Ethical Corporation’s latest update on responsible business stories

Countering corruption

Companies seeking to root out corruption from their operations can prove that their anti-bribery systems are robust with a new “Assurance Framework for Corporate Anti-bribery Programmes” prepared by Transparency International. The framework sets out processes and standards to guide companies that commission independent checks on their operations, and is in line with international standards on countering bribery. The framework will help corporations “strengthen their anti-bribery systems and enhance the credibility of their efforts to prevent corruption”, Transparency International says.

Abuses in the spotlight

Another giant Chinese manufacturer of electronics that most western people have never heard of is in the spotlight, following the publication of a highly critical Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights report. According to the institute, VTech, which employs 33,000 people and produces about 30% of western Europe’s cordless phones, is “a nasty and cruel sweatshop, which has been exploiting workers for years”. Abuses at factories in mainland China include exhausting working hours, beatings for non-compliant workers and rock-bottom wages, the institute says. VTech works closely with companies such as AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Motorola and Wal-Mart. VTech says that it is a “responsible and caring employer” that emphasises “people-oriented management to ensure harmonious staff relations”.

Commitment cloud

Rio+20 may have been more low key and less ambitious than many companies would have preferred, but at least they can now contribute to a “cloud of commitments” arising from the summit. The website, www.cloudofcommitments.org, maintained by the US Natural Resources Defence Council, promises to monitor Rio+20-related pledges made by companies, governments, non-profit groups and communities. The cloud promises to become “a state-of-the-art internet platform which would work towards unprecedented transparency, engagement, assessments and accountability for these commitments”.

Early committers include Microsoft (carbon neutrality by 2014), Disney (fund 6,000 acres of reforestation by 2015), Duke Energy (plant American chestnut trees on formerly mined land in the Appalachians), and the British government, which says it will require companies listed on the London Stock Exchange’s main market to report their greenhouse gas emissions. (For more on the outcome of Rio+20 see p34.)

Star cars

Cars sold in Europe have become significantly more fuel efficient – and thus less polluting – since mandatory limits on carbon dioxide emissions were introduced, data published by the European Environment Agency has shown. The figures show that between 2000 and 2007, an 8% efficiency gain was achieved for the average EU car. But then in 2007, the European commission proposed mandatory limits, since when cars have become 14.5% more fuel efficient. New cars now emit on average 135.7 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre travelled, on track to meet the commission’s limit of 130 grams by 2015. However, despite the per-vehicle improvement, Europe’s road transport greenhouse gas emissions overall have increased by 23% since 1990, the EEA says.

Sustainable boardrooms

Britain’s top companies are demonstrating that they take sustainability seriously by increasingly appointing sustainability executives to boardroom roles, research by recruitment consultants Acre Resources has found. More than a fifth of FTSE 100 companies now welcome sustainability into the boardroom, up from about 5% in 2005. The pacesetters are “those with a large number of vocal consumers as key stakeholders” – in other words, consumer goods firms – according to Andy Cartland of Acre. “Well-known large companies where sustainability is near or at the top of the chief executive’s agenda include O2, Unilever, Kingfisher and Sky.”

Braced for waste

The world faces an unprecedented waste management challenge in the next decade, the World Bank says. Annual global generation of solid waste is expected to increase from 1.3bn tonnes today to 2.2bn tonnes in 2025, while the cost of handling it will nearly double. Booming urban populations and the economic development of poorer countries are the main causes, according to the bank. Better waste management, especially in poorer countries, is “an urgent priority”. A World Bank spokesman says the challenge is “enormous, on a scale of, if not greater than, the challenges we are currently experiencing with climate change. We are looking at a relatively silent problem that is growing daily.”

Top Canadians

Canada’s top corporate citizens tend to be banks and insurance companies, but energy and utilities firms also feature prominently in a ranking published in June by the Corporate Knights group. In its 2012 list, Corporate Knights identified the most responsible Canadian companies as Desjardins Group, Canada’s largest financial cooperative, Vancouver City Savings and insurers the Co-operators Group. Among the top 50, 44 have a “sustainable development-themed board committee”, and many, especially energy companies, tie the remuneration of their executives to sustainability targets. The presence of women and minorities in boardrooms is also on the rise, the survey says.

Drink aware

Soft drinks companies such as PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are copying tactics used by tobacco firms to deflect concern about the health effects of their products and to avoid regulation, academic researchers have concluded. Campaigns such as the Coca-Cola Live Positively initiative, which promotes healthy living and supports sporting projects, might look like corporate responsibility, but are in fact an attempt to shift the blame for obesity and other health problems away from corporations and onto consumers, the researchers say. The study, published in the US journal PLoS Medicine, concludes that what is actually needed are “strong denormalisation campaigns to educate the public and policymakers about the effects of soda CSR campaigns and the social ills caused by sugary beverages”.

Quids-in Queen

Queen Elizabeth is set to reap the rewards of renewable energy. The Crown Estate – which manages property owned by the British monarch – has reported record profits. The Crown Estate has been boosted in particular by the leasing of marine areas around Britain for offshore wind farms, generating net income of £240.2m in 2011-12. The Crown Estate’s profit goes into the UK Treasury coffers, but the sovereign grant to the monarch is pegged to it, meaning the Queen will get a £5m windfall in 2013.