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Climate Science is Useless (to Business): Time to send scientists to b-school & business leaders back to science class
Submitted by kgilliam on Thu, 2012-03-01 13:29.
Where CSR Fits On The Board's Agenda
Submitted by kgilliam on Mon, 2012-02-27 23:31.According to the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) 2011 Public Company Governance Survey, when asked to name the top three issues for the board,only 1.5% of corporate directors picked “Corporate Social Responsibility” among the highest priorities for the board in 2011.
Do Corporate Responsibility “Best Practices” Really Exist?
Submitted by kgilliam on Tue, 2012-02-21 21:26.
In short, no. Showcasing Supply Chains
Submitted by kgilliam on Thu, 2012-02-16 05:57.A few years ago, Nike paid the price for the bad labor and human rights practices of its suppliers. Now it's Apple's turn in the penalty box.
Finding & Supporting New Models of Collaboration for Good
Submitted by kgilliam on Wed, 2012-01-25 15:39.
Following up on last week’s blog post about how, in the midst of the economic downturn, the best corporate citizens built more successful ways of working with governments and NGOs, we now look at how to help organizations establish them by shining a light on real-world examples and providing a platform for connecting with potential partners.
At the 2011 COMMIT!Forum we highlighted several new models of collaboration. Two of my personal favorites were the work done by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Compass Group to alleviate slave-like working conditions for migrant workers in Florida and that of Western Union and USAID to establish an African Diaspora Marketplace to harness the wealth and entrepreneurialism of this community to jump-start new businesses in Africa itself...
Leveraging Deficits: How the Best Corporate Citizens drove more effective cross-sector collaboration during the Great Recession
Submitted by kgilliam on Thu, 2012-01-19 14:07.In last week's blog post, I pointed to the emergence of a "renaissance" in how companies, NGOs, and governments are collaborating to tackle some of our toughest challenges. This week I'm going to look in-depth at the specific new models and practices we're seeing emerge. Deficit-Driven Developments
Submitted by kgilliam on Tue, 2012-01-10 19:14.
The recession started a renaissance in how companies, NGOs, & governments collaborate.
Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. With governments and non-profits facing yawning budget deficits and business facing one of its biggest trust-deficits in history, organizations are coming together in unprecedented ways to tackle some of society's greatest challenges. In fact, a distinct set of collaborative practices used by the “best corporate citizens” and their partners have emerged that others could adopt.
The Campaign to Change the World
Submitted by kgilliam on Tue, 2011-11-22 15:02.We call it the COMMIT!Campaign because it does exactly that: it calls on organizations to make commitments that will change the world. But people often ask exactly how does it work? Sometimes, others see you more clearly than you see yourself… Is Sustainability Analogous to Economics?
Submitted by kgilliam on Fri, 2011-11-04 14:14.
At Green Gov 2011 this morning I facilitated a lively panel that included discussion of what is sustainability and what is the role of the sustainability profession. Ira Feldman (Greentrack Strategies), Terry Yosie (World Environment Center) and Valerie Patrick (Bayer Corporation) were our panelists and came with a rich set of views and experience.
The discussion of what is sustainability was broad and philosophical using terms like ‘systems thinking’ and ‘form of art’. But many people in the room (myself included) had sustainability jobs, with specific job descriptions and objectives. So what can we compare that to?
Understanding the Value of Corporate Responsibility
Submitted by kgilliam on Tue, 2011-11-01 13:25.Susan Pullin, CSC Vice President of Corporate Responsibility, writes that
There are many opinions about the real value to a company of corporate responsibility (CR). Aman Singh recently wrote for Forbes about these contrary opinions and posed the question: “Are we fighting over semantics or strategy?” She went on to consider how stakeholders often view CR. Is it perceived as something that is disconnected from markets, profits and capitalism itself? Is it typically misinterpreted as a cost, with some seeing CR as little more than “giving away money and adopting the latest cause of activists”?
As we look at this debate, one point is clear: if CR is perceived anything but a contributor to top-line growth, then stakeholder opinions will be negative and the value of CR is misunderstood.