From Green Initiatives to True Social Good
September 20, 2022
Dr. Tobias Schoenherr presents his ongoing research on how businesses can take the momentum from environmental sustainability initiatives and push for progress in social issues such as labor conditions and worker rights. This presentation offers evidence of how companies can leverage their engagement on the environmental front to move the needle also on the social front. Based on a multi-year database of socially responsible investments covering 1,177 multinational corporations, Dr. Schoenherr shows that companies can sustain positive and superior social performance in their supply chain by leveraging their capabilities developed in the environmental field. This impact is further shown to be elevated in the presence of both human and stakeholder capital. Dr. Schoenherr is a Hoagland-Metzler Endowed Professor in Purchasing and Supply Management in the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University and the Co-Editor-in-Chief for the International Journal of Operations and Production Management.
Related resources are below - Dr. Schoenherr asked us not to record the seminar because of his ongoing research. We look forward to his future publications!
Building Social Business by Call Number: 658.408 Y92b c.1ISBN: 9781586488246Publication Date: 2010-05-11
ISO 26000: The Business Guide to the New Standard on Social Responsibility by Call Number: ProQuest Ebook CentralISBN: 9781909493964Publication Date: 2011-05-01
Corporate Social Responsibility: a Very Short Introduction by Call Number: 658.408 M778c c.1ISBN: 9780199671816Publication Date: 2015-02-11
Making Sustainability Work by Call Number: 658.408 Ep85ma c.1ISBN: 9781576754863Publication Date: 2008-01-10
Anthropogeny: Explaining the Origins of the Planet Altering Ape
March 22, 2022
Pascal Gagneux, Professor of Pathology and Anthropology at UC San Diego, addresses the latest insights into the origin of humans and how this single species of primate became a planetary force. He discusses biological aspects ranging from molecules (DNA, glycoproteins, antibodies etc) to
societies (nature deficit syndrome, habitat destruction, field biology, agricultural and medical practice, and emerging diseases) and highlights how our species has become biologically enculturated; i.e. how distinctly human culture has profoundly shaped our biology. See related resources below.
Processes in Human Evolution by Call Number: 599.938 Ay14p Copy 1ISBN: 9780198739913Publication Date: 2017-05-16
The domestication of language : cultural evolution and the uniqueness of the human animal by Call Number: 417.7 C624d Copy 1ISBN: 9780231167925Publication Date: 2014-12-02
Bonobos: unique in mind, brain and behavior by Call Number: 599.885 B644h Copy 1ISBN: 9780198728528Publication Date: 2017-12-07
The Secret of Our Success: how culture is driving human evolution, domesticating our species, and making us smarter by Call Number: 599.938 H394s Copy 1ISBN: 9780691166858Publication Date: 2015-10-27
A Case of Maasai Enkishon (Well-Being) in Kenya
October 6, 2021
Dr. Salau Rogei, a postdoctoral fellow at Carleton University, presents his research on resource conflicts among the pastoralist communities in East Africa. In this case of Maasai enkishon (well-being) in Kenya, he explores the intricacies and tensions around mega-development projects and the challenges they present to the Maasai community’s livelihoods and well-being. Dr. Rogei discusses the community responses to the development of geothermal projects in the Rift Valley region in Kenya. The geothermal projects are globally and nationally recognized as advanced green, clean energy and a game changer in economic and development arena. For the local Maasai community, on the other hand, it is a form of land dispossession, a source of pollution and a driver for cultural erosion. The presentation expands on frictions ensuing from these developments and how they can be mediated to advance community well-being. See related resources below.
Pastoralism and Development in Africa by Call Number: ProQuest Ebook CentralISBN: 9781136255854Publication Date: 2013-05-07
Geothermal Energy by Call Number: ProQuest Ebook CentralISBN: 9781119181033Publication Date: 2016-11-18
Culture, Indigenous Knowledge and Development in Africa. Reviving Interconnections for Sustainable Development by Call Number: ProQuest Ebook CentralISBN: 9789956791910Publication Date: 2014-03-01
Youth and Experiences of Ageing among Maa by Call Number: ProQuest Ebook CentralISBN: 9783110372335Publication Date: 2014-07-04
Selling the Serengeti by Call Number: ProQuest Ebook CentralISBN: 9780820348186Publication Date: 2016-02-15
Community-Based Social Marketing: Fostering Healthy and Sustainable Behavior
April 6, 2021, Co-Sponsored by Heritage Conservancy
Doug McKenzie-Mohr, owner of Doug McKenzie-Mohr & Associates and author of Community-Based Social Marketing: Fostering Sustainable, Healthy, & Safe Behaviors (2011), presented to the DelVal Community about how developing effective programs requires that the behavior change tools that comprise our strategies are well-aligned with the barriers and benefits to a particular behavioral change. Further, these tools need to be implemented in ways that maximize the likelihood of changing behavior, while minimizing program delivery costs. Needless to say, this is a challenging task that all social marketers face. In his presentation, he provided guidance on when to use a variety of behavior change tools (such as commitments, social norms, prompts, and incentives) and how best to utilize them. See related resources below.
Social Marketing to Protect the Environment by Call Number: ProQuest eBook CentralISBN: 9781452224312Publication Date: 2011-01-01
Conservation Psychology by Call Number: ProQuest eBook CentralISBN: 9781118874646Publication Date: 2015-06-29
Why Good People Do Bad Environmental Things by Call Number: 304.28 D466w Copy 1ISBN: 0190636270Publication Date: 2018-04-02
- Community-Based Social MarketingDoug McKenzie-Mohr's website.
Viral Communication: Actions, Opportunities, Self-Awareness
February 9, 2021
Drs. Jessica McCall and Brian Lutz discuss communication in the age of the Internet, and how it continues to pose a tremendous risk to the well-being of our planet and all the peoples who inhabit it. The 21st century does not suffer from a dearth of knowledge. It suffers because it does not know what to do with its knowledge. A popular meme states, “My science doesn’t require your belief,” but this joke refuses to acknowledge an uncomfortable truth about human perception: whether we are considering faith, superstition, or science the act of belief, the cognitive process of accepting something as true functions the same. This is why humans often make self-destructive choices despite a preponderance of evidence. This is why we can see the world warming around us, species dying out, and eco-systems being ravaged and still convince ourselves it is nothing more than politics and posturing. This is why conspiracy theories spread faster than nuanced conversation. Consider why we must, as a society, value and discuss the role language plays in knowledge generation. Science is the best system we have for understanding the madness of this world, but it is powerless if we cannot, first and foremost, learn to understand ourselves. See related resources below.
Media Commons by Call Number: 070.4493637 M956m Copy 1ISBN: 9780252041037Publication Date: 2017-03-29
The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis by Call Number: ProQuest Ebook CentralISBN: 9781136672927Publication Date: 2013-06-17
A History of the Modern Fact by Call Number: ProQuest Ebook CentralISBN: 9780226675183Publication Date: 1998-01-01
The Anthropocene: what is it, and are we there yet?
November 18, 2020
John R. McNeill, Georgetown University, will explain the term and concept of the Anthropocene and present the idea that since about 1950, we've been in a long-term pattern that is a wild departure from environmental history. For the last several years, he has been working with geologists in the "Anthropocene Working Group" tasked with figuring out if geology should formally recognize a new epoch. He will explain some of what geologists have seen in terms of environmental history. See related resources below.
The Great Acceleration by
The Earth has entered a new age--the Anthropocene--in which humans are the most powerful influence on global ecology. Since the mid-twentieth century, the accelerating pace of energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and population growth has thrust the planet into a massive uncontrolled experiment. The Great Acceleration explains its causes and consequences, highlighting the role of energy systems, as well as trends in climate change, urbanization, and environmentalism. More than any other factor, human dependence on fossil fuels inaugurated the Anthropocene. Before 1700, people used little in the way of fossil fuels, but over the next two hundred years coal became the most important energy source. When oil entered the picture, coal and oil soon accounted for seventy-five percent of human energy use. This allowed far more economic activity and produced a higher standard of living than people had ever known--but it created far more ecological disruption. We are now living in the Anthropocene. The period from 1945 to the present represents the most anomalous period in the history of humanity's relationship with the biosphere. Three-quarters of the carbon dioxide humans have contributed to the atmosphere has accumulated since World War II ended, and the number of people on Earth has nearly tripled. So far, humans have dramatically altered the planet's biogeochemical systems without consciously managing them. If we try to control these systems through geoengineering, we will inaugurate another stage of the Anthropocene. Where it might lead, no one can say for sure.
Call Number: 304.2 M233g c.1ISBN: 9780674545038Publication Date: 2016-04-04
The Human Age by
Ackerman is justly celebrated for her unique insight into the natural world and our place in it. In this landmark book, she confronts the unprecedented reality that one prodigiously intelligent and meddlesome creature, Homo sapiens, is now the dominant force shaping the future of planet Earth.Humans have "subdued 75 percent of the land surface, concocted a wizardry of industrial and medical marvels, strung lights all across the darkness." We tinker with nature at every opportunity; we garden the planet with our preferred species of plants and animals, many of them invasive; and we have even altered the climate, threatening our own extinction. Yet we reckon with our own destructive capabilities in extraordinary acts of hope-filled creativity: we collect the DNA of vanishing species in a "frozen ark," equip orangutans with iPads, and create wearable technologies and synthetic species that might one day outsmart us. With her distinctive gift for making scientific discovery intelligible to the layperson, Ackerman takes us on an exhilarating journey through our new reality, introducing us to many of the people and ideas now creating--perhaps saving--our future and that of our fellow creatures.A beguiling, optimistic engagement with the changes affecting every part of our lives, The Human Age is a wise and beautiful book that will astound, delight, and inform intelligent life for a long time to come.
Call Number: 304.2 Ac57h Copy 1ISBN: 0393240746Publication Date: 2014-09-10
After Nature by
Nature no longer exists apart from humanity. Henceforth, the world we will inhabit is the one we have made. Geologists have called this new planetary epoch the Anthropocene, the Age of Humans. The geological strata we are now creating record industrial emissions, industrial-scale crop pollens, and the disappearance of species driven to extinction. Climate change is planetary engineering without design. These facts of the Anthropocene are scientific, but its shape and meaning are questions for politics?a politics that does not yet exist. After Nature develops a politics for this post-natural world. Jedediah Purdy begins with a history of how Americans have shaped their landscapes. He explores the competing traditions that still infuse environmental law and culture?a frontier vision of settlement and development, a wilderness-seeking Romanticism, a utilitarian attitude that tries to manage nature for human benefit, and a twentieth-century ecological view. These traditions are ways of seeing the world and humans' place in it. They are also modes of lawmaking that inscribe ideal visions on the earth itself. Each has shaped landscapes that make its vision of nature real, from wilderness to farmland to suburbs?opening some new ways of living on the earth while foreclosing others. The Anthropocene demands that we draw on all these legacies and go beyond them. With human and environmental fates now inseparable, environmental politics will become either more deeply democratic or more unequal and inhumane. Where nothing is pure, we must create ways to rally devotion to a damaged and ever-changing world.
Call Number: 304.2 P972a Copy 1ISBN: 9780674368224Publication Date: 2015-09-01
Regenerative Capitalism: the Business of Business is Change
November 5, 2020
John Elkington, founding partner and Chief Pollinator of Volans, talks about how businesses can be catalysts for systems change. Drawing on first-hand experience from boardrooms around the world, his new book Green Swans: The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism (2020), examines wicked problems and the ‘ugly ducklings’ of today that have the potential to become tomorrow’s world-saving Green Swans. See related resources below.
Quantum Leadership by Call Number: 658.4092 T782q Copy 1ISBN: 9781503600331Publication Date: 2019-07-30
DelVal Faculty Forum and "What One Health Means to Me"
October 30, 2018 - 6:00pm Life Sciences Auditorium
Faculty from diverse disciplines will hold a moderated discussion on what One Health means within their disciplines. One Health is more than just the interaction of disease, involving the environment, people and animals. One Health is a recognition of the interconnectedness of all things on earth and the need to consider the inextricable linkages between the elements of the One Health triad. In a changing world, global citizens must be aware of these linkages and act in a responsible way to meet the challenges we all face.
The Green Amendment
September 11th, 2018 - 6:00pm Life Sciences Auditorium
Maya K. van Rossum, an environmental activist and attorney, discusses her book The Green Amendment: Securing our Right to a Healthy Environment. Maya K. van Rossum feels current laws are designed to accommodate pollution rather than prevent it. She argues that it is time to turn to the ultimate authority - state and federal constitutions - and lays out a new agenda for environmental advocacy that empowers people.