Publications by Tag: Community Engagement & Development
Blog
Does Sustainability Equal Happiness?
Melanie Janin, Communications Director
The question of happiness really gets people talking. Earlier this week, FastCoExist.com Senior Editor Ariel Schwartz posted a thought-provoking (and heavily tweeted) blog about the World Happiness Report, recently released by Columbia University’s Earth Institute, with a fascinating introduction by Jeffrey Sachs. The report itself is voluminous, and worth reading if you’re interested in what Sachs refers to as “the emerging scientific study of happiness.” Read more
Guiding Social Investment in China
Brooke Avory, Manager, CiYUAN
In honor of International Corporate Philanthropy Day, which is led by the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, I want to highlight the state of corporate philanthropy in China. Read more
HERproject Partner Profile From Bangladesh: Awaj Foundation
Amaya Gorostiaga, Manager, Advisory Services
Note: This is the third blog in a three-part series highlighting the impact of HERproject in Bangladesh. The first blog explored impacts within and beyond factory walls through the stories of HERproject peer educators. The second blog shared a participating brand’s perspective on health and business impacts she has seen, and this blog profiles one of our NGO partners. Read more
Expanding the Response to Conflict Minerals
Amaya Gorostiaga, Manager, Advisory Services
With a grant from the GE Foundation, BSR is exploring ways for companies to partner with key stakeholders to support local-development and capacity-building efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Companies, in partnership with civil society and government representatives, can play a role in supporting targeted and strategic social initiatives that address local-development needs in the region. A number of companies have already joined a wide range of actors to drive progress toward stopping the indirect financing of armed rebel groups through mine-certification schemes and mineral traceability. But while there is much to be said of these important efforts to create a clean and legitimate minerals trade, the multi-stakeholder response should also go beyond supply chain traceability and focus more attention on the millions of livelihoods that depend on the artisanal mining sector. Read more
6 Tips for Selecting a Local Partner
Jennifer Schappert, Associate, Advisory Services
While the benefits of partnering with a local civil society organization may be widely recognized, finding a local partner can be a challenging and daunting task for any business. Businesses frequently ask questions such as, “What percentage of costs should go to program activities?” or “What should the organizational structure of a partner look like?” Read more
Embedding the Millennium Development Goals into Business Strategy: the World’s Women Can Help
Racheal Yeager, Manager, HERproject
During the CERES conference earlier this month, Levi Strauss CEO John Anderson made an important announcement: Levi Strauss will begin to require their suppliers to go beyond compliance and support the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through workplace policies and programs and community outreach. Using the MDGs as a measurement for impact, Anderson said, will help apparel companies and apparel manufacturing businesses create positive benefits for local communities—such as improved health and nutrition, or access to bank accounts and financial literacy. Support for local communities and economic growth can lead to industry stability and ensure a sustainable supply of quality products. Plus, it’s the right thing to do. Read more
Jugaad Solutions for Sustainable Design
Virginia Terry, Director, Advisory Services
Jugaad is a Hindi term that means clever and resourceful. It describes a way of getting a job done by using easy-to-find materials, typically in collaboration with others. In Western terms, jugaad could be a kind of crowd-sourced innovation that makes efficient use of scarce resources or reused materials to help improve living conditions. Read more
Debating the Future of Sustainability at the IFC
Julia Nelson, Manager, Advisory Services
This week marks the close of the third and final public consultation period for the review of the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Sustainability Framework. The policies, standards, and guidance notes in the Framework set expectations on social and environmental performance for the financial institutions and companies who receive funds from the IFC (the private sector investment arm of the World Bank Group). Read more
Building Soft Power in China Through Civil Society and Community Engagement
At the recent Aspen Institute Socrates Summer Seminar, I attended the session “Soft-Power: U.S. Leadership in a Hardball World,” moderated by Professor Joseph Nye. The session sparked my own reflections on the existence (or lack thereof) of soft power in China. While everyone at the Aspen Institute expressed strong and positive interest in China, the majority of the United States still views China as a threat. As our President and CEO Aron Cramer once said: “One thing our countries have in common is that we see our weaknesses through the prism of the perceived power of the other country, and sometimes we lose sight of the balance between the two.” Read more
Support for Haiti
Diane Osgood, Ph.D.
As news pours in from Haiti, it is clear that the level of destruction and human suffering is immense. Read more
New Policy to Address Corporate Philanthropy in China
Following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, many state-owned enterprises (SOEs) began writing big donation checks and competing for national media attention. This trend quickly increased attention on corporate philanthropy in China. At the time, companies thought that the more they donated, the more socially responsible they were. Very few people questioned the authorization of SOEs to make discretionary donations. Nobody asked if it was legal for SOEs to use state assets for charitable purposes. And nobody questioned whether SOEs had an obligation to disclose information on the use of their donated funds and their funds' impacts. Read more
Is China’s Rise a Threat or Opportunity?
U.S. President Obama's recent visit to China once more generates discussion about the changing role of China. Actually, he broke tradition and was the first U.S. President to visit China within the first year of taking office. One reason behind this is the rise of China as a world power. Read more
BSR Conference Session Summaries
BSR Insight Articles
Making Factory-Based Programs Last: Observations from HERproject in India
Elissa Goldenberg, Associate, Advisory Services
During a recent visit to HERproject programs in Southern India, I saw firsthand the positive impact of workplace-based, peer health education. As discussed in last month’s feature on Levi Strauss & Company’s new supply chain management strategy, an increasing number of companies are working with their suppliers to implement programs focused on workers’ well-being, which typically depend on local NGO support. When that support ends, factories who want to sustain their programs often struggle. Read more
Doing Responsible Business in Latin America: Opportunities in the Agriculture Sector
Linda Hwang, Manager, Research; Ryan Flaherty, Manager, Advisory Services
With less than a month before Rio+20, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, the world is focused on Brazil and other countries in Latin America, a region that is frequently called out for its significant contribution to the post-crisis expansion of the world economy. As we learn from a discussion with BSR Advisory Services Manager Ryan Flaherty, one of our Latin America and food and agriculture experts, the region is poised to demonstrate the role of agriculture in long-term sustainable development–with significant opportunities for business to engage. Read more
How Wireless Technology Can Support Social Impact
Marshall Chase, Manager, Advisory Services
A new report by BSR and CTIA–the Wireless Association explores opportunities to use wireless services to support health care, financial inclusion, education, and community empowerment. Some of these opportunities include: Read more
Survey: Help Shape China’s Nonprofit Sector
Cammie Erickson, Associate, Partnership Development
How would you revamp the nonprofit sector in the United States if you could build it from the ground up? What would you do differently? What would you keep the same? Read more
Using CSR to Grow Locally, Mind the Talent Gap
At a time when global economies are sputtering, sustainability is a key issue for global business leaders, according to the 15th Annual Global CEO Survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Read more
Facing the Dilemmas of Sustainable Development
Charlotte Bancilhon, Associate, Advisory Services
At the first of BSR’s “Great Debates”—an event series held in our Paris office to help celebrate BSR’s 20-year anniversary—Sodexo CEO Michel Landel and Ashoka France CEO Arnaud Mourot discussed how companies and their stakeholders can identify innovative sustainable solutions together through collective thinking. Read more
UN Report: Government Must Help Align Sustainability
The UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability’s new “Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing” report—which builds on the seminal 1987 Brundtland Report—contains a host of recommendations to put sustainable development into practice worldwide. Recommendations for governments include: Read more
Using Water-Risk Information for Greater Impact
Ryan Flaherty, Manager, Advisory Services
Business continuity depends on access to clean water, a resource that is in higher demand as scarcity increases, quality declines, and distribution remains unequal around the world. As more companies recognize their dependence on clean water, they are turning to different tools to assess risks and provide context for their direct operations and supply chains. Read more
Four Key Sustainability Trends in Retail
The Retail Industry Leaders Association’s first sustainability report on the industry’s environmental, social, and community impacts features company case studies and identifies four key trends: Read more
New Guide to Effective Local Content Programs
Elissa Goldenberg, Associate, Advisory Services
IPIECA—a global oil and gas industry association focused on social and environmental issues—released a guide to help companies design and execute local content strategies in the countries where they operate. Local content is defined by the value that companies bring to host countries by employing and training the local workforce and developing and procuring supplies and services locally. Read more
Re-Scaling for the New Local
Linda Hwang, Manager, Research
In the next decade, rapidly growing urban regions will need redesigned infrastructure, goods, and services to match peoples’ needs and work within planetary constraints. New efforts to track well-being and happiness, ecological systems under stress, and community and culture shocks like forced water restrictions and food-safety scares are driving people to pursue more resilient solutions such as low-impact housing, off-grid water and energy, seed-sharing programs, and community-supported agriculture. Read more
Innovative Solutions to Improving Women and Children’s Health
Elissa Goldenberg, Associate, Advisory Services
A new UN report explores how to improve women and children’s health globally. The report details what’s needed for successful development programs, outlines critical health needs, and highlights 10 innovative business models (including BSR’s HERproject) for delivering health services and products. Read more
New BSR Tool Helps Business Identify Strategic Social Investments
Alison Colwell, Manager, Advisory Services
BSR’s new tool helps companies make strategic social investments in communities where they operate, which is a critical aspect of building sustainable local economies. Strategic social investments allow companies to maximize the impact of their resource allocations, increase the long-term sustainability of their efforts, develop productive and mutually beneficial relationships with local stakeholders, and mitigate operational disruptions by strengthening their social license to operate. Read more
The Global Food Crisis
Elissa Goldenberg, Associate, Advisory Services
According to Oxfam International, which recently published an interactive map of the global food crisis, food prices—caused by climate change and resulting crop failures, rising oil costs, and short-sighted biofuel strategies—have lingered at an all-time high since late 2010. Read more
Evaluating the Socioeconomic Benefits of Mining
The International Council on Mining and Metals launched a toolkit that provides companies, civil society, and government with a framework to evaluate the socioeconomic benefits of mining at local, regional, and national levels. The toolkit—which has been tested in Chile, Ghana, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Peru, and Tanzania—is designed to encourage collaboration among a range of stakeholders on six focus areas: poverty reduction; economic development as it relates to revenue management, regional development planning, and local content; social investment; and dispute resolutions. Read more
Explore Our Impact: Videos
Take a deeper dive into the BSR Report 2010 and core areas of our work in video clips that provide personal perspective from BSR staff members. Read more
New Partnerships to Focus on Bringing Low-Cost Drugs to Africa
Mark Little, Director, Health Care, Advisory Services
With more Chinese life sciences companies expanding their research and development capabilities, these firms have an opportunity to supply much-needed medicines at a reduced rate for people in the Global South. To date, Chinese companies have focused mainly on domestic markets because of government incentives. Read more
Partnership Innovation: It Takes a Supply Chain to Improve Women’s Health
Over the past six weeks, I have traveled from meeting to meeting in Washington, D.C., Bangkok, and Geneva to develop opportunities for BSR to partner with funders and others to provide resources to tackle challenges as diverse and broad as childhood nutrition, climate change adaptation, and energy efficiency. These discussions have gotten me thinking about the importance of innovative partnerships in addressing big challenges, and how business can be more effective in its work with government, civil society, and even private funders. Read more
The Human Face of Water-Related Risk Assessments
Linda Hwang, Manager, Research
At the CEO Water Mandate meeting in Copenhagen last week—which focused on corporate water disclosure—one participant reminded us of the connections between water, healthy populations, and corporate performance. Despite the growing number of tools to help investors and companies assess water-related risks, companies will miss a critical factor when evaluating their long-term risks if the tools do not link physical-, regulatory-, and reputational-risk frameworks to people’s ability to participate in the growth of healthy economies. Read more
Coca-Cola Announces US$6 Million Investment in Clean Water Programs
According to the World Health Organization, African women and children spend up to 40 billion hours per year collecting water. Because they often travel long distances to retrieve clean water, women frequently resort to using unsafe water sources, putting themselves and their families at risk of life-threatening diseases. Read more
Building Effective Local Content Strategies
Jessica Davis Pluess, Manager, Advisory Services
BSR's new report highlights some of the challenges and opportunities extractives companies face in building local content programs that drive commercial value and deliver sustainable local development benefits in countries where they operate. Read more
Conducting Site-Level Human Rights Impact Assessments
Alejandra Martin, Manager, Advisory Services
Although more than 270 companies have human rights policy statements in place, few have implemented the policies, and even fewer have conducted human rights impact assessments at the site level. These assessments are particularly relevant for companies operating in remote areas where local governments and civil society have limited experience interacting with the private sector. Read more
Operating Locally: BSR’s Three-Step Approach to Delivering Lasting Value
Michael Oxman, Director, Advisory Services
Leading energy and extractive companies continue to develop new approaches to ensuring benefits to local communities and other key stakeholders from large capital projects and ongoing operations. These benefits include economic opportunities such as employment and the procurement of goods and services from local suppliers as well as benefits from social investments in education, health, and other community areas of need. Read more
The Case (Book) for Responsible Labor
Terry Nelidov, Manager, Advisory Services
BSR's new "Stories From the Field" provides a reader-friendly collection of 14 case studies from our DR-CAFTA Responsible Competitiveness Project in Central America and the Dominican Republic, which BSR created and led to make the business case for responsible labor in the region. Read more
Stories From the Field
Interview with Richard Feinberg, Professor, University of California, San Diego, by Terry Nelidov, Manager, Advisory Services, BSR
Terry Nelidov, project manager of BSR's DR-CAFTA Responsible Competitiveness Project, recently talked with University of California, San Diego Professor Richard Feinberg, a senior advisor to the project, about his insights gained from developing the case studies for it in BSR’s new compendium “Stories From the Field.” In excerpts below from the conversation, Professor Feinberg highlights both overall learnings from the three-year project and practical tools that companies anywhere in the world can apply to their labor and competitiveness strategies. Read more
Closer Look: Understanding Land Deals in Africa
The International Institute for Environment and Development's new guide to understanding land deals in Africa explores the significant impacts land contracts have on agriculture and food security in recipient countries. Land contracts define the terms of an investment project, and particularly how risks, costs, and benefits are distributed and who has the authority to sign the contract and through what process. Read more
Biodiversity Conservation and Human Development
Linda Hwang, Manager, Research
The private sector is recognized as an essential actor in supporting development and poverty reduction, and companies themselves are increasingly recognizing the business opportunities associated with engaging in development challenges. However, the complex interrelationship between poverty and biodiversity and ecosystem services (BES) requires that companies take an integrated perspective to these issues in order to make a positive contribution to the sustainable development of host communities. Yet, today many companies have programs that support biodiversity conservation and separate programs that support local economic development, and in some cases these programs are in conflict. To make positive contributions to sustainable development, companies need to integrate the objectives of these programs and unlock the synergies among business, conservation, and poverty reduction. Read more
IFC Delivers Best Practice Guide to Strategic Community Investment
Alison Colwell, Manager, Advisory Services
The International Finance Corporation's Strategic Community Investment Handbook (also available in Spanish) helps companies operating in emerging markets to think strategically about community investment programs. Read more
Measuring Environmental Performance: The Business Case for New Tools
Linda Hwang, Manager, Research; Sissel Waage, Senior Advisor
For years, environment and natural resource managers have been tracking individual parameters linked to air pollution, water, and energy consumption. Specific indicators are identified, measured, and trends tracked. Private, public, and nonprofit organizations have been diligently measuring water used, greenhouse gases emitted, waste averted or recycled, and many other individual metrics. Yet, academic, nonprofit, and public sectors are now placing greater attention on ecological systems. A set of tools to help companies take a systems approach is evolving, but to achieve significant uptake, the business case for these tools needs to be clearly demonstrated. BSR’s Environmental Services, Tools & Markets (ESTM) Working Group is working with member companies to define and articulate this case. Read more
Guaranteeing the Security of the World’s Food
Roger McElrath, Manager, Advisory Services
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, more than a billion people—roughly one in every seven people on the planet—suffered from undernourishment in 2009. Using a different methodology, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that the number of people experiencing “food insecurity” reached 833 million in 2009, and the USDA expects this issue to worsen over the next 10 years in 70 developing counties. The issue primarily affects those people living in rural areas in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, who (in the ultimate irony) rely on agriculture for their livelihood. Read more
Effective Informed Consent Policies for Indigenous Peoples
Elissa Goldenberg, Associate, Advisory Services
According to a new report commissioned by the Canadian oil and gas company Talisman, the long-term benefits of securing the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of indigenous peoples potentially impacted by operations outweigh challenges such as identifying relevant indigenous peoples, defining an appropriate negotiation process, and working inside countries with unsupportive governments. Read more
Why Good Labor Practices Are Good for Business: Lessons From BSR’s DR-CAFTA Responsible Competitiven
Alison Colwell, Manager, Advisory Services; Terry Nelidov, Manager, Advisory Services
Read part two of our series on responsible labor here. Read more
Quick Guide on Strategic Community Investment
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has released a new "quick guide" to help companies develop a community investment approach that contributes to long-term improvements in the quality of life for local communities and creates an environment conducive to private investment. Read more
Nestlé Waters’ Design for Communities: Reorienting From Water to People
Julia Nelson, Manager, Advisory Services; Linda Hwang, Manager, Research
When we work with companies to integrate sustainability into their operations, we usually provide actionable advice that corporate managers can put into practice the very next day. Yet, in some ways, focusing on the tactics means losing sight of the “lived experience” of the individuals who are trying to envision and advocate for a new way of doing business. Indeed, achieving sustainability is a cultural transformation that reshapes the way corporate managers think about their daily responsibilities. Read more
Should You Stay or Should You Go? What’s the ‘Right’ Decision on Entering or Leaving a Market?
Aron Cramer, President and CEO; Dunstan Allison Hope, Managing Director, Advisory Services
Google’s recent announcement to reconsider its business in China has won considerable praise from organizations concerned about the country’s human rights record. This approval stands in stark contrast to the condemnation the company received when first entering the country in 2006. The Financial Times cartoonist Ingram Pinn captured these contrasting perspectives perfectly, depicting Google as the speech-suppressing “Great Firewall of China” in 2006, then casting the company as the lone protestor stopping the tanks in their tracks in 2010. Read more
A Commitment to Communities: Case Study of Nestlé Waters North America’s Water-Siting Plan
Julia Nelson, Manager, Advisory Services; Linda Hwang, Manager, Research
In a northeastern U.S. town of about 1,000 people, at the first public hearing to discuss Nestlé Waters North America’s (NWNA) interest in bottling water from a local spring, the company listened as citizens outlined their primary concerns about the project: increased costs to the town, negative impacts to residents, and feuds among neighbors. Read more
State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
According to a UN report, the world's 370 million indigenous peoples suffer disproportionately (and often exponentially) higher rates of poverty, health problems, crime, and human rights abuses. This report illuminates several key themes that could be relevant to companies whose operations may affect indigenous communities: Read more
The Corporate Role in Disaster Relief
Haiti's devastating earthquake reinforces the critical role for business in disaster relief. Companies can provide immediate help and invest in long-term recovery efforts based on the "build it better" approach. Read more
Can Women Solve the World’s Woes? A Q&A with Half the Sky authors Nicholas Kristof and Sher
Interview by Racheal Yeager, Associate, Partnership Development, BSR
In October 2009, New York Times journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn published a powerful call to action in their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. The Pulitzer Prize-winning authors posit that individuals and organizations worldwide can advance economic progress and fight poverty by investing in women and girls. Read more
Indigenous People and Business: Meeting Expectations
Chris Nolan, Manager, Advisory Services
With 370 million indigenous people worldwide, international standards defining the basic rights of these people—including the ILO 169, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the International Finance Corporation's Performance Standard 7—are increasingly relevant for industries such as extractives, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture. Read more
Who Cares About the Millennium Development Goals?
All companies—particularly those with market and supply chain exposure in emerging economies—continually face health, environmental, and human rights challenges that impact their business. Such challenges affect market access, supply chain sustainability, and base-of-the-pyramid strategies. With more than a billion people currently living on less than US$1 per day, and even more lacking access to safe water, proper nutrition, and basic health care, these challenges show few signs of abating. Read more
Events
BSR Conference 2011: Leadership Required
Leadership in business is changing fast. In today’s global, integrated, and transparent world, business is expected to do more than deliver shareholder returns. At its best, business is a creative force and an integral player in delivering prosperity for 9 billion people, applying game-changing technologies for social benefit, and radically reducing our use of natural resources. Learn more
Virtual Roundtable on Financial Inclusion in the Supply Chain
With global attention turning toward financial inclusion, companies across all sectors have the invaluable opportunity, through meaningful cross-sector partnerships, to offer relevant financial education programs and access to formal financial services among workers in their supply chains. Doing so provides a unique and meaningful way to improve the livelihoods of workers, while benefitting companies with reduced administrative costs. Learn more
Reports
Socioeconomic Impacts of Wireless Technology
The rapid adoption of smart phones, machine-to-machine communications, and other wireless technologies are creating exciting opportunities to improve our lives. Read more
Catalyzing Social Investment in China
In this paper, we analyze the various forces driving social investment in China. We define social investment as the contribution of resources by business, foundations, or nonprofits toward the creation of social, environmental, and economic development (also termed strategic philanthropy or community investment). As China rapidly changes, the expectations for, and implementation of, social investment programs are changing quickly as well. Read more
Stories From the Field
"Stories From the Field" provides a reader-friendly collection of 14 case studies from our DR-CAFTA Responsible Competitiveness Project in Central America and the Dominican Republic, which BSR created and led to make the business case for responsible labor in the region. Read more
Going Local: Increasing the Value of Local Sustainability Reporting
This report provides an overview of trends in local reporting and offers a framework by which sustainability practitioners may approach local reporting in a manner that generates value for the company and its stakeholders. Read more
Partnering with USAID: A Guide for Companies
Culture Matters: The Soul of CSR in Emerging Economies
At the annual BSR Conference in 2006, we hosted a session to discuss a topic not commonly addressed in the business community — religion. Through this vibrant conversation, led by rabbi, a pastor and an Islamic scholar, we began to understand the powerful interplay of spiritual practice and corporate social responsibility in many parts of the world. What emerged from that discussion was a recognition that, as Allen White writes in this paper, “In a globalizing world, culture still matters.” In a world where we like to compartmentalize things like government, business and religion, it’s refreshing to discover that in fact these things are often intertwined. Read more
China's Rising Influence in Africa: Is There Room for CSR?
Case Studies
Shell Wind: Community Engagement in a New Era of Energy
Shell Wind Energy is involved in 11 wind-generating facilities across the United States and Europe, with 550 megawatts of owned generating capacity—saving around 1 million tons of carbon dioxide per year compared to conventional energy sources. Shell recognizes that wind projects can have a range of impacts that require community engagement, and that community engagement is central to positive outcomes. For example, while wind developments in rural areas can support the regional economy, important public services also need to be readied for managing revenues, safety, and communications regarding planned construction and operating activities. Shell asked BSR to support community engagement with wind projects in several locations, including New Mexico and Texas. Learn more
Sustainability Matters
Stories From the Field: The Business Case for Better Working Conditions
To ensure responsible labor practices—in both farms and factories—business leaders should start by meeting basic government, buyer, and corporate standards. However, companies should also look for how investments in better working conditions can improve their bottom lines. Learn more
BSR Review
Women and Sustainability
In response to a question about Saudi Arabia's economic competitiveness in 2007, Bill Gates famously announced to the gender-segregated audience: "If you're not fully utilizing half the talent in the country, you're not going to get too close to the top." View email publication
Other Publications & Events Tagged, Community Engagement & Development
- Blog [ 12 ]
- BSR Conference Session Summaries [ 1 ]
- BSR Insight Articles [ 41 ]
- BSR Review [ 1 ]
- Case Studies [ 1 ]
- Events [ 2 ]
- Research Reports [ 7 ]
- Sustainable Investment in China Article [ 0 ]
- Sustainability Matters [ 1 ]
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