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Posts from the ‘Environment’ Category

May 21

agrione

Dull? Maybe. But Building a Better GRI is Vital to More & Better Corporate Sustainability

Blogging from GRI Global Conference on Sustainability and Reporting in Amsterdam

The word ‘audit’ is derived from the Latin word “audire” which means “to hear” — an apt etymology in the movement for more and better corporate sustainability, where stakeholder interests are so closely and vitally linked to good sustainability reporting.

We, the stakeholders, increasingly want to hear what companies are doing, or not doing, on sustainability issues and, of course, we want to understand, not only what companies are reporting on but critically how they report.

Just as the audited financial statement rose Read more

May 8

stairs

The Price of a Life in Bangladesh: Future Markets, Hedging and other Market-Based Mechanisms to Profit from Sustainability

I have a new idea to finance sustainability: a futures market trading the value of the life of Bangladeshi textile workers.

 ”Nothing is so hard for those who abound in riches as
to conceive how others can be in want.”
Jonathan Swift

A Bangladeshi Low-Income Workers Exchange (BLIWEx) makes a whole lot of sense. The idea is to Read more

Oct 14

smart-phone

Smart Phones & Broad Band Equals Sustainability?

Smart phone makers and broadband suppliers are going to love this article. All other companies, well, this article is about leveling the playing field for more and better sustainability. Please read on.

Every household on this planet should have a premium smartphone.

Every household on this planet should have free access to broadband Internet.

Each and every company on this planet should, by law, be required to have a third-party verified GRI report and mandatory sustainability labels.

(I also believe ardently in the power of brand, so much so that I believe all advertising should be banned. More on this at a future date.)

Why? The free market economy needs both freedom of speech and access to credible sustainability information if it is to overcome structurally inherent sustainability challenges. Read more

Aug 30

milton

Milton Friedman, the GRI, ISO 26000 and the end of Voluntary

In the mid-1970s Milton Friedman famously proclaimed that the only responsibly of business was to provide profits for its stakeholders.

Rather than being prescient, and like many other similar claims, Friedman simply described a cultural sentiment at its height and, in historical perspective, we now know the end of “unsustainable” was in sight.

Fast forward 2012 when we have two international tools flanking the “profit at all cost” mentality Read more

Aug 22

w with rench

A Few Good Wrenches, a Cuppa o’ Joe and 46% Sustainability RIO

I wish sustainability was more difficult or more expensive to achieve than it actually is, then we might have an excuse for not doing too much about it.

But a couple of reports out recently, tell us otherwise.

Can You Say $3.7 Trillion?
First there is Mobilizing for a Resource Revolution (McKinsey, http://bit.ly/Apk5bL). The report explores coming resource scarcities as the estimated 3 billion new developing country middle class consumers enter the market by 2025. The story in a nutshell: demand for natural resources will soar and supply will dwindle.

The study identifies 15 areas of opportunity for improved resource productivity Read more

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