December 2010
19 posts
CSR & 2010: Lasting Impressions from a Volatile...
What CSR challenges will companies face in the New Year?
By Aman Singh, Vault.com
For many 2010 was the year of recognition: recognition that corporate social responsibility isn’t a fad or a feel-good sermon preached by nonprofits anymore.
In fact, for millions an understanding of what CSR means and involves became clearer unfortunately thanks to mishaps like the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico...
The Top Ten CSR Stories of 2010: Halos and Horns
By Francesca Rheannon When it comes to stories that are likely to have a major influence on sustainability and CSR — for good or ill — for years to come, 2010 furnishes an embarrassment of riches. How to choose among them for a top 10 list? Not an easy task. What follows is by no means an exhaustive inventory of important stories during the past year; there were many that should have...
Most Important CSRwire News Releases of the Decade
By Elaine Cohen How do you sort through 10 years and around 17,000 Press Releases and decide which are worth remembering? By subject? By global issue? By industry or sector? By keyword? After due deliberation, I decided none of the above, this is my unscientific pick and this is the result. The first releases of the decade in January 2000 seemed to show that giving away big money was all the...
Sustainable Tourism Needed Bigger Boost from...
By Mitchell Beer
There was a certain poignancy late last month in watching some of the world’s most environmentally vulnerable countries promote themselves as top-flight conference destinations, while global climate negotiations lurched toward only limited success in Cancún.
The occasion was EIBTM, one of the leading annual trade shows on the meetings and incentive travel circuit, where...
Get well soon! The ROI of employee wellness
By Elaine Cohen Johnson & Johnson report $250 million savings on employee health costs resulting from investment in employee wellness. But is it just about the money? A recent study published in the Harvard Business Review of December 2010 proves conclusively that investment in employee wellness, beyond the minimum requirements of the law, delivers a Return on Investment beyond the...
Some Lessons From WikiLeaks for The CSR Community
By Francesca Rheannon Whatever else WikiLeaks is — and it is a lot of things to a lot of people — it has some important lessons for those of us who are trying to birth a new economy out of the ashes of the old. So, I am not going to talk about Julian Assange’s sex life here, but about secrecy, transparency, accountability, and lies. About trust. (By the way, for those of you who...
Happy Holidays, America
Holidays, unemployment, merriment?
By Jeffrey Hollender
“Exuberance made a comeback this year at Josh Koplewicz’s annual Halloween party. More than 1,000 people packed into a 6,000-square-foot space at the Good Units nightclub in Manhattan, a substantially larger crowd than in the last several years. The open bar was sponsored by Russian Standard vodka, and Mr. Koplewicz, an investment analyst...
Obama To Run On Republican Ticket in 2012
What’s best for the country?
By CSRwire Talkback Managing Editor Francesca Rheannon
No, just kidding. But it might be the best thing for Democrats – and the country. That’s because it’s looking more and more like Obama is a DINO (Democrat in Name Only). It’s time for the Donkey mask to come off.
Obama the candidate sounded like a dyed-in-the-blue Democrat. He was going...
How To Be The Best (Non-executive) Board Director
Sustainability in the boardroom?
By Lucy P. Marcus
As a non-executive board director, I have been thinking a lot lately about what it means to do this role in today’s environment. With a dramatically different economic climate in which organizations are now operating, as well as increased scrutiny by stakeholders and governments alike, the nature of what it takes to be a responsible board member,...
SRI in Emerging Markets: Best in Class or Context?
Originally posted on the CSRwire website.
By CSRwire Contributing Writer Elaine Cohen
Emerging markets are a bonanza for investors with above average growth rates and massive future potential. However, in order to protect future sustainability over current shareholder returns, should we expect investors to demand Western-standard ESG performance from companies in emerging markets?
There...
The 30-Year War on Middle Class America
Where’s the American public outrage?
By Jeffrey Hollender
In reviewing the new bookWinner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer – And Turned Its Back on the Middle Class (Simon and Shuster) by Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, David Holahan in the Christian Science Monitor asks, “Ever wonder how it came to this: Republicans and Democrats behaving like Sunnis and Shiites...
Our Invisible Ecological Commons
When will business care about the environment?
By David Bollier
If we are going to make serious progress against global warming and the myriad other environmental problems, we must begin by transcending standard economic thinking and start to recognize a vast terra incognita, the ecological commons.
The commons are those things we share and are obligated to pass on undiminished to future...
What about the Patient?
Can sustainability practices bring about better patient care?
By Lavinia Weissman
The final thought on the potential Sanofi Aventis and Genzyme M&A – and what this could mean for sustainability practices in #biopharm. Click here for Post I and Post II.
The Sanofi Aventis bid of $69 per share for Genzyme expires on December 10, 2010. Genzyme responded to this bid, claiming a share value of...
The Final Generation: Dr. Howard V. Perlmutter...
Originally posted on the CSRwire website.
By CSRwire Talkback Managing Editor Francesca Rheannon
Globalization theorist and Wharton scholar Howard V. Perlmutter, Ph.D. says a new global civilization must come into being this century to save humanity.
In the 21st century First Global Civilization, there are major forces of constructive global interdependence in all regions of the world...
Living and Hoping in These Tough Times
How can we re-kindle hope?
By Martin Keogh
Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night simply afraid of what the future holds?
After my son was born the details began to get through about what our species is doing to our world. Suddenly the fact that we are in an extinction event mattered.
To make it real for myself rather than a pile of statistics that bounce off my chest, I did a little...
To Tap Cause Marketing's Huge Potential, Do Less...
Originally posted on the Cause Capitalism website.
By Olivia Khalili
If 94% of Millennials condone cause marketing, why do only 53% report buying a product that benefits a cause in the past year? The first finding is compelling, the second certainly is not, particularly given that in many stores you’d have to struggle not to buy cause-related products. So what explains this gap and what...
Mortgage Interest Deduction Elimination Spurs...
What’s the hidden opportunity behind Congress’ proposed elimination of mortgage interest deduction?
By Joe Siblia
There is a movement in the U.S. Congress to eliminate the mortgage interest deduction to increase revenues (it’s not a new idea, but it’s gaining some traction). The mortgage interest deduction has been a part of the American experience since its inception. It’s basically...
Are You a Goldfish, iMac or Nighthawk?
How does secrecy invite exposure?
By John Elkington
You could have landed a 747 – and turned it – on the largest boardroom table I have seen, high up in the HSBC tower in London’s Docklands. Around the table were some 40 CEOs and senior executives from the world’s leading accounting and financial management firms, and from the key financial standard-setting bodies. They had gathered earlier...
Factoring Sustainability in an M&A Scenario
Regarding Sanofi-Aventis and Genzyme: how do you construct a sustainable valuation of pharma?
By Lavinia Weissman
The Sanofi-Aventis and Genzyme merger and acquisition dance continues. As I continue to monitor the press, I built out my own research to find an answer to this question, “How do you factor sustainability into a biopharm merger and acquisition?”
On October 7, following my last post...