World Business for Equal Dignity

• General links
• Day-to-day links
• List of global businesses that appear to fit the ideal of equality in dignity
• List of local businesses that appear to fit the ideal of equality in dignity

HumanDHS is primarily grounded in academic work. We are independent of any religious or political agenda. However, we wish to bring academic work into "real life." Our research focuses on topics such as dignity (with humiliation as its violation), or, more precisely, on respect for equal dignity for all human beings in the world. This is not only our research topic, but also our core value, in line with Article 1 of the Human Rights Declaration that states that every human being is born with equal dignity (that ought not be humiliated). We agree with Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development, who advocates the building of bridges from academia as follows, "I have always believed that good scholarship can be relevant and consequential for public policy. It is possible to affect public policy without being an advocate; to be passionate about peace without losing analytical rigor; to be moved by what is just while conceding that no one has a monopoly on justice." We would like to add that we believe that good scholarship can be relevant and consequential not only for public policy, but for raising awareness in general.

We look for interested people, who would like to develop our WBusinessED page. Please see our Call for Creativity.

To promote the HumanDHS vision of a world of equal dignity for all, away from practices of humiliation, new approaches to business have to be developed, both locally and globally.

General Links

Please note that the entire HumanDHS website is maintained by volunteers, since its inception in 2003, and this is mainly done by Evelin Lindner. Until 2012, she usually pasted interesting news into this Links section. From July 2012 until 2017, she tagged interesting information on delicious.com. From 2017 onward, you see Evelin's personal list of interesting web links on Twitter: Follow @evelinlindner

Lebensmittelklarheit.de
Klartext statt Verbrauchertäuschung.

The System Improvement Process
SIP was developed to solve any difficult large-scale social problem. This includes the "excessive humiliation problem." Systems Engineer Jack Harich invites all researchers to study SIP (in a personal message, 15th January 2013). See particularly A Little Story about Corporate Dominance and the Occupy Movement.

Women In Development Europe (WIDE)
Women In Development Europe (WIDE) is a European feminist network of women's organisations, development NGOs, gender specialists and women´s rights activists. WIDE monitors and influences international economic and development policy and practice from a feminist perspective. WIDE's work is grounded on women's rights as the basis for the development of a more just and democratic world order and the search for alternative approaches to the economic mainstream. WIDE enables members and partners to articulate alternatives to the negative impacts of globalisation, and makes feminist alternatives visible. Through the dissemination of our research and analysis, WIDE promotes gender equality and social justice.

Centre of Equality, Social Organization, and Performance (ESOP)
Centre of Equality, Social Organization, and Performance (ESOP) is a research centre funded by the Research Council of Norway (RCN) as a Centre of Excellence (CoE) at the Department of Economics of the University of Oslo, Norway. ESOP was established January 1, 2007.
ESOP aims at exploring the links between equality, social organization, and economic performance, both in rich and poor countries.
The ambitions are:
• to confront economic theory with the Nordic lessons: Do we need to change the basic behavioral and institutional assumptions or can the Nordic lessons be explained in a standard economic approach when only the details get right?
• to understand the linkages between economic performance, distribution, and social disparities: What are the costs and benefits of more equality?
• to explore the sustainability of generous welfare states and the viability of egalitarian market economies: What determine their performance and their economic and political feasibility?
• to understand the interaction between policies, institutions and long term development: What set of policies and institutions may generate an egalitarian development path within a consistent arrangement?
• to bring these research topics to the international research frontier: What are the general lessons for economics?

Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE)
CASSE is an organization that explores economic growth in earnest, including its downsides. We refuse to ignore the costs of economic growth, and our position sets the record straight. We recognize the conflict between economic growth and various goals for society, and we stand up for rational macroeconomic policies. Continuous economic growth on a finite planet is wishful thinking. We confront the truth that there are limits to growth, and we examine other possibilities for managing our economic affairs.

Cradle to Cradle
As a society we are starting to understand that we are making to great a claim on the earth’s biodiversity and natural recourses. If the boundaries are already reached, what may we expect now that the earth’s population is growing rapidly and millions of people desire to copy western consumerism. Do we still have an economically abundant future ahead of us? Ore may we expect an ecological and therefore economical disaster ?
The Cradle to Cradle concept shows that we do not have to choose between economical and ecological prosperity. Economy and ecology can reinforce each other. To achieve this we will have to design our products, processes, buildings, cities, etc. more intelligently.
If we do this in accordance with the principles of Cradle to Cradle, production processes will be clean, ecosystems will be integrated in our buildings and cities, products may be completely disassembled into raw materials and consumers will no longer be polluters.
Cradle to Cradle is therefore not only a revolutionary ecological concept but also (and even more so) a totally new business model. The first experiences with the concept within city developments and industry show that the concept is very profitable.

Money Network Alliance for the Development and Implementation of Complementary Currencies
There are many ways to exchange goods and services, other than using the widely used currencies such as Dollars, Euros or Yen. Complementary currencies are agreements among community members to accept other means of exchange than the official skrip. These new exchange systems do not substitute the traditional-currencies, but they complement them. They offer a diverse range of possibilties designed to promote social, cultural or ecological goals. The current financial- and economic crisis has prompted many requests from people who would like to learn more about alternatives to our current monetary system. They have asked how to support changes with their work or by financial means. This website provides you with a list of implemented models, containing addresses of contact partners, as well as articles and links to sources of relevant information. It also documents a variety of newly developing approaches in changing today's money system. You can choose, in which approach you may like to participate. Complementary currencies not only complement today's money system, but they also complement each other and offer new solutions to monetary problems.

The Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment
The Smith School is part of the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford. As a multi-disclipinary institution, the School is developing links with departments across all four divisions of the University.
The School's Research Fellows spend part of their time in other departments, providing teaching in environmental issues and establishing research collaborations. Currently, fellows work with colleagues in the Saïd Business School, Inorganic Chemistry, Physics, the Environmental Change Institute, and Transport Studies.

Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc.
The Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. is an international consulting and research firm that helps to develop and recognize the Best Workplaces around the world. Their approach involves the assessment, development and celebration of the level of trust that exists in relationships between employees and management. It is the level of trust – as represented by management’s credibility, the respect with which people are treated, and the fairness of the policies and practices of the workplace – that leads to the creation of a great workplace. In great workplaces all people are treated with dignity, regardless their position or personal characteristics.

Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
The Center for BAWB advances extraordinary business innovation and entrepreneurship by turning the global environmental and social issues of our day into core value-creation opportunities.
BAWB provides solutions to the how of sustainable value and social entrepreneurship, helping companies become the leading-edge stars of their industries through applied sustainability, research, and education efforts.

Gateway to Sources of Global Information
The Environmental Ethics & Public Policy Program has served as a major vehicle of outreach to the community of scholars and concerned citizens investigating issues of environmental ethics.

One World
The OneWorld network spans five continents and produces content in 11 different languages, published across its international site, regional editions, and thematic channels. Many of these are produced from the South to widen the participation of the world's poorest and most marginalised peoples in the global debate.

Fair Trade Foundation
The Fairtrade Foundation was established in 1992 by CAFOD, Christian Aid, New Consumer, Oxfam, Traidcraft and the World Development Movement. These founding organisations were later joined by Britain's largest women's organisation, the Women's Institute.
The Foundation is the UK member of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO), which unites 20 national initiatives across Europe, Japan, North America, Mexico and Australia/New Zealand.
Currently there are a total of 32 members of staff at the Fairtrade Foundation that work within the departments of Commercial Relations, Communications, Certification, and Finance and Resources. We also rely on the work of around 15 volunteers.

The Fair Trade Federation (FTF)
The Fair Trade Federation (FTF) is an association of fair trade wholesalers, retailers, and producers whose members are fully committed to providing fair wages and good employment opportunities to economically disadvantaged artisans and farmers worldwide.
FTF members link low-income producers with consumer markets and educate consumers about the importance of purchasing fairly traded products which support living wages and safe and healthy conditions for workers in the developing world. FTF provides resources and networking opportunities for its members and acts as a clearinghouse for information on fair trade. FTF membership is not a certification, but members are screened for their full commitment to fair trade.
By adhering to social criteria and environmental principles, fair trade organizations foster a more equitable and sustainable system of production and trade that benefits people and their communities.

Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International
Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), established in 1997, is an association of 20 Labelling Initiatives that promote and market the Fairtrade label in their countries. FLO members currently operate in 15 European countries as well as Australia and New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Mexico (associate member) and the United States.
FLO is the leading Fairtrade standard setting and certification body. It regularly inspects and certifies about 508 producer organizations in more than 50 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Oxfam: Make Trade Fair
Fair Trade is a growing, international movement which ensures that producers in poor countries get a fair deal. This means a fair price for their goods (one that covers the cost of production and guarantees a living income), long-term contracts which provide real security; and for many, support to gain the knowledge and skills that they need to develop their businesses and increase sales.

Earth Report
Earth Report's half hour documentary style programmes cover a wide range of environmental issues – from the importance of conserving wetlands to the need for responsible tourism, from strategies for sustainable food production, to the impact of climate change.

Hands On
The highly successful Hands On programmes, an offspring of Earth Report, take a focused look at the challenges of sustainable development. Hands On offers a range of positive, practical solutions, based on examples of successful small-scale business enterprises and sustainable, transferable technologies. The programmes have elicited volumes of requests for further information from viewers in every corner of the world.

Fourth Sector Network
Over the past few decades, the boundaries between the public (government), private (business), and social (non-profit/non-governmental) sectors have been blurring as many pioneering organizations have been blending social and environmental aims with business approaches. There are many expressions of this trend, including corporate social responsibility, microfinance, venture philanthropy, sustainable businesses, social enterprise, privatization, community development and others. As this activity matures, it is becoming formalized as a "Fourth Sector" of the economy.The archetypal Fourth Sector model is sometimes referred to as a For-Benefit organization, and the sector itself is also referred to as the For-Benefit Sector.
See also another text on the Fourth Sector:
Is it beyond the radar of researchers, the media and politicians that a new organisation and company culture is emerging in both the US and Northern Europe? A company culture that breaks with earlier conceptions of the relationship and dynamics between the state, the private sector and the voluntary sector?
Or even more far-reaching: Are we currently witnessing the first serious run-up to the creation of a new social arena - 'the fourth sector' - that has absorbed the very best from both the private, public and voluntary sectors and therefore represents a possible solution to some of the challenges facing the three 'old' sectors today?
Something's definitely going on, because over the past ten years the boundaries between what is public (district, state, national), what is private (companies), and what belongs to voluntary organisations (non-profit) have become less and less distinct. Parallel to which the contours of an entirely new social arena have started to emerge - which the US has been the first to dub the "for-benefit '' or "fourth'' sector... Please read the entire text on http://www.kaospilot.dk!

Charity Shops
A charity shop (UK), thrift store (U.S., Canada), resale shop (U.S.), or op shop (Australia/NZ, from opportunity shop) is a retail establishment operated by a charitable organization for the purpose of fundraising. Charity shops are a type of social enterprise. They usually sell second-hand goods donated by members of the public, and are often staffed by volunteers. Because the items for sale were obtained for free, they can be sold at very low prices. All the profits from the sales go towards the charity, apart from the costs for overheads such as lighting, electricity and the lease.
See also:
• Consignment shop
• Give-away shop
• Goodwill Industries
• Jumble sale
• Salvation Army
• Surplus store
Read all at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrift_store.

ChangeWorks
Changeworks exists to improve quality of life and to protect the environment. Changeworks works with passion, integrity and in collaboration to develop and deliver innovative projects and businesses in energy, waste prevention and transport that inspire and empower people and communities to make a difference.

Companies that Care
Mission:
The Center for Companies That Care (Companies That Care) is a national, not-for-profit organization dedicated to encouraging and celebrating businesses that prize their employees and are committed to community service.
Vision:
By encouraging and assisting business in creating, maintaining and re-shaping work environments that enable individuals and communities to thrive, we strengthen our communities and our society, resulting in a sustainable future for the generations to come.
Goals:
• Businesses value and respect their employees
• Businesses create a work environment that enables individuals to thrive
• Businesses and communities develop partnerships to strengthen future generations of employees
• People and communities are sustained and prosper.

Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS)
LOHAS is an acronym for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, a market segment focused on health and fitness, the environment, personal development, sustainable living, and social justice.
LOHAS companies practice "responsible capitalism" by providing goods and services using economic and environmentally sustainable business practices. LOHAS business owners and industry leaders from around the world meet each year at the LOHAS Conference to discuss industry trends, share ideas and learn how to run a successful LOHAS business.
LOHAS consumers, sometimes referred to as Lohasians, are interested in products covering a range of market sectors and sub-sectors, including: Green building supplies, socially responsible investing and "green stocks", alternative healthcare, organic clothing and food, personal development media, yoga and other fitness products, eco-tourism and more.

New Business and Human Rights Center
The Business and Human Rights Resource Center, launched in January 2005, is an independent, international, non-profit organization that strives to promote greater awareness and informed discussions of important issues relating to business and human rights. The online Resource Center includes reports of corporate misconduct, as well as example of positive actions taken by various companies and covers over 2400 companies, over 160 countries, and over 150 topics. The Center also maintains an International Advisory Network, including over 80 experts and is chaired by Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and President of Ireland, and 20 institutions recognized internationally for their expertise in issues relevant to business and human rights.

Economists for Peace and Security
Economists for Peace and Security, formerly ECAAR, works to inform social scientists, citizens, journalists and policy-makers worldwide about the full costs of war and conflict, and to propose feasible alternative approaches to building international security.

Global Political Economy Commission (GPEC)
The Global Political Economy Commission (GPEC) of IPRA emphasizes the intersections between Economics and Politics, as well as other critical intersectionalities. GPEC is engaged in the World Social Forum and other international initiatives to advance socio-politico-economic and gender justices. GPEC maintains a listserv and an independent website.

Social Lending:
• Zopa is a marketplace for Social Lending. People lend and borrow money with each other, sidestepping the banks.
• Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world.
See also http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6623267.stm.

Joanne B. Ciulla
Joanne B. Ciulla, Ph.D., Professor, Coston Family Chair in Leadership and Ethics, Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, USA.

Heidi von Weltzien Høivik
Heidi von Weltzien Høivik, European Business Ethics Network (EBEN).

Comparative Research on Poverty (CROP)
CROP is an international NGO initiated in 1992 by the International Social Science Council. It is now one of the major programmes of the Council.

Thunderbird
Introduction and Mission Statement from Thunderbird's Website:
Founded in 1946, Thunderbird is the oldest graduate management school focused exclusively on global business. Regarded as the world's leading institution in the education of global managers, the curriculum is based on the principle that to do business on a global scale, executives must not only know the intricacies of business, but also understand the customs of other countries and be able to communicate with different cultures. Worldwide, 35,500 Thunderbird alumni live and work in more than 140 countries.
Thunderbird's unique mission is grounded in our steadfast commitment to furthering worldwide prosperity by educating the leaders of global enterprises. Summed up in the phrase, "borders frequented by trade seldom need soldiers," the worldwide Thunderbird community is the living embodiment of the belief that global management can be a force for positive economic and social change.
To prepare global managers to fulfill this mission, Thunderbird offers a unique and powerful educational experience that teaches the application of management knowledge across cultures, borders, and socio-economic systems. This ability to work successfully with individuals from diverse cultures and to manage effectively in different social, economic, and political environments is both the core value we provide and the essential characteristic that sets T-birds apart from their peers.
While Thunderbird has remained consistent in its mission, the School has a long history of anticipating market needs. Thunderbird's founding was itself visionary, coming long before the need for global management talent was widely recognized. In the six decades since, Thunderbird has continuously met the challenges of a dynamic global market and rightfully earned its reputation as the world's top-ranked school of global management.
Today, the continuous march of globalization means the Thunderbird mission has never been more relevant and in demand. We will seize this opportunity to enhance our rich legacy to firmly establish Thunderbird as the world's foremost learning community for global managers and global enterprises.

Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams by Lynda Gratton and Tamara J. Erickson (Harvard Business Review, November, 2007):
Even the largest and most complex teams can work together effectively if the right conditions are in place:
What Executives Can Do
• Invest in building and maintaining social relationships throughout your organization.
Example: Royal Bank of Scotland’s CEO commissioned new headquarters built around an indoor atrium and featuring a “Main Street” with shops, picnic spaces, and a leisure club. The design encourages employees to rub shoulders daily, which fuels collaboration in RBS’s complex teams.
• Model collaborative behavior.
Example: At Standard Chartered Bank, top executives frequently fill in for one another, whether leading regional celebrations, representing SCB at key external events, or initiating internal dialogues with employees. They make their collaborative behavior visible through extensive travel and photos of leaders from varied sites working together.
• Use coaching to reinforce a collaborative culture.
Example: At Nokia, each new hire’s manager lists everyone in the organization the newcomer should meet, suggests topics he or she should discuss with each person on the list, and explains why establishing each of these relationships is important.
What HR Can Do
• Train employees in the specific skills required for collaboration: appreciating others, engaging in purposeful conversation, productively and creatively resolving conflicts, and managing programs.
• Support a sense of community by sponsoring events and activities such as networking groups, cooking weekends, or tennis coaching. Spontaneous, unannounced activities can further foster community spirit.
Example: Marriott has recognized the anniversary of the company’s first hotel opening by rolling back the cafeteria to the 1950s and sponsoring a team twist dance contest.
What Team Leaders Can Do
• Ensure that at least 20%–40% of a new team’s members already know one another.
Example: When Nokia needs to transfer skills across business functions or units, it moves entire small teams intact instead of reshuffling individual people into new positions.
• Change your leadership style as your team develops. At early stages in the project, be task-oriented: articulate the team’s goal and accountabilities. As inevitable conflicts start emerging, switch to relationship building.
• Assign distinct roles so team members can do their work independently. They’ll spend less time negotiating responsibilities or protecting turf. But leave the path to achieving the team’s goal somewhat ambiguous. Lacking well-defined tasks, members are more likely to invest time and energy collaborating.
This HBR in Brief presents key ideas from a full-length Harvard Business Review article. See the entire article here.

Solve the Succession Crisis by Growing Inside-Outside Leaders by Joseph L. Bower
(Harvard Business Review, November 2007):
The most successful CEOs, on balance, are those who are developed inside the company—but manage to retain an outside perspective
When a CEO retires or steps down, companies are often left in the uncomfortable position of trying to find a new leader without having anyone in ranks who is prepared to take over the job. Bower argues that, rather than hiring an outsider as is often the case, companies should try to actively cultivate future CEOs on the fringes of the company. These employees would presumably have a hybrid "inside-outside" perspective. Bower very clearly outlines the numerous ways in which both outside and inside perspectives are essential to leadership, as well as the proper methods for "grooming" such individuals.
Please read more at http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/.

The Story of Stuff
This is a video that illustrates in an easy-to-grasp manner how the philosophy of "obsolence" destroys the environment, humiliates people by degrading them to puppets of consumerism, and how humankind can recapture their dignity.
Please read on http://storyofstuff.com/: "From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever
Please watch the video at http://storyofstuff.com/index.html.

The Puritan Gift: Triumph, Collapse and Revival of an American Dream, by Kenneth Hopper & William Hopper
William Hopper explained on BBC World HARDtalk on 16th January 2008, that, according to his analysis, there are two management approaches:
1. traditional management, where people rise within the company and acquire "domain" knowledge
2. "professional" management, where people study at business schools, get diplomas, and then lead companies without having much "domain" knowledge: this approach is partially failing!
What Hopper says about larger trends in the business world is in line with our HumanDHS experience that we have to find people who intimately know our vision. We have to be cautious with mainstream "expert" advice.
Even though the new book by the Hopper brothers, The Puritan Gift, was not written for the HumanDHS vision of dignifying the world (with business representing part of it), however, it seems that their views are indeed helpful for this aim.

International Institute of Monetary Transformation (IIMT) Home of the TERRA Solution
The mission of the International Institute of Monetary Transformation (IIMT) is to transform the international monetary system in order to achieve an equitable, sustainable, and, therefore, a stable monetary architecture, both internationally and nationally including prescriptions to increase the monetary, financial and economic viability of poorer countries as they, too, struggle to combat the consequences of the deepening economic and climatological crises.

TIMU Group
This working group deals with the transformation of the present International Monetary System into the Terra International Monetary Union (TIMU). This TIMU system is based upon the integration of economic and ecological, i.e. carbon accounting in the balance of payments between nations. It was started by sustainability sociologist Frans Verhagen in New York City during the second half of December 2008.

Earth & Peace Education
Frounded in 1992, Earch & Peace Education Associates International (EPE) consists of a global network of educators who aim to promote the recognition of the reciprocal relationship between ecological degradation and the violation of human rights on a local, national and global level.

The Contextual Sustainability Express
This blog wants to contribute to greater quality of life of people and planet by urging a rapid (express)transition to sustainable futures of societies in the global North and South.

The New Economics Institute
The New Economics Institute is working to make the new economics, one which supports people and planet, mainstream in the USA. It is a partnership between the E. F. Schumacher Society, the predecessor of the Institute, and the New Economics Foundation from London. The US economic system is failing in its essential purpose: to provide fulfilling and healthy lives for all people while nurturing the social and natural systems on which the economic system depends. The New Economics Institute is helping people imagine the kind of economy that is designed to enhance human well-being and ecological health. To do this, it is forging a narrative and theory of such an economic system, showing how it is possible to get from here to there. It is setting out a new language for economics, which describes the world more effectively, and – using a combination of cutting edge economics and innovative communications – it is explaining how this new economics is already emerging.

Social Venture Network
Social Venture Network inspires a community of business and social leaders to build a just economy and sustainable planet.
This is their mission statement: We work to achieve this mission by:
• Providing forums, information, and initiatives that enable leaders to work together to transform the way the world does business
• Sharing best practices and resources that help companies generate healthy profits and serve the common good
• Supporting a diverse community of leaders who can effect positive social change through business
• Creating a vibrant community that nourishes deep and lasting friendships
• Producing unique conferences that promote the exchange of ideas and encourage the development of relationships and partnerships
• Offering programs that support the spiritual, professional, and personal development of our members

Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE)
A steady state economy is about better lives rather than more stuff. There are limits to growth — ecosystems can support only so much disturbance. A steady state economy meets our needs without undermining ecosystems. The costs of economic growth often outweigh the benefits. A steady state economy supports meaningful jobs and thriving communities.Perpetual economic growth is neither possible nor desirable. Growth, especially in wealthy nations, is already causing more problems than it solves.

Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie
Die „Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie“ ist eine wirtschaftliche Systemalternative zu kapitalistischer Markt- und zentraler Planwirtschaft, ein vollständiger Dritter Weg und zum Teil auch eine Synthese aus den beiden großen historischen Entwürfen.

Corporation 2020
How would a corporation be designed to seamlessly integrate social and financial purpose? Corporation 20/20 is an international, multi-stakeholder initiative that seeks to answer this question. Its goal is to develop and disseminate corporate designs in which social purpose moves from the periphery to the heart of the organization. Such transformation is indispensable to a Great Transition toward a just and livable world.

Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE)
The Global Development And Environment Institute (GDAE – pronounced "gee-day") was founded in 1993 to combine the research and curricular development activities of two Tufts programs: the Program for Sustainable Change and Development in the School of Arts and Sciences (directed by economist, Neva Goodwin), and the Center for Environmental and Resource Policy at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Directed by William Moomaw, a chemist and environmental policy specialist). The combination creates a center of expertise in economics, policy, science and technology. The Institute has produced more than a dozen books and numerous articles, policy documents, and discussion papers. These materials are being used in academic settings, to enhance the teaching of economics and related subjects, and in policy circles, where GDAE researchers are recognized leaders in their fields.

Ceres
Ceres (pronounced “series”) is a national network of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups working with companies and investors to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change. Mission: Integrating sustainability into capital markets for the health of the planet and its people.

Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF)
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit, public interest law firm providing free and affordable legal services to communities facing threats to their local environment, local agriculture, the local economy, and quality of life. The mission is to build sustainable communities by assisting people to assert their right to local self-government and the rights of nature. Established in 1995, the Legal Defense Fund has now become the principal advisor to community groups and municipal governments struggling to transition from merely regulating corporate harms to stopping those harms by asserting local, democratic control directly over corporations. Through grassroots organizing, public education and outreach, legal assistance, and drafting of ordinances, they have now assisted over 110 municipalities in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine, and Virginia to draft and adopt new laws with over 350,000 people living under these governing frameworks. These laws address activities such as corporate water withdrawals, longwall coal mining, factory farming, the land application of sewage sludge, and uranium mining.

Tellus Institute - For a Great Transition
Tellus Institute was established in 1976 as an interdisciplinary not-for-profit research and policy organization. The times were propitious for a young institute bringing fresh thinking and scientific rigor to environmental and social challenges, and it grew rapidly. Over the years, we conducted 3,500 projects throughout the world, becoming an international leader in resource and environmental strategies, and helping shape the embryonic field of sustainable development.

Transition Network
Transition Network's role is to inspire, encourage, connect, support and train communities as they self-organise around the transition model, creating initiatives that rebuild resilience and reduce CO2 emissions...
Towards the end of 2006, Transition Town Totnes (TTT) had been running for close to a year, with co-founders Rob Hopkins and Naresh Giangrande running awareness-raising events and dreaming up the core elements of the Transition Model. Around this time, other communities that were concerned about climate change and peak oil were beginning to take notice....

Transition Towns
Towards the end of 2006, Transition Town Totnes (TTT) had been running for close to a year, with co-founders Rob Hopkins and Naresh Giangrande running awareness-raising events and dreaming up the core elements of the Transition Model. Around this time, other communities that were concerned about climate change and peak oil were beginning to take notice....
See also www.transitionculture.org, and www.totnesedap.org.uk. See, furthermore, the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), and Gaia Education. The largest eco-society in Europe is Damanhur in Italy. See also the Gemma Blu Association, Italy, the Shalom Template Movement, Israel, the Pendragon Movement, England, or Den Bla Paraply, Denmark.

International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC)
The International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC) is a non-profit organisation concerned with the protection of both biological and cultural diversity. Its emphasis is on education for action: moving beyond single issues to look at the more fundamental influences that shape our lives. Helena Norberg-Hodge is its founder and director.

Alternativen für Zukunft e.V.
2006 wurde der gemeinnützigen Verein Alternativen für Zukunft e.V. für Kultur, Umweltschutz, Erziehung und Bildung gegründetet: "Wir vernetzen und nutzen Synergien von wirtschaftlichen, humanen, handwerklichen, sozialen, künstlerischen und kulturellen Ressourcen, indem wir passende Partnerschaften zwischen Menschen, Unternehmen und Organisationen initiieren und fördern. Wir arbeiten konzentriert, verbindend, nachhaltig, handlungs- und zielorientiert. Wir schaffen und unterstützen konkrete, verantwortungsvolle Projekte für Menschen, Tiere und Umwelt."
See also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9vWWHsGJ04.

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public is a nonprofit organization supporting the field of social entrepreneurship. Ashoka was founded by Bill Drayton in 1981 to identify and support leading social entrepreneurs through a Social Venture Capital approach with the goal of elevating the citizen sector to a competitive level equal to the business sector.

The Equality Trust
The Equalit Trust is an independent, evidence based campaign working to reduce income inequality in order to improve the quality of life in the UK.
UK income inequality is among the highest in the developed world and evidence shows that this is bad for almost everyone.
People in more equal societies live longer, have better mental health and are more socially mobile. Community life is stronger where the income gap is narrower, children do better at school and they are less likely to become teenage parents. When inequality is reduced people trust each other more, there is less violence and rates of imprisonment are lower.
If we want to build a better society, it is essential we take action now to reduce the gap between rich and poor. The Equality Trust is working with others to build a social movement for change. We analyse and disseminate the latest research, promote robust evidence-based arguments and support a dynamic network of campaign groups across the country.

Globale Allmende
Der Autor, Gunther Mair, befasst sich mit Fragen, die den Umgang des Einzelnen mit Gütern der Gemeinschaft betreffen, Fragen, die globale Ausmaße annehmen (Klima, Ressourcen, Finanzmarkt). Für die Bearbeitung dieser Frage erhielt Elinor Ostrom 2009 (als erste Frau) den Wirtschaftsnobelpreis.

Day-to-Day Links

Reinventing Organizations, by Frederic Laloux
Published on 30 Aug 2014
A talk, followed by Q&A, by Frederic Laloux about "Reinventing Organizations", a research and book that is turning into an international phenomenon.
Increasingly, employees and managers (but also doctors, nurses, teachers, etc.) are disillusioned with the way we run organizations today. We all somehow sense that there simply must be better ways to run our businesses, nonprofits, schools and hospitals.
This hopeful talk shares the key insights from groundbreaking research into the emergence, in different parts of the world, of truly powerful and soulful organizations that have made a radical leap beyond today's management thinking.
We thank Vegar Jordanger for making us aware of this talk.

Wendell Berry Agriculture for a Small Planet Symposium July 1, 1974
The Berry Center, July 4, 2014
Today marks the 40th Anniversary of Wendell Berry's speech about the culture of agriculture that was delivered at the "Agriculture for a Small Planet" Symposium in Spokane, Washington. The first few lines of this speech, written on a yellow legal pad in route to the symposium, inspired his book The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture published in 1977. Berry's speech was also a catalyst for the launch of the Tilth Movement in the Pacific Northwest. "Your symposium, as well as a lot of other meetings I've been to in other parts of the country, proves the literature of a thoughtful and even known constituency for a better kind of agriculture," wrote Berry in a letter to Gigi Coe and Bob Stilger following the Symposium (July 4, 1974).

The Wages of Dignity, by Eleanor J. Bader
Source: Brooklyn Rail, Friday, July 19, 2013, ZNET
... Fastfoodcrimewave, a Tumblr page, adds a litany of other work-related complaints to those voiced by George and Shaheen. Some examples: "I don't get overtime"; "I don't get paid for time spent counting the register"; "I have to pay if the register is short"; "I have to buy my own uniform." And these are not isolated grumblings. According to an investigation promoted by FFF and released in April 2013, 84 percent of New York City fast food workers in the five boroughs have experienced wage theft, an intentional violation of state labor laws so egregious that Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is presently looking into the matter. His corroboration could have major implications for more than 50,000 New York City fast food workers—and produce a ripple effect for the approximately three million laborers who toil in the industry throughout the 50 states. Jonathan Westin, executive director of New York Communities for Change, understands that the campaign is fighting a mighty adversary with incredibly deep pockets. How deep, you ask? BusinessInsider.com reported in July 2012 that the top 15 chains in the U.S. raked in a combined $115 billion in nationwidewide sales in 2011...
Read more at http://brooklynrail.org/2013/07/local/the-wages-of-dignity#.

The Attraction of Tax Breaks Switzerland Grows into Global Commodities Hub
By Alexander Jung and Anne Seith, 06/29/2012
Switzerland has quietly developed into the global center of commodities trading. Critics say the industry's business practices in countries such as Congo and Zambia are immoral, and that it puts profits before people... Read more.

The Real Wealth of Portland
The Real Wealth of Portland works to build Real Wealth by assisting in the transition to a partnering and caring society. We are committed to:
• Changing the Story from a dominator and hierarchical society to one emphasizing partnership and caring.
• Building Resilient Communities.
• Changing how we Measure Wealth.

Humorous Cartoon Titled Corporate Life Circulating in Cyberspace
We thank Elenor R. Lyonette for making us aware of it!

Citizen's Basic Income
Our social awareness is lagging a long way behind the possibilities opened up by the worldwide division of labour and the resulting rise in productivity, write Götz Werner and Ludwig Paul Häussner. They continue:
"In a globalised economy in which we benefit from everyone’s initiative and work, a tax system that becomes involved in the process of creating added value and thus acts as a curb on initiative is anachronistic. A consumption tax (in the form of VAT), leaves the work contributed by an individual untaxed and is in keeping with the times as far as the global division of labour is concerned. The gradual conversion of the system to one in which only consumption is taxed can be carried out all the more easily as prices now already contain all taxes imposed."
Götz W. Werner is the founder of the dm-drogerie markt chain of drugstores, Director of the Inter-Faculty Institute for Entrepreneurship at the University of Karlsruhe and the initiator of an unconditional and substitutive basic income based on a consumption tax. Ludwig Paul Häussner has diplomas in business management and education, is a former manager and is currently an academic assistant at the Inter-Faculty Institute for Entrepreneurship at the University of Karlsruhe.

Dying For Drugs by Director Brian Woods
Documentary produced in 2003 in the United Kingdom
A powerful international investigation of the global pharmaceutical industry. Every year, many new drugs come to market which offer hope to the sick and dying. They also bring billions of pounds into the coffers of the pharmaceutical industry, making "Big Pharmacy" the most profitable and powerful business on Earth. Two years in the making, this film investigates just how far drug companies are prepared to go to get their drugs approved; what they will do to make sure they get the prices they want and what happens when profits are put before people.

Monitoring Economic Performance, Quality of Life and Sustainability
December 2010 Joint Report as Requested by the Franco-German Ministerial Council http://www.sachverstaendigenrat-wirtschaft.de/fileadmin/dateiablage/Expertisen/2010/ex10_en.pdf.

Derek Bok
Derek Bok is the 300th Anniversary Research Professor at Harvard University. From 1971 to 1991, he served as Harvard's twenty-fifth president, and served again as interim president from 2006 to 2007. He is the author of The State of the Nation and The Trouble with Government, and co-author of The Shape of the River (Princeton). In The Politics of Happiness, he examines how governments could use happiness research in a variety of policy areas to increase well-being and improve the quality of life for all their citizens.

Shared Social Responsibility
"Shared Social Responsibility: A Field Experiment in Pay-What-You-Want Pricing and Charitable Giving" by Ayelet Gneezy, Uri Gneezy, Leif D. Nelson, Amber Brown in Science (Vol. 329. no. 5989):
Abstract: "A field experiment (N = 113,047 participants) manipulated two factors in the sale of souvenir photos. First, some customers saw a traditional fixed price, whereas others could pay what they wanted (including $0). Second, approximately half of the customers saw a variation in which half of the revenue went to charity. At a standard fixed price, the charitable component only slightly increased demand, as similar studies have also found. However, when participants could pay what they wanted, the same charitable component created a treatment that was substantially more profitable. Switching from corporate social responsibility to what we term shared social responsibility works in part because customized contributions allow customers to directly express social welfare concerns through the purchasing of material goods."

Hedge Fund Curbs Backed by EU Finance Ministers
Chancellor George Osborne restated UK objections to the plans European Union finance ministers have agreed to introduce tougher regulation of the hedge fund industry...
Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10120925.stm.

Buffett Warns on Investment 'Time Bomb'
Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction Warren Buffett. The rapidly growing trade in derivatives poses a "mega-catastrophic risk" for the economy and most shares are still "too expensive", legendary investor Warren Buffett has warned. The world's second-richest man made the comments in his famous and plain-spoken "annual letter to shareholders", excerpts of which have been published by Fortune magazine.
Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/2817995.stm.

Angela Merkel Eyes Quick Eurozone Reform
In a letter to France's Le Monde newspaper, Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy set out several initiatives to try to stabilise financial markets by forcing eurozone countries to take a tighter grip of their finances.
The recommendations include:
- stricter monitoring of eurozone member debt
- a financial sector bail-out fund paid for by banks
- a clampdown on credit rating agencies.
The way that Greek finances suffered after ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded its government debt "should make us think about the role of credit rating agencies in the propagation of a crisis", the letter says.
Please read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10102642.stm.

'Third Way' for Net Access in US
By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley
... advocacy groups and supporters of net neutrality argue that all web traffic should be treated equally....
Businessweek reported that, shortly after the FCC announcement, shares of major cable-television carriers took a tumble. Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cablevisions Systems, the three largest publicly traded cable operators in the US, all lost around 5%. Cable and phone companies said the new regulations will make it harder for them to justify network investments to shareholders because the FCC might require them to share their pipes with rivals in the future, putting a limit on returns.'
Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/8666026.stm.

Bribes Cost Ivory Coast '$300m'
At least $300m (£200m) is paid in bribes at checkpoints in Ivory Coast each year, a business leader says. "Every Ivorian today... has been asked to pay at a road-block," Chamber of Commerce President Jean-Louis Billon told the BBC. He blamed "mafias" operating within both the army and the former rebel New Forces, who still control northern Ivory Coast, for the extortion racket.
Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8660679.stm.

Lovebug Set Stage for Cybercrime
The LoveBug did more than just cause a problem in early May, ten years ago. Prior to its release, viruses were written by teenagers for kicks. Similarly spam senders were few and far between because they had to pay for their bandwidth and hosting. The LoveBug showed how to get spam to send itself and how, with a cleverly designed virus that preyed on human psychology and technical failings, malware could rack up enormous numbers.
Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10095957.stm.

Australia to Ban Cigarette Logos
Australia has set out plans for new rules forcing tobacco companies to use plain packaging carrying graphic health warnings. From July 2012, manufacturers would be required to drop all colour and branding logos from cigarette packets. The move, billed as a world-first, comes after recommendations were made by the World Health Organisation. Australia also announced a 25% increase in tax on cigarettes, effective from 0001 on Friday.
Read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/8650520.stm.

The Audacity of Timidity: Where Is The Challenge To Market Fundamentalism? By Jonathan Tasini
Tasini is the Executive Director of the Labor Research Association.

Markets Need Morals
Gordon Brown has urged global markets to abide by a system of "morals", including "responsible risk-taking" and a "work ethic". After UK shares experienced their biggest one-day fall, the prime minister said successful economies had to have shared values. He told a dinner in London the government would do "whatever it takes" to see out the current crisis. The "good economy" would help create the "good society", Mr Brown added. On Monday the FTSE 100 list of leading UK shares experienced its biggest ever one-day points fall, losing 391.1 points - or 7.85% of its value...
Mr Brown said that risk-taking sometimes "crosses the line" between responsible entrepreneurship and irresponsible behaviour. He added: "And that is why we back the work ethic; we support effort and enterprise and responsible risk-taking. These are the morals markets need. "And where there has been irresponsibility we must now have instead transparency, integrity, responsibility, good housekeeping and international co-operation as the vital foundation stones of our financial system and the international financial system."...
Please read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7655723.stm.

Documentary Let's Make Money (2008)
How does your money work? Most of us have no idea, where our money is. The only thing for certain is that it’s not in the bank, where we put it for safe-keeping. The bank is circulating it in the global money market, where enormous amounts of money collect at certain “hot spots” each day...
Please see more at http://www.afc.at/jart/prj3/afc/main.jart?rel=de&reserve-mode=active&content-id=1164397024469&filme_id=1191408868348.

Human Rights and the End of the Age of Keynes by Howard Richards (2008)
Available also at http://howardrichards.org/peace/content/view/87/120/.

"Socialism is Good for Business" by Howard Richards (2007)
This is an English translation of Chapter Seven of
Solidaridad, Participacion, Transparencia
Rosario, Argentina: Fundacion Estevez Boero, 2007.
This book has not yet been published in English. The full Spanish text can be found on line at http://lahoradelaetica.wordpress.com.

Business Chiefs Urge Carbon Curbs
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
A coalition of 99 companies is asking political leaders to set targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and to establish a global carbon market. Their blueprint for tackling climate change is being handed to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda ahead of next month's G8 summit in Japan. Companies involved include Alcoa, British Airways (BA), Deutsche Bank, EDF, Petrobras, Shell and Vattenfall. They argue that cutting emissions must be made to carry economic advantages. The business leaders hope their ideas will feed through the G8 into the series of UN climate meetings that are aiming to produce a successor to the Kyoto Protocol when its current targets expire in 2012...
Please read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/7464517.stm.

“Living Well,” a Development Alternative
Latin America Press
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Elsa Chanduví
Proposal is considered legacy of indigenous peoples to humanity:
More than 1,000 representatives from indigenous communities across the Americas gathered in Lima, Peru, have agreed on a new social system, known as “Living Well,” focused on reciprocity between people and the Earth.
The participants — delegates of the Quechua, Kichwa, Aymara, Lafquenche, Guambiano, Toba, Colla, Poccra, Ashaninka and other indigenous groups — agreed in the “Declaration of the Children of the Earth” to reject the “planetary suicide of the commoditization of life,” when the document was reached at the end of a two-day National Summit of Indigenous Communities and Peoples of Peru and the International Forum: Indigenous Agenda, the European Union and the Decolonialization of Power and Knowledge held on May 12-13.
A break from market dogmas:
“We believe there is a big difference between [living well and] those who believe that living well is to live better than someone else. [The latter] reflects a competition instead of respect and equality. So, ‘living well’ is the exercise of rights, respect, equality, and means a life for everyone,” said Blanca Chancoso, a renowned leader of Ecuador ’s Kichwa women, who formerly served as one of the directors of the country’s largest indigenous organization, CONAIE. She is currently part of the Dolores Ulcuango Indigenous School in Ecuador .
“Capitalism is guilty of the depredation of Mother Nature and therefore, of global warming, which is going to have serious consequences for the life of the planet,” said Tomás Huanacu, of Bolivia ’s National Council of Ayllus and Markas of Qollasuyo. “So, the indigenous peoples are looking to ‘live well’ but within a planned system, not one of super exploitation, but one of rational exploitation.”
The concept of “living well” is based on respect of the environment and equality...
Read more at http://www.latinamericapress.org/.

Freeconomics: The Big Giveaway
International flights that don't cost a thing? Books or music you don't have to pay for? Even companies handing out cars? Traditional business is based on the certainty that everything has a price. But now US writer Chris Anderson believes we are at the dawn of a new consumerist era, governed by what he dubs 'freeconomics'. He talks to Stuart Jeffries ...
Pleas read more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/may/06/consumeraffairs.economics.

Testosterone Levels in Male Financial Traders
A new study links high testosterone levels in male financial traders to profits, but too much of the hormone can have the opposite effect...
In a new study John Coates reports that traders who start the workday with high testosterone levels make more money on that day than their low-testosterone colleagues do... Women are less likely to get so "addicted" to success that they seek it out aggressively by taking risks, says Coates. It also means they may be less likely to succumb to testosterone-fueled stupidity - the downside of the winner effect...
Please read more at http://www.newsweek.com/id/132044/output/print.

Partnership Columbia Business School and Fudan University
The Columbia Business School has established a partnership with Fudan University's School of Management in Shanghai, China, to provide Chinese financial executives the opportunity to study global financial markets with Columbia faculty. The collaboration is supported by Shanghai Financial Working Committee, a department of the Shanghai Municipal Government. The Business School also extends its reach through its Executive MBA-Global Program in conjunction with the London Business School.

Wind-up Lights for African Homes
The technology behind the wind-up radio could soon be helping to light up some of the poorest homes in Africa. The Freeplay Foundation is developing prototypes of a charging station for house lights it hopes will improve the quality of life for many Africans...
Please read more at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/7072741.stm.

'$100 laptop' to Sell to Public
By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News
Computer enthusiasts in the developed world will soon be able to get their hands on the so-called "$100 laptop".
The organisation behind the project has launched the "give one, get one" scheme that will allow US residents to purchase two laptops for $399 (£198).
Please read the entire article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/6994957.stm and on http://www.xogiving.org/.

Hurt and Humiliation Costs Increase for Employers
by Ben Thomas
Employers are paying more, on average $6,167, to disgruntled employees for “hurt and humiliation” in the Employment Relations Authority, annual figures released by the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) show.
And while they are paying out less often for unjustifiably dismissing staff, employers are facing more complaints of unjustifiable disadvantage – which the authority seems more likely to resolve against businesses.
The EMA says that’s because employers feel gun-shy confronted with employment laws that favour employees.
EMA employment services manager David Lowe says “The number of actual and constructive dismissal claims dropped from 312 to 217, which indicates that employers feel they cannot safely dismiss anyone any longer...
Please see the rest of article at http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/.

Judith E. Glaser (2007)
The Gauge & Arc of Engagement Tool
(Judith looks for like-minded consultants, who would wish to immerse themselves in this work: please read her letter to interested consultants).

Rune Kvist Olsen (2006)
From a Vertical and Hierarchical Order to a Horizontal and Egalitarian Order in Structuring and Shaping the Flow of Power in the Organization: Getting Things Done at Work - Myth and Realities

ORGDYNE
ORGDYNE Training & Consulting LLCSM is a global firm dedicated to the unique mission of Connecting People & Ideas WorldwideSM. We are making significant progress toward our objective by harnessing the enormous potential of the Internet, and providing global opportunities for experiential and didactical learning across the boundaries of time, space, culture, and territory.
As "knowledge brokers" in the organizational development field, we take special pride in bringing together "producers" and "users" of knowledge. Without this important integration of research and practice, organizations cannot sustain growth and excellence in a rapidly changing global economy.
We are deeply committed to providing organizational leaders with an enhanced understanding of, and appreciation for, organizational systems and processes that are difficult to explain using traditional management theories. The "systems psychodynamic" frame provides a unique lens through which these elusive processes can be successfully explored. We work regularly with a team of distinguished scholar-practitioners from around the world who continue to research and contribute to the theoretical foundations of organizational practice.

The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics
Riane Eisler's new book: The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics.
In this powerful book, eminent social scientist Riane Eisler shows that the great problems of our time – such as poverty, inequality, war, terrorism, and environmental degradation – are due largely to flawed economic systems that set the wrong priorities and misallocate resources. Conventional economic models fail to value and support the most essential human work: caring and caregiving. So basic human needs are increasingly neglected, despair and ecological destruction escalate, and the resulting social tensions fuel many of the conflicts we face today.
Eisler offers a bold reformulation: a caring economics that transcends traditional categories like capitalist and socialist and offers enormous economic and social benefits. She describes how to put this model into practice through new government and business policies and practices, innovative economic indicators that incorporate caregiving activities, and new social structures. And she lays out practical steps we can take to move towards a society based on this more humane economic model.Like her classic The Chalice and The Blade, The Real Wealth of Nations is a bold and insightful look at how to create a society in which everyone can achieve the full measure of their humanity.
This text is quoted from www.partnershipway.org/.
Please read more on www.partnershipway.org/html/subpages/wealth.htm.

The World Debate: The Business of Climate Change
The World Debate is a series of discussion programmes broadcast on BBC World from around the globe, mediated regularly by senior channel presenters Zeinab Badawi, Nik Gowing and Stephen Sackur.
Saturday 7th April
If global environmental sustainability is to be attained, business is almost certainly the engine through which much of the energy and effort for change will flow. The World Debate sets out to explore the dynamics, the challenges, and the evolution of those efforts. In particular, how is business adapting to address sustainable development challenges and how it can do so in a profitable way? Nik Gowing sits down with five of the world ' s most senior business leaders in Hong Kong, to explore these topics, their roles and their responsibilities.
Please read more at http://www.bbcworld.com/Pages/Programme.aspx?id=47.

BBC World Hardtalk with James Rogers, American Corporate Leader, Wednesday 4th April 2007
Will the American Government legislate to cut carbon emissions? If they don’t, is there any point any of the rest of us bothering? James Rogers is one of a select group of American corporate leaders who are now calling for new laws to make carbon cuts mandatory.
Stephen Sackur talks to him about how business is leading the way in the US on global warming.
This text is retrieved from http://www.bbcworld.com/Pages/Programme.aspx?id=10 on 4th April 2007.

BBC World Hardtalk with Steve Howard, CEO The Climate Group and Rick Lazio, Vice President of JP Morgan, Monday 2nd April 2007
The world seems finally to have woken up to the threat of climate change, but where is the leadership to find effective ways of altering the course of global warming?
Can we rely on politicians to make us change our ways in time? Or is it the business world which will have to make the running?
All this week HARDtalk will be looking at the issue of climate change and leadership. In today’s programme Stephen Sackur talks to Steve Howard, CEO The Climate Group and Rick Lazio, Vice President of JP Morgan.
This text is retrieved from http://www.bbcworld.com/Pages/Programme.aspx?id=10 on 2nd April 2007.

How the Corporate Sector Can Push for More Dignity in the World
Please see here some passages from Chapter Eight (pp. 301-302) in Thomas L. Friedman (2005). The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

Richest 2% Own 'Half the Wealth'
By Andrew Walker
Economics correspondent, BBC World Service
The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of all household wealth, according to a new study by a United Nations research institute. The report, from the World Institute for Development Economics Research at the UN University, says that the poorer half of the world's population own barely 1% of global wealth. There have of course been many studies of worldwide inequality. But what is new about this report, the authors say, is its coverage.
It deals with all countries in the world - either actual data or estimates based on statistical analysis - and it deals with wealth, where most previous research has looked at income.
What they mean by wealth in this study is what people own, less what they owe - their debts. The assets include land, buildings, animals and financial assets.
Please read the entire article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/6211250.stm.

World 'Failing on Hunger Pledges'
Little progress has been made in tackling world hunger despite pledges by leaders to halve the number who are underfed, the UN's food agency says.
Some 820m people in the developing world were hungry in 2001-2003, only 3m fewer than 1990-1992, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.
Although the overall proportion of hungry people in the world has fallen, that is only down to population growth.
FAO head Jacques Diouf said the "sad reality" was that little had been done.
Please read the entire article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/6099460.stm.