Corporate Responsibility

Corporate EHS leaders are challenged with establishing EHS programs, dealing with language and cultural issues, and understanding regulatory requirements and the cultural nuances of doing business in the host country. While the marketing and sales functions of the company may have parallels in each country, EHS expectations, practices, and cultural norms can, and often do, differ greatly. When these differences are not fully understood and planned for, unexpected, time consuming and costly issues may arise.

Pollinators – bees, bats, butterflies and more – may be small in size, but they have a huge impact on our lives. Scientists estimate one out of every three bites of food we eat exist because of them. Without pollinators, our diets would be limited. Companies, however, can play a role in protecting them.

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.

As I interact with the heads of corporate sustainability for Fortune 500 companies on a daily basis. What is fundamental to these conversations, as well as to my regular conversations with the responsible investing community, is the increasing desire for companies to better understand the broader environmental and social impacts they are having, both positive and negative.

Today, BSR announced a new collaboration with leaders in supply chain networks to advance women’s empowerment in global supply chains. In partnership with six of the most influential supply chain networks around the world, Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC), The Floriculture Sustainability Initiative (FSI), International Council of Toy Industries CARE Foundation (ICTI CARE), The Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), and Sedex, BSR will focus on making women’s empowerment central to the strategies, guidelines, and practices that provide a framework for supply chain management worldwide.

“Sustainability goes hand in hand with the Tetra Pak brand promise – PROTECTS WHAT’S GOOD™ – and the three pillars on which it stands: food, people and futures. Our activities in all three areas over the past year show sustainability is ever more deeply embedded in our business, in our corporate culture and in the expectations of our customers and consumers,” advises Dennis Jönsson, CEO & President at Tetra Pak.

Designing the optimal environment, health and safety (EHS) and sustainability organization is a complicated equation, but according to a new report by the National Association for Environmental Management (NAEM), about a third of responding companies combine these functions at the corporate level.

Cox Enterprises announced today that Juliette Pryor, 51, has been named senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, effective immediately. Pryor reports to Cox Enterprises Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Dallas Clement and succeeds Shauna Muhl who will retire from Cox at year end.