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Research Links A Business Curriculum for Sustainability (Cleveland Foundation) Contingent Valuation in Eco-risk Assessment (US EPA) Environmental Management: Forest & Paper Sector Profitability: from Management or from Environmental Savings? (Miami Undergrad Scholar) Great Lakes Focused Investment Strategy (Great Lakes Protection Fund) |
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Great Lakes Focused Investment Strategy Experience has shown that good environmental management by publicly traded corporations is associated positively with average or better total return on investment. A series of two workshops took place during the summer and fall of 2001 to explore whether Great Lakes ecosystem function can be protected or restored by investing in and supporting the products or services of corporations whose environmental performance benefits ecosystem function in the Great Lakes basin. The workshops examined the proposition that restoring ecosystem function creates added value in the Great Lakes community through environmental protection. Illustrative ecosystem functions being considered include reduction in hydrologic interventions, avoiding losses of productivity of forests and wetlands, controlling soil erosion and nutrient enrichment, reducing high risk air emissions or liquid discharges, facilitating recycling and reuse of resources, conserving energy resources, reducing risks to biological diversity, and facilitating low impact industrial and residential development. The first workshop, held in late July, used the input of ecosystem scientists to assess the potential for region-wide benefits in ecosystem function (through incentives in the capital markets), and examined prospects for agreement on a protocol for evaluating corporate performance relative to conservation of ecosystem function. The second workshop, in October, engaged corporate and financial analysts, university faculty in business fields, ecosystem science and Management Consultants to ask: Can the Capital Markets Support Business Initiatives for Great Lakes Functional Recovery and Value Creation? Capital markets here is understood not only as publicly traded stocks, but also as corporate bonds and commercial loans or mortgages. Issues considered in both workshops include definition of function benefits and system boundaries, the scale of business applications (local to regional or global), the prospect of calculating integrative ratings of environmental performance, time sensitivity of applicable investment recommendations, and the balancing of tradeoffs in an emerging methodology. A full report is being prepared and will be available in early 2002. |
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