Geoscience Reference
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not just in the design phase, but throughout the life of the built landscape in order to
move toward sustainability goals. This joint ESA/ASLA effort is repeated at ESA
annual meetings, building a community from both societies determined to work
together to achieve lasting provision of ecological services.
In their 2010 meeting with ESA, leaders of eight Judeo-Christian groups
expressed concern about sustainability and an interest in exploring ways to collabo-
rate with ESA to foster Earth Stewardship. Unlike the meeting of social scientists,
the religious leaders had explicit suggestions about how this might be done. They
felt, in general, that they had no ready access to the environmental science
community, which they felt looked down on religious groups. They questioned
whether environmental advocacy groups would be unbiased sources of scientifi c
information. They suggested three concrete steps: (1) preparing fact sheets or short
YouTube-type videos on issues that would be of concern to the religious commu-
nity, (2) initiating a speakers' bureau that was co-trained by ecologists and by reli-
gious leaders to speak effectively to religious audiences, if invited to do so, and (3)
an open letter from scientifi c and religious leaders to the religious community sum-
marizing their common concern about the future. They emphasized that more prog-
ress would be made by focusing on issues of common concern (e.g., Earth
Stewardship) than on issues that had a history of divisiveness (e.g., evolution). They
also emphasized that issues of social and environmental justice would be of greater
interest to religious groups than issues of environment. These conversations resulted
in the development of a speakers' bureau led by ESA member Greg Hitzhusen
(
http://www.esa.org/enjustice2/projects/faith-communities/
).
ESA reached out to the business community in 2013 and continues to work
toward lasting relations with business leaders around the world. Businesses are
among the largest agents of environmental degradation in the world. This offers
tremendous opportunities for companies to become agents for positive change. A
growing number of companies around the world realize they can galvanize the
global business community to create a sustainable future for business, society, and
the environment. The fi rst workshop held in 2013 (standing room only) brought
together sustainability offi cers from large corporations with ecologists to address
how the science of ecology can be put to use by corporations such as 3M and
Weyerhauser in meeting their sustainability goals. The ESA workshop was followed
by a meeting that included several ESA members at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
in London during the British Ecological Society Centennial Celebration in 2013 to
explore how the science community can communicate more effectively with senior
business leaders on sustainability issues. In 2014 a panel of business representatives
convened to deepen the conversation between ESA members and business leaders,
with a focus on businesses and biodiversity. Topics that remain to be explored
include how business and industry view the need for biodiversity, what kinds of
ecological information will enable businesses and industries to achieve sustainabil-
ity goals that help preserve biodiversity, and what are the avenues for building col-
laborations between ecologists and businesses to protect biodiversity and the
services it provides?
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