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Does business have a heart?

In November the final film in our annual series – Canned Dreams – was introduced by Alison Ward, former Head of Global Corporate Social Responsibility at Cadbury.  Here she shares her reflections on the screening. The documentary – Canned Dreams, follows the personal stories of people involved in making a simple can of pasta. When I watched …

Canned Dreams: exploring the global food supply chain

This week we conclude the film series with a tour of the international food supply chain where a can of ravioli takes an eight-country, 30,000km tour through each phases of food production: The story begins with a single mother toiling in one of the biggest open pit mines in Brazil and ends on the shelf of a grocery store in Finland. …

Is it Ethics or Imagination we need most?

On Tuesday 6th November the tenth series of Doing the Business will begin with a screening of The Revenge of the Electric Car.  The series is designed to encourage discussion and debate on the topic of social, environmental and ethical issues in business.  Please join the debate live on Tuesday at Broadway, Nottingham or add your comments below. …

Sponsorship, Sports and Ethics

  The 2012 Olympics and Paralympics have raised issues of ethics and sponsorship of sports.  Some of us have quite set critical views, e.g.: ‘There is already far too much sport, and sponsorship only encourages media saturation of these banal activities at the expense of artistic, intellectual or economic flourishing’.  For others ‘Sponsorship of sports …

CSR Futures: the practitioner perspective

One of the highlights of CSR Futures was the practitioner panel, who were asked to consider the future of CSR and Sustainability, the following summarises the key points: Gerry Boyle, Head of Business Relations, Oxfam Emphasised the importance of ensuring that corporate sustainability agendas embrace social as well as environmental impacts. That there remains a …

CSR or sustainability education – the practitioners perspective (or wearing many hats).

As a precursor to CSR Futures – the conference marking the 10th anniversary of the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility – Alumni of the MBA in CSR and MA/MSc in CSR programmes – now working in related fields, were invited to share their views on the profession with students past and present. In particular, …

‘Getting away from it all’: further reflections on responsible tourism

….In the last holiday blog I mentioned that tourism, even ostensibly responsible forms of ‘spending time away’, embodies certain tensions and contradictions. One question posed was: 1. To what extent can tourism be responsible for the environment when most holidays involve flights to foreign destinations, and require comparatively high usage of resources? This excerpt fleshes …

Changing behaviours is difficult stuff.

Changing behaviours is difficult stuff. Years of public information campaigns to reduce smoking and drink-driving bear testament to the cost and time required in convincing people to make safer and healthier lifestyle choices. So why then, as I reflect on a recent teaching experience with aspiring MBAs, am I surprised at the time it seems …

Sustainability reporting on the SGX: A driver for better business?

As I laid out the name badges on the decadently dressed registration table, rifling through my bag for a Nottingham branded pen, I sat back and smiled. My guests would soon arrive, and the delicately robed perch-tables would, I hoped, be awash with neatly placed nibbles and confidently extended hands, aptly framed with the magnificent panoramic view …

Business Education for Responsible Capitalism

As is often the case following a business debacle, debate ensues about making business and capitalism more responsible.  In the UK, Messrs Cameron and Miliband are scoring points off each other by offering ‘more responsible capitalisms than thou’, and more widely some business leaders are pointing to ethical, governance and regulatory business shortcomings.  All very …