Corporate Citizenship

Nestle has stuck its neck out. What has it done? It has launched BabyNes – a Nespresso machine look-alike for baby formula.
Nestle has been attracting criticisms on the issue of baby formula for decades. Mainly for promoting it in developing countries, where contaminated water represents a critical risk for babies.
With BabyNes, Nestle is targeting affluent [...]

A classic fistfight between western environmentalists and a developing economy? This is what Brazil’s controversial forestry bill looks like.
 On one side, environmentalists described the new law as a ‘disaster’ and ‘death sentence’ for the Amazon.
 On the other, farmers argued the bill would help expand the country‘s agricultural production and support Brazil on the path to [...]

Sir Keith Mills is organising the Olympics. He wants your money. Not for longer race tracks, but for the charity he created three years ago, Sported.
 The charity aims to use sports to improve the lives of disadvantaged young people, great idea.
 Sir Keith’s appeal comes on the same day that the Centre for Social Justice publishes [...]

The ruckus that has ensued from a Texan Starbucks outlet, regarding the firing of a dwarf for being ‘a potential danger to customers’, is not likely to be quickly forgotten.
Think of all the millions of dollars Starbucks must spend on marketing, PR, community investment, CR reporting – even on fitting out their cafes to reflect [...]

For oldsters like me it was a stroll down memory lane. Bonkers right-wing think-tank unveils loony idea. It’s as seventies as The Bay City Rollers (bye-bye baby, baby bye-bye etc).
Here’s the idea.
 The Centre for Policy Studies thinks that the government shouldn’t sell its shares in Lloyds Banking Group and RBS. Don’t sell them. Give them [...]

Stefano Pessina, the Head of Boots is angry. Wow is he angry! (The Guardian, p.24)
He is not hiding profits as UK Uncut claims. Oh, no! He is reinvesting them. Oh, yes!
As he says: “It is not like hundreds of millions of pounds are going to KKR” (private equity firm, automatic Guardian-reader pantomime villain) “and myself…we [...]

Would assurance benefit from one legal standard that’s enforced?
That’s the question that was ringing in my ears after attending an interesting event last week entitled ‘The State of Sustainability Assurance in 2010′.
Carbon Smart gave an analysis of the assurance methods used by the FTSE 350 and other organisations gave accounts of assurance in practice. DEFRA [...]

It’s not just fat cat pay that’s causing excitement at William Hill. Unbelievably the excitement’s due to accountants! (Contradiction in terms I know but bear with me.)
Hidden away in today’s Times story http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/leisure/article3018175.ece is the fact that PIRC, whose pension fund members control £1,500,000,000,000 assets, said don’t reappoint Deloitte as William Hill’s auditors.
Why?
Well, last year [...]

Time was when the average regulator was an aging civil servant in a three-piece suit with a season ticket from Tunbridge Wells to Charing Cross. No more.
Today’s Times article suggests that we are slipping into the age of the regulator as media celebrity: more Sir Alan Sugar than Sir Humphrey Appleby.
Is this a good thing?
Probably [...]

Issue: the renewables industry. Problem: lack of investment
No Government seems to be willing to commit enough money to guarantee the future energy supplies. In the current economic climate, it’s unlikely they will anytime soon.
Why not set today’s youth the challenge of tackling this issue? More needs to be done to encourage innovation and development, particularly [...]