Knowledge Centre

Investors pivot to conscious investing in 2020: How markets are adapting

Centre for Corporate Public Affairs, Steve Chiavarone and Martin Jarzebowski, CNBC, July 3, 2020, 07 July 2020 Investors are becoming more socially conscious in choosing where to put their money. How the public and private sectors react to the issues surrounding racial disparity and a collective response to COVID-19 will have an impact on redefining our social contract, according to Steve Chiavarone and Martin Jarzebowski, from asset management firm,...

advocacy corporate responsibility

We’re Entering the Age of Corporate Social Justice

Centre for Corporate Public Affairs, Lily Zheng, Harvard Business Review, June 15, 2020, 01 July 2020

Companies with effective Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs are more profitable than those without a CSR scheme, according to academic research. Consumers and stakeholders now want companies to see social good as a necessity, moving it beyond a mere marketing strategy. To do this, Lily Zheng, from Harvard Business Review, recommends...

corporate responsibility csr governance

UK aviation industry vows new zero carbon by 2050

BBC News, Tuesday February 4, 2020, 22 January 2020 The United Kingdom’s aviation industry is pledging to reduce its net carbon emissions to zero by 2050. According to the industry group Sustainable Aviation, it said it will do this with cleaner engines, new fuels and planting trees. Under the plan, airlines can cut down pollution even as passenger numbers grow by an expected 70 per cent over the...

csr corporate responsibility

Exxon wins New York climate change fight

BBC News, Wednesday 11th December 2019, 06 December 2019 ExxonMobil has won a court battle in New York, after being accused of misleading investors about the costs of addressing climate change. The state argued the oil giant used two figures to calculate the risks of climate change, and thus misrepresented the cost in public disclosures. Exxon said the two figures served two different purposes, and a...

corporate responsibility

Green lawyers launch complaint over BP ad campaign amid ‘climate emergency’

Emily Beament, Belfast Telegraph UK, Tuesday December 3, 2019, 26 November 2019 Environmental legal charity ClimateEarth has triggered an official complaint against BP, claiming the company is misleading consumers about its low carbon credentials in advertising campaigns in the UK and elsewhere. The lawyers behind the complaint also said fossil fuel adverts should be banned unless they carry a planetary and person health...

advocacy corporate responsibility

Easyjet to offset carbon emissions from all its flights

Gwyn Topham, The Guardian, Wednesday 20th November 2019, 20 November 2019 Easyjet announced on Tuesday it would offset carbon emissions from all its flights, becoming the world’s first major airline to operate net-zero carbon flights across its network. The British budget airline said its plan would cost about £25m in the next financial year through schemes to plant trees or avoid the release of additional carbon...

csr corporate responsibility

Five Ways that ESG creates value

Witold Henisz, Tim Koller and Robin Nuttall, McKinsey & Company, 14 November 2019

Getting your environmental, social, and governance (ESG) proposition right links to higher value creation. As a result, ESG is an inextricable part of how you do business, and its individual elements are themselves intertwined. Hence, thinking and acting on ESG in a proactive way has lately become even more pressing. The US...

corporate reputation corporate responsibility governance

‘Responsible thing to do’: Qantas pledges zero net emissions by 2050

Patrick Hatch, The Sydney Morning Herald, Monday November 11, 2019, 13 November 2019

Qantas has pledged to cut its net carbon emissions to zero by 2050, making it the second airline group in the world to make this commitment. Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the goals of the airline group – which includes budget carrier Jetstar – will cap net emissions at their current levels of around 12 million tonnes from 2020. Mr...

csr corporate responsibility

Bank of England boss says global finance is funding 4C temperature rise

Richard Partington, The Guardian, Wednesday October 16, 2019, 10 October 2019

The governor of the Bank of England has delivered a stark warning to international capital markets over the financing of carbon-producing projects that will lift global temperatures by more than four degrees this century. Mark Carney, the governor of Britain’s central bank suggested companies had secured financing from investors in the market...

socio political environment corporate responsibility

BHP adds ‘social value’ into its business planning

Neil Hume, Financial Times, Wednesday 9th October, 2019, 08 October 2019 Ahead of an investor briefing in London, BHP has announced that its Anglo-Australasian group will add a social value assessment to the business plans of all its assets. BHP’s Chief External Affairs Officer, Geoff Healy said: “In order to deliver financial value, you have to deliver social value… This is just good, sensible business.” The...

corporate responsibility csr