Category: Asia

NASDAQ’s Sandy Frucher takes stock of sustainability reporting

NASDAQ’s Vice Chair Meyer “Sandy” Frucher was a big hit during the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s (SASB) spring conference in New York City, reminding fellow panelists of common-sense wisdom during an arcane debate on sustainability reporting that pitted accounting standards against regulatory guidelines — and baffled most of the audience.

After a series of nonstop trips spanning four continents in his role as “roving ambassador without a portfolio” — and freshly returned from a board meeting of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) in Tokyo— Frucher sat down with me to talk what makes sense for companies, investors and the public as business embraces sustainability reporting.

Ann Goodman: Why did NASDAQ publish an integrated report last December?

Sandy Frucher: We’re a for-profit company. We used to be a boutique stock exchange in one place trading equities in the U.S. The world changed. We’ve become a global company, a multinational and multi-modal company — that is, Continue reading “NASDAQ’s Sandy Frucher takes stock of sustainability reporting” →

Late Winter Roundup: ‘tis the season to welcome Spring…and a changing climate

While Spring officially arrived a week ago, the weather took a cold, dreary turn in New York and elsewhere, auguring more climate change to come.

Nonetheless, it’s been an exciting Winter for my sustainability activities.

Over the winter season, I’ve been active in a number of high-level sustainability events

US-China Green Consumption Forum, Washington, DC, March

and other projects, including the five spotlighted here:

1)Most recently, I learned Continue reading “Late Winter Roundup: ‘tis the season to welcome Spring…and a changing climate” →

Prof. Shi Qi Qing: In Memory of a Green Chinese Heroine

As the time fast approaches for women in the US and China to meet on green consumption in Washington, D.C. (see previous post), I fondly remember my dear colleague Prof. Shi Qi Qing, who skillfully formed international alliances in this field–notably with me while I led WNSF–during her inspirational tenure as Secretary General of CAWE, the China Association of Women Entrepreneurs.

She will be missed–for her wide knowledge, calm and warm personality, sound judgment and her passion for a sustainable world that women could help lead.

At Hong Kong’s World Green Forum in summer 2011, she said with usual aplomb that “the shift in the focus of a global economy toward investments in clean technologies and natural infrastructures like forest and soil is an optimal choice for economic growth in a real sense, a combat against climate change and [an aid to] adequate employment in the 21st century.”

Prof. Shi was truly an inspiring global green partner–across continents, languages and cultures.

Professor Shi QI Qing, 6th from right, in red jacket

Join Dr. Goodman: March 22 World Bank Summit on China, US, Women and Buying Green

During her decade-long tenure as Executive Director of the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future (WNSF), Dr. Goodman forged a long term alliance with the China Association of Women Entrepreneurs (CAWE) on sustainable business. Now, CAWE’s maternal organization, the All China Women’s Federation, is joining forces with the International Fund for China’s Environment, and Big Green Purse, among many other notables, to host an all-day FREE forum on “Using the Power of Purse to Protect the Planet: US-China Greener Consumption Forum.” Join Dr. Goodman, as she opens the ‘US-China Greener Consumption Forum’ at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., as moderator of the first plenary panel preceding a day of in-depth discussions of the vital cooperation between US and Chinese women to slow the depletion of natural resources and change consumption patterns with their new-found wealth and power. For details, and to register gratis, visit: http://www.ifce.org (March 22, World Bank, Washington, DC, 8am-5:15 pm, followed by reception)

Bard to Host First Asia Forum on Waters, Forests, Communities

While I’ll miss this event myself (due to my own trip to Asia to speak at the AIDF-Asia Pacific Forum–see my post of Jan. 13) I recommend that anyone who can, join my colleagues at Bard College, from Jan. 31-Feb. 2, for this exciting three-day conference to explore opportunities to link the study of Asia with its natural environment. For more information and to register: http://www.bard.edu/news/conferences/asia2013/

Improving Communications in Environmental Disasters: A conversation with the UN’s Margareta Wahlstrom

At the National Council for Science and the Environment’s timely conference on Disasters and Environment, focusing on science, preparedness and resilience, in Washington, D.C. in mid-January, one of the most seasoned and sensible, yet cautionary voices was keynote speaker Margareta Wahlstrom, of the UN Office of Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva.

One warning: Functional communications will be key to resilience in disasters, likely to accelerate in the future.

With the population growing two to three times more in most vulnerable areas of the world, largely coastal, we should now know, with the wealth of scientific and other data available, how to plan for the future, she said.

In planning for future resilience, she named three challenges:

1.Planning and developing resilience, especially for agricultural and urban issues.

2. Governance

3.Communications. “Research is rich, and the volume of information enormous–so it’s not as accessible to decision makers as it should be.”

After her keynote, Ms. Wahlstrom sat down with me to elaborate on her ideas, based on wide experience, on improving communications during environmental disasters, especially in an age of amplifying communications through electronic and wide-spreading social networking tools… Continue reading “Improving Communications in Environmental Disasters: A conversation with the UN’s Margareta Wahlstrom” →