Writing, Scholarship, Exploration
I co-wrote the China chapter of this new compendium of corporate social responsibility.
The World Guide to CSR:
A Country-by-Country Analysis of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility
Edited by Wayne Visser and Nick Tolhurst
On November 30, I joined colleagues at the EU China Business Summit in Nanjing, Jiangsu, which dovetailed with the EU-China political meeting.
That day in Nanjing, under support from the Sino-Swedish Corporate Social Responsibility cooperation, AccountAbility launched the report Responsible Competitiveness in China 2009: Seizing the low carbon opportunity for green development.
This from AccountAbility:
Businesses in China are increasingly working with government and civil society to shift markets to reward sustainable development. These responsible business practices are becoming more and more embedded in the country’s emerging green industrial policy and low carbon development pathways. In some areas, China is set to leapfrog into the elite group of global green innovators.
These are some of the highlights from the report ‘Responsible Competitiveness in China 2009: Seizing the low carbon opportunity for green development’, launched at the 5th annual EU-China Business Summit as part of the Swedish EU presidency on 30 November in Nanjing, China.
The analysis presented in this report shows that China is developing a distinctive low carbon, responsible pathway, namely that:
- Low carbon industrial policies offer Chinese businesses and consumers huge opportunities
- Responsible business ventures in China are now impacting global markets relaunching China’s brand
- Strong government leadership, incentives and supportive policies are playing key roles
The report was independently researched and written in a unique collaboration between AccountAbility and the China WTO Tribune, with support from the Sino-Swedish CSR Cooperation Project. Learn more about the report’s key findings.
The Joint Statement of the 12th EU-China Summit specifically “decided to strengthen high-level dialogue and exchanges between think-tanks from both sides, and to promote and support regular exchanges.” Read the Joint Statement in full. AccountAbility’s partnership with the China WTO Tribune is an example of this kind of knowledge and collaboration exchange.
A Paper by Long Guoqiang, Simon Zadek, and Joshua Wickerham
AccountAbility’s Managing Partner, Simon Zadek, launched this report at the Boao Forum this year in Hainan and at the China Entrepreneur Club’s Daonong Green Companies Forum in Beijing. This paper is part of a two-year study with the State Council’s Development Research Center on “China’s sustainable trade strategy” working with several central-level Chinese research organizations and three international think tanks.
This paper examines how the Chinese business community can best use international sustainability standards to enhance their competitiveness in global markets and more effectively place themselves on a sustainable economic pathway.
It highlights the opportunity for Chinese businesses, supported by enabling public policies, to become a force in shaping the next generation of sustainability standards in global markets as a competitive strategy consistent with China’s broader interests. Doing so will require deeper engagement in existing standards initiatives, and a more explicit role amongst the communities that have developed and now govern them. Effective engagement in such standards is a means of off-setting competitive disadvantages, and creating competitive advantages when businesses and nations choose a more sustainable development path.
This paper sets out both strategic options for businesses and policy options for the Chinese government to realise sustainable development and competitiveness goals.
Download the full English version, full Chinese version, or the bilingual executive summary.
Read the press release.
Mentioned in the Harvard Business Review blog here.
Video interview with me on NetEase discussing link between sustainability and Chinese competitiveness (in Mandarin Chinese).
This is Fortune China’s 3rd annual survey of Chinese business leaders. This year Fortune surveyed 20,000 people using a survey designed by AccountAbility. The cover this year is much more uplifting than last year’s.
Download the full English version here.
The Chinese version is on Fortune China’s website here.
It may not be a best seller, but it should be more factual than Joe the Plumber’s upcoming book. Soon to be released, soon to be outdated, my second encyclopedia contributions include biographies on: The Development Research Center’s former director Wang Mengkui, Caijing founder-editor Hu Shuli, Huaneng’s former director Li Xiaopeng, “Iron-Faced” Auditor General Li Jinhua, and Sina.com founder Wang Zhidong. Check out the Biographical Dictionary Of New Chinese Entrepreneurs And Business Leaders on Amazon.