BTW, Omidyar’s dairy on the south side (Poipu) was just voted in. What an insane project in a tourist area near the ocean! Are they trying to make this island uninhabitable?

They are the ones who are giving the okay for all that poisoning.

With good governments, none of the above list would be allowed.

Like BOTH our “Governments”, these agencies are only here to TELL us they want to help us, do a little lip service here, a token project there, while they enable the Corporate Pirates they serve to give us all a “right good rogering.”

My ass and wallet have been getting seriously scarred, brother.

Sure, sure! These membership’s agencies are here to help us.

“Don’t shoot, we are your friends”

We are not stupid, they cannot fool us anymore, we’ve been down that sorry road before.

The Science Behind Valuing Nature
Conservancy Scientists and the Dow Collaboration

“… what we learn here will have benefits far beyond Dow.”
— Jennifer Molnar, Conservancy scientist
By Darci Palmquist

How might corporations do business differently if they knew the full value nature brings to their bottom line? That’s a question The Nature Conservancy is trying to answer through its collaboration with the Dow Chemical Company.

And to get to those answers, the Conservancy is doing some groundbreaking science — science that will change the way conservation does business, too.

The Dow – Nature Conservancy collaboration has already made progress toward a next generation sustainability approach for business.

“As a scientist, the Dow collaboration is really exciting,” says Jennifer Molnar, director of the Conservancy’s Sustainability Science program. “It requires new thinking and creative problem-solving. And what we learn here will have benefits far beyond Dow — we’ll be able to apply these tools and information to other companies and in other areas around the world.”

Molnar is leading a small team of scientists and economists — some of the Conservancy’s brightest minds — in tackling the big conservation-related questions the Dow collaboration raises, such as:

How can a company account for the value of water to its business operations and help find solutions to sustain water flow — not just for the company, but for other water users as well as nature?

Can corporate investment in large-scale tree planting both help a company meet air-quality compliance standards and provide new incentives for funding forest restoration?
To protect facilities from natural hazards like hurricanes, when should businesses invest in “green infrastructure” (like a coastal wetland) instead of or in addition to building “grey infrastructure” (like a seawall)?

Through three analyses at Dow’s installations along the Texas Gulf Coast, Conservancy scientists will explore answers to these questions — and benefit conservation as well as the natural resources Dow depends on, says Molnar.

Each year, Dow and the Nature Conservancy release a report on the progress of the collaboration:

2011 Progress Report: http://www.nature.org/about-us/working-with-companies/companies-we-work-with/dow/2011-collaboration-progress-report-final-1-23-12.pdf

2012 Progress Report: http://www.nature.org/media/companies/the-nature-conservancy-dow-collaboration-progress-report-2012.pdf

2013 Progress Report: http://www.nature.org/about-us/working-with-companies/companies-we-work-with/dow/2013-dow-collaboration-annual-progress-report.pdf

In 2013, the collaboration received the Harvard Kennedy School’s Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership.

“This collaboration gives us a chance to apply conservation science information and tools in new ways in a business context, with Dow pilot sites as laboratories to test these new applications,” she explains.

“By integrating information about the value of nature into Dow’s decisions, we can identify ways that investing in nature makes business sense,” she adds. “And the methods and tools we develop can then be used by other companies — as well as by conservationists — to better understand the value of nature.”

“Ultimately, we’re hoping our science can help make a business case for conservation.”

Continue reading about the questions Conservancy scientists are analyzing as part of the Dow collaboration, keep up with news about their research, and hear them speak at events around the globe.

Darci Palmquist is a senior science writer with The Nature Conservancy.

Page Last Modified: April 2014
Page Originally Posted: January 2012: http://www.nature.org/about-us/working-with-companies/companies-we-work-with/dow/

Further, the list of OTHER Companies involved on an Executive Business Council Level is stunning to say the least:

Focusing on biodiversity preservation, habitat conservation and natural resource management.

The Nature Conservancy’s overarching Corporate Engagement strategy is to encourage and help companies incorporate the value of nature into their business decisions. The Conservancy believes that embedding nature’s benefits [and accounting for avoided costs] into business practices will lead to substantial conservation outcomes while offering opportunities to achieve improved business performance.

Protecting the environment and building stronger businesses can be mutually reinforcing. Changing the ways companies value and interact with the natural resources they impact and depend on presents a tremendous opportunity to transform corporate policy and practice for the benefit of both nature and people.

As part of that effort, the Conservancy created the Business Council as a consultative forum and collaborative platform for action and learning to advance the business case for nature.

The Council is comprised of industry-leading companies that have the ability to impact the development of best practices. The Council works to advance this vision by sharing in-depth case studies, scientific research, business tools, and economic data with company representatives. The Council also provides opportunities for cross-sector information sharing, setting the stage for significant conservation outcomes and business performance.

The Business Council provides its member companies the opportunity to:

Learn about the latest Nature Conservancy science, conservation projects and corresponding implications and opportunities for the private sector
Develop business tools and economic cases that incorporate the value of nature into business practices
Connect with cross-sector business leaders, policy experts, and leading scientists
Collaborate to establish the public policies, best practices, and enabling conditions for a sustainable economic future
Videos: Hear what companies such as The Dow Chemical Company and The Coca-Cola Company have to say about the importance of sustainability efforts and their engagement with the Conservancy.

MEMBERSHIP

Invitation and continued membership is at the discretion of The Nature Conservancy. By participating in the Council, members are demonstrating an interest in integrating conservation and stewardship into their business strategy while supporting biodiversity, habitat conservation and good environmental practices.

3M
Bank of America
Barrick Gold
The Boeing Company
BP America, Inc.
Chevron Corporation
The Coca-Cola Company
The Dow Chemical Company
Duke Energy
Ecolab, Inc.
Monsanto
Plum Creek Timber Company, Inc.
Royal Dutch Shell
Starbucks Coffee Company
UPS
Weyerhaeuser
Xerox Corporation Ltd.

http://www.nature.org/about-us/working-with-companies/businesscouncil/ilc-main-content.xml

Smoking gun? Not precisely, but in light of your article, JON…as ‘Spock’ would put it, “Interesting…”

thanks for all the important need-to-know ammo.

No man survives when freedom fails,
The best men rot in filthy jails,
And those who cry ‘appease, appease’
Are hanged by those they tried to please.
Hiram Mann