Category Archives: Climate Change

Increasing global temperature will cause sea level to rise, and is expected to increase the intensity of extreme weather events and to change the amount and pattern of precipitation. Other effects of global warming include changes in agricultural yields, trade routes, glacier retreat, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors.
In recent usage, especially in the context of environmental policy, the term “climate change” often refers to changes in modern climate (see global warming). Remaining scientific uncertainties include the amount of warming expected in the future, and how warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but there is ongoing political and public debate worldwide regarding what, if any, action should be taken to reduce or reverse future warming or to adapt to its expected consequences. (excerpts selected from Wikipedia)

September 19, 2008 · 3:35 pm

An Answer to Global Warming?

Last week at California’s annual Climate Change Research Conference in Sacramento, two physicists associated with the Heat Island Group presented a paper which claims that if roofs in 100 major urban areas were switched to reflective material, they would offset 44 metric gigatons of greenhouse gasses.  It’s hard for me to picture how big a metric gigaton is, but it sounds like a lot.  In fact, 44 metric gigatons of greenhouse gasses is more than all the countries on Earth emit in a single year.

The bottom line is that dark roofs and pavement absorb heat and add significantly to global warming and climate change by trapping heat in urban areas.  Just painting roofs white and paving roads with a lighter colored material could offset more than 10 years of emissions growth.  

The paper says that replacing a dark colored roof with a white roof on an average American home would offset 10 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.  And that’s for just one house!

California already requires new flat commercial structures to be built with reflective roofs and next year new and retrofitted residential and commercial buildings will need to have reflective roofs.

I really like those green roofs where people have planted grass and plants to reduce cooling costs.  But reflective roofs accomplish much of the same thing and you don’t need to mow them.  Now that’s win-win.

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August 19, 2008 · 8:35 pm

My Bottled Water Conflict

 

Selling Water Can Be Fun and Profitable!

Selling Water Can Be Fun and Profitable!

I recently came across this article about the launch of Nestlé Waters first ever marketing campaign targeting Hispanics.  The campaign includes an endorsement deal with Cristina, TV spots on Univision, spot radio in major Hispanic markets, print advertising (print lives!) a consumer contest and in-store hoopla.

The best thing about all of this is that the ads feature Cristina talking about health topics, including the risks associated with obesity and diabetes.  The campaign was created by the fine folks at Castells & Asociados.

Obviously there are a lot of ways to sell bottled water and I applaud Nestlé and Castells for using their marketing muscle to get behind reducing obesity and diabetes in the Hispanic community.  This is a cause which I cannot endorse more strongly.

In 2005, one in four U.S. Hispanic adults was obese (not just overweight).  But what’s most alarming is the trend with children.  One in six Hispanic high school students is overweight and 24% of Mexican-American children aged 6 to 11 are overweight, compared to 20% for African American kids and 12% for non-Hispanic whites.  It’s well known that obesity can lead to higher insulin levels and type 2 diabetes as well as other health problems like asthma, high blood pressure and sleep apnea.

There are factors that contribute to this situation, including genetics, that cannot be controlled.  But two major factors that we can impact are exercise and nutrition.  Any effort to get kids and their parents to dump the soda and other high calorie, low nutritional value foods, should be supported.  Everyone can benefit from drinking more water and from using water as a substitute for high calorie beverages.

But here’s the rub.  If you’ve been paying attention, bottled water producers are bottling and selling a product we don’t really need (tap water works just fine) and creating a nasty, land-filling byproduct in the form of plastic bottles that live forever.

So what’s a health conscious enviro-wannabe like yours-truly to do?  I’d gladly give Nestlé my frequently sought, yet seldom given, stamp of approval if: Nestlé also educated its consumers on the need to recycle those ugly little plastic bottles and better yet, provided an incentive for them to do so.  

After that, I’d hope that folks would get tired of expensive bottled water and turn to taps, filters and reusable bottles.  But one step at a time.

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Filed under Climate Change, corporate social responsibility, CSR, Green Marketing, Hispanic marketing, Multicultural Marketing

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