<< See Newsletter Archive
Ceres Newsletter - January 2007In this Issue:
Hot Off the Press - Exciting Jobs at Ceres
- Ceres Conference Heats Up -- Feb. 9 Early Registration Deadline
- Ceres Report Touts Vast Energy Efficiency Potential in Texas
- Ceres-ACCA Announce 19 Finalists for Sustainability Reporting Awards
Other News - Ceres Hosts Midwest Forum on Climate Change Risks and Opportunities
- AIG Global Investment Group Joins Investor Network on Climate Risk
- Marsh, Yale and Ceres to Educate Corporate Directors on Climate Change
- Ceres and Al Gore Speak at the NYSE
- Wall Street Engagement
Publications - Best Practices in Climate Change Risk Analysis for the Electric Power Sector
- Global Framework for Climate Risk Disclosure
Network Highlights - Seven Industry Leaders Join Ceres
- Companies Find Direct Business Benefits From Ceres FRP Project
New Staff - New Ceres Staff
- Companies Find Direct Business Benefits From Ceres FRP Project
Hot Off the Press
Exciting Jobs at Ceres
Are you ready to change corporate and business practices on climate change and other sustainability challenges? Are you interested in working with McDonald's, Dell and other corporate giants to help them reach new heights on environmental and social performance? Do you have the strategic savvy to engage entire industries — the insurance sector, for example — to tackle the business impacts from global warming? Ceres is seeking the best and the brightest candidates to fill three job openings in its Industry and Corporate Accountability Programs. Please let us know if you are interested or, more importantly, pass the word to a talented friend. For more information, click here. Ceres Conference Heats Up
This year’s Ceres conference on April 25-26 in Boston promises to be the best ever! We've assembled a star-studded lineup of opinion leaders and Wall Street movers, including Laurie David, producer of An Inconvenient Truth, Mark Tercek from Goldman Sachs, environmental visionary and author Bill McKibben, State Street CEO Ron Logue and Baxter CEO Robert Parkinson. We've organized two-dozen workshops on hot topics like carbon-emissions trading, greening supply chains and growing biofuel markets. And, of course, we'll be hosting stakeholder meetings for our 70-plus Ceres companies. The bottom line: you can't afford to miss this conference! Ceres Report Touts Vast Energy Efficiency Potential in Texas
Here’s a way to avoid spending billions of dollars on proposed high-polluting power plants in Texas: Saving energy. A new Ceres/NRDC report concludes that Texas can meet its growing energy needs at lower cost, and with significantly less pollution than proposed coal-fired power plants, by using new incentives for businesses and utilities to invest in energy efficiency and other energy-saving programs. The Optimal Energy report says that by investing $11 billion in proven programs and policies focused on more efficient appliances, office equipment and building codes, as well as utility incentives, the Texas economy could achieve $49 billion of economic benefits over the next 15 years -- a dividend of more than four to one. The programs would also curb growing energy demand in Texas, eliminating the need for new power plants in Texas, including 11 coal-fired power plants, costing an estimated $10 billion, proposed by TXU Corp. Read the press release
Download the report
Ceres-ACCA Announce 19 Finalists for Sustainability Reporting Awards
Ceres and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) recently announced the shortlist of winners for the Ceres-ACCA North American Sustainability Reporting Awards for 2006. Selected from over 100 applicants, the short lists include 11 US companies and eight Canadian companies. The final winners will be announced at the Ceres conference this April in Boston.
The purpose of the awards program is to acknowledge leadership and best practices in reporting on sustainability, environmental and social performance by corporations and organizations. Read more. Back to top
Other News
Ceres Hosts Midwest Forum on Climate Change Risks and Opportunities
Ceres organized an all-day meeting for Midwest investors on climate change Dec. 7 at the University of Chicago Business School. The all-day gathering included leading investors, CEOs and regulators from a half-dozen Midwest states. The gathering is a cogent reminder that climate change is not just a coastal issue, but also a heartland issue with potentially far-reaching consequences for the Midwest economy, including automakers, power producers and insurers. Among those hosting the meeting were two Chicago-based institutional investors — Illinois State Board of Investment and the United Methodist Church General Board of Pensions and Health Benefits — that are members of the $3.7 trillion Investor Network on Climate Risk coordinated by Ceres. Read more – Op-Ed & Reuters article. AIG Global Investment Group Joins Investor Network on Climate Risk
AIG Global Investment Group (AIGGIG) recently joined the Ceres-coordinated Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR). AIGGIG is the sixth largest institutional asset manager with more than $500 billion in assets under management, and is the first asset management division of an insurance company to join INCR. The announcement came five months after AIG established its Office of Environment and Climate Change and became the first U.S. insurance company to adopt a corporate climate change policy. Read more. Marsh, Yale and Ceres to Educate Corporate Directors on Climate Change
Ceres, Yale and insurance giant Marsh announced a unique partnership last fall to educate independent U.S. corporate board members about the potential liabilities and strategic business opportunities global climate change can create for companies. The announcement was made at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City. Initial training of board members will begin this winter through a newly created curriculum - the Sustainable Governance Forum. The training sessions will be offered across the country through September 2008. Read more. Ceres and Al Gore Speak at the NYSE
Ceres President Mindy Lubber and Al Gore were among a dozen speakers at a first-of-its-kind “A New World at Risk” Forum at the New York Stock Exchange. The forum is among several projects Ceres has organized with the NYSE on climate risk. Wall Street Engagement
Ceres organized two Wall Street briefings recently that brought together investors, industry experts and Wall Street analysts to discuss climate change regulations and other climate-related impacts on the future of the electric power and oil industries. The briefings come as more financial services firms, including Citigroup, JP Morgan and Sanford C. Bernstein, are boosting their research on the financial impacts that emerging climate regulations will have on the U.S. power companies. Back to top
Publications
Best Practices in Climate Change Risk Analysis for the Electric Power Sector
With input from investors, financial firms and electric power companies, this Ceres report outlines actions that power companies and Wall Street firms should take to address the financial risks posed by climate change. The report highlights best practices in climate risk disclosure by electric power companies and specific steps that investors, analysts and companies should take to improve their analysis of the risks that future climate change regulations pose for power companies. Download the report. Global Framework for Climate Risk Disclosure
The report provides specific guidance to companies regarding the information they provide to investors on the financial risks posed by climate change. Download the report. Back to top
Network Highlights
Seven Industry Leaders Join Ceres
The Ceres board of directors recently approved Sun Microsystems, National Grid, EILEEN FISHER, Aspen Skiing Company, The L.P. Thebault Company, PRIZIM and The Carbon Neutral Company as Ceres companies. Sun's most recent initiative is a first-of-its-kind energy efficiency rebate program where companies can save up to 35 percent in rebates from PG&E, a power electric company, and cut electricity use by four-fifths by installing one of Sun’s energy efficient servers. National Grid has made significant progress to reduce its environmental footprint by offering programs such as GreenUp, with 15,000 subscribers, which allow customers to purchase renewable energy. Aspen Skiing Company recently purchased wind credits to offset 100 percent of its electricity use. Companies Find Direct Business Benefits From Ceres FRP Project
Fourteen facilities completed ‘pilot’ sustainability reports under Ceres’ new Facility Reporting Project, an effort designed to improve reporting and disclosure on environmental and social impacts at the facility level. Companies and organizations engaging with local stakeholders and reporting their sustainability footprints through FRP include Timberland, New Hampshire Ball Bearings and Northside Foods. Many of the participants report widespread positive benefits from the new initiative and plan to broaden their participation in the coming months. “By publishing our commitments and sharing it with a broader audience, [the report] ensures we put our money where our mouth is,” said Calvin Overcash, Plant Environmental Manager of Louisiana Pacific’s Wilmington, NC facility. Going forward, FRP seeks to further explore the relationship between corporate-level and facility-level reporting and expand into the international arena. Read more. Back to top
New Staff
New Ceres Staff
Brooke Barton will be joining the Ceres team as the new Manager of Corporate Accountability Program at the end of this month. Among her latest achievements, Brooke has been heavily involved in the recently published Business Solutions for the Global Poor: Creating Social and Economic Value. The book examines the role of business in reducing poverty for the nearly 3 billion people on our planet living on less than two dollars a day. It brings together research presented at a conference in 2005 at Harvard Business School and has a range of case studies on profitable private sector approaches to poverty alleviation from around the world. The book is available at Amazon. Back to top
|