http://maydayblog.com brendan may on the choices facing our planet Wed, 14 May 2008 13:43:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en To the annual Ethical Corporation Summit in London yesterday, to take part in a panel discussion which involved having ‘ethical business dilemmas’ thrown at us by David Grayson, one of the guru academics on corporate responsibility. My fellow panellists were Daniel Franklin, Executive Editor of The Economist, Matthew Gwyther, Editor ... http://maydayblog.com/2008/05/14/ethical-dilemmas/ How nice to see Gordon Ramsay turning into an environmentalist overnight. His call for local and seasonal produce (including the bizarre suggestion that chefs who do not serve seasonal produce should be fined – work out how even the most energetic red-tape bureaucrat would administer that) was hailed by sleepy ... http://maydayblog.com/2008/05/12/58/ Whilst campaigning in the 1980s against the nuclear deterrent, my father befriended a fellow pacifist, the late English composer Robert Simpson. Although politically interested, I was far too young to appreciate their political bond, which was in fact rooted in a love of great music. But I well recall my ... http://maydayblog.com/2008/05/07/saving-what-matters/ Spent the week in Boston, where we launched Planet 2050 to the US market with Weber Shandwick's Boston office. We had an excellent backdrop in the form of the annual Ceres Conference, which attracted an impressive 700 delegates from large and small companies, major NGOs and, critically, the investment community. ... http://maydayblog.com/2008/05/02/the-new-american-dream/ My friend and ex colleague DJ Collins, now at Google texted me this morning about this great piece in yesterday's Independent. In the last two weeks I've written about how finance and market power are increasingly being used to quantify the value of the services that rainforests provide to Planet ... http://maydayblog.com/2008/04/14/smile-illegal-loggers-youre-on-google-earth/ In times of economic uncertainty, if not complete meltdown, people rightly ask about the fate of corporate responsibility and the priority given to environmental concerns. Not least because the rapid growth of strategic CSR in recent years has taken place against a generally stable financial backdrop. Some argue that recession, ... http://maydayblog.com/2008/04/10/what-place-for-ethics-when-times-are-hard/ Loved this story in the Guardian about how a new condom making venture could help keep the Brazilian rainforest standing, as it were. Yet another example of the growing efforts to show forests can be worth more left standing than cut down.   More serious is this piece about the perils of ... http://maydayblog.com/2008/04/09/green-condoms-plane-stupid-and-mind-the-gap/ Following Unilever's recent move to Rainforest Alliance certified tea for PG Tips, more good news for UK ethical shopping market today as Costa Coffee unveils its big plans for Rainforest Alliance coffee across the UK. As far as I'm aware this is the first time a big coffee chain has ... http://maydayblog.com/2008/04/09/a-better-brew/ Check out the latest Marketing Week/You Gov poll on green brands. In fact, the whole magazine is dedicated to environmental issues, with a heavy climate change focus. The success of M&S is no surprise, although as the survey notes one eye-catching feature is the rather poor performance of so-called 'deep-green' ... http://maydayblog.com/2008/03/27/seeing-green/ Following yesterday's piece about JP Morgan buying Climate Care, BBC and several newspapers this morning report on another major collaboration between conservationists and money makers. This time the goal is to place a financial value on rainforests, those giant planetary utilities that have been so ravaged for so long. One ... http://maydayblog.com/2008/03/27/the-best-kind-of-profiteering/