Caux Round Table Principles
The Caux Principles were developed in 1994 by a group of international business leaders as a guide for ethical and responsible corporate behavior. These principals are meant to be a cornerstone for business leadership to raise the moral and ethical standards by which corporations and governments operate in order to promote moral capitalism so that […]
Carbon Disclosure Project
An initiative by leading institutional investors (with assets of $10T) to research and rate global companies based on their risks due to climate change. The 2003 CDP report estimated that a single carbon-intensive manufacturing company might carry as much risk (in energy prices, availability, and potential carbon taxes) equal to 40% of it’s market capitalization. […]
Corporation
A legal entity that gives a business or organization (or sometimes a church, town, or city) in the USA rights similar to those of an individual. Corporations limit liability for their employees and stockholders, who are protected from many of the actions or consequences of the corporation’s actions. Since corporations are granted many of the […]
Corporate Reporting
Public corporations are required (in the USA) to report specific financial measures and figures, quarterly and annually, in order to inform potential investors of the risks associated with their companies. However, some organizations (including private corporations) are beginning to report social and environmentally-related information in the form of Triple Bottom Line reports or Corporate Social […]
Corporate Citizenship
The expectation that drives companies to interact with their wider communities in an ethical and socially-responsible manner. Many companies view themselves as other than citizens of the places they do business or define business as having no social or ethical responsibilities. Increasingly, however, organizations are reconciling their corporate goals with those of their stakeholders, including […]
Compliance
Compliance can be the first step to sustainability. Compliance can be achieved through a commitment to social expectations and the law or simply by observing the letter of a law. For businesses striving to achieve restorative, sustainable practices, compliance becomes not a motivation, but simply a minimum baseline against which to measure achievable cost savings […]
Customization
The ability for customers to change a product or service to better suit their needs and desires. It differs from Personalization in that Customization offers a limited set of pre-defined attributes.
Customer Experience
The entire experience a customer has with an organization’s product or service as important to the value that product, service, or brand has to the customer, as well as the relationship built between the product, service, or organization that provides it. The experience is, often, more than the features or use or the product or […]
CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
A business outlook that acknowledges responsibilities to stakeholders not traditionally accepted, including suppliers, customers, and employees as well as local and international communities in which it operates and the natural environment. There are few accepted standards and practices so far, but a growing concern that the actions organizations take have no unintended consequences outside the […]
Cradle-to-Cradle
A phrase invented by Walter R. Stahel in the 1970s and popularized by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in their 2002 book of the same name. This framework seeks to create production techniques that are not just efficient but are essentially waste free. In cradle-to-cradle production, all material inputs and outputs are seen either as […]
