April 19th, 2010
From Erik Wohlgemuth, our VP of Strategic Operations:
A recent opinion piece in Ethical Corp. magazine by Brendan Mays, takes a “sideways” look at NGO types with the intent of helping guide companies on “how to pick a NGO partner.” Mays provides some insightful advice, such as companies are “best off not ignoring” activist groups. But his characterizations of NGOs are too simplistic, almost sarcastic, and reinforce stereotypes such as “Angry Activist”, “Smiling Salesman”, or “Overfed Giant” that hinder corporate engagement of NGOs.
NGOs and corporations are simply organizations comprised of individuals; by negatively typecasting NGOs, Mays homogenizes the individuals who work there, essentially stripping them of their unique identities. Rather than promote understanding, such labels erect barriers to understanding. Corporate/NGO engagement only succeeds when each side recognizes the unique individual(s) sitting across from him or her and is open to the opinions of the other.
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Tags: activist groups, corporate partnership, csr, ethical corporation, NGO partner, Stakeholder Engagement
Posted in Stakeholder & Campaign News, Stakeholder Engagement | No comments so far »
March 9th, 2010
From Danna Moore, our Stakeholder Campaigns Director:
Over the years, I’ve worked, interned and volunteered in the activist community. As a student and resident in San Francisco, it wasn’t difficult to find a highly-active grassroots network of organizations and individuals fighting against war, poverty and environmental degradation. The progressive culture here is an inspiring and passionate bubble that creates a thirst for knowledge in the political and social sphere.
That progressive culture has led me to where I am today, a campaign organizer working on climate policy at a non-profit based out of SF. When I first came to Future 500, it took me a while to fully understand the model. The organization simultaneously works with both the activist community and (gasp) the corporate sector, searching for common ground opportunities.
The interesting set of bedfellows we engage brings, not surprisingly, skepticism from both sectors, and elicits eye-opening reactions.
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Tags: activism, activists, climate change, corporate campaign, engagement, environmental degredation
Posted in Climate, Stakeholder & Campaign News, Stakeholder Engagement | No comments so far »
March 5th, 2010
From Juliette Terzieff, Senior Director, Global Stakeholder Initiatives:
Interaction with United Nations Special Representative John Ruggie is an eye-opener. Well, I guess he’d say “a game changer,” but however you want to phrase it, Ruggie’s work to define roles and recommend parameters for his 3 pillar approach to business and human rights is going to change the way corporations and their stakeholders view human rights.
It’s about time.
For the last couple decades environmental and human rights activists groups have increasingly targeted corporate behavior in their campaigns – there have been some noticeable campaign “victories” and positive changes.
But broadly speaking the systemic problems at the root of issues like child labor, freedom of expression remain. Figuring out the role corporations and their stakeholders can play in addressing them remains a time-intensive conundrum.
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Tags: 3 pillars, activists, business, coca-cola, hewlett packard, human rights, human rights council, john ruggie, know and show, name and shame, protect, remedy, respect, un
Posted in Business & Human Rights, Labor & Transparency, Stakeholder & Campaign News, Stakeholder Engagement | 1 Comment »
February 19th, 2010
From Juliette Terzieff, Senior Director, Global Stakeholder Initiatives:
[Reprinted with permission from World Politics Review]
Human rights activists are turning up the heat on British company Vedanta Resources over charges that its operations threaten the existence of India’s Dongria Kondh tribe. Cast as a “David versus Goliath” fight by the tribe and its supporters, the Vedanta story comes at a time when stakeholders continue to look for a firm definition and application of a community engagement concept known as Free, Prior, Informed Consent (FPIC), to benefit indigenous peoples around the world.
Survival International has appealed to the makers of the blockbuster movie “Avatar” to help the Dongria Kondh fight off mining plans and the pollution resulting from Vedanta’s operations in Orissa state. Vedanta and its subsidiaries already have government approval to expand current aluminum refinery operations and move forward with plans to mine the Niyamgiri Hills for bauxite.
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Tags: amnesty international, avatar, business and human rights, dongria kondh, human rights, india, Indigenous Rights, james cameron, john ruggie, orissa, three pillar framework, un special representative, united nations, vedanta
Posted in Business & Human Rights, Community Engagement, Indigenous Rights, Labor & Transparency, Stakeholder & Campaign News | 3 Comments »
January 3rd, 2010
From Shiela Oviedo, Research Manager, Global Stakeholder Initiatives:
“Conflict minerals” officially made it to the New York Times’ 2009 list of buzzwords released on December 19. Does this mean that they have gained the notoriety of “blood diamonds”? Not yet (at least not without Leonardo DiCaprio to shine some star power on the issue) … but the NYT acknowledgement does clearly suggest advocacy to raise the issue of conflict minerals has come a long way – “conflict minerals” have gone mainstream.
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Tags: armed groups, cellular phones, coltan, computers, conflict, conflict minerals, consumer electronics, democratic republic of congo, finance, gold, mining, rights abuses, tantalum, tin
Posted in Business & Human Rights, Labor & Transparency, Stakeholder & Campaign News, Supply Chain | No comments so far »
