With sustainability now a fundamental strategic pillar for organizations, ESG metrics are vital for decision making, yet this data is complex and ever evolving. Navigating Sustainability Data provides a focused guide for leaders and executives who want to understand how sustainability impacts a company's future and how they can use data as a key tool to facilitate growth, access to capital and meet regulatory requirements. It explores what data is required to make decisions that directly affect the company's valuation and helps leadership teams decide what data points they need to be preparing for their boards to support the organization's financial, strategic and reputational future. Showing how leaders can move from measuring data to managing future organizational risks and rewards, the book explores how to use the right data for the appropriate situation to drive efficient sustainable business decisions. It explains ESG data in plain English and highlights what data is relevant to leaders; what investors consider as essential data; and how regulation, disclosure and transparency are on a rapidly changing journey. Navigating Sustainability Data holds the information you need to avoid greenwashing, to shape your role in the sustainability landscape, and to be a leader for the future.
The environment, and how humans affect it, is more of a concern now than ever. We are constantly told that halting climate change requires raising awareness, changing attitudes, and finally altering behaviors among the general public-and fast. New information, attitudes, and actions, it is conventionally assumed, will necessarily follow one from the other. But this approach ignores much of what is known about attitudes in general and environmental attitudes specifically-there is a huge gap between what we say and what we do. Solving environmental problems requires a scientific understanding of public attitudes. Like rocks in a swollen river, attitudes often lie beneath the surface-hard to see, and even harder to move or change. In Navigating Environmental Attitudes, Thomas Heberlein helps us read the water and negotiate its hidden obstacles, explaining what attitudes are, how they change and influence behavior. Rather than necessarily trying to change public attitudes, we need to design solutions and policies with them in mind. He illustrates these points by tracing the attitudes of the well-known environmentalist Aldo Leopold, while tying social psychology to real-world behaviors throughout the book. Bringing together theory and practice, Navigating Environmental Attitudes provides a realistic understanding of why and how attitudes matter when it comes to environmental problems; and how, by balancing natural with social science, we can step back from false assumptions and unproductive, frustrating programs to work toward fostering successful, effective environmental action. "With lively prose, inviting stories, and solid science, Heberlein pilots us deftly through the previously uncharted waters of environmental attitudes. It's a voyage anyone interested in environmental issues needs to take." -- Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence: Science and Practice "Navigating Environmental Attitudes is a terrific book. Heberlein's authentic voice and the book's organization around stories keeps readers hooked. Wildlife biologists, natural resource managers, conservation biologists - and anyone else trying to solve environmental problems - will learn a lot about attitudes, behaviors, and norms; and the fallacy of the Cognitive Fix." -- Stephen Russell Carpenter, Stephen Alfred Forbes Professor of Zoology, University of Wisconsin-Madison "People who have spent their lives dealing with environmental issues from a broad range of perspectives consistently abide by erroneous assumption that all we need to do to solve environmental problems is to educate the public. I consider it to be the most dangerous of all assumptions in environmental management. In Navigating Environmental Attitudes, Tom Heberlein brings together expertise in social and biophysical sciences to do an important kind of 'science education'-educating eminent scientists about the realities of their interactions with the broader public." --the late Bill Freudenburg, Dehlsen Professor of Environment and Society, University of California, Santa Barbara
This document provides data on greenhouse gas and international climate policy. It examines them at the global, national, sectoral, and fuel levels and identifies implications of the data for international cooperation on global climate change.
Data Science Applied to Sustainability Analysis focuses on the methodological considerations associated with applying this tool in analysis techniques such as lifecycle assessment and materials flow analysis. As sustainability analysts need examples of applications of big data techniques that are defensible and practical in sustainability analyses and that yield actionable results that can inform policy development, corporate supply chain management strategy, or non-governmental organization positions, this book helps answer underlying questions. In addition, it addresses the need of data science experts looking for routes to apply their skills and knowledge to domain areas. - Presents data sources that are available for application in sustainability analyses, such as market information, environmental monitoring data, social media data and satellite imagery - Includes considerations sustainability analysts must evaluate when applying big data - Features case studies illustrating the application of data science in sustainability analyses
Digital India: Navigating Sustainable Development Goals is a comprehensive edited volume exploring India's transformative digital journey in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This resource-rich book caters to academics, researchers, policymakers, practitioners, students and global stakeholders. Covering diverse topics such as the impact of COVID-19 on education, Fintech adoption, gender justice, and sustainability challenges, it provides a nuanced understanding of the intersection between technology and sustainable development. The book serves as a valuable resource for gaining insights into the practical implications of Digital India initiatives and their role in achieving SDGs.
A holistic view of ESG goes beyond environmental issues, which are closely linked to social issues. Both come from the governance of an organization: the integrity with which decisions are made and implemented, ultimately defining corporate culture. ESG affects the daily lives of everyone in today’s connected world where organizations, companies, and individuals depend on each other at various levels. Lack of sustainability for any entity threatens its future existence, disrupting the entire ecosystem. The use of data to measure ESG outcomes is a young science that is increasingly critical to upholding our very lifestyle. Data clearly presents impact across the entire ESG spectrum, providing the necessary specificity for informed decision making, and ensuring the transparency and accountability, which uphold sustainability.
This open access book discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by companies in an age that increasingly values sustainability and demands corporate responsibility. Beginning with the historical development of corporate responsibility, this book moves from academic theory to practical application. It points to ways in which companies can successfully manage their transition to a more responsible, sustainable way of doing business, common mistakes to avoid and how the UN Sustainable Development Goals are integral to any sustainability transformation. Practical cases illustrate key points. Drawing on thirty years of sustainability research and extensive corporate experience, the author provides tools such as a Step-by-Step strategic guide on integrating sustainability in collaboration with stakeholders including employees, customers, suppliers and investors. The book is particularly relevant for SMEs and companies operating in emerging markets. From a broader perspective, the value of externalities, full cost pricing, alternative economic theories and circular economy are also addressed.
As drivers of climate action enter the fourth decade of what has become a multi-stage race, Net Zero has emerged as the dominant organizing principle. Hundreds of corporations and investors worldwide, together responsible for assets in the tens of trillions of dollars, are lining-up for the UN Race to Zero. This latest stage in the race to save civilization from heat, drought, fires, and floods, is defined by steering toward zeroing out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Settling Climate Accounts probes the practice of Net Zero finance. It elucidates both the state of play and a set of directions that help form judgements about whether Net Zero is going to carry climate action far enough. The book delves into technical analyses and activates the reader’s imagination with narrative accounts of climate action past, present, and future. Settling Climate Accounts is edited and authored by Stanford University faculty and researchers. The first part of the book investigates the rough edges of Net Zero in practice, exploring questions of hedging risk, Scope 3 emissions, greenwashing, and the business of asset management. The second half looks at states, markets, and transitions through the lenses of blended finance, offsets, debt, and securitization. The editors tease out possible solutions and raise further questions about the adequacy and reach of the Net Zero agenda. To effectively navigate the road ahead, the editors call out the need for accountability and ask: who is in charge of making Net Zero add up? Settling Climate Accounts offers context and foundation to ground the rapidly evolving practice of Net Zero finance. Targeted at seasoned practitioners, newly activated leaders, educators, and students of climate action the world over, this book embraces the complexity of climate action and, in so doing, proposes to animate and drive hope.
In today's fast-paced world, the environment has become a primary concern for individuals, businesses, and governments alike. With the rising urgency to combat climate change, carbon markets and trading have emerged as essential tools in the fight for a sustainable future. This book aims to provide a deep understanding of the complexities and opportunities surrounding carbon markets, specifically tailored to the needs of both novice and experienced professionals. As it is important that businesses remain at the forefront of carbon markets and trading, it is imperative to equip professionals with a comprehensive understanding of this dynamic landscape. This book seeks to be an indispensable resource that empowers readers to navigate the complexities of carbon markets, seize investment opportunities, and contribute to a more sustainable future for all.
Sustainability: Key Issues is a comprehensive introductory textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate students doing courses in sustainability. Highly original, it covers the very broad spectrum of ideas covered under sustainability, from participation, resilience, growth, ecological modernism through to culture, sustainable communities and sustainable consumption. Each chapter covers one key idea, and has been written by an expert in that field. This book makes key issues approachable, with each chapter containing: a definition of the key concept a history of how and why the issue has emerged a discussion of the advantages, drawbacks, main contributions and controversies associated with this issue case studies to demonstrate how it works in reality critical discussion of mainstream models of sustainability and the reason why they don't work introduction of beyond-the-convention alternatives, including circular economy and cradle to cradle approaches This is the ideal book for students and anyone interested in understanding the key issues within sustainability and how they interact.
