| |
In This Issue
Editor's Note
For Supply Chain Efficiency, Start With Transportation
According to some estimates, 3 to 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions result from the shipping of goods across oceans. In this week's feature, BSR Director Raj Sapru explores how the transportation and logistics sector is in a unique position to help companies improve their overall sustainability performance—even beyond carbon emissions reductions. By collaborating through networks such as BSR's Clean Cargo Working Group, transportation providers can better understand their customers' sustainability challenges, and together, develop solutions that save them money and improve overall environmental performance.
Also this week, we highlight a new report—authored by BSR and commissioned by the International Finance Corporation—that explores sustainable investment opportunities in the Middle East and Africa.
Lastly, we hear from BSR Director Kai Robertson, who reports back from the GreenBiz State of Green Business Forum in Washington, D.C., where B Lab Co-Founder Jay Coen Gilbert discussed the emergence of benefit corporations, a corporate form designed to explicitly serve the dual purpose of maximizing shareholder value and benefiting society.
 |
In Depth
Efficiency at the Heart of Supply Chains: Opportunities in the Transportation and Logistics Sector
Interview of Raj Sapru, Director, Advisory Services, BSR, by Linda Hwang, Manager, Research & Innovation, BSR
BSR Research & Innovation Manager Linda Hwang recently sat down with BSR Director Raj Sapru to discuss the transportation sector's unique position to help companies improve their overall sustainability performance.
Read more →
|
Toolbox
Sustainable Investment in the Middle East and North Africa
By Guy Morgan, Director, Advisory Services, BSR
The International Finance Corporation recently commissioned BSR to analyze sustainable investment (SI) opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa region.
Highlights from the report include:
- A clear gap exists between regulatory reform and performance. Although governments are increasingly progressive about governance reforms and some have incorporated sustainability into their strategic development plans, reform implementation is still poor.
- ESG performance disclosure by companies in the region is in its infancy. ESG performance disclosure is the exception as opposed to the norm in a region with many small- and medium-sized companies and family-owned enterprises.
- Marquee "green" projects mask a general lack of understanding about sustainability. Competition among states in the region for big, grandiose "green" projects (such as Masdar—a planned city in Abu Dhabi that will rely entirely on solar energy and other renewable energy sources) is intense. However, there is still a fundamental misunderstanding of what constitutes sustainability.
- Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are increasingly important vehicles for SI—for example, Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala has committed US$15 billion to the Masdar project.
Download a report summary. For more information, contact Guy Morgan.
On the Record
Benefit Corporation Model Likely to Grow in 2011
Rethinking corporate law was on the agenda at last week's GreenBiz State of Green Business Forum in Washington, D.C. Jay Coen Gilbert, co-founder of B Lab—a nonprofit organization that promotes and certifies benefit corporations—presented on the need for a corporate framework that supports the creation of both shareholder and societal value.
The benefit corporation is a new corporate form that requires that the company creates benefits for society as well as shareholders. By law, benefit corporations must make a material positive impact on society and publicly report their social and environmental performance using established third-party standards. In 2010, Maryland and Vermont became the first U.S. states to pass benefit corporation legislation, and similar bills are pending in several other states. Gilbert believes that current U.S. corporate law can work against companies that consider environmental and social impacts in addition to shareholder value when the two are not aligned.
"It's time to shift our focus from product standards to a company-level standard—to think beyond green products to good companies. … Just as LLCs (limited liability corporations) were new 20 years ago, benefit corporations are new today. [With approximately 400 certified B corporations in existence today], there’s reason to believe benefit corporations could take off and be the LLC of the future."
—Jay Coen Gilbert, co-founder, B Lab (February 16, 2011)
|
|
|
