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Posts tagged ‘Environment’

May 17

2013-05-15 19.21.48

PRIORITIES, PRIORITIES , PRIORITIES – Does your Sustainability Strategy Do More Than Just Include the Words Social and Economic

Pushed by horrific tragedies such as the deaths of over 1,100 people in a Bangladeshi textile industry, the personal values market, or the marketplace of consumer ideas and concerns, is constantly expressing greater demand for companies to address social and economic – and not just environmental — sustainability issues.

This is good news for sustainability but challenging for sustainability managers many of whom already feel they are fighting too many fires on the sustainability front as it is.

It’s about Priorities
On the wall by my desk I have a set of themes printed on big bits of paper, Read more

May 8

stairs

The Price of a Life in Bangladesh: Future Markets, Hedging and other Market-Based Mechanisms to Profit from Sustainability

I have a new idea to finance sustainability: a futures market trading the value of the life of Bangladeshi textile workers.

 ”Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as
to conceive how others can be in want.”
Jonathan Swift

A Bangladeshi Low-Income Workers Exchange (BLIWEx) makes a whole lot of sense. The idea is to Read more

Aug 22

w with rench

A Few Good Wrenches, a Cuppa o’ Joe and 46% Sustainability RIO

I wish sustainability was more difficult or more expensive to achieve than it actually is, then we might have an excuse for not doing too much about it.

But a couple of reports out recently, tell us otherwise.

Can You Say $3.7 Trillion?
First there is Mobilizing for a Resource Revolution (McKinsey, http://bit.ly/Apk5bL). The report explores coming resource scarcities as the estimated 3 billion new developing country middle class consumers enter the market by 2025. The story in a nutshell: demand for natural resources will soar and supply will dwindle.

The study identifies 15 areas of opportunity for improved resource productivity Read more

Aug 16

frog
2 Comments

Boiling Billions of Frogs

Very seldom do I get very scared. But I am now.

A new report by the Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School found “oil supply capacity is growing worldwide at such an unprecedented level that it might outpace consumption. This could lead to a glut of overproduction and a steep dip in oil prices.” http://bit.ly/Q825E1 More importantly, it could devastate high oil price driven investments and innovations in cleaner energy.

Worse yet, the report predicts petroleum prices will decline, even collapse sometime after 2015. If the petroleum industry was reticent to invest significantly in alternative energy when oil was seen as increasingly scarce, what’s the incentive for change now?

Not much: are you scared now? Read more

Dec 7

africa

In Africa……

I just wanted to let those of you who drop by to read my blog that I am on a lengthy mission for the UN in Africa, including stays in the newest country in the world, South Sudan, with stops in Ethiopia and Rwanda.

My days are filled with  people who give me great hope, though as always, time in Africa is ever so humbling. Read more

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