The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility

Tag Archive for ‘China’

Global Warming: Is China doing enough?

China passed the U.S. as the world’s leading greenhouse gas emitter back in 2006 and today produces some 17 percent of the world’s total carbon dioxide output. Although the Chinese insist environmental trouble is part of the cost of developing a world superpower, China has started to take action.

The Making of a Modern CEO: The New Normal

Ann Charles thinks the next generation of business leaders will require new talents and a different set of skills to successfully grow business over the next decade. A modern CEO, she writes, will focus on creating a business culture that’s expansive, mapping a social purpose to the creation of goods and services.

Hydroelectric Dams – The Good and Bad

Hydroelectric dams are among the greenest and most affordable electricity sources in the world—and by far the most widely used renewable energy sources—but they also take a heavy environmental toll in the form of compromised landscapes, ecosystems and fisheries.

Lobbyists Promote Asbestos Use in the Developing World

Asbestos has long been known to cause debilitating and often fatal diseases such as lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis. It is banned or restricted in 52 countries. But since the mid-1980s, a global network of lobbyists has spent nearly $100 million to maintain a market for asbestos, according to an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity.

Definitions: What Do We Mean by “Building a Green Economy”?

The primary way governments around the world are trying to “green” their own economies today is by increasing investment in—and, by extension, creating jobs in—industries on the cutting edge of non-polluting renewable forms of energy, such as solar and wind power.

New Efforts to Save Forests by Curbing Trade in Illegal Wood

Illegal logging and tropical deforestation are the focus of two newly-announced initiatives – one focusing on the legal risk to companies that buy illegally harvested wood, the other highlighting potential rewards to American business of U.S. legislation that would help end illegal logging and tropical deforestation. “Saving rainforests isn’t just for treehuggers anymore,” said a representative of the Ohio Corn Growers Association,

Climate Change: Copenhagen’s Misssed Opportunity

Hopes were high that international negotiators in Copenhagen last December would be able to hammer out a strong agreement to once and for all take the climate beast by the horns and begin to reign in carbon emissions worldwide. But a new binding formal agreement was not to be, mostly because of conflicting priorities among participating countries.

Avon Suspends Four Executives in China Bribery Investigation

With its disclosure, Avon becomes the latest in a growing list of major Western companies dealing with alleged violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Avon is the world’s largest direct seller of beauty products, marketing in more than 100 countries through 5.4 million independent sales representatives.

Does Banning Plastic Bags Help the Environment?

Plastic bags, first introduced in the 1950s as a convenient way to store food, have since developed into a global scourge, littering roadsides, clogging sewer drains and landfills and getting ingested by animals and marine life. They are so prolific that they now comprise a significant portion of the plastic and other garbage that has collected in huge ocean gyres far from land.

Kellogg’s Corporate Responsibility Report: “Watch the Salt!”

It’s fascinating to watch as major global businesses engage, however imperfectly, in the process of reporting on matters that only a few years ago would have been left for legal counsel to explain and defend in courts or regulatory hearings. How should a food giant like Kellogg handle a sticky health problem involving salt? Or a supply chain issue involving peanuts?