Practical webinar on GHG reporting and creating a baseline for action

PG & E, one of the largest natural gas and electricity utilities in the U.S. explains how it came up with a single solution for managing and reporting on greenhouse gas emissions.

There are literally hundreds of similar success stories, where companies glean significant internal, regulatory and reputational benefits. Here's hoping this webinar can clarify the issues and encourage more companies to tackle their GHG emissions.

Download the webinar at http://www.enviance.com/registration/landing161.aspx

Campbell's feeds the hungry, nourishes its image

Campbell's Soup is launching a new product called Nourish that has all the markings of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) superstar program.

An article in Wednesday's Toronto Star has the Executive Director of Food Banks Canada calling Campbell's "a good corporate citizen," saying "It is the first time in Canada that a food company operator has created a product thinking about Canadians who are struggling to put food on the table."

Nourish is a healthy, premium meal in a can containing a full serving of vegetables, grains and protein.  It will hit Canadian shelves later this year, but the first 100,000 cans will be donated to Canadian food banks to help feed the poor and needy.

This marks a profound shift for Campbell's which has built its reputation with tasty-but-wildly salty and not particularly nourishing soups. The company launched a low-sodium line a few years ago, but the new product is an innovative strategy to both build a reputation as a responsible company and help the hungry.

Nourish hits the corporate responsibility bulls eye on several fronts.

First, feeding people is linked to the company's core mission, which helps all stakeholders - everyone from executives to line workers to customers and investors to immediately understand that this is more than just a publicity stunt.  It may help with branding, but it's also the right thing to do.

CSR Programs that aren't linked to a company's core mission or strategies typically look a bit desperate and fall short of their goals.

Helping feed people is also something Campbell's can do well. Anyone who has ever donated to a food drive in Canada knows that Campbell's soups usually end up in the bag.

This is also a significant step up from a simple handout.  Campbell's is not only donating run-of-the-mill soup to charity, they met several times with Food Bank representatives for advice on designing a product that would be truly useful. The consultations resulted in a complete meal that would be attractive and sold to consumers, not just given to the poor, thus dispelling any potential stigma. It also represents a significant step up from typical food bank food, because, as Mark Childs, vice-president of marketing recently pointed out to The Star  “Access to healthy food is a right. That runs at the core of the DNA strand of the Campbell’s team.”

And to round out the campaign, Campbell's will be donating one can for each person who "likes" Nourish on the campany's Facebook or Twitter pages.

To quote Bob Willard from a talk last week in Ottawa:  "Frankly I could care less about motivations these days, but let's just get on with it, whatever works. We'll worry about motivations maybe later on when we've got more time, but right now we're kind of running out of time on some of these sustainability issues, so let's just clean up our act and get companies to do the right things - and goodness, if it's the way in which they can be more successful companies wouldn't that be fantastic." 

In Campbell's case, it's both.

Mr. Willard's full presentation can viewed here

Pacioretty, Air Canada et la LNH - une question de Responsabilité Sociale d'Entreprise?

Ceux qui suivent l'actualité du développement durable s'intéresseront au cas de Air Canada, qui à annoncé jeudi que pour une question de cohérence vis-à-vis la responsabilité sociale d'entreprise, elle pourrait retirer son soutien à la Ligue Nationale de Hockey.

Ni la foulée de tweet, de courriels et de commentaires facebook, ni l'amorce d'une investigation criminelle visant l'un de ses joueurs, ni même une sortie de Mario Lemieux contre les coups à la tête que Sidney Crosby à reçu il y a deux mois, n'a pas réussi à faire bouger la LNH, une entreprise qui est souvent à l'épreuve de la critique et parfois même de la loi.

Elle s'est pourtant vue enfin contrainte de s'expliquer quand Air Canada à envoyé une lettre aux bureaux du commissaire Gary Bettman exigeant des correctifs pour Zdeno Chara, le joueur des Bruins de Boston qui à délivré un coup choc à Max Pacioretty lors du match du Canadien de Montréal mardi soir, sans quoi elle se verrait contrainte de retirer son soutien à la LNH et à plusieurs équipes.

Pacioretty souffre désormais de blessures importantes, dont une commotion cérébrale majeure et une vertèbre fracturée, qui pourraient mettre un terme à sa carrière. Pourtant la ligne à annoncé mercredi que le coup ne méritait aucune mesure disciplinaire supplémentaire.

Après la sortie du propriétaire du Canadien de Montréal, Geoff Molson, et l'amorce d'une investigation criminelle contre Chara par la Société de Police de la Ville de Montréal, la menace d'Air Canada pourrait bien faire la différence et inciter la LNH de mettre en place des mesures pour protéger la santé des joueurs. Le transporteur craint une association avec un sport considéré comme aveugle et irresponsable, et en fait une question de responsabilité sociale.

"Du point de vue de la responsabilité sociale d'entreprise, il est de plus en plus difficile d'associer notre marque à des événement sportifs qui pour pourraient mener à des accidents importants et irresponsables; Il va falloir que la LNH agisse avant d'être confrontée à un fatalité."

La LNH, c'est une entreprise à but lucratif dont la responsabilité est plus qu'économique. Un événement choc pourrait enfin la convaincre qu'elle est responsable aussi de la santé et du bien-être des gens qui livrent la marchandise sur la glace. Il suffirait d'envoyer un message clair aux joueurs que lors d'un match, il n'y a pas que les règles du jeu à respecter - il faut aussi éviter de blesser les joueurs de l'équipe adversaire.

Comme quoi une entreprise irresponsable pourrait bien se voir contrainte d'agir non pas par l'opinion publique ou même celle des propriétaires des équipes qui composent la ligue, mais par une autre entreprise qui, elle, comprend ce qu'est la responsabilité sociale.

Peut-être un jour, la LNH se verra contrainte d'agir sur le plan de la responsabilité environnementale...

Why do we need qualitative assurance?

The following is an opinion-piece I wrote on prizmablog, in response to a post in which the author identified the lack of qualitative assurance for GRI-style sustainability reports. I've tweaked my comments for clarity.

It's high time for a North American group to develop a recognized qualitative assurance program to address the tick-boxing syndrome caused by the most common sustainability reporting assurance programs. Companies can currently have their reports checked by the big four auditing firms, third-party consultants or the GRI itself, but none of these services are "designed to provide any verification or assurance of content or quality of processes applied" (Nazari).

This, in my view, reduces the effectiveness of GRI and sustainability reporting in general. It also represents value lost for reporting companies.

What GRI's New York launch means for American and Canadian companies

North American corporate social responsibility (CSR) continued its recent surge this week as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) officially launched its push to encourage American companies to report on environmental, social and governance issues using the GRI framework.

Traditionally squeamish about disclosing non-financial information, North American companies now have a better chance of catching up to the rest of the world (many estimates put us approximately 10 years behind).