Friday, February 25, 2011Event also announces the release of the groundbreaking report State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the PlanetCopenhagen, Denmark—The Worldwatch Institute today announces the opening of its first European office in Copenhagen. The opening will be celebrated at a major event starting today at 14:00 in downtown Copenhagen. More than 120 guests, including prominent researchers, policy makers, business leaders and press, have registered for the event.The opening coincides with the release of the 27th annual edition of Worldwatch’s flagship publication, State of the World. The event features a policy debate on Europe’s role in developing and establishing sustainable agriculture practices, with the goal of creating a healthier global food system.Worldwatch Europe will represent the formal extension of the Institute’s research and project activities into the European policy sphere. Bo Normander, Director of Worldwatch Europe says: “By expanding our research base into Europe, we aim to deliver these types of insights and to inform more environmentally sustainable decision-making across the European Union.”Photo opportunity Tree huggers will welcome all guests at the launch event today. The event includes prominent speakers such as Elsebeth Krogh, Chairwoman of ActionAid Denmark; Hans Herren, President of the Millennium Institute; Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency; and Christopher Flavin, President of the Worldwatch Institute. Release of State of the World 2011This year’s State of the World 2011 report:Innovations that Nourish the Planet, spotlights successful agricultural innovations and unearths major successes in preventing food waste, building resilience to climate change, and strengthening farming in cities. The report provides a roadmap for increased agricultural investment and more-efficient ways to alleviate global hunger and poverty.“The progress showcased through this report will inform governments, policymakers, NGOs, and donors that seek to curb hunger and poverty, providing a clear roadmap for expanding or replicating these successes elsewhere,”says Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin.Drawing from the world’s leading agricultural experts and from hundreds of innovations that are already working on the ground, State of the World 2011 outlines proven, environmentally sustainable prescriptions for decreasing malnutrition, improving yields, and increasing farmers’ incomes.Worldwatch's Director of the Nourishing the Planet program Danielle Nierenberg, who recently spent 15 months conducting on-the-ground research in over 25 countries across Africa, will also speak at the launch. She will present key findings from the report, including a roadmap for agricultural investment for top donor countries in successful projects that can prevent food waste, build resilience to climate change, and strengthen farming in cities.Global food security initiativesState of the World 2011comes at a time when many global hunger and food security initiatives—such as the Obama administration’s Feed the Future program, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)—can benefit from new insight into environmentally sustainable projects that are already working.Investment in agricultural development by governments, international lenders, and foundations has risen in recent years but is still nowhere near what is needed to help the 925 million people worldwide who remain undernourished. In 2008, $1.7 billion in official development assistance was provided to support agricultural projects in Africa, a miniscule amount given the vital return on investment. Under current global economic conditions, investments are not likely to increase in the coming year. Much of the more recently pledged funding has yet to be raised, and existing funding is not being targeted efficiently to reach the poor farmers of Africa.“The international community has been neglecting entire segments of the food system in its efforts to reduce hunger and poverty,”said Nierenberg, co-director of Worldwatch’s Nourishing the Planet project (www.NourishingthePlanet.org). “The solutions won’t necessarily come from producing more food, but from changing what children eat in schools, how foods are processed and marketed, and what sorts of food businesses we are investing in.” Serving locally raised crops to school children, for example, has proven to be an effective hunger- and poverty-reducing strategy in many African nations, and has strong parallels to successful farm-to-cafeteria programs in the United States and Europe. Moreover, “roughly 40 percent of the food currently produced worldwide is wasted before it is consumed, creating large opportunities for farmers and households to save both money and resources by reducing this waste,” according to Brian Halweil, Nourishing the Planet co-director.European tourBeginning with a 16-country European tour, the project’s findings are being disseminated in over 20 languages to a wide range of agricultural stakeholders, including government ministries, agricultural policymakers, farmer and community networks, and the increasingly influential non-governmental environmental and development communities. The Copenhagen launch event kicked off both the European tour and Worldwatch’s official entry into the European sphere. ###Notes to Editors:  The full programme for the Copenhagen launch event is attached to this document.About the Worldwatch Institute:Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 20 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.For review copies of State of the World 2011:Contact Amanda Stone at astone@worldwatch.org.Press contacts: Ann Sophie Friis and Xenia Trier, europe@worldwatch.org or Tel. (+45) 3336 7187 (in Europe)Amanda Stone, astone@worldwatch.org or(+1) 202-452-1999 x514 (in U.S.)Purchasing information:State of the World 2011sells for $19.95 + shipping & handling / £14.99 + P&P.It can be purchased via the Worldwatch website at http://www.worldwatch.org/sow11, by e-mailing wwpub@worldwatch.org, by calling toll-free (+1) 877-539-9946 (in the U.S.) or (+1) 301-747-2340 (from overseas), or by faxing (+1) 301-567-9553 with ISBN number 9780393338805.See www.worldwatch.org for information about editions in other languages. More...

New Worldwatch Institute study examines the agricultural sector’s impact on global greenhouse gas emissionsWashington, D.C.—Global greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector totaled 4.69 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent in 2010 (the most recent year for which data are available), an increase of 13 percent over 1990 emissions. By comparison, global CO2 emissions from transport totaled 6.76 billion tons that year, and emissions from electricity and heat production reached 12.48 billion tons, according to Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org).Growth in agricultural production between 1990 and 2010 outpaced growth in emissions by a factor of 1.6, demonstrating increased energy efficiency in the agriculture sector.The three most common gases emitted in agriculture are nitrous oxide, CO2, and methane. Methane is generally produced when organic materials—such as crops, livestock feed, or manure—decompose anaerobically (without oxygen). Methane accounts for around 50 percent of total agricultural emissions. Enteric fermentation—the digestion of organic materials by livestock—is the largest source of methane emissions and of agricultural emissions overall.Nitrous oxide is a by-product generated by the microbial breakdown of nitrogen in soils and manures. Nitrous oxide production is particularly high in cases where the nitrogen available in soils exceeds that required by plants to grow, which often occurs when nitrogen-rich synthetic fertilizers are applied. Nitrous oxide is responsible for around 36 percent of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.Finally, carbon dioxide is released from soils when organic matter decomposes aerobically (with oxygen). The largest source of CO2 emissions within agriculture is the drainage and cultivation of “organic soils”—soils in wetlands, peatlands, bogs, or fens with high organic material. When these areas are drained for cultivation, organic matter within the soil decomposes at a rapid rate, releasing CO2. This process accounts for around 14 percent of total agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.Emissions from enteric fermentation rose by 7.6 percent worldwide between 1990 and 2010, but regional variation was high. At 51.4 percent and 28.1 percent, respectively, Africa and Asia saw their emissions increase, while emissions in Europe and Oceania fell by 48.1 percent and 16.1 percent. Europe’s significant reduction in emissions parallels the decline in its beef production between 1990 and 2010, but it may also reflect increased use of grains and oils in cattle feed instead of grasses.“Adding oils or oilseeds to feed can help with digestion and reduce methane emissions. But a shift from a grass-based to a grain- and oilseeds-based diet often accompanies a shift from pastures to concentrated feedlots, which has a range of negative consequences such as water pollution and high fossil fuel consumption,” said Laura Reynolds, Worldwatch Food and Agriculture Researcher and the study’s author. “Aside from reducing livestock populations overall, there is no other clear pathway to climate-friendly meat production from livestock.”Manure that is deposited and left on pastures contributes to global nitrous oxide emissions because of its high nitrogen content. When more nitrogen is added to soil than is needed, soil bacteria convert the extra nitrogen into nitrous oxide and emit it into the atmosphere—a process called nitrification. Emissions from manure on pasture were highest in Asia, Africa, and South America, accounting for a combined 81 percent of global emissions from this source.These data indicate the huge share of global emissions that is attributable to livestock production. While reducing livestock populations is one clear way to reduce global emissions form agriculture, farmers and landowners have numerous other opportunities for mitigation, many of which offer environmental and even economic co-benefits. For instance, growing trees and woody perennials on land can sequester carbon while simultaneously helping to restore soils, reduce water contamination, and provide beneficial wildlife habitat. Reducing soil tillage can rebuild soils while lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Some practices can even result in increased income for farmers—“cap-and-trade” programs allow farmers to monetize certain sequestration practices and sell them, while government programs like the U.S. Conservation Reserve Program pay farmers to set aside some of their land for long-term restoration.Further highlights from the report:Enteric fermentation accounted for 29 percent of emissions in both North America and Asia in 2010—the lowest share of all regions—but was the source of 61 percent of South America’s agricultural emissions, reflecting that continent’s world leadership in cattle production.Rice cultivation was responsible for 17 percent of Asia’s total emissions in 2010 but no more than 3 percent of emissions in every other region—indicating Asia’s dominance of global rice output.Four out of the top five countries with the highest emissions from cultivated organic soils were in Asia: Indonesia contributed 278.7 million tons of carbon dioxide from this source, Papua New Guinea 40.8 million tons, Malaysia 34.5 million tons, and Bangladesh 30.6 million tons— indicating the levels of deforestation and clearing for agricultural land.PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HEREWEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2013Notes to Editors:   For more information and to obtain a complimentary copy of “Agriculture and Livestock Remain Major Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.About the Worldwatch Institute:Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than a dozen languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.About Vital Signs Online:Vital Signs Online provides business leaders, policymakers, and engaged citizens with the latest data and analysis they need to understand critical global trends. It is an interactive, subscription-based tool that provides hard data and research-based insights on the sustainability trends that are shaping our future. All of the trends include clear analysis and are placed in historical perspective, allowing you to see where the trend has come from and where it might be headed. New trends cover emerging hot topics—from global carbon emissions to green jobs—while trend updates provide the latest data and analysis for the fastest changing and most important trends today. Every trend includes full datasets and complete referencing. Click here to subscribe today to Vital Signs Online. More...

New Worldwatch Institute study examines the rise of benefit corporations and other companies that prioritize people and the planet, as well as profitsWashington, D.C.—As corporations of all sizes increasingly choose to monitor and report on their social and environmental impacts, a growing number of mostly small and medium-sized companies are going even further: They are volunteering to be held publicly accountable to a new triple bottom line—prioritizing people and the planet as well as profits, according to Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org).Just how broadly, rapidly, and rigorously this movement can spread is of critical importance, given the supersized global impacts of for-profit enterprises.“Sustainable economies are likely to remain elusive without substantial shifts in corporate norms,” said Colleen Cordes, a public policy consultant and the study’s author. “Recent data provide signs that such change is possible and indeed may even have begun.”Over the last 15 years, for example, the number of businesses of all sizes that choose to self-assess how sustainable their operations are, using widely accepted social and environmental standards, and to publicly disclose their results has been growing rapidly, especially in Europe and Asia.Recently there also has been a rise of a fast-moving movement, with significant leadership provided by sustainably minded businesses, whose goal is to persuade lawmakers to create a new legal status known as “benefit corporation” that for-profit businesses can choose voluntarily. The movement for benefit corporation statutes began in the United States, under the leadership of B Lab, which developed model legislation with the pro bonohelp of U.S. law firms.A “benefit corporation” is a corporate form that requires a company to legally establish in its original or amended articles of incorporation that it has a general purpose of having a positive impact on society and the environment and that its board of directors, in making decisions, is required to take into account the interests of multiple stakeholders in addition to the financial interests of its shareholders. The stakeholders it must consider, by law, include the company’s own workforce and that of its suppliers, its customers, the local community and general society, and the local and global environment.Proponents of this new corporate form say it essentially bakes a triple bottom line into a company’s DNA that frees companies from the fear of shareholder lawsuits if their decisions fail to maximize shareholder value because of some competing interest of other stakeholders, such as workers. Under current corporate case law in the United States, for example, corporate directors are generally assumed to be liable in such suits. Incorporation as a benefit corporation is intended to establish the directors’ fiduciary responsibility to consider the interests of all stakeholders. Formalizing a company’s social and environmental purposes under a legal framework also makes it more likely that its good intentions will survive the departure of its founders or any major spurts of growth and that its directors will have the legal backbone to fend off buyout offers from conventional corporations that do not have the same commitments.Most benefit corporations to date are either small or medium-sized businesses. But they include a few larger companies that are privately held, such as the outdoor apparel and accessory firm Patagonia Inc., which reportedly had annual sales of about $540 million for the year ending April 2012, and King Arthur Flour, an employee-owned, 223-year-old company with reported sales of about $84 million in 2010.Although the benefit corporation movement is still primarily a phenomenon in the United States, companies in 25 countries outside the United States have earned B Lab’s third-party certification as Certified B Corporations. Canada and Chile are the two countries with the most activity outside the United States. As the number of Certified B Corporations in any country begins to grow, B Lab plans to work with those that are interested in exploring the need and opportunities for revisions in their home countries’ legal infrastructure that would allow them to also legally establish their fiduciary responsibility to a wide range of stakeholders, as benefit corporations in the United States have done. A few companies in Australia have already expressed an interest in this.Further highlights from the report:B Lab estimates that there are currently about 200 benefit corporations in the United States (none of which are publicly traded companies at this point).Total gross revenues for all Certified B Corps are about $6 billion annually, and together these businesses employ about 30,000 people, according to B Lab.The number of companies annually using B Lab’s online assessment tool, a marker for broader interest in eventual certification, grew from 280 in 2007 to 2,406 in 2012. By the end of the first quarter of 2013, some 8,000 individual companies had used the tool.Companies that apply for third-party certification by the B Lab or by the organization Green America are holding themselves accountable to higher company-wide standards for seeking positive social and environmental impacts, in addition to the conventional corporate goal of earning a profit. This trend is further evidence that the business community embracing a triple bottom line is expanding.PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERETUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013Notes to Editors:   For more information and to obtain a complimentary copy of  “More Businesses Pursue Triple Bottom Line for a Sustainable Economy,” please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org. About the Worldwatch Institute:Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than a dozen languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.About Vital Signs Online:Vital Signs Online provides business leaders, policymakers, and engaged citizens with the latest data and analysis they need to understand critical global trends. It is an interactive, subscription-based tool that provides hard data and research-based insights on the sustainability trends that are shaping our future. All of the trends include clear analysis and are placed in historical perspective, allowing you to see where the trend has come from and where it might be headed. New trends cover emerging hot topics—from global carbon emissions to green jobs—while trend updates provide the latest data and analysis for the fastest changing and most important trends today. Every trend includes full datasets and complete referencing. Click here to subscribe today to Vital Signs Online. More...

New Worldwatch Institute study examines the leading causes of the growth of global food prices Washington, D.C.—Continuing a decade-long increase, global food prices rose 2.7 percent in 2012, reaching levels not seen since the 1960s and 1970s but still well below the price spike of 1974. The price increases reverse a previous trend when real prices of food commodities declined at an average annual rate of 0.6 percent from 1960 to 1999, approaching historic lows, according to Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org).Along with higher price levels, volatility has also increased dramatically in recent years. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the standard deviation—or measurement of variation from the average—for food prices between 1990 and 1999 was 7.7 index points, but it increased to 22.4 index points in the 2000–12 period.Although food price volatility has increased in the last decade, it is not a new phenomenon. According to World Bank data, the standard deviation for food prices in 1960–99 was 11.9 index points higher than in 2000–12. Some price volatility is inherent in agricultural commodities markets, as they are strongly influenced by weather shocks. But the recent upward trend in food prices and volatility can be traced to additional factors including climate change, an increase in biofuels production, higher-than-normal imports, trade policies, low levels of stocks, rising energy and fertilizer prices, and increased trade within futures markets for food commodities. .International food price trends (measured in terms of consumer prices, not those paid to producers) varied by commodity in 2012. Due to the ubiquity of corn, wheat, and rice in global diets, changes in the price of cereal grains generally affect consumers more than fluctuations in other foods. Since food prices began increasing in the early 2000s, cereal prices have jumped more than 80 percent and exhibited significant volatility, according to the FAO. Continuing this trend, global cereal prices increased 12.3 percent in 2012. Unfavorable weather conditions—including severe drought in the United States and Eastern Europe—drove cereal prices up 18.2 percent between June and September, when they approached the all-time high observed in 2008.Various forces affecting global food supply and demand have influenced the level and volatility of food prices in the last decade. Population growth and increasing affluence—predominantly in Asia—have led to rising food demand since 2000, which in turn has triggered higher global food prices. Between 2000 and 2010, Asia’s population grew 12 percent, from 3.7 billion to 4.2 billion, and in 2010 Asians accounted for 60 percent of the world’s population.In South-Central and Southern Asia alone, the population increased by 16.5 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, wages nearly doubled in Asia from 2000 to 2011, whereas they increased only 18 percent in Africa and 15 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.“There is reason to believe that food commodity prices will be both higher and more volatile in the decades to come,” said Sophie Wenzlau, the study’s author.  “As climate change increases the incidence of extreme weather events, production shocks will become more frequent. Food prices will also likely be driven up by population growth, increasing global affluence, stronger linkages between agriculture and energy markets, and natural resource constraints.”Further highlights from the report:Between 2000 and 2012, the World Bank global food price index increased 104.5 percent, at an average annual rate of 6.5 percent.Despite an end-of-year decline in 2012, international wheat prices were 17 percent higher in January 2013 than they were a year earlier, and maize prices were 11 percent higher. The international price of rice moved up only marginally, by 0.4 percent.The World Bank estimates that the 2011 food price spike—driven by a 57.9 percent increase in global cereal prices between June 2010 and April 2011—drove 44 million people into extreme poverty (under US$1.25 a day).Between 2000 and 2011, global biofuels production increased more than 500 percent, due in part to higher oil prices and the adoption of biofuel mandates in the United States and European Union.PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERETHURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2013Notes to Editors:   For more information and to obtain a complimentary copy of “Global Food Prices Continue to Rise,” please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org. About the Worldwatch Institute:Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than a dozen languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.About Vital Signs Online:Vital Signs Online provides business leaders, policymakers, and engaged citizens with the latest data and analysis they need to understand critical global trends. It is an interactive, subscription-based tool that provides hard data and research-based insights on the sustainability trends that are shaping our future. All of the trends include clear analysis and are placed in historical perspective, allowing you to see where the trend has come from and where it might be headed. New trends cover emerging hot topics—from global carbon emissions to green jobs—while trend updates provide the latest data and analysis for the fastest changing and most important trends today. Every trend includes full datasets and complete referencing. Click here to subscribe today to Vital Signs Online. More...