CSR Today October 2014 Issue by Rajesh Tiwari

publisher’s note

CSR and C-Suite

T Rajesh Tiwari Publisher rt@iccsr.org

In addition to the CEO, other members of the C-suite can add great value to CSR in their respective domains

he person solely responsible for increasing the top and bottom lines of a corporate is its Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Although the growth of an enterprise is a result of collective effort from the heads of all the SBUs (Strategic Business Units), at the end of the day, it is the CEO who is accountable for the performance of the company. He is answerable to the board. Similarly, when it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), it is the CEO who sets the agenda and gets the ball rolling. The mandate for a corporate’s foray into sustainability and social good is definitely top-down, driven by the CEO himself. But this certainly does not mean that other members of the C-suite (the highest-level executives who are all part of the senior management) simply have to follow the strategy and policy laid out by the CEO. Instead of playing a mere fulfillment role, they can add great value to CSR in their respective domains. For instance, a CIO (Chief Information Officer), who is the Head of IT in an enterprise, can play an important role in furthering the CSR agenda of his company. The information technology infrastructure (hardware and software) in a company offers a great deal of opportunity and scope for an IT decision maker to emerge as a CSR champion.

By transforming his existing IT infrastructure into ‘Green IT’, a CIO can position himself as a crusader for sustainability. He can gradually phase out legacy infrastructure to deploy more energy efficient solutions, thereby cutting down on the company’s carbon footprint. Besides, he can overhaul the entire supply chain, which has a major impact on the environment, to make it more streamlined and eco-friendly. In his day-to-day functioning, a CIO has to have a strong focus on RoI (as this is the most critical parameter for the top management). This entails that the issues of monitoring and measurability of any CSR initiative would be inadvertently be taken care of by the CIO. Similarly, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) too can pitch in for CSR. According to studies, there is a strong relationship between strong social performance and lower capital cost. This clearly puts the CFO at the forefront of any CSR initiative since such an activity would lead to the expansion of business. As good compliance calls for providing clear and precise information on CSR, a CFO can also proactively take the lead in ensuring this. So, as your company’s CEO gears up to spend the mandatory 2 percent on CSR, being a member of the C-suite, you can not only help in maximizing the returns from this investment but also display your leadership abilities in doing so.

October 2014 | CSR Today | 1

Contents

october 2014 | vol. 02 | issue 10 Printer and Publisher: Rajesh Tiwari EDITORIAL Consulting Editor: Y Singh INDIAN CENTRE FOR CSR ADVISORY BOARD Pankaj Pachauri, Ted McFarland, Mag. Martin Neureiter, Chandir Gidwani, Lou Altman, Kingshuk Nag, Toby Webb, Anil Bajpai, Nikos Avlonas, Rajesh Tiwari, Satish Jha, Amit Chatterjee, Jitendra Bhargava, Namita Vikas, Dinesh N. Awasthi, Kapil Dev, Dr. Kamal Kant Dwivedi, Sanjiv Kaura, Suhel Seth PRODUCTION, CIRCULATION AND LOGISTICS Hardik C

08 cover story Community Connect

Jindal Stainless Ltd has an unswerving focus on the first ‘P’ of the triple bottom line – People. It is hardly surprising then that there have been no lockouts in any of the company’s plants in the last several years.

sustainability column

06 How Public-Private Partnerships can Hit a Sweet Spot

csr society

12 CH2M HILL Engages Employees in Giving Through Skills and Action 16 Indonesia Finally Ratifies Asean Haze Treaty 18 New Timber Technology a Game-Changer for Singapore 20 Sun-Powered Desalination for Villages in India 22 Greener Information Age Transforming Energy, Finance And Our Future

sustainability

24 India’s Growing Water Footprint not Sustainable

26 This Deep Dive Into 10 Years of LEED Unearths Surprises 28 Dow’s Integrated Social Enterprise Investment Approach

sustainability capital

36 What Drives the Business Case for CSR? 38 How Our Food Drives Illegal Deforestation

CSR LEADERSHIP

40 Bombardier’s Product Responsibility Strategy

HEAD OFFICE CSR Today Indian Centre for CSR, 601, 6th Floor, Technocity, Plot No. X4/5 A, TTC Industrial Area Mahape, Navi Mumbai- 400701 (India). Tel: +91 22 2778 8481 / 82 Fax: +91 22 2496 6803 Email: editor@csrtoday.net Website: www.iccsr.org REGIONAL OFFICES NEW DELHI Regional Director: V Chopra Sr. Vice President: Abhay Kumar Vice President: Bhanu Pratap Singh MUMBAI Vice President: Chaitali Chatterjee Circulation: C.R. Tiwari To Advertise: Email: ak@iccsr.org Mobile: 09899780277 Printed, Published and Edited by Rajesh Tiwari on behalf of Indian Centre For Corporate Social Resposibility, Printed at Jayant Printery, 352/54, J.S.S. Road, Murlidhar Temple Compound, Near Thakurdwar Post Office, Mumbai 400 002 and Published from Indian Centre For Corporate Social Resposibility, 106/A, Nirman Kendra, Plot No.3, Dr. E. Morses Road, Mahalaxmi Estate, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai 400 011. Editor: Rajesh Tiwari Disclaimer

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CSR News SAP Launches Student Entrepreneurship Program

AP has launched the Student Entrepreneurship Program of SAP University Alliances in India at the BMS College of Engineering (BMSCE) in Bangalore. The announcement comes on the heels of the global launch of the program globally earlier this year. The SAP University Alliances program opens up the world of SAP to more than 1,800 universities in more than 80 countries worldwide. The program encourages student entrepreneurs and early start-ups to use SAP’s technology platform to develop new applications and launch successful start-up ventures. The launch coincides with SAP APJ president Adaire Fox-Martin’s recent visit to the campus BMSCE to address students on entrepreneurship. The program aims to guide students develop new solutions across SAP’s platform technologies, leveraging on the company’s in-memory platform SAP HANA, the SAP Mobile Platform, and analytics capabilities, a report in Infotech Lead said. “Through BMSCE and the Student Entrepreneurship Program, students of the institute will gain access to these technologies, SAP experts, mentors, and an entrepreneurship curriculum,” SAP said. “SAP has been helping customers run better in the fast-growing APJ region for the last 25 years. Our presence has spurred the development of a diverse ecosystem of IT companies both in India and within the larger APJ market,” said Fox-Martin at the launch. “We are pleased to work with BMSCE to launch the Student Entrepreneurship Program of SAP in India and promote technology entrepreneurship among their students,” Fox-Martin added.

CSR Spend of Companies Slashed

he corporate affairs ministry has cut by half its internal estimate of corporate social responsibility spending in the first year, in part because companies aren’t very enthusiastic to the idea, according to a report by The Economic Times. The ministry now expects the eligible companies to spend about Rs 5,000 crore; its initial projection was more than Rs 10,000 crore. It has cut the estimate also after finding discrepancies in the data it

relied upon. The ministry had estimated some 12,000 companies to come under CSR ambit and spend the funds on projects ranging from rural develop and education to art and culture. “After we screened the data available, a lot of errors in the filings of several companies were found and the figure calculated was overestimated,” a government official said. “We don’t think the spending towards corporate social responsibility activities will be more than Rs 5,000 crore in the first year,” he added.

Govt Changes CSR Spending Norms

he government has made changes to the norms governing expenses on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities under the new companies law, according to a report in The Economic Times. Certain class of profitable companies are required to shell out at least two per cent of their three-year annual average net profit towards CSR works. The requirement is part of the Companies Act, 2013, most of whose provisions came into effect from April 1. Under the rules, companies are allowed to build CSR capacities for their own personnel through other institutions provided such expenses does not exceed five per cent of the total expenditure incurred on social welfare activities in one financial year. Providing more clarity for stakeholders, the Corporate Affairs Ministry has said the five per cent cap would include “expenditure on administrative overheads”. The changes have been made to the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014, through a notification dated September 12. These rules were notified in February this year. As per earlier norms, companies may build CSR capacities of their own personnel as well as those of their implementing agencies through institutions with established track records of at least three financial years but such expenditure shall not exceed five per cent of total CSR expenditure of the company in a single financial year. October 2014 | CSR Today | 3

CSR | NEWS

Jan Dhan Yojana as CSR

inancial literacy spends made by banks under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is all set to qualify as corporate social responsibility (CSR), a report in The Hindu Business Line said. The Corporate Affairs Ministry has conveyed to the Finance Ministry that the financial literacy spends made by banks under PMJDY will be counted as CSR, Anurag Jain, Joint Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS), said at a seminar on financial inclusion, organised by Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. “We had already written to Corporate Affairs Ministry. They have actually given us one concession immediately that for financial literacy whatever banks are spending will be part of CSR. That explanation they have already given”, Jain said. This spells some good news for banks, especially when the DFS efforts in getting them exempted from the mandatory 2 per

cent CSR spend has proved futile. While the DFS had written to the Corporate Affairs Ministry seeking exemption for banks from the mandatory 2 per cent CSR spend, the Corporate Affairs Ministry has reportedly rejected this request. Aseem Chawla, Co-Chairman, Financial Services Committee, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, said an enabling amendment has to be made in Schedule VII of the new company law and the related rules for banks to be able to claim the spend on financial literacy as CSR. Anurag Jain said that all efforts are being taken by the banking system to ensure that the goals of PMJDY are achieved by January 26 next year. “The main focus of the PMJDY is to ensure that villages of the country need to be benefited” Chawla said that a great deal of improving and achieving sustainable livelihood for rural India depends on financial inclusion through the success of PMJDY.

New CSR Guidelines for PSUs

overnment will release a new set of guidelines for public sector undertakings soon on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. This was stated by Joint Secretary in the Department of Public Enterprises A K Pavadia at a Ficci conference. Pavadia said that the government is providing an overarching framework in which corporate social responsibility (CSR) is embedded. He asked businesses not to restrict their social and community spending to 2 per cent as mentioned in the Companies Act, the compulsory CSR spending, and should expand and go beyond it to achieve a sustainable business model. He added that now the PSUs will have to report the sustainability initiatives undertaken by them, as per a report by PTI.

PSUs Want Angel Investments Counted as CSR

rofit-making state-run companies are willing to play angel investors in loss-making ones in a bid to turn them around, but they want their effort to be acknowledged and that they get the right incentives, a report in The Economic Times said. They have offered to bail out the loss-making companies if their revival efforts are counted towards the mandatory 2 per cent corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending. “Companies are willing to come forward, but want such efforts to be part of their CSR activity,” said a government official who is aware of the deliberations, but did not reveal the names of the companies. Under the Companies Law 2013, funds infusion to revive sick companies is not included as permissible CSR activity. A senior official with a blue chip PSU emphasized that there has to be some incentive for nurturing a sick enterprise. “If there’s no strategic advantage for us, which is the case with most sick 4 | CSR Today | October 2014

companies, then including it in our CSR spend is most appropriate,” he said. UD Choubey, director-general of SCOPE, the apex body of central government-owned units, said all options should be explored. “It’s important to revive these companies and the government should consider all viable options,” he said. According to government data, there were 61 sick public sector companies at end of March 2013. About 50 central public sector enterprises, including Air India, BSNL, MTNL and ITI, have been making losses for past three fiscals. “We will take up this issue with the ministry of corporate affairs,” said the above quoted government official, adding that such clause can also help rope in private players. Earlier, the government had formed a committee under NTPC chairman Arup Roy Choudhury to look into the formation of a firm with mandate to revive or sell sick state-run enterprises.

CSR | NEWS

Foreign Cos Not Bound to do CSR in India

oreign companies’ are not bound to undertake corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity in India, Shardul Shroff, Managing Partner, Amarchand & Mangaldas, a leading law firm, has said. This is even as the rules framed under the new company law extended the CSR provisions to foreign companies, Shroff said at an event on Companies Act, organised by KPMG in association with Indo-Canada Business Chamber, a report in The Hindu Business Line said. There is inconsistency between the rules and the main statute (Companies Act), which has mandated CSR spend by certain companies, Shroff noted. India is the only country in the world that has legislated CSR and required CSR spend equivalent to 2 percent of net profit for certain companies. But there is no penalty if the provisions were not complied with. Shroff highlighted that Section 135 – the provision in the new company law that deals with CSR – applies CSR only to domestic companies. Although the rules had extended it to foreign companies, this was prone to chal-

lenge as the main Act sought to cover only domestic companies. “All the changes that are coming through the rules, which may affect the definition in some sense, are not lawful. If ever challenged by a foreign company in court, then the Court would tend to uphold the challenge”, Shroff said. Rakesh Nangia, Managing Partner, Nangia & Co, a firm of chartered accountants, said the main Companies Act talks only about Indian companies when it came to CSR. On whether a branch office or a project office of a foreign company is authorised to do CSR, Nangia said it doesn’t look likely and they will have to get Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approval on this count Nangia also said the wholly-owned subsidiaries of foreign companies can give money for charitable activities to only those companies that are Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) compliant. “We are advising our clients (foreign companies) to approach Home Ministry and get clearance or seek clarifications. They should ensure that the entities to which they donate funds are FCRA compliant,” he said.

IIT-K Hosts Panel Talk on CSR

he Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) recently hosted industry experts, who brainstormed on the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the growth of a business organisation, according to a report in Business Standard. The panel discussion on ‘Attaining Sustainable Growth through Corporate Social Responsibility: A Breakthrough or just Green Washing’ was organised by the department of industrial and management engineering at IIT-K. The panel discussion was part of the flagship ‘Prabandhan 2014’ fest of the MBA programme of IIT-K. Senior officials from ITC, KPMG Advisory Services and ACC India discussed the issue in detail and dwelled upon the imperatives of a strong CSR framework in modernday businesses for sustainability.

news digest MRPL to Set up CSR Trust

he company will set up a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Trust to reach out to the needy from its gain. “Since the company was under loss last year we were not able to undertake CSR activity under our own name but in the name of the parent company. Hence, efforts will be made to speed up the work at Lady Goschen Hospital.”

Cos can Avail Tax Benefits for Expenditure on CSR

irms spending money on corporate social responsibility (CSR), which has been made mandatory under the new Companies Act, have more reasons to cheer. Though CSR provisions do not offer any great tax savings, companies can claim deductions towards depreciation on assets created for CSR purposes and on expenditure for skill development projects, a report in The Times of India said. The Finance Minister has clarified that deductions specifically allowed under Sections 30 to 36 of the Income Tax (IT) Act, 1961 could be availed. In effect, Section 30 of the IT Act can be used for availing deductions against expenditure incurred on repairs and insurance in respect of machinery, plant and furniture used for CSR activities. Rent, rates, taxes and repairs incurred on buildings or other assets taken on lease earmarked for CSR activity would also qualify for deductions. Companies can also claim deduction towards depreciation on assets used for CSR purposes. October 2014 | CSR Today | 5

sustainability column

How Public-Private Partnerships can Hit a Sweet Spot A project to grow sugarcane sustainably in India demonstrates how public-private partnerships can successfully meet profit and sustainability goals. By Harsh Vivek, Shatadru Chattopadhayay and Roshan Tamak

Harsh Vivek is the Operations Officer of Advisory Services at The International Finance Corporation. Dr Shatadru Chattopadhayay is the Managing Director of Solidaridad South and Southeast Asia. Roshan Tamak is the Business Head for sugar at Olam Agro India. 6 | CSR Today | October 2014

ublic-Private Partnerships (PPPs) bring together government bodies or development agencies with the private sector – and when implemented well they can be game-changers for developing communities. In 2013, global agri-business firm Olam approached the International Finance Corporation (IFC) with a proposal aimed at increasing sustainable sugar production in India’s Madhya Pradesh province. The IFC suggested bringing on board Solidaridad, an international network organisation recognised for its technical know how in sustainability – and the “Madhu Shree” PPP was born. Madhu Shree was a response to the enormous demand for sugar driven by India’s “sweet tooth”. The country is the world’s largest consumer of sugar and the second largest producer after Brazil. However, as with other crops, growing sugarcane demands water; with water scarcity becoming a global issue, ensuring its efficient use across agriculture is vital to the creation of long term sustainable supply chains. The potential advantage of any PPP is that it allows parties committed to real, positive change to tackle issues jointly and effectively on a much wider scale than might otherwise

be possible. Common objectives are agreed at the outset and the duplication of effort is avoided. It was the recognition of mutual stakeholder benefit for IFC, Solidaridad and Olam that created the virtuous circle of success underpinning the US$2 million Madhu Shree project. The common goal was that each partner could do well and do good by increasing sustainable sugar production. To date, the project has improved the livelihood of more than 15,000 sugarcane farmers while allowing all the partners involved in the PPP to achieve business and development objectives. Olam first initiated its efforts to improve water-use efficiency for farmers supplying its Barwani sugar mill in Madhya Pradesh in 2008. In 2013, it approached the IFC to scale up these plans at its Hemarus mill in Maharashtra. The IFC was supportive to the cause but wanted to ensure a focus on efficient and sustainable practices, including usage of water for sugarcane cultivation – hence its suggestion of Solidaridad’s co-sponsorship of the project and support for implementation on the ground. We shared financing and technical support for the project to keep costs down while leveraging our pooled resources in an efficient manner.

Photo Courtesy: strategicsociety.org.uk

sustainability | Column The partnership faced heavy scrutiny given its scale and ambition. Stakeholders in the IFC and Solidaridad had to be certain their support and engagement would generate long-term benefits for the sugarcane farmers and the community surrounding the two mills. Olam had to balance its own sustainability goals with commercial imperatives. We were also conscious that local farmers might be reluctant to change their practices and that significant time and resources would be required to build awareness and capacity. It was agreed that the IFC-SolidaridadOlam programme would be implemented at the two Olam mills. The three-year Madhu Shree initiative was conceptualised and designed with three core objectives: • Enhancing farm productivity by adopting a sustainable package of best agronomy practices: We train farmers to build capacity, improve yields and reduce environmental impact, helping them to cultivate sugarcane ecologically and providing educational material to improve their skills and knowledge. • Promoting water-use efficiency in sugarcane cultivation: We help farmers adopt less water-intensive drip irrigation systems; the water saved can be used for intercropping, the growing of accompanying short duration crops, with no increase in the overall call on water resources. • Promoting the rural economy: This is done through developing micro or rural enterprises and entrepreneurs to provide farmers with access to mechanisation services. The project builds the capacity of these entrepreneurs, helps them improve financial literacy and links them up with financial institutions and business advisers. Our partnership also aims to develop the market for sustainable sugarcane, to train and support the mills and producers for certification for the Bonsucro standard – the first global metric standard for sugarcane. This transition is aided by the fact that Bonsucro standards are in line with the Olam Sustainability Standard already practised at the two factories. There is still work to be done, but this PPP is starting to pay dividends across the stakeholder landscape.

The average income of a sugarcane grower supplying the Barwani mill is US$2,148 per hectare, compared with US$1,488 per hectare in Madhya Pradesh Through intensive implementation of the farmer support programme, over the year 2012-2013, we improved yields by 1015%, convinced more farmers to practise intercropping which improves soil health and their earnings, and saved over 10 billion litres of irrigation water. As a result, our farmers are making more. The average income of a sugarcane grower supplying the Barwani mill is US$2,148 per hectare, compared with US$1,488 per hectare in Madhya Pradesh generally. This has led to greater interest in growing sugarcane and sugar crush volumes have increased fourfold for Olam over the last few years. One of our beneficiaries is 64-year-old Mr Radheshyam Patidar, who made an extra US$2,600 last year from learning to plant chickpeas as a companion crop to sugarcane. Ever inquisitive, he is intercropping garlic this year after learning that it acts as as a natural pesticide against the dreaded sugarcane borer. With the positive progress, the IFC adds another proof point to its goal of al-

leviating poverty – creating shared prosperity while working with the private sector, and Solidaridad aligns its involvement to its vision of creating sustainable supply chains in emerging markets. Olam is on track to become a trendsetter as more sugar industry players in India embrace sustainable procurement and sourcing, with the Barwani sugar mill likely to be Bonsucro-certified within a year. To further emphasise the focus on improving water-use efficiency, IFC and Solidaridad have brought on the Hindustan Unilever Foundation as another partner. Our mutual hope is that through our partnership, India moves closer to a future where sugar production is more sustainable for the land, the farmers and all stakeholders. We also hope this says to others that with the right will, expertise and partner relationships, PPPs are a worthy investment. That would be the sweetest result of all. Source: www.eco-business.com October 2014 | CSR Today | 7

cover story

Community

Connect Jindal Stainless Ltd has an unswerving focus on the first ‘P’ of the triple bottom line – People. It is hardly surprising then that there have been no lockouts in any of the company’s plants in the last several years.

indal Stainless Ltd (JSL), a part of the $18 billion, OP Jindal group is the largest integrated manufacturer of stainless steel in India and is ranked as the 8th largest in the world, with a capacity of 1.8 million tons. JSL has crafted its success story by fully integrating its operations based on a strategy of both, backward and forward integration, starting from mining, melting, casting, hot rolling to cold rolling and further value additions . This has been the driving philosophy of the company from its one unit presence in the early 70’s to its present multi- location presence across the globe. An ISO: 14001 compliant, JSL product range includes: Ferro Alloys, Stainless Steel Slabs, Blooms, Hot Rolled Coils, Plates and Cold Rolled Coils/ Sheets, Stainless Steel Strips for Razor Blade Steel and Coin Blanks for mints in India & EU. Following on his father’s footsteps, O P Jindal who believed “without the uplift of the weak and backward sections of the society, a nation can never prosper,” Rattan Jindal, Chairman and Managing Director, has made Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) an integral part of inclusive management. A commerce graduate and alumnus of the Wharton School of Management, Jindal says, “CSR is the strategic approach toward 8 | CSR Today | October 2014

cover | story sustainable community development and the key to inclusive growth. With an excellent sustainable economic development taking place in the country, the Indian industry has the responsibility of getting connected with the community by sharing its economic growth through various community based programmes.” “It is equally important for the industry to get their employees sensitized on social issues and get them engaged in community work through volunteering programs. This gives the employees and the management an opportunity to get connected with each other as also with their target audience, i.e. the community in their immediate operational space or with those connected in the supply chain,” he says. Strongly believing in connecting with the community, Jindal avers, “CSR is a major initiative, which engages with multi stakeholders i.e. the employees; who apparently are the most important stakeholders, the investors, the community and others in the supply chain. Whoever is the target of engagement, the bottom line in the realm of CSR is to engage and connect with people by speaking the ‘language of the heart’ and making honest endeavor in fulfilling needs of the community through a community based participatory approach.” “It is therefore important to reiterate that CSR is a sustainable development of internal and external environment through various activities and programs planned over time. Although, the methodologies vary with the Corporate strategy, area of implementation and the situation, yet the aim of CSR remains the same i.e. ‘To provide a platform to build upon and empower a group or a community through repeated processes making the target self reliant and sustaining’. The aim is achievable only when as CSR professionals, we develop need-based programs through a process of direct intervention with the community,” he argues. The Companies Act 2013 has further given an impetus to JSL’s CSR initiatives. As Jindal points out, “The financial year 20132014 was very significant for JSL CSR in aligning itself to the Companies Act 2013. The year has also been very momentous

Various CSR initiatives by Jindal Stainless Limited Community Building

Integrated Healthcare

Under the umbrella of community

Integrated Health Care programs have

development JSL Limited is working on

been designed to address both preventive

various projects at the community level.

and curative health issues. Interventions

The aim of these programs is to reach out

are carried out through the 400 bedded

to communities and address various issues.

super-specialty hospitals in Hisar, Health

Programs have been developed to address,

Centre, Mobile Health Van, Awareness

lack of infrastructure at the local level, lack

Generation Programs, HIV/AIDS interven-

of livelihood opportunities and specialized

tion, Save the Girl Child Program, Cancer

programs on organic farming community

and on Drug Abuse. All these initiatives

led total sanitation program etc.

aim at providing quality healthcare ser-

Women Empowerment The Company has signed the United Nations, ‘Women Empowerment Principles

vices and also work on preventive care by creating awareness in the community on various diseases.

(WEP) CEO Statement of Support’ and has

Education

been aligning it CSR initiatives with the aim

Non-Formal Education Centre’s are be-

of addressing the seven principles articu-

ing run in the community and provide

lated in the WEP – Equality means business.

basic education to children who are first

Efforts are toward increasing the intake of

generation learners and drop outs. The

women at leadership positions, besides

centre’s aim at providing basic education

recruiting women graduates to work with

to the children and eventually link them

their male colleagues at shop floor in the

to formal schools. Formal Education is

factories and plants.

imparted through the Vidya Devi Jindal

Himayat Project

School, a residential school for girls in Hissar with over 800 students and O P

‘Himayat’ Project is a PPP model between

Jindal Modern School, a co-ed school

Corporation and the GOI, (MoRD), to train

with 3000 students.

youth of J&K in different skill sets. JSL entered into a consortium with LIFE, the NGO

Reviving Dying Art

implementing the project and are required

The objective of this initiative is to

to train 2000 youth in different skills with

enable the artisans transform themselves

1180 youth being trained for short term

into economically viable micro-enterpris-

courses of three months duration spread

es. This would involve enabling artisans

over a year plus and 720 youth are required

to tap into up-scale urban markets in

to be trained for long term courses spread

India and aboard to showcase and sell

over a period of nine months.

their products.

in championing the issue of ‘Human’ and ‘Business’ Rights. At Hissar and Jajpur, the key social developmental strategies laid the foundation for programs including education and skill development, women empowerment, community development,

integrated health care, and infrastructure development. There have been remarkable outcomes which, besides scaling up the activities, are indicative of focused achievements aimed at touching lives of many in varied ways.” October 2014 | CSR Today | 9

cover | story

From ‘Check-Book Philanthropy’ to CSR Brigadier Rajiv Williams took premature retirement from the Indian Army in 2005 and has since been engaged in the field of social responsibility. As Corporate Head- CSR, Jindal Stainless Ltd, he spoke to CSR Today on, among other things, how he has been taking forward the philosophy of sustainable development of the group’s founder. How and when did Jindal Stainless Limited (JSL) move from ‘check-book philanthropy’ to CSR? Prior to 2007, JSL was more focused on charity and philanthropy. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was looked upon as a feel good factor and a good thing to do for the community. I joined the company in 2007 and started to transform this approach. The area of social responsibility became more and more important. We adopted a policy that had an inbuilt need of engaging with the community in a more proactive way and strongly imbibed the concept of sustainability into it. In the manufacture sector, however, such activity is usually focused around the plant location, and it doesn’t scale up till the time the supply chain gets involved in it and the company goes pan India. This is quite unlike the service industry (such as education, telecom, IT, healthcare), which immediately goes pan India.

So how did you ensure that the social areas you got into were those that the local community wanted you to work in?

Brigadier Rajiv Williams, Corporate Head- CSR, Jindal Stainless Ltd,

Which sectors should we start with was surely a big question for us. It was tough to decide

up the necessities and requirements of the

were important. There is a mismatch when

whether to go with education or health or

people. We worked on the framework and

a corporate feels what community needs

women empowerment. So, we decided to

then focused on those verticals that the

is in reality totally different from what the

do a baseline survey in 2008, which threw

people needed rather than what we thought

community actually needs. Once we got the

10 | CSR Today | October 2014

cover | story buy-in from the top, things began to roll. We

and not a spent. If you have a factory lockout

corporates that have signed up with the UN

started some activities directly and some with

even for a day, it means a loss of crores of

in the area of women empowerment. Earlier,

partners (NGOs and other corporates). In Hisar

rupees. I am not saying this can be prevented

in the plant location in any steel company,

and Jajpur, the activities were quite similar.

only though CSR in the form of community

you never saw women. Today, you will find

In Hisar we opened up the first skill training

connect. But one of the initiatives for this

ladies working alongside men in plants. It is a

institute and we ran courses in IT, tailoring,

is definitely CSR. Our plant lockouts have

small beginning but a beginning nonetheless.

and electrical course. We then decided to

reduced from 8 in 2007, to 2-3 in 2010. Today

We recently got an award for our ‘Save the Girl

move one level up. To become job-oriented,

there are no lockouts. When an accident hap-

Child’ project, running in Hisar, recently.

we developed partnerships with NIIT, Usha

pens or there is confusion at the plant site, if

International and Schneider. As a result

we don’t have the community connect, who

people started getting jobs. The same model

will approach the people there?

was adopted in Jajpur. Over time, we added a hardware networking one-year course also.

But why did you choose so many areas to work in? Doesn’t focusing on a single area make more sense?

How do you measure the success of your CSR projects? Whatever doesn’t get benchmarked or

Did such a situation arise when your community connect came to your rescue? We had a challenge in 2008 in one of the

reported is not done. We have not yet come to the standards of GRI reporting but we have our own reporting standards as per the laws. We have two types of reporting. One is the

villages where we didn’t have a connect. The

financial reporting wherein if I have invested

As compared to manufacturing, all other

pipelines and electricity cables come from

so much money on a particular activity, are

verticals have the liberty to work on only one

villages. When our plant was coming up, the

we getting returns from it or not. That is a

domain. Manufacturing sector, however, does

villagers opposed it. They cut electricity wires

typical business outcome. The other is the

not have this liberty. A worker may tomorrow

and nobody was ready to go there. So, for

social impact, which can’t be measured only

say my child is sick but no doctor is coming

three months we didn’t have power. We then

on the basis of spend.

here. Women will say they also need skills

made them understand that the value from

and they too need to be empowered. People

the plant would be shared with them. They

may also demand that we make a culvert on

would be trained in IT and electrical works

the road. They could also demand electric-

and some of them could even be employed

What are some of the best practices that you have implemented in your CSR strategy?

ity in the harijan basti. So, we end up doing

there. The logic of partly-shared value was

The most important and critical component

everything. This is the reason why we focus

told to them, which eventually worked.

of any CSR activity is the art of listening. This

on so many things.

is a very simple yet challenging process. Also,

How do you feel that CSR should go beyond money?

it is imperative to see as to how the commu-

CSR goes beyond the feel-good factor. At

just about rolling out the capacity building

JSL, we take it as a responsibility. I am very

exercise. The community should also be

The connect with people, which is the first P,

skeptical that one will do CSR only if it gives

interested and contributing towards it. They

is the focus of all development work. If you

benefits. If it is heart connect, CSR has got

got to have a leader and you have to let them

are making profits, you are making profits

to go beyond money. It is engagement with

develop a process and allow them to contrib-

from the people. If you are linked to the envi-

the community and should not be limited

ute something from their end. That is what

ronment, the environment is linked because

to how it will benefit a corporate directly. A

sustainability of any project is all about.

of the people. The first P of the triple bottom

company’s branding, risk mitigation, and cor-

line is, therefore, a critical component of any

porate financial performance all depend on

Where do you see CSR evolving in India?

development work. People being your own

CSR. Today, you have investors from across

It is already evolved to a great extent as

employees (have to be motivated and sensi-

the world wanting to come to India. They

far as the framework is concerned. Now as

tized that they can understand the spent).

would want to partner with companies

there is clarity as to what CSR is all about, the

that have a social agenda on a high scale.

implementation has to happen. There are a

But when it comes to CSR, companies look at immediate returns. What is your take on this?

Even if you approach the World Bank, it

large number of companies that don’t know

asks as to what is the corporate doing

how to go about doing CSR. Of the 16,000

around Human Rights? What is your agenda

companies, only about 1000 are doing CSR.

Corporates may be looking at immediate RoI

on social governance structure? Investors

The rest have no clue how to go about it. The

but social returns are not immediate. It make

won’t come to you if you don’t have answers

evolution phase will take care of this. Com-

take a year or even 10 years for returns to kick

to these questions.

panies like us need to keep sharing. We have

According to you, which ‘P’ is the most important in the triple bottom line comprising People, Plant and Profit?

in. While people earlier didn’t realize this, they are now realizing that this is an investment

We are spending much more than the mandatory 2 percent. We are one of the six

nity can get engaged in your project. It is not

to start helping each other in developing a social agenda that can be built on trust. October 2014 | CSR Today | 11

CSR Society

CH2M HILL Engages Employees in Giving Through Skills and Action In 2012, CH2M HILL decided to take a step back and revisit its giving strategies. As a result, the CH2M HILL Foundation was relaunched in 2013 with a new board and a more focused mission by sarah ford

12 | CSR Today | October 2014

Photo Courtesy: www.1to1media.com

or 85 per cent of employers surveyed in Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Charities 2013 Snapshot Report, keeping workplace giving campaigns fresh and vibrant is a challenge. More than ever, employee expectations of engagement programs have extended beyond matching gift programs and expanded opportunities to give throughout the year to any charity. Employees also want the opportunity to be more directly connected with charities, and they want to join colleagues in doing good inside and outside the walls of the workplace. At the same time, companies are more strategic than ever about their approach to philanthropy. Looking to engage employees while maximizing their impact, companies are starting to target their resources where they can do the most good by focusing on a handful of causes that best align with their talents. As a result, employers are now devising overall giving strategies that focus on specific causes and encourage year-round giv-

CSR | Society ing, volunteerism, skills-based pro bono services and engagement. One such example is CH2M HILL, a global leader in engineering with 26,000 employees on six continents. In 2012, CH2M HILL decided to take a step back and revisit its giving strategies. As a result, the CH2M HILL Foundation, which CH2M HILL uses to manage its charitable giving, was relaunched in 2013 with a new board and a more focused mission. On a mission to support global organizations in its operating countries that develop sustainable communities and inspire the next generation of socially and environmentally responsible leaders, CH2M HILL decided to focus on the following three areas of giving: 1. Environmental stewardship; 2. STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education; and 3. Employee engagement. Environmental stewardship and STEM make sense for an engineering company like CH2M HILL, but what caught our attention was their focus on employee engagement. “We know with empirical evidence that when our employees have the opportunity to share both their skills sets and their passion for helping others, they generate pride in themselves and in their employer,” says Ellen Sandberg, Executive Director, CH2M HILL Foundation, and Vice President, Community Investment.

Giving Through Action For most companies, employee engagement is an outcome the company hopes to achieve as a result of its work. For CH2M HILL, employee engagement is more of a means to achieving that result. Service has been part of CH2M HILL’s culture since its founding in 1946 and one way employees of CH2M HILL are encouraged to put their passion for giving into action is through CH2M HILL Foundation’s Employee Action Grants and Community Grants programs. Through the Employee Action Grants program, employees can volunteer with charities they are passionate about in their local community. If employees actively

volunteer at least 40 hours per year, the CH2M HILL Foundation makes financial donations to those charities ranging between USD$500 to $1,000 depending on the hours of service contributed. In 2013, CH2M HILL donated more than $130,000 to charities through this program, with 20% of the grants supporting charities outside the United States. From coaching youth sports in Canada to mentoring high school students in Arizona to guiding scouts in England to volunteering at an animal shelter in Florida, 141 organizations benefited from time and talent contributed by CH2M HILL’s employees. Similarly, CH2M HILL Foundation’s Community Grants program gives employees the opportunity to use their technical skills to better the world, but the Community Grants specifically support the work of its strategic partners Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and Water For

Prosperity, the CH2M HILL Foundation sent a team of 11 employee volunteers from its Anchorage, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Calgary, Toronto, Dubai, London and Sydney office locations, to construct a pedestrian suspension bridge connecting the communities of La Conga and La Florida in Panama. The completed bridge will serve approximately 200 people, enabling them to safely cross the Rio Trinidad to reach the nearby municipal town of Capira. Bridges to Prosperity has found that building a footbridge leads to an 18% increase in women employed, a 24% increase in healthcare treatment and 12% more children enrolled in school. Reece Bishop, a civil engineer in CH2M HILL’s Calgary office, was selected to be project manager for the Bridges to Prosperity project. “This project was not like most projects we work on at CH2MHILL, in the office or in the field.

Through the Employee Action Grants program, employees can volunteer with charities they are passionate about in their local community. If employees actively volunteer at least 40 hours per year, the CH2M HILL Foundation makes financial donations to those charities ranging between USD$500 to $1,000 depending on the hours of service contributed People. In 2013, the CH2M HILL Foundation provided grants totaling nearly $30,000 to employees from the U.S., Canada, Argentina and Italy traveling with Water For People’s World Water Corps supporting projects in Bolivia, India, Malawi and Rwanda. This past summer, in partnership with the not-for-profit organization, Bridges to

For all of us involved, this project stands by itself as being a one-of-a-kind, oncein-a-lifetime opportunity. On top of all of this, I experienced being a project manager (PM) for the first time, and I couldn’t think of a better project to get my feet wet,” stated Bishop in a post he contributed to CH2M HILL’s blog after returning from the weeklong project. October 2014 | CSR Today | 13

CSR | Society Bishop wasn’t the only team member who gained skills from the Bridge to Prosperity Panama project. After returning from the project, the CH2M HILL team completed a survey, and the results (like question #13 shown below) revealed just how beneficial the Panama experience was for the team. But it isn’t just a chance to apply and develop expertise that these employees received from this opportunity. Prior to departing for Panama, Blake Scott, a Global Finance employee, wrote in the company’s blog, “This is truly a dynamic team of skilled volunteers and not only will we be making a positive and long lasting impact

tise, which CH2M HILL employees have to offer.

The Business Case for Employee-Volunteering and Pro Bono More and more Americans are volunteering, as people become more passionate about civic engagement and making a difference in their communities. This is particularly true for Baby Boomers and Millennials, who are most active in service. Corporate volunteer programs are a great way for companies to retain and recruit these employees, while creating a more engaged corporate culture overall. A 2004

CH2M HILL employees are passionate both within their career and with giving back to their communities. Through its grant programs, CH2M HILL supports those passions, while also supporting the needs of its nonprofit partners on the community of La Conga, we will be engaging with one another under the toils of hard work to foster better, stronger relationships with our fellow colleagues from around the globe.” Engaging employees at one business office is hard enough, but try unifying and engaging 26,000 employees from offices spread across 6 continents. That’s downright challenging. CH2M HILL’s Community Grants program unifies employees from completely different backgrounds, cultures and countries. It brings together a Global Finance professional from the U.S. with a Project Manager, Safety Coordinator and engineers of many disciplines from different countries – each part of a project that will completely transform a community in need of the collective skills and exper14 | CSR Today | October 2014

Lloyd Morgan survey of 50,000 employees showed that by increasing employees’ engagement levels, organizations can expect an 87% reduction in employees’ probability of departure. This surge in interest in volunteerism coincides with the dire need many nonprofits have for support. In fact, a corporate grant is one of the most highly valued aspects of a corporate philanthropic program, according to 90% of respondents in America’s Charities 2014 Snapshot Report, with more than 51% of respondents placing significant value on the grants they receive from companies in support of employee-volunteers. CH2M HILL employees are passionate both within their career and with giving back to their communities. Through its grant programs, CH2M HILL supports

those passions, while also supporting the needs of its nonprofit partners. CH2M HILL is a very large company, but even small businesses with one office location in one community can follow CH2M HILL’s lead. As stated by Sandberg, “At CH2M HILL we are fortunate to count on thousands of pairs of helping hands. But to make a positive difference, all it takes is one hand to raise up and offer your time and talent.”

How Can Your Company Create a Similar Program? Here are some pointers to get you started: 1. Design a program that aligns with your company’s culture, its business & community goals. • What are your company’s business and community goals? • What unique skills do your employees possess? • Are you in a position to offer paid time off for volunteering or are there other incentives you can provide employees? • Would you like your volunteer program to be on an ongoing basis or within a defined timeframe during the year? • How much time and resources do you have to manage the program?

2. Identify nonprofits that might be a good fit with your company’s goals. • Ask the nonprofit about their programs and strategic plan. Does the nonprofit have a particular program that is underfunded, where your employee’s skills could help? 3. Manage the program to ensure a great experience for you, your employees and nonprofit partners. • How will you promote and build interest in your program? • How will you know if the program is successful? Before launching the program make sure you identify key metrics with which to evaluate the program’s success both from your business’s perspective and from that of your employees and nonprofit partner.

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Indonesia Finally Ratifies Asean Haze Treaty Indonesia’s Parliament voted to ratify a regional treaty to tackle the haze, as air pollution from raging forest fires continued to plague neighbouring countries by jessica cheam and medilyn manibo

16 | CSR Today | October 2014

Photo Courtesy: www.singapolitics.sg (photo by: JAMIE KOH)

ndonesia’s Parliament has voted to ratify a regional haze treaty, finally writing into law its commitment to work with its Asean neighbours to tackle the region’s haze problem. The move comes 12 years after the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution was first signed. Indonesia is the last Asean country to ratify the agreement, which requires that members cooperate and implement measures to prevent, monitor and mitigate transboundary haze pollution. Signing an international treaty only expresses an intention to comply and a treaty becomes binding only when a country ratifies it. Forest fires have been spreading in several provinces in Indonesia, with haze from South Sumatra blowing towards Singapore and causing its air pollution index to reach unhealthy levels this week, according to Singapore’s National Environment Agency. Indonesia had previously not ratified the treaty due to objections from some political parties that it could be an infringement on Indonesia’s sovereignty. But the country has

CSR | Society been under renewed pressure to ratify the agreeement since forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan caused the region’s most severe haze crisis last year. The nine other Asean countries – Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam – have all ratified it as of 2010. Indonesia’s Environment Minister, Professor Balthasar Kambuaya, said: “This (ratification) is best for our people in Indonesia. So, we will continue, and we still make a lot of efforts, on how we handle forest burning and its impact – haze, especially. As part of the agreement, Indonesia has to commit more resources to tackle forest fires and is obliged to respond promptly and provide relevant information such as satellite images sought by other member countries that are or may be affected by transboundary haze. The information could help to identify which areas the fires are burning and who owns the land. This paves the way for emergency assistance to be dispatched more quickly and also for possible prosecution of those responsible.

Ratification a timely move Neighbouring Singapore issued a statement on Tuesday welcoming the ratification as a “timely” move. “Transboundary haze pollution has been plaguing our region for decades. There is an urgent need for effective action at the source, including deterrence, investigation and enforcement against errant companies responsible for the haze,” said the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources in a statement. Singapore “looks forward to closer cooperation with the Indonesian government” together with other Asean partners to tackle the problem, the ministry added. Singapore just passed its own transboundary haze bill into law last month, which could impose fines of up to S$2 million on errant companies responsible for the fires. Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Bakakrishnan said that Singapore had the legal right to take action against irresponsible actions of companies that inflict environmental harm within Singapore, including those entities that do

not have assets or presence in the city-state. Indonesia’s forest fires have been largely attributed to the billion-dollar palm oil and paper and pulp industries, which have large tracts of concession areas in Riau, among other provinces. Slash and burn is a common and cheap method to clear away land for new farms and plantations. Pressured by environmental groups, firms in these industries such as Asia Pulp and Paper and Wilmar International have committed to a ‘zero deforestation’ policies, which will require them to ensure that the pulp or palm oil they use is sourced sustain-

sessments, protection of peatlands, and processes to accommodate local communities’ livelihoods and aspirations, respect their rights to their lands and to give or withhold their free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) to proposed developments. The companies involved are Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), Cargill, Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), Golden Veroleum Liberia, Wilmar and the producer members of the Palm Oil Innovation Group, Agropalma and New Britain Palm Oil. All have agreed to stop any further land clearing for plantations until High Carbon

Signing an international treaty only expresses an intention to comply and a treaty becomes binding only when a country ratifies it ably, and that their entire supply chain does not contain any trace of forest and wildlife habitat destruction.

NGO, companies to work on HCS approach To effectively implement these commitments, an alliance of private sector companies and NGOs have set up a governance and standardisation body for a methodology known as the High Carbon Stock (HCS) Approach. In a joint statement issued by Greenpeace International on Tuesday, the group announced a High Carbon Stock (HCS) Steering Group which will work together to “demonstrate that immediate action can be taken to break the link between deforestation and high-risk commodities, such as palm oil and pulp and paper”. The HCS Approach is being developed as a tool to provide a credible way to identify degraded areas suitable for plantation development and forest areas that merit protection to maintain and enhance carbon, biodiversity and social values. In practice, the approach is to integrate HCS assessments with High Conservation Value (HCV) as-

Stock assessments have been completed and management plans enacted to protect High Carbon Stock areas. The international NGOs involved include Conservation International, Forest Heroes, Forest Peoples’ Programme (FPP), Greenpeace, National Wildlife Federation, Rainforest Action Network, Rainforest Alliance, Union of Concerned Scientists and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and as observers, The Nature Conservancy and World Resources Institute as well as the technical support organisations Daemeter, Proforest and The Forest Trust (TFT). The mission of the HCS Steering Group is ‘to ensure that there is a practical, transparent, robust, and scientifically credible approach that is widely accepted to implement commitments to halt deforestation in the tropics while ensuring that the rights, livelihoods and aspirations of local peoples are respected.’ The HCS Approach was first developed by Golden Agri Resources, TFT and Greenpeace in 2011. Source: www.eco-business.com October 2014 | CSR Today | 17

CSR Society

New Timber Technology a Game-Changer for Singapore Australian developer Lend Lease is introducing Cross Laminated Timber technology to Singapore, which promises productivity and cost savings in addition to environmental benefits

18 | CSR Today | October 2014

Photo Courtesy: blog.matthews.com.au

he idea of using wood for building walls in Singapore must have sounded outlandish to the authorities back in 2012. After all, wood is flammable and the country requires that the structural elements of buildings be fire-proof. But this year, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officially revised its fire code to allow the use of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) for structural components in buildings after a thorough safety assessment. This change came about thanks to the efforts of international property and infrastructure firm Lend Lease, which has been leading efforts to promote the use of CLT technology in Singapore as a cost-saving, environmentally-sustainable building system. Lend Lease noted that the use of CLT technology will reduce reliance on foreign manpower and imports of sand and aggregate, which is good news for Singaporeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s construction industry. Over the years, the government has been cutting back on foreign manpower

CSR | Society quotas to soothe the growing friction between locals and foreigners in the denselypopulated city. The price of sand has also jumped as several Southeast Asia countries have banned the export of sand and granite to Singapore, citing environmental degradation caused by sand extraction. Lend Lease in Australia had done three years of due diligence on CLT technology before embarking on its Forté project, comprising 23 CLT apartments in Melbourne, which was completed in 2013. Forté was completed 30 per cent faster than if reinforced concrete had been used. Mann Young, Head of CLT Business (Asia) for Lend Lease, shared with EcoBusiness in a recent interview that the SCDF and the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) granted their in-principle acceptance of CLT technology mid-last year after 18 months of discussions, presentations and overseas study trips. But even then, they stipulated that CLT buildings could not exceed four storeys. Eventually, the height limit for CLT buildings was increased last November to a maximum of 24 metres, or six or seven storeys, after authorities conducted a further European study tour of CLT buildings. Earlier this month, Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB) launched a new platform called the ‘Pre-Project Innovation Consortium’ to promote integrative design and enable building industry players to collaborate on sustainable buildings early in the design stage. Under this initiative, Lend Lease will be leading a consortium and plans are underway to test-bed the use of CLT in Singapore. CLT is produced by pressure-gluing three, five, seven or 11 layers of timber such that the wood grain of each layer is at 90 degrees to that of the next layer’s, distributing weight in both directions. The resulting CLT panel has a load-bearing capacity similar to that of concrete, but is 80 per cent lighter, so the foundation for a building constructed with CLT will not have to bear as much weight. The foundation for a CLT building in Singapore will remain constructed from concrete to prevent termite infestation. The stacked layers of

CLT also result in a predictable and slower rate of burning, “like charcoal rather than a box of matches, charring at 0.7 millimetres per minute”, noted Young. One test that demonstrated CLT’s “better-than-concrete integrity” and fire-resistance involves having a 1000°C fire burning away on one side of a 5-layer thick CLT panel. When the fire had burnt the panel down to three layers, the temperature on the opposite side of the panel was measured at 24 to 25 degrees Celsius – a testament to its excellent thermal performance, which will help reduce the energy needed for cooling buildings in tropical Singapore.

ally required four concrete columns, four beams and non-structural walls. With CLT, only four load-bearing, structural walls are needed. This eliminates the need for formwork, scaffolding and the waiting time required for concrete to cure. Sub-contractors can begin to install their respective ceiling services, wall and floor finishes, improving overall efficiency and productivity. Using CLT technology thus requires spending more time upfront on the design and drawing phases of building development because the CLT panels are cut to specification in factories, down to the openings and slots for water pipes and wiring, be-

CLT is produced by pressure-gluing three, five, seven or 11 layers of timber such that the wood grain of each layer is at 90 degrees to that of the next layer’s, distributing weight in both directions Timber is renewable and requires the lowest energy and water consumption of any building material, which in turn, reduces the amount of deliveries needed to the worksite. The sustainability benefits of CLT include being recyclable after the building is demolished. Young said that a study by RMIT University in Australia conducted for its Forté project found that even though the CLT is imported, the Forté building has lower environmental impact across all the assessed categories, including lower impact for materials and transport when compared to traditional concrete structure.

Rethinking design Young cautioned that “if CLT technology is thought of as just a material replacement, it will fail…. it is changing the way we design and construct buildings from first principle.” Simply put, building a room tradition-

fore being assembled on-site “just like Lego pieces”. This allows faster construction with fewer on-site staff, which indirectly reduces the likelihood of workplace accidents and directly reduces the waste, noise and dust pollution on the surrounding community. Young observed that the entire design and building process in Singapore tends to happen in silos, adding that there are industry challenges in getting “ upfront collaboration and integration” between architects, engineers, consultants, builders and facilities managers. Yet, such integration is needed to minimise waste and optimise design when using CLT. He said: “The challenge for us now is to get architects and consultants locally to understand and be comfortable enough to design buildings using this technology that is new to them.” Source: www.eco-business.com October 2014 | CSR Today | 19

CSR Society

Sun-Powered Desalination for Villages in India

round the world, there is more salty groundwater than fresh, drinkable groundwater. For example, 60 per cent of India is underlain by salty water – and much of that area is not served by an electric grid that 20 | CSR Today | October 2014

could run conventional reverse-osmosis desalination plants. Now an analysis by MIT researchers shows that a different desalination technology called electrodialysis, powered by solar panels, could provide enough clean, palat-

able drinking water to supply the needs of a typical village. The study, by MIT graduate student Natasha Wright and Amos Winter, the Robert N. Noyce Career Development Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, appears in the journal Desalination. Winter explains that finding optimal solutions to problems such as saline groundwater involves “detective work to understand the full set of constraints imposed by the market.” After weeks of field research in India, and reviews of various established technologies, he says, “when we put all these pieces of the puzzle together, it pointed very strongly to electrodialysis” – which is not what is commonly used in developing nations. The factors that point to the choice of electrodialysis in India include both relatively low levels of salinity – ranging from 500 to 3,000 milligrams per liter, compared with seawater at about 35,000 mg/L – as well as the region’s lack of electrical power. (For on-grid locations, the team found,

Photo Courtesy: www.philpauley.com

Off-grid communities with salty groundwater could get potable water through a proposed solar technique

CSR | Society reverse-osmosis plants can be economically viable.) Such moderately salty water is not directly toxic, but it can have long-term effects on health, and its unpleasant taste can cause people to turn to other, dirtier water sources. “It’s a big issue in the water-supply community,” Winter says.

Expanding access to s afe water By pairing village-scale electrodialysis systems – a bit smaller than the industrial-scale units typically produced today – with a simple set of solar panels and a battery system to store the produced energy, Wright and Winter concluded, an economically viable and culturally acceptable system could supply enough water to meet the needs of a village of 2,000 to 5,000 people. They estimate that deployment of such systems would double the area of India in which groundwater – which is inherently safer, in terms of pathogen loads, than surface water – could provide acceptable drinking water. While many homes in India currently use individual, home-based filtration systems to treat their water, Wright says after consulting with nongovernmental organizations that work in the area, she and Winter concluded that village-scale systems would be more effective – both because fewer people would be left out of access to clean water, and because home-based systems are much harder to monitor to ensure effective water treatment. Most organisations working to improve clean-water access focus their attention on controlling known pathogens and toxins such as arsenic, Wright says. But her analysis showed the importance of “what the water tastes like, smells like, and looks like.” Even if the water is technically safe to drink, that doesn’t solve the problem if people refuse to drink it because of the unpleasant salty taste, she says. At the salinity levels seen in India’s groundwater, the researchers found, an electrodialysis system can provide fresh water for about half the energy required by a reverse-osmosis system. That means the solar panels and battery storage system

can be half as big, more than offsetting the higher initial cost of the electrodialysis system itself.

How it works Electrodialysis works by passing a stream of water between two electrodes with opposite charges. Because the salt dissolved in water consists of positive and negative ions, the electrodes pull the ions out of the water, Winter says, leaving fresher water at the center of the flow. A series of membranes separate the freshwater stream from increasingly salty ones.

systems, Winter says the same technology could also be useful for applications such as disaster relief, and for military use in remote locations. Susan Amrose, a lecturer in civil and environmental engineering at the University of California at Berkeley who was not involved in this work, says, “This paper raises the bar for the level and type of scientific rigor applied to the complex, nuanced, and extremely important problems of development engineering. … Solar-ED isn’t a new technology, but it is novel to suggest developing it for systems in rural India, and even

Both electrodialysis and reverse osmosis require the use of membranes, but those in an electrodialysis system are exposed to lower pressures and can be cleared of salt buildup simply by reversing the electrical polarity. That means the expensive membranes should last much longer and require less maintenance Both electrodialysis and reverse osmosis require the use of membranes, but those in an electrodialysis system are exposed to lower pressures and can be cleared of salt buildup simply by reversing the electrical polarity. That means the expensive membranes should last much longer and require less maintenance, Winter says. In addition, electrodialysis systems recover a much higher percentage of the water – more than 90 per cent, compared with about 40 to 60 per cent from reverse-osmosis systems, a big advantage in areas where water is scarce. Having carried out this analysis, Wright and Winter plan to put together a working prototype for field evaluations in India in January. While this approach was initially conceived for village-scale, self-contained

more novel to provide this level of detailed engineering and economic analysis to back up the suggestion.” Amrose adds, “The water scarcity challenges facing India in the near future cannot be overstated. India has a huge population living on top of brackish water sources in regions that are water-scarce or about to become water-scarce. A solution with the potential to double recoverable water in an environment where water is becoming more precious by the day could have a huge impact.” Source: www.eco-business.com The research was funded by Jain Irrigation Systems, an Indian company that builds and installs solar-power systems, and sponsored by the Tata Center for Technology and Design at MIT. October 2014 | CSR Today | 21

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Greener Information Age Transforming Energy, Finance And Our Future Today, digitization is advancing to restructure energy sectors and white-collar professions in finance and banking once thought immune by hazel henderson

22 | CSR Today | October 2014

Photo Courtesy: blog.builddirect.com

uch has been written about the disruptive shifts in many industrial sectors, from retailing, publishing, manufacturing, entertainment, medicine, law, architecture, transport and public services caused by computers, automation and the digital revolution. Since the robotization of automobile production in the 1960s, debates have raged over the social impacts on employment, cities, education, technological obsolescence, socio-economic policies and globalization. Now the two pillars of all economies are falling: energy and finance. Conventional economic theories assured us that these technological and global changes would lead to creation of as many or more new jobs as older ones were lost â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with whole new industries created and growing our economies. Futurists like me saw the possibilities of growing leisure societies, with new opportunities for personal development, wider education, travel, knowledge industries, along with global tourism, arts and entertainment.

CSR | Society Some of these visions materialized: tourism and entertainment are major global industries; worldwide trade and supply chains created new jobs, albeit with lower wages, and brought millions into the middle class, especially in China. We futurists saw redesigned economies where basic guaranteed minimum incomes would augment shrinking wages and jobs, to maintain purchasing power and aggregate demand to buy all the cornucopia of new goods and services from those automated factories. Today, digitization is advancing to restructure energy sectors and white-collar professions in finance and banking once thought immune, beyond the inroads into medicine, law and higher education. As electronic diploma mills and MOOCs take over from over-priced bricksand-mortar universities, faith is failing in the conventional bromides: education, job creation and innovation. Even economists are cautiously examining the options of guaranteed minimum incomes and the direct cash transfers to poor families now bringing these into the middle class in Brazil and Mexico. In The Second Machine Age, Brynjolfsson and McAfee explore this fundamental restructuring of industrial societies as advancing digitization destroys jobs even faster. Jaron Lanier addresses these issues in Who Owns the Future? (2013), challenging the Silicon Valley giants Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB), LinkedIn (LNKD) and Twitter (TWTR) to pay their users for all their personal information – which is sold on to advertisers. Economist/entrepreneur Peter Barnes addresses this need for new sources of income beyond shrinking jobs and wages in With Liberty and Dividends for All, as regular dividends from all commonly owned assets: air, water, the electromagnetic spectrum, etc., reimbursed to all citizen-owners. We see today how the two bedrocks of all economies: energy and finance, are also being disintermediated. The growing use of distributed solar energy on millions of rooftops and businesses is bypassing central electric utilities and their transmission grids. Just as AirBnB has bypassed the hotel

industry, RMI sees the future of electricity trading on similar electronic platforms so that all renewable energy sources from homes and businesses can be traded, bypassing the big power station grids. In my “The Entropy State” (1974), I predicted that the only need to connect to the grid would be to sell one’s surplus electricity. Today it can be stored onsite in your EV (Ethical Markets TV “Renewable Energy”). The disintermediation of finance began even before the debacles of 2008 and the bailouts of too-big-to-fail banks and finance. Internet-based local currencies and microcredit have flourished worldwide for decades, as I have described, wherever

crashes such as that in May 2010, electronic front running and manipulation. This led to widespread distrust and the withdrawal of multi-billions by retail investors. However, few mainstream financiers were ready for the next stage of electronic disintermediation beyond all the new electronic platforms used by HFT players. This distrust gap was addressed in October 2013 by the emergence of an investor-focused, transparent, electronic platform, IEX, which simplified orders and is engineered to slow down trading to exclude HFT players. Today, IEX, which provides a trustworthy exchange, surpasses the volume of the AMEX, has raised $75 million of

As electronic diploma mills and MOOCs take over from over-priced bricks-andmortar universities, faith is failing in the conventional bromides: education, job creation and innovation mainstream economic policies and finance failed to serve real local economies. After 2008, electronic lending and barter platforms took off, such as Prosper, Zopa, Lending Club, Craigslist and many others. After the US JOBS Act was passed in 2012, crowdfunding sites exploded, as we report daily. They rapidly morphed from the early non-profit Indiegogo and Kickstarter models to others offering local investors stock in local enterprises. Crowdfunding has matured into financing multi-million deals in real estate and solar energy, such as MOSAIC, as described in the books Crowdfund Investing For Dummies and Equity Crowdfunding. Wall Street and London financiers, after discounting the growth of these financing upstarts, began to take notice – even as they tried to hang on to their turf with even more exotic derivatives and high frequency trading and algorithms. This kind of ersatz innovation proved ever more risky, in flash

capital from its smartest client firms and has applied to the SEC for full public exchange status. The bottom line for financial markets as for traditional electricity providers is that, in our digital age, these two fundamental services to advanced economies are now seen as essential public utilities. To restore its proper role in fostering prosperity, finance must democratize services to all enterprises, savers, borrowers and citizens operating in the real economy. What will those in finance do now as much of their unnecessary trading and intermediation becomes obsolete? Electric utilities must restructure to integrate all the distributed local electricity from solar and other renewables since 191 countries pledged in 2012 to shift into the knowledge-rich, democratized, greener economies of the Solar Age. Source: http://3blmedia.com October 2014 | CSR Today | 23

sustainability

India’s Growing Water Footprint not Sustainable

s water becomes an increasingly scarce resource worldwide, with a staggering 750 million people lacking access to clean water, there is heightened concern over each country’s water footprint. A nation’s water footprint, as opposed to its simple water use, is defined as the total amount of water needed for the production of goods and services calculated by adding all the water consumed plus the water inherent in products imported, then subtracted by the water in exports. While India’s water footprint – 980 cubic meters per capita – ranks below the global average of 1,243 cubic meters, its 1.2 billion people collectively contribute to a significant 12 per cent of the world’s total water footprint. This number, say experts, is simply not sustainable and urgent measures need to be adopted by the government, corporates and citizens to optimally manage this fast dwindling precious resource. The economic effects of mismanaging water resources are well-documented. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 24 | CSR Today | October 2014

Change report forecasts longer periods of drought and heavier extreme rainfall. The United Nations has already reported that a raft of countries are teetering on the edge of their water limits even as they grapple with the challenge of augmenting food output by up to 100 per cent by 2050 to sustain

the current global population growth. For the third consecutive year, global water crisis has been identified as the third greatest risk in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk report. India’s Planning Commission had established that the existing approach to water in Asia’s third largest economy threatens its GDP growth and political stability and had stressed that an urgent paradigm shift is required in the management of water resources. India has four per cent of the world’s water which has to cater for 16 per cent of the world’s population, says a 2013 report Sustaining India’s Water Resources by the Carbon Disclosure Project. This requirement will, it states, lead to a steady shrinking of per-capita availability. It is estimated that by 2020, India will become a water-scarce nation. Already, nearly 50 per cent of Indian villages do not have any source of protected drinking water. The profile of the Indian agricultural sector, say experts, also contributes significantly to an increasing water footprint. The country is one of the world’s top producers

Photo Courtesy: voiceireland.org

Controlling the global water footprint is an issue of concern and the Indian subcontinent, home to some of the most densely packed river basins in the world, is especially vulnerable, Neeta Lal reports

sustainability of cotton, a crop that requires a substantial amount of water to cultivate. For instance, cultivating just a kilo of cotton (the amount required to make one pair of jeans) requires 10,000 litres of water for growing, dyeing and washing, as against barley or quinoa that can get by with just 500 litres. In India, water is also pumped up for agricultural use at a higher rate than it can be replenished leading to levels of groundwater plummeting alarmingly. “Indian farmers ought to reorient their thinking and cultivate crops that require less water but give higher yields helping fulfill the global goal of eliminating hunger,” says scientist Kirit Bhandare, formerly with Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. “A government-led sensitisation programme, in synergy with local panchayats, can usher in the desirable change through optimal utilisation of resources.” Experts point out that the Indian subcontinent – which hosts some of the most densely packed river basins in the world – is especially vulnerable to a higher water footprint. “The 450 million people living in the Ganga basin have to cope with severe water scarcity during five months of the year with water consumption exceeding 40 per cent of natural run off. Under such conditions, river flows and riverine ecosystems are heavily modified, water levels drop and competition over water starts affecting people’s lives,” writes environmentalist Arjen Y Hoekstra in an article. In his book, ‘The water footprint of a modern consumer society’, he proposes that nations can better manage and deploy their water resources by controlling their water footprint. Companies and governments, he adds, need to establish water footprint benchmarks for most water-intensive products like food, beverages, cotton and biofuels.

Companies respond to water challenges Hearing the alarm bells, many companies have started actively identifying the problem and exploring ways to assess and whittle down their water footprint. In 2013, C&A, a European fashion retail company sourc-

ing cotton from India, did a study comparing water footprint of organic as against conventional cotton in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The conclusion was that water footprint of organic farming was significantly less due to minimal pollution in the water from the absence of pesticides. Recently, the Tata conglomerate, one of India’s largest private enterprises, also did a water footprint assessment of its companies. The study provides a valuable insight into how strategies can be developed by the government and corporates to reduce their water footprint. “In India, increasingly, corporate interests are overwhelming public or ecological interests led by a business-oriented politi-

culating their water footprints – but also for individuals to be aware of the effects of their consumption. “If we continue to improve our quality of life in terms of the amount of goods that we consume, more and more people will be living with water scarcity,” Mathews told Thomson Reuters Foundation in a recent interview. Wagle feels that changes in individual consumer choices can be a game changer. “Each individual needs to reassess his/her consumer choices to see how more appropriate and sustainable ones can be made to reduce our water footprint. If you can do with four cotton shirts, why buy 10?” To find a consistent way to measure one’s water footprint, the International Or-

It is estimated that by 2020, India will become a water-scarce nation. Already, nearly 50 per cent of Indian villages do not have any source of protected drinking water cal dispensation. Therefore, the actions of businesses are bound to have a significant impact on the scale and impact of water scarcity as well as on the development and implementation of potential solutions. However, studies prove that companies that are responding to water challenges are better in identifying profitable business opportunities,” explains Dr. Subodh Wagle, professor, Water Policy, Tata Institute of Social Studies, Mumbai. Water footprint assessments, adds Wagle, will not only give companies more direction but also help nations leverage that information to avert the looming water crisis. Ruth Mathews, director of the Water Footprint Network, which promotes sustainability and efficiency of water use, says that it’s time not just for big companies – many of which have already started cal-

ganization for Standardization has released a benchmark that it says will give organisations – from industry to government to NGOs – a framework for measuring the potential environmental impact of their water use and pollution. ISO 14046, water footprint guidelines were developed by experts from around the world and are based on a lifecycle assessment. The standard aims to help assess the magnitude of potential environmental impacts related to water; identify ways to reduce those impacts and provide reliable information for reporting water footprint results that can be tracked over time. Given the alarming situation, nations would do well to adhere to this template for the optimal management of a diminishing valuable resource. Source: www.eco-business.com October 2014 | CSR Today | 25

sustainability

This Deep Dive Into 10 Years of LEED Unearths Surprises The market does not deliver less efficient LEED buildings as the years progress. The market also does not deliver more efficient LEED buildings with time by lane wesley burt

26 | CSR Today | October 2014

Photo Courtesy: gbssmag.com

he U.S. Green Building Council and Ember Strategies recently released the results of a deep dive study into the design energy efficiency of a decade of LEED buildings. Ten years of LEED data shows the evolution of the best in the architecture, engineering and construction industry – and a few industry quirks – as they strive for more efficient building designs. Buildings are certified at varying levels in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standard – from basic Certified to Silver, Gold, and Platinum – based on the number of points they earn across the categories of green building, such as energy, water, indoor environment, location and materials. Having a LEED certification is one way commercial real estate owners prove their building is one of the best in the world as they work to attract tenants. This study looked at the New Construction rating system for building design and construction and specifically certain energy efficiency related credits. Before digging in to the data, it is important to understand that a LEED rating

sustainability system is born, grows and eventually dies and is replaced by a new rating system. This is unlike a building code or standard. The LEED rating system is tweaked in each version to raise the bar for achievement, of course, but also to try to fix credits that just aren’t working. If no one achieves a credit, there is no environmental benefit to having it. USGBC uses feedback from the market to improve the rating system over time. The study was released at the ACEEE’s 2014 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, the biennial gathering of building efficiency nerds in Pacific Grove, Calif.

Progress: More certifications and more green buildings, but not lower achievement One might expect that as the number of LEED certified buildings has grown, relative efficiency achievement would decrease, but that does not appear to be the case. The chart below is fairly characteristic of LEED rating system growth, by certification level (Certified, Silver, Gold, Platinum). The average design efficiency stays remarkably consistent at around 27 percent better than would have been required in the absence of LEED. Over the years, the industry produced more green buildings at all levels, not just at the minimum specification. One might expect that design teams become good at creating LEED Gold buildings, for example, and then eschew energy efficiency points in favor of cheaper or easier options as a rating system ages. This does not appear to happen. If we analyse design efficiency of certification levels over the life of a rating system, and achievement is remarkably consistent. The market does not deliver less efficient LEED buildings as the years progress. On the other hand, the market also does not deliver more efficient LEED buildings with time.

Progress: LEED building designs have become more efficient over time (but we don’t know exactly by how much) The success of a building design in terms of energy efficiency is generally assessed by

how much more efficient the design is than what was required by the most stringent energy code at that time. This difference determines how many LEED points are awarded for energy efficiency. Building energy codes get updated about every three years, and then become the baseline for the associated versions of LEED (a relationship that will expand to other categories thanks to the ASHRAE ICC, USGBC agreement). This moving baseline makes it difficult to track industry improvement over time, but it’s not impossible. If we look at the percent by which LEED buildings in different rating systems beat the code, we see consistency within rating system versions and within certification levels. According to the Department of Energy, each new energy code baseline is a big jump in efficiency over the old. Because the code is different for each building, it’s impossible to say exactly how much better this group of buildings is than code, but we at least know that 29 percent better than the 2007 baseline is much better than 27 percent better than the 2004 baseline, and so on. We know that average design efficiency of LEED v2009 buildings (about 29 percent better than the 2007 code) is much better than average design efficiency of LEED v2.2 (about 27 percent better than 2004 code), which is better than the average design efficiency of LEED v2.1 (about 37 percent better than 1999 code, for the buildings that earned the credit). LEED asks those designers to do better than they were otherwise required to do, and these improvements are the results.

For now, YMMV (your mileage may vary) with LEED buildings, but there is reason for optimism in v4 A Prius with four flat tires does not get very good gas mileage, and neither does a poorly operated LEED building. Unfortunately, the data shows that fewer LEED buildings in LEED v2.1 and LEED v2.2 than desired achieved the credits that help buildings realize their design potential. Buildings that have a measurement and verification plan will earn the M&V LEED

credit and should be more likely to identify and fix problems with their facilities. In v2.1 and v2.2, only about 20 percent of projects earned the credit, but in v2009, that rate doubled. What happened? USGBC increased the point value of the credit, and the market responded. It would seem there is a lesson to be learned there. Another crucial credit to help buildings to reach their potential is enhanced commissioning, or having a third party check all the building systems in operation. While all LEED buildings get basic commissioning (it is mandatory), there is a voluntary enhanced commissioning credit for those that go above and beyond. Nearly all buildings would benefit from enhanced commissioning, but unfortunately only about half of LEED buildings in all the rating systems have done it. Learning from LEED v2009, USGBC has decided to triple the point value of a significantly reworked credit in LEED v4. In this case, bribery (with LEED points) may be the best policy.

Conclusion: There is much more to learn from LEED data The LEED credit achievement data is a treasure trove of insight into how we design and build our buildings and what motivates building professionals to do better. USGBC is working to make more of this information available through the Green Building Information Gateway, where it is mingled with ENERGY STAR certifications, Living Building Challenge certifications and building energy benchmarks from cities that enable it. In the data, there are answers to countless questions about the evolution of the green building industry over time. Questions about renewable energy, use of sustainable materials, location efficiency, water efficiency and so forth are just the start. Source: http://www.greenbiz.com Lane Wesley Burt is a passionate advocate for energy efficiency. Lane is a building engineer and longtime proponent of best-in-class technologies, strategies and programs that maximize financial and environmental returns. October 2014 | CSR Today | 27

sustainability

Dow’s Integrated Social Enterprise Investment Approach The IO Performance Spotlight focuses on how companies meet sustainability challenges through their day-to-day operations. This spotlight focuses on Dow, which “combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress”

28 | CSR Today | October 2014

Photo Courtesy: m360.sim.edu.sg

O spoke to Bo Miller, Global Director, Corporate Citizenship for The Dow Chemical Company and President and Executive Director of The Dow Chemical Foundation. Dow is developing a business-aligned approach to corporate citizenship that is focused on growing businesses while benefiting society and the environment. These efforts are in sectors relevant to Dow’s products, technologies and overall capabilities, and address major social or environmental needs while demonstrating potential for business growth. We’ve been looking at how to align our corporate citizenship work with broad business interests. This has led us away from a reactive and responsive check-writing philanthropic approach to being proactive, strategically aligned, catalytic, and more integrated and engaged with our internal business and functional counterparts. This means tying our product, technology, and employee skills to our financial contributions. We treat these investments like you would a venture investment. Our signature

sustainability activities take this approach and integrate with our business interests. We have built this approach over time and along with one of our partners, Acumen, we started thinking about the notion of combining venture capital investment approaches and skills based employee engagement. Acumen is a non-profit that invests in social enterprises that address poverty by delivering critical goods and services to low-income communities in emerging markets. We started working with them about 6 years ago when they approached us for a venture philanthropy investment to support WaterHealth International which provides community-based water systems in India and West Africa using ultra-violet technologies to purify water. It establishes a local water utility that creates new jobs and consistent water quality. We decided to make a for-profit venture investment through our internal corporate venture capital group. We’ve made several rounds of additional investments since then, and have a Board seat. We did it to learn how the community-based model serving the base of the pyramid (BOP) would work. Our core water related business focuses on large scale desalination and industrial process water applications, but this project helps us look out 10 or more years from now in a “real time” market research kind of way. After this we became a corporate supporter of Acumen. As we were shaping our skills based engagement approach in 2008-09 Acumen approached us for technical assistance to support a Kenyan pharmaceutical company. They were working on an anti-malaria therapy made from a high value crop that could be grown by local farmers. The company was looking for round two funding to scale up their plant, but was having issues with their productivity. Acumen asked us for support from what’s now called our Dow Sustainability Corps and we deployed a 25 year veteran of our R&D team who had deep knowledge of protein extraction and purification processing. She developed a technology assessment package that provided insight into alternative processing routes, capital costs, yield rates and purity

levels which helped inform the company and Acumen of various scale-up options. This led to a 2012 plan to institutionalize our employee engagement strategy with Acumen. We formed a multi-year commitment to provide access to Dow funding, capabilities, and employee expertise for their portfolio of social enterprises in East and West Africa focused on food and agriculture, water and sanitation, and energy. Our business interest is that we’re expanding our historic presence in those geographies. We are building our understanding of what the next generation markets are like in those regions and wee can contribute in these sectors.

their business and strategies and their challenges for scaling. From that came decisions of where to put targeted grant funding for projects related to enterprise growth and where we could deploy our employees and their professional expertise. We brought senior members of our team and additional social enterprises and corporate supporters together this past May for a second summit in Nairobi Kenya to reflect on what’s been achieved, the status of existing work, and identify the new and different needs that are emerging from these innovative businesses. One example of a company we’re supporting is d.light design, a solar lantern

D.light’s challenge is that it is selling a new kind of product to low-income consumers who earn $2 to $5 dollars a day. They manufacture in China and sell their lights through a variety of distribution partners, but need to maintain narrow margins and focus on growing volume There is clear business alignment. The investment to help these companies scale their business is in our long-term interest as well. We structured the project to support business objectives in a few ways. First, our country management are actively involved on a week-to-week basis with their Acumen counterparts in the region. Acumen has people in the field actively supporting their portfolio of companies. Second, as we deploy staff to provide skills, those individuals will take the experience and insights they gain from understanding our investments and markets and bring their knowledge into their Dow work groups. Third, we kicked this initiative off with a portfolio review summit where 10 or so of the Acumen social enterprises participated to share their business challenges. We looked at

company. Its objective is to bring solar light to rural locales that don’t have access to electricity. Some include a cell phone charger capability. A very large percentage of the poor do have access to cell phones and they conduct a lot of commerce with them. D.light’s challenge is that it is selling a new kind of product to low-income consumers who earn $2 to $5 dollars a day. They manufacture in China and sell their lights through a variety of distribution partners, but need to maintain narrow margins and focus on growing volume. To date, d.light has sold over 6 million solar light and power products in 62 countries, improving the lives of more than 36 million people. To support their continued growth, they were seeking expertise on global supply chain management that help them expand their October 2014 | CSR Today | 29

Sanergy takes the filled receptacles and brings them to a central processing station and converts the waste to organic fertilizers and other products and they also put it into a biogas-toenergy process distribution in key markets, but in a costs effective way. We brought them our supply chain expertise through a three-member Dow team that helped to speed up the flow of goods to key markets in Africa. Another example is Sanergy, an Acumen investment that provides a sanitation solution in dense urban slums in Nairobi Kenya. Their model is to make a clean looking, bright, inviting outhouse that they sell to shop owners for roughly $500. The toilets are operated by local members of the community who charge 2 to 5 cents for people to use the outhouse for personal sanitation that is clean, safe and dignified. Each day Sanergy removes the human waste and checks on the maintenance of the toilet facility. Each one is required to have soap and water for hand washing. San30 | CSR Today | October 2014

ergy takes the filled receptacles and brings them to a central processing station and converts the waste to organic fertilizers and other products and they also put it into a biogas-to-energy process. They are trying to wrestle with how to make the biogas and fertilizer conversion more efficient and effective. They’re looking to increase the number of toilets in slums to get more raw material and address a critical health issue in the slums. They’re looking at various processing techniques. Dow processes a lot of organic waste and we use a variety of processes to do so. We’ve assigned a chemical engineer from our plant in Germany and one in the Netherlands to help build their scale and operations expertise. Our partnership with Acumen is helping them provide more than just the financing

they need, but also the technical and business expertise that can help them address fundamental challenges to scale. We expect our Acumen partnership to generate a steady flow of 2-4 Dow Sustainablity Corps projects per year. Over time they will get to better understand Dow and our capabilities and we will have greater insight into their portfolio so the transaction costs of these assignments will go down and it will be more effective and efficient as we work to find employee expertise that supports their project needs. For measurement we want to see how the social entrepreneurs have grown in profitability, sales, and customer base and how our investments in money and employee engagement projects have been aligned to and supported their growth. We ask what catalytic impact has our involvement had? Our own business development endeavors have success and failures so the key is to learn as quickly as possible and adjust based on that learning. These investments are in frontier economies. We understand there’s a long cycle time and we need patient capital. That’s why we have a 5-year horizon on this. I’d like to see other companies join this initiative. It’s not meant to be exclusive. Based on the needs of these rapidly scaling social enterprises, it is clear that other companies across the value chain could contribute to and benefit from this collaborative effort. Recently Unilever joined the partnership to provide expertise in marketing and customer development. Access to financial services are also an important need for these social enterprises and Barclays has now joined the initiative to provide their financial expertise and potential routes to capital. Longer term for Dow I’d like to run this in other geographies and see if we could take the model to India or elsewhere around the world. Source: www.iosustainability.com Bo Miller is the Global Director, Corporate Citizenship & President and Executive Director of the Dow Foundation. Steve Rochlin is co-CEO and coFounder of IO.

Photo Courtesy: www.peninsulatimes.org

sustainability

2014-15 CALENDAR OF EVENTS Indian Centre for CSR, being the pioneer in CSR Training programs has developed special global programs for Indian Corporate to address the growing needs of CSR Compliance and complexities in the evolving world of Sustainability. These courses / Training programs help organizations in sustainment of their competitive advantages and addresses the most important need of their growth. The idea solely aims towards not just helping to compliance but eventually allow corporate to see and evaluate global best practices for enhancing their top line and bottom line. We invite nominations from Executives, NGOs , Corporate, Education Institutions, Government PSUs and other Stakeholders for the Training Courses / Programs for the year 2014-15 TOPIC

DATES

CITY

FEES FOr FEES FOr NGOS COrPOrATE & INSTITUTIONS

Certificate Programme on New Companies Act & Designing of CSr Strategies & reporting

9-Aug-14

Pune

INR 8,900

INR 7,900

21-Aug-14

Kolkata

INR 8,900

INR 7,900

23-Aug-14

Vadodara

INR 8,900

INR 7,900

26-Aug-14

Chennai

INR 8,900

INR 7,900

28-Aug-14

Bangalore

INR 8,900

INR 7,900

30-Aug-14

Hyderabad

INR 8,900

INR 7,900

17-Oct-14

Nagpur

INR 8,900

INR 7,900

FACULTY: A) Mr. rajesh Tiwari, CEO & Director General, ICCSR, A Doctorate in Social Administration from USA, Founder, Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd. , Ex-Group President of Reliance Industries. Also, worked as Private Secretary to Minister of Information and Broadcasting (Government of India) (B) Shri Ashwani Kumar, Senior Faculty & Advisor, ICCSR, Project Mentor - World Hope Foundation & Ex General Manager (I / c), HSE & CSR, BHEL, ND49

2014-15 CALENDAR OF EVENTS TOPIC

DATES

CITY

FEES FOr FEES FOr NGOS COrPOrATE & INSTITUTIONS

Strategies for NGOs to become Income-Generating Enterprises

5-Sep-14

Mumbai

INR 7,900

7-Nov-14

Delhi

INR 7,900

22-Dec-14

Ahmedabad

INR 7,900

27-Mar-15

Pune

INR 7,900

FACULTY: (B) Arpita Singh is the Certified CSR Trainer, Indian Centre for CSR. She has been awarded MS degree in CSR & Ethical Management from University of Applied Sciences, Vienna and she is the registrar of ICCSR. Certificate Program on ISO 26000

25, 26, 27 Sept 2014

Mumbai

INR 65,000

INR 58,000

8, 9, 10 Apr 2015

Bangalore

INR 65,000

INR 58,000

3, 4, 5 Nov-14

Delhi

INR 65,000

INR 58,000

8, 9, 10 Dec-14

Bangalore

INR 65,000

INR 58,000

FACULTY: (A) Mr. Martin Neureiter, Chairman of ISO 26000 and the world’s most acclaimed CSR Guru. He is Corporate Advisory Board Member of ICCSR, founder and CEO of The CSR Company. He is an advisor to Fortune 500 companies ad is scientific head of the postgraduate education at University of Applied Sciences Vienna for CSR and the Convenor within ISO-DEVCO for the Middle East North Africa. He has authored several books on CSR, such as Corporate Social Responsibility Leitlinien und Konzepte in Management published 2004, which was the first German language book on the issue and Handbuch Corporate Citizenship published 2007. (B) Mr. rajesh Tiwari, CEO & Director General, ICCSR, A Doctorate in Social Administration from USA, Founder, Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd. , Ex-Group President of Reliance Industries. Also, worked as Private Secretary to Minister of Information and Broadcasting (Government of India) (C) Satish Jha, Advisory Board Member to ICCSR & President and CEO, OLPC India. Mentor of couple of dozen social projects with a focus on technology, business strategies and public policy in the areas of universal access to education, healthcare and bridging the digital divide. (D) Shri Ashwani Kumar, Senior Faculty & Advisor, ICCSR, Project Mentor - World Hope Foundation & Ex General Manager(I / c), HSE & CSR, BHEL, ND49 ICCSr’s flagship Globally acknowledged Executive Development Program (EDP) on CSr. > Certification Program by CSR Institute, UK (Residential Program)

26, 27, 28, 29 Nov-14

Goa

INR 88,000

INR 80,000

21, 22, 23, 24 Apr-15

Lonavala

INR 88,000

INR 80,000

FACULTY: (A) Tobby Webb, Corporate Advisory Board Member of ICCSR, Chairman, Ethical Corporation, Faculty - Birkbeck, University of London, CSR Advisor to British Government advising the Prime Minister (B) Wayne Dunn, Exec. Dir, CSR Training Institute, Professor of Practice in CSR at McGill, Wayne is an award-winning recognized global expert in CSR. Consulting for major industries, governments and international organizations he has worked on over 60 CSR projects spanning six continents and 2 decades including projects in over a dozen African countries. (C) Mr. rajesh Tiwari, CEO & Director General, ICCSR, A Doctorate in Social Administration from USA, Founder, Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd. , Ex-Group President of Reliance Industries. Also, worked as Private Secretary to Minister of Information and Broadcasting (Government of India)

2014-15 CALENDAR OF EVENTS TOPIC

DATES

CITY

FEES FOr FEES FOr NGOS COrPOrATE & INSTITUTIONS

Global Best Practices on CSr Strategies & reporting - Certification Program by Global Faculty

11-Dec-14

Bangalore

INR 19,600

INR 17,600

13-Dec-14

Kolkata

INR 19,600

INR 17,600

15-Dec-14

Delhi

INR 19,600

INR 17,600

18-Dec-14

Mumbai

INR 19,600

INR 17,600

20-Dec-14

Ahmedabad

INR 19,600

INR 17,600

17-Jan-15

Delhi

INR 19,600

INR 17,600

19-Jan-15

Bangalore

INR 19,600

INR 17,600

22-Jan-15

Mumbai

INR 19,600

INR 17,600

24-Jan-15

Pune

INR 19,600

INR 17,600

FACULTY: (A) Ms. Karin Huber, Advisor, ICCSR, is a Communication Specialist & Certified CSR Manager from University of Vienna, Austria and has Expertise on CSR strategy development, stakeholder communication & involvement, Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility, Responsible Banking & Investment, Socially Responsible Advertising & Media Psychology. Globally, she is renowned International Faculty on Business Ethics and CSR Communication and Faculty at University of Applied Sciences BFI Vienna. (B) Mr. Jitendra Bhargava, Former Executive Director of Air India and author of book, ‘The Descent of Air India’, is known television and radio personality who regularly speaks on matter relating to civil aviation, human resources and corporate matters. Jitendra Bhargava has over 35 years of experience in Public Relations (PR) and Marketing and is considered One of the Best PR Professional in the country today. He is a sought after speaker and is virtually invited from all leading institutions of the country to speak on various topics. Certified Training Program on Environmental Strategies, Management & reporting – A CSr Perspective

18-Oct-14

Nagpur

INR 8,900

INR 7,900

5-Feb-15

Mumbai

INR 8,900

INR 7,900

7-Feb-15

Pune

INR 8,900

INR 7,900

12-Feb-15

Delhi

INR 8,900

INR 7,900

14-Feb-15

Baroda

INR 8,900

INR 7,900

18-Feb-15

Raipur

INR 8,900

INR 7,900

20-Feb-15

Bhuvaneshwar

INR 8,900

INR 7,900

FACULTY: (A) Dr. Sanjay Deshmukh, Advisor to ICCSR & Head, University Department of Life Sciences, Mumbai University, is Member of (a) BCUD (Board of Colleges and University Development), (b) Board of Studies in Life Sciences, (c) Academic Council, (e) Faculty of Sciences, (e) Standing Committee for M.M. Sharma Endowment Grants as well as University’s Staff Welfare Committee, and (f) Library Committee of the University. He is also Chairman of the Board of Studies (Ad-hoc) in Environmental Sciences of the University of Mumbai. He is recipient of the prestigious Colombo Plan Award (1993), a Technical Co-operation Award of the United Kingdom. He received in February 2005, the most prestigious LEAD (Leadership in Environment and Development) Fellowship (Cohort 11). Sanjay is the first Teacher of Mumbai University to have been selected for the same. Dr. Sanjay happens to be Founder Trustee and currently Chairman of Konkan Nisarg Manch, an NGO

2014-15 CALENDAR OF EVENTS TOPIC

DATES

CITY

FEES FOr FEES FOr NGOS COrPOrATE & INSTITUTIONS

SECTOr-SPECIFIC CSr & SUSTAINABILITY TrAINING PrOGrAMS BY GLOBAL FACULTIES Training aims in Instilling awareness on key sustainability topics and areas of concerns and integrate a “common thinking” on sustainability across different organizations within the Automobile Sector

2-Mar-15

Delhi

INR 19,600

INR 17,600

Training aims in Instilling awareness on key sustainability topics and areas of concerns and integrate a “common thinking” on sustainability across different organizations within the Retail Sector

4-Mar-15

Mumbai

INR 19,600

INR 17,600

5-Mar-15

Mumbai

INR 19,600

INR 17,600

7-Mar-15

Pune

INR 19,600

INR 17,600

10-Mar-15

Ahmedabad

INR 19,600

INR 17,600

FACULTY: (A) Irene Daskalakis, Corporate Advisory Board Member of ICCSR. Irene has working experience in the World Bank, European Commission Delegation in Tirana, Albania & executed a project in Public Internal Financial Control, in close consultation with the Albanian Ministry of Finance. Irene has implemented advisory projects, workshops and research in Europe, Middle East, Asia and N. America (U.S.A). Project focus areas include the design of the Corporate Sustainability Strategy, the implementation of Sustainability Assessments and the development of Sustainability Reports (based on the G3 Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative, UN Global Compact Principles). (B) Dr. Panagiotis Panagiotakopoulos Panagiotis (Panos), Advisor to ICCSR has extensive scientific knowledge in the fields of Sustainability, Environmental Management, Corporate Social Responsibility, EcolabelStrategies and Organizational Development. He is the Faculty at Democritus University of Thrace and National Technical University of Athens. He is Greece’s National Eco-Innovation Expert for OECD, member of the Scientific Committee of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Associate of the Chamber of Environment and Sustainability and a member of the Network of Project Managers in Greece. Dr. P. Panagiotakopoulos has served as assessor of the IPMA International Project Excellence Award, while the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has assigned him as a Quality Control Consultant for its Certified Training Programs in Greece. (C) Mr. rajesh Tiwari, CEO & Director General, ICCSR, A Doctorate in Social Administration from USA, Founder, Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd. , Ex-Group President of Reliance Industries. Also, worked as Private Secretary to Minister of Information and Broadcasting (Government of India)

Timings: 9:00 am - 5:30 pm , Registration begins at 8:30 am For Registrations, contact: Ms. Arpita Singh, Email: registrar@iccsr.org, Mobile: 98200 38878 Tel: +91 22 2778 8481 / 82 | Fax: +91 22 2496 6803 | Website: www.iccsr.org 601, 6th Floor, Technocity, Plot No. X4/5 A, TTC Industrial Area Mahape, Navi Mumbai- 400701 (India). Fees includes lunch, tea, course material etc. • • •

Fees for Residential Programs includes Stay along with other Training facilities. Travel to be organized by the delegate. Service Tax of 12.36% is applicable extra Please contact for Group discounts

TRAiNiNg REgiSTRATiON FORm Please complete the registration form and send it along with payments to: Indian Centre for CSR, 601, 6th Floor, Technocity, Plot No. X4/5 A, TTC Industrial Area Mahape, Navi Mumbai - 400701 (India). Email: ea@iccsr.org, Tel no: +91 22 2778 8481 / 82, Fax no: +91 22 22204 2368. Website: www.iccsr.org NoMiNAtioN DetAilS: Program Name: Training Date: City of the Program:

Name: Designation:

Name: Designation: Company: Contact addres:

PAYMeNt iNFoRMAtioN: Training Fees: Plus Service Tax of 12.36% is applicable: total amount: Payment can be made in the following ways: (Please tick applicable box)  CHeQUe/DD/Cash at the venue (made out to Indian Centre for CSR) Cheque number (Send your Cheque at the above address.)

Drawn on Bank

 Bank transfer Bank Name: HDFC Bank Account Name: Indian Centre for CSR Account number: 00012560004973 RTGS/NEFT IFSE: HDFC 0000001 Bank Address: 101-104 Tulsiani Chambers, Free Press Journal Marg, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400021 Maharashtra  online payment: Please go to our website www.iccsr.org for online registration and payment

For further queries, contact: Ms. Arpita Singh, Email: registrar@iccsr.org, Mobile: 98200 38878

SUSTAINABILITY CAPITAL

What Drives the Business Case for CSR? The art of finding a ‘glocal’ business case is to determine which of the 10 incentives and pressures given below are the strongest and most applicable to the local context by dr wayne visser Chapple and Jeremy Moon reached a similar conclusion, namely that ‘CSR does vary considerably among Asian countries but that this variation is not explained by [levels of] development but by factors in the respective national business systems’. And in Africa, I have found that the values-based traditional philosophy of African humanism (ubuntu) is what underpins much of the modern, inclusive approaches to CSR on the continent.

Political reform

Cultural tradition

In many countries and regions, CSR draws strongly on deep-rooted indigenous cultural traditions of philanthropy, business ethics and community embeddedness. 36 | CSR Today | October 2014

For example, in a survey of over 1,300 small and medium-sized enterprises in Latin America, Antonio Vives found that the region’s religious beliefs are one of the major motivations for CSR. In Asia, a study by scholars Wendy

CSR cannot be divorced from sociopolitical reform processes, which often drive business behaviour towards integrating social and ethical issues. For example, the political and associated social and economic changes in Latin America since the 1980s, including democratization, liberalization, and privatization, have shifted the role of business towards taking greater responsibility for social and environmental issues. Likewise, more recently, the goal of accession to EU membership has acted as an incentive for many Central and Eastern European countries to focus

SUSTAINABILITY | CAPITAL and natural disasters of the 2000s (Enron, Katrina, Sichuan). The rest of the CSR drivers are more global (or external) and tend to have an international origin.

with Brazil and South Africa among the first to go glocal in this respect. In addition, there are sector-based indexes emerging, like the ICT Sustainability Index launched in 2008.

on CSR, since the latter is acknowledged to represent good practice in the EU.

Socio-economic priorities

CSR is typically shaped by local socioeconomic priorities. For instance, while poverty alleviation, health-care provision, infrastructure development and education may be high on many developing country agendas, this stands in stark contrast to many Western CSR priorities such as consumer protection, fair trade, green marketing, climate change concerns, or socially responsible investments. Stephen Schmidheiny questions the appropriateness of imported CSR approaches, citing examples from Latin America where pressing issues like poverty and tax avoidance are central to CSR, but often remain left off of international CSR agendas.

Governance gaps

CSR is frequently seen as a way to plug the ‘governance gaps’ left by weak, corrupt, or under-resourced governments that fail to adequately provide various social services (housing, roads, electricity, health care, education, etc.). Academics Dirk Matten and Jeremy Moon see this as part of a wider trend in developing countries with weak institutions and poor governance, in which responsibility is often delegated to private actors, be they family, tribe, religion, or increasingly, business. A survey by WBCSD illustrates this: when asked how CSR should be defined, Ghanaians stressed ‘building local capacity’ and ‘filling in when government falls short’.

Crisis response

Crises often have the effect of catalyzing CSR responses, albeit mostly of the philanthropic kind. For example, the economic crisis in Argentina in 2001 marked a significant turning point in CSR, prompting debates about the role of business in poverty alleviation. Similarly, Hurricane Katrina in the USA and HIV/AIDS in South Africa had the effect of galvanizing CSR. The examples are endless, be they the industrial accidents of the 1970s and 1980s (Seveso, Bhopal, Exxon Valdez), the environmental and human rights fiascos of the 1990s (Shell, Nike, McDonald’s) or the corporate governance

Market Access

The flipside of the socio-economic priorities driver is to see these unfulfilled human needs as an untapped market. This notion underlies the now burgeoning field of ‘bottom of the pyramid’ (BOP) strategies already discussed. CSR may also be seen as an enabler for companies in developing countries trying to access markets in the developed world. For example, a survey of CSR reporting among the top 250 companies in Latin America found that businesses with an international sales orientation were almost five times more likely to report than companies that sold products regionally or locally.

International Standardisation

Codes are frequently a CSR response, especially in sectors where social and environmental issues are deemed critical, such as textiles, agriculture or mining. Often, CSR is driven by standardisation imposed by multinationals striving to achieve global consistency among its subsidiaries and operations in developing countries. For example, a study by Wendy Chapple and Jeremy Moon in Asia found that ‘multinational companies are more likely to adopt CSR than those operating solely in their home country, but that the profile of their CSR tends to reflect the profile of the country of operation rather than the country of origin’.

Investment Incentives

The belief that multinational investment is inextricably linked with the social welfare of developing countries is not a new phenomenon. However, increasingly these investments are being screened for CSR performance. Hence, socially responsible investment (SRI) is becoming another driver for CSR in many countries. Often, this is as a result of global SRI funds and indexes, like the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and FTSE4Good, but the influence of regional and national SRI instruments is also on the rise,

Stakeholder activism

In the absence of strong governmental controls over the social, ethical and environmental performance of companies in some countries, activism by stakeholder groups has become another critical driver for CSR. In developing countries, four stakeholder groups emerge as the most powerful activists for CSR, namely development agencies, trade unions, international NGOs and business associations. These four groups provide a platform of support for local NGOs, which are not always well developed or adequately resourced to provide strong advocacy for CSR. The media is also emerging as a key stakeholder for promoting CSR

Supply chain integrity

Another significant driver for CSR, especially among small and medium-sized companies, is the requirements that are being imposed by multinationals on their supply chains. This trend began with various ethical trading initiatives, which led to the growth of fair trade auditing and labelling schemes for agricultural products. Later, poor labour conditions and human rights abuses resulted in the development of certifiable standards like SA 8000. Major change has also been achieved through sector-based initiatives such as the Forest Stewardship Council and more recently, through the ‘Wal-Mart effect’, involving choice editing to source only from sustainable and responsible suppliers. To conclude, the art of finding a ‘glocal’ business case is to determine which of these 10 incentives and pressures are the strongest and most applicable to the local context. Source: http://3blmedia.com Dr Wayne Visser is Founder and Director of the think-tank CSR International and consultancy Kaleidoscope Futures Ltd. He is the author of over 180 publications (chapters, articles, etc.) and has delivered more than 170 professional speeches on in over 50 countries in the last 20 years. October 2014 | CSR Today | 37

SUSTAINABILITY CAPITAL

How Our Food Drives Illegal Deforestation

n the past decade, demand from the international market for agricultural products such as palm oil, soy, beef and timber caused the deforestation of tropical forests at an average rate of five football fields every minute. This has resulted in a total loss of 200,000 square kilometres of land, an area twice the size of South Korea. 38 | CSR Today | October 2014

This is according to a new study released by Washington-based non-government organisation (NGO) Forest Trends on Thursday, which revealed that 49 per cent of all tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2012 was caused by illegal clearing for commercial agriculture, and that trade in products grown on illegally converted land was

worth a total of US$61 billion. A staggering 40 per cent of internationally traded palm oil is grown on illegally deforested land, said the report. Titled Consumer Goods and Deforestation: An Analysis of the Extent and Nature of Illegality in Forest Conversion for Agriculture, the report also found that this illegal deforestation generated 1.47 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide per year between 2000 and 2012. This is equivalent to a quarter of the European Union’s annual emissions from burning fossil fuels. Michael Jenkins, president and chief executive of Forest Trends, said that although the link between agricultural production and deforestation was well established, “this is the first report to show the major role that illegal activities play in the production of hundreds of food and household products consumed worldwide”.

Illegal deforestation fuelled by international demand The export of agricultural commodities grown on illegally cleared forest land was

Photo Courtesy: www.blog-solutions-stores.ca

A new report by United States non-profit Forest Trends reveals that more than half of all forest land clearance between 2000 and 2012 was illegal. Agricultural exports grown on illegally cleared land, such as timber, beef and soy, are worth a total of US$61 billion by vaidehi shah

SUSTAINABILITY | CAPITAL responsible for 25 per cent of all tropical forest destruction between 2000 and 2012, according to the report. A majority of the demand for products grown on this land – such as beef, leather, soy, palm oil and wood products originated from China, India, Russia, the United States, and the European Union. The report revealed that a fifth of all soy, a third of tropical timber, and 14 per cent of all beef traded internationally came from land that had been illegally deforested. Sam Lawson, lead author of the report, noted that given the rapid speed at which illegal deforestation was taking place, “there is hardly a product on supermarket shelves that is not potentially tainted”. Brazil and Indonesia were pinpointed as the biggest producers of agricultural exports. Together, the two countries also had the highest rates of land clearance in the world, with 90 per cent of Brazil’s deforestation and 80 per cent of Indonesia’s forest clearance deemed illegal. Other countries such as Tanzania and Bolivia also grappled with this problem, with their forests making way for crops such as jatropha (a biofuel plant) and soy respectively. The problem was even spreading to new tropical regions where deforestation rates had traditionally been low, said the report. It pointed to the Republic of Congo as an example, where illegal palm oil projects were set to double the country’s deforestation rate.

Ending rampant corruption through good governance The study found that companies which destroyed forests illegally often did so using fraudulent permits obtained from corrupt officials. In other instances, companies flouted environmental protection laws when planting or clearing land, which resulted in environmental degradation and violated the rights of local people and indigenous communities dependent on the forest for food and income. These illegal practices could only be fully addressed by governments, said the report, though it lauded corporate efforts

such as “zero deforestation” commitments by some consumer goods companies. To this end, the report recommended a set of actions for the governments of countries that produced and consumed these agricultural goods. Recommended measures for governments of producer countries included: 1. Enforcing a moratorium on all forest conversion until a clear legal framework and enforcement systems were in place; 2. Improving law enforcement by improving information sharing between government agencies; 3. Imposing harsher penalties on culprits; 4. Using technology such as satellite images to monitor deforestation more effectively. “Urgent action is needed to help countries where these agricultural products are

Governments of all consumer countries, regardless of their REDD+ status, could also act to curb the demand that fuels illegal deforestation. Some measures include requiring that all government purchases of agricultural products are from legal and sustainable sources, making it an offence to sell or import agricultural commodities grown on illegally cleared land, and ensuring that the penalties are high enough to discourage others from flouting these regulations. “The current unfettered access to international markets for commodities from illegally cleared land is undermining the efforts of tropical countries to enforce their own laws,” said Lawson. “Consumer countries have a responsibility to help halt this trade.” “Reforming the complex, conflicting and unclear laws and regulations that govern the forest and agricultural sectors is a

Governments of all consumer countries, regardless of their REDD+ status, could also act to curb the demand that fuels illegal deforestation being grown, both for governments to enforce their own laws and regulations, and for businesses aiming to produce commodities legally and sustainably,” said Jenkins. The report also made several recommendations for consumer countries which were donors to the global programme Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), a mechanism through which developing countries receive international funding to preserve their forests. For example, the report suggested that REDD+ donor countries could insist that donated funds are used to make improvements to forest governance and legal frameworks, ensure that nationally-governed financial institutions do not do business to companies associated with illegal forest clearance, and provide technical support to civil society groups tackling these issues.

critical step, alongside improving the enforcement and compliance of national and international laws. These must all be prioritised if global commitments to stop tropical deforestation are going to be achieved,” Jenkins added. While such measures have been successfully implemented to combat trade in illegally sourced timber, it remains to be seen how they can be applied to other agricultural commodities, the report said. “Increased agricultural production will be necessary for food security and to meet the demand of the emerging global middle class,” said Jenkins. “However, the world must also wake up to the scale of how much of this agricultural production is taking place on land that has been illegally cleared.” Source: www.eco-business.com October 2014 | CSR Today | 39

csr leadership

Bombardierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Product

Responsibility Strategy

Photo Courtesy: www.ainonline.com

The Canadian multinational aerospace and transportation company ensures it attends to sustainability, safety and customer needs at every opportunity throughout its productsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lifecycles

40 | CSR Today | October 2014

csr | leadership

reating the leading mobility solutions our customers and society demand requires an enormous amount of thought, time and collaboration. We operate according to a thorough Product Responsibility Strategy that ensures we attend to sustainability, safety and customer needs at every opportunity throughout our products’ lifecycles, from initial design to end-of-life.

Design Our product responsibility strategy is built on two fundamental approaches: Design for Environment (Df E) and Design for Safety (DfS). By considering environmental and safety factors at the outset, we can identify innovative design solutions to challenges that may arise at every stage of the product lifecycle.

2013 Accomplishments • The CSeries, our new aircraft with an unmatched environmental scorecard, completed a successful first flight on September 16, 2013. • Braunschweig, Germany began operating the first 200 kW wireless charging pad for PRIMOVE electric buses, marking the first time that an electric bus replaced a conventional bus. Design for Environment

remaining engineers and newcomers over the next several years. We also conduct product-specific Df E training when we are beginning the design of a new product. We apply the Df E approach to our R&D. In 2013, for example, we invested approximately $2.0 billion in aerospace program tooling. Our investments in Df E has helped us achieve some notable product innovations over the past several years. For example, we developed an ECO4 portfolio of rail technologies that reduces overall energy consumption on trains by up to 50%, compared to current solutions and reduces emissions by up to 80%. We developed our new CSeries aircraft with a “clean sheet” design, applying Df E principles from the outset to incorporate numerous environ-

Approximately 80% of the environmental impact of both rail vehicles and aircraft is determined at the design stage, so we consider the DfE approach a keystone of our product development

Approximately 80% of the environmental impact of both rail vehicles and aircraft is determined at the design stage, so we consider the Df E approach a keystone of our product development. We design all of our new products according to Df E principles and are working to retroactively apply the Df E approach to some of our legacy products. Our Df E approach consists of the following elements: • Applying a Lifecycle Perspective – Examining environmental impacts at the production, use and disposal stage of a product’s lifecycle. • Maximizing Recyclability and Recoverability – Using materials featuring high recyclability and a high recycled material content; marking plastic components and batteries according to associated standards as well as other components that need special end-of-life treatment. • Eliminating Hazardous Substances – Screening out the presence of hazardous substances as well as related toxic emissions. • Investing in Technologies – Improving energy efficiency and reducing air emissions, resource consumption and waste. • Involving Suppliers – Ensuring our suppliers comply with our environmental, social and quality standards and, through our Supplier Code of Conduct, uphold United Nations Global Compact environmental requirements. We train our engineers to integrate Df E principles into their work. Most of our engineers have now completed Df E training and, in 2013, we created a new Df E e-learning platform to train the

mental benefits, including a new lightweight paint system that has reduced substances of concern by up to 40 kg per aircraft. Design for Safety

The DfS approach guides us in evaluating and addressing the safety of our products. One part of DfS, for example, is our Design Guideline for Interior Passenger Safety, which we use to ensure that all of our passenger rail vehicles offer optimal crash safety. These guidelines take into account passengers of every possible size and in any position (seated or standing) and apply the latest knowledge and technology in passenger injury, trajectories and impact characteristics. To enhance consistency across all rail vehicles, we are also leading an industry-wide initiative to develop new fire and crash safety rules for the rail sector, to be fully implemented by 2016 and 2017, respectively. Customer Engagement

We closely engage with our customers during the design phase to understand their priorities and design products that help them achieve those priorities.

Supply Chain and Production Even before designs are finalized, we go through a rigorous process to identify and source the best suppliers, materials and technologies to bring those designs to life. For example, for the CSeries aircraft, October 2014 | CSR Today | 41

csr | leadership we worked closely with Pratt & Whitney in the development of the PurePower® PW1500G Engine – a breakthrough engine that will significantly decrease the aircraft’s fuel burn. We have included Df E is a critical element in our supplier selection process. Df E requirements have been included in our Aerospace supplier contracts since 2010 and Transportation supplier contracts since 2011. At Transportation, we have a website for suppliers to download relevant supplier forms and find more information about our Supplier Code of Conduct. Additionally, we are developing a new database where suppliers can enter detailed information about the materials they are using. This will allow us to better understand and track the environmental performance of our suppliers’ products.

Manufacturing & Testing We care for our employees’ health and safety and the environment at every stage of the manufacturing process. This includes rigorous product testing to ensure high performance and safety, such as the required extended test program for a clean sheet design like the

Grow Local Roots strategy, on expanding the reach of our service centres so that our customers can have more direct access to Bombardier support. By staying connected with our customers, we not only ensure that they have the technical assistance they need, but we also learn more about the challenges they face every day, which helps us, in turn, improve the quality and delivery of our products. In 2013, we made good progress on expanding our service presence internationally. In South Africa, we opened our 20th Aerospace regional support office to support both business aircraft and regional airline customers. In Singapore, we inaugurated our tenth full-scale Aerospace service centre. In China, we signed our first-ever letter of agreement to form a joint venture that will build and operate an aircraft maintenance centre. We also opened new support locations for commercial and business aircraft in Ethiopia, Finland, Brazil, the U.K., France, Russia, Malta and the U.S. Throughout the year, we sought to strengthen our quality of service by delivering more than 2,000 hours of training to Aerospace service staff members to ensure continuous improvement in the areas of troubleshooting and customer focus. Safety Performance

In addition to training our own employees, we extend training opportunities to other aviation and rail professionals to ensure that they understand the features of our products and can operate them safely. Since 1996, Bombardier has promoted safety awareness among our employees and the aviation industry at large through Safety Standdown, the industry’s most respected forum on aviation safety. More than 800 aviation professionals participated in our Safety Standdown seminars in 2013, a 15% increase over 2012. To monitor our safety performance, in 2013 we launched a new Safety Bulletin System that tracks Transportation customer safety incidents worldwide. Whereas before the implementation of this system, each division had their own categorization for tracking safety incidents, it will ensure consistency across all divisions. For aircraft incidents, we support the independent investigation process conducted by the country of jurisdiction.

We have placed a particular emphasis, in alignment with our Grow Local Roots strategy, on expanding the reach of our service centres so that our customers can have more direct access to Bombardier support CSeries aircraft or a set of pre-delivery tests on an established program like the Challenger 605 aircraft. The CSeries aircraft is currently undergoing extensive tests in preparation for its entry-into-service. Our 2,400 hour flight test program includes a full test of the equipment and the aircraft’s environmental impact, including noise and emissions produced when in flight. Based on the thorough review of the CSeries program after the first flight of the CS100 aircraft on September 16, 2013, the flight test phase will require more time than originally anticipated to ensure, amongst other things, that the aircraft has the overall system maturity to support a successful entry-into-service. The CS100 aircraft’s entry-into-service is now scheduled for the second half of 2015 and will be followed by the CS300 aircraft’s entry-into-service approximately six months afterwards.

Product Use & Maintenance We want customers to get the most out of our products – including a safe passenger experience and the best environmental performance. We have placed a particular emphasis, in alignment with our 42 | CSR Today | October 2014

Environmental Performance

To ensure transparency with our customers and other stakeholders, such as environmental NGOs, we report on the environmental profiles of our products through Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). To date, we have released 15 EPDs, including one published in 2013 for the INNOVIA APM 300. We are finalizing the aerospace industry’s first EPD for the CSeries commercial aircraft, to be released upon its entry-into-service and also plan to release EPDs for the Learjet 85, Global 7000 and Global 8000 business jets upon their entry-into-service. By 2020, we will implement a policy for all new products to publish an EPD upon entry-into-service.

csr | leadership End-of-Life Industrial design students at the Université de Montréal were tasked with recycling parts of the CRJ100 aircraft into new product designs. The students’ imaginative solutions included creating a lamp from the aircraft’s overhead compartments and a women’s jacket from the leather seats. Our goal is for all of our new products to be 100% recoverable by 2025. Today, more than 95% of the materials in our rail vehicles are recoverable. Our latest model of MOVIA metros are designed to be 98% recoverable. We continue toward 100% recoverability by working with industry organizations and our suppliers to increasingly use recoverable materials and materials that are easier to separate and disassemble for a second life, as specified in our Df E approach. Approximately 80% of the materials in our aircraft are recoverable. With more than 7,000 commercial jets expected to be withdrawn from service over the next 20 years, we have the opportunity to usher in a new generation of more environmentally-friendly aircraft if we can increase the percentage of recoverable materials in our aerospace products now. Through partnerships with the Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Québec, the Centre Technologique en Aérospatiale, Université Laval, École de Technologie Supérieure and McGill University, we are working to better understand end-of-life requirements and research new, commercially viable recycling technologies for aircraft. We donated a CRJ100 regional jet to aid in this study, and in 2013, researchers started to dismantle it to experiment with new recycling techniques. The project, which will be completed at the end of 2014, has already identified opportunities for improvement in the recycling of aluminum, electric wires and hydraulic systems. These discoveries will help us reach 100% recoverability and better communicate to our customers how to handle their aircraft at end-of-life. The lessons we learn will also help us design new aircraft that can be more easily recycled. We will begin to integrate end-of-life criteria into our design processes in 2014.

To ensure transparency with our customers and other stakeholders, such as environmental NGOs, we report on the environmental profiles of our products through EPDs

Photo Courtesy: georgecastellion.files.wordpress.com

Looking Ahead In the coming years, we will continue to implement and improve our Product Responsibility Strategy, and particularly plan to: • Continue integrating the Df E approach into our product development, with a focus on applying Df E to legacy products and providing additional training for our engineers and managers. • Release new EPDs, including EPDs for the CSeries, Learjet 85, Global 7000 and Global 8000 aircraft, coinciding with their entry-into-service. • Continue to explore alternative fuel sources, including biofuels for use in our products, and develop an approach for the development of green interiors.

• Develop recommendations for minimizing environmental impact in the operation, maintenance and dismantling of our products, and communicate these environmental recommendations to our customers. • Continue strengthening our relations with ICAO and key domestic regulators such as EASA, FAA and TCCA, as well as regulators in emerging countries including China, Brazil and India. • Continue our industry leadership role on the Environment and Safety portfolios and increase our engagement in the Air Transport segment and the CNS/ATM category. • Continue to reduce and eliminate our use of hazardous materials by implementing company-wide processes to meet productoriented environmental regulations including REACH. • Expand our Advanced Safety Planning program to more proactively identify, monitor and mitigate the root causes of aircraft product safety incidents and develop clear indicators to track safety issues. • Increase the Transportation R&D budget and the number of employees dedicated to R&D so we can identify more ways to increase the environmental efficiency of our rail products. • Train 100% of our employees in the Safety Management System in 2014. Source: www.csr.bombardier.com October 2014 | CSR Today | 43

Book Review

The Green Executive

he Green Executive: Corporate Leadership in a Low Carbon Economy provides everything you need to know to develop a winning sustainability strategy and the leadership skills you require to implement that strategy. The first part of the book explores the business case for action taking into consideration opportunities, threats of inaction, risks of action and the ethical dimension. This is followed by an overview of global environmental problems, including the big three: climate change, resource depletion and toxic materials, and global solutions - including eco-efficiency and industrial ecology. The third part translates these large-scale solutions into practical actions for a single business ranging from simple housekeeping measures through to innovative business models. The final, crucial part introduces the sustainability maturity model and provides an insight into how the highest level of that model can be achieved, a report in CSRwire said.

A range of personal views is provided in the form of 18 exclusive interviews with senior level executives from a wide range of sectors including retail, transport, manufacturing, logistics and the service sector, from small businesses through to international giants like Canon, BT, Marks & Spencer, National Express and GlaxoSmithKline. There are many books around that talk about what it means to be green, how to do it and what insights can be gained from all of them. What’s so appealing about the way its author Gareth Kane goes about presenting this subject is not only his skill in covering all aspects of green and sustainable business with clarity but also his very down-to-earth, pragmatic and plain language approach. The Green Executive is structured logically: first comes the business case for becoming a green executive, next an explanation of what creating a sustainable economy actually means, then the actions required and finally the processes that need to support the actions.

We First

ith capitalism hobbled today by greed and unsustainability, is it possible to reshape it to serve the greater good? In We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World, author Simon Mainwaring explains how it’s already happening as social media empowers us to put market forces to work for a new form of altruistic capitalism. A brand marketing expert, Mainwaring offers a blueprint for a self-sustaining, more contributory We First economy that we all can play a role in creating whether we’re consumers, business executives, or investors. The rise of social media means consumers now have unprecedented power to steer brands toward serving the world at large. Companies are beginning to balance their necessary self-interest in profit with doing good. Typical consumer transactions are being transformed into “contributory consumption,” in which every purchase generates a contribution 44 | CSR Today | October 2014

to help address global problems. Selling, buying and contributing are becoming fundamentally intertwined into one process, transforming the fundamental nature of commerce into an engine for global progress. This represents a fundamental shift in capitalism’s purpose and a systemic shift that integrates contribution within consumption. Retail becomes “Wetail.” And profit becomes purpose, a review in CSRwire said. Examining both economic failures and solutions, Mainwaring takes us from the unsustainable economies of Easter Island and Haiti, to the very latest innovations of smart cash registers, smartphone apps, mobile shoppingexperiences and online games that contribute millions of dollars to social causes. He also shows how We First principles are being embraced today by small companies like Dancing Deer Baking Company and Guayaki Yerba Mate and Fortune 500 companies like Pepsi, Unilever, Patagonia, Procter & Gamble and Wal-Mart.

Presents

The New CompaNies aCT 2013 aNd desigNiNg of CsR sTRaTegies & RepoRTiNg (Open WOrkshOp fOr One Day)

CoNTaCT foR moRe deTaiLs: +91 98672 10670 cc@iccsr.org oR +91 22 27788481 / 82 ea@iccsr.org

17th OctOber Nagpur

PrOgram ratiOnale

training Objectives

audience & duratiOn

The new Companies act 2013 makes it mandatory for Indian companies to spend 2 per cent of their profits on Csr related activities. The bill also emphasizes the need for the following: • Creation of Csr Division • appointment of Independent Csr Directors • Creation of Csr committees to supervise and monitor Csr • Mandatory reporting to the Government of India for the Csr activities undertaken and expenses made with respect to the same on year on year basis.

The herein program presents the scope and curriculum for the Csr & sustainability training, specifically for professionals. The training is developed according to international trends in the sector, as it pertains to sustainability, aiming to provide a holistic and systemic approach. The training aims to address the needs of professionals across diverse business functions, who wish to instill greater efficiency in their operations and communication. The overall training objective aims to: 1. Increase awareness on key Csr & sustainability topics and areas of concerns 2. Integrate a “common thinking” on sustainability across the organization 3. enable participants to develop their organization’s sustainability strategy and report. 4. enable participants to develop a sustainable brand

The program is estimated to take 1-day, 5.5-6 hours, of consecutive learning time. audience: • executive Management from all Industries • executives from Csr, planning / Budget, Marketing, finance, hr departments

training cOst for Corporate: The cost for each participant is estimated at Inr 8,900 plus service Tax (applicable by the government) for education institutions and Ngos: The cost for each participant is estimated at Inr 7,900 plus service Tax (applicable by the government) Note: For group discounts please contact 9867210670