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Save the Date: IGEL's 4th Annual Conference-Workshop: Valuing Water Posted by Joanne Spigonardo on November 09, 2010

Fourth Annual Conference-Workshop

Save the Date

March 22, 2011
World Water Day
8^th Floor Colloquium
Jon M. Huntsman Hall
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia

Topic: Valuing Water: Business Challenges & Opportunities for Innovation

As part of President Amy Gutmann’s Climate Action Plan, the 2010-11 academic year will be designated the Year of Water at the University of Pennsylvania. The Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL) at Wharton/Penn will lead salient discussions on how businesses can evaluate how water use and the exchange of water value impact the economy, human rights, and global environmental issues.

Conference-Workshop Objective:   Provide an in-depth, informed and current overview on challenges of managing water scarcity and costs, including a global perspective on best practices of business strategy.   Explore specific opportunities for innovation in this area related to the development of new internal management tools, policy formation and new business opportunities.   Issue report based on collective discussions for future research, potential policy impact and future potential business opportunities.

General description: This series of conference-workshops is designed to address leading environmental issues facing business from academic, practical, and policy-oriented perspectives.  Scheduled formal presentations will be limited to a “Davos rule” of a 15-minute, 10-slide maximum for each contribution.  The distinctive format of this series of conference-workshops is to employ “workshop-style” interactions to promote rigorous in-depth discussion and engagement on issues among different stakeholders, including representatives of non-governmental organizations and government as well as business and academia.  Participation in the conference is by invitation only (though requests for participation from interested and qualified people, including students, have been liberally granted).  The aim of the conference-workshop is to promote a neutral and intellectually rigorous environment for learning and education on major selected issues.  Identification of topics and problems deserving continued research or revisiting at future conferences is another goal of the deliberations.

 

Tentative Agenda

8:30 – 9:00                  Registration &Breakfast

9:00 – 9:15                   Welcome Remarks: 

Vincent Price, Penn Provost

9:15 – 9:30                    Introduction:  

Eric Orts, Faculty, Director of IGEL
Elaine Wright, Conference Moderator                                

9:30 – 11:30                Panel #1:

Business Challenges for Water Management, Strategy, and Policy 

 Robert Giegengack (Penn), Will Sarni (Deloitte), Joe Rozza (Coca-Cola Company), Jeffrey Fulgham (GE Power & Water), Carol Collier (Delaware River Basin Commission), Christopher Crockett (Philadelphia Water Department)

Moderator: Eric Orts (Wharton)

 

11:30 –12:30               Small Group Discussions & Group Reports

12:30 – 2:00                Lunch & Networking

Guest Speaker:  Carl Ferenbach,
Managing Director, Berkshire Partners
Chairman, Environmental Defense Fund

2:00 – 4:00           Panel #2:

“The Value of Water as a Driver for Innovation”

Piet Klop (WRI), Nushin Kormi (Goldman Sachs),Scott Bryan (ImagineH20), Gena Leathers (Dow), Barbara Paxton (United Water), Noam Lior (Penn), Aurelio Ramos (The Nature Conservancy)
Moderator: Stan Laskowski (Penn)

4:00 – 5:00                  Small Group Discussions & Reports

5:00 – 7:00                  Reception: 

Harker Hall, 8^th Floor Jon M. Huntsman Hall

Keynote Speaker: Charles Fishman, Journalist and Author
"The Big Thirst: The secret life and turbulent future of water”

Closing Remarks

For more information contact: environment@wharton.upenn.edu

Dinner: Reception & Dinner at the University Museum Posted by Joanne Spigonardo on April 26, 2010

 

After the panels ended, attendees walked to the University Museum, located at 3260 South Street. After cocktail hour, everyone went into the dining room for a specially prepared meal consisting of local and sustainable foods.

Brent Blackwelder, the President Emeritus of Friends of the Earth, gave the keynote speech during the dinner. He discussed his relationship with policymakers and their joint work to protect the environment.

 

See more pictures from the reception and dinner after the jump.

Networking Posted by Joanne Spigonardo

After the third panel, conference attendees had impromptu discussions amongst themselves. Following the informative and engaging panels, attendees were eager to talk about the important issues from the day.

 

More pictures of conference attendees after the jump.

Panel #3: Greenhouse Markets & Best Practices for Business Management Posted by Joanne Spigonardo

The third and final panel of the day focused on green business management practices. Panel moderator, Kyung-Ah Park from Goldman Sachs, began with a short talk about her experience in the industry. The four panelists followed with presentations on their own experiences and the work of their respective companies. The panelists were Bruce Alexander from Exelon, Doug May from Dow, David Struhs from C3, LLC, and Catherine Potter from GreenOrder. To see each of the panelists' slides, please click here.

After the panel, the floor was opened up for questions from the audience.

   
 
  

 

Small Group Discussions & Reports Posted by Joanne Spigonardo

After the second panel, conference participants again broke out into groups of 6-8 people and discussed questions relevant to the second panel. These questions included:
1. Can the United States afford not to have a national carbon trading market?
 2. How do you see the evolution of the greenhouse markets in and outside the US in the next 12 months? Five years?
 3. What impact will COP-15 have on the possible development of greenhouse markets? Should it be considered on a national or international level?

After the group discussions, each table had one person summarize the discussion points to the conference.  Some of the groups utilized the questions, but many tables went on interesting tangents. 
 

Panel #2: Greenhouse Markets & Government Policies Posted by Joanne Spigonardo

 
Dr. Michel-Kerjan, the panel moderator

 

The day's second panel focused on the interaction between markets and government when dealing with climate change and carbon emissions. The panel was narrated by Erwann Michel-Kerjan, the Managing Director of the Wharton School’s Risk Management and Decision Processes Center. Panelists included David Buente from the law firm Sidley Austin LLP, Timothy Juliani from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, Joel Kurtzman from the Milken Institute, and Michael Walsh from the Chicago Climate Futures Exchange. To see the slides of each of the panels, click here.

After each of the panelists spoke, the room was opened for questions from the conference attendees.

 

 

For pictures of the panelists, see after the jump.

Small Group Discussions & Group Reports Posted by Joanne Spigonardo

After the first panel, conference participants broke out into small groups to discuss questions related to the morning panel. These questions included:

1. Which key data components should a jurisdiction or company have in-place so that it can properly prepare for climate regulation?

2. In the absence of global legislation, what kinds of parameters should a company or jurisdiction use to evaluate the long-term sustainability of infrastructure investments?

3. What are the key lessons we've learned so far from COP-15?    

 

Students and industry experts gathered around tables and held in-depth discussions for twenty minutes.  When everyone reconvened, each group shared its talking points with all conference participants. Many groups followed the spirit of the conference-workshop by going beyond the original questions and touching on interesting tangents such as the challenges of local versus global regulations and the need for more communication among industry and jurisdictions.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See more photos of the first group discussions and their subsequent reports after the jump.

Panel #1: Global Implications and the Future of Carbon Posted by Joanne Spigonardo

 
Gretchen Hancock, the panel moderator

 

The first panel of the day discussed the global implications of greenhouse gas markets and the future of carbon from a business perspective. Panelists included Ann Condon, Director of Environmental, Health and Safety from GE, Djordjija Petkoski, Head of the Business, Competitiveness and Development Team from the World Bank, Reimund Schwarze, Senior Research Fellow from the Helmholtz-Institute for Environmental Research and Eric Orts, the Faculty Director of IGEL and Guardsmark Professor of the Wharton School. Gretchen Hancock, Project Manager for Corporate Environmental Programs at GE, moderated the panel and led discussions on de-carbonization through an international agreement and the difficulties of dealing with leakage. For more information, please see each panelist’s slides posted here.

After each of the panelists spoke, the room opened for questions from the conference attendees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For pictures of  the panelists, click "Read more."

Opening Remarks Posted by Joanne Spigonardo

 

Professor Eric Orts, Faculty Director of IGEL, kicked off the conference with welcoming remarks before he introduced Michael Gibbons, the Deputy Dean of The Wharton School. Dr. Gibbon spoke about campus-wide sustainability goals attained through operations, curriculum, and outreach. He noted that IGEL has been in the forefront of these university efforts, specifically helping launch Wharton's Sustainability Program to conserve energy and reduce waste in Wharton facilities. As leading institutions of higher education, Penn and Wharton must demonstrate proactive environmental leadership. Events such as the IGEL series of conference-workshops has brought leading environmental issues to the forefront and opened the door for practical, business-oriented solutions.

 

Click "Read more" for a picture of Deputy Dean Gibbons.

Breakfast to Start off the Day Posted by Joanne Spigonardo

The day began with conversation over a local, sustainable breakfast from Day by Day catering. Attendees chatted with old colleagues and met new people from various fields including business leaders, nongovernmental representatives, governmental workers, and university-wide students, professors, and staff.  

 

Click "Read more" to see additional pictures from breakfast.

Save the Date: IGEL's 4th Annual Conference-Workshop on Valuing Water: Business Challenges & Opportunities for Innovation Posted by Joanne Spigonardo on November 09, 2010

Fourth Annual Conference-Workshop

Save the Date

March 22, 2011
World Water Day
8^th Floor Colloquium
Jon M. Huntsman Hall
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia

Topic: Valuing Water: Business Challenges & Opportunities for Innovation