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Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics

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Ohio State to Host Workshop for Businesses on Measuring Sustainability

This article was originally published on the website of Ohio State's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

COLUMBUS, Ohio — How does your business or organization measure and account for sustainability?

Faculty in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University would like to help your organization learn to better implement, measure and evaluate sustainability efforts at a workshop on May 19 at Ohio State’s Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center.

“We hope participants will leave the workshop with knowledge of the critical ecosystem services affected by business decisions and supply chain management and have an understanding of emerging tools that businesses can use to analyze their sustainability efforts,” said Brent Sohngen, the lead organizer of the workshop, director of Ohio State’s Environmental Policy Initiative, and a professor in the college’s Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics (AEDE).

Building off of the curriculum offered through the college’s sustainability program of study, called Environment, Economy, Development, and Sustainability, faculty from AEDE and from Ohio State’s School of Environment and Natural Resources and engineering programs will present on topics such as valuing ecosystem services and supply chain analysis.

Additionally, representatives from The Nature Conservancy, Greif Inc. and American Electric Power will speak on sustainability initiatives undertaken by their organizations and in their corporate partnerships.

“The anticipated global population growth and related demands will place unprecedented pressure on our natural resources. Now, more than ever, business, governments and academic institutions must collaborate to ensure adequate action is taken to protect Earth’s ecosystem services,” said Scott Griffin, chief sustainability officer and VP of corporate communications at Greif Inc., who will offer the event’s lunchtime keynote address.

“In business we say, ‘What gets measured, gets done.’ This workshop will introduce the frameworks, tools and best practices necessary to align the efforts of all parties and improve the probability of achieving expected results,” Griffin said.        

The workshop’s hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The 4-H Center is at 2201 Fred Taylor Drive in Columbus.

The cost to attend is $40, which includes all workshop materials and lunch.

Registration must be made in advance at go.osu.edu/RegisterMeasuringSustainability.

To learn more about the agenda and speakers, visit go.osu.edu/MeasuringSustainability.

Photo: NicoElNino, iStock