Thinking Ethics

The business case.. continued

The New York Times had an impressive supplement called Giving. It gave an overview of charitable activities performed by U.S. groups, from management programs with school kids to use of technologies in developing countries. The main article summarizes very well the current thinking that social impact will come with a business driven approach. Rather than trying to "sell" sustainability as doing good only, "philantrepreneurs" apply the rules and strategies of the business world in their socially- and environmentally-conscious activities.

The business case for sustainability

There is a growing trend among corporate America that sustainable issues need to be addressed. Actually, a lot of comments and activities are looking at global issues such as climate change, energy, social development as an opportunity. From business schools that reshape their curricula around entrepreneurial thinking in sustainability to new funds ready to invest in "socially-conscious" ventures, there is a trend starting. For now, some of the advice looks pretty basic as this slide show from Inc Magazine shows. The good news of the week is that with a new slate of leaders, doing good may actually become mainstream business practice.

New "user-friendly" reporting guidelines

In order to ease the challenges of sustainability reporting, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) just launched the third revision of its reporting guidelines. The new "G3" guidelines are supposed to be much more user-friendly than the older ones, and will make reporting on economic, environmental and social performance - sustainability reporting - as routine as financial reporting. Good analysis by Michael Connor in the Fall issue of CRO Magazine here.

Best banks by ethical ranking

Covalence, the ethical ranking company, has just come out with an update of their ethical ranking of the major banks. Based on ethical reputation, HSBC is far ahead of the others. Next comes ABN Amro, Barclays, Bank of America, and Citigroup, who has made great progress in the past year. Covalence ranking graph here.

Beyond CSR - posted by Pascal Marmier

Beyond CSR, leading corporations engage in a learning community around sustainability

A group of leading companies such as Nike, BP, and Ford are engaged in a "learning community" to develop new standards and new ways of doing business that promote social, economic and ecological sustainability. The SoL sustainability consortium (http://www.solsustainability.org/about.htm) has been actively using proven methods derived from organizational learning and systems thinking to bring together major stakeholders around sustainability issues. They are "rethinking" processes and structures to address the problems of three vital systems: energy/transportation, food, and materials. The Food Lab (http://www.sustainablefood.org/article/view/9017/1/484/) is an example of a successful use of a methodology ("U process") designed to engage stakeholders, who often have conflicting interests, into a close collaboration.

NGO's sign accountability charter

The heads of 11 of the world's leading human rights, environmental and social development international organisations have endorsed the first global accountability charter for the non-profit sector. It is great that they are taking the lead on this, as NGO's come out with a higher trust factor in public opinion surveys than government or business. In addition to being transparent and accountable, they are trying to demonstrate that they deeply value public trust, and are committed to deepening that trust. This comes at a time when the non-profit sector is coming under closer scrutiny, both from those who want it to flourish, and those who seek to curtail NGO activities.

The core values set out in the Accountability Charter are good governance and management, fundraising and multi-stakeholder engagement, respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, independence, responsible advocacy, effective programs, non-discrimination, transparency and ethical fundraising.

The 11 NGO's are: ActionAid International; Amnesty International; CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation; Consumers International; Greenpeace International; Oxfam International; International Save the Children Alliance; Survival International; International Federation Terre des Hommes; Transparency International and World YWCA. more ...

Ethical diamonds

Lots of interesting initiatives to improve social responsibility in the diamond sector. The Diamond Development Initiative was launched in March 2005 by De Beers, Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada to improve the working conditions and salaries of miners. The Kimberly Scheme is a joint government, international diamond industry and civil society initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds.  Promoting respnsible practices from the mine to the retailers is the Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices, which was set up in May 2005 and includes the gold industry also. Its 33 members include Cartier and Tiffany. Good hopes that as consumers become more fussy about the origins of the luxury goods they purchase, the industry might become sparkling clean !

ISO standard on social responsibility

From csrwire here is the press release fro the International Organization for Standardization on the development of the future ISO 26000 standard on social responsibility. It will draw on the best practices developed bz existing public and private sector social responsibility initiatives.

Business Ethics awards

Business Ethics magazine is looking for companies with exemplary practices in a variety of areas for their eighteenth annual business ethics awards. The 2006 awards categories are: corporate governance; environmental sustainability; stakeholder accountability; general excellence.

Proposals can be emailed to  awards@business-ethics.com before June 19th, 2006. The awards will be published in their Fall issue.

Shell sustainability report

Royal Dutch Shell has published its sustainability report, explaining its environmental and social performance in 2005. Access it here.