“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?
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.
July 29, 2009 by Brian Butler | Filed under: Integrating EHS Management into Organizational Excellence [4] | No Comments »
Please follow the link below to view a powerpoint presentation on “The Path to Social Responsibility: Integrating EHS Management into Organizational Excellence”, moderated by Lisa Greenwood.
July 29, 2009 by Brian Butler | Filed under: Sustainability Labeling and Consumer Education [1,2] | No Comments »
Please follow the link below to view a powerpoint presentation on “Managerial Aspects of Sustainability Labelling”, moderated by Dr. Gábor Harangozó.
July 29, 2009 by Brian Butler | Filed under: Environmental Valuation and Accounting [1] | No Comments »
Please follow the link below to view a powerpoint presentation on “Accounting for Environmentally Driven Corporate Success”, moderated by Prof. Dr. Stefan Schaltegger.
May 20, 2009 by Brian Butler , and admin | Filed under: Using Your EMS to Move Toward Sustainability [4] | No Comments »
Ms. Blaydes opened the presentation with the premise of does an EMS system lead to sustainability. The answer was yes/no, dependant upon the focus of the organization. Discussion ensued regarding the definition of sustainability; Ms. Blaydes offered the definition: The continuing protection of life support systems and biodiversity; the conservation of natural and energy resources. The group agreed with statements offered that there was an overall confusion and lack of conclusions about the environmental problem. The basis of the confusion can be found in the complex regulatory structure, bad corporate image related to prior acts, public demand for action, and the profit drive of the company.
Ms. Blaydes discussed the development of a “default” type of EMS “a checking of the box” where positive environmental practices are motivated by the legal compliance for risk management. A list of considerations and practices to develop an effective EMS was offered:
Awareness of employees
Management support
Environmental considerations integrated into business planning
Responsibility beyond EHS
Measure the impact to the environment
Seek to control direct and indirect impacts
Investment in the development of human capital.
May 20, 2009 by Brian Butler | Filed under: Evaluation of Natural Resources | No Comments »
Please follow the link below for a powerpoint presentation highlighting the findings from this workshop.
May 20, 2009 by Brian Butler | Filed under: Paying for Sustainability [4] | No Comments »
Please follow the link below for a powerpoint presentation highlighting the findings from this workshop.
May 20, 2009 by Brian Butler and | Filed under: Multiple-Bottom-Line Thinking [4] | 1 Comment »
Workshop objective:
To address the need for a change by presenting a relational view of the corporation based on the strategic value of the linkages with stakeholders and its implication in terms of corporate performance evaluation and reporting system.
Discussion:
- Going beyond the traditional management tools, the triple bottom line agenda is not enough to achieve a full corporate social responsibility (CSR) evaluation and reporting.
- The sustainability of the corporations depends on their relation with the stakeholders (including the natural environment).
- It is not possible to reduce the complexity of the international and large size corporations and their interactions into just monetary measurements.
- A need for a new evaluation and reporting system is required.
- It is crucial to work on managerial tools capable of monitoring and tracking from a qualitative and quantitative viewpoint the overall corporate performance and to address the internal and external stakeholders as well.
- The sustainability evaluation and reporting system (SERS) include the following:
o The social report
o The environmental report
o The overall reporting system
o The integrated information system
o A set of integrated performance indicators
- The integrated reporting system needs to work off a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) according to the specific stakeholders of a particular corporation.
In this way, according to the relational view of the corporation, the SERS methodology enables a corporation to manage the stakeholder relationships and address the information needs and the sustainability concerns of the various stakeholder groups. This will also build an assessment framework to assess the sustainability of the corporation.
May 20, 2009 by Brian Butler | Filed under: Integrating EHS Management into Organizational Excellence [4] | No Comments »
Please follow the link below to view a powerpoint presentation of the findings from the workshop held at the RIT symposium on May 11th & 12th, 2009.
May 18, 2009 by AROMAKE AFIEGBE | Filed under: Multiple-Bottom-Line Thinking [4] | No Comments »
Contents
Going beyond traditional management tools
The SERS proposal
SERS elements: The KPIs
Adopting a multiple-bottom-line-thinking
Full article here.
