Rupert Murdoch revealed today that his media empire achieved its goal, set nearly four years ago, to become carbon neutral by the end of 2010.
News Corp., home to a wide range of properties that includes the Fox News Channel, 20th Century Fox, Harper Collins, Wall Street Journal, MySpace and the National Rugby League, also unveiled a mix of short-term and aspirational long-term goals to guide its environmental efforts moving forward.
"I am proud to announce that News Corporation has reached its first major sustainability milestone: We have become carbon neutral across all of our global operations and we are the first company of our kind to do so," Murdoch wrote in a memo sent to News Corp. employees. "We made a bold commitment in 2007 to embed the values of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability into all of our businesses -- for the benefit of our communities and our bottom line."
Making News Corp.'s operations more efficient will save the company millions of dollars, Murdoch wrote. Just consolidating its data centers will save News Corp. $20 million a year and reduce related emissions by 15 percent once fully implemented.
The investments in energy efficiency yield an average of $180 per ton of carbon avoided, according to Liba Rubenstein, the company's global energy initiative director. That can add up when you consider that News Corp.'s absolute emissions in fiscal year 2010 were 2 percent lower than 2006 levels, and 9 percent lower than peak emissions in 2008. The company offset 110 percent of its FY 2010 carbon footprint by investing in emissions reduction projects that include capturing landfill gas and destroying potent refrigerants.
Rubenstein's team will now work toward a series of measurable 2015 goals, including:
• Reducing absolute greenhouse gas by 15 percent, compared to 2006 levels
• Reducing greenhouse gas intensity by at least 15 percent
• Investing in clean energy equal to 20 percent of electricity used
• Engaging its 100 largest suppliers on improving their environmental impacts
• Measuring its waste footprint and developing a strategy to reduce it
News Corp. also created a set of intentionally broad long-term goals with no time horizon:
• Power all of its operations with clean energy
• Grow its business without growing its greenhouse gas emissions
• Minimize the amount of solid waste sent to landfill from its production operations
• Continue to engage its readers, employees and customers on sustainability
Mr Murdoch may be trying to
Mr Murdoch may be trying to offset his climate emissions for News Corp, but it seems that he is getting his hands far more dirty by investing in oil shale work in Israel.
Murdoch is investing in Genie Oil and Gas Inc who are the parent company of Israel Energy Initiatives Ltd (IEI), who are currently trying to produce oil from shale rock. The proposed location for this is in the biblical landscape of the Judean hills where David slew Goliath.
It is claimed that in order to extract crude oil from shale rock, the company will dig thousands of 5KM long heating and collection bore holes, where they will heat the underground rock to 350 degrees celsius, in order to releases gases that are in part converted to fuel. In order to make this process work, it has been estimated that it will consume as much as 3-5 Gigawatts of electricity, equivalent to “approximately half of Israel’s current electricity production" and could release at least 15 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
To produce oil from shale rock is a particularly destructive and polluting method of oil extraction that will endanger the local environment including precious underground water supplies. Not to mention the effects on the local communities.
We can't offset the destruction that will be done to the Israeli countryside.
Please Mr Murdoch – stop the oil shale work in Israel now.
Shmuel