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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

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

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

Yesterday has been a really good day. It seems to me that the last few months have just gone by like the wind. Crazy. But yesterday was the first day where I felt that change is in sight and I can finally move on to tackle new challenges and focus on the goals I have set myself.

In any case. Here is a brief update of what I have been up to in the last few weeks:

• Finishing up a major Sustainability project for a client
• Preparing to launch the new and improved SustainabilityForum.com
• Moving into the new house here in the UK
• Growing my Twitter network to get to know more like-minded people from across the globe.

All in all……very busy. But that’s a ‘good’ busy.

I will also have time over the next few weeks to post more which I am really happy about.

As a consequence today’s post will continue with my the weekly Top 3 news items. This has always been popular with my readers, so I will continue with it of course.

Top 3 News Items This Week

Interestingly enough are two of the top three news items about the importance of Sustainability/Corporate Responsibility during the recession. Very encouraging trend in my opinion when everyone is talking about cost cuts, layoffs, etc.

Why Corporate Responsibility is a survivor
Good article in the Financial Times on how Corporate Responsibility will not be put aside and labeled a “management fashion” during the recession. It is already much more then that.

Don’t Give Up Sustainability Now Or You’ll Pay Later
A very informative article on the journey of investing in Sustainability. A good read.

No new coal without CCS in the UK, says government
The UK foreign minister David Miliband announces that all new coal plants will have to demonstrate carbon capture capabilities. Lets wait and see whether they will stick with being so positive about CCS.

It is a Wednesday evening and the middle of a busy consulting week here in Germany and I finally found the time today to catch up on the latest Sustainability developments of this week.

This will also be the purpose of this post. Was there anything interesting in terms of Sustainability news this week?

Short answer: Not much unfortunately. Companies do not publish anything of interest during January it seems.

So far the headlines are still dominated by Barack Obama and his first actions for tackling Climate Change.

One interesting story might be that Nicolas Stern is opening up his own UK climate research centre. Good news but not really exciting in my opinion.

Another noteworthy news item was that Denmark is launching its own electric car network in the next few years. The company that was awarded the contract will be developing the sophisticated plug-in car infrastructure across Denmark. Lets wait and see but this definitely sounds like a good plan by the Danes again.

But that was really it from this week so far. A typical January week in my opinion.

Have a good rest of the week everyone.

Fabian

Picture Credit: enggul

I could not really end this week without another post on my top Sustainability news.

So here are three choices of interesting Sustainability stories from this week.

The first is about investment in sustainability or green initiatives, the second about the future of the utilities sector and the final news item on the latest research on the state of the Amazon rain forest deforestation. A pretty diverse selection but interesting news items in my opinion.

Happy browsing.

While Everything Else Stops, Green Still Means Go
Despite the economy, investment in short term green initiatives is still going strong as companies realize how quickly they can cut costs through efficiency projects. Interesting article.

Ten Predictions for the Utility Industry
Energy efficiency will become the “first fuel” choice for electric utilities, according to a list of Top 10 Predictions for the North American Utility Industry, published by Rick Nicholson, vice president of research at Energy Insights.

Group: Amazon deforestation drops sharply
Deforestation in the Amazon dropped sharply in late 2008, a Brazilian environmental group said Friday. The government credited improved law enforcement, but environmentalists say a slowing economy likely contributed. Good news for the Amazon finally.

Thousands of news stories on Sustainability topics where published during 2008 and the end of the year is always a time where most websites release information about their most popular news stories of the year.

I always liked these reviews and have selected the three most interesting websites on the topic of Sustainability and their annual news reviews for 2008 for your convenience.

• BusinessGreen.com top 10 stories of 2008

• GreenBiz.com’s Top 10 Most Popular Stories of 2008

• Green Business 2008 – Environmental Leader’s Most Popular Stories

Picture Credit: Zarco Drincic