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On Wednesday, Atlanta and its suburbs were brought to their knees by a minor ice storm.  Thousands of people were stuck, sitting in vehicles, for as long as 20 hours. The lucky ones found refuge in schools, offices and Home Depots. CNN (based in Atlanta) has been going berserk devoting half their front page to the story with large font headlines asking "How did this happen? Who's to blame?" ... well, fundamentally, those are very easy questions to answer, and it's not about a lack of snow plows...

The Atlanta area (the central city and many dozens of independent suburbs) has been allowed to sprawl to as much as 100 miles in diameter (almost the size of Los Angeles with a third of the population).  Almost none of this sprawl is navigable without a car. Even if you wanted to walk, sidewalks are missing. Transit may technically exist but is far flung and inconvenient. One hour commutes to work are not considered all that unusual.  Mix this reality with a little snow and lack of coordination and you get unspeakable gridlock.  So that's how it happened, and that's why sprawl is to blame.

The coordination problem (explained beautifully by Politico here) is a classic example of what happens when stakeholder management and coordination are lacking. If the city and suburbs had an action plan for communicating coming gridlock they could have at least been able to advise people not to attempt to drive.  People would still have been stuck in one place but that would have been preferable to being stuck in their cars. Lesson one is therefore very simple: improve coordination across a disparate organization to ensure your stakeholders get a consistent message in time to avoid disaster.

The second problem is far more complicated and deep seated.  Sixty years of cheap oil and cars-only development have given most people only one transportation choice.  Any disruption to that single choice, be it snow, or a flood, or a fire, a surge in gasoline prices or an attack by Godzilla can instantly bring the entire metropolitan area to a standstill.  

What's more, the sprawl that Atlanta is infamous for is not a problem unique to Atlanta.  It's a fundamentally unsustainable development pattern that's been affecting every city in the U.S. for 60 years - though it's generally more pronounced in the South because most Southern cities' population booms have happened since the advent of the car.  Even without ice storms the result is ever longer commute times, greater fuel consumption, woefully inefficient land use, segregation, real estate bubbles, swaths of abandoned land and just about every other urban ill you can think of.  Lesson two is that sprawl is incredibly costly on a good day, a disaster on an ice storm day.

So what can we do with the sprawl we've got?  Transit options are part of the solution. Case in point - a couple years ago I was in Seattle when a snow and ice storm hit. Seattle ground to a halt just like Atlanta and traffic backed up for miles in all directions.  Despite being in a more suburban part of the area, I was able to simply walk to a nearby light rail station and make my way, more or less as scheduled, to the airport, unscathed.  Granted, it was a mess, but I don't recall anyone spending the night in their car.

However, really solving the problem is not as simple as running a bunch of (very expensive) transit lines out to the suburban fringe.  We've got to begin retrofitting suburbia. In a nutshell this means incentivizing or requiring new development to adhere to basic rules of walkability and transit accessibility. It also means loosening zoning requirements in some areas to allow commercial and residential uses to mix.  It means creating bike cooridors and spreading out traffic to more grid-style streets so that all traffic is not funneled to a small number of massive arteries that can clog. It means replacing parking lots with greenspace and usable development.  It doesn't have to cost billions either. Such changes can be slowly phased in over generations and most ultimately result in cost savings to both the private and public sector - not to mention insurance against ice storms.

If you've got 20 minutes, Ellen Dunham-Jones' TED talk sums up the opportunity nicely below:

Meanwhile, in Atlanta and elsewhere, Americans are already rediscovering urban life. However, if the real estate prices in San Francisco and New York make you cringe, you quickly realize that existing urban cores can only take so many more people before most of us are priced back to the 'burbs.  If the suburbs have been nicely retrofitted then this won't be much of a problem at all.  If we fail to act, then we might as well start living in our cars.

The luxury brand Burberry Group PLC announced its commitment this week to removing all hazardous chemicals from its supply chain by Jan. 1, 2020. To achieve this goal, Burberry will set up "mechanisms for disclosure and transparency" for the hazardous chemicals used in its supply chain, as stated in a press release.

The company will start to prioritize its apparel by the end of June 2014. By July 1, 2016, Burberry will start to disclose the chemical discharges of its suppliers in the global South, and will remove all perfluorinated and polyfluorinated chemicals from its supply chain.

Burberry’s announcement comes just two weeks after Greenpeace’s Detox campaign targeted the company and moved people to urge it to detox its supply chain via social media. Greenpeace volunteers in six countries held protests at stores around the globe, "from Beijing to Mexico City," as the environmental group puts it.

A Greenpeace blog refers to Burberry’s announcement as a "another people powered victory on the runway to a toxic-free future." Thousands of people took part of the online campaign, which included a "three day social media storm," or protested in person. Greenpeace supporters sent Burberry messages, including more than 10,000 tweets. They also flooded the company’s Facebook page and used Instagram to "spell out the message to the brand in pictures." There are 18 other big-name brands that have committed to removing hazardous chemicals from their supply chains, including Zara, Valentino and H&M.

"Burberry has listened to its customers' demands, joining the ranks of brands acting on behalf of parents everywhere to give this toxic nightmare the happy ending it deserves,” said Ilze Smit, Detox campaigner at Greenpeace International. "Burberry's move raises the bar for the luxury sector. With the Fashion Weeks coming up, brands like Gucci, Versace and Louis Vuitton risk getting left behind."

Greenpeace conducted an investigation into hazardous chemicals in children’s clothing and footwear - the results of which were published earlier this month. As part of the investigation, the group examined 82 children’s clothing and footwear items purchased in May and June 2013 in 25 countries around the world, and manufactured in 12 different countries. Burberry was one of the clothing lines purchased. Other brands included American Apparel, C&A, Disney, GAP, H&M, Primark, Uniqlo, Adidas, LiNing, Nike, and Puma.

Greenpeace sent products to the Greenpeace Research Laboratories at the University of Exeter in the U.K., and from there they were sent to independent accredited laboratories. All of the products were tested for the presence of nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs), and certain products were tested for phthalates, organotins, per/poly-fluorinated chemicals (PFCs), or antimony. All of the chemicals tested for were detected in the sampled products.

An overview of just a few of the chemicals mentioned above indicates why Greenpeace supporters pressured Burberry and other companies to commit to phasing them out of their supply chains. Take nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs), which is described by Toxipedia.org as a "non-ionic surfactant" used in "large volumes." Studies show that they interfere with hormones in animals and may interfere with an animal’s development and reproductive systems. They are listed as an endocrine disruptor by the EU. Or take phthalates, which are used to soften plastic in a wide variety of products. Studies on animals have found numerous problems, including abnormal sexual differentiation.

Image credit: foeoc kannilc

By Leah B. Thibault, Director of Operations, CEI Capital Management LLC

As a steward of the federal New Markets Tax Credit program, our firm vets hundreds of proposed community development projects from around the country every year, all vying for a portion of this limited pool of credits. Each potential project is evaluated on the extent to which it will directly benefit the economically-distressed communities and residents where it’s sited:  Will it create jobs? Is it an economically and environmentally sustainable enterprise? Does it make business sense?

While these projects stand on their own merits, it often takes more than one new development to shift the overall economic trends in a community. However, being the first "out of the gate" in these historically under-invested areas can serve a catalytic role by attracting additional development and creating other positive ripple effects.

The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts in Worcester, Mass., is a prime example of a project supported in part by New Markets Tax Credits that spurred local investment and served as the foundation for additional development in the community. The $33 million renovation of this historic theatre received $30.15 million in New Markets Tax Credit allocation in 2007. Today, the Hanover Theatre hosts more than 180,000 visitors annually.

The success of the Hanover Theatre resonates well beyond its walls. As a popular arts and entertainment destination, it is driving more customers to local restaurants and hotels. Beyond the obvious, it also prompted the development of a five-acre solar farm in nearby Leicester, Mass., which provides nearly 80 percent of the theatre’s electricity. The project has also been instrumental in catalyzing the CitySquare development in downtown Worcester, which includes an $85 million development by the Hanover Insurance Group and a $21 million, 40,000-square-foot cancer treatment center. All of this unfolding in a portion of the city that once was in a prolonged and steep decline. Ann Tripp, president of Hanover Insurance Group subsidiary Opus Investments/City Square, noted that:

"The Hanover Theatre’s tremendous success and its great potential influenced our decision to invest in CitySquare. The theatre is driving economic development in Worcester’s downtown district, and we have confidence that it will continue. It is helping to create the kind of favorable environment where other ambitious development projects can thrive. Successful developments such as the theatre serve as catalysts for other development projects, where each adds critical momentum -- bringing positive change and creating new opportunities for economic revitalization."

The Hanover Theatre is also at the center of a proposed 30-acre Theatre District, under development by the Worcester Business Development Corp. (WBDC), which includes the $15 million expansion of a local community college in a former newspaper office and printing facility. The new campus will support more than 1,200 students and administrators and will deliver an expanded selection of health science, adult education and workforce training programs. According to WBDC president David Forsberg, the Hanover Theatre made "a huge difference in that area, and that’s the foundation we want to build around."

Another gateway project funded with the help of New Markets Tax Credits is spurring economic development in a Rochester, N.Y. neighborhood. As recently as 10 years ago, the Brooks Landing area was home to a number of derelict buildings. But a public-private collaboration helped to begin the transition of this neighborhood into a welcoming community for both students and permanent residents.

Construction of Staybridge Suites at the University of Rochester is serving as the cornerstone for this neighborhood’s redevelopment. The success of this project encouraged the original developer to begin work on a second project in the area: a $20 million, 11-story, mixed-use building that will include university housing, a restaurant and a credit union. It will house approximately 170 students, and the university is expected to complete construction this fall. The new structure has also triggered the development by others of 29 residential housing units -- bringing another $5.2 million of investment to a long economically distressed and under-invested neighborhood.

As the expression goes, it takes a village. The project would not have gotten out of the gate but for the New Markets Tax Credit, along with support from the university, Christensen Development Corp., the city of Rochester, and various community groups and business associations.

The positive ripple effect of community development funding is not limited to urban environments. This is evidenced by the impact of the Presque Isle Hampton Inn in far northern Aroostook County, Maine. Presque Isle, with a population of less than 9,700, is the largest city in this rural county which has been hit by more than 10 percent loss of its population over the last two decades as younger people have moved on to find better economic opportunities. Though the commercial center of Maine’s northernmost county, it lacked any kind of "flagged" or nationally branded hotel to accommodate business visitors and recreational travelers, limiting the number of overnight visitors to the area.

Since opening in 2009, the Hampton Inn hotel has accommodated a steady pace of guests and become a significant driver in the local economy. It was a deciding factor in helping the local Nordic Heritage Ski Center and the Maine Winter Sports Center secure the hosting rights to the 2014 IBU World Youth/Junior Biathlon Championships and the U.S. Biathlon Association’s World Cup in 2011 and 2016.

Both of these events bring hundreds of athletes and supporters to town, generating excitement for the event and revenue for local businesses. The availability and quality of accommodations were vital in securing these world-class sporting events, as the organizing committees must ensure that there are sufficient housing and dining facilities for athletes, coaches and support staff. According to Jane Towle, event director for the 2014 IBU World Junior Biathlon Championships, "The local service-based business community plays a critical role in our ability to host a successful event."

In each of these cases the New Markets Tax Credit encouraged private sector capital to support successful business outcomes in highly distressed communities. This obvious success created for the developers and investors has helped create the confidence for others to invest and support more sustainable businesses. Once "out of the gate," the positive ripples from these projects are felt by the communities, as they help support more jobs that lead to economic independence for the people who live there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoccBGyT3hA

The Paris office of global law firm Eversheds is partnering with Club XXIe Siècle and the European Professional Women Network (EPWN) to sponsor a mentoring programme aimed at helping young women of diverse origins fulfil their potential.

The initiative is dedicated to women between the ages of 25-39 years old within the immigrant population, who statistically face more difficulties in progressing in their desired career paths. Some of these women are believed to be facing a "double glass ceiling" in the workplace environment, says Eversheds.

Boris Martor, Partner in Eversheds LLP Paris and a member of Eversheds international diversity and inclusion committee, commented: "Diversity is at the heart of Eversheds' ethos. Last year the firm was named as one of the top 10 private sector organisations for racial diversity and inclusion by Race for Opportunity, the race diversity campaign from Business in the Community.

"We were the first law firm in France to sign the Diversity Charter, a written commitment to ban discrimination in the workplace and make a conscious decision to work towards creating diversity. We look forward to supporting this new initiative and taking even greater strides to promote and encourage diversity in the workplace."

 

Picture credit: © Galina Barskaya | Dreamstime Stock Photos
 

Philippa Foster Back, director of the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE), has been appointed a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2014 New Year’s Honours. The CBE was awarded in recognition of her work as Chair of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, for services to Antarctic heritage.

Chris Moorhouse, chairman of the IBE Trustees said: “I am delighted for Philippa; she thoroughly deserves this recognition.” Foster Back was awarded the OBE for services to the Ministry of Defence where she was formerly a NED and Chair of the Defence Audit Committee in 2006.

Ethical Performance talks to Alexandra Palt, CSR and sustainability director of French beauty giant L’Oréal

What does sustainability mean to you?
In order to prepare for a sustainable and successful future, we need to tackle the big environmental and social challenges the world faces. For us, sustainability means transforming our business by integrating environmental, social and community considerations throughout our value chain in our business strategy. We have redesigned the way we do business, throughout our value chain, from research and innovation, production to marketing. Through our new sustainability commitment Sharing beauty with all, announced recently, we are committing big, as big as our business ambition. Of course, as a FMCG company, we have to focus on sustainable consumption. Our contribution in this field can be essential: it is time to make sustainability desirable for consumers in order to make it mainstream. Sustainability as the desirable choice for all, this is the contribution to a sustainable future we would like to make.

How did you get interested in the field?
I started my career in a law firm and worked with different NGOs, like Amnesty International in Germany. In 2003, I became part of the management committee of “IMSEntreprendre pour la Cité”, a business driven membership association that brings together more than 200 companies engaged in Corporate Social Responsibility. I worked also for la HALDE (French Equal Opportunities and Anti-Discrimination Commission) as the Director of Equal Opportunities. Later, I founded and directed a strategic consultancy agency, working with large companies in the setting up of their CSR policies. My whole career is dedicated to try to contribute to a positive evolution of society. I am convinced that in the future, companies will be even more of a driving force for environmental and social progress. This is the reason why I wanted to join a multinational company. National governments are often faced with increasingly complex challenges, companies are more flexible and adapting faster in their responses. Becoming CSR and Sustainability director at L’Oréal, a committed company led by a CEO who endorses personally the issue, is a marvelous opportunity to try to drive change in a place engaged to do so.

What are the most interesting innovations in sustainability that we're seeing now?
There are a lot of interesting innovations and initiatives all around the world. A lot of committed and very smart people think about how we can drive change for a better world. But to be honest, there are so many initiatives and so few scalable models. There are so many projects and so little vision for a desirable change. I think this is the major challenge: how to drive desirable change and scale it? If I had to mention one field that interests me in particular, I would mention inclusive business models. We have set up at L’Oréal, with our brand Matrix, a program in Rio, which allows women from Brazilian favelas to improve their standard of living by becoming micro-distributors of this professional hairdressing brand. We might have found a model that we can scale which is for me the one relevant criteria of analysis because even a lot of great initiatives won’t be able to answer the world’s challenges unless we are able to scale them.

What's the biggest challenge you're faced with?
My biggest challenge, as CSR and Sustainability Director of a FMCG company, is to overcome the barriers of sustainable consumption through our brands and products.

What are some of your short-term goals? And long term?
It depends on the definition of short and long term. We have taken strong commitments for 2020, and it is, in a way, short term. In terms of sustainable innovation, we committed by 2020, to innovate so that 100% of products have an environmental or social benefit. In terms of sustainable production, we committed by 2020, to reduce our environmental footprint by 60% from a 2005 baseline. In the consumption field, we committed by 2020, to empower every L’Oréal consumer to make sustainable consumption choices by giving them the social and environmental information about our products. And we have also strong commitments to share our growth internally with the teams, but also with suppliers and communities, for example by enabling 100 000 people from underprivileged communities to access work. It is very ambitious and challenging, and believe me 2020 is tomorrow ! But these commitments will also allow us to prepare for the future on a long term basis. In 2020, we will be able to go further and all the commitments we have taken will help us as they are preparing a sustainable future for the company, from a business perspective as well as from a “sustainability” perspective.

Does sustainability ever feel unachievable?
The bad days! But we have to stay confident. It would be terribly arrogant to think that future generations will be unable to change and to find solutions to the world’s problems, just because our generation seems to be a little bit slow and unaware in addressing them.

What sustainability statistics at L’Oréal are you most proud of?
We have a lot of considerable achievements, in the field of sustainable production (for example -39% of CO2 emissions from a 2005 baseline), of sustainable innovation (green chemistry, biodegradability of our rinsed products, etc.), gender equality etc. But I think statistics are not going to be the essential driver of change, but leadership and values are. And at L’Oréal we have the leadership and the spirit that will allow us to go very far on this.

Where can improvements be made?
Making sustainability desirable using the power of brands ! ?I am convinced that this is a strong lever in the future for engaging consumers. We will concentrate our efforts in this direction. We organized recently in Paris a forum gathering big companies to share best practices on the subject, in front of more than 260 journalists, CSR directors from other industries, stakeholders from all over the world. ?It has to become a shared concern in order to move forward.

If you could influence one major thing in sustainable business practice, what would it be?
I would stop the epidemic reporting, questionnaires and surveys in order to spend less time on collecting data and more time on putting things in place!

L’Oréal is a huge company – how do you engage employees in the company’s sustainability goals?
Human values, especially generosity and passion, are core values for L’Oréal. Involving our employees in our sustainability goals is quite easy I must say, as we are in a company where people want to do the right thing. Everyone has a role to play. As this is completely integrated in the business strategy, everybody has to integrate it also in the daily job. And believe me, everyone is committed.

What triggered the company’s recent sustainability commitment, Sharing Beauty With All?
Committing to such an ambitious strategy is never just determined by one factor. I think the strong conviction of our CEO and the Executive Committee was key for this. The awareness that a strong business ambition - we want to reach one billion more consumers in the coming years - induces a strong responsibility. And lastly, L’Oréal is a company that has existed for more than one hundred years with a very long term leadership, probably the most important element that allows a company to prepare for the future. We want to still be here in one hundred years.
 
 

The rise of the developing world was a recurring theme at this year's Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. The event's opening ceremony featured a panel on development in Africa, where Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of State in the United Arab Emirates, and three African heads of state predicted rapid urbanization and economic growth across the continent in the coming decade.

The need is great as more than 1.3 billion people around the world currently live without access to electricity. Two-thirds of those that have access to electricity get it from fossil fuels. With fossil fuel prices fluctuating and demand on the rise, energy costs are sent soaring in large swaths of the developing world - meaning those who can't foot the bill are often left behind.

As energy demands increase to keep pace with forthcoming economic booms, devising a solution that meets these needs sustainably may prove not only an environmental win, but also a sound business decision for organizations that get in on the ground floor.

Formally announced in a panel discussion at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi last week, the commercially-based Wind for Prosperity initiative claims to have devised just such a solution. Launched by wind energy powerhouse Vestas, Masdar and a number of other partners, the initiative seeks to refurbish V-27 and V-47 wind turbines from Europe and re-deploy them in the developing world - providing clean and affordable power where it's needed most.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Wind for Prosperity is its decidedly for-profit model. Panelists made it clear that the initiative is not about aid, philanthropy or even corporate social responsibility, but rather its underlying goals center around proving that expanding renewable energy markets in a socially conscious way can also bolster bottom lines.

"Wind for Prosperity is not about charity," asserted Vestas CEO Anders Runevad in front of a small room of media, pundits and energy buffs. "It is about business."

The problem

Seven out of every 10 people living in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity (that's almost twice the U.S. population living in the dark). Hundred of millions more across South America and Asia also have limited or inconsistent access to energy. Some live in remote rural areas, hundreds of miles away from the established grid, while others are simply priced out of the market.

In the Caribbean and South America, energy costs range from 35 cents to 60 cents per kilowatt-hour. A reporter from Chad, who spoke during the question-and-answer portion of the panel, said he pays $1 per kilowatt-hour for electricity. In comparison, the average cost per kWh in the U.S. is 12 cents, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Jose Maria Figueres Olsen, former president of Costa Rica and current president of The Carbon War Room, rightfully pointed out that, "Energy poverty is where poverty begins." In areas with inconsistent access to electricity, even essential structures like schools and hospitals go without - posing obvious challenges and barriers to prosperity.

"It's a tough equation selling energy to some of the world's poorest people," observed panelist Evan Scandling, head of communications for Sunlabob Renewable Energy - a Laos-based company specializing in renewable energy and clean water solutions in the developing world. "So that in itself is challenging."

The solution

Utilizing its vast processing capabilities, Vestas compiled a data map that identifies countries where large rural populations live without electricity access, have high infant mortality rates and yet have abundant wind resources - defined as regions with wind speeds above 7 meters per second, explained Morten Albaek, group senior vice president of Vestas Wind Systems A/S.

Between 50 to 100 million people without access to electricity are living in such areas, spanning across 80 countries, according to the data.

"Furthermore, if we focus on people who are living so far away from the established grid, they will never be connected to the grids in their own lifetimes," Albaek continued. "So out there we have 50 to 100 million people who are living with strong wind resources and so far away from the grids that they will not get access to electricity if we do not find a solution for them, and that solution is Wind for Prosperity."

By combining decommissioned wind turbines - which are virtually free save for refurbishment costs - with advanced diesel power generation, Vestas can create affordable hybrid systems that are well-suited for operation on mini-grids in remote locations with limited infrastructure.

Wind for Prosperity will pilot its project with 13 communities in Kenya over the next 18 months - reaching more than 200,000 people and reducing the need for diesel by 2,000 tons annually, Albaek said. For obvious reasons, boosting access to electricity also has known positive effects on a nation's economic prosperity. A 1 percent increase in electricity generation is estimated to cause a 1 percent rise in a nation's GDP index, according to 2007 data from the UN Industrial Development Organization.

"There are two wars we need to win," former Costa Rican President Figueres Olsen said. "One is a war on poverty, and the other is the war against climate change. This program gives us the ability to win both with the same instruments."

The business model

Vestas and other backers will establish Wind for Prosperity companies in every country they enter. Ideally, these proposed micro-companies will be public-private partnerships between investors, local governments and utility companies. If all goes as planned, this would manifest in a private company owning the wind turbines and selling the output to a local utility or governmental energy agency that, in turn, distributes to the end user. Shareholders, who are expected include residents of each deployment region, will be the first to reap returns financially in the form of dividends - followed by the company and its investors over the long-term power purchase agreement.

The project is targeting fast and widespread deployment of refurbished turbines - with a goal of reaching 100 communities and more than 1 billion people over the next three years. Other regions being explored for deployment include Ethiopia, Tanzania, Yemen, Pakistan, Vietnam and Nicaragua, but Africa was selected as the first deployment area for the project. The region has the lowest per-capita access to and the highest cost of electricity generation, but, at the same time, the continent has what Wind for Prosperity partners deem "exceptional wind resources" - meaning better results for communities and higher profits for stakeholders.

"Making profits is the most important thing here," Albaek said. "If we can prove through Wind for Prosperity, which we are positive that we can, that you can actually turn pretty good returns-on-investment by reducing CO2 emissions and unlocking people from poverty, there's no excuse not to do it."

The return on investment

While making energy more affordable for residents and lifting them out of poverty is the primary goal of the initiative, forging a presence in developing markets makes sense for established alternative energy companies - especially in the long-term, as current energy demand in these markets is likely a fraction of what it will be in 10 years.

It certainly isn't tough to beat today's energy prices in large parts of the developing world, and consistent, sustainable forms of energy more than compete. In Kenya, the wind hybrid system will supply electricity at least 30 percent below the current cost, based on diesel generation, according Wind for Prosperity estimates.

Investors are also poised to receive high rates of return on the project. Citing financial data he received as president of The Carbon War Room, a Wind for Prosperity investor, Figueres Olsen said projections quote an internal rate of return of more than 15 percent over the 30-year power purchase agreement. "You don't get that rate of return in the world of today," he asserted with a smile.

Specific investor information is not readily available due to the relative newness of the project. But the former president's excitement was palpable and drew applause from an audience of skeptics and optimists alike - which bodes well for the financial soundness of the project, or at least one investor's perspective on it.

For a company like Vestas, which currently holds a substantial share in the wind energy market (roughly one out of every four wind turbines in the world is a Vestas turbine), expanding its reach to the developing world makes sense in light of forecasted economic growth. If the company chooses not to lead the charge, an unavoidable risk is that, in all odds, someone else will. When asked how Vestas will profit from the initiative, Albaek said:

We have installed close to 60 gigawatts of wind turbines across the planet … So, as part of our revenue and our bottom line, this is going to be insignificant. But what will not be insignificant is how Wind for Prosperity can help open up new boundaries for wind energy - rather than just sit passively and wait for, say, gravity to bring wind energy to the frontier markets of the word.

So in that regard, it is a business development strategy that is self-funding because it also has a return."

The program was just devised in November and is still in its infancy. So, success from both the community and investment perspectives will likely remain unclear until the first pilot begins in the coming months, but investor interest appears to be building.

Beginning with three investors late last year (Vestas, Masdar and Danish equity-fund manager Frontier Investment Management), the project has since attracted other significant players like Sundog Pictures, DI Frontier Carbon & Energy Fund and Econet Wireless. With the rise of developing nations set to have a big impact on global climate change mitigation moving forward, Wind for Prosperity is surely a project to watch.

Images courtesy of Wind for Prosperity

Based in Philadelphia, Mary Mazzoni is an editor at TriplePundit. She is also a freelance journalist who frequently writes about sustainability, corporate social responsibility and clean tech. Her work has appeared on the Huffington Post, Sustainable Brands, Earth911 and The Daily Meal. You can follow her on Twitter @mary_mazzoni.

Ed note: Travel expenses to Abu Dhabi were provided by Masdar, the main organizer of the World Future Energy Summit and Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

Welcome to our series of interviews with leading female CSR practitioners where we are learning about what inspires these women and how they found their way to careers in sustainability. Read the rest of the series here.

TriplePundit: Briefly describe your role and responsibilities, and how many years you have been in the business.

Tonie Hansen:  I’m the Director of Global Citizenship at NVIDIA, where I’ve spent the past eight years, all focused on sustainability. Previously, I spent 15 years in marketing roles, largely at IT startups.

I was hired at NVIDIA to lead philanthropy and needed to build up expertise quickly. So, I immersed myself in conferences, learning about the larger concept of sustainability. Instantly, I got hooked. It seemed like a great way to merge my background in business with my desire to have an impact.  Within a year or so, I helped assemble our first green team and we worked together to develop goals around reducing NVIDIA’s greenhouse gas levels. And in the intervening years, I’ve added sustainability responsibilities to my role, as I saw it becoming more relevant to our business. I’m about to begin work on our fifth sustainability report, and have been getting deeply engaged in our supplier responsibility efforts since joining the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition’s board of directors.

3p: How has the sustainability program evolved at your company?

TH: Our efforts began about eight years ago when we found ourselves responding to a growing number of government and customer requests to comply with sustainability initiatives. Frankly, this helped raise our own institutional consciousness of the issue, and we decided to start reporting as a best practice in 2010. By 2012, we made it to #6 on the Newsweek Greenest Companies list.

One of the things that I’m most proud of regarding NVIDIA is the innovative way we design our products. Our technology provides the best computing experience and performance for the least amount of power necessary. This energy efficiency is a big competitive advantage, and it’s great to have authentically sustainable products to promote.

I’m also excited about the direct connection our products have with facilitating sustainability. They’ve driven a huge range of advances across fields related to social issues – disease research, automotive safety and storm prediction, to name just a few. Experts in these fields increasingly rely upon computational power, and we’ve given them the tools they need to break through barriers in their research.

2014 will be exciting for us, as we’ll be presenting to our execs a plan to integrate sustainability thinking into our business. This will help cement sustainability into the culture and lead to even more leadership opportunities for us to differentiate ourselves and have a deeper impact.

3p: Tell us about someone (mentor, sponsor, friend, hero) who affected your sustainability journey, and how.

TH: While attending a sustainability conference in 2007, I sat in on a session by Dr. Kellie McElhaney at UC Berkeley Center for Responsible Business. She was the first person who really crystallized for me the value that sustainability could bring to a business beyond it being just the right thing to do. It was also great that this message of business innovation was being delivered by a woman, as the IT world is still very much the man’s realm. Kellie has made it a point to be supportive of women in sustainability and recognizes the unique value we can bring to this aspect of doing business.

3p: What is the best advice you have ever received?

TH: Early on in my career, I was incredibly serious at work and didn’t spend a lot of time building relationships with the people I work with. While at an IT company, I ended up running a team of seven due to an unanticipated reorg. A few months later, during a review at which I was sure I was going to get a promotion, I learned that it was not to be.

I was told that while I had the technical expertise and drive to be promoted, my manager didn’t feel good about promoting me because I wasn’t connecting well with my staff and colleagues. I had become more focused on getting things done in a fast-moving environment and not connecting with the people around me. It was very painful feedback, but I took it to heart, and have ever since worked extra hard to get to know my colleagues as people, not just performers. With the overwhelming amount of work there is to do in sustainability, I still struggle with this. But, given the cross-functional nature of the role, it’s a critical skillset to master.

3p: Can you share a recent accomplishment you are especially proud of?

TH: I’m going out on a limb to share something I’m planning to be proud of next year at this time. NVIDIA is at an inflection point in its sustainability journey, and I believe we’re ready to make a big leap towards integrating sustainability into our business. The sustainability team has done great work to position us beyond compliance and to be a great partner to our customers in helping them achieve their sustainability goals. That will make it easier for us to make the move toward integration. I have some other points of pride -- the Newsweek ranking, getting our report recognized by the GRI, and achieving our greenhouse gas reduction goals early -- but the best is yet to come.

3p: If you had the power to make one major change at your company or in your industry, what would it be?

TH: I am seriously concerned about the issue of water scarcity globally. We’re not paying for the true cost of water anywhere in the developed world and I think it’s easy for companies and consumers to get lazy about using too much of it. It’s especially on my mind as I live in California and our governor has recently declared that we’re in a state of drought. As I’m learning more about natural capital accounting, it seems like an effective way for companies to understand the real environmental impact of their operations and manufacturing. I wish we had a similar tool for consumers.

3p: Describe your perfect day.

TH: Adventure and some element of the unknown! I’m a huge nature and animal lover and enjoy traveling, so combining all of these equals a perfect day, and I’ve been lucky enough to manage that a few times.

I was in Kenya a few years ago and the perfect day involved following four male lions around the Masai Mara game preserve, and watching a pride with 14 cubs hard at play. Then, my guide took me to visit a cheetah mom and her three babies. We spent hours watching her track and kill a gazelle, and later relax with her cubs. To be that close to animals that are so powerful and deadly but feel no fear or animosity towards you is a pretty amazing experience.

I also recently went to Alaska, which was a bittersweet trip. The enormity of the space and roughness of the land was overwhelming and beautiful. But I couldn’t help but wonder how much longer this special place would be preserved, given our changing climate. My perfect day there involved canoeing in a glacial lake, dog-sledding with an Iditarod team, and watching a large pod of gray whales suddenly break the surface of the ocean after feeding on a school of fish.

When it comes to job creation, it appears that the U.S. economy has undergone radical change over the past couple of decades as the full extent of neoconservative economic, trade and tax policies, along with rapid technological change, have been more fully realized.

Historically wide and growing disparities in wealth and income in developed and developing countries alike was a focal point of discussion for the world's super-wealthy at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, while the need to create more and better jobs and economic opportunities for all Americans was the theme of President Obama's State of the Union (SOTU) address Tuesday evening.

The potential to spur sustainable, well-paying job growth – as well as lasting environmental and social benefits – has been one of the principal reasons the president has espoused policies and legislation that promote and foster development of renewable energy and clean technology. Though policies, legislation and regulations aimed at fostering “green” job growth have been criticized, refuted, opposed and undermined, the latest report from the Solar Foundation reveals that the U.S. solar energy sector continues to create jobs at a much higher rate than the economy overall.

56 new U.S. solar jobs a day -- for over a year

Nearly 24,000 Americans got jobs in the U.S. solar industry in 2013, bringing the total number of U.S. solar industry jobs to 142,698 as of November 2013, according to the Solar Foundation's, “National Solar Jobs Census 2013.”

Employment in the U.S. solar industry has been rising at a nearly 20 percent rate since 2012, 10 times faster than that for average national employment, according to the Solar Foundation's report. The U.S. solar energy sector added an average 56 new employees a day between September 2012 and November 2013, surpassing forecasts.

Among other key takeaways from this year's report:

• Seventy-seven percent of the nearly 24,000 new solar workers since September 2012 are new jobs, rather than existing positions that have added solar responsibilities, representing 18,211 new jobs created.


• This comparison indicates that since data were collected for Census 2012, one in every 142 new jobs in the U.S. was created by the solar industry, and many more were saved by creating additional work opportunities for existing employees.


• Installers added the most solar workers over the past year, growing by 22 percent -- an increase of 12,500 workers.


• Solar employment is expected to grow by 15.6 percent over the next 12 months, representing the addition of approximately 22,240 new solar workers. Forty-five percent of all solar establishments expect to add solar employees during this period.


• Employers from each of the solar industry sectors examined in this study expect significant employment growth over the next 12 months, with nearly all of them projecting percentage job growth in the double-digits.


• Approximately 91 percent of those who meet our definition of a “solar worker” (those workers who spend at least 50 percent of their time supporting solar-related activities) spent 100 percent of their time working on solar.


• Wages paid by solar firms are competitive, with the average solar installer earning between $20.00 (median) and $23.63 (mean) per hour, which is comparable to wages paid to skilled electricians and plumbers and higher than average rates for roofers and construction workers. Production and assembly workers earn slightly less, averaging $15.00 (median) to $18.23 (mean) per hour, slightly more than the national average for electronic equipment assemblers.


• The solar industry is a strong employer of veterans of the U.S. Armed Services, who constitute 9.24 percent of all solar workers – compared with 7.57 percent in the national economy. Solar employs a slightly larger proportion of Latino/Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander workers than the overall economy.

The message embedded in the Solar Foundation's report should bolster the president's push to address climate change, as well as promote further growth in U.S. renewable energy and clean technology, and help address the growing gaps in income, wealth and economic opportunity in U.S. society. As Oakland NGO Green For All stated on its blog,

“One of the best ways President Obama can open doors of opportunity for those who most need it is by connecting his economic vision to his climate agenda. The president’s proposed expansion of truly clean sources of energy like solar and wind power, energy efficiency, and clean vehicles not only fight climate change—they can create good, high-wage employment. Jobs in the green economy, like manufacturing and installing solar panels, tend to pay more while requiring less formal education. That’s a recipe for helping Americans on the edge escape poverty.”

Images courtesy of The Solar Foundation

By Meghan Ennes

Economic inequality was a major theme at this year’s World Economic Forum, and for that reason a core topic of conversation was shared value – the idea that businesses can profit by creating social good, and therefore create better, longer-term solutions for societal problems.

In case you missed the webcasts and coverage from last week's grand meeting of political, business and thought leaders in the tiny Swiss village of Davos, we at the Shared Value Initiative created a list of the hottest shared value discussions:

The Guardian’s Sustainable Business blog had some comprehensive running coverage of days two and three, when much of the shared value conversation took place. The Guardian reports that Thursday’s opening session was very focused on creating shared value, specifically considering purpose over profit in corporate decision-making. As PWC International Chairman Dennis Nally put it, "There will always be conflicts, and without a clear idea of purpose, it will be profit that makes the decisions."

While on Friday, Harvard Business School’s Michael Porter (coauthor of the 2011 Harvard Business Review article on “Creating Shared Value”) responded to the Guardian’s questions about shared value "not being radical enough," per recent comments made by Unilever CEO Paul Polman:

"Paul uses the label of sustainability for much of [Unilever’s] work. We believe that sustainability… is a broad catch-all phrase." He goes on to say, "Actually societal problems are the greatest business opportunity to restructure how you operate, to become more productive. Selling products to Africa is not doing good but a giant new market.” Read the rest of Prof. Porter’s comments.

Nestlé also had a strong voice on shared value throughout the event. (Full disclosure: Nestlé is a funder of our Initiative.) Company chairman Peter Brabeck Letmathe spoke on two panels, including Breaking Silos in Development -- where he stressed the importance of goal-setting and measurement when it comes to public-private partnerships.

In another panel, Brabeck and others like Muhammad Yunus and Martin Sorrell discussed whether ethical capitalism was "worth a try" or even possible. In an audio interview with the Guardian’s Jo Confino, Brabeck argued in favor: "If you embrace the task of the company to create shared value – value for the shareholders, but also value for the society – you will find a good and sound ethical base for capitalism." Here’s a video of the discussion that ensued.

Staying abreast of the conversation they helped to start, Harvard Business Review held an invitation-only event of academic and corporate leaders to discuss how business can more effectively contribute to society. Being a private event we can’t link to a webcast, but the ideas followed on the January HBR article “Focusing Capital on the Long Term,” by McKinsey’s Dominic Barton and Mark Wiseman, which is free to read for non-subscribers.

FSG’s Kate Tallant was in attendance and snapped this photo of HBR editor-in-chief Adi Ignatius interviewing Michael Porter, Dominic Barton, and HBS Dean Nitin Nohria (right). Ignatius also gave an excellent interview for CNBC Africa (video), in which he summed up the importance of shared value for not only the business world, but also the wider inequality issue that fixated so many business leaders at this year’s forum.

The last event which we’re proud to feature is Friday’s roundtable discussion on business’s role in education, hosted by FSG, the nonprofit consulting firm which guides our initiative. The roundtable featured leaders from across sectors and industries to discuss how business can help shape the workforce of the future through education, based on a recently published report by FSG’s Mark Kramer, Greg Hills, Kate Tallant, Matthew Wilka, and Anjali Bhatt. To read the report and get more background, read Kate Tallant’s recap blog post to get up to speed.

We don't have a webcast of this discussion, but our colleagues did a great job of summing it up in real time on Twitter. We’ve recapped the conversation below. For the full version, just search #SVinEd. And stay tuned this spring for an upcoming article on the proceedings of the discussion in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

http://storify.com/meghanennes/shared-value-in-education-roundtable

Meghan Ennes is the community coordinator of the Shared Value Initiative. You can learn more about the initiative and join the shared value community of practitioners at sharedvalue.org.