News
Support for Haiti
Context regularly supports Oxfam and a local special needs school. Moved by the plight of so many poor people in Haiti we made a donation via Disasters Emergency Commission (DEC). You really understand the importance of the NGO sector when something like this happens in countries with minimal government resources. We wish the people of Haiti well.
Context America strengthens New York office
Sustainability strategy and communications consultancy Context today announced the addition of Jaycee Pribulsky as senior vice president of Context America.
This appointment reinforces the firm’s strategy of expanding its presence to address the growing demand for sustainability services in the U.S.A.
Pribulsky will be responsible for partnering with organizations to develop, implement and communicate their corporate sustainability efforts.
The former head of Waggener Edstrom Worldwide’s corporate responsibility group brings over 15 years of experience managing strategic program development, stakeholder engagement, and corporate responsibility reporting, communications and performance management.
“Jaycee brings tremendous experience in helping organizations create, execute and communicate sustainability initiatives,” said Peter T. Knight, President of Context America. “Jaycee shares our passion for helping our clients understand and profit from sustainability,” he said.
Find out more here.
Centrica appoints Context
For some time we have been admirers of Centrica’s sustainability communications, particularly the company’s courageous use of its website with its blogs, tweets and forums. We were therefore delighted and genuinely excited to be selected by Centrica to work with them on their sustainability web reporting.
Simon Propper commented: “With the oil companies suffering a collective crisis of leadership, it falls to other major players in the energy sector to show the consumer how sustainable energy consumption can be achieved. Centrica is going to play an important role in this and it’s a privilege to be involved.”
BT extends long-standing relationship with Context
Following a competitive pitch, Context has been selected to support BT with its 2010 and 2011 sustainability reports. We are delighted that BT is continuing our six-year relationship for another two years (at least).
Simon Propper comments: “Our mantra is: giving clients good service is the best marketing. We are proud that BT has such confidence in our team after six years of working together and we intend to work all out to keep them happy for another six.”
Congratulations to our client HP – the only CS report honoured in the 2009 Clarion Awards
HP’s Global Citizenship Report 2008 won the strategic corporate communications category in the respected 2009 Clarion Awards.
The online report is the result of much hard work by the Citizenship team at HP supported by project manager David Hudson, writers AHA and designers Celery, with consultancy and writing by Context. We love working with this multi-talented team who are all now working on the 2009 report.
Reporting Clinic for stressed CS report managers
Context and Ethical Corporation have teamed-up to offer Reporting Clinic, combining the perspectives of a specialist sustainability consultancy and publisher. Reporting Clinic typically has two stages - Health Check and Therapy.
Health Check is a thorough diagnosis of a company’s report (or draft). Context and Ethical Corporation assess the report independently and present the feedback jointly. Therapy is a follow-up consultation with Context’s and Ethical Corporation’s MDs, Simon Propper and Toby Webb. Clients can specify the agenda, for example, to focus on new ideas or a particular challenge.
Find out more here.
Sky expands coverage in new report
British Sky Broadcasting (Sky), the UK’s largest provider of satellite television services, has launched its latest Bigger Picture Review. The Review now provides information on Sky’s responsibilities in areas such as programme making, Sky News and online gaming as well as updating readers on Sky’s Bigger Picture priorities – sports, arts and the environment.
It’s the media company’s first report with our involvement and it’s available here.
Third Oxfam business briefing tackles climate change
Oxfam International has launched a call to action for businesses to act on climate change in its latest business briefing – the second we’ve worked on. In the lead-up to Copenhagen in December, the global NGO urges businesses to encourage world leaders to agree a fair and safe global deal, pointing out that the developing world suffers most from climate change. Businesses with supply chains and other operations in emerging markets also stand to suffer if appropriate steps aren’t taken to reduce emissions, Oxfam warns.
Read more here (569KB .PDF).
Want a drink? Visit the Brown-Forman online forum Our Thinking About Drinking
Brown-Forman Corporation, producer and marketer of beverage alcohol brands, including Jack Daniel’s, Southern Comfort and Finlandia, has launched an ambitious, three-pronged corporate responsibility communications initiative. Along with an online report and a printed thought-leadership document, the company has also developed an on-line Issues Forum "Our Thinking About Drinking", a resource providing a balanced body of research on alcohol-related issues. Your views are welcomed.
Visit www.ourthinkingaboutdrinking.com or www.brown-forman.com/responsibility to learn more.
Pitney Bowes issues online corporate responsibility report.
Out client, Pitney Bowes Inc., has issued its new online Corporate Responsibility Report 2008, providing a comprehensive summary of the company’s global citizenship practices, policies, accomplishments and goals. Read it here.
Cash for clunkers boosts sales but will do little for fuel efficiency.
The US “Cash for Clunkers” state-subsidized trade-in program – modelled on successful French and German initiatives – is an outstanding sales success, but will do little for overall vehicle fuel efficiency on the thirsty roads of the USA. Buyers can trade in inefficient vehicles for those achieving over 25mpg, and get up to $4,500 subsidy from the tax payer. Analysts quoted by Reuters say clunker replacements will “shave little more than 0.05%, or between 4,000 and 5,000 barrels per day, off the nation's daily consumption of 9 million barrels”.
Kimberly-Clark and Greenpeace make peace.
Our long-standing client, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, the maker of Kleenex, Scott and Cottonelle brands, has announced stronger fiber sourcing standards that will increase conservation of forests globally and will make the company a leader for sustainably produced tissue products. Greenpeace, which worked with Kimberly-Clark on its revised standards, announced that it will end its "Kleercut" campaign, which focused on the company and its brands.
The McGraw-Hill Companies commission Context.
We are continuing our relationship with McGraw-Hill, helping the New York company develop its corporate responsibility reporting. The McGraw-Hill Companies are involved in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, BusinessWeek and McGraw-Hill Education.
