CSR Blogs

One of the benefits of running a digital platform used by corporate responsibility teams is being able to learn from the successes and mistakes of your clients, and to access big data to help demystify important issues.

For example, we were curious whether 3BL Media clients were increasing engagement around the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Mining the 3BL Media news distribution platform showed a doubling of content referencing the SDGs in 2016 on top of a huge spike the prior...

All CCOs are not created equally. But they’re getting closer.

After decades working alongside chief communications officers, I figured other corporate professional masquerading under the CCO acronym had little in common with the wordsmiths who manage corporate messaging.

That myth was exploded when I attended a gathering of the other CCO-- chief compliance officers – and realized their concerns about corporate reputation were completely aligned with the ink-stained wretches who manage comms.

The occasion was the Global Ethics Summit, an annual conference presented by...

As someone who spends quite a bit of time with sustainability professionals, I try to minimize my own environmental footprint. 

So it was a bummer earlier this week when my efforts to be a good husband and green-minded consumer generated unwanted V-waste. 

My Valentine’s Day shopping routine was disrupted because the New York City jewelry and chocolate stores where I routinely bought gifts had both recently closed, presumably the victims of steep midtown Manhattan rent hikes.

Rather than undocking a Citibike and pedaling a mile or two to buy a pound of delicious...

Unlike many cities where Sunday newspaper readership has tanked, plenty of Minneapolis residents still treasure delivery of a chunky Star Tribune as part of their weekend routine.

“It’s our meal ticket,” Business Editor Thom Kupper said of the 580,000-circulation Sunday edition during a 3BL Media event for sustainability communicators.

Those pitching Minnesota’s largest daily need to understand that the “digital first” mantra adhered to by print outlets in some markets does not apply for his team. 

Kupper, whose business reporting team numbers 17, is continually...

If there’s any one topic that people working in sustainability can agree, it’s that their sector has an identity problem.

Acronyms abound. EHS, ESG, CSR and CR are just a few. There are professionals who feel that Social Purpose or Shared Value address both human rights and environmental issues. But just as many execs are solidly in the Sustainability camp. 

Joel Makower, the winning author and chairman of GreenBiz Group, says that the kids he interacts with will invariably describe the world they want to live in using sustainability language but without using “the S word.”...

When 3BL Media advertises for talent on job boards in western Massachusetts, we’ve used the phrase, “Silicon Alley Meets the Pioneer Valley.”

Juxtaposing New York City’s bustling media tech scene against the beautiful backdrop of the Berkshires seems to be working for 3BL Media, which has just been honored by the Springfield Regional Chamber for being third in revenue growth among regional companies.

Two of my colleagues from our Northampton headquarters, Jon Shrair and Rebecca Kreke, brought home a beautiful trophy from the...

One of the perks of attending sustainability and corporate social responsibility events is exposure to business leaders who are genuinely excited about the way their organizations are making the world a better place.

Increasingly, I’m encountering senior executives who encourage their peers to look closely at CSR programs to make sure they have adequate scale to actually make a difference, and that they connect to a company’s mission.

Bill DiCroce, the newly appointed CEO Veolia North America, is publicly applauding American business leaders for focusing on sustainability as...

For the past couple of summers, our family has watched as construction workers ferried back and forth between Rhode Island’s Point Judith and a wind farm being built off nearby Block Island.

We knew the turbines would be spinning soon when the main highway traversing the peninsula was gouged to make way for a cable that would bring ashore any surplus electricity not consumed by Block Island residents and businesses.

For the sustainarati in the Ocean State there is clearly a sense of pride that the United State’s first offshore wind project got approved and built there. ...

If the University of California was a state, it would be the 15^th largest.

The annual budget for UC is 20 times larger than Arizona, where Janet Napolitano was governor from 2003 to 2009.

So the impact of California’s 10 public university campuses, hospitals and research labs becoming carbon neutral in their energy consumption is an “audacious” goal, Napolitano told Verge 16, the GreenBiz Media Group conference, in Santa Clara, California.

The decision to tackle energy as a primary issue at UC stemmed from the same kind of assessment of meta risks she...

Leaning heavily on video and guided by metrics showing readers crave stories about solutions to environmental and social problems, a senior Huffington Post editor says coverage in the post-Ariana era will emphasize “positive journalism”

Jo Confino, speaking to CSR and sustainability communicators during a 3BL Media webinar, said the highly trafficked news site is determined to produce a flood of content and partner with activist organizations to drive change in the areas it deems important.

“The thing about...

Professional development events exist for just about every career, and they’ve been around since Thomas Edison held his first, “How to Change a Light Bulb” seminar for aspiring electricians (attendees earned 10 CEU credits and went home with some nice tsotchkes).

For the growing number of corporate and nonprofit professionals focused on social impact and sustainability initiatives, there is more choice in fall 2016 than ever before for events aimed at showcasing successful programs and the brands that made them happen. 

Getting approval from corporate controllers for...

The president of Nasdaq Inc. served as a different kind of market maker at a gathering of the Sustainerati this week.

Adena Friedman was celebrated at the United National Global Compact’s Leadership Summit as a role model for those just beginning their careers in sustainability and social impact work. Starting as an intern as she finished business school in 1993, she is now widely seen as the apparent heir to Nasdaq CEO Bob Greifeld, when he retires.

Friedman was also...