Will Sarni, Director and Practice Leader at Deloitte Consulting's Sustainability and Climate Change Practice, to Speak at Denver Law November 9

Will Sarni, an internationally recognized thought leader on sustainability and corporate water strategies, will speak at Denver Law on November 9 from 12 noon to 1 p.m. in room 259. Mr. Sarni will speak about his sustainability practice and how that practice has changed in recent years.

Mr. Sarni has been providing sustainability, environmental and hydrogeological consulting services to private- and public-sector enterprises for more than three decades, with a focus on developing and implementing corporate-wide sustainability strategies, as well as broad based climate and water programs.

Mr. Sarni’s diverse client list includes Fortune 500 companies, multinational corporations and non- governmental organizations (NGOs). He has managed complex projects throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, working with some of the world’s most recognizable companies.

He is the author of Greening Brownfields: Remediation Through Sustainable Development and contributed to Environmental Regulation of Colorado Real Property. He is the author of the recently published, Corporate Water Strategies and the forthcoming book, Water Tech – A Guide to Innovation and Business Opportunities.

Mr. Sarni was a member of the Environmental Compliance Committee of the Chicago Climate Exchange and is active in the International Association of Hydrogeologists and The Conference Board. He was a sustainability adviser to the 2018/2022 US World Cup Bid Committee, a judge for the 2010 CleanTech Open and the Hult Global Case Challenge – Clean Water Crisis.

Don Smith, Director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program that is sponsoring the event, said, "One of the aims of a Denver Law education is to introduce students to individuals whose professional experience reflects the cutting-edge issues -- and careers -- of our times. Will Sarni is one of these unique individuals who has built a reputation and a career in the area of sustainability. There is no more profound an example of a career in sustainability than the one that Will Sarni has built over the last several decades."

Water as a "Critical Business Issue:" Sustainability Expert Will Sarni's New Book to Address Rapidly Growing Business Issue

Will Sarni, founder and CEO of DOMANI Sustainability Consulting, is one of the nation's leading experts on using sustainable strategies to improve business performance. Consequently, when he talks about a rising business issue it is worth paying close attention.

Mr. Sarni, who has degrees in hydrogeology, has a long and successful career in environmental consulting. He has authored many books, including Greening Brownfields, and given scores of presentations. Recently he has identified corporations' "water footprint" as being as significant a business issue as their "carbon footprint." Early this year he wrote about this concept in this blog (click here to see his commentary).

Recently Mr. Sarni and I talked about the growing need for businesses to think carefully about water strategies. Among his observations are:

Multinational corporations have now recognized to varying degrees that sustainability is an essential element of their business strategies. Resource constraints are one of the significant business drivers for sustainability. These constraints can present a material risk to their business, restrict their license to operate, and have a negative impact on their brand value.

Water has now emerged as a critical issue for multinational corporations and for the public sector. Historically, business has viewed water as a minimal cost of doing business and not a strategic issue. However, this has changed in response to extreme drought conditions in Australia and the U.S. and increased recognition that multinational corporations play a critical role in addressing the challenges of global water shortages.

Partly in response to this new challenge facing business as well as his own experience in consulting with major multinational firms on water issues, Mr. Sarni is now writing a book entitled Corporate Water Strategies that will be published in 2011. It is worth noting that one of the world's premier environmental/sustainability publishers, London-based Earthscan, will be publishing Mr. Sarni's book. This is yet another indication of the importance of the underlying issue.

Mr. Sarni, who has been a regular contributor to this blog, has shared the book outline with us. Among the key topics that the book will address include:

• The Global Challenge of Water
• Global Issues With Local Solutions
• The Water Pricing Versus Water Value Problem: Water is not priced according to its actual value, a matter that is complicated by the fact that all users of water have an equal right to this water at a low cost.
• The Implications of "Virtual Water": Virtual water is also known as embedded or embodied water and refers to, within the context of trade, how much water is used in the production of a product.
• Water and License to Operate: The issue of "license to operate" is essential for any business, and civil society has the ability to withdraw this license to operate for a business not only through regulatory controls but also through activism.
• Water as a Brand Value: The intangible value (brand and reputational value) of a company as a percentage of the total value has risen steadily over the past several decades; in particular this increase in brand value makes companies very sensitive to any threat to their brand.
• The Role of the CEO and the CEO Water Mandate: The "green" CEO has emerged as a powerful voice in mobilizing companies to truly build a sustainable business operation; leadership by CEOs is now a powerful tool in not only addressing globally sustainable challenges such as water and climate but also driving top and bottom line growth for their companies.
• Developing and Implementing a Successful Corporate Water Strategy
• Case Studies
• The Future: Where are we headed with regards to building a sustainable approach to global water issues?

As mentioned above, the book will not be available until 2011. But in the meantime, it is well worth our time to listen to Will Sarni, a sustainability opinion leader, and to begin thinking about the challenges as well as business and professional opportunities that will arise from this new approach to thinking about water.

In this regard, the Carbon Disclosure Project has recently asked more than 300 of the largest global companies to being reporting for the first time on water use and other water-related issues "to increase the availability of high quality business information and raise awareness of water-related risk."

--Don Smith
Director of ENRL Graduate Program

"Greening Brownfields" -- New Book by Will Sarni, CEO of Domani Consulting

"Green Brownfields: Remediation Through Sustainable Development," combines my first 20 years of experience as an environmental consultant with my last 10 years as a sustainability consultant. This book combines these two phases of my career.

The first portion of my career focused on the investigation and remediation of contaminated properties (brownfield sites). The last ten years I have focused on helping global companies develop and implement sustainability programs; global energy, carbon, water and sustainable development initiatives.

The greening of brownfields is a movement that has been in the making for the past several years and is essential the result of a perfect storm of business opportunity and public policy. The reasons for increased brownfield development are multifold: there are fewer “clean” undeveloped urban properties; remediation technologies are becoming cheaper and more predictable (in terms of achieving clean up goals within a specified time frame); and state and federal incentives are in place to encourage redevelopment.

The bottom line is that while the redevelopment of brownfield sites creates value from a liability (“asset conversion”), much greater value can be created if the site incorporates sustainable land use and green building practices. Employing sustainable practices creates greater brand value (especially for a corporation redeveloping a brownfields site) and vastly improves operating efficiency over the life cycle of the development.

A macro view of what has transpired over the past several decades in how developers, communities and industries have moved from the “clean up” of contaminated sites to sustainable development of contaminated properties is illustrated below. Along with a move towards incorporating sustainable development practices into cleaning up contaminated properties increased value is created in the process.

The trends that are driving the greening of brownfield sites include a mix of increased urbanization, increased awareness of the benefits of green building practices and resource scarcity. [For those who want to look more closely at this excellent book, click here --DS].

Despite the impact of the “great recession” on the real estate market we can expect to see a return to increased brownfield redevelopment and a greening of these projects over the next several years. It just makes business sense to turn a brownfield liability into a (green) asset.

--Will Sarni
Founder and CEO of Domani Consulting

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Water Questionnaire

Will Sarni, founder and CEO of Domani, a consulting firm that provides innovative business and technical sustainability solutions to companies operating around the world, will from time-to-time contribute to this blog. His perspective is particularly enriching to the blog's readers as illustrated in his membership in the Environmental Compliance Committee of the Chicago Climate Exchange and his activities with the Conference Board and Sustainable Life Media/Sustainable Brands.

He writes today about how water issues are playing a role in the Carbon Disclosure Project:

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) recently announced that they would begin sending out a Water Disclosure Questionnaire in 2010 to the largest 300 global companies and the questionnaires will be summarized in a report in late 2010.

Based upon the success of the CDP Carbon Questionnaire over the past several years I fully expect the CDP Water Disclosure Questionnaire to be transformative in terms of raising awareness of water as a strategic business initiative.

The CDP was launched in 2000 with the goal of collecting and distributing information on climate risks and opportunities. The CDP now has over 2,500 organizations in 60 countries measuring and disclosing their greenhouse gas emissions and climate change strategies. These organizations voluntarily quantify their greenhouse gas footprint, set reduction targets and improve performance. The disclosure information is made available to institutional investors, corporations, policymakers and their advisers, public sector organizations, government bodies, academics and the public.

However, the most impressive aspect of the CDP is the financial power driving the survey; over 475 institutional investors, holding $55 trillion in assets under management, represent the CDP. This is the real driver for voluntary disclosure—investors are asking for this information—and why the Water Disclosure Questionnaire will be a critical aspect of corporate strategies and communications.

The announcement of the project came with the release of a CDP report titled, “The Case for Water Disclosure”. This report is a must read as it not only lays out the rationale for water disclosure but summarizes the results of a small scale water disclosure pilot project initiated by CDP in 2008 (as part of the CDP Supply Chain project). The pilot project demonstrated that for the most part companies have the ability and are willing to disclose information on water data and water issues. However, most companies do not have data on water use or water issues in their supply chain.

We are seeing more companies come to the realization that they need to measure their water footprint, identify risks and opportunities (direct and indirect water use) and be prepared to disclose how to manage their water related risks and what are your business opportunities look like.

This coming year we will see an increased awareness of water as a critical business issue across all industry sectors. Companies now need to be prepared to measure and report their water footprint and global strategies.

Will Sarni
Founder and CEO of Domani Consulting
Jan. 18, 2010

Sustainability Opinion Leader: Will Sarni, CEO of Domini Sustainability Consulting

One of the objectives of this blog is to share the insights and observations of opinion leaders who can help each of us as practitioners involved in environmental, energy, and natural resources issues -- and particularly the interrelationship among these issues -- understand the challenges and opportunities of today as well as tomorrow. In a word, how does the world "sustain" itself economically, environmentally, and socially?

Yesterday I had lunch with one of America's top sustainability opinion leaders, Will Sarni, chief executive officer of the sustainability consulting firm Domani. If you want to know more about sustainability, and how it is being carried out in one leading consulting firm, then I would suggest you get to know about Domani (which means "tomorrow" in Italian) and Mr. Sarni. His views resonate in the sustainability community and his experience demonstrates the types of professionals whose services are being highly prized today and will be even more so in the future.

But first a bit of background. Here's how Domani describes itself:

"A consulting firm focused on providing innovative business and technical sustainability solutions to companies committed to increasing revenue, mitigating risk and improving operating efficiency."

A glance at Domini's client list reflects why Will Sarni is a key player in the sustainability discussion:

• Alcoa
• BASF
• Cisco Systems
• Coca Cola Company
• Del Monte
• State of New Mexico

Mr. Sarni is just finishing his second book, "Greening Brownfields: Remediation Through Sustainable Development," which will be published by McGraw-Hill later this year and he has been featured in a documentary "Life 2.0 Better Living Through Clean Technology."

What makes Will Sarni an interesting and thought-provoking voice for sustainability, I think, begins with his own career. Educated as an earth and environmental scientist, Mr. Sarni's first jobs were in the environmental consulting field. His expertise was ground water and he was involved in many environmental clean up projects. However, after having done that for a decade his views began to change as he saw one clean up after another. Why can't things be built right the first time, he wondered, thus obviating the need for a later clean up.

With that in mind, he became involved in more "comprehensive" consulting solutions that involved sustainability rather than just how something is cleaned up. Starting at that point, he began to look for holistic solutions that were sustainable.

His commitment to that underlying philosophy holds true even in today's economy. He recently told the magazine Sustainability, "I see people examining their budgets, but I don't see anyone pulling the plug" on sustainability-related projects. "Everyone realizes they need to protect their brand." Looked at in a broader context, he noted, "We really have an opportunity to build on the destruction of the old economy."

Mr. Sarni's views on how sustainability projects are unfolding are illuminating:

• All professionals -- business people, consultants, engineers, lawyers and other legally trained experts, marketers, et.al. -- need to understand that the pursuit of sustainable solutions is a collaborative effort; no one person or profession holds all of the answers.
• Enormous opportunities are at hand for individuals and firms that are perceptive and forward-thinking.
• Business and technical issues related to resource management must be approached in a creative yet practical manner.

For most people the term "sustainability" is a rather fuzzy nondescript term. For Will Sarni it is a way forward to address the challenges that we face today. There is much to learn from individuals like Will Sarni, and fortunately for us his blog is available for us to read and think about.