International Life Cycle Assessment and Management 2007
Portland, Oregon - October 2 to 4
'from measurement to investment'
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Intergenerational Finance and the New Bottom Line Chair: Hank Patton, World Steward This panel discusses progress toward the development of a standard international market for “collateral outcomes” based on LCA. Panelists will present working examples of investment in the United States and China where strategic intent to deliver positive environmental and social outcomes can add significant non-traditional contractual revenue to the bottom line. For example Stirling Energy Systems of Phoenix, with $5 billion in contract work underway, is building 800MW of solar thermal capacity in Southern California that will provide fuel-free renewable energy for the Western grid. The project additionally will deliver a range of non-traditional outcomes that include climate, acid rain and health consequences, as well as family wage jobs in a breakthrough clean energy technology. The panel will explore other measurable intergenerational benefits that result from the accelerated commercialization of clean technology, and new ways to get these to the bottom line. Large-scale integrated green developments unfolding in China have significant potential to reduce and replace the need for new coal thermal plants. The Chinese coal industry, however, still grows at an accelerating pace, in contrast to the situation in Washington State, where the sole remaining coal mine at Centralia is mined out, causing significant economic, political and environmental disruption. Representing the beginning and the end of a coal investment life cycle, the Chinese and Centralia situations illuminate the critical need for a profitable intergenerational market in social and environmental outcomes, without which long-term security and stability are unattainable. East West College President and Panelist David Slawson will premier a new state-of-the-art $150 million Portland development called the Oregon Tower. By design intent the most advanced sustainable building in the West, and occupying a full city block near the Portland Convention Center, the 23-floor complex will produce its own energy, process its own waste water, and deliver a range of designed benefits to the city and the future of the city. The Oregon Tower project has explicitly set out to create a business framework for radical efficiency and other valuable outcomes that sustainable design delivers to the future by integrating fully across sectors and through the life cycle of the full system. What services can be incorporated to increase the value in an intergenerational business partnership of this kind? In an interactive dialog with the audience, panelists will discuss existing and planned financial mechanisms for both funding and measuring the environmental and social outcomes of this unprecedented partnership with the future. Panelists: |
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