Halina Szejnwald Brown

The Contested Politics of Corporate Governance: The Case of the Global Reporting Initiative

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has successfully become institutionalized as the preeminent global framework for voluntary corporate environmental and social reporting. Its success can be attributed to the “institutional entrepreneurs” who analyzed the reporting field and deployed discursive, material, and organizational strategies to change it. GRI has, however, fallen short of the aspirations of its founders to use disclosure to empower nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The authors argue that its trajectory reflects the power relations between members of the field, their strategic choices and compromises, their ability to mobilize alliances and resources, and constraints imposed by the broader institutions of financial and capital markets. The authors draw three notable implications from this study. First, institutional theory needs to pay more attention to economic structures, strategies, and resources. Second, institutional entrepreneurship by relatively weak societal groups such as NGOs is inherently constrained by the structural power of wider institutions and by the compromises required to initiate change. Third, the strategies of NGOs represent a form of power capable of shifting, if not transforming, the field of corporate governance.

Learning for Sustainability Transition through Bounded Socio-technical Experiments in Personal Mobility

Abstract A bounded socio-technical experiment (BSTE) attempts to introduce a new technology, service, or a social arrangement on a small scale. Many such experiments in personal mobility are ongoing worldwide. They are carried out by coalitions of diverse actors, and are driven by long term and large scale visions of advancing society’s sustainability agenda. This paper focuses on the processes of higher-order learning that occur through BSTEs. Based on the conceptual frameworks from theories of organizational learning, policy-oriented learning, and diffusion of innovation, we identify two types of learning: the first type occurs among the participants in the experiment and their immediate professional networks; the second type occurs in the society at large. Both types play a key role in the societal transition towards sustainable mobility systems. Two case studies, in which the Design for Sustainability Group at Technical University of Delft has participated, provide empirical data for the analysis. One case consists of development of a three-wheeled bike-plus vehicle (Mitka); the second case seeks to solve mobility problems on the Dutch island of Texel. We find that higher order learning of the first type occurs among the BSTE participants and beyond. Learning can be facilitated by deployment of structured visioning exercises, by diffusion of ideas among related BSTEs, by innovative couplings of problems and solutions, and by creating links among related experiments. Government agencies, universities and other intellectual entrepreneurs have key roles to play in making that happen. The cases provide much less insights about the second type of learning. Research on the latter is necessary.

Leaders in sustainable development: how agents of change define the agenda

This article provides an overview of the Eighth Annual Greening of Industry Conference, Sustainability: Ways of Knowing/Ways of Acting. Held in Chapel Hill, NC (USA), 14–17 November 1999, the conference featured diverse visions of sustainability and a range of views on which societal actors should play leading roles in setting the sustainability agenda. The conference revealed a dichotomy between corporate and public visions of sustainability: who should define the agenda, who should lead the transition and the degree of change needed to achieve a sustainable society. Presenters at the conference highlighted innovative sustainability actions of corporations, the challenges and successes of collaborative approaches, and the shift in the NGO tactics towards the corporate role in defining the sustainability agenda. A challenge for future Network conferences is how to catalyse fruitful links and mergers among various visions of sustainable development and the leading agents of change. To that end, a research agenda is proposed. Copyright

Pharmacokinetics of the dermal route of exposure to volatile organic chemicals in water: a computer simulation model.

A kinetic model of dermal absorption of nonpolar organic nonelectrolytes in dilute aqueous solutions is described. The model uses systems dynamics STELLA software and is designed for a Macintosh computer. The model assumes the outer stratum corneum layer of skin to be the rate-determining barrier to dermal absorption and assumes that both stratum corneum and viable epidermal layers have storage capacity for lipophilic solutes. The model predicts between 30 and 94% of experimental results with humans under the same conditions. The degree of departure between experimental and theoretical results is inversely related to the solutes octanol/water partition coefficient, which is consistent with the most recently hypothesized mechanisms of transport of molecules across the dermal barrier. The model has potentially useful applications for risk assessment if used within its defined limits.

The challenge of energy retrofitting the residential housing stock: grassroots innovations and socio-technical system change in Worcester, MA

This paper addresses an intractable problem: how to energy-upgrade the existing residential housing stock on a large scale, potentially saving up to 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions? The paper focuses on the USA, with a case study in Worcester, Massachusetts. To address this problem we conceptualise the residential housing stock as a socio-technical system, with as main elements technology, professional knowledge and know-how, formal institutions, markets and the key actors within each. The analysis demonstrates the interconnectedness of the elements and sub-elements of the system, the need to affect change in all of them, identifies homeowners (consumers) and local authorities as the most difficult to change, and suggests that both technological and social innovation – including grassroots activism and multistakeholder collaboration – is needed. We conceptualise housing retrofitting projects as small-scale niche experiments and as grassroots innovations. In this paper we describe an experiment in Worcester, Massachusetts, in which the vision of the project – as community development – was produced by a coalition (WoHEC) of many local actors. This project illustrates both the potentials of our proposed framework in terms of grassroots innovations and socio-technical experiments and its limitations: learning among stakeholders is often slow and ineffective. More research is needed to refine the conceptual framework and to make it applicable to both grassroots innovations and municipal projects.

The Role of Skin Absorption as a Route of Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds in Household Tap Water: A Simulated Kinetic Approach:

BSORPTION OF VOLATILE ORGANIC CONTAMINANTS (VOCs) in tap water by exposure routes A other than direct ingestion, such as inhalation and dermal contact, has been recognized only recently by the risk assessment community. Transfer of volatile water contaminants to indoor air has received particular attention.(I-s) Experimental measurements of volatization of organic solutes during showering(3.4) indicate that the inhalation dosage may be as large or larger than the direct ingestion dosage. Theoretical models developed to simulate the transfer of volatile organics from water to indoor air further support those experimental measurement~.(*~~) Human exposure to volatile water contaminants during bathing, while recognized, has generally received less attention, although several recent publications on that subject may be indicative of changing attitudes.(6,7) In our earlier work(@, we have shown that the dermal route may be a significant contributor to the total exposure to VOCs in tap water and, under some circumstances, may be its major source. Our estimates were based on the absorption rates determined experimentally by Ductkiewicz and Tyras.(gJO) Implicit in our model was the assumption of steady-state absorption rate, which may not be true in a typical exposure setting of a person taking a 15 or 20 min bath. We therefore need a kinetic model for transdermal absorption of chemicals in dilute aqueous solutions. Guy, Hadgraft, and Maibach proposed two similar pharamacokinetic models(11.12) for percutaneous absorption of topically administered drugs. The models considered four linear compartments (skin surface, stratum corneum, epidermis and blood/urine, and surface, stratum corneum, epidermis/blood, and urine, respectively) and required the knowledge of several rate constants for transport between these compartments. A simplified version of the two models proposed by Guy and Hadgraft(l3). consisted of three linear compartments (epidermis, blood, and urine) and required fewer data inputs but was specifically developed to predict the plasma levels of drugs following dermal application with a specifically designed rate-controlling device.

Individual consumption and systemic societal transformation: introduction to the special issue

Maurie J. Cohen, Halina Szejnwald Brown, & Philip J. Vergragt Graduate Program in Environmental Policy Studies, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102 USA (email: mcohen@adm.njit.edu) Department of International Development, Community, and Environment, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610 USA (email: hbrown@clarku.edu) Tellus Institute, 11 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116 USA (email: pvergragt@tellus.org) Marsh Institute, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610 USA (email: pvergragt@clarku.edu)

Sustainability Science Needs to Include Sustainable Consumption

www.environmentmagazine.org voLume 54 number 1 Robert Kates’s Readings in Sustainability Science and Technology—An Introduction to the Key Literature of Sustainability Science1 is a marvelous compendium of publications on human–nature interactions and their impacts, and related topics. I envision that a student completing a course based on the reader will acquire an extensive understanding of complex human–ecosystem interactions and of the processes and trends in human behavior that are undermining long-term sustainability of the human–eco systems, and will gain some knowledge of innovative approaches to ecosystem management and restoration. The hypothetical student will probably walk away from the class with a sense of urgency and with a vision of a formidable policy and political agenda for the nations of the world: from health, to stabilizing the population, to assuring food security, to building sustainable cities, to reducing the intensity of material consumption, and much more. The student will be a better critical thinker, and will have acquired some tools for data analysis and interpretation. But what if this student wants to understand the root causes of our current overuse of the earth’s life support systems? What if she wants to understand why, with so much scientific knowledge and such urgency, governments have taken so little action? Why have the traditional policy approaches—regSustainability Science Susinable Co n s u m p t i o n

Development-environment interactions in the export of hazardous technologies: A comparative study of three multinational affiliates in developing countries

Abstract We reconstruct case histories of siting hazardous manufacturing facilities in India and Thailand by three multinational corporations: Du Pont, Occidental Chemical, and Xerox. The analysis focuses on the interactions of the host country development agenda, corporate culture, and the nature of business arrangements between parent and joint venture partner to explain decisions and tradeoffs during the siting process. The cases provide the foundation for a four-stage model of key determinants of management and regulatory actions in four phases of the facility life cycle. Six themes emerge: parent company preservation of environmental and occupational health management responsibilities; forces leading to responsible corporate behavior; downstream consequences of upstream decisions; key determinants of corporate performance; “functional equivalency” in practice; and hidden tradeoffs over the life cycle of the facility. Our findings are interpreted in the context of emerging concepts of corporate environmentalism and sustainable development.

The environmental regulation of privatized industry in Poland

The authors examine the operation of the environmental protection system in Poland. Drawing upon the results of a mailed questionnaire survey of privatized manufacturing firms, they investigate the degree to which Poland has been successful in strengthening its environmental regulatory system. In general, the survey data reveal an operational system of environmental protection that is an amalgam of traditional command-and-control regulation and flexible enforcement that is well suited to the current political and economic conditions of Poland. Among the features of this regulatory system, which supports improved environmental performance for privatized firms, are a tough system of facility licensing, a flexible approach to compliance, good information availability at the local level, and broad agreement as to the legitimacy of environmental protection among firms in Poland. The authors stress the importance of matching regulatory strategy to societal context.