EO landed on the front page of the leading sustainable business media outlet GreenBiz.com this week. GreenBiz Chairman and Executive Editor Joel Makower interviewed EO President and Co-Founder David Poritz about EO's mission, the EO100™ Standard, and what needs to happen for the Equitable Origin System to successfully improve social and environmental practices in the oil and gas industry.
Makower's article is titled "Equitable Origin: Can this 20-something clean up drilling and fracking?" Although EO currently only certifies "conventional" (the simplest methods of drilling) oil and gas operations, the company is currently developing additional guidelines to supplement the current version of the EO100™ Standard that would address the many social and environmental impacts of shale oil and shale gas development operations, nearly all of which include hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Stay tuned for more information about the development of those supplemental guidelines and EO's work on oil and gas sites in the US!
In one remark, Poritz mentions the EO Market, where ethical consumers of oil and gas products can purchase EO Certificates, which represent investment in social and environmental development programs near certified sites and signal demand for responsibly-produced products. EO Certificates are currently available for pre-sale (contact the EO Market manager at [email protected] for more info), and the online EO Market will go live in just a few weeks. The EO Market will allow for streamlined online purchase of EO certificates, currently priced at one dollar each.
In a telling excerpt from the GreenBiz.com interview, Poritz makes clear how EO defines success: "We’ll know [the EO system is] working when companies across the region and the world see the value of more fluid engagement with communities. We’ll know it’s working when NGOs are beginning to use the tool as an advocacy mechanism to pressure companies. We’ll know it’s working when indigenous people are saying this is what we want and how we want companies to operate on our lands."
Poritz will be giving a One Great Idea presentation about his personal experience with founding the company and EO's mission at the GreenBiz Forum on February 18.