As a recent CSR reporter with the GRI framework, GUESS Jeans is using reporting to fulfil regulatory requirements, enhance stakeholder engagement and improve supply chain conditions, among other things. For GUESS, CSR is a corporate imperative, and transparency around it is becoming intertwined with its core business.

Scotiabank has again committed support to the Bustamante Children's Hospital through sponsorship of the upcoming Shaggy and Friends concert. Since the concert's inception, the bank has 'Dared to Care', donating more than $30-million in funds, and volunteer hours to the cause.

Colorado-based global technology-solutions provider Arrow Electronics recently hosted students from the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business at its Tel Aviv, Israel location as part of the students’ global consulting course. The collaboration provided the second-year Master of Business Administration (MBA) students with a unique, hands-on business learning opportunity, with Arrow benefitting from their fresh perspectives.

In the midst of a water crisis in India – where 77 million people don't have access to safe drinking water – the Green Team at the Ingersoll Rand Sahibabad facility built a rainwater harvesting system to collect and filter rainwater before putting it back into the water table. This restores about 1.2 million gallons of rainwater annually, offsetting 75 percent of the water the plant uses in its operations. In addition, the Green Team reduced the facility's water consumption by 43 percent by implementing standard work and making important upgrades to its wastewater treatment plants.

After a decade of service in the consumer goods sales line, 63-year-old Lee Poh Tee joined Marina Bay Sands earlier this year as a Valet Cashier in the Transportation department as she wanted to branch out of her comfort zone. However, her supervisors realized that she was having difficulties performing her duties as she was unable to hear the phone ring.

2017 was a transformative year for the environment, with numerous national and regional policies introduced or implemented, such as Canada's federal cap-and-trade policy; a shift in the direction of U.S. climate-action policy with the federal government sharing its intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement; extreme weather events such as Hurricane Harvey and Irma, and wildfires in the west.

Combining two loves is always a thrill. Using them to help those in need can put you on cloud nine. Or even above it, as the case may be.

That’s exactly what Minnesota native Louis Olsen did recently when he loaded his plane with the likes of work gloves, diapers and mosquito repellant – as well as 384 cans of SPAM® classic – to aid victims and first responders of Hurricane Harvey.

By far the best thing CEOs and their companies can do to combat sexism, gender discrimination, and sexual misconduct–in short, to support women–is to put diverse women into half of the positions of power and leadership. This is how we resolve a foul, permissive culture.

This is not exactly a forecast for 2018, and it is also not exactly a wish list. This is a view of a year that will see the business community make even greater progress toward the promise of 2015’s twin achievements of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement.

Debswana, a joint venture between De Beers Group and the Government of the Republic of Botswana, has already invested P6.5 million in the programme.