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The UN talks on climate change have been ongoing at Poznan this week with the aim of coming up with a new international agreement to replace the Kyoto deal.

In support of a new deal 140 global companies are demanding that world leaders not to delay on climate change action because of the economic downturn and instead commit to deep and rapid cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and include mechanisms to reduce tropical deforestation. Read more

Source: Greenbang

Tackling climate change could potentially generate millions of new employment opportunities, according to a new United Nations-backed study – the first of its kind on the emergence of a “green economy” and its impact on labour – released today.

Entitled “Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World,” the publication shows how efforts to address global warming and slash greenhouse gas emissions are leading to new “green” jobs in many sectors. This, in turn, has resulted increased investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency. Read more
Source: UN

SAM, the sustainability investment specialist, and Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, have added four additional blue-chip indexes to the family of Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI). The new indexes provide market participants with tools to track sustainability leaders in the U.S., North America and globally.

The methodology for the new indexes applies the same approach as the Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability 40 Index and Dow Jones EURO STOXX Sustainability 40 Index. The sustainability scores are derived from a comprehensive annual assessment of general as well as industry-specific criteria covering issues such as corporate governance, risk management, emissions, water and energy consumption, human capital development and stakeholder relations. Read more (pdf) (DJSI)

Source: CSR Europe

Fresh from announcing that up to 30 US cities have agreed to report on their greenhouse gas emissions, the Carbon Disclosure Project has revealed it is seeking to expand the initiative and is in talks with a number of city authorities in the UK.

The corporate reporting lobby group announced late last week that 21 US cities, including New York, Las Vegas and New Orleans, have agreed to report on their carbon emissions with a further nine city governments soon to announce their participation in the pilot scheme.

Under the scheme, city authorities will report on the carbon emissions arising from areas over which they have budgetary control, such as transport, waste, emergency services and public sector buildings, in line with standards set out by the ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability advisory body.

The first wave of cities are expected to provide CDP with the relevant data by the end of October ahead of a full public report early next year. Read more

Source: Business Green

A company’s CSR performance is a major factor when selecting a new employer, according to a survey of graduating MBAs in the US, and they are even willing to sacrifice a portion of their salary to work for a firm that shares their outlook.

The survey of 759 graduating MBAs from 11 top business schools across the US was undertaken by David Montgomery of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Catherine Ramus of the University of California Santa Barbara, and found that the intellectual challenge offered by a role was the number one factor in selecting a job, while money and location were tied for second place.

However, a reputation for “ethical conduct and caring policies” were also ranked highly by respondents, who weighted them as having 75 per cent of the importance within the intellectual challenge criteria. Meanwhile, other components of CSR policies, such as environmental performance and community relations, were also cited by respondents as having a significant effect on graduates’ job selection decisions.

“I was frankly surprised that ethics and caring about people came up so frequently as they did,” said Montgomery. “This augurs well for the character of the 21st century MBA. Read more

Source: BusinessGreen

Microsoft has introduced employee incentives to improve energy efficiency and it’s paying off. From 2004 to 2007, Microsoft saw a 22 percent improvement in the energy efficiency of its data centers, Network World reports.

Microsoft has begun charging business units based on the amount of energy consumed by the servers that host their services instead of basing the charge on the amount of floor space required to stack the servers that their services used – which led to extremely dense, power hungry servers.

This has allowed the company to do away with underutilized equipment resulting in major savings.

Firms that sign up to industry-wide CSR initiatives only to fail to deliver on their commitments have been given a wake-up call after the UN named and shamed the 630 companies it has now kicked out of its Global Compact scheme.

Businesses signing up to the scheme are required to adhere to 10 principles governing corporate behaviour and commit to adopting best practices on human rights, the workplace, the environment and anti-corruption. In return, they are allowed to publicise themselves as a member of the global compact, access UN development resources and share best practices with other signatories to the initiative.

To ensure the “accountability and credibility” of the scheme, firms have two years from joining to issue a “communication” reporting on the progress they are making toward delivering on CSR best practices. Following this first submission, they are then required to issue communications on an annual basis. Read more

Source: Business Green