I’m on my way this morning to the Premier Business Leadership Series in Las Vegas, hosted by SAS. There, I’ll be moderating a short debate about the business value of sustainability, based on a paper we are about to release at the EIU about corporate sustainability strategies.
As I prepared to head to the airport, I thought it best to check my flight status to make sure there are no delays out of JFK (none so far, but the morning is still young). A button on JetBlue’s home page caught my eye: “Jetting to Green”. Clicking on it takes you to a section of JetBlue’s site that talks about the company’s sustainability philosophy and steps it’s taking to reduce its carbon footprint.
It seems that many more companies are starting to communicate their sustainability strategies these days than just a year ago. This brought me back to some stats I recently read from the Social Investment Forum an organisation that promotes investment in socially responsible companies:
* 86% of the S&P 100 companies have sustainability websited, up from 58 three years ago.
* 49% produce sustainability reports, up 26% from 2005
* 34% include a GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) report, an increase of 70% over 2005.
That’s all great news, of course. But I am curious to find out about what happens to corporate sustainability efforts in the wake of a major economic meltdown. Perhaps this is the time when we’ll see exactly which companies are truly committed to social responsibility and which are not?
Tags: JetBlue, Las Vegas, Sustainability
