Current Events > Gotta go present my masters project

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's a sustainability plan for the port authority

The mayor's gonna be there!
---

sustainability for port authority???

bump
---

it went okay

there was a state rep and a city councilor there too
---

what exactly is a sustainability plan for the port authority?
---

sustainability is supposed to balance the three goals of environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic growth

a sustainability plan is a guide for a firm to achieve all three of those goals

the firm we did it for was the local port authority

for a port authority, most of their sustainability initiatives are going to involve making investments in operational efficiency in order to save money on energy consumption, but because ports have a lot of moving parts there's not a one-size fits all solution

I'm not sure which recommendations the port authority is actually going to run with yet though
---

hope it went well!
---

Did it go well, TC?
---

yeah it went alright

I should have mingled more with the elected officials afterwards

the GOP politician was obviously combative, but she responded p well to my answers so I think that was alright

Im just glad its over with
---

Balrog0 posted...

sustainability is supposed to balance the three goals of environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic growth

a sustainability plan is a guide for a firm to achieve all three of those goals

the firm we did it for was the local port authority

for a port authority, most of their sustainability initiatives are going to involve making investments in operational efficiency in order to save money on energy consumption, but because ports have a lot of moving parts there's not a one-size fits all solution

I'm not sure which recommendations the port authority is actually going to run with yet though

How do you measure improvements? How do you identify bottlenecks? Which of the three do you prioritize?
---

meingott posted...

How do you measure improvements?

depends on what you're improving

meingott posted...

How do you identify bottlenecks?

you'll have to be more specific

meingott posted...

Which of the three do you prioritize?

money
---

How do you measure improvements in environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic growth? What metrics do you use? How do you obtain the metrics?

How do you identify what the obstacles and roadblocks are to increasing the amount of stewardship, social equity, and economic growth? What tools or methodologies do you use? What are the most common bottlenecks?

When you have to choose between one of the three, how do you prioritize environment stewardship, social equity, and economic growth?
---

meingott posted...

How do you measure improvements in environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic growth? What metrics do you use? How do you obtain the metrics?

It still depends on what you're improving specifically...

For instance, one element of environmental stewardship is water quality. But if one of the industries in the port produces waste water, and another uses water in their production processes, you can improve both environmental quality and economic efficiency by connecting these two firms together and letting the output from one be the input for another.

Even if you're only trying to measure economic growth narrowly, what metric you use depends on what you're doing. Whether you're investing in new capital infrastructure or just changing policies requires different measurements.

That's why I said someone should be in charge of sustainability efforts if they care about it. Most of this is too contextual to answer in generalities.

meingott posted...

How do you identify what the obstacles and roadblocks are to increasing the amount of stewardship, social equity, and economic growth? What tools or methodologies do you use? What are the most common bottlenecks?

There are a couple of different reporting procedures that have national or international recognition (the EPA and GRI, mainly). I don't expect that my port authority will follow any of them fully, since they probably don't have the financial capability to do a full sustainability audit.

again, what do you mean by bottlenecks?
like in literal terms the bottlenecks happen in a physical form within the various shipping industries and a huge part of sustainability is alleviating those problems through either establishing port infrastructure that reduces idling costs or changing port operations to reduce the number of transactions between ship and store

I think you mean a more figurative bottleneck, though, and I'm not sure what exactly

meingott posted...

When you have to choose between one of the three, how do you prioritize environment stewardship, social equity, and economic growth?

the reason the port wants to pursue sustainability is because multinational businesses like to be able to establish operations in an area that has given a thought to not just their near-term profitability, but also their long-term feasibility

so money, but maintaining your human and natural resource bases is important for your bottom line if you're the kind of company that expects to last for another couple decades
---

How does one get involved in measuring water quality in ports and in other places? And how would you go about securing the funding and authority needed to actually drive improvements in water quality? How do you acquire data when corporations or governments in an area aren't being cooperative?
---

meingott posted...

How does one get involved in measuring water quality in ports and in other places?

My limited understanding is that it involves the EPA and the state department of environmental quality. There are public or quasi-public databases for contamination in the water tables, and the port could create an internal inventory if they spent the resources on doing so

meingott posted...

And how would you go about securing the funding and authority needed to actually drive improvements in water quality?

The port authority doesn't have the ability to command from on-high except in very limited areas, so the authority isn't there. The funding is, though. There are a lot of grants (governmental and NGO) to make these kind of investments. One of the things I pointed out is that is a good function for a public authority like the port to pursue -- gather data and disseminate it to tenants and then help them secure outside funds for specific improvements.

meingott posted...

How do you acquire data when corporations or governments in an area aren't being cooperative?

you can't, so you have to convince them its worth cooperating
---

What's your favorite Prince song?

Balrog0 posted...

meingott posted...

How does one get involved in measuring water quality in ports and in other places?

My limited understanding is that it involves the EPA and the state department of environmental quality. There are public or quasi-public databases for contamination in the water tables, and the port could create an internal inventory if they spent the resources on doing so

meingott posted...

And how would you go about securing the funding and authority needed to actually drive improvements in water quality?

The port authority doesn't have the ability to command from on-high except in very limited areas, so the authority isn't there. The funding is, though. There are a lot of grants (governmental and NGO) to make these kind of investments. One of the things I pointed out is that is a good function for a public authority like the port to pursue -- gather data and disseminate it to tenants and then help them secure outside funds for specific improvements.

meingott posted...

How do you acquire data when corporations or governments in an area aren't being cooperative?

you can't, so you have to convince them its worth cooperating

Sounds like progress is so slow-coming that we might as well not even bother, to be honest. What would it take for these things to move at the speed at which private corporations move? Not to make this about the public sector vs the private sector, but the reason I don't participate in things like these is because you can't get anything done. There's way too much red tape that you have to cross in order to get anything meaningful rolling. It's really frustrating.
---

Cocytus posted...

What's your favorite Prince song?

when doves cry > kiss > rest

meingott posted...

Sounds like progress is so slow-coming that we might as well not even bother, to be honest. What would it take for these things to move at the speed at which private corporations move? Not to make this about the public sector vs the private sector, but the reason I don't participate in things like these is because you can't get anything done. There's way too much red tape that you have to cross in order to get anything meaningful rolling. It's really frustrating.

I mean, I would say that port authorities are only public in a very basic sense. They generally don't receive tax revenue and many of them don't even directly operate their port operations. They are more of a monopolistic corporation, similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority, say

the reason they move slowly isn't because of their public or private governance, but because ports are central to supply chains and supply chains have multiple competing private and public interests
---

God speed Balrog. What would help you make progress faster?
---

i ain't doin' shit for this port authority unless they pay me, brother

i would say, though, that most of the impediments are political

for instance

the GOP state rep. was mad that I recommended hiring a new person at a public institution, even though (like I said), its a public authority that only makes revenue from fees to businesses. And that person could help achieve savings in ongoing operational costs that would quickly pay for themselves

the democratic city councilor was mad that there wasn't more about social equity and specifically racial equity in my presentation

in either case, I think being beholden to their constituents impedes efficiency. I wish more politicians had the backbone to think outside of their narrow group interests
---

sounds like it's time to fuck the port authority and the democratic city councilor and the GOP state rep
---