World Water Day

Roma Stibravy (President) attended a panel discussion in honor of World Water Day, "Water for Energy, Energy for Water" co-organized by the Permanent Missions of the "Green Group" countries, Cape Verde, Costa Rica, Iceland, Singapore, Slovenia and the United Arab Emirates at the United Nations Headquarters, NY.

The Climate Challenge; India Prospective: 2011; Jefferies Conference

 Roma Stibravy, President attended "The Climate Challenge; Revitalizing the Debate" at Columbia University's Earth Institute on October 11, 2010 in New York City,NY. 

Key-notes present included Katherine Richardson, Chair of the Danish Commission on Climate Change, and Jeffrey D. Sachs, an American economist, writer and the Director of the Earth Institute. The discussion panel addressed necessary policy changes that would encourage the private and public sector to increase their efforts to combat negative climate change.


Additionally, Ms. Stibravy, the Board Members and interns were guests at Jefferies' annual Clean Technology Conference on February 23, 24, 2011 in New York City,NY. The conference featured over 100 public and private companies from the clean energy and technology sector. Presenters discussed global green-trend initiatives and identified both short and long-term investment opportunities.

For more information about Jefferies, Inc. and its Clean Technology Conference, please click here.

On March 1, 2011 Mrs. Stibravy attended the third annual India Prospective: 2011 in New York City,NY hosted by The Asia Society. KPMG and U.S. India Business Council co-sponsored the event.

At the end of February, Indian government will publish it's Economic Survey and submit its Budget to the Indian Parliament. The experts below discussed the survey and budget, providing an overview of the publications and their personal opinions on India's economic prospects.

The following people spoke during the event: 

• Dr. Ajay Gondane, Deputy Consul General of India, New York 
• Arun Kumar, Partner in charge, U.S. India Practice, KPMG LLP, and USIBC Board Member (moderator) 
• Arvind Panagariya, Jagdish Bhagwati Professor of Indian Political Economy, Columbia University 
• Wilbur Ross Jr., Chairman & CEO, WL Ross & Co; Chairman, Invesco Private Limited 
• Amb. Frank G. Wisner, Former U.S. Ambassador to India; Foreign Affairs Advisor; Patton Boggs; and USIBC Board Member 

For more information on the event, please click here.

3 Articles of Interest from the New York Times

"Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers"
Drilling companies recently developed technologies to reach enormous reserves of natural gas. 

Environmentalists claim that natural gas burns cleaner than oil and therefore has less impact on climate change. However, the new drilling method (high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing or hydrofracking) also carries great environmental risks. This process produces over a million gallons of waste water that, often laced with highly corrosive salts, carcinogens, and radium.

Documents from the Environmental Protection Agency show that the dangers to the environment and health are greater than previously understood.

Source: Click Here

"How to Make Your Business Greener (And Save Money)"

Companies are discovering that "going green" not only benefits the environment, but also saves them money. Reductions in both greenhouse gas emissions and business costs can be as simple as replacing pickup trucks with hybrids, particularly for employees who do not need a truck. Also, recycling companies tend to haul away materials that can be reused for free so long as one separates his/her trash prior. Because simple procedures can produce large savings, managers are realizing that going green is less daunting.

Source: Click Here.

"Alternative Fuels Don't Benefit the Military, a RAND Report Says" 

The RAND Corp. recently released a report saying: “most alternative-fuel technologies were unproven, too expensive or too far from commercial scale to meet the military’s need over the next decade”. They claimed that the most economical and ready solution meeting both environmental reductions and present military needs is a liquid fuel consisting of combination of coal and biomass. This fuel is a high-energy intensive process that extracts oil from coal. According to the opponents of the report this view is short sighted for it does not put any emphasis on research. While liquid fuel reduces the military’s need for foreign oil, it switches that demand over to coal, which may not be considered a clean enough energy source.

Source: Click Here.

Article of Interest: "Energy Department to Invest up to $7 million to Support Early-Stage Solar Technologies"

"Energy Department to Invest up to $7 million to Support Early-Stage Solar Technologies"

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to a $7 million investment through National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) into developing and commercializing new solar energy technologies. This news means private companies may benefit from close partnership with the national laboratories. Companies receive funding based on which tier they fit, Tier1 or Tier2. This funding shows  government support for renewable energy research and its inclusion of renewable energy into policy making.

Source: Click Here

Articles of Interest (Energy & Women's Issues)

Below please find several summaries for articles of interest and their corresponding links. 

“Financial News We Would Love to See"

While the recent financial crisis already provoked many policy reforms, undesirable economic situations remain, which still require change. One reform many hope to see passed by Congress is a bipartisan energy bill, which would eliminate inefficient subsidies for ethanol production, remove import taxes on Caribbean cane ethanol, add a one dollar per gallon gas tax, mandate that all federal agencies use vehicles that run on natural gas and impose a carbon tax to encourage cleaner energy usage; however, this bill is unlikely to pass.

Source

“Delicate Planet”

This article concluded that people are not united in their efforts to save the planet. The book, The View From Lazy Point by Carl Safina shows this interconnectedness of people and nature. The book calls on people to live a more environmentally considerable life in order to prevent human-caused environmental catastrophe.

Source

“Siemens Invests in Expanding Wind Power”

Siemens’ hopes to become one of the top suppliers of the wind power equipment in the world. In order to succeed, the company needs to enter Chinese markets, the current largest wind power market in the world. Entering Chinese market poses a challenge to Simens, due to local government policies favoring Chinese companies.

Source

"Muslim Women Gain Higher Profile in U.S."

Muslim-American women are redefining what it means to be Muslim, Middle-Eastern and American by breaking gender and racial stereotypes. Because American society makes it much easier for women to obtain leadership roles--at work, academically and socially--these women are achieving high levels of success, unmatched elsewhere. This article portrays several women’s achievements at maintaining both their Islamic culture within America and serving as exceptional examples of female leadership.

Source

“China’s Push Into Wind Worries U.S. Industry”

Chinese-owned wind companies plan a “big push” into the American wind power industry in a few months. Already able to generate more wind power (43 gigawatts, enough to power over 10 million homes) than any U.S. company, China is rapidly becoming  a world leader in the renewable energy sector. American sustainable energy proponents are debating on the impact this push will have on the American renewable energy sector. Some believe that because only 2 percent of America’s demand for electricity comes from wind power, Chinese businesses will not find success in the U.S.A. Others, alternatively, fear that the renewable/ sustainable energy sector will continue to fall into foreign hands, since Denmark, Germany, Japan and India already own the biggest clean energy companies in America. Some believe that new renewable energy companies, whether foreign or domestic, will create new jobs, which America’s economy desperately needs. Regardless of the differing opinions, it seems that Chinese investment into the U.S.’s sustainable energy sector will generate heated debates and perhaps significantly change.

Source

“California Approves Stringent Pollution Curbs”

On Thursday, December 16, 2010, California regulators passed rules to curb emissions of greenhouse gases. The program will eventually cover 360 Californian businesses and lower emissions by 2 percent each year. Californians improved and expanded an “allowance and credit” system currently used by New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and several New England states (REGGI). Each business receives an allowance that their emissions must remain below. Alternatively, companies may buy allowance credits from other polluters to cover their excess emissions. Investor-owned utilities must auction their free allowances. Their auction proceeds either subsidize energy-efficient programs or are given to costumers in the form of rebates to balance any price increases they may experience due to the new rules.

Source

"Green tech a priority for many state companies"

General Electric and other Connecticut corporations are taking faster track of changing their policies to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.  For example, ESPN follows and reports its emissions as to how much the company uses water and carbon dioxide.  ESPN attempts to reduce their emission figures. In light of this, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants companies that are emitting more than 25,000 tons of greenhouse gasses a year to report their emissions.  

Source

“Weather Monitoring Company Turns to Greenhouse Gases”

AWS Convergence Technologies of Maryland, one of the largest of weather monitoring companies, announced its proposal for “Earth Networks,” a plan which over the next five years will put a network of 100 greenhouse gas sensors around the globe.  The main goal of the plan is to measure the density and level of greenhouse gas data in real-time measurements at the national and regional level, using a technique that combines actual atmospheric data with the real-time weather information.Source

“Save Energy, Save Our Troops”

In the past nine years, around 1,000 Americans have been killed on fuel-related missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Thus, new energy efficient policies developed by the Defense Department would reduce the death toll, save billions of dollars, and allow the United States to be less dependent on foreign oil.  

Source

Board Meeting, December 8, 2010

On December 8, 2010 NGO Sustainability, Inc. held their monthly Board Meeting at Jefferies, Inc., New York, NY.

Board Members Roma Stibravy (President), Harriet Schmidt (Vice President, via Conference Call), Elisabeth Kovac (Secretary), Marita Rosado (Treasurer), Jesse Pichel, Frank Pinto, Karin Shampoo, and William Stibravy attended the meeting.

Interns Gonzalo Aragon, Natalia Faryna and Magdalena Garczynski also were present.

Board Member, Jesse Pichel of Jefferies, Inc. invited his three colleagues--Connie Wang, Elaine Kwei and Min Xu--to offer insight into the investment sector of renewable energy.

Two topics worth noting discussed at the Meeting were the Conference on Climate Change Negotiations, Cancun, Mexico and private sector initiatives regarding renewable energy.

Frank Pinto, former UN employee, reported on the Cancun Climate Change negotiations. Ban Ki Moon opened the session with a plea to move the negotiation process forward. The Mexican President tried to put a low profile on Cancun, unlike Copenhagen where expectations were raised too high. The Mexican President has thus said that they are not targeting specific emissions levels, pointed to the following three agreements: the Green Fund, how developing countries can get the needed technology, and protecting the forest.

Jesse Pichel reported on the private renewable energy sector. Present renewable energy stocks are not doing well because the capital markets are not working efficiently. The industry’s concern are the negative changes in government support. Costs of solar energy in other countries, such as China, are decreasing much more rapidly than expected. Therefore, China is becoming a real competitor in the renewable energy market.

Min Xu is currently working in the LED (light emitting diodes) sector. LED lights save costs and reduce pollution. Non- LED lights compose 20 percent of everyday energy consumption. LEDs may save billions of kilowatt-hours. LEDs are pretty low cost without government subsidies, but these companies hope that government will still back them. Our NGO is hoping to use LED lights, instead of solar lanterns, in our Liberia Project. This change would make the project cutting edge and current.    

UN NGO Sustainability, Inc. hopes this new technology could be used in our developing world projects.

The Board and Interns (from left):
Karin Shampoo, Elisabeth Kovac (Secretary) , Jesse Pichel,
Roma Stibravy (President), Maggie Garczynski (Intern),
Bill Stibravy, Marita Rosado (Treasurer) 

The Board and Interns (from left):
Frank Pinto, Karin Shampoo, Elisabeth Kovac (Secretary),
Jesse Pichel,  Roma Stibravy (President) 

Roma Stibravy, President

Exciting News for the U.S.'s East Coast !

Massive Wind Power Project Proposed for RI By Eric Tucker


On Wednesday, December 8, 2010 Deepwater Wind proposed what will be the largest offshore wind farm in the United States project off the cost of Rhode Island. The wind farm would provide power to many states on the East Coast. The company hopes to begin construction in 2014 and work its first turbines in 2015. The project will save Rhode Islanders and surrounding states a significant amount of money on power. The project is waiting on both state and federal approval.