Top Five Reasons Why Every Company Needs a Corporate Sustainability Strategy

National security, geopolitical instability, global economic crisis, and climate change, are few of the main issues that continue to stimulate the global drive toward sustainability. NGOs, communities, financial institutions, investors, clients, the media, and regulators, on the other hand all have high expectations on companies to examine the impact their so-called sustainable business practices have on the environment. There is however evidence that shows that corporate sustainability to a large extend creates a noteworthy competitive advantage and also high returns for companies willing to change their corporate culture and mindset to the understanding that going green makes good business sense.

Reasons

- Better management of business threats and risks – With a viable corporate sustainability strategy in place, a company can use it as a guide to prepare itself for any eventualities that may occur. This greatly helps to make sure those possible risks as well as liabilities are accounted for in the process of accounting for other valuables of the company and as a result it will reduce the severity of the risks. Additionally, it will help achieve the right financial status and take an insurance if need be.

- Today’s workforce is not only after job security, competitive salaries, safe working environment, but most of the employees prefer to be part of a company that creates a positive impact in the society. Having a corporate sustainability strategy in place therefore helps retain the best and most talented employees as well as attract the same.

- Improve on the brand image, its reputation, and recognition – a well implemented strategy will impact positively on the reputation of the company as well as the brand image by showing, through sustainable marketing that the company is taking full responsibilities for all its actions while at the same time accepting change for the betterment of the environment.

- Product and/or Service Differentiation – a company’s socially and environmentally friendly services or products can get a whole new class of faithful clients, hence increasing not only their market share but also utilizing new markets. Everyone wants to feel good about a product or service they are buying hence it is no longer enough to only provide superior quality products at competitive fair prices. To embrace this new change in the expectations of the clients, companies, through viable corporate sustainability strategies, should invent new products or re-model their existing ones to relocate themselves as leading the way in sustainable business practices.

- Cut down on manufacturing and operating costs – cutting down on water, energy, and material consumption, and reducing the generation of waste and emissions substantially reduce the operating and manufacturing costs, and in return enhance the company’s bottom line as stipulated in its sustainable marketing plan.

Any forward thinking company with a tangible corporate sustainability strategy will not only optimize the efficiency in the operating and manufacturing facilities but will equally re-model its products to be ecologically efficient, and as a result reduce any future costs and have a positive effect on not only the client but also the value of the shareholder.

Corporate Round up

World’s largest telecom operator by revenue, Vodafone Group is looking to sell its 4.39% indirect holding in Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom company. The British firm has bought 10% stake in Bharti in 2005, but sold nearly half of that after it entered the Indian market on its own in 2007.

The current stake could fetch up to $2 billion for Vodafone. Vodafone's chief executive Vittorio Colao confirmed that the company is looking at off-loading its minority stake. The promoters family, Mittal’s hold less than 30% stake in the company now, while Singapore Telecom company, SingTel is the largest shareholder with about 30.5%. SingTel’s stake is set to reach around 32% after a deal last month for another 1.52% indirect stake in the company.

At current valuation, Vodafone’s stake in Bharti could be worth around Rs 5,500 crore. This could be much higher going by the last month’s deal that saw SingTel buying the 1.52% stake for Rs 3,008 crore. At this rate, the stake could fetch Vodafone as much as Rs 8,700 crore.

Volkswagen buys stake in Suzuki

Europe’s largest car maker, Volkswagen has bought 20% stake in Indian carmaker Maruti’s Japanese parent Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC) for about $2.5 billion, a move aimed at enhancing its presence in small car segment in Asia. Maruti Suzuki accounts for over half the cars on Indian roads, giving Volkswagen the volumes it needs to topple Toyota Motor Company as the world’s largest carmaker with estimated sales of seven million units this year. In return, SMC would benefit from the European company’s expertise in hybrid cars.

ICICI puts 3i on block

ICICI group is in talks to sell its entire stake in 3i Infotech, its IT venture. According to sources in the investment banking circles global private equity firms Apax Partners, Carlyle and KKR have shown interest in buying ICICI’s 27% stake in 3i Infotech.

A potential acquisition would take the total investment to Rs 800-900 crore and will also require the buyer to launch a mandatory 20% open offer in the stock market.

Tiger Woods updates: Major corporate sponsors - alleged meetings to discuss fate of endorsements

Tiger Woods has admitted to infidelity via an official statement posted on his website, and now, according to a new report, 3 of his major corporate sponsors allegedly met today to discuss the fate of Woods' multi-million dollar endorsement deals.

FoxNews.com reports: "Several of Tiger Woods' corporate sponsors, including Pepsi, Proctor and Gamble, and Gillette, are in meetings Friday discussing whether or not the golf pro's actions in his personal life violated the terms of his multi-million dollar deals. Reps for Pepsi, Gillette and Proctor and Gamble did not respond for comment."

Fox also reports that a rep from Nike said their "involvement with Woods has not changed," in light of what is happening.

Among the things stated in Woods' statement was the fact that he is indeed taking a break from Golf. Woods says:

"After much soul searching, I have decided to take an indefinite break from professional golf. I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father, and person.

Again, I ask for privacy for my family and I am especially grateful for all those who have offered compassion and concern during this difficult period."

Do you think Woods' endorsement deals should remain in tact? Shouldn't there be a separation between his personal and professional life?

Corporate leaders are second most active group at world climate conference, after official negotiators - 2nd Page

companies with higher energy costs, stunting growth.

The chamber said in a news release Friday that its message to climate delegates is "businesses are committed to continuing to improve their environmental stewardship to address climate change ... (but) any agreement must not undermine economic competitiveness or shed jobs."

When international leaders first gathered to discuss global warming, in Rio de Janeiro in 1991, only a few corporate chiefs joined them, said Norine Kennedy, vice president for energy and environment affairs for the United States Council for International Business. Last week, hundreds and perhaps thousands made the trip to Copenhagen.

"Our thinking has evolved as the treaty has evolved, as it has grown into new areas," said Kennedy, whose group represents 300 companies and is pushing for a more active business role in climate negotiations. "We see a larger and larger range of companies _ not just in terms of their sectors, but sizes and nationalities _ participating."

A combination of responsibility and opportunity has driven the shift, according to several of the executives who swung through the conference to lobby for an agreement.

"What has changed in the last 10 years is that businesses have understood that to be sustainable is a must, and there is no future without concern for the environment," said Philippe Joubert, president of Paris-based Alstom Power, which operates power plants around the globe and recently opened the world's first pilot-scale plant for capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions from coal.

Joubert and several other business leaders here all said they want the Copenhagen talks to yield long-term rules that will set a price on greenhouse gas emissions. The sentiment, oddly enough, echoes the consensus of oil and gas executives who gathered for a conference in Houston early this year.

"There's one point which the whole energy sector agrees upon, which is, the need to make a decision on the future price of carbon," said Peter Brun, senior vice president for government relations at Vestas, the Danish wind company whose blue logo graces the giant turbine spinning outside the Bella Center.

Companies are also watching closely to see if various pledges to reduce emissions could, in the short run at least, change the dynamics of global supply chains by, say, making energy sufficiently cheaper in Cambodia than in China to lure manufacturing across borders.

U.S. companies have raised the issues of energy costs and competitiveness with Locke, the commerce secretary. On Friday morning, he sat for an hourlong chat _ over water, no coffee _ with representatives from Intel, Microsoft, GE, FedEx and two dozen other companies. Locke said the conversation revolved around the opportunities of emissions reduction.

If the world keeps cutting emissions and the United States doesn't follow suit, Locke said the executives told him, those companies "will establish plants in other countries to meet their changing (energy) needs."

Corporate leaders are second most active group at world climate conference, after official negotiators - 1st Page

COPENHAGEN, Denmark _ From the legions of environmental Cassandras gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark, for international climate negotiations, an unlikely batch of advocates has emerged to champion a new global warming agreement: businesspeople.

Corporate leaders, the rarest of commodities at the first climate talks nearly two decades ago, have staked a claim to the title of biggest player in Copenhagen outside of official negotiators themselves.

They have blanketed the host Bella Center in company logos and glossy brochures touting business efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An army of chief executives descended on the conference Friday to urge the assembled government officials to restrict emissions and thereby unleash a new wave of so-called clean energy investment. On Sunday, Coca-Cola was to co-host a business roundtable with the World Wildlife Fund.

Some of the executives, including major players in the utility and technology sectors, see massive profit potential in a worldwide shift away from fossil fuels and toward wind, solar, energy efficiencies and other low-emission energy sources.

Other companies say they're looking for uniformity in the increasingly global economy, where major markets such as Europe currently restrict emissions while the United States and most of Asia do not.

Government leaders at the conference say the increased corporate engagement has given new urgency to the negotiations and improved the chances of averting what scientists say could be the most catastrophic effects of climate change.

"This climate problem is too big, and the need for investment is too great, for government to do it alone," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke told an overflow crowd Friday.

The big-business side to the talks has angered some climate activists, who decry "green capitalism" and call for massive wealth transfers from the richest nations to developing countries struggling to cope with climate change. One Friday speech at Klimaforum09, a gathering of environmentalists running parallel to the conference, was titled "Global Warming: the Capitalist Catastrophe and the Eco-socialist Alternative."

And while increasingly vocal, business leaders remain somewhat divided on climate policy, with groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce urging "realism" on global efforts and opposing emissions limits pending before Congress.

Several economic studies funded by business groups have warned this year that emissions limits would cripple U.S.