Sustainability Indicator: 46,380 Prius Sales

Today's sustainability indicator, 46,380, is the number of Toyota Prius sales in 2012 so far in California, where the fuel-sipping hybrid surpassed the Honda Civic to become the top-selling car. Gas prices in the Golden State are about 76 cents higher than the national average. 

Recent indicators:

• 180: solar manufacturers forecast to fail or be bought amid a wave of consolidation
• 83 percent: energy consumed in the U.S. this year that was produced domestically.
• 74 percent: energy independence in 2008. 
• 48 million: Americans who get sick each year from contaminated foods.
• 0.4 percent: food importers checked annually by FDA inspectors. 
• 1 in 3: global proportion of women ages 20 to 24 who were married while still children.
• 43%: women in India who marry before their 18th birthday.  
• 20%: drop-off in renewable energy investment in the third quarter versus 2011.
• 8: years elapsed since investment in renewables declined for a calendar year. 
• 74%: Americans who acknowledge "global warming is affecting weather" in the U.S.
• 5 percentage points: increase in climate change beliefs since March.
• 5.8 percent: U.S. electricity needs met by non-hydro renewable energy. 
• 3.1 percent: electricity produced by non-hydro renewables in 2008.
• 213: current measure of the UN's World Food Price Index.
• 210: the price threshold associated with a sharp rise in social unrest and food riots.
• 50 percent: world transport fuels replaceable by converting 17.5% of farm waste to biofuel.
• 1.32 million square miles: Current Arctic sea ice, the least in 33 years of satellite records.
• 18 percent: decrease from the previous record-low Arctic ice, recorded in 2007.
• 330: consecutive months that global temperatures have topped the 20th century average.
• 626 million: people in India who still defecate in the open, contributing to superbugs.
• 251 million: people who gained improved sanitation in the country from 1990 to 2010.
• 67%: return from a portfolio based on the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index since 2006.
• 31%: return of the Leadership Index's Global 500 peers during the same period.
• 1,079: jobs created by the average U.S. wind farm.
• 75,000: total workers currently employed by U.S. wind power industry.
• 78%: polled investors who recognize that climate change is a threat to the environment.
• "Not much": anticipated impact on profits from reducing pollution, said half of respondents.
• 75%: world's surface that had unusually hot summers each year over the last decade.
• 33%: world's surface with hot summers in the baseline years from 1951 to 1980.
• 81%:U.S. energy demands met from domestic sources last year.
• 2: decades elapsed since the U.S. was similarly energy self-sufficient.
• 59%: proportion of emissions-reductions efforts that pay for themselves in 3 years.
• $10 billion: annual savings on U.S. electric bills from new lightbulb standards.
• 30: large power plants it takes to produce electricity equivalent to the lightbulb savings.
• 63%: surge in new solar capacity added in Europe last year.
• 57%: potential decline in new solar capacity in 2012 amid economic uncertainty.
• $71 billion: investment by oil industry in low-emission biofuels in the last decade.
• $43 billion: investment by U.S. government over the same duration.

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