From the Director: Director Steven Cohen's most recent State of the Planet blog articles on sustainability & politics
Program News:
On Thursday, October 29, the Earth Institute and the School of International of Public Affairs hosted a panel on Sustainability and Climate Change in the 2016 Presidential Race. The panel was moderated by Chuck Todd of NBC’s Meet the Press. The panelists discussed how to frame the climate change conversation in such a polarized political environment.
Natural capital—the world’s stocks of natural assets that include soil, air, and water—provides us with a great deal of services essential to human life and, increasingly, to companies’ bottom lines.
Sustainability management is more than an emerging field; it is a vital aspect of many organizations and economies across the globe. Today’s leaders have accepted this as fact, and interest in environmental sustainability is increasing at all levels of society, which makes incorporating sustainability into daily operations of great importance.
As China incorporates environmental considerations into its economic planning process, its government appears to be carefully examining the relationship between sustainability and broader development goals.
Last weekend, Earth Institute executive director Steven Cohen and post-doctoral research scholar Dong Guo participated in the Fourth Global Think Tank Summit in Beijing, hosted by the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE). CCIEE, the preeminent think tank in China headed by the former vice premier, hosted hundreds of politicians, scholars, business leaders, and experts from nearly 30 countries at the summit.
On April 7, 2015, the Earth Institute hosted a panel event and reception on ‘Sustainability Policy: Progress and Opportunity.’ Over 170 students, faculty, and local professionals gathered in Low Library to hear a panel of experts speak about sustainability and the role of government. Panelists discussed local-level policy, the role of metrics, and what the future of sustainability requires.
On Tuesday, authors Steven Cohen, William Eimicke, and Alison Miller celebrated the release of their new book, Sustainability Policy: Hastening the Transition to a Cleaner Economy. Moderated by Columbia MPA in Environmental Science and Policy alum Curtis Probst, the authors discussed the critical role of government and public policy in bringing about a sustainable economy at a book launch hosted by the Earth Institute and Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Earth Institute Executive Director Steven Cohen traveled to Beijing to formalize a partnership with the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, the preeminent think tank in China, to design sustainability metrics based on China’s unique development conditions.
For many people, the island of Aruba probably generates images of Caribbean vacations and sunny beach resorts. However, those images should also include wind turbines, solar panels and renovated infrastructure, to capture the sustainability agenda that is moving Aruba towards a fossil fuel-free economy.
Last week, Earth Institute Executive Director Steven Cohen hosted the prime minister of Aruba, Mike Eman, for a discussion on Aruba’s Vision for Creating Sustainable Prosperity. The talk was attended by students from a wide range of Columbia’s sustainability programs, as well as local Arubans, several Aruban delegates, and members of the New York City community.
It seems logical that conserving energy is good for everyone: reducing carbon pollution is good for the environment, and conserving resources makes financial sense. Yet, getting customers to participate in cost-saving, energy-efficient programs is not as straightforward as one might think. To examine this issue further, on March 13, the Earth Institute co-hosted, with the Center on Global Energy Policy, a panel event with energy experts from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut (and across public and private sectors), who discussed energy efficiency and what needs to happen to encourage people to take part in these programs.
In China, measuring sustainability is in a preliminary but progressive stage, and the government is playing a leading role in driving Chinese companies to go green. Behind the encouraging numbers, however, lie some less attractive facts.
Private companies and organizations in the public and non-profit sectors have begun to embrace the idea of sustainability: How to operate in ways that reduce consumption of water, energy and other resources, and help keep from depleting the planet’s natural resources. But how do we measure progress? Reliable metrics are needed – to understand what works, how we can report on it, how it affects the bottom line, and how to incorporate sustainability into strategic goals and investments.
School lunches are about to be carried in a brand new way. According to a recent article in The New York Times, six major urban public schools systems in New York, Orlando, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Dallas (collectively known as The Urban School Food Alliance) aim to make school lunches more sustainable. The goal of the Urban School Food Alliance is to persuade suppliers to create and sell healthier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly products by combining the purchasing power of major school systems nationwide.
Despite having been regarded as a series of “externalities” by conventional systems of economic thinking, our natural environment is not merely a backdrop to human activities, but is the very base upon which all human systems are built. This reality is certainly not new to sustainability science, but it is easy to lose sight of our close dependence on natural ecosystems when it comes to living in urban environments. Amidst the concrete, buildings, and tightly managed green spaces, it can be hard to see the natural environment — the nature – that exists in cities when we’re so used to “nature” being something you find in national parks and preserves, fenced off and isolated from the places we live and work.
Today’s increasing emphasis on metrics in sustainability policy and management presents an interesting challenge for ethics. When ethics are discussed, probably one of the last things to come to mind is measuring them, particularly in numeric terms.