LANSING, Mich. – Pure Michigan Business Connect is partnering with General Motors, the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, CXCatalysts, and the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development to launch the Reuse Opportunity Collaboratory (ROC) initiative on September 30 in Detroit. The event will bring together Michigan industries, institutions, small and medium sized businesses, and entrepreneurs to develop zero-waste partnerships in which one organization’s waste becomes another’s raw material.

“ROC Detroit is a groundbreaking effort to support sustainable manufacturing while growing Michigan’s economy and creating jobs,” said Michigan Economic Development Corporation President and CEO Michael A. Finney. “The ROC Detroit summit will help Michigan’s small and growing companies connect with General Motors and other partner companies’ waste management officials to find ways to reuse waste byproduct materials to their fullest potential.”

The ROC-Detroit launch matchmaking summit, taking place at the GM Renaissance Center, will give participating businesses the opportunity to be matched to ROC partner companies centered on procurement or partnership prospects for byproduct materials reuse. The partner companies include Aevitas Specialty Services Corporation, Alpha Resins, DOW Materials, General Motors, Marathon Petroleum, and Walker-Miller Energy. Participating suppliers may include any manufacturing-based company or waste management company interested in zero-waste production, including energy companies, manufacturers, and waste reduction and recycling businesses.

“General Motors is enthusiastic about this partnership because we believe that waste is simply a resource out of place,” said John Bradburn, GM global manager of waste reduction. “This event will create by-product synergies by repurposing one company’s trash into another’s primary resource.”

The by-product materials needs and application information can be viewed at http://www.puremichiganb2b.com/b2b-web/#roc.

Michigan companies interested in attending must complete the online application and identify their qualifications based on the needs listed. After each application is reviewed, invitations will be sent to companies whose intended purposes best match the available resources. Each invited company will have a private meeting to discuss potential opportunities with one of the procurement teams present at the summit.

The priority application deadline is Sept. 16, 2014. All applicants will be notified by Sept. 23 regarding participation eligibility. Applications received after the deadline will be considered if there are needs that have not been filled by the initial applicants.

Launched in 2011, Pure Michigan Business Connect is a public-private alliance of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, state agencies and major Michigan companies and organizations that connects in-state companies to business resources. Companies can find new ways to raise capital, get access to professional business services at little or no cost, connect with each other through a new business-to-business network, and identify potential supplier opportunities, while developing resources to improve their supply chains.

From left to right, PJ Simmons, President of the Corporate Eco Forum; Bill McDonough, Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Meta-Council on the Circular Economy; Andrew Morlet, CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation; Tom Carpenter, Director, Sustainable Services, Waste Management; Andrew Mangan, Executive Director of the US BCSD; and Matt Rogers, Director, McKinsey & Co.

Businesses and entrepreneurs in Austin and Travis County now have a new resource to help find uses for unwanted materials. The US Business Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD), Ecology Action of Texas, and Austin Resource Recovery today announced the launch of the Austin Materials Marketplace, an initiative in which one company’s waste becomes another company’s raw material. The new public-private partnership aims to reduce waste going to landfills by connecting businesses that generate unwanted materials with businesses that can use those materials.

“We are excited to introduce this resource to the Austin business community so that today’s waste products can become tomorrow’s new revenue source,” said Bob Gedert, director of Austin Resource Recovery. “The launch of the Austin Materials Marketplace is an important step toward achieving Austin’s Zero Waste goal.”

Since 1995, US BCSD has successfully implemented similar business-to-business material reuse projects in Houston, Chicago, Columbus, Seattle, Kansas City and Mobile, as well as the United Kingdom and China.

“Core to our approach is use of a regularly monitored online database and structured network meetings facilitated by technical experts that help companies understand each other’s material flows and identify materials matches,” said Andrew Mangan, executive director of the US BCSD. “This collaboration stimulates innovative and business-friendly solutions. As a 21-year member of the Austin business community, the US BCSD is excited to bring our work home to Austin,” he added.

The business council has teamed up with Austin-based Ecology Action of Texas on this project, a non-profit organization with significant experience in the Austin recycling community.

”Ecology Action is thrilled to be a part of bringing the practices and principles of landfill diversion that we have developed over the last 44 years into the mainstream of the Austin business community and business culture. This project is an incredibly significant milestone in our community’s path towards Zero Waste,” said Joaquin Mariel, executive director of Ecology Action.

Businesses and organizations interested in the program are encouraged to attend next week’s information session on the marketplace:

Austin Materials Marketplace Information Session Where: Big Medium, Canopy Gallery, 916 Springdale Rd, Austin, Texas 78702 When: August 19th, 5:30pm-8:30pm What: Introductory social event with a short presentation of the project, networking opportunities, and food and beverages.

For more information, visit http://austinmaterialsmarketplace.org.

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The US Business Council for Sustainable Development is a member-led nonprofit business association that harnesses the power of collaborative regional projects to develop, deploy, and scale sustainable solutions to materials, water, energy, and ecosystem challenges. It is based in Austin, Texas, and has projects located throughout the U.S.

Ecology Action of Texas is an Austin company with more than 40 years of experience in resource recovery operations, landfill diversion, advocacy, and zero waste education. EA has operated a recycling/hard-to-recycle/reuse drop-off center in partnership with the City of Austin for 15 years.

Austin Resource Recovery provides a wide range of services designed to transform waste into resources while keeping our community clean. Services include curbside collection of recycling, trash, yard trimmings and large brush and bulk items; street sweeping; dead animal collection; household hazardous waste disposal and recycling; and outreach and education. In December 2011, the Austin City Council approved the Austin Resource Recovery Master Plan, which is the City’s roadmap to Zero Waste. The City of Austin is committed to keeping at least 90 percent of discarded materials out of the landfill by 2040 or sooner.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the US BCSD are hosting a deep-dive workshop this October to support the development and implementation of ambitious, practical strategies for reducing building energy consumption by 30% or more in the Houston market.

This initiative is also joined by the City Energy Project, which is supporting the City of Houston, along with nine other cities, to help cut energy waste in large buildings, make them healthier environments and more profitable investments through energy efficiency.

To achieve that goal, various stakeholders in Houston’s commercial building sector will convene to diagnose and tackle key barriers to energy efficiency, recommend practical action plans for achieving market transformation to improve energy efficiency, and establish clearly defined stakeholder commitments.

[themify_button style="large yellow rounded" link="http://usbcsd.org/eeb-houston" ]learn more[/themify_button]

Source: Climate Change: Implications for Buildings, WBCSD

We're very much looking forward to welcoming you to Yale University next week, June 25-26, for our annual summer conference, organized in collaboration with the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. Below you'll find a few notes on logistics and other last minute considerations. And if you haven't registered yet, you can do so by clicking here now.

Dress code for the two-day event is business casual. Please note the slight chance of rain on Wednesday and plan accordingly. Our venue has a beautiful courtyard and a lot of great outside space for us to take advantage of, so hopefully that chance of rain stays low!

Public transportation is easily available if flying into La Guardia:

1) Get out of the terminal and walk to the bus stop (La Guardia transport information folks can point you in the right direction) 2) Get on the M60 bus (comes every 20 min, $2.50, need to prepay before you get on) 3) Take the bus to E 125 St/Lexington Av (about 30 minutes) 4) Walk to Harlem 125 St. (1 minute to the west) 4) Take a train to New Haven Union Station. ($16.50, ~2 hours)

New Haven train services run through Union Station:

Address: 50 Union Avenue, New Haven, CT 06519 Serviced by: Metro-North, with connecting service by Amtrak and CT Transit There are a number of transportation options to get you from Union Station to the Yale campus, including the Yale shuttle, and a number of taxi services.

New Haven has a number of taxi services should you need a ride:

City Wide Taxi/Yellow Taxi/New Haven-Milford Taxi: 203.777.0007 Heritage Taxi: 203.466.6666 Horizon Cab Company: 203.777.5555 Metro Taxi: 203.777.7777 Quick Taxi: 203.777.7778 Yellow Taxi: 203.777.7770

Venue: Yale School of Management Edward P. Evans Hall, Yale University 165 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511

We'll be in Edward P. Evans Hall, the new home of the Yale School of Management, for the duration of our two-day agenda. Our registration table will be set up outside of Bewkes Classroom 2410. After entering through the main entrance of the building, head up the stairs to the second floor, and you should see us there.

Edward P. Evans Hall is within reasonable walking distance from most hotels in downtown New Haven. Click on the map for a more detailed look at walking directions.

[themify_button style="xlarge blue rounded" link="http://usbcsd.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Agenda-June-Conference-on-Scale-Up.pdf" ]Download the Agenda[/themify_button]

Light breakfast foods and coffee will be available outside of Bewkes Classroom 2410 starting at 8:00am on both the 25th and 26th, so please feel free to come early and mingle with your colleagues. The agenda kicks off at 9:00am on both days of the conference.

If you have any other questions, feel welcome to contact Daniel Kietzer at the US BCSD at 512.981.5417.

Andy Mangan, US BCSD Executive Director, is in Beijing this week reporting on outcomes from the Bohai By-Product Synergy Project. Special thanks to US BCSD members ConocoPhillips, Holcim, Alcoa, and GM; representatives from the US DOE, LBNL, Yale, NDRC, and MIIT; and our project partner the China Business Council for Sustainable Development.

a conversation with Christine Bader, author of "The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil"

We'll be highlighting a new speaker and agenda theme each week leading up to our summer conference on June 25-26 at Yale University. This week, we're featuring Christine Bader, who will be delivering a keynote talk, "Why Scaling up is so Damn Hard," the morning of June 25th.

We all know what companies need to do. But what is it like to be the one who is assigned to actually do it? Why do even companies and individuals with the best intentions fail -- and what do they need in order to succeed? Christine Bader, Yale SOM '00 and Author of "The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil," was one of those people. She will kick off our conference by sharing reflections and lessons from her time with BP, weaving in the stories of other intrapreneurs inside big companies, to inform and inspire us.

About the Book

"The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist is a quick read, effortlessly gulped during a long airplane flight. The writing is clear and concise, and if the book doesn't leave one convinced that every multinational has suddenly developed a guiding conscience, it does offer some encouragement that many are on the way." --The New York Times

With special thanks to the Yale Center for Business and the Environment, we'll be providing copies of the book to all meeting attendees free of charge. Interested? Click here to register now.

Andy Mangan, US BCSD Executive Director, was invited to speak about By-Product Synergy on April 25th at the first Congreso Internacional de Residuos (International Congress of Waste), held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The global event was attended by representatives from Colombia, Costa Rica, Venezuela, United States, Brazil, Spain, Greece, Italy, England, Germany and France.

Geneva/New Haven, CT, April 8, 2014 – The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) today announced a partnership with the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) and the Yale School of Management (SOM) that will promote collaboration between Yale scholars and global business leaders to address critical sustainability issues. The partnership builds on ongoing collaborations between the Yale Center for Business and the Environment and the WBCSD’s U.S.-based Regional Network partner, the United States Business Council for Sustainable Development. The partnership will enable Yale students and faculty to engage directly with business leaders from across the WBCSD network with the ultimate aim of inspiring management practices –particularly across the 25-school Global Network for Advanced Management established by SOM – that better address the business challenges of the 21st century.

“The world needs action on sustainability issues, and more importantly, action that can be scaled up,” said Peter Bakker, president, WBCSD. “We’re partnering with Yale University to better leverage the worlds of science and management schools to scale up ideas and create new ways of approaching how business can positively contribute to a sustainable future.”

The partnership’s initial focus will be the promotion of regional internships for students, research opportunities, and a pilot online course – Natural Capital: Risks and Opportunities in Global Resource Systems, which was launched in January. The course uses case studies to highlight businesses’ dependence on access to critical resources, such as materials, energy, food and water, and the risks and opportunities inherent to operating in an increasingly resource-strained environment.

“WBCSD is leading the effort to bring actionable science about the resource systems on which we all depend to networks of global and local businesses around the world," said Yale professor Brad Gentry, co-director of the Center for Business & the Environment at Yale (CBEY), who teaches the online course.

"Helping businesses understand the systemic risks to their operations going forward, as well as the opportunities to offer business solutions for those risks, is the best path for bringing business creativity and innovation to a sustainable future.”

The WBCSD will also leverage its vast network of business leaders, policymakers and subject-matter experts for a Yale-based speaker series that will offer real-world insights on sustainability issues. In addition, the partnership calls for the creation and use of new materials and curriculum for sustainability leadership and innovation, including faculty workshops and an “immersion week” for faculty and business partners.

About Yale F&ES

The Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES) is an internationally recognized graduate school that trains tomorrow's environmental leaders, and creates new knowledge to sustain and restore the long-term health of the planet and the well-being of its people. Yale F&ES provides professional training across a broad range of specializations to students from around the world, offering masters degrees in environmental management, forestry, forest science and environmental science, in addition to a PhD degree program. Yale F&ES also offers joint masters degrees with nine different schools for disciplines including law, management, public health, and architecture.

About the Yale School of Management

The Yale School of Management attracts broad-minded, intellectually curious students and faculty. An integrated curriculum, close ties to Yale University, and an active connection to the Global Network for Advanced Management ensure that Yale MBAs not only acquire crucial technical skills but also develop a genuine understanding of an increasingly complex global context. Yale MBAs assimilate information and ideas from multiple sources, functional areas, and points of view to lead effectively in all regions and sectors. Yale SOM offers a full-time MBA program, as well as an MBA for Executives with focus areas in sustainability, asset management, and healthcare, Master of Advanced Management, and PhD.

About the Global Network for Advanced Management

The Global Network for Advanced Management is a group of 25 leading business schools around the world that promotes exchanges between professors, students, and alumni, as well as research into global business issues. The network supports project work between students as part of a global team, organizes exchanges such as the Global Network Weeks through which students can attend lectures and courses at other member universities, and offers Global Network Courses, for-credit courses taught online by a member school that are open to students throughout the network.

On March 20th the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation released a new report titled “Achieving Energy and Water Security: Scalable Solutions from the Private Sector.” Featuring more than 25 business success stories, the report shows how companies solve energy and water challenges in their operations and supply chains. The US BCSD’s Louisiana Water Synergy Project is highlighted as one of the 25.

For the past two years, the United States Business Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD) has worked with 21 diverse companies in the lower Mississippi River watershed to address a range of water issues. Coca-Cola is working with Mosaic Fertilizer to address water quality concerns. Valero Energy and Nucor Steel Louisiana LLC have explored new options for wetlands restoration through changes in water management. Projects and policy recommendations have emerged that have been greeted with high interest by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and from a concurrent public sector regional water planning effort.

This multi-sector teaming demonstrates that there is considerable regional interest in using the speed and efficiency of market-based institutions to seek out ways of converting water problems into economic opportunities, and to develop a collective capacity for conserving watershed systems as both private and public goods. (Page 40)

Visit the USCCF’s website to download the report and learn more about how the private sector leverages new technologies, innovation, partnerships, and other approaches to help achieve greater energy and water security. The report also features best practices from leading companies including FedEx, Shell, Ford, Microsoft, Office Depot, and more.

You slashed your water consumption. You shrank your energy bill. You improved efficiencies in your supply chain. Now what? It's time to put sustainability to work for your business. On May 6th, join us at the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Accelerating Sustainability Forum to learn innovative sustainability strategies that can enhance your brand, cut cost, and grow revenue faster and at greater scale. The Chamber, US BCSD, WBCSD and SustainAbility will be bringing together some of the greatest minds and proven practitioners from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to explore two approaches -- enhanced, scaled collaboration and sustainability-driven innovation. These concepts are redefining what businesses can achieve around energy and water use that delivers shared value for your business, society, and the environment. Through visionary speakers, action-oriented sessions, and ample networking opportunities, you will work with other sustainability leaders to refine the partnerships, tools, and techniques you need to create the energy and water solutions to accelerate transformative change.

[button style="xlarge blue rounded" link="http://ccc.uschamber.com/event/accelerating-sustainability" ]Learn More[/button]

Those of you that attended out last Annual Meeting heard a great presentation by Mandar Apte, Global Partnerships Director at Media Rise, on the power of storytelling and meaningful media to accelerate social change. For those that are interested, Media Rise is putting on two events in the near future, Early Rise DC on February 27th and Early Rise Austin on March 7th.

• Media Rise is excited to launch “Early Rise 2014,” a worldwide series of morning mixers for people committed to inspiring media for social good. Our first event will be held in Washington, D.C.
• Join us for an inspiring talk, meditation and networking over healthy breakfast & coffee.
• Mix & mingle with storytellers, designers, activists, business leaders & educators who share your passion & energy for meaningful media.
• Get inspired by changemakers who use media effectively to accelerate social transformation at the individual & community level.

Visit their website at http://www.mediarisenow.com/early-rise-2014/ for more information and to register.

Our report and highlights from our Annual Meeting, which took place on February 5th and 6th in Austin, Texas, is now published. Hit the button below to check it out.

[button style="xlarge blue rounded" link="http://usbcsd.org/scale-up" ]read the report[/button]

A huge thanks goes out to all our members, colleagues and friends who braved the chilly weather to join us at our Annual Meeting last week. The two-day event was a resounding success, thanks in large part to your enthusiastic participation. Keep an eye out for our post-meeting report!

This panel of global thought leaders, who met at the Yale School of Management's Business + Society Conference on January 10th, explored the private sector’s role in protecting and enhancing the human and natural systems that provide the energy, water, food, land, and wide range of other goods and services upon which we all rely. Read more.

The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana (CPRA), the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF), the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ), and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LDNR) are working together to create a new Nutrient Management Strategy for the state of Louisiana. Their purpose is to manage nitrogen and phosphorous to protect and restore water quality in Louisiana’s inland and coastal waters – using incentives and voluntary action to get there. The task force released a review draft of the strategy in December 2013, calling on numerous state and federal agencies and stakeholders from the watershed to play a part in implementing the strategy.

The US BCSD’s Water Synergy Project is highlighted for proactively addressing nutrient management issues and is cited for providing input to the Louisiana Statewide Nutrient Management Strategy. The project's focus on stakeholder engagement, voluntary action, and cross-sector collaboration provided examples of nutrient management efforts already at work.

Implementation of the multi-component strategy includes creating river diversions, using best management practices and conservation practices at non-point sources, promoting wetland assimilation at point sources, providing incentives to practice stewardship, taking advantage of opportunities to leverage current efforts, and utilizing new science-based technologies and applications.

The state of Louisiana is currently accepting comment on the review draft of the strategy through January 31, 2014. To view the draft yourself, visit http://www.lanutrientmanagement.org/. For more information on the Louisiana Water Synergy Project, visit http://water-synergy.org/.