Description: Many were gripped this past week by news of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While provincial governments in Canada might not have many levers to pull in terms of protest, one thing a number of them have done is to remove Russian vodka off of their liquor corporation shelves. The Nova Scotia government has… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Corporate Social Responsibility
The EU, Apple, and a usb
Description: In a move to slash e-waste – and perhaps help Apple customers with cleaning out their junk drawers – the European Union (EU) is seeking to regulate a single industry-wide charger for all smart phones. This poses a problem for Apple with its current Lightning charging ports versus the standard USB-C used by most… Read more »
Clean Up the Butts
Description: It’s a big ask by Britain, but some politicians are claiming that tobacco companies should be forced to pay for the cleanup of cigarette butts. Discarded cigarettes have been calculated to form close to 70% of litter counted in surveys. The annual cost of the cleaning them up is estimated at 40 million British… Read more »
Stakeholder Capitalism
Description: Stakeholder Capitalism: It’s a term coined by a key figure from the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. Stakeholder Capitalism is supposed to represent a new approach for business, one that extends responsibility beyond the shareholders. But some are questioning the nature of the commitment following news that consulting giant, McKinnsey & Company, is… Read more »
The Burnout Issue
Description: The Province of Quebec is reexamining its legislation for workplace injuries. The current act dates back as far as 1979, when Quebec had a much larger percentage of workers in manufacturing and industry. Some are urging the government to do better by expanding the proposed legislation to include twenty-first century issues like burnout of… Read more »
Nice Change for Humans
Description: I guess those robots can’t really replace all the humans after all! Walmart has decided to fire its inventory robots. Real, live human beings can gather information on inventory as they stock items in the stores, allowing them to do at least as good of a job as the mechanical workers. Walmart’s CEO wondered… Read more »
What are Canadians Looking for from Business?
Description: Canadians want businesses to change direction, placing more emphasis on stakeholders and less on shareholders. A survey sponsored by the Canadian Centre for the Purpose of the Corporation (CCPC) shows Canadians want more focus on issues of income inequality, the environment, and discrimination. Canadians are interested in working for companies that pursue these important… Read more »
Why Don’t We Plan?
Description: Around the world, governments, medical authorities, and scientists have been organizing responses to the COVID-19 virus. The response to the crisis is tapping into human resourcefulness and inventiveness. Yet economists are asking what is it that keeps us from being better prepared for such a crisis, one that epidemiologists had warned about? Something economists… Read more »
Malaysia’s mountains of our plastics
Description: Malaysia is building mountains of our plastic waste since China ceased accepting it from the west in January 2018. For over 25 years, China had accepted roughly 50% of the western world’s plastic waste, turning it into products to be sent back to us. Meanwhile, Canada’s two largest grocery chains, Loblaws and Sobeys, seem… Read more »
GM Leaving Town
Description: Thanks a lot for that one! Several years ago, Canadian and US taxpayers bailed out General Motors (GM) during the financial crisis. But GM is back in the black and it is saying it needs to close its plant in Oshawa to retool for the future, leaving 2500 people in this city out of… Read more »