In an earlier post  I talked about the role of CSR in society and how it also helps the business. I see sustainability challenges reflected increasingly in discussions both I and my leadership team have with our customers.  Our customers (and in particular those from the sector for which I am responsible, consumer packaged goods) tell us that sustainability is among their top strategic priorities. I am thrilled to be working with companies such as Unilever, Pepsi, P&G, Nestle, Mars and others who are sustainability leaders in their sectors.  And my peers in other verticals look after customers in sectors such as agriculture and logistics that have connected sustainability challenges.

What sorts of challenges do we see?   Our business customers … Read the Full Post

Last weekend, the Washington Post carried an interesting article about the future of the light bulb business.  Energy to produce light contributes a significant proportion of our carbon emissions. The proportion of energy in a traditional incandescent bulb that produces heat, when what we want from it is light, is much too high.

The article highlighted for me many of the key principles that we need to incorporate as we move away from disposable, energy intensive consumerism, towards a more sustainable model;

• Per unit and up-front costs will often be higher for more sustainable products. Companies need to reset consumer expectations and/or come up with new models for financing such as leasing.

• Companies (such as Philips and Ikea highlighted in the article) that see the

… Read the Full Post

1) Corporate Responsibility

The understanding that (1) business is wholly dependent for its  continuing success on people (society) and resources (environment) and (2) that business has a significant  impact on society and environment.  The appreciation  therefore  that the success of both is interdependent.

2) Sustainability

Based on an ethical principle that gives future generations the same rights as today’s population, sustainability can be applied to any activity and calls on us to test that meeting the needs of today does not compromise the  needs of future generations. When applied to the activity of a company, this is one way of assessing corporate responsibility.

I’ve written more on this subject.  Check out:
Defining CSR
Ethics and CSR
Sustainability is Overrated… Read the Full Post

As our Americas president Kim McMann mentioned in her guest post, we recently joined, and made our commitment to, the Clinton Global Initiative.  Like me, you may have wondered what the CGI Annual Meeting is like. Other than the named member and select VIPs, the only other attendees are volunteers.  Bernie Shaw, a long time  BT colleague, has volunteered at the CGI Annual Meeting for a couple of years and kindly agreed to share her perspective on the event in this guest post.

Two weeks ago I volunteered at the CGI annual meeting in New York and it can only be described as a somewhat surreal experience, to see so many visionary people all in one place.

Mohammed Yunus, the winner of the 2006 Nobel … Read the Full Post

In September the National Employee Education Foundation (NEEF) and the GreenBiz Group released a report on how businesses can foster sustainable practices in business by empowering employees.

Companies such as BT, Proctor and Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberley-Clark, and Cisco Systems participated in the research and development of the report by contributing their experiences on creating innovative tools for employee engagement.

The report identified 5 key steps that companies should incorporate into their workplaces to promote and foster a culture of sustainability and generously credited me with help in developing the model. The first two steps came from a model I presented to the group, but NEEF and the other participating companies fleshed out my simplistic third step ‘harness’ into three actionable stages.

1. Permit:… Read the Full Post