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Showing posts with label CSR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CSR. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Strategic CSR: Linking Socially Responsible Initiatives To Business Objectives by Jeanette Teh
The pervasive use of “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) today is rapidly turning it into a buzzword. While some companies are genuinely interested in helping orphans or reducing their carbon footprint, others are merely engaging in CSR to enhance their corporate image or to appease customers, investors, and other stakeholders.
Despite corporations’ increasing involvement in CSR, however, these initiatives are generally unconnected to their organisational business strategy. This means that companies undertaking CSR activities to improve their corporate image are actually not getting optimal social or financial return on their investment.
A 2013 survey from Bayt.com found that almost 90 per cent of employees in the Middle East felt that corporations have a moral responsibility to engage in CSR. The respondents also believed that the lack of organisational knowledge, top management support, and legal requirements for CSR are impediments to integrating CSR into corporate strategy.
Creating shared value
Strategy guru Michael Porter calls for the creation of shared value — creating value for society by addressing its needs while also improving profits for the company. In other words, CSR should not be a charitable afterthought, a necessary ‘expense’, or be at the fringe of the company’s business. Rather, shared value creation should be at its very core, combining a company’s success with social progress.
How, then, do companies actually go about achieving this paradigm shift?
Professor John Milliman and his colleagues from the University of Colorado developed a five-step process to implement Porter’s proposition.
1. Determining if societal issues in a company’s environment could be turned into a strategic advantage
What are current social trends or issues that are of concern to a company’s stakeholders? With approximately 33 per cent of the population classified as obese, promoting a healthier lifestyle in the UAE could be a popular cause. Similarly, as many locally-based companies view CSR as the corporate form of the Islamic concept of Zakat (one’s personal duty to contribute to charity), many corporate CSR initiatives include charitable donations.
How does the company impact the local community? A manufacturing company in a region with a high carbon footprint could consider using environmentally-friendly technologies.
Are there any opportunities or threats to the corporation’s viability? As a third of the Middle Eastern population is under 30, young people represent both an opportunity (as consumers and employees) and a threat (high unemployment rates could result in disenfranchised youth), regional companies could offer internships to help train the younger generation.
Such analysis should be undertaken by a committee comprising representatives from legal, finance, human resources, operations, health and safety, and sales departments.
2. Brainstorming different ideas to address societal issues
The committee should come up with as many alternatives as possible to either leverage opportunities or reduce threats. For example, in addition to internships, providing training sessions, job shadowing programs, scholarships, and mentorships are other possible solutions to reducing youth unemployment.
3. Analysis of each option
Each alternative should then be analysed to determine which would yield the best impact for the company in terms of financial, human resource, social, and other relevant factors. Employee preferences should also be considered since employees, the most powerful company ambassadors, are a very important and often overlooked stakeholder.
4. Implementation of alternative(s)
Once the best option is selected, the corporation may wish to consult with community members, governmental organisations, and other stakeholders to confirm its selection and to assist in its implementation.
As the 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer indicated that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are the most trusted institutions, particularly in the UAE, engagement and partnerships with NGOs would help businesses become more trustworthy in their stakeholders’ eyes.
5. Measurement and reporting of strategic CSR initiatives
After the programmes are implemented, it is important to measure the outcomes to determine whether objectives have been achieved, issues resolved, and whether stakeholders are satisfied with the accomplishments. These results should be clearly communicated both within the company and externally to the community and other stakeholders.
A 2008 study revealed that Dubai-based companies were generally not effective at communicating their CSR activities to stakeholders. Dr. Suzanne Conner, professor at the American University in Dubai (AUD), also discovered this in her 2012 study of companies listed on the US Dow Jones Sustainability Index. While there was generally greater discussion about compliance-related activities than in 2010, companies tended not to adequately describe their commitment to social responsibility in their annual reports, an incredibly valuable lost opportunity to enhance their corporate image.
Getting to the Triple Bottom Line
While some maintain that the mantra of balancing People, Planet and Profits equally is just a fanciful theory, incredibly difficult to realise in practice, it is perhaps only with thoughtful incorporation of strategic CSR initiatives that the elusive Triple Bottom Line might actually be attained.
WasteMET Asia 2014 Exhibition & Conference (2-4 June 2014) in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
Organised by Waste Management and Recycling Association of Singapore (WMRAS) and National Environment Agency (NEA), WasteMET Asia is the region's premier exhibition to launch, showcase and introduce the latest innovative equipment and technologies in waste management recycling and resource recovery solutions. The inaugural WasteMET Asia 2012 brought together over 8,000 buyers from the region, and over 100 exhibitors. The event also saw an attendance of over 19,000 global leaders and delegates, with more than 100 mayors and city leaders from 70 countries and regions participating.
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Four Sustainability Trends To Watch In 2012 by Jones Lang LaSalle
The road to sustainability has been plagued with roadblocks, including an unprecedented global financial crisis and attempts by entrenched business and political interests to deny climate science. Perhaps the greatest obstacle has been the lack of consistent and comparable standards for defining and measuring sustainability. Although these issues have yet to be fully resolved, many well-coordinated initiatives in recent years have pointed the way forward for companies and cities..
In 2012, major trends shaping the sustainable development movement include:
Transparency – Buildings, companies and cities are measuring and disclosing energy usage, carbon emissions and other information relating to sustainability. Commercial building owners don’t always have a choice: Five major U.S. cities and two states have enacted energy performance measurement and disclosure policies to date, and nine more cities and states have bills under considerations, to help tenants and investors make better informed decisions. Buildings in Europe are required to display energy performance certificates, and Australia is implementing similar requirements.
Corporations don’t require legal mandates to encourage disclosure. In 2011, more than 3,000 companies, including 404 Global 500 firms, voluntarily reported their carbon emissions, water management and climate change policies to Carbon Disclosure Project in 2011, perhaps swayed by CDP’s 551 investor members, who use the information in deciding where to place more than $71 trillion in investment capital.
Transparency is also on the rise at the city level. CDP invited 58 cities worldwide to report sustainability related data for the first time in 2011, and 42 responded, with 38 of them making their responses public. This year, CDP Cities is expanding its request to 150 cities and continues to see a high response rate, as well as extraordinary awareness and commitment on climate change issues by city leaders. These leaders recognize that managing energy, water and waste not only helps attract residents and business growth but also enhances quality of life in a variety of ways.
Global Consistency – Deeper sustainability reporting by cities and multi-national corporations has intensified the need for consistent ways to measure the effectiveness of energy, water and other sustainability strategies on a worldwide basis. Given the wide regional variation in environmental priorities around the world, the end goal may not be a single global standard, but a way to translate local government and business practices into a common global vocabulary for measuring effectiveness and recognizing achievement..
LEED, the building sustainability rating system originated in the U.S., is now frequently pursued in many countries with their own systems, as owners seek to attract international tenants. ENERGY STAR, the U.S. EPA energy benchmarking standard, will soon be able to provide accurate ratings across North America, thanks to a new cooperative agreement with Canada. And in 2011 the International Organization for Standardization released the ISO 50001 standard for energy management systems, which includes specifications for measurement, documentation and reporting on energy consumption.
Consistent measurement is important to corporations as they focus on sustainability not only in their own operations but, increasingly, throughout their supply chain as well. And while CDP Cities is not attempting to rank the sustainability of cities, it is developing a globally cohesive framework for understanding the effectiveness of sustainability strategies pursued by different cities.
Public/Private Collaboration – 2011 stood out as a year when government and business organizations explored their shared green goals and realized that public-private partnerships and collaborative initiatives are often the best way to overcome obstacles to sustainability. Some of these joint efforts will start to bear fruit in 2012.
A clear example is the December announcement of a $4 billion energy retrofit commitment by the U.S. federal government and 60 CEOs, mayors, university presidents, and labor leaders. Called the Better Buildings Challenge, the eight-year initiative includes $2 billion in energy upgrades of federal buildings and another $2 billion of private capital to improve energy by 20 percent in buildings totaling 1.5 billion square feet. (Jones Lang LaSalle joined the Challenge with a commitment to work with owners on improvements at buildings totaling 98 million square feet.)
The Better Buildings Challenge illustrates the alignment between business and government goals in seeking energy and carbon reduction. Achieving those goals also requires cooperation; for example, groups ranging from the World Economic Forum to Greenprint Foundation have called for changes to loan underwriting guidelines set by governmental bodies to facilitate financing of energy retrofits. More directly, U.S. states have found they can increase renewable energy installations at buildings by offering incentives that would make solar power cost-effective for owners within a relatively short period.
As a firm that serves government and business entities, Jones Lang LaSalle sees tremendous untapped synergy between the two groups in achieving energy and sustainability goals, particularly in the area of public-private partnerships. As just one of many examples, airports and other government entities often have surplus land that’s unsuitable for commercial property development but could be leased to private companies for development as large solar energy installations;
Focus on Solar Energy – Speakingof solar power, 2011 was a breakthrough year for new installations in the U.S., and continued growth is seen for 2012, albeit at a slower pace. More than 1 gigawatt of photovoltaic solar energy capacity was installed across the U.S. in the first three quarters of 2011, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). By comparison, 887 megawatts came online in all of 2010, which represented a doubling of the total installed base at the time.
Solar energy installations at commercial properties drove much of the market growth in 2011, but the pace of new installations dropped significantly in the third quarter, SEIA reported. The big story going into 2012 is the unprecedented rise in utility-based installations, which jumped by 325 percent from the second to the third quarter.
The strength of the solar market in 2012 and beyond will be affected by several variables, including basic supply and demand economics, technological improvements, and the amount and type of available incentives. It is clear, however, that interest in solar energy continues to grow as payback periods grow shorter and fossil fuel costs continue to rise.
2012: Taking Sustainability to the Next Level
The common theme to all these trends is of an industry poised to break through to the next level. The industry has moved swiftly through initial phases of understanding the basic costs and benefits, implementing low-cost initiatives, exploring more sophisticated strategies, and navigating around roadblocks. Today, it is easier to see the opportunity for dynamic progress by cities, property owners and corporate tenants that have laid the groundwork for growth and success
In 2012, major trends shaping the sustainable development movement include:
Transparency – Buildings, companies and cities are measuring and disclosing energy usage, carbon emissions and other information relating to sustainability. Commercial building owners don’t always have a choice: Five major U.S. cities and two states have enacted energy performance measurement and disclosure policies to date, and nine more cities and states have bills under considerations, to help tenants and investors make better informed decisions. Buildings in Europe are required to display energy performance certificates, and Australia is implementing similar requirements.
Corporations don’t require legal mandates to encourage disclosure. In 2011, more than 3,000 companies, including 404 Global 500 firms, voluntarily reported their carbon emissions, water management and climate change policies to Carbon Disclosure Project in 2011, perhaps swayed by CDP’s 551 investor members, who use the information in deciding where to place more than $71 trillion in investment capital.
Transparency is also on the rise at the city level. CDP invited 58 cities worldwide to report sustainability related data for the first time in 2011, and 42 responded, with 38 of them making their responses public. This year, CDP Cities is expanding its request to 150 cities and continues to see a high response rate, as well as extraordinary awareness and commitment on climate change issues by city leaders. These leaders recognize that managing energy, water and waste not only helps attract residents and business growth but also enhances quality of life in a variety of ways.
Global Consistency – Deeper sustainability reporting by cities and multi-national corporations has intensified the need for consistent ways to measure the effectiveness of energy, water and other sustainability strategies on a worldwide basis. Given the wide regional variation in environmental priorities around the world, the end goal may not be a single global standard, but a way to translate local government and business practices into a common global vocabulary for measuring effectiveness and recognizing achievement..
LEED, the building sustainability rating system originated in the U.S., is now frequently pursued in many countries with their own systems, as owners seek to attract international tenants. ENERGY STAR, the U.S. EPA energy benchmarking standard, will soon be able to provide accurate ratings across North America, thanks to a new cooperative agreement with Canada. And in 2011 the International Organization for Standardization released the ISO 50001 standard for energy management systems, which includes specifications for measurement, documentation and reporting on energy consumption.
Consistent measurement is important to corporations as they focus on sustainability not only in their own operations but, increasingly, throughout their supply chain as well. And while CDP Cities is not attempting to rank the sustainability of cities, it is developing a globally cohesive framework for understanding the effectiveness of sustainability strategies pursued by different cities.
Public/Private Collaboration – 2011 stood out as a year when government and business organizations explored their shared green goals and realized that public-private partnerships and collaborative initiatives are often the best way to overcome obstacles to sustainability. Some of these joint efforts will start to bear fruit in 2012.
A clear example is the December announcement of a $4 billion energy retrofit commitment by the U.S. federal government and 60 CEOs, mayors, university presidents, and labor leaders. Called the Better Buildings Challenge, the eight-year initiative includes $2 billion in energy upgrades of federal buildings and another $2 billion of private capital to improve energy by 20 percent in buildings totaling 1.5 billion square feet. (Jones Lang LaSalle joined the Challenge with a commitment to work with owners on improvements at buildings totaling 98 million square feet.)
The Better Buildings Challenge illustrates the alignment between business and government goals in seeking energy and carbon reduction. Achieving those goals also requires cooperation; for example, groups ranging from the World Economic Forum to Greenprint Foundation have called for changes to loan underwriting guidelines set by governmental bodies to facilitate financing of energy retrofits. More directly, U.S. states have found they can increase renewable energy installations at buildings by offering incentives that would make solar power cost-effective for owners within a relatively short period.
As a firm that serves government and business entities, Jones Lang LaSalle sees tremendous untapped synergy between the two groups in achieving energy and sustainability goals, particularly in the area of public-private partnerships. As just one of many examples, airports and other government entities often have surplus land that’s unsuitable for commercial property development but could be leased to private companies for development as large solar energy installations;
Focus on Solar Energy – Speakingof solar power, 2011 was a breakthrough year for new installations in the U.S., and continued growth is seen for 2012, albeit at a slower pace. More than 1 gigawatt of photovoltaic solar energy capacity was installed across the U.S. in the first three quarters of 2011, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). By comparison, 887 megawatts came online in all of 2010, which represented a doubling of the total installed base at the time.
Solar energy installations at commercial properties drove much of the market growth in 2011, but the pace of new installations dropped significantly in the third quarter, SEIA reported. The big story going into 2012 is the unprecedented rise in utility-based installations, which jumped by 325 percent from the second to the third quarter.
The strength of the solar market in 2012 and beyond will be affected by several variables, including basic supply and demand economics, technological improvements, and the amount and type of available incentives. It is clear, however, that interest in solar energy continues to grow as payback periods grow shorter and fossil fuel costs continue to rise.
2012: Taking Sustainability to the Next Level
The common theme to all these trends is of an industry poised to break through to the next level. The industry has moved swiftly through initial phases of understanding the basic costs and benefits, implementing low-cost initiatives, exploring more sophisticated strategies, and navigating around roadblocks. Today, it is easier to see the opportunity for dynamic progress by cities, property owners and corporate tenants that have laid the groundwork for growth and success
Source:
Csrfootprint
Friday, December 9, 2011
Introducing ISO 26000 – Guidance on Social Responsibility by Eugene Tay
The latest International Standard ISO 26000:2010 – Guidance on Social Responsibility, was launched yesterday by SPRING Singapore at a seminar to introduce the new standard to the business community.
What is ISO 26000
ISO 26000 provides social responsibility guidance for all types of organisations, such as MNCs and big corporations, SMEs, non-governmental organisations and government agencies.
As the world moves towards an age of radical transparency, organisations and stakeholders become increasingly aware of the need for socially and environmentally responsible behaviour. ISO 26000 is thus a timely and relevant guide to help organisations understand what social responsibility is and what they need to do to operate in a socially responsible way.
For more info:
http://www.greenbusinesstimes.com/2011/03/16/introducing-iso-26000-guidance-on-social-responsibility/
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