Monthly Archives: December 2007

The Clean Tech Revolution

Ron Pernick
Ron Pernick
In part one of this two-part interview, Corporate Watchdog Radio co-hosts Francesca Rheannon and Bill Baue speak with Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder, co-authors of the new book, The Clean Tech Revolution: The Next Big Growth and Investment Opportunity. Pernick and Wilder, who helped define the clean tech industry in their work with the research and publishing firm Clean Edge, discuss how clean tech includes clean energy sources such as solar and wind but not so-called “clean” coal or nuclear, despite the fact that some environmentalists claim nukes can help solve climate change. Pernick and Wilder also explain the six Cs, or the major forces they identified that are driving the clean tech revolution.

This week’s conversation covers fours of the Cs (costs, capital, competition, and climate), saving the final two (China and consumers) for the second half of the interview next week.

The Clean Tech Revolution

Clean Edge

SocialFunds.com book review of The Clean Tech Revolution by Francesca Rheannon

SocialFunds.com article by Bill Baue on the NASDAQ Clean Edge US Index: “Another Clean Energy Exchange Traded Fund to Launch”

SocialFunds.com article by Bill Baue on the NASDAQ Clean Edge US Index: “Another Clean Energy Index Launches to Capitalize on Transition from Dependence on Fossil Fuels”

More Views from the Summit–on the Future of the Corporation

Arie de GeusCorporate Watchdog Radio co-hosts Francesca Rheannon and Bill Baue attended the Summit on the Future of the Corporation in mid-November in Boston, a gathering to consider a fundamental re-design to integrate sustainability into the corporate structure. There, Rheannon interviewed two prominent thought-leaders: Arie de Geus, a former Shell executive and orignator of the “Learning Organization” concept, and Damon Silvers, General Counsel for the AFL-CIO. Rheannon speaks briefly with de Geus about human capital in business. Then she talks with Silvers at length about the labor movement’s role in creating a more sustainable business model. This is the last in CWR’s extended coverage of the Summit on the Future of the Corporation.

Summit on the Future of the Corporation

Arie de Geus

AFL-CIO

Views from the Summit – on the Future of the Corporation

John ElkingtonCorporate Watchdog Radio co-hosts Francesca Rheannon and Bill Baue attended the Summit on the Future of the Corporation in mid-November in Boston, a gathering to consider a fundamental re-design to integrate sustainability into the corporate structure. There, Rheannon interviewed two prominent thought-leaders: Michael Marx of Corporate Ethics International and the Business Ethics Network, and John Elkington of SustainAbility, who’s been called the dean of the corporate responsibility movement. Rheannon speaks with Marx about how NGOs are winning battles but losing the war when it comes to changing corporate behavior. NGOs and advocacy organizations can better motivate corporations to be more sustainable by re-framing economic issues within a moral context, Marx contends. Elkington flips this formula on its head, and advocates for going beyond moral suasion to showing companies how their economic self-interest coincides with sustainability.

This show continues CWR’s series which also includes interviews with Summit organizers Allen White, Majorie Kelly, Peter Senge, and Joe Laur.

Summit on the Future of the Corporation

Corporate Ethics International

Business Ethics Network

SustainAbility

JohnElkington.com

The Year of Shopping Dangerously

2007 could have been called the Year of Shopping Dangerously. First there was the pet food scare, then toxic toothpaste, then a bevy of poisonous toys being recalled, one after another – containing lead, asbestos and other toxic materials. Many of the toxic products came from manufacturing outsourced to China. Do we have to choose between products that are cheap or products that are safe? Or is our regulatory system broke? With the US and China set to sign agreements soon to try to make Chinese exports meet U.S. standards, our interviewees today probe the deeper issues, and help us understand how much more it will take to end the flood of toxic products.

Melissa BrownCohost Sanford Lewis speaks with Melissa Brown of the Association for Sustainable & Responsible Investment in Asia (ASRIA) and Lauren Compere, an investor with Boston Common Asset Management, who discuss the failures of third party audits and the challenges of a multilayered China supply chain, and Stacy Malkan, author of Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry, who says that toxic products are not just a China problem – in fact the United States has some of the weakest product toxicity regulations in the developed world. This episode of CWR produced with support of the Investor Environmental Health Network.

ASRIA

Boston Common Asset Management

Not Just a Pretty Face – Book

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics

“Skin Deep” Cosmetics Safety Database

Investor Environmental Health Network