New video from the MSLS programme

A great new video that captures the spirit, diversity, and effectiveness of the Master's in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability programme at BTH.

Enjoy, and share with any young leaders, or later career professionals looking to enhance their sustainability leadership abilities and tap into an amazing global network:

MSLS from MSLS on Vimeo.

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Below is a great quick recap of a few pieces of huge news on climate this week.  It comes from a "Morning Climate" - a news briefing on Monday, Weds, and Fridays from the MacArthur Foundation. Subscribe here.

Climate news would rock the world—if it ever made the front page

NASA released data on Monday showing that July tied August for the hottest month in recorded history—the 11th monthly record in a row—giving 2016 better than 99-percent odds of becoming the warmest year on record. On Tuesday, BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, released a report advising investors to prepare their portfolios for fallout from global warming. "We see climate-proofing portfolios as a key consideration for all asset owners," the report says. A non-partisan coalition of 43 military and security experts released a briefing book Wednesday for the next U.S. president warning that "climate change presents a strategically significant risk to national and international security, and... more comprehensive action must be taken to ensure the U.S. response is commensurate with the risks." Then on Thursday, a new analysis from Climate Action Tracker said everyone may have to give up their fossil-fuel cars before 2035 to avoid climatic catastrophe. “...[I]t is clear that in order to get to the Paris Agreement’s lower temperature goal of 1.5°C, the world needs to make a paradigm shift to zero-emissions vehicles,” said Markus Hagemann of the NewClimate Institute. In the aggregate, the week was full of significant climate news, nearly all of it underplayed—when it was picked up at all. -- Stay going.  --

Three former Treasury secretaries call on SEC to require climate risk disclosure

Former US Treasury Secretaries, Hank Paulson (R), Robert Rubin (D), and George Schultz (R) issued a letter to the SEC urging it to require companies to disclose how they are accounting for and preparing for risks posed by climate change -- calling it "the biggest economic risk the world faces today."

The Secretaries praised the SEC's 2010 guidance on the materiality of climate risks, but said it did not go far enough, and most companies have not been disclosing their exposure to these risks well, using boilerplate language that was not helpful.  The called for "mandatory and meaningful disclosures of the material effects of climate change on issuers."

It's hard to imagine a more credible group calling for such action -- and another strong signal that companies and investors need to be doing more to understand and mitigate climate risks.

The letter stems from the work of the Risky Business Project.  Learn more about the letter in this article from Scientific American.

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Is there a warming trend?

This info-graphic (via Climate Central) has been making the rounds lately -- it does a great job showing the warming trend over time, and just how close we're getting to the dangerous 1.5 degree threshold:

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Sorry, not sorry

Great video from Prince Ea on alternate future scenarios, and how sustainability is about looking upstream to root causes, tying everything together:





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The most interesting sustainability report you'll never have to read

There's no doubt we need art if we're going to make the progress toward sustainability on the timeline we need to avoid big trouble.  Cheers to Heineken:



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Al Gore back on the TED stage: Optimism on Climate Change

Ten years after his first TED talk (the first one I ever watched back in 2006!) Al Gore is back on the main stage at TED, reinforcing the urgency of the science of climate change, and also doing a great job of explaining how we're crossing positive tipping points in terms of lower costs for renewable energy and broader support for the kind of climate action we need:




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The Intentional Endowments Network -- formal launch & founding members

Yesterday we announced the Founding Member group of the Intentional Endowment Network (IEN), the initiative I've been working on for the past couple of years.

This project grew out of an initial forum held in Boston partnership with Hampshire College in April 2014. It was clear from that event that an ongoing network to serve as a venue for learning and collaboration was necessary to help colleges and universities tackle sustainable and ESG investing in their endowments.

After 18-months of what was essentially a pilot phase, we're thrilled with the nearly 80 institutions that have joined on as the core group to more formally launch this initiative.

Please check out and share the press release (also pasted below).

Higher education and the financial system are two of the most influential sectors of our society. The former shapes and reinforces the mental models and modes of thinking for most of our leaders and professionals. The latter shapes our business models and modes of development. By working at the intersection of the two to integrate the goal of creating a healthy, just, and sustainable society, this network holds the promise of having a profound positive impact on the world, now and for generations to come.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

77 Founding Members Launch the Intentional Endowments Network to Support Growing Interest in ESG Investing 

Boston, MA (March 14, 2016) – The Intentional Endowments Network (IEN) today announced the launch of a peer network designed to support endowment investment practices that address environmental, social, governance (ESG) and sustainability factors in order to enhance financial returns and align with institutional mission and values. The network launched with 77 Founding Members including 27 asset owners. 

Founding Members include: Arizona State University, ASU Foundation, Becker College, California State University, Calvert Investments, Carleton College, Hampshire College, Hanley Foundation, Litterman Family Foundation, Middlebury College, Portland State University, San Francisco State University Foundation, Wallace Global Fund, UBS Asset Management, University of Maine and University of Massachusetts Foundation. Regular membership enrollment is now open to all endowments, foundations and practitioners of ESG and sustainable investing. For more details, visit www.intentionalendowments.org/membership.

“The California State University is committed to staying informed and educated in ways that support a sustainable future,” said Garrett Ashley, Vice Chancellor of University Relations and Advancement at The CSU “each of our 23 campuses has unique needs and requires that we are thoughtful when making investment decisions. The Intentional Endowments Network is an invaluable resource for endowments and other investors designed to make good stewardship the norm.” 

“Colleges and universities have been leaders in advancing sustainability through education, research, campus operations and community engagement. Now, they are leveraging the financial and social capital of their endowments to support those efforts by taking a more comprehensive approach to sustainability risks and opportunities in the investment process,” said Anthony Cortese, Co-Founder of IEN, and former President of Second Nature, Dean at Tufts University, and Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

To support the development of intentionally designed endowments – that consider institutional mission, values, and sustainability risks and opportunities – the network facilitates peer-to-peer connection and learning, thought leadership, and collaborative action. A Steering Committee composed of leaders from higher education, non-profit organizations and the investment industry guides IEN’s work. Collectively, the network identifies practical options for administrators and trustees to successfully enhance their institutions’ approach to sustainable investment and address stakeholders’ concerns.

“There are many important considerations in managing endowments. Increasingly, investors are coming to see climate change, human rights abuses, and other social and environmental challenges as material investment risks,” said Jonathan Lash, President of Hampshire College. “Regardless of how endowments ultimately decide to address these risks, all should be intentional in considering them and fostering educational dialogues on campus about them.”

“Because of the enthusiastic response from endowments and the investment community during IEN’s eighteen-month pilot phase we are now substantially expanding our activities in 2016,” said Georges Dyer, Co-Founder of IEN. The network will host interactive, action-oriented forums for senior decision makers in Chicago and San Francisco. It will enable endowments to support implementation of the Paris Climate Agreements, and host a webinar series to inform endowments on industry developments. The network will publish articles and reports on sustainable investing topics such as fiduciary duty, shareholder engagement, and financial performance, for trustees and other decision makers.

“Endowments have a unique opportunity, where doing the right thing for the climate – reducing stranded carbon asset risk and investing in solutions – is also the smart thing for their investment portfolios,” said Bob Litterman, Litterman Family Foundation and Chair of the Risk Committee at Kepos Capital, LP. “The Intentional Endowments Network is the venue for finding the best ways to take advantage of these opportunities.”

  

About the Intentional Endowments Network

The Intentional Endowments Network (IEN) is a collaborative network advancing intentionally designed endowments through a variety of strategies – including ESG integration, impact investing, shareholder engagement – that will make a significant and critical contribution to creating a healthy, just, and sustainable society.  It supports colleges, universities, and other mission-driven organizations in aligning their endowment investment practices with their mission, values, and sustainability goals without sacrificing financial returns. IEN is an initiative of The Crane Institute of Sustainability, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit. It is coordinated by Georges Dyer and Tony Cortese and based in Boston, MA. 

www.intentionalendowments.org

About the IEN Team: www.intentionalendowments.org/team

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We've breached 2 degrees

Heat records are again being obliterated. Anyone in New England yesterday has a visceral sense of this after experiencing summer in March.

And the news is coming in that we've breached the dreaded 2 degree average temperature rise. These climate changes aren't linear, so it will likely (hopefully) take some time before we're consistently over that level -- in fact, hopefully we'll never be consistently over that level, because that will be a chaotic and dangerous world -- but if we needed any more evidence that the urgency of this challenge is extreme, we've got it.

More details from Slate: Our Hemisphere’s Temperature Just Reached a Terrifying Milestone

Op-Ed from Bill McKibben: The mercury doesn’t lie: We’ve hit a troubling climate change milestone

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Environmental Voter Project

Hey, fellow Massholes -- check out this project aiming to get out the environmental vote:

The Environmental Voter Project 

It's being piloted in Massachusetts, so sign-up to be counted as someone who prioritizes sustaining our common and irreplaceable life-support system as an important policy issue.

Apparently most people who understand this don't vote -- and that is a huge problem.

Here's a catchy video explaining why:





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