 |
September 2007
Hello Friend:
These days I’m thinking about illusion and magic. I have no illusions about the seriousness of the environmental threats and societal challenges we face. Yet I have faith that collectively we can work magic to find solutions using a potent mix of art and science.
If you’re familiar with my passion for the art of networking, you’ll know I have great faith in the power of human chemistry. I’ve seen first hand how an eclectic assortment of creative people, here and around the world, can work towards a sustainable future.
In my business though, I use basic physics. I look for the levers in the market economy that have the tipping point potential to move us closer to sustainability. Then I work to focus attention and pressure on each lever to provoke a ‘change reaction’. (See my newsletter below to learn more.)
I hope you’ve noticed, as I have, that fewer people are under the illusion that we can continue on the current global trajectory. It seems that media, business and the general public have woken up to our urgent reality and are ready to act, even if the first steps are small ones.
The big question is: Are we, who have been working on these issues for years, ready to meet these new demands? Are we ready to scale up our work to harness all this energy and effect more powerful change? Do we have the leadership, the models, the right priorities? The time is now.
While you’re ruminating on that, I’ll throw a little magic you’re way. If you’re in Vancouver on October 19, please join me for a spellbound evening guaranteed to unite like minds. If you can’t conjure up a reason to be here in person, I welcome your thoughts and ideas anytime through the magic of the Internet.
Check out Abracadabra!
All the best,
Coro
Now here's...
News from Strandberg Consulting
Leverage through Small Business
With the goal of helping small business and non-profits go carbon neutral,
I co-produced a Carbon Neutral Primer. This resource recommends reducing
emissions as much as possible before investing in offsets.
Check out:
- Advice on reducing your GHGs and going carbon neutral: A Carbon Neutral Primer.
- Taking the Credit - Before buying carbon offsets businesses should improve business practices to reduce emissions from Business in Vancouver June, 2007.
Leverage through Industry Associations
This year I co-authored a Natural Resources Canada funded study on the
role of industry associations (chemicals, forestry, banking, retail,
etc.) in helping their member companies to improve their sustainability
performance. Most significant to me is that some associations have performance
requirements as a condition of membership including one that their operations
be sustainably certified.
Check out:
Leverage through Socially Responsible Investment
With funding from the SRI mutual fund company Ethical Funds, I put together
a tool to differentiate the high impact actors in socially responsible
investment from their more modest counterparts. I hope this will
help people connect their investments to their values for more positive
environmental and social change. Check it out and let me know what
you think. We plan to make improvements with the benefit of user feedback.
Check out:
Leverage through the Charitable Sector
With funding from the Tides Canada Foundation I examined how the $100
billion charitable sector can help finance social and environmental innovation
in Canadian communities.
Check out:
Leverage through the Insurance Industry
I had the pleasure of working with The Natural Step Canada to advise
The Co-operators Insurance Group on the development of their sustainability
strategy which received Board approval in June. I look forward
to helping develop their climate change and stakeholder engagement strategies. (Did
you know that the insurance industry is the second largest industry in
the world in terms of assets? Now that is big leverage!)
Leverage through Regional Collaboration
I have been supporting the Great Northern Way Campus – an academic
collaboration between UBC, SFU, BCIT and Emily Carr Institute of Art
and Design – in outreach to business, government and civil society.
Our goal is the creation of a regional strategy to advance the sustainable
business sector and grow a sustainable economy.
Leverage through the Supply Chain
The 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games integrates social, environmental
and ethical considerations in their buying decisions. The intent is
to create business opportunities for green and socially responsible business
as well as Inner City, Aboriginal, disabled and social purpose enterprises. I
helped design VANOC’s “Buy Smart” sustainable purchasing
program which was piloted in the spring of 2007. This could be a good
template to leverage your organization’s buying power towards sustainability.
This fall I’m looking forward to:
- Continuing my work facilitating CSR strategy for businesses and providing CSR training for Canadian credit unions. (Check out the new coaching page on my website.)
- Releasing the study I am writing with the Conference Board of Canada on the role of boards of directors to integrate sustainability considerations in business strategy and performance management. Please let me know if you would like to be on the distribution list for this report by emailing me.
Strandberg Consulting - Solutions for a Sustainable
World
Coro Strandberg - Principal | 6325 Sperling Avenue - Burnaby, BC
V5E 2V3 | T 604.433.7339
E cstrandberg@shaw.ca www.corostrandberg.com