ADRhub Webinar May'12: Making the "Green in the Machine" Work For You
ODR: Making the “Green in the Machine” Work for You.
A Presentation by Noam Ebner, Colleen Getz, and Susanna Jani
Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) is becoming widely accepted, with its proponents pointing out the advantages that harnessing the power of the Internet offers to dispute resolution. These benefits include enhanced flexibility, expertise, and accessibility, as well as reduced costs, time-investment and travel. One clear benefit of ODR which has not been spotlighted, however, is the environmental advantage which ODR enjoys over any other form of dispute resolution.
In this webinar, we will explore the nature and value of this advantage, presenting case studies which illustrate how significant this advantage is. We will also address the fundamental question of ‘What’s in it for us?’. Benefit to the planet aside – what do ODR practitioners, and the ODR field, stand to gain from spotlighting ODR’s environmental aspects? And – what might we do in order to achieve these gains?
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About the Presenters:
Noam Ebner:
Noam received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in law from HebrewUniversity. Originally from the U.S, he now divides his time between his home in Jerusalem, Israel and his teaching, training and consulting activities in the U.S. and abroad. After practicing as an attorney, Noam shifted focus and established Tachlit Mediation and Negotiation, which deals with a wide spectrum of issues, including commercial, divorce, business partnerships and employment disputes. In addition, Noam trains mediators for the Israeli court system, conducts corporate training for the private sector and consults to several community mediation programs. Before joining the Creighton faculty, Noam taught conflict resolution and negotiation at universities around the world. He is a regular visiting professor at Sabanci University in Turkey, and a senior fellow and visiting professor at the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica. His research and writing focus on negotiation pedagogy and on negotiation and mediation processes conducted online.
Colleen Getz:
Colleen Getz is a public policy and evaluation consultant in Victoria on Canada’s west coast. She holds a masters degree in Public Administration from the University of Victoria, and is the founder and principal of C.A. Walker & Associates — a firm that undertakes policy and program evaluation projects, largely on behalf of government and non-profit clients. Since the firm’s inception in 1989, she has worked primarily in justice and related social policy fields. Colleen’s interest in the ‘green side’ of on-line dispute resolution began when working with Susanna Jani on Mediate BC’s Distance Mediation Project, and subsequently with the incomparable Noam Ebner on ODR: The Next Green Giant which has recently been published in the Conflict Resolution Quarterly. She is a long time active member of the Canadian Evaluation Society, and has served as an executive member of their British Columbia chapter. She otherwise lives the quiet life on Vancouver Island with her husband, two teenagers, and a rambunctious springer spaniel.
Susanna Jani:
For a decade, Susanna Jani was the Roster Administrator for the B.C. Mediator Roster Society (now Mediate BC Society) in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. In this capacity, she managed the Society’s day-to-day operations, activities and projects, including the initial research phase of the Distance Family Mediation Project. In 2009, she became Coordinator for its second, pilot phase which tested the delivery of distance family mediation services in remote, non-urban areas of British Columbia. She is currently Coordinator for the third, province-wide test phase of the Project, and author of its BC Distance Family Mediation blog. You can reach Susanna at distanceproject@shaw.ca.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bryan Hanson on
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I just uploaded the archive for this thought provoking webinar. Please click on the video image above to stream it directly through this page. Please feel free to continue the conversation by posting any thoughts, comments, or questions in this forum. Enjoy! Bryan
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Oh, here is the link for the paper referenced in the webinar written by Noam and Colleen. It is definitely worth the read.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1993192
Enjoy!
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Permalink Reply by Noam Ebner on
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Thanks so much Bryan!
Everyone out there - we're really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.
Noam
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Permalink Reply by Susanna Jani on
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Hi Everyone: One of the questions which we didn't have time to explore as fully as I would have liked was 'what ODR practitioners have to gain from spotlighting ODR's environmental advantage'. As I mentioned during the webinar, I do think that attracting (the growing number of) environmentally-minded consumers is a very important benefit of doing this. Those of you who attended the webinar may recall that I quoted from an article I found on the Internet, which supports this thinking.
The article, titled, "Do People Really Prefer Green Businesses" says:
“…A study by the video conferencing company Tandberg has found that more than half of consumers around the world prefer to do business with green companies. The study showed that 53 percent of the 1.1 billion global consumers choose products and services from companies who have a strong environmental reputation.
The results of this survey show that there is an incredible incentive for companies to focus in their environmental efforts. It is a good idea for business to keep the environment in mind for the overall health of the earth, but moving towards greener practices will also increase their sales because it will positively affect the reputation of their brand.
Of course, not everyone in the world is concerned with whether or not the products that they buy or green. However, being environmentally conscious certainly can’t hurt the reputation of a business for those customers who are keeping track."Comments anyone?
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Permalink Reply by Colleen Getz on
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You're right, Susanna, we didn't have enough time to fully explore what ODR practitioners have to gain from this!
As well as the benefit of attracting environmentally-minded customers, I think it is also worth mentioning that spotlighting ODR's environmental advantages may be useful as a way of encouraging sponsors to come forward in support of ODR pilot projects or new initiatives.
For example, here in British Columbia, public sector organizations are required to be carbon neutral in their operations by regulation under the province's Greenhouse Gas Reductions Targets Act. They must report their greenhouse gas emissions annually, and purchase carbon offsets if they cannot demonstrate that their operations are carbon neutral. For organizations like this, it may be worthwhile to initiate, or at least pilot test, some new ODR projects to determine whether or not this would help them maintain their carbon-neutral status -- as well as achieve some good dispute resolution outcomes!
Susanna Jani said:
Hi Everyone: One of the questions which we didn't have time to explore as fully as I would have liked was 'what ODR practitioners have to gain from spotlighting ODR's environmental advantage'. As I mentioned during the webinar, I do think that attracting (the growing number of) environmentally-minded consumers is a very important benefit of doing this. Those of you who attended the webinar may recall that I quoted from an article I found on the Internet, which supports this thinking.
The article, titled, "Do People Really Prefer Green Businesses" says:
“…A study by the video conferencing company Tandberg has found that more than half of consumers around the world prefer to do business with green companies. The study showed that 53 percent of the 1.1 billion global consumers choose products and services from companies who have a strong environmental reputation.
The results of this survey show that there is an incredible incentive for companies to focus in their environmental efforts. It is a good idea for business to keep the environment in mind for the overall health of the earth, but moving towards greener practices will also increase their sales because it will positively affect the reputation of their brand.
Of course, not everyone in the world is concerned with whether or not the products that they buy or green. However, being environmentally conscious certainly can’t hurt the reputation of a business for those customers who are keeping track."Comments anyone?
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Colleen, do you know if this type of reporting is required by public sector organizations anywhere outside British Columbia?
Colleen Getz said:You're right, Susanna, we didn't have enough time to fully explore what ODR practitioners have to gain from this!
As well as the benefit of attracting environmentally-minded customers, I think it is also worth mentioning that spotlighting ODR's environmental advantages may be useful as a way of encouraging sponsors to come forward in support of ODR pilot projects or new initiatives.
For example, here in British Columbia, public sector organizations are required to be carbon neutral in their operations by regulation under the province's Greenhouse Gas Reductions Targets Act. They must report their greenhouse gas emissions annually, and purchase carbon offsets if they cannot demonstrate that their operations are carbon neutral. For organizations like this, it may be worthwhile to initiate, or at least pilot test, some new ODR projects to determine whether or not this would help them maintain their carbon-neutral status -- as well as achieve some good dispute resolution outcomes!
Susanna Jani said:
Hi Everyone: One of the questions which we didn't have time to explore as fully as I would have liked was 'what ODR practitioners have to gain from spotlighting ODR's environmental advantage'. As I mentioned during the webinar, I do think that attracting (the growing number of) environmentally-minded consumers is a very important benefit of doing this. Those of you who attended the webinar may recall that I quoted from an article I found on the Internet, which supports this thinking.
The article, titled, "Do People Really Prefer Green Businesses" says:
“…A study by the video conferencing company Tandberg has found that more than half of consumers around the world prefer to do business with green companies. The study showed that 53 percent of the 1.1 billion global consumers choose products and services from companies who have a strong environmental reputation.
The results of this survey show that there is an incredible incentive for companies to focus in their environmental efforts. It is a good idea for business to keep the environment in mind for the overall health of the earth, but moving towards greener practices will also increase their sales because it will positively affect the reputation of their brand.
Of course, not everyone in the world is concerned with whether or not the products that they buy or green. However, being environmentally conscious certainly can’t hurt the reputation of a business for those customers who are keeping track."Comments anyone?
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I understand that British Columbia is the first Jurisdiction in North America to do this. New Zealand and New South Wales in Australia also have some carbon neutral requirements, but both vary in the way they report their emissions as compared with British Columbia. I believe Norway also has some targets, but I'm not sure whether there are reporting requirements associated with those.
Some other jurisdictions have made important contributions in the way they influence public sector organizations to think about this, however. For example, the 'Greenhouse Gas Protocol for the U.S. Public Sector' has played a key role in setting down some important principles for reporting greenhouse gas emissions.
Does anyone else know about other jurisdictions we should mention here?
Susanna Jani said:
Colleen, do you know if this type of reporting is required by public sector organizations anywhere outside British Columbia?
Colleen Getz said:You're right, Susanna, we didn't have enough time to fully explore what ODR practitioners have to gain from this!
As well as the benefit of attracting environmentally-minded customers, I think it is also worth mentioning that spotlighting ODR's environmental advantages may be useful as a way of encouraging sponsors to come forward in support of ODR pilot projects or new initiatives.
For example, here in British Columbia, public sector organizations are required to be carbon neutral in their operations by regulation under the province's Greenhouse Gas Reductions Targets Act. They must report their greenhouse gas emissions annually, and purchase carbon offsets if they cannot demonstrate that their operations are carbon neutral. For organizations like this, it may be worthwhile to initiate, or at least pilot test, some new ODR projects to determine whether or not this would help them maintain their carbon-neutral status -- as well as achieve some good dispute resolution outcomes!
Susanna Jani said:
Hi Everyone: One of the questions which we didn't have time to explore as fully as I would have liked was 'what ODR practitioners have to gain from spotlighting ODR's environmental advantage'. As I mentioned during the webinar, I do think that attracting (the growing number of) environmentally-minded consumers is a very important benefit of doing this. Those of you who attended the webinar may recall that I quoted from an article I found on the Internet, which supports this thinking.
The article, titled, "Do People Really Prefer Green Businesses" says:
“…A study by the video conferencing company Tandberg has found that more than half of consumers around the world prefer to do business with green companies. The study showed that 53 percent of the 1.1 billion global consumers choose products and services from companies who have a strong environmental reputation.
The results of this survey show that there is an incredible incentive for companies to focus in their environmental efforts. It is a good idea for business to keep the environment in mind for the overall health of the earth, but moving towards greener practices will also increase their sales because it will positively affect the reputation of their brand.
Of course, not everyone in the world is concerned with whether or not the products that they buy or green. However, being environmentally conscious certainly can’t hurt the reputation of a business for those customers who are keeping track."Comments anyone?
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I've heard of EU-sited donor organizations, investing in peace-related projects, who require some assessment of the carbon impact of projects requesting funding, and a plan for offsetting these (such as through planting trees). I don't know details of this, though.
I think that having such sponsors and backers, as you've both described, is a way for ODR to find itself a lot more popular and on the map.
Colleen Getz said:I understand that British Columbia is the first Jurisdiction in North America to do this. New Zealand and New South Wales in Australia also have some carbon neutral requirements, but both vary in the way they report their emissions as compared with British Columbia. I believe Norway also has some targets, but I'm not sure whether there are reporting requirements associated with those.
Some other jurisdictions have made important contributions in the way they influence public sector organizations to think about this, however. For example, the 'Greenhouse Gas Protocol for the U.S. Public Sector' has played a key role in setting down some important principles for reporting greenhouse gas emissions.
Does anyone else know about other jurisdictions we should mention here?
Susanna Jani said:
Colleen, do you know if this type of reporting is required by public sector organizations anywhere outside British Columbia?
Colleen Getz said:You're right, Susanna, we didn't have enough time to fully explore what ODR practitioners have to gain from this!
As well as the benefit of attracting environmentally-minded customers, I think it is also worth mentioning that spotlighting ODR's environmental advantages may be useful as a way of encouraging sponsors to come forward in support of ODR pilot projects or new initiatives.
For example, here in British Columbia, public sector organizations are required to be carbon neutral in their operations by regulation under the province's Greenhouse Gas Reductions Targets Act. They must report their greenhouse gas emissions annually, and purchase carbon offsets if they cannot demonstrate that their operations are carbon neutral. For organizations like this, it may be worthwhile to initiate, or at least pilot test, some new ODR projects to determine whether or not this would help them maintain their carbon-neutral status -- as well as achieve some good dispute resolution outcomes!
Susanna Jani said:
Hi Everyone: One of the questions which we didn't have time to explore as fully as I would have liked was 'what ODR practitioners have to gain from spotlighting ODR's environmental advantage'. As I mentioned during the webinar, I do think that attracting (the growing number of) environmentally-minded consumers is a very important benefit of doing this. Those of you who attended the webinar may recall that I quoted from an article I found on the Internet, which supports this thinking.
The article, titled, "Do People Really Prefer Green Businesses" says:
“…A study by the video conferencing company Tandberg has found that more than half of consumers around the world prefer to do business with green companies. The study showed that 53 percent of the 1.1 billion global consumers choose products and services from companies who have a strong environmental reputation.
The results of this survey show that there is an incredible incentive for companies to focus in their environmental efforts. It is a good idea for business to keep the environment in mind for the overall health of the earth, but moving towards greener practices will also increase their sales because it will positively affect the reputation of their brand.
Of course, not everyone in the world is concerned with whether or not the products that they buy or green. However, being environmentally conscious certainly can’t hurt the reputation of a business for those customers who are keeping track."Comments anyone?
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More on this ... I have been directed to good old Wikipedia, in which there is a list of various jurisdictions who have imposed carbon neutrality requirements (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_neutrality). Also in Wikipedia is a good discussion of cap and trade, and some of the jurisdictions who have chosen this method of tackling greenhouse gases (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emissions_trading).
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