A preliminary analysis of the impact of UN MDGs and RIO+20 on corporate social accountability practices

This chapter explores the impact of UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Rio + 20 in improving Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices. While MDGs and Rio + 20 have suggested additive guidelines for improving CSR practices, they do not provide a strong legislative mandate. We find both MDGs and Rio + 20 have had limited cumulative effect on CSR practices and discourses within the corporate reports. UN bodies should bring a new policy and regulatory framework that addresses limitations in the principles espoused in the MDGs and Rio + 20. An independent monitoring system (a social compliance audit mechanism) can be mandated in an attempt to make incremental substantive change.

Corporate board and corporate social responsibility assurance: Evidence from China

This paper investigates the association between board characteristics and the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) assurance decision in China. By examining 2054 firm-years of Chinese listed companies with CSR reports from 2008 to 2012, we find that firms with a large board size, more female directors, and separation of CEO and chairman positions are more likely to engage in CSR assurance. Gender diversity also influences the CSR assurance provider choice. However, board independence and overseas background of the CEO do not affect the CSR assurance decision. Inconsistent with our prediction, firms with foreign directors are less likely to engage in voluntary CSR assurance. In summary, this research provides in-depth insights into the determinants of Chinese firms’ voluntary CSR assurance.

Sustainability and Mission Drift in Microfinance

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are constrained by double bottom-lines: meeting social obligations (the first bottom-line) and obtaining financial self-sufficiency (the second bottom-line). The proponents of the first bottom-line, however, are increasingly concerned that there is a trade-off between these two bottom-lines—i.e., getting hold of financial self-sufficiency may lead MFIs to drift away from their original social mission of serving the very poor, commonly known as mission drift in microfinance which is still a controversial issue. This study aims at addressing the concerns for mission drift in microfinance in a performance analysis framework. Chapter 1 deals with theoretical background, motivation and objectives of the topic. Then the study explores the validity of three major and related present-day concerns. Chapter 2 explores the impact of profitability on outreach-quality in MFIs, commonly known as mission drift, using a unique panel database that contains 4-9 years’ observations from 253 MFIs in 69 countries. Chapter 3 introduces factor analysis, a multivariate tool, in the process of analysing mission drift in microfinance and the exercise in this chapter demonstrates how the statistical tool of factor analysis can be utilised to examine this conjecture. In order to explore why some microfinance institutions (MFIs) perform better than others, Chapter 4 looks at factors which have an impact on several performance indicators of MFIs—profitability or sustainability, repayment status and cost indicators—based on quality-data on 353 institutions in 77 countries. The study also demonstrates whether such mission drift can be avoided while having self-sustainability. In Chapter 5 we examine the impact of capital and financing structure on the performance of microfinance institutions where estimations with instruments have been performed using a panel dataset of 782 MFIs in 92 countries for the period 2000-2007. Finally, Chapter 6 concludes the study by summarising the results from the previous chapters and suggesting some directions for future studies.

CSR in forest industry – Case study of reporting and implementation of social responsibility in three international companies

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly important topic in forest industries, and other global companies, in recent years. Globalisation, faster information delivery and demand for sustainable development have set new challenges for global companies in their business operations. Also the importance of stakeholder relations, and pressure to become more transparent has increased in the forest industries. Three dimensions of corporate responsibility economic, environmental and social, are often included in the concept of CSR. Global companies mostly claim that these dimensions are equally important. This study analyses CSR in forest industry and has focus on reporting and implementation of social responsibility in three international companies. These case-companies are Stora Enso, SCA and Sappi, and they have different geographical base, product portfolios and therefore present interesting differences about forest industry strategy and CSR. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has created the most known and used reporting framework in CSR reporting. GRI Guidelines have made CSR reporting a uniform function, which can also be measured between companies and different sectors. GRI Guidelines have also made it possible to record and control CSR data in the companies. In recent years the use of GRI Guidelines has increased substantially. Typically CSR reporting on economic and environmental responsibility have been systematic in the global companies and often driven by legistlation and other regulations. However the social responsibility has been less regulated and more difficult to compare. Therefore it has previously been often less focused in the CSR reporting of the global companies. The implementation and use of GRI Guidelines have also increased dialogue on social responsibility issues and stakeholder management in global companies. This study analyses the use of GRI´s framework in the forest industry companies´ CSR reporting. This is a qualitative study and the disclosure of data is empricially analysed using content analysis. Content analysis has been selected as a method for this study because it makes it possible to use different sources of information. The data of this study consists of existing academic literature of CSR, sustainability reports of thecase-companies during 2005-2009, and the semi-structured interviews with company representatives. Different sources provide the possibility to look at specific subject from more than one viewpoint. The results of the study show that all case-companies have relatively common themes in their CSR disclosure, and the differences rise mainly from their product-portfolios, and geographic base. Social impacts to local communities, in the CSR of the companies, were mainly dominated by issues concerning creating wealth to the society and impacting communities through creation of work. The comparability of the CSR reporting, and especially social indicators increased significally from 2007 onwards in all case-companies. Even though the companies claim that three dimensions of CSR economic, environmental and social are equally important economic issues and profit improvement still seem to drive most of the operations in the global companies. Many issues that are covered by laws and regulations are still essentially presented as social responsibility in CSR. However often the unwelcome issues in companies like closing operations are covered just briefly, and without adequate explanation. To make social responsibility equally important in the CSR it would demand more emphasis from all the case-companies. A lot of emphasis should be put especially on the detail and extensiveness of the social reponsibility content in the CSR.

Factors affecting perceptions of corporate social responsibility implementation: an emphasis on values

This dissertation is a broad study of factors affecting perceptions of CSR issues in multiple stakeholder realms, the main purpose being to determine the effects of the values of individuals on their perceptions regarding CSR. It examines perceptions of CSR both at the emic (observing individuals and stakeholders) and etic levels (conducting cross-cultural comparison) through a descriptive-empirical research strategy. The dissertation is based on quantitative interview data among Chinese, Finnish and US stakeholder groups of industry companies (with an emphasis on the forest industries) and consists of four published articles and two submitted manuscripts. Theoretically, this dissertation provides a valuable and unique philosophical and intellectual perspective on the contemporary study of CSR `The Harmony Approach to CSR'. Empirically, this dissertation does values assessment and CSR evaluation of a wide variety of business activities covering CSR reporting, business ethics, and three dimensions of CSR performance. From the multi-stakeholder perspective, this dissertation use survey methods to examine the perceptions and stakeholder salience in the context of CSR by describing, comparing the differences between demographic factors as well as hypothetical drivers behind perceptions. The results of study suggest that the CSR objective of a corporation's top management should be to manage the divergent and conflicting interests of multiple stakeholders, taking others than key stakeholders into account as well. The importance of values as a driver of ethical behaviour and decision-making has been generally recognized. This dissertation provides more empirical proof of this theory by highlighting the effects of values on CSR perceptions. It suggests that since the way to encourage responsible behaviour and develop CSR is to develop individual values and cultivate their virtues, it is time to invoke the critical role of moral (ethics) education. The specific studies of China and comparison between Finland and the US contribute to a common understanding of the emerging CSR issues, problems and opportunities for the future of sustainability. The similarities among these countries can enhance international cooperation, while the differences will open up opportunities and diversified solutions for CSR in local conditions.

Benchmarking sustainability of Indian electricity system: An indicator approach

India needs to significantly increase its electricity consumption levels, in a sustainable manner, if it has to ensure rapid economic development, a goal that remains the most potent tool for delivering adaptation capacity to its poor who will suffer the worst consequences of climate change. Resource/supply constraints faced by conventional energy sources, techno-economic constraints faced by renewable energy sources, and the bounds imposed by climate change on fossil fuel use are likely to undermine India's quest for having a robust electricity system that can effectively contribute to achieving accelerated, sustainable and inclusive economic growth. One possible way out could be transitioning into a sustainable electricity system, which is a trade-off solution having taken into account the economic, social and environmental concerns. As a first step toward understanding this transition, we contribute an indicator based hierarchical multidimensional framework as an analytical tool for sustainability assessment of electricity systems, and validate it for India's national electricity system. We evaluate Indian electricity system using this framework by comparing it with a hypothetical benchmark sustainable electrical system, which was created using best indicator values realized across national electricity systems in the world. This framework, we believe, can be used to examine the social, economic and environmental implications of the current Indian electricity system as well as setting targets for future development. The analysis with the indicator framework provides a deeper understanding of the system, identify and quantify the prevailing sustainability gaps and generate specific targets for interventions. We use this framework to compute national electricity system sustainability index (NESSI) for India. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An approach to scenario analysis of the sustainability of an industrial sector applied to clothing and textiles in the UK

Companies aiming to be 'sustainability leaders' in their sector and governments wanting to support their ambitions need a means to assess the changes required to make a significant difference in the impact of their whole sector. Previous work on scenario analysis/scenario planning demonstrates extensive developments and applications, but as yet few attempts to integrate the 'triple bottom line' concerns of sustainability into scenario planning exercises. This paper, therefore, presents a methodology for scenario analysis of large change to an entire sector. The approach includes calculation of a 'triple bottom line graphic equaliser' to allow exploration and evaluation of the trade-offs between economic, environmental and social impacts. The methodology is applied to the UK's clothing and textiles sector, and results from the study of the sector are summarised. In reflecting on the specific study, some suggestions are made about future application of a similar methodology, including a template of candidate solutions that may lead to significant reduction in impacts. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessing the sustainability of brackish water aquaculture systems in the Phillipines. Working Paper 1: A typology of brackish-water pond aquaculture systems in the Philippines

Aquaculture in the Philippines is a long-standing activity but has witnessed relatively recent, rapid, technical change with the introduction of hatchery technology and commercial feed-mills changing the production possibilities for a fishpond operator. We are confronted with a diversity of aquaculture practices in the coastal areas of the Philippines, with new technologies being incorporated into more traditional systems. As a first step to understanding the sector, we therefore present a typology of farming systems with the motivation of generating domains (farm “types”) over which we can compare performance on a number of indicators. Our typology, restricted to brackish-water pond systems, is constructed using multivariate methods (principal components analysis, cluster analysis). Eight variables are used relating to the management of the farm across all the major factors of production. A stratified net sample of 136 observations provides the data for the analysis, from a farm-level survey carried out between January and June 2003 in the two main brackish-water production regions in the Philippines. We define five farm types from this analysis. In later work we will show how the use of this typology can be used for comparative study of economic, social and ecological performance at the farm-level. [PDF contains 42 pages]

Weighting social preferences in participatory multi-criteria evaluations: a case study on sustainable natural resource management

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Sustainable IT and IT for sustainability

Energy and sustainability have become one of the most critical issues of our generation. While the abundant potential of renewable energy such as solar and wind provides a real opportunity for sustainability, their intermittency and uncertainty present a daunting operating challenge. This thesis aims to develop analytical models, deployable algorithms, and real systems to enable efficient integration of renewable energy into complex distributed systems with limited information.

The first thrust of the thesis is to make IT systems more sustainable by facilitating the integration of renewable energy into these systems. IT represents the fastest growing sectors in energy usage and greenhouse gas pollution. Over the last decade there are dramatic improvements in the energy efficiency of IT systems, but the efficiency improvements do not necessarily lead to reduction in energy consumption because more servers are demanded. Further, little effort has been put in making IT more sustainable, and most of the improvements are from improved "engineering" rather than improved "algorithms". In contrast, my work focuses on developing algorithms with rigorous theoretical analysis that improve the sustainability of IT. In particular, this thesis seeks to exploit the flexibilities of cloud workloads both (i) in time by scheduling delay-tolerant workloads and (ii) in space by routing requests to geographically diverse data centers. These opportunities allow data centers to adaptively respond to renewable availability, varying cooling efficiency, and fluctuating energy prices, while still meeting performance requirements. The design of the enabling algorithms is however very challenging because of limited information, non-smooth objective functions and the need for distributed control. Novel distributed algorithms are developed with theoretically provable guarantees to enable the "follow the renewables" routing. Moving from theory to practice, I helped HP design and implement industry's first Net-zero Energy Data Center.

The second thrust of this thesis is to use IT systems to improve the sustainability and efficiency of our energy infrastructure through data center demand response. The main challenges as we integrate more renewable sources to the existing power grid come from the fluctuation and unpredictability of renewable generation. Although energy storage and reserves can potentially solve the issues, they are very costly. One promising alternative is to make the cloud data centers demand responsive. The potential of such an approach is huge.

To realize this potential, we need adaptive and distributed control of cloud data centers and new electricity market designs for distributed electricity resources. My work is progressing in both directions. In particular, I have designed online algorithms with theoretically guaranteed performance for data center operators to deal with uncertainties under popular demand response programs. Based on local control rules of customers, I have further designed new pricing schemes for demand response to align the interests of customers, utility companies, and the society to improve social welfare.

Identificação de indicadores globais para as áreas de sustentabilidade ambiental e responsabilidade social: estudo de caso em uma indústria de fornecimento de insumos para o refino de petróleo

A integração da sustentabilidade ambiental junto à responsabilidade social tem sido cada vez mais o foco de inúmeras discussões de âmbito mundial. Assim com a expansão deste conceito, a valorização do colaborador e a preservação do meio ambiente ganham importância como instrumento de gestão, não apenas para aderir à legislação, mas também para aprimorar a qualidade, a competitividade e as reivindicações da comunidade. Deste modo, os indicadores, como ferramenta de apoio, buscam atender as observâncias através de informações que mensuram e apontam à postura socioambiental a expectativas empresariais. Neste contexto, este estudo aponta a necessidade da proposição de indicadores globais que integrados e sistêmicos auxiliem no gerenciamento empresarial cujos resultados primem pelo desenvolvimento de maneira convergente à sustentabilidade nas diversas áreas que compõem a indústria de fornecimento de insumos para o refino de petróleo. Com a utilização de questionário sobre relevância e disponibilidade dos dados sobre os indicadores e através da metodologia da Soma ponderada foi organizada uma priorização entre os indicadores levantados na empresa, contíguo à proposição de indicadores de responsabilidade social. Em seguida, foram elaborados os respectivos indicadores globais: sustentabilidade ambiental e desempenho ambiental. Destarte, são recomendadas maiores pesquisas para o desenvolvimento contínuo dos indicadores globais, além da implantação de indicadores de responsabilidade social, a fim de contribuir ao posicionamento teórico e avaliação das atuações práticas

El fondo de reserva de la seguridad social

El objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar y explicar el funcionamiento del Fondo de Reserva de la seguridad social. Para ello se describen tanto los precedentes directos como indirectos de dicho fondo para posteriormente proceder a explicar la normativa jurídica referente al fondo, los criterios de inversión y materialización de los activos de dicho fondo y evolución de diferentes aspectos cuantitativos del Fondo. Esto nos permitirá enmarcarlo dentro de un conjunto de Fondos de Reserva Europeos para poder apreciar las diferentes formas de gestionar dichos Fondos, los cuales se erigen de vital importancia para la sostenibilidad del sistema de la seguridad social. Por último, se llevará a cabo una sencilla estimación partiendo de unas hipótesis realistas que nos permitirá conocer hasta cuando dará de si el Fondo de Reserva en caso de seguir recurriendo a este como se ha venido haciendo en los últimos años.

The Environmental, Social, Governance, and Financial Performance Effects on Companies that Adopt the United Nations Global Compact

This paper aims to investigate companies' environmental, social, governance (ESG), and financial implications of their commitment to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). The focus is placed on companies operating in the three countries with the highest number of UNGC participants: Spain, France, and Japan. The results clearly reveal that adoption of the UNGC often requires an organizational change that fosters stakeholder engagement, ultimately resulting in improvements in companies' ESG performance. Additionally, the results reveal that ESG performance has a significant impact on financial performance for companies that adopted the principles of the UNGC. These findings provide both non-financial and financial incentives to companies to commit to this voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, which will have important implications on companies' strategic management policies that aim to foster sustainable businesses and community development. Finally, the linkages between the UNGC-committed companies' ESG and financial performance may be influenced by geographical spread, mainly due to the appearance of differences in the institutional, societal, and cultural settings.

A UAB e suas práticas subjacentes nas diferentes concepções do espaço social brasileiro.

Esta investigação teve como proposta a análise crítica da efetividade do Sistema UAB e suas práticas subjacentes nas diferentes concepções do espaço social brasileiro e objetivou discutir como vem sendo desenvolvida a política de expansão e de interiorização tendo como foco os polos UAB, avaliar a funcionalidade dos atos normativos, identificar os efeitos das ações políticas praticadas e analisar a efetividade do sistema UAB, tendo em vista o atendimento à demanda diante das vocações regionais do território brasileiro. A base metodológica deste estudo incluiu a pesquisa documental disponível nos arquivos dos órgãos de execução e controle. As fontes, a coleta, a elaboração e a análise dos dados foram realizadas considerando as informações disponíveis, a partir de 2008. Questionou-se se em tempos de formação humana, o modelo implantado pela UAB é determinante no fortalecimento da produção de espaços sociais excludentes; se o atual modelo de EAD praticado pela UAB evidencia prováveis disfunções na dinâmica de execução do sistema em vigor e, considerando o atendimento às vocações regionais para o equilíbrio educacional brasileiro, se a ação de articulação da UAB entre os três níveis governamentais é adequada à sustentabilidade da qualidade acadêmica e do compromisso social da EAD. Os resultados obtidos na pesquisa revelaram que as ofertas de cursos nos polos não atendem à efetividade das vocações regionais. Pode-se refletir que o modelo implantado é determinante no fortalecimento da produção de espaços sociais excludentes e que o atual sistema revela disfunções na dinâmica de execução em vigor.

O encerramento do aterro metropolitano de Jardim Gramacho: Acenos da inclusão social e da implantação do polo de reciclagem em Duque de Caxias pelo protagonismo dos catadores e catadoras de materiais recicláveis.

O encerramento do Aterro Metropolitano de Jardim Gramacho (AMJG) foi pioneiro na formulação de políticas públicas socioambientais no Brasil, ao incluir a questão social nas ações de saneamento e apoiar a organização de cooperativas de catadores de materiais recicláveis. Este trabalho objetivou acompanhar o encerramento desse aterro e o processo de implantação do Polo de Reciclagem situado em Duque de Caxias, Região Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro. A pesquisa teve caráter exploratório e abordagem qualitativa. Utilizou-se de entrevistas aplicadas a uma amostra de lideranças de catadores organizados e não organizados que atuavam na região. O estudo foi realizado entre setembro de 2011 a novembro de 2013. A política sanitária brasileira visa à melhoria das condições de trabalho do catador e incentiva a sua inclusão social, através da organização em cooperativas e/ou associações. Conclui-se que a participação dos catadores no processo de encerramento do AMJG, através das articulações com o governo do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, foi fundamental, embora muitos outros problemas socioambientais ainda persistam nesta região e precisam ser equacionados pelo poder público. Além disso, cabe destacar o papel dos programas sociais do governo federal que podem beneficiar essa categoria de trabalhadores. Para estudos futuros, recomenda-se acompanhar o desenvolvimento e a sustentabilidade deste Polo de Reciclagem.