| |
In This Issue
Editor's Note
Five Traits of Sustainability Leaders
Today, most global companies understand the need to address shifting expectations around social and environmental issues—challenges that require solid leadership. Yet to date, there has not been practical guidance on developing the unique qualities of sustainability leaders.
BSR, Changing Consciousness, and Executiva aim to address that gap in “sustainability leadership competencies” with a paper published today. This week’s feature article excerpts from that report with a summary of the five traits of sustainability leaders. (This is also the subject of the BSR Conference 2012 session “Sustainability and Leadership Competencies.”)
Also this week, we hear from the New York Times Dot Earth Editor Andrew Revkin and Bloomberg Sustainability News Editor Eric Roston—two speakers from a Conference session on media—on their own role as journalists covering sustainability. Lastly, we highlight BSR’s new brief on how the fashion industry is integrating sustainability into design.
 |
In Depth
Five Traits of Sustainability Leaders
Adam Faruk, Founder, Changing Consciousness
Anita Hoffmann, Founder, Executiva Ltd
A new report from BSR, Changing Consciousness, and Executiva examines the "sustainability leadership competency gap"—the important traits and characteristics for sustainability that are not accounted for in traditional definitions of leadership.
Read more →
|
On the Record
Backstory: The Media’s Role in Sustainability
By Eva Dienel, Associate Director, Communications, BSR
Both Andrew Revkin and Eric Roston began their careers in print journalism before turning to new mediums—Revkin's Dot Earth blog at the New York Times and Roston's role as editor at Bloomberg Sustainability News—to focus on sustainability issues. At the BSR Conference 2012, they will explore the media's role in reporting on sustainability, and whether growing media coverage will help or hurt corporate responsibility efforts. Here's what they have said in the past about their roles as sustainability journalists: "Lately, I've been describing the kind of inquiry I do on Dot Earth as providing a service akin to that of a mountain guide after an avalanche. Follow me, and I can guarantee an honest search for a safe path. This is a big contrast from the dominant journalism paradigm of the last century, crystallized in Walter Cronkite's 'That's the way it is' signoff." —Andrew Revkin,"My Second Half," Dot Earth Blog, the New York Times, December 21, 2009 "A big challenge right now is just to get everybody in the conversation on the same page about how to define the word sustainability. Given Bloomberg's scale, the first opportunity we have is to bring some uniformity to the discussion." —Eric Roston, interview, Columbia Journalism Review, February 16, 2012 To hear from Revkin and Roston and dozens of other sustainability experts, register now for the BSR Conference 2012, taking place October 23-26 in New York.
Toolbox
No Oxymoron in ‘Sustainable Fashion’
By Julia Robinson, Communications Associate, BSR
The fashion industry has come under increasing scrutiny for its environmental footprint as well as for ballooning hyper-consumption. BSR's new brief, "Sustainable Fashion Design: Oxymoron No More?," explores the trends shaping sustainable fashion and design. Although sustainable fashion remains a niche trend, larger companies, such as Marks and Spencer, are starting to explore the concept. According to the report, most industry efforts have focused on materials selection and fail to consider opportunities such as developing more durable designs, the recyclability of garments, considerations around laundering (which affects both energy and water use), and the importance of accounting for consumption patterns. The report also focuses on how "slow fashion"—with fewer production cycles, and "evergreen" clothing designs that are not tied to ephemeral trends—can influence consumers to buy less.
|
|
|
