By Nicola Robins (20 February 2012)
I kindled my way through Richard Branson’s Screw Business As Usual this weekend. In it, Branson (bless his virginal cotton socks) argues that business must become a force for good. “Business” he says, “must do the right thing… People inherently want to do the right thing. It’s what makes us human.”
I wish he’d just stick to doing business better. Screw BAU has just the kind of reborn zeal that gives sustainability hacks like me a bad name in corporate corridors.
By Nicola Robins (14 February 2012)
MoneyWeb posted a story yesterday on Niall Ferguson’s six “killer apps” for economic development. It’s well worth a watch. The apps refer to six broad ideas that emerged in Western culture and that promote innovation, stability and wealth. Ferguson uses them convincingly to explain the Great Divergence that set the West apart from the East. Now he sees them driving the rebalancing of economic power and the emergence of the developing world.
Here are a few random thoughts on the killer apps (the quotes summarise his key points and are from the MoneyWeb post):
By Nicola Robins (2 February 2012)
Communicating sustainability is less about information, and more about attitude. It requires seeing the social and environmental trends that are present in virtually any topic. There is no clear line on what is or isn’t a sustainability issue.
For example, when Mike Schmidt founder of Frankies soft drinks decides to take Woolies to court for nicking their IP, it’s a sustainability issue. Why? Because pushback from small companies against corporate power play is a social issue.
By Nicola Robins (18 November 2011)
Coerced by Claire Janisch of biomimicry fame, GreenBiz Chairman Joel Makower took time out from his holiday in Cape Town to talk to an appreciative audience yesterday.
Arranged by the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership, his topic was “From here to sustainability”. Makower pointed to an evolution in sustainability engagement: from “doing no harm”; through enhancing the bottom line and “doing well by doing good”; to growing the top line in “green creates value”.
By Nicola Robins (8 Nov 2011)
Much of the sustainable investment debate focuses on whether using a sustainable investment screen – either positive (screening in things you support) or negative (screening out things you don’t) – delivers higher financial returns. My slightly informed, intuitive answer would be sometimes, with the occurrences being largely random. And despite my fantasies, I would probably not be convinced by analyses suggesting otherwise. Firstly, because no-one’s been in the game long enough to get real trends; secondly, because there is an astoundingly wide spectrum of how “sustainable” is defined; and thirdly, because the current context is not conducive to giving clear signals on this issue. (more…)
By Nicola Robins (18 Oct 2011)
It was with some regret that I traded in my 15-year-old Nissan Sentra last month. No doubt my buzzy little Peugeot 107 has useful attributes – including lower fuel consumption – but I am clearly a late adopter.
My trade-in preceded Nissan announcing plans to launch its Leaf electric vehicle in the SA market in 2013, subject to government policy on zero emissions vehicles, largely relating to battery charging infrastructure and incentives. It’s going to be an interesting decade for the auto industry. Change is afoot, as it is for all of us. (more…)
By Anthony Dane (21 Sept 2011)
Yesterday I attended the Western Cape Climate Change Summit in Milnerton Cape Town. The outcome of this conference is intended to be the “voice of the Western Cape”, which will feed into the Department of Environmental Affairs’ programme for the COP17.
The summit started off disappointingly as we were informed that Ms Edna Molewa, Minister of Environmental Affairs, and Ms Helen Zille, Premier of the Western Cape, could not attend. The morning’s presentations, however, were informative and well worth attending.
By Nicola Robins (25 Aug 2011)
Toby Webb (whose blogs are intelligent and informative), has changed the name of his blogsite from “Ethical Business Blog” to “Smarter Business Blog”. Now that might not sound wild to you, but it is quite a move in our terms. It reflects a timely breakthrough struggling to be heard over the ethical/ green focus that dominates the popular media, validating the fact that most SA analysts still see sustainability as fuzzy and marginal.
My comment on Toby’s latest blog Why I’ve changed the name of this blog: (more…)
By Lauren Hermanus (11 August 2011)
Confronting the question
I think it is a complex muddle in which all these elements are inextricable linked. There often are stories of entrepreneurship, innovation and compassion that shatter my middle class comfortable cynicism regarding our troubled society. But, to be real, we need to recognise that a range of social problems are concentrated at the base of our social pyramid. (more…)
By Anthony Dane (8 August 2011)
I attended a discussion on Friday at the University of Cape Town (UCT) hosted by the Environmental Policy Research Unit. The focus of the discussion was on what to expect from the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP-17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be held in Durban at the end of this year. The key speaker was Harald Winkler, an Associate Professor in the Energy Research Centre at UCT and a member of the South African delegation to the negotiations under the UNFCCC.
