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B&E Program and Course
Updates
 B&E Diploma program
students—and students considering enrolling—should become aware, as soon as
possible, of the requirements and deadlines for the program. Knowing, and meeting, deadlines is the
student’s responsibility. This should,
however, be an easy task since requirements are fairly minimal compared to
other FES programs like Planning.
Every issue of the newsletter will include links to the B&E program
page, the Diploma Guidelines Booklet, and the handy list
of “Paperwork
needed by MESers for B&E diploma”—in the left-hand column at
the top of every newsletter. These 5
or 6 simple items listed in the Paperwork file should be easy to submit. Refer
to the Diploma
Guidelines and Paperwork files first whenever you have a
question about the program. Then check
with coordinator Brian Milani or program staff organizer Tiffany Lord-Westah.
A delay in Schulich’s hiring of a new coordinator has
resulted in a temporary change in core course scheduling; but it’s nothing
that need affect B&E student plans—if
you are planning ahead. Normally ENVS 6191 (
Schulich BSUS 6300.03), Management Practices for
Sustainable Business is given in the fall;
and ENVS
5113 (Schulich, BSUS 6500.030), Business Strategies for
Sustainability, is offered
in the Winter term. This year both of
these Schulich courses will be offered in the Winter term. Students can take the courses in either year
1 or 2, or take them in any
sequence.
Students enrolled
in, or considering enrolling in, the B&E program are strongly urged to
take ENVS 5150
 Perspectives on Green Business—especially this year when
Management Practices is not offered in the fall. Although technically still an elective
course for the diploma, it is the unofficial FES ‘core course’—intended to
provide a holistic overview of B&E issues. Please note that the list of approved
elective courses in the Diploma Guidelines Booklet needs to be
revised—something that can’t be done until a new Schulich coordinator takes
over. But the list is still a convenient
guide to FES course selection, even though some newer FES courses are not
included. For this reason, feel free
to consult with coordinator Brian Milani if you are unsure if a particular
course qualifies as an elective, or if you want to make a case that a course
you want to take should
qualify.
Students
should also be aware that they have the option of taking two courses from the
Jacques Whitford Institute. One is on Environmental Management Systems, and the other on Environmental Auditing and Legislation. Each is usually offered on separate
weekends in November and April, with the combination of both courses eligible
for three FES credits. Each course is
usually $350. Stay tuned for specific
dates.
Finally, FES B&E courses like Perspectives are open to all FES
students interested in economic alternatives or any issues relating to
business or regulation. Similarly
B&E research and project groups—and the film series—are open to all
FESers.
New FES Faculty Members Explore New
Business & Regulatory Models
 B&E students
will be pleased to discover that recent hirings in energy/climate and food
specializations have also brought the Faculty substantial expertise in
business and the environment. Mark Winfield, previously
Director of the Pembina Institute's Environmental Governance Program, has
published and developed policy on a wide variety of environmental issues,
including energy and climate change. He holds a PhD in Political Science from
the University of Toronto, and was also an associate faculty member at the U
of T’s Centre for the Environment. One
of Canada’s outstanding minds on environmental policy and regulation, Mark
will be a great resource for all FES students.
 Rod MacRae is a food consultant; and a former Research Associate of the Centre for
Studies in Food Security at Ryerson Polytechnic University. He has also taught courses on the food
system at FES as a part-timer, and supervised MES major papers. Rod did his PhD at McGill under sustainable
agriculture pioneer Stuart Hill. From
1990 to 1999, he was coordinator of the Toronto Food Policy Council. He was
co-author (with Wayne Roberts and Lori
Stahlbrand) of Real
Food for a Change, (Random House, 1999); and co-editor of For Hunger-Proof Cities: Sustainable Urban Food Systems
(IDRC, 2000). Not incidentally, Rod is
also a partner in the innovative eco-company Local Flavour Plus which helps
create markets for local organic growers while greening institutional
procurement. Rod, the brains behind
LFP’s innovative certification system, can help FES students not only
understand the food system but also transform it.
 Jose Etcheverry has been the one of
the Suzuki Foundation’s key climate campaigners and policy analysts. Taking his BA from York and his Masters and
doctoral studies at U of T, Jose worked with the climate change team of the
Global Environment Facility in Washington DC and for the Mexican Electricity
Research Institute. While his official bio says that “his current research is focused on renewable energy technology transfer,
training and education, climate change and energy policy,” those who know him
are aware of his strong social justice concerns, and his innovative ideas for
creating grassroots energy alternatives.
BALLE Conference Spurs Innovative Initiatives
 The Business Alliance for Local Living
Economies, the fast-growing network of “values-driven business,” met in Berkeley California May 30-June 2 for its 5th annual international conference. FES B&E coordinator Brian
Milani and ecopreneur Kate
Holloway represented Green
Enterprise Toronto (GET), T.O.’s BALLE network, joining 700 other
businesspeople, community developers, and policymakers at UC-Berkeley.
The main conference featured a braintrust of big-name plenary
speakers, along with panels and workshops on a wide variety of topics
relevant to grassroots enterprise and economic development. It was preceded by two days of
preconferences—on money, on government & economic development, and on
Local First campaigns—as well as a film series.
Because BALLE conferences highlight the most successful and visionary
businesses and community development efforts, they are known to be exciting
events. But culminating a year of
unprecedented environmental awareness—including the expansion of BALLE to 52
local networks—an especially electric atmosphere prevailed, heightened by a
number of innovative new initiatives showcased by the conference.
“Congratulations, 2007 is your year!” opening keynote speaker Van
Jones of the Apollo
Alliance told the delegates. “This is the year you’ve gone from freak to
sheik, from the margins to the mainstream.”
He cautioned them, however, that this move to centre stage now
confronts green business people with a moral dilemma: “Who is going with you,
and who are you leaving behind?”
Jones, the force behind Oakland’s “green
collar jobs” campaign, told the assembly that social justice had to
become an equal partner with sustainability or ultimately the movement would
fail. He urged BALLE networks to take
proactive measures to break down the “eco-apartheid” that he said marked the
fast-growing green development sector.
 A parallel message was driven home by Paul Hawken the following day. Echoing
the themes of his new book Blessed Unrest, Hawken argued
that the modern environmental movement is but one expression of “the largest
movement the world has ever seen” and which, at roots, is the outcome of a
long history of struggle for human rights.
Hawken is practically involved in giving voice to this gigantic
movement, through his Natural Capital Institute’s Wiser Earth database of groups,
individuals, issues and enterprises.
The intention is to link every activist group in civil society
worldwide in this database, searchable by group or issue. Betsy Power and Jon
Ramer, NCI coordinators of Wiser Earth, conducted a participatory afternoon
workshop on the project for the conference with a special emphasis on the
implications for values-driven businesses.
The BALLE conference also served as the official unveiling of B Corporation, an innovative
form of  business certification, with which its developers intend to “change
the DNA” of the business enterprise, in effect combining elements of the corporate charter movement with
conventional green/social certification.
In contrast to community chartering of corporations, B-Corp
certification requires a commitment to social purpose and to stakeholders to be embedded directly
into the company’s governance documents.
Despite their greater liabilities and responsibilities, B corps
benefit from a unique brand, a growing community, and access to a range of
network services to improve performance.
While B Corporations are currently designed for US corporate law,
Canadian and other national initiatives are being discussed.
Other conference sessions spanned the range of topics, techniques and
strategies relevant to  regenerative (and
not simply sustainable) development.
They included “Ownership Structures and Succession Planning”; “Big Box
Stores, Jobs, and Local Politics”; “Renewable Energy: Distributed Solutions”;
“Financing Your Community-Based Business”, “Promoting Democracy Through Local
Living Economies”; “Local Food Systems”; and much more.
Among the initiatives emerging from the conference for GET were steps
to formalize a BALLE Canada network, linking local Canadian networks; and a decision by GET Building to encourage green jobs and enterprises in low-income communities
through energy-retrofit and deconstruction services. Torontonians Kate and Brian also explored
possible collaboration between the WISER Earth wiki-based network and GET’s
nascent wiki- business and products directory.
ATTENTION
B&E
students have an opportunity to partake retrospectively in the BALLE
conference via the audio proceedings.
Check out the conference
program, and if there is a session you want to
hear, Brian can make a copy for you.
We will soon also have video copies of the main plenary sessions. Van Jones’ keynote speech will be featured as part of the B&E film
series.
Halifax CANSEE Meeting Focuses on Challenges of Sustainability
by Prof.
Ellie Perkins
"Sustaining Communities and Development in the Face of Environmental
Challenges" was the theme of the 7th biennial conference of
the Canadian Society for Ecological
Economics, held July 26-28 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Hazel Henderson (right)
gave an opening keynote address by webcast, on the topic of "Ethical Markets:
Growing the Green Economy." She told a number of stories
illustrating various principles of green economics -- the importance of
systems thinking, ethics, indicators, diversification, and practical,
workable scenarios for policies and change. Because economics generally
serves as an apologist for powerful business interests, she said, it's
important to understand how the green economy will be and is being financed.
This is her current major project. She transmitted optimism that
capitalism is being reformed via the financial sector and socially-responsible
investment, and she outlined a number of political priorities for advancing
the green agenda: move green and social indicators into the national
accounts (not just parallel or satellite accounts); revolt against the
"Washington Consensus," use new media and the internet to build a
political movement for change and pressure governments; encourage people to
act based on their own direct knowledge.
International
Society for Ecological Economics president Charles Perrings also gave a
plenary address at the conference, as did CANSEE members Bill Rees of the
University of British Columbia, Rob Smith of Statistics Canada,  and past CANSEE president Mark Anielski, among others (see
abstracts and other information on the website: www.cansee.org/2007). This CANSEE
conference was notable for the number of participants from India and other countries of the global South, and its emphasis on local
and community-based initiatives worldwide. A new slate of CANSEE
officers was announced: Kent Gustavson (Jaques Whitford, Halifax),
president; Mohammad Dore (Brock University), VP Communications; Denis Boutin (Quebec Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks), VP
Program; Michael Barkusky (Vancouver accountant and BALLE member), Secretary-Treasurer. The 2009
CANSEE conference is being planned for Vancouver. The finale was a wide-ranging panel discussion on
"Climate Change: How Can Canada Respond?" The proposals included green tax
shifting; a "basic income" or negative income tax; more government
not less; remove perverse subsidies; end media blackouts and erroneous
assertions in the press (educate journalists about climate change); amend and
strengthen the Kyoto legislation; require corporations to produce durable
products; delink economic growth from material throughput and modify our
estimates of GDP growth to emphasize the non-material components of
development. Yes!
B&E
students may be interested to know that FESers, led by Peter Victor and
Ellie Perkins, have been instrumental in founding and sustaining CANSEE,
making York a nexus of this
pioneering academic discipline in North America. CANSEE’s last biennial conference was held at York in October 2005,
coordinated by FES’s Eric Miller. B&E students are more than welcome to
join CANSEE and get involved with it. Check out the CANSEE website for information on joining.
B&E Film Series Blends Critique with Solutions,
Seriousness with Humour
This fall the B&E program will
be sponsoring a bi-weekly lunchtime series of economically-oriented films
intended to entertain and inform. Because
some of the films are new, the schedule is tentative, but promises to be
engaging in any case. Bring your lunch
(or some popcorn) and gear up for some animated discussion. Here is the
current schedule for the every-other-Thursday format in HNES room 140, 12:30-2:15:
** to be confirmed
Toronto’s Business Improvement
Areas (BIAs): A Cutting-edge of Green Business in Toronto
by Chantal Brundage
 Chantal (Dalgliesh)
Brundage [left] graduated the MES program with the Diploma in Business and
Environment in Fall 2005. Her MES program focus on small business and the
environment build on early research conducted during her Honours BA in
Environmental Studies from Trent University.
I graduated the MES program with a
completed Plan of Study in Small Business and Environmental Practices.
Shortly afterwards, I was very fortunate to meet representatives from the Toronto Association of Business
Improvement Areas (TABIA) who were seriously considering developing an
energy and environmental conservation program for their members. This
opportunity to implement the findings of my MES education resulted in my
contribution to the creation of greenTbiz which I currently manage today.
read
entire article
Bridging
the Stakeholder Gap: NGO Partnerships and CSR in Brazil
by Arlita MacNamee
 Arlita MacNamee, MES 2007, was (like Chantal Brundage & Lia Gudaitis) a dynamic part of the incoming class of Sept. 2004 which formed the
“Business & Environment Collective” 2004-2006
at FES. Focused on both planning and
business, she developed expertise in a wide variety of realms—including green
building, community development, and urban design. Arlita spent time in Brazil working on the Sisters Watershed
Project, co-directed by Ellie Perkins, and has subsequently
remained in Brazil to work with Instituto
Sangari, a science education-oriented NGO.
Corporate Social Responsibility is
often described as a movement in its infancy in Latin America, but is slowly transforming from
a few isolated examples of responsible companies into a broader social  movement, in which civil society plays a major role. In South America, Brazil is leading the way
in CSR, through leadership and a hand-full of visionary companies.1 While
corporations around the world learn to walk the walk of CSR, Brazilian firms
like Petrobras,
are winning awards for their efforts, and seeing their investment in
community and environment reflected in their strong financial
performance. In the Petrobras case,
identifying the opportunity in NGO partnerships has strengthened their
stakeholder relationships and brought value to the reputation of Brazil’s largest oil and gas
company.
read entire article
City Green Economic Development Plan Sparks Debate about Manufacturing
 One of the first casualties of the
new wave of climate change awareness in Toronto seems to be the old stereotype of a supposed trade-off between jobs
and environmental protection. In early
July, the City Economic Development Dept. presented a report to Council’s
Planning Committee on possible green economic development, entitled People,
Planet and Profit: Catalyzing Economic Growth and Environmental Quality in
the City of Toronto. It featured a 10 point program of fairly
constructive measures. The
proposals—for initiatives from energy conservation to green procurement—met
with general approval from the Counsellors and interested deputants, but a
coalition of greens and labour reps suggested an additional focus for the
city: major job-creation through green manufacturing. read entire article
Socially Responsible Investment at York: YCRI
 A conscientious group
of faculty and students have been meeting to discuss and influence the
University’s investments. The York
Coalition for Responsible Investment includes FES’s Ellie Perkins & Anna Zalik, Social Science’s
Darryl Reed, Math’s Peter
Harries-Jones,Imran
Kaderdina,
Political Science’s 
b&E Collective Vet Proposes Blog
by Lia Gudaitis
 Lia Gudaitis, like
Chantal Brundage and Arlita MacNamee (above), was part of the incoming MES
cohort of Sept. 2004, which formed the business & Environment Collective. Lia developed and maintained the
Collective’s website, and since graduation has been mainly working in
Africa. She will soon be heading for a
planning job in United Arab Emirates, but wants to maintain some connection
with the FES B&E experience. Her
offering here provides an interesting account of some recent B&E student
experience, besides an invitation for current FESers to dialogue with
Collective alums on B&E
issues.
The business & Environment
Collective came about from a group of enthusiastic students in the
Business & Environment Diploma program at FES. Though all of the founding members have
since graduated, many of us are working in green business and related fields
and are attempting to keep the spirit of the b&E alive by starting a blog
to replace our now defunct website and listserv. Anyone can visit the blog and write comments
(at http://becollective.blogspot.com/);
and people who are interested in posting to the blog can email
<lia.gudaitis[at]gmail.com> to become a blog author. Your energy and enthusiasm will make the
blog a useful resource for colleagues and people interested in green
business.
b&E Collective: Who We Are
The b&E Collective is
primarily… read entire article
Upcoming Events
Sept. 7 “Find Your Path to
Sustainability: Green Your Small Business”, GET workshop with Rob
Sinclair of Conscious Brands
Inc.
Sept. 11 B&E
program meeting: sign up for project groups (non-program students
welcome)
Sept. 11 GET Smart speaker
series: GET Network Director
Chris Lowry,
7-9 pm, 215 Spadina
Sept. 12 Net Impact: Schulich
Kick-off Barbeque, 5-7pm, in the Schulich
court-yard.
Sept. 12 Coalition for a Green
Economy : “Alternative
Land Use Services (ALUS) program: Rethinking Agricultural Policy And The
Environment”, 7pm, Toronto City Hall, committee rm. 1
Sept. 26 Socially
Responsible Investment at York,
panel organized by the YCRI, 2-4 p.m., York Lanes room 305
Sept. 27-28 IIDEX/Neo Con Canada Conference, “Transforming the
Built-Environment,” Direct Energy Centre, CNE
Oct 10–11: Ottawa, International Symposium on
Environmental Standards for Electronics (ISESE'07)
Oct. 11-14 La Jolla, CA, Social Venture Network fall conference “World
Changing Ideas: Innovation in Action”
Oct. 17, Burlington, ON, GALA 2007: 7th Annual Co-Operative
Conference and Gala, Ontario Cooperative Association
Oct. 18-20 Munich, Germany, Eighth Global Conference on Environmental
Taxation
Oct. 19-21 San Rafael California, Bioneers Conference
Oct. 22-25 Victoria BC, 1st International Research Conference
on the Social Economy
Oct. 24-25 Toronto Green Building Festival
Oct. 24-28 Planet In
Focus International Environmental Film and Video Festival
Nov. 7-9 Chicago GreenBuild 2007
Nov. 7-9 San Francisco Co-op America’s
Green Business Conference
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Quotes of the Month
“The living wage is to Wal-Mart
what Kyptonite is to Superman.”
--Michael Shuman
"The most striking thing about modern industry is that
it requires so much and accomplishes so little. Modern industry seems to be
inefficient to a degree that surpasses one's ordinary powers of
imagination. Its inefficiency therefore remains unnoticed."
--E.F.
Schumacher
“New-school marketing is based upon satisfying needs.”
--Conley
& Freidenwald-Fishman
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on Green Business course webpage
To Business
& Environment program page
To FES homepage
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