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In This Issue
Editor's Note
Taking Ethics to the Cloud
Cloud computing—which now provides services to all of us, from banks to retailers to individual consumers—has the potential to create profound new sustainability and ethical dilemmas. Addressing these dilemmas requires a redefinition of what constitutes corporate responsibility for some companies.
This week, we examine how cloud computing will affect two top sustainability issues of our time: climate change and human rights.
We also highlight a new online portal aimed at helping solve the global water crisis by giving water managers, policymakers, and other stakeholders a place to share information and resources about effective payments for watershed services programs.
And we hear from the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Ben Holland, who believes believes games can be, well, game-changing in getting people to adopt more sustainable behaviors.
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In Depth
Taking Ethics to the Cloud
By Dunstan Allison Hope, Managing Director, Advisory Services, BSR; Ryan Schuchard, Manager, Climate and Energy, BSR
Cloud computing is one of the most significant trends today, with the potential to redefine the way we think about business ethics and sustainability. Here, we consider how the cloud could affect two of our biggest sustainability challenges: climate change and human rights.
Read more →
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Toolbox
Scaling Up Payments for Watershed Services
By
Watershed Connect, a new online platform by Forest Trends and Ecosystem Marketplace, helps water managers, policymakers, and other stakeholders involved in investing in watersheds share information and resources to help solve the global water crisis. Through payments for watershed services (PWS) programs, cities globally have been addressing water scarcity and declining quality cost effectively by restoring and protecting the natural infrastructure that supplies clean water. Through these programs, landowners receive financial incentives to conserve, sustainably manage, and/or restore watersheds to yield services like purification, flood and erosion control, and places for people to enjoy the outdoors. Despite much activity, there has been no effective space for those involved in PWS to share experiences and ideas. This platform aims to make information on various programs more accessible so more practitioners can receive news and analyses, join relevant discussions, share their own project work, and access resources to help them implement or scale up their own PWS schemes.
On the Record
Using Games to Spur Greener Behaviors
While companies struggle to find new ways to get customers to embrace sustainability, one industry expert has arrived at an engaging approach: games. The Rocky Mountain Institute’s Ben Holland recently blogged about how companies can use gaming to spur customers and consumers into greener behaviors. Holland pointed out that some companies already have had success embracing this approach; through a special website, for instance, GM has enabled owners of the Chevrolet Volt electric cars to track mileage information and benchmark data against each other. During a telephone interview, Holland said he was inspired by technologies and ideas he observed at the recent South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas. _“People always have been competitive with one another in a friendly way, and games are great to get people to reflect on energy use. Nobody really thinks about how many kilowatt hours they’ve used in the last month. When you create a game environment, all of a sudden the process becomes fun.”_ —Ben Holland, project manager, Project Get Ready, Rocky Mountain Institute (April 5, 2012)
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