Most Competitive Economies 2010: Where Growth Thrives

Most Competitive Economies 2010

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Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

By Mark Scott

Where Growth Thrives

As the global economy struggles back from the worst recession in decades, which countries are best placed to profit from the recovery? In its 2010 World Competitiveness Yearbook, the IMD business school in Lausanne, Switzerland, sheds some light on that question. By crunching economic, financial, and social statistics from 58 countries worldwide, IMD breaks down the results into four categories: economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency, and infrastructure. Nations are then ranked within those categories for everything from the quality of their research and development to the liquidity of their capital markets to the domestic penetration of high-speed Internet broadband. This year, IMD also added a “debt stress test” that identified which countries have the highest debt levels relative to GDP and will need the most years to pay off those obligations.

Click on to see which countries have finished in the top 10 of the 2010 IMD rankings as the world’s most competitive countries, as well as a selection of lower-ranked countries of interest.

via images.businessweek.com

The US still in the game, however, its position is number 3 in the world. Singapore and Hongkong lead the world’s most competitive economies.

HP Waste-to Energy Ecosystem

Manure waste-to-energy ecosystem design

This could potentially add another source of income for farmers. NY Times has the story of cow manure conversion to clean fuel, energy that can supply power to tech companies. 

Al Gore’s 7 Reasons why Sustainability is Good Business

Al Gore made his business case to sustainability when speaking at the SAP Sapphire conference in Orlando. 

The seven reasons why sustainability makes good business sense, according to Al Gore:

1. Pollution is waste and the result of inefficiencies. The message: Polluting companies are inefficient.
2. Sustainability enhances brand reputation.
3. There are long-term returns in being sustainable. At some point, stakeholders will hit companies with short-term focus.
4. Customers and partners are demanding sustainable business practices.
5. Carbon tracking will be integrated into business processes as regulators require it across the globe.
6. Sustainability can boost employee morale and attract the next generation of customers.
7. Tackling a topic such as innovation leads to new innovations.

[via Smart Planet]

Sustainability as a Core Business Strategy

 

Sustainability as a core of business strategy. At the core, is about using less stuff.

 

EPA issues rules on biggest carbon polluters

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1312662220100513

Starting next year, the EPA would require large power utilities, manufacturers, and oil refiners to get permits to operate or prove they’re using the latest green technology to cut emissions when building new capacity.

[via Reuters]

EPA Dings Pep Boys $5M

Pep Boys agrees to pay $5 million in civil penalties for violating the Clean Air Act for importing and selling engines, vehicles from China that don’t meet environmental requirements.

As part of the agreement, Pep Boys is required to export or destroy over 1,300 non-compliant vehicles and engines, and to mitigate the adverse environmental effects of equipment already sold to consumers. The EPA estimates the environmental impact at 620 tons of excess hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions, and more than 6,520 tons of excess carbon monoxide emissions.

[via Environmental Leader]

Clean Energy: What Google is Doing?

This is what Dan Reicher (director of climate change and energy initiatives at Google) said about their doing in the clean energy sphere. “This is where energy technology (ET) meets IT (information technology).” He’s talking about their product, Google meter, which gives people the power to control their electricity use at home.

You can watch the rest here.

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/42806370001?isVid=1

Sustainability Faceoff: Verizon vs. Sprint

Check out the full HIP Investor chart below.

	Verizon		Sprint
Overview	Wireless network serves 87.7 million customers; $97.4 billion revenue (2008), 235,000 employees		40 million customers, $35.6 billion revenue (2008), 56,000 employees
Product	Through HopeLine, collects, refurbishes, and reuses cell phones to provide free phones and services to domestic violence victims; collected more than 1 million cell phones in 2008, up 6% from 2007		The Samsung Reclaim is Sprint’s first eco-friendly phone designed with 80% recyclable components and 100% recyclable packaging
Management Practices	21 of 25: Corporate Responsibility Council establishes benchmarks and goals, assigns and enforces accountability, and measures and tracks results		11 of 25:  Committed to balancing needs of customers and needs of communities in decisions for tower siting (some poles disguised as flag poles, light poles, pine or palm trees)
Health of 20%	Customer satisfaction is 70%; Verizon spent $3.7B in health care benefits, covering 835K employees, retirees and their dependents	8%	Customer satisfaction is 56%	5%
Wealth of 20%	CEO’s salary is 391 times that of the average employee; long-term incentive plan is available to all employees, awarding stock-based compensation	13%	CEO’s salary is 276 times that of the average employee; Employee Stock Purchase Plan available for “eligible” employees	14%
Earth of 20%	Collected over 1.1 million recycled and refurbished phones in 2008	7%	20th largest purchaser of green power via EPA’s green power partnership for Fortune 500 challenge	9%
Equality of 20%	Of 12 directors, 2 are female and 2 are ethnic minorities; 36 percent of Verizon’s employees are minorities (2008)	13%	Of 10 directors, 1 is female	7%
Trust of 20%	Spent $18 million on lobbying activity, but overall reported transparency is high and detailed, comprehensive and quantitative; nearly 7 times more lobbying spend, while only 3 times higher revenue	10%	“Only” $2.6 million spent on lobbying activity in 2008 but several class action lawsuits for fees and reporting is not sufficiently quantitative	8%
Human Impact TOTAL, of 100%	Summary:  Verizon has the power and the drive to make an impact.	51%	Summary: Sprint is trying to good, but it might want to focus more on customer satisfaction.	44%
Corporate Profit of 20%	+13.9% return on equity (2008) +2.3% annualized total return, including reinvested dividends (6/2004-6/2009) +3.3% annualized total return, including reinvested dividends (6/2006-6/2009)		-13.4% return on equity (2008) -20.8% annualized total return, including reinvested dividends (6/2004-6/2009) –37.6% annualized total return, including reinvested dividends (6/2006-6/2009)

via fastcompany.com

Human Interactions Makes People Happier than Facebook

Sure do. The Happiness Barometer findings, based on Coke Happiness Index, finds that people are far happier when they are around their loved ones. 

The happiest time (in people’s lives), according to the Happiness Barometer:

• 39 percent of people surveyed in 16 countries said that “..catching up with the loved ones after work..” is their happiest time. 
• 20 percent said eating with their family.
• 17 percent chatting with friends, colleagues.
• 5 percent said when connecting with friends online.

[via Reuters]

Other findings: hugs and food, makes people happy! Yup. That’s also good for me.

Among countries, Mexico and Philippines, got the top spots. The U.S. is number 6 on the list.  

The happiest time for me is, when I can catching up with my siblings, daily. They live in Indonesia, a thousands miles away from here. Now that there is Skype, I can do that, without breaking my bank.

What about you. When is your happiest time?

Here is The Happiness Barometer in more details..

Offshore Drilling? Ain’t Worth It

What does nature teach us in this oil spill? A lot. Eleven lives presumably dead. The income stopper that threatening the fishing and shrimping industries in Lousiana. Many of these fishermen are small businesses. If they can’t fish, they can’t deliver the goods to customers, if they can’t do that – there’s no income. No income, means the fishermen can’t feed their families. And so it goes. This spill causes ripple effects.

Even using the super advanced technology does not always guarantee that everything will be alright. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, BP use these super high-tech gear that supposedly minimizes the chances of any catastrophic accidents. They’re so “confident” that under the worst (oil spill) scenarios – if “that” ever happened – well.. would be not more than a single barrel spill. They’re so confident (of the report), that our own regulators, the Federal Mineral Management Service exempted BP from filing environmental impact statement for the operation!

THE RISK: the oil field BP worked on is nearly six miles beneath Gulf of Mexico’s floor. Six miles deep. Think if you drive six miles (above ground) anything can happen with you and the car. The same thing can happen in the 6 miles under the water. 

You know what, when dealing with nature, we’re all powerless against nature.

Offshore drilling is just not worth the risk.

A mile below the surface, things can go to hell in an instant. The pressures and temperatures at work are otherworldly. Imagine an elephant sitting on your chest, and you get a small sense of the weight of rock and water pressing down on the reservoir of oil and gas miles below the surface. To keep the superheated, supercompressed fluids from shooting upward like a volcanic eruption before the well is finished, drillers fill the hole completely with a heavy, synthetic “mud.” Then, to finish the well, they inject a high-tech cement. Each well requires its own unique formulation of mud and cement. The cement is supposed to go down the middle of the drill pipe—a seven-inch tube surrounded by a larger pipe called the casing. When it reaches the bottom of the drill pipe, it oozes up into the gap between the pipe and its casing before drying in place, forming an impenetrable seal.

At least, that’s what’s supposed to happen. The Deepwater Horizon accident occurred at the final stage of the job, as the rig crew was preparing to put a temporary seal on the well and move on to another site. The exact circumstances aren’t likely to be known for months, though it’s clear that pressurized natural gas was able to infiltrate upward, meaning the seal was imperfect. It’s the same thing that happens when you crack open a soft drink and tiny bubbles of carbon dioxide expand and rise—the difference being that natural gas is explosive.

[via Bloomberg Businessweek]