Climate change is altering a wide range of human activities, including winemaking. While wine may appear to be one of the most natural of alcoholic beverages, it is not without carbon inputs and emissions, which contribute to the very change in climate that is altering both wine and winemaking. In this paper, we use a greenhouse gas life cycle analysis to develop a model for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from the production and distribution of a bottle of wine. Current regulatory arrangements do not capture the climate change costs of wine effectively since most costs are externalized. We conclude with estimates of the cost of emissions under various regulatory regimes, provide counterintuitive findings about the greenhouse gas emissions of similar bottles, and, finally, suggest how wine producers and consumers can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions.
The petroleum industry has increased its overall commitment to improving living standards and enhancing environmental and social conditions while conducting its business. In order to meet its commitment, the industry has recognized the need to measure its combined social and environmental (or sustainability) performance according to a system that ensures quality, completeness and consistency. Despite the means by which an individual company may objectively measure its corporate responsibility, public opinion regarding the social and environmental responsibility of the company (or relative to other companies within the same industry) is not likely to be based on a consistent set of objective metrics and rigorous assessment of actual performance against those metrics (or indicators). This paper presents a brief overview of existing sustainability performance metrics and describes a framework that takes into account stakeholder concerns to measure and compare the combined social and environmental performance of petroleum companies. Introduction Despite the recent proliferation of terms like "sustainability", "sustainable development" (SD), "corporate responsibility" (CR), "corporate social responsibility" (CSR), and "corporate citizenship", the concepts are not necessarily well understood or consistently applied by industry and associated stakeholders. The terms are generally understood to address the management of all environmental, social and economic aspects of business while maintaining a business focus (i.e., increasing financial performance). To a segment of the general public, the concept of oil and gas development (or to cast it in a negative light as some in this segment may be apt to do, oil and gas "exploitation") within the context of sustainable development is a contradiction of terms. Nevertheless, many companies in the petroleum industry have recently embraced sustainable development to strive to produce more affordable, accessible and increasingly cleaner energy than ever before. Moreover, the industry is striving to produce oil and gas in ways that are responsible and ethical. As a result, many of the larger and more diversified petroleum companies have begun to communicate how stakeholder concerns are being addressed by issuing CSR reports. Given the scale, scope, and complexity of the industry, it is not surprising to find that CSR report content has been the subject of debate, particularly the selection of relevant performance indicators. The following sections of this paper describe existing sustainability performance metrics as well as public opinion and stakeholder concerns regarding industry sustainability performance. This discussion suggests the need to address stakeholder concerns within the context of using sustainability performance metrics in a CSR program. To respond to this identified need, the paper describes the development of a new framework for measuring sustainability performance and its application to a hypothetical evaluation.
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