If you’re a member of Net Impact—you’re in luck!

This Friday, April 23, 2010, join Framework:CR Principal Aleksandra Dobkowski-Joy as she presents a Net Impact Issues in Depth call focused on materiality analysis:

“From stakeholders to strategy: Using materiality analysis to guide sustainability strategy and communications”

Here’s the synopsis:

A thorough materiality analysis offers a unique opportunity to inform overall sustainability strategy and communications through consideration of diverse stakeholder perspectives and the drivers and potential inhibitors of a company’s growth and success. With this call, we’ll explore a basic materiality process and look at how companies such as Intel, Ford, and Holcim have benefited from their customized application of this analytic tool.

Hope you can join us!

To sum up the most recent meeting of the United Nations Global Compact US Network, held October 19 at PricewaterhouseCoopers offices in San Francisco (I know, this post is terribly late):

Boards need to step up and listen up.

In his opening remarks, Allen White sounded the call that became the theme, reinforced and restated during each panel and discussion that followed. Companies need activist boards, he said, and he presented the following ideas for how companies can begin to cultivate boards that to meet the calls for better governance and attention to some of our most pressing issues:
1. Create a process by which boards reflect on stakeholder management, engagement, and governance.
2. Require all board members to build competency in sustainable governance.
3. Consider sustainability competency as a criterion for selecting new board members.
4. Require directors to hold management accountable for integration of sustainability.
5. Boards should set sustainability goals.

Carolyn Y. Woo, Dean of the Cardozo College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, acknowledged many of the challenges to effective board governance and noted that external pressure is one key to better governance. She also noted that board members need to demonstrate personal ethics and a “moral backbone”.
Several directors who attended and participated in panel discussions, including Dianne Dillon-Ridgely, Rinaldo Brutoco, and Bill Conway, echoed the sentiments of both Mr. White and Dean Woo.

I moderated a panel discussion entitled “Retooling the Board for the 21st Century. Panelists Helle Bank Jorgensen of PWC; Rinaldo Brutoco, director of Men’s Wearhouse; Brian Lowry, Deputy General Counsel at Monsanto; and Dean Woo addressed, in candid and lively fashion, how boards can be better educated, increase the ranks of women and minorities, and should oversee their companies’ sustainability performance. Key takeaways:

Everyone, from management to board members themselves, is responsible for making sure boards are educated on key issues of the day.

Boards need to make sure they understand stakeholder concerns; that may require greater accessibility to stakeholders.

Boards need to be more diverse. Much of the shift and change in the boardroom is due to diversity in terms of gender, ethnicity, background. Board composition should reflect the world we live in and the reality around us. Boards need to be presented, however, with the “good” reasons and data supporting increased board diversity.

The stakeholder panel, whose participants were Stu Dalheim (Calvert), Anne Simpson (CalPERS), Susan Mac Cormac (Morrison & Foerster LLP), and Jonathan Jacoby (Oxfam) addressed the trends in stakeholder engagement with boards, including the increased focus on shareholder rights and scrutiny on issues such as executive pay. A key takeaway was that boards need to be more open and engage more with stakeholder groups in order to better represent their interests.

Cecily Joseph, Director of Corporate Responsibility at Symantec and the UNGC US Network representative, closed with this succinct summary: Boards need to step up, be trained, have expertise in sustainability, hear from stakeholders, and be reflective of society. Hear, hear.

Jump-start your reporting efforts!
Join us for a Sustainability Reporting Webinar on September 23!

Presented by Framework:CR
Hosted by the Altamont Group

In a tough economy, transparency is more important than ever, serving as a basic foundation for building trust—and competitive advantage. Stakeholders are paying close attention to how companies, big and small, manage environmental, social, and governance issues. Those companies that can communicate their sustainability strategy and performance will win loyalty and build brand value.

The Sustainability Reporting Workshop is a skills-training workshop developed to introduce you to the tools you need to prepare a comprehensive, useful, and user-friendly sustainability report. We will introduce reporting guidelines and standards and outline a practical process to jump-start your reporting efforts.

PRESENTERS: Aleksandra Dobkowski-Joy and Kyle Whitaker, Principals at Framework:CR
DATE: September 23, 2009
TIME: 1:00-2:30PM (EST)
REGISTER: Via the course brochure or register@altamont-group.com
SINGLE ATTENDEE: $249 (early registration)

Presented by Framework:CR

Hosted by the Altamont Group 

 A sustainability strategy requires the support of senior business leaders. Leadership in sustainability, however, begins and ends with your employees.

Join us and learn how to position employee engagement as a critical part of your overall sustainability strategy.

• Develop an employee engagement approach that aligns with your company culture and core business strategy
• Identify internal sustainability leaders and champions
• Target various constituencies within your organization
• Foster a culture of personal accountability
• Leverage social media platforms

PRESENTERS: Kyle Whitaker and Aleksandra Dobkowski-Joy, Principals at Framework:CR 

TIME: 1:00-2:30PM (EST) on July 16, 2009

REGISTER: Via the course brochure or register@altamont-group.com 

SINGLE ATTENDEE: $249 (early registration)

ADDITIONAL ATTENDEE: $99

The Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA) hosted its third annual sustainability conference on Tuesday, June 16. Leaders from around the Nutmeg State—and beyond—convened in Hartford to discuss best-in-class sustainability initiatives and to assess how “green” practices are faring in these difficult economic times.

Here are two observations worth considering. First, interest in sustainability is alive and well in Connecticut, which I believe is good news for us all. Second, we still have a long way to go in terms of building dialogue around sustainability in our state.

Click here to read more.

Build a Roadmap for Long-Term Success!

Presented by Framework:CR
Hosted by the Altamont Group

In order to generate maximum value, sustainable practices must be integrated consistently across all business units as part of core business strategy. A comprehensive sustainability strategy raises awareness of risks and opportunities; drives innovation; strengthens customer, investor, employee, and other relationships; and, ultimately, improves overall business performance and profitability.

The Sustainability Strategic Planning Workshop will take you step-by-step through the process of

• Assessing current sustainability performance,
• Building internal support,
• Defining your strategy, and
• Integrating and implementing sustainability initiatives

You’ll learn from sustainability leaders from various industry sectors–including automotive, consumer products, financial services, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, technology, and more–through case studies and best practice examples. You’ll also have the opportunity to share your own experiences with other webinar participants via built-in interactive components.
 
PRESENTER: Kathee Rebernak, Chief Executive and
Aleksandra Dobkowski-Joy, Principal at Framework:CR
DATE: June 24, 2009
TIME: 1:00-2:30PM (EST) 
REGISTER: Via the course brochure or register@altamont-group.com
SINGLE ATTENDEE: $249 (early registration)
ADDITIONAL ATTENDEE: $99

Yesterday I guest blogged for www.buildingctgreen.com from the CSR Performance Summit in New York City. Click here to find out how leading companies are stretching their corporate responsibility budgets further in these tough economic times.

Last week I traveled to Washington, D.C. for the CRO Summit. Let me sum up the trip with one word—exhausting.

The near ten hours spent driving down I-95 and back are partially to blame. So too is the extra hour that I waited for an oil change in Aberdeen, Maryland. But this is about more than traffic jams and the stiff chairs in Jiffy Lube’s waiting room. Sustainability seems a bit tired at the moment. And when she yawns, I tend to follow suit.

The engines of sustainability—namely innovation and integration—are threatening to stall along with our economy. Companies are so focused on weathering this economic storm that departments are taking on a “silo mentality” and forward progress in the realm of sustainability is slowing down. And it shows, particularly at events like the CRO Summit.

The contrast was really quite stark. Corporate types—and I’m lumping consultants into that group—seemed by-and-large very tired. The body language of several presenters was neutral, if not negative. The energy was low. Even CRO Publisher Jay Whitehead seemed a bit muted from his typical chipper persona.

Others (including numerous scheduled panelists) didn’t even bother to show up. Of the three panelists slated to participate in a panel of pharmaceutical companies, for example, none attended in person. Abbott Labs’ Vice President of Global Citizenship joined by phone, Merck’s Executive Director of Corporate Responsibility sent a replacement, and Bristol Myers-Squibb’s Director of Corporate Responsibility was a complete no-show.

Now here is the twist. Representatives of government, academia, and the nonprofit community, on the contrary, were much more upbeat and energetic. Congressman Edolphus Town (D-NY) and Jennifer Griffin, Director of the Institute for Corporate Responsibility at George Washington University were particularly dynamic in their presentations.

As I reflect back on last week, it occurs to me that the summit was a reflection of broader society; business and industry are down, and the public sector is still basking in the afterglow of President Obama’s election.

Perhaps now is as good a time as any for us to wake up and reach out. To strengthen public-private partnerships. To tap into the enthusiasm in other sectors of society and re-energize ourselves. I, for one, cannot wait to get back to Washington.

Ceres conference post #3

Although the Ceres conference was chock-full of experts expounding on a variety of planetary challenges—from water scarcity to the difficulties inherent in financial market reform—I felt that we all missed an opportunity to explore a very basic problem: that of somehow helping ordinary people to change their behavior.

As a sustainability professional with years of training and education, I can’t say that it’s been easy to change my own daily behavior to be more socially and environmentally responsible. The mere fact of being well-versed in the benefits of, say, installing energy-efficient windows, or programmable thermostats, or low-flow shower heads is not sufficient to spur action, especially given the other demands (family, relationships, work, car maintenance) that daily life puts in front of us. And that’s without even considering the stresses many are experiencing in a declining economy: job loss, foreclosure, loss of health coverage, etc. It’s no wonder that environmental concerns still rank near the bottom of polls looking at issues of public concern.

The New York Times magazine explored this very problem in its “Green Issue” (“Why Isn’t the Brain Green?”). The author did not offer many satisfactory conclusions, other than that the state of research as relates to behavior change and environmental challenges is in an early state of play. So where does that leave us?

Two thoughts:

• We need to make sustainability EASY (a “no-brainer”, in effect). I loved one example from the Ceres conference breakout on water issues: Jason Morrison of the Pacific Institute argued that it would be more economical for the State of California to literally come into people’s homes and replace their toilets with low-flow units rather than invest in other, more expensive, water-conservation initiatives. Another example is of stores phasing out plastic bags. If we can shape social and business frameworks so that the sustainable choice is the default option, we’re halfway there.
   
• The recent presidential election unequivocally demonstrated the power of new media to leverage grass-roots organization and social networking to achieve broad, systemic change (see an article in Fast Company for a “behind the scenes” look). Surely we could apply the same concept and tools to organizing for sustainability. Any takers?

Ceres conference post #2

At the Ceres conference, Majora Carter, formerly of Sustainable South Bronx, argued passionately that it is simply not acceptable to build an economy based on the degradation of the environment and the degradation of people. No argument there!

She also offered a new, sustainability-oriented acronym for the OBAMA era: “Officially Behaving As Magnificent Americans”.

Maybe if we could all adopt the mantle of “magnificence” and recognize the “magnificent” qualities of both the environment and each other, the hidden social and environmental costs of our current unsustainable lifestyles would be easier to see. And to act upon.