3p Contributor: Oren
Recent Articles
How To Quantify Corporate Responsibility
In more and more companies, top level CSR Executives are grappling with the challenge of financially quantifying and justifying how CSR related activities add true shareholder value.
Fortune Magazine wrote a fantastic article about the movement to define and standardize what corporate social responsibility means and how to achieve it. They looked at 2 leaders in the CSR metric industry, London think tank AccountAbility, and consultancy CSRnetwork, who both have devised a method to score companies on their CSR efforts and the challenges they face.
Read the article titled “Managing Beyond the Bottom Line” on the World Business Council for Sustainable Development website.
USDA To Allow Organic Label Seal for Cosmetics
Because of the succesful lawsuit brought against the Agriculture Department (part of the US government) from Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps and a consumer group, they are reversing their decision to yank the “USDA Organic” seal from lotions and lip balms and will now allow cosmetics to carry the round, green label.
David Bronner, the president of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps sayd that the seal will eliminate false marketing claims and encourage a “truth in advertising thing — consumers can trust that it is indeed free of synthetics and does support organic farming and agriculture”
Read full story as reported at MSNBC.com.
Green Life’s US Top 10 Worst “Greenwashers”
For those of you unfamiliar with the term “greenwashing”, it refers to companies that talk about how great they are environmentally and socially, but behind the scenes may not really be doing much. Greenwashing companies use PR tactics to promote their sustainability and CSR excellence when the facts say otherwise.
Read The Green Life’s list of the top 10 worst US greenwashing companies. Some of the companies may surprise you!
Do you agree or disagree with their choices?
EXPO 2005 Announces Top 100 Eco-Tech Awards
The Global 100 Eco-Tech Awards is an official award program of EXPO 2005 Aichi, Japan. The awards recognize companies that have technologies that “contribute significantly to the resolution of global environmental issues and to the creation of a sustainable future for humankind and the Earth.”
Read about these amazing companies in GreenBiz
World’s Top 20 Sustainable Business Stocks
The inaugural issue of the new Progressive Investor newsletter has an interesting list of the World’s Top 20 Sustainable Stocks including Timberland, Sharp, Whole Foods Market, and Herman Miller among many others.
The Progressive Investor is a new monthly sustainable investment newsletter for socially responsible business people. It is created by founder of SustainableBusiness.com, Rona Fried. It draws on a group of world-class sustainable investment analysts from companies such as: Progressive Investment Management, Winslow Management, Adam, Harkness & Hill, Lowell, Blake & Associates, Trillium Asset Management, and others to produce each monthly issue.
Read the list and sign up for a subscription here.
“Wasteless in Seattle” – One City’s Sustainable Plan
An initiative called “Wasteless in Seattle” launched by the city of Seattle’s Public Utilities is poised to become the first model for a “zero waste” city. To do this, Seattle plans on drastically reducing their need for landfills, as well as decreasing transportation and energy costs.
The key to their plan is waste prevention rather than just simply recycling. This idea includes default double sided copies for all city documents, more electronic documents, a move towards “Green Purchasing” for all city cleaning supplies, and encouraging businesses to adopt product “take back” campaigns.
Read full article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Can Profitability & Spiritual Meaning Be Connected?
Is it possible to maximize profits and find deep spiritual meaning in our work at the same time? A new book written by Peter and Monika Mitchell Ressler, a husband and wife from New York called Spiritual Capitalism: What the FDNY Taught Wall Street About Money, offers answers to that question with bold new voices from the dog-eat-world of Wall Street itself.
As Co-Chief Executive Officers of a premier Wall Street headhunting firm, they make the surprising claim that the new practice of “Capitalism with a Conscience” is taking the business world by storm. From the depths of the cutthroat world of Wall Street high finance comes these refreshing words of wisdom.
Introducing The KLD Global Climate 100 Index
In conjunction with the discussions of climate change at the G8 meetings, socially responsible investment (SRI) research firm KLD Research & Analytics announced their launch of the KLD Global Climate 100(GC100) Index in collaboration with the Global Energy Network Institute (GENI), a research nonprofit whose mission is “to accelerate the attainment of optimal, ecologically sustainable energy solutions in the shortest possible time for the peace, health, and prosperity of all.”
The GC100 is a benchmark of companies deemed to be proactively addressing climate change. Read full story along with evaluation criteria in CSRwire.
Companies Paying Employees To Buy Hybrids
Many companies have basic employee incentive programs, but not too many have incentives like Timberland, Hyperion Software, and Topics Entertainment who are giving employees cash money to switch from large cars and SUVs to more eco-friendly hybrids.
Read this amazing story in the Seattle Times.
VC’s Investing Millions into “Clean Tech” Start-Ups
According to Silicon Valley venture capital companies, the “Clean Tech” revolution is upon us. Clean Tech refers to companies opertaing in solar energy, water purification systems and alternative automotive fuels. Investor interest in clean-energy tech firms has jumped in the past year to over $520 million, fueled in part by escalating global demand for electricity and the rising price of oil.
“The reason we’re allocating dollars to this sector is we think we can deliver attractive returns,” said Ira Ehrenpreis, a venture capitalist at Technology Partners in Palo Alto, CA who also serves as co-chairman of the advisory board of the Cleantech Venture Network.
Read full story in the New York Times
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