Partnership for the Goals

CECP´s Global Exchange continues to expand its global footprint to unite country-based, mission-driven corporate engagement organizations to advance business as a force for good around the world. CECP is excited to welcome three new local authorities to the coalition; Centro Mexicano para la Filantropía (Cemefi) in Mexico, Fundación SERES in Spain, and United Nations Global Compact Network Malaysia (GCMY).

Global Reporting Initiative and the Responsible Minerals Initiative have kicked off their Corporate Leadership Group on conflict minerals at the OECD 2018 Forum on Responsible Mineral Supply Chains. The first meeting brought together a highly accomplished expert group, which aims to provide the reporting community with consolidated reporting guidance based on existing internationally-recognized tools and frameworks.

GRI and the Global Child Forum have announced a partnership to strengthen corporate transparency and accountability on children’s rights issues. The new collaboration will combine the best of the two organizations and drive corporate action to improve the lives of children.

GRI and the Swedish International Development Agency are embarking on a new joint program, which includes a partnership with the Danish Institute for Human Rights. This new phase has a specific focus on ​poverty alleviation, equality and human rights, and will stimulate responsible business towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Planet Water Foundation, a leading non-profit organization that addresses global water poverty by delivering clean water access and hygiene education programs, will deploy 24 community-based AquaTowers in 24 hours during Project 24 on March 22 — World Water Day. Now in its fourth year, Project 24 is recognized as an important event platform that raises awareness of the global water crisis by mobilizing leading companies and citizens to deliver clean, safe water and hygiene education programs in 24 communities. This year, the event takes place in communities within Cambodia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Puerto Rico.

Investors don't always get the sustainability data they need from companies for effective decision-making. In the latest GRI podcast, this question was posed to Amanda Feldman from the Impact Management Project, who told us how corporate reporting should change so that even more investors could use this information. Listen to the full episode here.

Common Impact, a nonprofit that pioneered corporate skills-based volunteering is collaborating with Fidelity Investments® to launch Tech Impact Week, its 3rd annual wide-scale flash consulting event where Fidelity Investments technologists utilize their expertise to support local nonprofit organizations in building their internal capacity and acumen. This year, the initiative is one of the largest to-date, spanning across 6 regions and pairing nearly 450 Fidelity Investments volunteers and 67 nonprofits, resulting in an anticipated investment of $550,000.

In a recent New York Times op-ed piece entitled, “Corporations Will Inherit the Earth,” Frank Bruni muses about the role of corporations in society at a time that the federal government is -- to use his phrase -- “a bumbling klutz.” Bruni asserts, “It can’t manage health care. It can’t master infrastructure. It can’t fund itself for more than tiny increments of time. It can barely stay open.” In contrast, he says, America’s corporations are operating “with an innovation and can-do ambition solely absent in Washington.”

“It seems to be easier to win the game when you care about the game.” The morning after the Super Bowl seems an appropriate time to write about the game, but it’s not actually the game of football that I’m interested in. It’s the game of business and what it takes to win in 2018.