French firms in Singapore are raising the bar on the region’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts by launching a sustainability charter, where companies commit to sharing expertise amongst themselves and with other companies in the region. Veolia was one of them, as was Nexus, which in the same week launched an initiative to enable companies and public institutions to support access to clean energy and water for the poorest populations of developing countries. Read More

ABC Carbon’s Ken Hickson checked out the Nexus Beyond Offsetting event earlier this month and attended  the French Chamber of Commerce launch of its Sustainability Charter and its associated seminar.

By Jenny Marusiak  in eco-business.com (16 April 2012):

French firms in Singapore are raising the bar on the region’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts by launching a sustainability charter.

The new charter, launched at a Friday ceremony by the French Chamber of Commerce in Singapore (FCCS), will commit companies to sharing corporate social responsibility expertise amongst themselves and with other companies in the region.

Some of that expertise involves knowing what to avoid when implementing CSR policies on a global scale, said panelists at the event.

Paris-based senior vice-president of CSR for energy technology firm Alstom, Anne Guérin-Moens, said at the seminar at the Novotel Hotel that trying to address global CSR policies “from the top down” out of the firm’s French headquarters had been a lesson in humility.

She found that “trying to impose the French way was disastrous,” and added that firms needed to listen to the voice of the entire organisation and the voice of the customers.

Signatories included 32 multinational companies, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and non-profit organisations from Europe and Singapore that agreed to work with the FCCS Sustainability Committee to help promote cooperation on CSR practices within the region.

Sustainability Committee co-president Hélène Toury, who is a Singapore-based communications manager at global environmental technology firm Veolia Water, told Eco-Business that French companies have not been as vocal as other European companies concerning their sustainability initiatives and technologies, and the sustainability charter is an attempt to address that.

FCCS is planning a series of voluntary breakfast meetings and other events, and each signatory has pledged to share at least one “best practice” in CSR each year, she added.

Eventually, FCCS plans to extend the network to other chambers of commerce in Singapore and elsewhere in Asia.

On the same day, FCCS announced a guidebook on CSR for SMEs in the region.

Ms Toury said that the book was a practical guide to help SMEs reach international standards for CSR in small, achievable steps. These steps would be helpful for firms who want to do business with multinational companies that already have strong CSR policies in place, she added.

Joëlle Brohier, a CSR consultant who is co-president of the Sustainability Committee and author of the guidebook, said the guidelines were based on the European Commission’s published CSR strategy and CSR standards such as the new International Standards Organization (ISO) 26000 CSR principles.

Charter signatories Veolia, French food manufacturer Danone, energy technology firm Alstom, insurance provider AXA, semi-conductor manufacturer ST Microelectronics, chemical company Rhodia and logistics firm SDV gave examples at the 175-strong seminar of the types of best practices that sustainability committee members could provide.

The examples included ST Microelectronics’ strategy for dealing with conflict minerals and hazardous chemicals, SDV’s steps toward meeting customer demands for low-carbon emission transport options and Alstom’s efforts to involve its suppliers and 95 thousand employees in its CSR initiatives.

Panellists at the seminar urged multinational companies within the region to approach CSR issues with an open mind.

While some CSR issues such as worker safety and child labour were non-negotiable, reconciling different cultural values was an important step that required flexibility, they said.

French Ambassador to Singapore Olivier Caron said that environmentally sustainable development had become a “major driver” of business opportunities in the region, and applauded the signatories for their “forward-looking spirit”.

Source: www.eco-business.com

Singapore, 12 April 2012

Nexus launched an initiative to enable companies and public institutions to support access to clean energy and water for the poorest populations of developing countries.

An increasing number of organizations are “offsetting” their greenhouse gas emissions, by supporting clean development projects in developing countries. However, carbon finance has often been misused, and has benefited little to the poorest people of developing countries, who are also the most vulnerable to climate change.

For the first time, internationally acclaimed grassroots project developers – Nexus members – directly engage with companies and public institutions on a fair approach to offsetting which increases the impact of the funding on poor populations.

The direct partnership platform – the first of this kind – was launched on April 11th, 2012, during a social event organized by Green Drinks Singapore and the Lien Centre for Social Innovation. Raphaele Deau, Nexus Partnerships Director and Suzanne Chew, Nexus Alliance Director presented views on what carbon finance can do to eradicate poverty and provide sustainable development. The presentation was followed by a debate facilitated by Bhavani Prakash, from Eco WALK the Talk.

On April 13th, Nexus presented the newly launched partnership platform to a business audience at the French Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. In a panel discussion, Raphaele Deau presented how, in the context of a green economy and the road to Rio+20, access to energy and clean water will be central in eradicating poverty and delivering sustainable development. She showcased success stories where private sector engagement upscale the dissemination of pro-poor low carbon technologies.

Nexus-Carbon for Development is an alliance of pro-poor project developers whose shared vision is that the carbon market should tackle both climate change and poverty in a fair and transparent way.  As a global alliance of social ventures, Nexus acts as a peer-to-peer services platform, creating synergies between its members and providing awareness raising, capacity building, carbon project documentation, and carbon asset management. www.nexus-c4d.org

Nexus-beyond offsetting is the partnership created by Nexus members who join forces to engage companies and public institutions on a fair approach to offsetting. Nexus cooperative delivers offsets through projects that positively impact communities and vulnerable populations, and connects directly with partners seeking high quality carbon offsets. www.nexusbeyondoffsetting.org

Nexus members are the most credible social ventures working on disseminating low carbon pro-poor technologies. As of April 2012, these members are: Appropriate Rural Technology Institute (ARTI) in India, Approtech Asia in the Philippines, Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC), Global Environment Institute (GEI) in China, Groupe Energies Renouvelables, Environnement et Solidarités (GERES), headquartered in France, Hivos in the Netherlands, Hydrologic Social Enterprise in Cambodia, IDeA in Sri Lanka, Parikrama Mahila Samiti in India, The Small Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Development Fund, in India and the U.S.A., TerraClear in Lao, The Center for Rural Communities Research and Development in Vietnam, The Centre for Rural Technology in Nepal (CRT/N), The Village Education Resource Center (VERC) in Bangladesh, Yayasan Dian Desa (YDD) in Indonesia.

What is carbon offsetting? Emission-reduction projects in developing countries can earn emission reduction credits also known as carbon credits. These saleable carbon credits can be used by industrialized countries to meet a part of their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol. Institutions, corporations or individuals, totally or partially, substitute a reduction of their own GHG emissions by purchasing an equivalent quantity of carbon credits emanating from a project which reduces carbon emissions somewhere else. This is called carbon offsetting.

Source: www.nexusbeyondoffsetting.org