First class travel for CSR reports

CSR is reflected not only in the multimillion $$$ investments in climate change, employee work-life balance programs, cause marketing creativity, community empowerment and all the other wonderful things I take note of in the masses of CSR reports i read and review. CSR is also reflected in the little things that happen in the business. It's the measure of thought which goes into every action that employees take.

CSR evangelists might call this embeddedness .
CEO's might call it alignment.
Human Resources Managers might call it culture.
In this particular case, I call it common sense.

I am referring to first class travel conditions for a CSR report. Below are photos of the packaging used to transport one CSR summary report of 22 pages to my office from a European location.

Enough said?

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm . Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

Lower carbon intensity – yeah, right

I am no environmental expert, but I shudder every time I read CR reports by businesses that they are bending over backwards to reduce carbon emissions and extolling the praises of every single carbon-emission-reducing project, and in the next breath we read that their absolute carbon emissions have increased. Am I just naïve or is there something wrong with this system? Do all these businesses who are growing and increasing their carbon footprint year on year think they are positively contributing to climate change just because their emission levels per store, per truck, per refrigerator, per hamburger, per trip, per cup of coffee, per banana, per printed CR report or per pair of underpants is less than it was a year ago ? I mean, who do they think I am? Dumbo? (ok, they're not sooo far off). Who are we kidding here?

Take a quick look at Tesco in the UK. 2009 CR report. This sentence: Over the past year our net sales area grew by 16.4% while our carbon footprint increased by 3.7%. This means we cut our carbon intensity by 10.9% year-on-year. I did a little research. In the last two years their sales area has grew by 16.2% % and carbon emissions increased by 14.7% . This is almost no carbon intensity reduction. Who cares about carbon intensity anyway? We should care about absolute emission levels.

OK, so who else?

IKEA provide a comprehensive breakdown of total carbon emissions in their latest CR report for 2008 and show that carbon emissions have INCREASED YEAR ON YEAR EVERY YEAR for the past 4 years. But here is how IKEA present this: "The total amount of carbon dioxide emissions directly related to IKEA operations increased in FY08. However, in relative terms, the development is positive. When one examines carbon dioxide emissions per total products sold, we see an overall positive improvement compared to FY05. " Positive ? Is "relative" going to save the planet?

One more:

DANSKE BANK. Carbon emissions increased from 54.1 to 65.2 ktons 2008 vs 2007.An increase of 20% and from 2.9 to 3.5 tonnes per FTE. In a section entitled "Continuing to improve our impact" and full of green jargon such as "towards a low-carbon future" , "carbon neutrality" and "1 tonne less" campaign" , the actual results of all these words and efforts is exactly opposite.

CR reports are very valuable for assessing carbon management performance. I applaud all the above and thousands others who report, and who are making efforts to support climate change. But the focus has to shift from words to clear decisive actions which result in absolute lower carbon emission levels. Sadly, we are still caught up in the intensity of it all and cowering behind the relativity of ghg statements. Maybe we should be relatively more intense and focus on relatively more results?

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm . Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

Localization - the Next Big Thing

The Next Big Thing in reporting is Localization.

Led by the global giants of #CSR (# signifies i have become a twitterer, and am now compelled to #tag #everything as i #write) , the concept that producing one annual, all-embracing, total coverage, general, global CSR report by MNE's (Multinational Enterprises) is inadequate to reach the hearts and minds of local stakeholders, is gaining momentum. Spurred on by the desire to reach out to those closest to the local hubs of activity, the Localization Leaders are illunimating the way for other MNE's to follow. Who are the Localization Leaders?

Intel: Intel now produce a variety of local reports to serve local stakeholders. You can even read how Suzanne Fallender describes Intel's approach "Many people continue to criticize CSR reports for being too long, detailed and boring for most stakeholders to read. When you combine that sentiment with the challenges of explaining your corporate responsibility performance in multiple languages and cultures and your impact at the local level, it is clear that one size does not fit all."
Take a trip to Israel, Russia, Ireland, Europe or Middle East Region.

Vodafone: You just cant top Vodafone. Check out their download page - 13 superb looking local CR reports in addition to the global report. From Portugal to Italy, and Malta to New Zealand, Volafone are master localizers.

Telefonica SA are excellent localizers too. They published 17 CR reports in 2008. A wide range of Latin American Telefonica subsidiaries published only in Spanish, but i guess thats ok, verdad?

General Electric are partial localizers. They translate their global report into several languages. If they used their (eco)imagination a little more, they might realize that adding a little local content would make for a more relevant report.

Motorola Inc is a local localizer. They publish an excellent report in Israel (disclosure: I assured it!) but I believe this is their only localization effort.

Then there are several pseudo localizers - those who add it little tidbits of local color into their global report. There are many companies who do this. This just gives us fragmented impressions of local impacts, and usually only the nice, bright colors.
So what about all the rest ? I can hear the big sigh of relief when a global report is published - phew! that's that for another year! - but surely the core aim of reporting is to engage stakeholders? And to do this by telling them stories about the work life balance of employees in another hemisphere is not all that engaging. Further, how do you write a global report? Bottom up or top down? There has to be local input into a global report - so formalizing this and creating a localized disclosure requirement - however minimal - is actually good basic practise for ensuring a balanced and representative global effort.

If you are a local stakeholder of an MNE operating in your country, demand to see their local report. Chances are they aint got one yet, but just in case they do, remember the words of that wonderful woman, Maya Angelou, who said: Ask for what you want, and be prepared to get it. Or something like that. I think she was referring to Chunky Monkey. But it could also apply to CR reports.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm . Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

Report, Review, Retweet

Report Reviews: here is a selection of the recent CSR report reviews that have been penned (keyboarded ?) by yours truly and appear on CorporateRegister.com. In reverse order (last published first).

Wal-Mart 2009: Did you know that Wal-Mart saves the average American household the sum of $3,100 per year, whether they shop at Wal-Mart or not! This, and more interesting insights in the review, or if you have the energy, the report itself. Careful, though, if you are looking for anything other than good news, best go to Wal-Mart Watch !

Marks and Spencer plc 2009 : Plan A, 100 commitments, 49 pages. You all know that Plan A is the Ultimate Plan. "because there is no Plan B". Notwithstanding (dont you love that word ?) , this review suggests that Plan B could come in quite useful to address those aspects of M&S activities which fell thru the Plan A cracks. The report can be viewed here.

Jumeirah Group 2008 : A first report by this hotel and resorts group in Dubai which succeeded in producing a charming report albeit a basic self-declared GRI C level. (that's CRspeak for CRfreaks) . A key area of materiality for this company is Emiratisation, given the 162 locals employed in a total of over 10,000 personnel in Dubai. View the report here.

Barclays plc 2008 : Bit of a disappointment this time around from Barclays whose Chief Exec describes the most significant financial crisis since forever as "distracting". However, the report contains positive content though there are some reporting GAPS. What are they? You can work them out for yourself or read the review. Want the whole report ? Here.

Aviva plc 2009 : How does an insurance company incentivize consumers to behave sustainably? Tough question. Another tough question is what happened to 3,000 missing employees? Read my review or try to locate the answers yourself in full the report here.


Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) 2008: Seriously successful fashion company with 76% of women in management positions. What can be wrong with that !? But still, I say, H&M needs to come off the fence. How ? Check out the review or read the report here.

You can also check out reviews by respected colleagues :

HSBC 2008 and Motorola Inc 2008 review by Michelle of True Blue Communications
and Total S.A. by Zoe of Context.

Whew! That's a lot of reviews. And a lot of questions. So clear your desk, order in the CM's (Chunky Monkeys, but you know that by now, right?) and seek the answers.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm . Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

Are you a health-risk ? $100 to find out.

I visited Chloregy.org and went straight to the Reports and Awards page. This headline caught my eye: Texas Health Resources Recognized by National Business Group on Health as Leading Employer Promoting Healthy Lifestyles for Employees .63 employers were awarded prizes for encouraging employees to adopt a more healthy lifestyle. Texas pays them to. They have a wellness program, called Be Healthy, which promotes awareness, healthy lifestyle choices, and disease prevention. Each year, employees are invited to complete a health risk assessment and are given a $100 award for doing so. Additional awards are given for getting a physical, lab panel, various health screenings, or for taking a stress assessment. With 18,000 employees, if all opt in, thats an investment of $1.8 million and more, depending on how many choose to do a full physical or feel particularly stressed. (I have to say, i wouldnt mind someone giving me $100 every time i went to the see the family doc).
I wonder what happens once employees take the risk assessment and what ethical questions this poses for the organization. Do employees waiver right to secrecy and disclose the results of their risk assessment to Texas? Is this a a precondition for getting the prize money ? And if so, what consequences could this have on their continued employment? No doubt that by any standards, its better to face up to the risks than ignore them, but do i really want my employer knowing the exact location of all my warts and the BMI effect of lask weeks 4 Chunkey Monkeys?
I also wonder what happens if the assessment shows that there is a real risk ? Does the employer have some obligation to support the employee in his or her plans to address these health risks? And what form does that support take?
And finally, as i am doing so much wondering, I will add the point about effects of the risk assessment on the employee's performance, motivation or future potential in the workplace. And the implications for her/his next salary review.

Now, Texas Health dont produce a Corporate Reponsibility Report and there is nothing on their website about this.(Mantra no 6: Transparency is a Virtue) So i to continue to wonder. (fortunately, being a woman, i am a great multitasker, so i can wonder and do 14 other things at the same time) .

This is an interesting issue, and one which i wonder about as i review responsible employment practices for clients, especially those inthe pharma or healthcare industry. Healthcare is their core business proposition, so one would expect that the employees of such an organization would gain some benefit through the internal application of CR material issues. And this is beyond the responsibility of employers to provide a healthy working environment and even the "enlightened self-interest" of employers through investing in healthy a workforce. I wonder if $1.8 million in annual health risk assessments exceeds the potential costs of employees living unhealthy lifestyles ?

Finally, well done to Texas Health, despite my trademark flippancy, i do applaud the intent to encourage employee wellbeing, and see this as a good example for others. As i am self-employed, i wonder how much i can afford to pay myself to do a health risk assessment. And if i should reveal the results to myself or not.... hmmm... tough question

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel . Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

You dont have to be BIG to do CR

I often hear questions about whether CR is relevant to SME's.
I often hear criticsm that UNGC participation is not a powerful driver of action as it has no enforcement clout. My position of course is that CR is absolutely relevant to SME's and the UNGC is a very significant framework which is changing corporate behaviour. And i found a perfect example with a Communication on Progress (they actually call it a Social Responsibility Report) issued in the Republic of Moldova .

This Moldova COP is from the SME PTC BIOPROTECT . Read it here. It is a 12 pager Communication on Progress reporting on activities in alignment with the UN Global Compact Principles and a charming and wonderful example of leadership in a small country known as the poorest in Europe, independent since 1992, with 4 million inhabitants and a GDP of around $1200 per capita, average wage $250 per month, and 25% of the polulation living on below $2 a day . Landlocked and devoid of any significant natural assets, this country depends largely on agriculture for its economic prosperity, so perhaps it is no coincidence that CR should show up in the agricultural sector.

PTC Bioprotect is an importer-exporter of agricultural products founded in 1993 and employing 28 people. They joined the Global Compact in 2006 and have embraced the 10 principles wholeheartedly. Their report is about small-scale impact in their local business environment - worlds away from MNE scale and leverage - but equally important. The kind of impacts reported are :

• support for 130 orphans in the town of Falesti with Easter gifts such as " sweets, sports equipment, towels, A4 format paper, bags and ribbons.".
• support for 15 students to attend an International Conference on Chemistry, Chemical Technology and Environmental Protection
• sponsoring a prize for entrants in National Contest of Business Plans for Young People, 2008
• participation in the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPECL) of the (ILO) to combat child labor in the agricultural sector of the Republic of Moldova by financing the purchase of two digital cameras and two Micro SD cards that were sent to the Labor Inspection to be used in the documentation of child labor cases.
• collaboration with other 12 Moldovan UNGC participating companies to expand the green sites to the leisure areas in the city – THE GREEN DAY – BECAUSE WE CARE - in the public garden from Botanica sector of Chisinau. In addition to personal volonteering, the Company provided 26 shovels, 42 rakes and 108 pairs of gloves for the execution of works of cleaning and digging around the trees.
• focus on agricultural product offerings which are more environmentally friendly
• support for the national campaign „You can stop corruption” organized by the Government of the Republic of Moldova

These impacts might seem small against a global backdrop, but they are BIG at a local level. I applaud PTC Bioprotect as an exemplary model of reponsible behaviour which supports the fact that CR is for SME's and UNCG is a route to developing a more comprehensive CR approach.

And if you haven't tasted Moldovan wine lately..... try a glass while you read their report ..... it goes well with Chunky Monkey ....

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel, and an active supporter of the UNCG (though having less than 10 fulltime employees, regretfully, we cannot be signatories) . Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

The model GRI GRI report

The mother of all reports - the GRI's very own second 2007-2008 sustainablity report compiled in accordance with the GRI guidelines (now isn't that a surprise!) . How does the GRI GRI report stack up against its own guidelines ? Practice what they preach ? Leadership in reporting expertise ? Creative and innovative reporting ? A role model of reports ? A superb piece of communication? A win for transparency ? Judge for yourself. But whilst you are judging, here are my thoughts.


The report is written papameter by parameter, indicator by indicator. There is a methodological flow to the development of this text-book report and on the whole it works well. Uncrowded by design elements and inspiring quotations from stakeholders, this 79 pager is what it sets out to be, a report. A GRI GRI report. Level A. No point in spending time on talking about where this report applies its own guidelines. More interesting to talk about where it does not. Where it departs from GRI recommended reporting practice. I hope you agree. If you do not, skip to next post :)) If you do, please read on and then Tweet. Ha Ha


Materiality analysis
Here is what the GRI has to say about this: "Following internal discussion, it was decided that the material issues that were identified for the previous reporting period through a consultation process ..... remained material to GRI for this reporting period." Oops. Do i detect a little corner-cutting here ? The last report covered 3 years to mid 2007. Has nothing materially new happened in the last couple of years ? What about ISO26000 which threatens to move into GRI space ? What about the levels of application and use of the guidelines? What about the Sector Supplements and their application? What about robust application of the assurance processes? What about the criticisms of the GRI framework for use with SME's and non MNE's in general ? What about the impact of reporting on sustainability performance? Is there nothing at all that is materially new ? And for the leading advocate of stakeholder engagement, the "internal discussion" around materiality falls short of the textbook model process.

Another thing about the GRI's materiality analysis is that it's not an analysis. It's a list of GRI indicators that are more important than other GRI indicators. These are not material to the GRI, they are material to reporting sustainability issues. The issues which are material to the GRI as an organization should feature here. Maybe someone skipped the fine print.

Assurance
The report is not assured. Why not ? Well, it should be clear from the report. The GRI GRI response to this indicator is: This report has not been subject to external assurance. Duh. The question is, and the correct response to 3.13 is the REASON this report was not assured. I assume there was one.

Everything else
Everything else in the GRI GRI report is well, GRI. It follows the guidelines in exemplary fashion. It provides data required by the indicators methodically and systematically, and is a model for GRI reporting. The most important thing of course is that it IS a report. By which i mean, that there are so many do-as-we-say-ers in the reporting space that do not issues reports themselves, that the GRI has put our money where their mouth is and are doing-as they-say. Good move.

The interesting other thing is why almost no-one else reports like this ? It seems to me that this is actually an easier way to report, as it requires little creativity and innovative reporting pyrotechnics, and sticks to the basic facts as required. A kind of compliance approach. Why do almost all the 3,000 + reporters each year decide to do it so differently? Perhaps this is the harder way? It means that you cannot make up in creativity for what you lack in data, or fool the readership by stories when EC, EN, LA, HR and SO demand numbers. One answer might lie in the fact that the report is not just about indicators, it's about the soul of the organization, its not just about facts, its about values. And it's hard to reflect the style, tone and feel of an organization in a series of bullet points. But what the GRI GRI report lacks in photoshop, it makes up for in professionalism and integrity.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel, and an organizational stakeholder of the GRI and committed to promoting the use of the GRI reporting framework. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

Connect

Connect! Marketing in the social media era is a compilation of essays from 100 marketers and social media experts, each with an allocation of 400 words to write about, yes you guessed it, marketing and social media. Assembled by Jim Caswell, all profits go to support Susan G. Komen for the Cure (breast cancer). Actually, i recieved the book as a gift from my talented blogger friend Peter Korchnak who blogs on Sustainable Marketing, and a contributor to Connect!. his review of the book can be read here. So whilst this post is a slight departure from my established reporting theme, i consider it worthwhile and a modest contribution to help raise awareness for an inspired project and a worthy cause.

A few highlights from the 100 contributions:

A piece I particularly likes is by Martin Ouellette and is entitled Marketing with social norms in mind. He maintains that social norms and marketing norms are different. He ends up by saying "We can't force market norms in social media. It just doesnt work. To each space, it's rules. So when advertisers communicate and act with empathy, generosity and reciprocity we have social media that accepts brands and products". I thought that was quite neat.

Jay Berkowitz (www.tengoldenrules.com) does a pretty good job too of outlining the ten things that work in media marketing srategies for businesses. These include social networking, micro selling , RSS, video such as Youtube, online communities , blogs, Twitter (what a surprise!) , revenue earning blogs with Adsense, MySpace, answering questions on Linked in, web optimised PR, and getting included in ratings and reviews. Answering questions on Linkedin ? hmmmm? Does that sell ? Amazing.

My blogosphere friend Michael Mossoba also contributed a piece called "An Essay on Storytelling in Twitter Format. " He says its all about stories. "Remember that a great story is remembered forever" . Once upon a time .......

Dave Rigotti tells us that 120,000 new weblogs are created every day.

Nathan Beck 's piece called The Power of Simplicity is a review of the exponential growth and impact of that T thing again i.e. "harnessing the power of simplicity presented by Twitter". Nathan says: "Are 140 characters enough to make a point? I think so". Funny. I didnt see him giving up any of his 400 words to make his point . Ha.Ha.

And the best page in the book is a Twitterish entry in large font which goes like this:
@Sanitra Social media makes the world a little bit smaller & marketing’s world larger

Anyway, a great book, an inspired idea, a wealth of insights, a century of experts and worthy venture. I recommend you get your copy. And what's more, you can gorge on your daily Chunky Monkey while reading it.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

The Lóreal paradox..for better and for worse....

The paradox of corporate responsibility is that there are companies that can be both soooo positive and soooo negative at the same time. What does it take to say a company is corporately responsible ? That the critical mass of good things outweights the bad things ? Or that there are only good things ? Or that there is just an absence of bad things ? Should we accept that all corporations are basically irresponsible and not accountable for all their impacts. But that some have embarked on a route to address and account for some of them. The case in point featured in this post is the cosmetics giant L'Óreal. You've heard of L'Óreal, right ? Two news items about L'óreal. First. the good news:

L'Oréal Sets Green Goals and Promotes an Eco-Responsible Business Model

L’Oréal has renewed three long-term environmental targets for the period 2005-2015, applicable to its factories and warehouses:

• Halve its greenhouse gas emissions: In 2005, the total CO2 emissions were 230.3 thousands of tonnes.
• Halve its water use per unit of finished product: In 2005, the water consumption was of 0.72-litre per finished product.
• Halve its waste generated per unit of finished product. In 2005, the waste generated per unit of finished product was of 32.2 grams.

What i like about the GHG target is that it is a firm commitment measured in absolute terms against the Company's own performance. Not per employee, not per site, not per unit. The total GHG's unrelated to business growth. Water and waste targets are per unit... which i find frustrating as L'oreal produces so many units of so many product types and sizes that this target doesnt say much about the Company's total impact. I looked at L'óreals 2008 CR report to see where they were 2 years after the original targets - 20% of time gone (2 years out of 10):

• GHG emissions : 2005 - 229.7 ktons, 2007 - 218.2 ktons - 5% reduction
• Water consumption per finsihed product: 2005 - 0.72 litre, 2007 - 0.65 litre - 10% reduction
• Waste per finished product: 2005 - 32.1 gram , 2007- 29.9 gram - 7% reduction

Seems that there is still some way to go. Total GHG and water reduced over this period, total waste remained static. Interesting thing is that nearly 30 grams of waste is generated for each finished product. I wonder if that includes the packaging. Probably not. But in any event, for a cosmetics company whose products are mainly low weight, 50, 100, 500 grams .... this seems like a helluvalotta waste, no ? but good consistency in reporting regularly against these good aspirational targets. So good news for L'óreal.

And now for the BAD news:

French cosmetics giant L’Oréal guilty of racial discrimination

L’Oréal was " found guilty of racial discrimination for considering black, Arab and Asian women unworthy of selling its shampoo" brand named Garnier .The court ruled that Adecco, the temporary recruitment agency who hired the hostesses, was also guilty of racial discrimination. The Paris Appeal Court fined both L’Oréal and Adecco €30,000 (£25,500) and ordered them to pay a further €30,000 each in damages to SOS Racisme, the anti-racist campaign group, which brought the case. The court was told that Garnier’s hostesses were ordered from the recruiting agency and told be aged 18 to 22, wear size 38 to 42 clothes (British sizes 8 to 12) and be “BBR”. BBR, for the uninitiated is "bleu, blanc, rouge" or the colors of the French flag.

Now, L'Oreal declare that diversity is a basic value and their commitment is "To promote the self-fulfilment of its employees within a multicultural, stimulating community, rich in diversity and talent, to which all individuals contribute their creativity and enthusiasm." Heart-warming, right ? L'Óreals 63,500 staff is made up of 62% women of and 56% managers are women. 35% of mamagement committee members are women, quite a high level amongst reporting companies. Additional data on diversity from the CR report for 2008 is :

• 21% of managers are from minorities
• 34% of the total workforce are from minorities
• 32% of new managers recruited in 2007 were from minorities
• Increased spend with women and minority owned firms.
• Over 3,000 employees have completed diversity training.

So what went wrong ? The whim of the Garnier brand manager? The lack of judgement of the Adecco manager ( a woman!) who determined the specification for the models? Profit before values ? Hard to say... L'oreals CR report, and its credibility, does provide some balance for this pretty damning incident, which is reflective of the draconic practices in the beauty industry with the creation of supermodels and idealization of women, causing great negative impacts on the position of women in our society.

So L'oreal, pay up and shape up. Not the BBR way, the ECITR way. Which for the unititiated means :every color in the rainbow.....

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

Bank secrets... not any more

An interesting thing popped into my email box from Banktrack newsservice - Banktrack is the site that tracks banks (funny, eh?) .. which means that it scrutinizes the activities of banks and their effects on people and planet, something us cr reporters would call.. indirect impacts. See, the true impact of the banking sector is not the checking accounts or the home loans or even the savings accounts that make up their current business, but the large, significant chunks of money they use to finance major energy or infrastructure projects, the arms industry, the nuclear sector and a whole host of things that negatively (or positively) impact us, the planet and future generations. The owners of these initiatives rely on banks to finance them. The banks that do so should be held accountable for these indirect impacts of their financing policies. And this is where Banktrack comes in. Anyway, back to my inbox (ugh!), a press release is what popped into it.

It goes something like this, well, exactly like this:

"Campagna per la Riforma della Banca Mundiale (Italy), Friends of the Earth (France), Netwerk Vlaanderen (Belgium), Platform (UK), SETEM (Spain) and Urgewald (Germany) expose investments in harmful practices and companies of thirteen large European banks in this new website. Despite of the banking crisis, financial institutions continue to do harmful investments in a sphere of secrecy. .......The thirteen banks have financed 11,4 billion euros in loans to the14 blacklisted companies as well as arranged and underwritten bond and share issues for a total value of 10,5 billion euros. In addition, the thirteen banks own or manage 17,7 billion euros of shares in the researched companies. "

The new website refferred to is BANK SECRETS. it's an amazing site. Amazing design. And the content is pretty impressive too . There are profiles of these 13 banks and the dubious investments they have made ...a click on Barclays shows 11 locations of negative financing, Deutsche Bank also 11, RBS 9, and BNP Paribas tops the chart with 12 locations. Another page focuses on controversial investments by sector such as coal or oils and gas, and another page invites you to send an ecard to your bank proposing that they adopt ethical financing principles, and offers you a checklist of points to help you verify just what your bank is doing with your money. Finally, the site offers a selection of ethical banks in 7 European countries which you could choose to bank with if you want your money to be used for good and not the opposite.

The Equator Principles were designed to provide voluntary regulation in this area. Over 60 major banks worldwide have joined this intiative, which was launched in 2003.The principles were revised in 2006, making them more stringent, and apply to project financing with capital costs above USD 10 million . Whilst the principles have made a major impact on project financing, there are still many inadequate applications , even amongst the signatories.

I decided to take a quick look at Citibank's CSR report for 2008. I was hoping that it would reveal some secrets. Such as the ones revealed by BankSecrets, for example, financing of EADS, the second largest european arms producer, involved in nuclear weapons production, or financing Dongfeng which supplies military equipment to Burma, strengthening the repressive Burmese junta. One of Citibank's citizenship goals is to continue to provide Equator principles leadership . I looked for a mention of Burma, Dongfeng, EADS or nuclear weapons but .. alas.... zilch. Of course, they would not tarnish their positive cr report with vivid description of the indirect impact of financing nucler weapons or supporting repressive regimes. And they didnt. to be fair, Citi does boast a good record of reponsible home-loaning and community involvement, but nothing about the hotspots of their financial lending activities. In 2008, Citi funded 10 transactions worth over 183 billion $, out of a possible 39 requested, after environmental and social risk management review. However, it is not clear whether financing was rejected due to ESR issues, or due to the fact that Citi judged they would not make enough money on the the projects. There is definitely room for more transparency in reporting by the financial sector.

To round off my foray into (un)ethical banking, i took a quick look at one of the recommended banks - GLS Bank. This bank describes itself as: "the first social and ecological bank in Germany. GLS stands for "Gemeinschaftsbank für Leihen und Schenken", which translates as "community bank for loans and gifts". The bank was founded in 1974 and it currently finances around 6.500 projects and businesses. The Bank focuses on cultural, social and ecological projects which try to tackle challenges in our society by developing creative solutions". Not only are your savings invested ethically, you can also choose which positive causes to route your money to support. Sounds neat, right ?

Now, as the threshold for project financing is $10 million, i figure that this could fund around 1.7 million Chunky Monkeys. A further calculation is that this supply, if financing is secured, could last me around 3.17 weeks.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

Get lost, pirates !

Had a tough day today (don''t ask!) so i thought i would take a therapeutical break and look at a report or two before i continue with a project i am working on. And quite by chance, i got to a company i had never heard of before called Moser Baer, based in India. And this opened up a whole new lexicon for me which i will now integrate into my daily conversations. For example:

• how are you today? Seen any good photovoltaics recently?
• i was wondering who your preferred OEM is for optical media ? hmm?
• come on, you must be able to spare a few IT peripherals? i am desperate for a few
• say, does your archival life exceed 50 years? if not, i would start getting a little worried if i were you

Moser Baer produced their first CR report entitled Rewriting the Future
It is 53 pages and meets GRI level A application (self declared). 7,500 employees.

Chairman and CEO Deepak Puri (aside from this being poor governance, i always wonder how these guys have time to do TWO jobs?) opens with the challenges of the current economic situation, as most reports do these days (though rarely does this merit more than a passing comment in the boss's remarks, despite the major restructiring that is going on in most businesses), and comments that "GDP in India is increasing by an average of 6-7 percent, unlike the heady 9-10 percent in the preceding years." And then says that this is a "bleak"scenario. Bleak ? 7%? Well, i guess bleak is in the eye of the beholder, right ?
What is bleaker in this beholder's eye is the position of women in this business. One female director (who judging by the surname is a family member) out of a Board of 12, and zero female managers in an executive team of 10. This is despite 32% of their population being female. Hmm, wonder if its the ceiling problem (glass) or floor problem (sticky).

But what caught my eye is the material issue in the consumer electronics industry : the issue of piracy which is "eating away into the industry's vitals"! (That really doesnt sound pleasant!)
A noteworthy initiative of Moser Baer has been the formation of a body - ICRA (Indian Cinema Rights Association) an association for organizations from the entertainment space that have a stake in curbing piracy. The main objective is to conduct anti-piracy campaigns and operations at the ground level and lobbying the government primarily on evasion of excise and sales tax, copy right issues etc. The company reports having conducted 50 raids and confiscated 50,000 pirate CDs/DVDs.

Another interesting aspect of this report is the Materiality Matrix on page 15. The Company has allocated a selection of the GRI Indicators to a section in the nine-box matrix. Never seen that before. Full marks for creativity, systematicness, symmetry and logic. 24 indicators are top-right (most material issues) and 36 in the rest of the matrix. That's 60 out of 79 indicators. Problem with this approach though, is that the GRI indicators are performance indicators and really dont correlate to material issues very well. Where does piracy fit for instance in the G3? The materiality matrix is a form of prioritization but it does not demonstrate an in-depth understanding of identification and assessment of material issues, IMHO. But, notwithstanding (love that word) , impressive attempt for a first report.

I have to finish my break now, but this seems like a very intersting company and a quite a comprehensive report. Outstanding employee practices, community involvement, environmental stewardship and innovative products.It's all there. If you can get past the almost illegible design and font, this report contains quite some gems.

Anyway, in the hope that Moser Baer can succeed in their attack on electronic pirates, it remains only for me to say, "Ahoy there Moser Baer" , well done, and where's that Chunky Monkey ....

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

WELL DONE NASDAQ

Nasdaq have caught up with other leading indices and collaaborated with CRD Analytics to produce a Nasdaq OMX CRD Global Sustainability 50 Index. Quoting from BusinessGreen.com
CRD Analytics president Michael Muyot said the index would help make " sustainability more investable", providing investors with an independent assessment of how firms that have taken a leadership position in environmental reporting are performing against their peer group.

Elligibility criteria to be included inthe index are:

• a publicly available corporate sustainability/responsibility report;
• disclosure of compatible sustainability data according to (GRI) G2/G3 guidelines;
• reporting of at least 20% of total core environmental performance indicators;
• reporting of at least 20% of the total core social performance indicators;
• reporting of at least 70% of the total financial performance indicators.

this is GREAT news.

The companies in the Global 50 include :
Heinz, Cisco, Johnson and Johnson, Vodafone, Baxter, Allianz, Westpac, Nokia, Exxon, Motorola, 3M, P&G, Oracle etc.........

I wonder if this move will give rise to more competition in the CSR arena - more disclosure usually leads to more performance. Also interesting to note that NASDAQ endorses GRI guidelines as a disclosure tool and a factor in the ranking. Well done, Nasdaq.

Guess we all ought to be prepared for a flurry of CSR reports from all Nasdaq Companies who haven't yet boarded the train .......

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

The best of the day from alltop CSR

Thought i would take a break from the Istanbul buzz and check out what's happening on the all-in, all-together, all-inclusive, all-to-all csr page at alltop. 33 sites contribute to making alltop one of the most comprehensive combination of corporate content (see that, alliteration, learnt that in second grade) on sustainability, csr and reporting. What headlines caught my eye?


The Jantzi-Maclean’s Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2009
Jantzi is an independent ESG research firm in Canada and they rank corporations on ESG performance. Macleans is a national weekly current affairs magazine. They produced a list of the top 50 best csr corporations in Canada. Aside from some snippets such as Rio Tinto making the list because their CEO is a woman, the interesting thing about this is Macleans head-to head with Corporate Knights who have been ranking corporations on csr for years and are fairly well branded in this space. Neither ranking, as far as i can tell from the methodology descriptions, includes an evaluation of transparency (existence of accessible information on the corporation's website or existence of a CR report). I think transparency is a core element of responsibility and whilst these two battle out the ownership of the ranking-market, i continue to wonder if these rankings actually fulfil any useful purpose other than PR for the rankers (rankers... careful how you say that ....)


Siemens Sustainability Report 2008 published
An item from csr-news.net. Took a quick look at the report. A mammoth 182 pages, GRI indexed but no application level, UNGC indexed, in double page format which is most frustrating when reading PDF's on line. Looks like a nice report. Good materiality matrix on p35. Nice piece on stakeholder dialogue. Quick eye-catcher: in Nov 2008 (just in time!) Simens appointed a CDO. CDO ? Yes. Chief Diversity Officer. She is charged with developing diversity metrics and performance. Looks like she needs to start at the top, because the managing board structure 's only contribution to the CDO's upcoming diversity program is one guy born in the USA. 7 other board members were born in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. One of the 8 members is a woman. 13.4% of the company's management is female. Guess new CDO has plenty of opportunity.

Orange / France Telecom publishes 2008 CSR Report
A news item from csr europe. Tried to download the report but it crashed my IE three times so i decided to move on and finish up with a headline that i just couldnt ignore

Beyond Corporate Responsibility
By now you will understand my affinity for the Beyond Buzz, and no other than Jeffrey Hollender, Mr Seventh Generation, has produced a truly inspired piece about the ongoing evolution of csr and the imperatives that are imperatively imperative. Jeff says it's not good enough to do less bad. My favourite line in the 10 things we must do section: global warming will not be solved with carbon offsets . how come no-one else figured this out ? At least he didnt recommend giving up ice cream.

and one more thing

Worst Bit of Corporate Gobbledygook of the Day

Shel Horowitz is so right in his take on a Starbucks press release. It's true that i havent given too much thought to the life cycle of a plastic cup and Starbucks does deserve a cup of coffee for thinking that one up, and frankly it amazes me to see how they are so excited about engaging in meaningful dialog about recyclabe cups to revolutionize the packaging industry.Just shows you how many tough decisions sustainability issues give rise to: "Darling, how would you like your coffee? Black or white ? One sugar or two? Post-consumer recycled no-co-mingled zero-carbon-emmission virgin-wood-fiber paper cup or that old cracked mug that i was planning to plant my new cactus in? "

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

Buzz No 3: COP this !

We've gone Beyond, we've been through complicity … now it's time for … coffee… nope, not yet …it's time for COP. Lots of buzz about COP in Istanbul. Actually, there are two types of COP. There is COP, or even notable COP. And COP15. (Don't ask me about COP 2 – 14). So let's make a start with plain ole COP and then move upstage to 15.

COP = Communication On Progress
This is what participants do once they have confirmed their participation in the Global Compact of the United Nations. You all know the Global Compact, right? It's a framework of 10 principles relating to the responsibilities of business to uphold human rights and labor standards, and to work to improve environmental impacts and anti-corruption. The UNGC has over 5,000 participants from all over the world and is supported by a web of networks who advance active application of the principles. It was in this context that I joined the Human Rights Working Group meetings last week in Istanbul. A COP is a mandatory annual communication for participating companies to publish the ways in which they are advancing the UNGC principles. Guidance on how to write a COP can be found here. A "notable" COP is one which the UNGC team finds to be particularly comprehensive and clear, and a model for others, for example here. Finally, businesses which do not communicate get kicked out. Which is as it should be, right ? COP is a kind of voluntary corporate disclosure, i.e. a report, which means that COPs fit perfectly into this reporting blog. Might just do a little COP analysis over the next few weeks. Once i get past the buzz.

COP15 = Copenhagen 15
This is way the climate-connected refer to the meeting which will take place in Copenhagen (COPenhagen .. COP … get it ? ), the United Nations Climate Change Conference on December 7 to December 18, 2009. It's a kinda climate change annual hot spot (geez, that pun thing again). The Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in 1997, sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the rate of an average 5% against 1990 levels between 2008-2012. At the 13th conference in Bali it was decided to work towards an agreement for the subsequent years. This agreement is to be negotiated in Copenhagen in 2009. Stakes are pretty high, it seems, as the influences on emission reduction decisions are dominated by economic-geo-political decisions, especially relating to China and India. By now, if you follow my blog, you will realize that I am not terribly competent about things environmental, so I contented myself with a quick look at the conference guide. Connie Hedegaard, the Danish Minister for Climate and Energy says : “We must move the world from an era of talk to an era of change” In this spirit, it is important to know that attending Heads of State will be offered eco-friendly transportation, and other conference travel will be offset. Towels in hotels will be shared on a one-to-four-rooms basis, and specially constructed conference seating will enable participants to peddle in-situ to generate energy to power their laptops. (so what if I got a little carried away). Follow the conference on Twitter , Facebook , take the climate quiz (I got 7 out of 10, which proves that this quiz was designed with first graders in mind, and it helps if you are Danish). I can't help being impressed with the locations of all these climate change conferences: Berlin, Rio, Kyoto, Bali, Copenhagen, New Delhi, Poznan, Marrakesh, Milan, Nairobi, Montreal etc … how about next year in Darfur, Mogadishu, Gaza, Karachi, Teheran or Baghdad ? Anyway, you have until Dec 7 to place your bets on COP15 outcomes. Cop that?

What else was buzzing in Istanbul ? Stick around to find out. It was a really buzzful week.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

Buzz No 2: Complicity aka the Ostrich Defense

Buzz number 2 from the Global Compact meetings in Istanbul : Complicity.
Websters definition: com·plic·i·ty
1 : association or participation in or as if in a wrongful act 2 : an instance of complicity

So here you will understand that complicity always has an association with something negative or wrong. Like, its bad, ok ? And in the context of sustainabilty, and human rights in particular, complicity is an important concept. And one which came up several times in the course of discussions on labor standards and human rights at the Global Compact Human Rights Working Group Meetings last week in Istanbul. This reminds me of a fashion show with the theme of sustainability that my client comme il faut staged last year. All the models in the fashion show walked the walk with their hands over their ears, eyes and mouth, denouncing corporate and even consumer attitudes. Hear not, speak not, see not. As though what we ignore doesn’t exist.

.

This has been pretty much the attitude of corporations over the years in relation to human rights in their operations and their supply chains, and the way the products they produce are used. The assumption was that if you outsourced it, it was no longer your responsibility. If you sold it, it was the buyer's responsibility. If you passed on the responsibility, then you were left with none. Well, the concept of complicity blows this notion right off the validity radar.

Let's take a first look at what is expected of corporations with respect to human rights. The mother document for human rights is of course the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. This was approved in 1948. Ever read it? Did you know that you had ALL THOSE rights, just be virtue of being you? I would be a little interested, if I were you. (I proposed that the UN add the right to a daily serving of Chunky Monkey, but the High Commissioner has yet to pronounce on that one). I had to smile at the recent Marks and Spencer plc CR Report 2009 which states on page 38: "Our employment policies meet the requirements of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Sorry, M&S. The UDHR is not an Employee Handbook. For a start, it doesn’t contain dates of all the office parties for the next 5 years. Wonder how many of the M&S Human Resources team actually read the UDHR . Still, full marks for good intentions, eh ? (oops, bad pun, get it ?)

What M&S should have referred to is the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Adopted in 1998, this " is an expression of commitment by governments, employers' and workers' organizations to uphold basic human values - values that are vital to our social and economic lives." The ILO declaration is based on 8 conventions "that should be considered as fundamental because they protect basic workers rights".
These are:

• Freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining
• The elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor
• The effective abolition of child labor
• The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation

The Labor Principles of the Global Compact ( principles 3 – 6) are the expression of these principles with regard to the responsibility of businesses. But then, you all knew that, right ?

So what does this mean for corporations and where does complicity come in to the picture?
Well, this post by Christine Arena, author of the High Purpose Company, one of the best books around and worth a read, makes reference to the $15.5million settlement by Royal Dutch Shell who was accused of complicity in the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and others in Nigeria. Shell didn’t actually order the executions nor is there any evidence to suggest they were directly involved. But there is plenty of evidence, including letters of thanks to those who made ole Ken's life a little difficult, to suggest that Shell not only knew what was going on but privately encouraged the oppression of the Ogoni tribe's opposition to Shell's activities in Ogoniland.

Another example: Nike's Indonesia Manager, then John Woodman, is quoted as saying back in 1994, when asked about problems at the company's subcontracted plants. "I don't know that I need to know," he explained. "It's not within our scope to investigate.". This was termed "The Ostrich Defense". Wonder why?! Nike's tune is a somewhat different now of course. And there are many more examples and many more quotes. But I gotta end this long post sometime before the end of this century, and I think I have made my point.

There are clear frameworks for upholding human and labor rights in all parts of a business's operations. Corporations must make it their business to know, and be responsible for, and account for, what goes on in their supply chains. And I have just skimmed the surface of this complex subject.

But back to complicity. This is a good piece by Amnesty International. If you are really keen. When you think that there are STILL 12.3 million people in forced labor, and STILL 218 million, yes, 218 million kids, in child labor, then you kinda get that complicity still plays a role in our supply chains around the world.

Next post. Chunky Monkey. Oops, sorry, not. Something else from Istanbul. Betcha can't wait to find out, right ?

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

Beyond Global Compact

Beyond is the new buzz. Yep. It's here to stay. Beyond now. Beyond today. Beyond signifies that infinite space of possibilities that create our collective sustainable future. (geez, did I overdose on Cherry Garcia or something? Doesn’t that sound pathetic?) Well let me explain…
I just returned from 3 days attending an ILO workshop and the Human Rights working Group meetings of the United Nations Global Compact in Istanbul. I will be blogging about this in more detail over the next week or so, so stay tuned. But my first of many is about the Beyond buzz. This is the new word to describe everything positive, innovative and sustainable.

Go Beyond
Allow me introduce you to Mas Holdings and the MAS Go Beyond program. This is the brainchild of the most charming and accomplished man, Mr Ravi Fernando, whom I had the privilege of meeting this week in Istanbul after our cyber acquaintance. Ravi was until recently the Director Corporate Branding & Strategic Sustainability at MAS Holdings Ltd. MAS Holdings is one of Sri Lanka’s largest apparel manufacturers, employing more than 45,000 people in 28 factories in several countries and annual revenues of US$700 million. 5 years ago, Ravi started out on a path of empowering the women of MAS to "Go Beyond". 80% of MAS employees are women. MAS are leading bra manufacturers. (It turns out that bras are pretty complicated to make. A bra has between 20 and 48 parts, including the cups, lining, bands, straps and hooks. No wonder they are so darn uncomfortable! Perhaps we should have burned them after all….). Anyhow, the MAS program is based on supporting career advancement, strengthening work-life balance and rewarding excellence. It has changed the lives of many women and empowered them to go beyond to "transcend hardship and adverse social conditions to achieve great heights". The program has been an unrivalled success, the subject of two INSEAD case studies (link here for abstract) . Ravi presented me with a wonderful book published by MAS Holdings, containing very moving stories of 95 women who have suceeded with program. The book is sold and proceeds go to the Go Beyond program. Here are some quotes from the Go Beyond women:

• "Pushpa's mother died from complications at childbirth, and her life has been a struggle almost from day one. Tragically at just 13, she became a child bride, given in marriage so that she would no longer be a burden on her family…." Pushpa has also survived cancer of the throat. She is now a Line Leader at Mas Active.
• "It chills the soul to imagine the despair that could drive a mother to abandon her baby, and it is almost incomprehensible that anyone could have left an infant at the foot of a rubbish dump, where baby Dhamnika was discovered by a passing stranger …." Dhamnika is now a Line Leader at Mas Slimtex.
• "With her mother away working in the Middle East, it was Suweeja and her brothers who built their house. The children made the bricks themselves, carrying buckets of water from the village well.. " Suweeja is now an operator at Mas Leisureline

It's hard to do justice to this program in a short blog post, but it is breathtakingly awesome. (Link here to a paper published by IFC )

Beyond Monitoring Working Group
This is a working group led by BSR and participating companies in the UNGC network to review monitoring procedures in the supply chain.which, by and large, have not created the improvements that heavy investments in monitoring should merit. The group has come up with proposals which are currently being reviewed and finalized so I won't share them here, but watch this space, as there are some exceptionally sharp insights and process improvements to drive a more effective way of creating sustainable supply chains.

Beyond Essential
The term used by BLIHR in a publication introducing the Human Rights Matrix which is a web-based self-assessment tool, to support companies understanding human rights and manage human rights programs and performance. Beyond essential (see this for the essentials) is essentially (oops!) beyond compliance, a term we're all used to by now, right ?

Beyond Business
No surprise that this term was very popular indeed. Every time I introduced myself in each of the different sessions, and to a whole host of impressive people I met over the three days, I said Hello, I am elaine from Beyond Business. Beyond Business is the name of my consulting firm. Hah! A plug!

So which Beyond came first ? We won't be so presumptuous as to think that Beyond Business was the inspiration for all the other beyonds, but we are certainly very happy to be up there in the buzz.

Any yes, you've guessed it, B&J's next flavor is most definitely going to be…..
Beyond Chunky Monkey!

Stick around for more from the Global Compact meetings……

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

Women in the supply chain squeeze

A report launched in February this year - cashing in - from cleanclothes.org (which i recently picked up from Eldis ) is quite a sight - or should i say quite a fright.(Ok, so Emily Dickinson i am not!) It's about the way 5 major global retailers such as Walmart, Tesco, Carrefour, Lidl, and Aldi drive prices down by pressuring suppliers ,using their mighty purchasing power. Who pays the price ? The women caught up in this supply chain squeeze.

One thing we perhaps don't realise is that these major global retailers are not just about groceries (and ice cream) A large portion of their revenue is from clothes and their contribution to the global apparel industry has transformed availability, pricing, sourcing , quality and supply chain squeezes. In a previous post i talked about the Intel ripple (meaning the indirect impacts of their business activities). Well, these retailer guys have some big ripple. They account for $54 billion clothes and footwear sales - 6% of global market total. In the UK, 25% of clothing is bought from retailer groceries.

The report shows that the higher the share of the retail market a retailer has, the lower the price paid to suppliers. Is that what's called economy of scale ? It also refers to how these retailer "giants" have confirmed (in their impressive CR reports) commitments to uhpolding human rights in their suppy chains and to ethical business. The report goes on to discuss actual working conditions in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India. In each of these countries, the garment industry represents a significant proportion of their GDP and economic welfare. There is a significant discussion about wages, as you might expect, and the difference between a legal minum wage and a living wage - disheartening figures are reported relating not only to avoidance of paying legal minimum wage (including adding unpaid or low paid overtime hours,, fake payslips etc) to complete lack of attention to the fact that even the mimimum wage is not enough to provide basic needs. Other aspects of worker exploitation such as opposition to freedom of association or employment of contract workers on long term temporary contracts are discussed at length.
Finally we get to the real squeeze: 80% of garment workers are women.
"Far from lifting women out of poverty, the Giants are cashing in on it. " the report concludes.

The report's recommendations to address these issues are pretty straighforward: enhance, expand and enforce auditing, legislate, take responsibility. But isnt that something we already understood ? Will this create change ? One area the report fails to address is the power of consumerism. As long as we want fast fashion, retailers will continue to compete using fast fashion rules which dictate low prices, fast response times, poor quality, low wages, abuse of human rights.

Is this what consumers want ? What made Nike turn its operations around over 10 years ago? Was it an activist response to little 12-year old Tariq who was employed in inhumane conditions appearing on the cover of Life Magazine ? Did consumers drive the change ? Why don't consumers demand change ? Why don't consumers force a retailers to reassess of the relative elements in supply chain costs for greater equitability ? Does anyone care if women are in the supply chain squeeze ? Do other women care ?

We should all care - the plight of women such as these costs the world economy trillions of $$. Exploitation and depression of women is not a women's issue - its a citizenship issue affecting men, children and all of us, whatever gender. Because women, responsibly employed, are the world's wealth generators. As you can probably tell, this is a subject i am passionate about, and could write hundreds more blog pages about this. But instead, in order to avoid the risk of boring my avid readership (thank you both!) , i took a look at Tesco's recently issued CR report, published in May 2009. 6 pages on supply chain and ethical trading (of a total 59). Not surpisingly, there is nothing about repeated concerns expressed to Tesco about supply chain abuses and the Tesco response to these. Overall non-food represents 8.8% of Tesco revenue, worth 12.5 billion sterling and is an area of strategic growth. Of this, clothing is probably a small fraction, so it is probably not material to Tesco, right ? Especially when there are over a million women directly involved in subsidizing this growth. And many more on an indirect basis.

Wow, what a long post this turned out to be. if you got this far, you win the csr-reporting blog stamina award. What's the prize ? You guessed it. A week's supply of Chunky Monkey.
(But you have to buy it yourself....)

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

What's your financial personality? Ask Barclays Bank

Barclays Bank CSR report 2008. I was looking at this report in prepareation of my review for CorporateRegister.com and came accross this : determining clients' financial personality. Based on the fact that wealth means different things to different people, they say, Barclay's profile high-wealth clients and use this profile in determining the most appropriate investment package. Some would say this is the ultimate in best practice for ensuring a personalised and relevant customer experience. I thought it could lead to some very interesting transactions. Here are some possible applications of this approach, using the Myers Briggs personality typology with the help of the Personality Page:

ESTJ: Practical, traditional, and organized. Likely to be athletic:
Recommendation: invest in Home Depot, Timberland, Patagonia and Nike

ENFP: Enthusiastic, idealistic, and creative. Able to do almost anything that interests them. Great people skills.
Recommendation: invest in Barack Obama

ISTJ: Serious and quiet, interested in security and peaceful living
Recommendation: invest in UNICEF, LOHAS and the International Center for Reiki training

INTJ: Independent, original, analytical, and determined. Have an exceptional ability to turn theories into solid plans of action.
Recommendation: Invest in Madonna, Virgin Airlines, Microsoft and Google

ESFJ: Warm-hearted, popular, and conscientious.Interested in serving others.
Recommendation: invest in the Queen of England

ESFP: People-oriented and fun-loving, they make things more fun for others by their enjoyment
Recommendation: invest in Southwest Airlines and yes, you guessed it, ICE CREAM, invest in Ben and Jerrys

For a more serious look at financial personality types see this article

I tried to analyse my own financial personality and it came out somewhere between manic depressive and ADHD, so i guess i will stick to analysing CR reports and let Barclays do their stuff.

Barclays is a serious CR practitioner, supporting all key global initiatives such as UNGC, the Equator Principles, the Carbon Disclosure Project, and the UN Principles for Responsible Investment . Serving 48 MILLION customers, they have a far-reaching impact on local economics around the world. They are a highly transparent reporter, though if you want to read my take on their report, you will have to check back to CorporateRegister.com in the next couple of weeks.

For now, i think i will adopt an ESFP personality .... who locked the fridge ?

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

Turtle Soup, anyone ? First report from Jumeirah Group

Every so often, you are reading a CR report and something just makes you stop and sit back and think: WOW. Well here in Israel, I think Wow. Maybe in other countries you think something else. Anyway, this happened to me today. I was taking a look at the Jumeirah Group's first CR report for the year 2008. Jumeirah, for the uninitiated, is a hotel and leisure resort group in the UAE based in Dubai.
(I once participated in a belly-dancing event somewhere in the desert near Dubai - needless to say it was fortunate that no-one brought a camera).
Jumeirah have produced a very good first report, clear, comprehensive and credible. There were many things that stuck me as good practice, but one particular case study generated that WOW.

Jumeirah report on their wildlife protection program aimed at saving turtles. They have established a "Madinat Jumeirah turtle rehabilitation unit"as a pilot project organised in conjunction with the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, England. Sick or injured turtles that were brought to veterinarians by members of the public are referred on to the Wildlife Protection Office, and then brought to a large enclosure in the sea-water canals of the Mina A’ Salam hotel. The time spent there allows for a final period of feeding and monitoring the turtles before releasing them back into UAE territorial waters. In December 2007, 12 turtles were rehabilitated and more are expected. Some turtles are fixed with tracking devices which monitor their journey, providing valuable behavioural information for scientists.

Wow, i thought. How cool. I recall a corporate program i once ran to clean a river in Israel which was a migration point for soft-back turtles. Maybe that's why i liked this story so much.

Got me wondering if any of the turtles escape to the swimming pool, or worse, the poolside jaccuzzi. Oy, what a thought. Just add a little salt and pepper, bring on a few bread rolls, and poolside lunch is served to all Miná Salam's guests. Hope i havent offended any vegetarians, that WAS a joke. Though i am a little peckish .......

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

HRM and CSR - a match made in heaven ?

Marginally off-topic - but relevant to the cause .... So all you reporting buffs, please bear with me.

I am writing a book on the role of Human Resources Management and the way HRM interacts with and supports the CSR strategy and practices of a business. A kind of guide for the Human Resources Manager. Having served as a Country VP HR in a global company for several years, and assumed responsiblity also for promoting the Company's CSR programs, and now through my interactions as a consultant to businesses, this is a mix that i have many insights about that i would like to share. I have opened up the first chapter of the book for public review prior to completion and publication, and would welcome any form of input.

For those who are interested, you can download the first chapter here: http://tinyurl.com/ppd4d8

Second chapter available on request for those who are really keen !!!!

thanks in advance !

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz

What's your ripple ? Intel can help ...

Intel, the silicon giant in every pc, has just published their 2008 CR report. 108 pages of completely hyperlinked and totally-a-pleasure- to-navigate PDF. Haven't read it yet. AHA! so what are you doing blogging about it ? i hear you ask. Well, i have quite a backlog of reports to review (see corporateregister.com/reviews for this year's reviews) (plug!), so i thought i would share one teeny weeny insight from the briefest of peeps into Intel's world of CR. Impacts. That's what CR is all about. Understanding impacts and taking responsibility for them.

Now, my world is simple. I divide impacts into two types: direct impacts and indirect impacts. Most reporting Companies report on direct impacts, a few on indirect impacts. But lo-and-behold, Intel reports on FOUR impacts.

• Direct impacts -defined as : Intel sells products, provides above-average wages to employees, and pays taxes.
• Indirect impacts - defined as: Intel pays suppliers and creates business for resellers, who in turn generate employment.
• Induced impacts - defined as : Consumer spending by Intel employees and supplier and partner employees stimulates additional economic activity.
• Productivity Impacts - defined as : The use of Intel products and our technology leadership result in productivity gains in the economy.

This is the model Intel uses to calculate the economic ripple effect of the producion of a product or service. A study commissioned by Intel to review their ripple showed as follows:

"...... between 2001 and 2007, Intel contributed $758 billion to the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Of this total, $458 billion was stimulated by Intel’s operations and $300 billion was attributable to our productivity-based impact. Intel’s presence resulted in more than 823,000 U.S. jobs in 2007, including 45,600 direct jobs, 151,000 workers employed by Intel business partners, and 627,000 indirect jobs resulting from consumer spending by Intel employees and Intel’s business partners." Pretty big numbers, eh ? And great reporting. Thumbs up to Intel.

I would recommend you to take a little ripple-review of the Intel report, it's out there in a league all of its own, i think. Though i still haven't read the rest of it yet, i did just ripple over to the community section to see if there is a social ripple calculation, but not yet, apparently. Despite some quite advanced SROI (social return on investment) calculation methodologies available, Intel's community reporting is not quite rippling, it's about inputs not outputs and doesn't got for gold with an attempt at reporting outcomes. Still ... there is room for optimism, right ? I am sure Intel will keep on rippling.

Anyway, those of you who follow my blog know that i am very fond of ripples - usually they come in the form of a chocolate flavor swirl in the midst of a big blob of ice cream. However, in this case, I will defer to the real ripple of the day and congratulate Intel on their new report. OK. Let's do both. Bring on the Chunky Monkey.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz

What's in a note ? Note this with aviva plc

I was just getting settled into a fascinating read of the Aviva plc 2009 CR report (yes, i always start out thinking reports are going to facinate me) and preparation for a review to be published on CorporateRegister.com. Aviva plc is , they claim, the first insurance company to be carbon neutral across their worldwide operations. But i just couldn't resist pausing to note an innovative feature of their on-line report which i have never seen ever ever ever before. Sorry if i get a little overenthusiastic, but you know, this is my thing. Anyway, take a look at this . Yes, it's a notes page. It enables you to make a note on any section of the report you have viewed , and the note is retained for the next time you go to the site and wonder what notes you made. Now, this is a very useful thing for people like me who review reports, for analysts who want to retain info pertinent to performance and growth drivers, and for anyone who just wants to remember anything without having to rely on the hard disk. This is a very innovative approach to on-line reporting.
I think i will start a campaign with world-wide regulators for mandatory inclusion of this feature in every web-based CR report.

OK, off to make lots of notes ......

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz

The king of denim

Last week, I had the most enlightening conversation with the Director of Sustainability and the initiator of the Hong Kong Sustainable Fashion Business Consortium, (SFBC) Mr Pat Nie Woo (Pat to us Westerners).
Pat is the most charming of gentlemen and gave generously of his time and insights to assist me with a new initiative I am planning in the Israeli market. However, what really blew me away was the scope and depth of Pat's insights into how to get more people aware and moving towards a sustainable world which includes responsible and sustainable business practices.

Pat is a the Sustainability Director of a family owned six-sigma spinning and weaving business called Central Textiles in Hong Kong. He is also third generation family engaged in the running of the business. CT is a major player in the Hong Kong textiles and apparel sector, and leads a range of sustainability initiatives. I reviewed the first CT Sustainability Report on CorporateRegister.com – you can find my review here : http://tiny.cc/i6RDo and you can download the report here: http://tiny.cc/CbqDx . This is quite leading edge.

Pat described his journey as the founding member of the SFBC whose mission is as follows: " a group of Hong Kong based companies in the textile and apparel sector committed to promoting and increasing the use of sustainable practices across the fashion supply chain. " The Consortium comprises around 12 member companies who are engaged and committed to work together to drive processes in the textile supply chain which are impossible for one company to do alone. This total systems thinking and partnership-multi-stakeholder based approach is the most advanced expression of sustainable thinking today.

A few of Pat's quotable insights:

" A year or two ago, everyone presented new products as eco when it only related to the raw material , but why wasn't anyone talking about process? You have to work on the whole supply chain"
"The system is the problem – the system is not allowing a sustainable business model – everyone has to play a part to play in changing the system."
"At first we started out with great ideals, but if you don’t bring on the business case, the ideals get stuck!"

Well, Pat is certainly a guy who doesn’t let ideals get stuck, so next time you buy a pair of denim jeans, take a look and see if they came out of the sort of responsible and sustainable supply chain that Pat Nie Woo and his colleagues at the Sustainable Fashion Business Consortium are creating.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz

the climate at Harvard - and ice-cream

Harvard students are showing their commitment to climate change and emissions reduction in this report of the Harvard Climate Collaborative. Whilst this is not strictly a Sustainability Report, which this blog is all about, it is a report, right ? And i believe it is quite a UNIQUE report which shows the engagement of students in sustainability issues and their leadership in taking action. As these young bright Harvardlings move into leadership roles in society, their positive impacts will undoubtedly contine to be felt. Well done gals and guys!

CSR in academia is now becoming mainstream. This is the crux of CSR in business over the long term. The degree to which the student agenda generates awareness and engagement with CSR as a way of doing business will define the shape and impact of business in the future. I spend a LOT of time lecturing to students and young business people - more often than not, my lecture is the first time they get a comprehensive overview of CSR and its P-P-P relevance (as well as the importance of ice-cream as a life-sustaining mind-enhancing essential food :) ). My hope is that they takeCSR on board as their personal agenda in roles they perform in their future career.

I believe CSR should be mandatory as part of all MBA's and Business degree programs.

In the meantime, well, at least we have ice cream ....

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz

the world is in trouble - i need to go on a diet

I cam across this headline from the Sun, Fatties cause global warming whilst browsing Martin Smiths updates on JustMeans.com. Overweight people cause over a BILLION tons of Co2, the article says. And then there is a picture of a polar bear looking all forlorn on a melting block of ice. Talk about emotional blackmail.

So I guess i am in serious trouble. Another reason to start that long overdue diet again. The tomorrow diet. Not only am i overweight, i am the cause of global warming. Will my kids ever forgive me ? Will polar bears become extinct because of me ? Will the world ever survive my ice-cream binges and my chocolate cravings ? I take comfort in the fact that the sum of our individual actions can never be enough to resolve our climate issues -it's a SYSTEMIC problem which has to be fixed by all of us acting together.

So i took a stroll to the Weightwatchers International dot com website, the specialists in weight loss in groups. "Each week, approximately 1.5 million people attend approximately 50,000 Weight Watchers meetings " Now, if each of these people lose 2lbs a month, thats 36 million lbs in weight loss and i bet that would offset my few extra layers of puppy fat.(Yes, it's still puppy fat ). Perhaps Weightwatchers could offer a carbon trading program, so that i dont need to actually diet, i can just buy back some weightwatchers carbon credits. How cool. Of course, the problem with weight loss is that it tends to creep back again - but let's not go THERE. Not a thing about Corporate Social Responsibility on the WW website. They obviously havent picked up on the PR value of marketing WW as a climate change program and not just a weight and health thing. Phew.

A Company who does address obesity as part of its sustainability program is Unilever. You can download a report on the 10 major food companies and their approach to obesity from the Unilever website here. This is a very interesting report on all the facets of tacking obesity from the way product R&D is driven , marketing, especially to children, and transparency and disclosure. Danone, Unilever, Nestle and Kellogg score well on addressing and reporting on obesity as part of their sustainability strategy.

Ok, so now i have confessed my personal embarrassment at being the cause of global warming, i think i deserve a little low-calorie snack. Where did i put that chunk of triple-layer smooth-fudge whipped-cream-topped high-density chocolate cake ? hmmm ?

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz

How transparent is your Company ?

This month saw the publication of the first Transparency Index in Israel.

This is the first ever Index of its kind in Israel (in the WORLD ?) and uses a proprietary methodology aligned with the GRI Reporting Framework to measure the website transparency of the leading 100 publicly traded Companies of the Tel Aviv 100 Index. The research was conducted by Beyond Business Ltd, the leading CSR consulting and reporting firm in Israel. (Quite a coincindence, but this is the Company i co-founded and co-manage :)) )
Transparency is a core and critical element of a sustainable Company.

The four dimensions of TRANSPARENCY which were reviewed are:

Presence of a sustainability report (50% of total score):
The publication, the type and the transparency level of sustainability, CR or CSR report, including partial focused reports, on the Company website

Transparency (30% of total score):
The presentation and degree of transparency on the website of a range of reporting topics such as: business profile and strategy, governance, CR management, ethics and human rights, stakeholder dialog, presentation of material issues, workplace, customers, marketing and products, suppliers and supply chain, community involvement and environment.

Navigation (10% of total score):
The number of click to CR subjects, search facility, aggregation of CR information on the website, menu availability and site map

Accessibility (10% of total score):
Languages, facilities for those with disabilities, contact points, additional (interactive) blog or video materials

So what did we find ?

• the level of transparency of Israeli traded companies is 31%
• the level of transparency of the leading 20 companies with 80% market value is 34%
• only 5% of Companies had a score of 50% or more
• 7% of companies had ZERO transparency
• leading transparent sector was banks – 52% median transparency
• lowest transparent sector as fashion and apparel – 7% median transparency
• smaller companies have lower transparency – bottom 10 companies demonstrated 9% transparency – 0.6% of total market value
• navigation has the highest relative score (50%) , then accessibility (34%). Relatively only 24% of content is actual CR related disclosures.
  
  The most transparent companies:
  1. Bank Hapoalim
  2. Strauss Group
  3. Bank Leumi
  4. Partner Communications
  5. Oil Refineries

Transparency Awards were presented to these 5 Companies at the Third Israeli Reporting Conference on 4th May 2009 in Caesarea, Israel.

A full summary of the Transparency Index results will be published on the Beyond Business website within the next week. For further details, or to commission a transparency index for your Company or market, please contact me at elainec@b-yond.biz

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz

BIG HIT for 3rd Israel Reporting conference

Technorati Profile

The Third Israeli Social and Environmental Reporting Conference was a resounding success!!

Held in the historic city of Caesarea on 4th May, this was the third annual reporting conference hosted by BeyondBusiness Ltd and drew close to 200 participants. This is the only professional conference in Israel on CSR reporting and has enjoyed the support of the Global Reporting Initiative each year. This year, it was the turn of Leena Wokeck, the GRI Network Relations Coordinator to come and address the conference – her presentation on a common language for sustainability can be found here. More papers and presentations here: And here are some other highlights.

A range of accomplished speakers presented at the conference. First and foremost, Mr Herman Mulder, former Director-General of Risk Management at ABN AMRO and the initiator of the Equator Principles. Mr Mulder provided insights about the current financial crisis and the changes required of businesses, which includes mandatory self-regulation, which means a requirement to report and be transparent but not highly constricting regulation such as the Sarbanex Oxley framework which became a bureaucratic box ticking exercise rather than a cultural transformation.

Other speakers included Professor Yedidia Stern. His fascinating lecture on the purpose of corporations propounded that "management of today's corporate capitalism, which encourages excessively risky economic policy" and that shareholders are the ones who demand excessive risk-taking as they have nothing to lose.

Dr Ehud Kookia, CEO of Maccabi Health Services, described the way he is driving csr in his 10,000 people organization and creating public awareness with a expired-drug-return program to avoid unwanted drugs getting into our waste systems and causing environmental damage.

Ahuva Yanai, the CEO of Matan- your way to give, the leading non-profit supporting business and community involvement programs talked about the value of such programs to corporations.
Dr Oren Peretz and Adv Ayalet BarAm presented a proposal developed in parternship with BeyondBusiness for a new law to mandate csr reporting for all government-owned companies.
The Reporters Report panel included representatives from Intel Israel, Bromine Compunds, Bank Leumi and comme il faut who described the way reporting has contributed to their overall business success.

Finally, Elaine Cohen, joint CEO of BeyondBusiness presented the first ever Transparency Index of Israeli companies. BeyondBusiness researched the internet transparency of the 100 top Companies traded on the Tel Aviv stock exchange, and, using a proprietary methodology developed around GRI principles, published the transparency levels of each company. Beyond Business presented certficates to the top 5 companies – Bank Hapoalim, Strauss, Bank Leumi, Partner Communications and the Oil Refineries, all of whom achieved high relative levels of transparency – more about this in a future post.

You can view pictures from the conference here


elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz

is sex a renewable resource ?

i stumbled upon an interesting aspect of sustainability - an aspect about which i have not yet found a sustainability report that offers a comprehensive transparent disclosure (exposure?) of this sector. Yes, you guessed : sustainable love... sustainable sex ..." a green philosophy of relationships which teaches the importance of valuing the renewable resources of love and family" quoted from www.goodcleanlove.com, Wendy Strgar's company site, marketing sex aids and accessories including personal lubricants, massage and pleasure objects, love flower perfumes, body desserts and more ..

Love and family ... renewable resources, eh ? Wonder how much love and family it would take to operate a power plant. Or fuel a train from New York to Las Vegas . Well, if all it takes to save the planet is lots and lots of sex, using parabens-free lubricants and environmentally packaged vibrators, then why isnt everyone doing it ? (or maybe everybody IS and i just caught on a little late...)(as usual) :((

Taking a deeper look, or to put it another way, penetrating harder, into Wendy's love nest, i discovered that "Good Clean Love is an approved Coop America Green Company" (green sex? has a kinda orgasmic ring to it, doesnt it ?), and that "by helping women to create and sustain strong families, we make the world a more loving place. " Great, Wendy is a feminist as well as a "loveologist". Wendy replaces the use of petrochemical and parabens in intimacy products, turning love-making into a truly sustainable experience (and you all thought that Viagra was the only solution).

I thought i had just better check that there wasnt actually a sustainability report in the sex sector, so i did a quick search for sex on www.corporateregister.com and to my dismay all i came up with was Wessex Water plc and West Sussex County Council. Oh well, good to know that there is some element of reporting that comes close to containing sex.

Actually, i came to this sustainability revelation when my daily Google Alert threw up an interesting headling referring me to Andy Krolls piece on fox news dot com. He takes us on a tour of eco-friendly biodegradable condoms, solar powered vibrators and organic lubricants. Though he does recommend safety over sustainability when it comes to natural lambskin condoms. He didnt mention if he was talking from experience.

I wonder why GoodCleanLove has not yet produced a sustainability report. Perhaps just a little more renewable love is needed to fuel that process ? The positive impacts of sex appear to be clear. Wendy writes in Green Girls Global blog: "Hundreds of major medical studies have shown that an active sex life leads to a longer life, better heart health, a healthier immune response, reduction in chronic pain symptoms, lower rates of depression and even protection against some cancers. " Plenty of materiality and positive indirect impacts to report on here. And it is heartening to know that all i have to do to stay healthy is never get out of bed.

Now dont be sceptical. I mean, take Good Clean Love's New Cocoa Mint Body Dessert-smooth and creamy, all natural and organic butters and oils blended with organic Egyptian cocoa. Low calorie, too, apparently. I wonder how many kilos of that you can consume during a quickie before the kids get home ?

I couldnt leave the GLC site without a quick look at the number one selling sex-aid - the v-i-b-r-a-t--o-r. I discovered an amazing array of ergonomically designed shapes, some of which you can even plug into your ipod for the ultimate ergonomusical erotic experience. I wonder if they run on rechargeable bateries? Or are they powered by OTC lubes because "everything works better when it is well oiled".

So come on, GoodCleanLove... put your money where your passion candles are and lets see that first sustainability report. We are looking for a model of transparency. Or to use the professional jargon, bare all!


elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !Technorati Profile

Cuppa, anyone ?

I just returned from a vacation in north Manchester, where i grew up. Aside from my family, and Coronation Street (there are some that would say there is a resemblance :)), there are only two things i miss and which are unavailable in Israel. Bisto and Tetley tea. You just can't get a great cuppa in Israel. So, as i enjoy sipping my round-bag Tetley, the nostalgic taste of my adolescence, i wondered about the reporting practices of this iconic brand. Tetley is number one in the UK and Canada, number two in Australia and three in the US. So i am in good tea-sipping company.

The Tetley.co.uk site is not terribly revealing BUT i note that Teltey tea is ethically traded. "Growing and producing tea provides a livelihood for millions of people around the world. Assuring their living and working conditions is very important to us, and we manage this through our membership of a growing international organisation called the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP). This is a non commercial alliance of 18 international tea packers who believe in a shared responsibility for the social and ethical conditions involved in the sourcing of tea." Other than this positive revelation, the 2 pager on corporate information - the media pack - contains a page on ethical, environmental and social impacts. Wonder why they think only the press would be interested in this ? But no CSR report. What a disappointment.

However, another revelation, at the bottom of the website there is a tag: A TATA Enterprise.

Aha! So, Tetley's belongs to Tata.

So by now you know that i dont like to leave my tea-bags hanging in mid-air, so i take a trip to CorporateRegister.com where i find Tata Tea's 2007-2008 Tata Tea Sustainability Report. I am impressed with the references to "holistic" management and "social awakening" - tea is really quite a spiritual thing, apparently. "In an attempt to migrate the Tata Tea brand medium of physical and emotional rejuvenation to a platform of intellectual and social awakening", Tata launched an award winning social marketing campaign. I am very gratified. Now i can not only enjoy my ethical cuppa, but i can be rejuvenated as well. Though organic instant tea isnt really my cup of tea. (Yes, that was a pun). Tata Tea is a Global Compact signatory, which is positive, and 100% of instant tea waste goes to the biofuel gasifier, which produces 200 tons of steam power per day to run the plants. A 54 page report written along GRI guidelines with an index and a UNGC index, this is a nice report and presents a credible picture of the way Tata and Tetley make my cuppa. Tata Group is a massive enterprise, in diverse sectors, turning over around $62 billion and employing around 350,000 people. So to have a focused report on their tea business is quite a refreshing surprise. Quite rejuvenating.

Makes me wonder about Tata-Tetley's indirect impacts - I mean - what do people do with tea-bags AFTER use ? How do Tata-Tetley influence consumer behaviour to manage tea-bag waste ecologically ? This site has some answers. Including soothing your eyes, curing your warts, scenting your drawers, mainating your meat, cleaning your mirrors and removing old polish from wood furniture. Removing old polish ? Oy, what is it doing to my intestines ?

Bisto (aaaaaaaaaaaah Bisto!. Remember those great TV ads ?), is less transparent but . Owned by Premier Foods, the CSR report is a 4 pager covering the headlines - Ethical Trading Initiative, WRAP for reduction of packaging weights, governance, employee practices, and adherence to the Five-Fold Environmental Ambition of the Food and Drink Federation. Good stuff on the whole. I am not tempted to think about what you can do with unused gravy, but Bisto makers could go that extra drop to make their sustainability a little more transparent.

Anyway, now that i am back home, awakened and rejuvenated, no warts, clean mirrors, depolished intestines and with full ethical gravy availability, i am glad that my nostalgic shopping spree was highly sustainable. Now, where did i put that used tea bag ..........

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

how many people does it take to write 19 winning reports ?

CorporateRegister.com has just published the results of the second global on-line reporting competition – CRReportingAwards08. Vodafone picked up THREE awards – "best overall report", "best credibility through assurance" and "best relevance and materiality". I guess this does prove the point that long reports win awards. 377 pages of CSR. This is the second year for Vodafone as top reporter. They deserve it. As far as I can remember, I voted for them too!

Anyway, I did a quick analysis:

• 9 categories, 3 awards per category = 27 awards
• 27 awards went to 19 reports. Vodafone, BP and Shell each took three awards, Coca Cola and Bayer each took two awards.
• 2,111 pages of reporting is the sum of the 19 winning reports. The top nine first place reports weighed in with 818 pages = 38% of all the reporting pages in the winning reports. Average report length 111 pages.
• 16 of the 19 reports are based on the GRI reporting framework = 84%
• 8 reports are GRI A+, 3 are B or B+, 1 is C and 4 undeclared levels.
• 8 reports were application level checked by the GRI
• 10 reports are assured = 53% of the number of winning reports
• USA wins the race with 6 reports, UK next with 5, Germany 3, Denmark 2, Spain , France and Australia 1 report each.
• With the exception of the winner in the Best First Report category, only one other first place winner was a first report. All the others were third, seventh, ninth or fourteenth reporting cycles.

Based on the above analysis, I reckon that if you entered your 15th, 112- pages-long, A+ GRI checked report in USA English in every category, you had about the same chance as everybody else of getting an award. Basically, this indicates credibility in the voting process, given the range of different and varied winning reports, from different types of companies in different sectors, reporting at different levels of transparency and assurance, with different reporting styles and length. All that number-crunching just to confirm what we knew already! I eagerly await the CorporateRegister.com report for an analysis of the voting and trends.

I wonder how many reporting , consulting, editing, designing, and translating hours went into writing these winning reports. Let's assume a modest average of 1,500 hours for each report. This is roughly the equivalent of employing 12.8 people for a full year. Or one person for 12.8 years. Around half a million $ of shareholder money. Doesn’t seem all that much for 19 companies, right? Wonder what the ROI in business benefit on reputation, employee recruitment and retention, risk management, stakeholder relations would be for these 19 businesses? Guess if I could answer that question, I could claim a commission on the half a million $, right? (45% would be ok, I am not greedy).

Finally, if all of these Companies decide not to report in 2009 as a result of the financial crisis, we can expect :

• global unemployment figures to increase by 12.8 people
• $500m additional shareholder dividend payout
• plummeting sales of paracetamol, a well known pain-reliever for reporting freaks
• consumer confusion as they don’t know who are the most ethical companies to buy from
• car-park sales of CSR office furniture all over the world
• 5,251 other potential reporting companies who now see their chance at winning the 2009 award

So, all you winners, very well done. Congratulations !

Please keep reporting. It's the sustainable thing to do.

elaine

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

Reporting at the (all) top

Congratulations to csr-reporting-blog - and thank you to Alltop - as csr reporting now appears in the prestigious comprehensive totally cool and collective Alltop page on Corporate Responsibility. You have to scroll right down to bottom right, but it's there. Alltop have done us csr fanatics a great service by gathering everthing that's anything relating to CSR and putting it all one one page. This is a great service to environmental sustainability. Think of how much energy and saved clicks we accrue by not having to search the entire web everytime we want to know what's hot! I am sure my ecological footprint is now much smaller.

I thought i would take this opportunity to examine the unique relevance of the reporting blog to the rest of the news that appears on the Alltop CR page.

Well, right at the top of the Alltop we have Google's Corporate Responsibility News. This is a collection of everything that googles its way into our consciousness and the second item as I check the link is the press release about the issue of ConAgra's social responsibility report which you can find here . This is a FIRST report, I LOVE first reports, I will review it SOON on CorporateRegister.com, no doubt.It's a GRI self-seclared B - hmm, can't wait.

Then we have the brilliant Mallen Baker's feed from his brand new website, Business Respect. Mallen himself deserves a lot of respect as he is usually first with insightful news, clever in his analyses and often rather provocative. Yes, even CSR people can be provocative. The first Alltopped item is the French Government's ban on Bank bonuses. Whilst it may be true that high executive salaries may not have been the primary cause of the financial crisis, I often wonder why executives are felt to deserve remuneration at the level of millions of $$$ per year.

CSRwire.com, a leading veteran csr news site comes next, with a first story about awards made to Vermont organic farmers. You can read about rotationally-grazed pasture, a singular river crossover, an impaired watershed, sensory evaluation of milk and new organic Vermont cheddar cheese . If nothing else, you can expand your vocabulary. Though that cheddar does sound mouthwatering, even if it is organic. Well done to Vermont.

Finally, the best of the rest include blogs from some impressive contributors such as Wayne Visser on CSRInternational, Joel Makower, Fabian Pattberg, the DevelopmentCrossing forum and the World Bank Blog, as well as news feeds from other reputable sites such as CorpWatch, Greenbiz and BITC. I have purposely left out the hyperlinks so you can go to Alltop and get there yourself. What, you think i am gonna do ALL the work ?

However, I am gratified to say that my analysis proves without a doubt that the csr-reporting blog has UNIQUE relevance as it is the only content which is solely devoted to REPORTING, analysis of REPORTS, challenges to REPORTING methods and insights about REPORTERS.

Well, most of it. Except this post, maybe .....


elaine
elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

the self declared thing - hit and miss ?

So I decided to check out this self-declared thing.

The GRI has a check facility whereby any report can obtain an official confirmation that the report meets the designated application level. To me, it seems a shame to go to all the trouble of writing a report and then not having it subjected to a formal check. There is nothing more satisfying (except Chunky Monkey on a warm day) than getting that mail from the GRI which says "CONGRATULATIONS …With this e-mail I would like to provide you with the final results of GRI's Application Level check of TheTotally Amazing* Company’s report. We have checked this report against the criteria for the GRI Application Level …(+) and GRI has qualified your report as Application Level …(+). "

The Global Reporting Initiative keeps a record of sustainabilty reports which refer to the GRI guidelines. When I last checked sometime in March, 102 reports published in 2009 were logged. Of these, 54 are self declared, which means they didn’t go for the formal check. Of these 54:

• 21 at level C
• 3 at Level C+
• 15 at Level B
• 4 at Level B+
• 6 at Level A
• 4 at Level A+

and one hanger on who didn’t self declare but forgot to say at what level. The self declarers cut across all sectors and many countries. So it's not a culture thing, right?

As you can see, by doing a quick minor first grade calculation, 44 % of self-declarers report at the lowest possible level – C. Now, frankly, my view of Level C is that it is potentially barely more than a marketing brochure. So I decided to delve. I am good at delving. I think it's because I was forbidden cookies and candies in my childhood.

First stop: Wachovia 2007 report
http://www.corporateregister.com/a10723/wach07-csr-usa.pdf
What a surprise. It’s a first report. Love first reports. Guess it’s the last as well, as Wachovia is now part of Wells Fargo. There is a GRI index: interestingly the reporter has selected to respond to a number of Financial Supplement Indicators but only 7 of the core GRI indicators. And no Economic Indicators. The one LA indicator reported is LA 11: Programs for skills management and lifelong learning that support the continued employability of employees and assist them in managing career endings. This is well reported with the “Employee Driven, Manager Supported, Wachovia Enabled” program (try saying that when you are drunk) which led to 43% of vacancies being filled by an internal candidate. Nice stuff. EN3 is reported: Direct energy consumption by primary energy source. Good data over 3 years (never mind that there are significant unexplained increases in all energy consumption and CO2 emissions - it meets the reporting requirement). Wachovia reports on 7 GRI G3 indicators and another 6 from the financial supplement. But this really shouldn’t be a C report. It doesn’t meet all the criteria.

Second stop: Altron 2008 Sustainability report
http://www.altron.co.za/annual2008/pdf/sustainabilityComplete.pdf
75 page report called One group One goal. It's part of an integrated report. Altron say they report on 11 indicators. But I find that taken as a whole, the report is quite comprehensive. A self-declared C is way below this report's actual level.

Third stop.Robert Bosch 2007/8 Report
http://www.corporateregister.com/a10723/bosch0708-sus-gr.pdf
Bosch reported on a whole 35 indicators – way beyond what is needed for Level C. It could even be a level B. This is actually a well thought-through report focusing on material issues. Why self-declare? Why not go for the GRI check? Or assurance?

Two out of three self-declared C reports go beyond the reporting requirements. One doesn’t meet the reporting requirements. This may not be a representative sample, but it sounds like pretty much hit and miss to me.

Don't get me wrong. I don’t have shares in the GRI. But I do believe that a third party confirmation assists in making a correct assessment of the reporting level and adds credibility to the report. If you are going to refer the GRI, then why not do it in a serious way? Why not claim the credit you deserve if your report meets a higher level of transparency? And more importantly, is the GRI achieving it's objective when reporters quote the framework but ignore (abuse?) the guidelines ?

My advice to reporters: get your level checked. My offer to reporters: I'll be happy to oblige.
(I am allowed to make a mild marketing plug on my very own blog, right ?)

* The Totally Amazing Company is totally fictitious. I googled it. The nearest I got was an album by Englbert Humperdink. which probably wasn't all that totally amazing.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

And another song for sustainability...

After my last post, songs seem to be popping up everywhere .. I was reviewing Marks and Spencer's partnership with Oxfam which has raised one million pounds in a return clothes program, and came accross the Godwin School choir's song about eliminating plastic bags.
http://plana.marksandspencer.com/we-are-doing/waste/stories/39/
Small actions lead to big changes, and Marks and Spencer feature a song the kids wrote and perform relating to the evils of plastic bags. Nice, creative, fun sustainability and corporate responsibility.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

Sing Sustainability .....

You can't help but smile at this .... I was happily working through my next report review of Henkel's 2008 Sustainability Report and as usual, I toggle back and forth between the PDF and the website .. and i just happen to stumble accross the Henkel Song.
It's called We Together, and the lyrics go like this :

We together all together
Let our visions and our values lead the way
We together all together
That's why the Henkel name will always stay
From beginning to end A Brand like a Friend

It's downloadable in several languages and mixes on the Henkel site. Now, it's a really great song. Quite catchy, actually. Wonder if they ever though of entering it in the Eurovision. I am sure even Elvis Presley would have been happy to add it to his repertoire.. I mean, Jailhouse Rock it isn't, but it's really not bad. In fact, I was so enthralled with the thought of 55,000 Henkel employees warbling this song at every budget planing session and management training meeting that i just couldnt resist listening to the Japanese version (domo arigato yeah yeah), and the US country version ( eat ya heart out Hank Williams) and well, what the heck, i went though Turkish, German, Ukranian, Hungarian, Mexican, Arabic and orchestral ( country: Philharmonia). After all this, i can now sing the entire song in a perfect mixture of multinational lyrics, with a Manchester accent. So what if i am a little out of tune. Wonder when the Hebrew version will top the charts .....

You might be asking yourselves why i am so taken with this. First, you should understand that my life motto is: one who wishes to sing will always find a song. So you could say that the Henkel song struck a chord with me (cringe). Second, it did get me wondering how this song is used at Henkel and if it supports a sense of togetherness and community within the business. Itreminds me that during my time as VP for Human Resources at Unilever in Israel, we often used the song Proud by Heather Small, which was used by Unilever globally, if i am not mistaken, in a diversity roll-out program. That's a great song - recommend you hear it if you dont know it. It was always good way to set the mood for deeper discussions and created a kind of familiarity and sense of common spirit. I wonder how many other corporations have songs.

• AIG: Yesterday...
• Citibank: Money Money Money makes the world go around ....
• Wal Mart: We are the world
• Diageo: Message in a bottle
• Mattel: Rag Doll
• Adidas: Run chicken run
• Patagonia: aint no mountain high enough

Enough of that .....Henkel, thank you for this sprinkle of melodic inspiration ...... better get back to that report review now ..... la la la doo be doo la la la ...

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

I have now joined the future

Guess what ! I have now officially become a member of the future.
I participated yesterday in what was for me a very futuristic experience - yes - you guessed .. a WEBINAR!! I like to think i am a computer-literate techie sort of person, but to date, I have resisted all these millions of webinars and things, mainly because of the hassle factor (getting hooked up), the earphones factor (flat ears) , the poor connection factor (crackles, buzzes and beeps) and the half-sentence factor ( hello, welcome to.................. today............will discuss .................important to note that ....................very significant as you can see on slide 3 that....................) . But the temptation of hearing code-guru Deborah Leipziger was too great to resist. So, albeit a little late (10 yr old daughter needed mom to buy her hundreds of $$$$$ of clothes for her birthday party at the weekend), I accepted the CSR International invitation to join the first in the impressive line-up of webinar events scheduled until the end of 2009 (this is great forward planning - unlike my local culture where planning more than 3 hours ahead causes chronic migraine)

Deborah Leipziger is the first lady of corporate, industry and cause-related codes of conduct and ethical standards. Her Code Book created order and understanding of the relevance and importance of framing conduct expectations and existing best practices. A sort of Code Bible. Amen.

How is this connected to Reporting ?
No CSR report today is complete without reference to a Code of Conduct and in many cases, declaration of a string of external codes that the corporation adopts. My guess is that on average, companies have about 5 or more different codes they try to observe in their businesses.
A quick look at some CSR reports proves me mainly right:

• ExxonMobil 2007: corporate code(s) of conduct , global responsible care charter, global compact, voluntary Principles on Security and human Rights, millenium development goals, ILO convention on Indigenous peoples
• Westpac Banking Corp 2008 : UNPRI, principles for doing business, Equator Principles, ASX principles on Good Corporate Governance, sustainable supply chain managment code of conduct, GRI, UNEP Finance Initiative, CEO Water Mandate
• Sony 2008: Sony Group code of conduct, EICC code of conduct (only 2 ? did i miss a few?)
• Diageo 2008: Global compact, Dublin Principles, Business charter for sustainable development, CEO Water Mandate, internal codes of ethics, GRI

The harmonization of codes was one point raised in the discussion - though a key part of the value of the Code is the process by which it was created. So maybe we need lots of processes but less codes ?

Anyway, back to the view from the top - few insights from the guru:

• ISO 26000 is not cutting-edge but it is broad and covers most of the range of CSR issues . It is right to go the guideline route and not the certification route, though certification at a national level in local language could be an opportunity. Some national certification bodies are already starting to consider its use - Portugal and Denmark for instance.
• Sectorialization is becoming more popular and useful as a tool for different industries such as the electronics industry, automotives, forestry, financial sector tools such as the Equator Principles.
• Training is essential to ensure application and assimilation of codes - this is often underestimated
• Impact analysis including gathering of base line data is often overlooked but is an important tool in understanding both the effectiveness of the code and the unintended consequences of implementation.

In response to my question, What about a code of conduct for CSR professionals or are we exempt? there was a knowing smile and an admission that the cobbler forgot to make himself a pair of shoes, or whatever the saying is. There was the question of how do you define a CSR professional . Right now, as long as its polite, I dont mind. :-)

Anyway, i have to end this blog post now as i have to go off and write another code....

Thanks to Deborah and to Wayne Wisser, CSRI founder and webinar maestro

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !