Recently in Measuring Sustainability Category

Wading through the sources of lake contamination

Contamination of urban lakes and streams by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is widespread and has been increasing over the last 40 years in the United States.

PAHs are Toxic

These PAHs can be toxic to bottom-dwelling organisms, can cause tumors in fish, and several are believed to cause cancer in humans. 

In this study, researchers examined five sources of PAHs in 40 urban lakes from across the United States, including coal-tar-based pavement sealcoat, coal combustion, oil combustion, vehicle emissions and wood combustion.

Sealcoat Contributes to PAH Contamination

Of the five sources studied, sealcoat was the strongest contributor to PAH contamination in lake sediment. This research can help those trying to reduce pollution levels in the urban environment by providing them with a better understanding of PAH sources. 

This study, "Sources of PAHs to urban lakes in the United States," was conducted by USGS at the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemist  

In his book, "Heatstroke: Nature in an Age of Global Warming" (Island Press, 2009), University of California, Berkeley, biologist Anthony Barnosky. says that because of climate change, wilderness left to its own will no longer look like the natural areas we see today.

Our conservation strategies must be rethought, he adds, because business-as-usual will not preserve all the aspects of nature we have come to know, love and respect.

Setting aside preserves, for example, puts animals and plants in a bind: As global warming makes their current habitats unsuitable, surrounding human development prevents them from moving to more hospitable places. The alternative, assisted migration, smacks of creating wild zoos - quasi-natural areas like the dinosaur wonderland portrayed in the book and movie "Jurassic Park."

"The new twist in preserving nature is that we might have to come up with a separate but equal system, where we actively set aside some tracts of land as wildlands where people can experience this feeling of 'wilderness,' but recognize that the species that live in those places and the landscape are not going to be the species and landscape we are used to," he says. "Our kids are going to see very different things in those kinds of places than we do."

Warming already altering patterns of migration

Barnosky describes in his book how global warming is already causing shifts in the ranges of animals and plants, disrupting migrations and spawning, and stressing animals confined to parks and reserves.

While ecosystem change and extinction are normal, Barnosky reminds us that past climate change, such as cooling at the beginning of glacial periods and warming with the onset of interglacial periods, took place over thousands of years.

The current warming is happening faster, by a factor of about 10.

Global warming multiplies impacts of human activities

Global warming comes on top of many other environmental impacts that have been stressing the environment, Barnosky notes in his book. He wrote "Heatstroke," in part, because he "wanted to raise awareness that global warming is not just an add-on consequence as far as impacts on ecosystems and nature are concerned.

We are all aware of habitat fragmentation, invasive species, growing human populations, and the tradeoff between resources needed to sustain us versus resources to sustain other species.

People tend to think those are the big problems, and that global warming is going to heat things up a bit.

"In reality, global warming, as far as how it is going to change nature, is as big or bigger a problem than all of those other four, and especially when you put it together with all of the other four.

There are feedbacks that make everything much more severe. It is like multiplying rather than adding everything up."

Solutions to protect both species and wilderness

Wilderness must be protected, he says, if for no other reason than that it acts as a canary in a coal mine, "a barometer of how healthy the Earth actually is."

But imperiled species must also be protected as biodiversity resources, he adds, even if this requires assisted migration of not only the endangered species, but also the plants and animals these species interact with in their ecosystem.

One alternative that some scientists have put forward is Pleistocene rewilding, a wild idea to re-establish the large "megafauna" that dominated Earth during the planet's last major bout with global climate change, the period of on-and-off glaciation that took place between 2 million and 10,000 years ago.

Read more details about Barnosky and Heatstroke

The use of natural resources in an unsustainable way is, in essence, "plundering" and the result is the rapid destruction of the very earth that sustains millions of species of interwoven species...life.

Ray Anderson, citizen and corporate leader, has come face to face with his role in today's industrial role in unsustainable business shares his thought process and his solutions in this excerpt from "The Corporation".

This is an inspiring look at business's role, and the paradigm shift that is needed to be responsible for the world we leave for our children and the millions of species who are part of this delicate biosphere of life.

The book Ray Anderson credits with opening his eyes to the free-fall to earth that is better known as "business as usual" is "The Ecology of Commerce" by Paul Hawkins.

He calls for a paradigm shift of how we view business. That we look at how we are plundering our natural resources and natural processes and leaving a mess for our grandchildren. And we need to create a new revolution -- moving beyond the industrial revolution to a new revolution. One that could be called a "productivity revolution" or a "sustainability revolution."

Trade associations are taking a leadership role in developing sustainability standards for their member companies and often leading the charge with their own association operations. One such association is the OFA.

OFA is an Association of Floriculture Professionals -- a national organization of greenhouse growers, garden center operators, nurseries, retail and wholesale florists, interior plantscapers, green industry suppliers, students, and educators.

They have implemented sustainable methods in their own offices, promoted the topic in education courses and cosponsored a national conference on sustainability.  

On October 29-30, 2007, the Leonardo Academy and Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) co-hosted a meeting to start soliciting stakeholder input on SCS-drafted language to create a national standard for producers and handlers (including retailers) who want to make a claim of engaging in sustainable agriculture (includes ALL crops, including greenhouse and nursery crops) practices.  The intent of SCS is to get these draft standards adopted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) no later than April 2010. However, plans sometimes go awry.  The US Department of Agriculture has challenged the process undertaken by Leonardo Academy. 

OFA's website also provides a wealth of information about sustainable practices for their member companies.

And the OFA Short Course, July 11-14, 2009 has a theme of "Make It Your Business". The Monday sustainability sessions will cover everything from the proposed sustainability standard to methods for marketing sustainability to practical ideas for becoming more sustainable.

Trade associations are taking a leadership role in developing sustainability standards for their member companies and often leading the charge with their own association operations. One such association is the OFA.

OFA is an Association of Floriculture Professionals -- a national organization of greenhouse growers, garden center operators, nurseries, retail and wholesale florists, interior plantscapers, green industry suppliers, students, and educators.

They have implemented sustainable methods in their own offices, promoted the topic in education courses and cosponsored a national conference on sustainability.  

On October 29-30, 2007, the Leonardo Academy and Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) co-hosted a meeting to start soliciting stakeholder input on SCS-drafted language to create a national standard for producers and handlers (including retailers) who want to make a claim of engaging in sustainable agriculture (includes ALL crops, including greenhouse and nursery crops) practices.  The intent of SCS is to get these draft standards adopted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) no later than April 2010. However, plans sometimes go awry.  The US Department of Agriculture has challenged the process undertaken by Leonardo Academy. 

OFA's website also provides a wealth of information about sustainable practices for their member companies.

And the OFA Short Course, July 11-14, 2009 has a theme of "Make It Your Business". The Monday sustainability sessions will cover everything from the proposed sustainability standard to methods for marketing sustainability to practical ideas for becoming more sustainable.

Jason McCormick with Conscientious Innovation, wrote the following in response to a recent blog story:

We’ve done the research (including a super recent 5,000 people study of what people think of this thing called ’sustainability’ - April, 2008), we know that people rate Global Warming and Pollution as important sustainability issues. But it didn’t top the list. Personal and social sustainability issues such as connecting with community and leading balanced life leapfrog environmental issues.

As one of the respondent from an early round of focus groups said’ How can i look after the environment, if i can’t look after myself??’.

His company focuses on brand development for a wider range of issues than "green" or "environment."

What we’re seeing right now is a lot of what we call “knee-jerk green marketing” and it’s a big mistake. Companies are jumping on the green bandwagon because they think that’s the only way to get on the sustainability wave. What’s dangerous is that it’s leading to a lack of authenticity because it’s often done indiscriminately and without rigor. When brands make vague, philosophical claims about their pro-environment values, but don’t support them with specific, observable actions, it diminishes the eco story for everyone and begins to spark a backlash.

He's right...what we're seeing is a lot of concerned parents who are also business people getting concerned and seeing both the opportunity for healthier community for themselves and their families...and the greening of their bottom line to keep up with the highly publicized shift toward greener products and processes.

Many people think "green" is simple.  The consumer media makes it look that way.  "Just change your lightbulbs and convert to biodiesel."  And all will be better.  "Don't get overwhelmed.  Keep it simple. Think green."  But business greening is more complicated and like Jason says, it must be a metamorphosis of core competency  -- much like the caterpillar turns into a butterfly.

Greening a business involves training the employees; changing the products from gas-guzzlers and energy-hogs to ever greater efficiency in design and production; optimizing operations; optimizing the fleet of transportation used both by the company and the employees...and more.  Saving water.  Saving the air.  Saving natural resources.  We rely on nature's bounty for the source of everything that keeps us alive and busy at work -- and greening is that integrated into how we do business.

So if you want to do the green thing...think green, educate yourself, and take it a step at a time.  But get started because the future will leave you in a dusty barren wasteland if you don't.  That's the growing future for much of the earth.  (That's not meant to be an exaggeration.  Desertification of arable lands is a growing problem for many nations...)

Green purchasing is often referred to as environmentally preferable purchasing. It’s the selection and acquisition of products and services that minimize environmental impact throughout the course of the manufacturing, transportation, use, and recycling or disposal lifecycles.

Supply Management

As the core of the inbound supply chain, supply management plays a vital role in finding green opportunities. However, putting them in context can be difficult.

PLUS Sustainability

A good reference point for any organization is to first understand what elements fall under the sustainability umbrella. Here are some of the greatest opportunities with which supply management can help their companies:

• Switching from toxic to nontoxic substances
• Water reuse in manufacturing of supplied products
• Air emission and hazardous waste reductions
• Supplier energy efficiency

Lean + Pollution Prevention + Environmental Initiatives

The Green Supply Network (GSN)-a joint effort of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Commerce, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program-took the proven principles of lean and merged them with pollution prevention and the EPA’s environmental initiatives.

GSN’s marriage of clean initiatives to the principles of lean provided the following lessons learned:

• Optimizing material use for less scrap yields reduced solid waste.
• Reducing inventory for less chemical spoilage equates to reduced hazardous waste.
• Reducing overproduction means less run time and an energy savings.
• Less transportation means a reduction in fuel consumption, which reduces air emissions.

Read more about GREEN PROCUREMENT and SUPPLY CHAINS

What do you plan to do -- or not do -- for Earth Day?

Remember how your own mother just wanted you to be healthy and happy?  You didn't need to make a fuss over her, just be good kids! 

Okay, a fuss was okay...and appreciated -- but making a fuss wasn't enough if she caught you being naughty at the same time! 

That's kind of how I look at Earth Day.  Mother Nature just wants us to be healthy and happy.  And stay out of trouble.  So what can we do to be healthier and happier...and just get along?  And what can we NOT do that will make us healthier, happier and kinder to our mother?  Kinder so she doesn't have to clean up after us?

Here are just a few ideas of things to do that would make your Mama proud:

Eat your organic veggies.
Clean your room with nontoxic cleansers.
Use water sparingly.
Tell someone something kind and loving about your Mom!

And here are a few things NOT to do that will make your Mama equally proud:

Don't drive if you don't have to -- and drive a little slower! :-)
Don't throw all that great paper into the trash -- recycle it!
Don't use toxics.  Remember, everything goes into our water supply...and you wouldn't want to drink that junk, would you?
Don't leave the screen door open!  Or the refrigerator door!

Isn't it amazing that so  many of your mother's lessons apply on the global scale?  Hmmmm, maybe there's something to this living within our means, caring for others like we care for ourselves...and being responsible for our own mess!

Thank you, Mama!
Carolyn

California counts on hundreds of thousands of volunteers to help preserve its environmental legacy. 
 
Statewide, 54% of the counties and 10% of the cities responded to a survey which revealed an annual cost of $34 million for litter and illegal dumping abatement costs. 

Representatives from the federal government, which owns over 50% of the land in California, estimate their illegal dumping and abatement costs match that of local governments. 

Caltrans’ annual costs are over $62 million, not including enforcement costs, nor does that take into account the volunteer efforts by Adopt-A-Highway Volunteers, which are estimated at a value of approximately $15 million. 

A conservative estimate of the cost of litter and illegal dumping to Californians would be $200 million. 

This legislation would allow the continued involvement of volunteers supporting local efforts, saving both state and local government valuable resources.
   

Why is this important?

Senate Bill 1345 will permanently remove the requirement that volunteers on public works projects, such as river cleanups, be paid prevailing wages!

In 2004, the Governor signed legislation to remove this constraint, but without further legislative action this year, this legislation will expire. The Governor is committed to empowering the state's robust volunteer force and will continue to call on the legislature to take action.

SOURCE: April, 2008, Keep California Beautiful

Compliance regulations are difficult to execute and tools that help with compliance can also help a company with the transparency reporting for social responsibility.  Craft Strategies is a publisher of compliance software and a librarian of standard compliance content.

Craft Strategies is a full service organization focused upon Profit Improvement by blending the right people (development of human assets), technology and governance.  By offering CBOS’ ComplyBase Compliance Software and Content Library, Craft can save its clients up to 80% of the cost for SOX compliance by using CBOS’ pre-existing compliance library and customizing it to your company’s work flow.
 
“Craft” stands for Corporate Responsibility, Accountability, Fairness and Transparency.

Thomas Troiani, Founder of Craft Strategies, is also the author of “Vision to Reality; Making governance work for you”.  His book describes the board member’s new responsibilities, as a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and provides them with a checklist of criteria by which they can assess the wellness of the company and the performance of the Chief Executive Officer.

Craft Strategies, has the complete SOX suite that will satisfy C-SOX, JSOX compliance and any risk management solution, to include advisory and consulting services.  We can improve the speed, efficiency and quality of your compliance process as we have already developed the following contents (templates) that can save you the out-of pocket cost of compliance, and about 4 to 6 months in elapsed time.

Companies can take advantage of the recent adoption of AS5 to integrate and combine most, if not all, of their compliance issues (SOX, ISO, and other Governance, Risk and compliances (GRC)  requirements) to simplify the processes and permit the organization focus on operations.

Craft Strategies provides:
·         Test Samples
·         Policy & Procedures
·         Control Procedures
·         Flowcharts
·         Risk Management Assessment
·         Control Objectives
·         Control Definitions
·         Business/Operation Assessment (walkthrough) 

CONTACT INFO: