights and heating and air conditioning equipment that monitors temperatures.

McDonald’s is planning to rollout the systems worldwide this year. Engenuity installed equipment in a McDonald’s store in Illinois as a pilot last year.