Co-creation is at the heart of how Enviu ideates, develops, and markets its solutions for social and environmental issues. With this guide we aim to share our experience with those aiming to involve a variety of actors for the development of solutions for complex issues. Currently, you can download the guide on PDF format, and soon you’ll be able to also order hardcopies. 

This guide is a live document that will mature with your contribution. For this, we have made the contents available on a wiki that will be used to develop upcoming editions. Simply click the “edit” tab, and co-create this guide with the rest of the Enviu community.

(New York, 7 June 2011) – When it comes to broad implementation of responsible business practices, company size matters most. And while businesses around the world seem to be making tangible progress in addressing environmental concerns, many continue to struggle in the human rights and anti-corruption arena.

These are among the findings of the UN Global Compact’s latest Implementation Survey, one of the most comprehensive global surveys on corporate sustainability performance. Completed anonymously by more than 1,200 companies participating in the UN corporate responsibility initiative, the survey forms the basis of the 2010 Global Compact Annual Review, which was launched at UN Headquarters today.

Among the key findings:

• Large and publicly traded companies are performing at higher levels on all of the Global Compact’s issue areas (human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption) than small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), pointing to the availability of greater financial and human resources to support extensive sustainability programs.
• Reflective of the growing relevance of sustainability issues to business performance, more than 70 percent of all respondents indicate the active involvement of their chief executives in policy and strategy development. Nearly 60 percent of all publicly traded companies report active involvement of their boards of directors.
• Companies across the board report having anti-discrimination and equal opportunity policies in place – one of the few issues to transcend size or sector. Yet, less than 20 percent of all respondents report conducting human rights impact assessments and less than 30 percent record instances of corruption, with dramatic differences between SMEs and larger companies.
• Concerning supply chain implementation of sustainability principles, widely seen as critical in order to bring corporate responsibility to true scale, 65 percent of companies report some measure of supplier involvement, with 12 percent requiring their suppliers to be Global Compact participants.
• Likewise, 79 percent of companies spread their commitment to the Global Compact principles to their subsidiaries, with nearly half of those (44 percent) creating separate sustainability functions at the subsidiary level.
• Increasingly, businesses are recognizing the role of the private sector in advancing UN development objectives. Over half (56 percent) of survey respondents are engaged in some form of public-private partnership at the global or local level. Reflecting a broader trend by business to build on the growing sustainability market, 42 percent of all respondents said that they are developing products and services or designing business models that seek to contribute to UN priorities.

“While the sustainability movement has taken great strides in recent years, significant challenges remain,” said Georg Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact. “Helping smaller companies close performance gaps, stimulating collective action on all fronts and making a stronger case for human rights and anti-corruption engagement will be critical if we are to bring corporate responsibility to scale.”

Overall, the Global Compact continued to grow in 2010 and now includes more than 6,000 business participants, as well as more than 3,000 non-business signatories. More than half of all businesses in the initiative are small and medium-size enterprises. The countries with the highest numbers of participants are France, Spain, the US and Brazil.

• Download the UN Global Compact Annual Review 2010
  
• Download Key Findings

Transition Network helps communities deal with climate change and shrinking supplies of cheap energy (peak oil). This process, which we call Transition, aims to create stronger, happier communities.

PLANETE - Les Nations unies lancent la Décennie de lutte contre la désertification...

Un milliard de personnes dans près de cent pays du monde sont menacées par l’avancée du désert. Ce lundi s’est ouvert à Fortaleza, au Brésil, la 2^ème conférence internationale sur le climat et le développement durable dans les régions semi-arides, sous l’égide des Nations unies. C’est l’occasion pour la communauté internationale de donner le coup d’envoi de la Décennie de lutte contre la désertification (2010-2020), destinée à enrayer la progression des zones désertiques dans le monde.

Bonuses have been inflated by a poaching war as firms that have survived in good shape, such as Barclays, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, snaffle top talent. Typically, they are hiring rainmakers on one-year guaranteed deals, with the highest earners in line for between $1 million or $2 million, regardless of whether they generate any business.

This is a far cry from the boom years when the same people could expect to earn five times that but the packages will still be seen as excessive when banks are under pressure to scrap large bonuses. It's no different from Premiership football where those who score goals command the most. Those in the "Ronaldo" category, making recent moves include Basil Geoghegan, who left Goldman for Deutsche Bank, Jonathan Grundy, who joined Credit Suisse from Merrill Lynch, and Jim Renwick, whom Barclays Capital poached from UBS.

Not to be caught out, victims of these poaching raids are responding by handing out retention bonuses - one or two-year deals to hold onto staff. Bank of America Merrill Lynch is understood to have paid its corporate broking teams bonuses to stay, while UBS, Europe's biggest casualty of the credit crunch, is said to have also paid up to stop rivals nabbing its best people.

The idea that bonuses could disappear, as the authorities wish, is seen as a joke in the City. Regulators insist that pay reform is on the way, and last week the Financial Services Authority's three-month consultation over its pay recommendations closed. However, whatever the FSA says, the premium on star names will remain. In an industry reliant upon contacts and relationships, they are the banks' lifeblood. The banks will always find a way to attract and reward them. Bonuses have not only not been away, they are not going anywhere.

Jean-François Rischard, a former vice president of the World Bank and the best-selling author of High Noon, told the audience that the world needs a "new generation of students" who are more creative and collaborative in their approach to tackling global problems such as the warming of the planet, poverty, financial instability, water shortages, and biodiversity breakdowns.

The speech was heavy on the global big picture, with charts, diagrams, and lists on a large screen on the stage, but there were not a lot of specifics about how education, and more specifically, educational technology would help solve those problems.

But near the end of the presentation, Rischard called on those in the audience and educators worldwide to engage in the kinds of changes that would help tackle the world's most pressing issues. "We need a new generation with far more knowledge, much better skills, and a different mindset," he said. "This has to come from heads of states, this has to come from you, educators."

He argued that if schools took the approach of creating a more multidisciplinary and multicultural curriculum centered on solving the biggest global problems, the result would be better schools producing more creative, analytical, and collaborative students who would grow up to be far more effective than the present generation of adults in addressing the fast-changing and increasingly complex issues of today and tomorrow.

But, he said, "institutions of education tend to be much more change resistant when they should be the opposite." That comment drew loud applause.

Opening Keynote—Jean-François Rischard
Global Problem-Solving and the Critical Role of Educators and Technology for Education

Sunday, June 27, 5:45–7 pm, Wells Fargo Theatre (simulcast throughout CCC)

We in big pharma should never take for granted our right to exist; our business model is not written into any country’s constitution. So we should be turning up to work every day with the mindset that we are earning the right to exist. We are earning it by meeting the expectations of society. When you start to think like this, you see the world differently.

Andrew Witty - CEO, GlaxoSmithKline

80+ minutes long presentation, with audio

Designers have traditionally focused on enhancing the look and functionality of products.  Recently, they have begun using design tools to tackle more complex problems, such as finding ways to provide low-cost healthcare throughout the world.  Businesses were first to embrace this new approach—called design thinking—now nonprofits are beginning to adopt it too.

Some standouts for me from the conference [Agriculture 2.0] (in order of appearance not importance!)

Tod Murphy from Vermont’s Farmer’s Diner. He talked about working with farmers and creating a business that was successful and practical. Love that his diner serves the farmers he buys products from.

Carol Kramer LeBlanc, from US Department of Agriculture where she serves as the director of Sustainable Development. Her talk was interesting because she outlined all the new programs available to farmers. Cannot wait to see the impact of these new programs in our rural communities!

Diana Endicott from Good Natured Farms a cooperative of 18 family farms in Kansas and Missouri. Very inspiring woman and organization. Great model for farmers getting together to save rural communities.

Craig Wichner who founded Vital Farmland, LP which invests in farmland and turns it into organic/sustainable farms. Would love to talk to him about all the farmland we have in upstate New York!

Pam Marrone, from Marrone Biopesticides an organic pesticide alternative manufacturer. Very impressed with her presentation, frankly a lot of the talk went over my head but from what I gathered she is a one-woman scientific powerhouse that has been creating patented biopesticides. Seems like there is a lot of exciting stuff that is and will be coming out of her company. Very cool.

Melina Shannon-DiPietro from Yale Sustainable Food Projects who spoke about the energy and commitment of today’s college student. Very inspiring and true, young people want to change the world with their minds and bodies. Cannot wait to see the energy these young people bring to farming and food in America!