Who's making a Positive CSR Effort?

No matter what source we heard it from, I am almost 100% positive that everyone who may read this has heard that we need to change our ways. That we need to become more sustainable so that future generations can enjoy what we have today. The way to do that is to become greener and support companies that are making the effort to be more CRS friendly. The next question from here is which companies do we support?

It may just be me, but without researching I find it hard to hear about companies that are trying to actively be CSR friendly. It may just be me, but I find that if I have difficulties with something there are at least 10 other people I know that have the same issue. Did you know that even Apple is CSR friendly? They are trying to make the smallest carbon footprint possible while having high revenue. On their website they tell what part of their business creates the most carbon and their plans to minimize that. I would imagine they would have wanted that to become more of a selling point. With the difficulties in mind I am going to do a mini list.

The following are 3 companies (found here) that I was slightly surprised on how CSR friendly they were and how they achieve that.
·Pepsi Co. is actually doing numerous things, such as having their product use less processed food and more natural and whole ingredients. The two improvements that they are putting into effect that caught y attention were to “increase the [US’s] beverage container recycling rate from 34% presently to 50% by 2018 ... and ... eliminate direct sales of full-sugar soft drinks to primary and secondary schools by 2012.”
·Koninklijke Philips Electronics, more commonly known as Philips, had two sustainable objectives that I found very interesting. The first is that they use a “multi-stakeholder engagement program ... [ and the secound that they want to]... increase [their] share of green products to 50% of group sales by 2015.”
· Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., or Samsung for short, takes sustainability very seriously. They make sure that all their suppliers and material are sustainable and green (ie no hazardous substance). They plan on investing “23 trillion [Korean Won, Money] in green businesses including solar cells, rechargeable batteries for vehicles, smart grids, and geothermal heating/cooling units by the year 2020.”

If we want to shake up investors and stockholders we need to think about who we are buying our products from. If we invest our money and reward companies for their CSR practises others will catch on. Even if they only change their methods to attract and keep consumers I don’t think we are at the stage with CSR where we can be picky about why they are doing it.

If anyone wants to know more about where I found the information about the companies, or more information about the topic in general you can use the hyperlinks and sites below.
·The Dow Jones Sustainability Index has their own criteria and keeps up to date on companies that meet their Green and Sustainability criteria. Last year 41 companies were added to their list and 23 were removed.
·The ISO create and develops standards that are followed internationally and that many companies strive to meet. They have sustainable standards in place and are in progress of creating more, and articles on how to be sustainable.

Kat Stacey

P.S. Davy Jones is sailor/nautical slang for the Devil, so you did not want to go to his locker.

Apple: Good or Bad?

A lot of people don’t see the whole picture from the outside of an organization. You may hear some good things about how a company is trying to promote sustainability within their company but do you know what is really going on? A company like Apple has many loyal customers and many are known as Apple Fanboys or Apple Geeks because there so into the products that Apple produces. Apple is one of the top brands out there and with programs like their recycling fee that you pay when you buy their phone; people think that they are trying to become a greener company. When you take a look at it in-depth, you see a bigger problem. This problem stems from not only there product but also problems within the workplace. The iPhones that you purchase that are recycled after, only have so few parts that can be reused. The rest of it gets melted down because of the plastics and it will be hard to get rid of. So is the company really greener, when they can’t salvage that much from the phone. People also don’t know that the Apple Foxconn factories in Shenzhen, China are seriously systematically undermining the capacity for people to meet their needs. Workers are being worked so hard and paid so little that it becomes hard for them to support their families. In the past half-decade 17 workers have killed themselves. The electronics industry is so big that workers have to continue to work to supply the demand for each product. Many buildings now have netting skirted around them so that people can’t jump because it was becoming an alarming situation that not many people knew about. The nets have carried a message: You can throw yourself off any building you like, as long as it isn’t one of ours. Is that a good message? Probably not because people will find ways around it because they are just so fed up working for so little while doing so much. Companies need to take a look at what there workers are worth and define that because they will not be able to sustain their workers committing suicide. People need to look at the whole picture overall before they define their impression of any company because externalities may distort and change your perception on the good-looking companies to the bad looking ones.

Read more on this issue here:
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/02/ff_joelinchina/all/1

Brendan Carpenter