SustainabilityHQ.com Weekly Highlights May 28,2013

Two major trends of recent decades that are reshaping commerce:  the increased movement of production to lower-cost contractor bases and globalization of production and the increasing deployment of information technology that reduces employee count in developed economies  is a driving force in globalizing production and other business activities.  Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum explored these  trends in their best-seller, "That Used To Be Us."

The subtitle: "How America Fell Behind in the World it Invented...and How We Can Come Back."  The authors --  The merger of globalization and the IT revolution has made "average" a dangerous place to be in the workplace, with the usual entry level or move-up jobs now moved out (to other production areas).  Any job that can be eliminated through automation or cheaper labor "is not coming back," Friedman and Mandelbaum maintain.  We are now in the free agent era of labor.

But not without consequences, as we all recognized with the tragedy in Bangladesh, with 1,100 people (mostly women) perishing.  It is too early to tell what the consumer reaction will be longer-term in developed markets like the U.S.A. and E.U., and their reaction to learning what popular brand marketers are doing "out of sight" in less-developed countries.  Sustainable and Responsible Investors (SRI) are not only tuning in, but taking position and action, as our top story (here) demonstrates.

S&R investors equate poor working conditions that are part of the globalization trend to be human rights issues - stay tuned to the investors speaking out and demanding change in corporate behavior.

Top Stories of the Week

Diverse Coalition Of Global Investors Managing More Than $1.5 Trillion Calls For Systemic Reforms To End Human Rights Abuses In Apparel Supply Chains   
(Thursday - May 23, 2013)
Source: Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility – Concerned that human rights catastrophes like the April 24 collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh might recur if sweeping reforms aren’t promptly implemented, a global coalition of institutional investors are calling...[more]

Sustainability in Focus

Speech: Sustainability and reporting: Europe at the forefront   
(Thursday - May 23, 2013)
Source: Europa Press Releases - Today, I want to focus on the EU proposal on non-financial, corporate reporting, published in April this year. I also want to draw your attention to the newly agreed European reporting rules for extractive industries and banks.

The future of sustainability reporting: how can we make it better?    
(Wednesday - May 22, 2013)
Source: Guardian.co.uk - Last month’s EU Commission proposal for a directive requiring sustainability reporting (SR) by large European companies and this week’s Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) conference, where EU Commissioner Michel Barnier will...

This is just a sample of some of the articles from this weeks SustainabilityHQ Highlights.  You can view the full Highlights by using the following links.  Sustainability | ESG, Highlights for the Week of May,28 2013