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Adam Smith wrote famously of the “invisible hand” that guides markets toward ends that -- wittingly or not -- are intended to be broadly beneficial for society as a whole. Much less widely recognized, and even less widely noted, are Smith's writings regarding the essential role governments play in restraining greed and our basest instincts by establishing the ethics and rules that regulate market practices and a set a level playing field for all who aspire to enter. A recent report from the G8 Social Impact Investment Task Force takes the anatomical metaphor one step further.

“The world is on the brink of a revolution in how we solve society’s toughest problems. The force capable of driving this revolution is ‘social impact investing,’ which harnesses entrepreneurship, innovation and capital to power social improvement.” So opens the introduction to Impact investment: The invisible heart of markets, a policy paper produced by the G8's Social Impact Investment Task Force, which the U.K. established in June 2013 as part of its tenure in the G8 presidency.

Impact investing, as defined by the G8 Social Impact Investment Task Force, encompasses those who invest to achieve environmental and broad social, as well as financial, benefit – and it's growing fast, the task force found. Broadly applicable in developing and developed countries, impact investing is already producing tangible benefits across a wide variety of areas, including reducing criminal recidivism, regenerating communities, broadening financial inclusion, and helping create affordable and supported housing, they highlight.

Doing good by doing good business

The G8 Social Impact Investment Task Force defines social impact investments as “those that intentionally target specific social objectives along with a financial return and measure the achievement of both.” That extends to investments that target the achievement of specific environmentally beneficial objectives as well.

In its report, the G8 Task Force quotes, and embraces, the beliefs of Pope Francis, who has ruffled the feathers of some of the world's super-rich and government elites by criticizing the rising economic, social and political inequality that has transpired in capitalist economies over the course of the last few decades:

“It is urgent that governments throughout the world commit themselves to developing an international framework capable of promoting a market of high impact investments and thus to combating an economy which excludes and discards.”

As the G8 Task Force pointedly notes, public trust in banks, financial institutions and governments was badly shaken in the wake of the near collapse of the U.S. banking system and seize-up of global markets in 2008-2009. Widespread application of impact investing principles, methods and tools, they contend, offers a means to not only jump-start sustainable growth that benefits society and the environment, but also to re-inject a stronger sense of ethics and responsibility into boardrooms, executive suites, and throughout business and government organizations.

Impact investment growth

Investments by the world's 125 leading impact investors will grow nearly 20 percent this year, according to the latest study by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) and JPMorgan Chase. The G8 Task Force points out:

“Given that $45 trillion are in mainstream investment funds that have publicly committed to incorporate environmental, social and governance factors into their investment decisions, it would only need a small fraction of this money to start moving into impact investment for it to expand rapidly along the growth path to the mainstream previously taken by venture capital and private equity.”

Impact investing embraces the triple bottom line principles that have motivated and informed 3p from its inception, so we're enthused and encouraged as the concept of impact investing has gained momentum, credibility and legitimacy.

We've been following and reporting on the rise of impact investing. The G8 Task Force's study is a landmark, and may mark an inflection point that catalyzes faster growth in impact investing. We certainly hope so, and we hope to contribute to helping make it so.

Impact investment: The invisible heart of markets, is available free for download as an Adobe Acrobat document at the G8 Social Impact Investment Task Force website.

The G8 task force has also uploaded a video, “Social Impact Investment: Turn Your Money Into Real Change” on YouTube.

*Images credit: G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce 

International commerce can be a real headache. It can be especially vexing when your head offices are in California, your primary manufacturers are in China, and environmental watchdogs are everywhere.

Such is the lesson that Apple is learning these days, as it tries to navigate the sticky waters of high-speed manufacturing in developing countries, where prices may be cheap, but laws and employment customs aren’t necessarily in sync with the expectations of its North American customer base.

The problem that seems to have Apple’s management stymied however is that it’s an issue that, well, just doesn’t seem to go away.

Last year Apple found that a contractor it used to manufacture components for the iPhone was under the scrutiny of labor rights organization China Labor Watch. The group tallied 86 labor violations at Pegatron facilities, including environmental pollution, unsatisfactory working conditions and the use of underage workers.

They also found evidence of environmental violations that forced China to investigate the matter. Apple eventually diversified some of the work to Catcher (Foxconn).

But Foxconn is less than a shining paragon of human rights, say activists, who point out that one of the company’s factories was the site of a massive workers’ protest in 2012.

This year, CLW and Green America released a report that suggests that while labor conditions are a bit better at the Catcher plant than last year (only 22 problems), an undercover investigator still found evidence of labor and environmental violations. The organizations backed up the research with personal interviews of some 100 plant workers.

The endemic PR problem is a big concern for Apple – or should be. In 2011 a blast at a Foxconn plant that manufactured Apple products killed two workers and injured 10. The same year, a consortium of advocacy groups rated Apple as among the worst for dealing with workers’ conditions and labor rights.

And yet, Apple seems to have a pretty good sense of the debacle industrial pollution and ongoing labor rights violations cause when it comes to its reputation. Each time that the flag has been raised, critics note, Apple has taken the initiative to investigate and hastily fix the noted problems.

And as we said earlier, it isn’t easy to keep the finger on the pulse of international contractors or companies that appear to have your best corporate interests at heart. Plenty of American enterprises have been caught unaware by the policies or follies of their overseas contractors who underestimate the importance of labor, environmental or animal rights.

Still, three to four years running, the American tech company still appears to be trying to improve its corporate social responsibility (CSR) record in China. And at a time when things like environmental pollution, suicides and poor labor conditions are more likely to garner immediate media attention than cheap phones, nothing could be more pressing to a global enterprise like Apple.

Image credit: Annette Bernhardt

Ed note: Please join us for a live Google Hangout with Siemens and Arup on October 1, where we’ll talk about cities and climate resiliency live! RSVP here.

Congress may continue to fumble over taking any kind of cohesive action to address climate change, but its effects are becoming difficult to ignore. In 2012, extreme weather events scientists say were either caused or exacerbated by climate change cost the United States $100 billion -- most of which went towards federal crop, flood, wildfire and disaster relief.

Of course, climate disasters don’t discriminate against those who do or do not believe in global warming; they equally ravage conservative and liberal towns. Sadly, these are the political lines that have been drawn and perpetuated by those with a vested interest in Big Oil. More than 56 percent of House Republicans from the 113th Congress actively deny the existence of global warming, reports Think Progress. These same representatives also happen to have taken over $58.8 million from the fossil fuel industry.

For many climate activists and forward-thinking city officials, trying to convince climate deniers in their communities of the importance of preparing for climate disasters must feels a lot like trying to get a toddler to eat its vegetables — and perhaps therein lies the problem. For many, climate denial is an emotional issue for which no amount of logic can remedy. The more we try to convince climate deniers to see the light, the more entrenched they will become.

Rather than continue in a stalemate, many community leaders are turning to Political Communications 101: If you can’t win an argument, change the conversation.

With climate disasters expected to grow in frequency and scale, but many communities obstinate to accept global warming as the cause, major cities and small towns around the country are reframing the conversation in terms of 'resilience' and 'sustainability.' After all, global warming may be for commies but this is ‘merica, and if there’s one thing we are it’s resilient, right?

This focus on resiliency is empowering communities to shore up dams and dikes, upgrade sewage treatment plants to prevent overflows, and use rooftop gardens to absorb rainwater. Some are planting urban forests to provide shade from extreme heat, and farmers are receiving help from extension agents to fight against an influx of new pests.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, city planners decided to reframe the conversation when they realized discussing extreme events through the frame of global warming was a moot point. To put this into context, the city once elected as mayor Sen. James Inhofe, a climate denier who literally wrote the book on climate denial.

"The messaging needs to be more on being prepared and knowing we're tending to have more extreme events," Graham Brannin, Tulsa’s planning director, told the Associated Press. "The reasoning behind it doesn't matter; let's just get ready."

Granted, flood control projects and other resiliency efforts were underway long before global warming entered the public discourse. However, the sense of urgency created by climate change awareness has led to creative new proposals, such as helping people escape blazing temperatures or protecting coastlines from rising tides. It has also led to new sources of government funding.

Tulsa, for example, has been buying out homeowners and limiting development near the Arkansas River to help prevent flooding from major storms. With fears of future drought, Brannin is starting to push for water conservation efforts. A local nonprofit, Tulsa Partners, Inc., is advocating "green infrastructure" such as permeable pavement to soak up storm runoff.

Though these activities are clearly aimed at protecting communities from the effects of climate change, the city is not calling it a climate change initiative — the emphasis is on disaster preparedness.

But will this be enough? Preparing communities for climate disasters is a practical and important endeavor, but it will all be for naught if we don’t find a way to change the national conversation about global warming from debate to dialogue. Oil and gas companies continue to pour millions of dollars into propaganda public relations campaigns aimed at perpetuating a debate that should no longer be taking place.

One of the most popular scare tactics employed by these groups is to claim that investment in environmentally-friendly technologies will destroy the economy, which couldn’t be more incorrect, according to a report by the Clean Energy Ministerial’s Multilateral Solar and Wind Working Group. The report argues that we can achieve large-scale deployment of renewable energy that creates jobs, increases incomes, improves trade balances and contributes to industrial development — that is, if we pass the right policies and frameworks.

Until we purge Capitol Hill of climate deniers, these policies will be extremely difficult to implement. By then, it may be too late to deal with the causes of global warming, and we will be left to face its effects.

Think about that when you go to the polls in November.

Image credit: Flickr Rob Gross

Currently based in Washington, D.C, Mike Hower is a multimedia storyteller and strategic communicator helping to drive the conversation at the intersection of sustainable business and public policy. Connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter (@mikehower)

It's been 18 months since Asia Pulp and Paper (APP) announced its Forest Conservation Policy, which included a commitment to zero deforestation. And its September update report carries with it some further positive news about the company's long-term pulp supply chain -- most notably with respect to the planned opening of a third paper mill in OKI district, in South Sumatra, Indonesia.

Concerns have surrounded the opening of the new plant, and whether existing plantation forests would prove to hold sufficient stock to meet the increased demand for pulpwood. Work done by third-party entities, TFT and Ata Marie, which conducted an independent 'Growth and Yield' study, has, according to the company, "confirmed that APP does have sufficient resources to meet the wood demands of the mills," though "one minor gap" in the supply has been identified in 2020, which the company asserts will be addressed.

The gap identified in 2020 can easily be filled, according to APP, by increasing the productivity of plantation operations between now and then. APP's update report states that the TFT/Ata Marie study identified a number of efficiency gains and management improvement practices that, if implemented, could substantially increase the wood yield from the existing land-base of its pulpwood suppliers.

Productivity, which in the forestry context translates to "fiber per hectare," can be enhanced in three key ways, according to the company:

1. Optimizing mechanical harvesting can minimize wood losses in the supply chain.


2. The introduction of a species improvement program can improve yields per tree.


3. Improvements to management systems can be made, including better monitoring.

In the company's press release, Aida Greenbury, APP’s managing director of sustainability, stated, "..It is clear that with a harvesting rotation of around five years, improvements made now can bridge that gap by increasing productivity of supplier plantations through improved yield, better tree stock and reduction of waste."

APP's press release quotes TFT's Executive Director Scott Poynton as saying, "We are pleased to be able to reassure everyone that APP and its suppliers have sufficient resource for the company’s 100 percent plantation target." Furthermore, APP says, the Rainforest Alliance, already committed to an independent review of APP's Forest Conservation Policy compliance; it will also evaluate the methodology and conclusions of the new study to verify the findings.

APP's 18-month Forest Conservation Policy update also indicates progress on other key announcements made this year. Augmenting the zero-deforestation commitment, in April of this year APP announced it would support the conservation of 1 million hectares of rainforest in Indonesia. In June, the company held the first of a program of Focus Group Discussions to seek input on this commitment. The first meeting, held in Jakarta, Indonesia, was attended by more than 20 NGOs and civil society groups working within the 10 landscapes identified for conservation. This has been followed by regional discussions focusing on each landscape and a second discussion to obtain input on action plans.

Looking ahead, APP projects that its Integrated Sustainable Forest Management Plans (ISFMPs) will be ready for implementation in early 2015; those plans will detail how its supplier concessions will be managed sustainably now and into the future. ISFMPs follow on from the work being done on both High Conservation Value (HCV) and High Carbon Stock (HCS) assessments on 38 supplier concessions -- work that has been in progress since the Forest Conservation Policy was announced in February 2013 and is now nearing completion.

In addition, APP promises best-practice management plans for peatland will be published in the coming months, and that we can expect the Rainforest Alliance evaluation report to by published in early 2015. The Rainforest Alliance report should be a significant milestone whereby customers and NGOs will be able to get an impartial assessment as to how well APP is living up to its commitments since the Forest Conservation Policy was launched 18 months ago.

Image by author

Follow me on Twitter: @PhilCovBlog

How do we know if a product is safe for our families and aligns with our values? Was it produced in an environmentally preferable way that also benefited the person who made it, or are environmental and human rights problems lurking within its supply chain? It's all about traceability!

Last week, Triple Pundit gathered a panel of experts to get to the bottom of some of the toughest traceability issues in four controversial arenas -- seafood, fashion, minerals and medical marijuana. They were here all week to answer your questions, and it turned out to be a pretty interesting conversation.

Here are some highlights from the expert Q&A.

Minerals traceability

Tristan Mecham, director of product development for Source Intelligence, was on-hand all week to answer your questions about minerals traceability.

mkouraba: I've read criticism that most of the initial conflict mineral reports lack sufficient detail and, arguably, cannot be trusted. This is problematic, of course, because a report that erroneously certifies a company’s products as “conflict free” gives cover to the company and potential investors. Is this type of criticism overblown or, in your view, a serious concern?

Tristan Mecham: The quality and accuracy of the information provided in company filing varies greatly. In this first year there were very few companies that declared their products as conflict free, instead mainly choosing to declare as “conflict undeterminable.” However, remember that this is the first year that anybody had created such a report, and the first year that many companies had even heard of conflict minerals. As experience with these issues and the information required for them increases so too will the quality of the reports. Any company that chooses to erroneously declare itself as conflict free does risk being singled out by organizations such as the Enough! Project.

David Rabanus: Would small-scale mined gold, with its inherent pollution by mercury and cyanide, be eligible to be called "conflictive"? Personally I guess so, hence this challenge to incentivize the search for solutions. I think that policy-making must be part of it, and the UN Mercury Ban Treaty is a first step. But there is an urgent need for sustainable technologies, implementable at small scale. I'd like to hear your opinion.

Tristan Mecham: Hi David, Though I agree with your hopes to improve the environmental practices of small-scale mining, and by the looks of it you have been involved with it for some time, this piece of legislation does not account for the use of mercury or cyanide.

mkouraba: Just came across this WSJ piece re the Commerce Dept's claim that conflict minerals are too hard to track. Wonder how this will impact the future of reporting...

Tristan Mecham: As somebody that has been involved with tracing supply chains for years I'll be the first to admit that it isn't easy, and both the Commerce Department and WSJ bring up great points. The work of bringing this level of transparency to supply chains is still relatively new, and a work in progress.

At Source Intelligence we do our best to gather all the information we can about not just the locations of smelters but also the location of reserves of metals. We compare where hundreds or thousands of suppliers have stated the smelters are sourcing from. This allows us to create a robust, risk based, approach to conflict minerals. For example a smelter located in Peru, where there are large reserves of tin, that reportedly sources locally is a much lower risk than an Indonesian tantalum smelter that says they get their ore from India.

As our, and other companies like us, database on this grow the ability to provide more accurate and fine-grained information will also increase.

Medical marijuana traceability

The MJ Freeway team was on-hand all week to answer your questions about medical marijuana traceability. Based in Denver, Colorado, where both medical and recreational marijuana sales are legal, MJ Freeway provides software solutions that help producers, processors, infused product manufacturers and retailers track the product throughout the supply chain — from field to cash register.

Marissa Rosen: Could you envision a day when all 50 states will legalize marijuana? Is that even realistic? If so, by what year do you think it could happen?

MJ Freeway: Just a few years ago, many couldn't foresee this industry moving as far forward as it has, so it's difficult to time stamp anything. Legalizing some form of medical marijuana in each state seems like a reasonable reality, as more states adopt regulations and further cases of success come from families affected by epilepsy, cancer, etc. It becomes more challenging to guess the future of adult-use, recreational cannabis, as the federal government has not made any action to reschedule the drug. Many would argue that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol and therefore, should be taxed and regulated in a similar fashion. Thus far, Colorado and Washington have done a successful job of implementing a legal cannabis market and further states, potentially Oregon for example, can learn from any mishaps and improve.

Oklahoma Sam: Simple question - how do we make sure that legal weed isn't tacitly funding the cartels in Mexico and the associated death and destruction they bring?

MJ Freeway: We believe that regulation is the way forward to bring cannabis to the nation. Our goal is to make it easy for the people who are doing that to comply with their state regulations and to prevent diversion.

Andy: If the state's keep the requirement of having 2 million in your account to open a dispensary then only the cartel can do so. The average businessman cannot.

MJ Freeway: Minnesota began taking applications from entrepreneurs interested in opening medical cannabis manufacturing facilities this week, asking for a hefty $20,000 nonrefundable fee just to apply. It is a lot of money for folks, but "deep pockets, detailed business plans and a solid grounding in agriculture and finance" is what regulators are looking for. The application process is incredibly tedious and can be a challenging undertaking. We offer applicants assistance with their inventory control plan and outline, but yes, it's an expensive business venture! Here is the source for the info on MN.

Seafood traceability

Cheryl Dahle, founder of Future of Fish and CEO of Flip Labs, was on-hand all week to answer your questions about seafood traceability.

Triple Pundit: What are the biggest barriers you face in creating end-to-end traceability in the seafood industry?

Cheryl Dahle: Cultural issues top the list of barriers. That includes both general resistance to technology as well as the predictable internal resistance within any company to big change. Implementing new technology means re-designing processes, changing the way people's jobs work and the way companies do business. All of that takes time to accomplish and leadership to implement. These issues are particularly stark in an industry where there are few tech executives at mid-size and even some larger companies.

Other barriers include the costs of technology itself. The seafood industry is one with slim margins and an unclear future, due in part to overfishing. It can be difficult for companies to cash-fund, or get loans to put this technology in place. Couple that with scant proof of ROI, and you've got a lot of reasons to NOT invest in tech solutions. We examined some of the business case for these technologies in our traceability report here.

Nick Aster: Do you think there are other ways of funding this technology? ie, should this kind of thing be gov funded?

Cheryl Dahle: I think there could be government funding, particularly allocated to a project that would fund the development of the patches between all these software platforms, many of which serve just one level of the supply chain. Future of Fish is convening a group of entrepreneurs and industry leaders on this topic soon.

I think money could also come from foundations interested in marine conservation. The bottom line is that if we ask individual companies to bear the load of systemic barriers, we're not going anywhere fast.

Fashion traceability

Matthew Reynolds and Scott Leonard, co-founders of the fair trade fashion label Indigenous, were on-hand all week to answer your questions about fashion traceability.

Dave Shires: This might be too subjective a question, but how would you define "responsible" fashion? I can think of a lot of factors such as what kind of materials went into it, the labor involved and the durability of the product, not to mention some thought of it's use after it wears out. Curious to hear what things you would list out to define it?

Matt Reynolds: Hi Dave, You are spot on. Our definition of Responsible-Fashion is fashion that is produced mindfully without harming people or the planet. Our use of organic fiber and our industry-leading fair trade practices respect our world and help artisan communities to thrive. The precision quality of Indigenous knits and our timeless, self-expressive style create our worth. We passionately live our promise to be good to people and planet in everything we do. That is our definition of Responsible-Fashion.

Jen Boynton: Is traceability in the fashion industry a technical problem or simply an awareness one?

Matt Reynolds: Hi Jen - Consumer awareness is the key. When people get dressed in the morning, they often think about how others will think they look? But how many people think about how their choice of clothes makes them look in terms of who they are and what they value? Do you abhor child labor, human trafficking and unsafe working conditions? Do you care about the environment? So next time you go shopping, simply ask the questions "who made my clothes"? "Where do they come from"? These types of questions will spawn store owners and buyers to ask these questions from their brands.

Thanks to everyone for joining the conversation! Want to keep chatting about sustainability issues? Join Triple Pundit and Symentec tomorrow for a Twitter chat on bridging workforce and diversity gaps.

Follow along tomorrow, Sept. 18, at 10 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET at the hashtag #Diversity.

Image credit: FTCblog

Last week, Google invested $145 million in an 82 megawatt (MW) solar power plant in Kern County, California. The solar power plant, called the Regulus project, is being developed by SunEdison on top of an old oil and gas field about 11 miles southeast of Bakersfield, California. It will generate enough energy to power 10,000 homes. The 743-acre site went from 30 oil wells to five as it exhausted its fossil fuel reserves.

The solar project is creating 650 jobs in Kern County, and will help meet California’s renewables portfolio standard of 33 percent of the total electricity load coming from renewable energy by 2020. The project, scheduled to be completed by the end of 2014, is expected to generate $6.1 million in property tax revenue and $25.4 million in sales and use tax revenue for the county over its 20-year contracted life. The power company, Southern California Edison (SCE), is under a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with SunEdison to contract the power produced.

Google has invested more than $1.5 billion in renewable energy projects for a total of 2.5 gigawatts (GW). Some of the tech giant's other investments are also in California, including Mount Signal Solar, a 265.7 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Imperial County. Mount Signal Solar will generate enough energy to power 80,000 homes. San Diego Gas & Electric has a PPA with SunEdison to contract the power produced from the solar plant. Google’s other renewable energy investments in California include:

• Recurrent Energy, an 88 MW solar PV project being built near Sacramento, California, will generate enough energy to power over 13,000 homes. Sacramento Municipal Utility District has a 20-year PPA with Recurrent Energy, the company building the solar project.


• BrightSource, a 377 MW solar power project in the Mojave Desert, will generate enough energy to power 140,000 homes. Both Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and SCE have PPAs with BrightSource energy.


• Alta Wind Energy Center, a 270 MW wind farm in the Mojave Desert, will contract energy to SCE.

(Click here for more information about Google's renewable energy investments.)

SunEdison has other solar projects in Kern County

SunEdison has three other solar power projects in Kern County, which is located in the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. Adobe is one of those other projects: It's a 26 MW solar PV project located 19 miles south of Bakersfield. Southern California Edison has a 20-year PPA with SunEdison to contract the energy produced. Adobe will provide enough energy to power 4,500 homes, create over 500 full-time equivalent employee years, generate $1.3 million in property tax and $9.7 million in sales and use tax revenue for the county over its 20-year contracted life.

Isis Solar, a 26 MW solar PV plant near the Kings County border, is located near a PG&E substation where it will interconnect to the utility grid. It will create about 90 jobs during its construction. Orion 1-2, a 26 MW solar PV plant about 11 miles southeast of Bakersfield, will generate enough energy to power 4,300 homes. Both PG&E and SCE are under 20-year PPAs with SunEdison to contract the energy produced. Orion 1-2 will generate $1.3 million in property tax revenue and $9.4 million in sales and use tax revenue for the county over its 20-year contracted life.

Renewable energy investment reduces pollution and brings jobs

Investing in renewable energy in Kern County is important as the entire San Joaquin Valley has one of the worst air basins in the country. Bakersfield is one of the most polluted cities in America. The American Lung Association’s State of the Air report ranks the most polluted cities in the U.S. Bakersfield ranked No. 3 on three separate lists: by ozone, by year-round particle pollution and by short-term particle pollution.

Kern County is also in need of jobs. The unemployment rate in the county is higher than the state’s unemployment rate. In July, unemployment in Kern County was 10.4 percent, while the state unemployment rate was 7.8 percent.

Image credit: Google

This video is part of our ongoing coverage of SOCAP14.  To see the rest please visit our SOCAP 14 page here.

TriplePundit is a proud partner of Impact HUB Bay Area and by extension the many Impact HUBs popping up around the world.  I had a chance to get to know Shingo Potier de la Morandière, co-founder of Impact HUB Tokyo, at Socap14 last week. We talked a little about how cause-based co-working is being popularized in Japan and also about the process by which one creates a new Impact HUB.

With just a week away from the United Nations Climate Summit in New York City, 160 leading environmentalists from 44 countries are calling on the world’s foundations and philanthropies to take a stand against global warming.

The group, comprised of award-winning environmental laureates, issued the “Declaration on Climate Change” published in the International New York Times last week, calling on foundations and philanthropies to deploy their endowments and save civilization as we face the dangers of a warming climate heading to 4 degrees and 6 degrees Celsius temperatures.

“Our goal with the Environmental Laureates’ Declaration is to help foundations see that the impact of their charitable giving can be augmented by their investment behavior with no risk to their portfolios. Companies, funds and other investor assets that are fossil-free and/or focused on the clean energy economy are now performing at least as well as their more traditional counterparts,” said Aimee Christensen, Hillary Laureate, founder and CEO of Christensen Global Strategies and one of the key signatories of the declaration.

“Major philanthropic foundations, which control hundreds of billions in investments, have a major opportunity to contribute to the rapidly accelerating growth of climate and clean energy solutions. We hope they seize that opportunity and in doing so, reduce their own risk and increase their impact.”

The European Environment Foundation (EEF), which took the lead on circulating the declaration, will independently write to foundations, asking them to leverage their financial power and influence to positively impact efforts to reduce global warming and climate change through the following actions:

• By investing directly in clean energy companies and low-carbon projects.


• By making grants to support clean energy start-ups and stimulate the development of low-carbon markets.

The full text of the declaration argues that the growing scale of climate change will not only devalue or destroy all the good work done by the world’s foundations, but it will also erode the worth of endowments, leaving them with “stranded assets” in companies damaged by the consequences of global warming.

Environmental Laureates’ Declaration on Climate Change

“Aghast that the Earth is heading for 4 to 6 degrees celsius of global
warming, given current policies on the burning of coal, oil and gas

“Terrified that we will lose our ability to feed ourselves, run out of
potable water, increase the scope for war, and cause the very fabric
of civilization to crash as a consequence of the climate change that
global overheating will bring about

“Devastated that our governments have not succeeded yet in slowing,
much less stopping, the flow of greenhouse gases into our thin
atmosphere, in the full knowledge of these risks, despite a quarter
century of trying

“Aware that the December 2015 Paris Climate Summit may be the
last chance to agree a treaty capable of saving civilization

“Believing that the world’s philanthropic foundations, given the
scale of their endowments, hold the power to trigger a survival reflex
in society, so greatly helping those negotiating the climate treaty

“Recognizing that all the good works of philanthropy, in all their
varied forms, will be devalued or even destroyed in a world en route
to six degrees of global warming or more, and that endowments that
could have saved the day will end up effectively as stranded assets

“We, 160 winners of the world’s environmental prizes call on
foundations and philanthropists everywhere to deploy their
endowments immediately in the effort to save civilization”

Dr. Jeremy Leggett, the EEF Trustee who coordinated the declaration, and is also a Hillary Laureate for Exceptional Leadership in Climate Change Solutions stated: “We hope this appeal will stimulate vital investment in a clean energy future, demonstrate support for an ambitious climate change treaty, and create space for a tipping point in climate action."

Image via Mikael Miettinen Flickr

Sherrell Dorsey is a social impact writer, social entrepreneur and advocate for environmental, social and economic equity in underserved communities. Visit Sherrell at www.sherrelldosey.com and follow her on Twitter and Instagram @sherrell_dorsey.

This is the sixth in a weekly series of excerpts from the upcoming book The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, October 13, 2014). Click here to read the rest of the series.

By Ryan Honeyman

Becoming a Certified B Corporation can help unleash the passion, initiative and imagination of employees by connecting them with the larger meaning behind their work.

Goldman Sachs found that millennials, which represent nearly 50 percent of the global workforce, “have specific needs at work that are dramatically different from previous generations. High among these [is] a desire to align personal and corporate values. To attract and retain this group, we believe that companies need to provide rewards beyond financial gain.”

"Asking 'Why?' and clearly identifying your purpose will attract the very best, brightest, and most passionate people to your business. That is what the B Corp movement is all about: taking a holistic, systemic approach that really upholds and supports your values every day." — John Replogle, CEO, Seventh Generation

Research shows that millennials are not just looking for work–life balance, which means having enough time and energy to enjoy life outside of work. They are also looking for work–life integration, which means applying themselves to something that they feel passionate about, so that they can fulfill both an economic need and a need for a higher purpose. Becoming a B Corporation can help you attract, retain and engage employees around both your company’s higher purpose and the B Corp community’s collective purpose to lead a global movement to redefine success in business.

B Corp certification can help you attract top MBA students. Due to student demand, the Columbia, New York University and Yale business schools now forgive the student loans of their MBA graduates who go on to work for Certified B Corporations. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal explains that “more companies are touting the B Corp logo, a third-party seal of environmental and social credentials, to attract young job seekers who want an employer committed to both a social mission and the bottom line.”

"My biggest surprise was the social capital B Corp community membership gave me with millennials. I can barely keep up with the droves of highly qualified, passionate, values-aligned millennials who want to work for TMI. I no longer search for high-potential staff; they now come to me." — Tiffany Jana, CEO, TMI Consulting

The B Impact Assessment can also be a useful framework to help engage your team in building a strong, mission-driven company culture. This worked beautifully at Etsy. Chad Dickerson, Etsy’s CEO, was proud when the company earned the 80 points necessary to achieve B Corp certification. Dickerson also recognized that Etsy’s certification marked the beginning, not the end, of its collective work to build a better business.

In order to further improve Etsy’s social and environmental performance, Dickerson and his executive team invited the company's entire workforce to drop its normal workload for a B Corp Hack Day in order to brainstorm ideas to raise their score.

B Corp Hack Day produced 22 innovative ideas, such as creating a program to track the company’s carbon footprint, empowering women to take more leadership roles, improving volunteer programs with local community organizations and increasing employee access to art studios. This also led to an article in the Harvard Business Review about Etsy’s efforts.

To learn more about becoming a Certified B Corporation, visit bcorporation.net.

Image credit: Etsy

Ryan Honeyman is a sustainability consultant, executive coach, keynote speaker, and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good. Ryan helps businesses save money, improve employee satisfaction, and increase brand value by helping them maximize the value of their sustainability efforts, including helping companies certify and thrive as B Corps. His clients include Ben & Jerry’s, Klean Kanteen, Nutiva, McEvoy Ranch, Opticos Design, CleanWell, Exygy, and the Filene Research Institute.

To get exclusive updates and free resources that can help you learn more about B Corporations, sign up for Ryan’s monthly newsletter. You can also visit honeymanconsulting.com or follow Ryan on Twitter:@honeymanconsult.

Demonstrators, along with world leaders, are beginning to congregate around the United Nations headquarters in New York City this week in advance of the U.N. Climate Summit 2014. Inviting leaders from around the world to participate in the one-day climate conference, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling on them to “galvanize and catalyze climate action” and “bring bold announcements and actions to the Summit that will reduce emissions, strengthen climate resilience, and mobilize political will for a meaningful legal agreement.”

Along with the U.N., multilateral development banks (MDBs), such as the World Bank Group, have comprised the core of the institutional framework for international governance, development and finance since the end of World War II. Criticized for financing coal-fired power plants and supporting polluting, emissions-intensive development in developing countries worldwide, the World Bank just over a year ago said it would only finance coal-fired power plant projects in rare, exceptional circumstances.

On Sept. 11, the world's six MDBs “reaffirmed their shared commitment to lead by example by continuing to reinforce and further develop climate financing.” The African Development Bank (AfDB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), European Investment Bank (EIB), Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and World Bank Group said they would continue to focus their resources on addressing climate change.

That includes leveraging MDB financing by attracting greater amounts of private-sector investment, as well as "continuing to innovate and promote more robust and transparent climate finance tracking and reporting,” according to a joint press release.

Tackling climate change and poverty

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim is the first scientist to lead the world's leading MDB. Under his leadership, the World Bank has been more proactive in addressing climate change – for its socioeconomic as much as for its ecological and environmental impacts. As Climate Progress's Ryan Koronowski wrote in a 2013 blog post, “Kim has said it is impossible to tackle poverty without dealing with the effects of a warmer world.”

In the 2006 Stern Review and subsequent research studies, researchers concluded that the overall projected costs associated with runaway climate change under “business-as-usual” scenarios far outweigh those associated with taking early action to transition from a global economy powered by fossil fuels to one that relies primarily on a locally-appropriate mix of distributed renewable and clean energy resources.

Reducing GHG emissions need not detract from economic and social development, the U.N. says. To the contrary, instituting initiatives that reduce fossil fuel use and GHGs can foster more equitable and eco-friendly sustainable development. Policies that aim to lower GHG emissions to address climate change have the potential to address societies' most profound and vexing challenges and benefit people living in developing and developed countries alike, the U.N. asserts.

MDBs and climate finance

Often the first to invest at-scale and open up new opportunities to address pressing socioeconomic challenges across the developing world, the world's six MDBs chart the course that guides international humanitarian and socioeconomic development financing across the public and private sectors.

By joining to reaffirm their commitment to improving and providing broader, more equitable access to climate finance, they are throwing their considerable weight behind that of the U.N., which is in the final stages of formulating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Like the MDGs, the U.N.'s SDGs will set the strategic course for the world's preeminent body for international governance, development aid and investment.

Speaking for EIB, VP for climate action Jonathan Taylor stated:

“The European Investment Bank is committed to supporting investment that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and enables adaptation to the consequences of climate change. As the EU bank we share the commitment of other multilateral development banks to enabling climate related investment in developing countries and continually seek to share experience from across all our areas of operation.”

Collectively, the six MDBs have provided over $75 billion in financing for developing countries to address the impacts of climate change. Some 80 percent of that, on average, has gone towards investments in climate change mitigation. About 20 percent has been allocated for climate change adaptation.

The six MDBs also said they will begin tracking and accounting for their climate finance investments in the same way. That's expected “to enable greater cooperation and shared experience between the banks and other financial bodies involved in climate action,” they explain.

Climate Week NYC

Along with the gathering of world leaders, a lot in the way of grassroots activism is expected the week of the U.N. Climate Summit 2014. A broad coalition of business, government, environmental, social justice and public interest groups, among others, are organizing what's expected to be one of the largest demonstrations in the U.S. since the Vietnam War and "No Nukes" protests.

More than 1,000 organizations have pledged support for the People's Climate March scheduled to take place in midtown Manhattan Sept. 21. Students from more than 300 U.S. colleges and universities are expected to participate. The march should be the highlight of a week's worth of planned high-profile events aimed at getting world leaders to take stronger actions to address climate change.

Image credits: 1) U.N. Climate Summit 2014 2) 2006 Stern Review