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TEDTalks : Paul Debevec animates a photo-real digital face - Paul Debevec (2009)

2009-10-20T13:57:00Z

At TEDxUSC, computer graphics trailblazer Paul Debevec explains the scene-stealing technology behind Digital Emily, a digitally constructed human face so realistic it stands up to multiple takes.

New report reveals alarming investment practices by financial groups

2007-12-11T16:15:11Z

New report reveals alarming investment practices by financial groups. Today, the financial watchdog Netwerk Vlaanderen launches the report ‘Bank Secrets’. The dossier details the investments by 121 financial groups in companies violating fundamental human rights. The investors channel money to 13 companies selling weapons to dictators, denying people access to land and clean water, co-operating with armed rebel groups and being involved in forced relocations and heavy and irreversible pollution. International banks involved. 121 banks from 24 different countries play a role in the financing of these companies, including banks based in Abu Dhabi, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, DRC, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mauritius, The Netherlands, Peru, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UK, the US and the multilateral World Bank. Netwerk Vlaanderen reports that for the period 2003 – 2007, loans add up to a total of US$13 billion. Furthermore, during the period 2004-2007 banks have arranged and underwritten bond issues to a total value of US$ 28.4 billion. During the same period, the companies were assisted in issuing shares to a total value of US$ 14.8 billion. > Continue.

News selected by Covalence | Country: Global | Company: Banks | Source: Netwerk Vlaanderen / BankTrack

Media Response to WWF-UK Report on Luxury Brands Could Be Tipping Point for the Industry

2007-12-06T09:59:32Z

Last week over fifty newspapers and magazines from Britain, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Italy and Switzerland reported on the corporate responsibility of the world’s largest holding companies of luxury brands. For the first time they had been ranked on their ethical performance in the report Deeper Luxury: Quality and Style When the World Matters, which was published by environmental group WWF-UK. The news went ‘viral’ through trade journals and blogs on fashion, jewelry, and celebrities. The report “could herald a huge change in the way global luxury brands operate,” states Fashion UK. ‘The luxury goods industry looks like it’s having its own Nike moment,” suggests UN corporate reporting expert Dr Anthony Miller, referring to the mid-90’s criticism of labour practices in Nike’s supply chain that made the company invest heavily in its corporate responsibility programme. Within days, Just-Style.com reported that “PPR Group commits to improving sustainability” as a result of the publication. > Continue.

News selected by Covalence | Country: Global | Company: Nike | Source: CSRwire / Lifeworth

Marketing Firm Announces Greenwashing Index

2007-12-12T10:35:48Z

BALI, Indonesia, Dec. 12, 2007 -- EnviroMedia plans to rank the best and worst examples of green marketing in a new index next month. The announcement coincides with a survey the company conducted, which found that most delegates at the U.N. Climate Conference believe greenwashing is taking place.

Luxury brands fail to make ethical grade

2007-11-29T15:31:27Z

Some of the world’s biggest luxury conglomerates have failed to make the grade in a ranking of ethical and environmental performance. A report released today by the WWF, the conservation group, entitled “Deeper Luxury”, gives Bulgari and Tod’s, the Italian jewellery and accessory companies, a grade F for their “environmental, social and governance performance and reputation” in 2006, of the 10 largest publicly traded luxury conglomerates. (…) There is no established methodology for assessing the industry’s performance in the ethical and environmental area. To arrive at the grades, WWF collected data from analysts Ethical Investment Research Service (EIRIS), which uses company reports and information to track performance, which it may follow up with a questionnaire; and Covalence, a company that tracks public perception of a company through news reports. Image source: wwf.org.uk. > Continue.

Publication: Covalence in the News | Country: Global | Company: Tod’s, Bulgari, Swatch, PPR, Richemont, Coach, LVMH, Hermès, L’Oreal, Tiffany | Source: Financial Times

You can download the report for free at: http://www.deeperluxury.com
See the reaction to the Star Charter at http://www.starcharter.net
And if you work in the sector, become involved at http://www.authenticluxury.net

ENVIRONMENT: Palm Oil Not Green For Asia - UN Report

2007-11-28T12:50:43Z

BANGKOK, Nov 27 (IPS) - European Union (EU) demand for supposedly green-friendly fuels, such as palm oil, is coming at a high social and environmental cost in Asia, warns a new report released Tuesday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Google, HP Invest Big in Renewables

2007-11-28T12:50:12Z

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 28, 2007 -- Hoping to spur a green power revolution, Google plans to spend millions developing renewable energy that costs less than coal. Meanwhile, HP will build a large-scale solar power installation and buy enough wind energy to power 90 percent of its needs in Ireland.

It's time we hung out greenwash to dry

2007-11-27T15:50:33Z

Leo Hickman on why it's important to reign in companies wild eco-claims

The 5 habits of highly innovative groups

2007-11-28T10:34:24Z

I heard a great quote the other day from Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, talking about how to create the right environment for mass collaboration (thanks to Charlie Leadbeater for introducing me to it). I'm paraphrasing but it goes something like this. Wikipedia's success down to 5 constituent components:

1. one part anarchy (anything goes)
2. one part democracy (people can vote on a disagreement)
3. one part aristocracy (people who have been around for a long time get listened to)
4. one part meritocracy (the best ideas win out) and
5. one part monarchy (on rare occassions the buck has to stop somewhere).

I think these 5 components could be a useful starting point for looking at collaborative innovation more widely and the trick is to enable them all and to make them habitual. What do you think are the components that are most frequently missing? I would probably say 1 and 4.

Vinod Khosla: Moving Green from Crisis to Opportunity

2007-11-21T08:49:04Z

Khosla, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems (and thus Silicon Valley as we know it today), is a venture capitalist heavily involved in green technologies ranging from energy-efficient IT projects to biofuels research. He spoke with GreenBiz Radio about what it will take to keep the green momentum moving.

a call to cultivate resilience

2007-11-20T11:20:00Z

Climate tipping point? Where next?

The IPCC fourth report on climate change, published last Saturday, significantly strengthened its emphasis on the dangers of runaway ('beyond tipping point') climate change. See the guardian's summary graphic (PDF). There's also a brilliant cartoon-book 'Funny Weather' that brings all this to life by Kate Evans - see it here.

In a powerfully moving presentation before several hundred people at the 'Be the Change' in London last Thursday, David Wasdell, an IPCC reviewer and past whistleblower on political corruption and the IPCC p rocess, outline the contents of a new book on climate feedback systems.

In short, the book shows how 'vicious circles' of positive feedback loops in climate change systems are amplifying each other. The warmer the atmosphere gets, the more carbon dioxide is released, which warms up the atmosphere more, etc.. And they are not balanced with enough counter-cycles such as global dimming, to dampen the effects significantly. Jim Lovelock's Revenge of Gaia is beginning to seem not so far fetched after all.

Examples of feedback loops include:
Arctic ice melt 2007
We saw an arctic ice melt last summer (2007) at a pace many times greater than the IPCC expected. As ice melts, there is less ice to reflect sunlight so more warmth is absorbed, melting more ice.
Siberian methane thaw has begun
When Siberian permafrost melts, carbon buried since the Pleistocene era is bubbling to the surface of lakes, and dissipating into the atmosphere as methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide Siberia has warmed faster than anywhere else on Earth - average temperatures have increased 3°C in the last 40 years: Sergei Kirpotin of Tomsk State University describes permafrost melting as an "ecological landslide that is probably irreversible". He says the entire western Siberian sub-Arctic region has begun to melt in the last three or four years. Larry Smith of the University of California Los Angeles, has estimated that the western Siberian bog alone contains 70 billion tonnes of methane, which is 25 percent of all methans stored on the land surface

The other major potential source of methane lies under the sea. Methane clathrates, also called methane ice, is a solid form of water that contains a large amount of methane within its crystal structure. If the sea warms up too much, it could release massive amounts of methane. This has been hypothesized as a cause of past extinction events.

Natural CO2 sinks losing their capacity to soak up CO2
We know that the Amazon rainforest narrowly escaped significant wildfires last summer after several seasons without enough rain. The Amazon is becomming a 'brittle' ecosystem, unable to withstand shocks, susceptible to irreversable damage. Fewer tress means less CO2 is taken up; which increases the carbon loading in natural carbon sinks to the point of saturation, where they start releasing, rather than storing, carbon. Another positive feedback loop.

Changes in wind patterns over the Southern Ocean resulting from human-induced global warming have brought carbon-rich water toward the surface, reducing the ocean’s ability to absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. On land, where plant growth is the major mechanism for drawing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, large droughts have reduced the uptake of carbon.

“The new twist here is the demonstration that weakening land and ocean sinks are contributing to the accelerating growth of atmospheric CO2,” says co-author Chris Field, director of global ecology at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology. "that's the thing that is scary about this whole thing. There are lots of mechanisms that tend to be self-perpetuating and relatively few that tend to shut it off."

breaking down to breakthrough.... into resilience?

Our collective senses are beginning to perceive clearly the implications of the rapid changes that are now upon us. However, as Peter Chatalos recently wrote, you might say earth has its own human-induced AIDS, its own immune-deficiency syndrome, which involves a numbing of our sensitivity to the earth's pain. This numbness is evident in the tired old systems of human governance which are not yet tuned keenly enough to the scale of the challenge before us, and therefore play out tired patterns of response, and as this old system becomes fearful of its collapse, it can actively obstruct the innovation we need.

This blog's purpose is to support the emergence of a craft practice of resilience. The resilience pioneers are helping the old systems 'let go' as well as focussing our evolutionary energy on building resilience at every level - to withstand the coming storms whilst enriching our collective humanity, cultivating life-giving cultures of sustainability.

Last weekend, another friend, eco-psychologist Mary-Jayne Rust, presented a paper to the Guild of Psychotherapists recently that called the profession to leave its couch and engage in the corridors of power, equiping us with the psycho-dynamic wherewithall to comprehend the processes of denial and projection which threaten to bury our collective heads deeper into the sand; that a profound understanding of inner resilience and transformation is required.

In her recent book on the psychology of ambiguous loss, Pauline Boss says

"Resiliency is a constant and positive adaptive trait. It is a basic part of our healthy psychological makeup ... it is more than 'bouncing back,' which implies regaining the status quo; rather, it means rising above traumatic and ambiguous losses by not letting them immobilize and living well despite them. Resiliency means flexibility, the opposite of brittleness, and movement, the opposite of paralysis." Loss Trauma and Resilience (2006)

Resilience implies practical action, diverse yet seemlessly connected initiative, married with deep values that reinforce our sense of self-worth, dignity and sensitivity.

There is already a global justice movement which, with largely under-the-radar stealth, is infusing our societies with resiliency from the inside-out. Paul Hawkin's latest work charts, with effervescing energy, the emergence of this movement, and the principles at its heart.

A practical expression of it in the UK is the phenomenal take-up of the 'transition towns' movement... It's been suggested that a reason for the phenomenal take-up of this approach - that enables local people to take responsibility for the 'powerdown' of their community - is its emphasis on cultivating local resilience, from the ground up. When faced by the enormity of climate change, combined with the coming 'peak-oil' crisis where our oil-addicted economies are eating more oil than our reserves can give up, resilience is an idea that can grab you, earth you, connect you to a powerful energy to get up and do something meaningful.

To summarise: at the heart of the resurging, dynamic invigoration of collective capacity is a focussed, determined, exuberent and compassionately grounded cultivation of resilience in relationships at every level - from the personal to the planetary. This resilience is then embodied in the emerging structures of ecologically-sane organisations and institutions.

This blog is therefore offered in service of surfacing, connecting, advocating and catalysing practices of resilience.

resilience

to see clearly
to work with what is
to amplify nature's self-healing properties

... cultivating resilience.

my resilience
our resilience
local resilience
global resilience

... cultivating resilience.

Weaving together an integral approach
finding simplicity beyond complexity

... cultivating resilience.

Resilience as life;
resilience bourne of spiritual strength through hard times;
resilience of elasticity and a capacity to 'bounce back'.

... cultivating resilience.

Resilience in ecology:
ecosystems, full of diversity, far from the brittleness of breakdown.

... cultivating resilience.

Resilient communities, full of solid, trusting relationships and generous hearts.

... cultivating resilience.

Resilient institutions, founded on creativity, learning,
and authentic leadership serving greater purposes of sustainability and social justice.

... cultivating resilience.

What does 'resilience' speak of to you?

Get it touch, subscribe to this blog, follow the links.

Gold standard for ethical jewellery

2007-11-16T06:43:29Z

A unique partnership between Columbia and the UK pioneers a trade in ethical jewellery.

Who can catch the Co-op?

2007-11-04T23:46:15Z

At the Co-op, sustainability isn't simply a business aim, it is part of its strategy. That it has also been so successful puts its competitors to shame. Helen Carter reports.

Humanity is the greatest challenge

2007-11-05T23:27:31Z

It is time to take radical action to curb rising population and consumption levels, or face "unspeakable consequences".

Are you on the rebound?

2007-11-02T11:00:51Z

Leo Hickman looks at the latest excuse for doing nothing to tackle our profligate energy use

Back to basics (7): Recalibrating the "invisible hand of the market"

2007-11-01T10:39:00Z

The critics of the concept of sustainable development and CSR always argue with Milton Friedman’s famous quote that “the business of business is business” and also refer to Adam Smith’s theory of the “invisible hand of the market”. They see especially CSR as an attempt to more regulation through the backdoor and a way to restrict the market power and the players within their specific markets; overall CSR is bad for modern capitalism. Even worse, these two famous quotes seem to permit amoral behaviour if there are no laws against certain ways to pursue self-interest.

But wait a minute! When Adam Smith published “An inquiry into the nature and cause of the wealth of nations” in 1776, partnerships were the dominant form of enterprise in which ownership and management meant the same thing. Adam Smith was against the idea of corporations, or "joint stock companies." Why that?

Sad but true, most lobbyists of the "invisible hand of the market"credo are not aware that Adam Smith did also publish “The theory of moral sentiments” in 1759, where he explains that the self-interest of the market players (buy and sell side) needs to be pursued by people of conscience and with a clear moral capacity; he argues that sympathy is required to achieve socially beneficial results. The self-interest he speaks of is not a narrow selfishness that allows whatever market transaction, but something that involves sympathy. He regards pure selfishness as inappropriate, if not immoral, and that the self-interested actor has sympathy for others. He continues that the self-interest of any actor includes the interest of the rest of society, since the socially-defined notions of appropriate and inappropriate actions necessarily affect the interests of the individual as a member of society. This context is useful to understand why Adam Smith was against the idea of corporations or joint stock companies, where he already envisaged the problems of a disconnect between ownership and management.

I would argue that Adam Smith’s idea of the self-interested market player that has developed a moral capacity and can make informed market decisions in the aim to achieve socially beneficial results will find a lot of merit in integrating sustainability thinking and CSR as a tool to implement that thinking into his/her understanding of necessary fair market conditions: a better understanding of the needed changes in legislative frameworks (and its enforcement) to support sustainability as a means for fair markets, a changed mindset about the basic role of a company (counterpoint to Milton Friedman), the need for broader education on sustainability issues in all economic curricula (to disable amoral behaviour and enable Adam Smith's concept of "sympathy"), and a broadly developed set of indicators of economic, environmental and societal impacts of the transactions of the organization and of the individual (to increase the available information to make good market decisions). Needless to say, GRI plays a crucial role to achieve continuous improvement of some of these mentioned points through its multistakeholder global platform for dialog, its guidelines and sector supplements. GRI’s learning services add to solving some of the educational challenges.

Adam Smith, a sustainability activist more than two centuries ago - a very different take on his legacy? At least he was somebody sustainability advocates of today can lend more credit from than the narrow-minded lobbyists of modern capitalism who haven't got the whole story about Adam Smith.

Welsh Assembly first on food ethics

2007-11-01T14:54:09Z

Display date: 1st November 2007

Date:: 1 November, 2007 - 15:00

In brief:

The Welsh Quality of Food Strategy, out for consultation until 31st December, has ethics at its heart.

Text:
This puts Wales at the forefront of government efforts in the UK to grapple the overlapping issues around food - not just health, the economy and environmental issues, but also wellbeing, social justice, freedom of choice, animal welfare and more besides.

Why? Because setting out clear ethical principles can provide an overarching framework for better decision-making in food policy. Amid complex issues and competing interests, ethical principles help us keep sight of the big picture: What is the right thing to do, all considered? Why? Who is it good for, is it fair and who decides?

Gap launches inquiry into child labour claims

2007-10-29T08:43:49Z

The high street clothing chain Gap has called an emergency meeting with suppliers to investigate new allegations of forced child labour being used in the manufacture of their clothes. Gap has barred thousands of clothes in transit to their shops amid fears that children in India as young as 10 were making them. An article in The Observer said children were beaten and made to hand-sew clothes in 16-hour days, often for no wages. Many children were “bought” from their parents, and worked only for food and board. They were not allowed to leave until they had repaid the purchase fee in work. One child spoke of being beaten with a rubber pipe if they did not work hard enough; others said oily rags were stuffed in their mouths if they cried. (…) Gap has made a concerted effort to improve its image as an ethical company. But the revelations of sweatshop labour will add fuel to those who have campaigned to stop Gap outsourcing large contracts to the developing world. To keep critics at bay, the fashion chain launched its first major social audit in 2004. That revealed abuses by 136 suppliers, including child labour, physical punishment and forced labour. All of these contracts were severed and, in the past year, a further 23 suppliers have had contracts terminated for abuses. Gap’s clothes are supposed to comply with a stringent policy where all workers must be over 14, or above the legal working age. Outsourcing labour to Asia, where wages are cheaper, and labour laws less stringent, is increasingly popular for Western fashion chains. Martin Herason, campaigns co-ordinator at the charity, Labour Behind the Label, said: “You’d find these labour problems in the supply chain of any company outsourcing to India. Gap is making more of an effort than many.” Image source: thewe.cc. > Continue.

News selected by Covalence | Country: India | Company: Gap Inc. | Source: The Independant

Coco-Cola, Kellogg’s, Mattel and Takeda Pharmaceuticals top the list of international brands guilty of abusing consumer rights

2007-10-29T10:36:06Z

The world federation of consumer organisations, Consumers International (CI) today announced the winners of the International Bad Product Awards, to be presented at CI’s World Congress in Sydney, Australia, 29 Oct – 1 November 2007. The awards aim to highlight failings of corporate responsibility and the abuse of consumer trust by internationally recognised brands. The announcement comes as 400 delegates from national consumer organisations and governments, convene in Sydney to attend CI’s World Congress. This year’s winners* are: Coca-Cola – for continuing the international marketing of its bottled water, Dasani, despite admitting it comes from the same sources as local tap water. Kellogg’s – for the worldwide use of cartoon-type characters and product tie-ins aimed at children, despite high levels of sugar and salt in their food products. Mattel – for stonewalling US congressional investigations and avoiding overall responsibility for the global recall of 21 million products. With the overall prize going to: Takeda Pharmaceuticals – for taking advantage of poor US regulation and advertising sleeping pills to children, despite health warnings about pediatric use. Richard Lloyd, Director General of Consumers International, said: “These multi-billion dollar companies are global brands with a responsibility to be honest, accountable and responsible. In highlighting their short-comings Consumers International and its 220 member organisations are holding corporations to account and demanding businesses take social responsibility seriously.”

News selected by Covalence | Country: Global | Company: Coca-Cola Company, Takeda, Kellogg, Mattel | Source: Consumers International (CI)

Fishermen ride sustainability wave

2007-10-31T11:20:14Z

A fishing community in northwestern Spain aim to demonstrate a new, sustainable approach to marine fisheries.