2009 February | FabianPattberg.com

Sustainability News Review – Where are the Social Topics?

February 22, 20096:47 pm

It is Sunday again and this means that whenever I have time I will give an update on the Sustainability / CSR news items which I found interesting during the past 7 days.

This week was an interesting week in the sense that the news items were again dominated by environmental news. It seems to me that there are fewer and fewer companies reporting on interesting social topics providing stories of real value to the reader. The result is that environmental topics dominate the Sustainability news agenda, and that social topics have lesser attention these days – suprising in times of credit crunch…..
I would identify a valuable Sustainability / CSR news item as something with a clear message, relevant substance and not just the message that “Company XYZ has cut its CO2 emissions by x percent and introduced a new Sustainability management program”.

In my opinion, that’s pure corporate spin. However amongst the majority of ordinary news here are some truly interesting news items – happy browsing!

Investor Groups Point Finger at Climate Laggards: Exxon, Massey and Others
Intersting article on GreenBiz on the unveiling of the list of the companies that are lagging on environmental action.

Uptime Institute names ‘Global Green 100′
he US-based Uptime Institute this week announced its list of “Global Green 100,” the top corporations to demonstrate “significant energy efficiency achievements” at their data centres.

Brits call for less free carrier bags
More than 80% of people in Britain believe that retailers should stop giving away free plastic bags to their customers.

Five features of great socially responsible leadership
Great article from Mallen Baker.

Picture Credit: Pragmagraphr

Your Opinion: The Recession. CSR opportunity or business as usual?

February 14, 20093:38 pm

1 Comment

Hello everyone,

Sorry for not posting that much over the past few weeks. My only excuse is the lack of time unfortunately. I wanted to share this comment of mine I posted on a friends blog with you and see what your opinion is on this.

I have posted this comment on the Canadian Business Blog from Paul Klein today.
The topic is: The Recession: CSR opportunity or business as usual?

Here is my comment:

———-

Hi there Paul.
This is a very good question. Here is what I think and have seen so far in the last few months internationally. I so far have seen developments both ways. Back to business as usual and CSR opportunity. To be more specific but without naming anyone of course.

The “Obama Wind of Change” has in my opinion given American business a tail wind when it comes to CSR and responsible business. Obviously there are still hard times ahead but with a strong “green” and “social” leader America will be a lot more proactive when it comes to CSR. In general I think that this downturn in combination with the new presidency is being viewed as a CSR Opportunity.

In Europe I see a different picture. Here there are more “Back to business as usual” tendencies in my opinion because CSR has been around for a lot longer then in the US. Why? Well because for example UK businesses are being hit hard by all sorts of budget cuts, layoffs, etc. And will do for sometime to come. A lot longer then the US unfortunately in my opinion. On main land Europe I also see this happening. It seems to me that CSR has been mostly seen as a management fashion and nothing more for most businesses. There are the CSR leaders of course that still do a great job in strengthening the CSR movement but the pressure is on for business to show that CSR is bringing in real monetary value.

I do not know the other international CSR situations that well so I will not comment on these. But from what I have seen so far is the jury still out whether this is back to business as usual for business or a CSR opportunity.

I believe we will be able to say more in 6 months time when the full might of the recession has hit us. (I hope).

———-

What is your opinion on this? I would love to hear your views.
All the best,
Fabian

A New Trend and Some New Selected Sustainability Jobs

February 3, 200910:50 pm

0 Comments

Everyone is talking about the economic crisis and the difficult times in the job market. But there are still a lot of interesting jobs in the Sustainability field out there as far as I can see. I am scouting some of the most interesting jobs sites every week and indeed, I am seeing a change in the job market. But the change I see is not in the number of available vacancies but really only in the way jobs are named, i.e. the job titles. A lot more of the jobs now include the Environmental and Sustainability titles. Not as many jobs now include the job titles of „CSR“ and „Ethical“ as far as I can see. This is a very interesting development in my opinion and I will see whether this is turning out the be a continuing trend over the course of the next few months.