SustainabilityHQ.com Weekly Highlights September 10, 2013

Top Story of the Week

Walk the Talk, UNGC Advises Business Leaders

In a survey of 1,712 company leaders in 113 countries, the UN Global Compact asked about how companies are walking the talk on sustainability.

Top  line:  regarding corporate sustainability, while increasing numbers of chief executives recognize the need to change, they are not following through with concrete actions.

The survey results show some progress but there is still a l-o-n-g way to go for even the UNGC signatories to drive sustainability into the DNA of their organizations.  The Guardian and UNGC presented the results of the survey (details in the top story this week).  One-third of the signatories responded, and the Global Compact leadership saw a gap between “principles and practice” in the various responses to its questions.  Call this “what-companies-say-and-then-do” gap.

Example:  Nine out of 10 boards say they discuss and act on sustainability issues.  But just 8% link progress in sustainability with C-suite pay-for-performance incentives.

Example:  Looking at the supply chain, half of the respondents said they had communicated “expectations” to their suppliers.  About 20% help suppliers meet those expectations (say, with training, or other assistance). And a mere 8% verify that remediation steps have been taken.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon wrote of the results that "while UN Global Compact participants are on a good track in terms of high-level commitments and goal-setting, much more needs to be done to deepen sustainability efforts in how they think and act, from boardrooms to supply chains."

The UNGC is a global collaboration and strategic policy initiative for business; companies are asked to commit to and embrace certain universal principles, and to partner with the UN.  Each year the signatories attest to their compliance with the 10 principles, which deal with human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption.  At this writing, there are 10,000+ participants including 7,000 businesses in 145 countries.

Wake up call for businesses: sustainability progress remains slow       
(Friday - September 06, 2013) 
Source: The Guardian - If you're under the illusion that sustainability is already embedded into the corporate sector, then it's time to wake up and smell the coffee. A comprehensive survey of 1,712 corporate members of the United Nations Global...

Sustainability in Focus

The 10 Cities That Are Leading The Way In Urban Sustainability      
(Friday - September 06, 2013) 
Source: Fastcoexist.com - Cities are the laboratories where the most innovative ideas for surviving in the future can be tested. These 10--from New York to Tokyo to Bogota--were just awarded City Climate Leadership Awards for their work.

Entering the Era of Smart Sustainability Reporting
(Friday - September 06, 2013) 
Source: Triple Pundit - As sustainability reporting has gone from vanguard to mainstay over the past decade, sustainability professionals have struggled with the question of who actually wades through the reams of data that comprise a typical...

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 September 10,2013