3BL Media and the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) Announce Strategic Partnership

3BL (Triple Bottom Line) Media and the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) announced today a strategic partnership which will provide CSE clients with access to the world’s largest corporate social responsibility and sustainability news distribution network.  The partnership will bring global recognition to the sustainability initiatives undertaken by leading progressive businesses as part of their work with CSE.

CSE provides services for Sustainability Management and Reporting, Climate Change Solutions, including LCAs and Carbon footprint Strategy, Green Marketing, CSR Assurance and Sustainable Investment. CSE also conducts executive training workshops in more than 18 countries around the globe.

“In support of our global efforts to promote Sustainability, we consider our partnership with 3BL Media vital in enabling organizations to communicate their Corporate Responsibility commitments, as well as share best practices via a comprehensive distribution network,” says CSE Managing Director, Nikos Avlonas.

3BL Media’s communications strategies include the production and distribution of videos, podcasts, media advisories, press releases and blogs.  3BL Media produces “theCSRminute” which is viewed by media professionals, business executives and consumers, and is considered a major source of reliable issues and trends, of breaking news and profiles of businesses and organizations. 3BL Media news distribution reaches the largest, most relevant audience through a proprietary network that includes thousands of media points, social networks, bloggers, video sharing sites, affiliates, aggregators and partnerships with major news outlets worldwide.

“As a recognized leader in CSR and sustainability consulting worldwide, we are honored that CSE chose 3BL Media to communicate the important work that their clients are doing.  We look forward to working closely with CSE and helping to keep stakeholders informed,” says 3BL Media CEO, Greg Schneider.

via 3blmedia.com

Mieko Nakabayashi: Japan Must Stop Wasting Money

I just saw my old friend and former colleague Mieko Nakabayashi. She is now a bright star in the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) who is running to represent Kanagawa’s first district in Japan’s lower house in the Aug. 30 national election. In many ways, she epitomizes Japan’s opposition the DPJ: She is hard-working, innovative, and conservative on budget issues.

Mieko was doing “yuudachi” (evening campaigning at subway stations, targeting people coming home from work). This aspect of Japanese elections is the core of democracy here; the candidate and her staff burst on to the public squares near commuter railway stations to make the case for their candidacy. A DPJ politician who introduced Mieko harshly criticized former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi’s deceptive administration, which he said only focused on postal reform. Today is the first official day of Mieko’s campaign and she is working from 6am to 9pm each day to get her message out:

True to her unique background working on budget issues at the U.S. Senate years ago, she is a blue dog (in fact, her campaign color is marine blue, a link to Yokohama’s maritime culture), fiscal conservative. In line with the top pillar of the DPJ platform, her key message is, Japan must stop wasting money. It is already the most in debt rich country in the world. Like the GOP in the United States, Mieko compared Japan’s budget to a household, asking passersby whether they would feel OK with running a household with such high levels of debt (to income).

Mieko said that in this election, the Japanese people will truly have a choice and that choice will allow for a thorough review of the budget. By reviewing budget priorities, Japan will be better able to afford social services like job training–a line that reminded me of the Obama campaign. While the DPJ has campaigned against graft and excess, it has been attacked by ruling party LDP for suggesting the need for new social service.

When Mieko and I worked at a Japanese think tank years ago, a common theme was the need for a competition of ideas and policies—a marketplace of ideas, in the parlance of Washington think tanks. Mieko used this kind of thinking to advocate for a real competition between political parties to bring about competitive policies for Japan. All in all, Mieko struck me as showing a lot of integrity, humility, and sincerity, resembling the colleague I knew years ago. And the people in the Yokohama suburban neighborhood seemed to embrace her as such with many people from all walks of life stopping to shake her hand and read her literature.

Given some of the alarm in Washington about the prospect of having a new party in power in Tokyo (the LDP has been in power almost consistently since 1955), I asked Mieko what her approach to the U.S. alliance would be. Not to worry (no surprise for me), for Japan, “the U.S. relationship is the most important in the world.”

Devin Stewart’s original content can be found at Fairer Globalization