Quantcast

Archive for Op-Ed

Managing a Sustainable Workforce: A Cautionary Tale about Worker Safety

It's time for western companies to engage proactively on worker safety and a sustainable workforce throughout their global supply chainThe health and well being of a workforce is a key part of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and it is crucial to the wider issue of sustainable development. Recent events in the Bangladeshi garment industry have focused the world’s attention on wealthy companies that exploit cheap labor in the developing world.

Bangladesh’s $20 billion garment industry makes it the third biggest clothing exporter in the world, but the working conditions for the country’s 3.6 million garment workers are unsafe. According to the advocacy group International Labor Rights Forum, since 2005, at least 1,800 garment workers have been killed in factory fires and building collapses in Bangladesh. Garment jobs in the country pay 3,000 takas ($38) a month, which are some of the lowest wages in the world.

In Bangladesh, like many other developing countries, workers’ rights are virtually non-existent. These abysmal working conditions are due in large part to a combination of government corruption and industry indifference.

Read More→

Earth Day 2013 – Not Saving the Earth, Saving Ourselves

Earth Day: Saving the Planet is Saving Ourselves Today is Earth Day. You didn’t forget did you? Unfortunately, as Husna Haq writes in the Christian Science Monitor, it may be Earth Day itself that needs saving, not the Earth. Haq cites polls showing that back on the inaugural Earth Day  in 1971, 63 percent of Americans saw restoring the natural environment as “very important.” This year, according to a huffpost/YouGov poll, only 39 percent think restoring the environment is important. Why could this be?

First, it is a very different world now than it was in 1971. It could be much to the current GOP’s chagrin that the most effective and far-reaching environmental laws in the United States were enacted and endorsed under a Republican administration. Back then cities were chocked with smoke and rivers burned. In a sense,  the rampant pollution of our air and water was more local, more “real” in people’s lives. There was no question that rivers should not catch on fire or that the skies should not darken with smog.

Read More→

How the Fossil Fuel Industry is Subverting Democracy and Undermining Sustainable Development in America

The fossil fuel industry buys legislators to do their bidding at the cost of American jobs and a sustainable futureWhile most know that the fossil fuel industry is the leading source of climate change causing greenhouse gas emissions, few appreciate the extent of their control over federal and state legislators. Oil and gas companies have donated $238.7 million to candidates and parties since the 1990 election cycle, 75 percent of which has gone to Republicans.

One of the biggest political spenders is the American Petroleum Institute (API) which is the largest trade association for the oil and gas industry (including hydraulic fracturing). API has created numerous front groups to advance its political agenda including Americans for Prosperity and the American Legislative Exchange Council. Despite being called the American Petroleum Institute, its 2012 directors include Tofiq Al-Gabsani, a Saudi Arabian national who heads the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco) subsidiary, the state-run oil company that also helps finance API. In 2012 alone the oil and gas lobby spent $139,7 million to advance their interests in the U.S.

According to a facts sheet from 350.org, fossil fuels are subsidized at almost six times the rate of renewable energy. From 2002 to 2008, the federal government gave the fossil fuel industry over $72 billion in subsidies while the renewable industry received $12.2 billion. The Yale Project on Climate Change’s November 2011 survey found that 70 percent of Americans opposed federal subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, including 67 percent of registered Republicans.

Read More→

How Social Media can Drive the Growth of Sustainability

Social media is a powerful force driving the growth of sustainabilitySocial media can be both a carrot and a stick. The new media serves the growth of sustainability as a powerful communications tool and as a persuasive means of pushing for pro-social change. Social media gives organizations and individuals the ability to correspond with vast audiences. In addition to its tremendous reach, social media is largely about collaboration and community, which is entirely consistent with the values inherent in sustainability and CSR.

For organizations involved in sustainability, social media affords a multitude of benefits including increased consumer trust. While social media can benefit responsible organizations by enhancing their brand reputations, it  is also a platform capable of exerting tremendous pressure on irresponsible businesses.

Read More→

The Promise of Climate Change Education Standards

Climate change education is an essential part of a sustainable future for our children“In order to learn the nature of the myriad things, you must know that although they may look round or square, the other features of oceans and mountains are infinite in variety; whole worlds are there. It is so not only around you, but also directly beneath your feet, or in a drop of water.”

-Genjo Koan

Education is a vital part of forging a viable future for life on Earth. The confusion surrounding climate science is a major impediment preventing the U.S. from mustering the political will necessary to aggressively engage global warming. Climate science is so woefully misunderstood that some children grow up believing in half-truths and bold-faced lies.

Mark McCaffrey one of the authors of a recent report titled “Toward a Climate and Energy Literate Society” referred to the state of climate change education in the U.S. as “abysmal.” He added that 80 percent of students do not feel like they understand climate change based on what they have learned in school. Two-thirds of students said that they are not learning much about it. Read More→