Social Bridges presents the weekly rundown of the best posts on corporate social responsibility, sustainability and greener options.

1- The importance of being sustainable

Sustainability is not an optional business practice. John Friedman comes up with a complete business model.

2- Transparency, transparency

Transparency in CSR can cut both ways, Christian Hicks thinks.

3- CSR and higher education

CSR is about engaging people in the work/study place and there is a need to develop CSR dynamism at university level.

4- Sustainable reporting gains momentum

A KPMG report suggests that multinationals that the number of US companies reporting on sustainability has doubled.

5- Green reading with e-books

e-books can reduce the carbon footprint by great deal? Read this to know more.

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Hollywood is turning to green living? Well it might take some time that the whole industry shifts its gears towards green living but some celebrities are definitely making waves. Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom are pirating solar energy to light their homes while Brad Pitt is continuing with his Make it Right Foundation activities.

MSN Green reported that in 2005, Johnny Depp converted his Bahamas island home to run on solar hydrogen technology. Last year Bloom built an enviro-friendly house in London.”It’s as green as I can make it,” Bloom said on the green design Web site Inhabitat.”It’s got solar panels on the roof, energy-efficient light bulbs - newer technology basically that is environmentally friendly.”

Pitt, on the other hand, is planning to build 150 homes in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward, which was devastated by the levee breaks in 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. Raised three feet above the ground, these homes are equipped with solar panels and other enviro-friendly features. The homes will also capture rainwater to reuse for gardening and toilets. Pitt’s Make It Right project is being touted as the future model for our cities, MSN Green reported.

Hollywood celebrities are revered in almost all parts of the world and if they go green then we can see some massive changes in the attitudes of both the common folks as well as those at the helm of the affairs. Pakistan or South Asia, to be more precise, is not so attracted to Hollywood as it is to Bollywood (the Indian film industry). In one of my next posts, I’ll discuss the role of South Asian media in promoting green living. Keep your fingers crossed.

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Andrew from Good Honest Dollar calls for a cooperation between the conservation groups and the corporate sector to produce ‘actual’ results.

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Social Bridges is back with a BANG. We had taken a semi-hiatus of about four weeks but now we are back to business. During these four weeks, we got a good response for the interviews and round up posts. Many readers were also upset about the temporary discontinuation of ‘Top 20 posts of the week‘; they will be a regular future now.

Interviews, investigative posts and international trends on CSR, sustainability and environment will be presented before you, again. We’re hoping to catch momentum in a few days and request our readers to be proactive and help us in making this portal an active, socially responsible and ‘green’ platform.

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Social Bridges conducted an interview with Mr. Eugene Tay, Director of Green Future Solutions and the Founder/Editor of AsiaIsGreen and Green Business Times.

• What is your definition of green?

Green means living a life with minimal impact on Nature and future generation.

• What role can blogs/ Web sites play in the green sector? Can we lead the change?

Blogs and websites can help to educate the public and businesses on environmental issues, keep them informed, help them to connect and network, and inspire them to take action. We can lead the change but we have to realise that the change can only happen when all the stakeholders are involved.

• The green movement in Asia has yet to take firm roots. What are the major bottlenecks in your opinion?

Most Asian countries are developing countries, with the governments and people more interested in economic growth than protecting the environment. The people in Asia need to understand that they cannot follow what the West did, grow first and then clean up. They need to embrace what works for the environment and adopt leapfrogging technologies while they grow economically. The current ‘economic growth at all cost’ focus is one major bottleneck that has to be resolved.

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Social Bridges presents the weekly rundown of the best posts on corporate social responsibility, sustainability and greener options.

1. ISR and MoP is the new face of CSR and BoP?

Enrico Wensing wants the change from within from those who are at the middle of the pyramid (MoP). Individual Social Responsibility (ISR) is necessary if we want to make this world more sustainable. Read more.

2. Supply chain management for CSR

A good supply chain management, combined with other factors, is necessary for good CSR strategies. Laura Gitman has some tips.

3. What makes an ecosystem work?

Lucy Bernholz has raised some questions about it.

4. Social networking for BoP movement

The idea is catchy and can bring BoP marketing to a totally new dimension.

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Social Bridges presents a round up of interviews that we conducted with Pakistani executives to know what their companies are doing for the community and what’s their environmental and social footprint. It was really heartening to know that Pakistani corporate sector has started doing good for the society and are also trying to reduce their carbon footprints. These interviews were really very helpful in learning the CSR dynamics of Pakistan.

• ENGRO is setting examples for other companies

ENGRO is very much cautious about its environmental foot print and has spent millions on reducing emissions.

• P&G Pakistan is working for a better future of Pakistani children

Proctor & Gamble has based its community efforts on children as they are the future of Pakistan.

• Tribal Monsoon joins forces with Pakistani artisans to rock the world

Pakistani artisans are great but live in very pathetic conditions and abject poverty. Tribal Monsoon is helping these artisans by paying them generously and taking their creations to international markets.

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Enrico J. Wensing is a sustainability expert who has not only founded Ecosphere Net but has also authored I Am Sustainability: How the Human Body can Save the Planet, a great book on all issues related to sustainable development. He is in the final year of his PhD at Saybrook. Social Bridges recently conducted an interview with him to know more about his ideas and theories.

How would you define sustainability - what’s your personal view about it?

As far as I can tell, my view of sustainability is pretty different than most. While most sustainability efforts are about doing more sustainable things, like being more environmentally friendly, my view is about how we can take that even further when we begin to integrate sustainability into who we are.

That’s right, actually integrate sustainability into who we each are as an individual. My view is that sustainability can actually be integrated and become a large part of a person’s personality

This goes further than most approaches to sustainability, and if a deeper more effective connection with sustainability is possible why not go for it?

While my approach is more confrontational than remembering to recycle plastics and paper, at the end of the day don’t we want to do our best to be as effective as possible toward achieving global sustainability?

Just this past July my book (my first) entitled I Am Sustainability: How the Human Body can Save the Planet was published. In it I describe in detail my view on what sustainability means and how I think we can get to global sustainability.

The book is intended to be the starting point for a growing cross-cultural global conversation, action and research to work together to define what sustainability means to all of us.

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This is to inform our readers that we’ll not publish any new posts this week due to Eid-ul-Fitr holidays. Regular posts will be resumed from Monday, Oct. 6. Happy Holidays!

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