DU to Host 2011 Rocky Mountain Sustainability Summit: Law Professor K.K. DuVivier Forms Panel of Experts to Consider "Urban Eating"

The University of Denver will host the 2011 Rocky Mountain Sustainability Summit at the DU campus on February 17 and 18, 2011.

Sturm College of Law Professor K.K. DuVivier coordinated a panel of DU experts who will discuss “Urban Eating,” improving communities through more sustainable ways of obtaining food. The Urban Eating session will be in Driscoll 1880 from 2:35 to 3:45 p.m. on Friday. Summaries of each session can be accessed by clicking here.

Professor DuVivier, who teaches Energy Law, will provide a framework describing the role of energy in the production and consumption of food. DU Professor David Ciepley will discuss his experiences establishing a student garden on the DU campus. Erin Hough, a 4th year DU undergraduate student will discuss her efforts to bring more sustainable food to the DU campus. Law student Jeffrey John enlisted JD Sawyer, an expert in aquaponics, to talk to those attending the session. Mr. John will discuss the new College of Law student group FARM’s efforts to promote urban gleaning, edible urban landscapes, and other urban agricultural issues.

Sturm College of Law Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Federico Cheever, was one of the founders of the university-wide Sustainability Council at DU, and he served as its first chair.

Don C. Smith, Director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program said, "Studying and researching the law and policy implications of sustainability is a growing field. We are fortunate at the College of Law to having two of the leading voices in this field -- Professors Cheever and DuVivier -- who have contributed a great deal to our understanding of the issues, both at a local level and in a wider perspective."

A report issued last week by the United Nations "calls for greater efforts to advance environmentally sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which has witnessed the constant reduction of forest areas and the sustained increase of carbon dioxide emissions."

The report, "Millennium Development Goals: Advances in Environmentally Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean", says that the region's deforestation is nearly twice the world's average.

Moreover, carbon dioxide emissions have grown more than 40 percent from 1990 to 2005. The primary factors in the growth have been the production of cement and the use of fossil fuels.

(Thanks to Joan Policastri, Foreign, Comparative & International Law Librarian at DU's Westminster Law Library for calling this to our attention.)

Graduate Profile: Cindy Jennings, Vice President at Cohn Marketing

In August 2007 I first met Cindy Jennings (MRLS graduate, 2009). She was just starting the graduate program with an eye towards enhancing her understanding of issues related to sustainability.

As Vice President, Marketing and Client Brand Strategy at Cohn Marketing, Cindy was well aware of the challenges and opportunities faced by current and prospective clients. In particular she felt that by encouraging her clients to be more sustainable they could (and would) increase the value of their underlying brand. By attending and graduating from the DU program, and in the process sharpening her understanding of the many different aspects of sustainability, she would effectively become more valuable to her own clients.

From the very beginning Cindy and I hit it off. In the early 2000s, I had been editor-in-chief of "Corporate Environmental Strategy: The Journal of Corporate Sustainability." In that role, I had written about and given a great deal of thought to the intersection of business, environment, and society more broadly. Thus, in many respects, Cindy and I were kindred spirits. However, there was one big difference: Cindy was actually a "practitioner" while I was more of a "writer" when it came to the topic.

During Cindy's time at DU we often talked about these issues both from a theoretical perspective as well as from a practical standpoint. Cindy was a student in one of my courses, "European Union Law & Policy," and as part of the requirements of the course she wrote a very interesting final paper entitled, "How EU Environmental and Climate Change Law and Policy is Causing Innovation and New Avenues of Prosperity in the Business World." In this paper, she considered "Making Europe a Pole of Excellence on Corporate Social Responsibility," which had been published in 2006 by the European Commission. In summary, Cindy took (and effectively presented) the argument that companies can in fact benefit from corporate social responsibility, not least of which in terms of how they are viewed by their markets and stakeholders.

Yesterday afternoon Cindy, her colleague Kate McDaniel, Lucy, and I set down and talked about the highly interrelated nature of brand development, environmental impact, and sustainability. Cindy, who is responsible for Cohn's sustainable and clean tech client initiatives, and her team at Cohn Marketing are leaders in this nascent -- but quickly emerging -- field of encouraging companies to align their business objectives in a manner that is sustainable in the long term. One of her projects involves Lend Lease Communities. Cohn describes the project in this manner:

"Lend Lease is an Australia-based development company with projects worldwide. The company puts a premium on sustainable operations, using a broad definition of sustainability that encompasses a social, economic and environmental focus. In 2006, Lend Lease established Denver as its headquarters for Lend Lease
Communities development business in the United States. With two major projects in Colorado and an eye toward national expansion, Lend Lease Communities turned to Cohn Marketing for PR services and to produce much of its marketing materials."

Leaders are often life-long learners who are always seeking to improve their own skills and expertise. They are also perceptive, often identifying trends and opportunities where others might see only impediments. Cindy clearly is a leader who combines marketing expertise, a passion to "do the right thing," and an understanding of how a firm or company can in fact benefit from doing things right.

Questions and Answers with Cindy Jennings:

How long have you been at Cohn?

Two and a half years.

How has your approach to your job changed, if any, based on what you learned at DU?

I wouldn't say my approach has changed as of now - but has certainly been enhanced. I'm bringing a completely new set of knowledge to the agency that has helped both bring in new clients and expand current client relationships from a sustainability/corporate responsibility perspective. Without my education/credentials, we could not have pursued sustainable projects as effectively. In addition, my education is setting us up to establish a core competency in sustainable brand development with a focus on renewable energy/clean technology, sustainable real estate development and sustainable food and beverage operations.

What is your philosphy about what you try to bring to clients? In other words, what do you think the link is or should be between a brand and sustinability?

The link is business - doing good business responsibly and with the long-term in mind. In a culture that focuses on the next quarter's profits, I try to help clients understand the long-term benefits of incorporating sustainable business practices into their organizations. Many are good at the cost-cutting/energy-saving measures, but are not as familiar with the health and well-being of workers or their communities to help them be even more prosperous through increased productivity, a higher level of engagement at work. Additionally, statistics are starting to show that consumers trust NGO endorsements of companies/products at a higher rate than most other resources, so being an authentically good corporate citizen can lead to benefits in this regard as well. Finally, we stress that the pressures and demands are coming. For example, we work with a small supplier trying to land business at a Fortune 100 company. We incorporated their new sustainability plan into their sales pitch and it gave them "extra credit". Our client will still have to produce a quality product, on-time and on-budget, but the fact that their competitors are not paying attention to sustainability - even a little - is playing some role in the decision.

Where did you earn your bachelor's degree?

I have a B.S. in Hotel Administration from the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Cornell University in New York and UNLV are largely known as the top schools for Hotel Restaurant Management - although perhaps DU would object to that...:)

Accounting and Sustainability

If there is one profession that has dived headlong into sustainability it is the accounting profession. While that might seem a bit hard to believe, the accounting profession -- it seems to me -- has often been perceptive about expanding its own business horizons beyond just numbers.

No professional organization within the accounting profession has been more involved in sustainability than the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), which is based in London but has members worldwide. On a quarterly basis, ACCA publishes Accounting and Sustainability, and the most recent issue (33) is now available.

The headlines in this issue provide a glimpse of the types of topics the newsletter covers:

• Human capital management (HCM) reporting research
  
• Discussion paper: 'Water: the next carbon?'
  
• ACCA publishes third in the series of member briefing papers on sustainability
  
• ACCA Australia publishes research on ASX50 corporate governance disclosures
  

Typical of the kinds of information that one will find in the newsletter are links to reports such as "Carbon Accounting: Too Little to Late?"

ACCA has also launched Accounting and Climate Change, another quarterly newsletter.  The first issue can be accessed here.

You can set up an e-mail subscription to these publications.

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.

Brazilian Companies Embrace Sustainability

Brazilian companies have embraced the concept of sustainability according to a new report from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

"The Sustainability Chain: A Survey of Views and Practices of Brazilian Companies That Influence the Future of the Planet" reports that:

• "Sustainability has taken its place on the agenda of companies doing business in Brazil and is already perceived as an essential factor in relations with various stakeholders;
• "Concern for the theme permeates all stage of the production chain;
• "The current economic scenario has not affected the investment decisions of the majority of companies in relations to actions involving sustainability."

With Brazil posed for dramatic economic growth, local trends there will become even more visible throughout the world.