Newsletters
Newsletter February 2008, Volume 4, Number 1
In This Issue:
- Future 500 in
2008
- Future 500
Partners: Future 500 welcomes The Walt Disney Company, Nike &
WalMart
- Future 500
Global: Reports from our offices in Tokyo and Beijing.
- Coming Events:
London, UK; San Francisco, CA; New York, NY
- Support The Future
500's Programs
- Previously Featured
Articles
The Future 500 in 2008
Dear friends and colleagues,
Thank you for giving me and the Future 500 team -- now thriving in China, Japan, and the U.S. -- the opportunity to do multi-sector stakeholder engagement work that advances the triple bottomline. I have so much to be excited about as we move into the new year...
- THREE BILLION PEOPLE WILL BE WATCHING CHINA when the Olympics open in Beijing this August. To help drive collaboration rather than confrontation, the Future 500 China Stakeholder Initiative is bringing together 13 global companies and over 20 NGOs to advance climate, water, workplace, and social solutions.
- 21ST CENTURY RECYCLING is at the core of several of our stakeholder engagement initiatives that seek to move beyond the now-tired ideas of 1970s recycling to innovative approaches that drive down carbon, water, and non-renewable resource use -- not just for bottles and cans, but the billions of other products and packages in the marketplace.
- "WATER POSITIVE" is what companies will need to be as two-thirds of the world begins to confront severe water shortages in the next seven years. Our team of policy innovators is helping companies find SYSTEMS that can drive consumption down, and profits up while meeting multi-faceted stakeholder expectations.
- CARBON OFFSET JAPAN (AND CHINA AND US) brings together Future 500 Japan's leading companies and stakeholder opinion leaders dedicating themselves to drive down their climate impacts (soon we hope to be emulated by Future 500 companies in the US and China.)
- SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES are vital to feeding China, India, Africa, and the world -- Future 500 Japan is following up its Science of Sustainability study with a focused drive to help move beyond the confines of 20th century industrial agriculture.
If you feel you may have something valuable to add to one of our initiatives -- if engaging in dialogue with stakeholders from "the other side" might help bring sensible and systemic solutions to the fore -- then please let us know: contact Mary Ann McDonnell.
And if you are tired of self-satisfied ideological battles between corporations and activists then connect us to your work so that we might help mobilize fresh ideas and influence on your behalf, to serve economic, social, and environmental needs at once.
It's now the point in this letter where it's tradition for me to ask you to make a generous contribution to our work. So please do. All contributions go towards supporting NGO involvement in our work. Visit our donations page and consider supporting one of our initiatives.
Enjoy 2008, be thankful for all, don't let recession talk dissuade you, and let us know when we can work together.
Sincerely,
Bill Shireman
President, The Future 500
Future 500 Partners
The Future 500 is pleased to welcome The Walt Disney Company, Nike and WalMart as our newest partners.
Future 500 Global
Future 500 Japan
Carbon Offset Japan - Last Fall, Future 500 Japan
and E-Square launched Carbon Offset Japan (COJ). The initiative works only with
certified emission reductions (CERs) within the Kyoto mechanism (CDM). Aiming to
introduce offset into the interface between corporations and citizens (that is,
products, services - and, to a certain extent, emissions caused by
employees), the iniative has attracted the attention of numerous leading
Japanese corporations.
Future 500 China
With the Beijing Olympics this year, global
interest in China's most critical issues is only increasing. Future 500 has
significantly expanded its research and relationships with key corporate
campaign groups and NGO's as a part of the China Stakeholder Initiative and
Working Group, hosted in partnership with The Conference Board in New York. Eric
Stryson, Director of Stakeholder Engagement, based in Hong Kong, has been
working with groups like Amnesty International, Oxfam Hong Kong, Greenpeace
China, Play Fair 2008, SACOM, Human Rights in China, China Labor Bulletin and
many others investigating their evolving concerns and specific approaches to
causing change.
Coming Events
Ethical
Corporation's Climate Change 2008
February 12 - 13, 2008,
London, England
There is only 1 week left until the Climate Change Summit 2008, set to take place on the 12th-13th of February, in London.
Hear from companies like Mars, E.ON, Suez, Accenture, L'Oréal, KPMG, BAE Systems, Old Mutual, BT and Man Group.
Go to www.ethicalcorp.com/climate to check the latest speaker line-up and attendee list and to reserve your place now.
Other Companies presenting include:
Marks & Spencer, HSBC, Cadbury Schweppes, Tesco, Procter & Gamble, ASDA, British Energy, Lehman Brothers, Timberland, Walkers, Vodafone, British Gas, AXA Insurance, The Co-operative Group and many more.
Environmental Resources Management (ERM), a leading provider of environmental consulting services will host a practical workshop on the 11th of February, the day before the conference takes place.
To learn about the cutting-edge solutions in the areas of footprinting, assurance of carbon claims, climate risk assessment and how you can apply them immediately in your organization, book now. spaces are limited.
For full event information go to www.ethicalcorp.com/climate
To reserve your place, take three easy steps at the secure registration page
https://secure.firstconf.com/ethicalcorporation/climate/register-logix.asp
If you have any questions please contact me at +44 (0)207 375 7226 or email Ekaterina Kvasova
February 26 - 27, San Francisco, California
CARBON FORUM AMERICA (CFA) 2008 is a response to the demand for an organized and regulated market. Unlike others, CFA is the first US industry event which combines a Trade Fair with a Conference. Organized by the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and Koelnmesse; the event will be held at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California.
March 13 - 14, 2008, New York, NY
Attend the 2008 Ethical Sourcing Forum and hear Future 500 President Bill Shireman's presentation on The Sustainable Procurement Challenge: The Case of China.
The Ethical Sourcing Forum (ESF) is an action oriented continuous learning industry initiative, open to those willing to play an active role in the development and successful implementation of sustainable social and environmental supply chain practices. The ESF platform gathers and compiles practical knowledge on new approaches which contribute to sustainable supply chain practices based on projects and initiatives undertaken by organizations engaged in off-the-ground supply chain activities.
The ESF indentifies industry training needs and collaborates across stakeholders to gather and transfer practical knowledge and good practice that improve the conditions of supply chains worldwide.
Key Topics Include:
- "Green" is the New Black
Efficient ways to encourage the development of greener manufacturing methods across supply chain partners. - The Contenders: CSR vs. Sourcing
Learn how to create operating system synergies between CSR and Sourcing organizations that contribute to sustainable outcomes. - When to Say "I Do": Developing Sustainable Factory Remediation
Plans
Listen as industry representatives share practical off the ground experience on engaging with suppliers to implement factory level improvement plans. - Minimizing the Monitoring Industry Divide
Explore your opportunities for partnerships with traditional monitoring institutions which encourage important shifts in practice, minimize perceptions and strengthen industry confidence. - Forward, Reverse or Turn at the Next Corner?
Is your current social and environmental supply chain approach driving sustainable impact or should you change lanes? Industry practioners share focused, practice oriented experience on the latest changes in company approaches to environmental and social supply chain issues. - Guess Who´s Coming to Dinner?
How to bring Sourcing, Procurement and Buyers into the CSR conversation. - Take Your Business Next Door
How to minimize resistance and achieve commitment within complex buyer - supplier business relationship environments. - Surviving the Impact of Climate Change
This specialized Self Help workshop will provide delegates with practical industry tools and techniques on how to measure climate change effects across your supply chain. - Purchasing Green? How to Make Sustainable Procurement More than Just a
Goal
Developing sustainable procurement strategies in today's reality. - Filling Green Shoes?
How to maintain your environmental commitment when 90% of your eco-footprint is from the supply chain. - MEASURING IMPACT:
Grassroot Perspectives from Suppliers, Facilities and Workers - COMMITMENT:
Using Measurements to Motivate Performance, Ownership and Impact
Support The Future 500's Programs
The Future 500 has teamed with Groundspring.org to make it easy for you to
support NGO involvement in our various initiatives. DONATE NOW
. How to Win the War Against Hate: We are experts on hate. We work with people who hate every day: Muslims and Christians who hate each other in the Middle East, Arabs and Africans who hate each other in Sudan, corporate executives and activists who hate each other across the developed and developing world. Our job is to decimate hate - to destroy it, and the counterproductive actions hate justifies, so that we clear a path for rational, sensible, effective behavior. Our approach is called engagement. We bring together adversarial stakeholders - partisans with a stake in one another's future - in a process that turns their attacks away from each other, and toward the systemic causes of the conflicts that divide them. The most important part of stakeholder engagement is the process of dissipating presumption, prejudice, anger and hate. Once this is done, solutions can come forward... READ FULL ARTICLE
Multinationals and Their Stakeholders Set Plans For a More Harmonious 2008 Olympics: In August 2008, when three billion people turn to their televisions or the Internet to watch the Olympic Games in Beijing, it won't just be the athletes commanding the attention. China itself, and the many multinational corporations operating there, will also be center stage. They won't be judged for their athletic prowess, but for their performance on issues like chemical spills, child labor, democracy, and press freedom. That is why two hundred global corporate executives, Chinese government officials, influential Chinese citizens, and non-profit leaders gathered in Beijing last year, for the Future 500 International Forum, to develop a more collaborative approach to the issues they will face when the Olympics begin less than two years from now... READ FULL ARTICLE
Turning Conflict Into Cooperation: Ten years ago, top executives at three Mitsubishi companies were suddenly faced with a protracted consumer boycott campaign waged by activist NGO Rainforest Action Network (RAN), which sought to tarnish the company's brand to force it to change its business practices. Instead of fighting RAN, the companies did exactly the opposite of what its lawyers, public relations experts, and crisis professionals advised: They sat down and engaged the group's leaders in dialogue.... READ FULL ARTICLE
Toward A Framework for Supply Chain Leadership: This document represents a first step toward a potential framework for supply chain leadership. It is based on interviews of companies conducted before the Working Group (October 2005), literature searches and reviews of thirteen companies and ten independent supply chain initiatives, and discussions among executives during the Working Group. It is a project of the Working Group on Global Corporate Citizenship and Risk Assessment, and is prepared by The Future 500 and The Conference Board.
This document is meant to start a discussion on supply chain leadership - not finish it. The definitions, approaches, interpretations, and assertions are preliminary, intended to help drive thought and consideration. Feedback is invited.
Through this process, a management framework for supply chain leadership is emerging, elements of which will continue to be added, shaped, and improved... READ FULL ARTICLE
PET Peeve: In the face of continued declines in plastic recycling rates, a handful of PET industry advocates have hit upon a new strategy: prevent new more sustainable alternatives from entering the market. Their approach is just plain wrong. Better alternatives are the key to the success of plastic recycling, and may represent the future of the companies now devoted to PET. PET exploded onto the marketplace, and quickly captured share once held by more easily recyclable packages, like aluminum and glass. PET now dominates the soft drink market, especially bottled waters and noncarbonated drinks. But the promise of PET recycling has not been filled, and never will... READ FULL ARTICLE.
Avoiding Survey Fatigue: It is an old truism that wise investing depends on good information. While there are well-developed, government-regulated mechanisms for collecting and disseminating accurate and relevant financial information from publicly traded companies, the means for gathering and distributing non-financial information are relatively early in their development. But the demand for non-financial reporting is growing as even mainstream asset managers and institutional investors increasingly appreciate the importance of issues like greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental and social liability potential. Many companies have responded by... READ FULL ARTICLE.
The Stakeholder Imperative, Part 2: In this article, we outline a three-phase stakeholder engagement process. These phases (and the steps or tasks that comprise each phase) build a sequence of activities that can create the foundation for an effective stakeholder engagement process, guide the business strategic planning agenda, and increase a company's ability to be robustly competitive in a changing business environment... READ FULL ARTICLE
The Stakeholder Imperative, Part 1: Today's companies serve not just shareholders but an increasing array of 'stakeholders' including employees, customers, community groups, governmental regulators and environmental advocacy groups...What are the features of this new environment for business? READ FULL ARTICLE
Jumpstarting California's Hydrogen Economy: Governor Schwarzenegger's recent announcement to commit 0 million to create a California hydrogen highway by 2010 positions the State as leading this technological transformation in the U.S. But several states - Ohio, Michigan, New York, Texas -- are competing for this title... READ FULL ARTICLE
Dogged By Dozens of CSR Standards: The surge of standards for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is creating tremendous challenges and opportunities for leadership companies... READ FULL ARTICLE
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