33rd National Spring Conference on the Environment
Financial Institutions, Corporate Stewardship, and Sustainable Development: Drivers for the Evolution of U.S. Environmental Laws and Practice
June 10, 2005  ·  Baltimore, Maryland
Brochure

SEER has made internal education about sustainable development and its relevance to environmental, energy, and resources practice a high priority for the Section this year.

Presently there exists a profound and disturbing disconnect between global dialogues about stakeholder engagement and the knowledge base built in the US over the past 40 years under NEPA, EJ, Superfund, and other important US-based stakeholder engagement processes. This disconnect may be especially problematic for US lawyers who practice entirely or principally domestic environmental, energy, and resource law. We must understand the relevance of our own practice history to the ongoing global dialogue about sustainable development (SD), triple bottom line (TBL), and stakeholder engagement, in order to keep our clients well served--and in order not to be marginalized in this evolving environment.

PRESENTATION MATERIALS FROM THE SEER ANNUAL FALL MEETING 10/10/03

• Improving Infrastructure Project Results In Sensitive Areas, U.S. and Abroad - Ann L. MacNaughton, J.D., M.B.A., and John Stephens, Ph.D.
• Issues and Challenges in Utilizing ADR with State and Local Agencies - Mitchell E. Burack
• FERC Process Matrix

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES

• ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources - Sustainable Development, Ecosystems and Climate Change Committee Page http://www.abanet.org/environ/committees/climatechange/home.html
• ABA House of Delegates Resolution 108 (August 2003) http://www.abanet.org/leadership/2003/summary/108.pdf
• US Business Council for Sustainable Development http://www.usbcsd.org/
• World Business Council for Sustainable Development http://www.wbcsd.org/
• UN Commission on Sustainable Development http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/index.html
• World Bank Environmentally & Socially Sustainable Development http://www.worldbank.org/sustainabledevelopment/
• World Wildlife Fund http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/policy/macro_economics/index.cfm
• US Government, e.g. http://www.state.gov/g/oes/rls/fs/2002/16387.htm

STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT and CONSULTATION

Stakeholder engagement and consultation (to identify early in a decision-making process the key interest holders and their concerns, and establish a framework for effective communication about those concerns; various options and alternatives, and a framework for taking those concerns into account in order to achieve sustainable solutions) has a significant nexus to our work in conflict management and dispute resolution.

• Equator Principles http://www.equator-principles.com
• Mining Minerals and SD http://www.iied.org/mmsd/
• American Petroleum Institute http://api-ec.api.org/newsplashpage/index.cfm
• FERC ADR resources http://www.ferc.gov/legal/adr.asp

STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT - Links and materials solicited