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Accountants and social responsibilityCorporate governance and social responsibility are two topics that are very much intertwined. Responsible businesses are expected to go beyond what is merely required by law, and are expected to make a positive or beneficial impact on society and the environment. By: Mercedes B. Suleik – BusinessWorld We now see the dreadful consequences of an oil spill, of overloading of vessels which may not even be seaworthy, of the unmitigated denuding of our forests. Businesses, through their management operations and products, and through their advertisements, influence and affect the communities which are their market. From an accounting point of view, corporate social responsibility, or CSR, is understood in terms of the "triple bottom line," which refers to financial, social, and environmental reporting. Thus, it is also part of good corporate governance that companies are increasingly expected to disclose not only their normal financial accounts, but also their social and environmental performance. CSR is today understood to go beyond corporate communication or public relations -- as it has been traditionally observed -- and companies are now expected to promote CSR as the holistic or comprehensive approach to their business operations. In fact, some countries have new reporting regulations that require companies to include significant CSR elements. In Malaysia, for example, listed companies are required to report their CSR activities and "to inculcate it into their culture." Malaysia’s CSR program is touted to be ahead of others in the region and among the best developed in the world. I happened to be browsing over some old copies of The Malaysian Accountant, and found an article by Dr. Geoffrey Williams which says that the new reporting regulations which are part of the reporting requirements of Bursa Malaysia offer significant opportunities for the accounting profession. Effective reporting, which is the stock-in-trade of accountants, he says in his article, could make use of established frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The GRI aims to make CSR reporting as formal and codified as financial and governance reporting. The idea is that companies should report along a set of areas using criteria which allows direct comparability. In other words, just as with financial statements, the CSR report of one company should be easily comparable with the reports of other companies. As in corporate governance reporting, the contents of a good CSR report should be guided by accounting principles like materiality and completeness, as well as inclusive coverage and relevance. Just as corporate governance principles emphasize Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, good CSR reporting has its own mantra of Reliability, Clarity, Accuracy, Comparability, Balance, and Timeliness. Additionally, GRI emphasizes Economic Value Added, which is a way of presenting the financial performance of the company that shows the impact on its employees -- who are among its important stakeholders -- in terms of their salaries and benefits. Another important business participant is the financial sector, and emphasis on lending and equity is considered. Likewise, society itself, also a major stakeholder, is impacted through government’s tax collections and disbursements. Social investments on community programs are also mentioned in the article. In CSR reporting, accountants may find opportunities for continuing professional development in such areas which cover economic impact, labor practices, human rights, product responsibility, and environmental performance. Accountants can help to create efficient CSR policies which benefit society while helping companies minimize costs, such as suggesting tax incentives for companies that pursue positive CSR practices to legislators. Dr. Williams further suggests that accountants who can help companies maximize the investment payoff from CSR activities would surely be in great demand. Accountants can help companies show that their operations are sound not only in economic or profitability terms, but also in social, environmental, and governance terms, thus showing investors that their companies are a sound investment choice. Companies that practice good governance are given a premium on their share prices. Well, good CSR also can provide a payoff in terms of higher investment, better attraction, and retention of customers, not to mention highly motivated employees. Of course, the challenge to accountants is the need to adjust their mind-set (from the traditional bean-counting mentality) and understand that they have a new role in an emerging CSR agenda. I had also come across the idea of green governance, which of course is part of social responsibility. Internal and external auditors would have to contribute to the assessment of data needed for the reports. Indeed, accountants who would become specialists in non-financial or CSR reporting, drawing on the principles of corporate governance, would be a new breed of accountants who certainly would be much in demand once market practice and perhaps government regulators kick in. Malaysia has started the ball rolling. Might I dare to suggest that accountants in the Philippines be inspired and motivated to hone new talents and expertise. Might I suggest that "principles of good corporate social responsibility" be also adopted in our markets? After all, the Philippines has already become a staunch advocate of good corporate governance -- a step forward would be to incorporate in good governance practices the idea of the triple bottom line: People, Planet, and Profit. Source: bworldonline.com Is this the sustainable city of the future?According to a New York design group, this is how tomorrow's metropolis may look – just don't ask how it will work. By: Rowan Moore – The Observer Terreform One, a New York non-profit design group led by 38-year-old architect Mitchell Joachim, offers answers to almost everything to do with cities and sustainability. Its prolific output of ideas includes blimps creeping nose-to-tail around cities, with seats hanging off them just above the ground so that people can jump on and off at will. The company has designed soft cars, so no one is killed in a car accident ever again, and proposed a way of training trees so that they can be grown to form houses – a theoretically zero-carbon technique. It also wants to put houses on to big trucks, and rebuild America's roads so that they are packed with "intelligent renewable infrastructure", into which the mobile houses can be plugged. This idea is less obviously zero carbon, but the company claims it will "create a truly breathing, interconnected metabolic urbanism".
Terreform One's projects are presented with the imagery long-beloved of futuristic visionaries, with steep perspectives of frictionless cities, super-shiny and super-clean. The language is fervent, breeding neologisms and repeating the word "will" in the manner of preachers foreseeing the rapture. Terreform One, incidentally, is not to be confused with the company's earlier incarnation, Terreform, which was created by Joachim and his former mentor Michael Sorkin. Sorkin is now bitterly denounced by Joachim for failing to show a co-operative spirit and for selling out by designing a seven-star hotel in China. Terreform One, which has a 32-strong "advisory board", has been endorsed by the likes of Wired magazine, which in 2008 named Joachim one of "the 15 people the next president should listen to", but for now it leaves many questions unanswered. Its plans seem light on details such as cost and emissions calculations. It's not clear what would happen to its blimps in a high wind, or to the views from upper-floor windows as they passed by in an unending chain, or how easily the old or disabled could hop on and off. Nor how trees could be trained to grow kitchens and sanitary appliances. Joachim says it will take a century or more to shift the way cities are built, which is all well and good – but perhaps the future should also start here. Source: Guardian.co.uk Study: Sustainability a Priority for CEOsConsumers are a big factor why CEOs are putting more emphasis on sustainability, according to a new study from Accenture and the UN By: Georg Kell and Peter Lacy - BusinessWeek.com This week, the UN Global Compact and Accenture Sustainability Services are releasing the largest-ever chief executive study on corporate sustainability. Through an online survey and in-depth one-to-one interviews, nearly 1,000 CEOs, senior business executives, and civil society leaders have contributed to this landmark study on the state and future of responsible business in the 21st century. It may come as a surprise to some, but perhaps the most significant finding of our study is that, despite the economic downturn and a flurry of global challenges, corporate commitment to environmental, social, and governance issues remains strong: 93 percent of CEOs see sustainability as critical to their company's success. This signals a fundamental shift in mind sets since this survey was last conducted in 2007. Then, sustainability was starting to reshape the rules of global business. Now, it has become a strategic priority for CEOs around the world. CEOs also told us that their approaches to sustainability are changing:
AN IMPLEMENTATION GAP CEOs believe they are still facing many challenges, despite significant recent progress. Externally, much uncertainty still surrounds support from the investment community or the extent to which sustainability concerns will drive consumer purchasing decisions. Another concern is the lack of clear and effective regulation. Internally, CEOs recognize that there is currently an implementation gap in meeting their ambition to embed sustainability deep and wide within their organizations, particularly along supply chains and in subsidiaries. For example, 88 percent of CEOs believe they should be integrating sustainability through their supply chains, but only 54 percent believe this is being achieved in their company. A similar performance gap is seen in subsidiaries. In order to overcome these challenges and to reach a new era in which sustainability concerns are fully embedded in core business, CEOs believe they can take a leadership role in bringing about a number of "must-have" conditions:
It is clear from our conversation with CEOs that business has its work cut out in embedding sustainability into core business. It is clear that businesses face a multitude of risks, and from our interviews we see a strong sense that CEOs recognize the scale and complexity of the challenges that they face. However, they see significant progress, particularly in achieving a potentially transformational mindset shift around sustainability issues being of direct and critical importance to their future success. If this belief can be translated into tangible action, and sustainability integrated into core business within the next decade—and CEOs believe that it can, given immediate and sustained action—the business landscape will look very different: the regulatory, technology, investment, and consumer changes required will be staggering, creating significant winners and losers across businesses and industries. Our findings highlight that companies are taking the long view on sustainability. They also realize that the journey will not necessarily be a short one. But, arguably, the modern era has never before seen such a high level of executive commitment to the environmental, social and corporate governance agenda. Many leading companies are aware of the power they have to change the world—but acknowledge that this is "the end of the beginning" and not "the beginning of the end" in the transition to a new era of sustainability. Source: BusinessWeek.com Companies conserving water surprised by savings
Water is not only the next big environmental issue, but also the next savings opportunity, according to several companies. By: Candace Lombardi - Green Tech - CNET News A survey conducted by research analyst Ethical Corporation in May 2010 found that 99 percent of corporate sustainability managers saw water becoming a top priority for businesses in the next 5 to 10 years. The report "Unlocking the Profit in Water Savings" found that 52 percent of sustainability managers ranked "water stewardship" within the top five most important issues they now deal with. But more interesting is the hard data supporting the trend. Companies have found that saving water equates with saving money even when including initial infrastructure investments, according to the report. The report, which included interviews with global giants like Unilever, Kraft, Coca-Cola, and Shell, found many companies surprised by water savings outperforming estimates after they initiated company water conservation projects. Sainsbury's, for example, a leading U.K. supermarket chain, has saved 1.6 million pounds (about $2.4 million) since fixing leaks, installing sensors on urinals, and reducing toilet water capacity, according to Ethical Corporation. Whitbread, a U.K. company that owns hotel and restaurant chains, saved 350,000 pounds ($519,000) annually after installing low flow-faucets and shower heads, urinals with sensors, and dual-flush toilets in some of its properties. But initial company estimates had been that the changes would save between 93,000 or 80,000 pounds annually. Now the company has decided to implement more water conservation initiatives. In conjunction with the report release, Ethical Corporation also released a podcast interview with Andy Wales, head of sustainability for SABMiller, the brewing giant that includes the brands Miller, Foster's, and Grolsch. "Our internal target is to improve our water efficiency by 25 percent by 2015," Wales told Ethical Corporation's Toby Webb during the interview. "At the moment, it takes us just under four and a half liters of water to make a liter of beer, which is better than the brewing industry average. But we need to go much further, so our 2015 target is that 25 percent reduction to 3.5 liters for a liter of beer." Wales said SABMiller is also looking at ways to help its suppliers save water, which includes farmers growing barley or hops in regions where water is predicted to become a scarce commodity. Wales noted that his position within SABMiller is integrated with capital planning and not just a silo department, giving him and his team more power within the company to actually initiate change. He said this type of model--giving actual economic power to those looking into sustainability issues--is the key to change in government as well as business. "Water is a critical resource that underpins economic growth, underpins social development, and obviously underpins environmental protection. And yet, the discussion of water issues, of water as a resource, is often stuck in the environmental ministry," he said. "Those ministers are very good ministers, but they are not the most powerful in the government. We need to get finance ministers, energy ministers understand what the impact is of water for the growth of their country." Both the report and interview underscore what companies and sustainability experts have individually been saying about water being the "oil of the 21st century." In January 2010, for example, Jackson Family Wines of Kendall-Jackson fame, announced it would be cutting its winery water usage by 70 percent. It also proposed that if just 35 percent of California wineries implemented the same technology, it could save the state 1 billion gallons of water annually. Source: Green Tech - CNET News Sustainability Must Be Central To Corporate Strategy Now
It's too late to have it any other way. By: Dean Krehmeyer, Michael Lenox and Brian Moriarty - Forbes Corporate America has been dramatically increasing its attention to and leadership in sustainability. Companies have been announcing plans for carbon-footprint reduction, publishing sustainability reports, creating billion-dollar clean energy investment funds and forming sustainability coalitions with corporate customers, suppliers and even competitors. That's happened because investors and the public have been insisting that sustainability move beyond being a departmental concern and into the boardroom and executive offices. Yet a 2008 McKinsey survey found that while 60% of executives believed climate change is strategically important, fewer than a third were actually doing anything about it. Why the disconnect? Partly because it's all so new and complex. Executives need to begin by understanding exactly why they're engaging in sustainability activities. There are three basic drivers of corporate sustainability initiatives: regulatory requirements, market incentives to go beyond those regulatory requirements and new market opportunities. Some initiatives aren't a matter of choice at all, of course. For example, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed revised requirements for companies needing permits for the emission of greenhouse gases in new plants, factories and refineries. Moreover, a failure to respond to public pressure from activists can harm a company's brands, profits and overall reputation. Companies that choose to exceed minimum mandates can win a voice in shaping future regulation. Apple, for instance, used its 2009 sustainability report to identify several toxic substances common to electronic products as the greatest environmental challenges facing the industry. The company said its own products were free of such material, adding, "In keeping with our philosophy over the last decade, Apple is not waiting for legislation to ban these substances." Apple is leading by example and even shaping the public and regulatory dialogue. The companies that are really leading the way, though, are those that have discovered operational, financial and reputational benefit in developing aggressive overall sustainability strategies. Many have dramatically decreased their costs, reduced their environmental risks and created profitable sustainability initiatives with new products, markets and even entire business models. They've realized that sustainability is a core strategic focus they've got to integrate into their broader corporate strategy. Ellen Kullman, the chief executive officer of DuPont, calls her company's sustainability effort "a central factor in [DuPont's] research and development ... marketing and sales functions." The same can be said of General Electric's "Ecomagination" strategy. Yet still there remains a gap in making sustainability a critical part of overall strategy. David Blood of Generation Investment Management acknowledges that it is difficult and risky, but he also sees it as "an opportunity for companies to establish competitive positioning, grow revenues and drive profitability." For investors like him, it's "the holy grail of sustainability investing--to seize the opportunities, not just avoid the risks." Here are two big reasons why having a clear and comprehensive sustainability strategy is critically important for business leaders. 1. Knowing--and communicating--who you are. A company's executives can't have all their units in alignment concerning strategic long-term goals and communicate a consistent message about them unless they understand those goals. Moreover, as Proxy Governancehas reported, issues like climate change are gaining traction among investors, and "how companies respond to these vote levels is increasingly viewed as a matter of corporate governance." Boards receive more sustainability-related shareholder proposals every proxy season. And 75% of marketing and communications executives surveyed by the American Marketing Association and Fleishman-Hillard in April 2009 said that concern for their corporate reputations was driving their sustainability initiatives. 2. Knowing where you're going.Corporate reputation is critical for long-term viability, never mind profitability, both because sustainability has become part of the public consciousness and because the global economic downturn has raised concern about risk management. Recent research by the Canada-based Network for Business Sustainability found that consumers are typically willing to pay 10% more for products when they're sustainable. Clearly this is an issue that matters to people. How much better might the American auto industry have done amid the downturn and $4-a-gallon gasoline if it had developed a better portfolio of fuel-efficient vehicles? If you're an executive at a company that depends on Wal-Mart to deliver products to consumers, you won't soon forget July 16, 2009, when the giant retailer formally launched its Sustainability Product Index. The index rates products to "reward those suppliers who have measured impacts and shown progress toward meeting aggressive sustainability goals." The world's largest retailer has made sustainability a critical issue for companies up and down its enormous supply chain. The world of sustainability issues is very dynamic and promises to remain so for years. Executives need to ask questions like: When the ground shifts, does our company have the strategic agility to adapt? What are our biggest suppliers and customers planning, and how will that affect us? How are we positioned in our various markets in terms of proposed regulations? Sizable opportunities are sure to keep growing for companies that fully engage with sustainability--and risks are sure to keep growing for ones that don't. Source: Forbes.com Why Should You Read a Companys Sustainability Report?Today, it's not uncommon for companies to publish sustainability reports highlighting a range of efforts being made to act in a socially responsible manner. And that's a good thing. By: Susan M. Cischke - The Huffington Post Sustainability reports serve as a scorecard for us - to report on the progress we are making with our corporate sustainability strategy and the environmental and social initiatives we are engaged in around the world. Equally important, the reports serve as a source of information for people, like yourself, wanting to know more about how a product is made or a how a company you might invest in does business. It is proof your opinions and interests matter. Yet, despite all of this information being readily available, few people take the time to read a sustainability report and learn more about the efforts companies are making to do the right thing. Let's try to change this. On June 15, Ford Motor Company released its 11th annual Sustainability Report. The 2009/2010 report, titled "Blueprint for Sustainability: The Future at Work," provides updates on my company's progress in five key areas, including climate change, fuel economy, mobility, vehicle safety and human rights. You might be surprised by what you read. For example, many people would expect to see Ford is working hard to develop fuel saving technologies including a broad-based plan to introduce a range of electric vehicles. But, something you may not know is Ford cut its global water use by more than 16 percent in 2009 and became the first automaker to join a global program to help establish a water disclosure protocol for companies around the world. Or, you might find it interesting Ford works with local governments and universities to make sure it does business in an ethical manner and protects workers' human rights where we do business. We recognize the importance of measuring the impact of what we do whether it is CO2 emissions, fuel economy, energy and water use. We think it's important to talk about new safety technologies and human rights and working conditions. One of the key understandings we think you will get from reading sustainability reports is the recognition that creating a strong business and building a better world are not conflicting goals - they are essential ingredients for long-term success. Your efforts to become more knowledgeable about how companies conduct business and what they are doing to create a better world can make a difference. So, take the time to do some online research and read the different sustainability reports companies put together, including ours. Then, let us and other companies know what you think of our efforts, because sustainability reports shouldn't really be static, one- way communication. We believe these reports should serve as a tool to share information and spark more dialogue about the critical issues facing not just our companies, but society. Source: The Huffington Post Sustainability hits the bottom line
The impacts of dwindling resources, global competitive forces, and consumer demands have merged to send a powerful message to companies: sustainability is now part of the business equation. By: Lezette Engelbrecht - ITWeb This is the view of Sven Denecken, SAP VP of sustainability co-innovation, speaking at the SAP Sustainability Summit in Johannesburg, yesterday (March 23). According to SAP, pressure on the corporate landscape is three-fold: environmental, social and economic. "Companies have realised they cannot continue with business as usual, and that sustainability is about much more than just using green energy." Chris Perceval, director of corporate relations at the World Resources Institute in Washington says: "Sustainability is really about defining what the world will look like tomorrow, which is important for companies because it defines the context in which they need to operate and make a profit." "Sustainability is based on the understanding that economies and companies do not operate in a vacuum, but are tightly embedded into societies and the environment," states SAP. "In order to make sustainability tangible for the business, organisations must go beyond 'being green' or philanthropic. They must focus on driving profitability, compliance, and their reputation through more sustainable and responsible behaviour." SAP's goal is to reduce its own carbon emissions to 2000 levels by 2020, and reduce the footprint per employee, through strategies such as reduced travel and teleconferencing. Its biggest sphere of potential impact, however, lies with its customer base. According to SAP, it provides software to 75% of the world's businesses, giving it a powerful lever for driving sustainability. "Our customers' carbon footprint is around five gigatons – 10 000 times SAP's own footprint." SAP sees its role as both exemplar and enabler of sustainability. "We have to transform our own company to incorporate sustainability goals and be vocal about it, because if we're not walking the talk, we lose credibility," said Denecken. Forces of change According to Frank Naude, principal of Business User solutions at SAP Africa, companies face challenges on a range of fronts; from more empowered customers to an increasingly mobile global workforce, and the rise of emerging economies like India and China. There's also increased risk and compliance policies, as well as disruptive technologies. In working towards making the enterprise more sustainable, Naude argued the need to look at all aspects of an organisation: internal, outside communities, planet, and profit. "Once you have a strategy around sustainability you have to communicate it and plan for it at high-level." Denecken noted that the three long-term trends of economic, environmental and social change are merging. "We as companies live in a networked environment, and while the supply chain is not always in a company's control, if something happens in that extended network it affects the business." He added that the scarcity of resources and volatility of prices was something companies are starting to take seriously. "The concerns around CO2 are not going to go away; we have to start considering it in calculations, and building it into corporate strategies." Finally, public awareness of sustainability topics and the need to tackle them means customers and stakeholders demand greater accountability, explained Denecken. "Three to four years from now, no one in the marketplace will sell, implement, or successfully run solutions that don't touch on sustainability topics." All together In building a business case for sustainability, explained Denecken, drivers include cost and regulation, maximising productivity, and gaining competitive advantage. "You have to link sustainability with profitability, and you can only do that if you tackle holistically all three trends and look not only at the risks but also the opportunities." He added that sustainability cannot be something done by a department somewhere, but must be seen as an overall goal every employee can contribute toward and have an impact on. "It has to be woven into the business, not just added as a layer on top. "It's changing the way we work, and requires greater collaboration with partners and customers, to exchange information on the best practices and valuable investments." By consulting forward-looking partners in the decision-making process, companies can go back and turn strategies into practical solutions, and partake in co-innovation, Denecken noted. "Usually companies are run purely according to financial drivers, but now they're beginning to understand sustainability is not just a side topic, and needs to be integrated into the overall strategy. "Green can save a lot of money, and it's not something 'out there', it's happening right now." Source: ITWeb Sustainability: 20 expectations for companies by 2020
Corporate sustainability initiatives frequently – and often deservedly – get criticized for being more talk than action. Integrating environmental and social challenges into the business process can be a daunting task for even well-intentioned and well-resourced enterprises. By: Michael Connor - Business Ethics A major new 84-page paper from Ceres, the investor and environmental group, seeks to address that issue by laying out an ambitious and detailed program with 20 expectations for companies to focus on and achieve by 2020. The 21st Century Corporation: The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability "is a guide to companies on their journey to comprehensive sustainability – from the boardroom to the copy room – and throughout the supply chain," says Mindy S. Lubber, President of Ceres. The paper says companies must cut greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 in order to meet reductions called for by scientists who warn of catastrophic global warming. The paper also calls on companies to respond to societal issues. "It has become clear that it is not acceptable anywhere in the world to produce goods in unsafe or exploitative conditions," Ceres says. "These are real business risks for global companies." Four Areas for Focus To accomplish that, Ceres describes its vision of corporate best practices "that must come to represent the norm, not the exception." The paper focuses on four broad areas: governance, stakeholder engagement, disclosure and performance. In governance, "there is a growing expectation that boards of directors as fiduciaries should be informed leaders on sustainability issues that materially impact corporate performance and plans," the paper says. Ceres suggests that a board committee have clear accountability for sustainability strategy and performance; that board nominating committees seek directors with expertise in sustainability; and that directors receive regular training in key sustainability issues. In stakeholder engagement, the roadmap calls for companies to "regularly engage in robust dialogue with stakeholders across the whole value chain." Recommendations include adoption of a "stakeholder mapping" process to identify, understand and track key stakeholder groups and how they are engaged on sustainability issues by key business units. Companies should report regularly on their sustainability strategy and performance, according to the suggested roadmap. "Disclosure will include credible, standardized, independently verified metrics encompassing all material stakeholder concerns, and detail goals and plans for future action," the paper says. In operations, the Ceres roadmap calls on companies to "invest the necessary resources to achieve environmental neutrality and to demonstrate respect for human rights in their operations." Performance should be measured "related to GHG emissions, energy efficiency, facilities and building, water, waste, and human rights." Sustainability as Economic Driver In an introduction to the paper, David Blood, Senior Partner of Generation Investment Management, writes: "The interests of shareholders, over time, will best be served by companies that maximize their financial performance by strategically managing their economic, social, environmental and ethical performance. Central to this thesis is the explicit recognition that sustainable solutions will be the primary driver of industrial and economic development in the coming decades." Ceres has proven effective in the past in turning talk about environmental and social change into substance. The organization started with the so-called Ceres Principles, a 10-point code of corporate environmental conduct drafted in response to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. It launched the Global Reporting Initiative in 1997 and helped GRI organize as an independent organization. Ceres also directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a network of 80 institutional investors with a collective $8 trillion in assets. The coalition was instrumental in pressuring the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to recently announce new guidance on climate risk disclosure for publicly-held companies. Access: The 21st Century Corporation: The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability
Environmental sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) among businesses are no longer "nice to have" ideologies. They are important parts of a company’s overall growth strategy. By: Sam Murata, President at SANYO North America Corporation A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study documented ways in which companies that report their sustainability efforts get better returns on their assets than companies that do not. Also according to a TIME poll conducted in 2009, 40 percent of consumers said they bought products or services because they liked the social or political values of the company. Nearly half of Americans in the poll said protecting the environment should be given priority over economic growth, and this comes in the midst of a recession. However, taking actionable steps to become a sustainable and socially responsible company also typically requires a significant amount of capital and resources investment. Therefore, it’s critical to be able to demonstrate the value and return on investment (ROI) that putting environmental and CSR reforms into practice will provide. So what are the best ways to measure the ROI of a company’s sustainability and CSR efforts and effectively convince senior management these activities are worth the investment? 1. Begin with small projects: Consider making small reforms over time rather than tackling multiple, large projects simultaneously. Through gradual transformations throughout the organization, it becomes easier to not only secure funding for the sustainability and CSR efforts but to also benchmark their impact. For example, consider making a company-wide commitment to replace all dry-cell battery supplies throughout the office with rechargeable batteries. Then in three to six months measure how using rechargeable batteries has impacted overall energy costs and battery supply costs. 2. Poll your customers: Customer surveys and polls can be useful in helping to gauge how changes in your organization’s sustainability and CSR practices affect their perceptions of your company and brand loyalty. Ask them if they notice and value any particular sustainability and CSR initiatives and how that has impacted their perceptions of the products or services your company offers. Once you’ve determined what specific sustainability or CSR initiatives your customers value most, you can then refine your offerings to meet their specific preferences. 3. Leverage the success of other companies’ green efforts: Highlight the successes of other large organizations which have already made significant investments in their sustainability and CSR initiatives. By sharing examples of these types of success stories it will become easier to convince your management team of the importance of applying those same principles to your own organization. For specific examples of America’s most sustainable companies, a good source to reference is Newsweek’s "2009 Green Rankings", a rating of the 500 largest U.S. companies on their sustainable practices. 4. Publicize your green initiatives: Perception is reality. Therefore, publicizing your sustainability and CSR initiatives will add tremendous value and credibility to those efforts. Take advantage of opportunities to make others aware of your commitment to being conscious of the environment and a socially responsible company through all marketing, public relations and sales activities. 5. Have realistic goals: Recognize that the tangible ROI benefits of your sustainability efforts won’t happen overnight, so it’s important to set realistic and achievable goals that can then be built upon over time. Source: Environmental Leader Eco-patent commons database provides sustainable business solutions for free
The Eco-Patent Commons was launched in January 2008 by IBM, Nokia, Pitney Bowes and Sony in partnership with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) based in Geneva, Switzerland. By: Leslie Berliant - EnergyBoom.com The WBCSD brings together some 200 companies from over 30 countries and 20 industrial sectors in a shared commitment to sustainable development through economic growth, ecological balance and social progress. The premise of the Eco-Patent Commons is to allow environmental protection innovations and solutions to be easily shared so that anyone that wants to bring environmental benefits to market or to their own operations can use these patents. It was also designed to promote cooperation, collaboration and new innovation among businesses that are developing environmental solutions. The Commons database contains over one hundred eco-friendly patents from eleven companies; the original founding members plus Bosch, Dow, DuPont, Fuji-Xerox, Ricoh, Taisei and Xerox. Based on the concepts of open source software, the patents have all been pledged to the public domain. The Eco-patent commons has been the first organized effort to make patents available, without royalty, to help enable the world community to reduce waste, pollution, global warming and energy demands. Participating companies and universities choose the patents that they want to pledge, so are able to retain those that are essential sources of income. The Commons is open to the public and displayed in a searchable database. All of the patents provide direct or indirect environmental benefits such as energy conservation or efficiency, pollution prevention (source reduction, waste reduction), use of environmentally preferable materials or substances, materials reduction and increased recyclability. The main difference between dedicating patents to the Commons versus directly to the public is that the Commons allows the pledger to terminate the patent to those who assert patents against the pledger. The Commons also allows a pledger to assert patents, outside the field of the Commons, against another pledger without losing rights inside the Commons. For those looking to develop environmental solutions, the database provides free and easiy access to patents that can be leveraged to improve the environmental aspects of their operations or innovations. It also provides those facing an environmental challenge to connect with those that have already found successful solutions. Recent patents added to the Commons include a technology developed by Dow to enable more efficient production of olefins - the basic building blocks for many materials used in packaging, electronics, adhesives, and durable goods - by reducing energy and material consumption in the process. These patents help make olefin production more efficient through increased catalyst lifetimes, and less increase in pressure drop over time in the reactor, which reduces the frequency of catalyst replacement. Also recently added is a wastewater treatment method developed by Fuji Xerox. In addition to Xerox Corporation’s eleven pledged patents that cover a process that cuts the time it takes to remove toxic waste from soil and water from years to months, the company has also pledged a patent that covers technology that makes magnetic refrigeration less harmful to the environment. Source: EnergyBoom.com |
