Oct 2008: Dr. Kate Lancaster - Sustainability Entrepreneurship

 

Seattle Chapter #9
ASWA
Speaker Highlights and Dinner Meeting Announcements
October 22, 2008

Speaker Highlights
Guest Speaker:
Dr. Kate Lancaster
Accounting Professor
Bainbridge Graduate Institution &
Cal Poly State University

Sustainability Entrepreneurship

1)  Why is this such a hot topic and what does it mean?
 Making businesses care about sustainability
 What are accountants role?

2)  Increasing population & increasing consumption
 Depletion of resources
 Increase of waste/not recycling
 38 billion water bottles
 125 million cell phones
 4.4 lbs/day/person
 Reduction in soil & minerals
 Global warming
 Polar ice caps melting
 Destruction of the ecosystem
 Increased pollution
 Fossil fuel dependency
 Species extinction
 Loss of rain forest

3)  Definition of sustainable development
 Development that melts the needs of the present without compromising ability of future generations  to meet their own needs
 Contains 2 key concepts
 Essential needs of world’s poor need to be a priority
 Idea of limitation imposed by state of technology
 
4)  Business case for sustainability
 risk management
 climate change
 consumer activism
 legislation
 business opportunities
 cost savings
 innovation

5)  Sustainable value portfolio
 Clean technology
 Pollution prevention
 Base of the pyramid/helping poor
 Product stewardship

6)  Accounting discipline contributions
 Disclosure of environmental liabilities
 GAAP guidelines
 Reporting on sustainable business practices
 Voluntary disclosure
 Global reporting initiate guidelines
 Cost issues and cost benefit analysis
 waste minimization

7)  Market mechanisms
 National government level accounting
 How do we adjust national income accounting to include sustainability?
 Emerging areas in CO2 greenhouse gas trending

8)  Investment analysis
 Social return on investment
 Eco efficiency

9)  What it measures?
 Guidelines encompass performance indicators

10)  What can you do?
 Learn as much as you can
 Question status quo
 Get involved
 Vote your values
 Vote with your $$$$
 Consume conscientiously
 Reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, rethink

Seattle Chapter #9
ASWA
Dinner Meeting Announcements and Minutes
October 22, 2008

1) National Conference next week (Sue Tebrink)
 Six people attending national conference: Tina Polf, Linda Burrus, Jana Helmuth, Sharron O'Donnell, Maryily Wilt, and Sue Tebrink

2)  Dress for Success (Noreen Florio)
 Donations being collected tonight
 Tax receipts available
 Thank you to all who donated items
 Feel free to continue to give donations to Noreen Florio throughout year

3)  Scholarship renewed (Liz Pray)
 Seattle sponsoring renewal of $2,000 for Jill Curshaw at St. Martin’s University

3) Dessert/Scholarship Auction (Liz Pray)
 Tentative results show more than $10,000 raised
 Thank you to everyone who baked and contributed

4) Controller Position – Ocean Peace Inc. (Liz Pray)
 Didn’t make it onto the opportunities sheet before printing