Being Intentional
The bi-weekly newsletter from Motive, covering a wide range of topics in the area of ESG and sustainability. In this edition: CSR Reports, Social Networks, and getting ready for COP26
Warning: This edition of Being Intentional is a bit on the long side. BUT… if you read it we promise you’ll learn something you didn’t know before. Isn’t that really all any of us can ask for anyway?
If you want to jump right into the thick of things here’s what we’re serving up today:
CSR Reports--it’s a new section for Being Intentional all about Corporate Sustainability Reports. We know they sound boring, but that’s because they are! We read them so you don’t have to and in this section, we spotlight some good and some bad.
Working remote, you say? Want to know how all those tech companies we love to hate so much stack up? Here it is!
Want a good job? Get into sustainability. It’s a hot career as every company is jumping on board. Learn more in our What We Are Seeing Section.
In our Blog section, we go deep on greenwashing and seizing the opportunities in front of us.
Finally, we wrap up with some good reads, including a stunning Climate Change piece in The Guardian and COP26 101 for everyone wondering what the climate summit in Scotland was all about.
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CSR Spotlight
Every week a new batch of companies are publishing their Corporate Sustainability Reports. In a new section of this newsletter, we’re spotlighting 3 reports we found interesting and why. CSR Reports are a good way to see how companies think about themselves. Click on a company’s name and view their CSR Report directly.
Caesars Entertainment (RS: -27 ↓86):
Caesar’s begins their CSR Stating: “Distributed $3.7 billion in economic wealth to our stakeholders, helping improve lives in our communities.” Also, “Caesars Entertainment, Inc’s GAAP net revenue was $3.47 in 2020.” Interesting how ‘distributed economic wealth to our stakeholders’ sounds so much better than saying ‘we paid salaries, a few taxes and regulatory fees, and plenty of shareholder returns’. This CSR Report is largely a collection of numbers that look good but are not provided with context so it’s difficult to understand if Caesars’ is actually getting better, or not.
Hormel Foods (RS: 36 ↑97)
Something we really appreciate about Hormel’s CSR Report is that they open their report with clear goals, which were particularly well structured and made understanding Hormel’s progress an easy task. Hormel’s high ESG ratings aren’t surprising.
Southwest Airlines (RS: 10 ↑57)
Similar to Caesar’s Entertainment, Southwest leads with metrics that are debatable for inclusion on a CSR Report (“in 2020, and have, to date, opened or announced our intention to serve an additional 13 airports in 2021”). However, they do map to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and publish a transparent materiality map.
Additional companies pushing new CSR Reports since our last newsletter:
Medtronic, Flowserve, Olam Foods, Timken, Entegris, DigiPlex, AARON, BD, Aveva, ATCO, CBRE
Time for a Change
Remote work, distant relatives, parents who snowbird, relocated friends, and the re-opening of global travel is keeping us all connected with people virtually, but how do the tech companies we rely on to make this possible stack up?
Salesforce-owned Slack (RS: +34, ↑96%) clearly leads the pack, followed by Microsoft (RS: +19, ↑73%) with their offerings of LinkedIn and Teams.
Facebook (RS: +5, ↑50%), including Instagram and Messenger, is rounding out the mid-pack alongside Google (RS: +2, ↓54%) with their GMail, Meet, and Chat.
Any and all of these four are showing far greater success in managing their impacts on the issues that matter than are Twitter (RS: -23, ↓82%) or Zoom (RS: -32, ↓91%).
What We Are Seeing
Sustainability is now a need-to-have and no longer just a nice-to-have...and don’t just take our word for it, listen to the trends in corporate development (as initially reported by the Weinreb Group.
Among Fortune 500 companies, the role and responsibilities of Chief Sustainability Officer have been the fastest growing executive function over the last decade, with demand for CSOs growing 228%. This trend is still gaining steam as more CSOs were recruited in 2020 than in the previous three years combined.
Along with the demand for CSOs has come equally impressive growth in the teams they manage, with the average sustainability team size growing over 300% over the same ten-year time period.
We work closely with CSOs and our last few conversations with some of these executives provide anecdotal support to these trends. All agree, at a fundamental level, sustainability has shifted from community engagement strategy to full-scale business strategy. The next ten years should be exciting!
What We Are Saying
Sustainability has gone mainstream, but what may be perceived as best efforts by some are perceived as greenwashing by others. How can this be if we are all working meaningfully toward sustainability? To get to where we all want to be, we need to each be able to define what sustainability means to us. At Motive, sustainability is a mindset to guide our decisions with the aim of preserving collective optionality. So, what is sustainability to you?
Don't Let Your Promises Fall Flat
There is a deteriorating oil tanker floating abandoned off the Yemen coast with the potential to cause catastrophic humanitarian, ecological, and economic suffering, and no one seems to want to take leadership in addressing this issue. Rather, all are happy to talk about the COP26 climate summit to be held in Glasgow at the turn of the month and the great leadership we can all anticipate being shown. COP26 is being hyped as the environmental event of the year, but let’s not pretend that it is the only event unfolding this year. Every day is an opportunity for elected officials to demonstrate the leadership we need. Don’t tell me what you are going to do, show me what you are doing.
What We Are Reading
This explainer piece and data visualization released last week by The Guardian really hit us at the core. Including background context, clear explanations, interactive data displays, this piece is one of the most comprehensive yet concise explorations of what our future will look like across various climate modeling scenarios. No science degree required--this piece makes it clear why so many have stopped talking about climate change and instead are now talking about the climate crisis.
If the climate crisis scares you even half as much as it does us, maybe we can take heart that the United Nations Climate Change COP26 is only days away. The gathering of global leaders is framed as the last opportunity to avert the worst of the worst of the climate crisis. We’ve all been hearing more and more about COP26, but have you ever wondered exactly what happens at a COP and what we can expect from this upcoming one? This piece is a most excellent place to start.