What’s behind the gender wage gap in Seattle?

Lindsay McBride is an associate consultant based in APCO’s Seattle office.

As the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act approaches in June, it’s appropriate to stop and see how far we’ve come and how much work needs to be done to close the wage gap between women and men. Activists and economists alike have expressed concern over the extremely slow rate of progress in the wage gap between men and women in the United States, and to highlight this lack of progress, the National Partnership for Women & Families released a study on the gender wage gap in the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. What city was the worst offender? Seattle.… Read more »

Posted on Thursday, May 16th, 2013 By SharedPurpose
Catogories  Women and Girls | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

iCrisis, version 2.0

buycottThree years ago I predicted the coming armageddon for brands by discussing databases and highlighting the Good Guide mobile app. If you haven’t heard of it, that’s the app where you scan the barcode of a box of cereal in a store with your smartphone and the app tells you that the cereal manufacturer “violated the Clean Water Act” or has some controversial ingredient in it. It also offers any number of “higher rated” substitute products that more closely meet the app founder’s standards. Back then I tried it and then I wrote:

And then I realized it’s just a matter of time before I’m going to learn if a company discriminates against gay people, or is a union buster, or has a CEO that denies climate change, or has a political action committee that gives only to Republicans, or has a slew of OSHA violations, or doesn’t pay any taxes, or has another product that’s being recalled – ALL AT THE POINT OF SALE.

The good news about Good Guide is the database is responsibly curated – while the owners of the database are of the west-coast, granola-crunchy variety, they are at least open to discussion with people from other points of view or agendas.… Read more »

Posted on Thursday, May 16th, 2013 By SharedPurpose
Catogories  Business Alignment/Integration CR in North America Technology and CR | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Takeaways From New Renewable Energy Proposals in Washington State

I wrote earlier this year that Washington state Governor Jay Inslee has pledged to focus on developing renewable energy and clean technology as a high priority of his new administration. In his budget, made public this week, the governor called for more than $100 million in state investments to be made in these fields, including in higher education, research and other initiatives to reduce emissions and address climate change.

Governor Inslee’s proposals come at an interesting time for clean tech, as more and more movement on issues like renewable portfolio standards (RPS) is occurring at the state level. The Washington Post put a spotlight on the topic recently (The biggest fight over renewable energy is now in the states), noting that thanks to such focus, renewable energy capacity in the U.S. has doubled in the last four years. … Read more »

Posted on Thursday, April 4th, 2013 By Daniel Gabis
Catogories  Environment Technology and CR | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Red Equal Signs: Top Takeaways for Cause-Conscious Companies

This post originally appeared on Armchair Advocates.

red equal signIf you’ve opened a laptop or turned on a TV in the last week, you know the Supreme Court has just heard arguments in two landmark cases involving same-sex marriage: a challenge to California’s controversial ban on same-sex marriage (Prop. 8), and to the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

And, if you logged onto Facebook or Twitter... Read more »

Posted on Thursday, March 28th, 2013 By Daniel Gabis
Catogories  Business Alignment/Integration Cause Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Women Helping Women

International Women's DayMuch has been written on the need to increase the number of women leaders and for the women leaders that do exist to leverage their influence to help other women. So this International Women’s Day, I wanted to take a moment to celebrate just a few of the countless women in power who are giving their time, talent and treasure to support other women.

Hillary Clinton visited more countries than any other secretary of state – 112 – and on most trips, she made visiting women’s projects, businesses or advocates a priority. Her commitment to promoting women’s social, political and economic rights and opportunities inspired both conversation and action the world over.… Read more »

Posted on Friday, March 8th, 2013 By Leela Stake
Catogories  Women and Girls | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Meet the Aspirationals: Three Findings from Regeneration Roadmap

As we all know, consumer attitudes toward sustainability are a hot topic in the CR world. A recent webinar from Regeneration Roadmap, an initiative that engages the private sector in addressing environmental and social sustainability challenges, explored just this topic. Their presentation featured some interesting insights on the issue. Here are three points that we thought were most notable:… Read more »

Posted on Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 By Laura Palantone
Catogories  Business Alignment/Integration Environment | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

As Same-Sex Marriage Reaches the Supreme Court, So Does Support from Corporate America

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear two landmark cases involving the rights of same-sex couples to marry. That these two cases are before the country’s highest court is a testament to just how far along the cause of same-sex marriage has come in recent years, as marriage advocates won game-changing electoral battles in 2011 and 2012 in New York, Maryland, Maine and here in Washington State.

However, even with this growing momentum, an ... Read more »

Posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2013 By Daniel Gabis
Catogories  Business Alignment/Integration CR in North America | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Shareholders of the World, Unite!? (Part II)

In case you missed it, I wanted to post an update on the dispute between Qualcomm and the New York state government, which was the subject of a blog post back in December. As a recap, the New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, acting on behalf of public employee retirement funds, had filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm, of which New York state is a shareholder, calling for disclosure about the beneficiaries of its... Read more »

Posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2013 By James Robinson
Catogories  Business Alignment/Integration Reporting What's Next for CR | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mandatorily Philanthropic?

Sukanti GhoshA shade over two decades ago, while conducting a study at Tata Steel, I remember being astounded by the work the steel major was doing in the area of community relations, social development and tribal welfare both in and around Jamshedpur and in other parts of the country. I remember spending days in Steel City as I tried to get a first-hand account of what the company was doing even after going through each and every document that I could lay my hands on – a Social Audit Report, a Sustainability Report, an Environment Report and reams of related documentation that painstakingly laid out the issues the company was trying to address; the success metrics that had been defined at the beginning of the programme; and the progress the company had made over the years in achieving these goals. I also remember that on my way back from Jamshedpur, I threw out most of my clothes from the suitcase I had carried as I wanted to keep the reams of material I had picked up from the plant. Strange as it may sound, I still have most of this material.… Read more »

Posted on Monday, February 25th, 2013 By SharedPurpose
Catogories  Business Alignment/Integration CR in Asia | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Word from Seattle: U.S. Needs Sustained Clean Tech Movement

And, less than a week after Inslee’s swearing-in, Washington state’s leading clean tech trade association, the Washington Clean Technology Alliance (WCTA) gathered clean tech leaders from around the state to discuss the future of the industry in the wake of 2012’s elections.… Read more »

Posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 By Daniel Gabis
Catogories  Environment | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment