Content tagged with "pontis"

12.03.2018.

China keeps promise and shuts down its ivory trade. Costa Rica is the leader in electricity production from renewable sources and a Dutch studio designs city benches from plastic waste.
The day of 31st December 2017 is an important one for animal rights defenders in China. The country officially shut down all legal, government-licensed ivory trade.

12.03.2018.

2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals accepted by all UN member countries propose universal program to be implemented in every country. The member countries committed to achieve 17 development goals before the year 2030 and the progress will be monitored continuously according to an accepted set of indicators. How did Slovakia do in 2017? The worst score was achieved in meeting the goal Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure...

06.02.2018.

How can a company introduce corporate volunteering? And how can one improve and extend corporate volunteering programmes in companies where they already exist? We at the Pontis Foundation used to spend a lot of time trying to figure out the answer to this question. Our main source of inspiration came from New York more than ten years ago, when our manager Lenka Surotchak attended a large volunteering event called New York Cares.

09.01.2018.

Women represent approximately one half of the World‘s population but it will take more than 80 years until gender equality is achieved globally in the fields of education, health care, economy and politics. There are, however, no ‘buts’ in gender equality as such. From the economic and social view point, we are talking about the benefits that are not limited exclusively to one gender. It is human potential – skills and productivity – that is deemed to be the most important factor defining the competitiveness of the country.

07.01.2018.

Up to one third of the food produced in the world gets lost or wasted before it is consumed by people. According to UN Food and Agriculture Organization this amounts to approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of food with roughly US$ 680 billion in industrialized countries and US$ 310 billion in developing countries. At the same time almost a billion people are living in food poverty. The food waste in Europe alone could feed around 200 million people.

05.01.2018.

Inclusion and diversity are important parts of organizational culture of many companies. Ensuring inclusive environment in the workplace using various employee backgrounds and experiences regardless of their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression is key to success and innovation. Most companies are now fully realizing this, but it certainly needs effort and determination to introduce the necessary measures throughout all corporate levels into common practice...

27.10.2017.

For year 2017, the developments in the field of CSR and sustainability reporting are considerably connected with the environment. The end of 2015 was marked by COP 21, resulting in Paris Agreement – a strong statement on the environmental course we wish to take globally. Though the obligations connected to it are generally self-imposed, it was a disheartening development when in June the US government made the decision to withdraw from the Agreement...

15.10.2017.

We often see, both in CSR and in social entrepreneurship, old goods in a new coat, something that has been here before, has already been done, but got dusted off. Often, we see projects that impact a life of an individual. And these are great inspirational steps in promoting social responsibility and civic engagement. However, it shouldn’t be forgotten that when we work on lowering our carbon emissions or promote inclusiveness in a workplace, we don’t aim for influencing one office space...

11.08.2017.

It’s been almost a year since France adopted the El Khomri Law, named after the then Minister of Labour Myriam El Khomri. It’s also been half a year since part of it went into effect on January 1st, and established a new human right in France – the right to disconnect.

30.06.2017.

Many cities across the globe are now facing serious challenges driven by air pollution, which causes serious breathing problems of their citizens. Respected sources have reported that as much as 1.48 trillion euros is lost annually in Europe due to polluted air.

30.06.2017.

Slovakia is the fifteenth EU country where employers can join the Diversity Charter. It is the first initiative that enables companies, non-profit organizations, and state authorities to publicly declare their support of diversity and inclusion at workplace. On Tuesday, 30th of May 2017, first Slovak companies joined the Diversity Charter.

01.06.2017.

We spend about a third of our lives at work, most of us indoors. The environment we work in, therefore, has a significant impact on our physical and mental health as well as on our motivation and performance. Despite this, very few people are interested in what qualities our offices possess...

27.04.2017.

Reporting on Corporate Social Responsibility is not only about leadership, people in the community and their lives or transparency. It is also about having fun!

02.03.2017.

There are plenty of topics. All that remains is choosing the ones that are the most important for the company stakeholders and the company itself. The report should describe what has happened during a so-called reporting period. It is defined as the time period for which the company describes its results – usually one calendar year.

02.03.2017.

Circular economy represents a new alternative to a traditional linear economy based on “take-make-consume-dispose” patterns. The re-circulation of materials in economy helps keep resources in the production process as long as possible and use them to the maximum of their value. Producing with lesser impact on the environment and evaluating the impact of products during their entire life cycles already at their design stage are, however, only the first step.

02.03.2017.

The tool which is most commonly used to prepare reports on corporate responsibility are the Global Reporting Initiative Guidelines. These guidelines can be used to write the report by any company or organisation. Using them is free. As a supplement to these guidelines, there are several manuals specially prepared and published for individual types of business (e.g. the mining industry or banks).

EU Directive on disclosure of non-financial and diversity information: What is it going to be like in Slovakia?

In 2015, the National Council of the Slovak Republic passed an amendment to Act No. 431 / 2002 on Accounting, as amended (hereinafter referred to as “the Act on Accounting”), which introduced a new obligation for companies to disclose information from the area of Corporate Social Responsibility and diversity policies in their annual report.

Pontis Foundation strives to educate the Slovak public and businesspeople about non-financial reporting. Slovak Compliance Days 2016 is a regular event organized by The Slovak Compliance Circle organisation. This year, it was held in Trnava on November 8 and 9, 2016, under the auspices of the Slovak president, Andrej Kiska, with the topic “Judicial Responsibility of Legal Persons – Compliance”.

A harmony between companies’ actions and their stakeholders’ expectations is becoming the highest priority for companies in today’s world. Increasingly more companies are becoming aware of the risks and opportunities that responsible entrepreneurship entails for companies’ reputation.

At the beginning of December, Pontis Foundation organized a meeting of representatives from the private, state and voluntary sector, which was held in the premises of the Municipal Office in the town of Poprad. The event under the name Action Oriented Forum on the Unemployment of Marginalized Roma Community: From Companies´ Needs to Concrete Answers allowed for various interesting discussions about positive examples, barriers, needs and ways how to solve current unemployment of socially marginalized communities.