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This Week’s Reading, Writing, Links

Here’s #SDGs info: 17 goals & 169 targets to be achieved by 2030. v @guardian @hlovins http://t.co/Nluc0QU8fA

 

Sept. 19 Peoples Climate March “What Are We Marching For” Event (read up from bottom)

–Phil @350 “This march is about getting people to feel part of the wave” Completely agree.

–Whoa. I think Hunter Lovins just said that the US & China are going to do a #carbon deal as G2

–Think #ActOnClimate is impossible? Hunter Lovins: UN approved 17 #SDGs. A year early. Done. http://t.co/Nluc0QU8fA

–Jo Confino talking about our deep connection to each other and the earth and the universe–coming back to ourselves.

–A word I haven’t heard often enough in business: duty “What is our duty to each other?—Jo Confino

–Hunter talking about “a new narrative” for a new way of doing biz that works for all.

–Donna Morton @PRINCIPIUM_imp “We can align money with our hearts and who we want to be”

–Phil @350 “As humans our capacity to connect is our biggest asset”

–Excited to hear @joconfino @350 @hlovins #PeoplesClimate @BardMBA http://t.co/30XuJQfafp

RT @CoryBooker: Grateful. RT @KayakMediaTweet: So proud that my #nj senators signed the #PeoplesClimate support letter!

RT @ForecastFacts: @KayakMediaTweet @SustainBrands @intel @Verizon @Ford @google lots more talking on this next week too. Will they walk?

1st leading brand to do right thing RT @consumerist: Crest Confirms It’s Distancing Itself From Scandalized NFL http://t.co/uB1vgIuwdg

My latest @SustainBrands: The #CVSEffect in Action: ‘Walk the Talk’ Edition with @Intel, @Verizon, @Ford and @Google http://t.co/m80i1d3Oyh

So proud that my #NJ senators signed the #PeoplesClimate support letter! Thx u @SenatorMenendez @CoryBooker #njenviro http://t.co/1Jt6tuLO8c

@ASBCouncil I want the world to #ActOnClimate because I see a fairer, freer, healthier, greener, bluer world for all of us #ClimateSummit

Desmond Tutu’s #climate summit prayer: “May we learn to sustain & renew the life of our Mother Earth” http://t.co/7V6Ob8prXw

MarcGunther: Is traveling to the #climate march worth the carbon footprint? @GernotWagner ponders the question http://t.co/7pW2fwIz0q

@emorwee NICELY DONE. A theoretical physicist walks into a Congressional hearing. You won’t believe what happened next.

 

Sept. 18 #GreenBizSummit (read up from bottom)
–Verizon’s Gowen makes great rec to find #sustainability expertise w/new grads & veterans

–Love @jeanawirtenberg’s idea that biz owners can be part of a “Conspiracy for Good”–win-win-win for planet & ppl & profits

–@jeanawirtenberg puts biz success in context of #climate change that affects all of us.

–3rd panel coming up…who’s going to mention #climate change first? Hasn’t come up yet but key for all #nj biz

–@MayorBollwage hears about @newjerseypace as a renewable energy bldg job-creating financing option for municipalities #pace

–@MayorBollwage refreshingly real about urban energy resiliency challenges. 54 languages in his town, to start

–Here’s the lead: #Nj Smallbiz Development Centers offering free business counseling 4 biz owners. Competitive advantage ppl

–Yes. St. Peter Univ President: “#sustainability is about a moral & ethical responsibility to future generations”

–Love that #green team action gets ppl involved in local gov’t & their towns win-win 4 stronger communities

–Glad NJDEP rep con’td w/ #sustainability progress needs mindset change for long-term investment & returns 2/2

–NJDEP rep starts w/ short-term vision that #sustainability is “keep ppl employed & keep biz going” …. 1/2

–+1 Pam Mount defines #sustainability as #njenviro plus local economies & equity issues like fair wages and health insurance

–Terhune Orchards #smallbiz owner Pam Mount talking #sustainability & growing @sj_program as well as food for #nj families #GreenBizSummit

–Vivian Brady-Phillips Deputy Mayor, #JerseyCity-turning brown fields into parks for people

–Tweeting at #NJ #Sustainability & #smallbiz Summit in #jerseycity

 

Great debunking by @thinkprogress @emorwee: Congressman: Don’t trust climate scientists, they’re in it for the money http://t.co/lTnkYc4Rm9

+1 MT @MichaelEMann @sawtoothwave Make your voice heard. Vote, write ltrs to the editor, educate yr friends, colleagues, family. #AskDrMann

Want change? Dig in the dirt. Thx u @robintransition. Pls read @drgrist http://t.co/R5nygSwxno

YES “… of the things they love, of place, of possibility, of things their children love and value. 2/2 http://t.co/R5nygSwxno

READ: “We need to speak to peoples’ values, of community, of family….”1/2 http://t.co/R5nygSwxno @robintransition #susty @buildresilience

Instructive 4 how #NJ gov’t works MT @njdotcom NJ sells controversial pension investment tied to MA gov candidate http://t.co/IVDdm84pNC

RT @NewEconomics: Why the Climate Movement Must Stand with Ferguson http://t.co/s5Rv3r8350

This is imp bc Texas drives the nat’l textbook mkt MT @cgiller TX proposes schl books 2 deny manmade #climate change http://t.co/39SzSmfUjh

@RL_Miller Yeah. And even better–what if we fix #climate change & it’s actually really good for our families http://t.co/I5flx9zhFh

Interesting! Thanks Julie MT @TaigaCompany Illinois Considers GHG Metric for Evaluating Utility Performance – http://t.co/mqwVXbj0FR

How about #NJ gets a coordinated #climate plan? Thx @NJSierraClub’s Jeff Tittel OpEd on shore rebuilding http://t.co/6lpuusxcSq

Watching….Launch of a new Climate Economy Commission report for #climate action http://t.co/8kFxuR2aHF #ncereport

Great explainer MT @njspotlight Sen. Bill Package Cld Fundamentally Change #NJ Power Sector http://t.co/B1pliwzc80 @NewJerseyPACE #njenviro

Way to go @emorwee MT @climateprogress 7 big food co.s say #climate change poses a threat to their products http://t.co/dtAIcLNfga #csr

@NJ_Politics: Resolution aiming to stop Christie keeping N.J. out of emissions pact OKed by Senate panel http://t.co/PV8qF0tBw2

Super interesting that Exxon prices #carbon the highest of energy co.s. Thx for reporting @joconfino @GuardianSustBiz http://t.co/4aZmQXPUq7

Concrete win-win examples by @Jeanawirtenberg: How #NJ big biz are helping #smallbiz #sustainability http://t.co/8irsg1dBYC

Like that 1st pt is positive action to #InvestinClimate 160 Environmentalists’ #Climate Declaration http://t.co/evbEmtYap0 H/T @drgrist

Comments wanted MT @joconfino Who are the top tweeters on #economic transformation? @GuardianSustBiz http://t.co/hFFhLkKwle #susty #socimp Sep 15, 2014

Who speaks for your #smallbiz?Read @ASBCouncil research on what biz owners really want #Sustainability @triplepundit http://t.co/TmYTjHGVLn

#NJ Senate takes up #RGGI re-join today http://t.co/E12Yntx4SY #ACPress @wjmckelvey #njenviro

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15 Things that Happened in 2013

Here are the things that caught my eye in 2014.

Some are noteworthy but unnoticed. Others soaked up a lot of well-deserved attention and ink.

All contributed to the growing tide of awareness that climate change action is urgently needed now.

Feb 28
Shell Bets on solar as dominant energy source by 2100, in little-noticed report
Carbon Brief

Mar 19
Pope Francis assumes the Papacy and chooses the patron saint of the environment as his name
Pope Francis carpools, downsizes, blesses, kisses, lives modestly, and reminds the world to care for the world’s poorest people. In his homily, Francis described the church’s mission as “respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live.”
The Guardian

April 10
Ceres’ Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP) launches the Climate Declaration
Climate Counts

April 18
Carbon Tracker releases its Unburnable Carbon report
New York Times

April 18
Bill McKibben’s 350.org’s fossil fuel divestment group releases “Do the Math”
Good

May 10
Climate hits 400ppm of CO2 for first time in 3 million years
Treehugger

June 25
President Obama announces his Climate Plan
The White House

Aug 19
IPPC report predicts near certainty on human-caused climate change
New York Times

Oct 10
LA Times announces it won’t public climate denier letters
Grist

Oct 24
Acknowleging reality and poking the bear, investors ask oil, coal and power companies for climate risk information
Forbes
Ceres

Nov 7
Super Typhoon Haiyan makes landfall in the Phillippines
Wikipedia

Nov 11
Yeb Sano pleads for climate action at the UN meeting in Warsaw
Youtube

Nov 21
Civil society and environmental groups walk out of UN Climate meeting talks to protest inaction
The Guardian

Dec 6
Signaling a foregone conclusion, 29 companies reveal they are already factoring a carbon price into their finances
Carbon Disclosure Project

Dec 16
Demonstrating momentum for pro-science climate action, Reddit science forum bans climate deniers
Grist

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Green Shift: Past the Point of Changing Lightbulbs

So what are we going to do about Climate Change?

We’re going to tell the truth about it. Until people hear it. And then join us in doing something about it.

I’m hearing a lot more truth-telling. Calling out of deniers. Naming names.

Three recent links.

1) Bill McKibben and 350.org. This Salon interview about his Climate Change activism captures some of what I’m feeling.

Via Salon.com:

Bill McKibben: “Being green won’t solve the problem”

But this [Climate Change] is a systemic problem. It’s going to be solved or not solved by a systemic solution. It’s past the point where we’re going to manage to do it one light bulb at a time.

Right. Climate Change is a systemic, global, planetary, issue. Not one or a million of our individual dollars or works will solve it.

Including business.

2) The Guardian newspaper has been knocking it out of the park with dead-on Climate Change coverage. Last week, journalist Jo Cofino covered the Carbon Disclosure Project’s surprising move to call out the names of blue-chip non-reporters. See, CDP can only report on global emissions if the business world give them the information. And if they won’t, how can we know if they are really doing what they say they are doing?

Via TheGuardian.com:

Shame on you, Apple, Facebook and Amazon

There comes a time when naming and shaming is the only way to get some businesses to start taking their responsibilities seriously.

This is why CDP, the respected global NGO, has for the first time compiled and published a list of major companies around the world that are refusing to disclose details of their carbon emissions.

In the US, that includes household names such as Apple, Facebook, Amazon.com, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Caterpillar and General Dynamics.

Shame on all of you and the other 90 of the 500 largest listed companies in the world that chose not to give CDP the data it requested.

3) There’s been some terrific individual-action climate change coverage on the Daily Kos site recently, including the outstanding Hummingbird blogathon series.

Via DailyKos.com:

Hummingbirds – Hopeful Voices in Our Midst

The “Hummingbirds” Blogathon held this past week was our humble attempt to accentuate the positive and explore what all of us can do as individuals.  After all, successful collective efforts are so deemed because the whole ends being greater than the sum of its parts.  The diaries posted this week were not only inspiring and uplifting, but based on several diary comments I read, opened many eyes.

Why did the blogathon’s writers, journalists, and activists choose a hummingbird?

This is why.

On a visit to Japan, Wangari Maathai learned the story of the hummingbird and the forest fire. While the other animals run in fear or hang their heads in despair, the hummingbird flies above the fire time and again, releasing a few drops of water from its tiny beak.

“Why do you bother?” the other animals shout at the hummingbird. “I’m doing the best that I can,” the hummingbird replies.

That’s all, and everything, we each must do.

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Green Business: How do we get investors on board with Sustainability?

Getting Sustainability solutions to scale is going to take a lot of money.

But at present, the investor community is not placing their bets on Sustainability-driven companies.

That’s a disconnect to me, because the business case for doing so is solid. Research  shows that businesses that make Environmental, Social and Governance (commonly known as ESG) factors part of their strategy do just as well in the marketplace. Sometimes even better.

The research borne this out in 2011, and it’s still true today.

Via Harvard Business School http://www.hbs.edu:

The Impact of a Corporate Culture of Sustainability on Corporate Behavior and Performance

Finally, we provide evidence that High Sustainability companies significantly outperform their counterparts over the long-term, both in terms of stock market and accounting performance. The outperformance is stronger in sectors where the customers are individual consumers instead of companies, companies compete on the basis of brands and reputations, and products significantly depend upon extracting large amounts of natural resources.

So why isn’t the investor community on board?

Cary Krosinsky’s work is all about understanding and bridging this gap between investors and sustainability. And, approaches for getting money flowing towards positive sustainability investments.

I heard Cary and Steve Viederman speak Mar. 4 on Getting Investors Engaged in Sustainability at the Bard MBA Sustainable Business Series.

Cary is Executive Director of the Network for Sustainable Financial Markets, and teaches Sustainability & Investing at Columbia University and University of Maryland.  Previously, he was senior vice president for Trucost, a company that helps organizations measure their environmental impacts. He’s also an author of Evolutions in Sustainable Investing: Strategies, Funds and Thought Leadership (Wiley Finance).

First, the bad news.

Status quo is strong.  The people who make investment decisions have deeply entrenched beliefs and behaviors about how to make money.  Monolithicly so. Cary’s company, the Network for Sustainable Financial Markets, just released research that finds only 1% of global assets under management overall are managed by investors looking at sustainability.

Via sustainablefinancialmarkets.net:

NSFM White Paper – The State of Ownership (the real size of SRI Assets + the Systemic Nature of Equity Ownership)

1%.

So at least we know where we stand. Now on to changing it.

Cary suggested a positive investing mindset to work with the status quo rather than against it. This means focusing on adding Sustainability-minded assets to a portfolio–what’s possible–rather than focusing on what we shouldn’t buy.   As an example, he mentioned Bill McKibben’s 350.org college endowment fossil fuel divestment campaign. Instead of lobbying to cull  fossil fuel-related investments from university endowments, a positive approach would be to add a percentage of Sustainability-focused investments to a university’s investment portfolio.

I’m really taken with this concept because it has significant potential to create change from the top-down. It’s really the simplest idea in the world. Put our energies towards finding sustainable solutions instead of stamping out fires. It takes more time and energy to say, “What should we do?” instead of “Stop that,” true, but these are conversations worth having. Taking the time it takes, takes less time.

I’m all in for the “and also” top-down, bottom-up, sideways innovating systemic solutions that keep us away from the brink of a 2 degrees-hotter planet. I believe in the scientific consensus about our world becoming fundamentally less hospitable to human life if we don’t.

Putting all issues of money aside, as climate change realities become the new normal (resource scarcities, extreme drought, rising sea levels), business and investors have real skin in fixing things.  If we don’t come up with cures for our environmental and energy problems, there’s not going to be a world in which to invest money.

Many thanks to the Bard MBA program for the chance to hear about Cary’s research and contributions to the Sustainable Investing field.