Author Archives: Adam Becker

UK institutional investors should no longer feel left out when it comes to rules about corporate governance and transparency. Now, with the publication of The UK Stewardship Code, institutional investors and their asset managers have a set of guidelines of their own.
The Stewardship Code, which is complimentary to the Corporate Governance Code, ‘aims to enhance [...]

The new UK Corporate Governance Code, previously known as the Combined Code, came into effect just over a week ago. This iteration of the Code was drafted following Sir David Walker’s recent review of the previous version.
According to the new Code’s preface, ‘Two principal conclusions were drawn by the FRC from its review. First, that [...]

For a nation that virtually runs on chips, the UK has been a bit slow to catch on to biodiesel – fuel made from vegetable oils – and its emissions-reducing potential.
Good to see then, that PwC, one of the leading accountancy firms, plans to source a good chunk of the energy needed to run its [...]

PUMA’s new, more sustainable packaging and distribution system, Yves Béhar’s ‘Clever Little Bag’ has gained a lot of attention over the last day or two. It looks like an intelligent move, and a serious change from standard shoe packaging. By switching to a sheet of folded cardboard inside a recycled PET bag, PUMA will be [...]

Videos can be a great way to get a point across, and are often more efficient and engaging than plain text. However, if done poorly, they can also backfire, doing more harm than good to a company or industry’s credibility.
Annie Leonard, a US-based activist, narrates The Story of Bottled Water, an animated look at the [...]

‘Best practice’ is a much-used term, that in many instances is pretty hard to define. However, we think that Patagonia’s Footprint Chronicles might just deserve this label, as it sets a very high standard in terms of transparency and creativity in web communications.
The Footprint Chronicles minisite explores the company’s products, their journeys from design to [...]

A brief segment on BBC radio this morning brought an imminent piece of UK legislation to our attention. The planned UK Bribery Bill, which has cross-party support, will attempt to bring UK legislation in line with OECD commitments that the country made some time ago. One effect will be to make companies criminally liable for [...]

UK charity CAFOD, a relief and development agency, recently released a report on AngloGold Ashanti’s proposed gold mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In our opinion, it’s one of the better examples of NGO commentary/pressure on the corporate world, a real improvement, in terms of clarity and quality, over some of the similar documents [...]

Recent news around Canada’s tar sands, which are being used as a source of crude oil and have attracted a great deal of attention, made us consider the ways in which companies respond to the pressure put on them by NGOs.
Coalitions of institutional investors, including Co-operative Asset Management, have raised concerns with both Shell and [...]

We tend to expect that companies and organisations that operate in sectors with significant social impact should be keen to communicate that they have robust policies and systems in place to manage related areas of risk and opportunity. This isn’t always the case. Recent activity in the UK’s health services arena has highlighted this.
Michael Parkinson, [...]