EABIS and EFMD launch gateway to profile CR in management development
The European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS) and the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) launched their new Business in Society Gateway website on February 10 ( www.businessinsociety.eu). The Gateway profiles the latest knowledge and learning on the subject of corporate responsibility within a global community of business schools and universities. It will serve as a multi-stakeholder, multi-media platform to raise awareness and provide access to key resources. At the heart of the Gateway is the Directory, an international catalogue of new research, education and training initiatives from business schools and universities in Europe and beyond. Contact: Eabis www.eabis.org
Danone first winner of European Corporate Responsibility Award
The first European Corporate Responsibility Award launched by the E-I Consulting Group was won by the French company Danone on February 6. Specific elements that distinguished Danone’s submission included its positioning to produce healthy products, its carbon-neutral emission goals for its 5 main brands, the formulation of CSR objectives for managers, the sharing of best practices, the development of ‘social enterprises’ in developing countries and its Corporate Responsibility self-assessment programme. Contact: E-I Consulting www.ei-consultinggroup.com
Corporate Responsibility climbs the business agenda
In the last twenty four months, corporate responsibility has increasingly been viewed as a mainstream business priority by senior managers, according to research, released February 6, by the Corporate Responsibility Group. The research highlighted some of the key challenges that CR professionals continue to face in advocating and driving forward the CR agenda. Primarily, these include; influencing internal operations, which was reported by 92% of members as a key hurdle to be overcome; acquiring budget, which was highlighted by 88% of members; and onerous reporting demands, noted by 73% of members. Contact: The Corporate Responsibility Group www.crguk.org
Sustainable companies outperform peers during financial crisis
A.T. Kearney released a new report on February 9 which showed that companies focused on sustainability outperformed their peers by 15% during the financial crisis. The report, titled “Green Winners: The Performance of Sustainability-focused Companies in the Financial Crisis” looked at 99 companies with a strong commitment to sustainability as defined by the Sustainability Index and the Goldman Sachs Sustain Focus List. Over the six months from May through to November 2008, the study found that in 16 of the 18 industries studied, companies committed to sustainability averaged $650 million more than the industry average in protected market capitalization per company. Contact: A T Kearney www.atkearney.com
2009 list of Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World
Corporate Knights, the Canadian CSR magazine, has published its 2009 list of the 100 most sustainable corporations in the world. The Global 100 is a list of publicly-traded, MSCI World-listed companies that are best equipped to manage environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities, based on research and analysis by Innovest Strategic Value Advisors. The Innovest methodology compares companies to their sector peers on a best-in-class basis. CSR Europe members on the list include Accor, BASF, Coca-Cola Company, Groupe Danone, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, L’Oréal, Novo Nordisk, Panasonic, Procter & Gamble, SAP, State Street, Toyota Motor and Unilever Contact: Corporate Knights www.corporateknights.ca
Trust in business at 10-year low in US but high and rising in BRIC economies
A study by PR firm Edelman has revealed that nearly two-thirds of informed members of the US public (62%) trust corporations less than they did a year ago, according to the 10th Edelman Trust Barometer. When respondents in the US were asked about trust in business in general, only 38% said they trust business to do what is right – a 20% plunge since last year – and only 17% said they trust information from a company’s CEO. Both are lower levels of trust than those Edelman measured in the wakes of Enron, the dot-com bust, and September 11. In contrast, trust in business in several emerging economies increased. In China, the “trust in business” score rose from 54% to 71% among 35-to-64-year-olds. In Brazil, trust in business climbed to 69% from 61% a year ago. Contact: Edelman www.edelman.com
Doughty Centre launches first in series of ‘How to’ CR Guides
The Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility at Cranfield School of Management has published the first in a new series of ‘How to’ Guides, to help practitioners develop corporate responsibility champion networks within their organisation. This first guide, released on February 24, explores current best practice examples from practitioners and management literature to provide advice on how to build and manage CR champions’ networks and related networks. Professor David Grayson CBE, Director of the Doughty Centre said: “CR champions are emerging as a powerful tool for embedding CR philosophy into an organisation. They play a strategic role, committed to causing change and living the strategy for their colleagues to see and become engaged with.” Contact: Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility www.doughtycentre.info
Valuing corporate social responsibility: McKinsey Global Survey Results
On February 25 a new McKinsey survey asked CFOs, investment professionals, institutional investors, and corporate social responsibility professionals from around the world to identify whether and how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs create value and how much value they create. The survey also examined which metrics are the best indicators of value and how they can be communicated most effectively. The results indicated agreement that ESG programs do create shareholder value, though the current economic turmoil has increased the importance of governance programs and decreased that of environmental and social programs. Nonetheless, a significant proportion of respondents did not fully consider these programs’ financial value when assessing the attractiveness of business projects or companies. Contact: McKinsey Quarterly www.mckinseyquarterly.com
Comment
Reviewing the CSR strategy articles in this edition of CCB, one thing springs to mind: information overload! There are two new sets of guidance, a couple of opinion surveys, some new studies linking CSR to business performance and the launch of a new award – all in the past couple of months alone.
Given the rising interest in CSR across the business spectrum and the wide range of issues that the term “CSR” encompasses, the sheer volume and rate of new publications is perhaps not surprising. The problem from the publisher’s perspective is how to make sure all this valuable new work reaches its intended audiences, when in the hubbub of current activity the right information could be easily overlooked. As such, the Business in Society Gateway, launched in February by EABIS and EFMD, is a welcome development. It has the potential to meet a real need in the CSR community by housing all key materials on a single website. We will have to wait and see whether the Gateway lives up to its promise – and certainly it will need adequate resources to keep the site up to date – but fingers crossed it will provide a much needed short cut to the right information for CSR practitioners everywhere.
In a similar vein, this edition’s news stories also include the publication of two separate CSR rankings by Covalence and Corporate Knights, highlighting the fact that the arena of CSR ratings and indices is another mushrooming industry. Indeed, a 2006 Bertelsmann Foundation report identified 58 independent CSR rating institutions and the array is overwhelming, particularly in Europe where the market is more mature. The advice to CSR practitioners is not to try to do everything but to seek out the indices that are most relevant to your business and sector. Take the time to understand exactly what the major indices are rating you on; ask which ones match the geographical reach of your company; research where your competitors feature. All this should help to focus attention on the indices most meaningful for your business.
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