CSR News
Beer, Community, and Aliens: Social Responsibility at Anheuser-Busch InBev
Anheuser-Busch InBev (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Last month, Washington Dutra of Anheuser-Busch InBev gave CSRwire readers an exclusive look at the company’s progress in meeting a bold set of three-year environmental goals announced in 2010. The company had made credible progress, but Dutra admitted that there was a lot of work yet to be done.
In the brewer’s 2011 Global Citizenship Report titled Connecting for a Better World, released earlier this month, Dutra and his team offer extensive context for the company’s environmental, social, and community development goals as well as the challenges of operating in a complex interconnected world.
I caught up with Carol Clark, who has the unlikely title global vice...
ANN INC., Parent Company of Ann Taylor and LOFT, and Vital Voices Global Partnership Announce 2012 ANNpower Fellows
ANN INC. (NYSE:ANN), the parent Company of Ann Taylor and LOFT, and Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international NGO that empowers global women leaders, are proud to announce the 2012 ANNpower Fellows.
Through a competitive application process during the month of March, ANN INC. and Vital Voices Global Partnership have selected 50 young women who are rising high school juniors and seniors across the U.S. to become ANNpower Fellows and participate in the first annual ANNpower Vital Voices Leadership Forum. The 50 ANNpower Fellows hail from 24 states across the U.S. including California, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Texas and New York. To meet the 2012 ANNpower Fellows, visit ANNpower.org.
The ANNpower Vital Voices Initiative is a groundbreaking partnership between ANN INC. and Vital Voices. Together, they are working to train and empower young women in the U.S. to invest in their communities and begin their journey as the next generation of leaders.
The Fellows will attend the ANNpower Vital Voices Leadership Forum, a three-day leadership training program in Washington, D.C. from June 4-7, 2012. The Forum’s curriculum will be based on the Vital Voices Leadership Model. Fellows will be mentored by 12 global women leaders who are part of the Vital Voices Global Leadership Network as well as executives from ANN INC. After completing the curriculum, the 50 ANNpower Fellows will be challenged...
New Report: Wireless Products and Services Help Drive Socioeconomic Change
Wireless products and services are a powerful agent of social change that provide billions of people around the world with anytime, anywhere access, according to a report released today by BSR and commissioned by CTIA-The Wireless Association. The “Socioeconomic Impacts of Wireless Technology” report cites a variety of case studies and uses on the adoption of, and trends in, wireless-enabled applications for finance, healthcare, education, and community engagement.
- Mobile Finance: Around the world, there are billions of “underbanked” or “unbanked” people, but thanks to wireless technology, they have access to market information and banking services so they receive a fair price for their goods and services and protect their money.
- Mobile Health (mHealth): From remote monitoring to disease management, wireless technology is helping improve healthcare outcomes and address the healthcare worker shortage. In the United States, chronic disease treatment costs more than US$1.4 trillion each year, but using mHealth could mean a savings of more than US$21.1 billion per year.
- Mobile Education: By using mobile technology, interactive learning may happen at any time and virtually anywhere. Technology-based instruction can reduce the time it takes students to reach...
Bill Drayton of Ashoka Wins Harvard Award
Ashoka CEO and founder Bill Drayton received the Harvard Kennedy School’s prestigious Richard E. Neustadt Award for Public Policy last week. The Neustadt Award is presented annually to a key social innovator whose work draws upon research and intellectual ideas in order to develop solutions to public problems. At the awards ceremony in Cambridge on May 3rd, the Neustadt Award recognized Drayton’s lifelong commitment to fostering a global movement of social entrepreneurs through his work at Ashoka. As innovators for the public, Ashoka addresses social problems by investing in social entrepreneurs, an approach that creates opportunities for global collaboration that facilitate high-impact social solutions.
Drayton received the Neustadt Award in conjunction with the Kennedy School’s Thomas C. Schelling Award for Public Policy. The Schelling Award is conferred on an individual whose unprecedented intellectual work has had a transformative impact on public policy. This year’s Schelling recipient is Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prize winner in economic sciences.
“The Schelling and Neustadt awards are given in the names of two people who were instrumental in the creation of the modern Kennedy School,” noted Kennedy School dean David T. Ellwood. “It is in their spirit that we recognize this year’s extraordinary recipients, both of whom have dedicated their lives and careers to the pursuit of knowledge and...
Northern Trust Publishes 2011 Corporate Social Responsibility Report
Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ: NTRS), a leading provider of financial services for institutions, affluent individuals and families, released its second annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report today, detailing 2011 global initiatives and setting CSR goals for 2012.
“Being a socially responsible corporation can manifest itself in many ways – all of which ultimately help make life better for our clients, shareholders, partners and the communities we serve,” Northern Trust Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frederick H. Waddell said. “Whether promoting environmental stewardship, creating innovative initiatives to serve communities and people at risk, or improving client and partner satisfaction, a rigorous CSR program ensures that we set priorities to best reflect our principles of service, expertise and integrity.”
Highlights from the report during 2011 include:
- 187,000 volunteer hours donated to organizations by Northern Trust staff globally.
- $48 million spent with minority and women-owned firms in the U.S., a 6 percent increase from 2010.
- $13.9 million cash contributions to charities and civic organizations worldwide.
- a 3.75 percent reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions per full-time-employee.
Northern Trust also announced CSR goals for 2012, including efforts to:
- Reduce paper consumption by 25 percent.
- Achieve emissions reductions of 3 percent per full-time-employee...
Boston College Offers Corporate Governance Program For Directors, Senior Executives
Corporate governance has grown increasingly important and challenging as directors respond to the dynamic economic, political, cultural and regulatory environment in which today’s companies operate. To help business leaders respond to this challenge, the Boston College Law School and the Center for Corporate Citizenship at the Carroll School of Management are presenting the second annual Directors' Intensive Program on Corporate Governance, June 20, on the Boston College campus.
Board directors are being held more accountable than ever before and are expected to understand and fulfill their fiduciary duties with the rigor and wisdom necessary to both ensure legal compliance and promote sustainable, long-term value. The Directors’ Intensive Program on Corporate Governance is designed to help directors and executive leaders perform their duties of oversight at the highest level.
The program provides perspectives and knowledge from leading practitioners and scholars about current and emerging issues and practices in corporate governance. It will be relevant to both new and continuing directors, as well as those executives responsible for supporting the board and for leadership decision-making for their firms.
Noted experts from business, law, finance, and academia, will contribute to the program, including keynote...
Microsoft commits to being carbon neutral
Microsoft has today announced that we plan to be carbon neutral across all our direct operations beginning on July 1st 2012 – the beginning of our next financial year. Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental Strategist at Microsoft commented on the software...(read more)
Social Innovation Summit 2012: Featuring Alicia Keys, Tiki Barber, Jeff Swartz and Jeffrey Hollender
We are pleased to invite CSRwire members to join us for the 2012 annual Social Innovation Summit at the United Nations for unparalleled networking opportunities with an exclusive mix of global attendees on May 30 - 31, 2012.
Social Innovation Summit 2012 is a premier invitation-only conference connecting and inspiring a unique network of Business, Technology, & Community leaders interested in affecting positive social change. The summit balances significant networking time with high-profile global speakers presenting emerging trends across social innovation themes such as economic development, education, women & girls, sustainability and global health.
We are happy to offer CSRwire members this opportunity to join an otherwise closed event with a fantastic lineup of world class speakers including:
- Alicia Keys, Multi-Platinum Grammy Singer, Songwriter, Actress & Philanthropist
- Howard W. Buffett, Executive Director, Howard G. Buffett Foundation
- Craig Venter, Chairman & President, J. Craig Venter Institute
- Jonathan Greenblatt, Head, Office of Social Innovation, White House
- Kay Koplovitz, Chairman, Liz Claiborne
- Jean-Pierre Rosso, Chairman, World Economic Forum USA
- Peter Bloom, Managing Director, General Atlantic; Chairman at DonorsChoose.org
Along with our event partners the United Nations Office for Partnerships we would be honored if you would accept our invitation...