Marks & Spencer’s sustainability plan, Plan A, is continuing to expand, this time in the form of converting food waste into power and the expansion of its carrier bag charging trial. M&S already has one anaerobic digester, which converts food waste to electricity, and plans to have another up and running by spring 2008. Carrier bag charging is set to expand throughout the South West of England following the successful reduction of bag use in Northern Ireland by 66% after M&S started charging 5 pence for a food bag.
These developments were announced on November 6 and came as M&S released some ‘eco-sales’ figures. These showed an increase in the sale of Fairtrade cotton and organic food.
It is always dangerous to extrapolate from a single example, but the latest news from Marks & Spencer does seem to be indicative of a broader trend in CSR. The experience of this one company highlights that organisations need to adopt a holistic view of corporate responsibility and take action on many fronts simultaneously.
At one level M&S is trying to address the issue of waste. This cuts across all aspects of the business and the latest actions announced concern the use of carrier bags and the disposal of food waste. However, the company’s Plan A is not simply about environmental impacts. The five pillars of this strategic approach also include climate change, sustainable raw materials, fair trade and health.
This broader approach is necessary in the face of growing scrutiny of the retail sector. The lesson for us all is to keep our eyes on the big picture and appreciate the complexities of corporate responsibility. While every journey begins with one step, the demands of the market require a comprehensive and integrated approach across all aspects of a company’s activities.
A new supply chain initiative was announced by the Carbon Disclosure Project on October 9, which will see a number of corporations collaborate to report their supply chain carbon footprints and climate change-relevant information.
In the UK the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration includes Tesco, Unilever, Cadbury Schweppes, Imperial Tobacco, Proctor & Gamble as well as Nestlé and will be the first standardised mechanism enabling companies to measure their carbon footprint throughout their supply chain. Wal-Mart is one of the US companies involved. It will be carried out through the CDP questionnaire process and by creating a standardised process, one single request for disclosure information will be sent to suppliers on behalf of the SCLC. This will place less of a burden on suppliers, who usually receive separate requests asking for the same information.
The Carbon Disclosure Project also launched its Carbon Disclosure Project Report 2007 for both Global FT500 and UK FTSE 350 in London on October 9. The reports provide investors with analysis of how the UK’s largest companies are responding to climate change and it is carried out on behalf of 315 institutional investors with assets of $41 trillion. The Global FT500 report was written by Innovest and the UK FTSE 350 report was compiled by Trucost. The CDP is a worldwide initiative that aims to inform investors of the opportunities as well as risks of climate change. Member investors include Hermes Investment Management, Merrill Lynch and HSBC Holdings plc.
The 2007 Accountability Rating has been published by Fortune magazine and BP is at the top of the list as the most accountable global company. The top 10 also included Barclays, ENI, HSBC, Vodafone, Shell, Peugeot, HBOS, Chevron and DaimlerChrysler. Tesco was ranked 11th compared to Wal-Mart, which was ranked 87th. The rating was published in Fortune magazine in partnership with AccountAbility, the UK-based sustainable development think tank, and consultancy firm CSR Network on November 12. The rating is a measurement of how well the largest global corporations integrate responsible business into business strategy.
British companies are increasingly claiming that corporate responsibility and sustainability is embedded in business strategy but are failing to engage their workforce on these issues according to a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Action or Aspiration? Sustainability in the British Workplace found that 37% of respondents saw evidence of their company’s commitment to sustainability through mission statements, PR initiatives and sales and marketing but only 22% believed that these statements were matched by internal action. Further findings were that nine out of ten respondents claimed that their remuneration did not depend on reaching sustainability targets and 75% stated that their responsibilities did not include sustainability goals. The EIU also concluded that UK companies view sustainability as mainly an environmental issue, when in fact it includes labour issues as well as ethics and governance, and that sustainability was not yet proving to have an impact on recruitment – only 21% of respondents saw a company’s reputation for sustainability as important when considering a new position.
The research included interviews with 194 senior UK-based executives across a range of sectors and was sponsored by BT.
Contact Economist Intelligence Unit 020 7576 8000 www.eiu.com
BSR to promote CSR in Central America
San Francisco-based membership organisation Business for Social Responsibility has been awarded a $2m grant to set up a “responsible competitiveness” initiative in Central America. Awarded by the US Department of State, the grant was given to BSR in partnership with the Center for Latin American Competitiveness and Sustainable Development at the INCAE Business School.
It is hoped BSR and INCAE can use their expert knowledge to help countries make the most of the Central American Free Trade Agreement and create a more robust “CSR infrastructure”. It is also hoped that the project will help to promote CAFTA-DR countries to potential investors and buyers as producers of socially and environmentally responsible goods.
Chief executives are facing increasing challenges to incorporate social issues into strategic decisions according to a survey by McKinsey, the management consultancy. Featured in the October edition of The McKinsey Quarterly, CEOs on strategy and social issues found that the majority of the chief executives surveyed identified environmental concerns as a key trend that influences consumer and other stakeholder expectations of business. The report identifies “talent constraints, poor public governance (such as corruption or underdeveloped legal and judicial systems), and climate change” as the most important issues that companies should address in order to be sustainable. The main barriers highlighted by the CEOs surveyed were that of the financial market not accounting for how a company approaches social, environmental and governance issues and also for the lack of consistent industry regulation to “level the playing field across countries”.
The UK government is doing the most with regard to corporate responsibility according to a report published by The Bertelsmann Foundation, the German organisation that focuses on social change. The analysis, published on October 19, details what governments around the world are doing in terms of public policy on corporate responsibility and countries are ranked according to how innovative and advanced their policies are. The UK is classed as having “cutting edge CSR policies”, whereas Poland, Brazil and Mozambique still have a way to go in policy development. The research was carried out in collaboration with GTZ, the sustainable development company, and can also be downloaded from the UN Global Compact website.
One third of British workers do not think their employers are fair according to a survey commissioned by GoodCorporation, the certification company. The results of the Fairness Index survey were announced on November 5 and showed how professional services firms were the worst, with 39% not agreeing that their employers were fair. The firms performed most poorly in the area of clarity and fairness of pay – 49% of employees in this sector do not consider professional service companies to be clear and fair with regard to salaries. The sector also fell below average with regard to their treatment of suppliers and the community at large. State education and colleges gained the highest fairness rating, with over 70% of employees scoring these organisations as fair.
The survey was carried out by GfK, the global market research firm, on behalf of the GoodCorporation. Employees from a cross-section of UK businesses were asked a series of questions about how their employers treated not just employees but also customers, suppliers and the community.
Independent SRI research firm KLD has launched a new sustainability index that consists of a broad range of companies that successfully incorporate environmental, social and governance issues into their strategy. The KLD Global Sustainability Index and Index Series was launched on October 1 in response to “the growing demand from institutional investors for global sustainability investment options”. Top holdings in the GSI include Microsoft, Shell, BP and HSBC as well as Proctor & Gamble, Cisco Systems and Johnson & Johnson. Contact KLD 001 617 426 5270 www.kld.com
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has launched a set of tools to help organisations and wider society integrate sustainability. Announced on October 26, the package of tools includes an interactive policy tool, a game to help stimulate users to think in more sustainable ways as well as a short film. Contact Defra 08459 33 55 77 www.defra.gov.uk
The new World Economic Outlook report from the International Monetary Fund details how foreign direct investment and new technologies are to blame for rising levels of inequality in developing countries, not trade globalisation as is often asserted. Published on October 15, the report focuses on inequality and globalisation. Contact IMF 001 202 623 7300 www.imf.org
On September 13 global index provider FTSE4Good announced that an additional 42 companies would be added to the series while 24 were removed. Companies added included ChimeCommunications, Rio Tinto and Abacus Group. The UK had 22 companies added and none deleted, while the US had four added and 16 deleted. Contact FTSE4Good 020 7866 1800 www.ftse.com
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