Eco-Efficiency by Coke

Excerpts from Fortune Magazine

"Coke's dilemma" by Marc Gunther, October 31, 2008

The beverage giant tries to grow while making carbon cuts the real thing.

"You see the problem, right? Coke is conceding that it can't grow (the business) and shrink (its footprint) at the same time. I say this not to point a finger at Coke, but to point to the limits of what any company going "green" can do.

If Coke manages to stabilize its water use and carbon emissions, that would be a major accomplishment. But when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, scientists say we need to first stabilize them and then reduce them dramatically over the next 30 to 40 years.

Put another way, the earth's atmosphere is indifferent to eco-efficiency."

The Myth Of "Locally Grown"

Selected passages from "'Locally grown' food sounds great, but what does it mean?", by Julie Schmit, USA Today.

Wal-Mart, the nation's biggest retailer, considers anything local if it's grown in the same state as it's sold, even if that's a state as big as Texas and the food comes from a farm half the size of Manhattan, as in the case of the 7,000-acre Ham Produce in North Carolina.

• Whole Foods, the biggest retailer of natural and organic foods, considers local to be anything produced within seven hours of one of its stores. The retailer says most local producers are within 200 miles of a store.

• Seattle's PCC Natural Markets considers local to be anything from Washington, Oregon and southern British Columbia.

Defining "Organic" versus "Local"

To be labeled organic, foods sold in the U.S. must meet production standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

One standard? No toxic synthetic pesticides or fertilizers for at least three years on a field growing an organic crop.

"Local" products are not necessarily pesticide-free.

Food Safety

While consumers may think locally grown food is safer, food safety experts say that's not clear.

Most food-borne illnesses don't get noticed because not enough people get sick to alert officials that an outbreak is underway. Undetected outbreaks are more likely with "local" products delivered in small quantities and sold in a small area, says Robert Brackett, senior vice president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

Small producers are also less likely than big ones to have had food-safety audits, which grocers often demand of big suppliers, says Matt Regusci, head of business development for PrimusLabs.com, a leading produce food-safety auditor.

Make the Responsible Choice -- Close Shop

To the boards and CEOs of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler:

Mergers will not solve your problems. There is too much capacity in the collective manufacturing plants, your costs of manufacturing in America is too high, and very few people want to buy the particular cars and trucks you produce. Do the responsible choice: one of you must close. Not merge, close.

I personally vote for Chrysler, since it is the smallest and weakest among the three of you. Closing Chrysler will also serve as a hammer to Cerebus, and shatter the myth that private equity always know how to manage money in order to get superior returns. Private equity can do good, just not always.

Since Cerebus is named for a three-headed dog, I am presenting 3 reasons to shut down Chrysler. 1) Chrysler is the weakest among Detroit's GM, Ford, and Chrysler. 2) It shows that private equity is not all-knowing. 3) It will also punish Bob Nardelli, current CEO of Chrysler, who once took $210 million pay out package even though Home Depot stocks made no movement during his tenure.


To the boards and CEO's of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler: one of you must go. Please choose.

P.S. I know you're asking money from Congress, and hence the general public, to stay afloat. Please don't. You'll only waste our money on yourselves.

I've Seen This Movie Before

This post would have been more appropriate on the day of the big boost, but sadly my computer was out of commission.

Don't think the market is going to climb. The biggest one-day climbs happen in the bear market. The same movie played in '01 - '03. You've got a few more bounces to go before a large majority of the optimists give up. For the intrepid optimists, though, '03 did indeed turn out to be a great time to buy when everyone was talking about wars and the economy.

=============

re: efficient market theory

Is there anyone else out there who is tired of listening to the efficient market theory? You know, the theory that information is disseminated quickly, so market prices can be accurately accessed rather quickly. All these big swings on no news simply illustrates that human emotions rather than human intelligence is still dictating.

(Don't tell me that machine and software intelligence is any better. They were built by humans at some point using human assumptions. It's still a human driving.)

Professor Obama's analogy

Senator Obama actually had a pretty good allegory or analogy to the current housing crisis (someone will have to tell me the difference between allegory and analogy). I was surprised.

Your neighbor's house is burning down. Are you going to do something about it?

Will you say, "oh, he always leaves the stove on" or "he always smokes in bed"? No. His house is burning and it may affect yours. So let's put the fire out now, and then worry about prevention later.

--------------

That's actually a really good down-to-earth explanation of what is going on. However, I'm going to add to the story to make it a tad more correct. Your neighbor's house is one of those big McMansion, while yours is moderate or even on the small side. The house is burning, and it may affect yours. In order to put out the fire, you have to give up your spare bedroom. Actually, everyone else on the street have to give up their spare bedroom to put out that fire.

The question remains: will you do it?