Tag Archives: collaboration

The Disconnect Continues with Sustainability and Investing

By Christopher Gleadle | Published: December 2, 2014

[In a recent post Derek Wong of Carbon49 illustrated how sustainability leaders outperform the market (Canadian CSR Leaders Outperform TSX) yet a glaring disconnect continues when it comes to assessing a companies risks and opportunities as it relates to it’s CSR strategy. Why is it so hard for the investment community to put meaningful metrics behind CSR?]

Companies are struggling to effectively communicate with investors on sustainability, according to the UN Global Compact – Accenture CEO Study on Sustainability in collaboration with the Principles for Responsible Investment.

Posted in Business and Sustainability, Risk Management, Sustainability Metrics | Also tagged ceos, communication, socially responsible investing, sustainability, sustainability valuations | Comments closed

A Rethink for Corporate Sustainability: A Sustainability Ombudsperson?

By Chris Oestereich | Published: September 22, 2014

Business is not doing enough to address environmental problems. It’s time to rethink how we can be most effective – perhaps we need a strategy that enables our CSR leaders to act as direct conduits between the firm and external interests.

My first big CSR/sustainability event was the 2010 Net Impact Conference held at the University of Michigan’s Ross Business School. I had been invited there to speak on a panel on the topic of intrapreneurship, which gave me the opportunity to sit in on a number inspiring and insightful talks. One of the sessions I attended was an interview with Aron Cramer, the CEO of BSR. As I recall, much of that hopeful, engaging discussion centered on transparency – a topic that’s close to my heart.

Posted in Capitalism 2.0, Capitalism2.0, Innovation, The Hub | Also tagged capitalism 2.0, csr, csr ombudsperson, uncharted territory, wisearchy | Comments closed

Sustainability-Driven Collaboration: Turning wicked problems into wicked opportunities

By Chad Park | Published: February 11, 2014

This series of posts, entitled Sustainability-driven Collaboration builds on lessons learned over years of sustainability-driven transformational change efforts at the organization level and explores the value they can bring to multi-stakeholder collaboration.

In their March 2013 post to the Harvard Business Review Blog, Paul Ellingstad and Charmian Love pointedly asked the question,Is Collaboration the new Greenwashing? This attention-grabbing title resonates strongly because of the ubiquitous use of the term collaboration in the past few years, particularly with the rise of concepts such as “Shared Value” in the business community and “Collective Impact” in the not-for-profit world. Those of us who have worked in the sustainability and social change space for some time are well aware of how easily means can be confused for ends, how often talk has been confused for action, and the difficulty of achieving transformational rather than incremental improvements.

Posted in Behaviour Change, Business and Sustainability, CSR in Canada, Leadership, The Natural Step, Thought Leader | Also tagged Chad Park, Leverage Points, Sustainability Transition Lab, systemic change, systems thinking, The Natural Step, the necessary revolution, transformational change | Comments closed

Adaptation and Resiliency In the Face of Climate Change at VERGE

By Guest Contributor | Published: November 12, 2013

When looking at the landscape of climate change in the literal sense, we are faced with the advent of severe weather cycles, destructive storms like Hurricane Sandy and rising sea levels threatening to consume vast areas. City and state planners have their work cut out and are using technology to discover future crisis scenarios and their solutions.

At VERGE in San Francisco, techniques using digital mapping were shown by the City of Vancouver as an effective means to identify where to address climate change. They were able to use technology to map heat problem spots (heat exhaustion or heat stroke is a rising cause of death in urban areas). By being able to “see” scenarios, the City of Vancouver was able to strategically plant thousands of trees to offset temperature rise and curb overheating.

Posted in Business and Sustainability, Climate change, Innovation | Also tagged climate change, flooding, government, green building, greenbiz, natural disaster, smart cities, sustainability, verge, weather | Comments closed

Great Example of Canadian-Led Collaboration: Towards a Gold-standard Benchmark for Sustainable Business

By Pong Leung | Published: November 5, 2013

Every so often in life you take part in a unique and transformational experience. On September 11th in Toronto, an inspiring group of individuals representing a who´s who of organizations working to help business achieve breakthrough sustainability performance came together to create such an experience.

They were invited to explore an issue of importance to all of us there, but that we knew could not be solved by any of us alone. It would require collaboration. Here is the issue in a nutshell:

Posted in Business and Sustainability, Capitalism 2.0, Organizational Change, Organizational Culture, Sustainability Metrics | Also tagged Bob Willard, Canada, cbsr, ESG, GlobeScan, mars, natural step canada, sustainability gold standard, sustainable business model | Comments closed

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