Image Credit: Todd Cheney, ASUCLA Senior Photographer.

The IoES Corporate Partners Program conducted a very successful event on Thursday, May 26, welcoming more than 30 distinguished executives and scholars for an interactive session on corporate environmental footprinting. The panelists included professor Magali Delmas (UCLA); Chien-Ming Chen (UCLA); Adam Grossman (Climate Earth); Doug Mazeffa (Greenopia) and Ben Schwegler (Walt Disney). The panelists discussed with the audience the pros and cons of measuring the product, operation, and supply chain footprints of businesses; how to find opportunities to make the approach actionable; and how to leverage these insights to enhance business value. The panelists presented new research methodologies to benchmark corporate environmental performance as well as new ways to implement corporate benchmarking within the firm and link it to financial performance. Providing valuable insights were the following distinguished speakers:

Magali Delmas
Professor of Management
UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Anderson School of Management

Professor Delmas presented her latest research on the connection between corporate carbon footprints & financial performance. This research, based on 1,000 US firms, established that environmentally efficient companies are assigned higher valuations by the marketplace. Importantly, she showed that emissions from the supply chain have a strong impact of financial performance indicating the relevance of green supply chain management for improved corporate performance.

Chien-Ming Chen
Postdoctoral Scholar
UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

In collaboration with Professor Delmas, Chien-Ming Chen presented his latest research on "frontier" benchmarking, a novel methodology to compare firm’s environmental efficiency. Using a case study on the food & beverage industry, Chien-Ming Chen showed how frontier benchmarking can help firms identify relative performance to main competitors and use this methodology as a tool to improve their environmental and financial performance.

Adam Grossman
Director of Client Services
Cimate Earth, Inc.

Adam Grossman presented the Climate Earth platform, which uses cutting edge approaches in Supply chain Life cycle assessment and enables cost effective corporate environmental reporting for the entire supply chain.  Adam established the potential of this data to increase revenue, reduce costs, and manage risk across a company's entire supply chain.

Doug Mazeffa
Director of Research
Greenopia Corporate Ratings

Doug Mazeffa discussed the processes and procedures of Greenopia, who develops local green business directory, product environmental ratings, and corporate environmental ratings. Doug Mazeffa discussed the sources of data used by Greenopia and the means by which Greenopia evaluates such information across a wide range of industries. He discussed the effectiveness of these ratings at improving firms’ transparency. 

Ben Schwegler
Chief Scientist 
Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development  

Ben Schwegler provided a comprehensive overview of the unique sustainability initiatives underway at Walt Disney Imagineering. Ben Schwegler discussed the innovative "carbon tax" framework implemented internally by Walt Disney units and emphasized the importance of sustainability to the Walt Disney brand and culture.

The UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES) Corporate Partners Program is an annual giving program that supports the high quality research and education provided at the IoES. With its Corporate Partners Program IoES has established a new model for collaboration and communication on environment and sustainability issues – fostering interactive relationships between companies and UCLA faculty, researchers,  students and other firms to explore the latest business opportunities in environment and sustainability, corporate environmental performance, successful eco-marketing strategy and promotion of companies' environmental initiatives.

• Jack Sahl, Director of Environment and Resource Sustainability, Southern California Edison
• Ed Whittle, Lubrication Consultant, Hydrotex
• David Staples, IT Consultant

• Michael Bobenko, COO, Planet Positive International
• Jonty Pretzer, CEO, Pretzer Green Consulting
• Steven Peacock, CEO, Green Globe International

• Brian Patnoe, Vice President, Fleet Sales, CODA Automotive
• Aaron Cohen, Director of Marketing, CODA Automotive

• Geoff Holzrichter, Director, Chem-Jet International
• Adam Grossman, Director of Client Services, Climate Earth, Inc.

• Magali Delmas, Professor of Management, UCLA Anderson and UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
• Ben Schwegler, Chief Scientist, Walt Disney Imagineering

• Cameron Whiteman, Managing Partner, Vertum Partners

• Dan Young, Vice President, ACI International
• Magali Delmas, Professor of Management, UCLA Anderson and UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

• Richard Hansen, Vice President, AECOM
• Lynn Creelman, President, Creelman & Associates, Inc.

• Jose Candia, Sales Consultant (Enterprise, Government, and Education), iGo, Inc.
• Brian Yolles, Coordinator, UCLA Corporate Partners Program

• Greg Spotts, Director of Performance Management, LA Mayor’s Office
• Adam Grossman, Director of Client Services, Climate Earth, Inc.
• Shuchi Desai, Intern, ACI International

 

 

 

UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Published: Monday, June 06, 2011