With over 8,700 corporate participants and other stakeholders from over 130 countries, the UN Global Compact is the largest voluntary corporate responsibility initiative in the world. „I hope these diverse expressions of support for the UN’s global mission will inspire many more businesses to follow this path and bring corporate sustainability to true scale“, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in the 2012 edition of the Global Compact International Yearbook. Edited by the German publishing house macondo the new yearbook offers insights to political as well as sustainability issues.

United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20 Conference)
Twenty years after the first international Conference on Environment and Development was held there, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) has again taken place in Rio de Janeiro. In our special the authors describe results and observations from the preparatory process, while others comment the outcomes and their expectations. A focus lies on the follow-up of the Rio+20 process where CSR-Manager.org is a new, advanced learning platform.

Strategic Philantrophy
Philanthropy is about donating to charity without expecting a return. Companies have historically contributed to society in this way. Strategic philanthropy, which is a more modern approach, is about directing corporate giving to a cause that is aligned with the core business. Yet in the 21st century, strategic philanthropy does not suffice in providing leadership. There is a growing demand for companies to move beyond strategic philanthropy to modern community partnerships, co-creating solutions to pressing societal and environmental problems by contributing core competencies and truly aiming for impact. In the process, shared value creation for both society and the company is not only desirable for companies, but also to stakeholders.

CSR in Latin America
A decade ago, corporate social responsibility had only just emerged on the agendas of businesses operating in Latin America. Corporate commitments were limited to the largest firms, usually the multinationals; public awareness and demand for corporate responsibility was low; governments were uninvolved; and civil society organizations promoting CSR were still new and, for the most part, funded from elsewhere. In the last 10 years, corporate social responsibility has matured. Firms of many sizes are turning to CSR, public awareness has grown, and civil society has increased the local ownership of the concept in a way that connects with the long-standing ethical expectations of these societies. However, outside interests remain influential in the promotion of this concept, namely via multinational corporations headquartered in the North and their governments, multilateral funding agencies, private foundations, and, most recently, internationally networked NGOs.

Corporate Foresight
Business as usual is no longer an option! There is a growing realization among more and more politicians, businesses, and members of society that things cannot continue as they are. The number of challenges and issues that must be tackled and dealt with at a global level is enormous, for example human-induced climate change and the search for ways to develop a low-carbon economy; rapid population growth in developing and newly-industrialized countries; questions surrounding which fuels can be used in the energy mix to meet growing demand; and the distribution of food and raw materials. It is vital for companies to develop new strategic planning tools that, on the one hand, take into consideration the short-term uncertainties and volatility of market developments and, on the other, focus on long-term objectives and the consequences of a particular course of action in order to manage the successful, sustainable, and sound growth of the organization and to hedge, as far as possible, current investment decisions over the long term. Investigating the future is not something that should be left to daydreamers or visionaries; it is a key component of dealing with our world responsibly as part of a complex, interlinked system with interrelated dependencies stemming from finite resources.

Best practices
The Global Compact International Yearbook 2012 also includes 42 best practice examples from different companies, which illustrate how to implement the ten Global Compact principles in daily business and projects. UN Secretary-General Ban says about this: „ This fourth edition of the Global Compact International Yearbook showcases many inspiring examples of businesses turning challenges into opportunity, leveraging their competencies, capacities and resources for the common good.“

Dr. Elmer Lenzen is founder of the macondo media group, an owner-operated publishing and PR-company. It's major business areas are our in-house publications and competence in corporate communication. The subject of “Corporate Social Responsibility” plays a prominent role here.

Contributors:

Felix Dodds, Stakeholder Forum
Judith Bomholt, macondo Media Group
Georg Kell, UN Global Compact
Achim Steiner, UN Environmental Programme
Andrei Galaev, Sakhalin Energy Investment
Douglas Tompkins
Maurice F. Strong
Veronica Scheubel
Kyle Peterson, FSG
Karen Riekmann
Punleuk Kam, Credit Suisse
Julia Yue, Credit Suisse
Charles Moore, Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy
Estrella Peinado-Vara, IDB
Prof. Paul Alexander Haslam, University Ottawa
Dr. Lourdes Casanova, InnovaLatino
Prof. Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez, Universidad EAFIT
Dr. Marcelo Saguier, FLACSO
Dennis Lohmann, macondo Media Group
Cornelia Daheim, Z_punkt
Holger Glockner, Z_punkt
Klaus Burmeister
Andreas Neef
Jerome C. Glenn, The Millennium Project
Prof. René Rohrbeck, Aarhus University
Pernille Kallehave, Aarhus University
Dr. Adrian W. Müller, Zurich University of Applied Sciences
Prof. Günter Müller-Stewens, University of St. Gallen

Rio+20

• The Road to Rio 2012 – Results and Observations from the Official and Civil Society Preparatory Processes
  By Felix Dodds
• The History of Sustainable Development in the United Nations
• The Rio+20 Topics,
  By Judith Bomholdt
• A Future We Want? Lessons of Rio+20
  By Dr. Elmer Lenzen
• Expectations
  By Georg Kell, Achim Steiner, Andrei Galaev, Douglas Tompkins, Maurice F. Strong
• Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum: Commitments and Innovations 
• Follow-up to Rio+20: Capacity-Building with New CSR Manager Platform
  By Dr. Elmer Lenzen

Strategic Philanthropy

• From Corporate Handouts to Corporate Partnerships
  By Veronica Scheubel
• From Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy to Shared Value
  By Kyle Peterson
• A Global Shift Toward Strategic Philanthropy
  By Punleuk Kam and Julia Yue
• Corporate Giving Has Become Increasingly Focused
  Interview with Charles Moore
• Philanthropic Societies Around the World
  Compilation by Karen Rieckmann

 CSR in Latin America

• CSR in Latin America: A General View
  By Estrella Peinado-Varallll
• An Evolving CSR System in Latin America
  By Prof. Paul Alexander Haslam
• Should Poverty Alleviation Be Part of Multinationals´ Corporate
  Responsibility?
  By Dr. Lourdes Casanova and Anne Dumas
• Social Responsibility Networks in the Banana Industry
  By Prof. Dr. Maria Alejandra Gonzalez-Perez
• Corporate Complicity in Human Rights Abuses in Latin America
  By Dr. Marcelo Saguier
• The Importance of Protecting the Rainforest in South America
  By Dennis Lohmann
• The UN Global Compact in Latin America – Trends and Topics
  Compilation by Dr. Elmer Lenzen

Corporate Foresight

• Corporate Foresight: An Introduction
  By Cornelia Daheim, Holger Glockner, Klaus Burmeister, and Andreas Neef
• The Millennium Project Experience
  By Jerome C. Glenn
• The Role of Corporate Foresight in Promoting Sustainability
  By Prof. Dr. René Rohrbeck and Pernille Kallehave
• Strategic Foresight: Effective Decision-Support Systems
  By Dr. Adrian W. Müller and Prof. Dr. Günter Müller-Stewens

 Best Practice

• Adecco Group
• Banco León
• EDF Group
• Groupe SEB
• Interamerican
• Medcom
• Mitsui
• Novo Nordisk
• Sakhalin Energy
• SK Telecom
• Teck
• Tristar
• Bosch
• ManpowerGroup
• Air France-KLM
• BASF
• Bayer
• BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte
• Consolidated Contractors Company
• Deutsche Telekom
• Essent
• Guangxi Beihai Penshibao
• MAN
• Metso
• MTN
• Vestas
• Camposol
• Copeinca
• Deutsche Post DHL
• Furnas
• GDF Suez
• Nestlé
• Netafim
• Rogers
• TÜV Rheinland
• Carrefour
• The TMS Group
• Yüksel
• Arab African International Bank
• Bradesco
• Green Delta Insurance
• Royal Bank of Scotland Group