Corporate Sustainability in Context: A Pocket Guide to (Nearly) Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Corporate Sustainability provides a very thorough overview about corporate sustainability.  This 55-page booklet, published by Context, a corporate sustainability consultant organization, has been updated to include recent developments in this rapidly evolving area.

Topics covered include the following:

• The birth of corporate sustainability and its evolution.
• A look a corporate sustainability in maturity.
• Two stand out issues in corporate sustainability:  climate change and supply chain standards
• A look at how industry sector imapacts on which iisues become priorities
• sustainability reporting
• The importance of engagement and stakeholder dialogue
• The changes that need to take place in corporate sustainability
• Seven corporate sustainability leadership guidelines
• The guide also contains a corporate sustainability glossary

Download Corporate Sustainability in Context

Excellence in  Corporate Sustainability – Context also has a has a free report on Excellence in  Corporate Sustainability.  The report uncovers many valuable examples of innovation in corporate sustainability from companies less frequently in the spotlight as well as recognized leaders – in reporting, climate strategy, stakeholder engagement, sustainability marketing and communications.    It answers some of the  most common questions from companies starting into the sustainability arena including:  “Who has the best corporate sustainability strategy?”; “Which company has the best climate change strategy?”; “Who uses the web best?” and “Who writes the best blog?”  The report is based on discussions with companies, commentators and practitioners worldwide.  Download Excellence in  Corporate Sustainability

Recommended Resources

Lean SCM Professional On-line Certification Program This On-line Certification Program has been developed in association with the American Institute of Industrial Engineers, the Irish Institute of Industrial Engineers, and the Canadian Professional Logistics Institute. The Program consists of 9 on-line lessons that provide participants with a comprehensive overview of Lean Thinking and its application. It also outlines and demonstrates the essential lean tools and practices that can be applied to your business in order to achieve significant savings to your bottom line. It can be undertaken by individuals through on-line distance learning study.

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© 2009, Tracey de Morsella. All rights reserved. Do not republish.

The Case Research Journal will publish a special issue on corporate social responsibility and business ethics and have issued a call for cases.  The issue will be guest-edited by Professor Anne T. Lawrence of San Jose State University.    Prof. Lawrence is one of the authors of Business and Society: Corporate Strategy, Public Policy and Ethics.

The domain of the special issue is broadly defined as teaching cases in corporate social responsibility and ethics.

Appropriate topics include (but are not limited to):

• Socially responsible or irresponsible actions by business firms
• Ethical or unethical behavior by individuals or organizations
• Accounting fraud
• Business law and business ethics
• Codes of ethics and ethics policies
• Conflicts of interest
• Corporate citizenship
• Corporate governance
• Corporate social responsibility in a global or comparative context
• Corrupt practices
• Crisis management
• Customer rights
• Employee rights
• Ethical and social aspects of new technologies
• Ethical aspects of corporate environmental impacts
• Ethics in accounting and finance
• Ethics in information systems
• Ethical marketing; deceptive advertising; advertising to children
• Human rights impacts of corporate behavior
• Interactions between firms and nongovernmental organizations
• International issues and ethical concerns
• Political influence by business
• Shareholder rights
• Shareholder activism; socially responsible investment
• Social and environmental auditing
• Social and environmental responsibility in supply chains
• Social entrepreneurship
• Stakeholder dialogue and engagement

Focus and Methods

For this issue, the CRJ will publish only decision or issue-focused cases based on original, primary research.

Focus: Cases should be focused on a decision, issue, or problem facing an individual, an organization, or a group of organizations. After studying the case, students should be able to put themselves into the situation and formulate and defend alternative courses of action.

Methods: Cases should be based on original, primary research. Examples of such research include (but are not limited to):

• Field research in the organization
• Interviews with key decision-makers in the organization
• Interviews with stakeholders impacted by an organizational decision, issue, or problem
• Review of primary materials, such as legal proceedings, congressional testimony, or internal company or stakeholder documents.

The CRJ does not publish cases based solely on secondary sources, such as journalistic accounts. It also does not publish fictionalized, composite, or hypothetical cases. Occasionally, the CRJ publishes papers about case writing and teaching. Such papers will be considered for this issue if they are relevant to the special topic domain.

An Instructor’s Manual (teaching note) must accompany each case submission. See the guidelines here.

Authors are encouraged (but not required) to submit cases to the North American Case Research 2009 Annual Meeting, to be held in Santa Cruz, California at the Chaminade Resort & Spa, on October 29-31, 2009. This will enable authors to receive and respond to feedback on their case prior to submission to the special issue. At the time of submission, at least one author must be a member of NACRA.

For further information regarding this issue or a potential submission, please contact:

Anne T. Lawrence, Guest Editor for the Special Issue
lawren_a@cob.sjsu.edu or (408) 924-3586

Tupper Cawsey, Editor, Case Research Journal
tcawsey@nacra.net or (519) 747-9147

Deadline:  December 1, 2009, for publication in 2010.

© 2009, Tracey de Morsella. All rights reserved. Do not republish.