How organizations are addressing the 'G' in ESG – striking the balance of maximizing long-term growth and value while safeguarding the interests of all stakeholders
What if 100 percent of your employees were engaged in your business? According to Gallup, that would translate to an increase of anywhere from $450-550B in increased revenue for US companies alone. Those are daunting numbers in the macro. But what matters is how it translates to your business. Even if it were only 1 percent of your revenue, wouldn’t you want to know?
Environmental not-for-profit Canopy is today heralding North American printing giant RR Donnelley for unveiling its paper purchasing sustainability practices on its corporate website.Canopy, which has been working with the printing sector for 10 years, says the public unveiling of RR Donnelley’s sustainable purchasing principles provides further transparency into the company’s ongoing efforts to support its customers’ initiatives to eliminate unwanted or contentious fibers from its supply chain.
McDonald’s Canada has announced that 100 percent of the fish it serves in its Filet-O-Fish sandwich is now certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). The Canadian arm of the fast food chain is following in the footsteps of its US counterpart, which committed to serving only MSC-certified fish in January 2013.McDonald’s Canada has purchased fish from MSC-certified fisheries for nearly a decade and recently completed MSC’s third-party Chain of Custody process to further solidify the company’s commitment to maintaining the health of the world’s oceans by supporting sustainable fishing practices.
UPS announced today that Rhonda Clark will become the company’s Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) effective immediately. Clark will succeed Scott Wicker, who helped create UPS’s sustainability architecture and implemented numerous successful initiatives during his seven years leading UPS’s Sustainability group.During this period, the company set aggressive sustainability goals, achieved success in key areas by improving efficiencies in operations and expanded its alternative fuel/advanced technology fleet by more than 50 percent.
WeSpire, the cloud-based engagement platform for engaging employees in environmental, social and other positive corporate initiatives, has released survey results regarding employee engagement trends in sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
The second day of SB '14 San Diego kicked off with a morning full of inspirational plenary presentations examining how we can reimagine business to become a positive global force.Gil Friend, Chief Sustainability Officer at City of Palo Alto, gave the opening remarks, reminding attendees of how the US transformed itself during the Second World War to respond to problems that would not wait. Friend suggested that the several social and environmental issues currently afflicting our planet represent a call to action to transform our economy just like our forebears did.
Jeana Wirtenberg knows sustainability is about people. Living, caring human beings – who get things done.It’s not “green.” Or “eco.” Not goals or dashboards. Not on their own, at any rate. It’s people who make these things actually happen.Sustainability is people at every level of a business making decisions and working with their colleagues, customers and communities, day in and day out. Sustainability is people — not programs or promises — taking actions that move their company towards more sustainable business outcomes. It’s culture.
Campbell Soup Company has announced that it is re-evaluating its production processes in order to reduce by 50 percent of its operational water use per ton of food produced by 2020.The company says it has achieved a 20.7 percent reduction in operational water use in 2013, against a 2008 baseline. Last year Campbell’s reduced water use by 2.6 percent per ton of food produced, and since 2008, total cumulative water savings have been around 4.8 billion gallons.Campbell’s says it wants to continue making progress by standardizing its most water-intensive operations, primarily those facilities that produce soup, sauce and juice products, making them more energy-efficient in the process.
Leadership has traditionally been positioned as a finite social resource that can only be possessed by a few individuals at any given moment.After all, not everyone can be a leader all the time. Right?Wrong.Leadership is changing — it is no longer a finite pool, but an expanding network of possibly infinite potential. With the rise of the social web and a deeper linkage between global context and our everyday decisions, leadership is flatter, faster and hyper-connected worldwide. Knowing how and when to lead from the top-down, the bottom-up, as an individual and as a collaborative group are all equally critical.
Society. It’s one of the three pillars of sustainability, but the least defined and the least understood. Corporations have traditionally struggled to blend social purpose with hard-nosed business acumen, but as consumers increasingly look to brands to combat key societal issues such as climate change, human rights, equality and unemployment, this is starting to change. Social brand value is becoming much more sought after, and with it the necessity for a new type of leadership — a more honest CEO.
The business world is waking up to the challenge of climate change.Apple CEO Tim Cook recently lashed out at a shareholder who pressed the company to stop investing in carbon reduction and renewable energy. In the most recent World Economic Forum Global Risk survey of CEOs and world leaders, three of the top six issues of “highest concern” were failure to tackle climate change, extreme weather, and water crises.
There has been much talk lately about the need to find a replacement for the term “sustainability.” Critics claim it’s too vague and takes attention away from what should be a more forward-thinking message focused on good business. Others argue that eliminating the term would cause some to miss the point because it has yet to become engrained enough in the dominant business culture. Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard argues that “responsible” is a more accurate term since there is no such thing as a truly “sustainable” company. Other companies have embraced the term “corporate social responsibility” (CSR).
At an event this morning in Mountain View, Calif., during a visit from President Barack Obama, Walmart announced that it will double the number of on-site solar energy projects at its US stores, Sam’s Clubs and distribution centers by 2020. The commitment is part of Walmart’s global initiative to drive the production or procurement of 7 billion kWh of renewable energy by the end of 2020.
The Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC) has unveiled a set of five essential principles that it asserts defines leadership in sustainable purchasing. By providing a common reference point for sustainability excellence, the Principles enable greater alignment and benchmarking of sustainable purchasing efforts across all types of organizations operating in the multi-trillion-dollar institutional purchasing marketplace. The SPLC says the Principles also serve as a “moral compass” as it also launches the development of a multi-sector program for guiding, benchmarking and recognizing leadership in sustainable purchasing.
Change agency, as it applies to sustainability, is an increasingly popular subject in prestigious academic institutions, government conversations, NGOs and businesses globally. Permeating the communities and conversations of the sustainability fraternity, we find inspiring ideas, language, energy, ambition and commitment. But is there also an increasing sense of frustration, helplessness and a dose of ultimately unhelpful cynicism around our own effectiveness?
This week, McDonald’s unveiled its first Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability Framework. The fast-food giant says the goal of the plan is to position the company for the future, while generating measurable, positive impacts for society.McDonald’s released the framework in conjunction with its 2012-2013 CSR & Sustainability Report, “Our Journey Together. For Good.”Among the company’s 2020 goals:
Darren Beck is Director of Environmental Initiatives at Sprint. Sprint is widely recognized as a sustainability leader in the mobile phone industry, spearheading energy-efficiency programs, removing legacy towers, and ensuring record amounts of electronic waste (particularly mobile phones) are reused, recycled or disposed of properly. We spoke with Darren about how his role at Sprint has evolved, his experience as an intrapreneur, and his thirst for work that is professionally and personally fulfilling.SB: Darren, we are big fans of your job title. Could you share the reasoning behind it? What range of responsibilities does it cover? How did it evolve?
There are encouraging pockets of sustainability leadership in the US business community, but far too many companies are only taking small, incremental steps to address pressing sustainability issues that could impact their bottom lines and the future of our planet and economy, according to a new report by Ceres and Sustainalytics. Chief among these sustainability issues are climate change and human rights.
Current environmental and social crises represent both threats and opportunities for business, which has the capacity, innovation and duty to carve a new path toward sustainability, according to a new white paper by the Network for Business Innovation and Sustainability (NBIS) released Wednesday at the 2014 GoGreen Seattle Conference.
It’s said that the likely success of any company initiative can be gauged by the support and involvement of the senior management. If this is true, then the support demonstrated by the presence of so many of Unilever’s top team at the latest ‘Sustainable Living Plan’ update gives a clear demonstration of the organisation’s commitment to achieve and exceed the goals set.