Research findings developed with Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, Net Impact and World Business Council for Sustainable Development assess trends and best practices in corporate responsibility communications.
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Is corporate social responsibility dead? Yes, says Harvard Business Review’s “Conversation Starter” blog. CSR will increasingly be seen as a public relations sham, the bloggers say.
Yes, says my colleague Stefan Stern, who recently predicted on this page that companies would abandon CSR in favour of “sustainability”. (see below)
No, says the European Commission, which commends companies that “go beyond minimum legal requirements to address societal needs” and has just spent three years and €1.4m ($2m) producing a 108-page report on CSR.
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The issue of climate change has made it to the top of the corporate big wheel, with 87 percent of non-financial reports from Global FT500 companies reporting on the issue, according to a report from CorporateRegister.com. CorporateRegister.com’s ‘Corporate Climate Communications’ is the first study to assess global leading companies’ communications on climate change, as opposed to their carbon performance. During 2007, two-thirds of the Global FT500 issued a stand-alone nonfinancial report. Evaluating these the study reveals that 87% address climate change, with 78% publishing greenhouse gas emissions data.
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The telecoms sector is playing a major role in sustainable development by contributing to
economic growth and at the same time developing environmental friendly solutions and encouraging social inclusion, say ETNO and UNI Europa Telecom1, in a joint statement. The social partners of the Telecommunications European Social Dialogue Committee jointly call on telecoms operators, trade unions and employee representatives to cooperate with all stakeholders to promote corporate social responsibility. The declaration was signed at a session of the Telecommunications Social Dialogue Committee on 4th December 2007 in Warsaw.
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The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) a collaboration of 385 institutional investors, with assets under management of $57 trillion, has issued its 2008 information request to the world’s largest corporations. This asks companies to measure and disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and report on their strategy for dealing with risks and opportunities associated with climate change.
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On Thursday, January 24, 2007, Innovest Strategic Value Advisors officially launched the fourth Global 100 list of the most sustainable corporations in the world at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Global 100, initiated by Corporate Knights Inc. with Innovest as the exclusive research provider, includes companies from 16 countries in sectors ranging from Oil and Gas to Wireless Telecommunication Services that were evaluated according to how effectively they manage environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities, relative to their industry peers.
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Chucking a few dollars at the pet charity of the chairman’s wife no longer cuts it as corporate philanthropy, if it ever did. Nor does using corporate philanthropy as PR or window dressing to mollify critics, or even roping off a slice of profits to be dispensed for good works.
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The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a collaboration of over 315 institutional investors, including Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Allianz and HSBC, with assets under management of more than $41 trillion, is now working with some of the world’s largest companies to help them assess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through their supply chains.
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Corporate social responsibility has great momentum. All the more reason to be aware of its limits
How wonderful to think that you can make money and save the planet at the same time. “Doing well by doing good” has become a popular business mantra: the phrase conjures up a Panglossian best-of-all-possible-worlds, the idea that firms can be successful by acting in the broader interests of society as a whole even while they satisfy the narrow interests of shareholders. The noble sentiment will no doubt echo around the Swiss Alps next week as chief executives hobnob with political leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
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What do an egg producer in China, a plastic pipe manufacturer in Brazil, and a chemical producer in India have in common? These companies each gained a competitive advantage by developing business strategies to become environmentally and socially responsible. In a new report, entitled “Market Movers: Lessons from a Frontier of Innovation,” IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and SustainAbility tell the stories of four emerging market companies that have pioneered new sustainable business strategies.
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new study examines the progress of ten global corporations against a comparative five-stage sustainability framework and suggests a direct correlation between leader mindsets and sustainability success. Many companies are missing a critical step in their sustainability journey, according to the Avastone Corporate Sustainability Study (ACSS). The ACSS reveals that it is not a lack of tangible systems and activities that comprise the missing component, but rather a scarcity of higher-capacity leaders.
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Nearly 800 sustainability reports are currently in the running for the inaugural GRI Readers Choice Awards. On December 31st the field of eligible reports will be reduced to a short-list based on reports with:
. the highest volume of scores received (not highest scores!)
. the widest diversity of scorers (employees, media, civil society, investors, management and governance, etc)
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