Ceres Sustainability Podcast

As Congress gears up to debate some of the furthest reaching environmental legislation it’s faced since the creation of the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act, proponents and opponents are lining up to make their case for why we should or shouldn’t aggressively address climate change. And support for strong action on climate is coming from unlikely places like the boardrooms of major U.S. consumer companies that are part of BICEP, a business coalition advocating for strong climate and energy policy.

The Ceres podcast caught up with representatives of the BICEP coalition at an event in Washington DC. Listen to this interview with Sarah Severn, Director of Horizons Corporate Responsibility, Nike.

As Congress gears up to debate some of the furthest reaching environmental legislation it’s faced since the creation of the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act, proponents and opponents are lining up to make their case for why we should or shouldn’t aggressively address climate change. And support for strong action on climate is coming from unlikely places like the boardrooms of major U.S. consumer companies that are part of BICEP, a business coalition advocating for strong climate and energy policy.

The Ceres podcast caught up with representatives of the BICEP coalition at an event in Washington DC. Listen to this interview with Jim Hanna, Environmental Affairs Manager at Starbucks Coffee Company. [Music: Rattatat, "Wildcat" from Classics

(XI Recordings, 2006) and Bonobo, "Transmission 94" from Days to Come

(Ninja Tune, 2006)]

As Congress gears up to debate some of the furthest reaching environmental legislation it’s faced since the creation of the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act, proponents and opponents are lining up to make their case for why we should or shouldn’t aggressively address climate change. And support for strong action on climate is coming from unlikely places like the boardrooms of major U.S. consumer companies that are part of BICEP, a business coalition advocating for strong climate and energy policy. The Ceres podcast caught up with representatives of the BICEP coalition at an event in Washington DC. Listen to the interview with David Douglas, Senior Vice President of Cloud Computing and Chief Sustainability Officer, Sun Microsystems.[Music: Rattatat, "Wildcat" from Classics

(XI Recordings, 2006) and Bonobo, "Transmission 94" from Days to Come

(Ninja Tune, 2006)]

Chances are your pants have probably been more places than you have. From cotton grown in India, zippers manufactured in China and apparel factories in Guatemala, the apparel industry relies on a complex and sophisticated series of relations to get their clothes to a store near you - the global supply chain. But global supply chains carry serious environmental and labor challenges that apparel and other industries must attend to if they truly want to be sustainable. Michael Kobori, Vice President of Global Supply Chains at Levi Strauss & Co. spoke with the Ceres Podcast about how the company is incorporating these issues into its sourcing decisions in order to create a more sustainable supply chain for its products.[Music: Jack Rose, "Linden Ave Stomp" from Two Originals of Jack Rose (VHF, 2004)]

Water is essential for life. We rely on it for nearly everything from simple daily uses like drinking, cleaning and cooking to large-scale commercial needs like agriculture, high-tech manufacturing and energy production. But, according to a recent report by UNESCO, if current trends continue the quantity of water available to everyone could drop by as much as 30 percent over the next 15 years. Figuring out how to balance the needs of communities, corporations and ecosystems may well be the most important sustainability challenge of the 21st Century.

This week, we talk with Jeff Connelly, VP of General Electric’s Global Supply Chain and Water and Process Technologies Division, about the technological solutions being implemented in order to conserve and recycle the earth’s most valuable resource.

[Music: Iag Bari, "Doina" from Fanfare Ciocarlia (Piranha, 2001) and The Standells, "Dirty Water" from The Live Ones! (Sundazed Music, 2001)]

Corporate disclosure of risks and liabilities is something that helps investors make informed decisions about where they put their money. A handful of institutional investors, including CalPERS, CalSTRS, the NY State Comptroller and the Florida State Board of Administration, among others, filed a petition with Ceres and the Environmental Defense Fund last September (2007) requesting that the Securities and Exchange Commission require companies to disclose risks to their businesses from climate change. The general idea is that once a risk is analyzed and disclosed, that risk will eventually get managed. The SEC petition was recently updated this June (2008).

This podcast is a "recast" of the New York City Bar Associations Environmental Law Committee Environmental Law Interview with Ceres staffer Anne Kelly, Director of Ceres Corporate Governance Program, on the original SEC petition.

[Music: Amon Tobin, "Searchers" from Out From Out Where (Ninja Tune, 2002) and Ry Cooder, "Green Dog" from My Name is Buddy (Nonesuch, 2007)]

It seems everyone is going green these days, from green investing to green marketing to green consumerism. There is no doubt that we must transition to a cleaner, greener economy if we want to avoid the worst effects of climate change. But as alternative energies and clean technologies become more popular and prevalent in society, we need a new workforce to build, maintain and support this new economy. Where will this new workforce come from? And how do we ensure that we have the labor and skills needed to support a new energy future powered by clean technologies?

Ceres recently caught up with Van Jones, President of Green for All and director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, to discuss how new technology and energy solutions to the climate crisis can also help solve urban poverty, unemployment, and inequality in our workforce. [Music: Thievery Corporation, "Liberation Front" from The Richest Man in Babylon (Universal Music Division Barclay, 2002) and Michael Franti and Spearhead, "Yes, I Will" from Everyone Deserves Music (Reincarnate Music, 2003)]

A growing movement of investors are pressing companies to provide more information about "off-balance" sheet issues, such as the impacts of climate change to the corporate bottom-line. Instead of just screening portfolios, or divesting stock, more and more investors in the Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) community are exercising their proxy power by filing and voting on shareholder resolutions that seek to improve corporate governance and sustainability practices while ensuring profits. Lance Lindblom is President of the Nathan Cummings Foundation (NCF) and a leader in the SRI movement. Lindblom talks to Ceres about how NCF leverages their $500 million foundation endowment to improve corporate accountability.[Music: Calexico, "Fake Fur" from The Black Light (Quarterstick, 1998) and Brian Eno, "The Big Ship" from Another Green World (E.G. Records, 1975)]

On February 14, 2008, investors representing over $22 trillion joined

Ceres and the United Nations Foundation at the UN Headquarters in New

York City to discuss the physical and financial risks of climate change

and the opportunities and solutions to mitigate that risk. Presenters

included Harvard University's John Holdren, Khosla Ventures' Vinod

Khosla, Ceres president Mindy Lubber, United Nations Foundation

president Timothy Wirth.[Video editing and music composition by Synthesis Media (www.synthesismedia.ca)]