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ICCR releases Social Sustainability Resource Guide June 28th, 2011
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) has issued a new publication offering suggestions to companies on how to achieve and measure greater social sustainability. The guide suggests ways to integrate different stakeholders into a constructive consultative process. The resource guide is also helpful for investors to develop collaboration skills in their shareholder engagements.
“While a number of companies have implemented sustainability initiatives, few measure the social impacts of their operations and programs in communities. In order to address this gap, ICCR is publishing this guide for implementing and measuring social sustainability programs.”
Learn more: Download the ICCR Social Sustainability Resource Guide.
Hard copies can be ordered from ICCR.
Oblate JPIC supports Congo Conflict-free Minerals Initiative June 28th, 2011
A workshop on the extractives industry supply chain on June 20th in northern Virginia pulled together more than 80 participants, including representatives from central African governments, the high-tech industry, mining companies, NGOs, and faith based investors, to discuss responsible mineral sourcing from Africa. Freeport McMoRan, Dell, Microsoft, Advanced Micro Devices, Sony and HP were come of the companies attending. Faith Responsible and Socially Responsible investors included the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), Boston Common Asset Management, Trillium Asset Management and members of the Congo Global Coalition.
The workshop was organized by Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and the Electronic Industry Coalition (EICC). Apart from the overall usefulness of the meeting, it provided an opportunity for JPIC staff to meet with representatives of companies whom we engage in shareholder dialogues on sustainability issues.
The roundtable discussions focused on responsible mineral sourcing from the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Central Africa countries. Minerals extracted from eastern Congo, mostly the ores that produce tin, tantalum, tungsten – the 3Ts – are essential to the electronics devices we use every day. Unfortunately, some of these minerals have been contributing to violent conflict in Eastern Congo.
The GeSI and EICC workshop was designed to develop a fuller understanding of the issues associated with conflict minerals and the efforts to stop their use in manufacturing. The discussion addressed the Dodd-Frank conflict minerals disclosure law, OECD Due Diligence and the EICC-GeSi conflict free smelter program. Following the workshop, JPIC staff participated in an investors’ meeting with the Security and Exchange Commission staff (SEC) in which the discussion focused on maintaining the protections on sourcing, designed to prevent the use of conflict minerals, written into the Dodd-Frank legislation.
Learn more about the Conflict-free Minerals provisions in the Dodd-Frank legislation
ICCR Celebrates 40th Anniversary! June 6th, 2011
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), of which the Oblates are active members, has been engaging corporations on issues related to the common good for forty years.
Read about ICCR and some recent successful member initiatives.
Investors Encourage Corporations to Report on Water Use April 16th, 2011
Thirty-three faith-based and socially responsible institutional investors with assets under management of $2.3 trillion have written to encourage companies who failed to submit a 2010 report to the Carbon Disclosure Project’s Water Disclosure Project. The investors, which included the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, are encouraging the heavy water-using companies targeted by the Report to complete the questionnaire for 2011, or explain why they are not planning to participate. Company submissions can help identify areas of both strength and weakness in water management.
Many corporations are only now beginning to look seriously at their water use, realizing that a global water crisis could pose significant risks if this vital resource is not managed carefully. Climate Change is widely expected to aggravate worldwide water shortages in the coming decades. Credit Suisse estimates that, by 2020, 37 percent of the global population will face severe water stress.
Increased demand is a major problem. Since the 1940s, the global population has tripled to more than 6 billion people worldwide. Over the same period, global water use has quadrupled. Agriculture uses 70-80% of the water used globally. In many areas, including parts of the US, which are drawing on underground aquifers, this rate of water use is unsustainable, in other words, it is being used at a faster rate than it is being replenished.
While the metrics for reporting on water use are in the process of being refined at an international level, the CDP Water Disclosure is an important step in this process.
The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate have been engaging a range of U.S. companies on water use and reporting issues, and are a signatory to the CDP Water Disclosure Project.
Delta Airlines Signs Tourism Code of Conduct March 11th, 2011
First Major Airline to Combat Global Child Trafficking
Delta Air Lines has become the first major airline in the world to enter the fight against the commercial sexual exploitation of children by signing the tourism Code of Conduct (The Code). The Code specifically focuses on the protection of children from sexual exploitation in the travel and tourism industries. While The Code has been signed by almost 1,000 travel industry members worldwide, Delta is the first U.S. air carrier and the third U.S. organization to sign.
ECPAT (a nonprofit organization that advocates for policies to protect sexually exploited children) has put forward the Code of Conduct as a joint venture with the tourism private sector to stop the trafficking of children.
Sister Valerie Heinonen of Mercy Investment Services (and long-time ICCR member) was instrumental in the creation of this new partnership with Delta Air Lines. ICCR members have been pressing companies in corporate dialogs to take action against child and sex trafficking for several years.
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