Allen L. Hammond

Bio: Allen L. Hammond is an academic researcher from World Resources Institute. The author has contributed to research in topics: Energy source & Coal. The author has an hindex of 16, co-authored 87 publications receiving 2628 citations.

Environmental indicators : a systematic approach to measuring and reporting on environmental policy performance in the context of sustainable development

Abstract: Each World Resources Institute Report represents a timely, scholarly treatment of a subject of public concern. WRI takes responsibility for choosing the study topics and guaranteeing its authors and researchers freedom of inquiry. It also solicits and responds to the guidance of advisory panels and expert reviewers. Unless otherwise stated, however, all the interpretation and findings set forth in WRI publications are those of the authors. • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Two of the authors of this report—Dr. Ham-mond and Dr. Adriaanse—participated in the Project on Indicators of Sustainable Development of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), an international scientific effort intended to contribute to the indicator activities of the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development. An earlier version of this report was reviewed by the SCOPE project and provided background for an international policy meeting on indicators of sustainable development hosted by the Belgium and Costa Rican governments in collaboration with SCOPE and the U.N. Environment Programme. Dr. Hammond and Dr. Adriaanse have benefited from the advice and comments of their international colleagues, includ-ern, all of whom provided valuable comments and encouragement on earlier drafts of this report. Our gratitude is also extended to those within WRI who helped with this report—to Dan Tunstall for their reviews, to Kathleen Cour-rier for her skillful editing, to Maggie Powell for preparation of figures, and to Sharon Bellucci for desktop production and support throughout the project. Of course, we alone bear responsibility for the final result. FOREWORD All across the United States, policy-makers and pundits sit up and take notice when the Dow Jones inches up, housing starts plummet, or unemployment rates rise—and millions of Americans rethink personal financial decisions. In every country, leaders find changes in gross national product (GNP) similarly riveting. These economic indicators show the power of a single number when its importance is widely understood. Yet, no remotely similar numbers exist to indicate how the environment is faring. A significant attempt to bridge this knowledge gap is Environmental Indicators: A Systematic Approach to Measuring and Reporting on Environmental Policy Performance in the Context of Sustainable Development by Allen L. Hammond, director of WRI's Resource and Environmental Information program; Albert Adriaanse, senior ministerial advisor to the Netherlands' Directorate for the Environment; Eric Rodenburg, WRI senior policy analyst; Dirk Bryant, WRI policy analyst; and Richard Woodward of the University of Wiscon-sin. The authors begin by laying out a conceptual approach for …

The next 4 billion : market size and business strategy at the base of the pyramid

Abstract: Four billion low-income people, a majority of the world's population, constitute the base of the economic pyramid. New empirical measures of their behavior as consumers and their aggregate purchasing power suggest significant opportunities for market-based approaches to better meet their needs, increase their productivity and incomes, and empower their entry into the formal economy. The 4 billion people at the base of the economic pyramid-all those with incomes below $3,000 in local purchasing power-live in relative poverty. Their incomes in current U.S. dollars are less than $3.35 a day in Brazil, $2.11 in China, $1.89 in Ghana, and $1.56 in India.1 Yet together they have substantial purchasing power: the BOP constitutes a $5 trillion global consumer market.

The Next 4 Billion

Abstract: expand its small house. Help arrives from a major industrial company in the form of construction designs, credit, and as-needed delivery of materials, enabling rapid completion of the project at less overall cost. In rural Madhya Pradesh, an Indian farmer gains access to soil testing services, to market price trends that help him decide what to grow and when to sell, and to higher prices for his crop than he can obtain in the local auction market. The new system is an innovation of a large grain-buying corporation, which also benefits from cost saving and more direct market access. A South African who lives in an impoverished, crime-ridden neighborhood of Johannesburg has no bank account, cannot order items from a distant store, and is sometimes robbed of her pay packet. She finds that a new financial service offered by a local start-up company allows her mobile phone to become a solution—her pay is deposited directly to her phone-based account, she can make purchases via an associated debit card, and she carries no cash to steal. In a small community outside Tianjin, China, a small merchant whose children have been repeatedly sickened by drinking water from a heavily-polluted river is distraught. He finds help not from the overwhelmed municipal government but from a new, low-cost filtering system, developed by an entrepreneurial company, which enables his family to treat its water at the point of use. Allen L. Hammond, William J. Kramer, Robert S. Katz, Julia T. Tran, and Courtland Walker

Energy and the future

Abstract: The materials developed for this project were created largely by undergraduate students at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln with the supervision of project staff. The content of this briefing document should not be attributed to affiliated organizations or the funding agency. They are intended to serve as educational materials about alternative energy issues facing Nebraska for students, teachers, and community members. Owens of the Center for Rural Affairs, and Todd Sneller of the Nebraska Ethanol Board, and we would like to thank them for their time and involvement. We would also like to thank Dr. Ken Cassman and Ann Selzer of the Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Research for their support and guidance with this project.

Resilience and sustainable development: building adaptive capacity in a world of transformations

Abstract: Emerging recognition of two fundamental errors under-pinning past polices for natural resource issues heralds awareness of the need for a worldwide fundamental change in thinking and in practice of environmental management. The first error has been an implicit assumption that ecosystem responses to human use are linear, predictable and controllable. The second has been an assumption that human and natural systems can be treated independently. However, evidence that has been accumulating in diverse regions all over the world suggests that natural and social systems behave in nonlinear ways, exhibit marked thresholds in their dynamics, and that social-ecological systems act as strongly coupled, complex and evolving integrated systems. This article is a summary of a report prepared on behalf of the Environmental Advisory Council to the Swedish Government, as input to the process of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, South Africa in 26 August 4 September 2002. We use the concept of resilience—the capacity to buffer change, learn and develop—as a framework for understanding how to sustain and enhance adaptive capacity in a complex world of rapid transformations. Two useful tools for resilience-building in social-ecological systems are structured scenarios and active adaptive management. These tools require and facilitate a social context with flexible and open institutions and multi-level governance systems that allow for learning and increase adaptive capacity without foreclosing future development options.

Monsoons: Processes, predictability, and the prospects for prediction

Abstract: The Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program sought to determine the predictability of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system. The World Climate Research Programme's (WCRP) Global Ocean-Atmosphere-Land System (GOALS) program seeks to explore predictability of the global climate system through investigation of the major planetary heat sources and sinks, and interactions between them. The Asian-Australian monsoon system, which undergoes aperiodic and high amplitude variations on intraseasonal, annual, biennial and interannual timescales is a major focus of GOALS. Empirical seasonal forecasts of the monsoon have been made with moderate success for over 100 years. More recent modeling efforts have not been successful. Even simulation of the mean structure of the Asian monsoon has proven elusive and the observed ENSO-monsoon relationships has been difficult to replicate. Divergence in simulation skill occurs between integrations by different models or between members of ensembles of the same model. This degree of spread is surprising given the relative success of empirical forecast techniques. Two possible explanations are presented: difficulty in modeling the monsoon regions and nonlinear error growth due to regional hydrodynamical instabilities. It is argued that the reconciliation of these explanations is imperative for prediction of the monsoon to be improved. To this end, a thorough description of observed monsoon variability and the physical processes that are thought to be important is presented. Prospects of improving prediction and some strategies that may help achieve improvement are discussed.

Accounting for the effects of accountability.

Abstract: This article reviews the now extensive research literature addressing the impact of accountabilit y on a wide range of social judgments and choices. It focuses on 4 issues: (a) What impact do various accountability ground rules have on thoughts, feelings, and action? (b) Under what conditions will accountability attenuate, have no effect on, or amplify cognitive biases? (c) Does accountability alter how people think or merely what people say they think? and (d) What goals do accountable decision makers seek to achieve? In addition, this review explores the broader implications of accountability research. It highlights the utility of treating thought as a process of internalized dialogue; the importance of documenting social and institutional boundary conditions on putative cognitive biases; and the potential to craft empirical answers to such applied problems as how to structure accountability relationships in organizations.

Creating sustainable value

Abstract: Executive Overview Just as the creation of shareholder value requires performance on multiple dimensions, the global challenges associated with sustainable development are also multifaceted, involving economic, social, and environmental concerns. Indeed, these challenges have implications for virtually every aspect of a firm's strategy and business model. Yet, most managers frame sustainable development not as a multidimensional opportunity, but rather as a one-dimensional nuisance, involving regulations, added cost, and liability. This approach leaves firms ill-equipped to deal with the issue in a strategic manner. Accordingly, we develop a sustainable-value framework that links the challenges of global sustainability to the creation of shareholder value by the firm. Specifically, we show how the global challenges associated with sustainable development, viewed through the appropriate set of business lenses, can help to identify strategies and practices that contribute to a more sustainable world while s...

Reinventing strategies for emerging markets: beyond the transnational model

Abstract: With established markets becoming saturated, multinational corporations (MNCs) have turned increasingly to emerging markets (EMs) in the developing world. Such EM strategies have been targeted almost exclusively at the wealthy elite at the top of the economic pyramid. Recently, however, a number of MNCs have launched new initiatives that explore the untapped market potential at the base of the economic pyramid, the largest and fastest-growing segment of the world's population. Reaching the four billion people in these markets poses both tremendous opportunities and unique challenges to MNCs, as conventional wisdom about MNC global capabilities and subsidiary strategy in EMs may not be appropriate. How MNCs can successfully enter these low-income markets has not been effectively addressed in the literatures on global and EM strategies. An exploratory analysis, involving interviews with MNC managers, original case studies, and archival material, indicates that the transnational model of national responsiveness, global efficiency and worldwide learning may not be sufficient. Results suggest that the success of initiatives targeting low-income markets is enhanced by recognizing that Western-style patterns of economic development may not occur in these business environments. Business strategies that rely on leveraging the strengths of the existing market environment outperform those that focus on overcoming weaknesses. These strategies include developing relationships with non-traditional partners, co-inventing custom solutions, and building local capacity. Together, these successful strategies suggest the importance of MNCs developing a global capability in social embeddedness.