News
 

2021

People and Planet: Resurfacing a Holistic, Interconnected take on Sustainable Development, featuring Jane Nelson. This is Episode 2 of  Building Bridges for Impact: A podcast series on the role that business should play in building a sustainable and equitable future, based on respect for people’s dignity and fundamental rights, hosted by Caroline Rees. Shift, June 2021

Ten Years After: From the UN Guiding Principles to Multi-Fiduciary Obligations. John Ruggie, Caroline Rees and Rachel Davis, Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, May 13, 2021

Every Business Lawyer Must Take Action to Defend Democracy and the Rule of Law. John F. Sherman, III and Gretchen Greene, January 16, 2021

2020

Integrated Corporate Governance: Six Leadership Priorities for Boards Beyond the Crisis. Richard Samans and Jane Nelson, Forbes, June 18, 2020

Lessons for COVID-19-era CEOs. Jane Nelson, International Finance Corporation, May 13, 2020.

Responding to Forced Labour in the US Healthcare System. Ben Rutledge, Cambridge Core blog, April 2020.

Moral bankruptcy during times of crisis: H&M just thought twice before triggering force majeure clauses with suppliers, and here's why you should too. Anna Triponel and John Sherman, March 31, 2020. This op-ed is co-published by the Harvard Kennedy School - Corporate Responsibility Initiative and the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.

A Diplomatic Tightrope on Trade | Ben Rutledge | Business & Human Rights Resource Center | February 19

Walking the Talk of Stakeholder Capitalism | Jane Nelson | Project Syndicate | January 20

3 actions business leaders can take to help solve our water crisis | Jane Nelson | World Economic Forum blog | January 20

2019

Towards a Common Agenda for Action.  Keynote Address by John G. Ruggie at the Conference on Business and Human Rights, organized by Finland’s Presidency of the EU Council. Brussels, 2 December 

Corporate Identity in Play: The Role of ESG Investing | John Ruggie | M-RCBG Faculty Working Paper Series No. 2019-05

Why the world needs systems leadership, not selfish leadership | World Economic Forum blogpost, November 2

Advanced Leadership Initiative appoints new managing director | Lisa Dreier | The Harvard Gazette, October 21

Boosting Farmer Incomes in Agricultural Supply Chains | Joost Guijt, Beth Jenkins, Uwe Gneiting and Heather Pfahl | Stanford Social Innovation Review

Toward new models of leadership and partnership | Jane Nelson | Chapter 3 in Perspectives on Impact: Leading Voices on Making Systemic Change in the Twenty-First Century, published by Routledge

No Small Holder Farmer Left Behind (Book chapter from Leave No One Behind: Time for Specifics on the Sustainable Development Goals) Jane Nelson, published September, 2019

Systems leadership can change the world, but what exactly is it? (World Economic Forum) Lisa Dreier, David Nabarro and Jane Nelson, September 24, 2019

CRI publishes new report on Systems Leadership during the UN General Assembly (PDF). Lisa Dreier, David Nabarro and Jane Nelson, September, 2019

Canada's establishment of an office of Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprises (PDF). John Ruggie, April 8, 2019

Jane Nelson's participation in the Sustainable Development Goal #17: Partnerships for the Goals panel discussion, video (Center for Strategic & International Studies) | March 7, 2019

4 priorities in the race to build a sustainable global food system, blog post (World Economic Forum) by Jane Nelson and Juergen Voegele | January 18, 2019

2018

Big Brands Are Fuelling the Business of Nutrition, op-ed Myriam Sidibe and Jane Nelson | October 29, 2018

John Ruggie delivers the 10th Annual Kenneth N. Waltz Lecture at Columbia University, The Balance of Global Public and Private Power: A Tale of Two Worlds | October 25, 2018

CRI launches new report on World Food Day to mobilize finance for nutritious value chains. Executive Summary | Report | 17 October 2018

Silicon Valley can do more to achieve the #GlobalGoals, blog post by Lisa Dreier | September 24, 2018

The Human Rights Opportunity: 15 real-life cases of how business is contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals by putting people first. Published by Shift, which is chaired by CRI chair John Ruggie and led by CRI fellows Caroline Rees, Rachel Davis and John Sherman. July 2018

Newly published book From Summits to Solutions: Innovations In Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals includes a chapter from Jane Nelson, titled: Collective Action on Business Standards, Goals, and Metrics to Achieve Scale and Impact for the SDGs

Blog on partnerships to strengthen water security co-authored by Peruvian Environment Minister, Elsa Galarza Contreras, and CRI Director, Jane Nelson in World Economic Forum Agenda: Why the Answer to Water Insecurity is Working Together. January 2018  

Blog by World Economic Forum, Managing Director, W. Lee Howell, cites CRI research on system leadership: 3 Leadership Principles for a Fractured World. January 2018 

2017
John Ruggie's keynote speech at the Above Ground/ICAR Conference in Ottaway: Business & Human Rights: Bringing Responsibility Home. September 28, 2017

Corporate Responsibility Initiative co-hosted Rethinking Collaboration for the SDGs- in NYC.  September 25, 2017

John Ruggie's keynote speech at the launch of Chile's National Action Plan to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, attended by President Michelle Bachelet and other leaders from government, business and civil society in Santiago. August 21, 2017

John Ruggie and the UN Guiding Principles cited in creation of World Players Rights policy covering over 100,000 athletes in a dozen sports, including soccer, NFL and NBA. July 13, 2017

John Ruggie comments on Thun Group of Banks Discussion Paper on the Implications of UN Guiding Principles 13 & 17 In a Corporate and Investment Banking Context. February 21, 2017

CRI Chair and author of the UN Guiding Principles John Ruggie delivered a keynote address on Responsible Supply Chains at the G20 Labor and Employment Meeting in Hamburg, Germany. February 15, 2017

2016
Keynote address by Professor John Ruggie at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights. November 14, 2016

The Corporate Responsibility Initiative has cooperated with Business Fights Poverty, CARE, UKAid, SAB Miller and Citi on a guide for companies to strengthen micro-enterprises market systems. The report highlights the key challenges micro-enterprises face and the transformational opportunity to take a collaborative, market system approach to enabling micro-enterprises to thrive within corporate value chains. Based on a series of multi-stakeholder  consultations and case study research, the guide focuses on five success factors that are critical for strengthening micro-enterprise market systems through collaboration. Details of the online discussion to launch the guide and other feedback are available on: http://bit.ly/2d9csuC. 29 September 2016

CRI participated in an event during UNGA week in New York on “Business Collaborating to Deliver the SDGs”. More details here. The event was at Citi’s offices (14th floor, 153 East 53rd Street). September 19, 2016

Jane Nelson's Webinar on The Healthcare Sector and SDGs – Emerging Trends. Details here. This webinar will explore recent trends and developments in the role of pharmaceutical, biotech and healthcare companies in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals. It will be hosted by the UK-based Corporate Citizenship organization and Jane Nelson, Director of the Corporate Responsibility Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School will be one of the speakers. August 25, 2016

Building a partnership that delivers shared value and lasting impact. GSK and Save the Children - 3 Year Partnership Update. June 20, 2016

Webinar: How do we scale up collaboration for the SDGs? The webinar convenes a panel of four leaders in the field, with perspectives from the UN, business, and NGOs, to discuss the critical question:‘How do we scale up collaboration for the SDGs?’
The webinar marks the global launch of a major new policy paper by World Vision and The Partnering Initiative: “Delivering on the Promise: In-country multi-stakeholder platforms to catalyse collaboration and partnerships for Agenda 2030”. June 30, 2016

May 2016
The 2016 Oslo Business for Peace Summit. On May 3rdCRI Director, Jane Nelson will take part in a panel entitled, The Global Goals – What does it take? The panel includes representatives from politics, academia, civil society and the media to provide their critical perspective on business engagement towards the Global Goals. The summit will conclude with the Oslo Business for Peace Award Ceremony. Watch the ceremony here. May 2016

April 2016
John Ruggie's 
Keynote address at the April 19-20 Asia Regional Forum on Business and Human Rights in Doha
John Ruggie releases FIFA report: “For the Game. For the World.” FIFA and Human Rights. Read Harvard Kennedy School press release. April 2016

December 2015
John Ruggie to develop human rights recommendations for FIFA. Read related articles from The GuardianThe New York Times, Associated Press, and Boston Magazine.

JULY 2015
John Ruggie reflects on the first session of the Intergovernmental Working Group on a Business & Human Rights Treaty

May 2015
John Ruggie publishes Holding business to account on OECD website, May 2015. Read related articles in The Guardian, The New York Times,Associated Press, Boston  Magazine.

MARCH 2015
Jane Nelson participated in a panel of experts and shared her perspective on the Malnutrition Mapping Project, launched by GAIN with support from Amway on March 31, 2015.

Delivering Shared Prosperity;Three key steps leading extractive companies are taking to address a complex array of sustainability challenges, March 13, 2015.

Creating Shared Value in Extractive Industry,  March 13, 2015.

John Ruggie, the author of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, met with senior officials from UK Export Finance and members of its advisory council for discussions on human rights and support for exports, March 4, 2015.

FEBRUARY 2015

Summit: human rights must be in business DNA – Blair, February 25, 2015.

First Comprehensive Guidance for Companies on Human Rights Reporting Launches in London, February 24, 2015.

DECEMBER 2014

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie remarks at the Third United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva on December 3, 2014.

NOVEMBER 2014

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie delivered a keynote address at the Annual Conference of the Business Social Compliance Initiative in Brussels on November 13.

OCTOBER 2014

CRI Director Jane Nelson was the Keynote speaker at the Global Forum for Business as an Agent of World Benefit on Thursday October 16th. This conference aimed at bringing together a diverse and fascinating mix of industries, areas of expertise who share a common desire to inspires through revealing their personal stories about how their organizations—and yours—can achieve maximum success. 

Public Private Partnerships: A Conversation with Danish Minister for Trade and Development Cooperation Mogens Jensen. On October 10, 2014, the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings hosted a discussion with Danish Minister for Trade and Development Cooperation Mogens Jensen. The Minister discussed Denmark’s experience in the movement to work with public private partnerships, current opportunities and challenges, and the broader dynamics of corporate social responsibility. Following his remarks, the Minister joined a panel discussion with CRI director Jane Nelson, Tara Nathan, executive director of public private partnerships at MasterCard, and John Morton, chief of staff to the president at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. A transcript of the event is available here.

CRI Director Jane Nelson moderated a panel on Transforming Economies to Benefit the Poor: The Complementary Roles of the Public and Private Sectors for Inclusive Growth at the 2014 World Bank Annual Meeting on October 9 in Washington DC. The focus of the panel was to address the questions: “How can economic growth benefit more people? Why and how should the public and private sectors work more closely together to create the conditions for inclusive growth?” Participants included UK Secretary of State for International Development Justine Greening, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim, Standard Chartered Bank Group Chief Executive Peter Sands, Engro Corporation President and Chief Executive Officer Ali Ansari, and Ethiopia Minister of Finance and Economic Development Ato Sufian Ahmed. Participants discussed their experiences in hugely varying contexts and identified common factors for success.

SEPTEMBER 2014

A new report: Partnering for Impact: Supporting systemic change to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa by Business Action for Africa, The CRI Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School and The Partnering Initiative, demonstrates how companies and their partners are working to catalyse systemic change across a wide range of development challenges and shares key factors for success.  The report was launched at an event on 24th September in New York to coincide with the UN General Assembly, attended by over 150 representatives from government, the UN system, private sector and civil society.

AUGUST 2014

CRI Director, Jane Nelson, outlines the evolving role of the private sector in the areas of sustainability, women's economic empowerment and global development in August and July articles in the Economist, FAST Company and Fortune magazines.

A new green waveThe Economist, August 30 

3 Concrete Steps Companies Should Take To Foster Gender Balance In Leadership, Fast Company, August 8

JUNE 2014

As foreign aid dries up, companies take the lead in global development, Fortune, July 24 JUNE 2014

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie published a commentary on the background, discussions, and upcoming negotiations regarding the UN Human Rights Council's resolution on a treaty to regulate transnational corporations. Ruggie states that given the complexities and political realities around such a treaty, governments, businesses, and NGOs should focus on efforts to implement and further develop the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

CRI Director Jane Nelson published an article on GE's Ideas Lab on what private-sector firms can do regarding women's economic empowerment. Nelson outlines an agenda for action that includes 1) engage more strategically with women in core business operations, governance structures, and corporate value chains; 2) enable women and girls to build human capital, economic assets, and leadership capacity through community investment and philanthropy programs; and 3) advocate for women's rights and opportunities through evidence-based corporate communications and policy platforms.

CRI Director Jane Nelson moderated the opening panel at the OECD Global Forum for Responsible Business Conduct in Paris on June 26. Nelson, whose session focused on reinforcing the ecosystem of responsibility, also published an article, "Corporate Social Responsibility: Emerging good practice for a new era," in the OECD Observer.

CRI Director Jane Nelson took part in the closing plenary of InterAction's 30th Anniversary Forum in Washington, DC on June 13. Along with fellow panelists Amina Mohammed, Special Advisor of the UN Secretary General on Post-2015 Development Planning and Lester Brown, President, Earth Policy Institute, discussed the future of the broad field of sustainable development with panel moderator Dr. Charles MacCormack.

On June 11, CRI Faculty Director John Ruggie, former UN Special Representative for Business and Human Rights, received the annual Harry LeRoy Jones Award of the Washington Foreign Law Society, honoring "an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the development and application of international law." Previous recipients have included, among others, Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, Member of the International Court of Justice Thomas Buergenthal, Secretary of State James Baker, Senator George Mitchell, Ambassador Thomas Pickering, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, and Transparency International founder Peter Eigen. Professor Ruggie was introduced by Anne-Marie Slaughter, formerly Director of Policy Planning at the Department of State and Dean of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and currently President and CEO of the New America Foundation. Here you can find Professor Ruggie's remarks at the award presentation, addressing international lawmaking in business and human rights.

MAY 2014

CRI is delighted to announce a new report, Costs of Company-Community Conflict in the Extractive Sector, by CRI Research Fellow Rachel Davis, Managing Director at Shift, and Daniel Franks, Deputy Director of University of Queensland’s Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining. The report examines the full range of costs to extractive companies from failing to prevent or mitigate conflict with local communities around their operations. Davis and Franks determined that extractive companies generally do not identify, understand and aggregate these costs to effectively engage their senior management or board members. Their research also shows that while environmental impacts, such as pollution, often trigger conflict, there are typically underlying economic and social issues that relate to the quality of the relationship between the company and local communities, which if left unaddressed, may make conflict more likely. The report was released in tandem with a study, "Conflict translates environmental and social risk into business costs," in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, co-authored by Davis and Franks along with Anthony Bebbington, Saleem H. Ali, Deanna Kemp, and Martin Scurrah.

APRIL 2014

On April 25, CRI Director Jane Nelson participated in a panel at the Brookings Institution on Partnerships, Corporate Social Responsibility and the New Development Agenda. The live-streamed event (cached here) began with a discussion between Nelson, who also serves as nonresident senior fellow at Brookings, and Anne Finucane, global strategy and marketing officer at Bank of America, on the role global companies will increasingly play in development and in addressing societal challenges at large. After the discussion, Nelson moderated a panel on the role of the private sector and different partnership strategies for development. The panel included Daniella Ballou-Aares (MPA’02), senior advisor for development to the U.S. secretary of state; Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres; and Vera Songwe, World Bank country director for Senegal, Cape Verde, the Gambia, Guinea Bissau, and Mauritania and Brookings nonresident senior fellow.

On April 17, CRI, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, hosted the first of a series of roundtables on what the private sector can do regarding women’s economic empowerment. Moderated by CRI Director Jane Nelson, the invitation-only event brought together executives and managers from Fortune 500 firms representing a variety of industries to discuss identifying women-owned enterprises within the global value chain. The second roundtable, which will focus on building and globally implementing effective mentoring programs, affinity groups, and a champion culture, is scheduled for May 19.

MARCH 2014

CRI is pleased to announce the publication of a new case study focusing on the first three years of the four-year project construction phase of the Papua New Guinea Liquefied Natural Gas (PNG LNG) Project. Co-authored by Jane Nelson and Kara Valikai, the report, Building the foundations for a long-term development partnership: The construction phase of the PNG LNG Project, explores some of the internal management systems, external stakeholder engagement mechanisms, and cross-sector partnerships that are being implemented by the Project operator, Esso Highlands Limited (a fully-owned subsidiary of ExxonMobil), as it works with different levels of government and with other stakeholders to identify, avoid and mitigate project-related risks and costs, and to optimize project benefits and shared value. Analysis of the first three years of the Project highlights three core findings that underpin responsible and economically viable project development —commitment to rigorous risk management and accountability, investment in national capacity and content, and engagement in cross-sector partnerships and policy dialogue; Nelson and Valikai also identify sixteen lessons and areas of good practice in PNG. The report concludes with recommendations to project operators, contractors, governments and donor agencies. These draw on the lessons of the PNG LNG Project, but are relevant for project operators and policy makers around the world engaged in addressing the organizational, institutional, and leadership challenges necessary to achieve responsible and economically viable construction of large-scale natural resource projects. An executive summary of the report is also available.

On March 4, as part of a series of events around International Women’s Day, the UN, the US Chamber’s Corporate Citizenship Center (CCC), and Business Call to Action hosted “Turning Inspiration Into Action,” a forum focusing on how the private sector can act to empower women globally. The morning keynote event was a discussion among CRI Director Jane Nelson, Chelsea Clinton, and Melanne Verveer, focusing on cross-sector partnerships to empower women globally, especially the Clinton Foundation’s new No Ceilings Project, which aims to bring together partner organizations across sectors to evaluate and share the progress women and girls have made in the 20 years since the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. This keynote included a commitment by CRI to bring together companies in the private sector for a series of roundtable workshops on empowering women through bringing them into the global supply chain; providing education and skills training, access to finance, and access to markets; and nurturing women as global business leaders. The roundtables will be organized by CRI and CCC. CRI Research Fellow Kara Valikai (MPA’13), who is Director of Issue Networks at CCC, was the primary coordinator of the UN event.

FEBRUARY 2014

CRI is delighted to share “Mining Companies and Local Communities: Moving from Paternalism to Respect,” a new article by CRI Research Fellow Rachel Davis that examines the trend from a reactive to proactive approach regarding community concerns and company-community partnerships. Davis, Managing Director at Shift, served as a senior legal advisor to CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie during his mandate as UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Business and Human Rights.

JANUARY 2014

Ahead of the UN Human Rights Council’s March meeting in Geneva, CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie’s latest brief, “A UN Business and Human Rights Treaty?” provides important guidance. Ruggie suggests that particularly in light of any discussions of a business and human rights treaty or other legalization process, the Council first must assess major changes in policies and practices that have resulted from the uptake of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and where such efforts are falling short; the Council also must weigh the extent to which different forms of legalization would be capable of yielding practical results in the daily lives of affected individuals and communities around the world.  

CRI Director Jane Nelson moderated the UN Global Compact LEAD Luncheon in Davos on January 23, which was chaired by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and co-hosted with the World Economic Forum and the Swiss Government. The session looked ahead at the critical next phase for the two intergovernmental processes that by 2015 are expected to deliver a global Post-2015 Development Agenda and a new international climate change agreement, respectively.

On January 16, CRI and Business Fights Poverty launched a new report, Sustaining and Scaling the Impact of Enterprise Development Programmes: SABMiller’s Approach to Strengthening Business Ecosystems, with a panel event in London. The report, co-authored by Beth Jenkins, Richard Gilbert, and Piya Baptista, outlines how beverage giant SABMiller is working to support entrepreneurs in its value chain and broader community by strengthening the wider environment or ‘business ecosystems’ in which they are embedded. The launch event featured colleagues from CARE and from the UK Department of International Development. Additional commentary comes from recent blogs by CRI Director Jane Nelson and by SABMiller's Andres Penate, the company's Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Latin America.

NOVEMBER 2013

Along with the Rockefeller Foundation and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, CRI organized a conference, Developing Untapped Potential: Strengthening Resilience through Business, Public and Civil Society Collaboration, held on November 25 and 26 in Bellagio, Italy. With just 25 high-level participants, the conference brought together practitioners and thought leaders from business, government, and civil society for debate and reflections on lessons in collaboration and resilience and to map pathways forward.

On November 6 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, CRI Director Jane Nelson spoke on a panel, Corporate Social Enterprises: A Business-Driven Approach to Development, looking at the example of the Niger Delta Partnership Initiative (NDPI). Nelson noted that NDPI's success is due to several factors, including its intentionally hybrid model incorporating both business and social objectives; its independent governance structure; and its attentiveness to developing local capacity. Fellow panelists included

The International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) has selected CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie as recipient of its 2014 Global Environment Award. Ruggie received the honor for his work on the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights.

OCTOBER 2013

In a podcast with Ethical Corporation, CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie reflected on the two years since the launch of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, how they have been implemented to date, and the challenges to come.

CRI Director Jane Nelson served on a panel, "Bigger and Better: Tapping Into Partners for Scalable Impact," at the Business Civic Leadership Center's annual conference on October 10, 2013. Fellow panelists included Jim Coughlan, President of Customer Solutions for UPS, Deborah Holmes, Americas Director, Corporate Responsibility, Ernst and Young, and Simon Winter, Senior Vice President of Development at TechoServe.

SEPTEMBER 2013

An interview with CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie was published in Spain's El Pais on September 22. (Spanish only)

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie spoke at the opening plenary of the UN Global Compact Leaders Forum on September 20. Ruggie, the former UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Business and Human Rights, discussed the new Business Engagement Architecture platform, its intent to help scale sustainability efforts, and its relationship to the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

At the UN Global Compact meetings in New York on September 19, the Corporate Responsibility Initiative (CRI), along with Business Action for Africa and the Partnering Initiative, launched the new report, A New Global Partnership with Business: Delivering the Post- 2015 Development Agenda, which draws on insights from a wide range of business partnership case studies across Sub-Saharan Africa to set out recommendations on how best to unlock the full potential of business for a new era of development progress. A panel moderated by CRI Director Jane Nelson discussed how best to address the challenges of translating global development goals into effective and sustained local action, how to enable transformational partnerships with business to enter the development mainstream, and how to establish effective accountability and governance mechanisms to underpin the Post-2015 development framework. Panelists included Ambassador Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative, Kenya Mission to the United Nations; Andy Wales, Senior Vice President for Sustainable Development, SABMiller; Olav Kjorven, Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Bureau for Development Policy, United Nations Development Programme; and Miguel Veiga-Pestana, Vice President for Global External Affairs, Unilever.

CRI is delighted to announce a new report, The Coca-Cola Company’s 5by20 Initiative: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs across the Value Chain, co-published with Business Fights Poverty. The report, authored by CRI Senior Fellow Beth Jenkins and Research Fellows Kara Valikai and Piya Baptista, examines Coca-Cola's commitment to economically empower five million women entrepreneurs through its global value chain by the year 2020.

On September 4, CRI Faculty Director John Ruggie spoke at the launch of the UK government’s national action plan for implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The UK is the first government to announce such a comprehensive plan.

AUGUST 2013

CRI is pleased to share Bringing a Human Rights Lens to Stakeholder Engagement, the third report from the regular Business Learning Workshop held jointly with Shift. The report focuses on the importance of meaningful stakeholder engagement in a company’s efforts to meet its responsibility to respect human rights.  

JULY 2013

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie discussed the challenges of implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights with Optima.

MAY 2013

CRI Director Jane Nelson moderated a CEO Roundtable on Cross-Sector Perspectives on Shared Value Adoption at the Shared Value Initiative's Global Leadership Summit on May 23, 2013. Panelists included Vincent Forlenza, Chairman, CEO and President of Becton Dickinson; Neal Keny-Guyer, CEO of Mercy Corps; and Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation.

DVDs of CRI's award-winning Corporate-Community Dialog video series may now be ordered online. The series makes a compelling case for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods and processes, using real life corporate-community case studies to show the immediate and long term benefits of facilitated dialogue. Each DVD includes all four films in the series.

CRI is delighted to announce a new report, Project Nurture: Partnering for Business Opportunity and Development Impact, which examines how Project Nurture, an $11.5 million partnership among The Coca-Cola Company, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the international non-profit organization TechnoServe, demonstrates the potential for building sustainable and inclusive value chains through cross-sector partnership. The report, authored by CRI Senior Fellow Beth Jenkins and by Lorin Fries, explores the partnership's work to double the fruit incomes of more than 50,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya and Uganda by 2014 by building inclusive mango and passion fruit value chains. Business Fights Poverty has published a series of blogs by each partner organization, as well as by CRI Director Jane Nelson and CRI Senior Fellow Beth Jenkins.

CRI Director Jane Nelson moderated a panel, Getting to the Next Level of Integrating Sustainability in Business Planning, at the World Environment Center's Gold Medal Colloquium on May 10, 2013. Panelists included Thomas Hahlin Ahlinder, Senior Vice President, DuPont Nutrition & Health; John W. Conover, President of Security Technologies, Ingersoll Rand; and Paulette Frank, Vice President, Sustainability and Environment, Health & Safety, Johnson & Johnson.

On May 2, 2013, CRI Director Jane Nelson spoke with NPR's Jackie Northam on the governance issues around the most recent factory tragedy in Bangladesh.

CRI Director Jane Nelson moderated a panel on Effective Collaboration Between NGOs and Corporations at Interaction's Forum on May 1, 2013. Panelists included Jack Muhs, Senior Vice President, U.S. International Planning, Engineering & Global Trade Services, FedEx Express; James C. Borel, Executive Vice President, DuPont; James Bernard, Global Director, Strategic Partnerships, Microsoft Education; and Katherine Pickus, Divisional Vice President, Global Citizenship and Policy, Abbott, and Vice President, Abbott Fund.

CRI is delighted to announce a new book published by the Brookings Institution, Getting to Scale: How to Bring Development Solutions to Millions of Poor People. CRI Director Jane Nelson, who serves as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings, authored the book's final chapter, "Scaling Up Impact through Public-Private Partnerships." The book was edited by Laurence Chandy, Akio Hosono, Homi Kharas, and Johannes Linn.

CRI Director Jane Nelson's new book, Corporate Responsibility Coalitions: The Past, Present, and Future of Alliances for Sustainable Capitalism (co-authored with David Grayson), was reviewed by Mike Tuffrey in Corporate Citizenship Briefing on May 1, 2013.

APRIL 2013

CRI Director Jane Nelson's essay, "A Call to Action for Business," was published in the Spring 2013 issue of YOUth magazine, a publication of the International Youth Foundation. Nelson makes the case that businesses must look for ways to include youth in their core business operations and value chains, support youth through philanthropy and community engagement, and advocate for youth through public policy dialogue.

CRI Director Jane Nelson delivered the keynote address at the VI Latin America Socially Responsible Business Forum in Mexico City on April 11, 2013. The event was co-hosted by the Mexican Center for Philanthropy (CEMEFI) and Forum Empresa, the alliance of Latin American organizations promoting corporate social responsibility.

MARCH 2013

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie discussed the framework behind his work as UN Secretary General's Special Representative for Business and Human Rights and gave insights into his new book"Just Business: Multinational Corporations and Human Rights," at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government's seminar on March 28, 2013.

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie discussed the Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights on NPR on March 4, 2013.

CRI Director Jane Nelson participated in Oxfam America's kickoff event on March 1, 2013, for its new Behind the Brands scorecard, an evaluation of social and environmental impacts of the world's ten largest food and beverage companies. The top three spots on the scorecard went to three members of CRI's Corporate Leadership Group: Nestle, Unilever, and Coca-Cola. Oxfam's Jonathan Jacoby blogged about the event.

FEBRUARY 2013

CRI is pleased to share a new blog post by Merrick Hoben, Director, Consensus Building Institute, on lessons learned from Chevron Nigeria Limited's GMOU process in the Niger Delta. The process was the subject of the film "The Only Government We See," which is part of CRI's award-winning Corporate-Community Dialog series.

In a February 4, 2013 commentary for the Institute for Human Rights and Business, CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie responded to Human Rights Watch's views regarding the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights and corporate accountability.

CRI is delighted to announce the publication of a new book, Corporate Responsibility Coalitions: The Past, Present, and Future of Alliances for Sustainable Capitalism, by CRI Director Jane Nelson and David Grayson, Director of the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility at Cranfield University (UK). The book, published by Stanford University Press in the US and Greenleaf Publishing in the UK, is the first to chronicle the progress and potential of business-led corporate responsibility coalitions.

JANUARY 2013

On January 25, 2013, CRI Director Jane Nelson moderated the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) LEAD's high-level discussion in Davos, Switzerland, on "Designing the Post-2015 Architecture: The Leadership Agenda." Featuring UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and 30 CEOs and CSOs of global corporations, the discussion centered on how business can help structure positive engagement with the public sector once many of the Millennium Development Goals expire in 2015.  UNGC LEAD supports UNGC participants as they strive to achieve levels of corporate sustainability performance as outlined in the Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability Leadership.

In a January 24, 2013 blog post for GE, "Radical Collaboration Through Technology," CRI Director Jane Nelson discusses the potential that developments in information and communications technology have for collaboration. Nelson serves on GE's Citizenship Advisory Panel.

On January 23, 2013, CRI Director Jane Nelson moderated the discussion at the Grow Africa dinner in Davos, Switzerland on how best to ensure continuing private sector investment in agricultural transformation in Africa.  Launched in 2011, Grow Africa is an African-owned, country-led, multi-stakeholder platform focused on catalyzing market-based solutions to African growth and is convened by the African Union Commission, the NEPAD Agency and the World Economic Forum. The organization has already helped generate more than US $3.75 billion worth of investment commitments by domestic and international companies, and is working with 8 African countries.

CRI is pleased to share the World Economic Forum's New Vision for Agriculture (NVA)'s new report, "Achieving the New Vision for Agriculture: New Models for Action." The report, prepared by NVA in collaboration with McKinsey and Company, looks at a comprehensive approach to transforming whole value chains and systems, harnessing the power of market-based solutions, and engaging local and global stakeholders in an unprecedented joint effort to deliver food security, environmental sustainability and economic opportunity. CRI Director Jane Nelson served as knowledge partner for the report.

CRI is pleased to publish a new working paper by Professor Michael W. Toffel of Harvard Business School, “Reinforcing Regulatory Regimes: How States, Civil Society, and Codes of Conduct Promote Adherence to Global Labor Standards.” The paper, co-authored by Professor Jodi L. Short of UC-Hastings School of Law and Melissa Ouellet of Harvard Business School, compares adherence to labor codes of conduct to determine what combination of institutional conditions promotes compliance with the global labor standards embodied in codes.

DECEMBER 2012

CRI Senior Fellow John Sherman's article,"UN Guiding Principles: Practical Implications for Business Lawyers" was published by In House Defense Quarterly in its Winter 2013 edition.

CRI Director Jane Nelson moderated the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) Business Alliance Forum in London on December 10, 2012, where members and expert practitioners discussed the latest market-driven interventions to increase the availability of more nutritious and affordable products to Base of the Pyramid consumers.

The United Nations' first annual Forum on Business and Human Rights took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from December 3-5, 2012, including some one thousand participants from 85 countries, 150 businesses, and 170 civil society organizations. The Forum is designed to promote the implementation of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, a set of internationally accepted principles which provide a global standard for preventing and addressing the risk of negative human rights impacts linked to business activity. CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie, the former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the issue, led the work to develop the Principles and is first chairperson of the Forum; Ruggie's keynote remarks are available here.

NOVEMBER 2012

CRI is delighted to announce that its Corporate-Community Dialog video series won “best communication or publication” award at the biennial Centre for Effective Dispute Resolutions (CEDR) awards ceremony held in London on November 29. The series makes a compelling case for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods and processes, using real life corporate-community case studies to show the immediate and long term benefits of facilitated dialogue. Awards were made in six different categories, with 22 finalists making the most extensive shortlist in the Awards’ 20 year history. Click here to view the films.

In November 2012, CRI Director Jane Nelson and David Grayson, Director of the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility at Cranfield University (UK), published an essay for Ethical Corporation, "Sustainable capitalism and the potential of corporate responsibility coalitions," examining the future of the business-led corporate responsibility coalitions. The article is excerpted from their forthcoming book, Corporate Responsibility Coalitions: The Past, Present, and Future of Alliances for Sustainable Capitalism, to be published in Spring 2013 by Stanford University Press in the US and Greenleaf Publishing in the UK.

SEPTEMBER 2012

CRI is pleased to share a new report on materiality and sustainability in corporate reporting by Steve Lydenberg, Founding Director and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Responsible Investment.

CRI Director Jane Nelson spoke on a panel on Business and the New Development Agenda at the "Business, the MDGs and Beyond" event coincident with the UN General Assembly on September 25, 2012. Led by Business Fights Poverty and the UN Global Compact, the panel also included leaders from Pearson, RED, Eni Spa, and Oxfam America.

CRI Senior Fellow Caroline Rees, CRI Research Fellow Rachel Davis, and Deanna Kemp of the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland, published a report on Conflict Management and Corporate Culture in the Extractive Industries: A Study in Peru.

CRI Director Jane Nelson spoke on a panel on global performance standards at the Society of Petroleum Engineers' International Conference on Health, Safety and the Environment in Oil and Gas Exploration and Production, held in Perth, Australia, on September 11, 2012. The conference, with more than 1,200 attendees, focused on the industry's challenges in protecting people and the environment.

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie has authored an issues brief on the case Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, which will be reheard before the US Supreme Court on October 1, 2012.

The Canadian Office of the Extractive Sector Corporate Social Responsibility Counsellor spotlighted a recent report co-authored by CRI Research Fellow Rachel Davis on the costs of community conflict in the extractive industry.

JUNE 2012

During the Corporate Sustainability Forum of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), held from June 14-18, CRI Director Jane Nelson spoke at several key sessions. Nelson gave a keynote presentation on the evolving role of business in development in a session entitled Profits and Opportunities at the Base of the Pyramid. Nelson also moderated a UN Global Compact panel on Transformational Partnerships for Food, Nutrition and Development. The final overview and outcomes of the Corporate Sustainability Forum included more than 200 practical commitments from companies and business networks that ranged from the CEO Water Mandate’s Water Action Hub to sustainability within stock exchanges to voluntary business principles for sustainable agriculture. Nelson also participated in Business Action for Sustainable Development's Business Day on June 19, which focused on the challenge of scaling up impact.  At the time of the original 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (also known as the Earth Summit), Nelson worked for the Business Council for Sustainable Development and co-authored its report on business and sustainable development in Africa.

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify use of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in the case Esther Kiobel et al., v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co., et al. Ruggie, along with NYU Professor Philip Alston and the Global Justice Clinic at NYU School of Law, noted that corporations may have direct liability under international law for gross human rights abuses; that states are generally not required, nor are they generally prohibited from doing so provided that there is a recognized jurisdictional basis, to regulate the extraterritorial activities of businesses domiciled in their territory and/or jurisdiction; and that the weight of international criminal law jurisprudence in cases involving individual perpetrators supports a knowledge standard for aiding and abetting human rights abuses.

On June 19, 2012, CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie's op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor noted that given the Obama Administration's ease of sanctions on Myanmar, foreign investors and their governments now have the opportunity to show that businesses can and must operate responsibly in even the most challenging of environments.

CRI invites web strategy and design consultants to respond by July 6, 2012 to a Request for Proposals to plan and design an online community of practice and public web presence for the Company-Community Dialogue Facilitators Forum. The Forum is being developed by CRI together with regional partner organizations.

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie will receive an honorary doctor of letters and give the convocation address on June 14 at the University of Waterloo, Canada.

MAY 2012

On May 14, 2012, CRI Senior Fellow John Sherman was profiled in Chile's business newspaper Pulso for his work on business and human rights.

In May 2012, CRI published two case studies as part of its workstream on inclusive business ecosystems (the communities or networks of interconnected, interdependent players whose actions determine whether or not inclusive business models will succeed and generate impact at scale).Mobilizing the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania, by Research Fellow Beth Jenkins, and Building a Strategic Alliance for the Fortification of Oil and Other Staple Foods, by Research Fellow Christina Gradl, follow the initial framing paper by Gradl and Jenkins, Tackling Barriers to Scale:From Inclusive Business Models to Inclusive Business Ecosystems, published in September 2011.

APRIL 2012

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie's letter to the editor of The New York Times on the working conditions at Apple's overseas factories was published on April 4, 2012.

MARCH 2012

An interview with CRI Director Jane Nelson, "The Power of Development Partnerships," was published in the March/April issue of USAID's Frontlines magazine.

A recent speech by CRI Director Jane Nelson was profiled by Richard Edelman, President & CEO of Edelman, in his blog of March 14, 2012. Edelman's annual Trust Barometer takes a global look at the public's trust in institutions including business, government, media, and NGOs.

FEBRUARY 2012

CRI congratulates Steve Lydenberg, Founding Director of the Institute for Responsible Investment, on winning the practitioner award from the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) Institute for his research arguing that a combination of reason and rationality – consideration of others and the norms of society as well as of self-interested advantage – is necessary for a comprehensive undertaking of fiduciary practice. Lydenberg co-teaches BGP-230M, Corporate Social Responsibility, with CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie and CRI Director Jane Nelson.

CRI Senior Fellow John Sherman discusses the American Bar Association's recent resolution endorsing the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in a blog published by Lawyers for Better Business in February 2012.

JANUARY 2012

CRI's work on grievance mechanisms was profiled in a new research report, "Stakeholder Perceptions and Suggestions," published in January 2012 by the World Economic Forum's Responsible Mining Development Initiative. CRI's profiled research was led by Caroline Rees.

CRI Faculty Director John Ruggie discusses the convergence among major international standard setting bodies regarding how states and business enterprises must meet their respective human rights commitments under the UN “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Guiding Principles in a January 2012 commentary for the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB). Ruggie is the chair of IHRB's Advisory Board.

2011 and earlier

CRI Senior Fellow John Sherman and the charity Advocates for International Development announced the release of a new report that considers how the new UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights should be implemented by law firms.

CRI released the second of three films on resolving conflict between companies and communities through dialogue. The films are produced on behalf of the mandate of the former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Business and Human Rights, and CRI Faculty Chair, Professor John Ruggie.

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie was interviewed in the October 30, 2011 publication of Business Ethics: The Magazine of Corporate Responsibility.

CRI, together with regional partner organizations, is developing a new Company-Community Dialogue Facilitators Forumindividuals and organizations with relevant experience are invited to join and help build this ground-breaking initiative.

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie rings the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange as part of a gathering of leaders improving business and society on September 27, 2011.

CRI Director Jane Nelson moderated the United Nations Business Call to Action plenary on Encouraging, Expanding and Scaling Up Inclusive Business in Support of the Millenium Development Goals on September 21, 2011. The plenary focused on the report "Delivering Results: Moving Towards Scale."

On September 20, a high-level task force on Scaling Up Nutrition presented its initial findings to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. CRI Director Jane Nelson was part of the private-sector task force.

Catalyzing Transformational Partnerships between the United Nations and Business was published on September 20, 2011, by the UN Global Compact and Unilever. The report was conceived and written by a group of experts from UNGC, Unilever, Dalberg, and other organizations, and included CRI Director Jane Nelson.

On September 15, 2011, CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie gave the keynote address on the lessons learned and future prospects of the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights at a plenary on Security and Human Rights in Ottawa, Canada.

On September 14, 2011, CRI Senior Fellow Mark Kramer, along with Dean Julio Frenk of the Harvard School of Public Health and others, spoke at a conference on non-communicable diseases.

Catalyzing Development: A New Vision for Aid (Brookings Institution Press) was recently published and included a chapter by CRI Director Jane Nelson entitled "The Private Sector and Aid Effectiveness: Toward New Models of Engagement."

The Difference MakersSandra Waddock's book profiling 23 of the key players in developing corporate social responsibility in the United States and internationally, was awarded the 2011 Social Issues in Management Division Best Book Award by the Academy of Management. Among those profiled in the book are CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie and CRI Director Jane Nelson. Professor Waddock was a Visiting Scholar with the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government from 2006-2007.

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie to be Senior Advisor to the Corporate Social Responsibility practice at Foley Hoag LLP

CRI Faculty Chair John Ruggie to become new Chair of the Institute for Human Rights and Business International Advisory Board

On June 16, 2011, the UN Human Rights Council endorsed the "Protect, Respect, and Remedy" framework led by HKS Professor and CRI Faculty Director John Ruggie.

As part of the Ruggie mandate, the CSR Initiative worked to develop and then pilot a set of criteria for effective non-judicial grievance mechanisms. The final report, "Piloting Principles for Effective Company-Stakeholder Grievance Mechanisms: A Report of Lessons Learned," may be accessed here.

John Ruggie featured in LEXPERT, "CSR becomes entrenched".

CRI Senior Fellow Mark Kramer's article in the Harvard Business Review, "The Big Idea: Creating Shared Value"