Jump to navigation
  • Distribution
    • 3BL Professional
    • 3BL CSRwire
    • 3BL ReportAlert
  • Leadership
    • 3BL Association
    • 3BL Forum
    • CR Magazine
  • Editorial
    • TriplePundit
    • Brands Taking Stands
  • About
    • About Us
    • News Alerts
    • Contact Us
  • Search
  • News
    • 3BL Pro
    • 3BL CSRwire
    • 3BL ReportAlert
  • Leadership
    • 3BL Association
    • 3BL Forum
    • CR Magazine
  • Editorial
    • TriplePundit
    • Brands Taking Stands
  • About
    • About Us
    • News Alerts
    • Contact Us
  • Search

Search form

Header Nav

  • LOGIN

CSR Blogs

Is Virtualization a Valid ‘Green’ Technology for Emerging Companies?

If you’re like most small-medium sized business owners, you own and independently operate a business with less than 100 employees, have revenues of less than $500,000 annually, and are not market dominant. You may be wondering if the new, ‘greener’ technologies can work for your company. Can your business enjoy the same benefits as your larger counter-parts by investing in ‘green’ technologies such as virtualization? The global economic downturn means that it is more important than ever to ensure that every penny counts and that your business is run efficiently and cost effectively. This...

  • Read more about Is Virtualization a Valid ‘Green’ Technology for Emerging Companies?
  • JD Carr's blog

Conspiracy Theory

Either Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne is certifiably insane, or he’s a genius. Perhaps he’s a blend of both. I have to admit, the guy fascinates me.

For the past five years, Byrne has waged an unrelenting crusade against the banking practice known as naked short selling, a financial sleight of hand that floods the market with nonexistent stock. Today that war has culminated into two Internet websites, a high-profile public relations campaign, and a $3.48bn lawsuit that Byrne has filed against 12 New York brokerage firms, alleging a “massive, illegal stock market manipulation scheme.” The case is still pending.

To get a sense of both the scale and significance of Byrne’s claims, take a few paces back in time. Years prior to the 2008 financial crisis, Byrne went on TV warning people of the dangers of naked short selling and predicting that a financial catastrophe was just around the corner.

“I think there is something going on in the American marketplace that has to be stopped,” Byrne told Bloomberg in November of 2006. “When it comes to light, it’s going to be something that makes Enron look like a tea party.”

Do people take Byrne’s warnings seriously? Not so much. Some call Byrne “delusional.” Others assume that Byrne exaggerates (he recently called Mad Money host Jim Cramer a “criminal” for his role in the market meltdown). Still others find his predictions downright irritating. CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo nearly barked Byrne off her show after he said: “Our economy is a house of cards. I think we’re on the edge of a global financial meltdown,” back in 2007.

  • Read more about Conspiracy Theory
  • Christine Arena's blog

Food, Inc. (movie review)

I finally saw Food, Inc. Frankly, I didn't expect to like it much. I expected a one-sided, misleading anti-corporate tirade, along the lines of The Corporation. I was only partly correct. The main message really does seem to be that big companies are ruining everything, and that things would be better if we all just realized that we should be buying directly from the kindly farmer/sage down the road. But in spite of that slant, the movie does...

  • Read more about Food, Inc. (movie review)
  • Chris MacDonald's blog

What are the barriers to mass adoption of sustainability? – Part 2

A number of comments, on the original and later posts, as well as other discoveries have pointed me to additional barriers to mass adoption of sustainability. They’re below, bringing the total to 21 (Greenjack?). While I’ve categorized these barriers as marketing issues, it seems human psychology plays a major role. The marketing of sustainability must, therefore, understand these issues in the target audiences’ minds.

Referring to “barriers” may be misleading. It’s not to say, the barriers are aplenty, it’s such an uphill battle we might as well pack up and go do something else. Each “barrier” in both posts represents a wall to be torn down – an opportunity.

Storytelling. Stories are how we communicate, stories are how we understand and act upon things. What’s the story of sustainability? People don’t relate to products or brands or concepts – people relate to people.

Language (via Bernice Paul). We’re using linear language to convey a systems concept. The clash is subtle yet significant. It’s like using old tools to solve new problems.

(Ir)relevance (via Carolina). The absence of stories and the use of unsuitable language makes for a weak connection to people’s lives. For some, sustainable practices just don’t seem to be that relevant to their everyday experiences.

  • Read more about What are the barriers to mass adoption of sustainability? – Part 2
  • Peter Korchnak's blog

What are the barriers to mass adoption of sustainability?

“People do not change when you tell them they should; they change when they tell themselves they must.” –Michael Mandelbaum, via Thomas Friedman

In his Strategies for the Green Economy: Opportunities and Challenges in the New World of Business, Joel Makower bemoans the studies on American consumers’ attitudes about purchasing green products: for decades research has shown consumers want green but are not actually buying it. Makower lists two main reasons for the gap between concern and consumerism:

1. the...

  • Read more about What are the barriers to mass adoption of sustainability?
  • Peter Korchnak's blog

When it comes to green issues, we are transfixed by tokens

A recent survey asked leading environmental campaigners for one thing they would want to ban on ethical grounds, and one favourite ethical innovation or product. The answers are illuminating precisely because they are, taken as a group, incoherent and often tokenistic.

Products to ban include outdoor patio heaters, incandescent light bulbs (score on that one, then), bluefin tuna, 4x4 cars, private health insurance and plastic bags.

There's big stuff in there as well - military aircraft, coal fired power stations and the like.

The favourite products often go to the quirky. A wind-up torch. A folding bicycle. Organic boxer shorts. More substantial answers include electric vehicle technology, locally grown food, ethical investment vehicles.

It shouldn't be a surprise that there is such a diversity in the answers. The environmental movement is hardly one homogenous branch of thought.

But I am interested that the politicians polled generally came up with substantial answers - focused on the big priorities and big issues - and campaigners came up with small-fry (a generalisation, certainly not all of them did).

It fuels my suspicion that the target of campaigns is often fuelled by certain factors that are not related to the substance of the issue.

1. Proximity. Things that campaigners see in front of them that annoy them become targets for criticism and action. Outdoor patio heaters, for instance. And plastic bags.

  • Read more about When it comes to green issues, we are transfixed by tokens
  • Mallen Baker's blog

Nature’s Entrepreneurs

As I mentioned in a previous post, one of the challenges when talking about sustainability is wondering how you (or I) could possibly do anything to help the dire situation our planet is facing.

One of the most exciting parts of my Global Sustainability class from last week was the discussion of how entrepreneurs and innovators are looking at sustainability not as a problem, but as an opportunity.

An opportunity to make a difference, yes. But also an opportunity to make...

  • Read more about Nature’s Entrepreneurs
  • Ashley Jablow's blog

Japanese Women Reassess Gender Equity

The Japanese are one big family, it is often said. Small trends and changes in the family mood are amplified and exaggerated in the press--no matter if the trends are real or imagined. In fact, there is a whole industry, involving TV commentators, the print press, social scientists, and small businesses, that taps into these blips. One of the most salient trends I detected during my recent trip to Japan (visiting Tokyo, Yokohama, and Kushiro) was a subtle shift in the attitudes of young women toward gender equity.

A few weeks ago, the New York Times ran a story about a new trend in Japan--again whether it is real or imagined is debatable. The article (titled "With Jobs Scarce in Japan, Women Become Professional Flirts") said that some women are choosing to become hostesses in order to survive during the recession and that the image of hostessing as a job has gained some respectability. The article's sensational photo featured a single mother who works as a hostess (oh no, Japan's mothers are becoming prostitutes!).

I asked a Japanese friend, who is an MBA candidate in Japan, about this article and she said that the deeper issue is that single women in their late 20s and 30s are kicking up their search for financial stability. This drive includes doing previously shunned jobs or searching for husbands by engaging in "kon katsu" or "marriage hunting," which includes the use of websites that help women find men. Given the U.S. media's fondness for exoticizing Japan, what are we to make of this new trend? During my recent trip, I was eager to find out.

After talking with many people during this trip, my view is that this trend is both much ado about nothing and much ado about something very subtle, but not necessarily what one would expect on the surface. Keep in mind my view is based on conversations only, not quantitative analysis.

  • Read more about Japanese Women Reassess Gender Equity
  • one's blog

How Cause Capitalism Helps This Underdog Lead the Pack

How many Staples do you have in your neighborhood? I count three of the ubiquitous office supply stores within a 2.5-mile radius of my place. I’m about to introduce you to a man who doesn’t just provide an alternative experience to the titanic chain, but runs an incredibly successful business.

But first, let’s understand how big Staples really is. As the largest office supplier in the world and pioneer of the office superstore concept, Staples netted $23 billion in sales in 2008, or twice as much as Office Depot.

So how does one man earn a chunk of Staples’ market share by doing good and earning a profit?

I interviewed Mike Hannigan who founded Give Something Back with Sean Marx in 1991.  Give Something Back is now the West Coast’s largest independent office supplier with corporate offices in three cities and 12,000 clients and 40 distribution centers nationwide. You’re reading about Give Something Back now, not because of the company’s overnight delivery or tremendous selection of recycled products, but because it donates all after-tax profits to nonprofits through a balloting system that involves its customers and employees. Based on Newman’s Own business model, Give Something Back has donated more than $4 million (80% of its accumulated profits) to nonprofit organizations in the last 18 years. In 2007, Mike and his team did $26 million in sales.

If you’re inspired by Mike’s success in running a profitable business and doing good in the world, I offer some guiding principles to get you started:

Stand for something beyond profit.

  • Read more about How Cause Capitalism Helps This Underdog Lead the Pack
  • Olivia Khalili's blog

Ethical to Teach a Bogus Therapy?

Needless to say, the industry I myself work in — higher education — is in no way immune from sub-par business ethics. (Those of us involved in the teaching end of higher education don't like to think of it as a business, but at some level that's what it is, as long as a fee is being charged.) And what else can I call it but bad ethics, when a university offers courses teaching students to manipulate forces that don't exist in order to generate effects that don't happen?

Check out this article, from Common Ground magazine:...

  • Read more about Ethical to Teach a Bogus Therapy?
  • Chris MacDonald's blog

Mieko Nakabayashi: Japan Must Stop Wasting Money

I just saw my old friend and former colleague Mieko Nakabayashi. She is now a bright star in the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) who is running to represent Kanagawa's first district in Japan's lower house in the Aug. 30 national election. In many ways, she epitomizes Japan's opposition the DPJ: She is hard-working, innovative, and conservative on budget issues.

Mieko was doing "yuudachi" (evening campaigning at subway stations, targeting people coming home from work). This aspect of Japanese elections is the core of democracy here; the candidate and her staff burst on to the public squares near commuter railway stations to make the case for their candidacy. A DPJ politician who introduced Mieko harshly criticized former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi's deceptive administration, which he said only focused on postal reform. Today is the first official day of Mieko's campaign and she is working from 6am to 9pm each day to get her message out:

True to her unique background working on budget issues at the U.S. Senate years ago, she is a blue dog (in fact, her campaign color is marine blue, a link to Yokohama's maritime culture), fiscal conservative. In line with the top pillar of the DPJ platform, her key message is, Japan must stop wasting money. It is already the most in debt rich country in the world. Like the GOP in the United States, Mieko compared Japan's budget to a household, asking passersby whether they would feel OK with running a household with such high levels of debt (to income).

  • Read more about Mieko Nakabayashi: Japan Must Stop Wasting Money
  • one's blog

Green Denial Amongst Smaller Businesses

Houston, we have a problem, and I mean we ALL have a problem.

The UK Environment Agency yesterday reported that more than 50% (from a sample of 7000) of small and medium sized businesses said “an environmental policy was of ‘no use’ to their business in the current climate.” The same research also showed a fall in the appreciation about their...

  • Read more about Green Denial Amongst Smaller Businesses
  • David Connor's blog

Business Ethics Blog: CSR is Not C-S-R

Regular readers will know that, over the last month, I've posted 3 blog entries critiquing the term "corporate social responsibility" (CSR). I've asked, rhetorically, whether the "C," the "S," and the "R" make sense. I've argued that, no, in each case the word those letters stand for fail to capture the range of...

  • Read more about Business Ethics Blog: CSR is Not C-S-R
  • Chris MacDonald's blog

The Best Ice Breaker for Business Development

When walking into a reception filled with people I need to meet, I've always been able to turn it into an enjoyable experience by asking people what kind of volunteer work they do. It's even more fun for me when they're involved on nonprofit boards; this opens up a world of wonderful conversation--all the way from learning about the work of the organization, to how the person found it, to the fascinating group dynamics of boards, to leadership, etc.
 
At lunch today, sitting with two corporate CEOs who were meeting for the first time, I...
  • Read more about The Best Ice Breaker for Business Development
  • Alice Korngold's blog

Debunking the Myth of Sustainable Brands

Let’s face it: there is no such thing as a ‘sustainable brand.’ Achieving true sustainability means constantly thinking about ways of giving back more than a company takes from the environment and society. In essence, sustainability means creating tangible value for stakeholders.

While brands are important corporate assets, the value they create for stakeholders tends to be largely intangible in nature. Brands themselves do not physically pollute, clean-up, employ, invent, invest, engineer, design, reach out, assist, collaborate and singlehandedly, they cannot save the world....

  • Read more about Debunking the Myth of Sustainable Brands
  • Christine Arena's blog

The 3 Basic Steps To Create Trust Through Corporate Social Responsibility

Trust: Why Business Lost It, And How To Win It Back (Part 3 of 3)

If business wants to regain the public’s trust, they’re going to have to be trustworthy, and employees are the key. Here are three basic steps to engage your employees, build social capital, and win stakeholder trust.

There's a lot here, so take your time with it, read it in pieces, and as always, share your thoughts and insights.

Trust: "Can I get a loan?"

Many companies are turning to Corporate Social Responsibility as a strategy to win back the trust of their stakeholders and customers. But there is an irony here. For this strategy to work, it requires the very ingredient it seeks to generate - trust. Let’s consider exactly what a company is proclaiming when they use the phrase “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR).

CSR is a form of corporate self-regulation. Businesses promise to obey the law and maintain ethical standards in their activities. They are promising to promote the common good of the communities in which they operate, and proactively curtail any and all functions that may cause harm, whether specifically illegal or not. The popular maxim of People, Planet and Profit is the triple bottom line. Essentially, the company is taking responsibility for their actions and how they impact: a) the environment, b) consumers, c) employees, d) communities, e) various stakeholders, and f) the entire public sphere. It is a pretty significant commitment.

So, why in the world would I trust you with any of this ‘self-imposed’ regulation and prioritization if I don’t trust you in the first place? You cannot prove you are trustworthy by asking people to trust you even more.

  • Read more about The 3 Basic Steps To Create Trust Through Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Chris Jarvis's blog

A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action Please

This time around I want to share some thoughts and ideas that came up for me this week about CSR and the conversations we have about it (and as a preview, if you keep reading, you’ll get to hear what Elvis Presley thinks of sustainability).

The other day I had the chance to sit in on a conference call and presentation hosted by the Stanford Graduate School of Business Office of Executive Education and their Business Strategies for Environmental Sustainability (BSES) program. Part presentation and part sales pitch for the upcoming BSES in October, the webinar entitled “...

  • Read more about A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action Please
  • Ashley Jablow's blog

Sonia Sotomayor: For empathy, read ethics

Critics of President Obama's pick for the US Supreme Court are trying to turn the assertion that Sonia Sotomayor is "empathetic" into a negative. And yet there is research into moral psychology dating back at least as far as Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments that makes clear the role of empathy in ethical decision making (see reading list below).

The Right's advocacy against Ms Sotomayor's nomination echoes advocacy of a free market ideology and institutions that work to create as much emotional distance as possible between decision makers and their impacts - see, for...

  • Read more about Sonia Sotomayor: For empathy, read ethics
  • Andrew Newton's blog

So, what then is Socialism?

Among the things one can’t avoid noticing after living in North America for more than two years is the bizarre use of the ‘S-word’. It recently keeps popping up in the context of health care reform in the US but it also rears its allegedly ugly head in many other contexts.

Since the 1960s, most notably promoted by Ronald Reagan, the term ‘socialized medicine’ has been used as a scarecrow to denunciate any other approaches to healthcare than the private system the US has had in most places. Other systems, such as the Canadian or the British or the French, by being branded ‘socialist...

  • Read more about So, what then is Socialism?
  • Crane and Matten's blog

Michelle Rhee: Partnering with City Year DC to Tackle Dropout "Catastrophe"

DC's public school system has 45,000 students and an abysmal dropout rate of about 50%, typical of large cities. With a goal to remedy this dropout "catastrophe" (Gen. Colin Powell's term), while being constrained by a tight economy, DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee is looking to- in her words - "leverage opportunities for the greatest change."

To this end, Rhee believes that one of the best...

  • Read more about Michelle Rhee: Partnering with City Year DC to Tackle Dropout "Catastrophe"
  • Alice Korngold's blog

Measuring the Value of CSR to the Bottom Line

While some corporate leaders have been well meaning advocates for corporate social responsibility, early adopters have been concerned that CSR will only catch on in a serious way if we can prove its value to the financial bottom line. In a measurement outcome model I developed and published in 1996 and again in 2005, I cautioned...

  • Read more about Measuring the Value of CSR to the Bottom Line
  • Alice Korngold's blog

3BL Blogs: Richard Buery - Continuing the Legacy of an 1850's Social Entrepreneur

Richard Buery, 37, will soon depart from his position as Founder and CEO of Groundwork in East Brooklyn, N.Y., to head up one of New York City's oldest and most venerated institutions, The Children's Aid Society. Buery himself grew up in East Brooklyn, where more than half of the population lives below the poverty line, and with the highest crime rate in all of New York's five boroughs.
 
After attending Stuyvesant High School, a magnet school in Manhattan, and continuing on to Harvard College and Yale Law School, Buery returned to his home community  to establish Groundwork, a profoundly effective organization that helps young people to achieve academic success. Just a few years earlier, in 1999, Buery co-founded iMentor, a highly successful mentoring organization.
 
As the newest leader of Children's Aid, Buery will head the organization founded by 1850's social reformer and innovator Charles Loring Brace (who preceded the term social entrepreneur by well over a century). Brace and Buery share the vision that all children deserve the opportunity and society's support to help them to become productive and successful adults.
 
  • Read more about 3BL Blogs: Richard Buery - Continuing the Legacy of an 1850's Social Entrepreneur
  • Alice Korngold's blog

Why the "S" in "CSR"?

A couple of weeks ago, I asked Why the "C" in "CSR"? After all, not all companies are corporations, and most people interested in CSR seem really to be interested in the ethical responsibilities of companies quite generally. Today's question: Why the "S" in CSR? What's so social about Corporate Social Responsibility? The short answer, presumably, is that CSR is intended to get managers to think not just about their responsibilities to shareholders, but to society more generally.

Indeed, much of the debate over CSR has focused on whether managers are a) can (i.e., are they...

  • Read more about Why the "S" in "CSR"?
  • Chris MacDonald's blog

Consumers Note the Importance of Green, Economy a Barrier

The ImagePower Green Brands Survey 2009, co-produced by Cohn & Wolfe, Landor Associates, and Penn, Schoen & Berland, reports the attitudes of over 5,000 consumers from seven countries toward a variety of green issues.

The report offers insight into what consumers feel makes a green corporation stand out, their perceptions of brands, and where their spending is going in the next year. A global attitude toward green issues is painted by the data. Apparently the U.S., though its heart may be green, is more focused on the greenback.

The United States tops the list of countries where economic concerns overshadow environmental ones. The 17% of U.S. consumers more concerned about the environment than the economy stand out in stark comparison to Brazil's 62% and India's 53%. Economic concern is mirrored in the top reason given for not purchasing green products and services – 64% of those in the U.S. consider these too expensive. (Consumers in other countries feel more limited by the availability.) The U.S. consumer does plan to spend more on these products and services over the next year – at least 39% of those surveyed do. However, the extent to which they plan to raise their spending places them at best in the middle of the seven countries surveyed. This is not to say that U.S. consumers don't feel that being green is important, they do, just not as much as consumers elsewhere.

  • Read more about Consumers Note the Importance of Green, Economy a Barrier
  • David Martel's blog

Capitalism isn't a Dirty Word

 ...

  • Read more about Capitalism isn't a Dirty Word
  • Monika Mitchell's blog

Pages

  • …
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
Subscribe to RSS - blogs

CSR Bloggers

Alice Korngold - Korngold Consulting

Andrea Learned - Learned On

Benjamin Comer - Pharma Executive

Beth Bengston - Hale Advisors

Celesa Horvath - Making Sense of Responsibility

Chris Jarvis - Realized Worth

David Chase - Forbes

David Connor - Coethica

David Williams - Health Business Blog

Dorothy Davis - All Energy All the Time

Dr. Scott M. Shemwell - Governing Energy

Elaine Cohen - CSR Reporting

Future 500

James Epstein-Reeves - Citizen Polity

Joe Waters - Selfish Giving

Julie Urlaub - Taiga Company

Kate Olsen - Companies for Good

Marc Gunther - Green Biz

Marcy Murninghan - Murninghan Post

Matthew Rochte - Opportunity Sustainability

Maxwell Drommond International - Human Capital: A Global Perspective

Megan Strand - Cause Marketing Forum

Monika Mitchell - Good-B

Paul Klein - Forbes

Stephen Heiser - Nuclear Knowledge

Tracy Lloyd - Emotive Brand

Wayne Visser - CSR International

Will Henley - Responsibility Inc.

© 3BL MEDIA, LLC

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Site Map
3BL Media, LLC
136 West St Ste 104
Northampton, MA 01060
  • Contact Us
  • About Us

Find Us on Social

Latest from Leading Brands

  • 3BL Professional
  • 3BL CSRwire
  • 3BL ReportAlert

Editorial & Leadership

  • TriplePundit
  • 3BL Forum
  • 3BL Association