This Tuesday, we continued our Beyond Business as Usual luncheon series by hosting a discussion focusing on the challenges and methods to engage executives on sustainability. Leadership commitment is widely considered the most important factor for the success of sustainability and CSR programs. Whilst many leaders agree and verbally support sustainability, often their actions speak otherwise, and…
The presence of a visionary leader is vital to the embedding sustainability throughout an organization, from political leaders at COP21 to CEOs of multinationals. Without the "tone from the top," there is little chance of a company embracing and succeeding in the area of sustainability. Leadership is the key. Dr. Philip Cochran, from Indiana University, has vast experience in the sphere of…
Last Friday, we continued our Sustainability Speech Series by hosting a talk on “Solving Community Problems with Innovation” at Tongji University. Three speakers presented at the event: Leonard Milford, Associate Director and Chief Architect at Arup Associates; Kevin Chen, Co-founder of italki.com; and Nitin Dani, Director at Green Initiatives. Chuli Duan from Collective Responsibili…
Over the last month, we brought in eight industry experts to five leading Chinese universities across Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, where they shared their experiences and had discussions with over 160 students on a variety of sustainability-related topics. At East China Normal University thirty Bachelor, Master and Ph.D. students majoring in environmental engineering joined a discussion with s…
The importance of design to sustainable products cannot be understated. It is the front end of development and the point at which environmental harm can be best mitigated. The achievement of good design involves challenging designers to think "outside the box," communicate the vision and to provide them with an in-depth understanding of the product's lifecycle, from production to end of life recov…
This Thursday, we hosted another talk on “Ethics versus Business Goals” at Donghua University as we continued with the Sustainability Speech Series. Two speakers were invited to give a presentation: Richard Brubaker, Founder of Collective Responsibility and an Adjunct Professor of Sustainability at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS); and Amy Sommers, Chief Representative of…
In the 20 years since the "spear in the chest" moment that catalyzed Ray Anderson to move Interface from a company that complies to one that contributes, Interface has become known for their progress in moving their business from "take-make waste" to "zero footprint". It was a process that required vision, but more importantly it required Ray Anderson to engage others on that vision. In our int…
This Thursday, we continued our Sustainability Speech Series by hosting a talk on the topic of “Foreign enterprises: Building Sustainability Strategies in China” at Shanghai University. To help students gain a better understanding about the topic, we invited Charis Yang，General Manager of Vendor Compliance & Sustainability at Li & Fung; Super Wang, Supply Chain Sustainability Manager fo…
This Wednesday, we kicked off our Sustainability Speech Series by hosting a talk on ‘Understanding the business case for personal and professional ethics’ at Xi’an JiaoTong Liverpool University in Suzhou. To help students gain an insider perspective on the topic, we invited Mr. Drew Meyer, Associate Director of Control Risks and former FBI officer, to speak about his experience in risk manageme…
Held on September 10th, 2015, Bayer and a group of industry leaders brought their expertise to discuss current and future healthcare challenges that patients face in China and explored ways forward. During a series of interactive workshops, participants worked together to understand the issues from a patient’s perspective, and discussed how they can turn them into opportunities that can drive b…
This Tuesday, we kicked off our Beyond Business as Usual September series by hosting a breakfast discussion focusing on the challenges that companies face after they have developed the vision, created the strategy and now need to develop support from within the business to carry out the mission. To help participants gain an insider perspective on the topic, we invited Mr. Roy Zhang, the Directo…
As part of BASF’s 150th anniversary program, Collective Responsibility were appointed to organise a two-day summit on sustainable lifestyles in China, focusing on consumer choices of food, electronics, and textiles. Industry leaders, government associations, NGOs, and students from leading universities gathered to take part to address the current and future challenges in these sectors, and co-c…
When speaking of the need for recalibration, many executives are still struggling with developing a process that they can leverage to move the core of their firm into a place where the risk of environmental, social, and economic shocks are mitigated, and where they are positioned to take advantage of new opportunities. It is a process where no templates exist, and depending on the firm’s struct…
At the first minute of this clip, Christopher Meyer of Monitor Talent states that: In my mind, this clip leads to the discussion of whether or not CSR is little more than window dressing that diverts the attention (of external stakeholders) away but ultimately does not serve the firm over the long run. That, instead of donating money to causes whose only direct link would be one of market d…
In the first two weeks of June, through the Beyond Business As Usual platform, we organized and hosted six events with Erin Meezan, Vice President of Sustainability for Interface. As one of the corporate executives, and a key reason for why the firm is now a firm recognized leader for their efforts to build a business with a core of sustainability, I came away with a deep appreciation for the effo…
