Bath Consultancy Group has researched organisational responses to accelerating climate change.

• Will short-term economic pressures stop organisations addressing climate change?
• How can resources be focussed to support key areas?
• How can HR play a stronger role?

In recent months we've conducted primary research and hosted a webinar "Will business pressures torpedo a low carbon strategy?" discussing these points. With Alexander Ballard we are providing a framework to rapidly change organisations' response to climate change. Fiona Ellis and Danny Chesterman report...

This document looks at Change Strategies required to address Impacts of Climate Change and Energy Security.

Download:  Strategic Change Support on Sustainability Business 252 Kb

The Corporate Ethics Questionnaire: How does your company compare?

Ethics has risen spectacularly as a key corporate issue in recent years. It's not just the bad guys - Enron, World Com, Maxwell - that have focused attention, but also the good guys too:

• Marks & Spencer has recently announced a £200m investment to make the company carbon-neutral within 5 years
• GE has launched a major investment initiative, ‘Ecomagination', to create sustainable business, as well as some creative financial products including a ‘carbon-reducing' credit card
• TNT has teamed-up with the UN's World Food Programme to provide an emergency response team for disaster relief, playing a big role in the recent Bangladesh floods

While some of this shift is undoubtably internally driven, there are also an increasing number of external drivers, including:

• The 2006 Companies Act, which introduced a requirement for all public companies to report on social and enviromental matters.
• The fact that NGOs and others are also now much sharper about putting pressure on those who they consider have stepped outside the mark; media-savvy activists can now utilise You Tube and other viral communication tools to great effect.
• There is also peer pressure - signing up to the principles of Tomorrow's Company, for example, enables you to rub shoulders with senior executives from BT, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Cadbury-Schweppes and the like.

Of the hundreds of thousands of words written about Corporate Social Responsibility, one of the earliest quotations is one of the most persistent - the statement by the late economist Milton Friedman that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.” This might seem odd from a supporter of CSR, but I am going to argue that Friedman was right - if you read the story behind the headline.

Download:  Milton Friedman was right 58 Kb

Bath Consultancy Group has been exploring the contribution we can make in helping organisations with their approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR). With increasing expectations from society, government, staff and consumers, the subject is coming into sharper focus for many companies.