In advance of the International CSR Summit this month, Singapore Compact’s President, Mr Kwek Leng Joo, said the ambition is to engage more youth, so that they will be able to bring CSR ideas to the workplace and champion CSR when they join the workforce. Awards are being given to teams of students and companies for their CSR achievements. Read More

Announcement by Singapore Compact 18 September 2012:

Singapore Compact to boost CSR by launching Youth membership

A Youth Membership is being created among new initiatives by the tripartite body charged with the responsibility of promoting this value among businesses and institutions here.

Said Mr Kwek: “The passion and energy of our youth should not be underestimated. I believe the future lies in them – the leaders of tomorrow. Youth development is one of the key priority areas for Singapore Compact. The Singapore Compact Youth Membership network aims to nurture a civic minded generation to champion responsible business practices, so that their actions and decisions can make a difference to their future.”

Targeting the youth is intended to lay down the foundation of CSR among future business leaders. A Memorandum of Understanding will be signed between SC and the National Youth Achievement Awards Council (NYAA) at the upcoming International CSR Summit 2012 later in September. To kick-start the youth network, SC will welcome from the NYAA Gold Awards Holders Alumni (GAHA), all youth who are keen to learn more about CSR.

The MOU will be signed by SC’s Executive Director, Mr Thomas Thomas, NYAA’s Executive Director, Mr James Soh, and a representative of GAHA.

Said Mr Thomas: “This network aims to realise our new vision to expand outreach to the youth. We are pleased to be working together with NYAA to reach out to their young members and Alumni members.  ”

“We have been working with tertiary institutions since 2006 and we will continue to work with these networks to boost our youth memberships. A Youth Forum on CSR will also be introduced to enable the young to exchange ideas.”

“NYAA Council works with like-minded organisations in various areas of youth development and we are constantly on the look-out for opportunities for our youth to engage their contemporaries and the community. We are delighted to be able to work together with Singapore Compact and we look forward to a partnership that allows our young people to further strengthen their leadership capabilities for the good of the community,” said James Soh, Executive Director of the National Youth Achievement Award Council.

CDL-SC Young CSR Leaders Awards 2012

The winning teams of the CDL-SC Young CSR Leaders Award, inaugurated last year to promote the CSR message among the young, will receive their prize at theSummit. Team SMIL.E Inc, from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), entered a CSR proposal for a security firm.

SMIL.E Inc’s presentation impressed the judges with their clear understanding of the CSR opportunities and challenges facing the security industry. Aside from spending time at the company to better understand their daily business operations, the team also went the extra mile to speak to one of the company’s largest stakeholders – their security guards.

After speaking with a 69-year-old security supervisor about the challenges faced by security officers on the ground, the team decided on “Pledge to Care” as one of the three strategies the team is proposing for the company to adopt as part of responsible corporate citizenship. This proposed initiative aims to increase public awareness of a security officer’s role and encourage a call to action for more appreciation for this group of people.

“It is always inspiring to see how passionate young people are when they are given an opportunity to be a change agent,” said Ms Esther An, CDL’s General Manager of Corporate Affairs and Head of CSR. “We look forward to working with Singapore Compact on next year’s competition and continuing to provide opportunities for young people to make our community a better place to live in.”

This is the second year that the award has been given out. The top three winning teams of this year’s Award are:

First Prize:                 “SMIL.E Inc”

(Nanyang Technological University)

Second Prize:          “Muvericks”

(SMa Institute of Higher Learning – Murdoch University)

Third Prize:               “Sunshine”

(Nanyang Technological University)

International CSR Summit 2012

The theme of the Summit will be “Corporate Social Responsibility: Trends, Threats and Opportunities”.

The opening address to the summit will be delivered by the Guest-of-Honour, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, Acting Minister for Manpower and Senior Minister of State for National Development. The keynote address, which will set the tone for the summit, will be delivered by Professor

Jeremy Moon, Director of the International Centre for CSR, Nottingham University Business School.

The topics to be covered at the seminar include Changing the Change Agents, Adding Value to Sustainability, Engaging with Networks of Influence, and Why is the EU having a CSR Strategy?. There will also be nine workshops on various aspects of CSR.

CSR Awards 2012

The following are winners of this year’s CSR Awards:

Best Community Developer Award

- CapitaLand Limited (Winner)

- Shell Companies in Singapore (Special Mention)

Caring Employer Award

- Adrenalin Events and Education Pte Ltd (Winner)

- Holiday Inn Singapore Atrium (Special Mention)

Green Champion Award

- NatSteel Holdings Pte Ltd (Winner)

- Keppel Land Limited (Special Mention)

Best Workplace Award

- NTUC FairPrice Co-operative Ltd (Winner)

Enabling CSR Journeys – the new publication

Among other measures to hasten the acceptance of the CSR movement is the launch of a new publication to provide practical tips on setting up CSR programmes by businesses and institutions. Enabling CSR Journeys – Knowledge Sharing for Sustainability will feature four interviews of business leaders who have been passionate about embracing CSR in their establishments and cover their companies’ experiences as well as their personal stories in being CSR Champions.

The project is premised on the strategic value of integrating knowledge management (KM) with sustainability implementation in organisations, and, the belief that personal perspectives and experiences are the most impactful way to impart knowledge to others.

The four business leaders are Mr Kwek Leng Joo, CDL Managing Director and SC President; Mr Bert Wong, Senior Managing Director, Fuji Xerox Singapore; Mr Seah Kian Peng, Chief

Executive Officer, NTUC FairPrice; and Ms Deanne Ong, Business Development Director, Origins Exterminator.

Another new introduction by SC this year will be one full-day pre-Summit workshop to be held on 26^th September on CSR for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

For more information, contact:

E-mail:  info@csrsingapore.org

Website: www.csrsingapore.org

Tel: 6827 6825

Coastal settlements in Indonesia which are most at risk from climate change impacts and activists are voicing out their concerns that the government is not doing enough to help. There’s also lack of clarity on how the Green Climate Fund will be utilised. Regional, national and local issues like this which affect many in the developing world will be addressed  at the Eco Flores Network Congress, to be held 26 to 29 September, which aims to share expertise for the sustainability of the Indonesian island of Flores. Read more

By Fidelis E. Satriastanti, ID/Alina Musta’idah & Arientha Primanita for Jakarta Globe (17 September 2012):

Climate Change Aid Pledges Go Unfulfilled in Indonesia

“Indonesia’s fishermen used to be able to go out to sea on average 180 days out of the year,” says Abdul Hakim, an activist from the People’s Coalition for Food Sovereignty.

“Now they can only go out 150 days a year. That’s resulted in a decline in their productivity.”

He blames the problem on higher waves and rougher seas that have increased in frequency in recent years as a result of climate change.

A sprawling archipelago that is highly dependent on maritime activities, Indonesia is widely considered by experts to be at particularly high risk of climate change effects on the world’s oceans.

Abdul acknowledges the seriousness of the threat but says the government doesn’t seem to have taken the same view. In fact, he says, the state has yet to allocate any funding for efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change’s effects.

“There’s nothing, no money to address climate change, even though the fisheries sector will be hard hit by this problem,” he says.

He argues that mitigation and adaptation efforts for the maritime sector alone will require up to 5 percent of the state budget. But even now, he says, the entire budget for the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry is just 0.3 percent of the state budget.

Lack of clarity

The issue of funding for climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts for developing and at-risk countries is expected to be high on the agenda at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Doha in November.

The UNFCCC conference in Copenhagen in 2009 drew a commitment from developed countries to set up a Green Climate Fund that would raise $30 billion over the 2010-12 period.

The Copenhagen Accord also agreed to a target “for the world to raise $100 billion per year by 2020, from ‘a wide variety of sources,’ to help developing countries cut carbon emissions,” and promised that “new multilateral funding for adaptation will be delivered, with a governance structure.”

But activists in Indonesia rankle at the lack of details on specific allocations or on progress in emissions-reduction initiatives already being carried out.

“We have absolutely no idea what’s going on with the Green Climate Fund or what they call fast-start financing,” says Dani Setiawan, chairman of the Anti-Debt Coalition. “What’s been achieved? What progress is being made? Nothing’s being published.”

He says the 2010-12 funding that developed nations committed to providing now amounts to $28.2 billion but emphasizes that much of it is not “new and additional,” as stipulated in the Copenhagen Accord.

“Several countries have simply included commitments into this fund that they had previously committed elsewhere,” he says.

“So, a lot of the climate funding for developing countries like Indonesia has strings attached.”

Dani says he is skeptical that any agreement on a clear funding mechanism will be ironed out at the Doha talks.

“Given the ongoing global economic crisis and the lack of clarity on the funding issue at a recent conference in Bangkok, it will be difficult to resolve this issue at Doha,” he says.

Self-reliance

That pessimism is shared by Siti Maimunah, coordinator of the Civil Society Forum for Climate Justice (CSF).

“What we’re sure about is that the effects of climate change will increase and spread,” she says.

“What’s not certain, though, is that the talks will result in policies to protect communities from these effects.”

A senior government official, however, says Indonesia should not depend on international funding for its mitigation and adaptation programs.

Adapting to climate change effects, says Arief Yuwono, the environment minister’s deputy for environmental damage and climate change, can be incorporated into existing programs with the involvement of local communities.

“Adaptation is different from mitigation, where the funding comes after the fact,” he says.

“With adaptation, it’s about building up the community’s resilience. And you don’t necessarily need funding to do this. You can do it by getting people to participate in [environmental preservation] programs or by increasing efficiency in existing programs.”

He cites an ongoing Forestry Ministry program to plant mangroves along coastal areas as one example of a climate change adaptation program that is not specifically categorized as such.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) acknowledges that the policies are out there, but says they need to be more consistent and better coordinated.

“There are a lot of government policies [on sustainable development], but they need to be more consistent,” says Efransjah, head of WWF Indonesia. “I’m positive that over the next two years, the president will be able to achieve a lot.”

Minimal commitments

At the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh in 2009, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced to the world an ambitious target to reduce Indonesia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent by 2020, or by 41 percent with international assistance.

Boen Purnama, the forestry minister’s adviser on forestry strategy and policy, insists that Indonesia is carrying out “real actions” on mitigating climate change through its forestry sector, but that the international community has yet to take notice.

“Every country has a responsibility toward addressing climate change,” he says, arguing that developed countries must accept a larger share of the burden because of their higher per capita emissions.

He also says funding commitments by developed countries to developing nations under a Payments for Ecosystem Services mechanism have not been fully realized.

“Funding for developing countries under the PES mechanism is still very minimal,” Boen says.

But Dieter Brulez, coordinator of climate change priority areas at the Indonesian office of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), says the commitments still hold.

“We’re currently re-evaluating our funding priorities, specifically for climate change, to focus more on mitigation programs,” he says. “For climate change adaptation, we hope that it can be integrated [into other programs].”

The GIZ is currently involved in an A$1.25 million ($1.3 million) climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment in the East Kalimantan city of Tarakan, as well as Malang in East Java and the province of South Sumatra, funded by the Australian government.

Strong position

Siti from the CSF is adamant that the issue of climate funding will not be resolved in Doha, citing the reluctance of major developing countries like China and India to commit to binding emissions reductions targets.

She believes that although civil society will have its voice heard, it will not be loud enough to drive home the importance of the need for climate funding mechanisms for adaptation to be cleared up.

“If you look back at the Copenhagen talks, the civil society representation was quite strong and united but still failed,” she says, adding that the major emitters will likely use stalling tactics at the Doha talks to thwart any meaningful binding resolutions.

Dani from the Anti-Debt Coalition warns that with governments almost certain not to reach a deal in November, the prospect of a private sector-led carbon-trading mechanism looms large, with all its attendant disadvantages for small communities.

“It won’t be about reducing emissions at that point. It will be about shaping a new form of capitalism,” he says.

He adds that given Indonesia’s prominence as a forest country and its representation of the Asia-Pacific region in the Green Climate Fund committee, Indonesia should be able to push for the interests of developing countries to be addressed more adequately.

“Indonesia’s position is quite strong. The question, though, is whether it can use that position to address the interests of those who will be affected the most by climate change, such as fishermen and farmers,” Dani says. “Or will it just go along with the others?”

Source: www.thejakartaglobe.com and www.ecoflores.org/en/top/home/

When Peter Doherty speaks – and writes – you need to sit up and take notice. He didn’t win the  Nobel Prize for nothing. He’s even written a book about how to win such a global award! He is also the author of  “A Light History of Hot Air” which was a very impressive comprehensive study  – with a light  touch – into internationally important topics like climate change and the excesses of fossil fuel and greenhouse gases. Now the chickens have come home to roost! This time in “Sentinel Chickens”, he is away with the birds, but for a purpose. Like the proverbial canary in a coalmine, a saying Doherty later deconstructs, birds, even chickens, act as monitors, beautiful and endlessly fascinating creatures that, as in ancient mythology, act as harbingers of danger – in relation to outbreaks of diseases and even in relation to climate change and environmental degradation. While I have read the book myself and highly recommend it, I decided to share a review from the Sydney Morning Herald that says it all. Read More

Avian allies

Sydney Morning Herald (25 August 2012):

WHEN a deadly outbreak of avian influenza (H5N1) in Hong Kong hit the headlines in 1997, the less scientifically minded among us were caught off guard. We had questions. Our imaginations ran wild. You mean chickens get flu? Who’s heard of a chook sneezing? Do you catch this virus through eating roast chicken, living near a poultry farm or feeding crusts to seagulls? Is my beloved pet budgerigar an assassin, and how about the backyard magpies?

These are just a few of the questions Peter Doherty delicately teases out in his survey of the way birds, or at least the scientific study of them, have led to massive advances in the understanding of infectious and other human diseases.

Because chooks might occasionally carry lethal viruses, as in the case of H5N1, but they also have the capacity to save lives, particularly when they’re placed in cages and plonked in strategic positions around the countryside to gauge, say, the spread of Murray Valley encephalitis. Or when their eggs are used by scientists to study how viruses reproduce or for the production of influenza vaccines. Or when 4000 or more wattlebirds and gulls fall from the sky, poisoned by lead, as they did in Esperance in 2007, and authorities are able to track its source before humans and children begin to die, too.

As Doherty says, ”our free-flying, wide-ranging avian relatives serve as sentinels, sampling the health of the air, seas, forest and grasslands that we share with them and with the other complex life forms on this planet”.

Like the proverbial canary in a coalmine, a saying he later deconstructs, they act as monitors, beautiful and endlessly fascinating creatures that, as in ancient mythology, act as harbingers of danger – particularly in relation to climate change and environmental degradation.

Doherty, a Nobel prize winner, is as much a teacher as a research scientist – he could tell you the answer to questions straight up, but instead, so you’ll piece things together, he foregrounds his discussions in basic explanations of biology, anatomy and pathology.

Despite his admission early on that ”we working scientists increasingly find ourselves working in a kind of Tower of Babel, where it’s harder and harder to stay abreast of what’s going on in even closely related fields”, his writing spans an impressive array of disciplines, from ornithology and microbiology to avian pathology and psychology, zoology, phenology and poetry. Along the way we meet a fascinating array of people – research scientists, Nobel prize winners, eccentric but dedicated blokes ”who spent a good part of their lives sticking probes up the back ends of birds across the planet” – many of whom Doherty counts as close friends.

In the process, we come to understand the endless jigsaw that is scientific research. There are seemingly obscure research findings such as Peyton Rous’ 1911 experiment with a chicken cancer virus that years later, picked up and developed by other researchers, led to groundbreaking work in human cancer research. There are detective stories that span countries, cultures and continents, and case studies that link vultures with gout to sacred cows, Hindu tradition and an anti-inflammatory known as Diclofenac. Whodunits that tie red knot sandpipers to crab eggs, whelk harvesting and the Caribbean queen conch.

Doherty flits from fossils to migration patterns, from wingspan measurements to white blood cell studies of horseshoe crabs, but the analyses he reaches are simple and precise: ”The basic message is that any sudden, human-induced change has consequences when it comes to natural ecosystems, which is just one of the many reasons why widespread ignorance of science and the resultant failure to grapple with reality are dangerous.”

It is, in its own way, a brief history of disease, although, as Doherty notes, ”it says something profound about the human condition that history takes much greater account of wars and military mayhem than of the enormous losses caused by communicable disease”. And brief namely because ”as recently as the 19th century, people made no connection between infestation with visible parasites like worms and ticks and the unseen world of infection with microbes”. Before then, the likes of Shelley and Keats, who wrote about birds with such aplomb, feared death from ”miasmas” (dangerous fogs from marshlands) rather than their feathered friends.

Yet Doherty’s greatest revelation is his discovery that a love of birds ”is one of the few things that can transform those who have no formal training in science into enthusiastic practitioners of science”.

We have a lot to learn from birds, and Doherty’s book entices us to start.

Peter Doherty was a guest at the Melbourne Writers Festival and the Bryon Bay Writers Festival.
Source: www.smh.com.au