A Letter From Annie Leonard on the Story of Stuff

Dear Reader,

My new book, The Story of Stuff, goes on sale today in bookstores all around the country.

In fact, I’m in New York as I write this preparing for my appearance tonight on The Colbert Report! I hope you tune in. Read more

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The Future Of The Aid Sector

Learning from Southern NGOs

By Jean-Michel Piedagnel

Western NGOs and the humanitarian sector are having a bit of a midlife crisis.  They need to open up to the 21^st century and to the societies that will shape this 21^st century, they happen to be outside of Europe and of the USA. I am not talking about opening the humanitarian system so that it embraces all new and emerging NGOs. The international humanitarian system has become a “bubble” that is largely driven by OECD donors driven (80.9% of the financial contributions comes from OECD’s 23 members).  I am talking about learning from the way Southern NGOs engage in political debates to reassert our independence and impartiality. Read more

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The GRI Readers Award 2010

The Global Reporting initiative (GRI) have this week re-launched the 2010 sustainability reporting awards in a simpler, more user friendly format. Voting is now easy and quick, allowing everyone to easily shape the future of sustainability reporting.

The GRI’s Readers’ and Reporters’ Awards will now be open until the 3 March 2010. For the first year, readers and reporters can vote. They offer a unique opportunity to have your say and change the future of sustainability reporting.

RCA Presentation

GRI provides the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework. Sustainability reporting is now standard practice for many leading businesses. The number of sustainability reports being produced is at a record high. GRI is now aware of over 1280 reports published in 2009 representing an increase of 17% on 2008 figures.

For the first time, the GRI’s Readers’ and Reporters’ survey report will show whether reports really meet the needs of their target audiences, and more importantly, whether these reports actually change people’s views and behaviour.

Wim Bartels, Partner at KPMG Sustainability Netherlands said:

We believe that the combination of the Readers’ Survey and the Reporters’ Survey this time around will give us valuable insights about the information readers really want. We will analyze the two perspectives in order help organizations provide readers with the information they need and want.

Helen Spoor, Consultant at the Readers’ Choice Awards Content Partner organization Futerra said:

Trust is at an all time low. By showing both sides of the story, we’re being completely transparent. Results could show a real disconnect between reporters and readers, providing the opportunity to dramatically change sustainability reporting in the future.

The awards and survey results will be announced at the 2010 Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency, to be held on 26 – 28 May 2010.

2010 Readers Choice Brochure

To take part in the survey as a reader or reporter, click here. Click here for further information on the Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency.

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GRI and ING Announce The Big Five Competition

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and 2010 Conference sponsor ING today announced the opening of “The Big Five Competition” in which they invite small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from around the world to compete for one of up to five booths worth €13,000 at this year’s Conference Market Place. Read more

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Call For Entries In Zoosa’s CSR Database

Zoosa has issued a call for entries in the first Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) database which moves beyond the usual CSR marketing fluff and delivers searchable CSR results. Organizations can enter their “verified” information directly and/or socially responsible professionals can enter “unverified” corporate data for others to view, comment on, and prioritize. Read more

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Mapping out the challenges for social innovation research

Courtesy of INSEAD Knowledge

by Grace Segran, London

Social entrepreneurs and enterprises may have limited resources but they’re resourceful and are capable of tackling failed markets, as well as intractable ‘wicked’ problems. But the key question, according to Pamela Hartigan, Director of Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Said Business School, Oxford University, is how far can social innovation help forge a new global order that is more sustainable, responsible, and humane than what has gone before?

Pamela Hartigan

In short, what can it contribute to new markets, sectors and institutions?

Speaking to INSEAD Knowledge following the recent International Social Innovation Research Conference (ISIRC) 2009 held at Said Business School, Hartigan said social entrepreneurship and enterprise research has now reached a stage of maturity where it is important to go beyond questions concerning definitions, and foster “a new wave of high quality critical research on the topic.”

An emerging field and new trends

The emergence of journals such as ‘Social Enterprise’ and ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ supports the optimistic view that there is an emerging field of researchers, ISIRC’s co-chair Alex Murdock told INSEAD Knowledge. The social innovation research field reaches across a number of academic disciplines such as business, public administration, social policy and psychology. “It is an interesting question as to when, and whether, it will become established as a separate field.”

The key message he drew from the ISIRC was that “everyone had much to learn from each other and that the possibilities for collaborative and international research were considerable.”

Murdock, who is a professor of not-for-profit management and leadership at London South Bank University, says research is likely to switch focus to more overarching theoretical models, drawing on approaches such as governance, from descriptive case studies.

Alex Murdock

One emerging trend is the issue of public/private boundaries and the ability of social entrepreneurship and enterprises to span these and develop new and innovative ways to work, adds Murdock. There is also the increasing use of network approaches, social returns on investment and performance, as well as scalability and the ability to develop innovation beyond the original site or individual.

The future

In order to know where social innovation is heading, Hartigan feels that we first need to understand what social innovation is.

Social innovation, she says, is conceived as the outcome of any individual, group, organisational or network activity that combines a distinct social or environmental mission with innovation, around processes, outcomes or context, and a clear market orientation.

The latter includes social enterprises that generate profit but also co-operatives, not-for-profit organisations, charities, voluntary groups, and state actors that demonstrate a performance-driven, competitive, and outward-looking strategic approach to their mission objectives.

Hartigan then draws a parallel between social innovation research and the development of other social science disciplines which use a four-stage sequential process to establish a field-level identity:  descriptive research; theory-building; empirical testing of the theory; and finally, applying the theory to existing situations.

“Research in social innovation currently stands between the first and second stage,” says Hartigan. “Descriptive research abounds defining what is and is not social innovation, and the field is beginning to build a theory, drawing upon different established disciplines.  But much remains to be done to advance social innovation research that feeds into, and draws upon, its practice.”

As social innovation research is at an early stage, it is “somewhat all over the place” but there is little doubt that scholars have a key role to play in co-creating the field of social innovation and entrepreneurship alongside practitioners and policymakers, argues Hartigan.  The most important push is to incorporate more practitioners into this discussion.

“While this is a continuous struggle in academia in general, it can be least tolerated in relation to social innovation and entrepreneurship, as these are strongly grounded in practice, and divorcing the two will only make research irrelevant as it fails to be nurtured by, and act as a support to, the practitioners,” she adds.

Pamela Hartigan on social innovation

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The New Business Driver is Sustainable Innovation: Are you Ready?

We are in a climate of change: from the global financial crisis to emerging carbon markets, from increasing resource costs and regulations to changing consumer preferences. Doing business has never been harder. What will separate the winners and losers under such changing circumstances? Read more

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