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ISSP 2010-2011 Annual Report: Big Accomplishments and Exciting Plans
This was a big year for ISSP. We passed the 600 member mark, graduated our second cohort of certificate students, inaugurated our Hall of Fame award, and held our first ever face-to-face conference. The conference was clearly the highlight. As a first conference it was not huge in size, but enormous in spirit. We managed to pull off an event that was instructive, entertaining, engaging and inspiring (in the words of our participants). We're looking forward to the next conference as part of our efforts to build value for our members.
Some of the other initiatives we're pursuing this year (based on member input) include the development of local groups to facilitate more face-to-face connections, participation in some of the run up activities to Rio +20, expanded webinar offerings (expanded both in number and type) and a comprehensive review and update of our certificate offerings.
We've also launched our 1,000-member drive targeting a membership number we think will launch us into a new level of service and visibility. The more members we have, the more benefits we can offer and the greater the opportunity for members to connect, engage and learn.
We're also welcoming five new members to the board of directors:
Cliff Bast, Bast SustainGroup LLC
Tom Gloria, Industrial Ecology Consultants
Steve Levitsky, Sustainable Resources Group, Inc.
Sue Sakaki, Sustainable Earth Initiative
Kathleen Shaver, Mattel
and bidding adieu and and a heartfelt thank you to three retiring board members:
Cate Gable, Axioun Communications Int'l
Hector Rodriguez, Biogen Idec
Bud McGrath, R & K McGrath & Associates
Watch for more news as the year progresses and join us in some of the exciting initiatives!
Executive Director
Marsha Willard
Read the full report here
ISSP 2010-2011 Annual Report Back To Top
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FEBRUARY 2012 VIRTUAL WORKSHOP: BUSINESS PARTNERS FOR RESILIENT COMMUNITIES
Businesses have the potential to play an enormous role in a community's ability to be resilient. This workshop is designed as a survey to explore corporate/community socially responsible initiatives that make an impact.
Come to share your thoughts with others on making the business case for stakeholder engagement. Leave with practical tools and a plan for how businesses and organizations can engage with their various stakeholders in solving community problems related to triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability.
The Instructor of Record, Susanne Croft, an ISSP member and certified Sustainability Professional (having completed her ISSP Sustainability Professional Certification in 2010) is the Executive Director of Sustainable Resources Inland Northwest (SRINW). Susanne will facilitate the workshop's three-prong approach tapping into stakeholder engagement, community planning, local investing, economic leakage, transparency and reporting, while demonstrating business leaders' roles in The New Economy. This fast paced online workshop will feature these guest presenters:
> Michael Shuman is an expert in community-based economic development and currently serves as Director of Research and Public Policy at the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE).
> Cynthia Figge, Cofounder and COO of CSRHUB, a website providing corporate social responsibility ratings and data on about 5,000 publicly traded companies worldwide. She is a forerunner and thought leader in the corporate sustainability movement.
> David Korten is the co-founder and board chair of YES! Magazine, co-chair of the New Economy Working Group, president of the People-Centered Development Forum (PCDForum), and a founding board member of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). Korten is an accomplished author whose books include Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, and the international best seller When Corporations Rule the World.
Participants will be able to use the (provided) tools and describe their insights to make a convincing pitch for stakeholder engagement to a current or potential employer/client. After successful completion of this Core workshop, credit will be applied towards the ISSP Sustainability Professional Certificate (more info here).
Live virtual webinars meet Thursdays (FEB 2, 9, 16, 23) at 11AM PT (GMT -8) / 12PM MT / 1PM CT / 2PM ET / 9PM CET (GMT +1) Special Discounts include: Always: $75 off for ISSP members. Time limited: $50 off with Early Bird Discount before January 27, 2012.
Register Now >>
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JANUARY WEBINAR: Implementing Living Wages in Global Supply Chains Presented by Social Accountability International with Case Histories from Thailand and Honduras
January 25, 2012 - 10:00am - 11:00am
Time: 10am PT-US/ 11am MT-US/ 12pm CT-US/ 1pm ET-US (To convert to your time zone)
Please register for the event and if you are unable to attend live, you will receive the recording link to view/listen to later.
In supply chains extending around the world, men and women labor in low-wage jobs, making insufficient income to cover the cost o f living. What can responsible businesses do to ensure that workers throughout the supply chain receive living wages? What are the implications of wage levels on the sustainability of communities around the world?
Join Matt Fischer-Daly, Senior Manager at Social Accountability International (SAI) for a discussion on how businesses can implement living wages in their global supply chains, and the role of certification standards such as SAI's SA8000�. This webinar will feature two case studies, from Thailand and Honduras. As Senior Manager at SAI, Matt manages SAI's development of the SA8000� standard and guidance, complaints management, and impact assessment. He also contributes to national and regional capacity-building programs to create enabling environments for labor rights. SAI has promoted workers' right to a living wage since its founding and development of SA8000� in 1997.
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... OR how to find the way out by kick-starting capitalism to save our economic ass!
Join us as we host Hunter Lovins in an one hour webinar.
Wednesday February 22, 2012 @10am PST (GMT -8) / 11am MST / 12pm CST / 1pm EST / 8pm CET (GMT +1)
Please register for this 60-minute event and if you are unable to attend live, you will receive the recording link to view/listen to later.
"Believe in climate change. Or don't.
...It doesn't matter.
But you'd better understand this: the best route to rebuilding our economy, our cities, and our job markets, as well as assuring national security, is doing precisely what you would do if you were scared to death about climate change. Whether you're the head of a household or the CEO of a multinational corporation, embracing efficiency, innovation, renewables, carbon markets, and new technologies is the smartest decision you can make. It's the most profitable, too. And, oh yes-you'll help save the planet." In Climate Capitalism: Capitalism in the Age of Climate Change (The Way Out: Kickstarting Capitalism to Save Our Economic Ass),
L. Hunter Lovins, coauthor of the bestselling Natural Capitalism, and the sustainability expert Boyd Cohen prove that the future of capitalism in a recession-riddled, carbon-constrained world will be built on innovations that cutting-edge leaders are bringing to the market today. These companies are creating jobs and driving innovation.
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ISSP COLLABORATES WITH VERMILLION INSTITUTE ON WEBINAR SERIES IN ADVANCE OF RIO+20
As announced last month, ISSP continues to forge alliances --- both to broaden its reach and to influence global adoption of sustainability. In a variety of ways, ISSP will engage in 'policy, standards and partnership' activities that serve to elevate the profession. To that end, ISSP is working with Vermillion Institute on a research project designed to gather key industry insights in advance of the UN's Rio+20 Conference in June 2012. As many know, Vermillion is an independent policy institute dedicated to advancing three-pillar sustainability through research, multi-stakeholder engagement, and modern communication design. We kick it off in February with a series of interactive ISSP webinars. Each session will give members a chance to contribute to a unique series of reports that will discuss sector-specific questions and best practices. The webinars will be open to all, but in particular, we hope to attract both corporate leaders and practitioners in the target industries. Watch for announcements about dates and times --- and lend your voice to the project!
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VIRTUAL WORKSHOP: SUSTAINABILITY 101
Instructor: Darcy Hitchcock, co-founder of ISSP and co-founder of Axis Performance Advisors.
After taking ISSP's foundation course, you'll know the concepts, frameworks and tools used by sustainability professionals.
This is your chance to go beyond an understanding of the problems. Darcy's course will help you begin to see how the solutions can weave together to create a better life for us all. You'll end the course with an exploration about where you fit in the picture, what your role might be in creating a sustainable world.
Dates: Open Enrollment. Register at any time. Take up to 8 weeks to complete.
Register Now>>
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NEW JOB POSTINGS
Visit the ISSP job posting page for more information about these two new listings: - Sustainability Associate Director with international consulting firm
- Faculty position in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering with focus on sustainability
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ISSP MEMBERS IN THE NEWS
Momentum of Global Pyramid 2012 Workshop Event Continues To Grow In Run-Up to Rio+20
ISSP faculty member Alan AtKisson reports that exciting momentum continues to build for Pyramid 2012, a voluntary, global-scale workshop event that is linked (unofficially) to the Rio+20 sustainability summit next year.
Scheduled to take place in February and March 2012, with the official launch set for Feb 17-19, hundreds of groups will build pyramids and generate new ideas and projects. It's free to all
| Everyone is welcome to join this no cost event. |
participants, and *everyone* is welcome. More than 80 groups in 26 countries have already signed up. For example, a water NGO in Zimbabwe, a group of "vulnerable farmers" in Colombia, 3-5 groups of graduate students at Cambridge University UK, an architecture university in Bangladesh, an investment group in Moscow, and a group of green entrepreneurs in Senegal all plan to participate.
Pyramid 2012 is being organized by the AtKisson Group, a global network of social enterprises dedicated to accelerating sustainable development, founded two decades ago by Alan AtKisson, one of the pioneers of sustainability consulting. Pyramid 2012 is a voluntary initiative, initially driven by the engagement of individuals and organizations within the Group, but now being supplemented by an independent International Coordinating Committee. All around the world, Pyramid workshop groups will be generating insights, ideas, and initiatives. They'll be posting the results of these workshops to the Pyramid 2012 website. All that content will be turned into a major report, which will be delivered to the UN at the Rio+20 summit this June.
Pyramid (also known as "Building the Pyramid") is a workshop process that was invented in 2001-2002 as a way to accelerate learning and planning for sustainable development ... and anything else that has "the good of the whole" as its core purpose. Schools and universities use Pyramid for classroom education. Companies and organizations use it to create new initiatives or plans. Communities have used it to find new ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, recover after a disaster, and more.
For more information, and to start or get involved with a Pyramid group in your area, visit http://pyramid2012.wordpress.com/. When you sign up, you can indicate if you want to lead a "Pyramid" workshop in your city. Or, you'll be linked you up to the nearest Pyramid 2012 event as a participant.
New Eco-Scenario Added to Popular Board Game Catan with Help of Worldwatch Institute
Catan: Oil Springs Is Now Released!
Eureka, oil has been discovered on the island of Catan, reports ISSP member Erik Assadourian, a senior fellow with the Worldwatch Institute. Last month, the Transforming Cultures Project of Worldwatch Institute, Catan GmbH, Mayfair Games, and Kosmos collaborated to produce a new eco-scenario for the popular board game The Settlers of Catan. The scenario adds a new resource-oil-to this resource trading game that has sold 18 million copies in 40 different languages. With this new resource, Catan players face a new challenge: deciding whether the common good is worth limiting oil usage or whether the pursuit of victory is worth the risk of ecological ruin. Using oil can enable players to grow much faster and larger, but using too much can cause industrial pollution, climate-change-induced coastal flooding, even total inundation of the island of Catan. Even the most committed environmentalist may find it difficult to resist the temptation of using oil to win the game, which of course, reinforces one of the key educational message behind the scenario-that dealing with the political realities underlying climate change is going be very difficult.
Learn more and download and print out a free copy of the rules and pieces at www.oilsprings.catan.com. Or purchase the official scenario at Mayfair Games.
Back To Top Members, Send Us Your News !!! Have you or your company done something interesting lately? Did you recently publish an article, win an award or make a presentation to a large group? Let us know what you've been up to so we may share it with your fellow members here in our newsletter. Send your news items to [email protected] with the phrase Newsletter Item in the subject line. See you on-line! Back To Top
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BOOK REVIEWS The Great Reset: How News Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity Florida, Richard (2010) The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity. New York, NY: Harper Collins. This book provides a nice history of western style capitalism up to the current crash: bubbles, suburban development, technology. Florida compares this economic crisis to other societal resets like the Industrial Revolution and the Great Depression. Then the author provides some insights about where we go from here. Florida is mostly focused on socio-economic issues and is particularly blind to environmental issues. For example, he dismisses Peak Oil not because it's not an issue but because he thinks time wasted commuting is a bigger issue. Huh? All other resource constraints seem to be off his radar. That said, there are some important insights. He talks about megaregions as being economic powerhouses: Char-Lanta (Charlotte, Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham), So-Cal, Tor-Mon-tawa (Toronto, Montreal, Ottowa), So-Flo (Orlando, Tampa) Dal-Austin (Dallas and Austin), Hou-Orleans (Houston and New Orleans, Cascadia (Seattle, Portland, Vancouver BC), Pho-Tuc (Phoenix, Tucson) Den-Bo (Denver, Boulder). Read full review ... Back To Top
Resilience Thinking: Sustaining Ecosystems and People In a Changing World Walker, Brian and David Salt (2006) Resilience Thinking: Sustaining ecosystems and people in a changing world. London: Island Press. Good overview of resilience as a concept. Chapter 4 in particular is a good overview of the adaptive cycle (the figure 8 on its side: exploitation/rapid growth, conservation, release and reorganization), much easier for the non-scientist to understand than the book Panarchy. Resilience is used in two ways and the distinction is important: the capacity to bounce back from a disturbance or the ability to get back to the earlier state. I liked that the book looked at social and ecological systems as one system. The book provides chapters on different situations and ecosystems which could be useful as case studies: Broken River basin in Australia, the Everglades in the US, the Northern Highland Lakes district in Wisconsin, Kristianstads Vattenrike in Sweden. Read full review ...
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SUSTAINABILITY CONFERENCES AND EVENTS
See details about these events on the Partner Events page of the ISSP Website.
- China Carbon Trading Forum, February 16-17, Shanghai
- Objection Handling for Sustainability Professionals, February 16, Toronto
- CARE-North Final Conference, March 20-21, Bremen, Germany
- Management and Leadership Skills for Environmental Health and Safety Professionals, March 26-28, Boston, MA
- Innovating for Sustainability, Harvard Business School Executive Education, May 20-23, London, England
- Strategies For A New Economy, June 8 - 10, Bard College, Annadale-on-Hudson, NY
- Corporate Social Responsibility, October 17-20, Harvard Business School Executive Education, Boston, MA
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