Robert Costanza , Gar Alperovitz, Herman E. Daly, Joshua Farley, Carol Franco, Tim Jackson, Ida Kubiszewski, Juliet Schor and Peter Victor
Bob Costanza and his coauthors, including Gar Alperovitz, aim to situate our material economy within a larger ecological framework, arguing for system changes including greater equitable distribution of capital and broad public control of the money supply.
Environmental, Social and Governance Investing by College and University Endowments in the United States: Social Responsibility, Sustainability, and Stakeholder Relations
The Urban Strategies Council June 2012 report seeks to answer the question, “what happened to the homes that have gone through foreclosure in Oakland?” Field surveys of the properties owned by Oakland’s two largest foreclosure investors found that 93 percent of properties acquired by investors were located in low-income neighborhoods, that only ten of the top 30 foreclosure investors in Oakland are actually based in Oakland, and that 81 percent of the 10,508 completed foreclosures (since 2007) ended up being owned by banks or other financial institutions. Consequently, this spike in non-local ownership and non-owner occupied housing present concerns for asset building in low-income neighborhoods. The report recommends that banks and Government Sponsored Enterprises improve their first-look programs to give owner-occupant buyers and nonprofits priority to obtain foreclosure holdings.
The National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement
In this report, the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement challenges America’s universities to embrace their responsibility to rebuild and renew civic learning and democratic engagement.A national student assessment found that students’ perception of whether their university promoted awareness of important social, political, and economic issues declined from an already low 45 percent of first year students to just 38 percent of fourth year students.The Task Force calls for colleges across America to expand education services to hone students’ civic knowledge, skills, values, and actions that will prepare them for lives and careers as public servants.If universities embrace reciprocal partnerships with communities, socially responsible businesses, and governmental agencies, their research, teaching, and learning can benefit students and the community, while replenishing civic capital.
PolicyLink, partnering with the University of California’s School of Public Health, released this paper, which promotes participatory research as a critical component for community-driven effort to improve health and foster policy-level change.Drawing on eight best practices from around the country and from six case studies from California, the paper demonstrates how community-based participatory research (CBPR) works to improve community well being. One promising CBPR practice is asset identification, where communities identify and validate their own strengths and capabilities to better address community problems or concerns.
This report, sponsored by Co-operative Education Trust Scotland, introduces employee ownership and uses case studies to demonstrate how co-operatives have not only survived and performed better than investor-owned businesses in the most recent economic crisis but through the last 200 years of social and economic turbulence.One example, the Co-operative Bank, created in 1872, is Britain’s largest consumer cooperative with over 350 branches, more than six million customers, and operating revenue of £108.6 million in the first half of 2011. The bank continues to increase its profitability, and credits its success to its customer-led ethical policy, which has resulted in the withholding of more than one billion pounds in funding to businesses that violate the policy.
