The banking industry has a big part to play in financing the emerging green economy. At the same time, it continues to finance the biggest polluters, the coal industry in particular. On the one hand, the banks’ job is to fund industry, not to change our energy mix. Surely that should be the job of [...]
Archive | corporate responsibility RSS feed for this archive
What’s your money up to right now?
Do you remember the Paddington Bear story where Paddington goes to get his pound note back from Floyds bank, and they give him somebody else’s pound? He knows, because he marked his specially with a marmalade paw-print. I think it was probably from that story that I first learned as a child that the money [...]
Five myths about the financial transaction tax
Yesterday Nicolas Sarkozy announced that France would press ahead unilaterally with a Financial Transaction Tax. Advocates of a Robin Hood Tax were swift to celebrate, myself included. Needless to say, skeptics were equally swift to denounce it as a terrible mistake. There is a shrill paranoia about the financial transaction tax. It is epitomised by [...]
Can we be heroes? DC in the horn of Africa
Last week saw the launch of the We Can Be Heroes campaign. It’s an interesting one – it’s a partnership between DC Comics and a coalition of charities working in famine relief in the Horn of Africa. It uses the comic publisher’s well-known characters to raise awareness and encourage donations, with the tagline ‘one small [...]
Unearthing the truth about mining rights
After yesterday’s post on corruption at the micro level, I thought it might be interesting to look at it at the macro level. (Thanks to Ben for the suggestion.) Ipaidabribe works by getting lots of ordinary citizens to record the small bribes they have had to pay in the course of their everyday business. That’s [...]
Stop Burning our Trees – corporate lobbying in disguise?
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the bus posters I’d seen for a campaign called Stop Burning Our Trees. Among the campaign actions is a petition to ban the burning of virgin wood for electricity generation, and the petition has been promoted through a series of stunts around London. Since the campaign culminates [...]
Land grabs: the unintended consequences of biofuels
Access to land is one of the oldest sources of conflict. It’s written deep into Britain’s history through the enclosure acts and the seizing of the commons – a process that shaped the landscape, drove people into the cities, and through the industrial revolution, changed the world forever. It’s an injustice that’s never been corrected, [...]
Fire your bank on November 5th
In Britain, the 5th of November is Guy Fawkes Night, which commemorates the failure of a plot to blow up the House of Parliament in 1605. It’s traditionally celebrated with fireworks, bonfires, and the burning in effigy of the aforementioned and rather unfortunate Mr Fawkes. Fawke’s other legacy is the Guy Fawke’s Mask, as drawn [...]
Reducing the negative impact of advertising
In yesterday’s post, I looked at a recent report that analyses the role of advertising in shaping cultural values. It concludes that advertising is something of a negative force, and that “the potential impacts of advertising should be of pressing concern to a wide range of third sector organisations—irrespective of whether they are working on [...]
The cultural impact of advertising
For the last few weeks I’ve been carrying around a report entitled The Advertising Effect, from the Compass think tank. I’ve been meaning to write about it and haven’t got round to it. I’ve been reminded of it this week the publication of a new report from WWF and the Public Interest Research Centre, Think [...]
Books
No data found
