|
 |
Monday, May 29, 2006 |
Thanks to Karen Seeh for this one:
However destructive may be the policies of the government and the methods and products of the corporations, the root of the problem is always found to be found in private life. We must learn to see that every problem that concerns us as conservationists always leads straight to the question of how we live. The world is being destroyed, no doubt about it, by the greed of the rich and powerful. It is also being destroyed by popular demand.
Wendell Berry, "Conservation Is Good Work,"
Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community, 1991
11:22:57 AM 
|
|
|
Sunday, October 2, 2005 |
I just posted my report from the SRI in the Rockies conference at as my 'Sustainability Sundays' column at WorldChanging.
Perception is key to the investment game, of course. The profit opportunity lives in the value gradients between how different people evaluate risk and opportunity, and hence the value of securities. If I think global warming, toxic products and human rights are likely to be big deals, and you don't, we're going to place very different financial bets. Because SRI is a movement as well as an industry, the investors want to move markets -- like LEED has done in the building industry -- as well as profit from them.
The posting includes a long summary of Gar Alperovitz's keynote -- worth reading.
'The hopeful assumption, during dark political times, that ultimately the pendulum will swing back -- that's complacency.' Believing that the best we can do, in the face of overwhelming trends against us, is help make things a bit less bad -- 'I don't believe that either,' he said.
His challenge: the possibility of slowly developing alternative paradigm that's beyond capitalism in its traditional form: significantly broadening ownership of capital -- 'not socialism or capitalism, but a new form.'
'Just possibly,' he suggested, 'we're living at time when the beginning ground work for something very different, very positive, might begin to transcend traditional models.'
10:29:15 PM
|
|
|
Monday, July 4, 2005 |
A perfect day, somewhere between sports events, picnics and fireworks, to re-read the Declaration of Independence. A most remarkable document, well worth reading once a year, 'whether you need it or not.' (Echo of that old joke about cowboys taking a bath once a week, whether...)
A stunning and still compelling piece of work, undiminished by any of Jefferson's flaws.
(My day includes all of those, plus some serious planning -- something I'm investing lots more time in these days, and very pleased with the ROI -- plus hopefully catching up on the long lapses in blogrhythm, while still wondering how some people manage to blog so much and still have lives.... Oh... THAT's it!)
BTW, as long as you're reading declarations, have a look at John Perry Barlow's Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, and the Sustainable Business Declaration of Leadership I wrote for the Sustainable Business Rating System initiative.
10:37:06 AM
|
|
|
Sunday, June 5, 2005 |
Joel Makower has a somewhat more jaded view of the Urban Environmental Accords.
But some of the biggest urban environmental problems aren't addressed. Concern about environmental justice issues -- those that inequitably affect the poorest urban dwellers around the world -- aren't evident in the accords.
(Read this together with the nearby posting on Van Jones and the 'Green Jobs. Not Jails.' campaign for some gritty perspective on why the jade.)
11:42:30 PM
|
|
Echoing the 50 nations that signed on to the UN Charter in San Francisco 60 years ago, the mayors of 50 cities signed the Urban Environmental Accords in San Francisco today, ending the week-long World Environment Day events. The accords:
- identify 21 issues:
Energy
Renewable Energy | Energy Efficiency | Climate Change
Waste Reduction
Zero Waste | Manufacturer Responsibility | Consumer Responsibility
Urban Design
Green Building | Urban Planning | Slums
Urban Nature
Parks | Habitat Restoration | Wildlife
Transportation
Public Transportation | Clean Vehicles | Reducing Congestion
Environmental Health
Toxics Reduction | Healthy Food Systems | Clean Air
Water
Drinking Water Access | Source Water Conservation | Waste Water Reduction
- call on cities to take three actions a year to meet specific goals for each, and
- will award one to four stars based on how many goals are achieved by 2012.
Detail on other WED events to come soon.
6:43:39 PM
|
|
|
Friday, May 13, 2005 |
[SustainableBusiness.com]: Recent
months have seen a fierce and growing counter-attack against corporate
social responsibility (CSR) and ethics reform.... The stars in this
dramatic fight: [California Governer Arnold] Schwarzenegger, squaring
off against corporate reform leader Phil Angelides, the California
state treasurer who for years has used $300 billion in state pension
funds to launch salvos demanding governance and ethical reforms from
corporations.
How could anyone be opposed to corporate reform, you might wonder,
after the raft - nay flotilla - of corporate scandals and CEP perp
walks of recent years? Well, you wouldn't have been following the
musings of David Hirschmann, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce, who wrote cease-and-desist letters to state pension funds
in New York and Connecticut, accusing them of 'working to advance
the social investment agenda of organized labor.' Or of the American
Enterprise Institute, whose economic policy director declared that
CalPERS 'is abusing the public trust in a manner as serious and grave
as any I have seen.'
Or of radical right mastermind Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform -- 'Field Marshall' of the Bush plan and source of the famous battlecry, I
don't want to abolish government, I simply want to reduce it to the
size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub
-- who said, regarding public pension funds: 'Just 115 people control
$1 trillion,' he said. 'We want to take that power and destroy it.'
Which puts a very different perspective on Gov. Schwarzenegger's
proposal that state
pension funds be broken up into private, 401(k)-style accounts. Broken
up into millions of accounts, that capital won't have the aggregrated
power to influence corporate behavior in the way that CalPERS has been
able to do.
Here we get to the heart of the Norquistian agenda: to fundamentally
delegitimize government (they actually call it 'the beast,' not 'of the
people, by the people and for the people'!) and the very notion of
people pooling their resources to protect their common
interests.
That, despite this:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more
perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility,
provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare,
and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States
of America.
End of soapbox. (For the moment.)
10:37:39 AM
|
|
|
Wednesday, May 11, 2005 |
[Business Week]: United Airlines gained a significant financial victory with court
approval to dump its four pension plans but faces a tough challenge to
win back the support of angry employees.
Oh, we do so like to carry on
about the 'rule of law' and the 'sanctity of contracts' and the
'importance of trust' and 'a man's word is his bond.' But sometimes it
can all be so inconveeeeeeenient...
PS: 'Taxpayers had better buckle up because we will be in for a bumpy ride
of bailout after bailout, as more and more corporations dump their
pension plan obligations on the PBGC,' said U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky,
D-Ill., referring to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. that already is
operating at a more than $23 billion deficit.
At least the PBGC will get a bit of equity -- better than the total giveway that so many government subsidies turn out to be.
7:49:09 AM
|
|
|
Monday, May 9, 2005 |
I just stumbled across The Enlibra Principles (on the US Environmental Protection Agency site):
The Enlibra Doctrine is an approach to environmental stewardship that
was co-authored by former Utah Governor and later EPA Administrator
Mike Leavitt and former Governor John Kitzhaber of Oregon. Enlibra,
from the Latin, means 'move toward balance.' Enlibra is based on the
dual concepts of balance and stewardship, and is built upon principles
of flexibility, innovation, partnership and collaboration. The
philosophy emphasizes collaboration instead of polarization, national
standards and neighborhood solutions, markets instead of mandates,
solutions that transcend political boundaries, and other common sense
ideas that will accelerate environmental progress.
National Standards, Neighborhood Solutions - Assign responsibilities at the right level Collaboration, Not Polarization - Use collaborative processes to break down barriers and find solutions
Reward Results, Not Programs - Move to a performance-based, instead of process-based, system
Science For Facts, Process for Priorities - Separate subjective choices from objective data gathering
Markets Before Mandates - Pursue economic incentives whenever appropriate Change a Heart, Change a Nation - Environmental education and understanding are crucial Recognition of Benefits and Costs - Make sure all decisions affecting infrastructure, development and environment are fully informed
Solutions Transcend Political Boundaries - Use appropriate geographic boundaries to resolve problems
There's a paragraph more (not excerpted here)
for each of those points, which make it all sound less platitudinous.
Does anyone know more about the history -- and the real impact -- of
these principles?
(Leavitt of course presided over much of the Bush
EPA's stealth deregulation program. Kitzhaber, OTOH, presided over some
of the country's most forward looking sustainability initiatives. I'm
always intrigued by strange bedfellows.)
8:21:50 PM
|
|
© Copyright 2006 Gil Friend.
|
|
|
