William Sisson
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Articles by William Sisson
Building the Tashmoo
I sold my 18-foot Tashmoo more than 20 years ago to the town of Vineyard Haven, on Martha’s Vineyard, where then harbormaster Jay Wilbur met me in Woods Hole, looked the boat over, handed me a check and told his assistant, “Take her home.” I called Wilbur every few years for a time to check on the boat, and he couldn’t have sounded happier to have it in the town fleet.
Forbes JAPAN 公式サイト（フォーブス ジャパン）
過去10年の大半において、サステナビリティは企業における個別の優先事項、すなわち事業運営や戦略、財務パフォーマンスに隣接する「別個のもの」として議論されることが多かった。しかし、そうした境界線は急速に消えつつある。 筆者が所属する持続可能な開発のための世界ビジネス評議会（WBCSD）が実施した新たなグローバル調査によると、多くの企業はサステナビリティを単独の議題としてではなく、不確実性が高まる世界においてコスト変動リスクを管理し、レジリエンスを強化し、ビジネスパフォーマンスを向上させるための実用的なツールと捉えるようになっている。 この調査結果は、ビジネスリーダーたちが地政学的な不確実性、サプライチェーンの混乱、コスト上昇、急速に変化する市場環境への対応を迫られている中で発表された。多くの企業にとって、もはや「サステナビリティが重要かどうか」という問いは過去のものだ。現在の関心は、いかにしてサステナビリティへの投資が事業の信頼性を高め、マージンを守り、より適切な長期的資本決定を下すことに寄与するかという点に移っている。...
How Rising Climate Costs Are Changing How Companies Make Business Decisions
William Sisson, Exec. Director, Americas at WBCSD, a global business nonprofit helping companies drive competitiveness & sustainable growth. For much of the past decade, sustainability was often discussed as a separate corporate priority—something adjacent to operations, strategy and financial performance. That distinction is disappearing quickly.
Summer Striper Secrets - Soundings Online
Photos by Jessica Haydahl Richardson It’s mid-July, the muggy dog days of summer, and the breeze in our faces as we cruise at 25 knots feels wonderful. My buddy and I are headed for an island several miles off southern New England, which shall remain nameless. Seas are calm, resident stripers are settled in, and we’ve got all the time in the world. We arrive shortly before dark and kill some time gauging the current and drift, making sure there are no prying eyes on us.
The Moment Of Truth For Corporate Climate Leadership
William Sisson, Exec. Director, Americas at WBCSD, a global business nonprofit helping companies drive competitiveness & sustainable growth. After a decade or more of climate commitments, companies now face a harder test: translating climate purpose into measurable business performance amid political backlash, economic pressure and fragmented global regulation.
More Than Fishing
Tom Lynch In setting out to reflect on 60 years of fishing, I assumed it would be the old battles with fish large and long-sought that would remain most sharply etched in memory. I was wrong. Except for some milestone fish—first striper from the surf, first 50-pounder, a linesider taken as a young teen in a snow squall, that sort of thing—my most durable fishing memories are the people. It’s the people and their stories that stick with me.
Forbes JAPAN 公式サイト（フォーブス ジャパン）
ウィリアム・シソン氏は、企業の競争力と持続可能な成長を支援するグローバルな非営利団体WBCSDの米州地域エグゼクティブ・ディレクターを務める。 多くの経営幹部が投資収益率（ROI）について語る際、彼らが意味するのは成長率、利益率、株主価値といった通常の指標だ。しかし最近、ROIの定義は変化している。気候変動の影響が加速し、ステークホルダーの期待が高まる中、サステナビリティのパフォーマンスは財務パフォーマンスと切り離せないものになった。気候変動リーダーシップを単なるコンプライアンスではなく中核戦略として扱う企業は、長期的なリターンを生み出すレジリエンス、イノベーション、信頼を構築している。...
The New ROI: Why Climate Leadership Defines Business Success
William Sisson, Exec. Director, Americas at WBCSD, a global business nonprofit helping companies drive competitiveness & sustainable growth. When most executives talk about return on investment (ROI), they mean the usual metrics of growth, margins and shareholder value. Recently, however, the definition of ROI has shifted. As climate impacts accelerate and stakeholder expectations harden, sustainability performance has become inseparable from financial performance.
Net Gain
On a chilly day in November, three fishermen are patching holes in a large trap net spread out on a field in Little Compton, Rhode Island. The catching part of the season is long over and in a few more days, so will the four months of net mending and repairing. It’s all part of the seasonal rhythm of trap net fishing, one of the oldest methods of commercial fishing in New England, with origins dating back to Native Americans.
Striper Stories Worth Sharing
In setting out to reflect on 60 years of fishing, I assumed it would be the old battles with fish large and long sought that would remain most sharply etched in memory. I was wrong. Except for some milestone fish — first striper from the surf, first 50-pounder, a linesider taken as a young teen in a snow squall, that sort of thing — my most durable fishing memories are the people. It’s the people and their stories that stick with me.
Between Fish: Fall Striper Blitz Reflections
The heartbeat of the Northeast fishery is strongest in the fall, when large migrations are underway, daylight is waning, and anglers try to tap into one those fabled blitzes that must be experienced to fully appreciate. In the weeks before the equinox, birds, baitfish, the most sought-after gamefish and a host of other critters begin to marshal their strength to sail southward or offshore.
Despite the headwinds, US companies that stick to their values will win out
Construction work on solar power arrays continues at rPlus Energies' Green River Energy Center in Emery, Utah, U.S. June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart September 9 - In a world in flux, companies that stay true to their values continue to see real business gains, outperforming the market. The real risk to progress is when national policy environments and business leadership are dangerously out of sync.
Summer Striper Fishing Tactics
It’s mid-July, the muggy dog days of summer, and the breeze in our faces as we cruise at 25 knots feels wonderful. My buddy and I are headed for an island several miles off southern New England, which shall remain nameless. Seas are calm, resident stripers are settled in, and we’ve got all the time in the world. We arrive shortly before dark and kill some time gauging the current and drift, making sure there are no prying eyes on us.
Just Yesterday: The Gang That Couldn’t Cast Straight
I hear them coming long before I see them. Three guys shining their flashlights everywhere — over the rocks, in the water, in my eyes if I’m foolish enough to turn around. The leader is fat and loud, with a short gray beard and jowls. He’s wearing hip boots and sports the largest flashlight I’ve ever seen anyone hang around their neck. It must be 18 inches long and extends to his big belly. I can tell by talking with them that they all work in the restaurant business. At least one guy is a dishwasher.
The Lucky Side - Anglers Journal
We leave the ramp around 7 p.m. and head out to find our honey hole, a place we just call “the hump.” It is a small mound of strewn boulders in about 40 feet of water, on the edge of a busy channel in southern New England. It was never easy to find, not in the Loran days. Despite our best efforts, we could never locate two ranges that worked. We only fish it after dark. It’s a verifiable big-striped-bass spot known only to a handful. How I learned of it is a story for another day.
A Fisherman's Life
After a lifelong career as a commercial fisherman, Capt. Bob Smith has swallowed the anchor and is on the beach, firmly aground. As self-imposed as his retirement may be, it doesn’t make the shift any easier for the plain-spoken Smith, who has been wresting a living from southern New England waters for 76 of his 88 years. “Look at my hands,” says Smith, holding them out as if there is something wrong with them. “There are no blisters.
David Danforth: The King of Color
Artist David Danforth had one helluva summer. He and his merry band of fly anglers spent more than two months in Mexico, Belize and Costa Rica, where Danforth painted murals on three lodges and the group collaborated on a film called King of Color. They also fished a ton. Danforth’s paintings are loud and bold, full of color and motion, a mashup of street art and abstract with a nod toward Basquiat and a touch of Indiana Jones. You certainly wouldn’t mistake his work for Winslow Homer’s.
Casting the Entire Spool
Long-distance casting champion Ron Arra witnessed something he’d never seen before during a recent surfcasting demonstration on a beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The 79-year-old, five-time national distance champ watched as one of the participants, Lucas Leao, uncorked a cast that drained every inch of line from the spool of his Penn Spinfisher VII 5500 LC (long cast) reel, which held about 265 yards of 30-pound braid and backing. And then Leao did it three more times at the May 3 demonstration.
Island Life in Maine
The work of photographer Jeff Dworsky illustrated a story published in Anglers Journal nearly six years ago entitled On the Outskirts about the small fishing town of Stonington on Maine’s Deer Isle. Dworsky moved there from Massachusetts in 1973 when he was 17. Now Dworsky’s work is the subject of a handsome, large-format book called Sealskin, from Charcoal Press. The book is 10 by 13 inches and 110 pages, with a hard cover embossed with a tipped-on photo.
Globetrotting fly fisherman and photographer Pat Ford has never lost his thirst for adventure
The scene could have been ripped from a Hemingway story. On a seamount more than 100 miles off Costa Rica, a white-haired salt stood in the cockpit fighting a blue marlin on a fly rod. The battle was as mano-a-mano as it gets in this theater. A 300-pound marlin, 20-pound tippet and a 75-year-old Don Quixote with a 14-weight rod. What could go wrong? One hour became two, and the powerful fish still hadn’t jumped. Instead, it rested far below with its pectoral fins extended horizontally.
Fall Sketches from a Striped Bass Beach
A pair of young landscapers pulls into a lot in an old, red dump truck filled with brush. Two surf rods are laid across the load. By the looks of things, they are knocking off work a little early. Good for them. They could have been me 40 years ago. It is the last week of October. The rutted trail to the beach snakes past dozens of milkweed plants heavy with seed pods swollen to bursting.
Fall Striped Bass Madness
If you live in the Northeast, fall fishing is our beautiful obsession. Nothing revs our tribe’s motors like the fall run. No disrespect to spring and summer, but fall is the season to be on the water from Maine to New Jersey, forgoing sleep, calling in sick to work and using up vacation time to chase bluefin and yellowfin tuna, albies, bluefish, blackfish and, of course, striped bass — the fish that has come to embody fall as much as any species in the region.
Block Island Blitz
The old days are rarely as good as we remember them. As the decades roll on, the fish grow larger, and the battles become epic as our memories waver like a black-and-white TV signal beamed in through a rabbit ears antenna. To argue that the best-ever surfcasting for large striped bass took place 40 years ago on Block Island, Rhode Island, might cause some to roll their eyes.
Striped Bass and the Edge of Possibility
For a short time, my life felt as perfectly balanced as the 11-foot surf rod riding on my shoulder as I clomped along a beach in waders, a converted Army surplus plug bag bouncing on my hip, a piece of pot warp found on the sand serving as a shoulder strap. I could pick up the rod in my sleep, open the bail and uncork a cast that traveled straight and true into the night. I was catching well and was as comfortable in my skin as I’d ever been.
The Power of Art
Stepping into the small maritime art gallery on Water Street in Stonington, Connecticut, a visitor’s senses are immediately altered by stirring paintings of ships and yachts at sea, some in distress. J-Class yachts are rail down under full sail; a lobster boat battles a frothy rip; and a chilly colonial-era Boston waterfront is packed tightly with merchant ships in winter. Time rolls back and the era of sail, working waterfronts and steam power are once again in full bloom. The J.
Young Angler James Luce Has Fishing Fever
At 8 years old, James Luce is all smiles, teeth and energy, a fishing whirlwind happily focused on catching another fish worthy of a video for his YouTube channel. For the last three years, his life has revolved around fish: freshwater stripers, largemouth bass, catfish and plenty more.
A Fish and A Dream: Founding Anglers Journal Magazine
My guiding tenet from the outset was to create the magazine that my fishing friends and I would want to read. I had been schooled on the authentic voices of editors Frank Woolner and Hal Lyman in Salt Water Sportsman of the 1960s, the first magazine to which I had a subscription. Our goal with Anglers Journal was to gather the best fishing writing, commentary, photography, art and design we could find, and assemble it all in a new magazine.
Artist Alberto Rey's Improbable Journey
The guide and the angler walked beside a lovely stream on a clear, cold day on the cusp of winter. The temperature was in the mid-20s, and ice hung from the steep bluffs, leaving me with the impression of walking through a natural cathedral. Instead of religious iconography, however, the pools and pews held muscular steelhead, a gift for the handful of hardy believers who were streamside, murmuring fish prayers and waiting for a take.
Fishing Into the Wind, Thinking About Lost Friends
“Step forward while the light and shadows are still clear, the sun, low on the water, still steady. Enter the moment you seem to be living in.” Carl Dennis The full moon was a few days off, and steady 2- to 3-foot swells rolled over the empty point. I’m drawn to this long stretch of surf, sand, glacial debris and wind whenever cracks appear in my world. I’d lost two friends this fall, and my earliest fishing mentor passed the previous year.
The Art of Eeling
Striped bass have a hard time saying no to an eel. Sharpies have been using these slimy, squirming critters to catch stripers for more than 100 years, and they’re still popular for those who cast, drift or troll for large stripers. Eels are a tough, durable bait with a history of attracting the largest striped bass found in coastal waters, from North Carolina to Canada. Three of the four world record bass taken since 1913 were caught on eels. That’s no coincidence.
Eel Man Ray Turner: End of an Era
The timeworn fish weir on the East Branch of the Delaware River may have trapped its last eel. The stone-and-wood structure in Hancock, New York, has been operated for decades by Ray Turner, whom locals refer to as “The Eel Man.” Turner also runs Delaware Delicacies Smokehouse, where he sells a variety of smoked foods, from cheese to shrimp and fish, including the eels he captures in his weir.
A tribute to Jack Turner who founded Soundings 60 years ago.
One thing Jack Turner got right when he sat down at his kitchen table one evening in the early 1960s with two like-minded conspirators and a bottle of gin was the timing of the grand idea to start a boating newspaper. Soundings was conceived 60 years ago, right as the marine industry transitioned from wood to fiberglass. Its success was fueled by the great boom in boatbuilding that resulted.
A Fishing Life
Given enough time and distance, you begin to see more clearly those events that shaped your fishing life. They appear to me now as 60-year-old memories that evoke the same feelings as on the days the actual episodes occurred. My recollections are wrapped as tightly as tarred marline around the wooden frame of a handline and include a dock, a lighthouse, an old skiff and various mentors — a professor, a lobsterman and a tall, lanky outdoorsman from Campbell County, Tennessee.
Comment: How greener buildings will pave the way for meeting climate goals
The construction site of a skyscraper is seen next to an old Deutsche Bank building in Frankfurt, Germany, July 19, 2023. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights October 24 - Consider the building you are in at this moment. It might be an office building, your home, a shopping mall or a recreational facility. What too few of us realise is that the way buildings are designed, constructed and operated contributes enormously to climate change.
Aiming for the Horizon
In his prime, Cape Cod surf fisherman Ron Arra would uncork mighty casts that seemed bound for the moon. A former professional athlete, he won five national championships for distance casting between 1983 and 1988. He tossed a 5¼-ounce lead weight on 12-pound monofilament a Paul Bunyan-esque 758 feet, 4 inches (more than 250 yards) in 1987 in Falmouth, Massachusetts. In 1989, he became the first person to heave a tear-drop sinker across Cape Cod Canal at Pole 100.
Portland Yacht Services is one of the largest repair boatyards in Maine.
Portland Yacht Services was a hive of activity on this morning in late April as the boating season was about to burst open like the trees, shrubs and flowers along the Portland, Maine, waterfront. The pace at the boatyard on West Commercial Street was industrious but not frenetic. Everything felt under control as I walked the full-service yard with owner Phineas Sprague Jr. and his wife, Joanna.
Council Post: The Sustainability Wake-Up Call For Businesses
N.A. Executive Director of the WBCSD, a global nonprofit working with corporations on sustainable business solutions. In recent years, sustainability has undergone a seismic shift from a niche concern to a mainstream imperative. The widespread adoption of environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices by businesses has gained momentum, reshaping the way we interact with our environment and altering the business landscape.
An Unreasonable Man
Portland Yacht Services was a hive of activity on this morning in late April as the boating season was about to burst open like the trees, shrubs and flowers along the Portland, Maine, waterfront. The pace at the boatyard on West Commercial Street was industrious, but not frenetic. Everything felt under control as I walked the full-service yard with owner Phineas Sprague Jr. and his wife, Joanna.
Indomitable
On an island known for molding tenacious surf anglers, Janet Messineo ranks among its hardiest. Even as she battles spinal stenosis and balance issues, the 75-year-old retired taxidermist and island fixture is not ready to hang up her waders. An acclaimed surf angler and author, Messineo is woven into the rich fabric of life on Martha’s Vineyard — an island about seven miles off Massachusetts best known as a vacation spot for presidents and celebrities.
Old Haunts - Anglers Journal - A Fishing Life
I stood on a windy hill on an early April evening, smelling the rain blowing off the sound as it moved up the river valley, shrouding it in sheets of mist. At that moment, I made up my mind that, unlike the previous season, I would spend as many days in the field as possible. Not for love, money or work would I miss another stretch of productive spring tides. I knew that if I was to be of any use to anyone, including myself, I had to get back to the edges where land meets the sea.
Council Post: To Achieve Environmental Goals, Corporate Real Estate Needs To Act Now
N.A. Executive Director of the WBCSD, a global nonprofit working with corporations on sustainable business solutions. getty Every five days, the equivalent of the city of Paris is being built somewhere around the world.
Good for the Soul
Fall has long been celebrated for striped bass fishing in New England, but June might actually be the best month of all for chasing linesiders. Spring striper fishing is more predictable than the fall run, when a series of nor’easters can send the schools packing and alter their southbound trajectory just enough to leave you muttering at a lot of empty water. Spring is far more benign. The returning fish are hungry and aggressive.
A Salty Lens
Whether he’s shooting portraits of commercial fishermen, tugboat pilots or Mainers digging seaworms while up to their elbows in soft mud, his work is intentionally that of a documentarian. Michael Cevoli photographs boatbuilders, quahoggers, gillnetters, fly fishermen, dragger men, war vets, charter captains and old salts whose eyes have grown cloudy, but whose stories still trickle out like a young flood tide.
Signs of Life
A light rain was falling, the wind was out of the east, and the bite for the last few days had been slow. It was late October, and 25-knot gusts were forecast for that night. Did I really want to drag my tired bones off the couch and out into that mess? Fall is as fleeting as the vestiges of my youth. I knew that in another month, I’d miss all of it — the cold drizzle, the gusty night winds, the fingerless gloves, and the bucking rod when the last migratory striped bass came to hand.
WBCSD at GreenBiz23 Scottsdale, Arizona: February 13-16, 2023
William Sisson William Sisson Executive Director, North America at World Business Council for Sustainable Development Published Mar 2, 2023 A delegation of the WBCSD – World Business Council for Sustainable Development representatives joined members, sustainability practitioners, educators, and thought leaders in conversations at GreenBiz23 in Scottsdale, Arizona on February 13-16, 2023. GreenBiz is a premier annual event for sustainable business leaders.
Net Gain
On a chilly day in November, three fishermen are patching holes in a large trap net spread out on a field in Little Compton, Rhode Island. The catching part of the season is long over and in a few more days, so will the four months of net mending and repairing. It’s all part of the seasonal rhythm of trap net fishing, one of the oldest methods of commercial fishing in New England, with origins dating back to Native Americans.
Wind-Scoured Trout Perfection
Standing in a wind-blown lake full of large rainbow trout, I braced myself as another set of chest-high swells rolled in, tops foaming and spray flying. The wind had revved up again, gusting conservatively into the 50s, possibly more than 60 mph. The half-dozen anglers fishing the lake that afternoon stood with their backs to the blasts as spray and coarse sand from shore pelted hooded jackets and waders. The sound came as a whooshing staccato — rat a tat tat … rat a tat tat.
Striper Fever
A striper is what it does. It’s how the fish goes about its daily business of feeding in so many habitats and under such varied conditions that makes it so magical. I have followed stripers for a lifetime, and they surprise me every season. What’s not to like about striped bass? New York fly guide Captain Brendan McCarthy said he wishes the fish would tail more on the flats, like bonefish. A nitpick, but fair enough.
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