Costco, Lindt, Loblaw and Couche-Tard all earn poor scores in human rights benchmark of 200 brands
With all the focus in recent years on social responsibility, you might think the corporate sector has become a force for good in the global struggle for social justice.
You’d be wrong.
A new study of 200 of the world’s biggest brands found that fewer than half of them show any signs of meeting the United Nations’ 2011 Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Conducted by the UK non-profit Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB), the study mainly surveys companies in apparel, food and drink, resource extraction and technology manufacturing – the four industries considered most susceptible to compromising workers’ rights. The key finding: one in four companies received a score of 10% or less for their efforts to support human rights, activities that range from mere transparency on human-rights issues to establishing effective grievance mechanisms and holding board directors accountable for human-rights issues.
The country's Belt and Road Initiative is both a massive coal risk and green opportunity
Responsibility for meeting the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement has always focused, rightly, on the world’s major greenhouse-gas emitters, mainly the U.S., Europe and China. Now the latest reports say China is in the midst of adding new coal power plants equivalent to the EU's entire capacity in an attempt to fire up the country's slowing economy.
"As more countries turn away from coal and retire their plants, China’s continued pursuit of coal is increasingly out of step with the rest of the world, and is now effectively driving the ongoing expansion of the global coal fleet," according to San Fransisco-based Global Energy Monitor.
We’re slowly chipping away at the glass ceiling, but just 17 Canadian companies have gender-balanced boards
Countless books have been written on the keys to running a successful corporation. One hot tip confirmed yet again by the latest research: put more women in leadership. Recent number-crunching from Morgan Stanley found that globally, the most gender diverse companies outperformed regional benchmarks by 1.7% yearly – even more so in North America. This after the latest findings from the Harvard Business Review concluded that having at least one female director on a board was associated with better acquisition decisions and ultimately improved a firm’s performance.
Which Canadian companies are encouraging workers to join the today's climate strike?
“It’s not business as usual for the world's children to skip school to get adults to pay attention to the climate crisis. It’s not business as usual for citizens to strike to get governments to make meaningful commitments to climate action. So, on Friday, September 27, we’re not doing business as usual.”
That’s the statement issued by a group of global businesses pledging to support worker participation in the climate strikes last week and today, September 27, as millions around the world gather to demand greater climate action from governments.
In Switzerland, the U.K. and yes, even the U.S. signs of a post-coal world are emerging
In spite of any magical thinking, “beautiful, clean coal” doesn’t exist. Coal is the dirtiest fuel. It emits the highest proportion of carbon dioxide compared to other fossil fuels as well as other noxious substances such as sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter and mercury.
While Finland may be happiest country on earth, Canada is slipping on UN ranking
There’s good news and bad news in the latest research on world happiness.
The seventh annual World Happiness Report was released in March by the UN’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Yes, there’s a science of happiness, and the data is robust enough that researchers can measure people’s well-being in 156 countries.
The calculations are more complicated than you might think, but here’s the bottom line.
Oslo, London, Berlin and even Toronto are among a growing list of cities paving the way for cleaner commutes
When a Labour-Green coalition replaced the Conservative party at Oslo’s city hall in 2015, change was on the table. But one of the council’s promises – to become the first European city to ban motor traffic in the heart of the city – collided head-on with angry motorists and a business group that claimed such a ban would create a “poorer city” and a “dead town.”
While Canadian politicians waffle over climate change, Bank of Canada declares climate risks a threat to economy
While politicians in Canada and around the globe deny or waffle over climate change, the world’s central bankers are taking the climate crisis seriously.
"Climate change continues to pose risks to both the economy and the financial system," said Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz with the release of the bank's first-ever report on climate risks earlier this month. The bank announced that it's undertaking a multi-year research plan to better assess the climate risks facing Canada's financial system, including looking at bank loans to carbon-intensive sectors.
Shell puts nine oil associations on notice – including Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers – over climate differences
The world’s major oil companies are so tightly aligned that they were once known as the Seven Sisters. But as the climate crisis grows, the family bond is fading.
In April, Royal Dutch Shell announced that it had recently reviewed its role in 19 industry associations in Europe, North America and Australia and that it would pull out of one of them and serve notice to nine more.
Relative to major oil peers, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant has been among the leaders on climate change, endorsing the Paris Agreement as well as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Ontario's provincial government has turned gas companies into PR firms, says Canadian Civil Liberties Association
When the federal carbon tax came into effect in Ontario on April 1, it was a first step towards putting a realistic price on carbon pollution. But populist premier Doug Ford was apoplectic. One of his first acts after winning the election last June was to cancel the previous Liberal government’s cap-and-trade system. So he wasn’t about to sit and watch as Ottawa replaced that system with a tax he calls a “job killer.”
MENU
