The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Increasingly business is finding that good environmental practices and a healthy bottom line can go hand in hand. William Ginn, chief conservation officer for The Nature Conservancy, will discuss a range of newly emerging opportunities for collaboration between business and land conservation in a talk at Flynn Auditorium in the Vanderbilt University Law School at 6 p.m. on Feb. 4. The program is hosted by the Vanderbilt Center for Business and Society at the Owen Graduate School of Management and by The Nature Conservancy. 

There is no charge to attend the lecture, and the public is invited.

A businessman-turned-conservation practitioner, Ginn has helped The Nature Conservancy protect more than 3 million acres of forestland through dozens of innovative deals. He is also the author of Investing in Nature: Case Studies of Land Conservation in Collaboration with Business. His book offers real-world examples of winning partnerships between conservation organizations and businesses.

The Nature Conservancy has been at the forefront of such collaborations. For example, says Ginn, in a Nature Conservancy project "on the Yangtze River in China, we're working to get part of the hydropower income set aside for biodiversity conservation. In places like Quito, Ecuador, a portion of the city's water fees goes to protect watersheds that are crucial to the provision of fresh water."

Another example that Ginn will discuss in his presentation is Tennessee's "Connecting the Cumberlands" project, which protected nearly 130,000 acres of forestland on the Cumberland Plateau. That conservation success — the largest in acreage in Tennessee since the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park — was accomplished through an innovative partnership involving The Nature Conservancy, the state of Tennessee and two timber management companies in 2007.

An ecologist by training and a former mergers-and-acquisitions specialist for major public companies, Ginn brings an unusually balanced and nuanced understanding of the needs of business and the opportunities in conservation.

Location: Flynn Auditorium, Vanderbilt Law School, 131 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203
Presentation: 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Parking: Law School lots 5, 5A, 5B, 6, 6A