NEW YORK - In what is believed to be the first effort of its kind, the Versus cable TV network and Brooklyn Brothers ad agency have just completed producing a campaign of TV commercials in a carbon-neutral manner. Working with ERM, a London-based environmental-engineering firm, Brooklyn Brothers has created a software system that tracks and quantifies the amount of carbon pollutants generated when making TV commercials with studio and remote-location film shoots. The system was used to calculate the carbon footprint of a shoot that produced 15 TV commercials for Versus.

See the full video report at AdAge.com

Consumers want businesses to take the lead on actions to reduce climate change, but 74% of Americans surveyed can’t identify (unprompted) any brands as taking a lead on climate change, according to the Climate Group’s just-launched US Climate Brand Index.

The “Climate Conscious Consumer” study, which tracks perceptions of how brands are performing on climate change, was conducted over the summer by The Climate Group and jointly funded by Sky and Lippincott.

 The top 5 brands according to the Climate Brand Index:

1. GE
2. Toyota
3. BP
4. Ford
5. Honda

The brands seen by US consumers as doing the most to tackle climate change are linked to carbon or carbon-related products - automobiles, aircraft engines, turbines, and petroleum - implying that segments of the US population are receptive to brand that address the issue.

In the UK, retailers rise to the top, with Tesco, The Co-operative, Marks & Spencer, and Sainsbury’s joining BP in the top five.

Pamela Evans is one of the coordinators for the Green Business certification program in Alameda County, part of the Bay Area Green Business program. As part of the process of getting certified as a green business, she encourages owners and shareholders to follow a checklist to state their ongoing intention to sustainability, waste prevention, and pollution prevention. As part of the checklist, owners commit to "going green," they comply with all environmental regulations applicable to the business, they implement measures to conserve resources and prevent pollution, and they participate in on-site visits.

The procedure for getting green certified is a thorough one. Use the checklist for ideas about how to "green" your business even more. All of us working together make a huge difference.

At the Wal-Mart Live Better Sustainability Summit, a gathering of more than 2,000 of its suppliers this week in Arkansas, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott proclaimed the benefits the company has reaped from its focus on sustainability, and reiterated its long-term commitment to reducing its energy use, resource use and greenhouse gas emissions across not only its own operations, but its suppliers' operations as well.

Scott held up a box of Hamburger Helper as one example of progress, explaining how less-crinkly noodles means less waste and lower cost. "Smoother noodles mean a pasta that will settle, allowing for less air in the pouch and a smaller box for the product, reducing waste and eventually lowering overall product cost," writes Evie Blad from the Benton County Daily Record.

Scott singled out Hamburger Helper as an example of what he hoped companies could gain from the summit, to re-imagine their manufacturing processes to reduce waste and impact all the way across the supply chain, from factory to consumer.

British Columbia could be energy self-sufficient by 2025 from renewable sources alone. Over that same period, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced to well below year 2000 levels. These are the conclusions of a new report from the GLOBE Foundation which examines the feasibility of moving BC towards a sustainable energy future.

"The Endless Energy Project" confirms that the province's renewable energy potential is such that it could be 100 percent energy self-sufficient within 20 years without undue social or economic hardship. Not only would this provide long-term, secure and stable energy supply for the provincial economy, it would provide some insulation from world energy shocks.

The report found a sustainable energy economy in British Columbia in 2025 could be powered by renewable electricity generation and by biomass energy -- a 'bio-electric' economy.

BOSTON (Reuters) - British billionaire Richard Branson said on Monday his Virgin Group hopes to produce clean biofuels by around the start of the next decade and early next year will test a jet plane on renewable fuel.

Virgin hopes to provide clean fuel for buses, trains and cars within three or four years, Branson told a Mortgage Bankers Association meeting in Boston.

In the meantime, Virgin will be conducting a test jet flight on renewable fuels. "Early next year we will fly one of our 747s without passengers with one of the fuels that we have developed," Branson told the annual conference.