More from Earth Policy Institute/Listen today live on WARL 1320

Some great stories and good links to look at before today's show:


Indian farmers getting solar-powered irrigation pumps in exchange for switch to water-efficient drip irrigation. Government projected to save "$6 billion in annual farm diesel and electricity subsidies." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-02-07/solar-water-pumps-wean-farmers-from-india-s-archaic-grid.html; http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/02/07/3265631/india-solar-pump-swap/. 

First round, just approved, to be paid for by carbon tax on coal: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-06/india-approves-3-billion-rupees-in-solar-pump-subsidies.html

McKinsey, "Remaking the Industrial Economy"

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/manufacturing/remaking_the_industrial_economy

"Could an industrial system that is regenerative by design—a “circular economy,” which restores material, energy, and labor inputs—be good for both society and business? If the experience of global automaker Renault is any indicator, the answer appears to be yes." --> Remanufacturing operation outside Paris uses "80% less energy and almost 90% less water than new production does, while producing 70% less oil and detergent waste, at higher operating margins than Renault as a whole."

-Also good stats on how one of Renault's suppliers improved efficiency, cut waste discharge by 90%, made the supplier more money, and saved Renault on costs.

-Ricoh GreenLine office copiers and printers, designed so components are easily disassembled and reused, with minimal new material used. "Now in 6 major European markets, where they account for 10 to 20 percent of Ricoh's sales by volume and earn margins that are as much as two times higher than those of the company's comparable new products--without a reduction in quality.

McKinsey, "Toward a Circular Economy: Philips CEO Frans van Houten"

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/sustainability/toward_a_circular_economy_philips_ceo_frans_van_houten

"For business customers, we therefore now sell lighting as a service: customers only pay us for the light, and we take care of the technology risk and the investment. In many cases, we also take the equipment back when it’s the right moment to recycle the materials or upgrade them for reuse. Similarly, for municipal customers we now have streetlight installations in Singapore and, more recently, a contract in Buenos Aires to replace the majority of the 125,000 existing streetlights there with LED luminaires over the next three years. We install the equipment, maintain it, and make sure that it runs for a very long time.

The benefits are substantial: the energy savings are anywhere from 50 to 70 percent, depending on the installation, so customers can pay us out of the savings for the light output. The LEDs have five times the lifetime of normal lights—which, in turn, means much lower maintenance and operating costs for us."

"A second place we are using circular-economy principles is Philips Healthcare, where we establish leasing relationships with customers to take back equipment and upgrade it, then refurbish it and send it on to another customer. In the process, we might upgrade the first customer to a more state-of-the art technology, and in doing so we make both customers happy. This is already a €200 million business for us."