In December, PepsiCo UK and Ethical Corporation held a roundtable debate on corporate water stewardship.
More companies are developing a strong interest in, and strong opinions on water management. My colleague, Isabelle, is devoting her time to researching this further.
Water conscious companies realise the financial rewards of water stewardship. Here are a few of the water savings we have come across:
PepsiCo UK
PepsiCo UK is now working to reduce their water use, while maintaining healthy production. Efficiency has already been realised by managing other processes. They have reduced the starch generated from slicing and washing potatoes to make snack products has reduced the need to import starch from Europe, saving road miles and over £1m in 2007.
Tesco
Waterscan has published some findings from seven years of working with Tesco to improve their water efficiency. Since 2006, Tesco has saved £372,000 by harvesting 182,000m3 rainwater. The 24 systems, with a payback period of 3-4 years, provide Tesco stores with water for vehicle washing and toilet flushing, and reduced the stores’ water consumption by 31%.
Sainsbury's
Over a one-year period, Sainsbury’s managed to cut the water use by 700 million litres. This equates to a financial saving of £1.6m. The result was achieved by installing automatic flushing sensors on urinals, curtailing leakages and reducing toilet cistern capacity.
Impress Metals
Managed to make an annual saving of £40,503 by investigating their use of surface water.
14 Mar 2010
Here are some free CSR/sustainability resources...
1. The London Centre for Corporate Governance and Ethics, along with Ethical Corporation have hosted a number of roundtable debates on specific topics relating to CSR, such as living wages and voluntary initiatives. You’ll find past slides at SlideShare and Scribd.
2. Free summaries of all our practical reports on putting CSR to practice are available for download at www.ethicalcorp.com/reports.
3. At Ethical Corporation, we have introduced a subscription service - we're currently offering free trials here.
I’m always looking for reliable new research findings. So, please send any recent ethical business findings my way.
2. Free summaries of all our practical reports on putting CSR to practice are available for download at www.ethicalcorp.com/reports.
3. At Ethical Corporation, we have introduced a subscription service - we're currently offering free trials here.
I’m always looking for reliable new research findings. So, please send any recent ethical business findings my way.
9 Mar 2010
Sizing up sustainability in the UK
In 2009, a number of research houses have attempted to quantify the size of sustainability in the UK. Here is a brief snapshot of some of their claims.
Spending
“UK spending on climate change & sustainability will top $5.3b in 2010 and grow to $8.4b in 2003” according to Verdantix report ‘Critical Moments: market size & forecast: climate change and sustainability spending (UK).’
Their research leads them to believe that the climate change and sustainability market will grow by 13% next year, and by 18% in the following year.
Corporate sustainability budgets
Around one fifth of the 354 respondents to Acre’s 2008/2009 CSR Salary Survey controlled budgets of £1m or more. Further, 50% work for FTSE 100 companies and 80% were based in London and the South East.
The study also found that 75% of corporate CSR teams have nine or fewer employees.
Corporate and employee interests
According to the May Day Carbon UK report, the result of a 1,695-person survey, corporate interest in sustainability needs a boost.
Over half of respondents do not know if their organisation is affected by the UK’s legally-binding Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC).
A third of the respondents do not think that their company has a green policy in place.
According to results from a sub-sample of 226 senior managers:
· 36% of organisations have audited their annual energy consumption
· 35% have set targets to reduce carbon emissions
· 30% measure their carbon emissions (over half of these fall within the manufacturing, engineering or utilities sector)
· 29% externally report carbon emissions
· 21% do not have climate change on their agenda
Sustainable investments
According to EIRIS, the size of Britain’s green and ethical retail funds reached £6.8b by the start of 2009. This excludes UK money invested outside of the UK or in offshore funds.
Commitment to global standards
British companies are active participants in global CSR institutions. For example, the UK currently has 212 global compact participants, 38 companies that published a GRI report in 2009 and 87 UNPRI signatories.
Job market
Last March Gordon Brown stated that the UK can expect 400,000 new environmental sector jobs over the next eight years. Factor in other sustainability jobs, and that’s a considerable estimate.
According to Acre Resource’s 2009 Carbon Salary Survey of 1157 climate change professionals worldwide, 28% of organisations employing people in climate change are headquartered in the UK. Although, this should not be taken at face value as the survey sample was not controlled and 20% of respondents are British.
In addition, anecdotal evidence supporting the rise of CSR and sustainability jobs is evident in the increasing number of UK postings on job boards published by well-known sources such as Acre Resources, the CSRchicks yahoo group and the Guardian.
Market demand
Consumer demand will be the topic of my next post. A few recent studies shed some light into this previously strongly biased research area.
Spending
“UK spending on climate change & sustainability will top $5.3b in 2010 and grow to $8.4b in 2003” according to Verdantix report ‘Critical Moments: market size & forecast: climate change and sustainability spending (UK).’
Their research leads them to believe that the climate change and sustainability market will grow by 13% next year, and by 18% in the following year.
Corporate sustainability budgets
Around one fifth of the 354 respondents to Acre’s 2008/2009 CSR Salary Survey controlled budgets of £1m or more. Further, 50% work for FTSE 100 companies and 80% were based in London and the South East.
The study also found that 75% of corporate CSR teams have nine or fewer employees.
Corporate and employee interests
According to the May Day Carbon UK report, the result of a 1,695-person survey, corporate interest in sustainability needs a boost.
Over half of respondents do not know if their organisation is affected by the UK’s legally-binding Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC).
A third of the respondents do not think that their company has a green policy in place.
According to results from a sub-sample of 226 senior managers:
· 36% of organisations have audited their annual energy consumption
· 35% have set targets to reduce carbon emissions
· 30% measure their carbon emissions (over half of these fall within the manufacturing, engineering or utilities sector)
· 29% externally report carbon emissions
· 21% do not have climate change on their agenda
Sustainable investments
According to EIRIS, the size of Britain’s green and ethical retail funds reached £6.8b by the start of 2009. This excludes UK money invested outside of the UK or in offshore funds.
Commitment to global standards
British companies are active participants in global CSR institutions. For example, the UK currently has 212 global compact participants, 38 companies that published a GRI report in 2009 and 87 UNPRI signatories.
Job market
Last March Gordon Brown stated that the UK can expect 400,000 new environmental sector jobs over the next eight years. Factor in other sustainability jobs, and that’s a considerable estimate.
According to Acre Resource’s 2009 Carbon Salary Survey of 1157 climate change professionals worldwide, 28% of organisations employing people in climate change are headquartered in the UK. Although, this should not be taken at face value as the survey sample was not controlled and 20% of respondents are British.
In addition, anecdotal evidence supporting the rise of CSR and sustainability jobs is evident in the increasing number of UK postings on job boards published by well-known sources such as Acre Resources, the CSRchicks yahoo group and the Guardian.
Market demand
Consumer demand will be the topic of my next post. A few recent studies shed some light into this previously strongly biased research area.
South African divergence, not indifference
Divergence of priorities
Markus Reichardt, Ethical Corporation analyst and independent consultant for the mining industry, observes that South African corporate sustainability may pay “more attention to social issues than is common in the developed world.”
In a recent Ethical Corporation survey completed by 124 sustainability professionals in South Africa, community engagement and partnerships ranked much higher on the list of key activities than they have in similar surveys in other regions. Both activities were listed as one of the top three activities by 27% of respondents.
Corporate sustainability in South Africa demonstrates a well-developed awareness: “it generally understands the concept in same the holistic sense common to European business: the challenge to balance the needs of the Economy, the Environment and Society.”
While public sector priorities display a more narrow focus: “the Government, despite rhetoric to the contrary, is primarily concerned with the economic and social aspects.”
Since 1994 the Government has developed the country’s legal framework, passing laws in the labour, human rights, environmental, and freedom of information spheres which have transformed the corporate environment.
Employees exercise their sustainability concerns as well. Nick Rockey of Trialogue estimates that in-kind contributions, employee matching programs and volunteerism easily treble the value contributed by South African business to the various causes of its diverse society.
Global initiatives are playing an increasing role. Popularity of and support for the GRI, the ICMM and other standards-setting organisations has increased substantially in the past few years.
Tangible support for sustainability
New survey results - using a sample of 124 individuals working on sustainability in South Africa – indicate relatively large corporate sustainability budgets. 58% of sustainability survey respondents state that their sustainability budgets exceed 358,000 Rands (roughly 30,000 GBPs).
This contrasts with previous global figures of only 24% of sustainability survey respondents operating with a budget over 30,000 GBPs. (note: this global sample contains mainly European professionals)
“These days sustainability, as CSR is often referred to South Africa, continues to be taken seriously in the country. Surveys by sustainability consultancy Trialogue show that CSI contributions have kept pace with inflation over the past decade and were unaffected by the current recession, rising 24% year on year to ZAR 5.1 billion for the 2008/09 financial year.”
Such budgets may reflect the nature of survey respondents (respondents were primarily from large multinational firms), the large scale of key industries in South Africa (heavy industry), or the palpable need for sustainability given proximity to the negative impacts of business.
Interpret the results as you will. But, you can’t deny that support for sustainability will continue to grow in South Africa.
Markus Reichardt, Ethical Corporation analyst and independent consultant for the mining industry, observes that South African corporate sustainability may pay “more attention to social issues than is common in the developed world.”
In a recent Ethical Corporation survey completed by 124 sustainability professionals in South Africa, community engagement and partnerships ranked much higher on the list of key activities than they have in similar surveys in other regions. Both activities were listed as one of the top three activities by 27% of respondents.
Corporate sustainability in South Africa demonstrates a well-developed awareness: “it generally understands the concept in same the holistic sense common to European business: the challenge to balance the needs of the Economy, the Environment and Society.”
While public sector priorities display a more narrow focus: “the Government, despite rhetoric to the contrary, is primarily concerned with the economic and social aspects.”
Since 1994 the Government has developed the country’s legal framework, passing laws in the labour, human rights, environmental, and freedom of information spheres which have transformed the corporate environment.
Employees exercise their sustainability concerns as well. Nick Rockey of Trialogue estimates that in-kind contributions, employee matching programs and volunteerism easily treble the value contributed by South African business to the various causes of its diverse society.
Global initiatives are playing an increasing role. Popularity of and support for the GRI, the ICMM and other standards-setting organisations has increased substantially in the past few years.
Tangible support for sustainability
New survey results - using a sample of 124 individuals working on sustainability in South Africa – indicate relatively large corporate sustainability budgets. 58% of sustainability survey respondents state that their sustainability budgets exceed 358,000 Rands (roughly 30,000 GBPs).
This contrasts with previous global figures of only 24% of sustainability survey respondents operating with a budget over 30,000 GBPs. (note: this global sample contains mainly European professionals)
“These days sustainability, as CSR is often referred to South Africa, continues to be taken seriously in the country. Surveys by sustainability consultancy Trialogue show that CSI contributions have kept pace with inflation over the past decade and were unaffected by the current recession, rising 24% year on year to ZAR 5.1 billion for the 2008/09 financial year.”
Such budgets may reflect the nature of survey respondents (respondents were primarily from large multinational firms), the large scale of key industries in South Africa (heavy industry), or the palpable need for sustainability given proximity to the negative impacts of business.
Interpret the results as you will. But, you can’t deny that support for sustainability will continue to grow in South Africa.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)