The recession has hit the automotive industry hard worldwide. In times of cut throat competition and advances in technology every single day, automotive manufacturers are valiantly struggling to either maintain or gain more market share, thereby increasing their profitability. There are various areas which require innovation.

Supply chain collaboration has regained its importance and methods to [...]

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Ensuring availability, accessibility and affordability of food to the population remains one of the foremost roles of the state (government). This process entails a detailed public policy framework comprising of agricultural policies underscoring sustainability as well as enhancements in productivity, factor and product pricing and ensuring food availability through functioning markets. In developing countries with [...]

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Food Insecurity in Pakistan
In the last two years, many issues have arisen that threaten Pakistan’s ability to feed itself. Food insecurity exists in part because there have been continuing wheat and sugar crises.

The situation also looks set to worsen with the government proposal to lease land to other countries. As companies become increasingly responsible for [...]

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One of the most resounding slogans heard during the last two years is ‘change’ but the idea of change and its importance as a process is not something novel. Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher said that no man ever steps into the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not [...]

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Khuda Ki Basti-3 (KKB-3), located in Qaiser Town, near Surjani Town in northern Karachi, is an innovative housing settlement pioneered by the NGO Saiban, as a model project to provide low-cost affordable legal housing to low-income residents of slums (kachi abadis) in Karachi.

Previously building on the two other settlements in Hyderabad and Gharo, the basti [...]

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This is Part 1 of a 2-Part write-up on AFCSR 2009, reviewing the CSR conference itself. Part 2, to appear in the January-February 2010 issue of tbl will look at CSR Awards in general and with reference to the Asian CSR Awards 2009, presented at the end of AFCSR 2009.

Manila can hold its own quite [...]

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It is estimated that up to 97 percent of the world’s businesses are SMEs. International standards thus need to provide as many benefits for small businesses as they do for global enterprises.

The time is right to implement the ISO 26000 standard, Guidance on Social Responsibility, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).

The IISD [...]

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What do the C’s do when they retire? The CEOs, COOs, CTOs, CIOs, CFOs, CSOs, CMOs and their other brethren missed out here. If the C is worth his or her salt, approaching retirement the C will already have done fairly well for himself or herself. Kids put through the best universities, even married off [...]

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With ‘green economy’, ’sustainability’ and ‘responsible business’ becoming the new buzzwords, there is a greater need for academic research and publication to aid consultants and business students. The compilation entitled ‘Consulting for Business Sustainability’ edited by Chris Galena is such a book that aims to provide consultants with an understanding of current trends and relevant [...]

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Stylish and Sustainable Eco-friendly Boots
Recycling is important, but should be the final step in the let’s- o-green process. Simple, it seems, knows that. They make the soles of their shoes out of recycled inner tubes, they use recycled
carpet padding, 100 percent post consumer recycled paper, and recycled PET plastic (which is “a fancy-pants word [...]

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All this talk of CSR. But as a citizen, stepping back and looking at the state of our beloved nation, one wonders how CSR can be relevant to people whose daily lives are riddled with bombings, muggings, conspiracy theories and a whole array of similarly unpalatable pickings. Indeed, we at tbl glimpse rays of hope [...]

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Child Rights National Conference and Reel View Festival
Street children in Pakistan number approximately 70,000 and almost 50 percent of the children drop out of school because of rampant corporal punishment, poverty, financial constraints and abuse. A child as young as seven can be tried for committing a crime (the lowest age for criminal responsibility in [...]

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I am beginning to think that many people are increasingly forgetting that the C in CSR stands for corporate. In other words CSR in a business based initiative. It is something that needs to be embedded into business strategy. It is about creating a sustainable competitive advantage for businesses. It needs to be led by [...]

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Economic inclusivity is arguably the fundamental consideration in the ‘profits’ bottom-line (assuming that transparency, legal compliance, tax obligations and all such matters are well in-line). Inclusivity, both at the international and macro-economic level is what has the ability to truly contextualize the economic behaviour of an entity. For instance, at the international level, we have [...]

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