It may not be quite so obvious in the first instance but flowers come with a very high carbon footprint. Cut flowers are sprayed with pesticides, drip irrigated, refrigerated, transported often air-freighted: all of this adds up to a pretty carbon-heavy bouquet. Sales of cut flowers increase during Valentine's Day but there are things that should be known before a choice is made.
Flowers in Kenya
Back in 2007, the British Government said that...
The debate about making CSR spend mandatory for Indian businesses has taken a new turn. When Salman Kurshid was Minister of Corporate Affairs there was strong debate about whether to make it mandatory. This was met with strong opposition among India Inc.
However, towards the end of his term, he said that it was decided that, "Companies will have to have a policy as to how they will spend 2% of their profit on CSR and...
What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a bottle of wine? With so many eco-bottles around picking one isn't really all that hard. Plenty of vineyards and wineries have invested in biodynamic and organic agriculture practices.
Green vino is certainly seeing an increase in market share and slowly finding its way to supermarket shelves. Many eco-labels can be found on wine bottles and this include organic and Fairtrade.
...The first ever Africa Roundtable and Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility (ARCSR) is scheduled to take place in Lagos, Nigeria between June 15-17, 2011. Attendees will include Ireland's first woman President, Mary Robinson and Professor Craig Smith as well as other seasoned CSR professionals across the continent and beyond.
The ARCSR conference will focus on the theme 'The Business Case for CSR...
Scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina have been working towards meat that can be grown in the laboratory for the last decade. They have used a combination of bioengineering and tissue culture to create cultured meat and the project is funded in part by PETA (of course).
The FDA first approved the technique in 1995, so it is not exactly a 'new' concept.  However it is only recently, that research is bearing serious fruit. In 2001, scientists in Amsterdam and the US were filing patents on varying processes to produce...
Procter & Gamble has launched a new ad campaign for its Venus range that features Jennifer Lopez.  She is the brand's first-ever global ambassador and will herald the new 'Goddess focus' to its digital marketing. Lopez is also making appearances for Gillette’s Goddess Fund for Education which donates a dollar to women in need any time a person posts a story about when they felt like a goddess.
The Education Fund is tied into P&G's CSR initiative. According to their marketing release...
Castro's comments on Egypt
Yesterday Fidel Castro wrote an opinion piece in Escambray, Cuba's digital newspaper commenting on the situation in Egypt. He made an obvious but valid point in saying that, "for the first time the world is simultaneously facing three problems: climate crises, food crises and political crises." He also pointed out that, "the risk of increasingly destructive war is very real." War trumps ethical consumption which brings me to my next point.
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Shell Falls in Sustainability Ratings...
Royal Dutch Shell no longer features in the GLOBAL 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World. Shell was one of the pioneers of CSR reporting, publishing their first report as early as 1991, of course back then it wasn't quite called 'CSR'. Since then however, their sustainability ranking has considerably fallen. They were once thought to be pioneers of ensuring environmental standards were met and for an oil company, this was a new concept.
Working in one of the most environmentally damaging...
The annual Sustainable Foods Summit was held in San Francisco last month. It was organised by UK market research firm Organic Monitor and highlighted many pertinent issues in the food industry. The discussions that were held stressed the need for greater transparency and accountability in the food industry. As consumer base for ethically sourced food is growing, 200 executives from across the food industry got together to talk about how this demand can be met in a more sustainable...
The World Economic Forum at Davos proceeded with no clear focus and ended with several conclusions. The biggest worry with many economic leaders was whether the  recent economic boom in Asia, Brazil, the US and Germany would last. On world CSR front, the UK and Gates Foundation joined forces in a final push to eradicate polio.
The UK government would contribute $60m and the Gates Foundation will add $100m to wipe out the last 1% of polio. Nearly two years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, global CEO's brought to the forum a lot of introspection and measured...