Rock to attend dinner in D.C.

Rock Environmental, LLC's president, Brittany Hosmer has been invited to attend the International Conservation Caucus Foundation's (ICCF) dinner on October 20, 2009 in Washington, D.C. The dinner is honoring His Serene Highness the Sovereign Prince of Monaco Albert II with the ICCF Teddy Roosevelt® Conservation Award. In recognition of his leadership in biodiversity and water conservation and his establishment of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation which promotes the sustainable and equitable management of natural resources and places the individual at the center of its projects.



The cost of the event is not being paid for by a lobbyist or an organization employing a lobbyist. This event intends to meet all of the requirements to qualify as a widely-attended event.

More information on the ICCF:
www.iccfoundation.us

MISSION — To educate U.S. policymakers and the world’s political and business leaders on the vital links between good natural resource management and sustainable economic development, poverty alleviation and regional security.

OUR GOAL — To be a catalyst for consensus on international conservation policy across party lines and between the public and private sectors to increase the scale and effectiveness of U.S. government support for good natural resource management worldwide.

WE BELIEVE — As America has exported freedom, democracy, and free enterprise, we have the ability and the interest to see that America also exports good natural resource management. Conservation is compatible with development. Stewardship of natural resources is fundamental to poverty alleviation, conflict avoidance, good governance, and regional security. We are convinced that it is in America’s national interest to expand its leadership in the world to promote sound, long-term policies of sustainable land, water, and biodiversity management.

Sustainable Suppliers

How do you make sure your company's suppliers are sustainable?

What if you had the suppliers address some questions that will drive their sustainability performance both now and in the future? Here are some questions that might help them address sustainability:

Do you coordinate your operational risk management efforts with your sustainability efforts?
Do you have a business continuity plan that is linked both to your operational risk management program and your sustainability effort?
Do you have an active engagement program that you use to determine the interests of your key stakeholders?
Are you making compliance with legal and other requirements (i.e., environment, health & safety, social and financial) part of how EVERY employee does his or her job every day?
Do you use an integrated management system to make sustainability a key component in how you operate your business rather than having it work as a peripheral activity?
Are you using "leading indicators" (i.e., from a formal operational excellence program) to drive your sustainability efforts instead of relying on the lagging indicators found in the Global Reporting Initiative and other sustainability indices?
Are you scoring the performance you are making on the areas covered by your leading indicators and lagging indicators and reporting your performance to your key stakeholders?
Are you quantifying the continual improvement made within your sustainability program with a single score?
Are all three responsibilities (i.e., environmental stewardship, social equity and well being and financial prosperity) integrated in your sustainability program?
Do you require your contractors and suppliers to adhere to a "Code of Conduct" that helps them operationalize sustainability in their businesses?

For each of these questions, the supplier should provide a written "approach" to the performance category. They should then suggest how they are "deploying" that approach. Next they will provide some of the results (lagging indicators, including those in the sustainability index) of their approach and deployment. Finally they will report on the improvements that have been made in their sustainability effort.

Robert B. Pojasek, Ph.D., is the sustainability practice leader at Capaccio Environmental Engineering and an internationally recognized expert on the topic of business sustainability and process improvement.

www.rockenvironmental.com