Top Story of the Week Asia Rising as Hub of CR? Watching China & South Korea The Two Tomorrow’s annual global assessment of sustainability practices looked at 50 corporate components of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI – 10 each from the oil & gas, energy utilities, food and beverage, and automotive sectors). The results are reported in Tomorrow’s Value Rating 2013 Report, just issued and highlighted in our Top Story. The analysts asked – are the companies evaluated and included in the DJSI the sustainability leaders expected to drive sustainable value? Headlines – while the report content is heavily-euro-centric, companies from East Asia are quickly catching up to their western peers. Some Chinese companies (like state-owned China Mobile and oil & gas Sinopec) are sustainability leaders. In South Korea, telecom KT Corp stood out from the pack (Korean companies, authors noted, are seldom recognized as sustainability leaders). The not-so-good news: The turmoil of the last five years in North America and European markets has led to a diminished focus on sustainability in mature markets. And so – East Asian companies may well be positioning themselves to emerge on the world stage as tomorrow’s corporate leaders in sustainability, especially in China and South Korea. For today’s corporate leaders in North America and Europe – the gap in investing in sustainability in mature markets is “of concern", say the report authors. Read more in our Top Story for this week. Is the hub of corporate sustainability moving towards Asia?
(Thursday - October 17, 2013)
Source: The Guardian - A new sustainability report shows Chinese and South Korean companies outperforming some traditional sustainability leaders. Sustainability in Focus Your most powerful marketing tool? Your sustainability story
(Friday - October 18, 2013)
Source: Greenbiz - We're going to keep hammering this home for a while because it's important: Green consumers are not "green consumers." They are "the most desirable consumers." • They're 24 percent of the population. • They're opinion leaders... How the Middle East is setting standards in sustainability (Thursday - October 17, 2013)
Source: The Guardian - Most in the west would probably regard the Middle East as lagging behind on sustainability. The stereotyped view is one of flashy over-consumption to match a glut of wealth from oil production. The story I heard on the ground was... Eat Sustainably for World Food Day
(Wednesday - October 16, 2013) Associated Profiles : Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations -Source: thedailymeal.com - World Food Day, from the food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), hits Oct. 16, 2013, once again bringing awareness to the political need to end hunger. This year, the day is... How to make sustainability ideas stick
(Wednesday - October 16, 2013)
Source: GredenBiz - What makes one idea or project "stick" and another disappear? It's a question we have asked for years as we track the progress of companies who have invested in our Pollution Prevention Lean Principles workshops. At the end of... The 10 ways sustainability professionals can scale up the circular economy
(Wednesday - October 16, 2013)
Source: Guardian - I've never met a sustainability professional who doesn't agree that the circular economy is critical to our future in a resource constrained world. It's not a new concept, 10 bob for your old pop bottle was big when I was growing... CEOs Report Frustrated Sustainability Ambition
(Wednesday - October 16, 2013)
Source: Triple Pundit - More than two thirds of CEOs (67 percent) believe that business is not doing enough to address global sustainability challenges, while the same percentage report that the private sector is not making sufficient efforts to address... 2000+ Reasons Why GMOs Are Safe To Eat And Environmentally Sustainable
(Tuesday - October 15, 2013) Associated Profiles : Organic Consumers Association
Source: Forbes - A popular weapon used by those critical of agricultural biotechnology is to claim that there has been little to no evaluation of the safety of GM crops and there is no scientific consensus on this issue. Those claims are... General Mills commits to sustainably source 10 ingredients by 2020
(Tuesday - October 15, 2013) Associated Profiles : CSRwire
Source: quincyjournal.com - Since 2010, General Mills and WWF have been working together to integrate sustainability ... The company will enforce its animal welfare policy, which covers pork, milk and egg production, antibiotic use and... The seven myths of sustainability
(Tuesday - October 15, 2013)
Source: Guardian - Of the business leaders surveyed in the UN Global Compact CEO Study on Sustainability, 76% said they "…believe that embedding sustainability into core business will drive revenue growth and new opportunities", albeit with"... ESG Issues & Players 40 Years After Embargo, OPEC Is Over a Barrel
(Friday - October 18, 2013)
Source: Bloomberg - Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries embargo against the U.S. and states that supported Israel after Egypt and Syria initiated simultaneous offensives against it on Yom Kippur... High energy costs may drive German firms to US
(Monday - October 14, 2013) Associated Profiles : World Trade Organization
Source: Deutsche Welle - Soaring German energy costs in the wake of the country's transition to renewable energy have seen more and more firms thinking abut relocating their operations. The US looks like a sound alternative, associations... Climate change is here and now: Our view -Editorial
(Tuesday - October 15, 2013)
Source: USA Today - All too often, global warming is discussed as something that will affect future generations of people, penguins and polar bears. That it will. But a mounting body of evidence demonstrates that climate change is neither distant... The Power Of Investors When It Comes To Honing Corporate Governance
(Thursday - October 17, 2013)
Source: Forbes - Perhaps tangible change towards more diverse and representative global boardrooms will in the end come as a result of the demands of powerful investors. In Canada, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, a pension fund managing... Asset Managers, US Pension Funds, Sovereign Wealth Funds How Ethics are Affecting Investment
(Friday - October 18, 2013) Associated Profiles : FTSE4Good
Source: morningstar.co.uk - AllianceBernstein managing director, client relations Tim Banks says the additional employees saving into pension schemes through auto-enrolment will include those who want their ethical beliefs reflected in... Why ethical investments are beating the non-ethical
(Wednesday - October 16, 2013) Associated Profiles : MSCI Group (NYSE: MDX)
Source: What Investment - This week is National Ethical Investment Week, which encourages investors to think about where they put their money and why. Driven by the growing recognition of the need for companies to take a long-term... Pension funds in NY to get greater scrutiny
(Friday - October 11, 2013) Associated Profiles : New York City Comptroller’s Office: Bureau of Asset Management
Source: Press & Sun-Bulletin - The letters went to the New York City pension fund, the state pension fund and the New York Teachers Retirement System. "These are huge funds that provide for the retirement of... Sovereign Wealth Funds - Friend Or Foe'
(Wednesday - October 16, 2013) Associated Profiles : Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
Source: Yahoo! Finance - A sovereign wealth fund (SWF) is an investment fund managed by a government ... diversify their total revenue base and hedge export revenues from energy and commodity price volatility, and (b) accumulate savings... Watching the Watchers Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc.
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Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc. provides clients with global research; news and trend monitoring; editorial services / publishing; research analysis; strategy-setting; training and education; and, a range of advisory [services].
Issue Management: The Institute provides executives, managers, and directors and trustees with a portfolio of resources to detect, identify, monitor, analyze, quantify, and in various ways address and manage critical issues. Especially those reaching "the tipping point," when resolution of [issues] will be harder to achieve. Often, in G&A leadership experience, critical events move rapidly to the crisis stage – and become much more difficult to manage and resolve. And confrontations with third parties and stakeholders can be quite costly in the long run, in terms of market access, cost of capital, valuations, impact on corporate reputation, license to operate, and more.
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Governance & Accountability Institute maintains collaborative relationships around the world, leveraging staff and proprietary research. Further extensions of this beyond the Institute principals are programs which involve Fellows of the Institute who are subject matter experts (SMEs), and featured commentators/columnists and bloggers on the Institute platforms. The Institute is a knowledge management center and research-based advisory organization providing a portfolio of services to corporations to help boards, executives and managers understand, embrace and excel on Sustainability and ESG issues and performance to meet and exceed stakeholder expectations.
MANAGEMENT OVERVIEW - Hank Boerner- Chairman and CEO.
- Mary Ann Boerner – President and Chief Operating Officer
- Louis D. Coppola - Senior Vice President of Information Technology.
- Ken Cynar - Executive Vice President and Executive Editor of the "Accountability Central (SM)" and the "Community Investment Network (SM)" Web Sites. He is also a featured commentator on Accountability Central.
- Amy Gallagher - Vice President of Client Services and project manager for all client related activities at the Institute.
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G&A's Stakeholder Identification, Monitoring & Engagement Identifying, prioritizing, monitoring, and understanding the third parties and stakeholders watching your company… shaping the issues… influencing outcomes… creating risk and opportunity… and perhaps impacting license to operate. Learn more About G&A's Stakeholder Identification, Monitoring & Engagement _______________________________ Governance & Accountability Institute Research Reports Learn more @ G&A! _______________________________ Corporate ESG Performance Factors & SustainabilityHQ Corporate ESG Performance Factors are important to financial analysts, asset owners and managers, and many stakeholders. The ESG framework or approach considers environmental issues and impacts, the company’s positioning and actions on social/societal issues, and important aspects of corporate governance. ESG key performance indicators are considered by investors as proxies for effective governance and management. Increasing numbers of of independent research and financial analysis firms monitor and measure these and advisie investors. The Sustainability HQ™ platform is an important profiling and monitoring resource for the G&A team, and for our clients and subscribers. ESG market players and corporate reputation influencers are profiled and monitored by G&A Institute. In these Highlights we provide some results of our continuous global scanning for ESG, sustainability and corporate responsibility news.. The Associated Profiles indicated are in our platforms. For more information, please email us atinfo@sustainabilityhq.com
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