Opening day of WSSD-U-2016 at MIT on September 14. Slides from Opening remarks and first Panel: Are sustainability policies good indicators of commitment of higher education institutions?

1. Designing Tomorrow’s Campus:
Resiliency, Vulnerability, and
Adaptation
14-16 September 2016
WSSD-U 2016

2. WSSD-U 2016 attendees: 33 countries

3. connect
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get speaker bios, full
agenda, and more!
guidebook.com/g/sustainconnect16
WSSD-U-2016

4. 4:00 PM Opening Remarks & Welcome
4:15- 5:30 PM Keynote Panel :
Are Sustainability policies good indicators of
commitment of higher education
institutions?
5:30 PM Light reception
Agenda: 14 September 2016
WSSD-U-2016

6. Cambridge/Boston: Leveraging place

7. How can MIT be a game changing
force for campus sustainability in
the 21st Century?
guiding question:

8. MIT Office of Sustainability

12. How can WE be a game changing
force for campus sustainability in
the 21st Century?
guiding question:

13. Moderator: Walter Leal, Manchester Metropolitan University UK & HAW
Hamburg, Germany
Panelists:
Nicholas Ashford, Professor of Technology and Policy, MIT
Wu Jiang, Professor, Tongji University, Global University
Partnership of Education for Sustainability co-chair
Chris Shiel, Professor of Life and Environmental Sciences,
Bournemouth University
Keynote Panel 4:15-5:30
Are Sustainability Policies Good Indicators of
Commitment of Higher Education Institutions?
WSSD-U-2016

14. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT POLICIES
Their effect on institutions of higher
learning and where institutional changes
could be made.
Nicholas A. Ashford, PhD, JD
Professor of Technology & Policy
Director, MIT Technology and Law Program
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Copyright © 2016 Nicholas A. Ashford

15. Environment
Technological
change &
globalization
Work Economy
The economy provides goods and
services adequate to satisfy the
basic material needs of all members
of society and provides abundant
and equitable opportunities for the
realization of human potential
Livelihoods are secure and available that
provide satisfying engagement in work
and equitable reward for labor, permit
the maintenance of a decent standard of
living, and are conducted in a safe
working environment
Long-run flows of
environmental services are
provided at a level sufficient
to maintain a stable
ecosystem and to support
human health and welfare
What is the meaning of
sustainable development?
Copyright© 2016 Nicholas A. Ashford

16. Preliminary Observations on the Sustainability Cris
• We are facing the longest recovery period of jobs/employment in modern history.
Unemployment rates do not tell the whole story; wages & job growth continue to
fall.
• We are facing unprecedented wealth (and income) inequality. And that distortion
in wealth has a profound effect on the economic & political agenda of democratic
countries (Piketty; Atkinson; Stiglitz).
• We are hollowing out the middle class with a divergence between the stock
market and the ‘real economy’ … skill-based technological change and the
spreading of earning capacity (MIT’s 2nd Machine Age)
• There is great volatility in the US and global economic system.
• We seem bent on believing in an economic recovery (GDP and productivity),
rather than a transformation of the industrial state.
• We continue to believe that increasing technological innovation is the most
assured pathway to better times (contrast the 2nd Machine Age).
• Global climate disruption/environmental issues present a continuing challenge.
• Reform of the financial system remains illusory.
• We have an unresponsive political system.
Copyright© 2016 Nicholas A. Ashford

17. What is the Nature of the Current Crisis?
The perfect storm: reinforcement of bad outcomes
• FINANCE
• WEALTH CONCENTRATION
• EMPLOYMENT
• CONSUMPTION
• INVESTMENT AND PRODUCTION
• ENVIRONMENT
Copyright© 2016 Nicholas A. Ashford

18. The Nature of the Current Crisis
• FINANCE:
Origin - decades of the relaxation of regulatory controls
- reckless provision of credit (to both producers and consumers) + issuance of
dubious financial instruments
- short-termism, money chasing money
Aftermath: collapse of the housing and financial markets =>
- reluctance of lenders to lend, and …
- reluctance of producers and consumers to borrow
or spend in uncertain and volatile futures
- This affects employment, consumption, and growth
• WEALTH CONCENTRATION
• EMPLOYMENT
• CONSUMPTION
• INVESTMENT AND PRODUCTION
• ENVIRONMENT
Copyright© 2016 Nicholas A. Ashford

19. What can be done about the Current Crises?
(recovery or transformation?)
• FINANCE (reform the financial system)
– transparency, regulation, oversight, international
agreements
– democratize credit
– public or community-based financing of sustainable
growth
• (the B-Corp or Benefit Corporation)
• WEALTH & INCOME CONCENTRATION (redistribution; basic income
guarantees)
• EMPLOYMENT (shorten the workweek, maintaining income; redesign
jobs)
• CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION (green the economy?)
• ENVIRONMENT (build a circular economy; regulation; economic
instruments)
• TRADE (fairer trade practices; “re-shoring”; change the trade rules;
disengage from the world trade regimes? (TTIP and TPP?)

20. KEY QUESTIONS
• How might the modern industrial or
industrializing state be envisioned? i.e., what is
the system?
• How is the concern with sustainability affecting
institutions of higher learning?
– Engendering a focus on environmental sustainability
• What is the role of those institutions in
addressing the sustainability challenges?
– Contribute to greening the economy through S&T
– Broaden research & teaching to other sustainability
goals

21. Extraction
industries
Manufacturing
Agriculture
Transportation
Energy
Services
Housing
ICT
SOLUTIONS
Education & Human Resource Development
Industry Initiatives
Government Intervention/Regulation
Stakeholder Involvement
Financing Sustainable Development
Consumer
Consumption
Commercial
Consumption
Government
Consumption
SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES
Inadequate Supply of, and Access
to, Essential Goods & Services
Toxic Pollution
Climate Disruption
Resource Depletion
Biodiversity/Ecosystem Integrity
Environmental Injustice
Employment/Purchasing Power
Economic Inequity
Copyright© 2016
Nicholas A. Ashford

22. Extraction
industries
Manufacturing
Agriculture
Transportation
ENERGY
Services
Housing
ICT
Producer-created demand 
SOLUTIONS
Education& Human ResourceDevelopment
Industry Initiatives
Government Intervention/Regulation
StakeholderInvolvement
Reform the FinancialSystem
Consumer
Consumption
Commercial
Consumption
Government
Consumption
SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGES
Inadequate Supply of, and Access
to, Essential Goods & Services
Toxic Pollution
Climate Disruption
Resource Depletion
Biodiversity/Ecosystem Integrity
Environmental Injustice
Employment/Purchasing Power
Economic Inequity
FINANCE
 Subsidies
 Credit 
Copyright© 2016
Nicholas A. Ashford

23. What is involved in “greening the econom
• Dematerializing, de-toxifying, and de-energizing production,
products, and services (building a circular economy/moderate
supply-side changes)
• Moving to less environmentally-damaging energy sources
(moderate supply-side changes)
• Greening manufacturing and energy  green jobs? A triple
dividend? (more radical supply-side changes are possible, but jobs
are likely to be redistributed between sectors with no net gain in
employment; a lowering of skills may be demanded, depressing
wages)
• Consuming less (serious demand-side changes)
• Travelling less (serious demand-side changes)
• Working less? (with lower wages ~ lowering demand)
• Whatever the developed countries do, there is the overwhelming
pressure for increased growth and consumption in the developing

24. What systemic factors contributes to
unemployment and under-employment?
• Technological displacement and attendant deskilling
of labor, leading to decreases in wages and
purchasing power
• Tendency to shift from utilizing labor to utilizing
physical capital and energy, driven by both costs
associated with labor benefits and by volatility of the
economy
• Location of production/service facilities abroad
(offshoring slowing/reversing now in the US = “re-
shoring” but without job/wage growth)
• Reluctance to expand employment in volatile timesCopyright© 2016 Nicholas A. Ashford

25. Alternative ways of increasing earning capacity and
improving the environment, cont’d.
• Meet essential needs of consumers in a different way (shift to
product services; a shared economy?) – lowering consumption,
environmental impacts and costs to consumers; and increasing
wages
• Encourage the production of essential goods and services and
discourage others – regulate advertising; tax the “bads”
• Invest in labor-intensive production and services
• Adopt a four-day workweek but maintain workpay parity
• Change workers into owners – thru changes in business ownership
and corporate structures
• By allowing them to acquire capital with the (future) earnings of
capital (two-factor economics – R. Ashford)
• Tax Corporations that shift production/services/ownership
abroad
• Educate workers/consumers for the economy of the futureCopyright© 2016 Nicholas A. Ashford

26. THE ENERGY CHALLENGE
• In addition to others (Sachs 2015), the Energy
Transition Commission (2016) has also warned th at
meeting COP21 targets will not come close to
achieving a 1.5 degree C rise to stem serious climate
disruption…The COP21 commitments are unbalanced
between the supply and demand levers, and are very
limited in scope outside the power sector.
• In addition into making technology-specific changes,
changes to the international trading system needs to
receive immediate and serious consideration. The EU
ETC (2016, p. 9) observes that: “the shift in countries
offshore a significant percentage of their domestic
emissions (up to 48% according to some estimates).”
• This argues not only that redesigning the WTO (and
TTIP) trade rules needs to be undertaken, but also that
trade policy has to be an integral and important part of
the overall strategy to achieve deep decarbonization.
• There is a need to recognize some myths about
industrial economies (Ashford and Renda 2016)

27. innovation in products and
services is essential to
achieving deep
decarbonization. Europe is
suffering from an “innovation
deficit”.
• Actually, Europe may be suffering more from a diffusion
and deployment deficit. Consider the wedges approach
of Pacala/Socolow and Blok et al.
• There are many analysts [e.g., Amory Lovins (2011) and
Robert Ayres (2016)] who argue that there are many
technologies already in existence which could be
defused into use, but which suffer by the inadequacies
of appropriate market and regulatory signals, sufficient
market demand, and/or lock-in due to inappropriate
policies -- and influence and agency capture by
incumbent technology providers
• Actually, it is system innovation that is needed,
integrating changes in the activities of previously
unconnected actors, some operating in different
networks. Government Trusteeship for an industrial
transformation is key.

28. Myth #4: Governments cannot
pick winners. Winners pick
governments.
– The US experience with aircraft,
computers, the internet, space
technology, and pharmaceuticals (to
name just a few examples) clearly
demonstrates the power of government
funding of research, e.g., see the U.S.
examples of DARPA and ARPA-E.
– Winners may pick governments if the
incumbents dominate the policy agenda
and interventions.

29. Myth #6: Regulation inhibits
beneficial innovation.
• The Porter Hypothesis
• The MIT Hypothesis
• Better Regulation is not about
cutting red tape and allowing
incumbents to negotiate targets.

30. Myth #7: Carbon leakage
presents a practical
disincentive and limits to what
NATIONAL regulation can
achieve in terms of
decarbonization.
• Carbon leakage is a BIG
problem which is why multi-
lateral action is needed and
why revision of the world trade

32. • If we attributed to the developed countries the GHG
emissions associated with producing goods and services
for them by China, emissions now attributed to China would
be much less and those attributed to the developing
countries would be much more. In addition, China is a very
inefficient producer.
• Since 2005, government subsidies to assist firms in
achieving compliance with environmental/global climate
goals for their exports are considered “actionable – i.e.,
subject to border adjustments by countries receiving those
exports.
• India’s “buy national policy” on solar panels declared illegal
by the World Trade Organization, discouraging needed
infrastructure in India.
• All the above contribute to carbon leakage and increases in
GHG emissions.
• Trade policies and trade rules must be revised.

33. THIS IS NOT (JUST) A TEXTBOOK: ASHFORD & HALL 2011
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS