“This is not driven by altruism.” -Paul Morris, Vice President of Sustainable Planning and Development, Cherokee

In a workshop at last week’s Ceres conference, Mr. Morris explained the benefits of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). His private equity firm redevelops brownfields – dormant industrial properties usually marked by significant environmental damage – into new, mixed-use developments.

I was intrigued by the political and economic calculus behind such projects. Mr. Morris described how homebuyers, commercial tenants, and local governments are driving TOD growth – and not because of any sense of social mission. Buyers and renters want proximity to work and transit, and cities want the revenues from more intensive land use.

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National Advisors Trust Conference
Hilton Head, South Carolina
April 24, 2008

SRI’s Moment

I’ve been deeply involved with socially responsible investing – SRI – since 1983. Three times since then I’ve heard, “SRI’s time is here!”

I heard it first in the late 1980s, following the South Africa divestment legislation and the Exxon Valdez disaster. SRI grew, but not exuberantly.

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Last week, Greenleaf Publishing announced the publication of The Difference Makers, a history of the corporate responsibility movement through interviews by Boston College’s Sandra Waddock.

KLD co-founders Peter Kinder and Amy Domini, along with former Research Director Steven Lydenberg, were interviewed for the book.

As Prof. Waddock explains in her introduction, the 23 entrepreneurs she studies “represent a unique perspective on the developments that have taken place around corporate responsibility in the past 20-25 years.”

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Last week’s Ceres conference included a panel on water scarcity and risk. The term “peak water” was mentioned, framing water as a commodity facing a peak in availability (like oil) and a potentially tradable value, similar to carbon.

Panelists identified water scarcity as a human rights and community issue as much as an environmental issue. Chris Williams of the World Wildlife Fund reported that over 1 billion people globally have no access to safe drinking water.

Meanwhile, water demand and consumption has increased in the private sector for manufacturing, energy production, and agriculture. A significant amount of the water consumed is wasted through agricultural runoff, leaks, and weak or nonexistent conservation and efficiency programs.

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