Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital: Are They Assets or Liabilities?

Cassie Phillips, Vice President, Sustainable Forestry at Weyerhaeuser, will present the Environmental Policy Initiative Seminar on Dec. 4th in Room 105 of the Agricultural Administration Building (2120 Fyffe Road) as part of the AEDE Applied Economics Seminar Series. Her presentation will focus on "Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital: Are they Assets or Liabilities?"

There are so many initiatives to value nature, market ecosystem services, or account for impacts on natural systems that businesses can barely keep track of them, let alone participate in them all. Weyerhaeuser’s business depends entirely on the products of ecosystem services—trees—and the company follows these subjects with keen interest. In this seminar Cassie Phillips will discuss the initiatives of most interest to the forestry sector and projects involving Weyerhaeuser. She will describe the company’s general approach to environmental management and specific work on ecosystem services. She will also discuss some of the major policy issues raised by efforts to value non-market ecosystem services and the potential implications for the forestry sector.

The Environmental Policy Initiative, which is led by AEDE's Professor Brent Sohngen, focuses on stimulating and focusing systematic collaboration in environmental policy through research, graduate and undergraduate education, communication with the policy community, and interaction with the national and international community of scholars in environmental policy.

The event is open to the Ohio State community and RSVPs are not required.