High-Profile Energy Industry "Learning Summit" Slated for November in Houston

BALLSTON SPA, N.Y., July 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Energy controversies are growing more heated. No longer do they center on a single project or fuel type. The battles over the Keystone XL pipeline, hydraulic fracturing, deep water drilling, and coal are increasingly placed in a larger frame:  an effort to remove all fossil fuels from the market. For energy companies and other manufacturers, this is a crucial new emphasis—and it's why so many are gearing up to attend a high-profile learning summit this November.

This summit is sponsored by the AHC Group and its partner the Future 500. Energy Stakeholder Activism: The Fourth Annual Corporate Affiliates Working Group on Stakeholder Engagement will be held November 12-13, 2013, in Houston, Texas, at the Woodlands Resort & Conference Center. It builds from a 27-year history called the Corporate Affiliates workshops, sponsored at www.ahcgroup.com.

The audience will include key stakeholders from the investment and environmental community with up to 25 senior executives from the world's leading energy corporations.

"All key players in the energy industry as well as their customers will benefit from this intimate understanding of the issues to be explored during this session," asserts Bruce Piasecki, president and founder of AHC Group and author of the best seller Doing More with Less: The New Way to Wealth (for more see www.doingmorewithlessbook.com) as well as the new book Doing More with Teams: The New Way to Winning (Wiley, March 2013, ISBN: 978-1-1184849-5-1, $25.00, www.brucepiasecki.com).

"The economic and environmental implications are huge and complex," he adds. "We owe it to ourselves as frugal business executives and as members of the stakeholder communities to know the shared issues."

One theme to be explored during the day-and-a-half meeting is the growing attention being paid to "unburnable carbon." Put simply, some argue that if oil companies are able to develop all of their "proven" reserves, the result will be a "carbon bomb" that will push the environment over the edge and insure "cataclysmic climate change." 

This new argument has been called part moral crusade, part carbon science, and part economics. It has caught the attention of college campuses, socially responsible investors, oil company executives worried about devaluation of their reserves, brand leaders attacked for their fuel sourcing and concerned about threats to food and water supplies, and most importantly, the media.

Summit sponsors have invited key spokespersons into the room with the energy executives, after careful sensing interviews to select the right participants.

"Does the carbon math stand up to scrutiny?" asks AHC Group Senior Associate Ken Strassner, former vice president of energy, sustainability, and the environment at Kimberly-Clark and a speaker at this summit. "Does it make sense to keep current reserves in the ground, given increasing energy needs? Is it fair to focus on this one aspect of the complex carbon issue to the exclusion of other important factors? The energy industry has yet to develop a persuasive response to these 'carbon bomb' assertions. This event will help explore potential responses and engagement paths."

Workshop Highlights Include:

• Top 10 Issues Driving Stakeholder Activism for the Energy Sector from Bill Shireman, President and CEO of Future 500
• A compelling discussion on the social and governmental framework necessary to support change led by Tom Burke, Senior Advisor, Rio Tinto, and Co-founder, Toward Sustainable Mining Initiative
• An exploration of the "unburnable carbon" issue from John Wilson, Director of Corporate Governance, TIAA-CREF, "The Future of Sustainable Investing"
• "Creating Reliable Corporate Strategies in a Swift and Severe World"—Bruce Piasecki, Founder and President of the AHC Group, New York Times Best-selling Author
• "Best Practices and Strategic Options for Stakeholder Engagement for Energy Development"—Ken Strassner, Former VP at Kimberly-Clark, and Erik Wohlgemuth, COO of Future 500

Piasecki says all senior executives in roles dealing with public and external affairs are invited to attend the November event. In addition, Future 500 is in constant communications with the key stakeholders to invite, besides the TIAA-CREF speaker.

The cost to attend this event is $3,000. To register, please call AHC Group at 1-518-583-9615 or visit www.ahcgroup.com. 

About AHC Group Inc.:
Since 1981, the AHC Group has been active in assisting organizations and individuals in the field of environmental and management strategy. It's a trusted advisor to middle and upper management staff in organizations whose responsibilities include environmental health and safety, public relations, governmental affairs, corporate governance, social responsibility, communications, and investor relations. See www.ahcgroup.com and www.doingmorewithlessbook.com.

SOURCE AHC Group Inc.