Dan Vermeer, former director of the Sustainability Value Chain initiative at The Coca-Cola Company, has been named executive director of the Corporate Sustainability Initiative (CSI) at Duke University. CSI is an interdisciplinary program designed to examine corporate environmental practices from the perspectives of both business strategy and public policy. It pools the resources and expertise of the Nicholas Institute, the Nicholas School of the Environment and the Fuqua School of Business. At Coca-Cola, Vermeer directed company-wide efforts to integrate sustainability into core business practices, including business planning, procurement, employee engagement, customer relationships, communications and brand positioning. He also founded and led Coca-Cola's Community Water Partnerships program, and designed an industry "gold standard" Environmental Assessment Methodology, identifying risks and priorities at more than 800 manufacturing facilities in 200 countries. 

A new paper co-authored by Nicholas Institute Director Tim Profeta for the German Marshall Fund of the United States provides a detailed assessment of the status of efforts in the U.S. Senate to design and win support for a mandatory cap-and-trade program, and an update on where the climate policy debate stands in the U.S. House of Representatives. The 28-page paper also provides a look at the controversy over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's role in regulating GHG emissions, and offers insights into the positions of the U.S. presidential candidates, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama, on U.S. and international climate policy. It's online here. 

Peter McCornick, director of water policy at the Nicholas Institute, and Heather Hosterman, associate in policy and research, attended the World Water Week conference in Stockholm, Sweden, in August. "This year, there was a special focus on the urgent challenges of sanitation and managing wastewater. More than one third of the world's population still lacks these basic necessities," says McCornick, who presented in the session on using wastewater as a resource. "Sessions also covered emerging topics such as the impact of climate change on Himalayan water resources, and our ever expanding 'water footprint'," he says. Earlier this month, McCornick was invited to speak at the U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage Conference on "Managing Water in a Climate Changing World." He also presented a talk on "Realities of the Water Crisis in Some of the World's Critical River Basins, and Relevant Challenges for Social Policy," Sept. 10 at Duke's Sanford Institute for Public Policy.