A brilliant commencement by Paul HawkenYou are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation… but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement.Basically, the earth needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

Corporate governance is not an area usually associated with vision, imagination, or even integrity. This needs to change.In this lecture I have looked at corporate governance through the eyes of William Blake.Blake was a visionary, a man to whom imagination, energy and integrity were central. I argue that much of the compliance burden companies face is self-imposed. Business creates the problem when it begins its approach to every new code by saying “how do we comply” instead of asking “What is the spirit of this code? Do we accept it? If yes, how do we fulfil the spirit?

Tomorrow's Company has played an important and leading role in developing the argument for stewardship, and in so doing has helped to create the conditions which have led to the establishment of the Stewardship Code in the UK.   We are now building on this impact, to establish a new momentum for stewardship and understanding of what this means in practice - by tackling both the demand side (setting out  'Why Stewardship Matters' and developing toolkits to help each participant in the system to be more effective in their pursuit of stewardship) and the supply side (working with fund managers, investment consultants and FRC to develop the “stewardship spectrum” and establishing criteria through which excellence in stewardship might be identified and rewarded in the market). Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false"...

GLOBE-Net (October 16, 2009) What is the role of investors in creating a more sustainable economy? A survey of fund managers just published by the UK’s Fair Pensions campaign provides challenging reading for anyone who believes that a green future will emerge simply through market forces operating in the investment community. The market purist argument is that the system should regulate itself; because if climate change really is a material risk for businesses, it should be built into the way companies are valued. Companies whose factories or plantations could be destroyed by climate change-induced floods or droughts should be less attractive investments than ones making wind turbines or hybrid car engines. 

A checklist for board members who wish to integrate corporate responsibility into their business.