A business is sustainable if it has adapted its practices for the use of renewable resources and holds itself accountable for the environmental and human rights impacts of its activities. This includes businesses that may want to operate in a socially responsible manner, as well as to protect the environment. Many profit-oriented corporations will forge an image of social responsibility through various marketing and public relations techniques, although this apparent image does not necessarily mean that they are sustainable.
— green@work magazine articles —
Real Sustainable Business Value
Maximizing the business value of sustainable development.
by Chuck Riepenhoff and Michael Radcliffe
The overall value proposition for sustainable development that has been repeatedly established promises a variety of benefits such as maintaining the social license to operate, building brand value, enhancing company reputation, building trust among stakeholders and creating new revenue opportunities. Yet merely embracing the concept of sustainable development will not deliver its full value potential.
Realizing the value offered by sustainable development requires a comprehensive approach. Social, environmental and economic issues cut across organizational boundaries and often interact in complex ways. Isolated programs or incremental improvements—“eco-efficiency,” public relations campaigns, corporate philanthropy or publishing reports—cannot address sustainability and build business value.
Experience demonstrates that a strategy for implementing sustainable development is a central ingredient in realizing its full potential for creating business value. But that strategy is more than a schedule for accomplishing predetermined tasks. Rather, it is a guide for continuous improvement in a new way of doing business.
Read on at: (subscription required) http://www.greenatworkmag.com/magazine/corp_acts/01sepoct.html
A New Triple Bottom Line
Social responsibility ins’t only “social.” It has a spiritual aspect too.
By Senior Columnist Carl Frankel
The term “corporate social responsibility” has never really hit the spot for me, and neither has “corporate citizenship.” The terms are muzzy, fuzzy. Sure, corporations should be “socially responsible”—but to whom? And for what? As for “corporate citizenship,” exactly what is a good corporate citizen supposed to do? Put flowers in flowerboxes? Vote? (Come to think of it, corporations do vote—with their wallets, big-time, before the election—but that doesn’t quite make them good citizens, does it?)
Read on at: (subscription required) http://www.greenatworkmag.com/gwsubaccess/04winter/frankel.html
Green Business Programs
http://www.greenbiz.ca.gov/AboutUs.html
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