It was a sold out crowd at the Commonwealth Club last night for my talk
on 'Business and Sustainability: Risk, Fiduciary Responsibility and the
Laws of Nature.' (See the summary below.)
I used the occasion to present the Sustainable Business - Declaration
of Leadership that I wrote recently (thanks to the sponsorship of StopWaste.Org).
You can download the 50k PDF here. Check back next week for
downloadable audio (it needs a little editing first - any suggestions
of Macish audio editing software?), a for large format poster
version.
Here's the Declaration (thanks, Joel,
for prodding me to post this):
Sustainable Business - A Declaration of Leadership Because: the well being of our economy fundamentally depends on the services from nature that support it, business activity has a profound impact on the ability of nature to sustainably provide those services,
we are committed, as business and community leaders, to the well being
of both economic and ecological systems, of both humans and other
living things, we believe that these goals are
compatible (and where they seem to be incompatible, we are committed to
finding better ways to do business that make them compatible).We envision our company, suppliers and customers, and our community doing business in ways that:
preserve, protect and ultimately enhance the living systems -- of this
region, and the planet -- that sustain our business and the larger
human economy provide ever greater value in meeting the real needs of our customers, suppliers and communities meet human needs in the most efficient and economical means possible, in order to include the greatest percentage of humanity.To do this we will: consider the requirements of the earth's living systems in all design and operating decisions not take more from the earth that it can sustainably provide not provide to the earth more than it can sustainably absorb
analyze the life cycle operating costs and impacts of our facilities,
operations and products/services, as well as their initial costs
work to eliminate "waste" of all kinds from our operations, and to find
safe, productive uses for any "non-product" that we are not yet able to
eliminate treat employees, customers, suppliers and stakeholders fairly, honestly and respectfully take responsibility for the safety of our products/services in their intended use take responsibility for the safety of our activities for employees and communities take responsibility for the safe "end of life" recovery and reuse or recycling or our products
design our facilities, operations and products/services to be ever more
efficient, ever less dependent on materials and activities that poison,
degrade or encroach on living systems, and ever more supportive of
these approaches do all these in a way that supports our economic well-being, and the economic well-being of those who depend on usWe will measure our progress by the trends of our resource productivity [unit of benefit provided per unit of resource used] "non-product" output [amounts & toxicity of "unsalable" materials and chemicals] net carbon emissions [production of climate changing greenhouse gasses] ecological footprint [demand on earth's regenerative capacity] profit, both near and long termWe will pursue these steps with a commitment to future generations continuous improvement open dialogue with our customers, stockholders, suppliers, and communities
12:25:30 AM 
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