Our personal data form an incredibly important resource for many technology companies, leading some to regard the massive amounts of data we generate as the 21st century version of oil. Although potentially unlimited from a supply perspective, is our personal data a sustainable resource for the companies that rely on it?

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What’s business if not value creation? Take something that doesn’t cost very much, add value, and create a profit. It’s only natural that many businesses do so using natural resources like land, trees, water, air, and fossil fuels as their inputs. So what’s the problem?

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SLDI Responds to Presidio Students’ open letter to the David and Lucille Packard Foundation

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WWF has joined the Global Canopy Program and the Climate Bonds Initiative in calling on governments help foster growth of a forest conservation bond market. Thirty billion dollars a year invested in forest conservation bonds would cut deforestation rates in half, thereby assuring that the world’s forests will continue to function as sinks that soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, they assert.

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Despite the fact that payment for ecosystem services sounds like a crazy treehugger pipe dream, a recent article published by Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs Online found that governments and businesses engage in payments for ecosystems services (PES). Will Bierbower, author of the article, defines PES as “financial arrangements and schemes designed to protect the benefits [...]

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Food prices are predicted to increase by 30 to 50 percent over the next several decades, according to a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in conjunction with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). The reason is that food production will be unable to “keep up with growing demand.” The report titled, [...]

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A recent article in the New York Times about the work Stanford University biology professor Gretchen Daily is doing in Africa and Costa Rica highlights the importance of ecosystem services, or putting a value on ecosystems. Daily co-founded the Natural Capital Project (NCP) in November 2006. NCP, as Daily told the New York Times, works [...]

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The following is a guest post from our friends at the World Resources Institute originally published here. Although this post is specificlaly about US Southern Forests, understanding and valuing”Ecosystem Services” is relevant to all locales. By Nick Price and Logan Yonavjak During the winter holidays, there are many items that Americans consider “essential” as part [...]

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On a recent trip to Costa Rica, I had the chance to speak with a veteran fisherman and environmentalist who took us out for some sport fishing and snorkeling. I was encouraged to hear about recent studies conducted in Costa Rica regarding commercial fishing that demonstrate the economic value of species left in situ, as [...]

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At the Bay Area Open Space Council’s 11th Annual Regional Conference yesterday, Ashley Boren, executive director of Sustainable Conservation, presented to a sold out conference about one of its new program areas:  ecosystem services. I actually worked for Sustainable Conservation in its early days. It has grown from a start-up to an effective organization that [...]

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