Author: Bendor

The article I chose is a look into new regulations being set by the EU for sustainability in business. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is looking at requiring around 50,000 companies in the EU and 10000 companies outside of the EU to increase their data reporting when it comes to sustainability. When selecting companies outside the EU that have to follow these new rules, they are looking at companies that have listed securities (stocks or bonds) on the European market, companies with an annual revenue of €150 million, or companies with more than 250 EU based employees. The foreign companies included in this are about 31% American, 13% Canadian, and 11% British. While the EU hasn’t officially outlined the standards that these companies will be held to (that will be published in June) there was a draft released in November and a EU representative said that she doesn’t expect the rules to be much different than those in the draft. They may even be “trimmed back” to make it easier for companies to complete the reporting. The draft included 82 annual disclosure requirements, involving different metratices and explanations. Some of these standards are still being developed however, as some will need to be industry specific. These companies will have to report different types of data, but will also need a third party audit of their data to ensure accuracy. All of this is to say that the EU is essentially making greenhouse gas reporting and ESG reporting an enforceable requirement. Both of these have largely been used as marketing or PR exercises, but now it is a necessity to do business in the EU. I find this interesting for two reasons. First is how it can relate to my life and secondly how it can change our perception of living in the Greenbelt. I am to go into some sort of corporate sustainability, potentially ESG reporting so this change towards making it a legal requirement is encouraging that the companies will be striving to actually improve their ESG scores. While these requirements are only in the EU, oftentimes the EU sets the “de facto global standard” as they have for chemicals and data privacy. Secondly, I think this change affects Furman. Furman does environmental reports every few years, but it is somewhat inconsistent in terms of quality of data and it is not annual. If we are able to set aside more resources at Furman for data monitoring and reporting, it would be a huge step towards our carbon neutrality goals. According to Young, the best way to solve collective action problems is to either change the rules, norms or values of a system. I believe that because the values of our society are changing towards being sustainability minded, now governments are following with changing the rules of a system. The three categories of economic actors are households, firms and governments (Zsolani), and sometimes in the US it can feel like the firms are driving all of the decision making and the government can’t or won’t do anything to make steps towards addressing the climate crisis, so this move from the EU is an encouraging and important step. 

 

Holger, D. (2023, April 5). WSJ News Exclusive | at least 10,000 foreign companies to be hit by EU Sustainability Rules. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-least-10-000-foreign-companies-to-be-hit-by-eu-sustainability-rules-307a1406 

 

Young, O. R. (2016). Solving Collective Action Problems. In On environmental governance: Sustainability, efficiency, and equity. essay, Routledge. 

 

Zsolnai, L.. (2018). Economic Actors and the Ultimate Goal of the Economy. 10.1007/978-3-319-94529-3_11. 

For my art piece created for Greenbelt, I made a shadowbox. In the box, the background consists of three elements. The top is blue, representing the natural world. I wanted to leave this part up to interpretation a bit, so people can either see the sky or the ocean. The green line is a piece of wood I carved that is the pattern of global temperature change over the last 150 years. The bottom is layers of trash separated by rolled up dollar bills. This is meant to look like sediment layers, and also shows what is propping up climate change. Our culture of profit seeking and disposable products is destroying our environment. The center focal point is a dead tree I carved on a sand bed. This represents the ecological impacts of climate change, and the sand shows water issues, especially in the American west. This piece has a lot of personal interest and experience that I drew from to make it. For example, the tree looks like a tree that is atop a mountain I hike with my friends when I am back in Colorado. I really enjoyed making this project and taking the time to visualize the concepts I’ve heard so much about in classes.

The Climate pledge arena was opened in Seattle, Washington in 2021 with the goal of setting examples for how large scale buildings can be designed with sustainability in mind. Sponsored by Amazon, they openly acknowledge that climate change is here and it needs to be addressed. In their opening event featuring Coldplay, the floors were equipped so that the kinetic energy from people dancing would generate energy, and had stationary bicycles around the concourse so that guests could generate energy. While energy generated from stationary bikes doesn’t make much of an impact, it does make it so that the guests become more and more conscious of what is required for the stadium to run. According to Tim Meadows, one of the most effective areas to change a system is through information flows. This mindset also plays into the name, which isn’t named after the sponsor in a surprisingly chill move from Amazon. Climate Pledge arena forces each attendee to focus on the issue of a changing climate, and think about the solutions that the arena is demonstrating to show that living sustainability is necessary to a successful future. There are a multitude of features and policies in the Climate pledge, and I believe that some of these can be implemented into the Greenbelt.. Rainwater collection tanks in the arena are able to provide all the water needed for the hockey rink that the Seattle Kraken play on, which is impressive as the average hockey rink takes around 15000 gallons of water to fill. On top of this, there is excess water that can be used as gray water throughout the arena. The greenbelt could implement a similar system as, uniquely, South Carolina allows residential buildings to collect rainwater. This system would both promote sustainability and save Furman money. Another feature of the arena are the 12,500 trees that surround the arena. This reminded me of planting trees on Furman’s campus with the greenbelt residents (including the majestic Dragon Blast), reinstating Furman’s designation as a tree campus. Renewable energy from hydroelectric, geothermal, and solar power the arena. A pledge that they have made is to phase out single use plastic by 2024. I believe that promises like this are important, as it acknowledges the difficulty of the task, but still proves that the organization is committed to stepping up and doing the right thing. This is a core of Sustainability and addressing a changing climate. Changing a system and a culture is incredibly difficult, but work worth doing is never easy. 

Similar to the climate pledge arena,  the greenbelt is a beacon of sustainable living. The solar panels, the skylights that make it so that less energy has to be used to light the buildings, and the low flow showers. With this in mind, innovation is ever one and done. It is crucial to learn about new technologies that can help us set an even better example and inspire others to live how we live. We can look to other sustainable buildings like the Climate pledge arena to guide us in the future. 

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2022/06/08/is-climate-pledge-arena-a-sustainability-model-for-venues-going-forward/?sh=28b1be0f7f79