World Still Warming; Pageant Candidates Shedding Layers

In continuation of yesterday's entry, two things.

First, New York Times readers respond to the IPCC report on the newspaper's blog. Andrew Revkin, science journalist, readies to answer reader questions; you can still ask some and post your opinions. In the main article today, Revkin is interviewed in a podcast. Revkin is asked, "Should people think about changing where they live at this point?" He responds, with the New York area readership in mind, "Well, the timescales are such that" it isn't necessary right now. Revkin knows what he's talking about: he's one of the most read and respected popular science writers in the US. "And if you're wealthy enough" you can adjust later, he notes matter-of-factly.

He knows it all too well: most of the worst-affected regions are or will be those low-lying areas of the world that are extremely poor. What can a Bangladeshi family do?

When asked about how he feels about the future, Revkin says that he "goes to bed" a pessimist, but "wakes up" an optimist.

Elsewhere in the New York Times today, a columnist wonders if the IPCC report isn't in fact too optimistic. Climate science is advancing fast and we do not really understand the impact of melting glaciers or inland ice sheets. They weren't included in the IPCC measurements.

In the UK, the Guardian notes that "the scientists spoke cautiously, but the graphs said it all."

A tipping-point of public awareness was being reached. The time for talking, as the politicians kept saying yesterday, was over. Now it was time for action.

Although in saying this they were, of course, still just talking.

---

On a completely different note, in a not-so-unexpected turn of events, "public outrage" over the controversial catsuits of the pageant candidates forced the tour organizer to revert back to half nakedness.

You cannot but wonder about the intentions and purpose of some publications, tabloid or otherwise. First of all, on a day when the IPCC report comes out (it would make awesome headlines, guaranteed!), climate change in some of the most widely circulated newspapers is largely left out.

Second, the phrasing and wording in these articles about the Miss Finland pageant... Pageants have often been criticized for being demeaning meat markets. There are certainly interest groups out there that would gladly leave it so and continue business as usual.

Readers aren't dumb.

The tour organizer wants to keep the pageant classy, despite pressure to use the scantily clad young women as bait at various consumer functions. While parading on stage wearing next to nothing, the young women are subjected to a leering, staring public. The public are wearing down jackets, by the way. The organizer doesn't want to take that kind of advantage, so she comes up with new ideas. Some of the events take place in the evening, in dimly lit clubs or restaurants. (How many of us would go to Kaivohuone wearing only underwear? Right.)

To protect the women, the tour organizer has a brilliant idea: nobody defined what kind of underwear the women should wear! So she arranges for them to wear full body catsuits, which is categorized as lingerie.

That, however, isn't enough: an anonymous "public" demands a return to what "we" had before. Why do I think the "public" actually stands for the "media"?

The interesting thing is, the only citation or statement in Iltalehti's article comes from the representative of the lingerie company. Certainly not an example of investigative journalism.

What's more, the wording on the matter suggests that the pageant candidates do this quite willingly, leaving just enough room for doubt in the mind of some readers, I'm sure, that this whole scheme isn't exploitative at all. Who knows, maybe they really want to walk around in their underwear in a car center.

I'm still wondering if the women get paid for this or if they ought to be categorized as unpaid interns or temporary workers.

Missit paljastelivat MIESYLEISÖLLE

2.2.2007 23:58

Mitään ei jäänyt arvailujen varaan, kun missifinalistit esiintyivät alusasuissa. Miss Suomi -kilpailujen finalistit esittelivät rohkeaa alusasumuotia eilen Autotalo Pelttarissa Huittisissa. Autoliikkeeseen oli kerääntynyt valtavasti etenkin keski-ikäisiä miehiä, joille missit tarjosivat aimo annoksen silmänruokaa.

Yleisön kommentit muotishowsta olivat tyrmääviä, joten Miss Suomi -kiertueesta vastaava mallimamma Marjo Sjöroos joutui taipumaan vaatimusten edessä: missit laitettiin jälleen paljastaviin alusasuihin.

- Näin jatketaan päivänäytöksissä. Iltaisin misseillä pysyy trikoot alusasujen alla, vaikka minua heitettäisiin kananmunilla päähän. En halua, että humalaiset miehet koskettelevat missejä iltanäytöksissä, Marjo Sjöroos totesi.

All of this reminds me of an experience a year or two ago. JCDecaux, the French multinational billboard corporation put up a lingerie campaign that brought on huge criticism in Scandinavia. The campaign featured a headless torso of a woman, with the text "I like boobs" on it.

I mean, on her.

Always easier to objectify when you cut someone's head off. Now that's class.

At that time, I called the clothes manufacturer (no response there) and the local Helsinki transportation authority to express my disapproval as a consumer of transportation services. "It's annoying," I said.

The HKL PR person was very sympathetic, but she said there is nothing she or HKL could do. I was surprised. "You guys own the bus stops, though, don't you?" I asked. "What do you mean there's nothing you can do?" I thought it sounded kind of odd: they are Helsinki bus and tram stops and this is the Helsinki transportation authority, so how come?

"What do you mean you can't control what posters people put up?" I asked. She said that they are indeed HKL bus and tram stops, but as far as advertising goes, it isn't that simple. JCDecaux, the corporation, has bought or leased the advertising space and the company decides what kind of advertising to put up. JCDecaux, the overseas corporation, decides who greets you at the bus stop: a milk carton, a mascara or perhaps a pair of mammaries. The corporation is in charge of what our living environment looks like, because they have bought that space.

The lady at HKL engaged in a good and spirited half-hour conversation with me. It was good fun and she was sympathetic, but she apologized for not being able to do much else.

---

Some thoughts from a former Miss Finland here.

Yksi Miss Suomen keskeisistä tehtävistä on toimia esikuvana tytöille. Millä tavalla Miss Suomi on parempi esimerkki tytöille kuin esimerkiksi Naisasialiiton aktiivit?

- Missi on neutraalimpi esikuva nuorille tytöille kuin naisasialiiton aktiivit. Heillä on paljon enemmän negatiivisia asioita, joita he yrittävät tyrkyttää nuorille tytöille, kun ajavat vain naisten asioita.

- Naisasialiiton aktiivit nostavat esiin paljon huonoja juttuja, jotta he voisivat edistää heidän omaa"hyväänsä". Missin rooli on loppujen lopuksi yhteiskunnallisesti aika pieni. Hän on kaunis ja saa jotain kivoja liitetöitä, mutta ei ole poliittisesti vaikuttava, eikä kannusta teinityttöjä tietyn ideologian alle. Sen vuoksi missiin on turvallisempi samaistua kuin jonkin järjestön edustajaan.

It's always interesting to see someone take an institution and assume it is value neutral just because that institution doesn't talk about its politics.

Climate Report Out; New Miss Finland Candidates Out and About

The IPCC report is out and the original can be found here. It is a 21-page summary of the full report. Two more reports are coming out in April and May, respectively; they will include a list of recommendations for action. We know the local basics: recycle your biodegradables, drive less, fly less, switch off lights etc.

On a completely different note, for those who are into gender issues, this may make you smile. Or laugh. The Miss Finland pageant is in full swing, and pageants, though seemingly innocent, glam and old school, are actually a business, sometimes big business. For example, Donald Trump owns pageant franchises in the USA.

u u t i s t u l v a

Miss Suomi 2007 -kilpailun osallistujien uimapukukuvaus on medialle maksullista, selviää Finnartist Oy:n lähettämästä lehdistökutsusta. ...
uutistulva.nettitieto.fi/ - 80k - 31. tammikuu 2007 -

Finnartist, the company that produces the event and has done so for 45 years, has actually agreed, either knowingly or unknowingly, to a very funky new version of the so-called swimsuit competition; photos can be seen here.

Iltasanomat calls this new type of underwear competition (whatever happened to swimsuit competitions?) the height of "tastelessness."

Did I miss something?

How tasteful is it, really, to employ young women to parade on stage -- or on the steps of some building in Loviisa -- in their underwear? (I wonder what compensation the firm or organizer pays to these individuals, if any.) Hope those shopping malls are well heated. Below is a more old-style example of what the tour entails for these women.



This isn't actually a new debate, globally speaking, but what is happening with the Miss Finland tour is definitely a new take on the subject. Pageants as an institution can be viewed from a number of angles. The most dystopian suggests that they objectify women and teach girls to self objectify. Girls -- and boys -- learn that the fastest way for young women to win over the hearts and minds of the people (and the occasional ice hockey player) is to look pretty and say you support world peace. In underwear.

Finnartist and tour organizer Marjo Sjöroos have just committed to the most socially responsible thing they possibly could by allowing this new twist on a very dated pattern. Well done. Looking forward to the repercussions.

Microsoft - Best Corporate Image?

Microsoft has the best public image among largest corporations, according to a new survey ranking the 60 highest profile companies in the world. The Wall Street Journal (31.1.07) says that much of this is due to the social responsibility record of Bill and Melinda Gates. The public doesn't separate between Microsoft and the Gates's foundation: the foundation's philantropic efforts shine on Microsoft. The article notes that in general, social responsibility is becoming an increasingly important component of corporation reputation.

Placing in the top 1-10 spots were Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, 3M, Google, Coca-Cola, General Mills, United Parcel Service, Sony, Toyota Motor, and Procter & Gamble.

In the lowest positions at 51-60 were Allstate, BP, Chevron, Sprint, Ford Motor, Altria Group, General Motors, Comcast, Exxon Mobil and finally Halliburton.

Exxon Mobil Tries to Clean Up Its Act

A half-page article in the FT yesterday notes that Exxon Mobil (#59 on the corporate image list) finds itself cornered. Known for its overt opposition to the Kyoto protocol, the oil giant is slowly shifting its position and showing signs of joining the scientific mainstream. "We need to be clear that in questioning whether Kyoto is the right approach to climate policy is not and should not be synonymous with being a climate sceptic," Exxon's VP for safety, health and environment is quoted as saying. Does that mean a tide is turning?

IPCC Climate Report Out

The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) climate summary and full report will be released today. Taloussanomat reports that the report's tone is stark. "We are cooking ourselves." Taloussanomat also links to an article about what changed Ollila's mind about climate change. The Daily Telegraph has gotten wind of the final version of the report, which gives actual numbers on the expected levels of warming.

What seems curious is that certain newspapers are still focusing on reporting whether or not the change is human induced (the report says there is 90% certainty that it is.) I thought we already basically settled that debate enough to do something. With that in mind, the quote of the day seems fitting:

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)

Saving Other Species

Tigers, cod and the orang-utan. The Guardian suggests ways to help animals on the verge of extinction. The focus is on the UK market, but who's to say we couldn't take the same action in Helsinki?

Itämereen kaavaillaan jättimäisiä tuulipuistoja

(STT) Virolaisyhtiö Nelja Energia haluaa rakentaa Itämerelle viisi suurta tuulivoimapuistoa, joihin tulisi yhteensä lähes 200 tuulivoimalaa.

Hiidenmaan luoteispuolelle kaavailtujen tuulipuistojen yhteenlaskettu teho nousisi ydinvoimalan kokoluokkaan. Tuulipuistot olisi tarkoitus yhdistää sekä Viron että Ruotsin sähköverkkoon.

Slow Travel; The Trouble with Palm Oil; Venture Capitalists and Energy Policy

Writer Ed Gillespie will begin a year-long journey around the world in March. Plenty of people travel around the world every year, but Gillespie plans to do it without flying. The Guardian helps Gillespie kick off the project with a piece on slow travel. He will also be blogging about his experiences on the road.

In other news, the Netherlands are quickly learning that not all biofuels are equal or eco-friendly. A few years ago the Dutch began to advocate the use of biofuels as a substitute for oil. In a follow-up, scientists were sent to investigate the palm plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia. The investigative team found that the plantations used great amounts of fertilizer, cut down huge tracts of rainforest to plant more palm trees, and burned peatland for additional plantations, releasing huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. Whatever positive effects palm oil has were overshadowed by environmental degradation. A European Environment Agency representative noted, “It’s important to take a life-cycle view,” and not to “just see what the effects are here in Europe.”

Finally, the New York Times reports how tech barons take a new role: energy policy. Venture capitalists have a great stake in the outcomes of energy policy.

IPCC Ready to Release New Climate Report

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is ready to release its fourth climate report. In an article in the New York Times yesterday,

"scientists involved in the effort warned that squabbling among teams and government representatives from more than 100 countries — over how to portray the probable amount of sea-level rise during the 21st century — could distract from the basic finding that a warming world will be one in which shrinking coastlines are the new normal for centuries to come.

Jerry Mahlman, an emeritus researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., who was a reviewer of the report’s single-spaced, 1,644-page summary of climate science, said most of the leaks to the news media so far were from people eager to find elements that were the most frightening or the most reassuring.

He added in an interview that such efforts distracted from the basic, undisputed findings, saying that those point to trends that are very disturbing.

He noted recent disclosures that there is still uncertainty about the pace at which seas will rise because of warming and the melting of terrestrial ice over the next 100 years. That span, he said, is just the start of a rise in sea levels that will almost certainly continue for 1,000 years or so."

One

Bank of America celebrated its merger with credit card company MBNA in Manhattan late last year. To enjoy a video from what is presumably their closing event, click on the arrow below.

Before watching the clip, you might want to check out "The ONE Campaign" at one.org, led by U2's frontman Bono and named after the original song. The ONE Campaign is actually a charity effort to fight AIDS, starvation and extreme poverty.



ps. Bono is also involved in the corporate world through a stake in Elevation Partners, a venture capital business. I don't know how that is connected to this, but it just came to mind. In the name of fairness, transparency, and shades of gray.

"Most Sustainable Companies" List

In Davos, a niche consulting firm launched the first annual 100 most sustainable corporations of the world ranking (they call it the "G100.") A copy can be found right here. The list includes two Finnish companies, Kesko and Nokia.

Companies "were evaluated according to how effectively they manage environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities, relative to their industry peers."

Chairman of Shell and Nokia on Climate Change; Traveling to Disappearing Destinations

Jorma Ollila, the chairman of the boards of Shell and Nokia, calls for strict emission controls, reports Helsingin Sanomat today. Ollila supports the EU carbon trading scheme and follows American energy policy closely. Doubling energy efficiency is the way to go, Ollila argues, shunning proposed increases in atomic energy. "Awareness of the threat of global warming was much higher than I expected," Ollila says in reference to the European oil and energy sector. Full Finnish-language article here.

For a wistful moment, check out the Guardian for a travel article called the "10 wonders of the vanishing world." Beautiful article, upsetting content, including the disappearing snows of Kilimanjaro, the disappearing snow in Austrian ski resorts and the disappearing Maldives islands. The most interesting bit is towards the end where the editor tackles the question "Should I go before it disappears?" Beyond that, should we start doing something else before they disappear?

The Next Zeppelin?

The Guardian reports that the United States desires a leading role in the fight against climate change. In an article titled "US answer to global warming: smoke and giant space mirrors" (pun assuredly intended), the Guardian reports that Washington wants to develop technologies to block sunlight from entering earth's atmosphere. The technologies include giant mirrors in space and reflective dust pumped into the atmosphere.

Perhaps openmindedness is in order; that said, would any of this ever, um, fly? Giant mirrors and "magic" dust?

The US government document can be found here.

Questions: 1) which nation would be developing these technologies or would it be a mutual effort? 2) can we afford not to achieve consensus for years to come: the EU and Japan etc. trying to go the Kyoto way, while Americans would go it alone and continue emitting CO2, business as usual? 3) would Washington want this to be an internationally funded project on the basis that it would benefit everyone, a project whose costs would thereby need to be covered by all? 4) would something like this actually be feasible i.e. does it make sense? 5) how much would it cost? 6) who would produce these technologies: would the proceeds go to an American corporation X or some other interest group?

Scabies on a Viking Line Cruise Boat

Aftonbladet reports of the scabies on Viking Cinderella cruise boat, where twenty crew members have been infected with the small parasite. Scabies spreads readily, causes great discomfort and itching in patients, and requires medical attention. Incubation period for the bug can be several weeks, so it is not possible as yet to determine how widely the parasite has spread.

Viking Line is a listed company whose margins have been shrinking in recent years. Intense competition between the various ferry lines crisscrossing the Baltic has made headlines several times over the past few years.

Not sure, but this begs the question, is scabies spreading because the boats are being improperly cleaned due to cost cutting?

Generally speaking, the trouble is that as margins tighten, cruise lines must cut their costs somehow, and cleaning services are often the first that get cut and squeezed, presumably not least because maintenance isn't revenue-producing and the obvious effects of reducing resources in maintenance do not show in the short term. It's easy to cut something that doesn't add to your bottom line. But as always, sweeping a problem under the rug and pretending it doesn't exist won't work for long.

The maintenance industry illustrates many other potentially problematic issues. Labor rights are relatively weak for part-time janitors, and the work is seen as low prestige. Oftentimes the jobs are held by minorities, creating a complex mix of issues around a low-status job becoming associated with a certain economic or social group or class. Turnover is high, training is seldom thorough, employee commitment to the job tends to be low, and workers may become demoralized due to their status, low pay, and the pressure of having to get the job done in the shortest possible length of time. Major problems that are brewing may be obvious to insiders, but only surface in the media when the symptoms become too obvious to cover up.

The only problem is, this industry is far from insignificant. Keeping places like cruise boats clean is obviously essential for ensuring passenger safety and eradicating health risks, considering the total number of passengers residing in the same quarters month after month. As black and white as it may sound, it seems on some level to be about trade-offs between financial results (for investors who may not use cruise ships anyway) and the conditions provided for the people who actually work and travel on these boats and sleep in the bunks.

I'm just wondering: now that privatization and outsourcing are popular, what will happen if hospitals, schools, nursing homes and daycare centers start outsourcing maintenance services? Will patient, elderly, student or child health be at risk?

Viking Line outsourced its cleaning services to SOL Siivouspalvelut, a local cleaning services provider, several years ago. The only real news available on the internet was a broken link to a SOL press release, but the employees who do the cleaning on Viking Line ferries are employees of SOL -- many of them students, immigrants and (other) part-time workers.

What seems wholly unacceptable is the lack of transparency. According to Helsingin Sanomat, it took the Viking Line ferry company a month to report of the situation.

Scabies isn't life threatening, but it's an extreme annoyance. Whoever catches scabies needs to do a complete floor-to-ceiling clean-up in their primary residence and use a topical agent for several weeks to kill the infection in their body. Garments and all bedding must be washed thoroughly, lest one wants to keep getting reinfected.

In a healthcare setting, nurses protect themselves with disposable clothing from head to toe when working with patients who have scabies. I just wonder what kind of protective equipment the cleaning staff on Viking Cinderella are wearing, and how Viking reimburses its employees for the discomfort and hassle of being infected.

Movie Event; Greenwashing; 'Fool' Efficiency

Yesterday's film event, The Corporation, had a great turnout. Thank you to the over fifty Hankeiters who attended and for the Student Union for supporting the event.

On to concepts. What is greenwashing all about? When companies want to appear as more ecofriendly (and one could also argue CSR oriented) than they really are, then they are "greenwashing." The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term as “disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image.” The term is considered pejorative.

Some examples of companies allegedly involved in greenwashing include ExxonMobil (or Esso in Finland); the company is the subject of an article in the Guardian earlier this month. ExxonMobil has presented a very critical and conservative view of the role of carbon dioxide emissions in climate change. The company has now admitted it has a PR problem that needs to be dealt with. This, however, is not likely to result in strategic changes.

Other alleged greenwashers are listed in a short article about America's ten worst greenwashers.

Strategic change might, however, just pay off. Where companies are being washed green, perhaps they ought to just change, because the consequence of holding on to the status quo may not be so pretty. This is evident in the fate of one of the world's biggest brands and largest automakers, Ford Motor Co. Number one in the above greenwasher list, Ford is really struggling, having just announced its worst financial results ever: in fiscal 2006, Ford lost an average of $1,925 for every car or truck it sold, a total of 12.7 billion dollars. U.S. consumers have been shunning Ford vehicles, because they have the lowest fuel effiency levels in the market. With oil prices continually rising, the decline in demand is likely to continue. Unless Ford actually changes its strategy and begins to respond to consumer demands for more fuel-efficient vehicles, it is evident that it is placing its brand and financial future at risk.

Bush's State of the Union Address; System Change

Just in time for Davos, president Bush delivered his State of the Union address yesterday (the address is like the annual review of the U.S. of A.)

"Tonight, I ask Congress to join me in pursuing a great goal. Let us build on the work we've done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next 10 years. (Applause.) When we do that we will have cut our total imports by the equivalent of three-quarters of all the oil we now import from the Middle East.

To reach this goal, we must increase the supply of alternative fuels, by setting a mandatory fuels standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017 -- and that is nearly five times the current target. (Applause.) At the same time, we need to reform and modernize fuel economy standards for cars the way we did for light trucks -- and conserve up to 8.5 billion more gallons of gasoline by 2017.

Achieving these ambitious goals will dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but it's not going to eliminate it. And so as we continue to diversify our fuel supply, we must step up domestic oil production in environmentally sensitive ways. (Applause.) And to further protect America against severe disruptions to our oil supply, I ask Congress to double the current capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. (Applause.)

America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil. And these technologies will help us be better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change. (Applause.)"

The main points:

• First ever mention of the words "climate change" in a Bush address
• Push for alternative fuels and more fuel-efficient cars
• Focus on technological discoveries to curb energy use
• What does stepping up domestic production in environmentally sensitive ways mean? Hopefully still no drilling in protected wilderness
• Strategic petroleum reserve: approximately 57-day oil supply for the US; doubling it would mean the U.S. would be holding about a third of a year's oil in emergency storage

---

In other news, an article on system change argues that "traditional corporate responsibility approaches focus mainly on corporate level activities. Yet probably eighty percent or more of the unsustainability problem resides at the system level. Many good system change programs have been developed. But most have low implementation rates." More on system change here. The writer of the full report challenges some of the basic CSR tenets and proposes major systemic changes.

(Systems thinking, by the way, is a term often used in futures studies - a field of knowledge that is founded on the idea of foresight and looking into what doesn't as yet exist to create desirable futures.)

Climate Change, Davos, and the World Economic Forum

Every year leaders from "business, politics, academia, the media and civil society" meet in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss a variety of issues under the rubric of the World Economic Forum. This year's annual meeting begins tomorrow.

The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization incorporated in 1971, and based in Geneva, Switzerland. According to the Forum website, it is impartial and not-for-profit and tied to no political, partisan or national interests.

This is the first year in the group's 36-year history when climate change forms a substantial part of the five-day event.

The World Economic Forum has also set up a separate group called the Davos Climate Alliance; its website can be found right here.

The Davos meeting coincides with the launch of the US Climate Action Partnership just yesterday; another coalition that mixes business leadership with non-profits to fight the problems of climate change.

Inconvenient Truth Box Office

I hope this next thing I'm going to write about isn't crass, and I do apologize in advance if it is, but maybe it's the business student in me, not sure, that for some reason started wondering about the economics of Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim's movie and how it faired.

That movie, of course, would be Inconvenient Truth. Net Impact Hanken organized a showing of this film in the fall.

Perhaps it just feels like #1, one would want to see a movie like that be successful (seriously, if Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous grosses over a $100 million, then Inconvenient Truth should at least come close -- what's good though is that Miss Congeniality starred Sandra Bullock and from what I recall of having read entertainment news recently, she is known in Hollywood as a very generous philantropist. Anyway.)

More importantly, #2, box office success of a climate documentary would be a good guesstimate for how successfully its message got delivered to a wider audience.

So with that being said...

It's just good to know, somehow, that the film did exceptionally well in terms of box office, having grossed approximately $42 million since its late May release in 2006. That is a lot for a documentary, especially one that deals with a relatively technical subject like climate change. Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim's success really lay in giving climate change a face -- personalizing a concept and a phenomenon.

If we assume an average ticket price of $10, that would mean over four million viewers actually valued the message enough to commit both time and hard-earned money to see the movie. What's more, there were free public showings so that figure probably understates the actual number of viewers reached.

Looking forward to a lot more stuff like this from the (American) film industry.

Ten U.S. Corporations and 4 NGOs Launch Climate Action Group

Ten American corporations, including firms in the energy and financial services sectors, and four leading non-governmental organizations have launched a new climate action group.

Called the US Climate Action Partnership, or USCAP for short, the group will focus on policy action. In a statement released on Friday, the group argued that "there must be a reasoned and serious debate about the solutions. But debate cannot substitute for action." Effective carbon trading will be in the forefront of the group's agenda.

More information and an interview can be found here on MSNBC's website. In the interview, one commentator makes the point that this movement is about posturing and the political climate in the United States; another says that it reflects the corporations willingness to act without being legislated into action. "The climate is the issue; it's the climate in Washington and the climate outside," a PR specialist notes. "What we have here is business taking initiative." Another argues that the movement will not have any considerable impact on the climate. Either way, as the interviewer notes, the truth will be "in the pudding" - six to twelve months from now.

Barrick likely to begin Pascua Lama gold mine under glacier

Here's an example of news that is extremely important yet doesn't get a lot of mainstream coverage.

Canadian company, Barrick Gold is about to begin digging for gold (and silver) high in the Atacama Mountains between Chile and Argentina underneath glaciers.
To get to the minerals, it would be necessary to break the glaciers - something never conceived of in the history of the world - and to make 2 huge holes, one for extraction and one for the mine's rubbish tip. If the glaciers are destroyed, they will not just destroy the source of specially pure water, but they will contaminate the 2 rivers running from glaciers (because of the use of cyanide and sulphuric acid in the extraction process).

The Guardian Unlimited:
The original plans of Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold included "relocating" three huge glaciers - a decision since blocked by Chile's environment authorities.
Farmers and local community members in the Huasco valley below fear that the massive open-pit gold mine, due to come on stream in 2009, will cause water shortages and contaminate their fields. Barrick maintains that the $1.4bn mine will operate in "full compliance with all environmental regulatory requirements". But the history of gold mining in Latin America does little to inspire the local community with confidence.

Dresdner Bank and Gazprombank Form Joint Venture, Launch Carbon Trading

The carbon trading market keeps expanding, as the world keeps warming. (For what it's worth, I have yet to wear a hat this month.)

German bank Dresdner and the Russian Gazprombank (affiliated with Gazprom, one of the world's largest energy groups) announced this week that they have launched a new joint venture for carbon trading. The JV is called Carbon Trade & Finance Sicar and registered in Luxembourg. The project will be primarily led by Dresdner's investment banking arm Dresdner Kleinwort.

According to the press release, the joint venture will "invest in primary projects generating CO2 certificates through the mechanisms of the Kyoto protocol with a view to repackaging these credits for resale to investors on a secondary market basis."

Los Angeles Times Uncovers Gates Foundation's Unethical Investments; Foundation Starts Adjusting Portfolio

CSRwire reports of contradictions between the mission and investment policies of the gigantic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest charitable foundation that manages a $35 billion endowment (the number excludes Warren Buffett's $31 billion pledge from 2005.)

According to its website, the mission of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is to bring innovations in health and learning to the global community.

However, in a scathing investigative report, the LA Times discovered that 41% of the assets of the Gates Foundation were invested in companies whose actions are at odds with the basic objectives of the Foundation. Companies in which the Foundation held stakes included

• Mortgage companies that were accused in lawsuits or by government officials of making it easier for thousands of people to lose their homes, while the Foundation donated money to help victims of predatory lending

• A healthcare firm that has agreed to pay more than $1.5 billion to settle lawsuits accusing it of medical lapses and fraud going back a decade, while one of the Foundation's primary goals is to improve public health

• Chocolate companies said by the U.S. government to be profiting from the slave labor of children, while the Foundation funds educational and healthcare programs in developing nations.

According to an article in South African newspaper Mail&Guardian, there were additional issues related to oil drilling and drug sales in Africa, which is one of the Gates Foundation's major aid targets. Bill Gates has expressly stated that one of his main philantropic goals is reducing the prevalence of HIV in Africa. Mail&Guardian reports that the "foundation is funding studies into a microbicide which could help protect women and their future children from HIV. But the foundation invests in pharmaceutical companies which have lobbied hard to prevent affordable copies of their Aids drugs being manufactured by generics companies in India."

The Gates Foundation also holds large stakes in energy firms BP and Royal Dutch Shell that , according to the M&G article, "jointly own the Sapref refinery, outside [the second largest South African city of] Durban, which is blamed for 24 significant spills, pipeline ruptures and explosions since 1998. With the Mondi paper mill (owned by Anglo American, in which the foundation has a $39-million investment), it is held responsible for significant air pollution by toxic fumes. Two studies have found high levels of breathing problems and asthma in local children, largely attributed to sulphur dioxide and other pollutants."

The response from Bill and Melinda Gates was swift and promising; although the Foundation does not acknowledge a link to the LA Times report, Bill and Melinda Gates are said to have begun overseeing a complete review of the Foundation's investment policy.

This brings up an interesting issue and challenge in philantropic foundations in general.

Until now, M&G writes, "the [Gates] foundation's financing and philanthropic arms have been totally separate. Its policy has been simply to raise as much money as possible for its scientifically focused philanthropic works, with an emphasis on finding vaccines and other medical breakthroughs that could substantially improve the health of the world's poorest people."

This approach is probably much more common than we realize, simply because socially responsible investment (SRI) strategies are less common than mainstream management strategies that do not account for CSR issues.

The short-term gains of such an investment policy are obvious, if SRI does not rival the existing investment strategy. Yet over the long haul, investing in irresponsible corporations to get profits with which to help the victims of those irresponsible acts seems analogous to turning up the heat in your apartment while keeping the windows open.

One can empathize with the portfolio managers who have to make these decisions. Circumventing CSR landmines while trying to beat the market and maintain a robust investment portfolio is probably more challenging than many of us can appreciate, especially when we are talking about an enormous fund whose size is going to double. Many of the world's largest and most profitable listed companies, where a "regular" investment manager would channel her or his funds, aren't exactly free from CSR issues. The problem seems endemic, and when push comes to shove, this begs the question, where does a portfolio manager draw the line?

How do you keep a foundation well financed so it can keep giving, while not supporting firms that act irresponsibly?

It remains to be seen how the Gates Foundation does this; they are certainly being closely monitored, as per last week.

EK tukee USA:n ilmastopolitiikkaa

Elinkeinoelämän Keskusliiton (EK:n) tuore lausunto ilmastonmuutoksesta on vähintäänkin huolestuttavaa luettavaa. EK korostaa oikeudenmukaista ja kannustavaa ilmastopolitiikkaa, haluten nostaa teknologian ja innovaatiot ilmastonmuutoksen vastaisen taistelun kulmakiviksi. Samaan aikaan EK vaatii että kaikki maailman maat osallistuvat torjuntaan, ja että EU ehdottomasti ei saisi olla edelläkävijä tiukemmassa ilmastokurissa.

Sinänsä hyviä ajatuksia, mutta huono yhtälö: Teknologia ja innovaatiot ovat ilmastopolitiikan kulmakiviä, ja toisaalta kaikkien maiden pitää osallistua jotta yksikään osallistuisi = Kuinka kehittyvät markkinat ja köyhät kehitysmaat saavat käyttöönsä äärimmäisen kallista länsimaista ilmastoteknologiaa (onko sellaista edes vielä olemassa)?!

EU julkisti viime viikolla ilmastostrategiansa, jossa EU selvästi ottaa edelläkävijän roolin ja pyrkii laskemaan kasvihuonepäästöjä 20% vuoteen 2020 mennessä (1990-tasosta). Mikäli muu maailma sitoutuu vastaavaan, EU tavoittelisi jopa 30% vähennystä.

Kauppalehden lauantai-numero totesikin seuraavaa:
"Elinkeinoelämän Keskusliiton ilmastopoliittisen linjauksen tulkittiin olevan tuki USA:n ja Tyynenmeren maiden ilmastoaloitteelle, joka luottaa teknologiseen kehitykseen kasvihuonekaasujen torjunnassa. Ilmastoaloitetta on pidetty Yhdysvaltain presidentin vastavetona YK-vetoiselle Kioton sopimukselle. Ylen tv-uutisten haastattelema EK:n johtaja

Leif Fagernäs myönsi, että EK tukee amerikkalaisten teknologiaa painottavaa kasvihuonekaasujen vähennysmallia"

Green Behavior at Home and in the Office

According to a British survey, workers leave their eco-friendly habits at home. Behaviors like switching off lights and the computer and boiling only the needed amount of drinking water were substantially more infrequent at work compared to home.

Employees argued that they looked to their bosses for example and speed and efficiency came before green issues at work. Hence the neglect.

One can think of a number of additional issues besides electricity use that would likely yield the same result. Copiers are a common source of waste; my personal experience has been that the busier the office, the more paper and copy services are overused, beyond what is necessary.

In certain businesses, we are talking about issues like corporate travel; document transportation; and so on. The further up the chain we go, the larger the issues get.

On the other hand, in organizations like hospitals or food services companies, the issues may be slightly different and probably even greater. It would be interesting to know whether there is a difference between state vs. privately owned organizations.

Improvements could take place in a number of areas, such as commitment to sorting waste at the site; food procurement vs. actual consumption levels and recycling of biodegradables; commitment to recycling packaging materials (such as drink cartons); safe and appropriate use of cleaning agents; use of non-reusable vs. reusable cutlery and crockery; and the like.

But the point is, should CSR, as most other good things in the world, begin at the corporate "home", inside the firm? How does the level of CSR credibility of a business change over time, if the firm applies responsible behaviors intra firm -- or not?

Net Impact in Today's FT

"A wave of interest in courses and electives that cover everything from human rights to climate change has swept business school campuses. Their interest is reflected in the rapidly growing membership of Net Impact, a network of MBA students and young professionals that promotes the use of business strategies to affect society, ethics and the environment. The organisation now has more than 130 chapters on four continents in 75 cities and 80 graduate schools."

("A degree of ethical leadership" by Sarah Murray)

"Ilmastonmuutos iskee vakuutusyhtiöihin" (KL 12.1.07)

Kauppalehti otsikoi etusivullaan että myös suomalaiset vakuutusyhtiöt ovat entistä kiinnostuneempia ilmastonmuutoksesta ja sen vaikutuksista vakuutettavaan omaisuuteen, erityisesti maa-alueisiin ja kiinteistöihin. "Yhä useammat rannat Suomessa ja Ruotsissa kaavoitetaan täyteen asuntoja kun ilmastonmuutos nostaa järvien, jokien ja meren pintaa ja tulvista alkaa tulla jokavuotisia," Kauppalehti kirjoittaa.

How to Talk to a Climate Change Skeptic

Here's an excellent link to "How to talk to a climate change skeptic." Check it out; the page refutes any and all arguments against human-induced climate change. Even if you're not having a dialogue with a skeptic, the page is interesting in its own right: if you have questions about a specific issue related to global warming, the site can probably answer it for you and provide great graphics and stats to boot.

Corporate Sustainability Course at Hanken

A new course in Corporate Sustainability starts next week at Hanken. It's so popular that the instructor is urging people to sign up quickly, because only 50 students are accepted into the class.

The class will have a large media criticism / analysis component, including three film events. Among the films that will be shown: The Corporation (2003.) You can find the trailer below and the film's homepage here.

ps. For longer sneak previews, you can find several segments of The Corporation on YouTube. Just click on this link. Dubbed in Spanish, though!

Here is director Mark Achbar's interview.

Ecological Footprint; Aviation Industry; Finland and Climate Change

Ecological footprint = a calculation that estimates the area of Earth's productive land and water required to supply the resources that an individual or group demands, as well as to absorb the wastes that the individual or group produces.

Check www.myfootprint.org for your ecological footprint. (For what it's worth, I took this test and thought I live a fairly simple life, but apparently my footprint is 4.4; and if everyone lived this way, we would need 2.4 planets! Makes you go, Hmm...)

Aviation appears to be the big culprit in the footprint equation. On that front, in Britain just this week, a new storm of a debate has erupted over the issue of restricting aviation to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Prime minister Tony Blair is taking heat for his comments on the "impracticality" of measures aiming to restrict air travel; an antithesis to his previous statements pushing for such restriction and to the Stern Review on climate change which he commissioned last year.

So is it easier to be on the corporate side, where your fate depends not on votes but on net profits? A fair CSR question, perhaps.

On that note, Richard Branson of Virgin, the UK transportation and entertainment conglomerate, agreed last fall to invest $3 billion in a new venture devoted to solving the climate crisis. Perhaps Branson sees this as a moral obligation, considering a major part of his empire is made up of Virgin Airlines?

According to environmental website Grist.com, Branson "plans to plow 100 percent of the proceeds from Virgin's airline and locomotive divisions -- an estimated $3 billion over 10 years -- into investments in clean technologies, such as wind turbines and cleaner-burning aviation fuel, with a heavy emphasis on developing "cellulosic" ethanol."

The first new offshoot in Branson's business empire is called Virgin Fuels, which will invest $400 million over the next three years in the renewable fuels sector, beginning with an ethanol venture called Cilion.

Here in Finland, likewise, Elinkeinoelämän keskusliitto, EK, or The Conferedation of Finnish Industries, published a press release on 9.1.2007 and said that Finland should aim to be a major player in the fight against global climate change. According to EK, we must amend our consumption patterns and develop and apply new technologies. More global technology investment into combatting climate change; global norms and regulations; effective emissions trade; and efficient production processes are key. Energy and climate related technologies could be a major area of innovation for Finland.

Yhteiskuntavastuusta yritysten kilpailukeino

Helsingin yliopistosta joulukuussa väitelleen Maija-Leena Uimonen väitöskirjasta selviää, että yritysten vapaaehtoisesta sosiaalisesta vastuusta on tullut eräiden yritysten kilpailukeino.
– Osalle tutkituille yrityksille sosiaalinen vastuu ei enää tarkoita muutamaa sanaa yrityksen arvoissa, vaan se on osa liiketoimintastrategiaa. Se on yksi väline, jota käytetään kilpailussa, sanoo Maija-Leena Uimonen, joka väitteli vapaaehtoisesta sosiaalisesta vastuusta joulukuun puolessa välissä Helsingin yliopistossa.

Katso Taloussanomien artikkeli aiheesta sivulla http://www.taloussanomat.fi/page.php?page_id=106&news_id=200624258
Net Impact Hanken

Socially Responsible Investment Continues to Grow in 2006; Spreads to Mainstream Venues

In its year-end review, CSR Wire discusses the top five developments in socially responsible investing in 2006. One growing trend has been the strengthening of shareholder rights and the incorporation of SRI content into investment analysis at institutions like Merrill Lynch, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and Piper Jaffrey.

Among the top developments listed is also the establishment of the United Nations principles for responsible investment (the UN PRI homepage can be found here.)

Ilmastonmuutoskeskustelua Iltalehdessä

Iltalehden nettiversio otsikoi 7.1.2007: "Ilmastonmuutos on uhka, joka voi kääntyä pohjoisen hyödyksi." Juttu luotaa vaikutuksia muun muassa sisävesiin, metsiin ja matkailuun. Hyötyjä nähdään esimerkiksi parantuvissa viljelyolosuhteissa ja puun tuotannossa ja lämpöenergiakulujen vähenemisessä.

On vienyt kauan että iltapäivälehdet ovat todella alkaneet ottaa osaa ilmastonmuutoskeskusteluun; lienee aavistuksen normatiivista sanoa että asialle voisi antaa enemmänkin palstatilaa, mutta hyvä asiahan se kaiketi olisi. Paikoittain vaikuttaa että meillä on edelleen väärinkäsityksiä siitä miten ilmastonmuutos loppujen lopuksi vaikuttaa. Yksi tyypillisimmistä lienee ajatus esimerkiksi siitä että yksittäinen kylmä talvi tai viileä kesäkausi indikoi ettei ilmasto olekaan muuttumassa. Siksikin on hyvä painottaa laajalti leviävissä medioissa, kuten iltapäivälehdissä, että mistä oikeastaan on kyse. Kysymyksessä on nimenomaan ilmastonmuutos eikä vain ja ainoastaan ilmaston lämpeneminen. Paikallisvaikutukset voivat erota globaaleista keskiarvoista.

Paikallisvaikutusten ja maailmanlaajuisten vaikutusten välinen konflikti ja siitä aiheutuvat mielipide-erot näkyvat myös julkisessa keskustelussa. Maailmanlaajuisesti negatiivinen ilmiö voi aiheuttaa paikallisesti positiivisiakin seuraamuksia, kuten Iltalehti toteaa. Lukijat ovat reagoineet artikkeliin äänestämällä ja ottamalla osaa nettikeskusteluun, josta alla muutamia lainauksia.

"Suomessahan vain ilmasto on paranemassa siedettäväksi. Eihän Suomessa ole syytä pelätä lämpenemistä; talvista tulee inhimillisiä ja kesistä pitempiä ja lämpimämpiä!"

"Ei jääkausi tullut käden käänteessä vaan tuhansien vuosien asteittaisena kehityksenä. Nyt 1900 -luvulla lämpötilat ovat nousseet hälyyttävän nopeasti, siitä tässä on kyse. Onko sattumaa että samaan aikaan on teollistuminen voimistunut ja hiilidioksiidi pitoisuudet nousseet. Pitoisuuksien nousun myötä melkein samaan tahtiin ovat nousseet myös lämpötilat. Eli muutoksen nopeus on se, joka tässä on hälyyttävää!"

"Mikä saastuttanut nämä meret? Teollisuus turismi ja maatalous, eli mistä ihmiset saavat leipänsä. Saastuminen on myös syvä moraalinen ongelma, eli ei välitetä seurauksista. Se on myös syvä länsimaisen ihmisen kriisi..."

"Katsokaa Al Goren elokuva Epämiellyttävä Totuus. Siitä tyhmempikin tajuaa mikä on homman nimi!"

"-Ei MAAPALLOLLA ole mitään hätää. Se on pyörinyt ja matkannut avaruudessa 99% elinajastaan ilman ihmistä! (n. 5 miljardia vuotta) Ihmiselle itselleen tulee hätä, kun pallo täyttyy ihmisistä. Jos ihminen tuhoaa itsensä, niin pallo jatkaa pyörimistä, ja jotain muuta ehkä syntyy tilalle vuosimiljoonien kuluessa..."

Green New Year's Resolutions

Several websites suggest ideas for ecofriendly New Year's resolutions. A selection can be found here (Friends of the Earth), here (Energy Refuge) and here (The Guardian.)

Among the top tips:

• cycle in the city instead of driving (with no snow in Helsinki right now, this ought to be easy!)
  
• choose reusable shopping bags instead of plastic
  
• switch to energy-saving lightbulbs
• fly less
• get to know your home country: choose domestic vacations and take the train
  
• choose energy saving home appliances
• turn off the lights when leaving home or office
  
• buy organic produce
• limit your intake of meat
  
• recycle organic waste
• buy recycled goods (books, clothes, etc.)
• choose reusable batteries over general purpose
  

An other "review" of CSR in the year 2006 - this looks in my opinion great! We are living in a treehugger-age...

CSRwire Reports Top Corporate Social Responsibility News of 2006

Microfinance wins Nobel Peace Prize and investment from Gates Foundation, "green" goes mainstream thanks to Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth, and much more...Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) shifted from the periphery to the mainstream in 2005; in 2006 it dominated headlines and catapulted into the heart of our collective consciousness. CSR initiatives such as microfinance and "green" energy impacted lives and won allegiance--from the poorest of the poor to the richest of the rich to the sexiest of the sexy.In December, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank, elevating microfinance to global notoriety. The award celebrated the role that poverty alleviation and financial empowerment play in nurturing peace and fostering social and economic justice. It capped off a banner year for microfinance in which the giant academic retirement fund manager TIAA-CREF committed $100 million to microfinance. The influential Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation filtered some of the $31 billion left to it by investment guru Warren Buffett into microfinanciers such as Grameen Foundation USA, and Pro Mujer, paving the way for philanthropists and entrepreneurs alike to support microfinance. The Gates Foundation will also use some of the Buffett money to pursue its goal of curing the world's 20 leading fatal diseases.

If 2006 had an official color, it was certainly "green," as "treehugging" transformed from a pejorative to an accolade. The "Al Gore movie"--the street name for An Inconvenient Truth,--raised mass awareness of the dangers of global warming and introduced the linguistic shift from climate change to climate crisis. Other movies also advanced the green agenda. George Clooney and Matt Damon lent star power to Syriana, which addressed the environmental, political and economic issues of “peak oil”. Behind the scenes, Jeff Skoll's Participant Productions purchased renewable energy credits (RECs) from NativeEnergy to make the production of the film carbon neutral."Carbon neutral" was the New Oxford American Dictionary "word of the year," with companies contributing significantly to this green trend that garnered cover stories in mainstream magazines such as Time, Newsweek, Wired, Inc., Fortune, Elle, and Vanity Fair. For example, Wells Fargo became the largest corporate purchaser of RECs in the US with its October 2006 purchase of 550 million kilowatt hours of renewable wind energy through 3 Phases Energy. In addition to purchasing carbon offsets, companies are increasingly powering their operations directly with green energy.

In October, Google, leapfrogged over GM, Johnson & Johnson, and FedEx to become the company with the largest solar installation in the US by mounting over 9,000 Sharp solar panels on the roofs of its Mountain View, California campus (dubbed Googleplex.) CSR addresses not only beneficial company actions, but also those with adverse environmental and social impacts.

Drama unfolded from October on as Oxfam America accused Starbucks of prompting the National Coffee Association to oppose Ethiopia's application to trademark its regional coffee names such as Harrar and Sidamo, and Starbucks defended its actions. In other activists’ endeavors earlier in the year, Amnesty International published a report detailing the role of Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google in limiting freedom of expression in China.

On the governance front, 2006 was a record year for shareowner activism. Almost a third of these shareowner resolutions going to vote received over 15 percent support, double the results from the previous two proxy seasons. This year’s tally was the highest documented since 1973. In an apparent victory for shareowner democracy, a federal appeals court essentially usurped the regulatory power of the SEC. The SEC had "punted" on the issue of allowing shareowners access to the proxy to nominate directors by proposing a rule in 2003 but never implementing it. The judges ruled against AIG and in favor the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), allowing its pension fund to file resolutions seeking proxy access to nominate directors. Further clouding the governance scene, the backdating stock options scandal continues to widen and reveal ever more sordid evidence of unethical corporate conduct at Apple and more than a hundred other companies. At the same time, Treasury Secretary and former Goldman Sachs, CEO Hank Paulson financed a blue-ribbon panel that recommended scaling back Sarbanes-Oxley.

As with environmental issues, star power fueled interest in social issues as well. At a benefit for the human rights organization WITNESS, Angelina Jolie recounted her activism in helping secure key commitments from Sierra Leone's president to implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommendations in the wake of the country's 11-year conflict. Sierra Leone is also the setting of the Leonardo DiCaprio film Blood Diamond, which shone a spotlight on the sale of illegally mined stones to fuel wars in Africa. The Kimberley Process, collaboration between nongovernmental organizations and companies to certify responsibly produced diamonds, is one of many voluntary CSR initiatives whose awareness was raised.

This year saw the launching of new CSR initiatives, such as the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment to promote socially responsible investing (SRI). It also saw the revision of other important voluntary CSR initiatives, such as the third generation of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (dubbed "G3"), as well as the second generation of the Equator Principles, which now has almost 50 banks committing to social and environmental standards for financing major infrastructure projects such as dams and power plants.

Many companies also voluntarily implemented codes of conduct to guide ethical business decisions and responsible supply chain management. Gap and Nike continue to lead the pack on this front. Gap recently discontinued sourcing from 62 factories where the company discovered violations of its Code after inspecting some 4,500 factories worldwide. Nike dropped a Pakistani soccer ball supplier due to child labor concerns and other violations. Finally, 2006 hearkened back to 2000 when the purchase of Ben & Jerry's, by Unilever, raised the question, “What becomes of small, socially responsible companies when they are acquired by large corporations?” In 1993, Tom's of Maine cofounder Tom Chappell wrote The Soul of a Business, and this year, Colgate-Palmolive bought the company, prompting some to question whether the business ‘sold’ its soul. In a similar development, the Body Shop sold on the auction block to L’Oreal after tumultuous periods as a private and public company. Leaders of the CSR community are addressing this dilemma, trying to create a model for small businesses that insures their commitment to social responsibility when acquired.If all this happened in 2006, imagine what we have to look forward to in 2007…

McKinsey Quarterly's Social and environmental trends 2006:

Although they are less predictable and their impact on the business world is less certain, they will fundamentally change how we live and work.

1. Technological connectivity will transform the way people live and interact. The technology revolution has been just that. Yet we are at the early, not mature, stage of this revolution. Individuals, public sectors, and businesses are learning how to make the best use of IT in designing processes and in developing and accessing knowledge. New developments in fields such as biotechnology, laser technology, and nanotechnology are moving well beyond the realm of products and services.
More transformational than technology itself is the shift in behavior that it enables. We work not just globally but also instantaneously. We are forming communities and relationships in new ways (indeed, 12 percent of US newlyweds last year met online). More than two billion people now use cell phones. We send nine trillion e-mails a year. We do a billion Google searches a day, more than half in languages other than English. For perhaps the first time in history, geography is not the primary constraint on the limits of social and economic organization.

2. The battlefield for talent will shift. Ongoing shifts in labor and talent will be far more profound than the widely observed migration of jobs to low-wage countries. The shift to knowledge-intensive industries highlights the importance and scarcity of well-trained talent. The increasing integration of global labor markets, however, is opening up vast new talent sources. The 33 million university-educated young professionals in developing countries is more than double the number in developed ones. For many companies and governments, global labor and talent strategies will become as important as global sourcing and manufacturing strategies.

3. The role and behavior of big business will come under increasingly sharp scrutiny. As businesses expand their global reach, and as the economic demands on the environment intensify, the level of societal suspicion about big business is likely to increase. The tenets of current global business ideology—for example, shareholder value, free trade, intellectual-property rights, and profit repatriation—are not understood, let alone accepted, in many parts of the world. Scandals and environmental mishaps seem as inevitable as the likelihood that these incidents will be subsequently blown out of proportion, thereby fueling resentment and creating a political and regulatory backlash. This trend is not just of the past 5 years but of the past 250 years. The increasing pace and extent of global business, and the emergence of truly giant global corporations, will exacerbate the pressures over the next 10 years.
Business, particularly big business, will never be loved. It can, however, be more appreciated. Business leaders need to argue and demonstrate more forcefully the intellectual, social, and economic case for business in society and the massive contributions business makes to social welfare.

4. Demand for natural resources will grow, as will the strain on the environment. As economic growth accelerates—particularly in emerging markets—we are using natural resources at unprecedented rates. Oil demand is projected to grow by 50 percent in the next two decades, and without large new discoveries or radical innovations supply is unlikely to keep up. We are seeing similar surges in demand across a broad range of commodities. In China, for example, demand for copper, steel, and aluminum has nearly tripled in the past decade.
The world's resources are increasingly constrained. Water shortages will be the key constraint to growth in many countries. And one of our scarcest natural resources—the atmosphere—will require dramatic shifts in human behavior to keep it from being depleted further. Innovation in technology, regulation, and the use of resources will be central to creating a world that can both drive robust economic growth and sustain environmental demands.

From http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1734&L2=21&L3=114&srid=190&gp=0

Warmest Finnish December Ever Measured

Still no snow in Helsinki. Helsingin Sanomat reports that last December was the warmest ever measured in this country.

Average temperatures were 6 to 8 degrees above the thirty year December average.

In current climate conditions, a December this warm would be expected to occur just once or twice in a millennium. But given the accelerating global warming, winter temperatures this high might be commonplace by the end of the century, according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

Food Safety Concerns: Labeling in the UK and E. coli Outbreak in the US

The UK, the local Food Standards Agency is launching an advertising campaign to strengthen its efforts to label unhealthy foods and combat obesity. The FSA's goal is to color code foods such that consumers would find it easier to detect healthy foods from the unhealthy options. Food manufacturing lobbyists oppose the scheme, which is also known as "traffic light labeling."

CSR and health and safety issues in food manufacturing and distribution also made the headlines in the US this month. In Hollywood, Richard Linklater's new movie Fast Food Nation was popular (the movie is based on a non-fiction book about the US fastfood industry; see trailer below) and in the Taco Bell E. coli scandal, dozens of patrons of the popular fastfood chain fell ill after consuming E. coli contaminated produce at several of the chain's restaurants.

"Suomalaiset kauppaketjut varmistavat huonosti hankintojensa eettisyyden" (HS 26.12.06)

"Suomalaisten tavaratalojen ja markettien hankinnan eettisyyttä on hankala tutkia, sillä tietoa on tarjolla vähän. Päivittäistavarakauppaa hallitsevalla S-ketjulla on Aasiassa satoja tavarantoimittajia, joiden tuotanto-olosuhteista ei heru tietoa.

S-ryhmän hankintayhtiön Intrade Partnersin toimitusjohtaja Jouko Nieminen ei suostu edes arvioimaan, kuinka suuri osa yhtiön tuotteista tulee Kiinasta. "Ei se mikään salaisuus ole, mutta kilpailusyistä emme halua kertoa, mistä tavara ostetaan."

"Kuluttajan näkökulmasta katsottuna me noudatamme niitä määräyksiä, mitä EU:ssa on. Alkuperämaata ei tarvitse ilmoittaa."

Intrade Partners vastaa esimerkiksi Sokoksissa, Prismoissa ja S-marketeissa myytävien kestokulutustavaroiden hankinnasta.

Niistä iso osa tulee Aasiasta. Kiina on tuotantomaista halvin ja tehokkain, joten sen osuus on suurin. Jotakin osviittaa luvuista antaa se, että Tradekan Aasian-kestotavarahankinnoista 70 prosenttia tulee Kiinasta.

Tuotantoon Kiinassa liittyy paljon ongelmia. Useissa tehtaissa ei huolehdita työturvallisuudesta, työntekijöillä teetetään valtavia ylityömääriä, lain mukaisia minimipalkkoja ei makseta ja työntekijöillä ei ole mahdollisuuksia järjestäytyä ajamaan oikeuksiaan.

Suomalaisten markettien hyllyt ja rekit ovat täynnä tekstiilejä, siivoustarvikkeita ja astioita, jotka voivat hyvin olla peräisin tällaisilta tehtailta.

Kestokulutustavaroiden tuonnin sosiaaliset riskit ovat suurempia kuin elintarvikkeiden. Tämä johtuu siitä, että elintarvikkeiden laatua on valvottava tiukemmin. Samalla tavarantoimittajat ja tuotantolaitokset tulevat muutenkin tutuiksi suomalaisille sisäänostajille.

Niemisen mukaan Intrade Partners noudattaa vastuullisen tuontikaupan periaatteita. Liikekumppaneilta edellytetään sopimuksissa muun muassa lapsi- ja pakkotyövoiman käytön kieltämistä sekä työntekijöiden terveydestä ja turvallisuudesta huolehtimista.

Yhtiön työntekijät eivät itse kierrä tarkastamassa tehtaiden oloja Aasiassa. Niissä tehtaissa, joissa tarkastuksia tehdään, siitä huolehtivat paikalliset, tehtaiden sosiaalisen vastuun valvomiseen erikoistuneet organisaatiot.

Ostoista huolehtii Intrade Partnersin yhteistyökumppani, saksalaisen Karstadt Quellen hankintaorganisaatio. Se siirtyi vastikään maailman suurimman kauppahuoneen Li & Fungin omistukseen.

Hongkongissa työskentelevän, Tradekan käyttämän hankintayhtiön Intercoopin toimitusjohtajan Christian Jakobssonin mielestä suomalaiset hoitavat Aasian-ostojaan liian ohuella organisaatiolla. Hänestä hankinnan järjestelmällisyyden ja kattavuuden kehittämisessä olisi paljon tekemistä.

"Tuotannon eettisyyttä on vaikea valvoa, jos ei ole ihmisiä paikan päällä sitä tekemässä", Jakobsson toteaa."

"Vägen bara försvann framför våra ögon" (HBL 21.12.06)

"– Bilen framför oss bara försvann. Sen försvann vägen, och innan vi hann tänka låg vi nere i en lergrop, säger Monica Alexandersson, en av tjugotalet svenskar som var med om vägraset på E6 i västra Sverige på onsdagskvällen.

Beskedet från experterna är att nya ras inte kan uteslutas. Men vilka områden som ligger i farozonen är omöjligt att säga, uppger Peter Behrman, informatör på Vägverket.

– Vi är utlämnade åt naturen. Även om våra experter stått på olycksplatsen hade de inte kunnat förutspå jordskredet ens en timme på förhand.

Exakt vad som förorsakade raset är inte klarlagt men man utgår från att det är regnet som fått lerlagret att sättas i rörelse.

Området är extremt känsligt, och experterna har varnat för rasrisker. Skredet var inte heller det första:

– För bara en och en halv vecka sedan försvann tjugo meter väg ner i en sjö vid Landvetter norr om Göteborg ... Det enda vi kan göra nu är att vänta på att vattnet ska sjunka undan och att det blir vinter någon gång, med tjäle i jorden."

(Lena Skogberg)

"The year the world woke up"

"Not before time, the west awoke in 2006 to the vast economic, political and social implications of climate change - and twigged that it presented as many opportunities as threats to humanity."

The Guardian wraps up the year in climate change policy, research and commentary. In 2006,

• the weather wasn't as hot as 2005, but close enough: the eight hottest years ever recorded have been in the last decade
• the creator of the Gaia theory James Lovelock forecast "planetary wipeout"
• the tundra was found to be melting faster than previously thought, releasing vast amounts of methane into the atmosphere, a greenhouse gas that is 20 times as strong as carbon dioxide (much of the research on melting permafrost is done in Siberia; Russia has the largest patches of tundra)
  
• arctic sea ice was predicted to disappear by 2040
• the Gulf Stream was found to be slowing
• EU polls showed that voters consider climate change the second most important policy issue, right behind unemployment, with 93% of people wanting action taken
• the Stern Review on the economics of climate change was published
• in November 2006, the Global Carbon Project said carbon emissions continue to increase: a record 7.9bn tonnes of carbon passed into the atmosphere in 2005, compared with 6.8bn tonnes in 2000
• in one of the more tangible developments, the EU identified air traffic as a major culprit and plans to place a price on air travel carbon emissions ("the plans would add up to €8 (£5.40) to the price of a ticket for an internal EU flight and €40 for an international flight", according to the Guardian.)

"Suomalaiset vaatekauppiaat tietämättömiä alihankkijoidensa vastuullisuudesta"

HS uutisoi 13.12.06 vaatekauppiaiden yhteiskuntavastuusta.

Kansalais- ja ay-järjestöjen verkosto FinnWatch teki selvityksen suomalaisten ja ulkomaisten vaateyritysten suhtautumisesta yritysten yhteiskuntavastuuseen. Suomalaismerkkejä tai -yrityksiä oli selvityksessä mukana 13 (Stockmann, Seppälä, Moda, Halonen, Luhta, Aleksi 13, Vaatehuone, Marimekko, Nanso, Reima, Finnkarelia, Turo ja Lee Cooper/Very Nice) ja ulkomaisia merkkejä tai yrityksiä kuusi (H&M, Lindex, Vero Moda/Jack&Jones/Only, KappAhl, Dressmann ja Zara).

Selvityksen mukaan harva suomalainen vaatevalmistaja on tutustunut vastuukysymyksiin. "Vastauksista huomaa, että asia oli monille vastaajille täysin outo ja kysymyksiin vastattiin vain sinne päin", selvityksen tehnyt Outi Moilala kommentoi.

Ero ulkomaisiin yrityksiin oli huomattava. Suomalaisyrityksistä vain Stockmann ja Seppälä (sama konserni) olivat mukana yritysvetoisessa yhteiskuntavastuuryhmässä BSCI:ssa. Useimmilla ei ollut CSR-strategiaa ollenkaan. Ulkomaalaisyrityksistä taas miltei jokaisella oli käytössä jonkinlainen yhteiskuntavastuustandardi.

Miltei 30 prosenttia eli suurin osa suomalaisyritysten myymistä vaatteista valmistetaan Kiinassa, missä tekstiiliteollisuuden työntekijöiden oikeudet ovat maailman heikoimpia.

Human Rights Concerns in European Fruit Production

It is a season of giving, but what sort of conditions are being offered to farm laborers who produce the fruit that delights Europeans over the holidays? The Guardian (19 Dec 2006) explores the issue in and around the region of Calabria in the southern tip of Italy, where illegal immigrants form a major component of the agricultural workforce.

An estimated 20,000 migrant workers from the African continent have crossed the Mediterranean to work for Italian fruit and vegetable producers under conditions that the Guardian notes "would fail to meet the UN's basic standards for refugee camps." Their living conditions (no heating, no sanitation, extremely low wages, and so on) are so dire that Medecins Sans Frontiers dispatched a team to investigate the conditions in Calabria. "It may seem surprising that MSF needs to work in mainland Europe but we were shocked by the conditions of migrants here. Italy is not a victim of this migration. They are needed by the agriculture in the area which wants cheap labour to produce cheap food. This is the hypocrisy of the system," said the MSF operations coordinator, Kostas Moschochoritis.

In this separate article from the BBC, the problem of unemployment in the Calabria region is documented. While migrant laborers toil in fields and farms, the official unemployment figure for the region is approximately 15%. Migrant workers fill some of that gap, or perhaps they displace local workers? Local producers combat downward price pressure due to growing competition by employing illegal immigrants. If illegal laborers earn just €25 a day (€3 / hour) for picking Southern Italy's clementines and oranges, most of which are exported to other EU countries, it's easier to understand why production costs of the fruit remain low. The lower wage cost component derived from the use of illegal labor ensures the profitability of businesses against global competition from lower wage countries, perhaps even their survival.

Meanwhile, 94% of the workers have some kind of health problem, according to MSF. More than 30% of Calabrian migrant workers have been subjected to violence, mostly by locals.

It might be interesting to know to what extent food retailers, such as the Finnish Kesko and S groups, are aware of the abuses and what their response might be as far as procurement from the affected regions is concerned.

Free Trade for Green Goods?

Europe's trade commissioner has called for global free trade in green goods to fight climate change. Commissioner Peter Mandelson said "the best way to cut carbon emissions was by open markets for investment in environmental technology rather than punitive taxes against countries such as the United States which have refused to pledge cuts in greenhose gases under the 1997 Kyoto treaty."

"Alongside an ambitious agreement to cut tariffs in industrial goods in the Doha Round, WTO members should agree to go even further in key areas like clean power generation - defined by their specific link to climate change. It should be possible to agree a 0% tariff deal for these key goods", the trade commissioner said.

Climate Change and Recreational Activities

Helsingin Sanomat reported this morning on a new OECD study which claims that climate change is having an "enormous impact on Alpine ski resorts." The main Swiss paper NZZ reported on the same study in their international edition. Warming affects the hospitality industry in traditional snowsport countries like Austria and Switzerland, changing employment patterns and calling to question current business practices. Tourists delight in the opportunity to ski, but using artificial snow, while "cost efficient to resorts," expends much "water and energy and influence landscapes and ecology." The OECD study suggests that going forward, resorts must come up with alternative, more sustainable business ideas.

Supply chain control weak in Finnish retailer business

During the past weeks CSR got a great junk of publicity in Finland. The food retailer giant Kesko has apparently sourced textiles from a supplier in India that has been involved in child labor, human rights violations and serious environmental damage. The Finnish textile retailers were asked by Helsingin Sanomat about their supply chain control. They do as a rule not check their supplier's environmental or human rights performance at all - only Stockmann and Seppälä had hired an external auditor to keep track on social responsibility in supplier's facilities. Same problem applies to Clas Ohlson - according to SwedWatch Clas Ohlson does not have any idea in what conditions their products are produced - they say that they do often not even know where their articles are manufactured!

Talouselämä last Friday again points out customers' responsibility in ethical purchasing. We should make a statement by purchasing only ethically manufactured products. Now I am just wondering, that as long even the retailers themselves have no idea of the ethical standard of their products, how on the earth should a consumer know that this towel is manuractured by forced labor or kids in India, and the other towel is made in a responsible plant paying decent salaries somewhere else? If I had that information next to the price tag in each product, I would certainly consider it relevant for my purchase decision, and even pay a small pemium for a good consience.

CSR reports give too a nice picture of Finnish companies' responsibility

Both Helsingin Sanomat and Taloussanomat have published main articles about CSR reporting this week. The message in both is pretty similar: There is a serious lack of critisism in CSR reporting, and CSR reports are turning out to be more of a marketing tool than accounting for companies impact on sustainable development. Every company appears in their reports as incredibly responsible, attentive to any environmental or social concerns, and with full records on compliance with all kinds of laws and regulations. It is quite irritating when a report that should serve as an objective information source on a particular company's responsibility turns out to be pure greenwashing.

Milton Friedman In Memoriam and Other News

When the father of monetary economics Milton Friedman passed on a few weeks ago, opinions were heard from both sides of the fence. Some of those opinions referred to corporate social responsibility. In the Wall Street Journal, conservative business school dean Henry G. Manne argued in a half-page opinion piece that "Milton Friedman Was Right: "Corporate social responsibility" is bunk." Elsewhere, in the Ecologist blog pages, activist Paul Kingsnorth ventures to say that he wasn't sorry to see Friedman go and points out some of the less glorious moments of Friedman's otherwise glowing career. Two radically opposing views, if we ever saw any.

Perhaps exemplifying how everything seems connected in this world, free-market idealist Manne's name also shows up on the list of Exxonsecrets.org, a site on "how ExxonMobil funds the global climate change skeptics." The Law and Economics Center headed by Manne has received considerable funding from Exxon, according to this site affiliated with Greenpeace.

In other news, more environmental legal experts may be needed going forward, given the rising number of climate change related litigation. As we speak, the US supreme court is dealing with its very first climate change related lawsuit. The central issue: "Is carbon dioxide an air pollutant that the government must regulate and should the court tell the E.P.A. to reconsider its position of not regulating the emission?"

In yet other news, as a kind of follow up to Inconvenient Truth, there's a new Canadian movie out called the Great Warming. Here's the review from The New York Times which says it "should be required viewing by all." Not sure if or when the movie is going to reach the Nordic region. Here's the trailer.

Film Event: Inconvenient Truth

About fifteen Hanken students attended a showing of Al Gore and Davis Guggenheim's Inconvenient Truth last week. Thanks to all of you who came and thanks to the student union for supporting the event.

The filmmakers have set up a website for the movie. Give it a try, not only is it pretty impressive visually, but there's a lot of interesting material related to climate change and what you can do to help. You can watch the trailer right here.

Dennis keeps sending nice articles by e-mail without putting them online. Here we go:

Two Swedish articles about the transparency of companies and climate change:

http://www.hbl.fi/pagespeed/url/News/story/3972169
http://www.hbl.fi/pagespeed/url/static/static/undersajt/tema.html

Hope people start realizing it’s time to walk the talk! Can you take the vow?