Milestones in Citizenship
One cannot effectively plan for the future without looking at our evolution and the lessons from the past. Dating back to 1999, this timeline outlines milestones in the citizenship field in areas including reporting, standards, human rights...

Action Points Innovation in Sewage Treatment
One of the big challenges of the city of Campinas, located in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, has been the treatment of sewage. A significant amount is still being discharged into rivers without treatment, jeopardizing the safety of the water...

Expert Perspectives The Naked Corporation
A decade ago, transparency was considered an option and modesty was seen as an asset. No longer. For companies today, the question isn’t whether they should be forthcoming about their environmental and social impacts, commitments and achievements...

Expert Perspectives The Power of Zero
2012 will be a milestone year for sustainability, with the 20th anniversary of the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro marked by another major event in the city and the 25th anniversary of the Brundtland Commission, which began the mainstreaming of...

Expert Perspectives The Green Race Has Already Begun
The World Business Council is a group of more than 200 businesses working together on sustainable development. Over the past 16 years we have seen sustainable development considerations shift out of the margins labeled “corporate social...

Action Points Oil Sands and Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is all about leveraging unique material properties that exist at the smallest scales. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter—by comparison, a sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick. Researchers get excited about...

Action Points Stop the Line: Q&A with Glen Parkes
How are environment, health, safety and quality standards being enforced at GE India Oil & Gas? We have an internal philosophy at Oil & Gas built around compliance, environment, health and safety (EHS), and quality called “Stop the...

Action Points Treasure Hunts
At more than 300 sites around the world, GE employees have conducted “Treasure Hunts.” An Energy Treasure Hunt is a process leveraged from lean manufacturing, developed by Toyota and refined by GE, designed to identify projects and...

Action Points The Power of Sugarcane-Ethanol
In January 2010, GE and Petrobrás celebrated the use of sugarcane-ethanol in a gas turbine system to produce electricity on a full commercial scale, a world’s first. The operation, at the Juiz de Fora power plant, is a significant milestone for...

Expert Perspectives The Chronic Disease Challenge
Ill health in developing countries is a major cause of poverty and a barrier to economic development. Most people recognize that this means that combating infectious diseases and making childbirth and the first years of life safer should be key...