Posts Tagged ‘doug bannerman’

GRI Focal Point USA can spark US companies to up their game on sustainability reporting

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

I had the honor to be at the New York Stock Exchange this week for the GRI Focal Point USA launch which puts “resources on the ground” for current and future sustainability reporters in the form of sustainability veteran and reporting expert Mike Wallace, GRI Director.

Webcast live, the event was attended by more than 200 representatives of US corporate GRI reporters, Wall Street investment firms, major accounting firms and organizational stakeholders such as Two Tomorrows. While some participants expressed disappointment at not getting to ring the opening bell, for many of us just being in the hallowed “cathedral of capital” was excitement enough.

For the GRI to establish a US presence brings the Amsterdam-based organization full circle. Originally launched as an initiative of Boston-based Ceres in 1999, the GRI was the brainchild of Alan White (present at Monday’s event) and co-founder Robert Massey.

In his opening remarks, GRI Chief Executive Ernst Ligteringen was direct in his rationale for setting up shop stateside: Despite the overall growth in sustainability reporting worldwide and year-over-year uptake of the GRI reporting framework, the US continues to lag Europe when it comes to GRI reporting.
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Stakeholder resistance building pipeline pressure

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

With nearly two million miles of built pipelines in the U.S., the normally mundane world of oil and gas pipelines stays out of sight, out of mind and out of the headlines. This year, however, things have been different. 

Already facing criticism over their role in climate change – largely guilt through association with their customers – oil and gas transport companies found their own practices thrust into the spotlight after a series of incidents plaguing the energy sector in 2010 culminated in the recent natural gas explosion in San Bruno, California.  If the link between pipelines and climate change is a difficult concept for stakeholders to grasp, concerns over personal health and safety are not.  Adding to the woes of pipeline companies is a rising level of stakeholder resistance to infrastructure projects in general, ranging from offshore wind farms to high-speed rail. In addition, where once government support for infrastructure projects was practically a given, that support can be more difficult to secure where financial or political costs are perceived to be too high.  

As a result, new pipeline projects face hurdles and a higher level of scrutiny than ever before. Project managers will have to go beyond the call of duty if they are to overcome stakeholder resistance and avoid the risk of costly delays or the potential of derailment. As two of my colleagues wrote earlier this year, stakeholder collaboration can be a key to avoiding these pitfalls and building required support.
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Posted in General CR and sustainability issues, climate change, stakeholder engagement | 3 Comments »

The messenger gets shot. Again.

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

An editorial in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, The Case against Corporate Social Responsibility, by Professor Aneel Karnani of the University of Michigan’s School of Business, joins a number of other recent well-meaning but uninformed essays critical of corporate responsibility. In July, Chrystia Freeland lit up the blogosphere with her article in the Washington Post suggesting the CR practitioner community is to blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. While legitimate criticism of corporate responsibility is healthy and welcome, suggesting it will destroy the free enterprise system is nothing more than hyperbole.

Karnani’s essay recycles the old Milton Friedman theory that the social responsibilities of a business in a free enterprise system are to make as much as money as possible unencumbered by outside interference from government bureaucracy or a meddlesome civil society. Karnani suggests companies must choose one of two conflicting paths: pursuit of the bottom line or pursuit of social welfare: “Can companies do well by doing good?” asks Karnani. “Yes — sometimes. But the idea that companies have a responsibility to act in the public interest and will profit from doing so is fundamentally flawed.”

The idea that companies seek to generate profits at the expense of the public interest is the real flawed argument.
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One step forward for conflict minerals, but what impact on Congo?

Thursday, August 12th, 2010

The issue of conflict minerals is finally center stage, as reported two weeks ago on Greener Computing, thanks to a provision in the new Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that requires U.S. manufacturers to demonstrate that their sourcing practices aren’t contributing to human rights atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The issue is also news on the other side of the pond, where human rights NGO Global Witness is suing the U.K. government, claiming it “turns a blind eye” to British firms who trade in “lucrative” Congolese conflict minerals.

The DRC has tremendous mineral wealth, and at issue are columbite-tantalite (coltan), cassiterite, wolframite (and gold) — a number of minerals with tongue-twisting names found in a wide range of industrial and consumer products, including many of our beloved high-tech electronics.

While the term “conflict minerals” may not be top of mind when we’re texting OMG to our BFFs, the magic of all these gadgets is possible thanks in large part to tin, used to solder electronic components together; tungsten, used in light-bulb filaments and to make cell phones vibrate; and metallic tantalum, a heat-resistant powder capable of holding an electrical charge.
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Posted in General CR and sustainability issues, Responsible sourcing | No Comments »

Strategic sustainability investment in oil, gas and mining: Chevron and Rio Tinto

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

I recently attended the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Corporate Responsibility Forum in Washington, D.C. – an event for CR practitioners in the extractives sector and those of us who provide technical assistance to oil, gas and mining companies on the IFC’s Performance Standards. It was a very thought-provoking event.

Social investments are often a condition of IFC financing or a contractual obligation of host governments. There may be a considerable lag before new extractives projects generate taxes or royalties that governments can spend on social and economic development, especially with green-field projects. Further, today’s oil, gas and mining operations are highly technical and mechanized, creating fewer prospects for employment beyond the construction phase. Together these factors have an enormous influence on stakeholder expectations and extractives companies’ abilities to acquire and retain their ‘social license to operate’.

As poll data has indicated, trust in companies remains at an all-time low thanks to the global financial crisis. Yet stakeholders expect the private sector to find innovative solutions to our critical sustainability challenges. The bar has therefore been raised for companies in demonstrating the value they create through resource extraction.

Two sub-themes of the conference, Beyond Philanthropy: Strategic Community Investment and Measuring the Returns on Sustainability Investment spoke to this reality. There were two presentations I found particularly useful.
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Posted in General CR and sustainability issues, stakeholder engagement | 1 Comment »