Archive for November, 2008
November 27, 2008
· Filed under news · Tagged anti-corruption day, corruption, democracy, rule of law, UNODC, your NO counts
The United Nations Convention against Corruption, adopted in December 2005, is promoted as the key tool to fight corruption worldwide.As part of its ‘Corruption – Your NO Counts’ campaign, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has produced a video spot to illustrate that people are not simply at the mercy of corruption and often have the power to say NO.Logos& banners in order to promote the campaign have also been created.December, 9 has been declared the International Anti-Corruption Day.
A list of organizations fighting corruption at regional and international level is available here.
November 26, 2008
· Filed under news · Tagged Better World Shopper, ranking, Seventh Generation
………….according to Better World Shopper’s ranking. Seventh Generation is followed by Patagonia, American Apparel, Eden Foods, Tom’s of Maine, Ben & Jerry’s, Working Assets, Clif Bar, Stonyfield Farms, and Aveda.
According to Better World Shopper, the ranking is the result of research undertaken on a database of over 1000 companies. Researchers utilized 25+ reliable sources of data to cover the following areas: the environment, human rights, community development, social justice, animal protection.
I do not question the CSR performance of the above companies, they deserve to be praised for their efforts but I question the emergence of so many rankings and standards.
Actually, the President and Chief Inspired Protagonist of Seventh Generation, Jeffrey Hollender, asks himself: “Can we agree on what really matters?”. According to him, we need a movement with a “coherent vision”, “disciplined leadership” and “wilingness to work on important issues”.
November 25, 2008
· Filed under news · Tagged accountability, csrnetwork, rating, Simon Zadek, vodafone
Another rating, another top, another methodology……
The 2008 Accountability rating compiled by AccountAbility and Csrnetwork found Vodafone the most accountable company in the world. Vodafone was followed by: General Electric, HSBC, France Telecom, HBOS, Nokia, EDF, GDF Suez, BP, Royal Dutch Shell.
The Accountability Rating “measures the extent to which companies build responsible practices into the way they do business and their impact on the economies, societies and environments in which they operate. It does this through assessing information made available by the companies themselves across four domains: strategy, governance and management, engagement and operational performance.”
The overall conclusion of the rating is that the world’s largest companies are becoming more accountable with European companies leading the top.
Why? CSR and profitability go hand in hand. Even during the current economic crisis, CSR initiatives may be beneficial if they are seen as a opportunity to manage risks.
Still, the Accountability Rating also shows that there are many areas where there is room for improvement.
75% of companies are reporting on their carbon emissions, but only 43% report a decrease in these emissions. 78% of the companies within the G-100 are now disclosing targets for their environmental performance but less than half are actually saying when they plan to achieve these targets. Moreover, according to Simon Zadek, AccountAbility CEO, “the real challenge lies in how companies can scale-up to find real solutions to societies’ major problems like climate change, deficits in human capital and green infrastructure.”
November 24, 2008
· Filed under news · Tagged competitiveness, csr, european union, sme
In November 2008, the European Commission announced co-financing for initiatives to support CSR in three industries: textiles, chemicals and construction. The aim of the initiative is to provide evidence of to whether and how CSR can be a driver for competitiveness in various industries .SMEs are the main target group.
The aim of the “PRISME2 project” is to build capacity in SMEs within the chemical industry through a networking programme. Performance leaders amongst the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) membership together with other partners will provide SMEs with training and expertise in issues of the
Responsible Care initiative, in particular in health and safety. Pro bono trainings will be initiated for participating companies, in combination with on-site assessments (gap analyses) especially on occupational health and safety and additional activities.
The aim of the “BRE project” is to demonstrate that the adoption of socially responsible actions enhance the
competitiveness of the business in the construction sector in comparison with the adoption of social dumping behaviours. The project partners want to raise awareness among the actors of the construction sector, thereby contributing to the promotion of the culture of corporate social responsibility and to provide companies in the construction sector with proper cognitive tools for developing innovative CSR policies.
The aim of the “COSMIC project” is to analyse the relationship existing between CSR and competitiveness all along the textile/clothing supply chain, through:a study concerning the role played by demand factors (market and consumers), supply factors (innovation and dynamic efficiency, role of credit and insurance systems) and public policies on CSR – related tools adoption by textile/clothing SMEs;identification of the main voluntary CSR instruments that can influence the industry economic and competitive performance, as well as market dynamics;diffusion of the results among SMEs and in the industrial clusters.
November 22, 2008
· Filed under news · Tagged csr, environment, interpraxis, PwC, risk
“Corporate Social Responsibility is not just about managing, reducing and avoiding risk, it is about creating opportunities, generated improved performance, making money and leaving the risks far behind.”
Sunil Misser, Head of Global Sustainability Practice, PwC. ( Source: Interpraxis).
November 20, 2008
· Filed under research · Tagged haidt, morals, psychology
Broader issues today:)
Jonathan Haidt studies how and why we evolved to be moral in a cultural context. He hopes that by understanding more about our moral roots “we can learn to be civil and understanding of those whose morals don’t match ours, but who are equally good and moral people on their own terms.”
More about it in his TED conference posted in September 2008. About 18 minutes but it is quite captivating. Enjoy:)
November 19, 2008
· Filed under news · Tagged deloitte, M&A, organization, sustainability
Sustainability considerations are becoming part of the M&A deals reveals consulting company, Deloitte, in a recent document, “How Green is the Deal?”.
Why? The answer is quite predictable.
“M&A is frequently used strategically to attain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. As government regulation and consumers embrace the principles of sustainability, the need for companies to develop enterprise sustainability capabilities becomes increasingly imperative. M&A can be used strategically to identify competitors with existing skills sets that can be incorporated into the existing organization.”
Deloitte advises the parties to the transaction to include social and environmental indicators in the deal valuation process and to evaluate the costs asssociated with environmental factors like energy and water consumption, carbon footprint, solid waste. Moreover, the location of the target company in an environmentally vulnerable area might have a significant impact on the economics of the deal. Other aspects to be taken into account are: potential changes on consumer preferences, legislative changes, significant variation on energy prices and other suppliers prices.
A very interesting aspect is the importance given by Deloitte to the management&personnel skills in the field of sustainability. Acquirers should consider carefully what changes will be needed at management level and in the communication policy of the target company in order to get support for sustainability initiatives at the level of the organization.
November 14, 2008
· Filed under research · Tagged boston college for corporate citizenship, citizenship, google, reputation, success
The Reputation Institute has been measuring corporate reputations since 1999.
Corporate reputations are valuable assets because they influence the profitability of companies. Consumers, creditors or job-seekers decide whether to enter into a relationship with a company on the basis of its reputation among other factors.
In 2006, Reputation Institute has introduced RepTrak Model, a scorecard for measuring corporate reputations internationally. At the heart of this model is Pulse which measures the degree to which people trust, respect, admire and have a good feeling about a company. Scores are based on answers to four questions and are standardized on a scale of 0-100.
The Reputation Institute further examines if the Pulse score is based on perceptions of companies on seven underlying dimensions identified in the RepTrak Model: Products/Services, Innovation, WorkPlace, Citizenship, Governance, Leadership, Performance. It is important for companies to understand what is important for their stakeholders and to act accordingly.
In 2008, The Reputation Institute published the a special report for the Boston College for Corporate Citizenship in which it has included the list of the most respected U.S. Companies by the public.
Google earned the highest rating of perceptions along social dimensions (Citizenship, Governance and Workplace). Basically, with the exception of Berkshire Hathaway, consumer oriented companies made up the majority of top 20 SRI performers.
The main conclusion is that companies who have invested in a strong Social Responsibility profile get a much higher level of support than other companies.
65,7% of the US general public would recommend the Top 20 socially responsible companies to others compared to only 25,9% recommendations for the bottom 20 companies. And more than 27% would not recommend the companies that are not seen as social responsible.
The conclusion of the report is that social responsibility is a direct way to business success.
But “having a strong social responsibility profile “= “being socially responsible”?
November 7, 2008
· Filed under law · Tagged accountability, corporate, directors, duties, justice, liability, multinationals, reporting
The European Coalition for Corporate Justice has published a report “Fair Law: Legal Proposals to Improve Corporate Accountability for Environmental and Human Rights Abuses” in which it makes several proposals for regulatory reforms in the European Union designed to improve the accountability of MNE’s.
The European Coalition for Corporate Justice has prepared this study in response to the European Parliaments’s resolution on Corporate Social Responsibility. The European Parliament addressed the issue of MNEs accountability and emphasized that there is a need for more reforms.
Three main areas of reform are analysed:
- enhancing direct liability of parent companies.
The company law principles of limited liability and legal personality allow an MNE, parent company, to receive the profits of its subsidiary. On the basis of the same principles the MNE cannot be held liable for the environmental and human rights consequences of the subsidiary’s operations. The European Coalition for Corporate Justice considers that the best solution would be suspend the effects of the doctrine of separate legal personality and to allocate responsibility for environmental and human rights violations to the company which controls the entity that violated the standards.
- establishing a parental company duty of care.
Under existing European laws, the parent company’s duty of care with regard to the subsidiary’s operations is limited to “specific situations where the parent is directly involved in the operations or is in fact driving the affiliate’s decisions.” The European Coalition for Corporate Justice considers that the parent company’s duty of care should be extended in order to cover all situations where the parent could significantly influence the adverse impacts on human rights and on the environment of the operations of the legal persons with which it has business relationships.
- establishing mandatory social and environmental reporting.
The European Coalition for Corporate Justice considers that voluntary reporting has several limitations and that the following information should be disclosed by the MNE’s: the enterprise structure and its sphere of responsibility; the risks of human rights and environmental abuses within the MNE’s operations or the operation within its sphere of responsibility and the measures adopted to prevent such abuses; data on direct and indirect environmental and social impacts of the MNE’s operations in the preceding reporting period according to a specified and standardised set of performance indicators.
