ACCA Reporting awards
For the second year in succession, BT won the top accolade at the Association for Chartered Accountants (ACCA) 2008 UK Sustainability Reporting Awards, which identifies and highlights innovative attempts by companies to communicate corporate sustainability performance. Unilever and The Co-operative Group were runners-up in the main award category of the ceremony, held on December 3. Traidcraft, the UK’s leading fair trade organisation, and REAP, a local sustainable development charity in Scotland, received a joint commendation in the SME reporting category, while Shell was praised for its use of electronic media in its reporting of environmental, social and sustainability impacts and activities.
Contact: ACCA www.accaglobal.com
BT wins global Green Award
BT has been named winner of the ‘Green Award’ at this year’s World Communication Awards (WCA) on November 27 in London. BT was highly commended for both ‘Best Global Operator’ and ‘Best Wholesale Carrier’, and was a finalist for ‘Best Customer Care’. The judges were impressed by BT’s CSR strategy, describing it as “A broad, thorough and international approach to environment and CSR issues”. : “An excellent entry with plenty of statistics and supporting information”.
Contact: BT www.bt.com
Deloitte and Kyoto publishing release ‘The Sustainable Enterprise Report’ to help turn awareness into action
Deloitte has joined with Kyoto Publishing to share the latest on corporate responsibility and sustainability with the release of their second Sustainable Enterprise Report, published on December 19. It outlines the opportunity provided by the downturn to establish economic, social and environmental considerations as a strategic source of competitive advantage stating that companies that are thinking ahead in terms of such issues should be better positioned to address pending changes in regulation and transparency.
Contact: Deloitte www.deloitte.com
Developing the global leader of tomorrow
New Ashridge research, launched on December 4 at the UN’s 1st Global Forum for Responsible Management Education in New York, has found that 76% of CEOs and senior executives polled in a global survey conducted during the height of the 2008 financial crisis believe that it is important that senior executives have the necessary knowledge and skills to respond to trends like the low carbon economy, resource scarcity and doing business in emerging markets marked by poverty, corruption and human rights violations. The research identified three broad clusters of important knowledge and skills:
Context – the ability to identify relevant social and environmental trends and their business implications and understand how to factor these into strategic decision-making to respond appropriately; complexity – the ability to lead in the face of uncertainty, ambiguity and disagreement; and connectedness – the ability to understand the actors in the wider political landscape and to engage and build effective relationships with new kinds of external partners. For different businesses this can mean regulators, competitors, NGOs or local communities.
Contact: Ashridge www.ashridge.org.uk
Recession helping, not hurting, green IT surveys find
Corporate purchases of green IT equipment will remain fairly strong amid the economic crisis, separate reports from IDC, Forrester Research, and Panel Intelligence indicate. These will not be purchases made in spite of the recession; they will be made because of it. According to Forrester, 10% of the 1,022 global businesses it surveyed in October are accelerating their green IT initiatives, 5% are scaling back green projects, and 38% are maintaining the pace of their initiatives. Among those pursuing green IT, 67% of respondents said reducing energy-related operating expenses was a motivation for pursuing a green IT agenda, up from 55% one year ago. “The cost savings associated with reducing power consumption is definitely capturing the attention of IT decision makers around the world,” said Vernon Turner, senior vice president at IDC. “Buyers understand that energy efficient, recyclable products do contribute to lowering operating costs.” Panel Intelligence, in a survey conducted days before the US presidential election in November, found that despite a declining US economy and lower oil prices, 80% of corporate sustainability executives surveyed from across North America plan to maintain or increase levels of sustainability-related spending in 2009. Panel’s survey data was based on responses from 65 sustainability executives of Fortune 500 companies
Contact: IDC www.idc.com
Forrester Research www.forrester.com
Panel intelligence www.panelintelligence.com
Microfinance leader makes multi-million dollar investment in microinsurance
Microfinance leader ACCION has taken a $1.2 million equity share in ParaLife, a Swiss microinsurance holding company, offering financial protection to low-income populations and people with disabilities. The announcement was made on December 23. ACCION, drawing on its microinsurance experience, institutional relationships and strong market presence in Latin America, will contribute to ParaLife’s regional rollout of low-cost insurance products tailored to the needs of those at the base of the pyramid. ParaLife launched its operations in Mexico late in 2007, and ACCION is supporting the company’s expansion in Colombia, where its Latin American hub office is based.
Contact ACCION www.accion.org
CSR reporting efforts: electronics, financial, and metals
On December 8 The Roberts Environmental Centre of Claremont McKenna College released new Pacific Sustainability Index scores on environmental and social reporting for the electronics, semiconductor, and peripherals sectors and banks, insurance, and diversified financials sectors. For the first report, overall highest scores for publically available information were awarded to Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba. Highest overall scores for the 2nd report went to Barclays, Santander Central Hispano Group and Citigroup.
Contact: The Roberts Environmental Centre www.roberts.cmc.edu
CSR Europe toolbox launched
CSR Europe’s Toolbox, launched on December 4, includes information, ideas and advice designed to help companies and their stakeholders address socio-economic and environmental challenges and integrate corporate social responsibility into mainstream business practice. The toolbox, sponsored by companies such as Arcelor Mittal, Johnson and Johnson and Microsoft is based on the first results of the CSR Laboratories, cross-sectoral business-stakeholder cooperation projects under the umbrella of the European Alliance for CSR. Its five main themes explore the areas of human capital, (r)evolutionary business models, communication and transparency, sustainable consumption and production and workplace integration
Contact: CSR Europe www.csreurope.org
Brazilian top 10 raise the bar on sustainability disclosure
Launched on December 5, The Road to Credibility assesses approaches to sustainability reporting in Brazil and highlights best practice in transparency and disclosure. Published by SustainAbility, Fundacao Brasileira para o Desenvolvimento Sustentavel and the United Nations Environment Programme, the report is the eighth global, and first national, survey of corporate sustainability reporting. Overall, the report identifies Brazil as ahead of many emerging economies in corporate disclosure of sustainability performance. Some 76 Brazilian companies issued sustainability reports in 2006-07, compared to only 8 equivalents in mainland China and 12 in India. The Brazilian Top Ten scored an average of 47%, comparing well to the most recent international ranking of Global 50 Leaders, which scored 57% in 2006, against the same methodology.
Contact: SustainAbility www.sustainability.com
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