The US BCSD is headquartered in beautiful Austin, TX, and we're happy to have some wonderful friends and colleagues around the city. If you're in Central Texas, join Net Impact Austin for their June Green Drinks - Summer Celebration! Several community leaders will be in attendance at the event, including the US BCSD, which will take place from 6-8pm on Tuesday June 25th at Treehouse.

Net Impact Austin will be providing complimentary beer and cocktails, thanks to sponsors Full Sail Brewing and Treaty Oak Distilling. Several local sustainability and community leaders will be in attendance, giving you an opportunity to learn about their organizations, talk to them one on one, and celebrate their contributions to our community. This happy hour will also provide an opportunity to get to know Net Impact Austin and Austin Green Drinks board members. Honored guests include:

• Lucia Athens - Chief Sustainability Officer, City of Austin Office of Sustainability
• Sarah Forbes - President, Young Nonprofit Professionals Network
• Susan Fernandes - Director of Operations, U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development
• John King - Executive Director of the Clean TX Foundation
• Abbey Cunningham - Coordinating Chair - Emerging Professionals, U.S. Green Building Council
• Janet Hale - Texas State University Net Impact Faculty
• Margie Kidd - Executive Director, Global Austin

Click here to register for this free event.

The US BCSD's By-Product Synergy process was recently featured in Sustainable Brands. Click here to access the full article.

This project methodology is being introduced around the world. In May 2012, the US BCSD and the China Business Council for Sustainable Development initiated a BPS project in Hebei Province in northeast China. The Hebei BPS project is modeled after the US BCSD’s network of successful projects in regions across the United States and will address several objectives of China’s 12th Five-Year Plan. Those include a 16 percent reduction in energy use per unit of GDP, a 17 percent reduction of CO2 emissions per unit of GDP, and an 8 percent absolute reduction in sulfur dioxide and organic water pollutants. Three to four dozen Chinese companies will be invited to join this network and are expected to produce synergies valued at US$5 million to $10 million in new revenues, savings and investments in 2013.

A message from Peter Bakker, President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development:

Let me start by wishing you a successful, inspiring and healthy 2013! It has been a year since I assumed the role of President at the WBCSD - a year that seems to have passed too quickly. I had the chance to meet many of you during my visits last year. I would like to thank those who participated in our Council Meeting in Seoul, South Korea, where we were honoured by the attendance of the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, the Prime Minister of South Korea, Kim Hwang Sik and other senior officials from the host nation.

I concluded the meeting more convinced than ever that business has a leading role to play in tackling the issues that will define the future of humanity and this planet. I felt very encouraged that many of you share that sense of responsibility and that your companies are actively engaged in shaping our work programs. 

However, there are major challenges that need to be tackled if we want to stay on course for a ‘world with 9 billion people living well, within the boundaries of the planet’. The world continues to face tough economic conditions which threaten to take over the global agenda. We cannot let that keep us from addressing the longer-term health of our companies, our societies and our planet. As I have said before, the days of raising awareness on sustainability are behind us. We need to take action and scale up quickly.

To define a focused path forward for all of us, Vision 2050 serves as a good starting point. In 2013 we will revise Vision 2050, update it, and prioritize the Must Haves based on scientific findings and social research. We will translate Vision 2050 into actionable and investable items for the medium term. Consequently, we are relaunching this project and you will receive a separate note inviting you to be part of the process. In order for Vision 2050 to be the guiding document for our collective work within the WBCSD - and ideally for all business - we must all participate in this project. Your input is essential as I envisage that the new Vision 2050 will also serve as a key membership criterion. Over the course of this year, you will see more communications from the team and from me personally as we shape this project together - all the way to its launch at the Council Meeting in Istanbul in November.

In the past year, I have also begun reshaping the WBCSD internally. The essence of our organisation remains as a global organisation of forward-thinking responsible businesses working together on creating sustainable solutions. New team members have joined and we are focusing on outcomes and actions. I am also striking an increasingly progressive tone in my messages to internal and external audiences. I urge all of you to engage actively in this dialogue, especially on the challenging issues. For example, we have launched the project on Reporting and Investing, despite the opinion of some that the subject would be too sensitive. The strong support we have received since the project was launched has proven otherwise.

Your continued support of our organisation is critical. We are aware that your agendas are very full, but the WBCSD is only relevant if you continue to devote your personal time and allow experts from your organisations to participate in our projects. Our commitment remains to provide the most professional support to the project work, making the most of your time and efforts.

With my best regards and the best wishes for 2013 from everyone in the WBCSD team,

Peter Bakker President, WBCSD

The US BCSD's work in scaling up solutions to Vision 2050 was recently featured in the December 2012 issue of Business World Magazine. The article goes into detail on both trends and actions happening in each of our four focus areas that "build bridges between companies, sectors and with the public to establish alignment on this path to sustainability." Click here to read the full article, and consider registering for our Winter Meeting to continue the conversation.

Happy Holidays from all of us at the US BCSD.

Wishing you and yours happiness this holiday season and prosperity in the New Year. Thank you for your continued support in 2012. We look forward to growing and developing our relationship in the coming year, in particular at our Winter Meeting in early February.

All the best,

Andy Mangan and the US BCSD team

The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) $100,000 to reduce hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. This area in the northern Gulf of Mexico is known as the ‘dead zone.’ The funds will be used to develop a statewide nutrient reduction strategy for Louisiana which adopts strategic elements identified in action plans of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance and the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force. Hypoxia means low oxygen and is primarily a problem in coastal waters. The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is an area of hypoxic waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Its area varies in size, but can cover up to 6,000 to 7,000 square miles. The zone occurs between the inner and mid-continental shelf in the northern Gulf of Mexico, beginning at the Mississippi River delta and extending westward to the upper Texas coast. The dead zone is caused by nutrient enrichment from the Mississippi River, particularly nitrogen and phosphorous.

Because of the devastation of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the Louisiana Legislature restructured the state's Wetland Conservation and Restoration Authority to form the CPRA. The CPRA is the single state entity with authority to articulate a clear statement of priorities and to focus development and implementation efforts to achieve comprehensive coastal protection for Louisiana.

Additional Information on EPA grants is available at http://www.epa.gov/region6/gandf/index.htm, and more about activities in EPA Region 6 is available at http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/region6.html

What’s helping us achieve a sustainable world and how do we scale it, brought close to 100 US BCSD and WBCSD members, government, academic and NGO colleagues, and other sustainability thought leaders to Yale University's Center for Business and the Environment on June 27-28, 2012. The working agenda stressed collaboration first and foremost in defining directions to reach a sustainable world in which nine billion people can live well and within the planet’s resources by 2050. Meeting attendees worked on partnerships, synergies and productive work outcomes that combined US BCSD regional implementation strategies with the WBCSD’s global Vision 2050 sustainability pathway. Over two days, attendees discussed examples of successful activities already under way to achieve Vision 2050 “must haves” and sought out ways to help articulate, acknowledge and scale those activities. They then joined forces in an innovation workshop aimed at seeking out and encouraging step changes towards the Vision 2050 in the US. Interspersed in this engaging group discussion were presentations and panels from sustainability thought leaders focusing on new financing mechanisms, organizational design, new collaboration opportunities, and examples of groundbreaking innovations highlighted in the breakout group pages below.

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Hosted in Kroon Hall by the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale University.

Thanks to everyone who made it to Yale University for our joint US BCSD and WBCSD-US Spring Meeting 2012.  The meeting was a resounding success; and we're excited about the new innovations, connections, and momentum we'll be able to carry into our regional sustainability efforts going forward.  Look for a full meeting summary, video content, photos and stories to be posted shortly.

The US BCSD and the WBCSD-US invite you to join us at Yale University in New Haven, CT on June 27th and 28th for our Spring Meeting 2012. This highly interactive meeting has been designed to catalyze collaboration to advance the WBCSD's Vision 2050, a framework to enable a sustainable world in which nine billion people can live well, and within the planet's resources by 2050.

The meeting agenda is designed around tackling four foundational elements of the WBCSD's Vision 2050 pathway: Sustainable Consumption, Energy, Water, and Ecosystem Services. Engage with your peers in interactive discussions to define pathways to accelerate scaling and implementation of proven solutions; and develop breakthrough, innovative approaches. And find out from experts how to address common barriers to operationalizing sustainability including: organizational design, financing, innovation and disruption, and collaboration.

For more information, and to register, visit spring-meeting.usbcsd.org.

US BCSD member BrownFlynn, the first U.S.-Certified Trainer for the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), recently released their latest whitepaper, “GRI Application Levels: Why Strive for an A?,” authored by lead trainer, Cora Lee Mooney, with additional data provided by CSRHub. The study defines and examines the underlying structure of the GRI Framework and the differences between the Application Levels. It also describes how the underlying structure of the GRI Framework requires companies to demonstrate greater sustainability management capabilities in order to achieve a higher Application Level. Using CSRHub scores, which aggregate and normalize CSR ratings information from more than 130 sources, this study suggests that companies reporting at an Application Level A or B receive higher sustainability ratings than other GRI reporters.  Please click here to download the full whitepaper.

The US BCSD's national By-Product Synergy network and Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing model were highlighted by The Guardian for their role in spearheading the transition to low-energy, cost-saving, resource-efficient buildings and operations in well-planned, sustainable cities.

"Many cities in the US and Canada are already seizing opportunities and channelling traditional North American resourcefulness and creativity into re-making buildings and cities in the image of a society where everyone can live well within planetary boundaries. Here are a few examples of private and public innovators that are already spearheading such transitions:

The US Business Council for Sustainable Development - a regional partner of the WBCSD - has active by-product synergy projects in six municipalities across the country. By-product synergy is the matching of under-valued waste or by-product streams from one facility with potential users at another facility to create new revenues or savings with potential social and environmental benefits. These collaborative networks create new revenues, cost savings, energy conservation, reductions in the need for virgin-source materials, and reductions in waste and pollution, including climate-changing emissions.

To help finance viable material reuse as well as energy and renewable retrofit projects, the US Business Council for Sustainable Development has teamed up with Barclays Capital and Ygrene Energy Fund to offer innovative private sector financing arrangements. This effort allows companies to upgrade their facilities with more efficient equipment and processes, cities to stimulate economic development and job creation, and the financial partners to receive solid returns on secure investments – all with zero government funding. Repayment is secured by a tax lien on the property, amortised over the life of the improvements. Efficiency improvements lower energy bills and free up money to cover the tax payments."  (The Guardian)

For more information on By-Product Synergy and the PACE financing model, please visit bps-hub.org, our website dedicated to BPS and our growing network of projects.