Sustainable Development
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Energy Production – Economically Speaking
Pairing the words “economy” and “energy” in the same sentence seems straightforward enough. Yet these two words–combined with the word “sustainable”–open up a world of controversy as well as immense opportunity. The controversy comes from differing opinions of how best to tap the Earth’s resources to meet humanity’s power needs. The opportunity is the number […] More
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The Green Economy has changed national politics: Virginia and West Virginia case studies
Virginia and West Virginia, as little as five or ten years ago, were reliably supportive of their respective party’s presidential candidate. The politics of clean energy seems to have changed both states’ political tune, with Democrats picking up the 13 electoral college votes in Virginia from Republicans, and ceding the 5 electoral college votes of […] More
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VisionSpring: A Model TOMS Shoes Would be Wise to Adopt
The world of international development has so many buzzwords floating around, it’s hard to know what is legitimate and what isn’t. Over the past 10 years or so, the phrase “sustainable development” has entered the lexicon and appears here to stay. While there are a number of definitions for the term, ultimately it has to […] More
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Plumpy’nut and the Role of the Private Sector in International Development
Recently, the New York Times Magazine has been a hotbed for articles covering business in or affecting developing countries. Last week I wrote about a potentially more unconventional way of looking at the counterfeit goods trade from the perspective of major apparel companies. More recently, an incredibly impressive article was written by Andrew Rice, on […] More
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Sustainability: the signs of a maturing industry
….the sustainable movement is showing signs that the love-fest of warmth and do-gooder intent is now shifting into the drudgery of the hard work phase. This is fantastic news for the sustainable movement. More
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The Economics of Urban Sprawl- What’s Happening to Our Farmland?
If you are from Colorado and have made the drive along I-25 over the last five years from Denver to Fort Collins or Denver to Colorado Springs, you have undoubtedly noticed it. The irony of vast corn fields and pastures surrounded by construction sites and tract housing. Productive pastures once grazed by livestock replaced by […] More
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Sustainability Reports: Who Reads them, and Why?
An open question to our readers: do you read annual sustainability reports? Well, it turns out that the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) were curious as well. So, they went ahead and hired a few consulting companies (SustainAbility and KPMG) to go ahead and survey sustainability report readers. While some of the responses were not all that […] More
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Base of the Pyramid: article series continues
Earlier this week we sketched out the Base of the Pyramid protocols versions 1.0 and 2.0. Based on some comments I’ve received via email, today I want to delve a little deeper into version 2.0, and see how we can take this innovative idea, and make it practicable (after all, that’s one of the goals […] More
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Eco-Libris: Green Books – “Common Wealth” by Jeffrey Sachs
This post was originally published on Eco-Libris blog on September 15. Globe, we have a problem. With an increasingly crowded planet, how can we achieve sustainable development? And do it in time? Our book today might be of assistance, providing the keys to face the global challenges that will take center stage in the 21st […] More
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Ending Global Poverty? Seriously?
Ensuring food safety and protecting health is one of the prime duties of every government, whether in a developed country or in a developing one. Accordingly, the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) has conferred upon every sovereign member of the WTO the right to set its own standards in the import of […] More
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The Base of the Pyramid 2.0: A Review (pt. 2)
(Readers may want to read yesterday’s part one post, which provides a brief description of the concept of the base of the pyramid, and introduces today’s post.) While articles extolling the virtues of expanding markets to include, and creating brand-new ventures solely for the base of the pyramid proliferated in the early part of this […] More
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Agriculture Subsidies and Rising Food Prices
This is a guest post by Puspa Sharma, MA Candidate in Global Finance, Trade and Economic Integration at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. Exponential increases in food prices in recent times have created enormous challenges to governments, national and international organizations, and aid agencies everywhere in the world. The World […] More