CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa : podcast

New podcast on UNESCO-HP Brain Gain Initiative

jeanne2007 — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:15:00 GMT

During the UNESCO World Conference of Higher Education last month in Paris, we had the opportunity to speak to:

- Michel Bernard, Director of Open Innovations for HP Labs
- Ibrahim Niang, Director of the computing center at the University Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal and
- Benjamin Ogwo, Senior Lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

In our latest global citizenship podcast the three talk about the challenges of brain drain in African countries and how the joint project of UNESCO and HP aims to create brain gain with the help of grid and cloud computing.

Click here to listen to the podcast!

Jeannette Weisschuh, Director Global Citizenship, HP EMEA

Podcast with director of Cranfield University on teaching sustainability

jeanne2007 — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:57:00 GMT

David Grayson recently gave an interview to Toby Webb from Ethical Corporation on the development of teaching CSR at universities. David has quite an interesting background: He has been involved in CSR for quite some time, convincing businesses to integrate sustainability and social issues in their agenda. He has also been a social entrepreneur, involved in successful projects such as Housing21 and is still active in the Business in the Community. In the podcast a lot of hot issues are touched upon. Amongst others, David discusses the critique that business schools have focused too much on shareholder value approaches. He also elaborates on the changes in business schools during recent years, such as the integration of the principles of responsible management education or the Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey.

The podcast is definitely a ‘Must Hear’. It illustrates well the CSR discussions and issues that education institutions face. You can listen to it here. What do you think about the points that David raises? He gives several examples from the UK, but I guess these are equally relevant to Europe as well.

CSR is not just a business issue; it’s an overall issue. Our future managers need considerable education in CSR in order to stand up to the latest developments and civil society demands. We have been trying to contribute to a different education in business schools by supporting the Ashridge Sustainable Innovation Award together with EABIS and WWF. Our goal is to get post-graduate students to think about how we need to be innovative today in order to create a low-carbon economy for tomorrow. A jury is currently reviewing the best essays submitted for the Ashridge Sustainable Innovation Award and we will announce the winners in the Autumn. You can read more about the award here.

Enjoy listening to the podcast.

Jeannette Weisschuh, Director Global Citizenship, HP EMEA

New podcast and case study: HP’s International Institute of Technology reaches out

jeanne2007 — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:08:00 GMT

Since the launch of our International Institute of Technology (HP IIT) programme in Russia at the beginning of 2008, the programme has really taken off and is now expanding into other European countries. The IIT programme aims to support IT skills training in In Russia, 17 universities have been equipped with IT hardware, which has enabled them to offer 22 education courses and eight laboratory workshops. But we’re not stopping at Russia.

HP IIT is spreading its wings and is now also available in other European countries such as Bulgaria, Poland and the Ukraine. We recently published a case study about the Institute and talked to Igor Belousov, HP IIT manager and head of HP’s Open Innovations Office in Russia in a podcast about the success of HP IIT. You can read the case study here and listen to the podcast here.

HP IIT is a great way to teach students relevant IT-related business skills such as IT management and printing technology. It’s encouraging to hear the first results and feedback from participants. As an example, a member of the Russian Academy of Science has said that our IIT programme, with all its training facilities, is vital for some Russian industries. I will keep you posted on future evolvements of our programme.

Jeannette Weisschuh, Director Global Citizenship, HP EMEA

New Podcast: Stamenka Uvalic-Trumbic from UNESCO talks about partnership on ‘brain drain’

ulrikehaug — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:24:00 GMT

I’d like to invite you to listen to our latest CSR podcast with Stamenka Uvalic-Trumbic from UNESCO. Stamenka works in UNESCO’s Division of Higher Education where she is Chief of the Section for Reform, Innovation and Quality Assurance. She has been involved in the UNESCO/HP private public partnership since 2003, when we launched a pilot programme that focuses on alleviating ‘brain drain’ in South East Europe.

Through this initiative, HP and UNESCO have helped universities in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia to connect to international research networks with the help of grid-technology. This has allowed the students and faculty to participate in world-class research without having to leave their countries.

I recently met Stamenka at a project meeting where we discussed the extension of our African pilot initiative (which followed the South East Europe project in 2006) to more universities in Africa and the Arab States this year. Not having been with HP during the time of the South East Europe project, I enjoyed learning from Stamenka what worked in this initial project and what didn’t.

Listen to the podcast and let me know what you think about our initiative to connect universities with the help of grid and cloud computing technologies.

Ulrike Haug CSR Stakeholder Programmes

Web CSR communication – what do you desire?

jeanne2007 — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:30:00 GMT

The web has become an important communication tool – for everyone. So the results of a Hallvarsson & Halvarsson survey are not that surprising. Nearly 80% of the European companies that were surveyed use their corporate websites for CSR communication. The web offers a dynamic presentation tool including films and social media. While there are many best practices out there, the survey also points to the shortcoming that not enough corporations adhere to reporting standards and guidelines such as the Global Reporting Initiative. Despite some great examples, standardisation is lacking. You can read more details about the survey here.

Here is an example. We have an EMEA Global Citizenship Homepage as well as a worldwide Global Citizenship Homepage. We also offer an online version of our Global Citizenship report, latest news stories of our programmes and case studies or podcasts.

We can reach a good number of different stakeholders through these channels, which is a clear advantage. But there is also a downside: How can we provide all our stakeholders with the exact CSR communication that they are particularly interested in? The Hallvarsson & Halvarsson survey, for example, points to an existing gap between the expectations of investors regarding the offered CSR communications and what is presented on corporate websites.

One way that we want to find out what YOU are interested in and what YOU want to know is this blog. Please post your comments and let us know what kind of CSR communications you would like to find - here on the blog and also on our website. Let us try to fill existing gaps.

Jeannette Weisschuh, Director of Global Citizenship, HP EMEA

New podcast: Women on the move

jeanne2007 — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:43:00 GMT

We regularly make podcast interviews related to Global Citizenship topics in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. I want to quickly highlight a recent podcast which we have produced with Gabriele Hecker, who talks about the projects she has done after receiving an HP Education Grant. All I can say is: Women are on the move…

Click here to listen to the podcast. Enjoy!

Jeannette Weisschuh, Director of Global Citizenship, HP EMEA