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By Laura Quinn for Tea & Water

Although human rights topped the rankings of corporate sustainability priorities in the BSR/Globescan State of Sustainable Business 2017, in reality it’s been difficult to see how businesses are making genuine progress. The positive impacts of improved human rights stretch from reduced risks in the value chain, to securing and retaining talent, to building consumer trust, and yet the way businesses tackle and communicate the issue hasn’t moved with nearly the innovation or urgency it needs to.

Even where policies are in place, they are often hard to understand and even harder to implement across complex value chains, while internal communications teams struggle to create genuine engagement or action across vast company cultures. Essentially, the journey from defining priorities and creating policies to actually affecting behaviour change is a challenge that, for the most part, businesses are still struggling to crack.

But the opportunity to engage stakeholders in human rights across the value chain is great, in every sense of the word. A huge potential audience exists, whose passion and energy could reinvigorate everything we think about rights within business, and transform it from a niche responsibility into a platform for change across companies, industry and society alike. This audience stretches from senior leadership to employees and from local management to suppliers, partners, factory floor workers and even consumers.

But to leverage this potential and create the engagement needed to tackle one of the biggest sustainability issues of our time, we need to radically disrupt how we think about what human rights means, and how we talk about it across audiences. From our experience working across global cultures and value chains, here are our five top tips to inject fresh innovation into your company’s human rights approach and move from creating policy to driving behavior change.

1. Use everyday language for everyday stuff

For most people, the phrase ‘human rights’ means modern slavery, abused prisoners, and neglected pensioners. It’s the language of the UN, Amnesty International and the Daily Mail – it doesn’t feel like the stuff of everyday office workers. But in business, human right in its simplest form means the happiness, comfort, safety and protection of people – all people, regular people. It’s everyday stuff, so it’s time we used everyday language to describe it.

From “operational and foundational principles” to simple dos and don’ts. From “avoiding infringement of the rights of others” to treating everyone with kindness and respect. From “corporate and collective responsibility” to everyone doing their bit. It’s much easier to get the basics right when everyone, at every level, understands what those basics are and why they matter.

2. Make it real - and actionable

Human rights as a ‘universal declaration’ is huge and broad-ranging concept that sounds simpler in theory than it often is in reality. However, at least for companies it’s often possible to anticipate where rights are likely to become on-ground issues and find smart ways to bring those to life for different groups. It could mean engaging women on their right to equal treatment, supporting suppliers to come up with home-grown ideas to ensure fair wages for all, or sensitizing team leaders on minority and LGBT issues. With smart planning and engaging communications, we can handpick the groups and areas most critical to the business and turn abstract ideals into direct action for those involved most closely.

3. Get the entire business involved

Ensuring people’s rights within a company usually falls to a small number of people in one or two departments. That makes it a problem of the few instead of the responsibility of all. To inspire action across the business we need to make human rights easy to understand, and even easier to act on. Ensuring that every employee and partner has a set of simple actions they can take every day will keep it simple for them, but add up to a huge collective impact across the business.

4. Reward pockets of greatness

Great progress often happens in small pockets and it’s usually possible to find individuals who are going beyond what’s required to promote rights in their own area of work. By sharing those stories widely within the business – and integrating critical issues into performance reviews - we can not only recognise and reward those who are getting it right, but motivate others to build a culture where supporting human rights becomes the collective aspiration.

5. Use the power of consumers

Consumers care about human rights, even if they don’t say it in focus groups. For consumers, human rights simply means going to the store and knowing that the products on the shelves were made with fairness and respect. And who doesn’t care about that? It’s time to get the conversation moving with consumers and activate their power as agents of change. Those businesses that can lift themselves above the parapet and drive public dialogue will find themselves leaps ahead in the race for transparency and consumer confidence.

Laura Quinn consults on behalf of Tea & Water, a multi-local agency that combines insight, strategy and communications to help companies motivate real behavior change around their sustainability agendas, throughout the supply chain.

Image credit: Flickr / amslerPIX

By Mathis Wackernagel, CEO of Global Footprint Network

Later this month, I look forward to meeting with government ministers, business figures and committed people from a range of environmental organizations at the World Forum on Natural Capital in Edinburgh. The focus will be on how we value and better protect the precious and limited resources like oceans, soil, and woodlands. This is the natural capital that human enterprise depends on.

In gauging how we can best measure and manage our dependence on nature, including on our natural capital resources, one of the areas I will be addressing is how we go beyond carbon and look at the entire nexus through the Ecological Footprint. This focuses on a central question: how much nature do we have, and how much do we use? Life, including human life, competes for biologically productive areas. By looking at all competing demands on the biosphere, we will have a far better chance to find solutions that will serve us. Understanding our context enables us to be better informed about potential challenges and opportunities.

This approach is vital, not just for promoting sustainability but also for the long-term viability and success of the global economy. It is certainly one that would serve President Trump well in his pledge to ‘make America great again.’ His administration’s efforts to bring back coal-mining to a number of states along with its infrastructure re-building proposals suggest otherwise. Rather than restoring economic success for small pockets of the U.S., Trump’s failure to grasp the opportunity could result in the majority of his citizens paying a high price through further decline.

President Trump claimed his undoing of the Clean Power Plan earlier this year, put in place by his predecessor, would help the economy and bring back coal jobs. In reality his administration’s environmental policy threatens to position the United States as a laggard stuck in the 20th century as the rest of the world recognizes the need for a fossil-free future. The decision also runs counter to significant gains the United States has made in recent years by decoupling economic expansion from fossil fuels emissions.

Rebuilding some of America’s flagging infrastructure, another of Trump’s key election pledges, is also in danger of becoming a lost opportunity. This is the ideal moment to apply foresight and ensure the developments are fit to serve the needs of the 21st century. Otherwise, infrastructure not compatible with one-planet prosperity may easily become stranded – losing value exactly when we need that value most. Like much of the Trump doctrine, however, his administration’s focus on re-building bridges and roads and other public amenities appears to be more in line with the practices of the 1950s. Wasting all the valuable investments on rebuilding an obsolete past rather than the U.S. Americans will need in order to succeed certainly will not enable “America’s Greatness.”

This apparent lack of foresight, further underlined by the U.S. administration’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, is fortunately not shared by many prominent business leaders in the U.S. CEOs from many leading American companies are instead developing business models which are compatible with one-planet prosperity, meaning they work to the benefit of both humanity and long term economic viability. These companies will be more successful, on average, because they will have the needed products and services that are derived from sources of natural capital and, as a result, will be able to attract investors, talent, and customers.

An example of a company taking this approach is Schneider Electric, a business with over 100,000 employees and one with which Global Footprint Network has developed a close working partnership. By basing many of its key business decisions around the Ecological Footprint and one-planet prosperity, Schneider Electric has seen direct benefits to its bottom line by focusing on doing what is also right for the global environment and for humanity.

The challenge now is to apply this type of thinking across the world economy, to develop and adapt modern innovations to the consumption/production patterns required today. The journey is being led by innovative companies whose demonstrable success through valuing and protecting resources for their future viability will inspire others.

President Trump’s short-term thinking around fossils fuels and development of what could become stranded and irrelevant infrastructure puts America last rather than first.

The focus we are seeing from many of America’s companies as well as state and civic leaders in promoting one-planet prosperity is increasingly being shown to be the approach that will provide a win for the economy as well as humanity. Let’s commit to our success, because your sustainability success will ultimately also be mine.

For more details on the World Forum on Natural Capital, visit: www.naturalcapitalforum.com

Image credit: Flickr / Rennett Stowe

This series is sponsored by Tetra Pak and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team. 

If you were to audit a business class at a university 20 years ago, you would likely hear the recurring theme that the purpose of business is profit; to maximize shareholder value. Since that time, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have entered the picture. The SDGs are a United Nations ordained framework created to help guide government, the private sector and civil society agendas over the next 15 years.

The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) would argue it’s no longer as simple as profit maximization. Fresh off of the release of their most recent report, Towards a Sustainable Economy: The Commercial Imperative for Business to Deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we spoke with Aris Vrettos, Programme Director for CISL’s executive education programs about the role of business in society, the process of putting together the report, and the business challenges and opportunities that were uncovered during the process.

“Bringing people together” is at the core of CISL’s DNA. A large segment of the organization is devoted to bringing together investors, governments and businesses in small group settings to explore challenging questions, and make progress in difficult-but-necessary conversations. These conversations are validated with research from the University and insights from the Institutes international network. They use what they have learned over the last two decades to create a systemic approach to positive change.

In this spirit, CISL brought together an intentionally small group of senior leaders from some of the world top companies for a six-month deep dive into the business implications of sustainability. Working under the title of the Rewiring the Economy Inquiry Group, seven industry leaders from companies including Tetra Pak, Marks & Spencer, and Novo Nordisk met to share experiences, best practices, and comb through data and research. The group started with two hypotheses:

1. There is a commercial case for sustainability and the SDGs


2. Business has a role in creating systemic change

Vrettos breaks down how the SDGs themselves inspired the group,

"We started with a question that was ambitious in nature and we brought together a group of leading companies, a group of special individuals together to explore it. We wanted to build the case for implementing the SDGs. There was the recognition that if we start looking at the SDGs individually, not only will it start to create gaps in our ability to deliver, but it will also be counterproductive because the SDGs are so dependent on one another. There is not one goal that you can achieve without having to invest in some of the other goals. That’s what inspired the group."

So why is business singled out in the report? Because the business community plays a dominant role in the economy. The 17 goals are so interconnected that the private sector is best suited to lead the change in favor of sustainability because of access to resources. “Over the last couple of years, the dynamic between government and business has changed, in thinking about who is primarily responsible or able to push sustainability forward,” Vrettos explains, “it’s the behavior and practice of business, that if it changes will have a major impact, having the ability to also to positively influence other key stakeholders in their system.”

Most organizations haven’t explored the commercial implications of business as usual scenario, an unsustainable future, has for them. We generally make the the assumption that some key factors will continue to hold; the climate will remain stable, that our products will still be in demand, that our consumers won’t walk away. Increasingly we see that change. If you ask players in the utility sector a few years ago, they would say, coal will continue to boast a strong balance sheet. Many big utility companies in Europe have had to split between renewable assets and traditional fossil fuel assets. It can sometimes take a bit of a crisis for business to recognize this, so having that foresight, looking far ahead in the future is key. In this project, we look forward to 2030 to work our way back.

In putting together this report, the group concluded that the challenges of business buying into and working towards the SDGs are also the opportunities for business to lead in a field that is still emerging. They discovered that this requires a specific set of four business capabilities:

1. The ability to look at the long-term


2. The ability to think systemically


3. The ability to work with others collaboratively


4. The willingness to accept that not all of the benefits will accrue to one company, but that the benefits will be shared

Vrettos believes that forward-thinking organizations understand the risks and opportunities that come from climate change, resource security, food insecurity, and health issues, but most importantly, they understand that their successes are tied to the success of their local communities. Embracing the findings of this report will give businesses the tools they need to deliver on the SDGs.

It is imperative to explore the commercial implications of business in 2017. We can’t assume that business as usual will continue to produce the same results. “Profit is like oxygen,” once said Peter Drucker, management consultant, educator and author whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundation of the modern business. “You need it to survive, but if you think that oxygen is the purpose of your life then you’re missing something.” In many industries, we’re seeing the beginnings of a strategy that is more people-centered -- fashion giants working on human rights in their supply chains, consumer goods leaders trying to create healthier choices. These are small signs that the business agenda can successfully marry a social agenda; that business can play a role in trying to bring people together, and that business can help us reach 2030.

Image credit: Charles Forerunner/Unsplash

This morning, UPS announced that it has entered into an agreement to purchase up to 11.5 million gallon equivalents of renewable biogas a year well into the next decade. This gas, which is also known as renewable natural gas (RNG) or biomethane, is interchangeable with conventional natural gas, by which much of UPS' fleet has long been fueled.

Proponents of the consumption of this biogas note that its adoption can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90 percent when compared to what is emitted when using conventional diesel. The biogas that UPS will source will come from sources such as municipal landfills, livestock operations and waste treatment plants.

Not only can this surge in biogas use help reduce the shipping and logistic company's carbon footprint, there is also a huge environmental benefit as well. While total methane emissions, pound for pound, are only one-eighth the amount of carbon emissions released in the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has concluded that due to methane's potency, its environmental impact is more than 25 times greater than that of carbon dioxide over a 100-year period.

UPS has long been open to using its global feet as a laboratory for alternatives to fossil fuels. Two years ago, the company launched a pilot across California that switched 400 trucks from conventional natural gas to biomethane. Similar trucks were also tested by UPS during the 2012 Olympics in London. Tinkering with next-gen fuels has not been the only tool in UPS' kit to wean itself away from conventional natural gas and diesel: five years ago, the company tested trucks made out of a more lightweight composite material in its quest to improve its operations' overall efficiency. Hydrogen fuel cells, as well as various electric vehicles, have also been on the radar of UPS fleet managers. In addition, UPS is mulling transforming more of its vast warehouse rooftop space to generate solar power.

Fueling stations in Lexington and Louisville, KY; New Stanton, PA; Richmond and Roanoke, VA; West Columbia, SC; Horsham, PA and Doraville, GA are among the locations that will now fuel the company's delivery trucks with this renewable biogas.

Big Ox Energy will provide the bulk of this biomethane to UPS through 2025. Another energy company will supply UPS with 1.5 million gallon equivalents derived from a dairy farm in India for the next five years. Together, these agreements should help reach UPS reach what the company says is its key sustainability goal: source 40 percent of its ground transportation fleet fuel from feedstocks other than conventional gasoline and diesel.

The result will be a huge increase in the amount of renewable biogas UPS says its fleet will consume this year. In 2016, of the 61 million gallons of natural gas that fueled its delivery trucks, 4.6 million gallons were from renewable sources - and UPS expects that latter number to almost triple, to 14 million gallons of renewable fuels by the end of 2017. UPS' business customers will be pleased with this news as well, as cleaner fuels translate into a cleaner supply chain for them, too.

Image credit: UPS

 

 

By John Friedman 

My goodness it is easy to get depressed. CO2 levels measured at Mauna Loa in Hawaii are above 400 ppm; stronger and more frequent hurricanes have devastated entire cities, islands and U.S. territories; and all the while the U.S. Federal Government is doing more the eradicate the term ‘climate change’ than opioids. White supremacists are carrying torches in American cities and shouting Nazi slogans. The rash of sexual harassment incidents and cases seemingly everywhere; and once again so many deadly attacks and innocent lives senselessly lost.

A year ago, I quoted Aman Singh, "it is at the precipice that we evolve." Darwin found those species that were most ‘adaptable’ to changing environments to be most successful. We have certainly had to adapt to quickly changing natural, political and social environments this year

Nature  

It would be easy to think that 2017 was the year that 'nature got angry' from floods in India and Nigeria to hurricanes in the Caribbean and wildfires in the US and Europe and a number of deadly earthquakes. Most of these have been scientifically linked the fact that our planet is warming and weather patterns are shifting. Perhaps rather than seeing this as the 'wrath' of nature, it is a loud, unequivocal demonstration of what how inhospitable our planet can - and will - become if we do not act. And it is becoming increasingly obvious to even those who would attempt to deny the reality.

Political

Ironically, President Trump's lamentable decision to withdraw the USA from the Paris Agreement seems to have galvanized increasing support for the treaty.  In response to that announcement - which does not take effect until 2020 and could therefore be reversed before any substantive changes are made - 20 states and 50 cities have pledged to stick with prevailing scientific wisdom and maintain – and in some cases accelerate – their efforts. Similarly, businesses that have been saying for years that ‘sustainability is a business strategy’ are demonstrating that that is more than just words (being ‘politically correct’ if you will.) And at COP23, France's President Macron urged European nations - and promised France would pay the entire cost if necessary -  replacing the $2 million annual contribution withdrawn by the US from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Despite fears that scientific voices would be silenced on the subject, in November a report was approved for release by the White House in which 13 federal agencies released their conclusions that says there is “no convincing alternative explanation” that anything other than humans are the dominant cause of the "unambiguous" global temperature rise that has created the warmest period in the history of civilization.

And the November elections also seem to validate that the majority of Americans recognize that climate change an issue and deliberately put into office leaders and supported initiatives to address it.

Social

While incidents of overt racism, bigotry and violence are on the rise, it is time that America faces the sobering reality that many of tried to explain; we have ‘turned over the rock’ and exposed the nasty reality that was always hiding beneath. Emboldened by supportive rhetoric from lofty places, Americans who hold attitudes that the majority find abhorrent are now feeling free to express those opinions publicly. It is important to note that they always had – and should have – the constitutionally protected right to do so. But from the horror and murder in Charlottesville, Va., have also seen peaceful counter-protestors in Tennessee as people and communities are now better prepared to respond to white nationalist rallies.

Similarly, another group that has remained silent for too long is starting to stand up; thanks to brave women (and some men) who have had enough of sexual harassment; companies and organizations are starting to recognize the problem that they have ignored for far too long (and covered up for WAY too long).

The only way to end these attitudes is to build a society that is just and fair and fights to eliminate prejudice and ignorance, not just send it underground to fester.

Conclusion

In the year when the Guardian declared #fakenews as ‘word of the year’ I would conclude that one can make the case that in this year when we have been sorely tested, we have also facing some very uncomfortable and important truths about our society and world.  While it may seem that we have taken – and are taking – giant steps backwards, it is important to remember that evolution happens when the climate changes. And faced with this ‘climate change’ - people, governments and businesses are standing up and speaking up for what matters – environmentally, socially and economically. That will, ultimately be the thing that matters most from 2017.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of any individual or organization except where expressly attributed. 

Image credit: Flickr / kellybdc

The idea of access to artificial intelligence (often referred to as “AI” for short) for all is still at a nascent stage. Nevertheless, its potential is limitless - from refugee assistance, to helping students at risk of not completing school, to shortening the response time for teens who are in a personal crisis. During the recent Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, several nonprofit leaders discussed how the use of artificial intelligence and other technologies, such as machine learning, can dramatically improve lives – including those of many who live in the most underserved communities.

Some of those citizens now benefiting from artificial intelligence include college and university students in Texas. College Forward, based in Austin, offers coaching and mentoring programs to help at-risk students continue their success in higher education so that they can eventually embark on a successful career. The NGO has been able to scale its programs in part through the use of a Salesforce artificial intelligence platform, Einstein, to build more sophisticated and proactive coaching services to first-generation university students across Texas and beyond.

As is the case with more businesses and non-profits, College Forward had been migrating its data from tools such as spreadsheets to cloud computing. Austin Buchan, the nonprofit’s CEO noted, noted the organization faced more challenges as demands for its services grew. “Historically, we only really managed 100-to-one coaching services to students,” he told a Dreamforce audience earlier this month. “That obviously had some extreme limits on our ability to scale.”

With as many as 1.7 million higher education students in the Lone Star State – many of them first-generation college students - artificial intelligence is integral to College Forward as it identifies and reaches out to students who may be at risk due to personal, financial, or academic reasons. The technology helps College Forward’s staff drives its mission to make this coaching model, CoPilot, much more efficient and valuable.

“Serving 10,000 students is fantastic, but that is still not nearly addressing all the needs,” explained Buchan. “We think that AI can democratize technology and allow nonprofits to push the boundaries of what we thought was possible.”

Since its launch in 2010, over 30 organizations in the U.S. and two other countries have started to use the CoPilot platform, which College Forward says has benefited more than 240,000 students.

Another NGO, which bills itself as a technology nonprofit accelerator, is bullish about now artificial intelligence can improve young lives in different ways apart from academia.

Fast Forward of San Francisco has placed its chips on betting that that despite the fears many have about artificial intelligence, it can actually accelerate social change for the better in fields such as healthcare, human rights, energy, and of course, education. “We’ve seen some really exciting developments in AI,” said Shannon Farley, Fast Forward’s co-founder and executive director, “in everything from chatbots to machine learning and natural language processing.”

At Dreamforce, Farley touted various ways in which artificial intelligence can transform lives. WattTime, for example, is promising to disrupt the energy sector by giving consumers the technology to actually choose the types of power plants they want to electrify their homes and even devices. The subsidiary of the Rocky Mountain Institute has developed software that can be installed on any internet-connected device, allowing them to automatically sync the times at which they need to store or run on electricity to the exact moments renewable are available.

WattTime is just one example of how nonprofits, in Farley’s words, are “creating AI apps for the greater good.”

Crisis Text Line is another NGO that has benefited from Fast Forward’s various programs. The texting platform provides 24/7 support to people who find themselves at times of crisis. The service describes itself as “born from the rib” of DoSomething.org and since 2013, it has grown rapidly and is now used in all 295 U.S. area codes.

The platform has harnessed machine learning so it can identify the terms that can help escalate calls for help to its volunteers. To that end, Crisis Text Line’s service has learned that the term “ibuprofen” is 16 times more likely to predict the need for emergency aid than the word “suicide.” Due to the use of artificial intelligence, such messages that include the word “ibuprofen” are then prioritized in the queue so that the service’s volunteers can assist those in need faster.

Another way in which artificial intelligence can help with accelerating change for the better is on the social justice front. Raheem.ai, a chatbot that works on Facebook Messenger, allows the public to rate police interactions. Tested this year in Berkeley, California, Raheem asks users to answer basic questions about their experience with policing, and then funnels that information back to local precincts. Farley told a Dreamforce audience that during a three-month pilot testing Raheem earlier this year, twice as many reports were made as were collected during the entire previous year. The results promise greater transparency, more agile policing and a closer bond between local citizens and the law enforcement community.

Artificial intelligence will long conjure all kinds of images and scenarios – for nonprofits, one of the bugaboos is its cost. But this is where Farley and Buchan insist that technology professionals can step when they reach a point in their lives and careers where they want to feel as if they are making a contribution to society. “Tech workers are ready to give back, and they have a set of expensive skills that can benefit NGOs,” said Farley.

The key, however, is for nonprofits to take a step back and sort out how artificial intelligence can boost an organization’s goals in the first place. “Look at your industry and your vertical when looking at how AI can help your org's mission,” added Buchan.

As technology becomes even more important to how NGOs can deliver services and accomplish their missions, Farley insisted that forward-thinking organizations will need to have a technology presence on their boards. In fact, they should go even further: “NGOs should not only have a tech person on their boards, but a tech advisory board as well,” she said as she wrapped her talk during Dreamforce.

Image credit: Raheem.ai/Facebook;

By Pam Strifler

For at least 10,000 years, agriculture has been central to the way people live. Yet across that immense span of time, there probably has been no time when the enterprise of growing our food has been more crucial to the world than right now.

As climate change increasingly affects the world around us, farmers find themselves front and center in the challenge to feed the world while overcoming increasingly erratic and extreme weather as well as heightened threats from insects, pests and plant diseases. And unless climate change is addressed more aggressively, the science community broadly agrees that the situation stands only to get worse.

Farmers hold an important key to a brighter future. Worldwide, the agriculture industry, coupled with forestry and other land-use changes, accounts for about 24 percent of human-related greenhouse gas emissions. Farmers have a major opportunity to help reduce these emissions and take action to mitigate climate change and its affect on them, their crops and the rest of us. Through the use of modern agriculture practices and technologies, farmers are reducing emissions and helping give us all a more sustainable future.

Personally, I believe there are considerable reasons for us to be optimistic. Here’s why.

As I write these words, some of my colleagues are in Bonn, Germany, attending the United Nations Climate Conference, an international gathering on climate action. They tell me that it’s impossible to be there and not feel the urgency of the moment and encouragement for the future, sentiments that I, too, share.

Recently, the UN’s Environment Programme helped set the stage for this conference with a new report. Both governments and non-governmental organizations must boost their efforts dramatically, the report said, if we are “going to save hundreds of millions of people from a miserable future” brought on by climate change. “We still find ourselves in a situation where we are not doing nearly enough,” the organization’s executive director, Erik Solheim, added in a press release.

Yet the report also detailed the vast potential available for different industries – agriculture included – to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s why I feel such optimism: I’ve learned from my own career in agriculture that the great people that make up this global industry will rise to the occasion.

Farmers have always adapted to change. They have been ever diligent and focused on providing from the land. More than most industries, agriculture is still mainly an inter-generational family enterprise, farmers everywhere think like stewards. They want to preserve their land and their farm for their children.

Farmers know how to do this, and with further advances in science and innovation they’ll be able to do even more. What agriculture needs to make farming more resilient and climate-smart are robust regulatory frameworks that are guided by sound science. With that in place, our challenge will be largely one of increasing adoption of what we already know is effective and continuing to develop science-based solutions that work for the good of farmers, society and the natural environment.

I am perplexed that many who embrace the sound science behind climate-change reject two decades of scientific research that has shown time and again that crops grown from genetically modified seeds (GMOs) are safe for people and better for the environment.

These technologies facilitate conservation tillage, where farmers either don’t turn the soil at all (no-till) or turn it less (reduced-till) than they typically would in preparing the soil for planting and weed control. The result is not only less need for fossil fuel, irrigation and machinery, but also less soil erosion and – most crucially in terms of fighting climate change – more storage of carbon in the soil. Crop production systems which include GMOs offered by many companies, including Monsanto, also have the ability to produce more productive plants and enable better harvests on less land. Taken together, these advantages have already resulted in a reduction of about 227 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the last 20 years. It would take more than 267 million acres of forests a full year to absorb that much carbon, representing roughly 35 percent all forestlands in the United States.

Science is now giving us even newer innovations that – if we embrace them – will drive agriculture more toward carbon neutrality. Digital tools and data science are helping farmers make better informed decisions about where and when to apply nutrients, pesticides and water, which means they grow more crops with lower inputs and less environmental impact. Using microbial seed treatment products – coating seeds with fungi and bacteria beneficial to their growth – offers great potential for increased soil health and producing robust crops that provide us more food and keep more greenhouse gases in the soil and out of the atmosphere as they grow.

Ironically, some of the things we need to do more of are not at all new. Thousands of years ago, Virgil, the ancient Roman poet, rightfully noted that planting cover crops between growing seasons can bring better harvests. Today, thanks to science and data modeling, we know that cover crops absorb carbon as they grow and help keep the soil intact, better storing that carbon.

The adoption of climate-smart practices like cover crops and reduced tillage are underutilized and that’s why agriculture holds so much promise as part of the solution to help mitigate climate change. If we want to make a difference however, we need to scale this, quickly.

Here’s yet more grounds for my optimism:

In December 2015, my employer, Monsanto, committed itself to achieving carbon neutrality in its own operations by 2021. At the time, I remember thinking that the goal was reachable, but the timeline? Bold.

Yet now, nearly two years down the road, we recently announced our early progress, showing that we’ve reduced our carbon footprint by more than 200,000 metric tons, which is equivalent to taking nearly 43 million cars off the road. We know this is just the beginning and expect the rate of our reductions to accelerate, but right now every incremental reduction from organizations and individuals around the world makes a difference. Consider just one part of our overall commitment – our efforts with the growers who produce the seeds we sell. By adopting conservation tillage and planting cover crops, those growers have already reduced the greenhouse gas emissions footprint associated with growing our seeds by about 85 percent.

But that’s really only part of the story. The other part is the extraordinary cooperation and collaboration that we have with these contract growers and so many other parties to our effort. Governmental entities like the U.S. Department of Agriculture; business groups like the National Corn Growers Association and the Climate-Smart Agriculture Working Group of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development; environmental groups like Conservation International, the Environmental Defense Fund and The Nature Conservancy – all of these, and many more, have joined together with the kind of urgency we need.

No doubt, we all have our work cut out for us. Agriculture faces an unprecedented challenge. But:

• Take the practices, technologies and know-how that can drastically reduce emissions;


• Add the enthusiastic, organized collaboration of so many willing to work together;


• Blend in the passion of farmers everywhere to preserve the land for future generations;


• And – with the awesome advances in science – we have plenty of reasons to believe.

Pam Strifler is Vice President Global Sustainability, Stakeholder Engagement and Corporate Insights for Monsanto. She oversees the development of Monsanto’s global sustainability strategy and execution of key initiatives.

Image credit: USDA

COP23 may offer some glimmers of hope that global cooperation on climate change mitigation can continue, with or without the participation of the federal United States government. But while diplomats in Bonn, Germany are trying to accelerate the implementation of the Paris Agreement, the actions in some national capitals indicate the goals are quite the opposite.

As reported this week by the Guardian, Brazil is one such country seeking to cash in on its fossil fuel reserves, even while much of the word is determined to move towards cleaner sources of energy. The administration of President Michel Temer recently submitted a bill that if passed would drastically lower taxes on the country’s vast offshore oil reserves, otherwise known as the “presalt” fields or reserves.

According to reporter Jonathan Watts, the outcome would be that Brazil would collect minimal revenues on future barrels of oil extracted, hence eliminating much of the global competition in the oil sector. Such policy would be a great short-term boost for Brazil’s treasury, but a huge step backwards for climate action, say the bill’s critics.

Brazil’s move comes at a time when national governments in Bonn insist that reducing carbon emissions is integral to building a low-carbon economy, while current nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are still not enough to avert climate change-related risks worldwide.

“The known pre-salt oil reserves are a climate time bomb,” Greenpeace’s chapter in Brazil announced in a public statement.

The environmental NGO concluded that if the 176 billion recoverable barrels under Brazil’s water were burned, they could release almost 75 billion more tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. That amount is equivalent to 7 percent of all carbon dioxide all of humanity can still emit if the world wants to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming below 2°C by mid-century. In addition, that amount is 18 percent of the carbon that the world could release into the atmosphere to meet the more ambitious goal of stabilizing warming at 1.5°C, a metric many scientists say is the only safe temperature limit if island nations like Fiji, the government of which is the host of COP23, will be able to survive into the 22nd century.

Angst over this legislation in Brazil comes as more data, and additional policies coming out of Brazil, indicate that Latin America’s largest economy continues to move backwards on climate policy and increasing the rate of deforestation.

As COP23 launched, data published by the Brazilian Climate Observatory revealed the country’s greenhouse-gas emissions rose 8.9 percent in 2016 from the previous year despite the nation’s worsening recession. The world’s seventh biggest climate polluter, says Greenpeace, has the distinction of being the only major economy in the world to increase pollution without growing income.

The result, says another NGO, is that Brazil’s recent actions are undoing years of diplomacy undertaken by the country’s diplomatic corps. “While the Brazilian Foreign Affairs Ministry sends its ambassadors to parade in the corridors and pose for COP 23 photos, [Brazil] prepares to vote a provisional measure that reduces the taxes to be paid by companies involved in the exploration, development and production of oil and gas,” said 350.org in a recent press release.

Image credit: Leandro Neumann Ciuffo/Flickr

 

C40, a civic climate leadership that says it represents 650 million people who live in 90 of the world’s largest cities, has announced a global competition across 15 global megacities.

The “Reinventing Cities” initiative to date has identified 46 underutilized spaces worldwide to redevelop. The underused sites include brownfield sites, abandoned buildings, a mothballed airport, historic mansions, underused parking lots and garages, and even a shuttered incinerator and landfill.

C40 and the participating cities are searching for artists, architects, designers, developers, entrepreneurs and environmentalists to work together and compete for opportunities to transform these sites into leading examples of urban sustainability and resiliency.

The long-term coal of this competition is to provide a model for “smart cities” and show how partnerships between cities and the private sector can boost sustainable development efforts worldwide.

Two sites that offer particular excitement are in Houston. Just north of downtown is the Velasco Site, an incinerator that operated for about 20 years until the 1930s. The 4.5 acres ready for redevelopment sit close to several local bus routes, two miles from a rail station and about a 10-minute ride from downtown. Local leaders believe that in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, the site could be a laboratory for the construction of storm- and flood-resilient buildings and infrastructure.

Another empty site in Houston is a landfill that has been closed since the 1970s. As Houston has no zoning laws, the 300-acre space offers many opportunities for creative mixed-use development. The site is wedged between downtown and suburban areas, and is also adjacent to several transportation routes convenient to the city center.

Other cities in this competition offer more specifics about what they want in underutilized sites. San Francisco, which has seen its housing crisis worsen in recent years, seeks mixed-used development ideas in the city’s Civic Center district. Local officials want at least one-third of the residences priced as affordable housing units. Another site, next to the BART rail station a few blocks from Union Square, is not zoned for commercial or retail, nor can any new structures be built on the premises. Nevertheless, the city seeks a proposal with “high environmental performance and landmark architecture.”

Other cities participating in this program include Chicago, Madrid, Milan, Mexico City, Paris, as well as Rio de Janeiro and Salvador in Brazil.

C40 says the inspiration for this project is the Reinventing Paris program, the organizers of which say have transformed 22 sites comprising 250,000 square meters (62 acres) into more livable and sustainable spaces.

This program is accepting applications until April 20.

Image credit: C40

Puerto Rico is still struggling to repair its outdated power grid weeks after the devastation of Hurricane Maria. As a result, new attention is focusing on the advantages of renewable energy for disaster response and grid resiliency. Just a few years ago the renewable option would have seemed like a fantasy, but the reality is here and now.

The renewable energy response in Puerto Rico has been a scattershot effort, and the island's power problems continue to ripple out. However, some recent microgrid news from the U.S. Army indicates that In the future, renewables could be mobilized for large scale disaster response, quickly and efficiently.

Microgrids, renewable energy and the U.S. military

For those of you new to the topic, microgrids can have any number of iterations. Generally, "microgrid" refers to a local grid that draws energy from onsite or local sources. Typically, a microgrid is connected to the broader grid. In case of a power outage, the microgrid can disconnect and continue to operate independently.

In the past, microgrids typically depended on diesel generators to operate independently. Renewable energy and advanced energy storage now provide more sustainable options.

That increased range of options has caught the eye of the Department of Defense. The agency has a slew of microgrid, energy storage and renewable energy initiatives under way, in order to ensure energy security at its bases and overseas operations.

Today's advanced microgrids can be described as self-forming for a number of reasons. They can handle multiple sources at a time, switch seamlessly from one source to another, and automatically disengage from the broader grid when necessary.

Portable and transportable microgrids are a key area of interest, because they enable military operations -- including those in active war zones overseas -- to cut the grid cord and the diesel cord, too.

Aside from military purposes, the mobility factor also comes into play for disaster response and humanitarian relief.

What is Electricore?

So, here's where it gets interesting. The U.S. military's sustainable energy activities been percolating for many years. One notable development occurred back in 1993, when the non-profit consortium Electricore was established.

Electricore describes itself as "a unique consortium among private and public sector organizations, federal agencies, corporations, small businesses, universities, and research institutions" that solves technology problems by "building world-class teams and conducting ground breaking programs."

The driving force behind the creation of Electricore was the Defense Department's cutting edge funding agency, DARPA. The agency sought ways to accelerate technologies for electric vehicles and associated systems -- yes, back in the 1990's.

There were many glitches in the early years of vehicle electrification, but fast-forward to 2017 and Electricore can make this claim:

Today, many local municipalities have entire fleets of alternative power vehicles that were created through Electricore’s efforts.  The Electricore consortium efforts have also resulted in key technological breakthroughs that are directly responsible for the new commercial hybrid and battery electric vehicles being introduced to the marketplace today.  These breakthroughs are also penetrating the military and being used in new vehicle and other power generation programs to reduce battlefield fuel consumption. 

And, who is Go Electric?

With all this in mind, let's take a closer look at a couple of microgrid projects recently awarded by the Defense Department through Electricore.

One contract joins the company Go Electric with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Energy Research Lab. The aim is to develop a "portable, modular, self-forming microgrid solution" with renewable energy capabilities, which can withstand "harsh mobile applications."

Here's the rundown from Go Electric:

The system will provide supply-side energy management by integrating multiple energy sources - including engine-driven generators, renewable energy assets and host-nation/shore power with battery energy storage into a self-forming microgrid.

Although the system is still in development, it sounds ideal for getting power into rugged areas like parts of Puerto Rico.

It seems the Defense Department's interest in the technology is accelerating.

Among the other three contracts, another one involves the development of a microgrid supported by renewable energy, at Fort Custer in Michigan. This contract is funded through the Defense Department's Environmental Security Technology Certification Program, which focuses on demonstrating innovative technologies for eventual use in the field.

It's also worth noting that Go Electric is involved in the Defense Department's ongoing SPIDERS microgrid project, which includes a "high penetration" of renewables.

What about a solar future for Puerto Rico?

Interestingly, the U.S. Army already has -- or had -- a good start on a renewable energy future for Puerto Rico. The island's Fort Buchanan completed an on-base wind and solar project several years ago.

No word yet on the condition of the facility after Hurricane Maria. A number of solar arrays on the island apparently suffered serious damage, but others survived and were pumping out electricity shortly after the storm passed.

For example, reports that a rooftop solar installation at the VA Hospital in San Juan survived 180 mile-per-hour winds, thanks to an advanced anchoring system.

Although a solar -- and wind powered -- future is likely in store for Puerto Rico, that will be a long time coming.

In the meantime, troubles continue to mount for PREPA, the island's power authority. A massive new blackout hit the island last week, another blackout occurred this week, and PREPA continues to face fallout from its decision to award a no-bid grid repair contract to Whitefish Energy, a company with little experience and some interesting connections to the Trump Administration.

Image (screenshot): via Go Electric.