Joseph Thavaraja – Page 2

01 Feb 23

From CSR to ESG and then?

Back in the day, way before Sustainability or ESG concepts hit the mainstream, the ‘go to sustainability practice’ of many brands was Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In 1953, Howard Bowen (considered as the father of CSR) defined it as “the obligations of businessmen to pursue those policies, to make those decisions, or to follow those […]

27 Jan 23

Sri Lanka and CO 2 (Part I)

The heavy use of fossil fuels has resulted in greenhouse gas emissions which warms up the atmosphere. The result is climate change driven by global warming. A leading gas among Greenhouse gases is Carbon dioxide (CO2). CO2 is not always produced artificially. Humans naturally exhale it and geographicsources such as volcanoes continuously emit it for […]

20 Jan 23

FESG; the Materiality of Money

Materiality does not flow only along non-financial aspects such as “diversity”. Financial Materiality too is important and is now gaining rapid acceptance amonginvestors who assess ESG performance. If an issue can impact the company’s financial performance, such an issue is a Financial Material Issue. A hefty, regulatory fine for ‘corporate misbehavior’ could be considered as […]

09 Jan 23

Sri Lanka’s vulnerability to climate change impacts

A country’s vulnerability to climate change can be found by the ND-GAIN Country Index (NDGCI). The World Bank highlights that Sri Lanka ranked 103 out of 181 countries in NDGCI in 2020. Sri Lanka is recognized as vulnerable to climate change impacts by the Bank. Sri Lanka’s weak ranking also implies that the country’s readiness […]

04 Jan 23

The “Governance Materiality”

The governance materiality pillar focuses on shareholder’s rights, board diversity, executive compensation, alignment of compensation to company’s sustainability performance, and “matters of corporate behavior” such as anti-competitive practices and corruption. It should be noted that some Companies may interchangeably use “Governance Materiality” along the lines of CSR. If the Board does not support governance materiality, […]

05 Dec 22

Societal materiality impacts differ firm to firm but should not be ignored

What is assessed in the societal view? Does this matter to society and does the company significantly impact on this topic? When it comes to defining attributes assessed in the societal view, the ESG impacts being assessed differ from business to business. It is not practical to apply a standard set of attributes or a […]

14 Nov 22

High powered World Economic Forum shows how to restart Sri Lanka with Circular Economy

As Sri Lanka’s national crisis worsened, while considerable number of middle class population found themselves sliding into poverty, serious efforts are being made by the government to redress the situation though the outlook continues to turn grimmer. Is Circular Economy (CE) a solution? Surprisingly, none other than the World Economic Forum (WEF) believes so. As […]

28 Oct 22

Values in Circular Economy

The Circular Economy (CE) aims at re-using resources and reducing waste. It also aims at lowered usage of resources by increasing renewable energy within the energy mix. As we learned previously, when it comes to reducing global emissions, 55% could be achieved by renewables energy, the rest (45%) of global emission reduction is to be […]

06 Oct 22

Consumers switching to sustainable products is the way to go, but there’s a big catch (Part II)

We now see a clear consumer trend, which is, supporting products made sustainably. The question is “How well does this translate to customers’ switching to brands that follow sustainability?” There are many reasons customers switch from a brand that they have been loyal to. For one, the price of the products of the brand they […]

03 Oct 22

The Climate Tipping Points

There are certain milestones in any process that, when crossed, is not reversible. There is no way back (or return). Many small events collectively lead to a change of a larger scale. Once a leaf falls from the tree, it cannot be re-attached. Processes taking place within a leaf stem that attaches it to the […]