Month of March, 2010

In “The Naked Corporation,” Don Tapscott and David Ticoll explain how the new transparency has caused a power shift toward customers, employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders; how and where information has exploded; and how corporations across many industries have seized on transparency not as a challenge but as an opportunity

If you’ve been following the green marketplace lately, there’s a good chance your head is spinning. With endless studies that continue their obstinate rally toward the trivializing of just about any green concern, it becomes challenging to tell apart fluff from relevant data.

This Economist Intelligence Unit report investigates the current corporate perspective on climate change and carbon reduction issues across a range of industries.

This survey by McKinsey Quarterly explored how companies define sustainability, how they manage it, why they engage in activities related to sustainability, and how they assess as well as communicate this engagement.

Population growth and economic development are resulting in increasing pressure on the environment and climate. GS Sustain Research Team team is approaching a tipping point at which the issue’s importance to business performance and investors will escalate. The equity market is only just beginning to reflect the magnitude of change that lies ahead.

This resource pack contains five sections which lead the reader through a three-step cycle of understanding and analysing, planning and doing, and checking and improving Corporate Responsibility (CR) activities.

Fron this report the readers may study questions credibility of FTSE 350 sustainability and carbon data, learn about how credible sustainability and carbon reporting really is and see which assurance approaches pay better.

IFC's Banking on Sustainability report shows evidence of the potential benefits of adopting sustainability as a business strategy. It also shows a dramatic shift in banks' awareness of these benefits.

How mature is the field of corporate responsibility and business ethics in South Korea? What are the main issues of concern for business and its stakeholders?

The Entrepreneur's Toolkit, an online tool developed to support the global community of social and environmental entrepreneurs. The Toolkit is a joint initiative of the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation and the SEED Initiative.

This guide has been put together to help prepare small and medium-sized businesses for working with voluntary environmental and social issues, also called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

This report presents many of the students’ ideas on issues from climate change and pollution, to employees, community and consumers and poverty and human rights.

This report presents the findings and analysis from the first GRI Readers’ Choice survey of readers of sustainability reports. In the years since the advent of sustainability reporting, many surveys and research exercises have attempted to establish opinions and consensus on what comprises quality reporting. But very little attention has been focused on the readers of these reports: Who are they? What do they think of reports? What do they use reports for?

Access to health care is too basic a human right, too vital to life to be left to the mercy of the free markets, say social activists. That’s why in the last fifteen years many ICCR members have challenged the reality that drugs and medical treatment are, too often, commodities reserved for those who can afford them. The Corporate Examiner looks at the practices of US corporations.

Providing best practice examples from companies around the world, One Report shows how integrated reporting adds tremendous value to the company and all of its stakeholders, including shareholders, and also ultimately contributes to a sustainable society.

Do you trust business? If you answered "yes," consider yourself unusual. According to a 2009 Edelman study of more than 20 countries, global trust in business is at an all-time low and diminishing, with people less trustful of all sources of information about companies. The "Edelman Trust Barometer," an output of this research, shows trust in advertising is down to 13 percent from 30 percent, and trust in company websites is down to 21 percent from 30 percent.

How individuals and organizations are working together to create a sustainable world

Public Finance Mechanisms (PFMs) have the potential to leverage large quantities of private finance through smart public investment at scales beyond the carbon markets. This report provides evidence of what has made such mechanisms work successfully in the past and suggests how PFMs could best be deployed to leverage private investment at scale to create a global low-carbon economy.

Ten years ago, it was not fashionable for social enterprises to take loans. Even if they wanted to, nobody would lend them money. However, perceptions are changing. In recent years, ‘not-for-profit’ has been pushed to the back partly because of responsible lenders and social enterprises are being run more like businesses today. Nowadays we talk about a need for ‘surplus’ rather than ‘profit’ to plough money back into the business and grow it.

Emissions trading and risk management capabilities for high performance in energy-intensive industries

Musings and Opinions (Rants and Raves?) of a Corporate Idealist

The Electronic Industry Code of Conduct establishes standards to ensure that working conditions in the electronics industry supply chain are safe, that workers are treated with respect and dignity, and that business operations are environmentally responsible.

Will sustainability change the competitive landscape and reshape the opportunities and threats that companies face? Will sustainability have a material impact on your company? What should you and your company do about it?

This report from Brighter Planet both provides a benchmark for the status of employee sustainability programs in the US as they continue to evolve, and helps to inform their development by highlighting factors that contribute to their success.

This Research Insight by NBS is based on the Journal article "Giving commitment: Employee support programs and the prosocial sensemaking process" by Grant, Adam. M., Dutton, Jane. E., & Rosso, Brent. D.

This Cycle to Work Guarantee Toolkit is a part of the Cycle to Work Guarantee Scheme, a voluntary initiative from the Department for Transport, challenging businesses to become cycle friendly employers by making it easy for staff to cycle to and from work.

Good Fashiontargets to support the garment sector in Hong Kong to further develop and implement CSR policy. In producing Good Fashion, Oxfam aims to raise awareness within the business sector on the importance of CSR and to encourage them to put CSR principles into practice

This blog by Olivia Khalili aims to show how to grow the business by incorporating a social mission.

This Working Paper maps the role of bilateral development banks in providing finance for climate change mitigation and adaptation actions.

CSR presents significant risks and opportunities for many organizations. Stakeholders expect boards and management to accept responsibility and implement strategies and controls to manage their impact on society and the environment, to engage stakeholders in their endeavors, and to inform the public about their results. The proliferation of regulation and voluntary standards has made CSR management a complex endeavor.

This study, by trade dailies Environmental Leader and Retailer Daily, presents a comprehensive survey on corporate renewable energy use: how many corporations are using renewable energy, what industries are using renewable energy, what types of renewable energy they are using, how much renewable energy they are using in relation to their entire energy output, how much they are spending on renewable energy, and what their renewable energy plans for the next five years look like.

This Research Insight by NBS is based on the Journal article "North American Business Strategies Towards Climate Change" by Jones, Charles, & Levy, David.

Exploring enterpreneurial ideas that address social issues, enhance the environment, sustain development and transform the developin world.

This Lean and Energy Toolkit offers Lean implementers practical strategies and techniques for improving Lean results—waste elimination, quality enhancement, and delivery of value to customers—while reducing energy use, costs, and risk. The toolkit is also intended to introduce Lean practitioners to the extensive array of energy management resources available from EPA, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and other organizations.

This handbook endeavors to provide a comprehensive overview of good practice in stakeholder engagement, with a dedicated focus on stakeholder groups that are "external" to the core operation of the business, such as affected communities, local government authorities, non-governmental and other civil society organizations, local institutions and other interested or affected parties.

The World Economic Forum has selected 26 companies active in energy, environmental technologies, health, information technologies and new media. Not only are they developing groundbreaking products and services that can help achieve the promises of sustainable energy, the reduction of the various digital divides, and the treatment and improved monitoring of various health conditions, but they are also redesigning business and society with their disruptive innovations.

The General EHS Guidelines contain information on cross-cutting environmental, health, and safety issues potentially applicable to all industry sectors. It is designed and should be used together with the relevant industry sector guideline(s)

In this report, McKinsey & Company offers a detailed analysis of the magnitude of the efficiency potential in non-transportation uses of energy, a thorough assessment of the barriers that impede the capture of greater efficiency, and an outline of the practical solutions available to unlock the potential.

BCLCblog is part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce parent blog, ChamberPost.com. From BCLCblog, readers and commenters can quickly and directly access content related to corporate citizenship/CSR, disaster response, global development, and community involvement, and then can visit ChamberPost to read more about what is relevant to businesses today.

There is much hope that information and communications technology (ICT) has a high potential to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study provides the first comprehensive empirical analysis of the relationship between ICT on GHG emissions in European energy-intensive industries

Corporations Work With Schools to Train Potential Employees, but Jobs Are Scarce

This report focuses on “sustainable investment,” defined as domestic and foreign investment in the country’s publicly listed companies using strategies that take environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues into consideration. The report also briefly covers sustainable investment by private equity investors.

For businesses, the “bottom line” includes more than just profits. Investors, customers and other stakeholders want to see progress on a broader range of measures, including environmental and social performance. To achieve such goals, companies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are joining forces. This Guide shows how corporations and NGOs can best collaborate together to achieve the new “business as usual”— realizing environmental, social and business benefits.

This Research Insight by NBS is based on the Systematic Review "Socially Conscious Consumerism: A Systematic Review. Network for Business Sustainability Knowledge Project Series" by Cotte, June, & Trudel, Remi.

Water scarcity and water pollution pose a critical challenge in many developing countries. In urban areas, it is becoming difficult for the authorities to manage water supply and wastewater. Strategies for water and wastewater reuse can improve urban water management.

Focusing on the nine most energy-intensive and greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting industrial sectors, this paper compares corporate responses to climate change in Pakistan and the UK. By analysing the divergence of strategies adopted by industries across different sectors in two countries, the paper examines the key factors influencing corporate adoption and implementation of GHG reduction and energy-efficiency strategies in Pakistan and the UK

In this report, TERI-Europe estimates that the total stock of investment in Indian equities where the investment strategy includes a strong focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations is small and almost entirely composed of investment by foreign institutional investors.

The Handbook is a complete guide to investors interested in using their influence to have corporations disclose or improve their social and environmental performance. The Handbook explains the processes involved in developing proxy voting guidelines, corporate dialogue, shareholder proposals and divestment.

The United Nations Global Compact and the Rainforest Alliance brought together leading companies operating under sustainability certification systems in several markets to develop and test a methodology that companies can use internally to analyze their investments in sustainability and for external reporting purposes. The metrics address both tangible and intangible values created through certification in an attempt to capture the full financial impact of certification.

The blog, led by Courtney Zegarski, explores the role of socially-purposeful activities in today's business world

In this special report, a collaboration between the Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership (IGEL) at Penn/Wharton and Knowledge@Wharton, experts look at the many challenges and potential rewards as the evolution towards greater sustainability speeds up.

To aid in understanding principles and concepts underlying sound environmental advertising claims practices, ICC is supplementing the Code and Chapter E governing environmental marketing claims with this Framework for Responsible Environmental Marketing Communications. Included as part of this Framework is a checklist aimed at those developing marketing communications campaigns around environmental claims, and a chart that provides an easy reference to relevant Code provisions.

This blog exists to chart its adventures in Education for Sustainability. The authors writes about lots of different things, it is part diary, part comment.

This report by SustainAbility, UNEP and UNGC explores how supply chains function in order to identify new approaches to building sustainability capacity at the local supplier level, as well as identifying initiatives that will encourage and enable consumer demand for more sustainable solutions. The analysis also considers the challenges facing supply chains when it comes to making responsible choices in the face of competition for limited natural resources.

IBLF’s research draws from 22 case studies across the world, which highlight the opportunity for business to take a lead role in creating jobs and increasing the wealth of communities.

In this article, the author presents a framework for examining the factors that contribute to multinational and community conflict including stakeholder power inequality, stakeholder perception gaps and cultural context. Moreover, author describes some of the ways that communities can increase their leverage in conflict situations.

This blog by Elaine Cohen provides thoughts and insights about social and environmental responsibility and sustainability reporting

The guidance explains how businesses and organisations can measure and report their GHG emissions as well as set targets to reduce them. The guidance is aimed at all sizes of business as well as public and third sector organisations.

Energy efficiency is a fundamental element in the progression towards a more sustainable energy future and has been on the business agenda for years with significant strides already achieved. There are many environmental benefits to energy efficiency including reduced emissions and reduced use of resources. In this paper the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) builds on past work on energy efficiency to deliver international business’ extensive experience and innovation in this area

This book investigates an industry that has been at the centre of the CSR development – the oil and gas sector. Looking at companies from developed countries, as well as companies from emerging economies, the book investigates the potential of CSR for addressing three important challenges in the business–society relationship: the environment, development and governance.

This Research Insight by NBS is based on the Journal article "How warm is the corporate response to climate change? Evidence from Pakistan and the UK" by Jeswani, Harish Kumar, Wehrmeyer, Walter, & Mulugetta, Yacob.

This report focuses on corporate transparency on environmental risks, and lays the groundwork for understanding environmental disclosure and reporting issues in emerging markets through an investor lens.

The publication presents the results of a research study that seeks to understand how companies can work in partnership with third sector organisations to strengthen and support leadership development. It is hoped that the case studies featured and the lessons learned from the experience of the interviewees will inspire others to take action on this hugely important issue of cross-sector leadership development.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”) hass published this release to provide guidance to public companies regarding the Commission’s existing disclosure requirements as they apply to climate change matters.

In the rapidly growing field of Corporate Social Responsibility, the singular focus of Realized Worth is corporate volunteering. Without exception, the authors believe the employee engagement is essential to every successful CSR program.

This is a practical working tool designed to give useful insight into corporate social responsibility report trends around the world

This paper by Wayne Visser and Andrew Crane looks at what motivates sustainability managers to devote their time and energies to addressing social, environmental and ethical issues.

Ethics is sometimes considered to be a rarefied experience, confined to the realms of academe and philosophical thought. The findings of the 2009 Annual Business and Professions Study – Business Ethics Study put paid to this assumption and clearly demonstrate the opposite: ethical issues, attitudes, encounters and dilemmas make up part of the everyday working life of employees Australia wide, and significantly impact on both discretionary effort and retention rates of the employee.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) have launched the Toolkit, which aims to support the finance sector in progressing towards the sustainable financing of industries impacting forests