News and Views

CBI receives 2008 EPA Clean Air Excellence Award on behalf of the Greater Boston Breathes Better (GB3) Partnership

CBI was awarded a 2008 EPA Clean Air Excellence Award on behalf of the Greater Boston Breathes Better (GB3) partnership. GB3 was selected from 125 applicants and was recognized for achievements in community action. The awards program, established in 2000 at the recommendation of the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee, annually recognizes and honors outstanding innovative efforts to help make progress in achieving cleaner air. Award-winning entries must directly or indirectly reduce pollutant emissions, demonstrate innovation, offer sustainable outcomes, and provide a model for others to follow. Read the EPA Region 1 Announcement.

CBI Helps Advance U.S. Wind Energy Planning

In July 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy issued a report entitled “20% Wind Energy by 2030: Increasing Wind Energy’s Contribution to U.S. Electricity Supply.” The report results from a collaborative effort between government, industry, and nongovernmental sector stakeholders to explore the challenges and opportunities to achieving a modeled energy scenario in which wind provides 20% of U.S. electricity by 2030.

Wind turbinesCBI was recently selected to receive competitive funding to address market and deployment challenges identified in the Report. Working with CBI founder Larry Susskind and partner Jonathan Raab, CBI will help built the capacity of states to advance wind energy through best practices of collaborative planning and siting. CBI will develop materials and convene workshops for state, industry, and nongovernmental organization partners on collaborative planning and siting for wind energy facilities. The training workshops will be hosted at MIT in Spring 2010.

For more information about CBI’s involvement, contact Kate Harvey.

Interactive Summit Builds Coast-Smart Communities in Maryland

In April 2009, more than 170 Maryland leaders—including mayors, county commissions, environmentalists, business leaders, and state officials—met in Annapolis for an interactive summit about community-level responses to climate risks that threaten the state’s coast. Led by CBI, the MIT-USGS Science Impact Collaborative, and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the summit centered around an innovative negotiation simulation that demonstrated the challenges and policy options coastal communities face.

CBI Supports Global Aquaculture Standard Setting Process
Merrick Hoben
May, 2009
Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food production system in the world, and the trend is projected to continue. Although the industry provides an important opportunity to supplement the oceans’ food supply, it can also cause significant social and environmental impacts if managed improperly.

Many NGOs and civil society groups have raised concerns about the potential for untenable harm to water quality resulting from aquaculture, as well as the spreading of disease, and the promotion of unfair labor practices.

In 2008, WWF asked CBI to help coordinate a global consensus-based standard setting process that will result in scientific and credible social and environmental performance measures at the farm-site level.

CBI is now working with WWF’s coordinators to improve the quality of decision-making among stakeholders worldwide—including scientists, producers, civil society groups, and NGOs. By providing planning and facilitation services for numerous stakeholder meetings around the globe, CBI has supported six global aquaculture dialogues related to shrimp, salmon, pangasius, tilapia, shellfish, and trout.
CBI Reports - Spring 2009
Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food production system in the world, and the trend is projected to continue. Although the industry provides an important opportunity to supplement the oceans’ food supply, it can also cause significant social and environmental impacts if managed improperly.

In 2008, WWF asked CBI to help coordinate a global consensus-based standard setting process that will result in scientific and credible social and environmental performance measures at the farm-site level. Subsequently, CBI has worked with WWF’s coordinators to improve the quality of decision-making among stakeholders worldwide—including scientists, producers, civil society groups, and NGOs. By providing planning and facilitation services for numerous stakeholder meetings around the globe, CBI has supported six global aquaculture dialogues related to shrimp, salmon, pangasius, tilapia, shellfish, and trout.

EPA Network News Highlights Public Apologies

CBI Managing Director Patrick Field and Keystone Center Senior Mediator Douglas Thompson contributed an article to the Spring 2009 issue of Network News, an electronic newsletter for public involvement and collaborative problem solving practitioners. Click here to read the article.

Science and Technology Advice for Decisionmakers: Congressional Briefing

There is a critical need for better, more focused research on complex science and technology issues that Congress and the Administration can use as they consider how to best protect and serve soc

Evaluating Systems of Land Use Mediation in Vermont

The benefits of using mediation, including cost and time savings and better outcomes, have been well documented in negotiation literature over the past three decades.

Helping WWF Create a Global Aquaculture Standard Setting Process

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food production system in the world, and the trend is projected to continue.

Engaging Stakeholders in the Niger Delta - May 2009 Update
David Kovick
David Plumb
May, 2009

Oil production in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region has been marked by decades of strained relationships between host communities, oil companies, and the Nigerian government. Vast quantities of oil, valued at billions of dollars, are pumped each year from the swampy lowlands. Yet, despite the revenue generated by oil exports, much of the population remains mired in extreme poverty.

CBI Reports - Spring 2009
Since 2008, CBI has been working with Chevron Nigeria Ltd. and its Niger Delta stakeholders to improve and strengthen their relationships. The work has brought together community leaders, the company, government representatives, and local non-profits, to produce credible information about development impacts. At the invitation of communities and Chevron, CBI is now facilitating the renegotiation of formal accords between Chevron and local communities. The process provides important lessons about how to construct a legitimate space for negotiations that addresses all parties’ interests, even in the most difficult of conditions.

CBI Reports - Spring 2009

In This Issue: 
Engaging Stakeholders in the Niger Delta - May 2009 Update
Helping Organizations Negotiate More Effectively
CBI Supports Global Aquaculture Standard Setting Process

In this issue of CBI Reports, Hal Movius describes what it takes to build a world-class negotiating organization (according to his new book Built to Win, released in May 2009 on Harvard Business Press); David Kovick and David Plumb report on stakeholder engagement efforts in Nigeria's Niger Delta; Merrick Hoben reports on helping WWF create a global aquaculture standard setting process; and more. Download the PDF or view the articles online.

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