Evidence Of The Extreme Climate Change. Green Building Labels 101: An Inhabitat Guide to Third Party Environmental Certifications. If you’re reading Inhabitat, you’re probably interested in green building, and if you work in the building and construction industry, it’s likely that you strive to build in as environmentally conscious a manner as you can. But how do you measure, compare and make choices about the environmental footprint of different products, materials and building practices? Over the past few years, you’ve probably encountered a veritable cacophony of eco labels competing for your attention, stamped on everything from carpeting, appliances and furniture, to building materials, windows and roofing, to entire buildings. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by this onslaught of competing eco labels, fear not.
Inhabitat is here to break them down for you and help you decipher what green building labels really mean, and which are the most important ones to pay attention to when it comes to building green. Photo: Capital Health Medical Center – Hopewell in Pennington, NJ – interior design by ARRAY Architects. Green Building Labels 101: An Inhabitat Guide to Third Party Environmental Certifications.
Engaging Employees in Sustainability 2.0. Sustainability is more than just a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) checklist or making a commitment to reduce carbon emissions. It spurs innovation, creates new ways of delivering services, and often comes from ideas by employees at every level of an organization. Co-written by Toby Russell and Thomas Hendrick.
Employees are the ones who enable a company to reach its sustainability goals. Do employees turn off computers after work? Do they feel empowered to act on inefficiencies that they encounter? Companies often start their sustainability engagement by creating a cross-functional ‘green team’ that acts as a catalyst for their programs. How then do you continue to motivate employees around sustainability? Create an environment of trust Many companies ban social media use (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) at the workplace, worrying that employees will be distracted by photos of weekend vacations or waterskiing squirrel videos. Make it engaging, make it fun Social media is not without risk. Employee Engagement Drives Sustainability Strategy. Have you considered how employee engagement can drive your sustainability strategy and how you can also leverage sustainability initiatives to engage your employees and create a values-driven culture of collaboration and creativity?
While the majority of employees fall under the umbrella of not engaged (emotionally detached) and actively disengaged (negatively view the workplace), few companies even know how to engage their employees in social and environmental sustainability. Consider these statistics: The Benefits of Engaging Your Employees: Employee engagement has a ripple effect and creates numerous benefits, including: InnovationLower turnoverReduced sick days and absenteeismHigher employee moraleIncreased productivityBetter retentionImproved talent attraction. Furthermore, a Gallup analysis showed that: “Organizations’ employee engagement scores directly related to their earnings per share (EPS).
It’s all about Collaboration Co-creating sustainability programs with employees cultivates: News - The Regeneration Roadmap. Study finds large majority of consumers say “ingredient transparency” among top purchase drivers for food, beauty and household products, yet only 57% regularly check the list of ingredients before purchasing A study by BBMG, GlobeScan and SustainAbility finds that nearly 9 in 10 consumers globally (86%) say "ingredient transparency is extremely important or very important” for companies to address as part of their products, services, or operations, including 88% of consumers in emerging markets and 84% of consumers in developed markets.
However, only 57% regularly “check the list of ingredients before purchasing” products, highlighting the gap between interest and action in sustainable consumption. “Many consumers globally believe they have the right to know what products are made of and they want companies to ensure their products are safe and effective,” said Eric Whan, Sustainability Director at GlobeScan. Download the report. State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible? eBook: The Worldwatch Institute. Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility: An Introductory Text on CSR Theory & Practice - Past, Present & Future eBook: Wayne Visser.
Changing Business from the Inside Out (BK Business) eBook: Tim Mohin. Forum 2014 - Speaker Nomination Page. February 18-20, 2014The Montelucia Resort, Scottsdale, AZ Overview: As every sustainability executive knows, success is all about the power of partnerships — internal, external, supply chain, NGO, public-private, and all the rest. The tasks are simply too big (and the resources too small) to go it alone. The 2014 GreenBiz Forum is the product of a powerful partnership among GreenBiz Group, The Sustainability Consortium, and the Global Institute of Sustainability at ASU. Together, we’re leveraging our considerable networks, insights and domain expertise to convene the brightest thinkers and most influential leaders. Together, we’ll present an in-depth look at the key challenges and opportunities facing sustainable business today.
As always, the Forum will be framed by the annual State of Green Business report, the seventh annual edition of GreenBiz’s acclaimed accounting of key sustainability metrics and trends, produced by GreenBiz.com in partnership with Trucost. GoGreen Phoenix: A Conference to Green Your Business. Sustainability leadership: lessons from indigenous traditions | Guardian Sustainable Business. As we gain success we can risk flying too close to the sun. Sustainability leaders could benefit from reflecting on lessons from indigenous traditions.
Photograph: Xinhua/Landov/Barcroft Media In the wisdom traditions of North America's First Nations people there are many teachings that relate directly to leadership. Two of these are the Twin Trail and the Children's Fire. The Twin Trail reflects a deep understanding of our human psychology, speaking to the primary difference between humans and our animal relatives: the capacity to make moral choices. "We would not trust any leader who is not committed to the Twin Trail – the inner trail of self-understanding, self-unfolding, and deepening; the outer trail of having powerful effect in the world. A leader's commitment to the Twin Trail becomes increasingly important as we progress in our careers, make money, build on our professional reputations and find ourselves admired and our opinions sought. Careers in Sustainability // School of Sustainability // Arizona State University.
There is a demand for employees and leaders who know what sustainability is and understand its complexity, understand how to approach problems and solutions, and know how to work with and draw from different disciplines. By engaging a breadth of knowledge and experience, and by acquiring the skills to integrate various domains of knowledge, sustainability students prepare themselves for a variety of careers. Recent interest in sustainability within business and government has created new employment opportunities – in positions like sustainability coordinators, directors, and managers. School of Sustainability graduates may assume positions in industry, consultancy, utilities, regulatory agencies, nonprofits, governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations. Graduates are prepared for admission into strong graduate and professional schools. Where are Our Alumni Now? What Can You Do With a Sustainability Degree? Need Career Development Help? Visit our career development page.
(un)Sustainable Comments. Why Buying Local is Worth Every Cent! | green-minded. Urban-sustainability - The Infographic | The Business of Sustainabi... MOOC Madness Continues -- Coursera Raises $43M - Liz Gannes. Coursera, which launched just over a year ago to provide massive open online courses, is riding the wave of online education excitement to a significant chunk of funding.
The Mountain View, Calif. -based company has raised $43 million in Series B funding from GSV Capital, the investment arm of the World Bank, Laureate Education Inc., Learn Capital and Yuri Milner, as well as previous investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and New Enterprise Associates. Coursera has registered four million students and started bringing in revenue around verifying students so they can take courses for credential credit. It competes with other MOOC providers like Udacity and EdX, which also have substantial funding and support from prestigious universities and respected professors. Coursera’s big strength has been partnering with institutions — 83 schools around the world — said co-founder Daphne Koller in an interview on Tuesday.