450 Posts Found

Awareness of the significance of sustainability is growing rapidly, with particular emphasis on sustainable development as an area of concern. Issues related to sustainability crosscut many boundaries, as they are both trans-disciplinary and trans-organizational in nature. A commitment to sustainable development requires enlightenment within organizations as well as at the government level, appropriate infrastructure as well as management of uncertainty and risk. Above all, a … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Bill Martin, Marianne Gloet | Source: RMIT University | Subjects: Knowledge Management, Social Responsibility (ESG)

Some of the best growth opportunities are found in fields loaded with ethical and moral difficulties, including biotechnology, providing public services for profit, serving low-income consumers in poor countries, and developing newly legal activities such as gaming. Companies working in these fields have had to make themselves more socially responsible to satisfy not only political activists but also their own shareholders. To make the most … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: David Cogman, Jeremy M. Oppenheim | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Miscellaneous, Social Responsibility (ESG)

Incorporating corporate social responsibility into all strategic decisions is, arguably, one of the most difficult challenges a manager faces. Professor Tima Bansal discusses a research project that investigated how Canadian businesses manage that challenge.

Content: Article | Author: Tima Bansal | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Ratings of corporations’ environmental activities and capabilities influence billions of dollars of “socially responsible” investments as well as some consumers, activists, and potential employees. Unfortunately, there is little evidence about the validity of these ratings. We examine how well two of the most widely used ratings-those of Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini Research & Analytics (KLD) and Innovest Strategic Value Advisors-predict environmental performance. We find that firms … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Aaron K. Chatterji, David I. Levine, Michael W. Toffel | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Consumers often say they want to be socially responsible when it comes to buying food, clothing, office supplies, and the like. But consumers’ noble sentiments are not often reflected in their actions at the checkout. In fact, a number of corporations have seen their efforts to sell socially responsible products fall flat because consumers failed to buy them in any significant numbers. There are, however, … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Giana Eckhardt, Patrice Auger, Thomas Bir, Timothy M. Devinney | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Marketing / Sales, Social Responsibility (ESG)

John Ehrenfeld proposes a radically different conversation about sustainability, one that moves away from mere problem solving, demands a new definition and envisions infinite possibilities.

Content: Article | Author: John Ehrenfeld | Source: ChangeThis | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Eskom, Africa’s largest electric company, has shown the world how to combine social leadership and business success.

Content: Case Study | Author: Ann Graham | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG) | Industry: Utilities | Company: Eskom

This is an online dictionary of terms that pertain to sustainability. A product of the Presidio School of Management, this site is an educational tool created to increase the vocabulary of the user. Each entry supports users comments as well.

Content: Online Resource | Source: Presidio School of Management | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Economic arguments assume the existence of perfectly competitive markets in which consumers and producers behave rationally in order to maximize utility and profits. In a perfect market, goods and services flow openly, there are no transaction costs, entry and exit is free, and producers and consumers possess complete information about the price, physical characteristics, and availability of each commodity.

But the perfect market is an abstraction. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Economics, Social Responsibility (ESG)

There is an ethical argument that says that firms are morally obliged to give back to the societies in which they exist. This responsibility arises for at least two reasons. First, firms are obliged to make a payment in kind for using society’s infrastructure, land, air, water, plants, and animals to generate profit. Second, they have a duty to reimburse society for the negative externalities … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Even though ethical arguments [for social responsibility] are morally appealing, they do not apply well to the practical realities of modern western social and economic systems. First, the ethical argument lacks clear measures for evaluating the success or otherwise of socially valuable activities. It is difficult to compare one activity with another without a baseline measure of value.

Second, firms have many stakeholders. Is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

I keep running into highly capable people all over this country who literally never give a thought to the well-being of their community. And I keep wondering who gave them permission to stand aside! I’m asking you to issue a wake-up call to those people — a bugle call right in their ear. And I want you to tell them that this nation could die … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

The two fields that have the longest legacy of bio-inspiration are computing and materials. The traditional processes for turning materials into finished products are incredibly wasteful and polluting. They’re called “heat, beat, and treat”: You start with a bulk material, carve it down, heat it up, beat it with enormous pressure, and treat it with chemicals. What you get is 96 percent waste, 4 percent … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Biomimicry…looks for the best practices of the 30 million species out there that have been figuring out chemistry, engineering, and physics – trying to live on this planet without destroying the place that sustains them. …We’re trying to live on this planet without destroying the things that sustain us. So let’s share best practices from the overlooked, undervalued, underappreciated geniuses that surround us. When you … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Few companies or institutions have addressed the root cause of unsustainability-our addiction to consumption. Instead, the prevailing mindset creates technological fixes, such as eco-efficiency. This is a classic case of shifting the burden, or focusing on the symptoms rather than attacking the problem at the roots. The underlying condition often reasserts itself in even more confounding ways, and, as a result, our capacity to change … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: ChangeThis | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Existing research focuses on many interesting aspects of social entrepreneurs and their initiatives, for example, the social entrepreneur as change agent, or the role of the founder and his or her vision and individual traits. However, a number of questions remain unanswered: How do social entrepreneurs actually create social and economic value by setting up self-sustained organizations? And how do strategies for building specific networks … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Johanna Mair, Oliver Schoen | Source: IESE Insight | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Social Responsibility (ESG)

With regard to national security, pollution, energy policy, education, global warming, and other commons issues, it’s hard to see how individual self-interest can add up to the community-wide base we need to remain a competitive nation in the twenty-first century.

Content: Quotation | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Economics, Social Responsibility (ESG)

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When it comes to ethics in business, many accept that standards can not only be different from, but even lower than, ethics in everyday life. That should definitely not be so, argues this author. In fact, he says, a corporation’s obligations to its stakeholders bind it to those stakeholders, in turn creating new and specific moral obligations.

Content: Article | Author: Robert Phillips | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Ethics, Social Responsibility (ESG)

Gazing at weather systems, a ground-breaking scientist spawned an ecological accounting standard that Wall Street might one day embrace.

Editor’s Note: discusses emergy, a concept created by University of Florida professor Howard Odum, which is a blueprint for breaking down the world into basic, measurable energy components called solar emjoules. A joule is a unit of energy that is available now. An emjoule (“energy-embodied joule”) … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Lisa Yoon | Source: CFO Publishing | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)