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In This Issue
Editor's Note
How Microsoft Did It: Implementing the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
Now that it’s been more than a year since the United Nations endorsed the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, it’s a good time to consider how companies have been integrating the principles into their business.
This week, Microsoft Corporate Citizenship Senior Director Dan Bross takes us behind the scenes to outline Microsoft’s four-part approach, which included launching a Global Human Rights Statement that codifies the four beliefs that underpin Microsoft’s human rights strategy and approach.
Also this week, we share an excerpt from a new podcast in which BSR Vice President for Asia-Pacific Jeremy Prepscius and Manager Jason Ho spoke with China Labour Bulletin’s Communications Director Geoff Crothall and Development Director William Nee about China’s social security system. And we highlight a new report from Save the Children that explores business’ role in furthering development once we reach the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals.
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In Depth
How Microsoft Did It: Implementing the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
Dan Bross, Senior Director, Microsoft Corporate Citizenship
Following the UN's endorsement of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the question for Microsoft was not whether to apply them but how. Here's an inside look at the company's four-part approach.
Read more →
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On the Record
China’s Social Security System: Impact on Brands and Suppliers
By Jeremy Prepscius, Vice President, Asia-Pacific, BSR
In China, social security, labor, and trade union laws are changing. At the same time, worker demands and desires are also evolving. With costs of production and workers’ expectations both rising, a middle ground is increasingly difficult to find. Consequently, negotiations often end in strikes, which affect workers, factories, and buyers.
How is this playing out in the Pearl River Delta—the manufacturing hub of the world?
In a new podcast, BSR Vice President for Asia-Pacific Jeremy Prepscius and Manager Jason Ho talk with China Labour Bulletin’s Communications Director Geoff Crothall and Development Director William Nee about the collective bargaining challenges facing factory managers, workers, brands, and China-based suppliers.
“A successful strike happens in one factory or one industry, and then you get this domino effect … It is very important that people wake up to the fact that workers are demanding proper pensions, proper health care, and insurance for when they’re unemployed or when they start a family.”
—Geoff Crothall, Communications Director, China Labour Bulletin, BSR Podcast
Toolbox
What Happens After 2015: The Role of Business in Furthering Development Goals
By Julia Robinson, Communications Associate, BSR
As we approach 2015, the end date of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Save the Children’s new report explores what will happen next—and business’ role in furthering the aims of the MDGs.
Emphasizing the shared value proposition of wealth creation and development, Save the Children argues that solving poverty translates into future business opportunities, including creating new consumers, employees, leaders, and innovators and fostering political and economic stability.
The brief outlines three steps for business to support development:
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Adopt a “do no harm” approach in their core business.
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Use business strategies to help solve development challenges.
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Promote change locally and globally.
The organization’s “open and accountable” approach for business would be combined with legislation, peer review, and frameworks like the United Nations Global Compact to support social and environmental impact reporting.
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