Corporate Responsibility

In what has been an unforgettable year of natural disasters, companies have demonstrated that they intend to do their part to help devastated communities rebuild. The private sector has committed more than $300 million to date to relief efforts for Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, and millions more in the aftermath of Mexico’s strongest earthquake in a century and the wildfires ravaging northern California.

Today at the start of COP23, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) released key policy recommendations for this year’s round of climate negotiations ahead of next year’s global stock take on progress made towards the Paris Agreement.

Business is showing increasing interest in using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to inform and enhance their social and environmental programs and ultimately their business strategies. The SDGs were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 and include 17 ambitious goals and 169 targets aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity for all.

Next week, thousands of delegates from government, international organizations, trade unions, business and civil society will gather in Bonn, Germany for the latest round of negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This 23rd Conference of the Parties, COP23 as it’s known, will give Paris Agreement signatories the opportunity to assess their progress in implementing climate commitments. It will also enable them to create rules to ensure they’re adhering to the Agreement, while preparing the groundwork for all countries to increase ambitions under their national climate action plans.

Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA recently issued its 2016/2017 Global Corporate Responsibility Report .The report provides an overview of the company’s corporate responsibility activities, progress and performance in the areas of Access to Health, Employees, Environmental Sustainability and Ethics & Transparency.

American Express, The National Trust for Historic Preservation and Main Street America announced today the winners of the Partners in Preservation: Main Streets. The 11 winning historic sites, determined by popular vote, will receive a total of $1.5 million in grants to fund their respective preservation projects. An additional $500,000 in grants was provided to the nonprofit partners of the 25 main street communities that participated in the program at the outset of the campaign to help raise awareness about their preservation needs.

Samantha Cameron was a guest of honour at a recent event hosted by the Barclays Win Gender Network in honour of the charity Smart Works. The wife of the former Prime Minister describes her experiences volunteering for the “brilliant” organisation – while a recipient tells how it changed her life for the better.

Tetra Tech celebrated five years of achievements by the Feed the Future Uganda Agricultural Inputs (Ag Inputs) Activity, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), at the Activity’s Close-out Learning Event in Kampala, Uganda, in September 2017. The Activity worked to increase farmers’ use of high-quality agricultural inputs and decrease the prevalence of counterfeit inputs in Uganda.

In a plenary address at the BSR Conference 2017, Morgan Stanley Chief Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer Audrey Choi explored inclusive growth. Watch the full video here.

BBMG is thrilled to welcome Samantha Wilson as Managing Partner! Sam joins BBMG after 23-years at Wolff Olins, where she most recently served as a Global Principal and helped re-imagine some of the world’s most iconic brands from GE to Spotify to Product (RED).

A “world traveler, sous chef, ‘zoo keeper,’ city dweller and tomato farmer,” Sam is on a mission to redefine what successful business looks like by designing brands with humanity at the center.