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Corporate social responsibility

A Brace of Indices

In Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, the fearless archaeologist has to step through a grid of letters in order to reach his goal. If he puts a foot on the wrong letter he’s promised nothing more than a long fall to a hard landing.

Converting business’ existing tools and structures to a more sustainable model is equally fraught with danger. One false move and it’s possible that the existing financial basis to business could be lost with no real gain elsewhere.

This is why the establishment and development of sustainability indices by two of the most well respected brands, Dow Jones and FTSE, was a welcome development.

Both have now been operating for over seven years and look set to strengthen their role as stock indices of the future. But how so they gauge the sustainability of their constituent companies?
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A Chocolate Box Of Waste

Sometimes the choices put in front of you are a veritable chocolate box of decisions. Strawberry or Coffee; Praline or Brazil? Life is sometimes just far too short to come to a final decision.

The same applies when reviewing the sustainability sections of the major food and drink retailers’ websites. There are food miles; working conditions (both in the UK and abroad); organic, fair trade and ethical considerations… (deep breath)

…. vegan and vegetarian, halal and kosher requirements; waste and packaging; additives, colourings and preservatives … and, of course, the dreaded plastic carrier bag.

Out of these one stands out: packaging. It doesn’t matter how near or far your food’s source or what its moral, spiritual or religious provenance is, it still need to be in something when it leaves the shop.
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Balfour Beatty : Building for the Future | FTSE 100 Website Reviews

In these straitened times it is perhaps unsurprising that the construction sector is a little more down on its uppers than usual.  Because of this, Balfour Beatty aren’t actually in the FTSE100.  At present.  They’ve been in and out like a yoyo the last couple of years and are currently out.

However, for the purposes of this post, I’m going to pretend it’s 2009 all over again, and they’re in.

Balfour Beatty’s sustainability web offering falls into three bits: Sustainability on the main site, the current Sustainability report (2010), and the microsite for that report.

Taking the offerings in that order…

[Read more…] about Balfour Beatty : Building for the Future | FTSE 100 Website Reviews

Truffling out a Diamond in Better Cotton

Like a diamond in the rough, you only come across those most precious of websites through digging around and having an open mind.

Actually I’ve always preferred the image of a pig digging around for truffles, but a) pigs don’t have a particularly good press, despite being a highly intelligent and social creatures; and b) truffles have nowhere near the kudos diamonds have. Ah, such is the way public perceptions drive our lives!

However, if you want a diamond (or truffle) of a sustainability website, you should have a look at the website for The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI).

It doesn’t matter that this is an NGO’s website rather than a commercial organisation’s.  How it has its information organised and presented is what matters, and BCI excels at this.

For starters, the homepage is wonderfully straightforward.

“The Better Cotton Initiative exists to make global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the sector’s future”.

These are the only words on the homepage, and I doubt any proponent of sustainability could put it any more succinctly. [Read more…] about Truffling out a Diamond in Better Cotton

Is China the future of CSR? | CSR Around The World

One of the acronyms which has gained common currency over the past few years is BRIC : meaning Brazil, Russia, India and China.  But have you ever wondered who coined the acronym in the first place?

Step forward Jim O’Neill, Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, who invented the term some nine years ago when trying to predict what the world would look like in 2050.

With China now the second largest economy in the world, Brazil and Russia in the top ten and India knocking on the door at 11, his prediction that they would dominate the traditional G7 by 2050 seems to be coming true faster than he imagined.

This is why, writing in Project Syndicate, he has revised the original prediction and now believes that by 2020 the BRIC countries’ economies will outweigh the US with up to two thirds of that block coming from China.

Aside from the simple financial influence this will have upon markets and commodities, what will it mean for the way business is done and, in particular, the currently growing CSR movement?

To try and get to the bottom of this I asked Richard Brubaker, Founder and Managing Director, Collective Responsibility and Adjunct Professor of Responsible Leadership, China Europe International Business School, about his experiences of CSR in China.

[Read more…] about Is China the future of CSR? | CSR Around The World

Shell and Oracle : Sustainability’s Ashoka Chakra

It should have been the major news story of the decade, but it was buried.

This is partially because there was a lot of embarrassed coughing by all sides involved (meaning no one really wanted to publicise the event); but it’s also because your everyday business journalist hasn’t got a clue about sustainability and doesn’t understand the impact the event has upon the business world.

Which event is this, you ask?

Why, Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) being removed from the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).

This was a seismic event in the world of corporate sustainability practices and reporting, and was followed up by Oracle being removed from the FTSE4Good.

Shell have been attacked on all sides because of their environmental and human rights record in Nigeria.  They’ve refuted many of the allegations and have sought to make good where evidence of corporate malfeasance is irrefutable.

What’s more their transparency on various sustainability indices has for a long time been of a leading nature, and their online interactive charts have often been cited as an example for others to follow second to none.

Yet despite all this the DJSI decided the company’s sins in Nigeria were too great and threw the company out in August last year.

This led to a rather difficult impasse within the company’s governance.  Shell’s remuneration committee had promised its executives bonuses linked to the company’s performance within the DJSI.  Yet, now the company is no longer a member of the DJSI … this means no bonus, right?

[Read more…] about Shell and Oracle : Sustainability’s Ashoka Chakra