On-line prices based on customers’ habits, Big Data and algorithms

When you buy an airplane ticket or a DVD online, you may pay a higher -- or lower -- price than another customer buying the very same item from the very same site.Why? Because the information the site has compiled on you suggests that you may be willing to pay more -- or less -- than others for that item. Is this kind of "price customization" legal? The Internet allows shoppers to easily compare prices across thousands of stores. But it also enables businesses to collect detailed information about a customer's purchasing history, preferences, and financial resources -- and to set prices accordingly. More here.

Weapons of Math Destruction: A fascinating, timely, book by Cathy O’Neil

Weapons of math destruction, are mathematical models or algorithms that claim to quantify important traits: teacher quality, recidivism risk, creditworthiness but have harmful outcomes and often reinforce inequality, keeping the poor poor and the rich rich. They have three things in common: opacity, scale, and damage. They are often proprietary or otherwise shielded from prying eyes, so they have the effect of being a black box. They affect large numbers of people, increasing the chances that they get it wrong for some of them. And they have a negative effect on people, perhaps by encoding racism or other biases into an algorithm or enabling predatory companies to advertise selectively to vulnerable people, or even by causing a global financial crisis. But as the book suggest the mathematics of big data increases inequality and threatens democracy.  More here and at  http://amzn.to/2clQHXG

Media: the least trusted institution globally, according to a new study

For the first time media is the least trusted institution globally. In 22 of the 28 markets surveyed it is now distrusted. The demise of confidence in the Fourth Estate is driven primarily by a significant drop in trust in platforms, notably search engines and social media. Sixty-three percent of respondents say they do not know how to tell good journalism from rumor or falsehoods or if a piece of news was produced by a respected media organization. The lack of faith in media has also led to an inability to identify the truth (59 percent), trust government leaders (56 percent) and trust business (42 percent). For more see Edelman TrustBarometer .

There Is No Such Thing as a Green Product ?

Authors Trevor Zink and Roland Geyer  suggest that here is no such thing as a “green” product. The corporate sustainability gospel—that green companies sell green products, and green products have some absolute and well-defined environmental attributes—evaporates on closer inspection. According to the authors the environmental benefits of green products are not that they somehow fix the environment or have zero impact, but rather that their environmental impacts are less than those of similar products. Products can have an impact on the environment during one or more stages of their life cycles, which are production, use, and end of life. A natural step is therefore to tally up the environmental impacts of similar products throughout their life cycles and compare the results. Read more at SSIR here .

Nestle in Society: Creating Shared Value (CSV)

 The  2015 report  focuses on the 39 commitments that range across the Creating Shared Value (CSV) focus areas of nutrition, health and wellness; water and environmental sustainability; rural development, human rights, and  people, to provide the reader an overview of Nestlé’s material issues and activities in these areas.  Nestlé’s societal commitments, first published in 2012, were developed in consultation with external stakeholders and provide the reader with a clear sense of the strategic direction and standards of the company.  A more detailed version of the reportis also available on the company’s CSV page.

Strategy for Good: Inspiration and advice for young social entrepreneurs

The goal of the initiative, called “Strategy for Good”, is to make it easier to young social entrepreneurs to develop  a strategy and produce  an effective business plan, through a mentoring program, at no cost to all selected applicants.

The initiative that was  launched by the Costas Kataras Organisation ,  supports young social entrepreneurs - involved in the marriage of good business principles with the desire to solve social problems, improve the environment, and empower communities- that need advice and / or  mentoring in order to develop proper Strategy and/or Business Plans. Applicants could send email to: info@costaskataras.org

Unilever: Working harder to meet it’s Sustainable Living Plan targets.

Unilever has published a report earlier this year  on the progress it is making towards meeting its Unilever Sustainable Living Plan targets. The plan (first published in November 2010), broke new ground by committing to take responsibility for the company’s impacts right across the value chain, from the sourcing of raw materials all the way through to the consumer’s use of its products to cook, clean and wash. Unilever’s performance against its sustainable living plan targets fall into three categories:

1. Areas where  the company is making genuinely good progress, such as: Sustainable sourcing ( 24% of total agricultural raw materials now being sourced sustainably, versus 14% in 2010 ), Nutrition  ( over 90% of Unilever’s leading spreads now contain less than one-third saturated fat), Renewable energy ( now contributes 20% of Unilever’s total energy use and 100% of electricity purchased in Europe is now from renewable sources) and Safe drinking water .

2. Areas where the company has to consider carefully how to reach targets. These include amongst others  health and hygiene

3. Areas where the global giant is  finding it difficult to make progress and will need to work with others to find solutions. This applies particularly to targets that require consumer behaviour change, such as reducing the use of heated water in showering and washing clothes, or encouraging people to eat foods with lower salt levels.

“In a world where temperatures are rising, energy is costing more, sanitation is worsening and food supply is less secure, companies can no longer sit on the sidelines waiting for governments to take action. We have to see ourselves as part of the solution to these problems. In Unilever, we believe that our future success depends upon being able to decouple our growth from our environmental footprint, while at the same time increasing our positive social impacts”, says Unilever CEO, Paul Polman. For more information and the full progress report  for 2012, visit www.unilever.com/sustainable-living  .

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation approves a grant of €10 million to help support children’s programs and services

As part of its €100 million initiative, over the next three years, which aims to help ease the adverse effects of the current socioeconomic crisis in Greece, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation announced recently 3 new grants totaling €10 million, to help support those children and their families that are mostly impacted by the crisis. Since the beginning of 2012, the Foundation has already committed grants totaling €41 million as part of this initiative, and continues to evaluate additional programs on a daily basis. Specifically, the Foundation, in collaboration with the Greek Ministry of Interior, has approved a grant of €4.5 million to support nursery schools and childcare centers across the country. The initiative aims to help mothers who wish to enroll their children in daycare facilities and are unable to do so for financial reasons, so that they are able to join the work force.The Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Mr. Andreas Dracopoulos, stated : “Through these grants, the Foundation continues its commitment to assist, to the extent of our abilities, all those that the current socio-economic crisis has impacted in the most severe and direct way. Our concern is especially for the children, who rely on us. Through food aid, immunization programs, and support for the country’s nursery schools, we hope not only to help the children, but also to provide some relief for their parents, currently facing unprecedented hardship”. See more here.

The Coca-Cola Foundation : New Grants to Spark Sustainability Efforts

Sixty-eight community organizations in 41 countries around the world were awarded a total of $10.5 million in grants from The Coca-Cola Foundation, the global philanthropic arm of The Coca-Cola Company, during the second quarter of 2012. These grants support the Foundation's global priority areas, including: $3.2 million for active, healthy living; $2.9 million for water stewardship; $780,000 for community recycling; $630,000 for education; and $3 million for other local priorities, such as youth development, community improvement, economic development and environmental responsibility. "These grants represent our ongoing investment in the sustainability and the well-being of thousands of communities around the world," said Ingrid Saunders Jones, Chairperson of The Coca-Cola Foundation. "Our investment is designed to have real impact, by helping local communities with innovative ways to meet global challenges." You can see the full list of the  projects and the grants beneficiaries here.