Bon Appétit develops a guide for aspiring student farmers to help build business relationships (Video)

Bon Appétit Management Company has developed a guide for aspiring student farmers to help them build good business relationships

Deloitte Whitepaper Outlines Tax Implications of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Regulation

What: “A Climate for Change? Tax Implications of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Regulation” 

Who: Clint Stretch, managing principal, Tax Policy, Deloitte Tax LLP 
Brad Seltzer, principal, global leader Energy & Resources Tax, Deloitte Tax LLP 

When: Available immediately 

Where: www.deloitte.com/us/climateforchange

Details: A number of domestic and international considerations have led many political observers to conclude that the Unites States will take legislative action during the remainder of 2009, or in 2010, to address climate change. The goal of these legislative efforts is to achieve a gradual but significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from their earlier levels by the middle of the century. Action in this area would be a watershed regulatory and tax development and would affect all types of businesses in many aspects of their operations.

Looking ahead, it would not be surprising to see climate change regulation, in terms of its business impact, be regarded in the same manner as securities regulation, food and drug safety regulation, financial services regulation or employee retirement income security rules. Therefore, this legislation will present an array of risks and opportunities that will demand attention from boards of directors, senior management and tax departments.

This Deloitte whitepaper describes general approaches to climate change legislation and the resulting implications for tax policy. Following the discussion of political and business considerations driving legislative action, the paper focuses on the largest component of the currently prevailing legislative approaches to climate change: a “cap-and-trade” program.

After laying the groundwork for understanding cap and trade, the paper addresses the role of taxes in efforts to directly limit GHG emissions. It begins by describing the debate that continues between advocates of a cap-and-trade approach and those who, as an alternative, would favor a tax on GHGs. This is followed by a summarizing of the tax issues that may confront businesses if Congress adopts a cap-and-trade system, which will necessarily create new intangible assets worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Without further guidance, there will be significant uncertainty regarding the tax treatment of assets, liabilities, and transactions arising as a result of cap and trade.

To speak with Clint Stretch or Brad Seltzer please contact Lauren Mistretta at +1 312- 486-4259 or lmistretta@deloitte.com; or Cory Ziskind at +1 212-492-4408 or cziskind@deloitte.com.

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Corporate social responsibility in the U.S.: Have we made any real progress in 2009?

JD Carr is the co-founder and writer for Greenergy2030.com

Corporate responsibility is a buzz term of the new millennium that has come to mean different things in different rooms. In the living room and the oval office, it has to do with throwing over a well-entrenched way of doing business that rewards individual failure at the highest levels, leaves investors unprotected and forces taxpayers to bear the direct and immediate consequences or risk losing a way of life that once depended only on the strength of their work ethic.

In the boardroom the phrase corporate responsibility is all about opportunity. It is the stuff of press releases and marketing campaigns. One can hardly find an annual report that does not trumpet some social initiative evidencing the corporation’s commitment the planet or the underprivileged.

This is, of course, good except to the extent that it diverts attention from executive junkets to Bora Bora, the acquisition of a Rodin sculpture to adorn the powder room of the CFO or windfall rewards to failed and ousted officers. Admittedly, whenever a corporation pours resources into creating, and then promoting efforts to be green, or to meet legitimate needs of a community, everyone benefits, especially the corporation. 

Click here to continue reading…

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Bon Appétit Management Company Launches Student Garden Guide

Bon Appétit Management Company has developed a guide for aspiring student farmers to help them build good business relationships with their best potential customers—the college food service providers that are right in their backyards. The guide will be made available to students in garden groups all over the country and on the company’s website. www.circleofresponsibility.com/student-garden-guide
  
Students who learn to farm can make both an immediate and a long-term contribution to American food security. Small, independently-operated farms are the backbone to a sustainable food system and they are in peril. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, only 1% of the population of the United States is involved in farming, compared to 40% at the turn of the 20th century. This number promises to dwindle as existing farmers retire (more than 40% are 55 or older).
 
It’s not as if young people aren’t interested in farming. Students are flocking to farm internships. And with the rise in the Real Food movement, colleges are the ideal place to begin a new agricultural revolution. Many campuses have land available for student use and college food service providers can be willing buyers for student-grown produce. Bon Appétit Management Company has long purchased produce from student-run farms at many of their 400 cafés across the nation, including Minnesota’s St. Olaf College, Colorado College, Saint Joseph’s College of Maine, Mills College in Oakland, Calif. and others. The company is pleased to offer the guide to students everywhere as a way to help lower the barriers to entry for young farmers.
 
“It is imperative that we support the development of our future farmers by making it possible for student gardeners to succeed,” says Maisie Greenawalt, Vice President, Bon Appétit Management Company. “These farmers are the future of our food. Doing the real work of growing and distributing food gives students direct and meaningful experience in creating a more sustainable food supply. Young farmers are serious entrepreneurs; today they are reinvigorating farming as a viable career option, making an important contribution to the strength of the American food system.”
 
The guide provides practical advice on how to succeed as a small-plot farmer, including:
 

• Crop planning for the season, taking into account seasonal needs as well as holidays and summer breaks

• Setting expectations with customers and maintaining productive relationships

• Food sanitation, packaging, delivery, and invoicing

• Marketing and promotion

• Building community around the garden

• Composting partnerships

 
The guide includes an extensive list of other resources student gardeners will find useful. It also weaves in personal, real world advice from Bon Appétit chefs and general managers and successful student gardeners with whom the company has worked over the 10 years focused on local, sustainable food sourcing. 

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Economic Crisis Demonstrates Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is here to Stay

Economic Crisis Demonstrates Corporate Citizenship and CSR are here to Stay

For years there has been an ongoing discussion about how corporate social responsibility would – or not – stand up to a deep recession. The debate is no longer academic and the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship has data that shows CSR – or corporate citizenship as we call it – is clearly here to stay. If anything as our biennial State of Corporate Citizenship survey, of 800 senior executives shows the recession has deepened the integration corporate citizenship into the core of business strategy and operation. (54%) of executives surveyed said corporate citizenship was more important during a recession

The State of Corporate Citizenship in the United States 2009 made possible with a grant from the Hitachi Foundation is the 4th biannual survey of Senior Executives conducted by the Center for Corporate Citizenship executives leaders and is the only research of its kind to provide a comprehensive overview of executives of small, medium, and large-sized U.S. businesses perceptions and actions on corporate citizenship.

Highlights of the survey, include:

* Despite upheaval in the economy, a majority of U.S. companies are not making major changes in their corporate citizenship practices. Of those who made changes 38% reduced philanthropy/giving, 27% increased layoffs, and 19% reduced R&D for sustainable products.

* Reputation was cited by 70% as a driver for corporate citizenship, tied for the top spot with “it fits our company traditions and values.”

* Most U.S. senior executives believe business should be more involved than it is today in addressing major public issues including health care, product safety, education, and climate change. Surveyed in June, just as the national debate on health care began to intensify, some 65 percent said business should increase its involvement in this issue.

* Large companies significantly increased their investments and involvement in citizenship activities, but were more likely to impose layoffs. Small firms stayed committed to their emphasis on treating employees well by minimizing layoffs. But they significantly decreased attention to other aspects of citizenship.

While corporate citizenship is clearly gaining traction as a business imperative the 2009 survey points to new challenges particularly as business seeks to rebuild public trust through self regulation and engage in public policy making. The current crisis has expanded the “lens” by which the public judge companies corporate citizenship performance. With critical failures in corporate governance and management accountability in the financial sector the spotlight is once again focused on central pillar of Corporate Citizenship, governance, and the responsibility of corporate directors and senior management to ensure accountability of the firm to both its shareholders and society. It brings back into focus that corporate citizenship is, in the end, about the total impact of the company on society and not simply a set of corporate citizenship programs be they community involvement programs or green products and services. Going forward companies will need to ensure they have embedded corporate citizenship principles and policies across all domains of the firm from governance, to operations to products and services if they are to be viewed as credible when they talk about self regulation and participation in public policy making on critical social and environmental issues.

We would like to know how are findings relate to the experience of your company in this economic downturn. Take a look at our survey (PDF) found here and let’s see how the opinions of these 756 executives compare to what you are experiencing. Would you agree that corporate citizenship is more important during a recession?

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I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas, Anna Getty. Lower your carbon- footprint for the Holidays.

Hopenhagen: 30 billion tons of carbon emissions are released into the air each year (Video)

CSR Minute: September 23, 2009 – HP; NBA’s School Grants; IP Business and Light Years IP’s African Investment; Abbott’s Sustainability

Corporate Social Responsible News: HP + NBA’s School Grants; IP Business and Light Years IP’s African Investment; Abbott’s Sustainable Packaging

Catalytic Philanthropy: A Perfect Lead-In to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)

My friend and colleague, Mark Kramer, just published an excellent new article on Catalytic Philanthropy. It’s an extension of his work in helping foundations and philanthropists to improve their giving strategies. Kramer’s work also complements the approaches I recommend in Leveraging Good Will and in this Fast Company blog on Leading Companies for Good.

Kramer urges philanthropists to take responsibility for achieving results, and praises donors who “think about how to solve a specific problem using every skill, connection, and resource they possessed.” And he gives an example of a Bob Patillo and the Rockdale Foundation, who expanded a tiny microfinance organization in the Middle East into a significant regional institution that is now supported by 18 foundations.

I agree with Mark. A difference in my approach is that I encourage donors to achieve the greatest impact in solving global issues by engaging on the boards of directors of nonprofits, and even preparing to lead them. Because boards have all the power.  The power to establish the missions of nonprofit organizations–the problems that organizations will solve; the visions– the greater potential that organizations will achieve; and the strategies– the business plans, including the revenue models.

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