Banks: The Epitome of Social Irresponsibility

Financial crisis, casino gambling, outsized bonuses, rate fixing, now money laundering, etc, etc . In the last six years, the public's opinion of the banking industry has dropped by over 60 points. No wonder then that even the Wall Street Journal is beginning to call for the largest banks to be broken up. See more here .

What corporations like Unilever could learn from Darwin ?

In 2011, the Unilever CEO Paul Polman   launched the “Sustainable Living Plan” integrating every aspect of Unilever’s business. The plan called for Unilever to double its sales and halve its environmental impact within a decade; “It’s a realistic and difficult business model… but in a world where increasingly people feel that the system is unfair to them or where they feel excluded, where there is an enormous resource stress, companies that don’t more actively become part of the solution will become obsolete.”,  he said recently in the INSEAD Knowledge.

“We are increasingly more successful in what I call a VUCA environment – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.” Polman  says. Perhaps that’s why he also understands that in today’s interconnected world, social media is a powerful tool in the hands of the people, and the consumer is not afraid to say what he wants. “In the digital age we’ve seen the power of the consumer coming up and I always tell our people here that if they can bring down a regime in Egypt in about 17 days they can bring down an irresponsible company in nanoseconds…The consumer is really the boss and there is no bigger power than the power of the wallet.” , he said.  A very pragmatic and Darwinian paradigm from a global firm and his forward looking CEO. You can see more  about  this new paradigm for sustainable growth here.

Do CSR ratings and good companies rankings matter?

Last month has been a big one for corporate sustainability rankings, with the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and the Carbon Disclosure Project releasing new reports. Also a  book called Good Company announced its own 2012 Good Company Index. And this month will bring the World Series, Halloween and, of course, the annual Newsweek “green” rankings of big public companies, etc. Read in detail in Marc Gunther’s blog. As  he suggests all these rankings rise a lot of questions. And some findings are rather discouraging . Take for example the  Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).

The DJSI World has, since its inception in 1999, very closely tracked the stock markets as a whole. Actually, it slightly trails the MSCI World Index.

That’s discouraging, says Gunther. If the index is, in fact, selecting the most sustainable companies, they ought to be rewarded by forward-thinking investors. They’re not. Here’s a chart.

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  .

Diageo publishes its 2012 Sustainability & Responsibility Report

Diageo, the world’s leading premium drinks business, publishes its 2012 Sustainability & Responsibility Report. The report highlights progress and aspirations across the company’s key sustainability impacts including alcohol in society, water and the environment, socio-economic development, people, and governance and ethics.  The report has sections covering work with and impact on suppliers, customers and consumers.Diageo’s Sustainability & Responsibility Report 2012 is available on an interactive website here.

Monsanto and other Global Brands Give Millions to Kill GMO Labeling

New campaign finance reports reveal that Monsanto Co. just contributed $4.2 million to defeat Proposition 37 in California / US, which would require labeling of genetically engineered food, according to consumer watch dog Right to Know .  That is the largest contribution in the race.  Total contributions from major global brands to defeat Proposition 37, amount to $25 million.

Thus far, the “Big 6” pesticide companies (Monsanto, Dow, BASF, Bayer, Syngenta and DuPont) have contributed $13.5 million to defeat Proposition 37. See details in the link. http://www.carighttoknow.org/monsanto_gives_4_2_million_to_kill_california_gmo_labeling_initiative