Sustainable Business | Sea Change Radio

Articles Tagged ‘ Sustainable Business ’

Sea Change Member Thanks

February 9th, 2009

Thanks to the efforts of the Sea Change Marketing Coordinator Wayne Cobb, we have almost reached the halfway point in our goal of raising $5,000. That’s the amount of the Matching Grant Challenge issued by the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts in late December 2008, which effectively doubles every dollar donated toward membership.

“The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts is a funding vessel to sustain projects like Sea Change that promote sustainability here in the Pioneer Valley and throughout the world,” said CFWM board-member Sandy Pearson, whose Donor Advised Fund, the Pearson Family Trust, financed the grant. “I’m proud to support Sea Change to enhance the value of its programming through fundraising and building its community of members, who are fans of the show like me.”

We currently have over 30 members, and would love to have YOU join the Sea Change community. Contact Wayne at marketing [at] cchange.net to arrange for your donation, which is tax-deductible due to our non-profit status as a division of the Trusteeship Institute.

Members, please listen to the below message from Sea Change Radio Co-Host/Producer Bill Baue thanking you for your generosity, and outlining ongoing benefits of membership.

Thanks!

Bill

Slow Money = Compost for Growing New Economy

February 4th, 2009

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Today we measure the speed of money. Woody Tasch discusses his book, Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered. And Katy Lederer transforms her experience working in the fast money culture of Wall Street into poetry in the book , The Heaven-Sent Leaf. Click to continue reading and listen to the show…

After Capitalism: PROUT as a Sustainable, Democratic Economic Model

January 28th, 2009

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Today, Dada Maheshvarananda meditates on the alternative economic model of Progressive Utilization Theory, or PROUT. Joe Romm of Climate Progress analyzes the climate resolve of the Obama Administration. Lisa Woll of the Social Investment Forum proposes an Office for Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility to the Obama Administration. And auto and environment expert Jim Motavalli comments on the significance of President Obama’s executive order directing the EPA to reconsider its refusal to grant California a waiver allowing it to regulate greenhouse gases from autos.

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News Analysis: Lisa Woll Proposes Federal Office of CSR Innovation

January 28th, 2009

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The Social Investment Forum (SIF) submitted a letter to President Obama listing a series of policy proposals, from proxy access allowing shareholders to nominate board candidates to “say on pay” giving investors a vote on executive compensation. SIF also urges the Obama Administration to establish an Office for Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR. This idea dates back to the early 2000s, propounded first by Susan Aaronson at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, and supported by a Government Accountability Office report finding major lack of coordination on federal CSR initiatives. SIF CEO Lisa Woll explains the rationale behind the recommendations, and how they will promote advancement toward sustainability.

Blog: Top Corporate Social Responsibility News of 2008

January 19th, 2009

Each January for the past several years, Bill has surveyed the top Corporate Social Responsibility news stories of the past year for CSRwire.com, where he is a contributing writer. Here’s this year’s edition:

A “green” recovery from economic and environmental meltdowns; the advent of Shareholder Activism 2.0 with binding resolutions at TARP banks; CSR adopts Web 2.0 strategies for sustainability reporting; is Wal-Mart really green?; and much more…

The economic meltdown of 2008 mirrors the simultaneous environmental meltdown fueled by the climate calamity – both share common roots, and many in the Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (CSR) community believe they share a common salvation. Click to continue reading and listen to the show…

Investing in Sustainability

January 14th, 2009

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Today, Sea Change Radio talks with Nick Robins of HSBC and Cary Krosinsky of Trucost about their book, Sustainable Investing. We also visit the Responsible Investing Forum, produced in association with the Social Investment Forum, where we speak with Tim Smith of Walden Asset Management about shareowner activism and hear the excerpts from the keynote of John Ruggie, the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights.

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The Transition — to Sustainability

January 7th, 2009

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Hunter Lovins

Charlie Cray

Today we talk with Hunter Lovins, founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions, about the Presidential Climate Action Project. The Sea Change ViewPoint comes from Charlie Cray of the Center for Corporate Policy.

For many people, the election of Barack Obama as the US President stoked hope for big change. The transition to the Obama Administration brings promise of shifts to government regulations and policies to promote sustainability. Long before the election, though, a group of influential sustainability leaders gathered to brainstorm recommendations to the incoming President on tackling climate change. The Presidential Climate Action Project was born, Click to continue reading and listen to the show…

Lester Brown’s Plan B 3.0 for Mobilizing to Save Civilization

October 15th, 2008

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Lester Brown

Plan A — the business-as-usual, free-market, capitalist economy — is clearly breaking down, causing meltdowns of global markets AND polar icecaps. Time for Plan B. That’s the title of the book by Earth Policy Institute Founding President Lester Brown, published five years ago. In it, he proposes an alternative economic model for “Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble,” according to the subtitle. An updated version 2.0 came out two years ago, and earlier this year, Brown unveiled Plan B 3.0, this time subtitled “Mobilizing to Save Civilization.”

Lester Brown

Earth Policy Institute

Worldwatch Institute State of the World reports, which include a chapter on “Investing for Sustainability” by CWR co-host Bill Baue.

CWR Headlines:

–The Global Financial Blues Could Be Good for Going Green — or Not
–A Carbon Tax Would Cut Emissions Better Than Cap-and-Trade
–Shade-Grown Coffee Could Soften the Blow of Climate Change

Envisioning the Future of Sustainability

October 8th, 2008

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Glen Hiemstra

It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future. Yogi Berra said that. He also said, the future ain’t what it used to be. For Glen Hiemstra, the future holds the key to current planning. The founder of the website futurist.com, Hiemstra consults for businesses and governments on how to take the long view on trends. In his book, Turning the Future into Revenue, he argues that the planning horizon should stretch out for several decades in order to meet the sustainability challenges we face right now.

Glen Hiemstra

CWR Headlines:

–Google Unveils Clean Energy Plan
–Starbucks Accused of Wasting Water, Explores Alternatives
–Palin Stretches the Truth on Darfur Divestment

Vermont State Treasurer Uses Investing to Leverage Corporate Responsibility

February 6th, 2008

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Jeb Spaulding

Vermont State Treasurer Jeb Spaulding delivered the opening address at the launching of the Marlboro College Graduate Center MBA in Managing for Sustainability program in Vermont where CWR co-host Bill Baue teaches. The talk was entitled, “Sustainability and State Finance: Strategic Decision-Making and ‘Win-Win’ Strategies.” Spaulding discussed a number of different ways the state uses its investment assets to leverage corporate sustainability and responsibility, from aggressively voting its proxies to filing shareholder resolutions addressing issues such as Sudan and climate change to participating in the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a group of institutional investors launched by Ceres in 2003 to promote sustainable business practices. He also explains the complexities of implementing green investing through board-run state pension funds.

Vermont State Treasurer Jeb Spaulding

“Vermont State Treasurer to Speak at Marlboro College Graduate Center”

Marlboro College Graduate Center MBA in Managing for Sustainability

October 8, 2007 SocialFunds article: “Investors, States, and Activists Petition Securities and Exchange Commission To Mandate Climate Risk Disclosure”

September 21, 2006 SocialFunds article: “Pennsylvania Treasurer Keys into Clean Tech Investing and Green Screens”

April 14, 2005 SocialFunds article: “Vermont Issues Call to Investment Managers for Environmentally Sustainable Portfolio”

March 25, 2005 SocialFunds article: “Shareowner Activists on Sustainability Take Baby Steps Into Sustainability Screening”

Investor Network on Climate Risk

Ceres