Interconnected World

Engaging Mainstream Investors

One of the questions I get asked by virtually every interviewer is, "Do the mainstream investors really care about sustainability?" Answer: "Nope".

Measures of Sustainability

This is another "burr report" - that is, discussion of something that's stuck in my head but hasn't yet blossomed into a plan. The planter was the book "Mismeasuring our Lives: Why GDP Doesn't Add Up". It is the non-technical portion of a report by an international commission to better align metrics of well-being to actual quality of life, with a forward by Nicolas Sarkozy and a quite thorough summary by Jospeh Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, and Jen-Paul Fitoussi.

There is an amazing amount of thought-provoking content in this slim volume, along with some beautifully concise articulations of what we've all been thinking ("One of the reasons that most people may perceive themselves as being worse off even though average GDP is increasing is because they are indeed worse off." Or "We have wound up mistaking our representations of wealth for the wealth itself.")  But - back to the relevance to my job…

Contextual Stakeholder Engagement

This past Thursday, I was privileged to attend the Investor Summit on Climate Risk and Energy Solutions put on by Ceres at the U.N. It was well worth the trip and even the wind-blown soaking we got waiting to gain entry. (No, my job is not always glamorous. See "From the (cold, cold) ground in Copenhagen").

What made it a unique experience for me was that it was the chance to hear the investment community talking amongst themselves.  That has really planted a germ of a thought that I need to noodle on for awhile (if I may mix metaphors).

Role Models

This past October, I had the opportunity to give a 15-minute presentation at the Women In Technology International (WITI) conference in San Jose.  In 2010, I'd spoken about the role of information technology in sustainability, and this year, they asked me to speak about the role of women in sustainability. (Doesn't leave much for next year - "internationalism in sustainability" perhaps?. But anyway…) I illustrated my talk about why so many women have gravitated to sustainability by citing just a few of the legions of role models that came to mind.