December 4, 2010 by
John Morelli and
admin | Filed under: Research Category Descriptions | No Comments »
The way we respond to different situations depends on how we perceive the world and how we think it works. Living life is not a zero-based decision-making process. It tends most often to be an incremental process where we add and interpret new information to existing meanings and understandings that are rarely reevaluated in the process. If some generally accepted knowledge appears to have led to successful decisions in the past, we tend not to challenge that knowledge even though it may have become invalid over time and in view of changing situations. Over the 35 or so year life of our profession, much around us has changed. With the ever increasing speed and availability of communication resources; exponential growth in information technology; continuous population increases; consolidation of worldwide wealth, capital and resources; dramatic growth of corporate power; dramatic political changes; changing status of nations, growth of the agro industry, and more, no one can reasonably expect that long-held underlying assumptions of how the world works can still be valid or do not warrant scrutiny.
There are many questions to be asked and answered. Some of those are identified here and addressed below.
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December 4, 2010 by
John Morelli and
admin | Filed under: Research Category Descriptions | No Comments »
“I suppose I think that sustainability is not about the destination, it’s about the method of travel…it’s about doing the right thing while we are here.” Melissa Lamphron, Oct. 2005
Setting sustainability as an ultimate destination is an important mental adjustment to make, but developing strategies and tools to make that journey is what sustainability is really about. Some of those tools help us to better see what we’re doing; some help us control what we’re doing; and, some help us to make the right decisions. I the subtopics below, we will explore these tools and more.
The questions we want to ask and answer include:
What are the characteristics of measurement tools that will help us achieve sustainability?
What are the characteristics of assessment tools that will help us achieve sustainability?
What are the characteristics of decision-making tools that will help us achieve sustainability?
What is out there that works?
Who, what, and where are the resources we need to move toward sustainability?
What are the obstacles and what can we do about them?
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December 4, 2010 by
John Morelli ,
and
admin | Filed under: Research Category Descriptions | 2 Comments »
This topic examines elements of the role of the environmental manager, including: the extent to which the role of the environmental manager is and should be defined by the profession rather than the company and which specific elements of our responsibilities should be considered professional practice (See: Role of the EM in the organization.); the extent to which we should share information regarding best practices and contribute to establishing a “good practices” resource base for our respective industries (See: Role of the EM in the industry.); and the responsibilities of the environmental manager to the host community and the role of the environmental manager in guiding the organization with respect to the public good (See: Role of the EM in the host community).
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December 4, 2010 by
John Morelli ,
admin and
| Filed under: Research Category Descriptions | 1 Comment »
It is generally well-accepted wisdom that what isn’t measured can’t be controlled. So measurement is important. But measurement provides more than just information on the effectiveness of controls; it also provides information on the values of the culture within which the measurements are being taken. Deciding upon environmental performance metrics can, in many cases, be not much more than a translation of regulatory requirements. However, while many, perhaps most, companies claim that their environmental performance is principally compliance driven, an examination of what they measure reveals that the organization’s concerns often go well beyond regulatory mandates. So it is important to understand not just what should be measured but also what we are trying to accomplish with our measurements. Obviously, it is important that what we measure and our management methodologies are internally and externally valid with respect our purpose for conducting these measurements. But in many cases for the results of our measurements to be useful there needs to be correspondence with earlier and subsequent measurements and, perhaps, at other locations. The subtopics in this research collaboratory will explore performance measurement and examine what we measure and why, what standards of practice exist or are developing and how we use the results of our measurements.
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December 4, 2010 by
John Morelli and
admin | Filed under: Research Category Descriptions | No Comments »
The environmental management profession is made up of individuals with a wide range of academic and experiential backgrounds, including, but certainly not limited to: civil, chemical, and environmental engineers; chemists, biologists, geologists, and environmental scientists; lawyers, financial managers, human resource directors, operations managers, and a relatively small but hopefully increasing number of individuals who were actually prepared as environmental managers. Thus finding a reasonable set of qualifying credentials for the profession is an elusive problem. On one hand, our amalgamated skills may appear much broader than the environmental management needs of the organizations we serve, yet when we consider the breadth of the concept of sustainability, perhaps not. The subtopics in this collaboratory explore the possibility of establishing requisite skills for the profession and credentialing of environmental management professionals.
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October 5, 2010 by
AYOUB MOHAMED and
| Filed under: What Should Be Measured and Why? [1,3] | 1 Comment »
Hi everyone,
It’s been a while since I existed in this Collaboratory platform.
Talking of what should be measured why do not you take the (Calculate Your Carbon Footprint) test.
http://www.earthlab.com/
It’ll give you your score compared to your region and world score.
TRY IT OUT.
Ayoub Mohamed
Waha Oil Company
Tripoli, Libya
July 29, 2009 by
Brian Butler | Filed under: Sustainable Resource Use | No Comments »
Please follow the link below to view a powerpoint presentation on the topic of: “Can biofuel production be environmentally friendly?”. This workshop was moderated by Szilvia LUDA (PhD. Student) with the collaboration of Ricardo Scacchetti and Giovanni Conti.
Powerpoint Presentation
