FabianPattberg.com

This week has been another busy week for news relating to the Copenhagen conference in December. We can really see the gradual build-up to this event. Because of this overload of “Copenhagen News” I have tried to mix this weeks top 5 with other news of interest.

Here are my Top 5 news of the week:

• Consensus grows to extend summit treaty timeframe: It seems that our leaders are getting cold feet already.

• Climate friendly policies pay off, report shows: Why are we so reluctant to believe in this? This report (and it is one of many) show that is is paying of.

• Aviva Investors Challenges Global Stock Exchanges to Take Action on Corporate Responsibility: This might not seem be an important news item but for me the main message here is that financial institutions are making a step into the right direction. In this case Aviva Investors.

• Solar power from Sahara a step closer: Exciting news in my opinion. For the me technology is an amazing one and if this project will be as big as they are planning it to be then we could have a great solar power future.

• CSR as branded content: A very interesting article on branding and CSR.

This past week has been another interesting week in terms of Sustainability news. We can clearly see that Climate Change will feature more and more often now in the Sustainability news field as we approach the Copenhagen summit in December.

Here are my top 5 Sustainability and CSR news items for the past week:

• Marks & Spencer describes its journey from corporate social responsibility to sustainability
  http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/948198/Marks—Spencer-describes-its-journey-corporate-social-responsibility-sustainability/
  Two employees from the M&S Sustainability department describe the journey M&S has had from CSR moving to Sustainability. An interesting read.

• UN climate chief downgrades hopes for post-Kyoto treaty
  http://www.euractiv.com/en/climate-change/un-climate-chief-downgrades-hopes-post-kyoto-treaty/article-186855?Ref=RSS#
  Bad news for the Climate Change talks in Copenhagen already.

• ‘Simple lifestyle tweaks’ key in climate change fight
  http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091027/lf_afp/environmentusconsumer
  Research confirms that is will not take you much to lower your annual emissions. So what are you waiting for?

• The Economic Case for Slashing Carbon Emissions
  http://www.globe-net.com/other_news/listing.cfm?type=2&newsID=4807
  A very interesting article with lots of great information for all those climate change skeptics out there.

• A clearer future: Why sustainability graduates are in hot demand
  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/further/a-clearer-future-why-sustainability-graduates-are-in-hot-demand-1810879.html
  A must read for all the students or graduates out there interesting in Sustainability and CSR.

Picture Credit: lumaxart

This is another edition of you Friday afternoon news of the week list. I have been reading a lot news items but these where particularly interesting this week.

Enjoy and have a great weekend everyone.

My Top 5 Sustainability News this week:

• Attraction To ‘Do Good’ Brands Is Escalating – According to this global survey of 6,000 people in 10 countries, 57% say a brand has earned their business because of its works supporting social causes: From MediaPost

• Two-Thirds of American New Media Users Feel They Can Influence Business Practices by Voicing Opinions Online: From CSR Wire

• Copenhagen climate talks are last chance, says Gordon Brown UK’s Chancellor: From the Guardian

• UK Government launches map to highlight global warming threat: From the Independent

• Politics, not technology, is delaying clean-energy future: From Greenbang.com

Picture Credit: lumaxart

The last few weeks have been really busy so I would like to apologize for not posting that often. This will change.

Here are the 5 most interesting Sustainability and CSR news stories and blogs I have come across this past week.

• Bad news for tourists going to the Maldives: Maldives to introduce green tax on tourists
• Some interesting changes in the Dow Jones Sustainability and Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability Indexes: Coca-Cola, Samsung, Johnson and Johnson join sustainability index – But brands such as National Grid and Mitsubishi have been excluded.
• Sad but true: Climate treaty hinges on China and India: Denmark
• Interesting piece of research: Next Generation Corporate Citizenship – Report
• Letter from America – Buck up, bloggers! Interesting opinion. I agree on some aspects but not all.
• Sustainable cities are the solution – Despite our romantic ideas about nature, it will be well-run, energy-efficient cities that ultimately save us from ourselves.

Picture Credit: Annie Mole

This week has been another interesting week and I have come across some interesting Sustainability/CSR news and blog posts. Here are my top 3 news items and blog posts of the week.

Enjoy!

Top 3 News:

Online revision of AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard begins: The AccountAbility AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard (SES) is being revised and AccountAbility is seeking your input with the wiki-based feedback platform.

Green Consumers Worried About Economy – Poll: A very interesting poll with the main message that people will not care about the environment once this costs to much for them to afford. This is the reality unfortunately.

Annual cost of climate change ‘will be £190bn’: Shocking numbers on how much climate change related costs will damage our economies in the future if we do not get a move on and change something about it.

Top 3 Blog Posts:

51 Great Sites For Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability: A great compilation of interesting Sustainability / CSR websites and people on Twitter in this field.

Green Denial Amongst Smaller Businesses: Another very interesting blog post by David Connor. A must-read in my opinion.

How to READ a CSR report: This is Elaine Cohen’s version of how to read a Sustainability / CSR report. Very useful information

Picture Credit: lumaxart

Is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) a management fashion or just a temporary movement in the business world that no one really believes in? – This is what I asked myself last week and decided to do an online poll about it to find out what the view of other people on this is.
I decided to have the poll run for a week to get enough participants for a meaningful result. And I was pleased to see lots of people participate. In the end we had 141 votes and a lot of comments.

Here are the numbers:

The majority of participants believe that CSR is not a management fad but something more then that (53% and 75 people). But I guess it is even more significant to note that 40% or 56 people believe that CSR is just a management fad and nothing more.

Here are the comments to give you more context of the reactions:

This is the direct link to the poll and the comments if you would to see the results and comments combined:
http://twtpoll.com/acq1ev

So what are the results telling us and what am I taking away as learning from this poll?
The results in my opinion show a very high degree of uncertainty and skepticism on whether CSR is something other then a management fad. This is even more remarkable as it is fair to say that the audience I engaged in this poll knows what CSR is (some even are CSR Managers in different organizations) and are as a consequence more likely to believe that it is not a management fashion.

My Learning
The majority of people participating in the poll do not think that CSR is a management fashion, however I was surprised by the number of people who are still skeptical towards the concept of CSR, even though the audience participating in this poll are most likely to be people involved in CSR in some way or another. I guess it is fair to say that even the CSR community is still unsure as to whether CSR is viewed as an intrinsic part of doing business by those who claim to be responsible.

I think the way I interpret these results is that we still might be a long way from and making it a way of doing business rather than a PR stunt, however we are on the right path and more and more people see the value CSR can bring to an organization’s long-term sustainability.

Do you agree with this assessment? Or do you think there is another interpretation of these poll results?

This week has been a good week. I was able to connect with many interesting people in the Sustainability and CSR field and all projects have moved forward at a good pace.
But the holiday season is approaching fast here in the UK so I am expecting the next few weeks to be rather quit business-wise. Which is also a good thing. It will give me an opportunity to dive into Social Media even more and see how it can be used to promote Sustainability and CSR even more.

Here are some interesting Sustainability and CSR news items from this week:

SustainabilityForum.com News

• WalMart to rate products impact on the environment here is a good blog by Joel Makower about the announcement
• Sustainability Reporting reaches record high
• Twenty ideas that could change the world
• BITC Coffey International Award to IBM for World Community Grid

Other interesting news:

• Green reporting on the rise, but struggling for mainstream adoption
• BAE Systems – A call to arms
• Does your CSR Manager connect?
• Should sustainable brands tweet?
  

Have a good weekend everyone.

This is another edition of my news wrap up of the some of the most interesting CSR and Sustainability news I either posted on my SustainabilityForum.com news section this week or I have come across on other websites.

CSR and Sustainability news from SustainabilityForum.com:

• Microsoft launched the Community Impact Map
• Consumer perception on CSR doesn’t match rankings, study says
• How Nike is tackling Sustainability
• Second BSR Report Lays Out Impacts, Goals for a ‘Reset’ World
• Accounting for sustainability earns global accountancy backing
• How green companies can clean up their hiring process

Other interesting CSR and Sustainability news:

• The future of greenwashing and consumer confusion
• UK: Results of the 2009 Awards for Excellence in CSR and Sustainability
• Plastics industry pledges to double recycling rates
• The US makes 3 billion USD available for renewable energy

Have a good weekend everyone.

Picture Credit: lumaxart

This week was another good week for interesting sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) news. That is why I wanted to share some of the most interesting news items with you today. The usual way of sharing news that I come have across is that the most interesting news items will be posted in the news section of SustainabilityForum.com. That is why the first news items are all links to the SustainabilityForum.com.

Some selected SustainabilityForum.com News Items:

• Nokia Top – Nintendo Flop – Green Electronics
• Germany leads G8 Climate Ranking
• Report: Sustainability Innovation Benefits Irish Economy
• UK: Marks & Spencer worst supermarket for packaging, study finds
• BP shuts the alternative energy HQ

Other interesting news I have come across this week:

• The end of the glossy report: The future for CSR Reporting?
• CSR: Much more talk then action

Have a good rest of the weekend everyone.

Best wishes,

Fabian

This is the next part in the “People I follow in Twitter“ series I started several weeks ago.

Today’s post is about the people or better in this case, the organizations I follow to when I am looking for news relating to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

The following list is a good mix of interesting organizations and websites.

CSR News on Twitter

• 3blMedia: The CSR Feed from 3blmedia

• Apesphere: A good all around news website on sustainability and CSR topics

• CSR Wire: One of the most important CSR News agencies

If you feel that I have missed someone that provides equally good information on CSR News please feel free to suggest them here.