Wednesday, June 20– Ecological Policy for a Flat World, How is ecological policy linked to a national economy’s competitiveness?

Environmental policies are evolving in China to address environmental issues and perhaps inform industrialized countries about new policy approaches.  The concept of the circular economy is one example, a concept that integrates cleaner production and industrial ecology in a broader system encompassing industrial firms, networks or chains of firms, eco-industrial parks and regional infrastructure to support resource optimization.  Another concepts is that of environmental governance and new roles for companies.  Tsinghua University in Beijing is noted for contributing ideas and leaders to China.  The Department of Environmental Science and Engineering is noted for systems analysis and integrated thinking.  A new Center for Industrial Development and Environmental Governance (CIDEG) is promoting policies that enhance communication, understanding and cooperation among the academic, business, non-profit and public sectors.  In 2006, Joanne Fox-Przeworski, a Regent of the MSWG Policy Academy on Environmental Management Tools, visited the CIDEG and was impressed.  Her visit inspired this session.

Presenters: Jennifer Turner* (moderato) is senior program associate of the China Environmental Forum for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC.  Ye Qi.  Also invited is a member of The People’s Congress, Beijing.

Ecological Policy in China: The future

China: Auditing in a performance-based system

A developing country like China presents opportunities for moving beyond the status quo regarding the old structures and systems that help companies meet their economic and environmental requirements and goals.  One due diligence tool used in industrialized economies is the audit and it has been effective in supporting a compliance-based system based on minimal achievement.  But can it be used– widely used– in a developing economy like China to support an environmental performance system?  And if so what can we learn from it>

Presenter:  Donna Sandidge is a principal in Sandidge Partners, LLC, Goodlettsville, TN and a member of the Auditing Roundtable.  Her compelling, business-focused presentation at MSWG’s winter, 2007 meeting in Nashville, TN, hosted by LP Inc., prompted this session.

China and the US: Can markets deliver ecological results?

Risk assessment and chemical regulation

The Strategic Economic Dialogue between China and the United States takes into account the link between economic development and environmental quality. One part of the agreement, signed in December, 2006 commits to exploring cap and trade mechanisms and other market based policy tools that address environmental issues in mainland Chain.  With EPA as its “client,” graduate students at the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs are analyzing what it will take to achieve that goal in the next three to five years as well as reviewing the possible impact on how America and the states might think about market mechanisms.  Is this a snapshot of America’s future, too?

Presenters: Capstone students at the UW-Madison Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs are top line graduate students who undertake important projects for significant clients.  Melanie Frances Manion is a professor of political science and public affairs and teaches at The Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs, UW-Madison and a published China Scholar.  Vacys Saulys is international program manager for the US Environmental Protection Agency, Region V, in Chicago, IL.

Assessing comparative risks and taking steps to mitigate those risks to protect public health, safety and the environment is overwhelming governments and regulatory agencies complicated by litigious systems and stakeholders who want zero risk.  The Alliance for Risk Assessment is a not-for-profit organization that provides services to states and other that want risk questions to be asked and answered efficiently and credibility.  This challenge is not limited to one chemical or one nation; it is everywhere.  Reflecting on recent developments in Europe, the Alliance looks as its work in the United States and at China, which is considering the European approach and asks: What are the issues and what are the trends that can inform risk assessment in the future?  And what are the implications of answers for public policy and public institutions?

Presenters: Andy Maier is associate director of Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment in Cincinnati, OH.  Other experts will be invited.

Integrated permitting in the United Kingdom

A growing number of other countries are using integrated permits, which control all elements of a facility’s environmental footprint.  Accounting for the whole facility’s environmental impacts, an integrated permit goes beyond simple consolidating applicable media permits.  It is intended to promote continually improving performance while ultimately driving the facility to more sustainable outcomes.  EPA, through its Integrated Permitting International Collaboration Effort, is learning from the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) experience in transitioning to an integrated permitting system.  EPA hopes to assess what aspects of the European approach might be translatable to the US, building useful comparison models and assessment tools.  A special focus has been the pulp and paper industry.  This session provides an update on the EPA research effort and a discussion of the place of integrated permitting in The Path to Washington.

Presenters: George Wyeth is the director of the Policy and Program Change Division in the Office of Policy Economics and Innovation in the US Environmental Innovation in the Office of Environmental Policy Innovation in the US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington DC.

Environmental policy lessons from the regulations of finance

The next stop on The Path to Washington is New York City and Wall Street in 2008.  The Adam-Smith Rachel Carson initiative of MSWG is an effort to look at risk and how a business addresses risk in a way that connects what is good for business and good for the environment.  Financial regulators work to assure that investors have accurate information about investment risks, past returns and casual factors likely to affect returns.  They have set up a system to increase the access to and accuracy of information about finical investments that uses both government and non-government institutions and systems.  Are there lessons in how government regulated the finical sector that can be applied to how it might advance performance-based regulatory options?  For example, could regulators adopt, by reference generally accepted environmental performance reporting indicators developed by a third party?  Scholars are asking many other important questions.

Presenters: David Laws is a professor of policy and environmental planning at the University of Amsterdam in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.  Hideaki Shiroyama* is a law professor at the University of Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan.

China today: An environmental regulatory report

How is China responding to its environmental challenges while continuing to support growth and accommodate a population that is aspiring to a higher standard of living like the industrialized west?  What are the implications for businesses and others as government, non-government and community interests in China develop policies that will not only affect companies today but in the future?  And are there any lessons or messages for the outside world?

Presenter:  Hingjun Zhang* is a partner in the law firm of Hilland and Knight of Washington, C and Beijing, China and was a director in the Legislative Office of China’s National People’s Congress responsible for drafting national environmental laws and policies.

China: Supply chain systems for business– managing trade, risks and environmental value through the supply chain and life cycle.

Buyers and suppliers in rapidly developing countries like China face challenges relating to product issues including maintaining product quality, insuring workplace integrity, meeting customer needs and fulfilling the “social license,” including environmental expectations.  Ina place where the regulatory system is developing, the roles of buyers and suppliers are increasingly significant. Examples include environmental and other management systems such as the ISO 28000 standard for supply chain security management systems.  These due diligence tools have to meet the needs of the firm, the customer, the community, the government and financial markets as well as risk and security sectors.  These tools that are being developed in China have lessons for the US. Can the extra-ordinary trade between the US and China be a force for strategic sustainability in both countries?

Presenters:  Michael Penders is president and Chief Executive Officer to Environmental Security International, Washington, DC.  Also present: representative buyers and suppliers from China, the International finance Corporation and the US-Chinese Law Association.

The US-China Strategic Economic Dialogue**

The US-China Strategic Economic Dialogue is developing a bi-lateral framework on economic, environmental and energy issues of importance to both countries.  Announced in September, 2006, it already has produced tangible projects that involve the US Environmental Protection Agency and Departments of Treasury, Energy, State, Commerce and Health and Human Services.  Much of the dialogue has involved energy and its conservation, use and source mix in both countries.  Other environmental issues are on the agenda.  In fact, the environment has become a focal point for relations not only between China and US authorities but on a people-to-people and university-to-university and business-to-business basis.

Presenters:  Representatives of the federal government* have been invited, through the EPA, to participate in presentation and dialogue.

Industrial Efficiency in China

How do firms plan for and pursue their economic and environmental goals in a developing market with the potential of China while protecting the firms’ social franchise, including environmental protection? What are the ground realities?  What are the questions?  What are the opportunities?

Presenter: Nathan Cheng* is a China business strategist for Johnson Controls, Inc. He is based in Shanghai.

How we’ve changed our thinking

From the 2005 MSWG dialogue at Harvard that identified barriers to innovation— law, politics and culture, to the framework developed in Chicago in March 2007, The Path to Washington and its Report to the Nation have brought new focus to MSWG and its partners.  The 2006 Utah workshop noted principles to inform policy — differentiate good performers, protect Good Samaritans and reward good risks.  The 2007 Madison workshop will contribute to that framework based on ideas from around the world.  This workshop also will produce questions and projects for The Path, some of which wil be undertaken in academies that are in the MSWG network, including the University of Pennsylvania.

Presenter: Cary Colianese* is the Edward B. Shils professor of law and political science at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

Morning Breakout Sessions