Business|Adults|Upper-Intermediate|19. Ethics and Companies

The first McDonald’s restaurant opened in 1955 in Des Plaines, Illinois, USA. Today the company operates in 121 countries around the world, with eight key markets (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US) representing about 80% of its worldwide sales. Its most famous products are hamburgers and cheeseburgers, although a variety of other ready dishes are served.

The Ethical trading Initiative is a UK-based alliance of companies, non-governmental organisations and trade unions working together to promote ethical trade. Members address questions of workers’ rights, child labour, forced labour, sweatshops, working conditions and health & safety at work.

Marks & Spencer is one of the UK’s leading retailers of clothing, foods, household goods and financial services. The company, established in 1884, operates over 300 stores in the UK, and has an additional 150 stores in 27 other countries.

Zurich Financial Services Group, based in Zurich, Switzerland, was founded in 1872. The group offers insurance, investment and retirement planning products and services to individuals and businesses worldwide. It has offices in 60 countries, and also sells through banks, brokers, partners, direct marketing and the Internet.

EarthWatch is an international research and conservation and education organisation, and we have over 100 field research projects around the world. That involves, er, scientists looking at how animals and plants are coping in their natural environment. So all these 100 projects are supported from offices that we have in the US, in the UK, in India, in Melbourne, and in Japan and China. And the purpose of our work is to provide the scientific data about what’s happening to animals and plants in the world as climate change and as human population expands and as the environment is degraded. All our field research projects are designed in a way that members of the public, company employees, teachers, youth, young scientists can join our researchers in the field as field assistants and collect real data that is contributing to understanding what is happening.

EarthWatch is an international research and conservation and education organisation, and we have over 100 field research projects around the world. That involves, er, scientists looking at how animals and plants are coping in their natural environment. So all these 100 projects are supported from offices that we have in the US, in the UK, in India, in Melbourne, and in Japan and China. And the purpose of our work is to provide the scientific data about what’s happening to animals and plants in the world as climate change and as human population expands and as the environment is degraded. All our field research projects are designed in a way that members of the public, company employees, teachers, youth, young scientists can join our researchers in the field as field assistants and collect real data that is contributing to understanding what is happening.

Interviewer David Hillyard

Interviewer: What role can corporate sponsors play in helping the environment?
David Hillyard: Companies have a huge role to play. Er, our global economy is based on the companies operating and producing goods and services that we consume. So, fundamentally, businesses need to change the way they operate in order to help and reduce the environmental impact of their operations. I think many companies are able to set leading examples, to innovate and to find new solutions to the environmental problems we have. So, er, most people in the world work for a company, so the opportunity for companies to educate and engage their employees and get their employees inspired and motivated to do something in their own communities or in their workplace with respect to the environment is a big opportunity that … that EarthWatch certainly believes in, and EarthWatch works with many companies to try and promote environmental change and then promote good practice so that those leading companies can then influence other companies to follow, and also influence government.

So, for example, we work with HSBC, the global bank, on a climate partnership which is in collaboration with other key conservation organisations such as WWF and the Smithsonian Institute, and through that, we’re providing a learning opportunity online for every single HSBC employee around the world and also setting up five climate-change research centres around the world, and 2,000 HSBC employees over the next five years will join our field researchers in India, in Brazil, in the US, in the UK and in China to carry out data collection to understand how forests are, are coping with climate change and what is happening and what, what, how animals and plants are being affected. So that’s a very important programme, and it’s a very important way of getting company employees involved in our work, understanding what the issues are and then taking that back into their workplace and becoming what we call them climate champions, ambassadors for, for environmental change, so that they can then influence their colleagues and also the way that HSBC operates as a business. So that’s an example of a very important programme for us, er, and a demonstration of how a company can, er, can and should make a difference in terms of these issues.

EarthWatch is an international research and conservation and education organisation, and we have over 100 field research projects around the world. That involves, er, scientists looking at how animals and plants are coping in their natural environment. So all these 100 projects are supported from offices that we have in the US, in the UK, in India, in Melbourne, and in Japan and China. And the purpose of our work is to provide the scientific data about what’s happening to animals and plants in the world as climate change and as human population expands and as the environment is degraded. All our field research projects are designed in a way that members of the public, company employees, teachers, youth, young scientists can join our researchers in the field as field assistants and collect real data that is contributing to understanding what is happening.

So, for example, we work with HSBC, the global bank, on a climate partnership which is in collaboration with other key conservation organisations such as WWF and the Smithsonian Institute, and through that, we’re providing a learning opportunity online for every single HSBC employee around the world and also setting up five climate-change research centres around the world, and 2,000 HSBC employees over the next five years will join our field researchers in India, in Brazil, in the US, in the UK and in China to carry out data collection to understand how forests are, are coping with climate change and what is happening and what, what, how animals and plants are being affected. So that’s a very important programme, and it’s a very important way of getting company employees involved in our work, understanding what the issues are and then taking that back into their workplace and becoming what we call them climate champions, ambassadors for, for environmental change, so that they can then influence their colleagues and also the way that HSBC operates as a business. So that’s an example of a very important programme for us, er, and a demonstration of how a company can, er, can and should make a difference in terms of these issues.