The February 2003 update from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI):
Ã?? Invitation to Register as Organisational Stakeholders
Ã?? Financial Planning for the Long-term
Ã?? Update on Stakeholder Council
Ã?? Report Assurance on the GRI Agenda
Ã?? Work on Telecommunications and Other Sectors Progressing
Ã?? July 2003 Event in Cooperation with Int’l. Corporate Governance Network
Ã?? New Website Coming in Days
Ã?? More Organisations Use the GRI Guidelines
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Companies invest heavily in protecting their reputation and ensuring society’s expectations are met. Is this corporate social responsibility or simply a smokescreen?
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In 1984, 40 tons of lethal gas leaked from a Union Carbide plant at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. Thousands of people were killed. The disaster in India led the U.S. Congress to pass a law requiring companies to disclose chemical emissions. But even though Bhopal was an overseas disaster, the law it inspired applies only in the United States. Dangerous pollutants are just one aspect of corporate behavior that can be hidden abroad. Companies should have to make public information about overseas activities that would be prohibited or subject to disclosure laws at home.
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The 2003 annual report on global corruption underlines the media’s role in the fight against corruption, calls for better access to government-held information and states that companies are somewhat less likely to bribe now than before.
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On 21 January, the Social Affairs Committee briefly considered the Bushill-Matthews report, in which the MEP urges the Commission not to “submerge” the environmental and enterprise aspects of CSR by social considerations.
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The UN Global Compact and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development will cooperate more closely for a coherent approach to corporate social responsibility
The very distinct nature of the two organizations presents considerable scope for building on complementary strengths and creating synergy – the Global Compact being an open action and learning network and the WBCSD being a membership based organization dedicated to sustainable development and engaged in such programs as Sustainable Livelihoods, Advocacy and Communications, Accountability and Reporting and the Regional Network.
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A large study of Research International shows:
. Major worldwide study explores perceptions of modern brands and the issues facing globalisation
. Naomi Klein’s thesis is wrong, consumers seek to forgive brands, negative issues are largely put aside
. But consumers also reject homogenous global branding
. The study highlights the emergence of wave three branding, where consumers want to find the brand and not the other way around
. The category a brand is in, its level of aspiration, the nature of different local cultures and the fit between cultural and brand values are key to localisation
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The question of which companies take a responsible attitude towards investors, employees and the environment is becoming an increasingly explosive issue. The Munich-based rating agency oekom research has been focussing on precisely this issue for almost ten years now. In its latest “Corporate Responsibility Rating”, it analysed the 19 top companies in the networks and components industry worldwide whose principal products are memory chips, semiconductors and mobile phones. 200 environmental and social criteria were examined in the study. On a scale from A+ to D-, Siemens (DE) achieved a B, followed by Ericsson (SE) and Intel (US), both of whom scored a B-. Qualcomm and EMC (both US companies) turned in the worst performances, both scoring a D. Four companies failed to provide sufficiently transparent information, with the result that it was not possible to draw up a comprehensive Corporate Responsibility Rating for them.
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There was widespread recognition at the global summit meeting in Johannesburg last September that corporations are indispensable to sustainable development. Put simply, there can be little enduring social or environmental progress without active contributions from the private sector. Yet for corporations to meet such expectations, they must win the trust of all their stakeholders – investors, workers, consumers, communities.
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Whether this past year in Washington or next week in Davos, “corporate responsibility” has become synonymous with combating company wrongdoing. But for the vast majority of global firms who
play by the rules, the term signifies something rather different.
What do companies mean when they say they are committed to operating responsibly? And what instruments do they find most effective in measuring and improving their impact on stakeholders and on society? A new statement from the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) provides much-needed answers.
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The One World Trust’s Global Accountability Report is the first of its kind to compare the accountability of inter-governmental organisations (IGOs), transnational corporations (TNCs) and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Eighteen of the world’s most powerful organisations are assessed in this pilot report.
Scores are provided for their performance in two aspects of accountability: member control of governance structures and access to information. The results show wide differences within and between the three groups, clearly indicating leaders in the field and those that fall behind.
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Following the Johannesburg Summit call on the corporate sector for increased accountability, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is launching a web-based -reporting portal” to bolster companies’ efforts to report on their sustainable development activities.
The reporting portal, accessible via www.wbcsd.org, provides visitors with an understanding of the issues companies are currently tackling in their sustainable development reports and the kind of information they are presenting.
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