If you get the chance, check out Hello Rewind.   This young group takes old T-shirts and turns them into cool laptop sleeves.

After my house was recently broken into, I had an incentive to throw all the rest of my old stuff out (what was left of it anyway).  In the process, I realized that I had a lot of old T-shirts that had sentimental value…but were on their “last legs.”  So, why not turn them into something like a laptop bag?

Fast Forward a couple of years

I really like the T-Shirt Art recycling idea.  Admittedly, I already have a functional laptop cover, but I could think of loads of ideas for old T-shirt products.  I’m hoping that Hello Rewind gets some traction & then moves beyond Laptop bags.

And a good cause embedded as well…

Hello Rewind is working to employ victims of sex crimes in the production of the laptop bags.  The team works with women formerly sex trafficked in New York City so they can learn new skills and support themselves.

By purchasing a Hello Rewind laptop sleeve, you help sustain their mission.  So, if you are in the market for a laptop bag, check these guys out!

• Hello Rewind transforms old shirts into swank laptop sleeves, helps humanity (engadget.com)
• your old van halen t-shirt gets a new life and gives new hope to women… (modernest.wordpress.com)
• Company Transforms Your Old T-Shirts Into Laptop Sleeves [Custom] (gizmodo.com)

I was pleased to see my friends James Gifford and Nandita Das have been selected as Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum. I’m not sure if they asked them first, but as the Forum is networking nirvana, I presume they’ll consider attending the party. Five years ago I wrote about James as an example of the kind of the leader that we need to achieve a systemic transformation of economy and society. “The transcending leaders of today are not necessarily charismatic figures in positions of institutional authority. There is often a mistaken assumption that leadership is about being a boss. Today’s transcending leaders are those who cross boundaries to influence society for the better, and operate at all levels of organisation or none. When I think of people who exhibit these qualities, I do not think of senior people within the United Nations system, with which much of my recent work has been. Instead I think of people like James Gifford, who came to the UN as an intern and quietly developed a responsible investment initiative that is helping shift trillions of dollars of assets behind the sustainability transition.” [http://www.lifeworth.com/2005review/introduction.html]

I only met Nandita last year, but was inspired by her approach to life, where she spends as much time on social work as acting or director. James and Nandita can seem quite different, as one runs an investor initiative and the other is an actress/director and social-worker. But those are just labels. One similarity is that they are both following their passion for what’s important to do, as part of being true to who they are, and not bothering about traditional career paths. Most of us are too scared to focus our working lives on what we perceive is most important, and our most creative response to that awareness. We might start out with that hope, but end up trapped in a rut of churning out the crap that’s expected of us, whether its corporate reports that skirt around the issues, top-tier journal articles that no one reads, or new fashion items that embody nothing of real meaning. The list could go on – it all arises from people wanting to see external signs of ’success’, status and, really, subservience to a world of lives half-lived.

Having said all that, a few of the other Young Global Leaders appear like mid-career corporate lackeys, who haven’t shown outstanding creative service to humankind. Could it be that the corporate sponsors of this programme get some of their key staff into the networking-nirvana and build relationships with the true greats of our time? There has to be some sort of corporate kick-back, as it is the WEF. Nevertheless, congratulations James and Nandita.

Here’s an interview I recently did with James, which looks at what he’s been doing, and how it came about. I also asked him about leadership.

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/9670817[/vimeo]

• Place:London, UK
• Date: 29 April 2010
• Time: 09:30-18:30
• Cost: £40 academics; £60 public/nonprofit sector; £80 business
• RSVP contact: Stuart Sanford Brunel Business School, Stuart.Sanford@brunel.ac.uk
• More information or registration: Website

The symposium is calling for creative approaches to address previous criticisms of cross sector social partnerships centred on the global social good. It invites insights from both academics and practitioners in order to bridge the previously fragmented literatures in a number of disciplines such as management, political science, public administration, non-profit management and sociology within both theory and practice.

Recently, I had the good fortune to spend some time with Shanaka Fernando*, founder of the Melbourne based restaurant chain, Lentil As Anything. Shanaka is one of those rare pioneers who are prepared to live by their convictions, flaunt social convention and challenge the status quo.

After a failed stint as a Buddhist monk in his home country of Sri Lanka (he fell in love with a nun, had a torrid affair and got kicked out), he came to Australia and dabbled in law studies. It wasn’t fulfilling, so he gave it up to travel on a shoestring around the third world for six years, learning about culture and community along the way. When he returned to Australia, Shanaka started a business importing saris made from recycled fabrics, which made him enough money to start his current social experiment – Lentil As Anything.

I call it a social experiment, because the business goes beyond simply being a social enterprise. Like other social businesses, Lentil As Anything embraces the entrepreneurial spirit while it “seeks to have a significant, positive influence on the development of the community”. But there is something more unique, more challenging, more sublime and more subversive – because it gets to the heart of human nature and the essence of Western capitalism. I am talking about generosity and money.

Through Lentil As Anything, Shanaka is trying to foster a culture of generosity. What would happen, he wondered, if there were no prices? What if people only paid what they could afford, or what they thought the food was worth, or what they were inspired to pay? Is there enough generosity left in Western society to run a viable business on the principle of giving and sharing, rather than profit maximisation? Would the ‘free rider’ problem kick in, with people taking advantage of the ‘free’ food?

According to Shanaka, all kinds of interesting things happen when people are faced with ‘the magic box’ – the treasure chest that people can place their donations in as they leave. A few (very, very few) take advantage. Some, who genuinely can’t afford to pay, offer to chop vegetables or do dishes. Others make their own assessment of what is a fair price to pay. Some are quietly generous, while others make a theatrical gesture of placing their donation in the magic box.

But it goes beyond the money. Other unexpected things happen too. As you look around, you notice that this is not a ‘people like me’ experience, where you are surrounded by those from your own socio-economic or ethno-cultural strata. Lentil  has succeeded in mixed it up, cutting across traditional divides. And because of the philosophy of the place, you may find a wealthy businessman striking up a conversation with a subsistence artist.

When you create these kind of creative connections, it is a potent recipe for innovation, for rediscovering what it means to be human. Shanaka insists that Lentil is first and foremost about good food (interestingly, vegetarian food, because that is the most inclusive, making concerns about halal or kosher or meat-based preparation irrelevant). But it is clearly more than that. It is an invitation to restore our faith in the essential goodness of humanity and the wholesome nature of community.

What, you may ask, has all this to do with CSR? Well, I believe it is entrepreneurs like Shanaka that are at the forefront of the CSR 2.0 wave. If we subject Lentil to the 5 tests of CSR 2.0, it scores well: 1) Is Lentil creative? (yes), 2) is it scalable (not sure), 3) is it responsive (extremely), 4) is it glocal (yes, it thinks globally but acts locally), and 5) is it circular (mostly, yes, local production and recycling are part of the philosophy and practice).

Even on scalability, Lentil gave me pause to think about what I mean by that. If we accept the ‘Long Tail‘ approach to scalability (popularised by Chris Anderson), Lentil doesn’t have to go from 4 to 40,000 restaurants to be scalable. It could be that 10,000 independent restaurants – inspired by a similar philosophy – pop up all around the world and turn the generosity experiment into a global movement.

As the world recovers from the Age of Greed that culminated in the global financial crisis, it is refreshing to be reminded of the rightful place of money in society. Money is always a means to an end; never the end in itself. Melbourne – and indeed the world – would be a poorer place if brave experiments like Lentil As Anything were allowed to fail**. Let us make sure that, in the battle of generosity versus money, generosity wins hands down.

* You can listen to Shanaka tell his own story in this brief video interview that I conducted with him.

** You can find details on how to make a donation to Lentil As Anything are on their website.

Shanaka Fernando is Founder of the Melbourne social enterprise Lentil As Anything, a chain of restaurants founded on the principle of generosity, where clientèle pay what they can afford or wish to pay, by making a contribution in a “magic box” after their meal. In this interview with Dr Wayne Visser, Director of CSR International, he talks about his personal journey that led him to question the purpose of money and the potential of social enterprises to make a positive difference. The interview took place on 5 March in the Abbotsford Convent grounds in Melbourne.

As a social responsibility professional who enjoys trail running, seeing more athletic companies pick up the pace on sustainability is a welcome trend. One business at the front of the pack is Brooks, whose modest marketing approach has left its efforts less known than peers.

It’s likely that will change with the launch of the Green Silence, a shoe that exemplifies its commitment from heel to toe, bringing visibility to a successful example of sustainability leadership.

Several team members took time to discuss Brooks’ approach, product innovation and a view of what’s next — Future Concepts Manager Derek Campbell, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager Stacey Gamble, Corporate Communications Manager Tamara Hills and Scott Jurek, sponsored athlete.

[Disclosure: Brooks provided the author with a free pair of its Green Silence shoes to test for this piece. The writer made a donation to environmental causes equaling the value of the shoes.]

Overall, Brooks’ social responsibility framework is comprehensive and principled, encompassing social and environmental issues, looking across the supply chain and guided by lifecycle analyses. It’s also grounded in frameworks such as Cradle-to-Cradle, Green Chemistry and Design for Environment.

Multiple motivations guide Brooks’ course. “We know sustainability is important to [runners],” says Hills. “They want clean air and pathways to run on. It’s also important to employees. Our culture attracts people who are looking for more sustainable ways of living and we get excited about opportunities to change products. From a business perspective, being smarter about materials, processes, and amount of materials increases business sustainability.”

The company toes its line of communications with integrity.

“We’re careful not to oversell, overpromise or greenwash,” Hills says. “It’s important to be accurate and honest as we let [runners] know the good things we’re doing.” The company’s website and packaging inform and engage consumers and others around key efforts.

Brooks has been working to improve its products’ environmental impact for several years, focused on packaging, reducing non-renewable materials, extending durability and optimizing end-of-life outcomes. Campbell says these comprise the largest impacts and are aspects they control, yielding the biggest near-term benefits.

Many shoes have High Performance Rubber Green (HPR Green) outsoles, made with sand rather than petroleum. Recycled materials have woven their way into laces, shoe and apparel fabrics, hangtags and packaging. The company seeks suppliers with bluesign certification, governing environmental practices in textile manufacturing.

In 2008, Brooks introduced the biodegradable BioMoGo midsole, used in a number of its shoes. An additive in the foam allows anaerobic microbes to eat the material once it hits a biologically active landfill, breaking it into nontoxic byproducts in 20 years (versus 1,000 years for a standard midsole).

GreenBiz

Full article

3blMedia and several bloggers from around the world have joined forces create 3bl TV. The first web video channel to feature three different kind of information, news and commentary on CSR and Sustainability topics.

This is a great new initiative in order to bring the CSR / Sustainability field to the next level. Many have teamed up with 3blmedia because they need to take the next step in the coverage and distribution of CSR and Sustainability topics. Blogging is fine as it is but video will enable them to bring the people in the Sustainability and CSR field closer to you and the organizations across the globe.

SustainabilityForum

Full article

Wal-Mart Stores is working with its Chinese suppliers to address energy efficiency and environmental impacts, reports the Washington Post.

The retailer, fresh off a major announcement last week to cut its supply chain emissions 20 million metric tons by 2015, has more than 10,000 suppliers in China.

In fact, if Wal-Mart were a sovereign nation and not a corporation, it would rank as China’s fifth- or sixth largest market for exported products, according to the Post.

One of Wal-Mart’s suppliers, Lutex, has added energy efficient lighting, boosted HVAC efficiency and reduced packaging, for instance. The company treats four tons of wastewater itself, instead of pumping it into the municipal sewage system.

Wal-Mart is screening all new Chinese suppliers for environmental practices.

The retailer used to audit its 100,000-some global suppliers on its own, but there were so few auditors only about 10,000 of those could be visited.

Now, the company is working with independent auditors that have been recommended by advocacy groups.

As a result of audits for a range of practices, from the environment to labor and human rights, in 2008, Wal-Mart suspended 126 suppliers for a year, according to the Post. It shut out another 35 suppliers on a permanent basis.

Out of 100,000 suppliers that amounts to over a tenth of one percent of suppliers being suspended or shut out.

Environmental Leader

Full article

Some of the nine host cities for South Africa’s first World Cup have built new stadiums that feature natural ventilation, rain water capture and energy efficiency, but struggle with finding ways to offset the huge amounts of carbon emissions that will be generated by the tournament, reports The Telegraph.

The “carbon footprint” for this year’s tournament is estimated at 2.75 million tons of carbon dioxide, nine times higher than the World Cup in Germany in 2006 and more than twice as high as the Beijing Olympics, reports The Telegraph. Emission levels are high because fans will have to fly between the host cities and because the nation uses coal for most of its electricity.

Durban, which is home to one of the new stadiums, plans to offset local carbon emissions by producing electricity from hydraulic turbines or biogas emitted by landfills. Nicci Diederichs, head of the city’s green programs, told The Telegraph, these carbon credit projects will take about two and a half years to offset the emissions caused by hosting the tournament.

Durban, together with other host cities Johannesburg and Cape Town, also have planted thousands of trees to capture the carbon dioxide.

Click here for a complete list of the 2010 World Cup Stadiums in South Africa.

Greening sports stadiums has become big energy savers and carbon reducers for several U.S. sports arenas including the Rose Garden, Verizon Center, Philips Arena, and American Airlines Arena.

Many environmentalists says that the South African governments request for carbon offset project proposals in November came too late. Nkopane Maphiri, a Greenpeace climate campaigner, told The Telegraph, despite the publicity campaigns about the greening of 2010, there aren’t many plans and it’s not feasible at this time to implement even the short-listed projects.

However, Nike has one plan. Nike’s official team jerseys will be made from recycled plastic bottles, reports Treehugger.com. Millions of fans also are expected to wear the eco-friendly shirts, which also takes 30 percent less energy to produce.

The national team jerseys will be worn in South Africa by Brazil, The Netherlands, Portugal, USA, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, and Slovenia.

By using the recycled polyester, Nike prevented nearly 13 million plastic bottles, totaling nearly 254,000 kg of polyester waste, from going into landfill sites, according to a press release.

Environmental Leader

Full article

Deloitte has purchased dcarbon8, a carbon and sustainability consulting firm, in a bid to position itself for growth in environmental advisory services, reports Accountancy Age.

As part of the deal, Gut Battle, founder of dcarbon8, will become a partner at Deloitte. Battle’s employees also will be joining Deloitte, according to the article.

John Connolly, CEO and senior partner at Deloitte, said dcarbon8’s position in the market warranted the decision, adding, “dcarbon8 is a leading innovator in carbon and sustainability consulting and already advises a number of blue chip clients,” reports M&A Deals.

Battle said that becoming part of Deloitte offers some “necessary depth” and resources.

“The challenges facing business as the world moves towards a low carbon economy are enormous,” Battle said.

A UK firm, dcarbon8 was a “˜grand prix’ award winner at the 2008 Green Business Awards, reports Sourcews.

Environmental Leader

Full article

Asda, Boots, Tesco and Sainsbury’s are some of the biggest UK retailers that have voluntarily agreed to reduce the carbon footprint of their grocery packaging by 10 percent by 2012, according to Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP). Cuts will be achieved through weight reduction, increased recycling rates, and higher recycled content.

In addition to packaging targets, the Courtauld Commitment 2 also aims to reduce UK household food and drink wastes by four percent, and grocery supply chain product and packaging waste by five percent by 2012, using 2009 as a baseline. So far, 29 major retailers and brand owners have agreed to help WRAP deliver the target reductions.

The latest targets expand the original Courtauld Commitment launched in 2005 that helped reduce 500,000 tons of packaging from 2005 to 2009.

“One of the biggest challenges society faces over the next decade is reducing the environmental impact of the things we buy. This new agreement will bring about changes ranging from more efficient methods of production right through to the impact of household consumption,” said Liz Goodwin, WRAP CEO, in a statement. “It’s no longer enough to look at the impact of packaging alone — that’s why Courtauld Commitment 2 takes into account the environmental impact of product waste in the supply chain as well as at household level.”

The 28 founding signatories are AG Barr, Apetito, Arla Foods, Asda, Boots UK, Britvic, Constellation Europe, Cooperative Retail, Dairy Crest, Danone Dairies, Danone Water, Fosters EMEA, HJ Heinz, Innocent Soft Drinks, Mars (UK), Molson Coors, Morrisons, Muller Dairies, Musgraves, Nestle, Northern Foods, Robert Wisemans, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Unilever, Vimto, Waitrose, Warburtons and Weetabix.

Packaging News reports that retailer Marks & Spencer will also sign the Courtauld Commitment 2. A study last year ranked the retailer as the UK supermarket with the worst packaging impact. This year, the retailer said it plans to sell only items that have at least one “eco” or “ethical” attribute with 50 percent of its products meeting the standard by 2015 and 100 percent by 2020.

The UK government recently called for all supermarket food labels to show their carbon footprint, country of origin and animal welfare standards.

In conjunction with the launch of Courtauld Commitment 2, Tesco announced it will replace its glass-bottled own-brand spirits with plastic bottles, which delivers an 86 percent reduction in packaging, while helping the company meet its goal of reducing the carbon impact of its products by 30 percent by 2020, reports MRW.

Tesco also unveiled the lightest wine bottle at 300g, which is 30 percent lighter than the supermarket’s previous lightest own-label bottles and will save 560 tons of glass annually, according to MRW. The retailer is also evaluating the carbon footprint of 500 products, which so far indicates that packaging is a small percentage of their overall footprint. Tesco’s carbon label program kicked off in April 2008.

Some of the participating retailers also have announced packaging reduction programs on their own over the past year. As an example, Asda, the UK subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores, plans to introduce a packaging scorecard similar to Wal-Mart this year.

Environmental Leader

Full article

UK retailer Marks & Spencer is stepping its plans to sell only items that have at least one “eco” or “ethical” attribute. By 2015, the retailer aims to have half its products meet that standard. By 2020, the goal is 100 percent.

To meet the standard, products should carry a certification such as those performed by the Marine Stewardship Council, Forest Stewardship Council or Fair Trade, or they should otherwise exhibit elements of sustainability. For instance, eggs that were produced from free range hens would pass muster.

The effort is a $75 million extension of Marks & Spencer’s Plan A, which calls for the company, by 2012, to become carbon neutral, send no waste to landfills and extend sustainable sourcing.

As of last June, the company said it had so far met 39 of 100 targets laid under Plan A.

However, the retailer also has its critics when it comes to its environmental impact. A study last year showed Marks & Spencer to be the UK supermarket with the worst packaging impact.

Under the new plan, M&S will work with its 2,000 suppliers to ensure that each and every product has at least one sustainable quality, so that the item can become a “Plan A product,” according to a press release.

It is a mammoth undertaking – in all, M&S has 36,000 product lines.

M&S plans to help suppliers create 200 “Plan A factories,” as well as help 10,000 farmers join the retailer’s sustainable agriculture program.

As one example, all cardboard for M&S food packaging will come from a yet-to-be-determined “model” forest program.

M&S will push through traceability of all raw materials used in clothing and home products.

The retailer has tabbed six raw materials for special attention – palm oil, soya, cocoa, beef, leather and coffee – all of which have been tied to deforestation.

M&S also will reach out to its shoppers, encouraging them to recycle garments. Currently, about 2 million garments are recycled under the program. The goal is 20 million annually.

As for M&S employees, the retailer plans to offer them free home insulation and free home energy monitors.

Environmental Leader

Full article

I shall be leading courses on materiality, transparency and reporting and social impact in May and June.

Materiality – What Matters (May 27th) – ½ day (afternoon)  Course Aim: To explore how companies can assess whether issues are material

Materiality is a key criterion for deciding what to report and a central plank of credible reporting. But how can it be assessed systematically? For example, to what extent is materiality a function of the scale of an impact? How is stakeholder materiality different from business materiality? And why do companies report so much that may not be material?

 Transparency & Reporting (May 28th) – 1 day Course Aim: To explore the significance, practical delivery and limits of transparency in modern corporate life

It is widely accepted that transparency creates trust. But transparency is much more than reporting yet it is not clear what it really means or how it can be delivered. When is it necessary and when is it dangerous?

 Social Impact – Measuring and Managing Your Social Footprint (June 4th) – 1 day Course Aim: To provide a systematic approach to understanding, identifying, measuring and managing corporate social impact.

Social impact is often said to be the poor relation to environmental and economic impact within the sustainability family. It is poorly understood and under-reported. Why is this? How far is it possible systematically to identify, measure and manage social impacts?

Further details may be found here.

Why has CSR failed so spectacularly to address the very issues it claims to be most concerned about? What would be far more productive than all this wishing and pretending that CSR is good and fluffy and cuddly and will help to solve the world’s problems is to simply see it for what it is: an outdated, outmoded artifact that was once useful, but whose time has past.

We need to let the ‘old CSR’ die gracefully and give it a dignified burial. By all means, let us give it the respect it deserves – a fitting eulogy about brave new frontiers of responsibility that it conquered in its heyday. But then, let us look for the next generation of CSR – the newborn that will carry the torch forward.

If we succeed in admitting the failure of CSR and burying the past, we may find ourselves on the cusp of a revolution, in much the same way as the internet transitioned from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. The emergence of social media networks, user-generated content and open source approaches are a fitting metaphor for the changes CSR will have to undergo if it is to redefine its contribution and make a serious impact on the social, environmental and ethical challenges the world faces.

Let us explore in more detail this revolution that will, if successful, change the way we talk about and practice CSR and, ultimately, the way we do business. There are five principles that make up the DNA of CSR 2.0: Connectedness (C), Scalability (S), Responsiveness (R), Duality (2) and Circularity (0).

Read the full chapter CSR 2.0: The Evolution & Revolution of Corporate Social Responsibility

Chapter 21, In: Responsible Business: How to Manage a CSR Strategy Successfully, Edited by Manfred Pohl & Nick Tolhurst (Wiley, 2010)

On 4 March 2010 marks the first birthday of CSR International. In this short video, Founder and Director Dr Wayne Visser reflects on how far the organisation has come and what to expect in the years ahead.

The excellent review of 2009, ‘Capitalism in Question’ breaks one of the stronger taboos or our time: daring to debate the place of business in society.

The question for coming years is whether breaking this taboo will become a secret, guilty pleasure for a few, privileged CSR practioners – or a serious debate amongst policy-makers. There is not yet much sign of the latter.

One year ago, on 4 March 2009, about 100 people gathered at The Hub in Kings Cross, London, to celebrate the official launch of CSR International. Memorably, the event included a funeral service for ‘old CSR’ (corporate social responsibility, or CSR 1.0) and a naming and blessing ceremony for the newborn CSR (corporate sustainability and responsibility, or CSR 2.0).

The ensuing 12 months have been a rollercoaster ride of growth, change, making friends, experimentation and shared learning, with a good deal of trial and error. Along the way, we have created a community of over a thousand CSR enthusiasts, students and professionals from 91 countries. We have conducted 22 learning events in the UK, Germany, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Kenya and Australia, as well as online. We have also shared nearly a thousand knowledge-based posts online.

Over the past year, the website has received 47,690 visits by 34,501 visitors, with 111,349 page views. The offsite CSR International blog has received 29,252 visitors and was selected as a Top 100 Blog by The Daily Reviewer. CSR International has also built a presence across various social media platforms, including Twitter (976 followers), Facebook (850 members), Yahoo (710 members), Ning (128 members) and LinkedIn (95 members).

Despite this strong online presence, there is no substitute for meeting people face-to-face, and this has been the most rewarding part of the past year. Through CSR International’s various learning programmes, I have had the chance to meet CSR friends from around the globe. Happily, this circle of friends will continue to widen through the CSR Quest world tour that I embarked on in January 2010. As to why I am doing the Quest, see the interview by my friends and leading CSR thinkers, Crane & Matten.

The year has not been without its challenges. In its first financial year (ending September 2009), CSR International made an operating loss. The business model of individual membership subscription has proved unviable, and without any sponsors, angel investors or corporate members, the financial security of CSR International remains precarious.

Nevertheless, a lot has been achieved, and there is much to look forward to. In the next 12 months, The World Guide to CSR will be launched, the CSR Quest Tour will be completed and CSR International will have moved more strongly into online learning and supporting CSR professionalization. CSR International’s claim to be “The incubator for CSR 2.0” will also be given a boost when my new book, The Age of Responsibility: CSR 2.0 is published by Wiley.

It has been an invigorating (and at times exhausting) journey, but looking at how far we have come in just one year, I know it has been worth the effort. Much of our success is due to the generous and mostly voluntary support by a team of largely invisible researchers and interns, to whom I am deeply grateful. And to my fellow CSR enthusiasts and friends, I trust you will join us over the next year and beyond, as our profession continues to make a positive difference in the world.

• Date: 17th March 2010 (Wed), 3 pm – 5:00 pm
• Place: SBF Board Room, Level 22, Keppel Towers, 10 Hoe Chiang Road
• Cost: Complimentary to Singapore Compact members
• RSVP: info@csrsingapore.org
• More information: Singapore CSR Compact

Highlights of the seminar:

• Achievements and Failures of CSR developed to-date
• Prospects and limitations of ISO 26000, a CSR guidance to be launched in 2010 by International Standardization Organization
• CSR 2.0 and the future of CSR

By the time the seminar concludes, you would be able to identify the CSR development stage your organisation has reached; how the evolving CSR concept can make a difference in the way how your business makes sustainable development; and take back to your office some practical tools to turning principles into actions.

Nathan Fabian is CEO of the Investor Group on Climate Change Australia/New Zealand. In this interview with Dr Wayne Visser, CEO of CSR International, he discusses the role of the financial investment sector in advancing action on climate change. The interview took place at the ACCSR conference in Melbourne on 19 February 2010.