What a rollercoaster ride! It has been five years since I moved to New York to open our US office. My arrival here coincided with the worst financial crash since the Depression, a time when you were unsure whether there would be any cash in the ATM, let alone a market for sustainability advice.
A study by the Center for Safety and Health Sustainability (CSHS) reveals troublesome gaps and a lack of transparency in occupational safety and health (OSH) sustainability reporting among organizations rated highly for sustainability performance.
A Sustainability Professionals LinkedIn group discussion
January 30, 2013
Ask a CEO if sustainability is a strategic issue for their firm, and you'll only ever hear one answer: yes. Why is it, then, that budgets for sustainability initiatives are frequently so small that they appear to have been shoved in as an afterthought? Khaled: Once they realize its monetory returns. Just concluded a report for a client that his investment in energy efficiency had an IRR of 175%!!! Now he wants to implement it across his portfolio.
Sustainability ranks ninth out of ten top corporate priorities for 2013, according to a study released by The Conference Board January 9th of more than 700 senior executives in businesses around the world.
With workplace tragedies such as the recent factory fires in Bangladesh killing more than 100 people last weekend and in Pakistan killing more than 300 workers in September, the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) and the Center for Safety and Health Sustainability (the Center) urge corporations to implement effective safety management programs and practices in their supply chains to help prevent these disasters from happening.
Question for group: There is a growing consensus that the word “sustainability” is becoming a hindrance for the green economy, but what should it be replaced with?
Brands and suppliers are increasingly willing to share supply chain sustainability data, to cut costs and overcome audit fatigue, reports Stephen Gardner of the Ethical Corporation: Business Intelligence for Sustainability.