Five SustainAbility & CSR Trends in 2011

May 17, 2011 1 Comment by
Before the term “Sustainability” was coined by the United Nations in 1988, SustainAbility, based in Washington DC, worked on issues including green consumerism and human rights.  A quarter-century later its professionals are among sustainability and CSR thought leaders.

I noted some CSR trends earlier this year, but SustainAbility’s professionals, including the article’s lead author Mohammed Al-Shawaf, shared what his firm believes are five early trends in 2011:

  1. With issues like the nuclear energy nightmare in Japan (marked by the Fukushima nuclear plant, pictured above left), natural gas fracking, and spiking oil prices, we are not just at “a” tipping point:  there are several tipping points about which we should worry.
  2. The global food supply needs a complete revamp and food rises in price even more than in 2008.
  3. Supply chain uncertainty, heightened by the disaster in Japan, will lead to even more granular inquiries about how a product is manufactured.
  4. The Arab Spring has raised expectations on social media’s potential while putting the spotlight on companies that have had dubious business dealings in countries including those in the Middle East.
  5. An overall rethinking of capitalism, with the demand for more focus on long term results and growing doubt over blind devotion to free markets.

I summarized the five points, but you are better off if you read the entire article here.

Other excellent articles are found on SustainAbility’s blog.

CSR

About the author

Leon Kaye is the founder and editor of GreenGoPost.com and its advisory division, GGP Media. Contact him to discuss how he can work with your organization or event. His focus is making the business case for sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). He writes for San Francisco-based Triple Pundit, Inhabitat and now The Guardian, for which he writes about waste, water, and green building. He has also written for AIA's Architect Magazine. Leon lives in Los Angeles, and when he has free time, he enjoys hiking, gardening, cooking, weightlifting, and planning his next trip to one of the 50+ countries he has visited. He has an MBA from USC's Marshall School of Business and is also a proud graduate of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) and Cal State-Fresno.

One Response to “Five SustainAbility & CSR Trends in 2011”

  1. A New Era of Ethical Leadership? | greengopost.com says:
    November 9, 2011 at 2:11 AM

    [...] at time when social movements including the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, the Indignados and the Arab Spring all dominated headlines the past two years, the global business community now has a pivotal [...]

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