It seems appropriate, in a week that petrol and diesel prices have been hiked up, once again (this time by 2 pence per litre), and amid comment from industry analysts that they cannot rule out the Government raising fuel prices to £1.20 per litre in the current lifetime of the administration, to reference an article recently written by Nick Reeves, Executive Director of The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM).
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It appears that UK consumers are among some of the most aware and discriminating when it comes to spotting companies that are genuinely ethical and sustainable and those that are just ‘greenwashing’, as complaints to the ASA continue increase about companies that advertise one thing, but practice quite another.
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Last week, UN representatives (not leaders, though) met in Bonn to progress the on-going climate change talks that will culminate in the Copenhagen conference at the end of this year. If members of the business community were hoping to derive guidance from the political arena, they got it, but not in the way that they might have thought and certainly not the guidance that the educated majority were hopeful would emerge.
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The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) have had to pull the recently launched GreenHouse Gas (GHG) conversion rates to be used by businesses to calculate their footprint in advance of reduction measures, after it was discovered that their figures were flawed and that there were ‘other data and methodology’ concerns and ‘inconsistencies between the way in which overseas and domestic electricity is accounted’, according to sustainability consultancy Best Foot Forward (BFF).
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The report of a study conducted by BPM Forum and E2open earlier this year entitled “Acceleration of ECO-Operation: Achieving Success & Sustainability in the Supply Chain” (read it here: http://www.eco-opscenter.com/report.php ) makes for interesting reading and highlights the difference between the perception and reality of the actions of the great and the good.
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CSR, Sustainability, Environmental concern… these themes have been yo-yoing up and down the corporate agenda as client and stakeholder pressure mounts and eases – and it is not wholly unconnected with the multiple legislation streams that are gaining traction and taking their place in the list of levies, fines and taxes that are becoming a common-place consideration for companies of all sizes.
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If we are to make a difference that makes THE difference in how our organisation operates in a more sustainable way, it will be necessary to engage everyone in the process and the effort.
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A conversation the other day with the head of a media agency raises a subject that was touched upon at the beginning of the year and is now becoming more of an issue with the incoming CSR clauses in the Companies Act 2006. This is namely the disjoin between doing the right thing(s) and publicising the fact that you are doing the right thing(s).

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A recent article about the ‘corporate activist’, Adam Werbach, highlights one of the issues that appear to be holding back the progress that could be being made by the corporate sector in lessening the threat of carbon resource reduction to its ability to conduct sustainable business.

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Well, the G8 summit meeting, taking place this week in Italy, has moved on to L’Aguila, spawning fears that, being so close to the epicentre of the recent earthquake site, there might be a risk from tremors.
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