The Global CSR Awards, one of Asia's most prestigious recognition awards programme for corporate social responsibility is back for the fourth successive year. The awards will be held in conjunction with The Global CSR Summit 2012.
Based on overwhelming feedback, the organizers have selected the stunning Island of Boracay, Philippines as the venue for this year’s conference and awards.
The Global CSR Awards is an annual award organised by The Pinnacle Group International. The programme recognizes and honours companies for outstanding, innovative and world class products, services, products and programmes implemented in 2011/2012 as part of their broad corporate and CSR strategy.
The winners of the awards last year were Petron, Procter & Gamble Philippines, Team Energy, Citibank Pakistan, Meralco, Indika Energy, FedEx, Keppel Land, IBM Philippines and YTL Corporation.
The Global CSR Summit for this year will highlight the directions of CSR which involves going narrow concepts and sustainability that aims to minimise environmental harm.
The theme of the summit “Beyond Sustainability – Full Steam Ahead” challenges us to push the boundaries of sustainability and embrace innovative ideas and ways in which we can adopt this paradigm confidently for businesses, societies and the environment at full steam.
The two-day event will be hosted at the Shangri-La Resort, Boracay Island Aklan, Philippines on 19-20 April 2012 and will consist of presentations from industry leaders, an awards luncheon ceremony, a practical workshop and an Eco Tour around the Island of Boracay. The organizers are expecting 200-300 delegates from all over world.
The Global CSR Awards, one of Asia’s most prestigious recognition awards programme for corporate social responsibility is back for the fourth successive year. The awards will be held in conjunction with The Global CSR Summit 2012. Read more
The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) in partnership with Schema has been approved by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) as the new GRI Training Providers for Arabic-speaking Middle East countries. Through this collaboration, CSE and Schema are offering the Certified GRI Training program in the region of Middle East for the effective creation of CSR/ Sustainability Reports in alignment with the new GRI G3.1 Guidelines.
The GRI certified training assists Managers and Sustainability executives to gain insight on the conceptual introduction and preparation of the GRI reporting process that covers all the aspects of GRI reporting: from dialogue with stakeholders and credibility of the reporting process, to the definition of content, monitoring and communication of the final CSR/ Sustainability Report.
GRI Training will take place at different locations in Middle East in January and thorough 2012:
Doha, Qatar, 21 & 22 January 2012
Muscat, Oman, 24 & 25 January 2012
Manama, Bahrain, 28 & 29 January 2012
Dubai, UAE, 03 & 04 June 2012
The Certified GRI Training is provided as part of CSE’s series of successful Certified Training Programs, such as the “Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Training” & the “Certified Carbon Footprint Practitioner’’, which have benefited over 5,000 executives in leading companies in over 25 countries around the globe, since 2005.
CSE is a global Sustainability (CSR) strategic advisory and training organization with offices in Chicago, Brussels and Athens. CSE works in more than 20 countries with private and public sector clients, including FT500, for the integration of Sustainability (CSR) within their operations and has extensive experience in the areas of Sustainability (CSR) Strategy, Reporting, Carbon footprint and Supply Chain Management. CSE is a leading training provider to more than 5000 Executives and has partnerships with leading global institutes. CSE has been collaborating with the GRI since 2006 as an organizational Stakeholder and since 2010 is an approved Training Provider for other regions.
The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) in partnership with Schema has been approved by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) as the new GRI Training Providers for Arabic-speaking Middle East countries. Through this collaboration, CSE and Schema are offering the Certified GRI Training program in the region of Middle East for the effective creation of CSR/ Sustainability Reports in alignment with the new GRI G3.1 Guidelines. Read more
Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR is an extension of an organization's efforts in fostering strong corporate governance and ensuring the sustainability of business. CSR has evolved into Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) describing an investment strategy based on triple bottom line (people, environment and economy). This has encouraged companies to come out with GRI based report.
With increasing role of CSR in socio-economic development and expectations from the corporate to meet the triple bottom line sustainability, Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) Bhopal, organized national level conclave ‘CSR India Conclave 2010’ on 23rd October 2010 at IIFM campus. The 'CSR India Conclave 2010' aimed to bring the various stakeholders (policy makers, corporate houses, PSUs, NGOs and the academia) under one single roof.
The objective was to align the business activities with CSR initiatives to create an equitable environment of partnership between the business and the society. The conclave got its success with participation from 180 organizations all across India including PSUs, Consultancies, MNCs, Government Departments, NGOs, research organizations and educational institutions. To name a few; NTPC, Shell Foundation, Western CoalFields Ltd, Essar, WWF, Ernst & Young, KPMG, ITC, Unity Infra, Mphasis (an HP Company), World Vision, RBS, GMR Foundation, Dr. Reddy’s Foundation, Lupin Foundation, Monsanto India etc.
The conclave encouraged NGOs to come up with well drafted development proposals that were presented before the corporate heads for implementation. The conclave targeted at the bigger picture of discussing the multi-varied issues related to implementing, monitoring and evaluating the CSR strategies and also addressed the issues of rating, ranking (CSR credits) and labeling of CSR activities.
The conclave aims at bringing together CSR practitioners and the other vital stakeholders to discuss and define CSR as a profit centre in the corporate strategy of an organization as well as an approach to sustainability. This conclave aims to discuss and bring forward various facets of CSR through keynote addresses, panel discussions and a workshop.
This Conclave seeks the convergence of ideas, thoughts and experiences of leaders representing elite organizations. Last year CSR Digest was our online partner and we had a very successful event which saw a massive participation of 180 organizations all across India including PSUs, Consultancies, MNCs, Government Departments, NGOs, research organizations and educational institutions.
SESSIONS PLAN
The whole Conclave was held in three sessions as mentioned below:
Session I: Keynote Addresses
Four speakers from the list of speakers delivered keynote addresses, each for 20 minutes, on pre-defined topics. Each address was followed by a short question and answer session of five minutes.
Session II: Panel Discussion
There was a panel discussion on 'Building effective CSR partnerships and challenges in implementation, measuring and reporting of CSR' for one hour. The panel comprised five members from the list of speakers. The discussion was followed by a public discussion for 15 minutes.
Session III: Samvad
This session focused on discussion over the existing CSR policies and initiatives taken by corporate houses. The session aimed at bringing to the fore the challenges that come in implementation of CSR activities, involving stakeholders, indentifying beneficiaries, and monitoring, reporting and evaluating CSR initiatives.
Session IV: Social Innovations Idea Competition
This session witnessed participation from the leading B-Schools of India along with NGOs wherein they came up with a socially innovative idea addressing different dimensions of society and economy. The ideas were presented before the corporate and the NGOs so as to evolve them into socially viable and responsible projects.
The Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal is a premier institute under the aegis of Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. It was established in 1979 by GOI after signing an agreement with Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. In 1988, it shifted to Bhopal, its current location, and began its flagship program “Postgraduate Diploma in Forestry Management”. Since the commencement of the program 23 batches have passed out from the institute and our alumni are working with the World Bank, ADB, the UNDP, the UNICEF, WWF, WII, ITC, E&Y, KPMG, PWC, Deloitte, ICICI Bank, HP, Olam International, GTZ, HUL, IMRB, BASIX, IFMR, Intellecap, HDFC, RBS, AXIS Bank, and many other national and international microfinance & development agencies, NGOs and research organizations. Also IIFM has been accredited by NFCG, (National Foundation for Corporate Governance, Confederation of Indian Industry), as National Centre for Corporate Governance.
Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR is an extension of an organization’s efforts in fostering strong corporate governance and ensuring the sustainability of business. CSR has evolved into Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) describing an investment strategy based on triple bottom line (people, environment and economy). This has encouraged companies to come out with GRI based report. Read more
As companies in Asia pay more attention to areas involving environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues; government bodies and regional exchanges are also taking the lead in advocating sustainability. In late 2012, Bursa Malaysia will champion the launch of an ESG Index. Similarly, Hong Kong and Singapore stock exchanges have taken on their own initiatives to ensure that both government and corporations step up in their social responsibility to build a more sustainable future.
Against this backdrop, key leaders from various industries will gather at this year’s CSR Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur on 27 and 28 September, the annual flagship event of CSR Asia, to discuss CSR developments across four themes: Asian CSR strategies; environmental issues; community investment; and, sustainable supply chains and food security.
Leading the Summit will be keynote speakers, Darrel Webber (Secretary General, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil), Paul Hoff (Director of Business Development, Asia, FTSE Group) and Richard Welford (Chairman, CSR Asia). Other opinion leaders, in attendance, come from local and global corporations as well as NGOs.
Empowering companies to exchange best practices
Dr Richard Welford, Co-Founder and Chairman of CSR Asia said, “With the robust economic growth of Asian countries such as China and India, the spotlight is cast on the region to take the lead on CSR efforts. The CSR Asia Summit will identify opportunities in Asia, especially for growth markets, and enable companies to model their businesses to embrace CSR at a global level.”
“The Summit is designed to empower companies to meet industry experts to exchange CSR ideas, innovative solutions and experiences. Our goal is to ensure the Summit is an effective platform from which thought leaders can benefit and develop long-term CSR solutions or initiatives, which would help them meet the growing expectations of their stakeholders,” says Dr Welford.
Mandatory standards for palm oil sector is another important issue that will be addressed at the Summit. There is increasing scrutiny of the Palm Oil sector in countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, where new mandatory standards will be introduced in 2012. Delegates will be able to understand the implications of these standards and the importance and implication from industry leaders such as New Britain Palm Oil, Sime Darby, Kulim and Musim Mas.
“Asian Sustainability Rating™” (ASR™)
An annual highlight of the CSR Asia Summit is the announcement of the results from the 2011 “Asian Sustainability Rating™” (ASR™). Since its launch in 2009, the ASR™ has built a strong track record in becoming an ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) benchmarking tool for use by Asian companies, investors and other stakeholders. It is an essential reference that has helped to add value and enable companies to integrate a sustainability dimension to their business models through the years.
Other highlights
Other than networking opportunities and speaking sessions, delegates will get to view exhibits of CSR projects and initiatives and access the Summit’s unique “CSR Bazaar” session on the second day, where a selection of eight presentations and case studies will be presented concurrently. On the final day, delegates will be brought together in roundtables at “The World Café”, a special feature of CSR Asia Summit and a highly commended session since its inception in 2009. A table host will facilitate group discussion on the key outcomes of the Summit so delegates can enjoy a valuable session where they are able to consolidate and discuss their learning from the Summit.
For more details about CSR Asia and the Summit, please visit www.csrasia.com/summit2011.
As companies in Asia pay more attention to areas involving environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues; government bodies and regional exchanges are also taking the lead in advocating sustainability. In late 2012, Bursa Malaysia will champion the launch of an ESG Index. Similarly, Hong Kong and Singapore stock exchanges have taken on their own initiatives to ensure that both government and corporations step up in their social responsibility to build a more sustainable future. Read more
Bursa Malaysia Bhd will launch its Business Sustainability Programme soon, in a bid to engage directors of public listed companies on Malaysia's stock exchange in making sustainability practices a boardroom agenda.
The Business Sustainability programme will comprise of a guide and an online portal to provide help to the board of directors of companies on sustainability practices. This all encompassing programme will leverage on sustainability tools aimed at assisting directors to embed sustainable business practices in their respective companies.
Chief regulatory officer, Selvarany Rasiah, was reported to have said that the guide will map out Bursa's corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework, relevant case studies and the benefits of adopting sustainability practices.
The framework is said to touch on four dimensions: work place, community, environment and market place. Sustainability practices encompasses how a company accounts for social, economical and environmental aspects. In addition to undertaking sustainability practices, companies need to report on the practices as stakeholders would want to know.
Bursa also wants Malaysian listed companies to be recipients of socially responsible investment (SRI) funds, which stands at USD9.5 trillion as at 31 Dec 2009 and is projected to grow to USD27.6 trillion by 2015.
Listed companies on the exchange are required to report on their CSR initiatives but the method of reporting is not standardised. The guide seeks to enhance the quality of sustainability reporting in the local market. The guide will explain to directors how business sustainability will lead to better management and brand protection, greater market share, improved employee retention and bottom line.
It will be supplemented with an online portal, which is updated frequently with relevant information on sustainability practices.
Bursa Malaysia Bhd will launch its Business Sustainability Programme soon, in a bid to engage directors of public listed companies on Malaysia‘s stock exchange in making sustainability practices a boardroom agenda. Read more
Tags: Asia Pacific, Bursa, Bursa Malaysia, business, corporate governance, Corporate social responsibility, CSR, labour rights, Malaysia, reporting, sustainability, Sustainability reporting
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