Alltop

From the plenary sessions to in-depth workshops, Day 2 at the Canadian Responsible Investment Conference featured a line up of thought leaders at the forefront of responsible investing. Organizations are continuing to innovate and push the envelope on bringing about social, environmental and governance change. As we learned about current challenges facing investors and corporations, we also learned about the capitvating opportunities and trends for stakeholders across sectors and across industries. 

Check out highlights from the day's events below and join in the conversation at #sioconf2013!

[View the story "Canadian Responsible Investment Conference: Day 2" on Storify]

President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton tour upgrades of the Transwestern Building in 2011. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

New numbers released by President Obama's Better Buildings Challenge show challenge partners have improved facility energy efficiency by more than 2.5 percent per year on average compared to their baseline years – equal to roughly $58 million in annual energy savings. The new data, released in late May, track progress toward a goal of making U.S. commercial and industrial buildings 20 percent more energy efficient by 2020.

The announcement built upon U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz’s first speech (below) as secretary at the 2013 Energy Efficiency Global Forum. In that speech, Moniz said he would make energy efficiency a major focal point during his tenure. Such a focus support Obama’s broader goal of doubling U.S. energy productivity by 2030 by pushing for efficiency improvements across multiple sectors of the economy and strengthening partnerships with states and regions, he added.
 

Said Moniz: “I just don’t see solutions to our biggest energy and environmental problems without a very strong demand-side response, and that’s why it’s logical to focus on energy efficiency.”

The United States spends about $200 billion annually to power commercial buildings, and another $200 billion to power industrial facilities. Together, commercial and industrial buildings account for roughly half of the nation’s energy use and more than 40 percent of carbon emissions. In 2011, President Obama launched the Better Buildings Challenge to catalyze change in energy use and achieve record-breaking savings. More than 110 organizations – including public and private sector partners ranging from local governments and universities to commercial real estate, healthcare and manufacturing companies – are partnering with the Energy Department to achieve portfolio-wide savings and share strategies. The program also includes a network of financial firms and utility companies to assist in overcoming financial and data-access barriers.

[pagebreak]Better Buildings Challenge partners are actively deploying energy-efficiency projects across more than 7,700 facilities and updating data on energy use and energy savings. More than 1,300 facilities have reduced energy intensity by 20 percent or more, according to the new data, while another 2,100 have reduced energy intensity by at least 10 percent since their baseline years. In the first year of the challenge, the partners have also completed more than 50 showcase projects that highlight innovative, cost-effective energy saving strategies. Financial allies in the network have also extended more than $1.1 billion in private financing for energy efficiency improvements.

RELATED: "Game-changer for energy-efficiency financing?" Sustainable Industries, June 12, 2013

Some examples of successes in the Better Buildings Challenge include:

• Kohl’s: With a 112 million-square-foot commitment and more than 1,000 stores in the United States, Kohl’s has achieved a 7 percent reduction in energy intensity since its 2008 baseline year. The Kohl’s showcase project store, located in Niles, Ohio, has achieved a 20 percent reduction in annual energy use by replacing its rooftop heating and cooling unit, conducting a lighting upgrade, and re-commissioning its energy control systems. 
• Legrand: Legrand has committed to a 25 percent reduction in energy intensity across five plants and another nine non-manufacturing facilities. The company has achieved a 29 percent reduction in energy use since its 2009 baseline year. As part of Legrand’s showcase project at its 100-year-old headquarters building in West Hartford, Connecticut, the company has repaired leaks in the facility-wide compressed air system and added additional insulation to existing paint line ovens. Together with other investments, the measures are expected to save more than $120,000 in annual energy costs.
• Michigan State University: Michigan State University’s commitment of 20 million square feet includes a wide range of higher education facility types and sizes, from its 380,000-square-foot Veterinary Medical Center and 190,000-square-foot Plant Biology Laboratory building to multiple 500-square-foot storage facilities. Since its baseline year in 2010, the university has achieved a 10 percent reduction in energy intensity, made possible in part through submetering several buildings and conducting a continuous auditing program of new or newly adjusted systems to ensure efficiency is sustained. Anthony Hall, the university’s showcase project, is the first building at the East Lansing university to undergo a complete upgrade process expected to cut energy use by 34 percent and save about $536,000 annually.

[pagebreak]“California companies have always been trailblazers,” said Dan Geiger, executive director of USGBC-NCC. “When President Obama initiated the Better Buildings Challenge, we thought California firms could go further with the California Best Buildings Challenge.”

USGBC-NCC initiated the challenge with President Bill Clinton at the closing plenary (below) of the 2012 Clinton Global Initiative America, an event focused on finding solutions for economic recovery in the United States.
 

Slideshow photo by Justin Sloan.

The post Can a Bottled Water Company Create “Shared Value”? appeared first on Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit.

Though microfinance institutions have helped many at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) escape from poverty, such programs continue to receive widespread criticism. Some of these concerns, including aggressive lending practices, and the high profits generated by microlending organizations are described in greater detail in a 2011 post by Alex Kjorven. 

In response to such criticism, institutions have begun to enact client protection programs, like those described by Eugene Ellman in his April post. In other instances, NGOs such as CARE and Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) are undertaking alternative savings and credit models in order to effectively meet the financial needs of the rural poor. 

An Alternative Model: The Village Savings and Lending Association (VSLA)

A village savings and loan association is a group of 10–20 self-selected individuals who agree to save a predetermined amount each week. As the pooled savings grow, members can take out loans and pay interest to the group, allowing the fund to expand further.

Pioneered by CARE, the VSLA model is a low cost, effective, and sustainable strategy for building financial literacy. With VSLAs, the previously “unbankable” have access to savings, credit, and social insurance. Due to their many benefits (which are outlined below), such groups have cropped up in Ethiopia and around the world. Presently, numerous NGOs have picked up the VSLA model and successfully adapted it to their own initiatives. 

Working with Community 

Beginning in mid 2012, I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to support MEDA’s VLSA strategy in Ethiopia. In the North Eastern African nation, MEDA’s project aims to raise the income and improve the livelihoods of 10,000 farmers and weavers through building capacity in the rice and textile value chains. Forming these village associations strengthened the overall project impact because it addressed the financial constraints faced by farmers and weavers.

Observations from Ethiopia: Why do the VSLA programs work?

Group Trust
Since the group is self-selected and members are from the same neighbourhood, social capital is high, motivating members to save weekly.   

Self-Directed, Flexible, and Responsive
The members are independent decision makers, and create a group flexible to their particular needs. Members can easily respond to specific demands of the group, such as sudden deaths or unforeseen business risks.

Accessible
VSLAs serve non-literate as well as literate people. Some members are already part of informal credit groups, like a Rotating Credit and Savings Association (ROSCA), and a VSLA is a natural extension of such programs, readily adapting to the rural environment.

Transparent
The group is voluntary and small, allowing for simplicity and accountability. Each VSLA has its own set of bylaws, which all members must follow.

Multi-Purpose Platform
The VSLA serves as a platform, bringing people together to share community issues (such as gender rights or the incidence of HIV), encourage income-generating activities, and promote membership to microfinance institutions.

Sustainable
VSLAs are encouraged and usually continue into their second cycle, independent of project support.

Cost-Effective
The model is cost-effective. It requires only a limited number of inexpensive startup materials including, a metal cash box, plates, registration books, keys, and stationary.

Limitations

The VSLA model faces several limitations. Firstly, participating groups are constrained by the amount of total capital saved by their members and therefore may be unable to meet member’s demand for loans. 

Secondly, after the initial 9–12 months of the program the VSLA participants graduate from the program and “share out” the accumulated savings between members. At this point, The VLSA participants may then choose to halt saving entirely or continue saving their money independent of project support. Such an annual “share out” of accumulated funds reduces the ability for members to save greater sums of money or provide long-term loans over several years. 

In sum, while effective, VSLAs are limited to simple financial products, which can be inadequate in comparison to products offered at formal institutions.

Project Progress

Since the project’s inception two years ago in Ethiopia, almost 90 VSLA groups have formed. Groups have disbursed loans to invest in fertilizer, storage for rice, and additional farmland that enhances productivity and income. Others have engaged in trading grains or making and selling local drinks. A few groups have created bank accounts with the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.

The growing demand for VSLAs in project areas is a clear indication that the VSLA model is working effectively. Since the first year, an increasing number of low-income earners want to join VSLAs. Although MEDA lacks the capacity to serve all individuals who are interested, some groups have taken this challenge into their own hands and have since formed independent savings groups within their own communities.

Saving Around the Globe

Today, the VSLA model is being adopted, celebrated, and refined worldwide. As proof, there are over 6 million people engaged in savings groups in 60 countries. For more information, please see the Savings Groups at the Frontier report, produced by the SEEP network. This publication provides provides both an in-depth historical perspective on savings groups around the world, and suggests the potential future directions of the movement.

About the Author: Nell Edgington is President of Social Velocity (www.socialvelocity.net), a management consulting firm leading nonprofits to greater social impact and financial sustainability. Social Velocity helps nonprofits grow their programs, bring more money in the door, and use resources more effectively. For more information, check out Social Velocity consulting services and clients.

Follow me on Twitter | Find us on Facebook | Sign up for our E-Newsletter

Related posts:

1. Speaking About a Theory of Change
2. New Webinar: The Power of a Theory of Change
3. From Nonprofit Scarcity to Social Change Abundance

The post Changes You Refuse To Accept appeared first on Change Your Life | The Change Blog.

Changing Tack is the final output of The Regeneration Roadmap. The project seized 2012’s major sustainability milestones – particularly the Rio+20 summit in Brazil – as an opportunity to assess progress on sustainable development, to examine the evolution of the role of business in delivering this agenda to date, and to consider what and how might be done, particularly by the private sector, to accelerate and scale progress in the urgent manner required. The Regeneration Roadmap team conducted interviews with pioneers in this field, held dialogues with thought leaders around the world, and undertook extensive research including multiple surveys testing expert, public and consumer attitudes and expectations regarding sustainable development.

While optimistic about what is possible to achieve, Changing Tack finds sustainability challenges to be great and growing, and that solutions are not yet proliferating at the speed and scale needed to avert widespread environmental, social and economic disruptions. It finds low expectations that governments alone will provide the leadership needed to change course and looks to other institutions, particularly business, to fill the gap.

While recognizing and encouraging proliferation of existing sustainability best practice from business, the policy realm and civil society, Changing Tack argues the need for shifting both the focus and degree of effort applied—a change of tack—in order to integrate sustainability considerations into the global economic system.

The report suggests that the private sector has both the capability and reason to play a catalytic leadership role where collective action and change to underlying system conditions are required. This will demand that businesses improve and evolve their own strategies and practices, as well as stimulate and support the shifts in policy, capital markets and consumption that will be required to achieve sustainable development.

The post Sierra Club Reviews Plug-in Hybrids appeared first on Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit.

The post Video Interview: Anne Fajon, Cone Communications on CSR and Social Media appeared first on Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit.

The post Masdar-Backed Wind Farm Opens in Seychelles appeared first on Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit.

The post Women in CSR: Tina Roche, Business in the Community Ireland appeared first on Triple Pundit: People, Planet, Profit.

SocialFinance.ca is pleased to be covering this year’s Canadian Responsible Investment Conference! The conference is taking place from June 17th to June 19th and features a strong line up of workshops and panels with a stellar line up of industry leaders and trailblazers in responsible investing.

We've been liveblogging conference and encourage you to join the conversation at #sioconf2013. If you couldn't join us, missed what happened yesterday, or want to review some of the highlights, take a look!

[View the story "Canadian Responsible Investment Conference: Day 1 " on Storify]

We are so excited to announce our partnership with Flight for Every Mother. Dr. Sophia Webster is a 21st century Amelia Earheart with a mission for mothers. She is a flying obstetrician/gynecologist making a 24 country flight piloting her own Cessna to deliver knowledge and supplies to obstetricians and midwives. And she leaves in August!

We love her approach because it is one part advocacy and two parts practicality. Maternova Research will be sending life-saving obstetric supplies including the non-pneumatic anti-shock garment. We’ll also be working with Dr. Webster on how best to communicate the steps involved in creating the lowest cost balloon tamponade on the planet—the condom balloon tamponade.

What is particularly exciting about this journey is that it allows all of us to receive feedback, in rapid succession from a range of obstetricians and midwives working in the most difficult settings to save lives. Dr. Webster will be raising awareness but she will also be teaching. The clinicians will have a chance to provide direct feedback on protocols and technologies. What set of interventions is most appropriate for massive bleeding and shock in their settings? What does the government recommend? What is the protocol for eclampsia? We look forward to amplifying these voices as the Flight for Every Mother happens.

We are raising funds for life-saving technologies to be carried by Dr. Webster and her team via our new non-profit affiliate,(Maternova Research.

We are also using our networks to help Dr. Webster and her team find the best partners to visit during their journey. Please send us ideas!

Whereas upwardly mobile Americans have for decades fled inner cities for a suburban paradise replete with spacious homes, large vehicles and big-box consumer troughs, a post-recession urban revival is today making the suburbs the home of the down and out.

So goes the storyline of an epic June 7 article in the Financial Times that tracks the slow re-emergence of downtown Detroit, civic enlightenment among the retiring U.S. "baby boom" generation, and the spectacle of street life only virbant cities can offer. 

"America’s growing love affair with a more European-style city is also boosted by the retirement of the US baby boom generation, many of whom are as bored of the suburbs as their children," writes Edward Luce. "Like their offspring, many also wrestle with their inner Kurt Cobains. If you combine the steady rise in urbane 'empty nesters' with the growing acceptance of gay culture and the mushrooming of independent charter schools that give families the option of staying on when their children reach school age, shifting US demography is a friend to the reviving downtown."

More than 75 percent of people are expected to live in cities by 2050, according to the Rockefeller Foundation.

At the intersection of design, technology and engineering, a number of sustainability innovations are thriving solely in the urban context: climate resiliency, urban agriculture, water efficiency, electric vehicles, "smart grid" technology, the Access Economy, and unprecedented neighborhood-scale green building projects. The economic and environmental toll of the suburban lifestyle – where a resident must drive a few miles simply to procure a gallon of milk – appears to be losing its luster in leaner times, especially in neighborhoods where recessionary home foreclosures were most abundant. And in more rural settings, once-resilient economies centered around farming and natural resource extraction have given way to larger agribusiness consolidation and global imports. Left in its wake are rural U.S. communities with problems previously commonplace in inner-cities: a lack of economic opportunity, increased crime and illicit drug production (particularly methamphetamine). 

And while in the United States this trend is propelled by recent economic and social shifts, the global phenomenon of urban migration is old hat in Europe and developing nations. In China, the government is pushing ahead with a sweeping plan to move 250 million rural residents into newly constructed towns and cities over the next dozen years. According to a June 15 article in the New York Times, this massive social engineering project is "a transformative event that could set off a new wave of growth or saddle the country with problems for generations to come."

The country’s new prime minister, Li Keqiang, stated in his inaugural news conference in March that urbanization was one of his biggest priorities.

[pagebreak]"This will decisively change the character of China, where the Communist Party insisted for decades that most peasants, even those working in cities, remain tied to their tiny plots of land to ensure political and economic stability," writes Ian Johnson. "Now, the party has shifted priorities, mainly to find a new source of growth for a slowing economy that depends increasingly on a consuming class of city dwellers. ...Across China, bulldozers are leveling villages that date to long-ago dynasties. Towers now sprout skyward from dusty plains and verdant hillsides. New urban schools and hospitals offer modern services, but often at the expense of the torn-down temples and open-air theaters of the countryside."

Although China is already booming with megacities – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Tianjin are each among the 20 most-populated cities in the world – the number of of new Chinese city dwellers is expected to soon approach the total urban population of the United States. 
 

Percentage of Urban Population: United States and China, SOURCE: New Geography

[pagebreak]At home and abroad, a handful of large technology, infrastructure, energy and engineering firms well versed on the urbanization trend – IBM, Schneider Electric, Siemens, CH2M Hill, Johnson Controls, Trane, for starters – are capitalizing with an increased focus on urban markets. Arguably one of the best events that brings these types of companies together to discuss the opportunity to apply sustainability to the global migration to cities, where greater density and access dramatically reduces an individual citizen's carbon footprint, is Meeting of the Minds, headed to Toronto this September.

Meanwhile, the Rockefeller Foundation has issued a "100 Resilient Cities Centennial Challenge" to help cities build with greater resilience to address 21st century challenges. In August 2013, cities can be nominated through a formal application process. Winning cities will receive creative infrastructure financing and support hiring a chief resilience officer and creating a citywide resilience plan.

What’s your response if asked by the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to speak in front of an audience of international leaders in your field—mere days before you had expected to attend the event as a guest? If your name is Ted Anderson, you say yes.  

On June 6, Director of the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing Ted Anderson, spoke to an audience of senior government officials, business leaders, academics, and major philanthropists on behalf of Canada at the G8 Social Impact Investment Forum. Originally, Anderson had been asked to attend the event as an observer—one in a small group of Canadian experts—but plans quickly changed, when Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Diane Finley was unable able to attend the event due to a death in the family. Consequently, Anderson was asked to prepare his remarks. Be ready, they said, to speak to representatives from eight of the most powerful nations on the planet, all there to discuss the common agenda of finding market-based solutions to social problems. 

The Social Impact Investment Forum was one in a series of topic-specific forums organized by the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister, leading up to the G8 Summit, being hosted by the UK today and Tuesday. Though one of many, Cameron alluded that this conference held special significance, as a result of his own personal committment to social finance and impact investing. During his remarks, the PM demonstrated such a commitment with the announcement of the launch of three new initiatives: the Social Stock Exchange, tax breaks for social investments, and “new help for communities to buy local assets.” 

But where is Canada in the social impact investing landscape? How did the United Kingdom get so far ahead? And is the Canadian government trying to catch up?  
For answers to these questions, SocialFinance.ca sat down with Ted Anderson upon his return home from the conference in London. 

The Back of the End Zone

“You know, if the UK is at the 20-yard line, we’re at the back of the end zone—behind them,” Anderson said, describing Canada’s position relative to the United Kingdom in its implementation of social finance initiatives. 

“Amongst G8 countries, we’re probably mid-pack, but Canada, and most other places quite frankly, are well behind the UK.”

Anderson described the long list of the UK’s accomplishments: the first Social Impact Bond (and now, more Social Impact Bonds than all other nations combined), the first Social Stock Exchange, and the first wholesale social investment bank—Big Society Capital. 

How did the UK get so far ahead? 

“They just decided they wanted to be,” stated Anderson, plainly, “and it appears to be a passion of David Camerons’.”

The UK also has one key ingredient that Canada, among other nations, is lacking—a Sir Ronald Cohen. During his presentation, Cameron described Cohen as the “grandfather of social investment,” an Egyptian-born multi-millionaire, who has dedicated years and a substantial portion of his own wealth to the development of social finance in the UK. Cohen was the Chair of the Social Investment Task Force, Co-founded both Bridges Ventures and Social Finance UK, and currently serves as the Chairman of Big Society Capital. 

Does Canada Have a Sir Ronald Cohen? 

“I don’t think we have a Cohen,” Anderson said. “At least not a Sir Ronald Cohen with the ear of Stephen Harper.” 

“I think groups like ours, like MaRS, are starting down that road, but I think that we need a consensus in our community—be it the foundation community or the program provider community—that [impact investing] would be helpful and useful...[and] I do think that you need to find a Sir Ronald Cohen or a senior politician who has the belief that this is the right thing to do—the bureaucrats aren’t going to do it.” 

“This requires a big, big philosophical shift in the Canadian philosophical climate” 

In Canada, the Harper government has piloted six social finance initiatives across the country, and has served mainly in a facilitation and advisory capacity, bringing together experts from a variety of cross-sector communities to discuss the potential of social finance at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. 

In May, the Ministry of Human Resources and Skills Development (HRSDC) also released the Harnessing the Power of Social Finance report, a document that provides an overview of the some 154 community-submitted responses to a “Call for Concepts for Social Finance,” issued by Minister Finley in November 2012. 

Yet, such overtures pale in comparison to the initiatives undertaken by the Cameron’s government. 

“I think that there are a lot of other priorities that they have in that government; understandably, [the HRSDC] is a big department, and they are responsible for a lot of different programs,” said Anderson. “I know it’s getting a fair amount of bandwidth at certain levels, but I think that there are also a lot of other parts of government that need to be convinced—like [the Ministry of] Finance and [the] Treasury.”

After all, social finance at its very core requires collaboration—across government ministries, sectors and industries, and in some cases, across provinces or nations. 

“You need to have a proper program that the government officials understand, that the service providers understand, and that the people providing the financing understand...The Canadian government is very slowly, very pragmatically, trying to understand how it can look at an outcomes-based financial model at the federal and provincial levels...but this requires a big, big philosophical shift in the Canadian philosophical climate.”

Forging Ahead 

According to Anderson, the greatest challenges Canada faces in the establishment of a broad, coordinated social finance marketplace are: “an acceptance of concepts,” and “the establishment of standards of measurement.” Yet despite these and other hurdles, Anderson remains optimistic. 

“It’s encouraging that this is on the G8 agenda, and in Canada—it’s coming. The B Corp movement is gaining momentum, and young entrepreneurs are increasingly seeking a balance between being socially and financially responsible.” 

“While we’re not seeing it a lot on the funding side; other than the foundations, your typical private-equity and venture capital funds are still ‘financial optimization-driven,” you know, over time that just may change too.”

--

Note: SocialFinance.ca is one of the programs of the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing, of which Anderson is the Director. 

Cet article Que pensez-vous des futures orientations de l’AFD en matière de biodiversité ? est apparu en premier sur iD4D.

Cet article Le secteur bancaire africain en pleine recomposition est apparu en premier sur iD4D.

It was most definitely not a day like any other…Thursday June 13, 2013 saw the webcasted launch of Changing Tack, the culmination of our 18-month Regeneration Roadmap research program in collaboration with Globescan. The webcast was preceded by the annual Marks & Spencer Plan A Conference at which former U.S. Vice President Al Gore gave a barnstorming speech. Meanwhile, across London, the B Team launched its Plan B. Not a usual day by any means. Most certainly, something stirs…

Our Regeneration Roadmap analysis sees us poised between a sustainable future and catastrophic collapse. So Changing Tack recognizes the intensely pressing need to accelerate progress towards sustainable development. No less than transformation is needed. The enabling context for such transformation is trust, collaboration and leadership.

Business must find new ways to build trust, new models for collaboration and, above all, provide a new type of leadership – Extended Leadership. The six characteristics of Extended Leadership are new forms of vision, goal setting, offer, brand, transparency, and advocacy.

Alignment from companies as diverse as SC Johnson, BMW, and Cisco is surely rare; therefore, it is all the more striking when leaders from those companies are so strongly agreed on the need to build this enabling context.

But we must move fast, especially since it is often said that the pace of change is too incremental. SC Johnson’s Chief Sustainability Officer Kelly Semrau pointed out that actually we need both incremental and systemic change – we must do both. It is in the DNA of business to think in terms of continuous improvement so the journey continues day-by-day. Systemic change can be addressed too, but it must be through collaboration. The industry’s joint response to the CFC challenge in the 1990s points the way as an example of what can be achieved.

Vice President of Sustainability and Environmental Protection at BMW Group Ursula Mathar reflected the notion that both incremental and transformative change is needed—evolution and revolution. BMW is revolutionizing at the same time as it evolves its existing range.

Its BMWi electric vehicle initiative is an example of what can be achieved with committed leadership and a small team collaborating towards a common goal. It can even see a future for electric vehicles as a new means of power distribution as well as usage. Its “HomePark” service is another example of the sharing economy gathering momentum.

Another example of the benefit of Extended Leadership can be found at Cisco where leadership’s insistence on adopting its own video conferencing technologies has slashed the travel budget and cut CO2 emissions. But it has also increased collaboration across the company rather than reduced it, and enabled the creation of the Networking Academy which as scaled up to 165 countries.

While such examples give hope, we know we are a long way from success. The reality according to a recent survey quoted by Guardian Sustainable Business editor and Changing Tack moderator Jo Confino is that 75% of CEOs make decisions to meet short-term earnings that they know may have long-term damage to long-term prospects.

As Cisco’s Senior Director, Corporate Affairs Kathy Mulvany pointed out, the big commitments are going to take at least five years. Executives across the company need to understand the need for longer-term investment horizons. Business is, by its very nature, competitive, and the visible demonstration of progress by others does make a difference. It is Extended Leadership in action if you will.

Changing the context is not only about shifting the investment community; it is also about the public policy and regulatory arena. SC Johnson didn’t wait for government to update regulation; it went ahead on its own and created its green list for itself. Such an act changes the dynamic in the industry. It is a form of advocacy, a form of Extended Leadership.

The Guardian’s Jo Confino, who so ably chaired the discussion, posed the question, “Are we at a defining moment?” Given the consistent themes from all of the day’s events including this webcast, I believe we are.

From the leadership that Marc Bolland and Al Gore described at the PlanA event, it is evident that both are already putting Extended Leadership into practice. And they are in good company with leaders at Cisco, SC Johnson and BMW. Changing Tack describes choppy waters, but as the gathering storm becomes clearer, we’re gaining clarity on how we can navigate to something better.

Download the report / Watch the webcast

The post Dad, Show Us How to Change appeared first on Change Your Life | The Change Blog.

Thousands of business and sustainability professionals tuned in to a public webcast of the launch of Changing Tack, the outcome of months of global engagement on the sustainability agenda. Conveners GlobeScan and SustainAbility hosted a live-streamed panel discussion on the report’s key findings. Jo Confino of Guardian Sustainable Business moderated the discussion with senior executives from BMW, Cisco and SC Johnson.

The report forms the final output of The Regeneration Roadmap, an 18-month collaborative and multi-faceted thought leadership initiative designed to engage the private sector in advancing sustainable development by improving strategy, increasing credibility and delivering results at greater speed and scale.

In the process, The Regeneration Roadmap team conducted interviews with sustainability pioneers, held dialogues with thought leaders around the world and undertook extensive research including multiple surveys testing expert, public and consumer attitudes and expectations regarding how to accelerate the transition to sustainable development.

Download the report / Watch the webcast

About Changing Tack

Changing Tack finds cause for optimism about what is possible to achieve, but that sustainability challenges remain great and growing, and that solutions are not yet proliferating at the speed and scale needed to avert widespread environmental, social and economic disruptions. It finds low expectations that governments alone will provide the leadership needed to change course, and looks to other institutions, particularly business, to fill the gap.

The report argues that the private sector has both the capability and reason—rooted in self-interest—to play a catalytic leadership role through what it calls extended leadership, that not only focuses on individual business performance but also on how to most effectively change underlying system conditions. The authors explain that extended leadership consists of concurrently manifesting six corporate attributes related to having a unique vision, setting ambitious and concrete goals, an evolved corporate offer, a compelling brand, true transparency and active advocacy functions.

Finally, the report concludes that enhanced trust, collaboration and leadership each directly contribute to stronger corporate performance. Together they can help reset the operating context for business and enable the system changes necessary to deliver sustainable development.

”We have long felt that businesses have a leading role to play when it comes to advancing sustainable development, and Changing Tack not only reinforces that belief but helps chart the course,” said Kelly M. Semrau, SC Johnson Chief Sustainability Officer. “By building trust and fostering collaboration, companies like SC Johnson can use its scale and reach to drive critical progress.”

“Nearly 20 years ago, Ray Anderson challenged Interface and all of business and industry to aspire to a sustainable future, placing his confidence in our ability to innovate our way to a more sustainable world,” said Erin Meezan, Vice President of Sustainability for Interface, Inc. “The Changing Tack report reminds us that Ray’s vision is even more relevant, and our need to accelerate even more urgent.”

“We support collaboration projects like The Regeneration Roadmap to help inform Cisco’s strategy for addressing issues such as access to healthcare, under-performing education systems, or increasing greenhouse gas emissions,” says Kathy Mulvany, Senior Director, Corporate Affairs at Cisco. “Together we can find answers to some of our most difficult leadership challenges.”

“The pursuit of sustainability is in our long-term self-interest”, says Ursula Mathar, Vice President Sustainability and Environmental Protection at BMW Group. “Global challenges such as climate and demographic change, resource scarcity and population growth are in need of a more comprehensive, integrated and sustainable approach. Changing Tack lays out how business can take the helm and provides inspiration on unlocking greater financial and sustainable value to shape a sustainable economy.”

“The Changing Tack report paints a picture of why action is needed now and the important and unique role that the private sector will play in shaping a sustainable future,” said Linda Fisher, Vice President – Safety, Health & Environment and Chief Sustainability Officer, DuPont. “DuPont has moved beyond just focusing on our own environmental impact to identifying the sustainability challenges that our science and innovation can help address. We believe this is crucial to our long term growth strategy.”

Download the report

About the Webcast

On June 13, 2013 viewers tuned into the live-streamed webcast launch of Changing Tack which was followed by an interactive Q&A via Twitter. You can watch the webcast in full on The Regeneration Roadmap website.

The following post is copyrighted by Return On Now - Austin Internet Marketing Consulting Services

If you are running pay per click campaigns via Google AdWords, it is time to start thinking about the new enhanced campaigns that are coming in the next few weeks. Google has already announced that they will be moving all campaigns over to enhanced at some point this summer. Google has since advised that  July 22, 2013 is the target… read more →

The post Google AdWords Enhanced Campaigns: What You Need To Know appeared first on Return On Now.

For our Friday Video of the week, we've chosen to feature the presentation given by Kate Ruff at the most recent Social Impact Analyst Association Conference. Ruff's video is embedded below, but here's a teaser to get you interested: 

In the mid-1800s, it was far from obvious that anyone could ever standardize financial reporting. While today, income statements and uniform measures of financial profit are ubiquitous, it wasn’t too long ago that such indicators were deemed too unique and complex to measure. So goes the argument by Kate Ruff, in her presentation at the most recent Social Impact Analyst Association Conference, about the necessitity for the establishment of a new profession: the social impact analyst. 

In this Video of the Week, Ruff explores the “necessity” for the establishment a profession of certified social impact analysts. “Not only can a profession of social impact analysts change the world,” Ruff explains, “but I believe that it is the thing that will have the greatest effect on how effectively we can create the world that the people in this room believe in, a world where capital flows to social impact.”

In this 15-minute long video, Ruff outlines why she believes a new profession is necessary, how SIAA might work to create a profession of social impact analysts, and what exactly a new profession might mean. 

In Part 2, Ruff explains how a profession of social impct analysts might be established: 

For the time-constrained, a few highlights from the presentation: 

• In the establishment of a SIA certification there is tension between “flexibility and comparability”
• Traditional financial accounting relies on analysts to decipher statements that are founded on the principle of “bounded flexibility,” a compromise between flexibility and comparability
• The codification of standard metrics for impact should not be based upon the demands of “naive” consumers, as many donors, clients etc. don’t have a thorough understanding of the potential metrics that might be used
• Impact analysts could be the thought leaders, because they know what questions need to be asked "in order to get the right answers”
• A profession of financial analysts has been able to create an institutional form around a body of knowledge
• Adoption and adherace to a common set of standards is essential. This has been seen in the adoption and adherance of ISO standards, engineering standards, and neighborhood football rules and regulations 
• There is a body of knowledge in sociology that studies professions that asks ‘why are some jobs prestigious and others not?’ Ruff explains that there is a strong correlation between the more a group of people have articulated and protected a body of knowledge (with tests and exams), with the higher paid they are likely to be

More information can be found on Social Impact Analysts Association website, and a listing of there upcoming events can be found here. 

We want your thoughts! What's your perspective? Is there a need for a new profession of Social Impact Analysts? 

read more