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To Prevent Another Rana Plaza, Build Better Societies, Not Just Better Factories

Harvard Business Review

Since then, leaders from business, government, and civil society organizations have come together to address fire and building-safety issues in the apparel factories. A World Bank study tells us that the cost of land in Dhaka, where hundreds of thousands of garment workers live, is comparable to suburban New York. This needs to change.

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Microsoft Taxes Itself

Harvard Business Review

This week, Microsoft is announcing an unusual initiative that it hopes will change how the company operates: an internal fee on carbon. As Microsoft takes on more of its customers' operations through cloud-based services, reliance on the utility grid creates real operational and price risk (from outages and volatile prices).

Price 12
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9 Sustainable Business Stories That Shaped 2016

Harvard Business Review

At the state level, New Jersey passed a big new gas tax , and Oregon , Illinois , and California developed robust energy and climate policies. Many invested heavily in renewable energy (see number five on this list), and some big companies dove into policy debates this year. Many banks heeded the advice, pulling funding from coal.

Energy 8
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Transforming Diversity Hiring to Build an Inclusive and Equitable Organization

HR Digest

A global bank sourced 600 people with disabilities and the result was not a single person getting hired after identifying there was significant bias throughout the hiring process. It’s important to take a pulse of your policies and practices to determine where you need to focus to improve access and reduce bias.

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7 Charts Show How Political Affiliation Shapes U.S. Boards

Harvard Business Review

Boards of companies operating in the consumer discretionary industry have a disproportionately high representation of Democrats, while boards operating in the industrials and energy and utilities industries skew more Republican. apparel, automobiles, retailing, media, hotels, restaurants & leisure); Consumer Staples (e.g.,

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The 10 Most Important Sustainable Business Stories from 2014

Harvard Business Review

Both in response and pre-emptively, the world’s leading companies continued to aggressively pivot their businesses toward more sustainable and innovative ways of operating. And investors are noticing: in May, Barclays bank downgraded the bonds of the entire U.S. utility sector. Seeing the writing on the wall, German utility E.On