Larmer Consulting

The following is an abridged list of projects completed by Larmer Consulting, organized into four sections:

Books
Reports
Meeting Summaries
Additional Projects

Jennifer Thomas-Larmer, the founder and principal of Larmer Consulting, has edited three books on collaborative problem solving and consensus building, in collaboration with renowned leaders in these fields. The books include:

The Consensus Building Handbook, with Lawrence Susskind and Sarah McKearnan
How to Make Collaboration Work, for David Straus
Negotiating Environmental Agreements, with Lawrence Susskind and Paul F. Levy

Reports

Ford Motor Company Sustainability Reports. Serve on the writing team for Ford’s annual Sustainability Report, which details the company’s environmental, safety, and corporate citizenship efforts. Each year since 2004, have researched and written the sections on vehicle and workplace safety. Also, have served as general editor of the entire print and web-based texts. The writing team is managed by BuzzWord, a sustainability reporting firm. View report.
Kellogg Corporate Responsibility Report. Served on the writing team that drafted the first annual corporate responsibility report for Kellogg Company. Penned the sections on Environment and Workplace, drafted the executive summary, and edited the entire document. View report.
Practical Guide to Collaborative Governance. Provided feedback to the author on the structure and content of this 88-page report, and then edited the entire text. The report will be published by the Policy Consensus Initiative.
Pew Report on the Regulation of Genetically Engineered Plants and Animals. Assisted the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology in preparing this landmark, 250-page report detailing the regulatory and policy issues relating to agricultural biotechnology. Helped to conceptualize and organize the report, drafted portions of it, and edited the full manuscript. The process involved several rounds of internal and external peer review and the consequent editing of multiple iterations of each chapter. View report.
Keystone Consensus Report on Endangered Species Act Habitat Issues. Edited the 63-page final report of this 24-person, multistakeholder consensus-building dialogue group. The group was formed at the request of six U.S. Senators and was facilitated by the Keystone Center. View report.
Legislators at a Crossroads. For the Policy Consensus Initiative, edited this 20-page publication about how state legislators can better utilize collaborative approaches to governance. View report.
Keystone Obesity Report. Served as the general editor of this 121-page report on opportunities for restaurants and food-service companies to help consumers prevent weight gain and obesity. The report was the culmination of a 14-month process, led by the Keystone Center, in which 44 participants representing diverse interests met periodically to develop consensus-based recommendations. Pulled together multiple disparate draft texts written by different parties to create one coherent document to which all parties could lend their support. View report.
Stakeholder Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology. Served as the staff editor for this 20-person policy dialogue on agricultural biotechnology, which was facilitated by RESOLVE and funded by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology. Worked with Forum members to develop a 65-page final report, on which consensus ultimately was not achieved due to a variety of political factors. After negotiations broke down, assisted the group in developing a short final report that described the dialogue process.
Primer on Food Fortification in Asia. For the Keystone Center, edited a 115-page, technically complex report on opportunities for fortifying foods in Asia to reduce micronutrient malnutrition. Nutrition and policy experts from five Asian countries contributed data to the report, which was drafted by several food policy consultants and included 36 statistical tables.
RESOLVE Monograph. Edited a 14-page manuscript entitled "When the Sparks Fly: Building Consensus when the Science Is Contested" for the president of RESOLVE. View report.
Mediation White Paper. For the Harvard Program on Negotiation, edited a 73-page white paper on the art of mediating when significant power imbalances exist among the parties.
Keystone Dialogue Report on Natural Gas Infrastructure. Over the course of several months, worked with the 32 members of this policy dialogue group to draft and edit their 70-page final report on expanding the natural gas infrastructure to meet the growing demand for cleaner power. The group was convened and facilitated by the Keystone Center.
Mediation Manual. Assisted the Consensus Building Institute in preparing a 50-page how-to manual on mediation for the Alberta (Canada) Environmental Appeals Board. Compiled and organized the contributions of multiple authors and edited the manual.
Report on Ozone Mitigation in Developing Countries. Edited a 240-page report on the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances in developing countries, presented to the Executive Committee of the Multilateral Fund of the Montreal Protocol. The report presented a unique editorial challenge, in that most of its eight authors were not native English speakers.
MIT Sustainable Technologies Paper. Edited a 60-page academic paper describing how government agencies can encourage the development of sustainable technologies. The paper was co-written by faculty members and research associates from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, for presentation to the Dutch government.
Keystone Dialogue Report on Regional Transmission Organizations. Edited the 50-page consensus report of this 30-person multistakeholder policy dialogue on regional transmission organizations and their role in the electric power industry. The dialogue was sponsored by the Keystone Center. Worked with the facilitators and group members over the course of three months to edit and refine the various draft sections and ultimately merge them into one cohesive report to which all members could agree.
Conflict Assessment Manual. Worked with the Consensus Building Institute to publish a 35-page manual on conflict assessments in the context of land use disputes. Wrote the majority of the text, edited the remainder, and designed the layout of the document. The report was jointly published by CBI and the Pace University School of Law.
Report on Environmental Policy in the Netherlands. Edited a 35-page report written by a non-native speaker of English on the evolution of Dutch environmental policy in the past 30 years. The report was published by the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Meeting Summaries

Pew Workshop on Genetically Engineered Forest Trees. Penned a 75-page summary of a two-day meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina, on ecological risk assessment regarding genetically engineered forest trees. Sponsored by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology and the Institute of Forest Biotechnology, the workshop involved technically complex presentations from 12 scientific experts as well as full-group discussion among the 35 participants.
Pew Meeting on Grapes, Wine, and the Application of Biotechnology. Wrote a 71-page summary of a two-day meeting in San Francisco on the potential application of genetic engineering technologies in the wine grape and wine industries. The report summarized 20 presentations from scientific experts as well as discussions among the 28 participants. The workshop was sponsored by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology.
Pew Animal Biotechnology Workshops. Wrote detailed summaries of five major multistakeholder workshops on the use of genetic engineering in animal agriculture. All were sponsored by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology and facilitated by RESOLVE.

Wrote a 19-page summary of the inaugural meeting of the Animals Steering Committee, at which 33 participants jointly planned the animal biotechnology workshops that were to follow.
Drafted a 41-page summary of a two-and-a-half day workshop on the moral and ethical issues involved in developing and using genetically engineered and cloned animals.
Wrote a 62-page joint summary of two workshops at which 40 participants discussed the regulation and commercialization of genetically modified and cloned animals. The report included summaries of 10 presentations from nationally recognized experts.
Penned a 25-page summary of a two-day, 35-person meeting at which participants discussed institutional options for addressing the moral and ethical issues relating to animal biotechnology and cloning.

Pew Meetings on the State Regulation of Biotechnology. Wrote summaries of two multistakeholder meetings on the regulation of biotechnology by individual states. Both meetings were jointly sponsored by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and facilitated by RESOLVE.

Wrote a 39-page summary of a meeting in Boulder, Colorado, on “peaceful coexistence” among growers of genetically engineered, conventional, and organic crops. The meeting lasted two days and included 10 technical presentations by experts, as well as extensive and often heated conversations among the 50 participants.
Wrote a 59-page summary of a meeting in San Diego on how state and federal officials can work together better to effectively regulate agricultural biotechnology. The two-day meeting included 14 expert presentations and full-group discussion among the 45 participants.

Nanotechnology Meeting. Drafted a summary of a two-day meeting of experts who discussed creating a technology roadmap for productive nanosystems. The meeting was organized and sponsored by the Foresight Nanotech Institute and Battelle and held in San Francisco. It was facilitated by Fisher Collaborative Services.
Alaska Climate Change Meeting. Wrote a summary of a one-day public meeting in Washington, DC, on the measurable effects of climate change on Alaska’s natural resources. The meeting was sponsored by the Alaska Conservation Foundation and included both presentations by experts and Q&A from the large audience.
Climate Change Strategy Retreat Summary. Wrote a 28-page summary of a two-day meeting sponsored by the Green Group and the U.S. Climate Action Network and facilitated by the Meridian Institute. The 62 participants from environmental groups and private foundations discussed how to better coordinate their lobbying and public education efforts regarding climate change.
Energy Board Meeting. Wrote a summary of a one-day meeting of the Keystone Center’s Energy Board, a group of 33 high-level energy industry executives and environmentalists who advise the Keystone Center on potential projects.

Additional Projects

Resumes for Senior Executives. For 7 years, have regularly edited and formatted resumes, cover letters, and bios for executive-level clients at Essex Partners, a Boston-based outplacement firm.
Investment Newsletter. Regularly edit a quarterly newsletter written by an independent investment advisor.
The RESOLVE Reporter. Served as editor of this web-based quarterly newsletter published by RESOLVE.
Meridian Institute Web Site. Edited significant portions of the Meridian Institute’s web site, including a database of completed and ongoing projects.
CBI Reports. Edited several issues of CBI Reports, the Consensus Building Institute’s quarterly newsletter.
Dissertation. Edited the dissertation of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D. candidate, on the topic of dispute resolution processes utilized by the World Trade Organization.
Environmental Justice Case Studies. An associate with the Consensus Building Institute had written in-depth descriptions of six environmental justice cases around the United States. Drafted abridged versions of each case, culling the text from 30 or more pages per case down to 5 or 6 pages. The abridged cases were then published in report form by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice.
Career Transition Manual. Edited a 50-page manual for Essex Partners on how to proceed through a job transition.
Plant Information Sheets. Wrote information sheets for customers of a large Boston-based garden center on various aspects of tree and shrub selection and care.
Policy Consensus Initiative Newsletter. Helped the Policy Consensus Initiative prepare and publish a newsletter. Wrote two articles: an 830-word piece on Utah’s efforts to institutionalize the use of alternative dispute resolution in its state agencies, and a 950-word piece providing tips for ADR agencies on weathering state budget crises. Edited 10 other articles written by PCI staff.
Sustainable Alternatives Network (SANet). Edited marketing materials and several case studies for this international environmental organization, which is a strategic partnership of the United Nations Environment Programme and the Global Environment Facility. The project involved editing the work of writers whose first languages were German, Japanese, and French.
Air Pollution Negotiation Game. For MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, edited a negotiation simulation game for use in negotiation trainings. Written by a graduate student whose first language was not English, the game aimed to simulate a negotiated rule-making process regarding the reduction of ground-level ozone.
Global Forum Newsletter. Assisted the Consensus Building Institute in publishing a special newsletter to highlight their Global Forum on Trade, Environment, and Development. Served as manager of the project, including coordinating authors’ submissions, editing all text, and working with the graphic designer on layout.
Educating for Democracy Paper. Edited a 14-page article for The Democracy Project on the need to teach college students how to be engaged and productive citizens. The article was published in an education-focused trade publication.
Consensus Newsletter. Served as the associate editor of Consensus, a quarterly publication of the Harvard Program on Negotiation. In addition to soliciting and editing articles from dispute resolution professionals, wrote numerous articles on topics relating to public dispute resolution.




	The following is an abridged list of projects completed by Larmer Consulting, organized into four sections: Books Reports Meeting Summaries Additional Projects Books Jennifer Thomas-Larmer, the founder and principal of Larmer Consulting, has edited three books on collaborative problem solving and consensus building, in collaboration with renowned leaders in these fields. The books include: The Consensus Building Handbook, with Lawrence Susskind and Sarah McKearnan How to Make Collaboration Work, for David Straus Negotiating Environmental Agreements, with Lawrence Susskind and Paul F. Levy Reports Ford Motor Company Sustainability Reports. Serve on the writing team for Ford’s annual Sustainability Report, which details the company’s environmental, safety, and corporate citizenship efforts. Each year since 2004, have researched and written the sections on vehicle and workplace safety. Also, have served as general editor of the entire print and web-based texts. The writing team is managed by BuzzWord, a sustainability reporting firm. View report. Kellogg Corporate Responsibility Report. Served on the writing team that drafted the first annual corporate responsibility report for Kellogg Company. Penned the sections on Environment and Workplace, drafted the executive summary, and edited the entire document. View report. Practical Guide to Collaborative Governance. Provided feedback to the author on the structure and content of this 88-page report, and then edited the entire text. The report will be published by the Policy Consensus Initiative. Pew Report on the Regulation of Genetically Engineered Plants and Animals. Assisted the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology in preparing this landmark, 250-page report detailing the regulatory and policy issues relating to agricultural biotechnology. Helped to conceptualize and organize the report, drafted portions of it, and edited the full manuscript. The process involved several rounds of internal and external peer review and the consequent editing of multiple iterations of each chapter. View report. Keystone Consensus Report on Endangered Species Act Habitat Issues. Edited the 63-page final report of this 24-person, multistakeholder consensus-building dialogue group. The group was formed at the request of six U.S. Senators and was facilitated by the Keystone Center. View report. Legislators at a Crossroads. For the Policy Consensus Initiative, edited this 20-page publication about how state legislators can better utilize collaborative approaches to governance. View report. Keystone Obesity Report. Served as the general editor of this 121-page report on opportunities for restaurants and food-service companies to help consumers prevent weight gain and obesity. The report was the culmination of a 14-month process, led by the Keystone Center, in which 44 participants representing diverse interests met periodically to develop consensus-based recommendations. Pulled together multiple disparate draft texts written by different parties to create one coherent document to which all parties could lend their support. View report. Stakeholder Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology. Served as the staff editor for this 20-person policy dialogue on agricultural biotechnology, which was facilitated by RESOLVE and funded by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology. Worked with Forum members to develop a 65-page final report, on which consensus ultimately was not achieved due to a variety of political factors. After negotiations broke down, assisted the group in developing a short final report that described the dialogue process. Primer on Food Fortification in Asia. For the Keystone Center, edited a 115-page, technically complex report on opportunities for fortifying foods in Asia to reduce micronutrient malnutrition. Nutrition and policy experts from five Asian countries contributed data to the report, which was drafted by several food policy consultants and included 36 statistical tables. RESOLVE Monograph. Edited a 14-page manuscript entitled "When the Sparks Fly: Building Consensus when the Science Is Contested" for the president of RESOLVE. View report. Mediation White Paper. For the Harvard Program on Negotiation, edited a 73-page white paper on the art of mediating when significant power imbalances exist among the parties. Keystone Dialogue Report on Natural Gas Infrastructure. Over the course of several months, worked with the 32 members of this policy dialogue group to draft and edit their 70-page final report on expanding the natural gas infrastructure to meet the growing demand for cleaner power. The group was convened and facilitated by the Keystone Center. Mediation Manual. Assisted the Consensus Building Institute in preparing a 50-page how-to manual on mediation for the Alberta (Canada) Environmental Appeals Board. Compiled and organized the contributions of multiple authors and edited the manual. Report on Ozone Mitigation in Developing Countries. Edited a 240-page report on the phase-out of ozone-depleting substances in developing countries, presented to the Executive Committee of the Multilateral Fund of the Montreal Protocol. The report presented a unique editorial challenge, in that most of its eight authors were not native English speakers. MIT Sustainable Technologies Paper. Edited a 60-page academic paper describing how government agencies can encourage the development of sustainable technologies. The paper was co-written by faculty members and research associates from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, for presentation to the Dutch government. Keystone Dialogue Report on Regional Transmission Organizations. Edited the 50-page consensus report of this 30-person multistakeholder policy dialogue on regional transmission organizations and their role in the electric power industry. The dialogue was sponsored by the Keystone Center. Worked with the facilitators and group members over the course of three months to edit and refine the various draft sections and ultimately merge them into one cohesive report to which all members could agree. Conflict Assessment Manual. Worked with the Consensus Building Institute to publish a 35-page manual on conflict assessments in the context of land use disputes. Wrote the majority of the text, edited the remainder, and designed the layout of the document. The report was jointly published by CBI and the Pace University School of Law. Report on Environmental Policy in the Netherlands. Edited a 35-page report written by a non-native speaker of English on the evolution of Dutch environmental policy in the past 30 years. The report was published by the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Meeting Summaries Pew Workshop on Genetically Engineered Forest Trees. Penned a 75-page summary of a two-day meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina, on ecological risk assessment regarding genetically engineered forest trees. Sponsored by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology and the Institute of Forest Biotechnology, the workshop involved technically complex presentations from 12 scientific experts as well as full-group discussion among the 35 participants. Pew Meeting on Grapes, Wine, and the Application of Biotechnology. Wrote a 71-page summary of a two-day meeting in San Francisco on the potential application of genetic engineering technologies in the wine grape and wine industries. The report summarized 20 presentations from scientific experts as well as discussions among the 28 participants. The workshop was sponsored by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology. Pew Animal Biotechnology Workshops. Wrote detailed summaries of five major multistakeholder workshops on the use of genetic engineering in animal agriculture. All were sponsored by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology and facilitated by RESOLVE. Wrote a 19-page summary of the inaugural meeting of the Animals Steering Committee, at which 33 participants jointly planned the animal biotechnology workshops that were to follow. Drafted a 41-page summary of a two-and-a-half day workshop on the moral and ethical issues involved in developing and using genetically engineered and cloned animals. Wrote a 62-page joint summary of two workshops at which 40 participants discussed the regulation and commercialization of genetically modified and cloned animals. The report included summaries of 10 presentations from nationally recognized experts. Penned a 25-page summary of a two-day, 35-person meeting at which participants discussed institutional options for addressing the moral and ethical issues relating to animal biotechnology and cloning. Pew Meetings on the State Regulation of Biotechnology. Wrote summaries of two multistakeholder meetings on the regulation of biotechnology by individual states. Both meetings were jointly sponsored by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and facilitated by RESOLVE. Wrote a 39-page summary of a meeting in Boulder, Colorado, on “peaceful coexistence” among growers of genetically engineered, conventional, and organic crops. The meeting lasted two days and included 10 technical presentations by experts, as well as extensive and often heated conversations among the 50 participants. Wrote a 59-page summary of a meeting in San Diego on how state and federal officials can work together better to effectively regulate agricultural biotechnology. The two-day meeting included 14 expert presentations and full-group discussion among the 45 participants. Nanotechnology Meeting. Drafted a summary of a two-day meeting of experts who discussed creating a technology roadmap for productive nanosystems. The meeting was organized and sponsored by the Foresight Nanotech Institute and Battelle and held in San Francisco. It was facilitated by Fisher Collaborative Services. Alaska Climate Change Meeting. Wrote a summary of a one-day public meeting in Washington, DC, on the measurable effects of climate change on Alaska’s natural resources. The meeting was sponsored by the Alaska Conservation Foundation and included both presentations by experts and Q&A from the large audience. Climate Change Strategy Retreat Summary. Wrote a 28-page summary of a two-day meeting sponsored by the Green Group and the U.S. Climate Action Network and facilitated by the Meridian Institute. The 62 participants from environmental groups and private foundations discussed how to better coordinate their lobbying and public education efforts regarding climate change. Energy Board Meeting. Wrote a summary of a one-day meeting of the Keystone Center’s Energy Board, a group of 33 high-level energy industry executives and environmentalists who advise the Keystone Center on potential projects. Additional Projects Resumes for Senior Executives. For 7 years, have regularly edited and formatted resumes, cover letters, and bios for executive-level clients at Essex Partners, a Boston-based outplacement firm. Investment Newsletter. Regularly edit a quarterly newsletter written by an independent investment advisor. The RESOLVE Reporter. Served as editor of this web-based quarterly newsletter published by RESOLVE. Meridian Institute Web Site. Edited significant portions of the Meridian Institute’s web site, including a database of completed and ongoing projects. CBI Reports. Edited several issues of CBI Reports, the Consensus Building Institute’s quarterly newsletter. Dissertation. Edited the dissertation of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D. candidate, on the topic of dispute resolution processes utilized by the World Trade Organization. Environmental Justice Case Studies. An associate with the Consensus Building Institute had written in-depth descriptions of six environmental justice cases around the United States. Drafted abridged versions of each case, culling the text from 30 or more pages per case down to 5 or 6 pages. The abridged cases were then published in report form by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Justice. Career Transition Manual. Edited a 50-page manual for Essex Partners on how to proceed through a job transition. Plant Information Sheets. Wrote information sheets for customers of a large Boston-based garden center on various aspects of tree and shrub selection and care. Policy Consensus Initiative Newsletter. Helped the Policy Consensus Initiative prepare and publish a newsletter. Wrote two articles: an 830-word piece on Utah’s efforts to institutionalize the use of alternative dispute resolution in its state agencies, and a 950-word piece providing tips for ADR agencies on weathering state budget crises. Edited 10 other articles written by PCI staff. Sustainable Alternatives Network (SANet). Edited marketing materials and several case studies for this international environmental organization, which is a strategic partnership of the United Nations Environment Programme and the Global Environment Facility. The project involved editing the work of writers whose first languages were German, Japanese, and French. Air Pollution Negotiation Game. For MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, edited a negotiation simulation game for use in negotiation trainings. Written by a graduate student whose first language was not English, the game aimed to simulate a negotiated rule-making process regarding the reduction of ground-level ozone. Global Forum Newsletter. Assisted the Consensus Building Institute in publishing a special newsletter to highlight their Global Forum on Trade, Environment, and Development. Served as manager of the project, including coordinating authors’ submissions, editing all text, and working with the graphic designer on layout. Educating for Democracy Paper. Edited a 14-page article for The Democracy Project on the need to teach college students how to be engaged and productive citizens. The article was published in an education-focused trade publication. Consensus Newsletter. Served as the associate editor of Consensus, a quarterly publication of the Harvard Program on Negotiation. In addition to soliciting and editing articles from dispute resolution professionals, wrote numerous articles on topics relating to public dispute resolution.