Monthly Archive for November, 2010

Finalists for the International Award for Excellence

Published on November 30, 2010 in Journal and Newsletter. 0 Comments

sustainability_frontCongratulations to all of the Award finalists:

Published on November 30, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

From John Vidal in The Guardian:

David Cameron has refused to attend the UN climate talks in Cancún, despite a direct appeal by the Mexican chair of the conference.

The talks, which began today, have been accompanied by little of the razzamatazz that followed the host of celebrities and world leaders that attended last year’s event in Copenhagen. The US, UK and EU have all played down the chances of a deal and the Mexican authorities expect about 22,000 people, including 9,000 official delegates and journalists – fewer than half the number that attended the at-times chaotic conference in the Danish capital.

Despite low expectations, at least 20 world leaders are expected to be present, the majority from Latin America. The small island states of Vanuatu, Samoa, Kiribati and Nauru are also planning to send their leaders. And although the US has little to offer, because of the failure of domestic climate legislation in the Senate earlier this year, the US energy secretary, Steven Chu, warned today that the US risks falling far behind advances made by China and other countries in the global race for clean energy, something he he referred to as a “Sputnik moment” – the US response to the Soviet Union’s early lead in the space race. “We face a choice today,” he said. “Are we going to continue America’s innovation leadership or are we going to fall behind?”

For more…

Reserve Your Tickets – 2011 Sustainability Conference Dinner

Published on November 29, 2010 in Conference and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Please join us at the Ta Rapa Racecourse for the conference dinner. With a park like setting, the Ta Rapa Racecourse is the prefect place in Hamilton to enjoy dinner with your fellow delegates.

Tuesday, 6 January 19:00 (7:00PM)

To register for the dinner please visit the 2011 Sustainability Conference web-site.

Procter & Gamble Moves Toward Renewable Energy And Recycled Packaging In New Environmental Goals

Published on November 29, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Dan Sewell, The Huffington Post

The world’s largest consumer product maker announced Monday that it has set ambitious long-term targets for cutting the waste it produces and improving its energy efficiency.

Procter & Gamble said it eventually will use only renewable energy to power its factories and only recycled or renewable materials to make and package its products.

The manufacturer of Pampers diapers, Gillette shavers and numerous other top-selling products says it will take decades to achieve these goals. But it has set 10-year targets and will provide updates each year.

Bob McDonald, P&G’s chairman, president and CEO, said in an announcement webcast from Geneva that consumers applaud improvements to help the environment, and the new effort should help P&G’s business, as well as the Earth.

“I think when you do the right thing … the business just takes off,” said McDonald.

He said 173-year-old P&G recognizes its long-term impacts.

“It does us no good to grow our business today at the expense of tomorrow,” he said.

Environmental advocates have been pushing corporate giants to do more, especially because moves by P&G, retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and others can build momentum for sustainability by all kinds of businesses.

To Read More…

Corporate ‘Sustainability’ Push Flowers in Sluggish Economy

Published on November 29, 2010 in News and Newsletter. 0 Comments

From Nathanial Gronewold, The New York Times

The recession taught many companies that “sustainability” can mean profits.

Slashing energy use and streamlining production in hard times, businesses learned that being green made a positive difference in their bottom lines and made a positive impression on Wall Street analysts and investors.

So companies are now zeroing in on a range of green targets — from curbing water consumption to analyzing the greenhouse gas emissions of suppliers — to show the Street that solid managers are in control.

Consider the case of Goldman Sachs Group. Three and a half years ago, the firm launched GS SUSTAIN, a research-advice service that looks to environmentalism as much as it does management talent and market share. At the time, the firm said it wanted to prove investors could achieve solid, long-term returns from equity holdings through a focus on a company’s performance on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG).

Although GS SUSTAIN began just before the 2008 financial crash, the effort has survived and thrived, tripling its staff through the period and generally outperforming the overall market by a significant gap. Goldman Sachs says the GS SUSTAIN Focus List, an index of the top tier of the 1,000 companies tracked, has outperformed the more generalized MSCI All Country World Index by 39.9 percent since the unit’s creation in June 2007.

To Read More…

Day Tour of Maungatautari Ecological Trust – Now Available

Published on November 29, 2010 in Conference, Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

We invite you to join us for an all day tour of the Maungatautari Ecological Trust. The Maungatautari Ecological Trust is an internationally significant restoration project, this 3,400 hectare forested, extinct volcano stands majestically on the landscape in the Waikato basin, between Cambridge, Te Awamutu and Putaruru, in the central North Island of New Zealand. This tour includes bus transport to Maungatautari Ecological Trust from Hamilton and back, a guided tour and information session, as well as lunch. For more information on the Maungatautari Ecological Trust please visit http://www.maungatrust.org/index.asp. Please wear appropriate walking shoes and sun hat.

The tour will leave from Hamilton on Saturday, 8 January at 9:00AM and return at 5:00PM.

*This tour has a minimum of 30 people. If we do not reach this number, we will notify you and refund your payment.

For more information please visit the 2011 Sustainability Conference Web-Site.

Eva Collins and Veronica Dujon to speak in New Zealand

Published on November 29, 2010 in Conference, Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Eva Collins and Veronica Dujon will speak at the 2011 Sustainability Conference at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand.

Eva Collins is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Waikato, New Zealand (BS Hons, Portland State; MA, Essex; PhD, George Washington University). Her area of research and teaching is business strategy related to sustainability. She is an award-winning writer of sustainability case studies. In 2009, she and her research team received a prestigious Marsden Grant for a 3-year study examining the vulnerability of New Zealand’s global environmental positioning.

Veronica Dujon is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Portland State University, in Portland, Oregon, USA. She received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1995. She publishes in the area of natural resource use and Third World Economic Development. Her latest publication is the edited volume Understanding the Dimensions of Social Sustainability (2009) with colleagues Prof. Mary King and Jesse Dillard.

Prof. Dujon teaches courses in environmental sociology, sociology of globalization, social sustainability, and the sociology of women. One of her major research interest areas is the role of women in the global economy and how to build socially sustainable societies.

Prof. Dujon is a three-time winner of the John Eliot Allen Teaching Award. In 2005 she was nominated for the U.S. Professor of the Year Award. In 2008 Prof. Dujon received the PSU Distinguished Faculty Award.

For more information please visit the 2011 Sustainability Conference Web-Site.