Certificate in CSR/Sustainability

If you are interested in a meaningful career you may want to think about applying to the Certificate in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)/Sustainability. In this "work as you learn" program you will gain core competencies for CSR/Sustainability and direct experience in a work based Capstone Project in the field. This program helps you to take your career in CSR and Sustainability to the next level.

Siemens is Grooming Sustainability Leaders Through Students for Sustainability

Siemens is the world's largest provider of environmental technologies and they are helping to develop a new generation of sustainability leaders. Siemens brought six international student teams to Rio de Janeiro in order to present their sustainability-ideas to a panel of renowned experts. The winning teams will get assistance from Siemens in implementing their projects in their home country. The "Students for Sustainability" event is a joint effort by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Rio-based COPPE/UFRJ University and Siemens AG.

Green Growth and Developing Countries OECD Consultation

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) launched a consultation titled 'Green Growth and Developing Countries', was launched on June 17 at the Fair Ideas Forum, a Rio+20 side event, organized by the International Institute for Environment and Development. It involved high level discussions on a green economy draft document. Although the concept of a green economy has been heavily criticized by some developing countries, the goal is to reconcile the environment with economic growth and poverty reduction.

Education for a Sustainable Future (Video)

Education For A Sustainable Future is an independent film production and has been uploaded online for free download and distribution. This film reviews how today's practices in schools are socially unsustainable. The documentary film critically analyses what is considered socially relevant in a new education system which brings out the most potential in all of humanity whilst also detailing specific educational methods from a wide range of sources on how to nurture social skills, critical thinking techniques and a larger variety of important practices to positively reinforce from our earliest years onwards. It must be recognised that a sustainable education is one of the most critical components of any advanced society.

Green Education Online in the Wake of Rio+20 (Video)

In the words of the President of Green Education On Line, "we must understand the “average” person knows little of these issues. As was presented at RIO+20, while we want to assume many do understand these issues, they do not so internal training is crucial. What is lacking to move all forward at a much quicker pace is training resources on sustainability for both internal training in an industry business culture and for their own employees as well as to offer to their customers to educate their employees.

Interview with Elizabeth Thompson Executive Coordinator for Rio+ 20 (Video)

Rio+20 clips (Video)

Rio+20 Announcement: US Partners with CEOs to Reduce Deforestation Through Sustainable Agriculture

The US Government says within 100 days it will co-host, alongside companies of the Consumer Goods Forum, a Partnership Dialogue in Washington DC. This US Government announcement concerns companies of the Consumer Goods Forum, representing more than 400 companies and brands operating with combined annual revenues of over US$3.1 trillion, to support the Forum's pledge to achieve zero net deforestation in their supply chains by 2020.

“Individually both governments and business have already mobilized significant resources to address the challenge of deforestation but we all recognize that much more can be achieved if we align our efforts and work in partnership,” said Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever.

At Rio+20 Corporations Make a Natural Capital Declaration Pledge

At the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum, leading banks, investment funds and insurance firms pledged to integrate the Earth's natural capital into loans and investments. A total of 39 chief executives signed the so called "Natural Capital Declaration," which commits companies to transparency. These firms have promised full disclosure using natural capital accounting frameworks.

Clean Revolution Campaign Launched at Rio+20

In an open letter published on the eve of the G20 and Rio+20 summits, statesmen and business leaders called for a coordinated policy shift to save the world economy and the climate. Former British premier Tony Blair urged world leaders to usher in a "green industrial revolution".

Environmental Compliance and Enforcement at INECE’s 9th International Conference

In June, the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE), in partnership with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Netherland’s Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, and other member countries, held its 9th International Conference entitled "Enforcement Cooperation: Strengthening Environmental Governance,” in Whistler Canada

The conference hosted more than150 environmental compliance and enforcement experts from over 50 countries to identify new actions to promote enforcement cooperation to combat environmental crime and support the shift to sustainable development and a green economy.

Lisa Jackson, the Administrator of the US EPA opened the conference with the following remarks: “We all know that environmental challenges don’t stop at our borders – and for that reason, neither can our efforts to ensure environmental and health safeguards. INECE’s collaborations with organizations across the globe are instrumental in strengthening our individual enforcement and compliance efforts and expanding effective environmental governance around the world.”

INECE is a global leader and partner in international cooperation efforts to keep our communities safe from environmental crimes. INECE Conferences, which are held once every three years, provide a unique forum for building capacity for compliance promotion and strengthening enforcement cooperation among government environmental protection agencies and other key stakeholders from international institutions

John Scanlon, Secretary-General of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and Ignacia Moreno Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice, also addressed the conference. They stressed the importance of strong national institutions to assure compliance with and enforcement of international agreements on the environment. Moreno cited one example of a joint investigation between the US, Canada, and Interpol of the Overseas Shipbuilding Group for violations of MARPOL, which led to a $37 million criminal penalty.

“The reason we can drink our water and breathe our air is because we have dedicated compliance and enforcement professionals working tirelessly around the world to protect the environment,” said Durwood Zaelke, Director of the INECE Secretariat.

Catherine McCabe, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance at the US EPA and Co-Chair of INECE emphasized that, “Every environmental law, policy and regulation – both at the national and international level - is only as strong as its actual implementation. If compliance and enforcement of environmental requirements are lacking, the environment and health of our people is put at risk. Collaboration between law enforcement disciplines at all levels is essential to ensure that laws provide effective protection of public health and the environment.”

Ken Markowitz, Managing Director of INECE stressed, “Compliance with domestic laws and policies forms the critical foundation for achieving the objectives of our international environmental agreements to protect our climate, lands, oceans and biodiversity.”

Chief Gibby Jacob, hereditary Chief of the Squamish Nation and Justice Antonio Benjamin of the High Court of Brazil, a leader in the field of environmental compliance and enforcement, welcomed the participants and, both spoke of the importance of partnership and working together around our shared and common values.

The conference provided recommendations to advance the role of environmental compliance and enforcement in achieving sustainable development objectives as part of the preparatory work for the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio +20.

For more details click here.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Video: Sustainable Economic Development that Works

In April 2011, more than 100 people convened at Boston University for Development That Works, an all-day conference that brought together leading scholars and practitioners to discuss development ideas that have the potential to lead to sustainable and effective growth worldwide.
The fourth and final session brought together a panel of leading economists that examined evidence on economic development. Chaired by Dilip Mookherjee, a CAS professor of economics and director of the BU Institute for Economic Development, speakers included Abhijit V. Banerjee, a Ford Foundation international professor of economics and director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT; Mark Rosenzweig, a Frank Altschul professor of international economics and director of the Economic Growth Center at Yale University; and Asim Ijaz Khwaja, a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Panel members discussed the impact of development interventions and highlighted the need for deeper and more systematic enquiries on the matter.

Sponsored by the BU Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, in collaboration with the BU Global Development Program, the conference was organized by Mookherjee, Kevin Gallagher, a CAS associate professor of international relations, Jonathon Simon, an SPH professor of international health and director of the BU Center for Global Health & Development, and Adil Najam, a CAS professor of international relations and director of the Pardee Center. Panel leaders discussed everything from global development policy to local programs that deliver education, health, and poverty alleviation services to rural villages in Africa and Asia.

Hosted by the Pardee Center for the Study of Longer-Range Future, in conjunction with the Boston University Global Development Program, on March 31, 2011.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Economic Development is the Only Way Forward

Some of the most passionate supporters of the environment argue that we cannot make the necessary changes within the current consumer oriented capitalist system. They point to the fact that growth in the 20th century was all about resource depletion.

Economic growth is not an end, but rather a means to an end. Because economic growth is premised on the concept of increasing quantity, it may be more productive to frame the issue in terms of economic development. Economic development looks at growth as a means of achieving a higher level of individual and societal well-being. While economic growth is about quantity, economic development is about quality. A well developed economy is one that meets people's needs and provides well-being for everyone.

Economic development is based on the collective good which is ultimately about creating more value per person.

UNEP's Executive Director Achim Steiner said in the statement: "With 2.5 billion people living on less than two dollars a day and with more than two billion people being added to the global population by 2050, it is clear that we must continue to develop and grow our economies. But this development cannot come at the expense of the very life support systems on land, in the oceans or in our atmosphere."

Growth and resource depletion are not inexorably linked and given the urgency, the green economy is the only solution we have of capable of addressing the environmental and social threats we face.

We simply do not have time to rebuild society anew, nor is it reasonable to wipe the slate clean. In the form of economic development, growth can serve the earth and its inhabitants. However future growth will not be based on wanton resource depletion, it will be about increased efficiency and productivity.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Sustainable Growth Excludes Fossil Fuels

Sustainable economic growth is utterly impossible as long as oil, coal and natural gas provide nearly 88 percent of the world's energy needs. According to EIA (the US Energy Information Administration), total world consumption of marketed energy will increase by 49 percent between 2007 to 2035. The International Energy Agency predicted that Chinese energy demand would soar 75 percent by 2035, accounting for more than a third of the growth in global consumption.

The most egregious source of energy is coal, in India, more than 50% of commercial energy demand is met with coal and according to 2008 statistics, coal accounts for 71 percent of China's energy mix. The US is not much better with 23 percent of its total energy demand being met with coal.

We simply cannot afford economic growth that is so reliant on dirty energy like coal. Although growth is a serious environmental threat, it could also be a valuable opportunity to radically expand the clean energy economy. New innovative applications of sustainable technologies can significantly reduce emissions and old inefficient technologies can be replaced with cleaner greener technologies.

Renewable energy is the great hope for the planet because it is sustainable energy, but renewable energy is not cost competitive cheap and abundant coal. Therefore, cost considerations alone will not drive the move away from coal.

The increasing price of oil and the uncertainty of the fossil fuel markets is something that business are increasingly considering and it is only a matter of time before we remove oil subsidies. However, until we see climate change energy legislation and regulation, business have an opportunity to show leadership by voluntarily replacing coal with renewable energy.

Economic growth that includes fossil fuels precludes the possibility of a living planet.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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China Europe International Business School's Green Campus Initiative

The China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) has one of the greenest campuses in China. CEIBS is the leading China-based international business school, it offers many business degrees including a widely respected MBA.

Located in suburban Shanghai, there are visible signs of sustainable initiatives all over CEIBS campus, including recycling stations and ubiquitous reminders to shut off lights.

In 2006 an MBA student founded CEIBS' Green Campus Initiative. The initiative was born with the modest goal of minimizing paper waste. This effort is blossoming into a movement that has influenced CEIBS' curriculum development and new building projects.

Due to student interest, the school is adopting an increasingly environmentally oriented curriculum. Thanks to Green Campus's activism, the school's new campus, is also incorporating green-building concepts. The new structures will incorporate the 80/20 rule, meaning 80 percent energy reduction for 20 percent of the investment. This will make the new structure one of the most energy efficient complexes in Shanghai.
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California's Government Partnerships are Driving the Green Economy

Partnerships between regional and state authorities are a big part of California's green leadership. According to Greenopia, California is the fifth greenest state in the US. Berkeley and Oakland are but two examples of green cities in the state of California. According to a report titled, 2010 Smarter City for Energy, Long Beach, San Francisco, Huntington Beach, Santa Clarita and Santa Cruz are also among the leading eco-municipalities.

The Bay Area is home to a range of local and regional coalitions and partnerships many of which target environmental issues. The Bay Area is an extensive region of Northern California that encompasses the metropolitan areas of San Francisco, San Jose and other cities and towns.

Municipal authorities have developed innovative programs including an energy efficiency pilot program in affordable multi-family housing in Oakland, San Francisco and Berkeley. Dozens of local governments are providing residential outreach and guidance for the Energy Upgrade Alameda Program.

California's cities benefit from the state's progressive environmental policies including a renewable portfolio standard that pressures investor-owned utilities to use renewable sources of energy. The California Climate Plan is the state’s roadmap for emissions reductions and development of the green economy. Funding including California’s State Energy Program supports energy-saving initiatives in cities throughout the state. California is also phasing out materials deemed hazardous to the environment including global warming causing auto air conditioning refrigerants.

A 2008 New York Times article reported that "Green policies have created 1.5 million jobs over 30 years in California, while eliminating only 25,000."

In California, government intiatives are working with private enterprise in ways that are of benefit to people, profits and the planet.
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Oakland's Green Jobs and Energy Initiatives

Oakland, California is seeking comprehensive solutions to environmental problems. The city's approach simultaneously addresses environmental concerns and social issues like poverty. In July, Oakland was named a 2010 Smarter City for Energy.

Oakland is developing local green businesses and training residents for the new green workforce. Local groups and educational establishments have teamed up to train and place low-income residents in jobs like solar installation, energy-efficiency retrofits and green building.

Oakland is behind some innovative energy initiatives. The city is launching an energy efficiency program in the commercial downtown area and encouraging investment. The program provides technical assistance and incentives to increase the energy efficiency of older buildings.

Oakland's green jobs and energy initiatives are a model for cities around the world.
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Berkeley's Climate Action Plan

Berkeley, California has a long history of green innovation including curbside recycling, greener vehicle fleets, and a polystyrene foam ban. In July, Berkeley was named a 2010 Smarter City for Energy.

Berkeley documented a 14 percent decrease in its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2005 from 2002 levels which is more than double the reductions called for in the Kyoto Protocol.

The reduction was the equivalent of planting 52,000 trees or removing 450 cars from the road. Measure G, a city effort for citizens to help reduce the city's GHG emissions by 80 percent by 2050, was approved by 81 percent of voters in November 2006.

Attracting green business is a central part of Berkeley's strategic thinking. Mayor Tom Bates is working with the University of California, Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and neighboring mayors, and he was a founding member of the East Bay Green Corridor Partnership. Mayor Bates also created Sustainable Berkeley with over 100 representatives from business, community, city and university arenas.

A photovoltaic financing program known as Berkeley FIRST, is a pilot project created by Mayor Bates that allows residents to pay for solar installations as a voluntary long-term assessment on their property tax bill.
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Program and Plans for G8 and G20 Summits in Canada

The G8 Huntsville Summit Plans

Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville
Muskoka, Canada.

Friday, June 25 2010

Besides factors affecting the health of women and children in poor countries, the G8 was scheduled to discuss a new legal framework for a UN led deal to combat climate change. G8 members were also expected to discuss a post-2012 agreement that includes a robust system of emissions reductions monitoring and reporting.

Although limiting the rise in temperatures to below 2°C (3.6°F) above pre-industrial times was part of earlier drafts, the G8's "Muskoka Accountability Report" doesn't even mention progress towards limiting warming.

The G20 Toronto Summit Program

Metro Toronto Convention Centre,
Toronto, Canada

Saturday, June 26 2010

G20 leaders arrive at the Toronto Airport Infield Terminal at the Lester B. Pearson Airport in Toronto. Over the course of the two day summit, global economic leaders are expected to discuss the recovery, finanical reforms, European instability, Chinese currency initiatives, free trade and the reduction of global imbalances. While sustainable growth is a dominant theme, details on managing climate change may not get the attention they deserve.

18:30 Official welcome and reception of G20 leaders and spouses by Stephen Harper, prime minister of Canada, and Laureen Harper, at the Royal York Hotel.

Sunday, June 27 2010

09:00 Opening plenary session.

12:30 Family photograph.

17:00 Chair's press conference.
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An Integrative Approach to Eco-Innovation

Eco-innovation offers businesses an increasingly important competitive advantage and an integrative approach to innovation often yields the best results.

The term eco-innovation is used to describe products and processes that contribute to sustainable development. Eco-innovation is the commercial application of knowledge to elicit direct or indirect ecological improvements. It is often used to describe a range of related ideas, from environmentally friendly technological advances to socially-acceptable innovative paths towards sustainability. One of the first appearances of the concept of eco-innovation in the literature is in the book by Claude Fussler and Peter James (1996).

Eco-innovation requires a workforce that can consider problems from multiple perspectives and that can effectively work in cross-functional teams. For example, experience in chemistry and physics is required to tackle things like photovoltaics, polymers and greener chemical production.

For an integrative approach, research and development need to encompass the entire life cycle, and this information needs to be continuously shared among the various work groups. Green innovation is about maintaining a sustainable focus and this requires continuous project evaluation from idea to commercialization. It is important to ensure that each phase creates a feedback loop that continually informs decision-making.

The common business basics of location, capital construction, and equipment considerations, need to be viewed from a sustainability perspective. For some, the hurdle for green innovation is related to physical infrastructure rather than human resources or knowledge.

Green innovation is a significant challenge, but an integrative approach increases the possibilities for significant rewards.
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