Event - Enviro Tech Summit 2018 (ETS2018)

EnviroTech Summit 2018 (ETS2018) subtitled Improving Our Environment with Modern Technology will take place on April 26, 2018 in Raleigh NC, USA. At this interesting and exciting summit, you can learn about some of the latest technologies today. Be on the forefront of this wave, not behind it. Because it’s not just coming…it’s already here.

The Summit is a collaborative effort conceived and organized by several environmental professionals who believe that modern software technology can significantly improve workflows, processes, data collection, reporting, and pretty much everything else within the environmental industry. This includes smartphone apps, IoT, APIs, integrations, and other modern software and hardware tech.

Reasons for attending
  • Learn about how other professionals like you are applying smartphone technology, Internet of Things ideas, drone technology, remote sensing, and other cutting edge technologies to solve environmental problems. 
  • Discover the latest apps, smart IoT devices, mapping technologies, drone use cases, autonomous field data collection systems, reporting automation, and other tools. 
  • Connect with environmental professionals, app developers, and hardware engineers to learn and create solutions for your projects! 
  • Earn PDH credits (8 CEUs for NC Engineers, 4.25 CEUs for NC Geologists)and 8+ hours of Professional Development Hours (PDHs) for NC Engineers.

ETS2018 Speakers

Marshall Brain – Keynote Speaker
Jonathan Fontanez
Ruoying (Roy) He
Federico Arboleda
Christine Clifton
David “Clammerhead” Cessna
Everette “Rett” Newton
Frank McInturff, PE
Alexis Carpenter
Allan Blanchard
Eben Thoma
Ted Dean
Jason Dalton

To register click here.

Event - Engage for Good (EFG)

Engage for Good will take place on May 23 - 24, 2018, in Chicago, Illinois. Formerly the Cause Marketing Forum, Engage for Good (EFG) is back this year to provide valuable information for cause marketers all along the experience spectrum and in varying formats (keynote presentations, breakout sessions, small group discussions, etc.) to cater to people with different learning styles.

Workshops

Whether you are a cause marketing beginner or veteran, work for a business or a nonprofit, these pre- and post-conference workshops will allow you to gain insights that will help you advance in 2018 and beyond. Separate fees apply for each of these high-touch, small group sessions.
  • Business Leader Summit
  • Corporate Alliances 101 for Nonprofits
  • Nonprofit Leadership Summit
  • Nonprofit Graduate (303) Course

Featured Speakers

Speakers will address some of the best examples of cause marketing and social impact campaigns that truly move the needle for both company and cause. This year’s faculty is comprised of some of the best and brightest individuals in the industry, willing to openly share their lessons learned with you.
  • Asha Sharma Facebook Product Lead, Social Good
  • Michael Strautmanis The Obama Foundation Chief Engagement Officer
  • Laura Swapp REI Director of Next Gen Marketing
  • Racquel Russell Zillow VP, Government Relations and Public Affairs
  • Carolyn Miles Save the Children President & CEO
  • Rob Acker Salesforce.org CEO
  • Atlanta Mcllwraith Timberland Senior Manager, Community Engagement and Communication
  • Josue Estrada Salesforce.org Senior Vice President of Marketing and Industry Solutions
  • Icema Gibbs JetBlue Director - Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Jeffrey Burrell Riot Games Head of Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Laura Atwell Team Rubicon Vice President of Development
  • Rajesh Anandan UNICEF Kid Power Co-creator UNICEF Kid Power, Co-founder ULTRA Testing
  • Mary Jane Melendez General Mills Foundation Executive Director
  • Sue Burton Bank of America Senior Vice President, Enterprise Brand Strategy and Programs
  • Talita Erickson Barilla General Counsel
  • Scott Beaudoin ACTIO Group President
  • Jayme Jenkins The Body Shop Canada VP Marketing & Corporate Responsibility
  • Diana Hovey Dine Out for No Kid Hungry Senior Vice President
  • Melanie LeGrande Major League Baseball Vice President of Social Responsibility
  • Kyle Moss Qualcomm Wireless Reach Program Manager and Global Entrepreneurship Lead
  • Penny Neferis JetBlue Airways Director of Business Continuity & Emergency Response
  • Khalil Smith NeuroLeadership Institute (formerly with Apple) Lead, Diversity and Inclusion
  • Jessica Jecmen Accenture Foundation Executive Director
  • Chris Perry CMN Hospitals Managing Director, Corportate Partners
  • Melanie Fallon-Houska Penguin Random House Director, Corporate Giving
  • Kerry Steib Spotify Director of Social Impact
  • Kristen Fraser Aflac Manager, Marketing Public Relations
  • Lucy Darragh Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Director of Corporate Citizenship
  • Kyla Turner Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores Communications Manager
  • Sue Petersen San Francisco Giants Executive Director
  • Grace Kim Good Worldwide Senior Managing Director
  • Anna Momrow PayPal Head of Consumer Cause Marketing
  • Dave Stangis Campbell Soup Company Vice President-Corporate Responsibility and Chief Sustainability Officer
  • Mark Feldman Cause Consulting Principal and Managing Director
  • Sanjay Podder Accenture Managing Director
  • Maureen Carlson Catalist Co-Founder/Chief Innovation Officer
  • Patty Gentry No Kid Hungry Senior Manager of Grassroots Advocacy & Youth Engagement
  • Charlotte Lucich Habit Burger Grill Director of Marketing
  • Christopher Fuller Inspire Brands Head of Communications
  • Laura Freveletti Allstate Insurance Company Senior Program Officer, Allstate Foundation Good Starts Young
  • Alisha Greenberg Sports Impact Leadership Certificate (SILC) Founder and Co-Director
  • Beth Villatico Fidelity Workplace Solutions Director, Human Resources
  • Bernadette Grey MDR Chief Marketing Strategist
  • Brittany Hill Catalist CEO and Co-Founder
  • David Hessekiel Engage for Good President
  • Gregg Witt Motivate EVP, Youth Marketing
  • Kevin McAndrew Save the Children Senior Director, Social Innovation Partnerships
  • Jake Skoloda Millennial Ad Network, LLC President and Co-Founding Partner
  • Mollye Rhea For Momentum Founder and President
  • Shannan Scarselletta ImproVision Consulting Founder
  • Karen Wu Perlman & Perlman, LLP Partner
  • Joe Waters Selfish Giving Founder and Blogger
  • Frank Smith Raffa Partner
  • Eric Singler PRS IN VIVO Managing Director
  • Lauren Chasanoff Common Impact Senior Manager, Marketing HP Heather Prill Home Depot
  • Julie Laird Davis Habitat for Humanity International Vice President Corporate and Foundation Relations

Click here for the full program.
To register click here.

Macron Refutes Trump in his Address to Congress

Although French President Emmanuel Macron seemed to get along famously with Trump, he pulled no punches in his address to Congress on Wednesday April 25. Macron unflinchingly contradicted some of the central tenets of the Trump administration ranging from freedom and multilateralism to environmental protection and climate action.

Macron schooled the beleaguered American president on the meaning of leadership and many of the ways that the Trump administration has failed to live up to its historic responsibilities.

Macron spoke about the importance of freedom, education, and culture. He called on Americans to resist isolationism and nationalism. He also said there is no democracy without truth. "Against the threats on the planet [we have] science," Macron said, adding "facing these challenges requires the opposite of deregulation."



He spoke forcefully about the importance of environmental action and the need to combat climate change. Macron asked, "What is the meaning of our lives if we work and live and work while destroying our planet and sacrificing the future for our children?" He also said "By polluting the oceans, not mitigation CO2 emissions and destroying our biodiversity we are killing our planet. Let us face it there is no Planet B." "Let us work together in order to make our planet great again and create new jobs and new opportunities while safeguarding our earth."



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Macron Guides Trump While Defending Truth and Climate Action


French President Emmanuel Macron is using his personal relationship with Donald Trump to encourage the beleaguered American leader to be more flexible. Macron also tackled climate change, fake news and some other contentious issues in his address to Congress.

The unlikely relationship between these two men is surprising, to say the least. Macron is a centrist who is diplomatic and eloquent in two languages. Trump has far right tendencies bordering on fascism. At his best Trump has been described as inarticulate at his worst incoherent.

The ruling governments of France and the US are a study in contrasts. France is a global climate leader, a champion of renewable energy and a sustainability leader. Last year the French government announced that by 2040 they will ban fossil fuel powered cars and cease oil and gas exploration. In September Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot said, "It will allow investors to go much further in their renewable investments."

Under Macron France has been a model of climate action while the US under Trump has been an environmental nightmare. The Trump administration has abandoned climate action, systematically dismantled environmental protections and promoted fossil fuels.

It is not just that Macron has managed to forge close ties with Trump that is noteworthy. What makes this relationship so special is the fact that Macron has not shied away from challenging some of the defining tenets of Trump and his administration.

Macron appears to have succeeded in encouraging Trump to be more flexible in his dealings with Iran. In his address to Congress on Wednesday Macron urged the US to resist nationalism, isolationism, anger, and fear. Macron said, "We can choose isolationism, withdrawal, and nationalism ... but closing the door to the world will not stop the evolution of the world."

Macron politely but clearly challenged Trump particularly with respect to his role as the chief purveyor of fake news and as one of the most dishonest men ever to occupy the Oval office.

Macron even spoke about Trump's "copyright" on fake news and the need to challenge dishonesty and support the truth. In a not so veiled parallel to Russian meddling in the US election of 2016, Macron spoke of how his country was targeted by Russia during last year's election. Macron explained that he tasked his government to draft legislation to punish purveyors of false information distributed during election campaigns. In this respect the French leader differs markedly from his American counterpart.

Macron went further defending reason and truth as a fundamental to the freedoms we enjoy. "Without reason, without truth, there is no real democracy because democracy is about true choices and rational decisions," Macron told Congress.

Macron squarely contradicted Trump's climate denial when he spoke about the need for climate action. He insinuated that Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate deal was a momentary lapse of judgment saying the US will one day re-join the agreement.

Quietly riffing on Trump's "Make America Great Again" tag line, Macron appealed to Americans to, "work together in order to make our planet great again and create new jobs and new opportunities while safeguarding our earth," adding, "there is no Planet B".

Related Posts
France Shows Trump What Climate Leadership Looks Like
One Planet Summit Highlights the EU's Climate Leadership
Vive La France! French Electorate Rejects Climate Denial and Commits to Progressive Action
France: One of the Most Sustainable Countries in the World
France Makes Sustainability Reporting Mandatory
The Problem of Food Waste is Being Addressed in France
France Curbs Vehicles and Decrees Green or Solar Roofs
Why France is a Global Climate Leader
Moving Towards 100% Renewable Energy in Europe (France)
French Support for Renewable Energy
French Energy Leadership: Nuclear, Fossil Fuels and GHGs
France Restricts Both GMOs and Cars
Obama and Hollande Call for Climate Action

The Illusion of Growth and the Fallacy of Kuznets Curve

Much of what we call growth is an illusion that is harmful to both humanity and the biosphere. Some have even ventured to put forward the absurd suggestion that economic growth as we currently define it can be good for both equality and biodiversity. This idea is expressed in what is known as a Kuznets Curve. In economics, a Kuznets Curve graphs the notion that as an economy develops, market forces first increase and then decrease economic inequality. The Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesizes that in the early stages of growth, biodiversity tends to suffer and in the later stages it benefits. However, both of these hypotheses are contradicted by the facts. Inequality is increasing and so are the destructive impacts we are having on our ecosystems.

A 2013 Economist magazine special report uses the logic of the environmental Kuznets Curve to suggest that we may not need to be concerned about growth because among other things, as income rises people can focus on nature. It is premised on the belief that as a nation's prosperity increases so too will their support for the environment. This has not materialized as research shows that the environmental impact of wealthier nations is greater than that of poorer nations.

In a Quantdary article Professor Gregory Mikkelson, from the Department of Philosophy and School of Environment at McGill University, says the Economist special report is a "special fantasy". He points to our ecological footprint (environmental depletion and pollution) which shows that between 1980 and 2005, the total ecological footprint of humanity rose by two fifths, to nearly 1.5 Earth’s worth of regenerative and assimilative biocapacity. This trend has only worsened since 2005.

According to this logic wealthy people are more likely to pay for biodiversity conservation. However, this is not born out in the research. According to a paper on biodiversity conservation values and income, "the income elasticity of willingness to pay is less than one".

Inequality

Growth does not reduce inequality it causes it by driving down wages and creating a disenfranchised labor force. It incentivizes exploitation and exacerbates disparities and imbalance. It ignores planetary boundaries and over-consumes nature's capacities.

The boom and bust cycles mean that what we call growth is commonly just recapturing past gains and to make matters worse these gains are going to the tiny minority. The growth we have seen since the recession of 2008 has increased the concentration of wealth and power while the vast majority of people are experiencing declines in their standards of living. Median incomes have been stagnant while the richest 1 percent have captured 95 percent of the post-recession gains.

Globalization

The obsession with growth has fueled globalization which has disenfranchised huge numbers of people all around the world. Globalization has left many behind and contributed to a deep sense of isolation and alienation. "The man who is isolated—who is unable to share in the benefits of political association, or has no need to share because he is already self-sufficient—is in no part of the polis, and must, therefore, be either a beast or a god," Aristotle said.

We should appreciate that globalization is an offshoot of colonialism which allowed western nations to become wealthy by exploiting the resources of the colonies they dominated. This is neither efficient nor moral. Global marketplaces now undermine local realities and override regulatory frameworks.

In a pre-globalized economy, we were tethered to immediately available resources which tended to be more local. In a globalized economy resources are allocated not according to need but as a function of the wealth of the purchasers.

As is all too evident in the US and Europe, these dispossessed people are vulnerable to insular xenophobia and they have helped to give rise to authoritarian governments.

Neither productivity nor progress

Growth should not be confused with either progress or productivity. Free markets are meant to drive efficiency and growth is the incentive that hypothetically drives productivity and increases our standards of living. However, this is not how it actually works.

What seems like economic growth is actually taking place alongside stagnant productivity and a reduction in our standards of living. Since the 1970s we have seen a trend towards greater returns from stagnant production. This has been achieved in large part by privatization that capitalizes on low wages afforded by a globalized economy.

The perils of confusing growth are explained by Kent Welton as follows:
"The real meaning of capital's "progress" is that growth must proceed until all desirable optimums are exhausted and destroyed. Preservation of any human or ecological balance and more desirable state of affairs is denied in theory and practice. Pursued for its own sake, and without reference to extant conditions."
Financial innovations driven by and feeding into our conceptions of growth are another grand illusion. They do not represent either progress or productivity. The derivative and currency markets offer examples of economic growth that hurts investors and even contributes to disastrous political outcomes.

Innovation

Our market based economy is premised on the belief that when resources become too expensive due to scarcity we will find alternatives and/or innovate. However, this pervasive economic dogma is not supported by the evidence.  While such innovations exist the failure to implement them on the required scale is an enduring market failure of colosal proportions.

Leading technological innovations are focused on electronic platforms like Google and Facebook. These digital technologies are focused on data collection that is used for targeted marketing. Such psychometric marketing triggers us to buy things that we do not really need and the biosphere can ill afford.  

GDP

One of the reasons that we are able to sustain the mirage of growth is due to our use of gross domestic product (GDP) to measure success. Growth is measured by increases in production, distribution and consumption, as expressed by GDP. This is not an accurate guage of well-being or progress. A number of prominent people have expressed concerns about GDP as a measure of growth.

Robert F. Kennedy said, GDP, "measures everything, except that which makes life worth living." Vandana Shiva, Ph.D. is an environmental activist who says "The cult of 'growth' has dictated policy for decades. But if well-being, not growth, is our goal, selling resources that bring long-term well being to communities for short term gain is a very bad deal. Hard as it may be for the West to understand, protecting the ecological resources of communities might be more important than GDP figures".

Cancer

Gross National Product is another problematic metric. As explained by Bill Mckibben, "Under the current Gross National Product - GNP - system... all we do is add together expenditures, so the most 'economically productive' citizen is a cancer patient who totals his car on his way to meet with his divorce lawyer."

This is why growth as we currently define it can be compared to a deadly parasite or cancer.  It thrives by killing its host.  Edward Abbey was an American author and environmental advocate. He said, "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell". This type of growth is both uneconomic and amoral. It directly promotes environmental devastation and leads to ruin.

According to Welton, "growthism is a cancer producing continual per-capita diminishment and illusory profit - until space for natural freedom is exhausted and our enclosure, dependency, and despair are complete."

Population

Another way that we perpetuate the illusion of wealth is through population growth. A growing population gives the impression of growth. However, GDP conceals the fact that burgeoning populations also translate to per-capita declines.

Paul Samuelson was an American economist and the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences said, "A growing nation is the greatest Ponzi game ever contrived. Much of what we measure as growth is not about increased productivity it is a function of increasing populations. This is more accurately understood as a per-capita decline in the essential quality of life as measured by overcrowding, environmental degradation and resource consumption. According to this view, our notions of growth and progress are premised on a self-defeating premise that benefits the tiny minority."

Isaac Asimov wrote that overpopulation is a danger to both democracy and the basic value of human life. "As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies. The more people there are, the less one individual matters," Asimov said.

Global population increases the demands on the earth's already overburdened carrying capacity. Concerns about population growth have been around for decades. The famous oceanographer Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997) said, "We must alert and organize the world’s people to pressure world leaders to take specific steps to solve the two root causes of our environmental crises – exploding population growth and wasteful consumption of irreplaceable resources. Overconsumption and overpopulation underlie every environmental problem we face today."

The late world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has also weighed in on the dangers of overpopulation. Even religious groups are sounding the alarm about population growth. The General Synod of the Anglican Church of Australia has warned that current rates of population growth are unsustainable and may even be out of step with church doctrine.

Flaws and fixes

Our conceptions of growth are flawed.  Our economic models continue to largely ignore our diminishing standards of living and the ongoing destruction of our biosphere.  We have growth without productivity and misleading financial innovations that create the illusion of growth. Many of our greatest technological achievements are little more than sophisticated marketing platforms that encourage us to perpetuate the illusion of growth.

Many of the gains we call growth are illusory as they are based on recovery from past losses, the one percent capitalizing on low wages while producing less, population increase, and using metrics like GDP and GNP.

Prevailing definitions of growth benefit neither people nor the planet. To engage in international trade and adapt to population growth we need new more sustainable economic models that balance global and local concerns and factor social and environmental realities.

Related
The Perils of Growth and the Ubiquity of Growthism

Event - 2018 Texas Corporate Responsibility Summit

The fourth annual Corporate Responsibility Summit will take place on May 17, 2018, at the Houston Food Bank, 535 Portwall Street, Houston, Texas. Brought to you by the Council for Corporate Responsibility, the theme of the Summit is Global Reach, Local Impact. It will focus on business efforts to promote corporate citizenship. The goal is to bring the sharpest CR professionals from companies, corporations, and organizations together to share best practices on the Seven Pillars of Corporate Responsibility.

The Summit focuses on business efforts to promote corporate citizenship, bringing together companies, corporations, and organizations to share best practices on the Seven Pillars of Corporate Responsibility:
  1. Diversity and Inclusion
  2. Environmental Sustainability
  3. Governance
  4. Global Enrichment
  5. Organizational Health
  6. Philanthropy
  7. Supply Chain Integrity

Speakers
  • Aniela Unguresan, Co-Founder EDGE Certified Foundation Arquella Hargrove
  • Arquella Hargrove, Corporate Trainer & Adjunct Instructor Lonestar Community College
  • Carlecia Wright, Chief Diversity Officer and Director for the Office of Business Opportunity City of Houston
  • Dustin Joost, Vice President of Sales and Marketing YourCause
  • James Robey, Global Head of Corporate Sustainability Capgemini
  • Janet Pope, North America Corporate Responsibility Leader Capgemini
  • JD Messinger, CEO and Managing Partner Essence Enterprises Ltd
  • Lauren Sanne, Digital Inclusion Leader Capgemini North America
  • Sheryl Corrigan, Director of EH&S Koch Industries Inc.
  • Thorin Schriber, Global Compact Manager, Participant Engagement United Nations Global
  • Yvonne Harris, Assistant Director, CR Capgemini North America 
Cost is $249. To register click here

The Perils of Growth and the Ubiquity of Growthism

"To hasten growth is to hasten decay."
- Lao Tzu

Our growth focused economic models are destroying the earth's natural systems. When we factor environmental and social considerations our fixation with growth is revealed to be a road to ruin. This is evident from hotter temperatures, rising sea levels, extreme weather, melting ice, collapsing fisheries, water scarcity, expanding deserts, forest fires, dying coral reefs and species extinctions.

Our conceptions of growth are supported by the idea that we base our decisions on rational assessments that maximize utility as a consumer and economic profit as a producer.  It is becoming increasingly obvious that there are some critical variables being omitted from our assessments.  Ecological degradation, resource scarcity, recessions and rising rates of inequality make the case that there is something seriously wrong with this economic model.

Common sense dictates that we must factor the earth's carrying capacity and the planetary boundaries that make up the biological limits of our biosphere. However, our current economic models have failed to incorporate such an analysis. The prevailing ethic which is grow or die may be more accurately restated as grow and die.

For decades researchers have been compiling evidence that reveals the dangers associated with our reliance on growth. A 1972 book titled Limits to Growth, predicted the collapse of civilization within a century. The book was premised on an MIT computer model called World3 that predicted if we continue with business as usual the world would succumb to "overshoot and collapse" before 2070. Using UN, NOAA, BP and other statistics Dr Graham Turner from the University of Melbourne corroborated the conclusion of the book. He concluded that his observations are consistent with the World3 predictions.

In the book The End of Growth, Richard Heindberg concludes that, "economic growth as we have known it is over and done with." The book Prosperity Without Growth by Tim Jackson explores the unsustainability of current rates of consumption drilling down on the false dichotomy between environmental action and economic growth.

In an article called The Myth of Progress, American journalist, author, Presbyterian minister, and Princeton University lecturer Christopher Hedges says we are moving in a perilous direction. "The industrial elites are the forces that now doom us. The mania for ceaseless economic expansion and exploitation has become a curse, a death sentence," Hedges said. "We have bound ourselves to a doomsday machine that grinds forward...We have failed to control human numbers. They have tripled in my lifetime. And the problem is made much worse by the widening gap between rich and poor, the upward concentration of wealth, which ensures there can never be enough to go around."

The negative consequences associated with the emphasis on growth has been called "growthism". According to Erik Lindberg Growthism is inexorably embedded in our systems, directing and controlling them, and giving the impression of an inescapable natural law.

Growthism is a belief forged over the last two centuries that subscribes to the dogma that achievement of our society is principally measured by increase in economic measures such as GDP and per capita or volume of trade. This view is premised on unquestioned assumptions. The facts indicate that growthism runs counter to humanity's need to live within the thermodynamic and biological limits of our environment.

Growthism is diminishing our quality of life and threatening life on the planet. According to Erik Lindberg, "our modern framework, with its Growthist Self leading the charge, is responsible for the destruction of the world’s biosphere and is bringing on what scientists refer to as the 6th Great Extinction." In addition to eco-ruin, growthism feeds a global oligopoly, debt, corruption, class conflict, poverty and homelessness.

Growthists are ubiquitous and as Lindberg points out, "Every American hero from Christopher Columbus to the present has been a Growthist; and this has not of course changed with the entrepreneurial hero."  This perspective is shared by both ends of the political spectrum. Although they may differ on how to get there, both liberals and conservatives subscribe to economic models predicated on growth.

The almost universal reliance on growth has serious consequences, because as Kent Welton indicates, "Growthism lacks both context and assent by the vast majority. As such, it is doomed to produce social and ecological ruin, and political turmoil."

Growthism is disconnected from the real world. The values assigned by those who subscribe to growthism are devoid of relation to natural process.The corporate world's single minded focus on profits are driving this state of unbalance. As corporate profits have increased we have seen declines in real wages. This is "trickle-up" economics which transfers wealth from the many to the few.

We are living in an age of Growthmania which Paul Ehrlich describes as, "the most pervasive social disease in America... most economists are hooked on growth the way junkies are hooked on heroin." The grothist model means by definition that there will be losers, lots of them. It is a race to the finish line and the spoils go to the select few. This is an unsustainable system.

Far from addressing this problem we seem to be doubling down on this doomed economic system. As reviewed in a paper by Herman Daly, Donald Trump is also a growthist.

Related
The Illusion of Growth and the Fallacy of Kuznets Curve

Event - 2018 Shared Value Leadership Summit

This event will take place on April 30 – May 2, in Conrad, New York. The 2018 Shared Value Leadership Summit will dive deep into the world’s greatest opportunities. This includes access to medicine, clean energy, smart technologies and workforce opportunities.  The Summit will be attended by the women and men who are taking shared value strategy from the boardroom to shared value reality on the ground.  The list of speakers includes former US Secretary of State and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Featured Speakers
  • Hillary Rodham Clinton Former U.S. Secretary of State
  • Deval Patrick Managing Director - Double Impact Bain Capital
  • Deborah DiSanzo General Manager - Watson Health IBM
  • Rajiv Shah President The Rockefeller Foundation
  • Roger Ferguson President & CEO TIAA
  • Bruce Broussard President & CEO Humana
  • Kathleen McLaughlin Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer Walmart Inc
  • Alessandro Benetton Founding Managing Partner & Chairman of 21 Partners 21 Partners
  • Leigh Gallagher Senior Editor at Large Fortune
  • Michael Porter Bishop William Lawrence University Professor Harvard Business School
  • Katie Beirne Fallon Head of Global Corporate Affairs Hilton Worldwide
  • Alan Murray Chief Content Officer, Time, Inc. & President, Fortune Magazine Time Inc.

Click here for the agenda and here for more information or to register.

Event - The World Environment Expo 2018

The World Environment Expo 2018 will take place on June 5 - 7 in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. Green Society of India in association with Indian Exhibition Services is organizing the first ever World Environment Expo (WEE 2018), on 5-7 June 2018 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. This international exhibition on environment protection and clean & green energy is being hosted concurrently with World Environment Protection Congress 2018 and India Buildtech 2018 Expo.

The World Environment Expo is a B2B business interaction platform that brings together technology and equipment manufacturers in the areas of environmental protection, renewable energy, waste management, sustainable buildings, water management, green innovations, energy efficiency and eco-friendly products from India and abroad. Exhibitors can display their innovations and technologies to prospective collaborators and will be able to connect with fellow entrepreneurs across worldwide.

World Environment Expo is also supported by trade associations such as Solar Power Developers Association, Builders Association of India, Solar Energy Society of India, National Solar Energy Federation of India, Indian Wind Power Association, Indian Society of Heating Refrigerating & Air-conditioning Engineers.

For more information click here or to register click here.

Learning - Sustainability Strategy (Certificate, Diploma and Program)

In 2018 the certificate course in Sustainability Strategy will take place at St Gobain Innovation Centre, 95 Great Portland St, London, UK on June 4 - 5, August 6 - 7, October 1 - 5, and December 3 - 4. The Diploma in Sustainability Strategy will take place on August 6 - 7.

These courses of study are provided by ©Sustainability & CSR Insights, a business strategy think-tank and an Accredited Continuing Professional Development (CPD) company providing courses approved by the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) for the ©Certificate in Sustainability Strategy, ©Diploma in Sustainability Strategy and dual certification The W. Edwards Deming Institute® Sustainability Strategy Program.

Their Sustainable Strategic Growth Model™ is a management resource that will transform your business into a ©Sustainably Managed Enterprise and has been adopted by managers and business leaders at major international organisations such as Tarmac, Ferrovial Agroman, Asanko Gold and the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society.

They help Managers and Entrepreneurs in both fast growth companies and small businesses overcome the challenge of embedding Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into their business strategy.

©Sustainability & CSR Insights set the standard for content and delivery of environmental, CSR and sustainability training through robust quality assurance processes and provide professional development support aligned with IEMA Skills Map.

The ©Certificate in Sustainability Strategy has been accredited by the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA).

- In line with IEMA Environmental Skills Map
- Receive a 15% discount on IEMA Membership
- Flexible Study Options
- 2 x Day Course Available

Testimonials

"It has made me think about sustainability in a different way in order to facilitate the various elements. I really enjoyed the process and feel far better equipped now to understand and hopefully manage sustainability more efficiently and effectively in the future."

— Brendan Kemp, Senior Environmental Consultant

Certificate in Sustainability Strategy

"Your knowledge and insight proved to be vital in ensuring that our delegates had a constructive and inspiring day."

— Jan Chimiel, Past CEO

"Thank you also for a great course – I’ve already found it to be exceedingly helpful, and it’s already advanced a lot of my implementation plans."

— Richard Sims, Quality Manager

©Certificate in Sustainability Strategy

The © Certificate in Sustainability Strategy has been accredited by the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) the professional body for over 15,000 environment and sustainability professionals from around the globe.

IEMA sets the accreditation criteria for the content and delivery of environment and sustainability training through robust quality assurance processes and provides professional development support in line with the IEMA Environmental Skills Map.

Flexible Study Options

Option 1: Attend our 2 x day activity based in-company workshop or Public training course that will review the following modules*:

Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility – Context and Definition Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Dilemma Sustainable Strategic Growth Model - a solution to the Sustainability and CSR dilemma Sustainability Footprints – tools for growth The Politics of Sustainability Case studies

* Each Module is delivered using interactive lectures with dedicated online tutor support

Option 2: Complete the 2 x day activity based in-company workshop or Public training course as part of The W. Edwards Deming Institute® Sustainability Strategy Program and gain dual certification from both The W. Edwards Deming Institute® and Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment.

Option 3: Complete the core modules + exam within 30 days via e-learning and achieve a continuing professional development (CPD) certification.

Transform your business

The emergence of sustainability megaforces within the 21st business context such as climate change, energy & fuel, material resource scarcity, water scarcity, population growth, wealth, urbanization, food security, eco system decline and deforestation presents both risks and opportunities. The approach used in the course assumes no prior awareness by providing the knowledge and strategic tools to deploy sustainable development utilising best practice case studies

Gain new skills

Learn to develop effective plans using the interactive online Sustainable Strategic Growth Model™ Analysis Tool and resource material provided in the course textbook Sustainability Footprints in SMEs: Strategy and Case Studies for Entrepreneurs and Small Business published by John Wiley & Sons.

The ©Certificate in Sustainability Strategy is useful qualification for senior management, company directors, Quality Managers, Safety Managers, Environmental Managers, CSR/Sustainability Managers, Marketing and early career professionals that are tasked with contributing to Sustainability/CSR implementation and reporting

©Diploma in Sustainability Strategy

©Diploma in Sustainability Strategy is an exciting new course that explores quality and lean management tools that support a balanced approach to developing operations strategy for sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

During the 2 x day(s) workshop, you will review best practice case studies that illustrate the use of the Sustainable Strategic Growth Model™, Sustainability Management Framework and Sustainability Performance Framework to align strategy and policies with compliance obligations, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and Millennium Development Goals.

Gain world-class sustainability training in 3 easy steps!

1. Pre-qualify: Successfully achieve the ©Certificate in Sustainability Strategy at a workshop or by online distance learning
2. Purchase: Register for the ©Diploma in Sustainability Strategy and pay with credit, debit, PayPal or bank transfer.
3. Complete A 30 minute online assessment.

The W. Edwards Deming Institute® Sustainability Strategy Program

A two-day program facilitated by The W. Edwards Deming Institute® that provides fast growth companies and small businesses with the tools to measure #Sustainabilityfootprints and future-proof their strategy by the implementation of sustainable best practices using Deming's Management Method

“We are in a new economic age. We can no longer live with commonly accepted levels of delays, mistakes, defective materials and defective workmanship….The prevailing style of management must undergo transformation. A system cannot understand itself. The transformation requires a view from outside.”

Since 1993, The W. Edwards Deming Institute® , has both designed and hosted conferences, seminars, and workshops to present Dr. Deming’s “Management Method” to audiences across the US and internationally as well. Building upon this legacy, The Deming Institute is proud to announce a new 8-hour immersion program, targeted at leaders at all levels of organizations, with a focus on revisiting the foundations of teamwork, the connecting power and potential of all organizations.

A reliance on working together is fundamental to both solving problems and preventing problems, and the ability to “do more with less,” in all organizations, whether public or private, for-profit or non-profit. Presented through an exciting partnership with ©Sustainability & CSR Insights and The W. Edwards Deming Institute®, this workshop reveals blind spots to teamwork that form the foundation of “Organizations as Usual” and presents fundamental concepts and strategies from the Deming Management Method for shifting these organizations in the direction of “Unusual,” embedding sustainability/CSR with the vibrant attributes and results formed from a collaborative environment.

Between his “discovery” by US industry in 1980 and his death in 1993, Dr. Deming became more and more aware of the limitations of “Organization as Usual,” ever consumed and frustrated by “commonly accepted levels of delays, mistakes, defective materials and defective workmanship.” As expressed in his articles and seminars, Dr. Deming saw these results as symptoms of how individuals and organizations think and act. Specifically, how they act when managing their resources, including time, money, knowledge, equipment, and people.

Using a highly interactive format, The W. Edwards Deming Institute® Sustainability Strategy Program provides a stark contrast between “Organizations as Usual” and “Organizations as Unusual,” including a proposal for how to shift organizational resources from an emphasis on solving problems to an emphasis on preventing problems, as well as discovering hidden opportunities for gainful investment that incorporates Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Such a dramatic change requires awareness of how organizations both understand and manage systems, variation, people (psychology), and knowledge, the four interdependent elements of Dr. Deming’s System of Profound Knowledge®, the cornerstone of his distinctive management method.

The W. Edwards Deming Institute® Sustainability Strategy Program provides an engaging review of Deming's Management Method (System of Profound Knowledge) for leading a professionally managed organization in the direction of Organizations as Unusual and includes training for the ©Certificate in Sustainability Strategy

The Certificate in Sustainability Strategy will provide the knowledge and skills necessary to assist managers with designing strategies that will mitigate the effects of sustainability risks and enhance organisational potential to exploit opportunities.

In addition to learning material and insight into the use of tools such as the Sustainable Strategic Growth Model™ delegates will receive copies of both Dr Deming's book The New Economics and Dr James's book Sustainability Footprints in SMEs: Strategy and Case Studies for Entrepreneurs and Small Business as resource to support the effective implementation of sustainability strategy.

Upon successful completion of the two-day(s) workshop, delegates gain dual certification from both The W. Edwards Deming Institute® and the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) the world's leading environmental management professional body.

The W. Edwards Deming Institute® Sustainability Strategy Program would benefit senior management, company directors, Quality Managers, Safety Managers, Environmental Managers, CSR/Sustainability Managers, Marketing and early career professionals who are involved in Sustainability/CSR implementation and reporting.

Program Facilitators
  • Bill Bellows, Ph.D., Deputy Director, The W. Edwards Deming Institute®
  • Lowellyne James, Ph.D., ©Sustainability & CSR Insights

E- Learning Course

E-Learning may be the option if you are juggling the demands of career and family. Study at your own pace. Enhance your career prospects by completing our online © Certificate in Sustainability Strategy for £200 + VAT which includes:
  • Access to interactive e-learning material
  • Course Textbook
  • Exam fees
  • Dedicated online tutor support

For more information on upcoming course dates or to arrange an in-company workshop contact: 077244-77788 or contact@sustainabilitycsr.com

To register click here.

Kinder Morgan Pipeline is as Good as Dead

The Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion has been a thorny issue for Justin Trudeau's ruling Liberal government. The $7.8-billion pipeline would ferry 890,000 barrels of tar sands crude 1,150-kilometres from Edmonton to a terminal in Burnaby, B.C., near Vancouver, where it would be exported to markets in Asia.

The battle over the Kinder Morgan pipeline is about more than just the dangers of transporting oil by pipe, it is also about bitumen-filled supertankers in ecologically sensitive coastal waters. If it is built the pipeline will increase tanker and barge traffic 700 percent in the Salish Sea and Puget Sound. This will expose communities and the marine environment to the risk of an oil spill and imperil marine life including BC's Orca population.

There is also the issue of the carbon load associated with the pipeline. A recent auditors report reveals that Canada will not achieve its 2020 carbon reduction targets. According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Kinder Morgan and Line 3 pipelines represent an increase of 23 to 28 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent every year. The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency estimates that when the pipelines are fully operational they will produce 20 to 26 megatonnes of emissions each year. This will make it even harder for Canada to achieve its carbon targets for 2030.

Citing environmental considerations the newly elected government of British Columbia (B.C.) has vowed to stop the pipeline. Leaders in the province have openly opposed the pipeline. Dozens of municipalities have rejected the pipeline including the mayor of Vancouver. By far the most powerful voice opposing the pipeline comes from BC's NDP Premier John Horgan.

"Our government made it clear that a seven-fold increase in heavy oil tankers in the Vancouver harbor is not in B.C.'s best interests," Minister of Environment and Climate Change George Heyman told reporters. "Not for our economy, our environment, or thousands of existing jobs. We will use all available tools to protect our coastal waters and our province's future."

Opposition to the pipeline also comes from people across the continent and around the world including  people like David Suzuki and Bill McKibben. There have been scores of protests, vigils, and petitions along with thousands of comments to the Kinder Morgan review panel.

Indigenous people are on the frontlines of pipeline protests. First Nations led resistance to the Northern Gateway pipeline and Native Americans are on the frontlines against the Dakota Access pipeline. Indigenous people are also leading the resistance to the Kinder Morgan pipeline. This includes Rueben George from the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and Over 100 First Nations who have signed the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion.

The Kinder Morgan is at odds with the ruling Liberal government's stated policy priorities of climate leadership and respect for indigenous people. Desmog describes the Canadian government's approval of the pipeline as the end of reconciliation efforts with Canada's indigenous peoples.

Nonetheless, under pressure from oil industry lobbyists, Canada's federal cabinet approved the Kinder Morgan in November 2016. "Today’s decision is an integral part of our plan to uphold the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions while creating jobs and protecting the environment," Trudeau told reporters at a press conference.  This is a paradoxical statement and yet another example of Trudeau's energy policy dualism that tries to wrap its arms around both climate leadership and fossil fuels.

Liberal MP Jim Carr explained his party's approach by saying, "our goal is finding sweet spot between resource development and environmental responsibility."  However, it is impossible to reconcile fossil fuel pipelines with climate leadership.

In August 2017 the National Energy Board formally green-lighted the building of the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby BC which would transfer the bitumen from the pipeline to supertankers. In September 2017 the port of Vancouver approved a construction permit for the tanker terminal on Burrard Inlet. However, the momentum has waned as opposition has grown.

The battle lines are drawn with First Nations, communities, climate scientists, environmental groups, politicians, and the hundreds of thousands of people on one side and Justin Trudeau, Alberta’s NDP Premier, Rachel Notley and Big Oil on the other.

The ante was upped on April 9th, 2018 when Texas-based Kinder Morgan announced that it was halting all non-essential spending on the Trans Mountain pipeline adding the project will be abandoned if an agreement cannot be reached with the various stakeholders by May 31.

Trudeau is under intense pressure to get the pipeline built. However, widespread protest helped to stop both the Energy East and the Northern Gateway pipelines. The Kinder Morgan looks like it will succumb to the same fate.

Pruitt is Purging Scientists at the EPA

Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt is purging science and scientitsts. To make matters worse many of the scientists that have been let go have been replaced with fossil fuel industry lobbyists and lawyers. Under Pruitt remaining scientists are muzzled and facts are suppressed. In addition to repealing regulations Pruitt is burying the science that supports the agency's rules.

The EPA under Pruitt has abandoned science and with it actions based on evidence. Instead of being guided by facts the agency is now guided by the very industries it is charged to regulate. The EPA was once one a paragon of science, now scientific conclusions that are incompatible with Pruitt's pro-polluter agenda are censored. Pruitt not only removed references to climate change from the EPA website, the agency's new four year strategic plan does not mention climate change once.

According to a recently leaked memo in April 2017 Pruitt directed his staff to remove climate change information from the EPA website. He also sent his employees a list of talking points on climate change including statements that downplay its anthropogenic origins.

Pruitt has also muzzled EPA scientists preventing them from speaking publicly. In October the EPA canceled the speaking appearance of three agency scientists who were scheduled to discuss climate change at a conference in Rhode Island.

Last June the EPA gave notice to dozens of scientific advisory board members that they will not be renewed in their roles at the agency. In November Pruitt cited the Bible to justify a new rule preventing university scientists from serving on key advisory boards. The purge, which included some of the best and the brightest scientists at the EPA, was designed to clear the way for Pruitt to either leave the posts vacant or appoint fossil fuel and petrochemical industry lobbyists and lawyers.

Trump's most recent budget proposed slashing the EPA's funding by 34 percent. The combination of staff and budget cuts that have already occurred at the agency are making it impossible for the EPA to enforce remaining regulations. According to a report by Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), staff and budget cuts have succeeded in reducing by half the number of penalties levied against polluters compared to the same period in the past three presidential administrations.

Pruitt has succeeded in eviscerating key portions of the EPA including the Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC), the Science Advisory Board (SAB) and the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC).

By going after agency scientists and key EPA bodies Pruitt appears intent on dismantling the agency. He is also targeting the morale of those that are still working at the agency. This has had the desired effect of reducing the agency's effectiveness and auguring a number of resignations.

In an act that some senior EPA officials have described as their "civic duty" they are quitting the agency in protest and leaving behind scathing indictments of Pruitt's leadership. Peter Meyer, an economist with the E.P. Systems Group is but one of dozens of who have resigned. Meyer publicly resigned from BOSC's sustainable and healthy communities subcommittee to protest staff cuts.

Mustafa Ali, is a pillar of environmental justice, he quit the EPA when it became clear that Pruitt and the Trump administration want to end protections for vulnerable Americans. Ali helped start the environmental justice office and its environmental equity office in the 1990s. He has been a champion of poor and minority neighborhoods afflicted by pollution. Although Ali has served both Republicans and Democrats, he came to the conclusion that he could not work with the Trump administration. Ali told ThinkProgress that he had to "stand up" and in his resignation letter he asked Pruitt, to listen to poor and non-white people and "value their lives."

Elizabeth Southerland is a senior EPA official who quit the EPA. She was the Director of the Office of Science and Technology for the agency's Water Office. She resigned after 30 years of dedicated service because she could not stand idly by and watch the agency be dismantled. As she left she called out Pruitt and Trump for their anti-environment, anti-science, anti-regulatory agenda saying they are willfully undermining the agency's core mission. She decried Pruitt's contempt for scientific fact and she issued a scathing message for her boss. "Today the environmental field is suffering from the temporary triumph of myth over truth," she said in her resignation letter which she described as her civic duty. "The truth is there is NO war on coal, there is NO economic crisis caused by environmental protection, and climate change IS caused by man’s activities."

Mike Cox is another senior EPA official who has left due to the anti-environment anti-science orientation Pruitt has brought to the agency. Cox also has 30 years of experience at the agency, and as he explained in his resignation letter, he is retiring because, "this is the first time I remember staff openly dismissing and mocking the environmental policies of an administration and, by extension, the EPA administrator."

Former EPA staffers have created a guide for resisting Pruitt and Trump's de-regulatory agenda. The group known as Save EPA is made up of former employees based in Denver. The city of Chicago has published a guide to help other cities fight back against the EPA's efforts to purge climate science. Cities like Atlanta, Burlington, Houston and Seattle all followed Chicago's lead and published deleted EPA information on their websites.

Related
Pruitt is Destroying the EPA
Pruitt's Advocacy on Behalf of Polluters is Killing Americans
Pruitt Lies to Kill the Clean Power Plan
Emails Reveal Pruitt's Anti-Regulation Industry Advocacy
Pruitt to Decimate Environmental Protections and Climate Action
Trump puts the Fox in the Henhouse: Pruitt to Head the EPA
Republicans Trying to Kill the EPA Quickly
Trump's War against the EPA has Begun

Event - 2018 Ceres Conference (Boston)

This Ceres conference will take place April 24-26 at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. We urgently need to scale up sustainable solutions to climate change, water scarcity and pollution, and human rights abuses to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy and deliver on the goals of the global Paris Agreement. At Ceres Conference 2018, you will hear from institutional investors, C-Suite company executives and capital market leaders who understand the financial imperative of addressing these sustainability threats. Join 600 influential leaders across the U.S. and around the globe and help transform the economy to build a more sustainable future for generations to come. Ceres Conference 2017 in San Francisco brought together more more than 600 investor and company leaders and advocates who are catalyzing the biggest breakthroughs on sustainability. This year’s conference will also feature ‘World Ceres Talks’ to showcase innovative and inspiring leaders who bring a distinct message and unique perspective on a wide range of topics.

Speakers

  • VICKI ARROYO Founding Executive Director, Georgetown Climate Center Georgetown Law
  • AMY AUGUSTINE Senior Director, Company Network Ceres
  • BRYN BAKER Deputy Director, Renewable Energy World Wildlife Fund
  • BROOKE BARTON Senior Director, Water and Food Ceres
  • MATTHIAS BERNINGER Director Corporate health and Nutrition for Europe and the CIS Mars Europe
  • DAVID BLOOD Co-Founder and Senior Partner Generation Investment Management
  • MICHAEL BRADLEY President and Founder M.J. Bradley & Associates LLC.
  • MARISA BUCHANAN Deputy Global Head of Sustainable Finance JPMorgan Chase & Co.
  • LAURIE BURT President Laurie Burt, LLC.
  • TRACEY CAMERON Analyst, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Fidelity
  • KARINA CASTILLO Florida Field Consultant and Latina Outreach Organizer Moms Clean Air Force
  • CAROLINE CHOI Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs Southern California Edison
  • SIOBHAN COLLINS Manager, Food and Water Ceres
  • CYNTHIA CURTIS Senior Vice President, Stakeholder Engagement JLL
  • LISA DAVIS Sustainability Manager IKEA US
  • MARY ANN DIMASCIO Senior Manager, Company Network Ceres
  • PATTY DIORIO Vice President, US Strategy National Grid
  • EOIN FAHY Head of Responsible Investing KBI Global Investors
  • ANDERS FERGUSON Founding Partner Veris Wealth Partners
  • JAMES FORESE President Citigroup
  • SARA FORNI Senior Manager, Clean Vehicles Ceres
  • DANIELLA FOSTER Senior Director of Global Corporate Responsibility Hilton
  • MARK FULTON Senior Fellow Ceres
  • CARL GANTER Managing Director Circle of Blue
  • MICHAEL GARLAND Assistant Comptroller Corporate Governance and Responsible Investment
  • BILL GILL AVP Environmental Affairs Smithfield Foods
  • ALLI GOLD ROBERTS Senior Manager, State Policy Ceres
  • ALISA GRAVITZ President & CEO Green America
  • ANITA GREEN Director, Sustainable Investment Strategies Wespath Investment Management
  • CARLY GREENBERG Senior ESG Analyst Walden Asset Management
  • KEVIN HAGEN Vice President Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) Strategy Iron Mountain
  • GEORGE HAMILTON President Institute for Sustainable Communities
  • JEFF HANRATTY Applied Sustainability Manager General Mills
  • JAY HARF Vice President, EHS&S L'Oréal Operations Americas
  • PATRICIA HEALY Sr. Vice President of Research & Portfolio Manager Cumberland Advisors
  • CANDACE HEWITT Analyst, Responsible Investing Nuveen
  • STEVEN HOCH Partner Brown Advisory
  • DERRICK JACKSON Environmental Writing Fellow Union of Concerned Scientists
  • KIRSTEN JAMES Director, California Policy and Partnerships Ceres
  • ROSABETH MOSS KANTER Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administrator Harvard Business School
  • ADAM KANZER Managing Director of Corporate Engagement Domini Impact Investments
  • ANNE KELLY Ceres
  • DAVID KING Head of Environmental, Social and Governance Fidelity Investments
  • JONAS KRON Senior Vice President Trillium Asset Management
  • RAKHI KUMAR Head of ESG Investments and Asset Stewardship State Street Global Advisors
  • KRISTEN LANG Director, Company Network Ceres
  • SARA LAW VP, Global Initiatives CDP
  • JOHN LEISEN Vice President, Property Management Target
  • CARL LEVANDER Executive Vice President, Regulatory Policy and Corporate Affairs NiSource
  • JANE LLOYD Global Forests Watch, Commodities and Finance Program Product Manager WRI
  • ANDREW LOGAN Director, Oil and Gas Ceres
  • MINDY LUBBER Chief Executive Officer and President Ceres
  • ALEXIS LUDWIG-VOGEN Director, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Best Buy Co.
  • JOSEPH MANNING Senior Associate, Company Network Ceres
  • DAWN MARTIN Chief Operating Officer Ceres
  • JAMIE MARTIN Executive Director, Global Sustainable Finance Morgan Stanley
  • CYNTHIA MCHALE Director, Insurance and Interim Director, Climate Action 100+ Investor Engagement Ceres
  • SHAUN MICKUS Global Director, Social Business Practices Johnson & Johnson
  • SARAH MIHALECZ Sustainability, North America Tata Group
  • JULIE NASH Senior Manager, Food and Capital Markets Ceres
  • KATHERINE NEEBE Senior Director - ESG, Trust & Transparency Walmart, Inc.
  • SAMANTHA SUE PING Vice President, Head of ESG Issuer Communications MSCI
  • VEENA RAMANI Program Director, Capital Market Systems Ceres Veena Ramani is the program director of the Capital Market Systems program at Ceres.
  • JANET RANGANATHAN Vice President for Science and Research World Resources Institute
  • EMILY REICHERT Chief Executive Officer Greentown Labs
  • SUE REID Vice President, Climate and Energy Ceres
  • JOHN REPLOGLE Partner, One Better Ventures Former CEO, 7th Generation
  • MARY ROBINSON President Mary Robinson Foundation
  • MICHELLE ROMERO Deputy Director Green for All
  • DAN SACCARDI Director, Company Network Ceres
  • BRUNO SARDA Head of Sustainability NRG
  • FRANK SHERMAN Executive Director Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investment
  • VALERIE SMITH Managing Director & Global Head of Corporate Sustainability Citi
  • MARTY SPITZER Senior Director, Climate and Renewable Energy World Wildlife Fund
  • MADHYAMA SUBRAMANIAN Program Manager Solidaridad North America
  • DANIELLE SUGARMAN Vice President, Investment Stewardship BlackRock
  • JOHN SULLIVAN Chief Engineer Boston Water and Sewer Commission
  • BYRON THAYER Sustainability Manager: Water Strategist, Performance & Reporting Levi Strauss & Co.
  • GAURAV TRIVEDI Vice President, ESG Indexes and Reporting Research MSCI
  • JACKIE VANDERBRUG Managing Director U.S. Trust
  • CYRUS WADIA Vice President, Sustainable Business & Innovation Nike, Inc.
  • CHRIS WELLISE Chief Sustainability Officer HPE Corporate Affairs
  • LINDSEY WHITE Senior Manager, Investor Network on Climate Risk and Sustainability Ceres
  • RAY WOOD Managing Director, Global Head of Power, Utilities & Renewables Bank of America Merrill Lynch
  • MICHELLE WU Boston City Councilor At-Large
  • ION YADIGAROGLU Partner and Managing Principal Capricorn Investment Group

Click here for the agenda
Click here to register
.

Event - International Coporate Citizensship Conference: Resilience, Responsibility, Results

The International Coporate Citizensship Conference, subtitled Resilience, Responsibility and Results will take place on April 8th 2018 in Los Angeles, California. At this conference, the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship will explore how strong corporate social responsibility programs can ensure a sustainable and prosperous future while delivering strong returns. This is the best place to connect and network with “who’s who” in the field.

Leading companies are demonstrating resilience and corporate responsibility to achieve results. They are advocating for environmental, social, and governance action at an unprecedented scale—and in doing so are investing now in what will make them stronger later.

Join more than 600 CSR leaders to explore how strong corporate social responsibility programs can ensure a sustainable and prosperous future while delivering strong returns now.  Learn how you can create proactive programs, align your efforts with business strategy, make the most of the opportunities presented by diverse and engaged stakeholders, and build flexibility into your work—so that you can deliver business and social value now and in the future.

Click here to register.

Webinar - Sustainability Reporting is Evolving. Are you Adapting your Reporting?

This free webinaar will take place on Tuesday, April 10, 2018, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT.

Join speakers from Mentis Solutions and Greenstone for this free webinar to gain further insight into the sustainability reporting landscape and major trends that could impact the way you report going forward.

This webinar offers practical thoughts on how you can streamline your data to more efficiently meet the demands of rapidly evolving reporting landscape. The presentations will be followed by a qestiona and answer session.

Speakers and agenda

Pravin Rodrigues, President, Mentis Solutions - The Sustainable Enterprise Practice (20 minutes) The current global sustainability reporting landscape and spotlight on reporting in the North American context

David Wynn, Head of Client Services, Greenstone (25 minutes) The challenges and opportunities of sustainability data Practical tips on embedding a robust data strategy and best practice case studies

Registration and questions

Click here to register on Eventbrite and you will be sent confirmation and login details via GoToWebinar.

If you have any questions contact: Pravin Rodrigues, President, Mentis Solutions prodrigues@mentis-solutions.com +1.416.996.1197

Pruitt's Advocacy on Behalf of Polluters is Killing Americans

Scott Pruitt makes his living sucking the teat of big polluters. Although Pruitt has all but ignored environmental groups he has regularly met with regulated concerns. The fossil fuel industry is now running the EPA and chemical industry lobbyists are writing the agency's toxic chemical rules.

Pruitt has quietly sought to eviscerate key protections including the Clean Power Plan, the Clean Water Rule, methane emission limits, and bans on dangerous pesticides like chlorpyrifos. Pruitt thinks industry should be allowed to discharge unlimited amounts of climate change causing emissions (carbon and methane), smog-forming volatile organic compounds, and cancer-causing pollutants like benzene into the air we breathe.

A closer look at his assault on water rules reveal that Pruitt is systematically dismantling these protections. At the behest of industry the EPA is reviewing a number of water rules including Section 316B Cooling Water Intake Structure Rule. To benefit the oil and gas industry the EPA is reviewing Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, impacting local water quality. Agency staffers were also asked to withdraw the 2015 Water Quality Standards Rule, an update of the Clean Water Act that was designed to limit water pollution and protect water quality. The EPA is also reassessing drinking water standards for beryllium and guidance for selenium levels in freshwater, the aquifer exemption under the Safe Drinking Water Act; and the National Pollution Discharge and Elimination System.

To add insult to injury, on March 30, 2018 Pruitt signed a directive that gives him final jurisdictional authority over America's lakes, rivers, streams, ponds and wetlands. The move consolidates his power and dis-empowers EPA field workers.

In March 2017 EPA officials proposed eliminating two programs focused on limiting children’s exposure to lead-based paint, which is known to cause damage to developing brains and nervous systems (more than a quarter of a million American children are known to have high levels of lead in their bloodstream). In June Pruitt announced that he would stay enforcement of leaks called "fugitive emissions". However, in July, the Court of Appeals for the Washington, D.C., Circuit ordered the EPA. to lift its stay on the rule while they reconsider regulations.

In September, the EPA announced that it was planning to allow unlimited dumping of fracking waste water into the Gulf of Mexico. In October Pruitt signed a proposal that would allow America’s power plants to emit unlimited amounts of carbon pollution into our air. At the beginning of March 2018 Pruitt announced a proposal to eliminate coal ash regulations. At the end of March Pruitt announced that he was eliminating programs that research the impact of toxic chemicals on kids. Now Pruitt is working to kill a new generation of more efficient cars in the US. This move will cost Americans more at the pump and dump hundreds of millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This proposal is in response to an anti-science car industry lobbying group called the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

Pruitt has radically changed the EPA from an agency that focuses on public health to one that panders to the interests of polluters. His deregulatory efforts signal that it is open season for polluters. By virtue of the fact that they are no longer forced to pay for their environmental insults, polluters have been given a financial incentive to pollute (it is cheaper to pollute than to manage that pollution).

Rather than work for the health of Americans Pruitt is paving the way for polluters. His visit to Harvey Mine is a tangible example of his efforts to accommodate polluters without regard for the environment. Pruitt went to Harvey Mine, in Sycamore, Pennsylvania, to announce a new direction for the EPA in April 2017. The coal-mining complex is owned by Consol Energy, a company that has been fined millions of dollars for discharging contaminated waste water into the Ohio river. Pruitt also personally brokered a backroom deal to bring back the Pebble Mine in Alaska's Bristol Bay.

In November Pruitt released a proposal that would create a loophole for some of the most highly polluting trucks in America. By removing clean truck standards, so called Glider trucks would be free to pollute. According to EPA’s own estimates, reopening this loophole would result in as many as 6,400 premature deaths from truck sales through 2021. It is no coincidence that Pruitt met with Fitzgerald Glider Kits, America’s largest glider manufacturer, at EPA Headquarters earlier this year.

Superfund clean ups is the one area where Pruitt appears to be doing something. However, a closer look reveals that this is a sham. At the same time that Pruitt has been pledging to clean up some Superfund sites, he has been dismantling important Superfund regulations and creating the conditions that are sure to create new Superfund sites. In December, he announced that he would eliminate a 2016 rule called the financial assurances law requiring hard-rock-mining operations to prove they had the financial resources to clean up the toxic messes they make.

Pruitt has worked to undermine the EPA's core mandates including the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act and the Endangerment Finding. Pruitt is polluting the air Americans breathe, the water they drink and the soil they depend on for their food. Pruitt's actions at the EPA represent a grave physical threat to the well-being of Americans. This is the most serious assault on environmental protections since President Lyndon Johnson asked for passage of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts in 1965.

Although Pruitt's actions benefit polluters they make no economic sense. In 2011 the EPA released a report that stated that the economic value of the air quality improvements under the clean air act is estimated to reach almost $2 trillion for the year 2020. The avoided costs are estimated to be $65 billion.

Even if we ignore climate change Pruitt's impact on air quality alone will kill millions of Americans. The EPA study says that the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments will avoid "more than 230,000 early deaths, as well as large numbers of other adverse health effects, through improvements in fine particle and ozone levels." Citing the same study the NRDC claims that the Clean Air Act will save a total of 4.2 million American lives.

How do you describe actions that are known to kill people? This is the definition of murder. How do you describe these actions when they are perpetrated by government against large numbers of people? This is the definition of genocide.

Next: Pruitt is Purging Scientists at the EPA

Related
Pruitt is Destroying the EPA
Pruitt Lies to Kill the Clean Power Plan
Emails Reveal Pruitt's Anti-Regulation Industry Advocacy
Pruitt to Decimate Environmental Protections and Climate Action
Trump puts the Fox in the Henhouse: Pruitt to Head the EPA
Republicans Trying to Kill the EPA Quickly
Trump's War against the EPA has Begun

Pruitt is Destroying the EPA

The fact that Scott Pruitt is a climate denier and an oil industry minion does not mean he is ineffectual. Pruitt is not like his tempestuous and bellicose boss, he is a smooth operator. He took the job as EPA administrator with the intent of dismantling the agency he was tapped to lead. Despite concerns about his personal spending, his ability to execute his dirty industry agenda has made him Trump's most successful appointee. In the 14 months that he has been at the helm of the EPA he has succeeded in crippling the agency. The EPA's executive committee and the vast majority of subcommittees have been decimated. The agency is a shadow of its former self and what remains is being transformed into an instrument for political propaganda.

When Trump named Pruitt to head the EPA environmentalist reeled in stunned disbelief. They could not believe that a fox had been charged to run the hen-house. To no ones surprise Pruitt immediately went to work slashing environmental regulations.

Pruitt has forged a career path opposing everything that the EPA stands for. For years before becoming the agency administrator he had been fighting the EPA in court, suing them no less than 14 times. Now he is free to destroy the agency from within.

In his first year at the EPA, Pruitt supported repealing or delaying more than thirty significant environmental rules. In the Trump administration's first 100 days 23 environmental rules were rolled back. However, deregulation is only part of the plan. The overarching objective is to undermine EPA's core missions.

Pruitt's action represent a breech of the EPA's mandate to protect the health and safety of Americans. Pruitt is not only a danger to humans he is harmful to wildlife, forests, farmlands, oceans and waterways.

"There’s no question where EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s loyalties lie—and it’s not with the American people" said Heather Shelby, EDF's Action Network Manager

Pruitt has received scrutiny for having the largest security detail in the history of EPA administrators. Perhaps we should ask why he requires 30 bodyguards. Others have chided him for installing a soundproof communication chamber in his office. The inspector general is investigation the cost of Pruitt's frequent first class trips and his penchant for staying in luxury hotels. Even a couple of Republican lawmakers are calling for Pruitt to resign over his lavish spending.

The controversy surrounding the subsidized housing he is getting from his friends in the fossil fuel industry is getting a lot of attention. While people should be concerned about his expenditures they should be far more concerned about the real cost of Pruitt's reign at the EPA. Americans will pay in many ways for Pruitt's actions, this includes both health care costs and the cost in human lives.

Pruitt has enfeebled the EPA, so even when sane governance returns to Congress and the White House the repercussions from Pruitt's siege will reverberate for many years to come.

Trump recently said when asked about Pruitt's fate, "I hope he is going to be great". Most of us know that he is anything but.

Next: Pruitt's Advocacy on Behalf of Polluters is Killing Americans, Pruitt is Purging Scientists at the EPA

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