Stop and Reflect
Issue: # 156August 2013
In This Issue
Find out more about Coaching Teams
Yin and Yang
The 1 minute gift
Gentle Interventions is out!

The SUSTAINABILITY pick of the month:


Potato starch packaging for champagne - How cool is that
Potato starch packaging for champagne -
How cool is that!

 


UPCOMING EVENTS
Reserve the Date 

Good Business Makes the Difference
New York, October  8-9 2013
-
Knowledge Management and ARL in Colombia
 
Coaching Teams
for High Performance
Find out more about the powerful design to become a High Performing Team  
Quick Links
Missed an issue? Find them in the Newsletter Archive
  

Did you make your pledge?

JOIN The LARGEST committment for Pro Bono work in corporate history


CLICK HERE
A Billion+ Change
Stop and Reflect
Co-Editor: Tony Pearson
Start the Day with a Breath of Fresh Air
Photo: Zen, by Mariam Tamborenea
Zen - by Mariam Tamborenea
Dear Reader,
 
With China's government and workers driving the shift toward sustainable business practices, what does the future hold for the rising economy? That is the question that led Wayne Visser explore for readers of the blog Talkback, produced by the Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire. His post, which we share here with permission, is part of the series Searching for Sustainable Business

   

Enjoy the reading!

(And check out the Quote of the Month at the bottom - inviting you to Stop and Reflect...)

Yin and Yang: 

Striving For Sustainable Harmony In China  

 By Wayne Visser

 

I first visited China in 2008, where I presented at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) conference on Responsible Competitiveness, in Shanghai. I was also a judge for the Innovate China International MBA competition. My initial impressions were that - contrary to popular belief - in the medium to long term, China may very well set an example for other countries and companies in terms of sustainability and responsibility.

A clue to my optimism came from something that William Valentino, CSR Director for Bayer in China, said to me:"Above all else, China prizes stability. And stability, in turn, can only be maintained under conditions of social upliftment and environmental improvement."

Despite labor conditions remaining a concern, human rights abuses are starting to become the exception rather than the rule, and I believe China's sustained economic boom is doing far more social good than harm.

 

Growth Hits Up Against Environmental Constraints

Reconciling its new-found addiction to growth with environmental constraints, however, may prove its most difficult challenge yet. Elizabeth Economy, author of The River Runs Black, has studied China's environmental challenges in depth and believes the crisis they face is deep and intractable.

The facts she cited when I interviewed her for The Top 50 Sustainability Books, were sobering, to say the least. She told me China has 20 of the world's 30 most polluted cities in terms of air quality.  Seven hundred and fifty thousand people die prematurely every year in China because of respiratory diseases related to air pollution.

Water is another major challenge. China has only 25 percent of the world's average per capita availability of water. Something like almost 30 percent of the water that runs through China's seven major river systems and tributaries is unfit even for agriculture or industry, much less any form of drinking or fishing. Between five and 10 cities will completely run out of water by 2050.

China is roughly one-quarter desert, and the desert is advancing somewhere between 1,300 and 1,900 square miles per year. Furthermore, 10 percent of China"s agricultural land is contaminated with heavy metals and other contaminants. Read More...

   
Give yourself a little gift
Bach in a Japanese Forest
Bach in a Japanese Forest
 
    It's Out!!
Gentle Interventions
GENTLE INTERVENTIONS for TEAM COACHING
Little things that make a BIG difference

Have you wished there was a book with simple tools, that you could just read and try out next morning with your team, and that would be so powerful that it would qualify for the "best of the day" for everyone?
Wish no more and check out Ernie Turner's latest book with stories and tools that are powerful, simple and fun. Click here
 

QUOTE OF THE MONTH
 
You come into the world with nothing, and the purpose of your life is to make something out of nothing. 
 
Henry Louis Mencken
 

LIM - Leadership in International Management is an international consulting firm with Learning Coaches in USA, Latin America, and Asia. We develop your leaders while they develop your business. Visit out website www.LIMglobal.net