Out with fossil fuels, in with innovation! How the growing shoots of diversity will move us towards a green economy

“We do not always have to agree on the means to move towards climate change avoidance.” - Dennis Posadas

Policies must play catch-up to innovation. Such was the case with the electric utility industry in the United States: The industry itself began in the early 1880s, but government regulation of utilities didn’t start until the 1930s, with the Great Depression in full swing.

Similar innovation in technology and policy development could be underway for renewable energy.

The mantra of green jobs and green industries from an expansion of carbon-mitigation activities like solar and wind farms, biomass and hydro systems, nuclear and other clean-energy sources has been around for a while, but the challenge is implementation.

In responsible business, we like our heroes and villains

“On first opening the book, I instantly warmed to the subject” – Mike Tuffrey

Review of Corporate Responsibility Coalitions by David Grayson and Jane Nelson.

In the brouhaha surrounding the great debates on responsible business practice, the focus always seems to be on what individual companies are doing and which CEOs are the leaders – or on the ropes. Perhaps that’s inevitable. We like our heroes and villains, to spot the good guys and condemn the baddies.

This book helpfully reminds us that actually the big issues transcend any one company or hero leader. The deep-rooted sustainable solutions we need are usually to be found through cross-industry, indeed cross sector, working. That means most progress is made through collective action in alliances and coalitions.

In fact that’s a message at least one of the current individual ‘heroes’ would heartedly endorse – as Unilever’s Paul Polman keeps saying: “If we achieve our own plans but no one joins us on the journey, we’ll have failed.”

Call for contributions to Corporations and Sustainability: The South Asian Perspective

Opportunity to contribute to an edited book on:

Corporations and Sustainability: The South Asian Perspective
Revised deadline: June 30, 2013

*Please note this was originally circulated as a theme issue for Greener Management International*

Background to the theme
The last two decades have seen rapid and often dramatic changes in the institutional, economic and ecological contexts faced by firms operating in South Asian economies. The most significant driver of this change has been the economic liberalisation attempts of national governments resulting in easier and faster flows of information, labour and capital between these economies and the rest of the world. Consequently, global environmental and social concerns are increasingly driving governmental and corporate decision-making processes for firms operating in South Asia.

The coming adventures of sustainability

“It’s going to be one hell of a ride” - Ed Gillespie

“No, no! The adventures first. Explanations take such a dreadful time”. So said the Gryphon to Alice in Lewis Carroll’s book of her eponymous “Adventures in Wonderland”. It strikes me that this pretty much epitomises the way we should engage each other in addressing our own pressing sustainability challenges.

From a communications perspective we’ve merrily chuntered on gathering the evidence, collating the information, amassing data on the scale, urgency and breadth of the issues. Be it climate change, ocean acidification or biodiversity loss. The case has been made pretty emphatically. It’s practically unequivocal. Unless you’re some scientifically illiterate, ideologically driven nutter. But let’s not dwell on those particular maverick fringes.

We’ve then attempted to rationalise with people to convince them through the sheer weight of substantiation that change is required. Playing to a common sense of enlightened self-interest, or self-preservation. Somehow this logical approach always falls short in delivering what’s needed.

Fair trade haute-couture: making beautiful clothes and making sense

Meet Safia Minney, one of the entrepreneurs changing the world

Dirty, dangerous, crowded and shockingly low-paid. The record of clothing production is not so much blemished as plagued by bad practice. Nearly one week after the collapse of a clothing factory in Dhaka which has so far claimed the lives of 336 people, fashion production methods have never been under such intense scrutiny. Will Western desire for throwaway clothing ever be sated? Faced with the consequences, many of us are starting to seek alternatives. Read the story of Future Maker Safia Minney, a game-changer in the world of ethical fashion and an example for all to follow:

Safia comes from the fast world of advertisement and glossy magazines. At the age of 17 the Londoner had no further interest in school and began working for an ad agency, turning round the fortunes of an ailing wedding magazine.

The multicultural environment in the office appealed to her, and before long she caught the travelling bug and set out to explore the world.

Healed by a shock in far away land
She went to Bali and travelled from there by land to Myanmar (then called Burma). What she saw during her daily forays shocked her. In her high-gloss world, she had internalised common preconceptions about third-world countries.

“You have to be proactive about making changes to the innovation process”

In the the sixth video of the interview series with contributors to Cranfield on Corporate Sustainability, editor David Grayson talks to Keith Goffin, Professor of Innovation and New Product Development at Cranfield School of Management about his chapter in the book Cranfield on Corporate Sustainability, which looks at Sustainability and New Product Development. Follow the discussion here:

“If you want to have a better understanding of how CSR really works, this is your book” – Review

Tim Mohin, Director of Corporate Responsibility, AMD

Reading Tim Mohin’s book “Changing Business from the Inside Out: A Treehugger’s Guide to Working in Corporations” was a refreshing experience. There are many great books that discuss every possible element of CSR and sustainability, but this is the first one I am familiar with that is written from the perspective of a CSR practitioner.

Therefore, instead of theories, academic models and case studies, in Mohin’s book we get to learn about the real world of CSR, which is very different from the theoretical world of CSR. After all, how many CSR books tell you that the most important skill you’ll need to succeed as a CSR manager is communication because basically “you lead a function where you have broad responsibility for issues that you have almost no authority to control”? Well, this book does.