May 17th, 2013 by Samantha Parsons
Last week, Two Tomorrows was at the Responsible Business Summit, where trust was on the agenda. Trust, transparency and ethical conduct are perfect examples of sustainability risks that are often ignored by traditional risk management processes and that add to the business case for integrating sustainability risk management with enterprise risk management (ERM).
Sven Mollekleiv, senior VP and head of CR at our parent company DNV Group and also president of the Norwegian Red Cross, highlighted the risks and disastrous results for companies when trust and transparency are broken and not managed properly.
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Tags: enterprise risk management, risk, sustainability, trust
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May 14th, 2013 by Jon Woodhead
Stakeholder engagement is as old as business itself. It happens in your company’s countless daily interactions with customers, employees, suppliers, investors, regulators and others. What has changed in the past decade or so is that many companies have begun taking a systematic approach to this engagement as they seek to manage their sustainability risks. They have identified key stakeholder groups and the issues that concern them, and are actively managing dialogue with these groups.
So far, so good. In reality, however, the process is often tightly controlled and the outputs carefully communicated. Many companies invite stakeholders to attend occasional managed events or one-to-one discussions. Typically, these involve a presentation from both sides and a discussion of external expectations and internal constraints (and sometimes opportunities). In essence, this is a defensive tactic. It can backfire when consequent action – or lack of it – ends up eroding rather than building stakeholder relationships.
Thankfully, that is starting to change.
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Tags: food and beverages, jon woodhead, mining, stakeholder engagement, utilities
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May 2nd, 2013 by Louise Ayling
Public consultation on the draft International Integrated Reporting Framework is in full swing. Events have been held around the world to bring the <IR> Framework to the attention of a wide range of stakeholders, including the sustainability community.
Speakers at the London event certainly gave it their support with comments ranging from “the catalyst to pull all strands of reporting together” to “an opportunity to demonstrate accountability and allow people to make correct judgements on companies based on accurate information”.
Integrated reporting is about reporting with integrity. We live in an increasingly connected, compressed and complex world, where economic boundaries are collapsing. This presents uncertainty but also great opportunity. We need a new way of working in this globalised world with newly empowered stakeholders – and communication should be at the heart.
The <IR> Framework will offer significant opportunities to companies that follow it.
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Tags: G4, GRI, integrated reporting, Reporting
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November 19th, 2012 by Todd Cort
Who are the leaders in corporate responsibility? Answering that question is tantamount to asking about the best car: some may prefer the flashy new sports car while others are looking for safety and cargo space.
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Tags: Reporting, sustainability, todd cort, tomorrow's value research
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November 19th, 2012 by Todd Cort
The movement toward integrated reporting of sustainability and financial issues continues to be challenging for the largest companies. While some have progressed towards the principles of integrated reporting, critical elements to produce an integrated report are still missing.
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Tags: Reporting, sustainability, todd cort, tomorrow's value research
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November 8th, 2012 by Todd Cort
Sustainability reports are simultaneously getting better and worse. Companies today are increasingly aware of sustainability issues and opportunities and actively integrate sustainability into core business strategies and decision-making. In one sense, companies are opening up and describing the intimate details around how they define material issues, engage stakeholders, and join multi-stakeholder initiatives. On the flip side, however, as companies become more responsive to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and other reporting frameworks in an effort to drive comparability, they are beginning to lose sight of the why.
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Tags: Reporting, sustainability, todd cort, tomorrow's value research
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September 26th, 2012 by Louise Ayling
For host countries, the Olympics is about far more than sporting feats; it’s a matter of national pride and an opportunity to showcase the country. Cultures, heritage and traditions are for a month under global scrutiny and many previous hosts have commemorated the occasion with extraordinary architectural mementos. London 2012 aimed to go a step further and leverage the high profile and global reach of the event to inspire far-reaching recognition of contemporary sustainability challenges. It was destined to be the ‘greenest Olympics ever’. But to what extent has this been achieved?
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Tags: climate change, environmental management, london 2012, louise ayling, Reporting, sustainability, tourism and leisure
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July 23rd, 2012 by Jon Woodhead
For all those growing weary of grand proclamations, vision statements and big audacious goals that are made in the face of the world’s many sustainability challenges, consider this one: The United Nations General Assembly declared 2012 the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All, recognising that “…access to modern affordable energy services in developing countries is essential for the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals, and sustainable development, which would help to reduce poverty and to improve the conditions and standard of living for the majority of the world’s population.
All very laudable as a high-level objective, but what does this mean in practice?
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Tags: carbon, climate change, jon woodhead, power generation, renewable energy, utilities
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June 20th, 2012 by Dave Knight
Twenty years after the Earth Summit, Rio is once again the hub of activity, attracting world leaders from governments, the private sector and NGOs to tackle the big issues in sustainable development.
Stepping back to the first Earth Summit in Rio, the main outcome was the development of Agenda 21. Here we are in the 21st century and the Green Economy is high on the agenda. But what is the Green Economy and what does this mean for business?
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Tags: dave knight, green economy, sustainability, Two Tomorrows, UNEP, Unilever
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January 31st, 2012 by Mark Line
I don’t think anyone should be surprised that Tesco has dropped its association with the carbon reduction label. The early reported costs of achieving the label beggared belief – and even with economies of scale, the approach was never going to grow legs. The whole scheme seemed like a pipe dream when it was announced, given the number of products on the average supermarket shelf.
And the problem was not only the reported costs of assessment, but also getting consumers to understand the results. Did we really think that consumers would understand or engage with the idea that 80g of CO2 for a bag of crisps was good or bad?
Let’s also be clear that Tesco has only ditched a carbon label, not a true ‘eco-label’ – i.e. one that seeks to take into account all manner of environmental impacts in a product’s lifecycle. A single issue label was always going to be controversial, particularly being promoted by only one of the big supermarkets looking for green hero status.
What’s the alternative?
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Tags: Assurance, chevrolet, climate change, environmental management, mark line, Two Tomorrows
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