Month of April , 2008

Surviving CEO scandal, Qwest Foundation looks to leadership and an education focus

When former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio resigned from the telecommunications carrier in 2002 during an insider trading scandal, he left in his wake a disbanded Qwest Foundation, effectively shut down after the US West merger in 2000. Richard Notebaert stepped into the CEO role after Nacchio left and worked on re-energizing the foundation and restoring community outreach as a company priority. With that history, Ric Padilla, Qwest’s Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility, understands the importance of C-level support.

Finding the responsible shade while setting realistic environmental goals

Just a few years ago, it seems, companies that made public commitments to social and environmental responsibility faced a great deal of skepticism from critics who questioned the value or sincerity of sustainable approaches to business. Now, the tide has started to turn.

Companies looking for smoking gun should skip the science, look to the economics of environmental policy

Here’s a cautionary tale for companies faced with climate change vulnerabilities. We still cannot state with scientific certainty that smoking causes lung cancer. Yet, the scientific community recognizes that the preponderance of epidemiological and mechanistic data tell us that a link exists and the general public shares that belief. Thus, we have regulations that limit tobacco sales and public smoking. Similarly, there will be no scientific smoking gun on climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has come to the same kind of conditioned conclusion as the Surgeon General: “The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate." But don’t confuse this conditioning with uncertainty.

Companion proposal seeks employee disclosure of criminal violations of government contracts

New Federal Acquisition Regulations, effective Dec. 24, 2007, require companies receiving government contracts to have a written code of business ethics, to establish an employee business ethics and compliance training program, and an internal control system.

The changes apply to contractors working for the Defense Department, the General Services Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but generally exclude contracts below $5 million. And the rules don't apply to contracts for work done wholly outside the U.S., which some commentators have noted would exclude many contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bottom-line CR impact: Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase demonstrate good governance and results, but other firms see fortunes destroyed

With the housing market implosion spurring writedowns and losses of more than $200 billion in subprime mortgages, other credit, and mortgage-backed securities since the beginning of 2007, and assuredly with more to come, many banks and brokerages are scurrying to revamp the way they manage risk as investors and other stakeholders are demanding answers about what went wrong.

Why things went awry varied from firm to firm, and financial services companies have weathered the crisis to date with divergent degrees of success—or failure.

A platform for engaging with NGOs when they elect to target companies’ operations

There is a growing worldwide movement afoot with no name, leader or headquarters. Found in every city, town and culture, it organizes from the bottom up, is extraordinarily creative, flies under the radar and includes NGOs, village-based organizations, foundations, institutes, citizen-based groups and more. This movement directly addresses social justice and environmental issues and is estimated to comprise more than 1 million organizations, populated by more than 100 million people. Collectively it constitutes the single biggest citizens’ movement.

A platform for engaging with NGOs when they elect to target companies’ operations

There is a growing worldwide movement afoot with no name, leader or headquarters. Found in every city, town and culture, it organizes from the bottom up, is extraordinarily creative, flies under the radar and includes NGOs, village-based organizations, foundations, institutes, citizen-based groups and more. This movement directly addresses social justice and environmental issues and is estimated to comprise more than 1 million organizations, populated by more than 100 million people. Collectively it constitutes the single biggest citizens’ movement.

Closed-loop systems can help committees access sales figures, discuss mergers in secure environments

Although good governance is ultimately predicated on the ethics and expertise of board members, it is obvious to many directors today that there is a crucial role for technology. These directors reject the notion held in certain quarters a few years ago that technology is a panacea. Instead they subscribe to the more mature view that technology is an enabler—a key ingredient for a board environment that is radically different from the one only a few years ago.

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Russian businesses offer some Soviet-era employee services as well as sound environmental programs as they globalize

If you ask American experts what they know about Russian CSR activities, the majority would probably answer “nothing.” This is not particularly surprising. And if the same question is asked in the European Union, which is geographically closer to Russia, the answer would still be the same. This is unsatisfactory and the following discussion is one of the steps toward informing people about Russia’s CSR expertise and how the country’s businesses are integrating into the global process of developing new CSR standards and practices.