3p Contributor: Deborah Fleischer
Recent Articles
CSR 2.0: Seventh Generation’s New Report Goes Beyond the THUD Factor
Seventh Generation’s new sustainability report, Corporate Responsibility 2.0 was released last week. Those familiar with last year’s award-winning report (named by Ceres as best SME report), will be pleasantly surprised by the changes this year. While the report still holds true to Seventh Generation’s reputation for a high level of transparency and great design, this year’s report has a new twist: it is an entirely web-based, interactive report.
I had the opportunity to speak with Chris Miller, corporate consciousness manager at Seventh Generation, to get some insight into the report. Earlier this year, I wrote about the five attributes that go into a great sustainability report. I’m going to use these five criteria as the framework for reviewing Seventh Generation’s new report: materiality, stakeholder inclusiveness, target setting and tracking, completeness and ease of use. Plus a new one I want to add: transparency.
I’ve been recently criticized for not being positive enough in some recent reviews. Well, I am breaking that trend here–this is a very solid report and the new format is a model I hope others will consider.
Questions Every CEO Should be Asking About CSR Reporting
Sustainability Reporting: Seven questions CEOs and boards should ask was released yesterday by Ernst & Young, as part of the Webinar they held on reporting.
The paper explores the following questions:
- Who issues sustainability reports?
- Why release a sustainability report if you don’t have to?
- What information should a sustainability report contain?
- What sort of governance, systems and processes are needed to report on sustainability?
- Do sustainability reports have to be audited?
- Challenges and risks of reporting
- How can companies get the most value out of issuing a sustainability report?
The Webinar explored the same questions, with discussion by several experts, including Mike Wallace from the GRI. A summary from the report follows.
The Green Corporate Ladder and Closing the Salary Gap: Four Tips for Women
GreenBiz.com’s 2010 CSR salary survey report came out this week. As reported by GreenBiz.com, some of the interesting trends detailed in the GreenBiz Salary report include:
Compensation is strong: Sustainability executives are compensated at salaries comparable to those of their peers at larger companies. Vice presidents of sustainability earn an average of $192,064, whereas directors of sustainability earn an average of $160,320 and sustainability managers earn an average of $103,197.
Execs are smart: Sustainability executives tend to be well educated, as 65 percent of vice presidents, 57 percent of directors and 58 percent of managers have master’s degrees. Managers with master’s degrees earned almost twenty percent more than those with bachelor’s degrees.
But two other key trends were apparent to me after reviewing the report:
Ernst & Young: Triple Bottom Line Reporting and What CEOs Should Ask About It
Ernst & Young’s upcoming Webcast on Triple Bottom Line Reporting: Creating business value while mitigation risk reflects the growing trend of traditional financial reporting and sustainability issues intersecting. I had the opportunity to speak with Steve Starbuck, the Leader of Ernst & Youngs’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services Practice. The firm is in an interesting position to integrate sustainability into its core services: assurance, advisory, tax and transaction advisory services. In addition, it has created a specialty service focused on the triple bottom line, including a focus on helping clients with pre-reporting readiness, such as data gathering, identifying metrics and advising on ratings and criteria.
We spoke about the business case for sustainability reporting and the upcoming Webcast. Starbuck explained, “The Webcast is going to be focused on understanding the business value and risks of sustainability reporting and will talk about the different channels companies are using today to report their sustainability performance. And we are also going to focus on our upcoming white paper–Seven Things CEOs and Boards Should Ask About Triple Bottom Line Reporting.”
Why Report?
Sustainable Brands Seminar Series: An Opportunity to Go Deeper
Sustainable Brands Seminar Series debuted in San Francisco earlier this month and will be hitting the road later this year, traveling to Twin Cities, New Jersey/NYC and Austin. I attended the first two days, in a series of five, which focused on Brand Strategy with Jennifer Rice from Fruitful Strategies and Communications with John Marshall Roberts from Worldview Learning.
The seminars attracted a small, yet lively mix of communications and marketing consultants and companies, both brand names and smaller start-ups. The format of day-long workshops was designed to allow sustainability professionals to dive into a topic and go deeper than time allows at the typical Sustainable Brands conference session.
I think it is a great model, and I enjoyed the opportunity to focus in for the day on specific topics. I would have liked even more time for sharing and discussion among participants and think a stronger showing from companies would make the experience even richer.
The series includes five topics:
- Brand Strategy: Building the Credible Sustainable Brand
- Communications: Designing Communications that Resonate
- Product Design: Sustainable Product Design: an LCA Approach
- Supply Chain: Making Supply Chains More Sustainable
- Data and Metrics: Managing Your Sustainable Brand Plan: Management Systems & Metrics for Driving Ideas to Reality
To register, click here. To hear some of the highlights from the first two days, read on.
Symantec: Trends in Sustainability Reporting
This is the second in a series of posts on GRI and some of the trends in sustainability reporting. The first piece focused on the new and growing trend of integrating sustainability metrics into annual reports. This piece focuses on the business case for reporting and highlights Symantec’s new on-line corporate responsibility report.
Try poking around Symantec’s new on-line corporate responsibility report, released today!
While I often find the typical 60 + page corporate social responsibility (CSR) report overwhelming, this user-friendly, on-line format worked for me. I was impressed with how quickly I understood the company’s key issues. And I easily pulled together a customized, printable report with the sections I was most interested in.
Last week I had the opportunity to have a lively conversation with Cecily Joseph, Director of Corporate Responsibility at Symantec, about the new report and trends in sustainability reporting. First we explored the obvious question, why bother reporting at all. I was also interested in her perspective on the value of the GRI framework, especially to beginners. And finally, we explored the issues of materiality and transparency, two best practices the new report has embraced.
SunChips: Is Sustainability too Crunchy?
Source: AP Images
It was just last year, with much fanfare, that I heard about the new biodegradable SunChips bag at Sutustainable Brands 09. And while the crunch of the new bags is not new news (it was even reported in the Wall Street Journal), I was surprised and sad to learn yesterday that Frito-Lay has decided to revert to the original non-biodegradable bag for five or its six SunChips brand bags because…of complaints from customers that they are too crunchy. I kid you not.
There are now dueling SunChips Facebook pages.
The One Report: Combining Financial and CSR Reports
This is the first in a series of posts on GRI and some of the trends in sustainability reporting. This first piece focuses on the new and growing trend of integrating sustainability metrics into annual reports. And suggests that perhaps your company should consider sending someone from finance to a GRI training.
In a recent story from Harvard Business School (HBS), Reinventing the Annual Report, Robert G. Ecces coins the term, “One Report,” which combines the financial and CSR/sustainability reports into one document that “provides the essential information on a company’s financial, environmental, social and governance performance and shows the relationships between them.” Understanding GRI reporting concepts, such as the materiality principle and indicator selection, will be helpful to anyone tasked with overseeing an integrated annual report.
Communicating Sustainability 2010: Three Best Practices Shared on Day 1
I had the opportunity to attend Communicating Sustainability 2010 yesterday, a conference organized by Communitellegence and hosted by Applied Materials that focused on “integrating green and responsibility into your organizations DNA.” The gathering’s intimate flavor and smaller size was refreshing and allowed for meaningful dialogue.
The agenda focused on sustainability communications, employee engagement and stakeholder engagement, as well as metrics and managing data. A highlight was the opportunity to hear directly from sustainability professionals in the trenches from companies such as eBay, McKesson, SAP, Sprint and Applied Materials.
While many solutions were discussed, three communications best practices stood out for me:
- Start a conversation with employees
- Deliver CSR reports in a web-based format
- Use video and humor to educate employees on sustainability
Green Teams: Three Examples eBay is Using to Meet Corporate Sustainability Goals
Green teams and employee engagement. These two buzz words seems to be gaining traction. Earlier this year, GreenBiz.com launched a new green team center. And the topic is starting to be included on conference agendas; Communicating Sustainability 2010, hosted by Applied Materials next week, includes an emphasis on employee engagement.
Earlier today I participated in the latest green team offering, a Webinar on Green Teams and Employee Engagement: How Volunteers Can Help Meet Corporate Sustainability Goals, sponsored by AltaTerra Research. The session summarized AltaTerra’s recent research on how to engage volunteer green teams in advancing organizational business and sustainability goals, and I believe a white paper will be following shortly.
Things perked up for me when Lorin May, Senior Manager, Environment Programs at eBay, provided an update on how it is engaging employees on sustainability and green teams. Here are three examples of how eBay is using green teams to meet corporate sustainability goals:
- Connect green teams to other business functions
- Develop processes for idea generation and action
- Engage green teams to be part of educational campaigns
Three Reasons to Pilot the Outdoor Industry Association’s New Eco Index
I was backpacking with three friends this past weekend in Point Reyes National Seashore and our equipment was a smörgåsbord of outdoor retail brand names: Marmot, The North Face, REI, Therm-a-Rest and Patagonia, to name a few.
What do these five brand names have in common? They are all part of the Outdoor Industry Association’s (OIA) Eco Working Group and have helped to create the recently launched Eco Index. Green Biz.com, Fast Company and the Wall Street Journal have done a great job of describing the new tool, designed for use by a diverse group of stakeholders from product designers to suppliers to help companies assess their products across the product life cycle: materials, packaging, product manufacturing and assembly, transport and distribution, use and service and end of life.
The Eco Index is inviting all brands, suppliers and retailers of outdoor apparel, footwear and gear to participate in a pilot test. Rather than repeat here what has already been said in the previous posts, this piece focuses on answering the question, “Why should companies pilot the new Eco Index?” I conclude with three tips to consider if you are going to participate in the pilot.
Women’s Earth Alliance: Three Strategies for Growing a Successful Social Enterprise
I have witnessed the Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA) grow from a seed of an idea by Melinda Kramer, its founder and co-director, to an organization that is making a global impact by connecting grassroots women environmental leaders to what they need most: resources, training and advocacy.
After attending WEA’s recent Weaving the Worlds Gala, I was struck by its success, professionalism and authenticity. Green business luminary Joel Makower sat on the host committee this year. In his invite to the event, he called WEA an “extraordinary global organization” and said
Over the past few years, I’ve watched WEA blossom into a powerful force, connecting women around the world who are in the middle of a revolution that few of them know exists. WEA’s leadership team has transformed communities and lives by connecting visionary women environmental advocates, organizers and entrepreneurs from around the world who were working on the frontlines of environmental, social and economic sustainability in their communities. It is, simply put, one of the most important and hopeful organizations I know.
All this lead me to ponder the question, what has made WEA such a powerful force? I see three strategies WEA has used to nurture its success:
Sustainable Conservation: Pushing the Envelope on Ecosystem Services
At the Bay Area Open Space Council’s 11th Annual Regional Conference yesterday, Ashley Boren, executive director of Sustainable Conservation, presented to a sold out conference about one of its new program areas: ecosystem services.
I actually worked for Sustainable Conservation in its early days. It has grown from a start-up to an effective organization that “advances the stewardship of natural resources using innovative, pragmatic strategies that actively engage businesses and private landowners in conservation.” Its trademark approach is that protecting the environment can also be good for business. The organization’s climate, air, water and biodiversity initiatives promote practical solutions that produce tangible, lasting benefits for California. Its effectiveness lies in its ability to build strong partnerships with business, agriculture and government–and establishing models for environmental and economic sustainability that can be replicated across California and beyond.
The Park Prescription: Take Five (Minutes) and Call Me In the Morning
Did you know that only five minutes of exercise in nature can boost your mood and improve self-esteem?
At the Bay Area Open Space Council’s 11th Annual Regional Conference yesterday, Daphne Miller, M.D., Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, UCSF spoke about the “Park Prescription”: prescribing to patients they spend time in nature. While the convergence of natural lands and health is still a fringe topic, it is a growing area of peer-reviewed research.
Miller explained that she has actually started to give park prescriptions in her office. By using two web-based resources, the California State Parks Find Recreation website and the Bay Area Open Space Council’s Transit to Trails website, she can provide patients a concrete “prescription”: directions with maps and distances to open space areas.
Recent Comments