Resource Library
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Best current practices in purchasing - The Apparel Industry
Date posted: 2 Aug 2010 - Category: report
Organisation: As You Sow
Description: The report presents how apparel industry leaders have made changes to their purchasing practices - and even their corporate structures - in continued efforts to improve working conditions in factories and to reap the benefits of having an effectively managed supply chain. The report is based on interviews with seven companies: Gap Inc., Jones Apparel, Levi Strauss & Co., Nike, Nordstrom, Phillips-Van Heusen, and Timberland. These companies were identified by members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility as innovative leaders in Purchasing Practices.
Document type: pdf
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Our comments: This well written and concise report highlights some key areas in how corporate purchasing practices may lead to unintended consequences in the supply chain. It shows how some leading companies have addressed the problem by changing their management approach to reduce bad buying behaviours that add pressure on suppliers.
It provides a useful insight for those needing to understand how they can change their systems to avoid some of the highly publicised negative impact of finding your company in the spotlight for your supplier's bad practices.
Tags: Supply chain, Child labour, Sweatshops
Link to resource: Best current practices in purchasing - The Apparel Industry
Romanticizing the Poor
Date posted: 15 Sep 2009 - Category: comment
Author: Aneel Karnani
Organisation: Standford Graduate School of Business
Description: Market solutions to poverty are very much in vogue. These solutions, which include services and products targeting consumers at the "bottom of the pyramid," portray poor people as creative entrepreneurs and discerning consumers. Yet this rosy view of poverty-stricken people is not only wrong, but also harmful. It allows corporations, governments, and nonprofi ts to deny this vulnerable population the protections it needs. Romanticizing the poor also hobbles realistic interventions for alleviating poverty.
Document type: pdf
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Our comments: Karnani is one of the most thoughtful and challenging writers on the role of business in alleviating poverty. He has been quick to challenge what he sees as wishful thinking in a lot of the bottom-of-the-pyramid texts of the day, and whether you agree with his viewpoint or not these are well-argued, well-referenced points that need to be considered carefully.
He is one of the few original, critical voices engaging the debate that are really helping to test and shape thinking, and if you are interested in this area you should read this, and his other (referenced in this document) writings on the subject.
Tags: Marketplace, Responsible marketing, Sweatshops
Link to resource: Romanticizing the Poor
Mapping the Landscape - CSR issues for the media sector 2008
Date posted: 6 Apr 2009 - Category: report
Organisation: Media CSR Forum
Description: The Media CSR Forum is a group of media organisations developing CSR and sustainability practices and understanding for the UK media sector. In 2003 the forum commissioned a stakeholder engagement exercise in order to validate the focus areas for the group. Some of these areas have unique implications to the sector. These include: diversity of output, accessibility, security, privacy, freedom of expression, creative independence, transparency of process, impartiality and balance, and media literacy. This report is the result of a new stakeholder survey, which looked to identify the main CSR issues the media industry face.
Document type: pdf
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Our comments: The CSR issues around the media sector are amongst the trickiest, because they can be so specific to the culture of the country, and so much based on societal expectations.
This recent report is interesting because it adds several new issues to the map created in 2003 - including responsible advertising and climate change.
It may seem surprising that climate change didn't make the list in 2003. Back then, the media companies saw themselves as having minimal environmental impact, focusing instead on the responsibilities of media content. Of course, everyone now understands that they have an important part to play in this area in 2009.
The slightly lower rating on credibility comes because the survey had such small participation from industry participants, making it largely an outside view of the issues for the sector. Coming from the Media CSR Forum, you would have expected that this would be a legitimate place for the real media sector voice to be heard.
Tags: General CSR, Climate change, Responsible marketing
Link to resource: Mapping the Landscape - CSR issues for the media sector 2008
Prosperity without growth?
Date posted: 1 Apr 2009 - Category: report
Author: Prof Tim Jackson
Organisation: Sustainable Development Commission, UK
Description: Prosperity Without Growth? says that the current global recession should be the occasion to forge a new economic system equipped to avoid the shocks and negative impacts associated with our reliance on growth. Ahead of the G20 Summit in London, the report calls on leaders to adopt a 12-step plan to make the transition to a fair, sustainable, low-carbon economy.
Document type: pdf
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Our comments: Disappointed to be giving such a miserly rating for this report, since it covers an absolutely key area and SDC chair Jonathon Porritt's description of it as the organisation's "Magnus Opus" raised expectations.
On the plus side, it brings together some key themes that show that emerging from the other side of the financial crisis to resume 'business as normal' is not an option. It is part of an essential debate that needs to take place.
On the negative side, it has a lot of rhetoric and not much clarity. Such statements as those made about GDP as a target of policy were being made 20 years ago in the emerging 'new economics' movement. Surely we have moved forward further than the feeble '12 steps to a sustainable economy'.
Would have benefited from 50 fewer pages and a 'so what?' chapter. But make no mistake that the themes outlined here will be ones that will come back to bite.
Tags: Environment, Climate change, Marketplace
Link to resource: Prosperity without growth?
Telus: Leading the Canadian Telecommunications Sector in CSR
Date posted: 12 Mar 2009 - Category: case
Organisation: Interdepartmental Working Group on CSR
Description: "TELUS is considered a leader with respect to sustainability activities taken by North American telecom companies.8 It recognizes that those companies who can prove that they are providing open and timely financial and other information to shareholders and investors will have more of a chance to climb out of this economic downturn."
Document type: pdf
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Our comments: A detailed case study, hosted by the Canadian government. On the one hand, it has moments of frank acknowledgment of some of the challenges - particularly its discussion of the disconnection between commitment to CSR and the behaviour of the company's share price. On the other, it is all told from the corporate entity's perspective (Telus thinks this, Telus does that) and its length is about covering all the different aspects of the agenda, rather than providing great depth on one. A case study needs to give more than you would find anyway in the CSR report.
Tags: Environment, Philanthropy, Workplace
Link to resource: Telus: Leading the Canadian Telecommunications Sector in CSR
Undue Diligence: How banks do business with corrupt regimes
Date posted: 12 Mar 2009 - Category: report
Organisation: Global Witness
Description: Global Witness' new report Undue Diligence names some of the major banks who have done business with corrupt regimes. By accepting these customers, banks are assisting those who are using state assets to enrich themselves or brutalise their own people.
Document type: pdf
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Our comments: As if the banks weren't under the cosh enough at the moment - this timely and well argued report puts the squeeze on even further. It raises all sorts of difficult questions - how far can banks really vet the credentials of governments that they deal with? But the cases in the report are a compelling argument that more needs to be done to avoid relationships with the most obnoxious abusers.
Tags: General CSR, Controversial countries, Corruption
Link to resource: Undue Diligence: How banks do business with corrupt regimes
Supply Chain Report 2009
Date posted: 12 Mar 2009 - Category: report
Organisation: Carbon Disclosure Project
Description: This CDP Supply Chain report looks for the first time at how businesses are responding to the call for action and transparency in managing carbon and climate change in their supply chain.
Document type: pdf
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Our comments: The need to manage climate change emissions is driving a whole new level of engagement with the supply chain. In this report, the Carbon Disclosure Project gives a well thought through, and well documents update on how this can work.
Tags: Climate change
Link to resource: Supply Chain Report 2009
Fish comes at a price
Date posted: 11 Mar 2009 - Category: case
Organisation: Rabobank
Description: Fish is an important source of food. We would like to keep it that way, because fish is healthy and the supply chain of fish in general is less of a burden on the environment than the production of meat. Based on current fishing practices, however- which cause overfishing and bycatch discards - that is not going to happen.
Document type: pdf
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Our comments: Interesting discussion from Rabobank on its approach to finance when it comes to a difficult industry under stress. The case study is a corporate self-write-up, but explores some of the difficult issues with a frank air, and is free of the self-congratulation often found in such case studies.
Tags: Fishing
Link to resource: Fish comes at a price
Marketplace Responsibility Principles
Date posted: 10 May 2008 - Category: report
Organisation: Business in the Community
Description: The Marketplace Responsibility Principles are a guide for implementing responsible business in medium-sized to large companies, and have been developed by the Marketplace Taskforce, a group of 10 global and UK companies chaired by Mike Clasper, former CEO of BAA plc.
Document type: pdf
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Our comments: The Marketplace Responsibility Principles present the thoughts of some of the UK's top business leaders on how social responsibility applies to the process of how you make your money.
Tags: Customer issues, Marketplace, Responsible marketing, Controversial products, Supply chain, Corporate lobbying
Link to resource: Marketplace Responsibility Principles
Sustainable consumption - Facts and Trends From a business perspective
Date posted: 18 Feb 2009 - Category: report
Organisation: World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Description: This document takes stock of recent developments and trends in global consumption patterns. It presents an overview of documented facts and trends on the relationship between business activities, consumer behavior, and environmental and social challenges.
Document type: pdf
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Our comments: This is a well-written and compelling account of how product issues have become central to understanding the sustainability of companies
Tags: Environment, Customer issues
Link to resource: Sustainable consumption - Facts and Trends From a business perspective
New partnerships: how business can contribute to development in difficult local environments
Date posted: 13 Jul 2008 - Category: video
Organisation: World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Document type: pdf
Tags: Controversial countries
Link to resource: New partnerships: how business can contribute to development in difficult local environments
Corruption or compliance: Weighing the cost
Date posted: 15 May 2008 - Category: report
Organisation: Ernst & Young
Document type: pdf
Tags: Corruption
Link to resource: Corruption or compliance: Weighing the cost
Small Suppliers in Global Supply Chains
Date posted: 27 Apr 2008 - Category: report
Organisation: Danish Commerce and Companies Agency
Document type: pdf
Tags: Supply chain
Link to resource: Small Suppliers in Global Supply Chains
Adapting to Climate Change: A Business Approach
Date posted: 27 Apr 2008 - Category: report
Organisation: Pew Center on Global Climate Change
Document type: pdf
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Tags: Climate change
Link to resource: Adapting to Climate Change: A Business Approach
Proof of the Pudding - benchmarking ten of the world's largest food companies' response to obesity and related health concerns
Date posted: 13 Apr 2008 - Category: book
Organisation: Insight Investment / JP Morgan
Document type: pdf
Tags: Customer issues
Link to resource: Proof of the Pudding - benchmarking ten of the world's largest food companies' response to obesity and related health concerns
Corporate Social Responsibility in Canada: The 2008 Ivey-Jantzi Research Report
Date posted: 16 Mar 2008 - Category: report
Organisation: Ivey / Jantzi
Document type: pdf
Tags: General CSR
Link to resource: Corporate Social Responsibility in Canada: The 2008 Ivey-Jantzi Research Report
A new mindset for corporate sustainability
Date posted: 20 Jan 2008 - Category: report
Author: Six academics worldwide
Organisation: BT / Cisco - Bigger Thinking
Document type: pdf
Tags: General CSR
Link to resource: A new mindset for corporate sustainability
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