Green Wombat

Norway: 100 Percent Clean and Green by 2050

photo: green wombat

Green Wombat is in Norway this week. Today is the Scandinavian country's national holiday - commemorating its independence from Denmark in 1814 - and it seems the whole of Oslo is gathered at the Royal Palace (photo above) for the festivities. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg recently declared a different sort of independence: "In the period up to 2050, Norway will undertake to reduce global greenhouse  gas emissions equivalent to 100 percent of our own emissions," he said in a speech last month. "This does not mean no emissions .... But it does mean that each tonne of greenhouse gases emitted is to be offset by an equivalent reduction elsewhere. This adds up to zero emissions." Norway finds itself in the particular situation of a country that obtains some 95 percent of its electricity from a renewable source - hydro power - yet is the world's third-largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia and Russia. North Sea oil has made Norway exceedingly wealthy yet also fuels global warming. Stoltenberg was sketchy on the details of how Norway would become 100 percent clean and green. But his government has begun a project to develop carbon-capture technology for a natural gas plant, and Norway sequesters C02 from some North Sea gas production under the seabed. The country also offers significant tax breaks for electric cars - which makes the $92,000 Tesla Roadster an affordable car in this country. But maybe Norway will get some advice from the Governator: An Oslo newspaper yesterday reported that the Norwegian environment minister has invited Arnold Schwarzenegger to a climate change summit in August.

Apple Trashes the Paper Receipt

photo: green wombat

When Green Wombat made a purchase at the San Francisco Apple store the other day, the salesperson asked if I'd prefer to have the receipt emailed to me rather than printed out. Brilliant. Imagine saving untold tons of paper used to print receipts that the vast majority of consumers probably just end up tossing in the trash (along with the paper or plastic bag that a clerk reflexively asked if they wanted). In an age when just about everyone and their cat has an email address, and when many purchases are made with debit or credit cards, paper receipts increasingly are an anachronism in a global warming world. It would be revealing to calculate the environmental impact of ridding the planet of those little scraps of paper - in terms of greenhouse gas emissions eliminated, toxic chemicals avoided and forests preserved. Not to mention the improvement to the corporate bottom line. The reality is that receipts, paper or electronic, aren't necessary for most daily purchases - already outlets like Starbucks or Peets will swipe your debit or credit card without printing proof of payment. And for the big buys an email receipt is way easier to find on your hard drive than a piece of paper stuck in some desk drawer. Apple (AAPL) spokesperson Steve Dowling tells Green Wombat that the e-receipt option has been available in the company's U.S. stores since late 2005 - when you make a credit card purchase - and is also offered in the U.K. (Though it hasn't been widely publicized, like other green Apple initiatives until recently.) Acceptance of e-receipts will obviously take some change in consumer behavior. But it's one of those small but significant moves toward sustainability that Wal-Mart (WMT), Dell (DELL) and other companies that have put themselves on the green path could adopt. Green Wombat is sold: by the time I made it from the Apple store counter to the street, my receipt had appeared on my mobile phone.

The Top 10 Green Brands

Green Wombat is traveling today but I've got a layover in London and this bit of click bait popped up on the BlackBerry as I deplaned. According to a survey conducted by advertising conglomerate WPP, United States and U.K. consumers perceive the following to be the top 10 "green brands":

• Whole Foods   
• Wild Oats   
• Trader Joe's   
• Toyota 
• Honda   
• Sub Zero   
• Ikea   
• Body Shop
• GE
• Aveda 

The results are based on 1,504 online interviews in the U.S. and 1,525 interviews in the U.K. According to the WPP subsidiaries that conducted the survey, ''respondents were screened to meet the following criteria: Age 18 or over, gender, age, and region was weighted based on U.S. and U.K. census information, respondents rated only the brands that they were familiar with.''

Given that it's the middle of the night in the U.S. as Green Wombat writes, further details of the survey's methodology aren't available at the moment - such as the precise questions asked, why consumers think these companies are eco-friendly, the statistical margin of error and whether any of these green brands are WPP clients.  It's a curious list: No surprise that Whole Foods (WFMI)  - which is acquiring No. 2 green brand Wild Oats - Toyota (TM),  Honda (HMC)  and the Body Shop made the list. But high-end appliance maker Sub Zero?  And GE's (GE) ecomagination" campaign appears to be paying off.

"No longer can corporations just say they offer fuel-efficient vehicles, organic foods or energy-efficient products – it is now a cost of entry in many industries and corporations need to begin thinking ahead," according to WPP. "Corporations must consider the next level of greenness such as ensuring their overall business practices are sustainable and that the greenness at the supermarket or car dealership represents greenness in bringing the item to market." The survey found that the typical greenie in the U.S. tends to be a younger woman who earns about $50k. Her British counterpart, on the other hands, is more likely to be older, male and highly educated.

Yahoo Gives Away Hybrid Taxis

Yahoo will donate a fleet of hybrid taxi cabs to the town that wins its "Greenest City in America" challenge. The giveaway marks the launch of Yahoo's (YHOO) new eco-site Yahoo Green, which the Internet giant bills as a "one-stop resource for the growing number of environmentally-concerned consumers." So, how do you help your city score points so it can replace some of those carbon-belching yellow cabs with cleaner hybrid versions? By trading in the SUV for a Civic, perhaps? Or installing solar panels? Nah. You - and Yahoo - win by accumulating points when you go to Yahoo and ask environment-related question on Yahoo Answers, use "eco-friendly mobile search terms" on Yahoo's mobile service, and take a green pledge to do things like use compact fluorescent light bulbs, adjust your thermostat by two degrees and carpool to work once a week. Yahoo will even send you an energy-efficient CFL.  Yahoo will unveil the  "greenest" - or at least the most Yahoo-friendly - city on June 8. It kicked off the contest today in New York City, where it's giving the Big Apple a squadron of hybrid cabs - Ford (F) Escapes, judging by the photo. But if you really want to green up the taxi fleet, why not donate the much more fuel efficient, albeit smaller, Toyota (T) Prius or Honda Civic (HMC) hybrid. Heck, even a plain-vanilla Corolla gets better mileage than a hybrid SUV.