Monthly Archives: September 2008
Oct. 23: The Chief Sustainability Officer’s Agenda
Part of the Cleantech Dinner Discussion Series
Date: Thursday, October 23rd
Time: 7:00-9:00pm
Led By: Jhana Senxian, Head of Sustainability Practice, Aberdeen Group
Location: The Asgard (350 Mass Ave, Cambridge – Near Central Square) http;//www.classicirish.com/asgard_about.html
Cost: Free for Net Impact members, $5 for non-members
October’s Cleantech Dinner Discussion will be led by Jhana Senxian, head of the Aberdeen Group’s Sustainability Practice. Their approach to sustainability fits very well with our braod “cleantech” definition in that they consider all of the factors in an organization that a Chief Sustainability Officer needs to attend to in order to enhance the requisite process and cultural transformations needed across the enterprise. In addition, Jhana directs Aberdeen Group’s partnership with the United Nations on the Marrakech Process, creating a 10-year framework on sustainable consumption and production (see: http://esa.un.org/marrakechprocess/). And, as if that weren’t enough, she is also co-author of the book Green IT for Dummies, due out in March, 2009.
Please join us for what is certain to be a wide-ranging conversation about whole-enterprise sustainability, led by an experienced researcher in the field.
Please RSVP to Rudy Ruggles, rudy-at-netimpactboston.org, to reserve a spot.
Jhana’s Bio:
Jhana Senxian specializes in sustainability and corporate responsibility-oriented business process transformation for a cross-section of research practice areas including: Supply Chain Management and Retail. She sets the research agenda on topics such as: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy and management, creating end-to-end sustainability for the SME, building the business case and demonstrating ROI for sustainability, green retail initiatives, data analytics and knowledge management for the responsible and profitable enterprise, cross-cultural analysis of corporate responsibility goals and outcomes: the Americas, Europe, and Asia, green supply chain initiatives, stakeholder engagement and education for the responsible organization, CSR-driven visibility and collaboration, best sustainability practices of large organizations, leveraging the culture of responsibility to optimize performance, and communication for the responsible enterprise. Jhana brings over ten years of international experience in professional research, analysis, writing, and training to Aberdeen including work and collaboration with business, governmental, academic, and cultural entities in the US, Europe, and Africa. Jhana is a Harvard University Teaching Fellow and Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Social Anthropology, a former Ford Foundation and Honorary Mellon Fellow, and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. She holds an MA from Harvard University and a B.A. from Brandeis University where she graduated Summa cum Laude.
Oct. 28: October Book Discussion Group
Date: Tuesday, October 28
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Trident Booksellers & Café (338 Newbury Street, Boston, MA)
RSVP: events@netimpact.org
Join fellow members for our third installation of the Net Impact Boston book club! We are excited to announce that the October book is “Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future” by Bill McKibben.
“Challenging the prevailing wisdom that the goal of economies should be unlimited growth, McKibben (The End of Nature) argues that the world doesn’t have enough natural resources to sustain endless economic expansion. For example, if the Chinese owned cars in the same numbers as Americans, there would be 1.1 billion more vehicles on the road—untenable in a world that is rapidly running out of oil and clean air. Drawing the phrase “deep economy” from the expression “deep ecology,” a term environmentalists use to signify new ways of thinking about the environment, he suggests we need to explore new economic ideas. Rather then promoting accelerated cycles of economic expansion—a mindset that has brought the world to the brink of environmental disaster—we should concentrate on creating localized economies: community-scale power systems instead of huge centralized power plants; cohousing communities instead of sprawling suburbs. He gives examples of promising ventures of this type, such as a community-supported farm in Vermont and a community biosphere reserve, or large national park–like area, in Himalayan India, but some of the ideas—local currencies as supplements to national money, for example—seem overly optimistic. Nevertheless, McKibben’s proposals for new, less growth-centered ways of thinking about economics are intriguing, and offer hope that change is possible.” –Publishers Weekly
Oct. 17: Sustainability at Starbucks
Date: Friday, October 17th
Time: 12:00-11:00pm
Led By: Ben Packard, Vice President, Global Responsibility at Starbucks
Register: http://netimpact.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=1057
