The Sustainability Learning Forum

Managing Corporate Legitimacy and the UN Global Compact

Prof. Andreas Georg Scherer, University of Zurich
Dr. Dorothée Baumann-Pauly, University of Zürich

In this article, we explain why managing legitimacy is vital for corporations and how business firms can employ strategies to maintain their legitimacy. We then discuss the organizational capacities that each legitimacy strategy implies and point out their inherent tensions. Based on the results of an empirical study, we show how two large corporations have handled these tensions and successfully introduced organizational prerequisites for managing legitimacy. In the final part of this article we elaborate on how participants of the UN Global Compact can use the initiative to strengthen their legitimacy. more[...]

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WHO and Sanofi: A Public-Private Partnership to Save Lives

Dr. Benedict Blayney, Sanofi
Pierre-Guillaume Harscouët, Sanofi
Sanofi

For Sanofi, as a global healthcare partner, improving access to healthcare for the most disadvantaged patients is pivotal to its corporate social responsibility approach. At the core of this commitment is the long-term partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) to control a group of debilitating infectious diseases, called “neglected tropical diseases,” which affect mostly poor people in developing countries. Since the partnership began, in 2001, more than 20 million people in sub-Saharan Africa have been screened for sleeping sickness, and more than 170,000 patients have received free treatment for what is a fatal disease, if left untreated. This partnership has put the elimination of sleeping sickness within reach – a prospect that was unthinkable a decade ago. more[...]

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Philanthropy As an Integral Part of CSR

Jeffrey Revels, TMS Group
TMS Group

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) encompasses many different components across a myriad of industries in both the public and private sectors. One of the most demonstrative aspects of CSR involves philanthropy, which not only includes a commitment of monetary support, but a personal involvement in volunteerism, too. These much-cherished values represent the cornerstone of our year in 2012 and future CSR endeavors. more[...]

The Author

Saving Lives Around the World with Zinc

Kathleen Reid, Teck Resources
Teck Resources Limited

The Zinc Alliance for Child Health (ZACH) brings together Canadian organizations committed to accelerating the use of zinc and ORS around the world to treat diarrhea, one of the leading killers of children. More infants die from diarrhea-related illnesses associated with zinc deficiency than from HIV/AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. ZACH aims to make the management of childhood diarrhea a key part of reducing child mortality. ZACH works with all levels of government to help ensure the availability of supplies and treatment that is affordable for families, communities, and the wider health system. more[...]

The Author

Saving Lives Around the World with Zinc

Kathleen Reid, Teck Resources
Teck Resources Limited

The Zinc Alliance for Child Health (ZACH) brings together Canadian organizations committed to accelerating the use of zinc and ORS around the world to treat diarrhea, one of the leading killers of children. More infants die from diarrhea-related illnesses associated with zinc deficiency than from HIV/AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. ZACH aims to make the management of childhood diarrhea a key part of reducing child mortality. ZACH works with all levels of government to help ensure the availability of supplies and treatment that is affordable for families, communities, and the wider health system. more[...]

The Author

Creating Homes – Affordable Housing in India

Katharina Riese, TÜV Rheinland
Svenja Wittkämper, TÜV Rheinland

In recent years there has been a large migration wave from India’s rural regions to the cities. Soon, 40 percent of the Indian population will be living in the country’s urban centers. Due to this fast growth and the large influx of people, cities are having trouble providing adequate living spaces, utilities, and facilities. More than 130 million people – equivalent to 40 to 60 percent of the urban population – are expected to be living in substandard housing. These low-income groups face a broken housing market that hinders them from living in an affordable and quality home. more[...]

The Author

Creating Homes – Affordable Housing in India

Katharina Riese, TÜV Rheinland
Svenja Wittkämper, TÜV Rheinland

In recent years there has been a large migration wave from India’s rural regions to the cities. Soon, 40 percent of the Indian population will be living in the country’s urban centers. Due to this fast growth and the large influx of people, cities are having trouble providing adequate living spaces, utilities, and facilities. More than 130 million people – equivalent to 40 to 60 percent of the urban population – are expected to be living in substandard housing. These low-income groups face a broken housing market that hinders them from living in an affordable and quality home. more[...]

The Author

Pre Organic Cotton Program: A Shift To Organic Farming

Itochu

In September 2012, more than 150 delegates from corporations, international organizations, governments, and NGOs around the world gathered at Business, The MDGs and Beyond – a forum run as a side event to the UN General Assembly in New York. ITOCHU Corporation represented the Japanese corporations that are members of the UNDP-led Business Call to Action (BCtA) and spearheaded a panel at the first session, “Innovative Business Models for Sustainable Development.” At the forum, ITOCHU presented the Pre-Organic Cotton Program, an initiative of its Textile Company, which contributes to overall development in the cotton farming communities in India through poverty reduction and improvements in farmers’ health and the farming environment. more[...]

The Author

Addressing Nutritional Challenges Through Micronutrient Fortification

Susan Steinhagen, Nestlé
Nestlé S.A.

Nestlé’s ambition is to be recognized as the leading Nutrition, Health and Wellness Company, helping to enhance the quality of life of our consumers by bringing the best and most relevant products to people, wherever they are, whatever their needs, throughout their lives. more[...]

The Author

Piecitos Colorados – Educating to Develop Latin America

Prosegur

Piecitos Colorados is a Prosegur development cooperation project that seeks to improve the comprehensive education and the quality of life of children living in disadvantaged areas of Latin America where the company is present. Opting for an approach that is not conducive to dependency, the program prioritizes the teachers, students, and their families being actively committed to transforming the school and to turning them into the driving forces of their communities. more[...]

The Author

Community Involvement and Construction Expertise

Ann-Kristin Brönnecke, Hochtief
Hochtief

For HOCHTIEF, bridge-building is a many-sided subject. It is both a core business and part of our corporate vision – and it plays an important role in the international construction group’s community involvement. Together with the organization Bridges to Prosperity and its own employees, the company is building footbridges in developing countries – with tangible success. more[...]

The Author

Sustainable Project in “27 de Octubre” Community of Chimbote

Francesca Carnesella, Camposol and Copeinca
Copeinca

By mid-2011, COPEINCA made contact with the Stromme Foundation and the NGO Tierra de Niños with the aim of evaluating sustainability projects with surrounding communities. The company wanted to contribute toward the development of the surrounding families near the Chimbote industrial plant. They began working together in order to define a meaningful strategy for the future of the “27 de Octubre” residents. more[...]

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What's your perspective on reporting?

Elaine Cohen, Beyond Business Ltd

more[...]

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The United Nations Global Compact: Retrospect and Prospect

Prof. Andreas Rasche, Copenhagen Business School

This article reviews the interdisciplinary literature on the UN Global Compact. The review identifies three research perspectives, which scholars have used to study the UN Global Compact so far: a historical perspective discussing the Global Compact in the context of UN-business relations, an operational perspective discussing the composition and impact of its participants, as well as a governance perspective discussing the constraints and opportunities of the initiative as an institutionalized arena for addressing global governance gaps. The authors contrast these three perspectives and identify key empirical as well as conceptual scholarly contributions. The remainder of this article contains focused summaries of the articles selected for this Special Issue. All articles are introduced and evaluated against the background of the three research perspectives. more[...]

The Author

Should the UN Global Compact have sharper teeth?

Prof. Andrew Crane, Schulich School of Business

more[...]

The Author

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