sustainability program Archives

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

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Corporate Watchdog Radio co-hosts Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon speak with Auden Schendler, who heads the sustainability program at Aspen Skiing Company and has stirred up a heap of controversy as the subject of a recent BusinessWeek cover story entitled “Little Green Lies.”

Schendler calls into question the degree to which companies, within our current capitalist structure, can actually enact meaningful change toward true sustainability. Having convinced his company to commit in a big way to renewable energy credits (RECs), he has since become disillusioned, noting that many RECs fail to add new renewable energy projects to the world, and questioning exaggerated claims of RECs’ actual impact on reducing carbon emissions.

BusinessWeek October 29, 2007 Cover Story: “Little Green Lies”

Aspen Skiing Company Environment Website

Clean Air-Cool Planet report: A Consumer’s Guide to Retail Offset Providers

Gold Standard carbon credit quality label

Voluntary Carbon Standard

Climate Counts