31 Days of Notable Women- Mary Schapiro, Securities & Exchange Commission

Mary Schapiro, the current Chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, resides in Washington,DC. Her educational background is as follows: BA/BS from Franklin & Marshall College; JD from George Washington University.

Schapiro has spent much of the year trying to overcome the results of past lax regulatory enforcement. From excavating the Bernie Madoff fraud to investigating the ratings agencies’ possible role in the financial crisis, Schapiro is striving to bring order to the most important financial-regulatory house in the world. Most recently she enjoyed a victory: the passage of a long-sought, though somewhat controversial, rule that allows shareholders to have influence over the makeup of a public company’s board of directors.

Source cited: http://www.forbes.com/profile/mary-schapiro

31 Days of Notable Women- Marina Grossi, Green Economic Dev

Marina Grossi, President, Business Council for Sustainable Development of Brazil believes that companies are the main agents for investment in innovation.

Here are some notes from an interview with Ms. Grossi explaining how the Brazilian industry intends to contribute and benefit from the transition to a green economy.

Q. Is the Brazilian private sector already seeing the advantageous scenario for the pursuit of a low carbon economy?

A. Yes, despite the uncertainties regarding the future of the market regulations and pressures. As the main agents to invest in innovation and develop products and services with low carbon emission, the companies are increasing their participation in the negotiation towards a low carbon emission economy. After the goal assumed by Brazil to reduce the emissions up to 38.9%, the Government tends to prioritize initiatives, like the Clean Development Mechanism or the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).

Q. What would it be a good agreement at the COP 15, considering the sectorial arrangements?

A. According to the position paper elaborated by the members of the CEBDS Thematic Chamber of Energy and Climate Change, the sectorial arrangements should not overlap or clash the sovereign decisions of each country. They should be able to impulse the balanced development of the sectors to which they apply, and should not represent barriers to the national industry.

Furthermore, performance patterns should be established for each sector, in terms of greenhouse gases per produced unit, and limit the negotiation of the certified emission reduction to the scope of the sector

Source: http://www.cop15brazil.gov.br/en-US/?page=noticias/interview-marina-grossi–business-council-for-sustainable-development-development

31 Days of Notable Women-Sarah Severn, Env Director for Nike

Sarah Severn, Director of Horizons, Corporate Responsibility, Nike Inc
Global Director of Corporate Responsibility Horizons Nike, Inc.

Sarah Severn has an extensive background in consumer research and advertising prior to joining Nike where she has spent the last 14 years in a variety of roles. Originally recruited in 1993 to establish a consumer insights department in Nike’s European headquarters she moved into an environmental role and in 1995 relocated to World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon as Global Director of the Environmental Action Team. From 1995 to 2000 she led the company’s early efforts to integrate sustainability into the business, from operations through to product design and manufacturing.

In June 2000 Sarah was appointed Director of Sustainable Development. In this role she focused primarily on stakeholder engagement, corporate responsibility reporting and the identification of emerging issues. In 2005 Sarah took on the newly created role of Director of Horizons within the Corporate Responsibility team. The Horizons function has responsibility for “looking long” and identifying future trends, opportunities and issues at the intersection of business and sustainability. For the past 10 years she has lead Nike’s efforts around climate change and is also now focused on developing Nike’s climate change advocacy strategy.

Source: http://www.focusthenation.org/node/1182

31 Days of Notable Women- Women and the Green Economy- Hillary Clinton

The Women and the Green Economy Campaign was designed to promote sustainability and solutions to climate change, and to accelerate and provide the new thinking and creative power for a global post-carbon economy.

The Earth Day Network engaged women in business, government and Non-governmental organizations to be its leaders for their “Women and the Green Economy (WAGE) Campaign”. Their goal is to create a policy agenda and relevant national initiatives that will promote the green economy, secure educational and job training opportunities for women and channel green investment to benefit women.

The first WAGE Campaign was launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Cancun, Mexico on December, 2010.

Here is one of the key participants: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who created a new office for women at the US State Department.

Source cited:
www.earthday.org/campaign/women-and-green-economy-wage