State of Sustainability 2015: Survey reveals untapped potential
Ethical Corporation’s latest State of Sustainability survey of 1,500 consultants, corporate managers and green NGO officials show that a majority of businesses are already reaping savings from sustainability initiatives, but only 21 percent think they are “fully leveraging” these plans. The results of the survey show that 53 percent of respondents link sustainability with increased revenue, while 67 percent of corporate respondents say it is driving savings. Despite these successes, the report suggests companies may just be scratching the surface of sustainability gains. Around one fifth of respondents feel their company is fully taking advantage of the potential of sustainability and only 42 percent say sustainability is integrated tightly into their business strategy. Perhaps the biggest concern was uncertainty about sustainability, with just 39 percent of respondents saying they feel confident that they are accurately measuring the return on sustainability objectives. (Edie)
Human Rights
World Bank breaks its own rules as millions lose land and livelihoods
The World Bank has repeatedly violated its own policies on protecting the rights of indigenous people by funding projects over the past decade that resulted in nearly 3.4 million slum-dwellers, farmers and villagers losing their land or having their livelihoods damaged, according to reports by The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists,Huffington Post and The Guardian. The projects, into which the bank channelled more than US $60 billion (£40 billion), aimed to boost electricity and water supplies and expand transport networks in some of the world’s poorest countries. But they have resulted in more than 1.2 million people in Vietnam being displaced, and more than 1 million people in China. In 1993, just 8% of World Bank projects were linked to resettlement, but by 2009 the figure had risen to 29%. The organisation has pledged to respond to its critics with “the strongest, most state-of-the-art environmental and social safeguards”. (The Guardian)
Tainted Lands project to address corrupt land deals
International Corporate Accountability Roundtable, a coalition of human rights groups focused on corporate accountability, in partnership with NGOs Oxfam America and Global Witness, has announced its “Tainted Lands: Land, Corruption, and Human Rights” Project. The Project will examine the question of “tainted lands”: obtained by corrupt means by an investor, whether through bribery of public officials or community leaders in charge of allocating land on behalf of communities, or through not ensuring that the land was acquired by the seller through means that are legal and transparent. More specifically, the Project will aim to identify the conditions under which corruption may be treated as a criminal offense under international instruments; the scope of the due diligence duty of the investor; and the best practices to prevent and address corruption in land deals. (International Corporate Accountability Roundtable)
Consumers
APB launches programme to help outlets in Singapore serve alcohol responsibly
A programme by Asia Pacific BreweriesSingapore (APB) will teach coffee shops and hawker centres on how to handle intoxicated customers and cope with alcohol-related problems such as noise, and has the support of the Singaporean Government. APB has adapted the US-based programme for Singapore and introduced practical role-playing elements in training. APB has trained almost 500 out of its 580 promoters at hawker centres and coffee shops island-wide since January and rolled out the initiative to major coffee shops such as S11 and Kopitiam. APB said the full package costs S$2,000 (roughly £1000) for a half-day training session, in groups of 25 to 30 people. It added that the national Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) supports the programme and has offered to shoulder half the costs of training for Singaporeans and permanent residents. (Channel News Asia)
Regulation
Europe expected to bring antitrust charges against Gazprom
European antitrust regulators are expected on Wednesday to charge the Russian energy giant Gazprom with abusing its dominance in natural gas markets, a move that could escalate Western tensions with Moscow. Heavily reliant on Russia for their energy needs but deeply suspicious of Moscow, some Eastern European countries have argued that the state-controlled Gazprom has inflated prices and quashed competition. Along with imposing fines, regulators could force the company to make its business more transparent or to give individual countries more leeway to sell the gas to other places, like Ukraine. But any concerted push to alter Gazprom’s business model could be seen by Moscow as a new front in what it views as the West’s “economic war” against Russia, following the imposition last year of sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. (NY Times)
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