ABSTRACT
A In late 2004, Assheton Carter was contemplating what projects he should take on. Carter was an activist at Conservation International (CI) in mining safety, working conditions, the environment, and the rights of community and indigenous peoples. From his CI unit, the Center for Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB), he was seeking to find a high-profile, high impact project that would both accomplish something concrete and set a precedent – of transparency in extractive industries, of activist methods, and of cooperative interaction between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multi-national corporations (MNCs). His desk was littered with documents from current projects, including the overall strategy for CI as well as engagements with Disney and the oil and natural gas industries.
