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For years when the federal government planned projects such as office buildings, government agencies relied on past environmental data while developing a plan. Agencies only had to dig up a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) floodplain map, or a similar map “based on the best-available information.” But as of last week, that has changed.

In another executive order that will again cause the Obama administration’s opponents to scream and holler, but is the reality for today and the future, federal government agencies will have to take climate change risk into account for future planning. Here’s the kicker that some will take as a not-so-subtle jab at Congress: “The federal government must take action, informed by the best-available and actionable science, to improve the nation's preparedness and resilience against flooding.”

Considering about 40 percent of the U.S. population lives on the coast and over half within 50 miles of the shorelines — with a density six times that of the rest of the country — the federal government is simply following the lead of over 300 local and state governments already planning for climate change and resilience.

When drawing up plans, federal agencies have multiple options by which they can establish the flood hazard area in which future projects are located. First, again with that subtle jab, planners can use a “climate-informed science approach” to determine hydrological and hydraulic data to anticipate possible future changes in flooding based on — gasp! — climate science. They can also simply add two feet above the current flood elevation or three feet for critical buildings such as hospitals.

Prior to this executive order, such rules were only applicable if there was a 1 percent chance of flooding in the region — now the bar has been lowered to 0.20 percent. Project developers overall have more flexibility because they can also establish a flood plain based on updates to the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS). According to the Washington Post, the more stringent federal standards will increase the price of new federal projects anywhere between 0.25 and 1.25 percent -- a pretty small insurance premium to pay considering the continued population growth along the coasts and the increased chance of climate volatility, such as events similar to Hurricane Sandy, in the coming years.

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced in 2012 that it would take climate change data into account when planning for more severe storms, but the Jan. 30 executive order is the first directive from the federal government that is proactive and actually has teeth. Whether the Obama administration’s opponents want to face the truth or not, the facts remain that the U.S. population will continue to increase, especially within the job-heavy Northeast and California coast and throughout the warmer climates and cheaper property of the Southeast. Those trends in turn will mean more federal government services, from courts to social services. It’s better to plan ahead and spend a small premium on risk than waste resources rebuilding and rebuilding, over and over again.

Image credit: Juranda

Based in California, Leon Kaye has also been featured in The Guardian, Clean Technica, Sustainable Brands, Earth911, Inhabitat, Architect Magazine and Wired.com. He shares his thoughts on his own site, GreenGoPost.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Should states be able to set their own parameters for how energy is purchased and produced within their borders?

That question is at the heart of a judicial appeal that was filed by the state of Minnesota recently, concerning the outcome of the state of North Dakota's challenge to its Next Generation Energy Act (Energy Act).

Minnesota's carbon offset provision

Last April, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota struck down a provision in Minnesota's Energy Act requiring new power plants that purchase coal-generated power to demonstrate carbon offsets. The state law was designed to complement Minnesota's clean energy goals.

The court ruled that the state law essentially conflicted with the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States, which regulates interstate commerce.

"Over the years," says the executive director of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Scott Strand, "the courts have interpreted (the powers of the commerce clause) as not only a grant of authority to Congress, but (as) taking away some of the authority of the states."

Dormant commerce clause versus state law

What is often called the "dormant commerce clause" was implemented to keep states from competing and imposing tariffs against each other, such as is often done in the international arena. The commerce clause also prohibits extraterritoriality: the ability of one state to regulate what another state does within its own borders.

For example, in 2008, California imposed new caging standards for egg producers. Although the state was allowed to enforce new standards for egg producers within its borders, federal law restricted it from requiring out-of-state producers to upgrade their caging procedures because it could unduly restrict interstate commerce -- even if those egg producers did business with California suppliers.

In the case of Minnesota's carbon offset standards, however, the state law isn't intended to regulate what other state facilities do, Strand said. It is designed to regulate how Minnesota facilities purchase and supply electricity to their customers. It puts the onus on the Minnesota facility to ensure that the location it purchases power from either produces power from designated "green" sources (i.e., not high carbon-producing coal) or has carbon offsets in place to compensate for those emissions.

Still, the District Court of Minnesota found that a section Minnesota's New Generation Energy Act did exactly that by suggesting that out-of-state energy providers could be affected by the state's regulation of what could come across its borders.

"Part of that, I think, is based on the notion that because utility generators essentially put electricity on a regional grid, you can’t really know where your (electricity is) going," said Strand. When you plug in a light, "you could be getting your electricity from any number of different utilities. You pay one utility, but we sort of have this fiction that they are the ones providing the electricity, because basically that’s where the commitment comes from."

The Minnesota connection

And that commitment, or contract, said Strand, is what really should determine whether this law constitutes extraterritoriality, not whether the electrons are on a regional grid. States regulate how electricity is charged and supplied within their borders, and they should be able to regulate how they get the power they supply to their customers, said Strand. "Once you accept ... that it’s the contracts you regulate, not the movement of electricity, then the notion that Minnesota would be regulating something completely outside of the state really breaks down.

"If you’ve got Minnesota buyers, then obviously you don’t have a completely extraterritorial regulation. You’ve got a Minnesota connection. And that is what states have always had the authority to regulate," explained Strand.

"My view is that the court totally got it wrong," said Michael Noble, who serves as the executive director of the Minnesota advocacy group, Fresh Energy. He said the statute is specifically designed to regulate how Minnesota utility providers buy their power, not how power producers sell their product. "That same offset requirement applied to a coal plant built in Iowa or Minnesota, or Manitoba or Wisconsin," said Noble. "We called it the principal that if you’re down in the hole you stop digging. We were just going to agree that we weren’t going to increase carbon emissions from coal power any more."

Noble said he felt the reason North Dakota launched the suit in the first place was that it was hoping to maintain its footing as a coal-based power producer for nearby states like Minnesota.

"And the reason I think that is absurd is no Minnesota electric utility has any interest in buying power from new coal, ever again," said Noble. "So, there truly is no market for them [in Minnesota]. That is why this lawsuit is sort of silly. Even if this law weren’t in place, there would be no market for coal."

Noble admitted that there is some risk in the outcome of this appeal. If the District Court's finding were to stand, it could possibly set a precedent that could affect how utility company purchase of power is regulated and make it harder for states to enforce clean energy standards in the purchase of non-carbon-based power supplied to a regional grid.

"[The] national [climate groups] are very, very interested and concerned that this could be cited by other courts or other legislatures as [a] reason why you can’t have a state energy policy or state environmental policy or a state carbon policy," said Noble.

Still, Minnesota utility companies aren't looking toward coal sources anymore.  "That is another reason why this is a little bit water over the dam now," he said. Minnesota-based Xcel Energy has already released its graduated 2030 goals, and they are all based on the increasing supply of renewable energy, a projection that dovetails not only with the state's mandates for increasing the supply of reliable renewable energy, but the Environmental Protection Agency's mandates as well.

"It gets back to my argument that history has moved on. Coal isn’t in the game," said Noble.

The federal Clean Energy Plan

It also raises a question about the real intention of North Dakota's suit, which came just months before the EPA was to unveil its Clean Power Plan, a program that was first hinted at in 2009 during President Barack Obama's inaugural address.

"We will harness the sun and the winds and soil to fuel our cars and run our factories," President Obama said, giving a clear indication that the days of high carbon-emission power were numbered. Since that time, federal energy guidelines have also moved away -- not closer -- to supporting coal-based power. The Clean Power Plan is designed to encourage states to move away from carb0n-based power sources, notes Strand.

"[The] irony is that, at the same time that we’ve got challenges to the state authority in this area, you’ve got the EPA and the federal government trying to give the authority right back to the states. They are asking for the states to generate their own plans, and something like a carbon offset could very well be a part of those state plans."

For now, Strand said, it's a matter of waiting to see the outcome of the appeal that Minnesota filed on May 19 of last year. North Dakota filed its brief in response on Jan. 20, but received a deficiency notice from the court, requiring it to refile the following day. Both states will have an opportunity to respond one more time before the case is reviewed by a three-judge panel of appeals for the 8th Circuit court.

From there, any further appeals could be heard by the full 8th Circuit court, although the losing party also has the option of petitioning a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court. Given the fact that this is an issue that, to date, hasn't really generated a conflict with other circuit courts decisions, it's unlikely that the Supreme Court would hear an appeal, said Strand.That, however, could change.

What is likely is that the shift to renewable energy will also require states to look more guardedly at ways to insulate their hard-fought legislation from lawsuits. The lessons from Minnesota's foray into this battleground, say analysts, may result in more restrained and less encompassing state provisions whose restrictive language can weather a Constitutional challenge.

Image of wind turbines: Nic McPhee

Image of St. Paul, steam plant in the distance: Michael Hicks

My family has embarked on a month-long trip in Ecuador. With two young children by our side, we set out to gain insight into the culture and natural wonders. On the first leg of our journey, we arrived in the Mindo. Although a mere 45 miles west of Quito, it is a world apart.

On the western slopes of the Andes, this town is perched in a cloud forest and is near the Mindo-Nambillo Ecological Reserve. It is one of the most ecologically diverse areas in the world, known for its 500 species of birds, 40 species butterflies and 170 species of orchids. Lacking a road to Quito until the 1950s, the area was quite isolated until relatively recently. I was curious to see examples of ecotourism in this area, which previously was primarily dependent on dairy farming.

In the last couple of decades, the town has transformed into a tourist attraction, with numerous tour operators offering canopy excursions, horseback riding, birdwatching, nature walks and tubing trips. One of the most impressive examples of ecotourism I've encountered thus far is Hostal Jardin del Descanso.

Located on a small parcel of land just a couple of blocks from the main street, owner Rodny Zanipattini of Quito cleared the forest 20 years ago to create a soccer field and build a wooden home. "I started to think of how many trees were cut down to build the house, and the impact on nature," he explains. "My thinking changed significantly."

He had been bringing in plant species from Quito for his yard, but a local told him that using native species would attract more wildlife. Ten years ago, he teamed up with a group of local children to determine which local plants he should cultivate to attract wildlife, most notably birds.

"I couldn't imagine how many birds I would attract," Rodney explains. There have been 137 species of birds documented on his property. "When you help rehabilitate nature, it returns."

The backyard is a bird paradise, with numerous hummingbird feeders, banana trees and local flowering plants. He also provides papaya and yuca (a root vegetable) to keep his wild visitors happy. He says it is common to view 20 to 30 bird species in a 30-minute period, on a property that is a mere 3,000 square feet. Migratory birds, toucan, woodpeckers, parrots, hummingbirds, hawks, snakes, opossum and armadillo visit for tasty snacks, but there isn't enough space on the property for them to nest there.

Rodney now runs a four-bedroom hotel and a cafe. The nature viewing area is spectacularly displayed just off the back patio. He was approached several years ago to build a swimming pool in the area where birds now feast, but says, "I chose birds over girls in bikinis." The property does not operate a restaurant because Rodney is concerned that the noise would scare away the wildlife.

He is now working with his third group of 22 local children, ages 11 and 12, to teach them about wildlife. Motivated by a concern about the teaching methods used in the local schools, he sees a lack of hands-on learning about the stunning local nature.

The area is also known for butterflies, and Rodney recently started applying the same techniques to attract them to his property. He and a group of local children are discovering which plants attract butterflies. "I'm using the same method with butterflies that I did to attract birds," he explains. "I don't bring in pupae, but merely cultivate plants that will attract them."

Rodney has watched the town of Mindo change considerably over the last two decades, as the road to Quito has improved and dozens of restaurants and small hotels have opened. He sees both positive and negative impacts. Local children see the wealth that the tourists have and want this for themselves. Over the last decade, he has also seen numerous couples divorce and marry foreigners. But Rodney is pleased to see a greater interest by villagers in protecting the environment, as they understand that the economic benefits of tourism are dependent on it.

Image Credit: Kiril Lozanov

Sarah Lozanova is a regular contributor to environmental and energy publications and websites, including Mother Earth Living, Green Builder, Home Power, and Urban Farm. Her experience includes work with small-scale solar energy installations and utility-scale wind farms. She earned an MBA in sustainable management from the Presidio Graduate School and she resides in Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage in Midcoast Maine with her husband and two children.

The textile and garment industries have long left one of the largest footprints on the globe. While more companies have pledged to source more sustainable raw materials and pay “living wages,” some say overall these efforts are a few Band-Aids on what worldwide accounts for a massively gaping wound. One company, Good Cloth, is trying to challenge the fashion industry by working with small artisan producers around the world while still focusing on quality and design.

Based in New Orleans, the company was founded by Stephanie Hepburn, a journalist and writer who has written extensively on human trafficking. The company says each of its collections are produced in small quantities, made with locally-sourced materials, and manufactured in a socially and environmentally sustainable way. The finished products, available for men, women and children, range from the “ethnic look” to what you would find off the rack in a department store. And, considering the costs big-name labels insist we pay for something made by someone making pitiful wages, the prices are overall fair and competitive. Shoppers can also choose their products based on the values most important to them. If searching for a bag, for example, they can choose if they want a U.S.-made, recycled or “Trade not Aid” product.

One of the designers who is showcased on Good Cloth is Patti Dunn, who is also based in New Orleans. Her company, Tchoup Industries, sources local fabrics and finishings, while her firm’s studio in the French Quarter is decorated with art made by the company’s employees. Like other manufacturers who insist on making their goods in the United States, Dunn insists that spending money on locally-made products sends multiple messages: giving others in your community economic opportunity while telling the fashion industry to be more responsible and sustainable. It communicates, Dunn says, that one values the local culture instead of living in a world where everyone dresses the same. The company also has its own blog, which pays it forward by highlighting the work of other Louisiana designers, while also offering advice on how to repair textiles — tips not usually offered by the world’s large labels. Among the Tchoup products available on Good Cloth is a cool flap pack with fasteners that conveniently double as a bottle opener.

Liz Alig is another eco-conscious fashion label available on Good Cloth. Founded by Elizabeth Roney, the Indianapolis fashion studio partners with workshops across the globe, from Guatemala to India to Southeast Asia — as well as locally in Indianapolis. Roney worked in several countries around the world, visited factories and met garment factory workers. Unsatisfied with the ethical clothing designs that she could find, she decided to launch her own label. The materials Roney uses in her clothing are as diverse as the countries from which she sources — handwoven, recycled, and fair trade or organic fabrics end up in her designs. Liz Alig also has a social enterprise side to its mission: A portion of the company’s sales are sent to NGOs that provide skills training to women in developing countries.

Companies such as Good Cloth face huge challenges — especially consumers’ constant demands to have a wardrobe full of cheap clothes that also have the “designer” look. But as more consumers demand transparency and accountability from their labels of choice, watch for firms like this one to thrive — while making a difference many time zones away.

Image credit: Good Cloth

Based in California, Leon Kaye has also been featured in The Guardian, Clean Technica, Sustainable Brands, Earth911, Inhabitat, Architect Magazine and Wired.com. He shares his thoughts on his own site, GreenGoPost.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

Editor's Note: This post is part of an ongoing series detailing common CV and resume mistakes. In case you missed them, check out parts one, two and three.

By Shannon Houde

When you're putting together your CV, do you find yourself going back over your old job descriptions, copying and pasting the functions, tasks and responsibilities you had in previous roles?

We've all done it, and most people still do. The truth is, these details tell a hiring manager practically nothing about you, but lots about the role as described in your contract. It leaves the reader with nada, zip, zilch about who you are, what value you added to the company, or why anyone should make the effort to pick up the phone and call you in for an interview.

If you're female, it's even more likely that you're underselling yourself. Anyone who's casually glanced at the back cover of "Lean In" is aware that women often pitch low when it comes to their career achievements. Research also shows that men tend to overestimate past performance about 15 percent more than women do. The reasons for this are complex, but the solution -- you'll be glad to hear -- is simple, and it works for both sexes. The big secret? It's all about language.

In Part 1 of this series on CV and resume mistakes, I explained why your CV should be all about the market: appealing to the market, meeting the market’s needs, using the market’s language, communicating what the market wants to hear.

In Part 2, I walked you through a deep, analytical dive into the job description to figure out what the market really wants and tailor your CV to nail it. In Part 3, I took you on a step-by-step journey to creating a personal profile that screams 'hire me', without making you cringe.

This month, I'll be drilling down on the final part of the CV puzzle: accomplishment statements. What they are, why they work, and how to write them to help land your dream sustainability job.

In my various professional incarnations -- hiring manager, entrepreneur, corporate social responsibility (CSR) corporate consultant, impact career coach, to name but a few -- I've seen more CVs than you've seen job adverts. The candidates that stand out are the ones that use the 'career history' section to highlight key achievements that demonstrate tangible things they've actually done. The ones that really shine select statements that match up to the essential and desirable criteria in the job description.

Wondering how to get started? Look over your current CV or resume, and try summarizing it into 12 accomplishment statements using the language framework below. These statements should be framed around the impact/result of your action, indicate how you took that action – i.e. what skills you used, include context and numbers to make it come to life -- and relate back to the key criteria in the job description. A good accomplishment statement has four parts:

1. The Wow: Start with a verb that shows purpose/results and that impresses (example: increased, propelled, enabled, raised, grew, won, solved).

2. The So What: Front-load the statement with the larger purpose (or result/impact) of why the company or client wanted you to achieve this for them.

3. The Where, When, How Many: Include the scope where possible (number of clients, timespan, amount of money, company names, awards, etc.).

4. The How: End with a drill-down description of three tasks you actually did, specifically what skills you used.

Here are some examples:

Before
Supported new business development activities including writing proposals and presentations to prospective clients.

After
Won £50K of new sustainability consulting contracts over six months from retail and FMCG clients through identifying Walmart and P&G’s needs, writing proposals, and delivering pitch presentations to four directors.

Before
Influenced and inspired businesses at C-suite and board levels to understand and act upon the connection between sustainability and commercial growth.

After
Led groundbreaking aviation working group for United, Delta and American to achieve joint commercial-scale uptake of low carbon renewable jet fuel through organizing inaugural meeting in San Francisco and collaborating across 10 global stakeholders for funding.

See the difference? It's a no-brainer! By highlighting your accomplishments in specific terms rather than your generic responsibilities, you're maximizing your experience and showing the hiring manager just what they'll be getting on day one if they take you on.

For more advice on creating a killer CV, sign up for a 1-hour critique.

Photo by Steven Depolo, via Flickr.

Shannon Houde is founder of Walk of Life Consulting, the first international career coaching business focused solely on the environmental, sustainability and corporate responsibility fields.

Editor's Note: A version of this post originally appeared on the CSR-Reporting blog. 

At Sodexo, every employee counts, and the company aims to engage every employee in the organization's corporate responsibility efforts. Sodexo is a great example of where the reporting process has become an empowering element of corporate practice, rather than just a document to show to external stakeholders at the end of the annual cycle.

Sodexo is one of the largest companies in the world by employee headcount (the 18th largest private employer), with 419,317 people on board at the end of fiscal-year 2014, working across more than 33,200 sites. More than 95 percent of Sodexo employees are in daily contact with clients and serve 75 million consumers in 80 countries each day. Sodexo provides "Quality of Life services," which include diversified outsourcing services, benefits and reward services, and personal and home services -- adding value to the work and well-being of people in a wide variety of organizations from offices to hospitals to universities and more. In this size and scale of organization, implementing a global strategy is complex and not without a range of unique challenges, especially when most of the sites your employees operate from belong to clients.

Sodexo's reporting reflects this size and scale. Headquartered in France, Sodexo publishes an annual integrated report (Registration Document) that conforms to the French Grenelle II disclosure requirements and also includes just about everything everyone might want to know. And yet, it remains accessible and interesting to read (all 372 pages ... well, almost all). Aside from financials and Grenelle II, the Registration Document references GRI G4 guidelines, ISO 26000 standard and United Nations Global Compact principles, bringing everything together in a single content index.

What makes this report fascinating, however, is the way sustainability is embedded as part of the core approach as well as a business discipline that is managed and led right from the tone at the top. With a business mission that is a social mission as well -- to improve the Quality of Life of employees and all those the company serves -- that is applicable both internally and externally, Sodexo's sustainable development journey is aligned in all respects. The opening statement from the company's founder and chairman, Pierre Bellon, is well worth a read -- describing a life-philosophy as well as an approach to sustainable business growth that many would do well to learn from. His personal and business insights are quite inspiring -- including 10 important trends that are shaping the way business develops, and five important priorities for Sodexo.

Within the report, there are many (many!) short case studies and insights about how Sodexo's work is making a difference ... from supporting the IBM LEED-certified Technology Center in Chile, to winning a workplace food services award in Scotland, to providing Quality of Life services including health and safety programs for offshore drilling fleets, to food services for the mining industry in Mozambique, to supporting prisoner rehabilitation in U.K. prisons, to supporting environmentally friendly childcare facilities in France. The diversity of clients and nature of services provided is quite incredible. And while these are all core business services for Sodexo, they fall under the umbrella of improving Quality of Life. That also makes them sustainability services.

Sodexo's corporate social responsibility (CSR) approach is brought together under its corporate responsibility roadmap: the Better Tomorrow Plan, which has its own dedicated section in the Registration Document and a robust section on Sodexo's website. With many stories of how the Better Tomorrow Plan is put into practice around the world, the Registration Document details Sodexo's actions within its priorities to employees, promote nutrition, health and wellness, support local communities and protect the environment. The company also maintains and hosts a separate, independent website that presents thought leadership relating to Quality of Life.

A chat with Sodexo

In the run-up to the fourth annual Smarter Sustainability Conference in London on Feb. 24, which I chair, I took the opportunity to talk to Neil Barrett, Sodexo's group vice president of sustainable development.

Elaine Cohen: How do you get such a massive, sprawling and complex organization like Sodexo aligned behind a cohesive sustainability approach?

Neil Barrett: One of the key developments of the group has been the greater alignment on sustainable development actions. Some years ago, we created the Better Tomorrow Plan. It was eighteen months in the making. We undertook a huge engagement and dialogue program with stakeholder groups to make sure we understood the issues that were important to them.

When we launched this roadmap in 2009, one of the things we did right, in retrospect, was to devote the first year to getting our people on board. Because of scale of breadth of our organization, we took a solid twelve months to engage people internally on why this was important, what our priorities are and the commitments we undertook. That was time well invested. It also allowed us to establish a baseline on our various commitments across 33,000 different sites where our people work. Because we are represented on client sites, the reporting challenge for us is heightened versus organizations that have operations within facilities they directly control or operate.

As we provide our services on client sites, it took some time to understand what we should report on, what we can control and influence and how we should measure our performance for our own benefit and for the benefit of our clients.

EC: How do you manage to maintain consistency and discipline around reporting and performance management?

NB: "We have two kinds of indicators: Progress indicators and impact indicators. In the area of progress indicators, we have created a level of awareness around expected behaviors - what actions our employees can take on site to help improve our clients' sustainability performance. We have equipped our site managers with all they need to support sustainability processes at clients' sites and manage how we engage with the client. On the impact indicators side, we look to see how we measure the impact of our actions for our clients or consumers. Additionally, we established an effective governance structure right from the beginning. It has stood us fairly well over the past five years and we are able to report our progress in a consistent way. Every year we survey all our sites for information about their sustainable development activities and this is then consolidated at a regional and group level. We get a range of information about the environmental aspects of our activities and impacts on our clients. We put this system in place back in 2009. Actually it has stood us in very good stead for the introduction of the French Commercial Code Grenelle II Act in France in 2012. We already had everything in place to be able to report.

EC: Is all the effort collecting data worth it?

NB: Each year we review our progress and what we have achieved, but it is not just about reporting. It's about engagement. Our reporting processes help our people understand the reasons they are taking action, what areas they should be focusing on and where they need to go if they need guidance. The data we collect helps us create site-based reports. Each site manager gets a report that is designed for sharing with the client, showing comparative performance and benchmarks with other sites. It shows how the site is performing or even under-performing. The site managers are able to provide clients with details that help engage the client in discussion with our site teams.

This becomes an ongoing dialogue which ensures we all focus on achieving the right outcomes for all parties. This goes right back to the launch of the Better Tomorrow Plan and its governance. We have more than 100 Better Tomorrow Champions in the business who help facilitate these processes. You can imagine that they are very active at reporting time! For us, this is all about engagement, reporting, serving our clients better, empowering our people and making a positive contribution. Ultimately it supports improving Quality of Life. So, yes, it's worth it.

EC: What else has worked well?

NB: One of the very pleasing outcomes this year has been that Sodexo was awarded Sector Leadership in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the 10th consecutive year. As standards and expectations have evolved, we have been able to maintain our industry leadership position. Such external recognition validates our approach and efforts and also reinforces the fact that we are moving in the right direction.

We were also awarded this year the sector leader and most-improved company in the CDP Forests Report, and many other recognitions. I have to say that this is also increasingly being viewed by clients as important. It's a ticket to play. Clients want to deal with companies that can demonstrate a commitment to sustainability and corporate responsibility and can assist them in their sustainability journey.

EC: How do you manage to report everything in one integrated document? You have so much going on….

NB: It's been a challenge to pull everything together in the one document, but we have invested the time to consolidate everything into one report. We used to produce a number of different annual reports. Consolidating everything is much clearer both for us and for our audiences. The drive for simplification has helped. With a myriad of metrics, it helps give us a better sense of what we are doing and achieving. We have also tried to make it accessible – communicating in a way that people can understand.

We are now in the process of doing a materiality refresh … some themes have moved around but, by and large, the issues and priorities mainly are just as valid today as they were some years ago. Some of our targets will be completed by 2015, and we are now looking towards setting new ones for the coming years to continue our progress.

Image credit: Sodexo

Japanese pharma giant Astellas is to make trial data available through www.clinicalstudydatarequest.com, an independent web site that enables researchers to request and access clinical trial data after approval of a research proposal by an independent review panel.

“Transparency in the conduct of clinical trials is an important issue for the scientific and medical community today,” said Sef Kurstjens, MD, PhD, chief medical officer of Astellas Pharma, Inc.

“By making our clinical trial data more widely available, we further its potential to increase understanding of disease and, ultimately, to address the unmet needs of patients around the globe.”

The site, www.clinicalstudydatarequest.com, was developed to enable researchers to request data from clinical studies and perform further research that could help advance medical science or improve patient care. 

The days of counting employee volunteer hours as an indicator of valuable community service are on the wane.

Corporate volunteer programs in the US and globally are moving in the direction of volunteerism that is “transformational” versus merely “transactional,” suggests Realized Worth, a Toronto-rooted global firm that guides and coaches corporations such as Apple, Estée Lauder and McDonald’s, on making volunteer initiatives impactful.

Angela Parker, co-founder and partner of Realized Worth, says there is a shift from “metrics by numbers to metrics by impact.”

All agree measuring effect is not easy. But as CSR programs evolve and volunteering more inherent the public has started to ask, say, what “one million volunteer hours donated” actually has accomplished, according to Parker.
In the past, “volunteers would show up, do the work, and leave. While transactional volunteering is not inherently a bad thing, it’s certainly not good enough,” said Parker. “The purpose of empowering employees is to enable them to become more connected to marginalized people and issues – so connected in fact, that they become the kind of people who make better decisions because of their experiences.”

This more involved volunteer experience can lead to significant business benefits such as higher rates of productivity, improved health and increased recruitment and retention rates. “We want to see employees changed by volunteering and change the world in the process,” said Parker.

Seeing how volunteerism has solidified within major corporations, the United Nations Volunteer division has launched an initiative to tap into those burgeoning private sector resources and harness these activities in common cause against global sustainability goals.

Under its just two-month-old UN Impact 2030 program, 15-year goals will be set that participating corporations will work together to achieve. Areas of focus could include poverty, water scarcity and child mortality, with formalized goals to be announced in September. Funding will be specifically dedicated to measuring outcomes.

UN Impact 2030, if successful, has potential to become the most sweeping and galvanizing corporate volunteer undertaking ever. “Through Impact 2030, companies are empowered to collaborate,” said Parker, who believes the day may be at hand that volunteerism as a company asset could finally be taken seriously in the C-suite. To many it is still seen, she said, “as a day out of the office or a casual Friday.”

Chevy Chase, Md. – based Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company is a founding partner company of Impact 2030, along with UPS, SAP, IBM and others. Along with their leadership, they are making significant financial and resource commitments, according to Sue Stephenson, vice chairperson of the Impact 2030 executive committee and vice president of the Ritz-Carlton’s award-winning Community Footprints program, whose many endeavors include student mentoring (pictured above).

“(Impact 2030) is a multi-sector initiative with representatives from companies around the world,” explained Stephenson. “This will be a very global, but laser-focused initiative.” The committee is in talks with firms from China, India and South Africa to help round out involvement, and hopes to have 100 companies on board by the fall launch. “We have seen an incredible amount of interest.”

To facilitate cooperation and share knowledge and resources, ‘Regional Voice Networks’ are being planned in communities targeted for projects. “The intent of this is to be feet on the ground, rather than something directed from the US,” said Stephenson. The Networks will provide a forum for stakeholders, as well as, assist in research and measurement studies.

Performance indicators will be clearly defined. “So that what it means in the US is the same as in China or Australia and everyone is measuring the same impact,” said Stephenson. “For showing impact against the goals is going to be key. We know what gets measured gets done.”

San Francisco-based Volunteer Match started out as a resource to connect volunteers with causes, but due to demand now also supports corporate volunteer programs. Its corporate client base of 150 including Target and United Airlines, seek assistance in tracking and assessing their volunteer initiative, according to Vicky Hush, vice president of engagement and strategic partnerships.

Hush is seeing growth in corporate volunteer programs and also in the seriousness surrounding them.
“There has definitely been an uptick in companies that have these types of programs. And we are seeing smaller companies create programs and also want the technology to support it,” said Hush.

“What is interesting too is that companies are getting more transparent about the reasons they are doing this,” said Hush. “If you take the idea out that it is the right thing to do and then peel back why else they are doing it. There are team building, personal development and marketing skills and those sorts of things.” 

Following its success with tea, coffee and bananas, the Fairtrade Foundation is looking to further its engagement with the gold industry.

“Not enough people know about Fairtrade gold. By choosing it, you can create a better life for miners and their communities,” said Amy Ross, Fairtrade Gold project manager at the launch of the organisation’s new ‘I Do’ campaign, encouraging couples to choose Fairtrade gold rings this Valentine’s Day.

A recent survey by Cred Jewellery found that only 16% of people said they were familiar with Fairtrade gold as opposed to 64% who were familiar with Fairtrade tea or coffee.

The Fairtrade Foundation estimates that £1m in Fairtrade Premium could be generated if 50,000 couples chose Fairtrade gold wedding rings.

The campaign launch coincides with the Foundation’s publication of a new Industry Briefing to explain the complexities behind the gold mining industry and its new Standard for Gold & Precious Metals to help protect miners and their familiar against poverty and exploitation, revising the standard first introduced in 2011.

According to Fairtrade, there are 15m artisanal and small-scale gold miners globally producing 10-15% of the world’s gold supplies. Despite the promise of a better livelihood, the industry is rife with exploitation and daily contact with toxic chemicals. Miners can earn as little as $1 a day.

The new standard is said to encourage best practice and be in line with upcoming changes in international regulation and legislation around the production and trade of ‘conflict minerals’.

Under the new standard miners are required to:

• Uphold human rights policy preventing war crimes, bribery, money laundering and child labour;
• Try to minimize the risks of conflict minerals through robust risk assessments and collaboration across supply chains;
• Report to buyers and trading partners regarding the risk of conflict minerals.

Ross added: “By choosing Fairtrade gold you can help create a better life for miners and their communities. Fairtrade gold supports miners to eliminate child labour, work their way out of the vicious circle of exploitation and poverty and reduce the harmful impacts of mercury. Fairtrade hopes to now engage with gold in the same way it has with tea, coffee and bananas.” 

 

Picture credit: Cox & Power

Paul Buchanan, community director, Business in the Community explains why volunteering is good for the bottom line as well as the spirit

Recently I sat in an audience listening to a young man talk passionately about the support he had received from volunteers on Give & Gain Day, Business in the Community’s annual celebration of volunteering.

Andrew who had been unemployed for a number of years – attended an into work programme, run by the ClementJames Centre in west London supported by business volunteers who provided CV and interview training. Andrew now has a job at Tesco, after a referral from one of the volunteers. He spoke excitedly about his new found confidence and hopes to return to his native Ghana to run his own business.

No one hearing his story would doubt the positive impact of employee volunteering but is that enough for business?

Today approximately 70% of FTSE 100 businesses have an active employee volunteering programme and it is now widely recognised that it provides a range of benefits. Consumers are more likely to buy from a business that visibly supports and engages in activities to improve society. Volunteering also engages staff, which boosts morale, performance, retention and recruitment. According to the Corporate Leadership Council, employees who are most engaged with their employer perform 20% better and are 87% less likely to leave the organisation.

Volunteering also demonstrates a business’s visible commitment to local communities made up of current and potential customers, suppliers and employees. Building strong relationships with these local stakeholders can translate into stronger supply chains, access to a wider pool of talent and better consumer engagement.

There have even been efforts made to quantify the value of volunteering, to the volunteer, with a study commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions estimating the monetary equivalent of the wellbeing benefit to frequent volunteers to be £13,500 per year. With all this considered, its little wonder that employers are taking employee volunteering more seriously.

Yet despite these benefits we’re still a long way from employee volunteering being truly culturally normal and a recent ComRes survey found that only 15% of employees say they’re given time to volunteer by their employer. Indeed, the picture outside big business is very different. Only 20% of medium-sized businesses, and 14% of small businesses offer volunteering to their employees. With SMEs accounting for 48% of private sector employment it is clear that the actual take-up of volunteering across all business is not what it could be.

The development of skilled volunteering is an encouraging trend. At Business in the Community, we engage with approximately 80,000 per year across our programmes. We’re increasingly working to support businesses to shift towards more sustained volunteering rather than the one off challenges. Five years ago, 99% of the team challenges we organised for companies were physical e.g. gardening or painting. Now40% of activities are skills-based and companies are reporting clearer benefits.

What is clear is that employers now want to offer a range of volunteering opportunities to their staff matching their talents and motivations to community needs. The benefits for business are proven. The benefits for communities, when employee volunteering is done right, are undeniable. Now let’s see more of it.