Organizational Change
The latest creative strategies and tools helping organizations to engage their teams in building market-leading, purpose-driven brands.
Carbon Trust, Singapore Collaborating to Improve Energy Efficiency of SMEs
The Carbon Trust and the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS) today announced that they will be working together to help small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore to improve their energy efficiency. The announcement of the collaboration is being made at Kew Gardens in London as part of the official state visit to the UK of Dr Tony Tan Keng Yam, President of the Republic of Singapore.The SEAS is leading a S$17 million SME Energy Efficiency initiative, with support from SPRING Singapore, the National Environment Agency (NEA) and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). The goal is to help some 300 SMEs achieve at least 10 percent savings in energy costs over the next three years.
Setting Yourself Up for Failure? The Challenges of Environmental Target-Setting
Companies often set targets for memorable milestones and landmark years, such as 2015 or 2020, as this makes it easier to communicate and refer to them — there are 17 companies in the FTSE 100 that will be held to account in 2015 for meeting the targets that they themselves publicly set for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Caesars Helping 'Grown-Ups to Play Responsibly' by Playing Responsibly, Itself
Caesars Entertainment’s fifth annual Corporate Citizenship Report, "Serious Play," highlights the gaming resort chain’s progress in areas including Responsible Gaming, Employee Development, Environmental Stewardship and Community Investment Performance. The report details the company's societal and environmental impacts in 2013, highlights its corporate citizenship efforts in action, and elaborates on how Caesars is fulfilling its mission of inspiring grown-ups to play responsibly.
NYC Commits to Reduce Emissions 80% by 2050
In the spirit of this week, which has seen global leaders convening in New York City for the UN Climate Summit and more than 400,000 citizens filling the City’s streets for the People’s Climate March, NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio has committed to reducing the City’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by a whopping 80 percent by 2050 from 2005 levels with plans to renovate its public and private buildings.
Protest Prompts 8 Major Fashion Retailers to Support Wage Increase for Cambodian Workers
Thousands of workers took to the streets of Phnom Penh, in Cambodia, last week to protest for a near-doubling of the minimum wage for retailer workers there to US$177 (£110) a month. It seems their calls for fairer pay have sparked a response from the fashion industry, as eight leading retailers have now pledged to pay more for clothes produced there, according to the Guardian.
Letting Your Mission Drive Success: Lessons from Ben & Jerry's and Seventh Generation
All businesses value consumer and employee loyalty and the opportunity to shape the playing field in which they operate. Mission-driven businesses such as B Corps Seventh Generation and Ben & Jerry’s are finding that having an authentic purpose that resonates with their customers opens the door to exciting approaches to activism that engage their base in powerful ways. The union of company and employee passions not only boosts loyalty but also can lead to successful advocacy for shared causes. Conventional companies seeking to emulate their successes should follow three key steps:1. Build a mission that is relevant for your consumers
MIT's Digital Supply Chain MOOC Set for Global Launch
On Sept. 30, supply chain education will take a major step into the digital age with the start of SCx, an online educational program developed by the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics (MIT CTL) for thousands of professionals across the globe.The SCx curriculum is part of the MITx initiative, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s selection of massive open online courses (MOOCs). SCx is one of the first “XSeries” offerings that award certificates for successful completion of an entire sequence of courses.MIT says more than 9,000 individuals have already signed up for the first course of the three-course program — CTL.SC1x Supply Chain and Logistics Fundamentals.
Hyatt Unveils 2020 Sustainability Strategy
In conjunction with the release of its 2013-2014 Corporate Responsibility Report and hot on the heels of a new commitment to sustainable seafood, Hyatt Hotels has unveiled a set of the ever-popular 2020 environmental goals — the hotel chain says the goals are “designed to strengthen Hyatt’s collective ability to collaborate, inspire and further its commitment to environmental stewardship.”Hyatt says it is significantly expanding the scope of its existing sustainability initiatives and will continue to focus strongly on measuring and reporting progress.
Microsoft Walks Its Clean Energy Talk, Drops ALEC Membership
Microsoft has announced that it is ending its relationship with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative public-policy lobbying group. The decision was apparently made in response to ALEC's anti-renewables lobbying efforts, including measures to repeal renewable energy standards and block the disclosure of chemicals in fracking.
EnerNOC, WeSpire Teaming Up to Help Businesses Take Holistic Approach to Energy Management
Today, EnerNOC, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based energy intelligence software (EIS), announced that it has made a strategic investment in Boston-based WeSpire, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that enables businesses to measure and track the positive business impacts of engaging employees in sustainability through technology. Under the terms of the agreement, EnerNOC has exclusive rights in the EIS space to market a white-labeled version of WeSpire’s employee-engagement application, customized for enterprise and utility customers. By offering the WeSpire application, EnerNOC further enhances its ability to help businesses take a holistic approach to energy management.
GM's Renaissance Center Not Resting on Its Landfill-Free Laurels
General Motors’ Global Headquarters, a multi-office tower complex that the automaker announced in December had achieved zero-waste status, now composts food scraps from its various Renaissance Center restaurant kitchens for use in urban farming initiatives throughout the city.Local composting startup Detroit Dirt collects coffee grounds and fruit and vegetable pieces and mixes them with herbivore manure, some of which ends up in a rooftop garden at the complex.
Kaiser Permanente Exec Says Hospitals Should Help Heal the Planet
Hospitals deliver life-saving care to individuals, but their substantial environmental footprint can be detrimental to environmental and community health, according to a newly released book by Kathy Gerwig, Kaiser Permanente's environmental stewardship officer.The book, Greening Health Care: How Hospitals Can Heal the Planet, says hospitals contribute 8 percent of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced in the United States. Gerwig argues the healthcare sector has an obligation to reduce its environmental impact and usher in a new industry standard for healthcare delivery — one that embraces environmental stewardship.
Timberland Launches Serv-a-palooza Challenge to Recruit and Reward Volunteers
Timberland is calling for entries for its inaugural Timberland Serv-a-palooza Challenge – a sponsored volunteerism competition hosted in partnership with charitable fundraising platform, CrowdRise, founded by actor Edward Norton. The six-week challenge aims to encourage consumers to volunteer for a cause of their choice in return for chances to win prizes for themselves, along with donations for the nonprofits they choose to support.
WeSpire's Founder and CEO on Employee Engagement: Meet People Where They Are
Only 30% of employees are engaged, costing $450 to $550 billion every year in lost productivity. Yet research shows that companies with strong sustainability and social responsibility programs have much higher engagement rates.
Clothing Companies Going Beyond Compliance with Better Mill Initiative
This post is part of a series written by MBA and MPA candidates in Presidio Graduate School’s Managerial Marketing course, examining the role of communication in advancing sustainability across all sectors.China’s thick haze and severe water pollution have led to increased public awareness of environmental issues in recent years, and Greenpeace’s Detox campaign has exposed links between Chinese textile manufacturing facilities and pollution of local waterways.
From Commodity to Asset: How Conversations About Workers Are Changing in China
Last month we held our fifth annual Sedex conference in Shanghai. With tickets sold-out weeks before the event it was our biggest China conference yet, filling the room with over 200 delegates from businesses across China and further afield. But what struck me about the conference wasn’t the size of it, but the way conversations about workers are changing.
Are You a Radical Intrapreneur?
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what we need from business leaders. And by business leaders, I mean everyone who is actively making (or influencing) business decisions. We know there are myriad problems that we need to deal with and that we have a limited amount of time with which to right the ship. As such, we have to rethink the way we do business, but I think there’s a growing cabal of folks who can help get us where we need to go. I call them Radical Intrapreneurs.I know the word “radical” tends to make folks fret, so let’s try to uncoil that reaction with a few definitions.
New Symantec Initiative Hopes to Close Cybersecurity Workforce Gap
Symantec, one of the world's largest security software companies, has announced the launch of a first-of-its-kind program, the Symantec Cyber Career Connection (SC3), to address the global workforce gap in cybersecurity and provide new career opportunities for young adults who may not be college-bound. The program was announced as a Commitment to Action at the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting by Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and Symantec’s executive director of the program, Aled Miles.
Employee Engagement = Happy Talent = Higher Revenue
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?
Printing Giant RR Donnelley Leading Way with Sustainable Paper Purchasing Policy
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.
