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In This Issue
Editor's Note
Looking Beyond the Usual Boundaries
This week, we're exploring boundaries—of companies, of the planet, and of countries.
First, companies and climate change. With so much focus on what individual companies should do, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture: It’s not just about companies' direct operations. As outlined in this week's feature article, business leaders can evaluate how climate change and potential legislation will impact their companies by looking beyond their boundaries at owned operations, supply chains, customers and consumers, and industry dynamics.
The planet also has boundaries, or so some leading scientists suggest in their new report defining "planetary boundaries" for nine essential Earth-system processes.
Finally, we look at the increasing number of international labor migrants who are crossing country boundaries in search of work, which for many means checking their basic human rights at the border.
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In Depth
Not Just for Heavy Emitters: Why Climate Change Matters to Every Company
By Marshall Chase, Associate Director, Advisory Services, BSR
Affecting industries as far-ranging as food and agriculture and pharmaceuticals, the impacts of climate change on business are broader than you may think. With global warming reining as a hot political issue, it's time for business leaders to take stock: How is climate change affecting your company’s operations, supply chain, customers, and industry at large?
Read more →
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Spotlight
Working with Governments to Protect the Rights of International Labor Migrants
By Nicolette van Exel
Labor migrants represent roughly 3 percent of the world's population and constitute a large and vulnerable segment of companies’ workforces. However, legislation in emerging economies fails to protect foreign contract workers adequately, and companies are often unaware of violations.
In order to close this governance gap, BSR's International Labor Migration (ILM) program is working with companies and global stakeholders to increase transparency, develop pragmatic approaches and tools, and engage in global policy and dialogue on international migration.
To help government and the private sector develop a framework to engage in global migration policy, BSR is facilitating business representation at the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) meeting in Athens on November 2 and 3, 2009. With support from the MacArthur Foundation, a select group of private sector representatives will be offered all-expenses-paid attendance to this annual forum.
To learn more about ILM, or to attend the GFMD, please contact Nicolette van Exel.
Toolbox
Planetary Boundaries: How Far Can We Go?
In a new report by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, scientists assert that to avoid catastrophic environmental change, humanity must stay within defined "planetary boundaries" for nine essential Earth-system processes: climate change, stratospheric ozone, land-use change, freshwater use, biological diversity, ocean acidification, nitrogen and phosphorus inputs to the biosphere and oceans, aerosol loading, and chemical pollution.
Exceeding one of the boundaries could trigger disastrous environmental change, and the report suggests that we have already moved beyond three of the boundaries related to climate change, biodiversity loss, and the nitrogen cycle.
By defining a "safe planetary operating space" for sustainable development, this report could impact decision-making processes, particularly on environmental governance and management frameworks.
To learn more about the implications for business, read the article BSR published last year by the Stockholm Environment Institute's Robert Watt, or attend the BSR Conference 2009 session "Climate Action Initiative," which will be led by one of the report's authors.
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