Filed under: climate change, innovation, policy, social entrepreneurship, strategy | Tags: climate change policy, social innovation
The US Executive office just added two innovative new branches: The Office for Energy and Climate Change Policy and the Office for Social Innovation and Citizen Participation.
The climate policy office will support climate science institutions nationally, oversee the EPA’s plan to launch a national cap-and-trade, and provide public education and communications around basic climate science. This office will manage the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, an ongoing dialogue between key developed and developing countries regarding sustainable energy and emissions reductions. Leaders of 16 major economies as well as the Secretary General of the UN have been invited to participate. Their website, globalchange.gov, also hosts a 13-agency report on the latest climate science, a ‘game-changer’ aimed at shedding light on climate research that has been conducted and suppressed over the past eight years.
The social innovation office will be directed by Sonal Shah, Google.org’s former strategic director, and former head of environmental strategy at Goldman Sachs. Her first task is managing a 50-million social innovation fund written into Obama’s 2010 budget. Investments and partnerships will focus on innovation around healthcare, education, poverty alleviation, and local environmental initiatives.
Filed under: consulting, corporate leadership, finance, strategy, sustainable business | Tags: corporate sustainability, kpmg, linkedin, sustainable business
New study released by ATKearney tracks top performers in the midst of the financial crisis. The winners? Companies committed to sustainability. Just another incentive for professionals to reconsider cutting that sustainability department in the midst of budget cuts. Full report can be downloaded here.
“As companies cut costs to get through the current global economic slowdown, there is often a temptation to abandon recent forays into sustainability. Yet a new A.T. Kearney analysis finds that companies committed to corporate sustainability practices during this slowdown are achieving above-average performance in the financial markets during this slowdown. So before tossing out those sustainability practices and initiatives, it might be wise to first determine the real value of the efforts, especially the possible rewards for staying the course.”
Filed under: climate change, consulting, corporate leadership, strategy | Tags: climate change strategy, management consulting, sustainability consulting
Verdantix reports on how large consulting companies are measuring up with regards to climate change strategy in their latest publication, “Green Quadrant: Climate Change Business Consulting”. Corporate sustainability consulting is still considered risky by quite a few management consulting companies operating here in the US’s dwindling economy, but is taking off elsewhere in leaps & bounds.
“The corporate market is gradually moving into a period where action on climate change is a necessity. As a result, demand for climate change business consulting services is growing. Today’s buying trends focus on understanding the scope of the problem. To assist climate change leaders in their selection of an external adviser this Green Quadrant compares 15 consulting firms against 74 criteria grouped into three dimensions: service completeness, market momentum and global presence. The report includes an analysis of market demand, detailed comparison of consulting firms and profiles to guide selection decisions.”
Filed under: corporate leadership, strategy | Tags: corporate sustainability, networks, thought leadership
VANCOUVER, January 21, 2008 (GLOBE-Net) – Organizations that wish to grow profitably in the future must focus their efforts to benefit shareholders, society and the environment simultaneously, according to a paper published by a group of academic experts on corporate responsibility and sustainability.
Concentrating on any one of these areas at the expense of the other two may compromise a business’s long-term success. A focus on sustainability provides the best means to implement this triple-pronged strategy, enabling organizations to innovate, to differentiate themselves and to succeed, note the six authors of the paper.
The paper, sponsored by Bigger Thinking and Cisco Systems, presents a vision of corporate sustainability, which places an emphasis on innovation as the means to add value, not just to the bottom line, but to the environment and society at large.
It also builds on the foundations laid by such initiatives as the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Tomorrow’s Global Company, SustainAbility and others, all of which have impressed upon the business world the need to look beyond shareholder value, to consider social and environmental impacts, as well.
The authors call their approach: S2AVE (Shareholder and Social Added Value with Environment restoration), to emphasize how organizations can successfully and profitably address all three elements of the ‘triple bottom line’ simultaneously – becoming increasingly agile and innovative as they do so.
The changes required do not rely on extensive re-engineering of a corporation’s structure, but do require conviction and vision notes the paper’s authors. These steps can be initiated immediately and indeed, given the speed with which the markets are changing, must be addressed by companies with some urgency. They include:
- Make innovating for sustainability a part of your company’s vision
- Formulate a strategy with sustainability at its heart
- Embed sustainability in every part of your business
- Walk the talk: emphasize actions, not words
- Set up a body at the board level with the power to make sustainability matter
- Set firm rules
- Bring your stakeholders on board
- Use people power
- Join the networks
- Think beyond reporting: align all business systems with the company’s vision of sustainability
In a series of case studies, the authors note how these principles are being put into practice by leading companies around the world.
The Globe 2008 Conference and Trade Fair features a session on succesfully integrating sustainability into business processes. Globe recognizes that each company must manage sustainability differently based on the nature of the business, the issues faced, a range of external and internal drivers, and corporate culture. A panel of senior sustainability practitioners, drawn from a range of business sectors will be attending the session and will present their experience and demonstrate how their companies are making progress in sustainability integration.
The paper is available for download here.
