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?

Net Impact Hanken

From Net Impact CSR Weekly:

Carbon Disclosure Project Report Details Company Attitudes on Climate Change

The 225 investment institutions managing $31.5 trillion, that make up the Carbon Disclosure Project have unveiled their fourth annual report (CDP4) on climate change detailing the attitudes of the FT500 (the world's largest firms). According to SocialFunds, the CDP4 questionnaire asks about carbon emission data, practices and policies. Although 73 percent of respondents are tracking greenhouse gas emissions, only 48 percent have begun reducing emissions.

CDP chair James Cameron says, "The findings of CDP4 confirm that awareness of the risks and opportunities posed by climate change has risen dramatically among investors and the companies they own. But awareness alone will not drive the changes in investment and corporate strategy needed if disastrous climate change is to be avoided." Five firms that had the "best in class" responses were BP plc, HSBC Holdings plc, Rio Tinto Group, RWE AG and Unilever. The CDP4 report is available at www.cdproject.net/cdp4reports.asp.

Det här betyder ju att 73% av FT500 bolag följer med CO2 utslepp, och att 48% av FT500 bolag har redan vidtagit åtgärdar för att minska utsleppen!!!