Business and sustainability have developed a mutually beneficial relationship over the past 40 years. Initially, sustainability was seen as a risk avoidance measure to address issues like spills or accidents. However, businesses now realize sustainability offers both cost savings opportunities and a way to differentiate their products and attract customers. Leading investor indexes now evaluate and encourage companies integrating sustainability into their business strategies as these firms are better prepared to seize opportunities and manage risks.
The document summarizes a conference on collaboration, cultural change and competitive edge through corporate social responsibility. The conference will provide tools and proven strategies for embedding CSR throughout organizations to create business value and measurable returns. Speakers will address issues like managing supply chain risk under new regulations and forming partnerships to advance CSR programs. Attendees can learn how leading companies meet long-term sustainability targets and engage investors on ESG issues.
Insight into the 16 key issues shaping the CSR agenda in USA in 2012
Knowledge of what the 3 C's of sustainabiility are and how they will be shaping business in the coming years
Directions Supplement - June eyes on_the_prize_singlessalterbaxter
1) Two recent examples from Goldman Sachs and ING demonstrate increasing pressure from investors for companies to integrate sustainability into their brands.
2) The document outlines four different approaches companies have taken to creating sustainable brands: GE focuses on stakeholder engagement, E.ON acts as an educator, Pepsi encourages hands-on involvement from consumers, and Cadbury emphasizes partnerships.
3) InterfaceFLOR's sustainability director provides six "dos and don'ts" of creating a sustainable brand based on their experience, including setting ambitious goals, addressing core issues, and making sustainability personal.
This document discusses sustainability and why it is important for businesses. It defines sustainability as meeting present needs without compromising future generations' ability to meet their own needs. While some think the sole purpose of business is profit, the document argues businesses must exist for higher purposes. It outlines the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit. Key sustainability concepts are systems thinking, stakeholders, and material issues. The business case for sustainability includes reducing costs and risks, gaining competitive advantages, and improving reputation. Actions businesses can take include evaluating impacts, embedding sustainability into planning, understanding issues, setting goals, and implementing initiatives.
This document outlines the top 10 business sustainability challenges for 2012 as identified by a council of sustainability executives from leading Canadian organizations.
1) How can businesses redefine the traditional business case to include sustainability, as sustainability initiatives may have longer payback periods than typically expected, making them appear less attractive.
2) How can sustainability drive innovation (and vice-versa) within companies? While innovation and sustainability are often linked, more understanding is needed on how to create a virtuous cycle between them.
3) The Network for Business Sustainability will systematically review the challenges of how sustainability can drive innovation, and how businesses can mobilize citizens to take more sustainable actions.
The report is intended to help businesses
The document discusses how environmental sustainability has become a critical business strategy and megatrend. It outlines four key forces driving sustainability - consumers, government, supply chains, and green technologies - and recommends five steps for companies to develop effective sustainability programs: 1) assess their current sustainability approach, 2) understand stakeholder expectations, 3) identify opportunities, 4) build trust with credible programs, and 5) engage stakeholders through real-time conversations, communities, content, and commitments. The document emphasizes that sustainability requires long-term engagement to manage reputations and create value for both business and society.
The document summarizes a conference on collaboration, cultural change and competitive edge through corporate social responsibility. The conference will provide tools and proven strategies for embedding CSR throughout organizations to create business value and measurable returns. Speakers will address issues like managing supply chain risk under new regulations and forming partnerships to advance CSR programs. Attendees can learn how leading companies meet long-term sustainability targets and engage investors on ESG issues.
Insight into the 16 key issues shaping the CSR agenda in USA in 2012
Knowledge of what the 3 C's of sustainabiility are and how they will be shaping business in the coming years
Directions Supplement - June eyes on_the_prize_singlessalterbaxter
1) Two recent examples from Goldman Sachs and ING demonstrate increasing pressure from investors for companies to integrate sustainability into their brands.
2) The document outlines four different approaches companies have taken to creating sustainable brands: GE focuses on stakeholder engagement, E.ON acts as an educator, Pepsi encourages hands-on involvement from consumers, and Cadbury emphasizes partnerships.
3) InterfaceFLOR's sustainability director provides six "dos and don'ts" of creating a sustainable brand based on their experience, including setting ambitious goals, addressing core issues, and making sustainability personal.
This document discusses sustainability and why it is important for businesses. It defines sustainability as meeting present needs without compromising future generations' ability to meet their own needs. While some think the sole purpose of business is profit, the document argues businesses must exist for higher purposes. It outlines the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit. Key sustainability concepts are systems thinking, stakeholders, and material issues. The business case for sustainability includes reducing costs and risks, gaining competitive advantages, and improving reputation. Actions businesses can take include evaluating impacts, embedding sustainability into planning, understanding issues, setting goals, and implementing initiatives.
This document outlines the top 10 business sustainability challenges for 2012 as identified by a council of sustainability executives from leading Canadian organizations.
1) How can businesses redefine the traditional business case to include sustainability, as sustainability initiatives may have longer payback periods than typically expected, making them appear less attractive.
2) How can sustainability drive innovation (and vice-versa) within companies? While innovation and sustainability are often linked, more understanding is needed on how to create a virtuous cycle between them.
3) The Network for Business Sustainability will systematically review the challenges of how sustainability can drive innovation, and how businesses can mobilize citizens to take more sustainable actions.
The report is intended to help businesses
The document discusses how environmental sustainability has become a critical business strategy and megatrend. It outlines four key forces driving sustainability - consumers, government, supply chains, and green technologies - and recommends five steps for companies to develop effective sustainability programs: 1) assess their current sustainability approach, 2) understand stakeholder expectations, 3) identify opportunities, 4) build trust with credible programs, and 5) engage stakeholders through real-time conversations, communities, content, and commitments. The document emphasizes that sustainability requires long-term engagement to manage reputations and create value for both business and society.
The MSLGROUP paper on "Value and Values: A Winning Business Strategy" discusses the benefits of economic stewardship and ways to develop an environmentally sustainable approach to business.
The added value of corporate responsibility rob challis aComprend
Corporate responsibility is important for managing risks, building reputation, and ensuring business sustainability. By understanding stakeholder concerns through engagement, companies can identify key non-financial risks and develop a corporate responsibility strategy that differentiates the business, builds trust and loyalty, and provides quantifiable returns. An effective program integrates these issues, is led from the top, and adapts over time to remain relevant to the business and stakeholders.
Wal-Mart and Interface collaborated on sustainability initiatives, with Interface mentoring Wal-Mart. Interface transformed itself from a carpet manufacturer into a sustainability leader after its CEO had an epiphany about the environmental impacts of industry. Interface advised Wal-Mart and helped shift its culture towards sustainability. In 2005, Wal-Mart's CEO announced ambitious sustainability goals to be powered by renewable energy and produce zero waste, looking to Interface for guidance on this transformation.
Purpose Up - Doubling down in tough times by Barkley + JefferiesBarkley
Now is not the time to shrink back on sustainability and ESG criteria, it is time to double down with focus and clarity. These are the findings from our third annual report Purpose Up | Doubling Down in Tough Times, a joint research study with Jefferies.
Sustainability Research as Added Value for InvestorsClaude Gaudin
1) SAM focuses exclusively on sustainability investing, managing over EUR 9.2 billion in assets.
2) SAM's investment philosophy is based on the premise that sustainability megatrends like climate change and resource scarcity shape long-term business risks and opportunities.
3) SAM conducts an annual corporate sustainability assessment of over 3,000 companies to evaluate environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability.
This document discusses the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication. It argues that communicating CSR initiatives is good for business, as stakeholders increasingly demand transparency and reward responsible companies. While CSR communication was once optional, the global marketplace now requires companies to clearly identify what makes them unique, including their social and environmental practices. Research shows companies communicating their CSR efforts enhance their reputation and develop consumer trust. Overall, effective CSR communication can improve a company's competitive advantage and likelihood of success.
This document discusses Quality Growth at a Reasonable Price (Quality GARP) investing. It notes that Quality GARP portfolios tend to avoid companies that are laggards in managing environmental, social and governance issues, demonstrating lower associated risks. Quality GARP investing favors companies with sound business practices and an ability to deliver strong long-term earnings growth, often found in less cyclical sectors. The approach also tends to have a structural bias away from resource-intensive industries due to sustainability concerns increasingly being interwoven with fundamental business issues.
This document discusses strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR). It begins by providing background on the development of CSR and defining it as economically sustainable business activities that go beyond legal compliance to protect employees, communities, and the environment. The document then discusses seven principles for enacting strategic CSR, using 21 exemplary practices clustered into these principles. It notes that effective CSR comes from analyzing each organization's unique culture and opportunities rather than imitating others. The document also discusses complicating factors in assessing CSR performance and reasons why more organizations are pursuing strategic CSR.
1) The document discusses responsible business conduct for enterprises in emerging market economies undergoing a transition to a market economy.
2) It explains that while all economies face challenges of responsible business conduct, the challenges are magnified for societies rapidly transitioning to a market economy from a command economy.
3) A responsible business can aid the transition by improving business performance, building social capital, and working with leaders to develop market institutions. The business must meet stakeholder expectations to be profitable and sustainable over the long term.
This document is a guide for executives on innovating for sustainability. It presents a 3-stage framework for assessing an organization's sustainability and provides 39 practices for fostering innovation across each stage. The guide highlights case studies from leading organizations that are actively pursuing sustainability through innovation to benefit people, profits, and the planet.
Trade has expanded across the globe rapidly since the 1970s, obscuring and lengthening supply chains. At the same time, the drive for further growth in developing and mature economies has intensified commercialization and resource pressure.
Managers can no longer afford to ignore the crescendo of demands for transparency and social responsibility that have ensued, led by the sustainability movement. Those that grapple with this issue are overwhelmed by the complexity and depth generated by the need to manage problems previously viewed as irrelevant to business or outside
its direct control.
The transparency expected from sustainable
businesses entails rigorous definitions of where a supply chain begins and ends, and clarity on how its environmental and social
impacts are measured.
A sustainable business also has to
redefine the values at its heart. Standards play a crucial role in this new world. They focus on motivating management to develop more sustainable processes, products and services. They inform purchasing decisions by giving customers confidence that their suppliers have attained benchmark levels of sustainability. And finally, they play a crucial,
fundamental role in encouraging innovation.
Mining companies have a large impact and poor public image that requires a stronger focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR initiatives should be integrated into core strategy rather than run separately. As mining operations become more stable and sustainable, CSR efforts should include business partners who also impact reputation. Top-level support is needed to truly embed CSR, including environmental and social issues, into organizational culture from strategy to the board.
This document discusses integrating sustainability into corporate strategy and operations. It begins by outlining key concepts in corporate sustainability and ways for organizations to become more sustainable. It then provides an overview of the evolution of sustainability thinking over time. Next, it describes how sustainability relates to an organization's core values and impacts its various stakeholders. The document outlines a roadmap for creating sustainable value through stakeholder engagement, governance, and incorporating sustainability into business processes. It emphasizes measuring sustainability performance using a balanced scorecard approach. Finally, it discusses seven key benefit areas that result from more sustainable business practices.
This document discusses corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its importance for businesses. It defines CSR as how companies integrate social, environmental, ethical, and economic concerns into their operations and interactions with stakeholders. The document outlines the legal provisions for CSR in India, potential areas for CSR activities, and benefits to businesses that implement CSR programs, such as improved reputation, compliance with laws, and attracting consumers. It provides statistics showing that CSR reporting is increasing and CSR activities are generating positive publicity and financial returns for companies.
The GEF Institute provides online sustainability education and certification programs for corporations to educate their employees. The courses cover sustainability concepts to help organizations reduce costs and risks while harnessing opportunities. Engaging and educating employees can improve efficiencies, brand reputation, and employee retention.
This document provides an overview of conducting business ethically and responsibly. It discusses ethics in the workplace, assessing ethical behavior, and company practices to encourage ethical behavior. It also covers social responsibility, including the stakeholder model of responsibility and areas of social responsibility toward the environment, customers, employees, and investors. The document discusses implementing social responsibility programs and managing social responsibility.
The New Metrics of Sustainable Business Conference 2012 BrochureSustainable Brands
Explore the future of sustainable business metrics. This Sustainable Brands Issues in Focus two-day event, in partnership with The Wharton School, examines leading-edge work that expands the way business can create, quantify, manage, and communicate value in the 21st century. September 27-28, 2012, in Philadelphia, PA. Learn more: (www.SBIIF.com)
The MSLGROUP paper on "Value and Values: A Winning Business Strategy" discusses the benefits of economic stewardship and ways to develop an environmentally sustainable approach to business.
The added value of corporate responsibility rob challis aComprend
Corporate responsibility is important for managing risks, building reputation, and ensuring business sustainability. By understanding stakeholder concerns through engagement, companies can identify key non-financial risks and develop a corporate responsibility strategy that differentiates the business, builds trust and loyalty, and provides quantifiable returns. An effective program integrates these issues, is led from the top, and adapts over time to remain relevant to the business and stakeholders.
Wal-Mart and Interface collaborated on sustainability initiatives, with Interface mentoring Wal-Mart. Interface transformed itself from a carpet manufacturer into a sustainability leader after its CEO had an epiphany about the environmental impacts of industry. Interface advised Wal-Mart and helped shift its culture towards sustainability. In 2005, Wal-Mart's CEO announced ambitious sustainability goals to be powered by renewable energy and produce zero waste, looking to Interface for guidance on this transformation.
Purpose Up - Doubling down in tough times by Barkley + JefferiesBarkley
Now is not the time to shrink back on sustainability and ESG criteria, it is time to double down with focus and clarity. These are the findings from our third annual report Purpose Up | Doubling Down in Tough Times, a joint research study with Jefferies.
Sustainability Research as Added Value for InvestorsClaude Gaudin
1) SAM focuses exclusively on sustainability investing, managing over EUR 9.2 billion in assets.
2) SAM's investment philosophy is based on the premise that sustainability megatrends like climate change and resource scarcity shape long-term business risks and opportunities.
3) SAM conducts an annual corporate sustainability assessment of over 3,000 companies to evaluate environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability.
This document discusses the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication. It argues that communicating CSR initiatives is good for business, as stakeholders increasingly demand transparency and reward responsible companies. While CSR communication was once optional, the global marketplace now requires companies to clearly identify what makes them unique, including their social and environmental practices. Research shows companies communicating their CSR efforts enhance their reputation and develop consumer trust. Overall, effective CSR communication can improve a company's competitive advantage and likelihood of success.
This document discusses Quality Growth at a Reasonable Price (Quality GARP) investing. It notes that Quality GARP portfolios tend to avoid companies that are laggards in managing environmental, social and governance issues, demonstrating lower associated risks. Quality GARP investing favors companies with sound business practices and an ability to deliver strong long-term earnings growth, often found in less cyclical sectors. The approach also tends to have a structural bias away from resource-intensive industries due to sustainability concerns increasingly being interwoven with fundamental business issues.
This document discusses strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR). It begins by providing background on the development of CSR and defining it as economically sustainable business activities that go beyond legal compliance to protect employees, communities, and the environment. The document then discusses seven principles for enacting strategic CSR, using 21 exemplary practices clustered into these principles. It notes that effective CSR comes from analyzing each organization's unique culture and opportunities rather than imitating others. The document also discusses complicating factors in assessing CSR performance and reasons why more organizations are pursuing strategic CSR.
1) The document discusses responsible business conduct for enterprises in emerging market economies undergoing a transition to a market economy.
2) It explains that while all economies face challenges of responsible business conduct, the challenges are magnified for societies rapidly transitioning to a market economy from a command economy.
3) A responsible business can aid the transition by improving business performance, building social capital, and working with leaders to develop market institutions. The business must meet stakeholder expectations to be profitable and sustainable over the long term.
This document is a guide for executives on innovating for sustainability. It presents a 3-stage framework for assessing an organization's sustainability and provides 39 practices for fostering innovation across each stage. The guide highlights case studies from leading organizations that are actively pursuing sustainability through innovation to benefit people, profits, and the planet.
Trade has expanded across the globe rapidly since the 1970s, obscuring and lengthening supply chains. At the same time, the drive for further growth in developing and mature economies has intensified commercialization and resource pressure.
Managers can no longer afford to ignore the crescendo of demands for transparency and social responsibility that have ensued, led by the sustainability movement. Those that grapple with this issue are overwhelmed by the complexity and depth generated by the need to manage problems previously viewed as irrelevant to business or outside
its direct control.
The transparency expected from sustainable
businesses entails rigorous definitions of where a supply chain begins and ends, and clarity on how its environmental and social
impacts are measured.
A sustainable business also has to
redefine the values at its heart. Standards play a crucial role in this new world. They focus on motivating management to develop more sustainable processes, products and services. They inform purchasing decisions by giving customers confidence that their suppliers have attained benchmark levels of sustainability. And finally, they play a crucial,
fundamental role in encouraging innovation.
Mining companies have a large impact and poor public image that requires a stronger focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR initiatives should be integrated into core strategy rather than run separately. As mining operations become more stable and sustainable, CSR efforts should include business partners who also impact reputation. Top-level support is needed to truly embed CSR, including environmental and social issues, into organizational culture from strategy to the board.
This document discusses integrating sustainability into corporate strategy and operations. It begins by outlining key concepts in corporate sustainability and ways for organizations to become more sustainable. It then provides an overview of the evolution of sustainability thinking over time. Next, it describes how sustainability relates to an organization's core values and impacts its various stakeholders. The document outlines a roadmap for creating sustainable value through stakeholder engagement, governance, and incorporating sustainability into business processes. It emphasizes measuring sustainability performance using a balanced scorecard approach. Finally, it discusses seven key benefit areas that result from more sustainable business practices.
This document discusses corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its importance for businesses. It defines CSR as how companies integrate social, environmental, ethical, and economic concerns into their operations and interactions with stakeholders. The document outlines the legal provisions for CSR in India, potential areas for CSR activities, and benefits to businesses that implement CSR programs, such as improved reputation, compliance with laws, and attracting consumers. It provides statistics showing that CSR reporting is increasing and CSR activities are generating positive publicity and financial returns for companies.
The GEF Institute provides online sustainability education and certification programs for corporations to educate their employees. The courses cover sustainability concepts to help organizations reduce costs and risks while harnessing opportunities. Engaging and educating employees can improve efficiencies, brand reputation, and employee retention.
This document provides an overview of conducting business ethically and responsibly. It discusses ethics in the workplace, assessing ethical behavior, and company practices to encourage ethical behavior. It also covers social responsibility, including the stakeholder model of responsibility and areas of social responsibility toward the environment, customers, employees, and investors. The document discusses implementing social responsibility programs and managing social responsibility.
The New Metrics of Sustainable Business Conference 2012 BrochureSustainable Brands
Explore the future of sustainable business metrics. This Sustainable Brands Issues in Focus two-day event, in partnership with The Wharton School, examines leading-edge work that expands the way business can create, quantify, manage, and communicate value in the 21st century. September 27-28, 2012, in Philadelphia, PA. Learn more: (www.SBIIF.com)
The New Metrics of Sustainable Business Conference 2012 Brochure
Business andsustainability
1. ’ S…
ES RIE
M E
ZY Y S YES!
VO LIT
NO ABI YES!
IN
S TA
SU
Business and sustainability
– The perfect marriage?
How business got attracted to sustainability
1 Forty years ago, there were no dates between business and sustainability; no
candlelit dinners; no kisses; no backrubs. But then it changed. Doing good started
meaning doing well – and today leading investor indexes and benchmarks bless and
encourage corporate efforts to bring sustainability and business together because
the relationship – as in all good marriages – is mutually beneficial.
FROM … TO
RISK… OPPORTUNITY
1 2 3 4 5
LOW AWARENESS AWARENESS THE FIRST DATE MARRIAGE CHILDREN
Sustainability equals Sustainability seen as Sustainability as cost Sustainability as market Sustainability as business
own house in order risk across the value chain saver shaper creator
Business are focused on their Businesses realize that they Businesses realize that sustain- Businesses realize that more The challenges of the world
own plants only, and sustain- also need to ensure respon- ability also means saving costs sustainable products enable lead to new business ideas
ability means avoiding risks sible suppliers, for example through reduced use of differentiation and experi- and new business models
such as spills or accidents. avoiding child labor electricity, raw materials, etc. ence a pull from retailers trying to find solutions to
due to pull from consumers address energy shortages,
food insecurity, etc.
2 How Dow Jones evaluates the 3 Other investors blessing the marriage
perfect marriage between business and sustainability
Each year, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes evaluate the 2,500 largest companies worldwide based on more There is an increasing number of indexes that evaluate companies’ efforts to integrate sustainability into business.
than 20 indicators within long-term financial, environmental, and social criteria to identify the companies that have The nature of the business determines which ones are the most relevant. Here are some examples of those that
the strongest "relationship" with sustainability. Novozymes finds most relevant and is included in:
Criteria include:
- Order in own house (e.g., risk mitigation and safe working environment) Global 100: Index of the 100 leading companies with exceptional capacity to address their
- Engagement and development of employees sector-specific environmental, social, and governance risks and opportunities.
- Responsible suppliers Carbon Disclosure Project: The leading index focusing on corporate action to fight climate change.
- Sustainability integrated in innovation
- Responsible marketing practices FTSE4Good Index Series: Index focusing on corporate compliance with globally recognized
- Stakeholder management procedures corporate responsibility standards for environmental sustainability, relationships with stakeholders, and human rights.
Companies best prepared to seize the opportunities and manage the associated risks are selected for inclusion in SB20: Index focusing on the 20 leading sustainable business stocks. Rating is based on a
the Index, which is targeted at investors. combination of the company’s products and sustainable business practices