Sustainability for Businesses
The Burnaby Board of Trade held an Environmental Sustainability Forum for Business yesterday evening that is worth writing about. Hosted in the architecturally stunning Electronic Arts building, the event featured a panel of four environmentally friendly speakers with good business tips.
As the panel was introduced, it was noted that the pathway to being green is often less clear than the desire to be sustainable. Thus, it was fitting that the first speaker was Peter Robinson, CEO of the David Suzuki Foundation that helps teach people how to be sustainable.
Peter suggested that sustainability targets should include longer term solutions that apply to the whole system, that balance production and consumption, are transparent and include accountability. Making operations efficient and reducing energy and waste helps a business save money. The next step is reducing their product’s footprint, by making it and its packaging greener. Level three involves greening your network – your customers, suppliers, producers, and not least your employees. As in the palm oil article I posted recently, examine your supply chain. How green is it and how could it be made more sustainable?
Maureen Cureton, Green Business Manager at Vancity (see www.vancity.com/greenbusiness), spoke next. Vancity, she started, was the first North American-based financial institution that became carbon neutral. They accomplished this through focusing on building energy savings, paper use, employee commuting and bus travel. Items such as 100% post consumer paper cost more, she acknowledged, but reductions in consumption helps offset costs. Vancity’s environmental commitments generate employee and member (customer) loyalty as well as enhanced brand value which far outweighs any residual cost increase.
TJ Galda, Chair of the Electronic Arts Green Team, was next. He opened by saying sustainability gives a business a good triple bottom line – including the business, the environment, and the corporate cultural attitude. They’re thorough at EA (as it’s called) – the paper towels get composted. TJ made an excellent case about the benefits a business receives when employees are happy, and increasingly employees want to go home at night and tell their children that Mom or Dad works at a planet friendly company.
David Moran, Director of Public Affairs and Communications for Coca-Cola Canada, rounded out the panel. Coca-Cola Canada is a huge company, and it takes time to change a company that size. But they’re making a good effort. They’re examining ways to reduce their sugar footprint, and to become carbon free. A beverage container now contains a significant amount of sustainable material. And managers present their efforts to their Board of Directors annually, who importantly support the green shift.
The event was wrapped up with a Q&A session, during which the speakers responded to questions with knowledge and a genuine interest in helping businesses become sustainable.
Overall, it was a great event and hopefully this article will help businesses everywhere and of any size examine their own footprint and make it sustainable.
Tags: BBOT, Burnaby Board of Trade, Coca Cola, David Suzuki Foundation, Electronic Arts, green business, sustainability, Vancity
Happy World Wetlands Day!
World Wetlands Day (Feb. 2) recognizes those countries that have signed the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, a conservation agreement called the Ramsar Convention. The agreement provides an outline for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. It came into popular effect in 1975, and remains today the only global environmental treaty that deals with a particular ecosystem.
Canada (with 37 Ramsar sites) and the United States (with 26 Ramsar sites) are among the many countries who have signed the agreement. Canada has more sites than the U.S. partly because Canada is home to 25% of the world’s wetlands.
Wetlands, according to the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), include swamps, ponds, marshes, and peat bogs. They function similarly to giant sponges, soaking up rain and snow melt water, and slowly releasing it during drier seasons while filtering it to help reduce pollution and soil erosion.
Wetlands are the exclusive home to plants, fish and birds that use them for breeding, nesting and feeding. Sadly, wetlands are disappearing. In Canada, organizations such as the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Ducks Unlimited work together to try to preserve wetlands.
Much of this work is part of the Nature Conservancy’s partnership with the Government of Canada. The Natural Areas Conservation Program is a $225 million grant given to the NCC by the government in 2007, which the organization is responsible for managing. The grant assists NGOs in securing ecologically-sensitive lands, and involves the government matching funds raised by the NGOs. As of September 2009, the program has saved over 302,880 acres, protecting habitat for over 79 species at risk.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada determines which natural areas are significant based on an area’s level of biodiversity and the threats it faces. Much of this information is gathered through the eight Conservation Data Centres established by the organization across Canada since 1988.
Once priorities are set, the NCC works with private landowners to secure ecologically-significant land identified as conservation priorities. NCC acquires and protects land through land purchase, donation, conservation agreement or relinquishment of mining or timber rights.
NCC’s work doesn’t end when the land is acquired. Ongoing land management is needed to ensure the continued health of ecosystems and the plants and animals that live within them.
The program is certainly a positive one for a government that didn’t do much good in Copenhagen. Let’s hope that by recognizing the good that they’re doing here, we can encourage the government to care for the climate – the very climate that provides the rain and snow that make wetlands possible.
Tags: Ducks Unlimited, marshes, Nature Conservancy, peat bogs, ponds, Ramsar, swamps, Wetlands
Good News for Haiti
The Hope for Haiti Now telethon has raised an awesome $58 million, a figure which is likely to increase as donations continue to pour in.
Today I spoke with Meredith Eves, Assistant to Director of Communications, of Partners in Health. Her organization is one slated to receive funds from Hope for Haiti Now. She reports that Partners in Health has been helping people in Haiti for over 20 years, and they plan to continue their presence there. Due to the earthquake, “there is going to be such a great need going forward,” Meredith told me.
Picture From Partners in Health
Meredith confirmed that the $58 million means that there will be funding available to build new hospitals and schools. Partners in Health is especially interested in “education, healthcare, as well as clean water and the roots of health and social justice,” Meredith explained. The wonderful support from the telethon’s viewers makes greater support possible. Meredith continued, “This is going to be a long-term recovery. It’s not something that will shift in the next couple of months. Haiti was already a pretty marginalized place prior to this.”
One example of the challenges facing Haitian people is the number of people who now live without an arm or a leg. “And they’re living in a mountainous country,” Meredith added. Psycho-social support, much needed following the traumatic event, will also be possible thanks to the money raised, and the people will be really well-cared for.
“We incredibly appreciate the support and we hope that people continue to stay updated on what’s going on,” Meredith concluded. Partners in Health’s website will continue providing coverage on Haiti and how they use the funding.
Other organizations receiving funding also have information available on their websites. Here’s a listing of the recipients, including links to their websites:
Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation
United Nations World Food Programme
Yele Haiti Foundation
All of these organizations, and more, are wonderful for helping the Haitian people. Our support makes more assistance possible. Good for those of you who have reached out to provide a helping hand or a much-needed donation.
Tags: Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation, Haiti, Hope For Haiti Now, Oxfam, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UN World Food Programme, UNICEF, Yele Haiti Foundation
Wildlife Call Ringtones
Ringtones are available that sound like the calls of endangered wildlife and are one way to show what you care about. One of the greatest selections of wildlife ringtones available is written about in the Friday File (which you can access through either this link, the menu bar at the top of this page or the link at the side).
Tags: Bald Eagle, Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation, Grizzly Bear, Mexican Gray Wolf, Prairie Dog, ringtones, Wildlife
Ending Hunger
The response to the crisis in Haiti has been an outpouring of warmth and support from people all around our world as our hearts go out to the people there. Aid organizations have responded to the call to provide emergency aid to the devastated country, including medical, food and water. There is still a lot to do, and I wanted to highlight an organization helping to make a difference.
Margie Fleming Glennon, Communications Director of Share Our Strength, kindly gave me some insights into the aid effort as well as about her organization. Share Our Strength has given $145,000 to five organizations with the capacity and expertise to respond to such a huge crisis. The funding ranges from $67,500 for Partners in Health, to $25,000 for each of CHF International and the United Nations Foundation, $22,500 for CARE, and $5,000 for the International Organization for Migration.
Haiti’s immediate needs must be addressed first, as aid is struggling to get in and issues around starvation and security loom. VoicesForOurPlanet.com joins our readers in wishing the aid organizations and the people in Haiti all the very best and pray for them daily.
Once the current crisis settles down, there will be a need for long-term assistance, and that’s where Share Our Strength will continue to help. The organization specializes in feeding the hungry. Hunger has been a long-standing issue in Haiti, one which is expected to be even more urgent going forward.
Share Our Strength is in the planning stages with chefs across the United States, many of whom they have long-established relationships with. And history. Following Hurricane Katrina, the organization managed the Restaurants for Relief program, which helped raise money to rebuild New Orleans. Now they will step forward to do the same for Haiti.
So what does Share Our Strength do between major crises, and where does their money come from? The organization’s mission is to end hunger in the United States. Having been founded 25 years ago to help provide aid to the Ethiopian famine, Share Our Strength today continues to provide some international support, although it’s a small part of their budget. They have been addressing the ongoing problem of hunger in Haiti for around 20 years, which takes the largest portion of their international aid budget. Now, obviously, they are giving Haiti a much greater focus.
The organization is likely familiar to many of you, through some of their well-known events. The flagship event is Taste of the Nation(R), which started in 1988 and today is America’s largest culinary event. Presented by American Express, popular restaurants in 55 US cities offer food and beverage tastings, involving over 10,000 chefs. The events are entirely managed by volunteers, and raise millions of dollars each year that Share Our Strength uses to support over 1,000 hunger organizations as well as its own food programs.
Margie also mentioned several other major programs that her organization manages, including the Great American Bake Sale and the Great American Dine Out events. Their Operation Frontline program helps teach low-income families to shop and cook on a budget. They are also starting a new program focused on people with diabetes in 20 communities across the US.
As well, in the summer of 2009, Share Our Strength surveyed American teachers about child hunger in the classroom. Responses came from 700 teachers in 47 states and a wide range of schools. Sixty-two percent of teachers reported seeing children who come to school hungry each week because they are not getting enough to eat at home. Sixty-three percent of teachers mentioned that they use their own money to help feed children in their school. They likely understand the negative cycle to which hunger can lead. If you’ve ever been hungry, you may remember how distracting it can be. Distracted children, unfortunately, are often labeled as misbehaving, a label which can stick and lead to medical and societal problems when the children are a little older.
From feeding hungry children in the United States to the massive rebuilding that needs to be done in Haiti, Share Our Strength is committed to working with other organizations to make a positive impact. For more information about Share Our Strength and to find out how you can help, visit their website.
Tags: CARE, CHF International, earthquake, Haiti, Humanitarian, hunger, Katrina, Migration, Partners in Health, Share Our Strength, United National Foundation
Animal Parks and Wildlife Tours
Save money and still visit our world’s ecosystems and their animals, while staying in North America. Wonderful animal parks and wildlife tours, in the Friday File (which you can access through either this link, the menu bar at the top of this page or the link at the side).
Tags: Denali, Disney Animal Kingdom, Florida Everglades, International Ecotourism Society, Living Desert, Louisiana swamps, Manatees, San Diego, whale watching, Wild Animal Park, Yellowstone
Humanitarian Organizations for Haiti
MSNBC has a list of charitable organizations active in Haiti on their website.
Voices For Our Planet .com joins those who are sending their prayers to the people in Haiti, and our funds to humanitarian organizations.
Palm Oil and Rainforest Destruction
In Guatemala just over a year ago, I flew in a small plane so low over the rainforest that we could see some large birds circle and land in a tree. For the first time in my life, I witnessed what I’ve read about tropical rainforests for years – the grassy sections where the forest has been chopped down, the dirt areas where now nothing will grow, and the little clumps of forest that are too small for anything larger than a coatimundi to live in. “What was there before?” I wondered. “What animals have we lost? What medicinal plants?”
“What you saw in Guatemala is not very different from what you see flying over the Amazon, [or] over parts of Southeast Asia or Africa,” Leila Salazar-Lopez of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) told me today. “Anywhere where there’s rainforest, they are literally on the chopping block.”
Agribusiness is responsible for much of the destruction. RAN’s Rainforest Agribusiness campaign is focused on trying to protect tropical rainforest from the alarmingly fast expansion into rainforests. One of the commodities responsible for this is palm oil.
Palm oil is in about 50% of our consumer goods, including snack foods, cereals, detergents, cosmetics and even biofuels. Most people don’t know that, Leila told me. The reason palm oil is such a globally-expanding commodity is that it’s cheap – it’s the least expensive source of vegetable oil in the world.
Unfortunately, palm oil is a tropical plant, originally from Africa, and can only be grown in the tropics. About 90% of it is from Indonesia and Malaysia. “The highest rate of deforestation in the world is in Indonesia. They got a Guinness Book of World Records acknowledgement – they’re destroying 20 square miles of rainforest every day – that’s about three football fields,” Leila explained. Indonesia has destroyed around half of its rainforest already, over the last few decades. Due to increased demand for palm oil, the Indonesian government has already announced plans to convert another 18 million hectares into palm oil plantations by 2020. That’s “approximately the size of Missouri,” as Leila put into perspective.
So much rainforest land has been cleared, burned or drained; people have been evicted from their homes; and it’s negatively affecting our climate. Animals are being displaced from their habitats and don’t have anywhere to live, including some incredible species such as the orangutan, Sumatran tiger, Sumatran elephant and the sunbear. “These animals are very, very threatened from palm oil plantation expansion,” Leila added. As well, up to 20 million Indonesians depend on forests for survival. If “forests are cut down, [the people] can’t harvest food, they can’t hunt, they can’t live in the way they’ve been living for thousands of years.”
RAN is campaigning to stop the destruction of any more rainforest for this commodity. They suggest that companies that are using palm oil should research their supply chain and find out where the palm oil is coming from. They need to let their suppliers know that they “only want socially and environmentally responsible palm oil, [and] don’t want palm oil that comes from destroyed rainforests that displaces communities and destroys the climate. We don’t want that kind of palm oil,” Leila advised.
There’s a Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) that has principles and standards that companies should follow, at a minimum. Companies should act responsibly and source palm oil only from suppliers who protect high conservation value forests and get the free consent of forest communities.
RAN is speaking with global companies such as Cargill, trying to get their message understood and adopted. More information is available on RAN’s website.
Leila also suggested that you download Green: The Film – a documentary that shows through images and music what rainforest destruction due to palm oil looks like from the viewpoint of an orangutan. It’s a realistic portrayal of how the animals are being impacted on a daily basis.
Tags: agri business, agriculture, Cargill, Climate Change, Conservation, endangered, Green: The Film, Guatemala, Indonesia, palm oil, rainforest, Rainforest Action Network, rainforest destruction, RAN, RSPO, sustainable, sustainable palm oil
Happy New Year! Have a look at how some groups celebrate the new year, in the Friday File (which you can also access through the menu bar at the top of this page or the link at the side).
Tags: 2010, CARE, Conservation International, David Suzuki Foundation, International Rhino Foundation, wildlife conservation
Adapting to Climate Change
In the shadow of the climate changes that are occurring, and the lack of a binding agreement emerging from Copenhagen, some leading humanitarian groups are seeking ways that people may be able to adapt to the early stages of climate change.
Angie Dazé, Senior Climate Change Adaptation Advisor for CARE International, gave me a personal interview today. She specializes in community-based adaptations, trying to understand the effects of climate change and what the most vulnerable of our world’s people might do to survive the early stages of climate change.
Empower the Most Vulnerable People
A whole community is not affected equally by climate shock. In pastoral communities, men often manage the livestock while women are responsible for fetching water, tending the garden, and ensuring the family has food. “What we often find is that women tend to have a higher level of vulnerability because of their role in the home,” Angie told me. “In agricultural-based communities, in particular, food and water become very difficult within a changing climate. So women’s traditional roles and responsibilities become even harder,” Angie explained. Issues related to climate change vulnerability can be social or political. Although women traditionally have limited decision-making power, when humanitarian managers “empower women to have more power in decisions, they tend to make good decisions that will help the family to manage the resources in a way that will reduce their risk.” But it’s not just women. “It’s making sure that the different members of the household have the skills and the information that they need to play the role that they need to play most effectively.”
Get the Right Information
One of climate change’s biggest problems is the uncertainty of what, how and when changes are going to occur. CARE managers “help people to have a broader range of options open to them, so they’re in a position to make decisions to manage the risks. And also to ensure they have the information they need to make those decisions,” Angie told me. This information includes seasonal forecasts, what crops might be better suited to a particular climate condition, and early warnings for droughts or storms.
Find Practical Solutions
While empowering women is an important part of an overall strategy of making a community more resilient, CARE also works closely with all members of the community, and local organizations, NGO’s, and government institutions. Together, they come up with practical solutions such as different agricultural practices – when rainfall decreases, it’s essential to keep as much moisture in the soil as possible. CARE is launching a program in Africa in which they do small scale adaptations in different communities and countries to find out what works. That learning will then be applied widely, both at the community and broader levels, such as trying to influence national policy frameworks. The focus is always on giving the most vulnerable people a voice and ensuring that the potentially large sums of money that will be donated to stricken areas actually reach the people who need it. It’s also “building skills and new practices and always providing information,” Angie added.
The Future
Ultimately, the best solution is for countries to sign a binding agreement to reduce emissions and stop climate change. Adaptation is most hopeful for our current level of climate change, but if it continues to grow (as is likely after Copenhagen), livelihoods are going to become impossible and mass migrations will likely occur. If that happens, we will be facing a whole new set of social and political hot spots.
The silver lining to the recent Copenhagen conference may be the number of average people who became involved and who care about the effect that climate change is having, and will have, on our planet, its people and its animals. So please keep caring and helping – You’re needed!
Tags: adaptation, Africa, CARE, Climate Change, Copenhagen, empowering women, global warming, Humanitarian
