Nike

You are the game changers. As you leave conference

Reform the story. Not niche at vanguard of default not philanthropy. Opportunity for innovation. Not planting trees and taking pictures of polar bears

Change materials. Change design

About growth new markets new market streams bathe future is here just not distributed equally.

Listen signals. Let go. Be nimble.

Think like innovator. Obsess about innovation.

Rigor an chaos. Focus and creativity.

Green exchange.

Reach to innovators look in shadows.

Do one thing gloriously. Take something to scale. Scale as definition of impact. Lots of little things well or one enormously.

Collaborator. New coalitions on large scale.

You are the change the world is waiting for.

Hometown News - Renewable Energy

Because my daughter is set to take a field trip to the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden Colorado (http://www.nrel.gov/) and because we took a family field trip to the Atmospheric Research Center last year, I wanted to report of this bold move by Boulder City to take on the Energy industry

In Colorado, a Power Struggle With the Power Company

By KIRK JOHNSON

BOULDER, Colo. — Many Americans these days, from the huddled masses of Occupy Wall Street to the coifed confines of the presidential campaign, are talking about the future of capitalism.

Here, that debate is focused on electricity, specifically whether this city should, in Tuesday’s election, sever its relationship with a corporate utility and move toward a home-ruled, municipally owned one that would be environmentally greener and locally accountable.

Kristin Johnson, a 57-year-old lawyer, summed up her planned vote to oust the company, Xcel Energy, in seven succinct words.

“They don’t have our interest at heart,” she said.

Xcel, a Minneapolis-based company that supplies electricity across eight states, including most of Colorado, is fighting back hard, arguing that a divorce would be devastatingly expensive for Boulder residents through higher electricity rates and start-up costs. And if talk of home-rule is really about having more renewable, carbon-reduced energy generation, well then, the company has said in advertisements and letters to residents, a big corporation with deep pockets can help get there cheaper and faster than any city, however well intentioned.

“I can’t find the numbers for how Boulder is going to do it better,” said Bob Bellemare, an Xcel consultant.

Proponents of ballot issues 2C and 2B, which includes a $1.9 million tax increase in the first year to pay for planning and analysis, say that the utility industry desperately fears a public awakening, and that a John Brown-like raid on a monopoly in one place could galvanize electricity consumers all across the nation to push for change.

Leaders of the effort concede that huge challenges await if the city goes forward, and that Xcel is not the worst provider to have. Partly prodded by a Colorado law requiring 30 percent renewable energy by 2020 — one of the most aggressive standards in the nation — the company has become a big producer of wind electricity. It has also spent more than $40 million here in Boulder building a pilot project called Smart Grid, with sophisticated metering that can help customers reduce electricity use.

Not enough, some say.

“Boulder can do better,” said Shaun McGrath, a former mayor and a leader of the ballot drive.

“We were making some headway with our carbon reductions,” Mr. McGrath said, referring to the relationship with Xcel, which is still, like most utilities, dependent on coal for much of its output. “But really what we kept bumping into was this ceiling of where our electricity was coming from.”

The backdrop, both sides say, is the city itself, a mountain-fringed college town about 45 minutes from Denver that is consistently one of the most liberal and idealistic corners of Colorado politics. President Obama carried Boulder County with 72 percent of the vote in 2008.

In the electricity fight, left-leaning politics have been aligned with hard science, supporters say, creating a unique platform for thinking creatively about electricity and democracy.

Climate and weather research, in particular, has a huge presence in the city, at federal institutions like the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration along with the tech-heavy University of Colorado that sprawls through the center of town. More than two-thirds of the population over age 25 has a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to census figures — compared with just over 36 percent for Colorado as a whole.

A passionate outdoor youth and fitness culture — a weekend run or ride on a Boulder bike path can feel like a border crossing to Spandex nation — completes the demographic circle from which the anti-Xcel forces have drawn support. A youth-centered group called New Era Colorado has been phone-banking for the electricity measures for weeks.

“It’s probably going to get passed because it is such a Boulder thing,” said Jane Imber, 55.

Ms. Imber, a freelance copy writer, said that she planned to vote no, even though she believes strongly in clean energy. “I think we have a better chance of changing Xcel from the inside than the outside,” she said.

Some supporters of the separation, though, say that local history — notably a long-simmering conflict over a coal-fired power plant in the city, called Valmont, which Xcel plans to retire by 2017 — has poisoned the well. Valmont has been the site of numerous protests over the years.

“There’s a special distrust of Xcel,” said Kate Clark, 27, a graduate student in environmental studies at the University of Colorado and a ferocious opponent of coal. Ms. Clark, who said she had also visited the Occupy Denver protest site several times in recent weeks, has volunteered at New Era Colorado.

The two ballot measures would not immediately initiate a break with Xcel or the creation of a new provider. The soonest that could happen, both sides say, given the many technical and legal issues — and the question of compensation to Xcel for the assets and customers it would lose — is probably 2017.

And Xcel officials have said there would be other bumps.

Because of the intense environmental ethos here, for example, Xcel customers in Boulder have been disproportionate enrollees in the company’s existing solar energy and conservation programs. The city’s 48,000 Xcel customers account for only 3.4 percent of the statewide ratepayer base, but 15 percent of the solar participants.

What that means is that solar installation rebates, Xcel officials said, totaling more than $38 million to Boulder customers since 2006, have been disproportionally borne by other customers around the state — a subsidy pipeline that could dry up with separation, though that decision would require regulators to weigh in.

And how green is green, anyway? Under Colorado law, shareholder-owned companies like Xcel are covered by the 30 percent renewable energy mandate by 2020. Municipally owned utilities of the size that Boulder would require would have to get to only 10 percent by then.

Jack Begg contributed research.

CSR Transparency

Kate Heiny. Target
Maggie Cohen Merck

Kate. Undergrad Tulane - religion and enviro studies. Master enviro science. Worked in Consultting cleaning up messes.
Quit and managed Gelato company and worked for environment health news online.
Business School. Found company that should be doing and would probably would be doing soon. Corporate Finance.
Maggie. Merck 15 years. Northwestern in Journalism and African Studies. Internship at Merck. Public relations with health programs in subsaharan Africa. Worked in Chicago in consulting field for Accenture/Anderson. Returned to Merck. Live in NJ Speech writer for CEO. Latin America division. Access to medicine, how produce disclosure safety, physician disclosure on payments.
GRI - global reporting initiative frist in 2004. Publish reports. Communication department not the right place. Pressured to always tell the happy story. Moved out of Communication division into public policy division. Can report in more of an independent fashion.

Religion, Journalist and History

Ben. History and spanish lit.
Seattle non profit helping people getting jobs in environment.
Plastic recycling business. Liked private sector and didn't have skills.
Got MBA and UW.
Environmental Affairs at Starbucks. Global Responsibility Function.

Openness Communication Accountability

What does transparency mean?

Kate.
Based in midwest. Culture of not talking to others about what you're doing. Not shouting off rooftops about what doing. Over the past 3-5 years. Mostly passed 3. Shift in communications style. Target in early stages of recognizing need to talk about what doing.
Recycling out the back of our stores. Giving back 5% of revenue. Also trying to figure out how to talk about things already been doing.

Maggie.
Disclose information stakeholders need to know. What information do they need to know to prescribe. What do patient need to know to take products. Stakeholders. Employees. Concerns are because don't know how do something or why. Been a lot of fear that disclosure lead to litigation, take a lot of people hours. Put in place filters. Have great General Council.

Ben.
Complex long term issues. How to synthesize, not just create a message but simplify good direction, bad direction. No simple answers to problems. Being clear. Sharing progress on how doing goals. Open to hearing other points of view. Building trust between employees and customers.

MAggie.
Report is a communciation tool. Different stakeholders want to know different information. Do an annual report for technical people. Interested in data. WAter use. Job seekers. High level story about MErck to make sure Merck has safety measures in place.

Kate.
Reports a tool. A complicated proxy. Shiny people and good stories or not meeting goals. As growing more stakeholders reading and demanding more information that company not willing to share.
Other tools.
Survey's respond to. Conversations with NGOs, govt, different stakeholders.
Trust. Stakeholders ask a lot of questions. Don't always know why, but they are looking for information to help them trust.

Top two audience for report
Kate: investors and new team members
M: Socially responsive investors, and
B: Partners and employees and customers

What are stakeholders asking for?
K: Activists: sourcing, how dealing with a specific issues
Guests/customers: why doing things in the store or why not. Why not recycling plastic bags?
Whoever reading report, they are looking for more transparency
M: Activist: run the gamut of environment, political contributions, percentage of membership fees pay to trade organizations,
Socially interested investors: transparency and licensing
Customers: environmental information
Hospital: Kaiser Mayo - also asking environmental info
Walmart: consumer products side. - supply chain

Use transparency to be competitive sometimes hinders:
K. Ultimate transparency would limit competitiveness. Why need? What are you going to do with that information.
M: Most rational stakeholders understand that there are trade secrets. Highly proprietary. Marketing plans competitive. Ones that push have an agenda and their agenda is not always in the interest of the business. Somethings legally cannot be released. Can not be 100% transparent.

Filters:
M: I don't think companies can choose on their own. Should we be putting climate change in there for a risk. Climate change is not a material business risk for pharmaceutical risk. Access to water is. So putting in 10K not important. Does Merck care about the environment, what are they doing to reduce emissions? We talk about it in our CR report, quarterly have a statement on website under policy.
Plot issue that are a concern to company and stakeholders and report on issues that are show high importance to company and high importance to stakeholders - plot issues
K. What are company issues, what is relevant to our stakeholders. What will we share out with you. Working to reach common solutions. Materiality would be good way to map compatibility of organizations. As a stakeholders that wants to work with us, if their concerns are similar to us, than fruitful for further discussion and partnership.

Global Reporting Initiative: What content should be in a report?
K: Have not used GRI in the past. This past year used, but did not have it audited. Took first step. Early on in journey. Don't feel it is an answer
M: Used since 2004. 78 Indicators on all different parts of business can report to A Level to C Level. Don't have to report if can make a case not material or propriety. Good, covers basics. Some industries have created sector specific supplement. Not pharma.
Access to medicine. Use as another measure.
Measure progress in achieving Millennium Goals.
B: Framework. Map online on how Starbuck's report links to GRI.

How technology affecting transparency?
M: Tough for highly regulated industry. Pharma industry is hesitant to use blogs, discussions because fearful of patients reporting adverse reactions. Often finding third parties with inaccurate, incomplete information on their webpages, pose question on how to respond, if should respond.
Realtime annual reports. Timberline
K: Good for information sharing. Also a lot of opportunity for swirl. Questions and challenges that is not what the company does not need to be focused on.
Dell and Intel good models.
Trend for reporting is not a static annual report. Trend is information at fingertips. Scan product on store shelf.
B: Starbucks. Leverage social media platforms to create rigorous discussion. Starbuck's are giving back information on all aspects, why not recycling cups, why not this flavor, this store not run well, helps you see what the customers are passionate about.

Q/A
Third Party Assurance Auditing

K: Building trust. Value to stakeholders to feel reading is accurate.  Target has not done yet, plan to do in future.
M: Not currently used. However important learn a lot internally. Data collection. Recent merger with Sherring Plough complicated systems.
Very expensive. Have to make a case for that.
B: So much mistrust we decided to have data audited. Painful but it makes you better.

B:Proactive reporting opportunity for building trust. Can be a competitive advantage. Stronger policy ties.

Have to respond to noisy stakeholder even if a minority.

K:Value of transparency. 2008 Shareholder that wanted to take back real-estate business. Had public process to inform and educate shareholders. Here to tell you why were are not supporting this idea. Found out that sharing what doing as a business, garners a lot more support.

Green Team - Employee Engagement

Julia Love. Adobe.
7th months at Adobe.
100% non-profit previously 15 years.
Full spectrum of software services, create and deliver. Mission change the world through digital services.
1. employee commitment -
2. environmental sustainability - exceed certification standards
3. product innovation - reduces use of paper worldwide
4. community involvement - empowering employees to invest their time and be agents of change
Voluntarily green team.
Don't have trash cans. 98% solid waste diverted. LEED certified. Company does a great job. Still voluntarily led team, because that is what they want. Sustainability Council reports to CSR and upper management. Chair of voluntary green team also on board.

Annie Lescroart - Ebay
Cohen. World of Good. Artisan groups to sale to first world customers.
Communications and stakeholders.
Ebay.inc changed a lot 60000 employees nationwide include PayPal. GSI commerce, power lots of big brands' sites. StubHub. RedLazer. 14 acquisitions in past few years. Global Citizenship Portfolio - started by employee. Organically happening in business in 2007 formalize structure and how manage. Green TEam 2000 employees, 24 country, led by volunteer team leaders and centrally managed in San Jose. Steering committee for sustainability. Green team environmentally focused. Functional business head.

Laurel Moffat
Southwest
Journalism master's. Engaging employees and putting them first. Southwest receives more resumes than can hire, harder to get in than it is to Harvard.
President Emeritus Colleen Berret. Writing guidelin Coleen's bible. Always capitalize employee, love = luv. Engaging employees and green and CSR efforts.
Empowerment. Employees first, then customers. What words resonate, culture, servant's heart, warrior spirit. Quirky, but that's Southwest. Think from the heart to go above and beyond.

9/11 - aircraft grounded. Employees were scared. Never had a layoff in history. During that 3 day timeline. Employees writing to office, what can we do? Employees started sending checks to corporate office, want to find a way to go on. Created website, payroll deduction to give money to the airline.
Green Team small cross functionally, 30 meet monthly. Green ambassadors at each airport and reservation centers, report up through their department contacts. Executive supported by CEO. How can we improve our system to improve fuel burn? Triple bottom line report. Executives writing about onboard recycling, fuel reduction.

Laurel.
Innovative. Looking to get CEO involved. Navigation performance, better geolocation, more direct flying, save on fuel. Onsite ambassadors good ideas - coming from employees.
Bring new electric ground support equipment to move bags around

Annie.
Ebay. Create infrastructure where ideas could bubble up. Look out of green team, what other channels can we piggy back onto? Annual event, innovation forum. Science fair, employees can pitch ideas. Tents constructed in parking lot. Product innovation. Employees encouraged to walk around and give gold coins to choose which ones are the best.  Green Bounty. Financial incentive for a team that came up with a green idea. Company wide. First year, won the whole bounty and green bounty, reusable box. Durable box. Chain letter box. Second year: Electronics recycling program.

Julia.
Sustainability Council formally reports to upper management. Green Team representative way for voice to  be heard at highest level.
Listserve for those passionate about sustainability.
Most everything is taken care of at work. Green Team is a lot about taking the practices we have at work and brining them home.
Close entire company for two weeks. Once in winter and once in summer. Green Team sends reminder, unplug computers, shut binds...etc.

Julia.
Call to action to create change.
Benefits business, employees morale employee productivity. Act as intermediary.
Sent out a squishy ball to remind everyone to back up computer. Everyone upset by the squishy balls, people were upset, non-sustainable. Green Team got busy, stepped in to help employees feel heard.

Measure impact of employees engagement.
Laurel.
Any charitable request. Southwest.org. Evaluated and see if can fulfill.
Decide best to put decision in local employees hands. Local groups and local giving boards meet and approve or deny requests.
Tickets for time. Database, employees log on and record volunteer hours, once more than 40 hours, give round trip ticket to their non-profit.
one Report 3Ps. Co-mingled recycle onboard, navigation performance,
Track employees hours giving. 6500 volunteer hours and saved 140,000.

Annie.
Struggle on metrics of employee engagement.
# on lists. # coming to events.
Use employee surveys, net promoter score.

Julia. Tools for engagement.
Internal blogs.
Listserve
Headquarter, very active group in CA, Seattle - how get same energy on the ground in other sites.
Green and SCR ambassadors internally and externally. Created a fair to celebrate all the people who are doing things to make company more green.

Formally incentivizing engagement?

Lauren. Rewards and recognition. Building platform, a point system, turn volunteer hours for confirmed ticket for you and your family, exchange for gift cards.
Annie. Mostly through contest and financial rewards. Try to get into employees goals for the year.

Biggest Challenge
Lauren. So many locations. Making sure employees have voice. Green Tuesday, ways to be green at home and at work.
Annie. Get people to think intentional and feel responsible for sustainability. Building relationships with the many people in the organization to harvest their ideas.

Feeding The World

Jason Clay.

Finding the optimal solution, not the perfect. A combination of all options. Science, genetics, land use.

Bill Evan.

Grew up on family farm in Dakotas. Works Pioneer Seed (Dupont)
Dupont is science based business. 16th year firefighter volunteer. Church board.
1. Science at forefront
2. Collaboration - Dependent on others in community to pull off. Private and Public partnerships
3. Infrastructure in developing world. Roads, bridges - don't deal with food waste problems that other countries do. Goals nation of Brazil 1. Replicate US Land Grant program. 2. Develop world class transportation system.

Chris Lambe - Mosaic Company Concentrated Phosphate and Pot Ash - Potassium. Vitamins for plants. Minneapolis. Young Company 8 bil. Balanced 2005
NPK - Zinc and Boron and Sulfur. Higher nutritional content.
500 university partnerships.
5Rs. Right fertilizer for right fertilizer, right crop, right time, right rate.
Timing may be the most crucial component. Must feed plant when it is hungry or won't eat. If lay down and not "hungry" rain wash away.
Recycle reuse 90% water.
2 million trees.
Mission. Help grow the food the world needs.
If we do good, we can do even better as a business. Virtuous Cycle.
Lots of small farmers around the world.
3-5 times improved yield in small holders yields.
We don not believe the solution is local, organic, conventional
No silver bullet

Dennis Tracey - Smithfield - Leading pork producer and processor - 12 billion. Largest pork processor in the world. 500 Hog farms in US. Small and medium size farmers create balance.
Chief Sustainability Officer - Governmentt affairs, talk with media and a lot of people who don't like us. Been there 10 years.
Focus of sustainability project: Environmental, animal care, employee, food safety.
Sustainable Intensification
Export 28% of what make. People want American food. inexpensive, high quality.
Most people in growing countries want their own food supply. Concentrated forming. Intensive use of fertilizers and genetics.
Nature article. National Science Study.
Do better while what we have and not expand the agriculture footprint.
Farm of the future. Better nutrition. Better disease production. Capturing Methane. Useful for any size farmer.
New definition of Agriculture. Old farmers in the midwest. New - organic farmer to large retailers for large grocery stores. How make and distribute around the globe.

Jennifer Burlinger Moderator.
Where are we now and where do we need to go. How much is sustainable.

Jason Clay. Not sustainable now. We are going to have to shrink footprint, not just maintain. Genetics, only two will double production given current trends: sugar beets and cotton. Neither major food crops.
Every certification program focus on defining best producer and get them a market niche. Recognize what they are already doing. Most certification want to
Must work with the bottom 20% producers, because they have greatest negative impact.
Voluntary certification. Can understand 5 or 6 main criteria and encourage the bottom producers to change.
Xprize - incentive space tour. Use world to solve tech industry.
Two things that would make great million prizers.
1. Container that holds a container of dry goods, transportable, collapsable, $50. Loosing 1/3 in developing countries because of infrastructure.
2. Device to determine if food is safe to eat. Is meat okay to eat. 4-10 kg of soil for every kg of food.
Must think differently about problems.

Bill. Was Sec of Ag in S. Dakota.
Space that is hungry for ideas to tackle on policy side. Always remember that farmers are price takers. When we approach problems from policy realm, easy to go to top down but crazy to believe the producer is gong to be able to pass on the cost of those idea. Incentives have worked well in changing agriculture behavior. How do we incentivize.
Farmers are optimists or wouldn't plant each year.
Looking at Ag policy and how to strike balance in US diff components. Ag inherently impo for daily living. Myriad of subsidies tried over the years with unintended consequences.
Risk management tool: multiple years of bad weather
Conservation:

Jason. Price of food going down as percentage of income. Finite nature of resources would seem like prices should go up. Future indicates will go out. Jeremy Grantham newsletter. Must bring externalities into price. Deforestration related to Ag more damage than all types of transportation.
Soil carbon best indicator of your impact, bar none. Increasing pro ducting.
Don't need government to do this. But we need structure to allow this to happen.
Carbon onsets: at onset of production comes through supply chain.
Not by solving one problems, solutions that touch on five or six rings.

Dennis. Corn.
70% what feed our animals is corn. Other % soy or wheat. Policy related to food. Policy that make raising food more expensive. Need a ramp up period. Need policies that can move food at lower cost. Decision made within our county, ethanol in gasoline. Subsidized. Last 5 years $250 bushel ->$7. Food versus fuel. China's price $10. Who make sure the corn we eat is grown for the people who eat it.

Ethanol policy: Incentivized corn growth. It has different costs. Causes more corn to be planted. Needed rational discussion. Ethanol tax credit. Protective tariff prohibits importation. Due to expire at end of the year. Not anti-ethanol. Price of meat increasing, going to rise and put pressure on prices.

Nature Article: More strategic about productive lands that we have.

Jason. Need to take discussion out of states. 5/6 countries that purchase surplus to feed the rest of the world's needs. Local crops, globally about 14 crops provide 80 of calories - not nutrition, just calories. Focus on regional areas that need more nutrition, then focus on plants that naturally grow there and use genetics to select best of these crops.
How to torture corn to grow corn in other places ins tread of focusing of cassaba and sorghum.

Chris. Key to working with small holders is partnerships.
Folks in the WEst coming to small rural farmer and saying this is what is going to work for you. Has to be things they want. Guatemala project. Area worst possible conditions for Ag. Ag, environ, drug runners, bandits. Each hectare can .8 metric ton, need 1.5 to live. Malnutrition and dying. Kids 6-8 years, walking miles and miles to pick fruit.
Went in and discussed with farmers that wanted. Want to use traditional sacred seeds. Prefer black corn's taste. Seed out of the questions. Knowledge of Ag was limited. Didn't know how to grow in rows, didn't use cover crops. Simple precision agriculture a string to mark rows, bamboo with sharpie to measure depths, bottle cap lid fill with fertilizer to dump in with seed. Don't till the ground to help with weed control. Increased production 5 times. Must buy fertilizer. Distribution system going but couldn't' afford. Created credit program, pay back at harvest. Crop insurance. Still 3 times income.
Africa.
Few places could increase, AG is one of area. How get things there, logistics. No deep water ports. Mules and carry on backs. Cost us twice as much to get to Agriculture. Must learn to build infrastructure and get agronomists on the ground. Need training to know what to do.

Questions:
Water use. Hypoxia. Watershed. Runoff.
Chris. Water food mix impo. Agriculture is a major cause but maybe not as big, 90 vs 50%. We know what to do. Best farming practices. Where we grow. Don't always grow in best locations. 60-70% Nitrogen coming from Illinois. Farm prices too low, so they grow right up to water zone without buffers. Often apply right before rainstorms or in wet field.

Reducing hostility of debate important for discussion

Bill.
Water as a crop. How incentivize farmers to look as water as something they produce on their land.

Question: Darden. How do young entrepreneurs get into AG seems you either go local or go to the dark side?
Jason. Lack of technology. Up to date cell phone application to help figure our weather.
Dennis. Dark side has to speak. Young people FFA. We want to work for you, CEO stopped one of theses student, that's a great thought, but you don't want to work for us, you want to work for a cool company, you don't want to work for Ag.
Question: Corn and soybean. Right crops. Just one or two crops. What risk placing so much on one or two crops.
Must make changes or population migration.  Not just change doing forward, but going backward. Adaptation going on. West of Missouri not good, aquifer drying up, may need to move to sorghum.

Consumer awareness role on sustainable ag ?
Bill. Lack of Agriculture literacy.
Best forums: Farmers becoming more literate in social media space.
US Farmers and Ranchers Alliance - effort of ag to talk to people traditionally had difficulty talking with.

Food production not problem. Price of food is.
Policy question: Reality of what changes could be made?
American's can be trusted to do the right thing after all other options have been tried. Churchill?
The different amounts of people involved in the development of ag policy has been compared to the Bar scene in Star Wars - all these different aliens.
Sometimes make better decision when have less money to spend.
Globally will be driven by Brazil, Russian, India, China.