Most educational/thought provoking session attended:  “The Ripple Effect:  Exploring financial risks along the water value chain”

I went to this one because I know that water is a growing part of the corporate sustainability story for a variety of reasons  -  resource depletion, rising costs, increasing expectations of stakeholders around disclosure/goal setting/action, connection to climate change, etc. – and wanted to jump start my understanding and vocabulary around the issue.   The panelists  were a terrific blend of water utilities (American Water), industrial water users (Molson Coors), and investors (Water Asset Management), guided in their discussion by a key stakeholder (Interfaith Council on Corporate Responsibility).

Rather than simply being three mini-presentations about financial risk/reporting, it was a very interesting dialog about the real pressures being put on the Earth’s water resources and the various roles these different entities had in both addressing challenges and creating opportunities that will ultimately move the needle, as it were, towards an integrated, more sustainable approach to managing what may be the most vital resource on the planet.  While the statistics bandied about were a sobering look at where things stand and the current negative trends, overall the conversation focused on how much is and can be done by each of these constituencies, both individually and together.

Some key takeaways and factoids:

• A US household with an income around $36K annually spends around 3.8% of disposable income on electricity, but only 0.5% on water.
• In California, around 80% of water is used for agriculture, while the agriculture industry contributes around 2% of total state GDP.
• Tiered pricing – where the largest consumers pay higher rates – has become increasingly common in the electricity market, but is a very new sparsely utilized tool in the water market.
• When disclosing an organization’s water footprint, it isn’t enough to say how much was used/saved; you also have to talk about where the water comes from.
• There is colossal financial upside potential for companies in a position to address various water issues (efficiency, treatment, leak fix/detection, etc.).

I could really go on and on, and likely will in a later post.  Some great content on this topic can be found in the Ceres report Murky Waters: Corporate Reporting on Water Risk.

Other conference observations:

• Starting your morning off with a plenary speaker that bums everyone out is not constructive.  That isn’t to say we’re not there to talk about serious issues, but in a crowd of sustainability professionals, spending 20 minutes or so talking about how things are so much worse than we think is a demotivating waste.  Seems kind of like going to a blood drive and preaching to people about the importance of giving blood.  Rather, come with your big asks, your suggestions for how we professionals can help your cause, sprinkle in some key factoids that will help educate, but veer away from doom-saying.
• It’s really likely that many in the audience are also expert in many dimensions of the topics presented.  Leave lots of time for Q&A – it’ll enrich the conversation.

Overall, a great conference as usual, with tons of opportunities to meet and talk with a range of committed, interesting folks from the investor, stakeholder, public and private sectors.  Time well spent – nice going, Ceres!

Many souls more eloquent than I have been sounding this concern for years.

The biggest problem with Earth Day is that it has become a ritual of sympathy for the idea of environmental sanity. Small steps, we’re told, ignoring the fact that most of the steps most frequently promoted (returning your bottles, bringing your own bag, turning off the water while you brush your teeth) are of such minor impact (compared to our ecological footprints) that they are essentially meaningless without larger, systemic action as well. The strategy of recycling as a gateway drug — get them hooked on it and we can move them on to harder stuff — has failed miserably. We can do better.

Put in 2010 terms, Earth Day has become equivalent to clicking “Like” next to a Facebook post.  By reducing the very real risks our biosphere faces into a single day of “awareness,” it kind of implies that everyone can go back to business as usual the other 364 days a year.  Even more revolting, now that the day has been over taken by marketing and advertising, it reinforces the idea that green is a “trend,” something that will go the way of the Pet Rock.

Now, I’m all for environmental education, and we can thank the original Earth Day and the change in mindset it helped elicit  for bringing ecological issues to the fore, resulting in landmark achievements like the Clean Air Act.  But I’m just sayin’ – if we want eco consciousness to be part of every day existence, isn’t it time to start acting that way?

Maybe I’ll spend this week wishing John Muir a happy birthday and look forward to Arbor Day.

The first of two additions to my own gallery of packaging atrocities comes from 1-800-Contacts:

1-800-Contacts, boxes big enough to see without glasses

At least the box wasn't loaded with styrofoam peanuts.

What’s behind the giant box for such a small order?  I get that they probably service both individuals and optometry practices, so sometimes the order would fill a box like this.  However, this is a year’s worth of disposable contacts.  Since that’s probably a pretty common order for individuals, it’s hard to understand why they wouldn’t have a standard, small-size box.

Not to be outdone, Monster Cable was kind enough to wrap my 2-foot iPod audio cable in enough plastic to make a CD.  Thank goodness they filled up the clam shell with cardboard and printed documentation:

Almost couldn't find the cable in all that packaging.

Hopefully Monster will reach out to fellow Bay Area companies like Method to learn how to get serious about packaging reduction initiatives.

All I can say is that anyone who uses this list to make an important decision ought not to be in a position to make important decisions.

Word.

To be fair, the CRO’s list isn’t the only one of its type to come under fire.  Last week, Will Evans at Slate published a cautionary tale about consulting organizations that also give out awards for corporate responsibility, in this case, Ethisphere.

Sustainability “will become a key factor to the point where, if you haven’t taken environmental measures, you will have trouble, whether it’s leasing your office building or what have you,”

Jamestown Properties is far from alone in recognizing that moving in a more sustainable direction is good for business.

It’s also encouraging to see good dialog happening around just what are the best strategies for walking the walk on living sustainably?  One example is the interesting series currently appearing on Slate.com.  Through their Hive series, the editors are “seeking the best ideas for helping people use less energy at home and save money.” It’s proving to be far more fascinating than that description might lead you to believe.  The author (Daniel Gross) is up-front about his desire to be more efficient but also his confusion over how to lower his energy impacts.  He indirectly does a good job of illustrating that, when he mentions that he doesn’t know how much energy that 2nd refrigerator is using.  I had to check the “duh” impulse so I could keep reading.  The most compelling reading so far, however, are the ideas submitted by and voted on by readers, as well as the input readers are giving via the comments.

“In some ways I had a choice,” Moore said of what he could have done with the company he founded with his wife, Charlee, in 1978. “But in my heart, I didn’t. These people are far too good at their jobs for me to just sell it.”

I’m a big fan of Bob’s Red Mill cereal, with my affection for 10-Grain bordering on obsession.  I can now say that I’m an even bigger fan of Bob’s Red Mill, the company.  Having recently been through the “acquired and de-hired” process, it makes me feel good that there are places out there where employees are something beyond “resources” to be allocated or de-allocated.

Herbie Hippocampus the sea horse tipped me off (via Facebook) about the youngest sea otter the Monterey Bay Aquarium has ever put on exhibit. Meet 11 week-old Kit (WARNING:  risk of cute poisoning).

The full story on how Kit came to the MBA is on the aquarium’s blog.

And, finally, some wicked-cool geology disguising itself as fauna.

Happy Friday.

What a great experience it was to be part of building Sun’s corporate sustainability program!  I’m very proud of the work we did, and I know the terrific amount that I learned is going to be really useful as I head into the next phase of my professional existence.

Why “Ferocious Fern?”  The fern, and particularly the emerging “koru,” symbolizes new life, growth, strength and peace in the Maori and other traditions, so it seems an appropriate talisman as I navigate this new, post-Sun world.   These amazing plants have been on the planet for around 400 million years.  It appears they may have figured out a thing or two about how to work in concert with the varied environments of all but one of the continents, so I don’t think they’re a bad role model as our juvenile little species (200K years, tops) sets longevity goals.

Given the state of things between us and our natural world over the past 100 or so years, it’s not necessarily a given that we’ll even make it to the first million years.  I think there are reasons to be hopeful, though, and that’s one of the key topics I hope to cover in at least some of my posts.  I won’t promise to be unfailingly optimistic, but I’ll give hopefulness my best shot.  Thanks for reading along.

There have been ups and there have been downs these last 3+ years. Looking back on it all, of what are you most proud? If you could have one “do-over” what would it be?

I’m going to turn my answer around and talk about the do-over first, since this part of the question was particularly hard for me.
Big picture, I cannot imagine any other way I would have preferred to be employed over the past 3+ years, so I guess my first choice of “do-overs” would be to experience it all over again!
Rhapsodic gushing aside, while the learning process has been a really stimulating part of the work, I would have liked to have sometimes been more bold, more quickly. In particular, I wish I would have engaged groups and individuals across the company on environmental initiatives sooner, more often, and more aggressively (but always politely). In particular, I think our greenhouse gas management process and climate change strategy would have reached today’s level of maturity sooner, had we more quickly achieved the level of coordination we now enjoy with our Work Environments and Jones Lange Lasalle teams. That isn’t to say I’m unhappy with what we’ve achieved; rather, what we’ve accomplished convinces me that we could have done even more.
Now the fun, but also kind of difficult part – of what am I the most proud? To make answering easier, I’m going to reply in two parts: what makes me proudest of our team, and what particular project/initiative makes me the most individually proud?
As is probably clear from my opening paragraph, I could go on and on about how great our sustainability team is. But what I’m most proud of is the consistency of intention, persistent authenticity, and open transparency with which we’ve gone about our work. I believe these qualities have been essential in building and maintaining Sun’s credibility in the CSR and environmental spaces, and are a huge reason for the widespread recognition of our efforts by NGOs, stakeholders, and others.
On a personal level, I have to say that I’m really proud of OpenEco. I had no idea 3 years ago when Dave Douglas said “we should do some kind of web project” that I’d end up on a mission to help stop “bad software from happening to good people,” but I’m so glad I did. With a really small but talented and hearty crew, we created a growing on-line community that’s helping more than 3,200 users calculate and track GHG emissions and connect with others about energy efficiency and carbon reduction best practices. We also released a really cool, open source, content management and web application platform into the world that can (and is) being used by for-profit and non-profit organizations like the Business Council on Climate Change as a solid foundation for their own web communities. I’m proud of the work Sun and our partners have done on to create the OpenEco community, and I’m proud to have worked for a company that thought it was a great idea to support creating and operating it.
Keep an eye on Marcy’s blog to see her perspective on this same question. Can’t wait!