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March 2006
Hello Friend!
It’s a hopeful time on the West Coast. We’re blessed again with early signs of spring, and along with the daffodils, sustainability events are popping up all over.
On March 2 Vancouver launched its first annual 30 Days of Sustainability. Culminating at the month’s end with the GLOBE Conference on Business and the Environment, this awareness-raising month focuses on sharing ideas, tools and strategies to integrate sustainability into the lives and values of individuals and organizations.
This means a convergence in Greater Vancouver of sustainability expertise, ideas and aspirations. Don’t you feel a party coming on? I do! Click "Spring Dance Party" for details. I hope you can come.
News from Strandberg Consulting
New Website
I’ve spruced up my website. Have a look at www.corostrandberg.com.
Celebrating Clients’ Successes
Congratulations to Hemlock Printers for receiving the
Ethics in Action award for Environmental Excellence, Large Enterprise;
and to Coast Capital Savings for Overall Leadership,
Large Enterprise. Thank you both for your on-going commitment to, and
demonstration of, socially and environmentally progressive business practices.
CSR Talks
In the past six months I’ve toured the country connecting with people
coast to coast. In each speaking engagement, I’ve discussed CSR
trends and best practices with diverse audiences. More often than not
they want to know where they are on the CSR development path. Are they
laggards, mission-driven or like most of us, somewhere in between? If
you’re wondering the same, check out this CSR
Continuum.
Sustainability JAM
People have gathered twice at my home over the last six months for Sustainability
JAMming sessions. These are opportunities to meet like-minded people in
a lighthearted, informal setting to compare ideas, quests, and quandaries
and to search for the sustainability tipping point. The conversation is
stimulating and the mix of people inspiring. I’m thinking of bottling
Sustainability JAM and offering it to the laggards and leaders alike,
to spread on their morning toast. If you’d like to participate in
the next Sustainability JAM, let me know at cstrandberg@shaw.ca.
More JAM
I participated in December as Governance and Finance advisor in another,
considerably more ambitious jam session – the Habitat JAM. This
Internet forum spanned 72 hours from December 1-3, 2005 and networked
an estimated 30,000 people around the world. The goal was to gather actionable
ideas for the World Urban Forum to be held in Vancouver this June. I was
captivated by the notion of Positive
Deviants. Positive Deviancy is a development approach based on the
premise that solutions to community problems already exist within the
community. I think of it as a way of thinking outside the box using what’s
inside the box – we could all use more of that kind of deviancy.
CPP Investment Board Gets Responsible
When I learned earlier this year that the Canada Pension Plan Investment
Board, the body that manages over $90 billion in Canadian retirement pensions,
was recruiting a Manager of Responsible Investing, I thought – “Watershed
moment in the socially responsible investment industry in Canada!”
The CPPIB’s decision to hire an expert in shareholder engagement
who can integrate environmental, social and governance indicators into
financial analysis is a hopeful sign of progress that pension funds will
soon be considering sustainable growth when mobilizing their assets. This
bodes well for the project I am managing for Canadian Community Economic
Development Network and Vancity to establish a community investment fund
for pension funds to support community and First Nations development.
Purchasers Make Their Dollars Work Harder
As part of the Sustainable
Purchasing Network initiative, our development team surveyed nearly
70 organizations in the Greater Vancouver area. The goal is to determine
the training, information and other resources necessary to build internal
sustainable purchasing capacity. A whopping 80% of respondents were interested
in collaborating to support the growth of a socially and environmentally
sustainable economy. My dream is for the region to become a world-class
leader in sustainable purchasing expertise and activity, and a lever for
the growth of the sustainable enterprise sector.
Looking Ahead
- I have the privilege of working with the sustainability team of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to leverage the transformative potential of the Games and extend the sustainability benefits and legacies across the province and beyond.
- Fuelled by my Habitat JAM experience, I’m developing my online engagement skills as I see the potential for mobilizing internet communities for social change.
- With the Conference Board of Canada, I will be researching best practices in corporate sustainable governance – a growing trend in company boardrooms, which I profile in my report on the Convergence between CSR and Corporate Governance.
- Along with Five Winds International, I’m fund-raising for the development of social performance guidelines for companies. Spontaneous bursts of generosity, or introductions to potential sponsors, are welcome.
- I continue to explore with my corporate clients new ways to develop operational programs that integrate CSR and to conceive powerful CSR-based business strategies that improve triple bottom line performance.
As I chip away at this “sustainable markets” agenda, I like to think that we are all positive deviants, working creatively within our spheres of influence and intersecting with others to find solutions for a sustainable world.
Coro
PS Again, here’s a link to my new website, www.corostrandberg.com.
I hope you get a chance to check it out. And don’t forget the Spring
Dance Party!
Strandberg Consulting - Solutions for a Sustainable
World
Coro Strandberg - Principal | 6325 Sperling Avenue - Burnaby, BC
V5E 2V3 | T 604.433.7339 E coro@corostrandberg.com