With losses due to UMTS licence costs, mass redundancies and falling market prices, many financial analysts are advising selling shares in telecommunications companies. Can the sector manage to overcome the sharp financial downturn and at the same time meet its social and environmental responsibilities? oekom research recently conducted a Corporate Responsibility Rating in which it examined 38 of the world’s major telecommunications companies. On a scale from A+ to D-, Deutsche Telekom scored a B+, followed by British Telecom and Swisscom, both with a B. At the bottom of the ranking came the American company Nextel with a score of D. Insufficient activity in the environmental and social areas meant that 14 of the companies could not be evaluated.
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The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants CIMA launched the publication, Environmental Accounting: An Introduction and Practical Guide, to an invited audience of finance directors and other senior financial personnel from the FTSE 100, professional accounting bodies and beyond.
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Conscientious consumers who want to make sure the companies they support share their social values can turn to a new website that rates several big corporations on issues.
Dan Porter, of Portland, Maine, launched www.idealswork.com six months ago. It ranks companies on such issues as whether they treat women fairly or if they support nuclear arms.
Porter, 48, gathers the information from a Washington, D.C.-based firm, Investor Responsibility Research Center. His system allows users to rank companies on issues that are important to them.
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Besides eliciting abundant media coverage, the corporate governance scandals at Enron, WorldCom, and elsewhere have spurred mainstream investors to evaluate the corporate governance performance of their current and prospective investments. Mainstream investors are joining with socially responsible investors in the understanding that corporate governance is a potential correlate of stock valuation. In response to the increase in demand for corporate governance evaluations, some mainstream investment research firms are now developing corporate governance rating services. Mainstream firms are also incorporating corporate governance into their existing rating systems.
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Heineken scoort het beste in de Reputation Quotient (RQ), een grootschalig onderzoek (5.356 respondenten) dat de reputatie meet van de 30 meest zichtbare organisaties in Nederland. Anthony Ruys, voorzitter van de raad van bestuur van Heineken, ontving gisteravond de Award uit handen van Cees van der Hoeven, topman van Ahold, die in 2001 de eerste Reputation Award in ontvangst mocht nemen.
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Speech by Agnes van Ardenne (Dutch minister for Development Cooperation) at the International Small Business Congress, Amsterdam, 28 October 2002.
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Op de conferentie -SRI in the Rockies” in Colorado Springs hebben de onderzoekers Rob Bauer, Roger Otten en Kees Koedijk van de Universiteit Maastricht de Moskowitz Prize for Socially Responsible Investing ontvangen. In hun rapport: “International Evidence on Ethical Mutual Fund Performance and Investment Style” beschrijven de onderzoekers hoe de rendementen van duurzame beleggingsfondsen zich verhouden tot de rendementen van conventionele beleggingsfondsen.
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Fabrikanten van voedingsmiddelen moeten meer informatie over de productie van hun voedingsmiddelen prijsgeven. Consumenten hebben het recht te weten wat de precieze ingrediënten zijn en hoe het product is geproduceerd, vinden de Consumentenbond en het Voedingscentrum. De Consumentenbond presenteert 1 december een wetsvoorstel gericht op openbaarheid van productieketens.
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Er moet meer duidelijkheid komen over de afdrachten die ondernemingen in de olie-, gas- en delfstoffensector doen aan overheden in ontwikkelingslanden. Hiervoor zijn internationale gedragslijnen nodig, vindt staatssecretaris Wijn (EZ).
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Beantwoording van de vragen van het lid Verburg (CDA) door de staatssecretaris van Economische Zaken, Mr. drs. J.G. Wijn, toegestuurd op 9 oktober 2002
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(Published in The Observer on 27 october 2002).
A furious row has erupted between Britain’s most influential think-tank and the Institute of Directors (IoD) over a report which questions the commitment of business to corporate social responsibility (CSR).
The IoD, which paid for an NOP survey of 500 businesses, on which the report is based, is refusing to give permission to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) to publish its report on the findings on Tuesday, saying the study is not a fair reflection of the views expressed.
But the IPPR, a left-leaning body with links to Tony Blair, says its interpretation has been endorsed by NOP, and is seeking legal advice over whether it can release the paper. The argument focuses on key findings in the jointly commissioned report, a copy of which The Observer has obtained. IPPR author Ella Joseph says these show ‘hypocrisy’ by business and a gulf between the supportive rhetoric on CSR and reality.
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(Gepubliceerd in Het Financieele Dagblad van 19 oktober 2002).
De politiek laat publieke taken steeds meer over aan het bedrijfsleven. Toch behoren zorgen voor sociale cohesie, ecologische draagkracht en het bevorderen van internationaal rechtvaardige verhoudingen tot haar kerntaak, zeggen Ewoud Goudswaard en Jeroen Jansen van ASN Bank.
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