A multi-stakeholder, pan-European initiative to create a common understanding of corporate social responsibility, and enhance its credibility and effectiveness in helping to achieve EU economic, social and environmental aims, will be launched in Brussels today. The European Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR EMS Forum), chaired by the European Commission, will bring together enterprises and other stakeholders, including trade unions, NGOs, investors and consumers, to promote innovation, convergence, and transparency in existing CSR practices and tools (such as codes of conduct, labels, reports, and management instruments). The Forum’s mandate (objectives, membership and working methods), will be approved at the launch. CSR EMS Forum round tables will exchange good practices and assess the appropriateness of establishing common guiding principles for CSR practices and instruments. Further high level meetings will take place in 2003 and 2004 to take stock of progress, and findings and conclusions are to be presented to the Commission by mid-2004. The CSR EMS Forum is the centrepiece of the Commission strategy for promoting CSR and sustainable development, as set out in the CSR Communication of July 2002.
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California Ruling Means Nike Will Not Release Annual Corporate Responsibility Report
Nike, Inc. today (14/10) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review an unprecedented California Supreme Court ruling that effectively does away with First Amendment protection for companies and organizations that speak out on public issues related to their business.
In papers filed today with the U.S. Supreme Court, Nike argued that “Not since New York Times Co. v. Sullivan has [the U.S. Supreme] Court been confronted with a lower court ruling as profoundly destructive of free speech” as the decision in this case.
Harvard University’s noted Constitutional scholar and leading Supreme Court advocate, Laurence Tribe, and former acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger, head of the Supreme Court practice at O’Melveny & Myers, LLP, prepared today’s filing.
The company’s petition in Nike v. Kasky stems from a 4-3 ruling of the California Supreme Court sharply reducing the free speech rights of businesses and other groups, as well as the general public who want to hear about those operations. Today, Nike argued that the California ruling ignores decades of First Amendment decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has noted that free speech and debate must have “breathing space” if the freedoms of expression are to survive.
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A new report from the Rose Foundation for Communities & Environment titled “The Environmental Fiduciary: The Case for Incorporating Environmental Factors into Portfolio Management Practices” documents how environmental risk and liabilities can be a drag on shareholder value, while positive environmental management can lead to improved shareholder value. The Rose Foundation joined other institutional investors in petitioning the SEC to adopt better environmental disclosure guidelines.
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As companies pursue the concept of sustainability (the process of driving economic, environmental, and social performance) they are trying to address these concerns as part of their business strategy and decision making process.
Traditionally, the accounting profession has looked at a company’s financials. However, in this new model, companies must link nonfinancial performance with financial goals and reflect this in their overall performance.
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Companies that are good corporate citizens are more likely to be better financial performers, according to a new study by AGSM’s Dr Marc Orlitzky to be published soon.
The wide-ranging study to be published in the international journal Organization Studies is the first rigorous meta-analysis to show a strong positive link between an organisation’s socially responsible behaviour and its financial bottom line.
The quantitative study, which analysed over 30 years’ worth of corporate data of nearly 34,000 observations, confirms a positive link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance.
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Corporate environmental and social reports are playing an increasingly vital role in building trust between companies and their stakeholders. ERM’s latest survey reveals that leading firms are beginning to question what they really want from verification.
In the absence of agreed standards on what their reports should contain, senior managers are looking to verification to sharpen internal performance – particularly on ‘softer’ social issues – not just to provide a stamp of approval.
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October update of The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
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European banks have much room for improvement with regard to their assessment of the environmental credit risk of projects for which potential clients are seeking funding, says a leading investment company.
The study of 10 Western European banks by investment company ISIS Asset Management was designed to benchmark the environmental credit risk assessment (ECRA) procedures of banks.
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(Published om Monday September 30, 2002
The Guardian)
Human rights campaigners, fresh from their apparent success in forcing Premier Oil to withdraw from Burma, are targeting accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Kuoni Travel business in Britain.
The Burma Campaign said these were two of a number of companies that would be put on a “dirty list” to be published this autumn as part of a wider campaign against those who do business with the military-run country.
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Multinational companies in Europe and the U.S. are expanding their corporate reporting to include information on “triple bottom line” — economic, social and environmental — performance in order to influence stakeholders and the global capital markets, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ latest Management Barometer survey. In Western Europe, two-thirds (68 percent) of large companies report such information in addition to required financial reports; in the U.S., 41 percent provide such information, the survey found.
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On Monday, September 23, over 500 companies including the FTSE 350 have been invited to participate in the new Corporate Responsibility Index. The Index will define what corporate responsibility means in practice, setting the management and reporting boundaries against which businesses will be judged.
The Index has been developed by Business in the Community, working with over 80 companies led by a Steering Group consisting of representatives from Aviva, Diageo, HBOS, Powergen, Severn Trent and Unilever. The deadline for completing the survey is November 15 and results will be published on March 11, 2003.
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FINERGY, a consortium of Finnish energy companies, has published industry-specific guidelines and tools for better Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) management.
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