Yesterday’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook on Boston’s WBUR featured a lively discussion on “fixing capitalism” between Michael Porter, Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard University, and former Labor secretary Robert Reich.

Porter’s argument for reforming the traditional US business paradigm includes the view that business education must evolve to become more interdisciplinary in order to turn out leaders who understand that, for corporate, social, and health reasons, corporate profit must not come at the expense of its community.

In an article in the January-February issue of the Harvard Business Review, Porter and his co-author Mark Kramer write:

President Barack Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu tour the Engineering Labs at Penn State University in State College, February 3, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Last week, in a speech delivered at Penn State University, President Obama announced the Better Buildings Initiative, which aims to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy costs. This factsheet provides more details on the announcement. The Co-Chairs of the ACUPCC Steering Committee have issued the following statement in support of this initiative:

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On February 3, 2011, President Obama announced the Better Buildings Initiative, which aims to achieve a 20 percent improvement in energy efficiency by 2020, reduce companies’ and business owners’ energy bills by about $40 billion per year, and save energy by reforming outdated incentives and challenging the private sector to act.

The initiative will also include the Better Buildings Challenge, which the White House describes in the following way:

By Toni Nelson, ACUPCC Program Director, Second Nature
(This article appears in the February, 2011 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

The support team at Second Nature has developed a plan for 2011 that will provide information and resources on key topics related to the implementation of climate action planning and sustainability education, as well as opportunities for signatories to gather in person to discuss challenges, opportunities, and ways to overcome barriers to these goals.  Second Nature is introducing a briefing paper series, “Viewpoints on Sustainability,” to provide information and resources on specific topics in a concise format that will highlight important concepts and related resources. A website redesign is also in the works, with a re-organized resources section that will group information by topic and thus make it easier to find information on specific topics of interest to the signatories.

Key Topics for 2011

Topics to be addressed through briefing papers, the ACUPCC Implementer, and webinars and other in-person events such as training workshops will include how to institutionalize sustainability at your institution, financing resources and opportunities, outreach to and engagement of the campus and local community, higher education’s role in adapting to climate change, and education for sustainability.

Financing

By Tim Stumhofer, Senior Program Associate, Greenhouse Gas Management Institute

(This article appears in the February, 2011 issue of The ACUPCC Implementer)

There is no shortage of opinions on the concept and application of carbon offsets. The fervent debate these wonky mitigation instruments whip up runs an impressive multidisciplinary gamut from questions of morality to marginal cost of abatement. But while offsets have spurred a prodigious volume of discussion, there is a striking dearth of plain English analysis breaking down the complex commodities. Correspondingly there are startlingly few resources that dig beneath the veneer of marketing statements or go beyond a simple rehashing of basic concepts and statistics. In the face of this information shortfall, researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) have shown notable leadership. Over the past few years SEI has published a valuable catalogue of clear, accessible, and rigorous reports on the technical bits (e.g., greenhouse gas accounting and other programmatic rules) that underpin offset programs. In an effort to make this information even more user-friendly and digestible, SEI translated these materials into an interactive website: Carbon Offset Research & Education (CORE).