The most important and material disclosure is of my employment with SAP. During the course of my job I come into regular contact with SAP stakeholders of all kinds including NGOs, customers, government representatives, customers, partners. I will draw from my daily experience in my writing but I will try to make sure I fully disclose any material relationship I might have as an employee of SAP with the subject matter of my writing to the best of my ability. My goal is to raise awareness of sustainable development issues across the tech sector in an objective and fair way. Any opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own and not those of my employer or anyone else for that matter. I have no significant financial investments in any other tech companies. You may find my personal blog at www.jamesfarrar.wordpress.com
The Microsoft 'Big Boobs' code gaffe exposes an industry culture which results in dismally low minority and gender representation. Can the industry afford it? Transparency is the first step.
Apple's u-turn on EPEAT signals that the company is not impervious to consumer & stakeholder pressure on green issues after all. Will Apple now be reconsidering its refusal to participate in O2's eco rating program? Will O2 up the ante to get Apple into their rating scheme?
IBM just published its 2011 corporate citizenship report which outlines a very impressive record of social investment and environmental stewardship. While the environmental program is yielding bottom line contribution, understanding the strategic contribution of its massive giving programme is less intuitive. On the corporate side, IBM has failed to report employee satisfaction figures for the first time in 10 years.
The US Chamber of Commerce is accused of lobbying to water down regulation to control conflict minerals in the supply chain. But who is supporting the US Chamber on this?
Microsoft has announced it will require annual sustainability disclosure from suppliers.
Dreamforce and Oracle Open World surfaced a rhetorical war of corporate responsibility: the clean cloud versus a cloud so compromised on privacy and security it can be characterised as the 'roach motel of clouds'.
The US government is kick starting an effort to get a 'conflict free' certification program off the ground for electronics manufacturers who sources minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But does this thing have legs?
With the introduction of some new sustainability solutions and the appointment of a Chief Sustainability Office is Oracle going green?
Steve Jobs didn't spend a lot of time trading personal influence with the canape crowd. He didn't scrub up well to role play CEO as statesman. But then he didn't need to all that much. He let his products do the talking instead.
Ethical investors weigh in on HP's strategic priorities for sustainability but is the board yet united behind a common strategy?