mick's leadership blog ...: Sustainable Globalization

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Sustainable Globalization - A 2008 Resolution

From the 21st Century Organization blog, by Victoria G. Axelrod

"Sutainable Globalization is not an oxymoron. In the last few days of finishing a book chapter on globalization it occurred to me that I have spent close to two years thinking, writing and consulting about the antiseptic "silicon" world while the "carbon" world has been grinding along half way around the planet, namely China.

The New York Times ran a photo journal series on China - Choking on Growth which causes flashbacks to the US and other developed nations "industrial revolution". China is not alone as other developing nations, India and Mexico, are keeping pace. We in the US complain about off-shoring, however what many do not realize is that by sending our manufacturing elsewhere we have also off-shored our environmental issues. But the chickens are coming home to roost. We only inhabit one planet.

"Corporate social integration" as Michael Porter reinvents the term corporate social responsibility has the unique capability to resolve the "tension between business and society." Imagine leap frogging the 20th century industrial wastes in China by understanding that "business and society are interdependent."

Read the rest of the article ...

Labels: CSR, globalization, responsibility, sustainability

1 Comments:

At 3:56 PM, John said…

With the stock market continuing to head south, is it time to consider a few money-making ideas created by the warming of our planet?

The potential of climate change investing goes far beyond mere curiosities. A growing number of advisors to big institutional investors and high-net-worth types are sizing up companies based on how likely they are to benefit from rising energy prices, stricter regulations and changes to the natural world ranging from freshwater shortages to new disease patterns and more chaotic weather.

A useful approach is to split the opportunities into two broad groups, explains Mark Fulton, climate change strategist at Deutsche Bank Asset Management: mitigation and adaptation. The first basket includes products and services that slow the flow of greenhouse gases by using less energy or by substituting clean energy for fossil fuels. That's why so many renewables such as solar and wind show up in the new climate change funds and indices. Fulton's second category includes opportunities to help the world adapt to the effects of the changing climate. This group may offer hidden values in some more obscure sectors.