The Sustainability Learning Forum

Practising social responsibility without the CSR label

Prof. Wayne Visser, Kaleidoscope Futures

The Author

Facts & Trends: Forests, Forest Products, Carbon and Energy

World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)

Facts and Trends: Forests, forest products, carbon & energy was developed by WBCSD Forest Solutions Group members with extensive technical support from the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI), it supports the ongoing dialogue within the WBCSD membership and with other forest-focused stakeholders in government, civil society and business. more[...]

The Author

Viennese Sustainable HRM

Elaine Cohen, Beyond Business Ltd

more[...]

The Author

Conflict minerals: What you need to know about the new disclosure and reporting requirements and how Ernst & Young can help

Ernst & Young

This Studie discusses Section 1502 of the Dodd–Frank Act requiring disclosures about "conflict minerals" emanating from select countries. Section 1502 of the Dodd–Frank Act is intended to make transparent the financial interests that support armed groups in the DRC area. By requiring companies using conflict minerals in their products to disclose the source of such minerals, the law is aimed at dissuading companies from continuing to engage in trade that supports regional conflicts. more[...] login_required

The Author

Conflict minerals: What you need to know about the new disclosure and reporting requirements and how Ernst & Young can help

Ernst & Young

This Studie discusses Section 1502 of the Dodd–Frank Act requiring disclosures about "conflict minerals" emanating from select countries. Section 1502 of the Dodd–Frank Act is intended to make transparent the financial interests that support armed groups in the DRC area. By requiring companies using conflict minerals in their products to disclose the source of such minerals, the law is aimed at dissuading companies from continuing to engage in trade that supports regional conflicts. more[...] login_required

The Author

Approximated EU GHG inventory: early estimates for 2011

European Environment Agency (EEA)

The objective of this report is to provide an early estimate of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the EU-15 and EU-27 for the year 2011. The official submission of 2011 data to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will occur in 2013. more[...] login_required

The Author

Flammable Societies. Studies on the Socio-economics of Oil and Gas

Dr John-Andrew McNeish, CMI
Owen Logan, University of Aberdeen

The impact of the oil and gas industry – paradoxically seen both as a blessing and a curse on socio-economic development – is a question at the heart of the comparative studies in this volume stretching from Northern Europe to the Caucasus, the Gulf of Guinea to Latin America. more[...]

The Author

Rethinking Resource Conflict

Dr John-Andrew McNeish, CMI

Resource conflict is one of several destabilizing phenomena commonly cited as defining many of the extractive economies of the global south. In the post-Cold War in which stability has become a key concern of international governance and investment it has also been an issue that has encouraged a proliferation of scholarly and policy interest. In these studies and policy discussions a large number of terms are now in use in an attempt to account for the complicated state of affairs faced by resource-rich countries in the global south: intractable conflicts, new wars, resource wars, complex political emergencies, conflict trap, resource securitization, petro-violence, blood diamonds. more[...]

The Author

International Peer Review to focus on Germany’s Sustainable Development Policy – Initial Decisions now taken

German Council for Sustainable Development

The Federal Government has officially requested the drawing up of a second international peer review of its sustainable development policy. In keeping with the 2012 progress report on the National Sustainable Development Strategy, the respective invitations have been issued to internationally recognized experts. more[...]

The Author

Developing countries exchange ISO 26000 experience at ISO workshop

International Organization for Standardization

A two-day workshop on the experience of developing countries in implementing and promoting the ISO 26000 guidance standard on social responsibility opened on 5 November 2012, in Geneva, Switzerland. Some 120 participants from about 70 countries are exchanging their experience on ISO 26000:2010, Guidance on social responsibility. The workshop is organized by the Development and Training Services of ISO. more[...] login_required

The Author

Conflict Minerals and SEC Disclosure Regulation

Prof. Celia Taylor, University of Denver Sturm College of Law

Mention the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank” or the “Act”),[1] and most people think of legislation aimed at “fundamental reform of the financial system”[2] focused on regulation of Wall Street practices and complex financial products. But tucked within the voluminous text of the Act (which consists of 2,300 pages and stipulates the passage of 387 rules by 20 different agencies[3]) is a provision having nothing to do with these issues or anything remotely related to them. Instead the “conflict minerals” provision of the Act requires companies that are subject to the reporting requirement of the federal securities laws to disclose whether they manufacture products using so-called “conflict minerals” sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”) or contiguous countries.[4] more[...]

The Author

Blood on your mobile phone? Capturing the gains for artisanal miners, poor workers and women

Dr. Dev Nathan, Institute for Human Development

Capturing the Gains research into the global production of mobile phones traces the connections between armed factions, poverty and violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and mobile phone users worldwide. The critical link is coltan, or columbite tantalite. It is the raw material for tantalum, an essential mineral in the manufacture of mobile phones, computers and other electronic equipment. more[...] login_required

The Author

Gold is now the Most Lucrative Conflict Mineral from Eastern Congo

Enough Project

Gold smuggled from eastern Congo’s war zone is now the most lucrative conflict mineral and is ending up at jewelry stores and banks, according to a new investigative report by the Enough Project. The study found that following a 65 percent drop in profits from the conflict minerals tin, tungsten, and tantalum, armed groups have increasingly turned to smuggling the fourth conflict mineral, gold, to generate income that finances mass atrocities in eastern Congo. The armed groups use poorly paid miners, who work in dangerous conditions, including thousands of children as young as eight years old. The study maps out how conflict gold makes its way from eastern Congo to consumers worldwide who purchase it in the form of wedding rings and watches, and investment banks that buy gold bars. more[...] login_required

The Author

From Child Miner to Jewelry Store

Enough Project

This is the first of two papers on the illegal conflict-gold trade from eastern Congo that is fueling one of the most violent conflicts in the world. This paper tracks the transnational trade from mines in eastern Congo to consumers. The second paper will map a way to resolve this problem by setting out recommendations to formalize the trade, cut down conflict-gold smuggling, and create jobs to provide living wages to Congolese miners. more[...] login_required

The Author

PEDL

more[...] login_required

The Author

Advanced Search