Employee Activism, Paris, Philanthropy, and Accounting
Here are 5 things you might have missed this week:
Business Disruption From the Inside Out-
A playbook from Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) for how employees can be effective change agents and how leaders can respond to employee activism.
Employee activism—when employees advocate for social change inside, and sometimes even criticize, their own organization. This trend has had a range of consequences for both employees and the workplace.
Despite widespread employee support, employee activism is controversial among many corporate leaders. To improve their odds of succeeding, employees need to deepen their understanding of what effective activism looks like. Additionally, managers need to know how to engage meaningfully with employee activism, because it will continue to have an increasing significance in organizational operations.
Source: https://ssir.org/articles/entry/business_disruption_from_the_inside_out
The Paris Effect: How the Climate Agreement is Reshaping the Global Economy-
According to SYSTEMIQ’s latest report, five years since the Paris Agreement, progress on low-carbon solutions and markets has been much faster than many realise.
“The Paris Effect” finds that by 2030, low-carbon solutions could be competitive in sectors accounting for nearly three-quarters of emissions; this is up from one-quarter today (electricity) and no sectors five years ago.
"Although the world is not yet on track to avoid dangerous climate change, we are seeing how the Paris Agreement has created a framework for unprecedented climate action."
Deep Dive into Philanthropy and Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs)-
Axios takes a look at how philanthropy is evolving.
"Now is exactly the kind of rainy day that should prompt philanthropists to finally give away the money they've been saving up. In reality, although disbursements from foundations and DAFs are up, most of them are still going to end the year with more money than they started it with."
Rich individuals and institutions have proven by their actions that they hate to see the amount of money they control decline, even after it has been earmarked for charity. That's why huge funds like the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations have borrowed the extra money they're giving away this year.
"Pledging to give away your billions is the easy bit. Actually doing it — giving away so much money that your wealth goes down rather than up — is much rarer."
Source: https://www.axios.com/philanthropy-deep-dive-79a9c1b4-f925-42ab-aac5-513c0c637a54.html?deepdive=1
The Future of ESG Is … Accounting?-
An article from Harvard Business Review analyses how a little known but vastly important revolution in accounting can help secure a more sustainable future.
Companies, investors and consumers alike are frustrated by a lack of standardized accounting for corporate ESG performance. This might be about to change thanks to a recent proposal from the IFRS Foundation, which is the body that oversees the work of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in setting financial reporting requirements for most companies in the world.
If the proposal is adopted, investors and other stakeholders will suddenly have a much clearer view of a company’s sustainability performance—just as they do its financial performance. While most companies today issue sustainability reports, these are divorced from their financial reports, making it difficult to see the relationship between financial performance and sustainability performance. The proposal from IASM will make it possible for the ideal of integrated reporting to be realized.
Source: https://hbr.org/2020/12/the-future-of-esg-is-accounting
Stimulus Plans of G20 Countries Commit to Higher Fossil Fuel Investments-
The Production Gap Report report measures the gap between Paris Agreement goals and countries’ planned and projected production of coal, oil, and gas.
To follow a 1.5°C-consistent pathway, the world will need to decrease fossil fuel production by roughly 6% per year between 2020 and 2030. Countries are instead planning and projecting an average annual increase of 2%, which by 2030 would result in more than double the production consistent with the 1.5°C limit.
Governments of G20 countries have committed $233 billion to fossil fuel-related activities in their stimulus plans, versus $146 billion for green and low-carbon alternatives.
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