Search

By Kayla Matthews

No matter which side of the climate change argument you find yourself on, chances are good you’d agree that it’s in humankind’s best interest to do what we can to reduce our impact on the environment and consistently seek out renewable energy.

In addition to protecting the environment, green energy also promises another welcome benefit in the business world: that of reduced utility bills. Unfortunately, in many cases, it’s been easier said than done for businesses to operate completely on renewable energy.

As it stands now, the problem with renewable energy is that we’ve not yet figured out how to store it in such a way that we’re able to use it to power our businesses around the clock. For example, wind energy can’t be harvested unless there’s wind; solar energy can’t be produced without sunlight; and hydroelectric energy can’t be produced unless there’s flowing water. Since you can’t really expect a business to shutter its doors for the day simply because it’s cloudy, these problems need to be addressed before one can reasonably expect throngs of business owners to migrate to new energy sources.

But there’s good news: Thanks to research and development breakthroughs taking place in the clean energy storage market, business owners won’t even need to know anything about the basic mechanics of air compressors, batteries or solar panels to take advantage of renewable energy sources. In fact, there’s a good chance that many organizations will be able to affordably run their businesses completely on renewable energy in the very near future.

So, why exactly should business owners be interested in clean energy storage? Let’s take a look at what the transformative technology promises:

Competitive advantage

Clean energy storage, like compressed air energy storage, promises to reduce electricity and other energy costs. For example, studies show that the technology may very well end up saving Ontario, Canada, $8 billion in energy costs over the next two decades.

While your business probably won’t generate that kind of savings, you’ll certainly see a healthier bottom line. In other words, clean energy storage systems give you more money to invest in new initiatives, new employees or new markets.

It’s forward-thinking

There’s a reason companies like Tesla are investing so heavily in the clean energy storage market: It’s clearly the future.

You can’t really control the prices of utilities, so there’s no way of knowing what your business might be paying for energy in five, 10 or 20 years. You also don’t know what kind of regulations government agencies might put on businesses to force them to switch to renewables.

By being proactive and adopting clean energy storage systems early on, you’re positioning your business ahead of the curve — and saving yourself an inevitable headache somewhere down the line.

Great PR

By transitioning to renewable energy, your business stands to benefit from a PR blitz that should send sales in the right direction. Today’s customers are increasingly supporting businesses that they agree with ideologically.

Just look at how many folks flock to Chipotle thanks to its commitment to “food with integrity” and its distaste of factory farming. Likewise, when your business runs wholly on renewable energy, you’re able to share that information with the public. You better believe that at least some folks will start doing business with you because of your behavior toward the environment.

A revenue source?

If your renewable energy plans are designed well enough, you may even have a chance to generate extra energy and sell it back at a profit. Since solar electricity has come down in price in recent years, many homeowners, business owners and landlords have taken advantage of this by selling excess electricity generated from their investments back into the grid. Who knows? If you play your cards right, not only will your investment in clean energy storage reduce your costs over time, but you may even stumble across a new revenue source!

Clean energy storage systems are already here, though they might not yet be priced within everyone’s budget. But that day is coming soon, and you’d be smart to keep your eyes open for it.

Image by Skitterphoto

An eco-friendly alternative to plasterboard, made up of 75% agricultural waste, took top honours at Europe's recent Green Alley Awards which celebrate the circular economy.

Produced by British start-up Adaptavate, the product Breathaboard is also fully compostable. Adaptavate now receives cash and non-cash benefits valued at up to €20,000, including six months of free co-working space in the start-up capital Berlin, where it will have the opportunity to connect with other entrepreneurs.

The circular economy as an economic driving force was the central theme of the Green Alley Award 2015, where a total of six start-ups from all over Europe presented their green business ideas. They had three minutes for their live pitches at a former light bulb factory in central Berlin, where they had to win over the expert jury with their projects. 

This year, 100 start-ups from 17 countries applied for the award.

Various experts lent their support to the live-pitch finalists, including Tom Szaky, founder and ceo of the American company TerraCycle. 

Other finalists included the British start-up Entocycle, which hopes to manufacture animal feed from black soldier flies feeding on bio-waste; Votechnik from Ireland with a technology for the eco-friendly and automated recycling of LCD screens and Dresden-based start-up Binee with a smart trash bin for electronic devices. The Berlin start-up Infarm also made it to the last round of the award with development of vertical urban greenhouses for the production of local and sustainable produce, as did the Singen-based company Solstrom with its design-table made from expired solar modules.  

Research by the Money Advice Service maintains that adult habits around money can be formed as early as the age of seven. And in this fast evolving technical age, where the whole, traditional transaction of purchase is often unseen (just look at iTunes and Uber), Visa Europe believes that teaching young people money management is more essential than ever.

For the international payments giant, the focus is very much on digital money skills. A light bulb moment for Nick Jones, head of digital communications & corporate responsibility, was when he heard a presentation given by a child psychologist who said that children these days are more likely to engage more with plastic toy money during their kindergarten days than with actual hard cash when they grow up. With contactless and digital payments being the way forward, it’s difficult for young people to learn the true value of money when they don’t physically see or touch the money involved in the transaction, he believes.

Liza Tait, CR and communications manager, highlights a common problem she’s come across with children and gaming: “When gaming, children of all ages are often enticed within the game itself to buy ‘coins’or tokens, with payments taken invisibly to the child from their parent’s credit or debit cards. It’s difficult to translate what they do in a game to real money going out of someone’s purse.”
But as a payments business, why is Visa Europe so bothered by the issue as digital spending surely means people using their cards even more? “It’s important because an economy where people know how to manage their money thrives better than one where people don’t,” says Jones.

“Visa’s has always had a long term interest in managing payments. Back in the Fifties, there was the issue of trust. How do you persuade people to take your card? That trust is still key today.”

Indeed, Jones maintains that the business benefits of educating young people about money are three-fold: as the entrepreneurs of the future, young people with that knowledge will have a greater financial capability, which stands the economy in greater stead; secondly, as Visa Europe works collectively with its member banks, this kind of CR programme helps gel its working model, bringing stakeholders together; and finally there’s the bonus of building employee engagement. Last year, 15% of employees took part in volunteering activity and Tait only sees that number growing. “Employee volunteers are more engaged that those that haven’t and 98% of employee volunteers this year say that it helps them feel proud to work for Visa Europe.”

The idea for a company-wide approach to the issue germinated in Turkey in 2009 when, together with member banks there Visa launched the ‘I Can Manage My Money’ programme in local schools. Using peer-to-peer education, it showed young people how to budget and make wise choices regarding their finances. Jones was impressed with the videos and seeing how children were taking what they had learned in the classroom out into the wider community.

With Visa Europe working in over 30 countries, Jones recognised that different markets would have different needs so put together case studies and a tool kit to share materials and learning to engage new colleagues around the idea of financial education. “There are various approaches, as with most CSR programmes, one size never fits all,” adds Tait. “The programme is aligned to the theme of equipping young people with delivery nuanced to suit local requirements. All activity fits the overall cohesive vision.”

For example in the UK, they go into primary and secondary schools and universities, while in Romania training takes place in high schools and local libraries as well as online. Activity in Turkey started out with face to face training elsewhere it could commence with an online programme. Some markets major on entrepreneurial skillssome on financial education, and some do both. “There’s flex in our approach,” emphasises Tait.

It was also important to find the right delivery partner. Jones was introduced to Junior Achievement Europe through a contact on the ground in Romania, where they were helping to run a MoneyIQ programme as well as a consumer facing educational programme on e-commerce, Money on the Net, which provides an online guide to electronic commerce for Romanians, young and old. This guide to e-commerce aims to remove the mystery of digital transactions and build awareness and trust of this increasingly popular way to pay for goods and services.

One of the biggest challenges for the company has been that despite the global size of the brand, Visa Europe is operationally only 1700 across Europe. “So our footprint is quite small,” says Jones. “That’s why having a partner like Junior Achievement was so important because it had existing networks within schools, and their trust.”

Visa Europe is now running educational activity in 11 of its markets. As well as providing volunteer experts who go into schools and universities, spreading the financial education message, the company also works with Junior Achievement to help support its work at pan European level with its work with the EE-Hub, the European Entrepreneurship Education Network. Visa Europe sees the ability to manage money as a fundamental to successful entrepreneurship. The two go hand in hand.

Currently 18 months into a three-year cycle, the programme is still in the ‘test and learn’ phase and will begin measuring outcomes in the coming months. From an investment of a little over EUR1m Visa has delivered financial education and entrepreneurial education activity in 520 cities across 11 countries reaching 322,939 beneficiaries directly. A further 462,203 beneficiaries have been reached through online training.

Visa Europe’s involvement in the promotion of financial education goes even further. It sponsors awards such as the, My Money Week and a signature award for innovation at the Junior Achievement National Start Up Challenge.

My Money Week is an annual competition which this year involved 4,000 schools where teams have to design a set of top trumps style cards – The Spender, The Saver and The Giver. “It provides a fantastic opportunity for young people to gain the skills, knowledge and confidence in money matters to thrive in our society,” says Jones.

For the Junior Achievement National Start Up Challenge, Visa Europe was a principle financial sponsor but it also was involved more directly with mentoring some of the contestants. “In the UK, the winning team was coached by members of our procurement team to get ready for the final,” says Jones.

As a payments business, it is vital that Visa Europe keeps pace with the speed of change in all the new ways to pay and be paid, as well as new digital business models. The rate of change is a challenge for the education programme too. “Lives and technology are changing rapidly,” says Jones. “As the technology evolves, we may change. We may innovate with new solutions for digital education, as well as extend the programme into more countries.” 

Every year the National Health Service loses a staggering £950m because of missed appointments, or DNAs (did not attends) – no-shows who fail to cancel their appointments. Twelve million GP appointments are missed at a cost of £162m and 7.1m hospital appointments at a cost of £788m. Not only do missed appointments incur financial losses in terms of underused specialists and equipment, and increased administration costs, but the patient population loses slots that are in high demand and the patients who DNA do not get the healthcare they need.

“Any reduction in DNAs will save money – which is good news for the NHS and good news for patients too.” says Peter Collins, Senior Stakeholder Strategy Manager at Pfizer Ltd, the UK division of the pharmaceutical multinational.

“We believe our CR strategy needs to focus on finding ways in which we can make a tangible difference to people’s health and to patients - we want to be the sort of partner that makes a positive, valued difference. We know missed appointments are a huge problem for the NHS and we want to support the NHS in finding a solution,” says Collins.

The company has carried out behavioural research to discover why patients behave the way they do.

“When patients miss appointments it is detrimental to both the NHS, the patients themselves and other people who are waiting for appointments,” says Collins. “Over the past 18 months, we’ve been looking into the causes of missed appointments. Working with the NHS and other healthcare organisations, our aim now is to develop and implement solutions that make a real difference to the problem.”

It is clear that current Appointment Management Systems (AMS) are incompatible with modern lifestyles, says Collins. “In this digitally connected age our lives are increasingly time pressured. We are used to exercising choice and control over our time - from when we make a hair appointment to when our groceries are delivered. At the same time growing pressure on the NHS means that fewer appointments are available, waiting times are increasing and patients’ appointments are cancelled more frequently.

Patients have told us they would like greater flexibility. “A simple measure,” he says, “may be letting patients see the available slots for their appointment and letting them choose one that best suits them. If you give people choice and control over their appointment they are more likely to commit to it as well as being more likely to show up if it is at a time which they have selected.”
However, while reasons patients miss appointments range from “too many other things to do” (1.8%) to “couldn’t get away from work” (9.2%), the most common reason is “forgot about the appointment” at 38.4%.

“Given that forgetting the appointment is the most common reason for DNAs it is perhaps extraordinary that less than 40% of patients receive reminders,” says Collins. “Many patients say that appointments being made too far ahead make them difficult to remember, so reminders are crucial.

“However, while we know that when they are used, reminders reduce outpatient DNAs significantly, we have also found that some reminders are more effective than others. The challenge is to discover the most effective wording and timing of reminders.”
Different patients are likely to respond to different types of message. The next step is to look at what message works for whom, says Collins, and to share that insight for the health services to use.

Pfizer is also looking at the value of more personalised communications. “Today’s digital communications are often tailored to our needs and interests, which makes us more likely to respond positively. Why not apply this approach to NHS appointments? If you receive a personalised communication, wouldn’t you be more likely to turn up on the day?” Collins points out.

“Our research shows that younger people would prefer a reminder the day before, or even the same day as, the appointment. Generally, the younger the patient the less notice they want.”

But while Pfizer is keen to get patients to respect the commitment they make when they book an appointment, a name and shame negative approach is not the answer, believes Collins. “It is not about blaming patients. There are lots of ways to encourage greater attendance by creating a more patient-centric approach.”

Moving forwards, Pfizer is running four pilot schemes this autumn to test practical approaches based on their findings. The first involves working with two hospitals and patient communications specialists DrDoctor to test the effect of different text reminders.
Secondly, in the north west of England, Pfizer is working with the service design agency LiveWork and a busy GP surgery with a wide demographic mix. Research will centre on the patient journey through the appointments system to see what the barriers are, and how behavioural techniques might encourage better attendance. “It might be a low cost solution such as asking the patient to write down their appointment. Or it might involve hi-tech solutions such as creating a more flexible approach to making appointments,” says Collins.

The third pilot centres on the very high levels of DNAs for outpatient appointments at hospices, such as holistic therapy sessions. “We’re focusing here on how to encourage greater attendance by capturing and reinforcing the positive impacts of both the treatment and the environment patients experience in the appointment reminders.” Says Collins “This is a part of the health care sector where there is limited research into DNAs. We are keen to share what we find about drivers of DNAs and potential resolutions with other hospices.”

The final area of concern is the number of screening appointments that are missed. “Our research showed that preventative and non-urgent appointments are more likely to be missed than other types of appointment,” says Collins. “There may also be psychological barriers because patients are afraid of the results. But screening saves lives and it is important to find effective ways to communicate the value of screening.

“We’ve known from the outset that we won’t make a difference to this issue unless we work together with the NHS and other important partners. The problem of missed appointments is not going away and the social contract between the public and the NHS will continue to be tested.

“We are not naive enough to believe we can solve this entirely,” he says. “But by digging deeper into the detail we have found that significant improvements are possible. We want to understand what practical solutions can encourage greater attendance and share what we have found. We want to create a platform for more solutions to be developed. Missed appointments are something that people feel really passionate about. So for us, this is a CR programme that is designed to create tangible benefits for the NHS and also generate real positive social impact over the long term.”

 

SHS247, date of preparation October 2015

This article was authored by Miranda Ingram from the Ethical Performance Best Practice editorial team. Pfizer Ltd has contributed both to the funding of this issue and also the content development of this article, however editorial control rests with the editor of Ethical Performance Best Practice.

Last year CBRE announced its partnership with Plan International, the international children’s development organisation, in a shared vision to transform a generation of children – with a focus on girls – in Sierra Leone, and give them hope for a better future.
Sierra Leone is one of the world’s poorest countries and is ranked 177 on the Human Development Index. Together, Plan International and CBRE are committed to support 21,060 of the most marginalised girls in five of the poorest districts of Sierra Leone to stay in school and to improve the quality of education for all the 135,000 boys and girls enrolled in the target schools.

But why should one of the world’s largest commercial real estate and property companies get involved in such a programme, particularly in a country where it does not even have an office?

Gaétan Clermont, CBRE’s EMEA Board level Corporate Responsibility advocate and CEO of its Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland businesses explains that there are two strands of thinking to its approach. Firstly, the property (and construction) sector contributes up to 40% of annual greenhouse gas emissions; climate change and its environmental effect is a key CR issue for CBRE.

Much of CBRE’s work sought to take a leadership position on this issue in the property sector, and that’s no different when it comes to its approach to community investment in EMEA. In fact, CBRE first tackled the issue between 2011-13 through a partnership with UNICEF in Madagascar, where the company helped to build more than 20 schools resistant to climate change. In 2010, the business became the first to shift to becoming carbon neutral in its sector, and since then it has put $1 million towards sustainability research and is the only commercial real estate business on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (North Amercia).

Secondly as a diverse international business, Clermont believes community investment is a highly important part of the firm’s employee engagement strategy. “Our people have consistently made it clear that the firm has a responsibility to give back, and this goes beyond traditional philanthropy. Whilst we don’t have a presence in Sierra Leone, we have tried to build a community investment programme that helps teams make a difference where the need is greatest,” Clermont emphasises. “Our Board takes this agenda seriously, and listened to our NGO partners to see where we could impact to greatest effect, and bring the significant leverage of our business to bear.”

“It’s often said that children inherit the decisions they don’t make, so the subject of education is a natural fit across diverse geographies,” adds Clermont. “Stories like Malala Yousafzai’s demonstrates the transformative power of an education or, as Malala put it when she addressed the UN, the power of the pencil.”

Clermont explains that Plan brought the opportunity to the table, emphasizing that by investing particularly in girls, CBRE would help make a real impact in communities ready to make significant progress. “Our leverage was further matched with funding from the UK government.” [The Department for International Development sets an aid commitment to encourage private sector involvement].
The initial success of the project was impressive with 11,151 bursaries – kits that are designed to help relieve the financial barriers to families sending their girls to school and which include a uniform, shoes, pens, textbooks and a book bag – distributed to girls in primary school and junior secondary school.

As Clermont admits these kinds of programmes usually present unexpected challenges but no one could have predicted what would befall this one.

“We made the announcement of the programme in January 2014 and in February the first Ebola outbreak in West Africa occurred. It decimated the infrastructure and brought a whole new dimension to the programme,” recalls Clermont.

In May 2014 the Ebola virus struck Sierra Leone and quickly became the worst Ebola outbreak ever. Sierra Leone was one of the least equipped countries to deal with such an epidemic and its fragile public health systems were unable to cope with the scale of the disaster. The crisis negatively impacted the local economy, education, availability of food and the overall protective environment for children. On 30 July 2014 Sierra Leone declared a State of Public Health Emergency and schools were forced to close in September 2014 under a ban on public gatherings to control the spread of the deadly disease. Plan was therefore forced to suspend all its activities.

“Our employees felt more connected by the Ebola outbreak,” says Clermont. “It made our involvement all the more urgent and encouraged innovative thinking. For example, because schools were closed, CBRE helped fund the distribution of more than 20,000 solar powered radios to enable children to listen to curriculum broadcasts throughout the outbreak.”

CBRE’s commitment to Sierra Leone never wavered and the Ebola outbreak encouraged employees to raise additional funds which enabled Plan to deliver 1,203 hand washing units to help contain the spread of the disease. Plan says with CBRE’s help it was able to adapt its work to support the girls and students to stay healthy and survive the epidemic and support them to continue with their education. In addition, CBRE is funding Plan’s work to help orphans of the epidemic as well.

Indeed, as Clermont points out, what started as an educational partnership turned into a full commitment to children in education and the consequences of Ebola.

CBRE provides corporate donations to Plan (linked to an agreed percentage of profit as well as employee fundraising) but also donates access to a range of its advisory services to help Plan with its global property portfolio.

Money raised has been used to train teachers, invested in making schools more accessible for children with disabilities (particularly relevant to the safety of girls in education) and used in other areas of strengthening the curriculum be it through teaching assistants or better governance training. The sum raised so far stands at more than EUR700,000, with a target of EUR850,000 which we are excited and aiming to exceed, says Clermont.

The three-year programme falls under CBRE’s Building a Better Future responsible business plan and since the outbreak came under control, Plan is now returning to the programme’s original objectives and is busy preparing a progress report.
Clermont says the programme has been compelling, resulting in very high levels of staff engagement, higher than any previous programme in fact. He is keen to highlight that “Plan has been an outstanding NGO to partner with. It’s an incredibly responsible and responsive organisation”.

So how is CBRE benefiting as a business from this initiative? “Our country leaders want us to do all we can to help drive the international nature of our business in order to serve our clients better” says Clermont. “As a global business, transcending borders and mindful of different cultures, this is about inspiring our employees, bringing teams together and making a difference. And there’s lots of evidence that shows that Corporate Responsibility is a key driver for employee engagement. This partnership is one way we are doing that.”

While the three year partnership is scheduled to conclude in 2017, CBRE are looking at the options and Clermont is confident that its commitment will grow. “There remains a huge appetite for this, which is linked to our commercial success. Our Board will review the programme but we are confident we will go beyond our original objectives.”

“We hope Plan will make a transformative difference to children’s lives in Sierra Leone as well as giving our employees a sense of pride” he concludes. 

Breakfasts for Better Days (BfBD) Kellogg’s hunger relief programme, started in 2013 with the clear intention of creating a single global focus for all of Kellogg’s CSR activities. Bruce Learner, Senior CSR and Partnerships Manager for Kellogg in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, says :“For many years we had been doing a variety of different community initiatives all of which had merit and were impactful, but they were unconnected. We wanted to change the way we supported our communities and we wanted to make a bigger impact.”

It perhaps should come as no surprise given the company’s founder, WK Kellogg’s deeply-held commitment to helping others - especially children: “One of the most beneficial services that could be bestowed upon civilization is to make the lives of little children happier, healthier and more promising for their adult years.”

“Creating our new CSR strategy took a lot of hard work and energy, as a global company we needed to find something that would work and potentially make a difference in every community, in every part of the world,” explains Learner. “As well as identifying this global need we also have to be confident that the tools to meet the need are in place.”

Kellogg has now been creating a variety of breakfast programmes for 17 years and donating food to food banks for more than 30 years, so they were confident that these two established activities could be reproduced globally.

“In the early days, breakfast clubs in the UK were about helping schools provide a healthy breakfast in a stimulating and safe environment,” says Learner. “A few years ago, we started to notice a change; teachers were telling us that more children were coming to school hungry. Also around this time the profile of food banks started to rise dramatically and hunger in Europe became a harsh reality. We saw an opportunity to do something on a bigger scale that would address these issues.”

It’s an old saying that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and there are a number of reasons for this, especially for children.

“Ask any teacher,” says Learner, “and they can tell you which kids in their class regularly miss breakfast and how it affects their ability to learn, stay awake and alert in class. We are one of the world’s leading cereal companies so we know about the power of breakfast. We knew we were uniquely qualified to help.”

But while Kellogg’s made this big decision to focus its global CSR resources on hunger relief, making the change to support one global goal was not without its challenges.

“It wasn’t difficult to get things off the ground, but it wasn’t always easy, and we had to have some difficult conversations,” says Learner. “We had to meet with organisations that we’ve worked with for decades and tell them that we’d changed our strategy and that we would no longer be able to support them.”

What was harder still, recalls Learner, was when we shared the new strategy internally, some of their people and places would no longer be able to support their local communities in the same way.

“I very clearly remember one or two moments when I could see people trying to work out how they could possibly cut the ties with a local organisation that they had grown very close to personally and professionally,” says Learner.

Another internal challenge the company faced was “selling in” the cause. Highlighting the problem of hunger in Europe was a struggle for some, admits Learner. “In some places, people did not see hunger as a problem – or at least they would not acknowledge it. I suppose there is an element of embarrassment attached to admitting that hunger is a problem in seemingly-affluent places like London and Milan. But the main positive was that we were able to massively increase the help we gave to lots of food banks and breakfast programmes across the region, so for those organisations the change in focus made a huge difference to them – and through them, to thousands of people.”

Kellogg has set itself the goal of providing 1billion servings of cereal and snacks to children and families in need by the end of 2016, half of which are breakfast foods.

To deliver such a huge number of food servings takes some doing, but it is achieved through two routes: donating to food banks and food redistribution charities and creating more community-based breakfast programmes.

Learner says: “All of our donations of cash, product donations, employee volunteering, and our cause-related marketing, is focused on this one global goal – providing food for children and families in need.”

The geographical focus for Breakfasts for Better Days is communities close to Kellogg’s operations “We’re helping to tackle hunger in our own backyard,” says Learner.

Two and a half years on – as the company closes in on its target of 1 billion servings target, Learner is pleased with the progress that Kellogg has made. “The simplicity of the cause and the clear connection to our core business has made explaining what we do so simple and the constant drum roll of internal communications reinforces that message. At all levels of the business our cause is clearly understood and people can see the progress we are making and the impact we are having.”

Employee involvement is also critical so Kellogg introduced a regional volunteering policy. The focus is food and hunger related which helps employees understand the problem, maintains Learner. Kellogg also engages through global days of action like World Food Day: “Everyone is encouraged to get involved.”

So how does one cause help Kellogg measure success? “It’s a lot easier than it used to be,” says Learner. “We have one template and a few key metrics that we use to collect outputs and outcomes all over the world, all leading to progress against the one billion target.”

Having an established global cause also makes it easier to deliver cause-related marketing campaigns; for example the Europe-wide “Buy a box = Give a Bowl” campaign of 2014 where Kellogg donated 56m servings of cereal for each of the 56m packs of cereal it sold.

“If you have long-term partnerships with charities and other not for profit organisations, and they know that you are seriously committed to a cause, it makes it a lot easier to add a commercial dimension to the relationship,” highlights Learner. “Not once was our sincerity questioned. This was a natural progression of the relationships we’d built over the years.”

With Kellogg just having the one CSR programme, they are working to evolve it, to deliver new activities in new locations, such as Egypt and Russia. It has also started to run school vacation programmes in the UK – which could be extended to other European locations.

“I wish BfBD wasn’t needed,” says Learner. “But it is, so while there are families and children that need feeding, we will keep giving and evolving as a key CSR player in the global fight against hunger.” 

We’ve adorned ourselves with it for thousands of years and its very existence made pirates dizzy with greed. Its applications range from micro-circuitry and medical products to the coating of astronauts’ helmets. A traditional storehouse of value throughout the centuries, gold has always been in high demand and today it’s no different. What’s changing though is the way it is mined and how that mining is managed.

The mining industry is heading towards a more sustainable future where a holistic approach to mine development is key. Sustainability is no longer a compliance issue, it’s a proactive way of doing business.

Jerry Danni is senior vp of sustainability at Goldcorp, the largest gold company in the world (based on market valuation), and says that the need to demonstrate sustainability at every step is more important than ever.

Goldcorp currently operates eight gold mines across the world as well as two joint venture mines. In addition to gold, the company extracts silver, copper, lead and zinc.

Operations are based on growth in six pillars of which sustainability is one, underpinned by an integrated sustainability management programme. “It’s a big challenge,” Danni admits.

Its Sustainability Excellence Management System (SEMS), focused on key environmental areas of land and water use, energy, air quality, tailings management and responsible mine closure, along with safety & health and social responsibility, has evolved over the last two years. The SEMS contains performance standards all mine sites are required to meet, including having written ‘life of mine’ closure plans. Every mine is different, differing in size of operation and in life span, and concurrent reclamation activity is taking place at all Goldcorp’s sites, he says.

Goldcorp’s Red Lake mine in Canada is one of the company’s top producers and has been operating for over 60 years, while others that have been operating for shorter periods and are now in various stages of closure. For example the company’s El Sauzal mine in Mexico is currently in ‘active closure’ with full closure taking anything between 2-3 years.

There are two aspects to a closure, Danni explains: the technical (ensuring the landscape is safe and stable) and the social (ensuring that together with local authorities, there is a plan for local communities to be self-sustaining after the mine closes). “And these two aspects work hand in glove,” he says.

The Goldcorp mine San Martin in Honduras has completed the full closure process and Danni is proud that the site has been successfully fully reclaimed. What used to be a mining camp is now the San Martin Ecology Centre, with a 31-room, eco-tourism hotel, a restaurant, swimming pool, sports courts, playing fields and other amenities. The hotel is surrounded by forest, interpretive trails, bird-watching gazebos and wildlife habitat for deer, puma, roadrunners, lizards and more. In 2008, Goldcorp donated 1,500 hectares of land to the San Martin Foundation, a not-for-profit organization created, with Goldcorp’s support, to provide citizens with lasting economic benefits and self-sufficiency.

Elsewhere on the reclaimed mine site, agri-businesses thrive. Goldcorp supports the hiring and training of local people in chicken and tilapia farming and in growing lemons, oranges and mangos, as well as indigenous plants that are a source of biofuel.

Several independent farmers are also cultivating biofuel seed crops to widen the circle of sustainability for generations to come. “It’s important to continue to support the local community,” says Danni.

The Marlin mine in Guatemala is also a case in point. Goldcorp has spent $30m over the course of 10 years in preparing for its closure. On the social side it began by creating educational opportunities – prior to the mine’s existence educational resources were scarce – as well as a training programme, teaching mechanical and electrical skills. “Skills that can go beyond a mining application,” says Danni.

Marlin started off as a surface mine and gradually evolved into an underground one. “So the open pit became a tailings storage area,” explains Danni.

Tailings are the waste that is left after the mined mineral has been removed from the ore and are often the most visible part of mining. .
“Tailings is often slurry but at Marlin we were able to innovate with filtered tailings which means that the waste was dry and solid and the pit could be backfilled,” explains Danni.

This innovative technique solves three problems at once: it eliminates the need for a separate mine tailings storage facility that requires long-term monitoring and maintenance, eliminates the environmental risk from the pit’s exposed rock surfaces, and it restores the landscape to a more natural profile. Once the pit is backfilled, the area is landscaped and natural vegetation planted on the reclaimed hillside, leaving the countryside in a similar landscape to what there was before mining commenced. “It looks like regular countryside which is a goal of the mine closure,” says Danni.

The visual aspect is important but so is the geochemistry. “We also need to ensure the area is chemically stable too. Some ore bodies generate acid, so metals could get into the water and we need to avoid that.”

Tailings can be more than just an eyesore; for many communities they are perceived as a cause for concern. That’s why Goldcorp created the Tailings Stewardship Programme (TSP), an initiative that sets new standards in environmental, human and community safety that exceed existing industry and government regulations.

Danni describes the TSP as a subset of the company’s Sustainability Excellence Management System. “In mining, one of the biggest environmental risks is the tailings,” says Danni. “One failure is one failure too many. So the TSP requires a written tailings management and closure plan from the start, as well as active management of the tailings throughout operations. So that entails a full assessment of the project prior to construction too.” The programme embeds additional precautions such as a detailed dam evaluation and innovation sharing. Each site requires an Engineer of Record and scheduled third-party reviews. “Most of this is already in place but it will ensure consistency at each site. It is a great step forward,” says Danni.

For Goldcorp, successful mines are those that not only yield significant amounts of gold, but also add value by integrating their activities with local and regional efforts to achieve self-sustaining social and economic development. It hopes that its understanding of local realities and concerns, while building social and economic capital, will be its legacy, supporting the well-being of present and future generations.

www.goldcorp.com

Sustainability Report: http://csr.goldcorp.com 

There is a lot of wall painting and tree planting going on in employer supported volunteering. This is good for team building, for immediate (and visual!) impact. It is not so good if a lasting effect, or dare we say sustainability, is the aim. Plus, there are only so many walls to paint and so many trees to plant. We hear time and again from charities desperately trying to divert corporate partners from their interest in this type of one-off activity when what they’re really crying out for is more skills-based volunteering. What if only 5% of staff at large corporate organisations were to volunteer their skills to help charities run themselves better? What if charities got better at business development and strategic planning as a result of the support they received? How much more income could they generate and how many more beneficiaries could they help?

Take trustees, for instance – they are volunteers responsible for making sure the charity is doing what it was set up to do; they are the people who lead the charity and decide how it is run; they make decisions that will impact on people’s lives. Currently, there are over 160,000 registered charities in the UK, with 800,000 staff and over 14 million volunteers and yet an estimated one in five charitable organisations has a trustee vacancy on their boards. What if we could fill those vacancies with experienced professionals with sound leadership, negotiation and business development skills? What if those professionals could volunteer in this way for a cause close to their heart? What if they could also gain valuable non-executive board experience in the process?

Step on Board
This is how Step on Board, a partnership between NCVO (the National Council for Voluntary Organisations) and Trustees Unlimited, came about. It is a comprehensive and tailor-made volunteering programme that connects business leaders with communities by training and placing skilled professionals onto charity boards. It is one of the most effective ways to engage aspiring leaders and senior staff in an organisation, and provides unparalleled experience for those hoping to become non-executive directors on company boards.

Through one-to-one coaching sessions and interactive workshops, Step on Board prepares potential trustees to be ‘board ready’ from day one. The sessions enable prospective trustees to quickly grasp what charities need from trustees, how the charitable sector operates, the role and responsibilities of trustees and the contribution they’re expected to make. Candidates are then offered trustee opportunities that match their interests and skills. Once the position has been secured they can receive ongoing training and mentoring to ensure that they are maximising their impact and feel confident in their role. We can then measure the impact of the programme at three levels: the charity, the business and the individual.

It’s a completely new approach to professional development and arguably so much more effective when compared to traditional styles of management training. Having to sit at a table with ten other trustees from all walks of life and agree on decisions that will affect the direction of a charity and, thus, the lives of those it supports…well, you don’t learn that in traditional CPD courses.
And then, of course, there is also the employee engagement benefit. Why would you not want to be loyal to an employer that takes you beyond the traditional avenues of leadership training and encourages you to develop new skills and competencies, that respects your values and the causes you care about.

What real impact looks like
Employers from the likes of Barclays and Mischon de Reya are already reaping the rewards of Step on Board with over fifty employees already placed on charity boards. That’s fifty skilled professionals making an impact as we speak in fifty different charities. Fifty employees who are using the skills and experience they’ve gained on the board back in their offices. Many more are needed.
Of course, Step on Board is not the only programme that delivers meaningful impact and value to businesses and communities. There are many alternatives out there that don’t involve wall painting; that encourage partnership working and mobilisation of people’s skills, knowledge and expertise. If we are to address some of the most significant challenges we face in our communities we need less of the former and more of the latter. 

In what may have been a move to call TransCanada's bluff, President Obama shut down the Keystone XL pipeline project, rejecting the application that would have brought 800,000 barrels a day of heavy crude oil scoured from enormous tar sand pits in Alberta Canada 1,179 miles south to refineries the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Producers can find other means to move the tar sands oil to market, mainly by rail, but at greater expense. When oil prices dip below $65 a barrel, demand for tar sands oil slumps, according to a State Department review. Tar sands oil is among the dirtiest, most energy intensive and expensive to recover, and recent falling oil prices have made the project less viable for producers. For most of the year, the price of oil has been hovering around $50/barrel.

Many factors have likely weighed on the president's decision, now seven years in the making. The recent election of a liberal government in Canada led by Justin Trudeau may have influenced Obama's decision to act now. While a supporter of the Keystone project, Trudeau is considered much more environmentally friendly than his predecessor Stephen Harper, who pushed the pipeline as a major issue between the U.S. and Canada. Trudeau, on the other hand, has not made Keystone a central issue in his relationship to his southern neighbor, criticizing Harper for his intransigence toward Obama about the project.

Jobs?

Not surprisingly, GOP presidential hopefuls pounced on the White House announcement, reportedly "furious" over the decision. Proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline have long claimed the economic benefits of the project, creating many thousands of jobs.

State Department analysis estimates that 42,000 temporary jobs would be created over the two-year construction period (less than one-tenth of one percent of the country's total employment), 3,900 of those involved directly in construction and the remainder in support jobs such as food service. It is estimated the project would create only 35 permanent jobs.

Unemployment in the U.S. has fallen to 5 percent, the lowest in more than seven years.

Climate legacy

Obama made it clear he would not leave the decision over Keystone to the next president. With all the factors falling into place and the COP21 climate talks in Paris soon to begin, it apparently was the right time for the president to finally announce his decision, another step in securing his climate legacy before he leaves office. In many ways the furor created by the proposed project over the years is largely symbolic, as a single infrastructure project won't have much impact in global carbon emissions. But it is clear the symbolism, for both opponents and proponents, is important.

It's uncertain whether the Keystone XL pipeline is dead for good. Supporters are sure to challenge the decision in court, and if a Republican is elected president next year, it may be revived from the dead.

But for now, the decision is made and the Keystone pipeline will not be built.

This post first appeared in GlobalWarmingisReal.com

Image credit: Howl Arts Collective, flickr

With a busy week behind you and the weekend within reach, there’s no shame in taking things a bit easy on Friday afternoon. With this in mind, every Friday TriplePundit will give you a fun, easy read on a topic you care about. So, take a break from those endless email threads and spend five minutes catching up on the latest trends in sustainability and business.

It's that time of year again: As you read this, Halloween candy aisles are being cleared out to make way for twinkle lights and giant plastic reindeer. Yep, the holiday shopping season has begun.

In response to years of shoppers being trampled on Black Friday as they rush for the hottest toy, a conscious consumerism movement is brewing around the holiday season. Patagonia lifted it into the mainstream in 2011, when it took out a full-page ad in the New York Times with the message "Don't Buy This Jacket" emblazoned over its best-selling coat. The brazen ad asked shoppers "to buy less and to reflect before you spend a dime on this jacket or anything else."

Patagonia, along with several other forward-thinking retailers, have continued this trend -- refusing to open their doors on Thanksgiving and Black Friday in defiance of overconsumption.

So this year, before you max out the credit card buying items you (and the folks on your holiday list) may not really need, consider swapping and sharing with your neighbors instead. You can score cool new-to-you stuff for dirt cheap (or even free), rid yourself of items you no longer use and even help others in the process. Now, doesn't that sound better than standing in line outside the mall at 2 a.m.?

Read on for five of our top picks.

1. NeighborGoods

NeighborGoods allows you to borrow and lend with your neighbors rather than buying new. Need a power tool for a home improvement project? Borrow one from your neighbor. Have a pair of skates gathering dust? Offer them up and make a new friend. The Web-based platform makes it all a breeze, and you can even flag a user for failing to return your items.

NeighborGoods only operates within the U.S. International swappers should check out StreetBank, a U.K.-based sharing platform with a similar model that allows neighbors to share their stuff.

2. Wallapop

Wallapop is a user-friendly and visually appealing way to buy and sell with folks in your community. Browse through photos of furniture, electronics and other stuff your neighbors no longer want, and chat with sellers directly through the app. If you're looking to get rid of some extra stuff, simply take a photo of your items and list in on Wallapop in about 30 seconds.

Wallapop operates in six cities: New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles.

Download in the App Store or Google Play Store. 

3. OfferUp

If Wallapop isn't operating in your city, you may have more luck with OfferUp -- a similar model that allows neighbors to buy and sell used goods for free. Nick Huzar and Arean van Veelen, new fathers who were disappointed at the lack of options for swapping kids toys locally, founded OfferUp in 2011 -- with the aim to make buying and selling as easy as taking a photo.

With a single snap, you can take a photo of an unwanted item and instantly circulate it to people nearby. Interested buyers can then message you with one click. The company claims the whole process can take as little as 30 seconds.

Four years old is basically veteran status in the sharing economy, so OfferUp knows what's up. The company puts an emphasis on safety and trust, with an Airbnb-esque identity verification system in place. Like other sharing economy platforms, users rate each other, so it's easy to figure out who's flaky and who's likely to come through with the item they committed to buy or sell.

Download in the App Store or Google Play Store. 

4. Carma Carpooling

Share your ride with this awesome app that makes carpooling easy. Just open the app to find nearby people going your way and arrange to share your commute. Drivers can make a few extra dollars by sharing seats in their car, or they can choose to give free rides by adding passengers to their 'favorites' list on the app.

Carma now operates in nine cities across the U.S., including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Click here to download the app.

5. ShareTheMeal

This nonprofit initiative of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) allows you to 'share' your meal with a child in need. The concept is simple but powerful: When you sit down for a meal, just tap the app on your smartphone to donate 40 cents to the WFP -- enough to feed a hungry child for an entire day.

Users have donated more than 1.8 million meals to date, and the WFP is preparing to roll out the initiative worldwide on Nov. 12.

Download the free app in the App Store, Google Play Store or on Amazon.

Image credit: Streetbank