THIS MONTH'S SPOTLIGHT: Businesses Going Green
from GDRC's Programme on Sustainable Businesses.
Businesses are increasingly looking at making their
operations more environmentally sustainable - driven
by pressures that are internal (cutting costs,
preventive measures etc.), as well as external
(an aware clientele, discerning consumers etc.).
A number of concepts are currently being used
to make businesses more environmentally sustainable.
They are directed at both the supply and demand
ends of the product lifecycle, and many times
spaning the entire continuum.
This special feature of GDRC's Sustainable
Business Programme looks at four concepts that
enable businesses to 'go green' - (1) Green
Productivity, (2) Green Consumerism, (3) Green
Procurement, and (4) Green Labelling.
GDRC has been working on these and related issues .
Resources on this topic are available at:
http://www.gdrc.org/sustbiz/green/a-green.html
As with all sections of GDRC, contributions, comments
and suggestions are always welcome from users and
subscribers! Please contact GDRC's Coordinator at -
mosaic@gdrc.org
FOCUS ON GDRC: LEARNING LESSONS
Problems-behind-problems [and solutions-for-solutions]
Developing GDRC’s content has brought up an
interesting lesson - When we look at problems we
tend to look at only the facile or visible aspects
and label them as ‘problems’. Slums or squatter
settlements are a classic ‘problem’ that is always
mentioned in improving urban environments. But is
it a ‘problem’? What is the real problem with respect
to slums? What problems lie behind this visible,
tangible ‘problem’ - lack of political will? Vested
private interests? Land management policies? Or a
combination of these?
There will always be problems behind the visible p
roblems and to find a lasting sustainable solution,
we need to find out what these are to attack the
root causes and reasons of the end problem.
And similarly we need to find solutions that can
generate more solutions - one action that fosters,
supports and enables more action to be taken, by
a wider range of stakeholders.
MONTHLY STATISTICS FOR GDRC'S WEBSITE
Total hits encountered - 1,309,328
Total files downloaded - 1,029,031
Total pages viewed - 499,038
Total web visitors - 157,371
Total KBytes - 10,807,965
Pages per day - Avg. 16,634. Max - 23,476
Visits per day - Avg. 5,245 Max. - 7,887
WHAT'S NEW AT GDRC'S WEBSITE?
Some highlights of new items added to GDRC's
programmes:
Urban Environmental Management:
Energy Systems: Pages on Wind Energy and Wave+Tide
Energy were updated and new info added.
NGO Cafe:
Bungee Jumps [Japan NGO Scene]: Japan's NPO Law
Microfinance:
Case Studies: Africap Microfinance Fund
Sustainable Business:
Documents and Reports: More than 3Rs!
ABOUT GDRC MOSAIC
The "GDRC Mosaic" is a monthly email newsletter that provides
information bites, and summarizes programme activities of
GDRC, including new items added to the website.
To subscribe: http://www.gdrc.org/about/newsletter.html
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe-mosaic@gdrc.org
Comments, suggestions and contributions: info-mosaic@gdrc.org
CONTACT ADDRESS:
Global Development Research Centre
1-5-1-1013, Mori Minami Machi, Higashi Nada ku,
Kobe - 658-0011, Japan
Tel and Fax: +(81-78) 452-8414
Email: info-mosaic@gdrc.org
URL: http://www.gdrc.org/
© 2005-2007, GDRC. All rights reserved.
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