I2E2 Faculty Associate Receives Award

Dr. Bruce Hutton, a Daniels College of Business marketing professor, and a leading member of I2E2's Faculty Associates, recently received the Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2001 Business School Faculty Pioneer Award for Institutional Leadership. Hutton received the award for his work in leading the creation of the nationally recognized Daniels MBA program. This prestigious award is given to only 5 faculty members from an international pool of nominees, and judged by a panel of corporate leaders.

"Dr. Hutton was instrumental in building the foundation of our current MBA program," said Dr. Jim Griesemer, dean of Daniels College of Business. "He was a champion of the College's commitment to values-based leadership and business school responsibility. This award is a testament to both his achievements and to the quality of the Daniels MBA he helped to create."

Hutton said through the efforts of many faculty members, the Daniels curriculum recognizes that the values of leaders and individuals play an important role in business decision-making.

"At Daniels, we believe that values-based thinking must be integrated in all business decisions," Hutton said. "To that end, value-based concepts are fully integrated in the core components of our MBA. We've committed more resources than any other MBA program in the country to teaching the importance of values in both business decision-making and in the creation of healthy, successful companies."

He added that values-based, interdisciplinary teaching must focus on three key issues: globalization, the haves and have-nots, and value-based tension.

Hutton's award was given in conjunction with the publication of Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2001, a biennial survey that evaluates how well MBA programs integrate social and environmental coursework, activities, and research into business curricula. The survey is a joint project of the Aspen Institute Initiative for Social Innovation through Business (Aspen ISIB) and the World Resources Institute (WRI).

"Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2001 is a call to action to business schools to close the gap between what business leaders need, what the global marketplace requires, and what MBA programs are delivering," said Jonathan Lash, president of WRI. "Dr. Hutton has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to trying to close that gap for students at Daniels."

"We need more professors like Bruce Hutton who are willing to take risks, to reach out to the business community and to teach MBA students that a successful business is about more than just the bottom line," said Judith Samuelson, executive director of Aspen ISIB.

The panel of corporate judges included representatives from Alcoa, Prudential, Citigroup, the FannieMae Foundation and the AT&T Foundation. Dr. John Burnett, chair of the marketing department at Daniels, nominated Hutton for this year's award.

In addition to serving as a professor in the marketing department, Hutton was instrumental in founding the Colorado Ethics in Business Awards, the University of Denver Ethics Institute, the Snake River Sustainability Lab, and the University of Denver International Institute for Environment & Enterprise (formerly the Environment Institute).

*This article is based on an article published in the Daniels Alumni newsletter.

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Get Those Toxins Out of My Backyard
Part 1 of a Report from the Bioneers Conference, San Rafael, CA October 2001
By Valerie Stone, Ph.D.

It's easy for people in the environmental movement to feel despair. The problems seem so huge, the solutions so difficult to implement, and the current corporate economy so far from even admitting that there are problems. That's why environmentalists need gatherings like Bioneers. This year's conference, "Revolution from the Heart of Nature," was a reminder that there are solutions and that a lot of brilliant minds and brave hearts are busy making the planet a more sustainable place. It's a remedy for despair.

Just some of the reasons for hope were talks and workshops on sustainable business, indigenous people's rights and wisdom, saving the small farm, urban gardening (including a suggestion to turn the WTC bombing site into a large urban garden growing food for poor neighborhoods in New York), alternative health, technologies for ecological restoration, and preventing toxic pollution

There wasn't time for me to go to every interesting workshop and talk, but I'll cover some of the highlights I found at the conference.

Toxic pollutants is a topic that's close to my heart and my research, and my late-night worries, but I discovered there were lots of reasons not to have insomnia over this problem, because some superb minds and courageous hearts are working on it. Several people are working on ways to prevent harmful chemicals from getting out into the environment in the first place. Lawyer Carolyn Raffensperger, of the Science and Environmental Health Network, Sharlene Patton of the Commonweal Health and Environment Program, and Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network each gave a talk on "The Precautionary Principle." Essentially, this breaks down into three key points: 1) Society should take action to prevent harm from new technologies (especially chemical technologies): if there is any preliminary evidence that a substance is harmful, its use should be prohibited until there is hard proof that it is harmless. 2) The burden of proof rests with the proponent of a new technology, not with the public. 3) People have an obligation to examine all alternatives before trying a new technology. These ideas came out of the Rio declaration, and they may sound a little radical until you remember that the FDA and Institutional Review Boards for the Protection of Human Subjects use largely the same principles.

The Science and Environmental Health Network is working to change the way liability and "toxic torts" are handled in the U.S. legal system, and working with the medical profession to educate policy makers about the potential effects of chemical technologies. (Less than 10% of chemicals on the market have had full toxicological screening.) Since September 11, the administration has been talking about the need for safety and security, with the motto "better safe than sorry." Raffensperger says we should hold them to that idea of "better safe than sorry" -- if it's good enough for their thinking about terrorism, then it's good enough for their thinking about toxic chemicals. However, this principle can be acted on not only by national governments, but also by local governments. For example, the town of Hudson, Canada, has completely banned all pesticides in the town limits. For more information on SEHN's work, go to www.sehn.org.

The Commonweal Health and Environment Program advised the U.N. on its Persistent Organic Pollutants Treaty (POPS), now being considered for ratification by the U.S. Senate. The U.N. selected a list of 12 chemicals: 9 pesticides, PCB's and dioxins. These chemicals are known to be persistent, lasting thousands of years, bioaccumulative (they build up in the body over time) and bioconcentrative (there are more of these chemicals in organisms higher on the food chain.) The POPS Treaty has the Precautionary Principle built into its language, into the implementation of its provisions for banning chemicals and standards for cleanup, and into criteria for adding new chemicals to the treaty. You can let your senators know your views on ratifying POPS -- Bush has said he supports the treaty. For more information, go to www.ipen.org.

Unfortunately, when countries try to ban harmful technologies, they now get sued for putting up "trade barriers" under the provisions of GATT. The WTO has so far always ruled in favor of lower safety and environmental standards, but since they are a non-elected body, many countries (including the U.S.) have chosen to keep bans in place. Time will tell whether the WTO really has any authority. Tom Goldtooth pointed out that the World Trade Organization works not by the Precautionary Principle, but by "risk management." "Management" of risk is quite different from better safe than sorry. Risk management says that certain risks are acceptable - if 1 in 100,000 people are harmed because a company releases a certain chemical into the environment, that is "acceptable risk." He urged continuous pressure on the WTO to adopt different standards.

Tom Goldtooth spoke of the indigenous perspective on precaution. Many Native American nations advocate the "7th generation principle" - let all actions be considered in light of the effect they will have on our children's children 7 generations from now. This is a principle that has been in place for hundreds of years. The Precautionary Principle is only new to our culture, but he said it is urgent that we adopt it. (His website is www.ienearth.org.)

Part 2. Sustainable business. To be continued.

To learn more about the Bioneers Conference and the Collective Heritage Institute, go to http://www.bioneers.org.

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Climate Change: EU and US Perspectives on Policy and Implications for Business
By Don C. Smith, JD, LL.M

The relationship between the overall success of a business enterprise and the environmental performance of that enterprise has never been more closely linked than it is today. In many respects, a significant component of the success of a business enterprise is based on how the enterprise addresses environmental issues that are related to the business. Nowhere has this been seen more than in the European Union (EU), which continues to move quickly ahead of the rest of the world in terms of legislative initiatives aimed at promoting, and indeed in some cases mandating, "greener" performance by business enterprises.

Currently, the EU has three major business enterprise/environmental initiatives on the table for discussion: (1) ratification of the Kyoto Protocol; (2) a proposal for promoting corporate social responsibility at both the European and international levels; and (3) a proposal for an environmental liability scheme. In all three cases, the concepts that are being considered and discussed will have a significant impact on all businesses-European and otherwise-that want to continue to do business in the EU.

(1) Ratification of Kyoto Protocol. The EU has actively and aggressively promoted the goals and objectives associated with the Kyoto Protocol. In most European circles, the debate about whether the United States is in or out of the discussion is no longer of central concern. Instead, the 15 Member States of the EU have individually committed to ratifying the Kyoto Protocol by next June. As a result of this political decision, legislative proposals are currently being considered with respect to how the EU's Kyoto targets will be achieved.

(2) Promoting a European framework for Corporate Social Responsibility. This past summer, the European Commission published a "green paper" (green papers are aimed at encouraging discussion on key issues as a first-step towards the preparation of legislation) on the concept of corporate social responsibility. In publishing the paper, the European Commission said, "The EU is concerned with corporate social responsibility as it can be a positive contribution to [the EU becoming] the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion." The full-text of the green paper can be found at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/news/2001/oct/socpolag/csr_communication.pdf.

(3) Environmental Liability Within the European Union. Before the end of 2001, it is likely that the European Commission will propose new legislation involving environmental liability. The plan now being considered by the Commission would be a further step in implementing the "polluter pays" rule that underpins much of EU policy making on environmental issues. In effect, the rule provides that enterprises are directly and entirely responsible for the costs of remediating pollution associated with the enterprise. Not surprisingly, the environmental liability concept is considered controversial and is of great concern to businesses. On the other hand, the desire to hold polluters responsible for their actions finds much more sympathy among European policy-makers than similar concepts do in the US. The full-text of the Commission's White Paper on environmental liability, which provides the theoretical basis for the concept, can be found at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/liability.

In conclusion, North American companies considering entering or continuing to do business in the European Union are well advised to undertake close and careful examination of what is happening in the EU. It is entirely likely, and at this point more than probable, that the "bar" for business performance in the EU is going to be raised higher as a result of these three initiatives.

For more information on how these initiatives may impact North American businesses operating in the EU, please contact Don Smith at donsmith@du.edu.

* A similar article by Don Smith, under the same title, was published in the Environmental Business Journal, v13, n7/8.

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Students in the News

Eric Stern is a recent graduate of the Daniels College of Business and has been working with an I2E2 partner organization, the Colorado Energy Science Center (CESC), since April 2001. He was named Director of Business Services for CESC in July 2001. Eric's background includes consulting and project experience in residential energy efficiency and transportation planning. He has worked internationally in Mexico and Chile, and has operated two private businesses of his own. In addition to his Daniel's MBA, Eric holds a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UCLA.

Eric has extensive experience with nonprofit organizations, including work with the American-Chilean Chamber of Commerce, the Santa Barbara Institute for Business Assistance, and the Denver-based Union Station Transportation Development Company.

We congratulate Eric on his successful integration of personal commitment, professional experience and academic training.

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Projects and Promotions

Special Event: Thinking Ahead: Energy in a Changing Climate

The University of Colorado - Boulder will convene this conference January 24-26, 2002. The conference is a hands-on opportunity to learn what each of us can do on our home campuses to address climate change through better energy management. This will be an excellent opportunity for participants to learn the latest information about energy production, fossil fuel supplies, renewable technologies, and what the leaders in this arena are doing to reduce energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and support green power.

Speakers will include Faith Gemmill, Executive Director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee, Randy Udall, Director of the Community Office of Resource Efficiency, Walter Simpson, Energy Officer at the State University of New York, David Orr, Professor and Chair of the Environmental Studies program at Oberlin, Karl Ragabo, Managing Director at the Rocky Mountain Institute, David Olsen, President and CEO of the Coalition to Advance Sustainable Technology and more! For more information: http://www.colorado.edu/ecenter/projects/energy/conference.html

If you would like a copy, please write to Bob Duprey at Bobdup@aol.com and send your check to:
Bob Duprey, 1863 Wazee St., Suite 4A, Denver, CO 80202.
First come, first served as supplies allow.

Job Opening: Grad Assistantships in Fisheries and Social Science, - The University of Hawaii
Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research is offering two graduate assistantships in fisheries for the 2002 academic year: one in the general area of fisheries oceanography and stock assessment; and one the general area of economics and social science. Go to the Career Page for more information.

Job Opening: Director, World Conservation Monitoring Centre - United Nations Environment Program
Act fast for this opportunity. The application deadline is December 4th, 2001. The World Conservation Monitoring Centre is UNEP's resource centre for assessment and information on biodiversity conservation and sustainable use. It provides specialized services to UNEP and externally including ecosystem assessments, regional and global biodiversity information support, research on threats to ecosystems and species and developments of future scenarios for the living world.

Under the supervision of the Director, DEWA, the incumbent will, in general, be responsible for managing the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. This includes the strategic management of the centre, including policy development and implementation, planning, budgeting and operations; establishing and implementing policies and procedures to ensure that, as the principal centre for biodiversity assessment within UNEP, the new Centre provides effective and efficient services to UNEP Governments, the secretariats of biodiversity-related multilateral environmental agreements, NGOs, the private sector, academic institutions and individual members of the public throughout the world. For more information, go to: http://www.unep.org/Vac/2001/NA-01-95.htm.

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