The Eight Biggest Myths for Sustainability in Business
Offsets Lost Credit as Salves for Carbon Glut
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Archive for November, 2009
Monday Headlines
Thursday Headlines
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Wednesday Headlines
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Understanding Green Ranking Systems
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Corporate sustainability rankings and indexes are becoming increasingly popular tools for comparing the sustainability performances of companies across different industries, sectors, and (in some cases) countries. These ranking systems are important for informing stakeholders, fostering employee and executive pride, and prividing a tangible source of feedback and direction to inform future decisions.
But ranking companies of many sizes, industries, and backgrounds is challenging. It provides a very uneven ground for comparison, and inevitably leads to discrepancies across different indexes. Knowing the methodologies behind these major ranking systems is key to understanding how your company can climb the rankings.
1. Dow Jones Sustainability Index: Comprised of multiple separate indexes, the Dow Jones program, launched in 1999, tracks the financial performance of leading sustainability-driven companies. DJSI’s criteria is broken down into three separate dimensions — economic, environmental, and social — with a “weight” assigned to a number of sub-criteria.
2. Newsweek’s Green Ranking of America’s Biggest Companies: Initiated in 2009, Newsweek’s Green Rankings was developed in collaboration with three research partners: KLD Research & Analytics, Trucost, and CorporateRegister.com. Measuring the companies by revenue, market capitalization and total employees, the index breaks companies into 15 sectors (Banks and Insurance, Food and Beverage, Health Care, etc.) before consolidating each into the master list. Companies are given a separate score for Reputation Survey, Green Policies and Performance, and Environmental Impact, all of which make up their total Green Score.
3. The Global 100: Developed by Corporate Knights Inc. and Innovest Strategic Value Advisors Inc., the Global 100 was launched in 2005 and is unveiled each year during the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Global 100’s methodology relies on Innovest’s custom four-step process.
“We’ve been conditioned to want rankings,” suggests Kevin Moss, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at BT Americas. “It starts with our Apgar score at birth and continues throughout our lives as students, consumers and investors. So of course in the sustainability world we want to see companies ranked according to their sustainability goals.”
Submitted by Grant Draper, President of FD Element
Tuesday Headlines
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Monday Headlines
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Friday Blog Roundup
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The folks at Greenbiz today released an interesting article as part of a series of interviews from the MIT Sloan Management Review in July 2009. The full interview is available here.
On the policy side, WSJ’s Keith Johnson has been following the latest developments in the Senate as committee debates continue. The latest activity, reports Johnson, is a letter written by some fourteen senators to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) making the case to divvy allowances completely on the basis of emissions (rather than the emissions-to-production ratio that defined the breakdown in the bill that passed in the House this past June). Reuters has more on this story.
Liz Galst of NYT’s Green Inc. Blog has the scoop on the latest issue advocacy campaign that’s sweeping (make that crawling) across the nation. It’s Seventh Generation’s new “Million Baby Crawl” campaign. Here, folks are encouraged to sign up by customizing their own “baby avatar” and writing a short message to their local representative about why we need stronger legislation to keep harmful chemicals out of the home.
“The Million Baby Crawl takes a systemic and holistic approach to the problem,” Seventh Generation’s executive chairman Jeffrey Hollender said.
Systemic, yes. Holistic, I suppose. But aren’t the babies adorable? Look at them! Babies are a truly post-partisan vehicle for message dissemination and issue advocacy. What party or constituency could possibly be anti-baby? Just look at this video, one of several spots that belong to the campaign. If babies crawling across the street isn’t funny, I don’t know what is.
Submitted by Grant Draper, President of FD Element
Friday Headlines
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Thursday Headlines
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Geothermal Trade Association to Host Reception
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CanGEA, a trade group representing companies in the geothermal energy industry, is hosting a “Geothermal Power Investment Workshop and Networking Reception” on Thursday, Dec. 3rd in Calgary. Taking place at the Westin Calgary, the event will include presentations from geothermal exploration and development companies, technology and finance industry stakeholders, leading research scientists, and federal and provincial government representatives. The tradeshow will also give attendees the opportunity to converse directly with industry leaders.
Presenters and panelists will include:
- Alison Thompson, Chair & Executive Director, CANgea
- Craig Dunn, COO, Borealis GeoPower Inc.
- Dr. Michal C. Moore, Senior Fellow, ISEEE, University of Calgary
- Dr. Dan Yang, CEO, Borealis GeoPower Inc.
- Roberto Ricci, VP Corporate Development, Sierra Geothermal Power Corp.
- Dan Phaure, VP Investment Banking, Jacob Securities Inc.
- Fred Pletcher, Partner, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
- Teresa Budd, Partner, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
- David Morrison, President & CEO, Yukon Energy Corp.
- Rocco Vita, Senior Manager of Alternative & Emerging Technology, Enbridge Inc.
- Lee Deibert, Principal, Meridian Environmental Chair of CanGEA’s Reserves and Reporting Code Committee
If you’re interested in the Canadian geothermal industry, this is the event to attend. Click here to visit the registration page.
Submitted by Don Millar, CEO of FD Element
Wednesday Headlines
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Tuesday Headlines
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Monday Headlines
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Friday Headlines
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Next Page »
Monday Headlines
Thursday Headlines
permalink
Wednesday Headlines
permalink
Understanding Green Ranking Systems
permalink
Corporate sustainability rankings and indexes are becoming increasingly popular tools for comparing the sustainability performances of companies across different industries, sectors, and (in some cases) countries. These ranking systems are important for informing stakeholders, fostering employee and executive pride, and prividing a tangible source of feedback and direction to inform future decisions.
But ranking companies of many sizes, industries, and backgrounds is challenging. It provides a very uneven ground for comparison, and inevitably leads to discrepancies across different indexes. Knowing the methodologies behind these major ranking systems is key to understanding how your company can climb the rankings.
1. Dow Jones Sustainability Index: Comprised of multiple separate indexes, the Dow Jones program, launched in 1999, tracks the financial performance of leading sustainability-driven companies. DJSI’s criteria is broken down into three separate dimensions — economic, environmental, and social — with a “weight” assigned to a number of sub-criteria.
2. Newsweek’s Green Ranking of America’s Biggest Companies: Initiated in 2009, Newsweek’s Green Rankings was developed in collaboration with three research partners: KLD Research & Analytics, Trucost, and CorporateRegister.com. Measuring the companies by revenue, market capitalization and total employees, the index breaks companies into 15 sectors (Banks and Insurance, Food and Beverage, Health Care, etc.) before consolidating each into the master list. Companies are given a separate score for Reputation Survey, Green Policies and Performance, and Environmental Impact, all of which make up their total Green Score.
3. The Global 100: Developed by Corporate Knights Inc. and Innovest Strategic Value Advisors Inc., the Global 100 was launched in 2005 and is unveiled each year during the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Global 100’s methodology relies on Innovest’s custom four-step process.
“We’ve been conditioned to want rankings,” suggests Kevin Moss, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at BT Americas. “It starts with our Apgar score at birth and continues throughout our lives as students, consumers and investors. So of course in the sustainability world we want to see companies ranked according to their sustainability goals.”
Submitted by Grant Draper, President of FD Element
Tuesday Headlines
permalink
Monday Headlines
permalink
Friday Blog Roundup
permalink
The folks at Greenbiz today released an interesting article as part of a series of interviews from the MIT Sloan Management Review in July 2009. The full interview is available here.
On the policy side, WSJ’s Keith Johnson has been following the latest developments in the Senate as committee debates continue. The latest activity, reports Johnson, is a letter written by some fourteen senators to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) making the case to divvy allowances completely on the basis of emissions (rather than the emissions-to-production ratio that defined the breakdown in the bill that passed in the House this past June). Reuters has more on this story.
Liz Galst of NYT’s Green Inc. Blog has the scoop on the latest issue advocacy campaign that’s sweeping (make that crawling) across the nation. It’s Seventh Generation’s new “Million Baby Crawl” campaign. Here, folks are encouraged to sign up by customizing their own “baby avatar” and writing a short message to their local representative about why we need stronger legislation to keep harmful chemicals out of the home.
“The Million Baby Crawl takes a systemic and holistic approach to the problem,” Seventh Generation’s executive chairman Jeffrey Hollender said.
Systemic, yes. Holistic, I suppose. But aren’t the babies adorable? Look at them! Babies are a truly post-partisan vehicle for message dissemination and issue advocacy. What party or constituency could possibly be anti-baby? Just look at this video, one of several spots that belong to the campaign. If babies crawling across the street isn’t funny, I don’t know what is.
Submitted by Grant Draper, President of FD Element
Friday Headlines
permalink
Thursday Headlines
permalink
Geothermal Trade Association to Host Reception
permalink
CanGEA, a trade group representing companies in the geothermal energy industry, is hosting a “Geothermal Power Investment Workshop and Networking Reception” on Thursday, Dec. 3rd in Calgary. Taking place at the Westin Calgary, the event will include presentations from geothermal exploration and development companies, technology and finance industry stakeholders, leading research scientists, and federal and provincial government representatives. The tradeshow will also give attendees the opportunity to converse directly with industry leaders.
Presenters and panelists will include:
- Alison Thompson, Chair & Executive Director, CANgea
- Craig Dunn, COO, Borealis GeoPower Inc.
- Dr. Michal C. Moore, Senior Fellow, ISEEE, University of Calgary
- Dr. Dan Yang, CEO, Borealis GeoPower Inc.
- Roberto Ricci, VP Corporate Development, Sierra Geothermal Power Corp.
- Dan Phaure, VP Investment Banking, Jacob Securities Inc.
- Fred Pletcher, Partner, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
- Teresa Budd, Partner, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
- David Morrison, President & CEO, Yukon Energy Corp.
- Rocco Vita, Senior Manager of Alternative & Emerging Technology, Enbridge Inc.
- Lee Deibert, Principal, Meridian Environmental Chair of CanGEA’s Reserves and Reporting Code Committee
If you’re interested in the Canadian geothermal industry, this is the event to attend. Click here to visit the registration page.
Submitted by Don Millar, CEO of FD Element