All Articles About Community Engagement & Development

Blog: Embedding the Millennium Development Goals into Business Strategy: The World’s Women Can Help

Racheal Meiers (née Yeager), Director, 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 →

Posted: May 26, 2011 | Topics: Community Engagement & Development, Economic Development, Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, Human Rights, Reporting & Communications, Supply Chain, Women & Sustainability

BSR Insight Article: The Human Face of Water-Related Risk Assessments

Linda Hwang, Former 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 →

Posted: May 24, 2011 | Topics: Community Engagement & Development, Economic Development, Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, Strategy & Integration, Supply Chain, Water

Blog: Jugaad Solutions for Sustainable Design

Virginia Terry, Former 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 →

Posted: April 21, 2011 | Topics: Community Engagement & Development, Consumer Products, Human Rights, Strategy & Integration, Sustainable Consumption, Toxicity & Product Design

BSR Insight Article: 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 →

Posted: April 5, 2011 | Topics: Community Engagement & Development, Water, Women & Sustainability

BSR Insight Article: Building Effective Local Content Strategies

Jessica Davis Pluess, Manager, Research

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 →

Posted: March 29, 2011 | Topics: Community Engagement & Development, Economic Development, Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, Energy, Human Rights, Mining, Stakeholder Relations, Strategy & Integration, Supply Chain