Selected findings from a national study of Canadian nonprofit executive leaders, conducted on behalf of the HR Council for the Non Profit Sector
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[jumplinks] Download the release 12 March 2012 – The public around the world is divided on whether the Paralympics should be integrated into the Olympic Games or should remain a separate event, according to a new 19-nation global poll for BBC World Service. The results of the poll of 10,294 people, conducted by GlobeScan, show that similar numbers favour making the Paralympics part of the Olympics (47%) and keeping it as a separate event (43%). At present, the Paralympic Games … “Public Divided On Whether to Integrate Olympics and Paralympics: Global Poll”
[jumplinks] Download the Full Report (PDF) 25 April 2012 – Perceptions of economic unfairness have become further entrenched around the world over the past three years, according to the results of a new 22-nation global poll for BBC World Service. The poll, conducted by GlobeScan among 11,740 people, shows that majorities in 17 of the 22 countries surveyed believe that economic benefits and burdens are not fairly shared in their country. The question was asked previously in 2009, when there … “Economic System Seen as Unfair: Global Poll”
Recent GDP figures from some of the world’s major economies suggest that prospects for a return to sustained growth in the global economy remain uncertain. But many have also questioned whether a return to pre-crisis rates of economic expansion is even desirable, given the apparent link between GDP growth and negative environmental consequences such as rapid natural resource depletion and increased carbon emissions.
GlobeScan and SustainAbility’s regular tracking of specialists in sustainability around the world suggests that experts are split on whether economic growth can be reconciled with sustainable consumption. Those polled recently were divided on the question, with 40 percent agreeing that there was an “inherent conflict” between economic growth and sustainable consumption, and 43 percent disagreeing.
The findings reveal a difference in perspective on either side of the Atlantic. The North American experts polled are more optimistic that aspirations for growth can be reconciled with sustainable consumption, with 51 percent disagreeing that there is an inherent conflict between the two, and only 34 percent agreeing. In Europe, by contrast, experts are much less sure, with those who see a fundamental conflict between the two goals (44%) slightly outnumbering those who think they are reconcilable (40%).
Either way, with anemic growth rates in most of the G7 economies, the challenge for responsible companies is more likely, for now, to be focused on how to remain profitable yet sustainable in a flat economy.
Finding from The 2011 GlobeScan/SustainAbility Survey
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)
The potency of water as a political issue in the world’s major emerging economies was underlined again this week when it was reported that water levels had plunged in the Siang river in India’s north-east. Allegations were levelled that China—where water stress is also a major concern—had diverted much of the water on the Chinese side of the border, preventing it reaching farmers and residents who depend upon on it in the Indian state of Assam.
This controversy is not surprising, given the central importance that Indian citizens attach to water as an issue, according to Globescan’s global attitudes tracking. Our most recent data reveal that Indians consider fresh water shortages to be the most serious of a range of environmental problems, with nearly seven in ten (68%) rating them as “very serious”—up nearly ten percentage points since 2008. Furthermore, water pollution was cited this year as the second most serious environmental problem, with 59% rating it “very serious,” well ahead of problems like climate change (47%).
With the Indian economy registering its seventh consecutive quarter of slow growth, water insecurity, already an important concern, is likely to become increasingly central to the politics of this huge emerging economy.
Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 2, 2011
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)
First white paper on sustainability leadership from The Regeneration Roadmap.
US Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has caused controversy this week because of his aggressive stance on America’s economic relations with China. He recently promised, if elected, to declare China a “currency manipulator” and impose tariffs on Chinese goods, prompting fears of a trade war.
But while Romney’s comments have attracted criticism from some on his own side, who argue the US has more to lose than gain from a tariff war with China, GlobeScan’s most recent public attitudes tracking suggests that Romney’s stance on tariffs is consistent with a majority of US public opinion. Since it was initially measured in 2002, American public support for trade barriers as a way of protecting jobs has remained consistently high, rising from 60% in 2002 to 65% in 2011.
However, other findings suggest this is not part of a new mood of economic nationalism. GlobeScan’s data also show that the numbers who think that government should prevent foreign companies from buying national companies has fallen significantly since 2006. Taken together, these findings suggest that in hard economic times, the need to safeguard US jobs is winning out over both free-market doctrine and patriotic sentiment among the US public.
Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 2, 2011
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)
[jumplinks] Download The Press Release (PDF) 22 February 2012 – Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed in a new 22-nation poll for BBC World Service think that the recent increase in overseas investment in Africa will prove to be a good thing for the continent, with African citizens among the most upbeat. The findings of the poll, conducted by GlobeScan among 21,558 people, show that most respondents are relaxed about foreign companies purchasing long-term rights to African natural resources and land, … “Increased Foreign Investment will be “Good for Africa”: Global Poll”
Save the Children reported this week that the recent rise in global food prices was taking its toll on families across the developing world, and that half a billion children risk being born physically and mentally stunted over the next fifteen years if no concerted action is taken. GlobeScan’s recent polling for Save the Children, as well as its regular global attitudes tracking, confirm the scale of the problem.
GlobeScan’s own annual tracking research reveals high levels of concerns about the rising cost of food and energy among citizens across the world, with proportions saying this issue is “very serious” particularly high in the Philippines and the Latin American countries surveyed. The rising cost of food and energy is also of relatively high concern in China and Russia; concern has grown significantly in China over the past two years as food prices have continued to rise rapidly in that market.
In many developing countries, the effects of rising food and energy prices are particularly felt among those who have not benefitted from economic growth that has frequently been concentrated to specific sections of society, often leaving behind low-income and low-educated groups. In a recent survey fielded by GlobeScan on behalf of Save the Children in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, and Bangladesh—countries where half the world’s malnourished children live—large majorities in all countries polled say that the rising price of food has become their most pressing concern this year. Concern is most acute in Nigeria and Bangladesh, where people overwhelmingly feel that food price rises are the most pressing issue they face.
A third of parents surveyed revealed that their children complained they didn’t have enough to eat. Around one in six parents (16%) – and nearly one in three in Nigeria (30%) – say they have allowed their children to skip school to help pay for their family’s food. The charity warns that if no concerted action is taken, half a billion children will be physically and mentally stunted over the next 15 years.
Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 2, 2011
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)
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Multi-country nutrition research, topline results conducted on behalf of Save the Children.
Multi-country nutrition research report conducted on behalf of Save the Children
Download the Full Report: “A Life Free from Hunger” (PDF) Download the Topline Results of the Global Nutritian Poll (PDF) 15 February 2012 – New global research by Save the Children has revealed that, after a year of soaring food prices, nearly half of surveyed families say they have been forced to cut back on food. Nearly a third of parents surveyed said their children complained that they didn’t have enough food to eat. The poll, conducted in India, Nigeria, … “A Life Free from Hunger: Tackling Child Malnutrition”
The consequences of high oil prices–still around $100 a barrel–are making themselves felt again. Exxon has announced increased profits, and prices at the fuel pump are at near-record levels.
So the fact that fears of further price increases are at the top of consumers’ concerns about energy, according to GlobeScan’s world public attitudes tracking, should not come as a surprise. Nearly one in four citizens (23%) across nine countries polled since 1998 now cites rising prices as their primary energy-related concern.
The latest data also reveals the impact of last year’s incident at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant. Concern about the risks posed by nuclear power had fallen away significantly the last time this question was fielded in 2008, as many governments contemplated ramping up their nuclear programs in response to increasing concerns over energy security and supply. But the Fukushima accident has clearly made many think again, and worries about the risks of nuclear power are now mentioned as the primary energy-related concern by nearly as many (21%) as possible price increases.
However, other recent GlobeScan findings suggest that some countries are bucking the trend. While support for building new nuclear power stations has fallen in many countries, it has remained stable in the USA, and has risen in the UK. With support for nuclear expansion also high in China and Pakistan, it is too soon to say that public opinion has swung decisively against nuclear power.
Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 2, 2011
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)
Citizens of some of the world’s richest, most democratic nations are questioning whether their countries are really governed in accordance with the public will, according to the latest GlobeScan tracking.
In 2011, GlobeScan asked citizens to say whether they considered that their country was “governed by the will of the people.” With many of the countries also surveyed back in 2002, the findings show how perceptions have shifted over nearly a decade.
They reveal that there have been significant decreases in four of the world’s biggest economies—Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA—in the proportions who believe that the will of the people governs their country. Proportions who believe this have fallen from 32% to 21% in Germany, 44% to 29% in the USA, 27% to 21% in the UK, and 15% to 4% in Japan—the lowest proportion in the survey.
Despite unrest about alleged vote-rigging in recent parliamentary elections, Russia is one of the few countries where the number of citizens satisfied with the government’s responsiveness to public opinion has increased over the decade—still, fewer than one in five Russians (19%, up from 12%) believes that the country is governed by the will of the people.
With negative perceptions of public power more common in the world’s major democracies than in China (where 47% believe the country is governed by the will of the people), it seems that elections in themselves may no longer be sufficient to create a strong sense of popular sovereignty.
Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 2, 2011
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)
The last year has seen an increased profile for activism of all types. Sometimes this has manifested against the practices of corporations (such as the ongoing Occupy movement) while at others the targets are governments, as with the Arab Spring and Wikipedia’s online protest against proposed US anti-piracy legislation.
GlobeScan and SustainAbility recently polled an international panel of experts in sustainability on what they considered the most effective activist tactics to be. As the chart above shows, the panel (drawn from businesses, NGOs, government and academia) rated tactics that focus on key business value drivers as the most effective in influencing corporate behaviour: product boycotts (or on the flip-side, preferential purchasing) for their impact on sales and shareholder activism for its effect on access to capital. The most confrontational tactic – civil disobedience – is seen as the least effective by some distance, while the more collaborative method of dialogue with companies is rated the second-least effective.
With experts also rating socially responsible investors – a group in a particularly strong position to shape companies’ business value drivers – as the most important audience for businesses and government to pay attention to, the pressure on companies to respond to different agendas as they move towards sustainability looks likely to increase.
Finding from The 2011 GlobeScan/SustainAbility Survey
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)
Download the Press Release (PDF) 26 January 2012 – Financial short-termism represents a critical barrier to businesses’ transition to sustainability, according to a new poll. The latest wave of The Sustainability Survey—GlobeScan and SustainAbility’s regular survey of attitudes across businesses, NGOs, academia and government—reveals that a very large majority (88%) of the 642 experts polled see pressure for short-term financial results as a barrier to businesses becoming more sustainable. The survey, conducted in December 2011, asked experts to say whether they … “Financial Short-Termism a Major Obstacle to Sustainable Change in Business: Expert Poll”
24 January 2012 – Sustainability experts around the world believe that social activist tactics that directly impact business value drivers, such as product boycotts on sales or shareholder activism on access to capital, are the most effective ways of driving changes in corporate strategy and behaviour, according to a new poll released today. The latest findings from The Sustainability Survey Research Program released by international consultancies GlobeScan and SustainAbility also indicate that experts believe activists will play a critical role on … “Targeting Business Value Drivers Most Effective Tactic to Drive Sustainable Behaviour by Companies: Expert Poll”
[jumplinks] Download The Press Release (PDF) 23 January 2012 – Citizens of developing nations overwhelmingly see mobile phones as critical to their country’s economic success and to their own quality of life, a new 22-nation poll by the BBC reveals. The poll, conducted by GlobeScan among 21,558 people, indicates that the countries most likely to rate mobile phones as “essential” or “very important” to their economy are all in the developing world. Nigerians almost unanimously regard them as central to the … “Mobile Phones Central to Developing Countries’ Economic Success, Quality of Life: Global Poll”
The depletion of natural resources has emerged as the dominant environmental concern among citizens of the global North, according to the latest wave of GlobeScan’s tracking survey of world environmental concerns, rating ahead of issues such as climate change and water shortages.
Environmental concern has been on a long-term upward trajectory, with majorities of the global public in countries tracked by GlobeScan rating a range of environmental challenges as “very serious,” despite a falling back of concern, particularly about the climate, in 2009.
The map above illustrates the degree to which regional dynamics and economic circumstances influence the perceived severity of environmental issues around the world. Water shortages are the dominant public concern in sub-Saharan Africa, air pollution and species loss in Latin America, and automobile emissions in rapidly urbanizing China. Climate change remains a second-tier environmental concern in most nations.
The continued pre-eminence of natural resource depletion, relative to other environmental challenges, as a concern in three key economies of the global North —the UK, the USA, and Germany—may reflect a convergence of environmental concern with economic worries, particularly about the possible impact of energy shortages in the future.
It also highlights the need for those seeking to raise public awareness of environmental issues to demonstrate the link between environmental degradation and people’s own quality of life.
Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 2, 2011
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)
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Support for the free market as the best available economic system has slipped markedly in the UK over the past two years. This mirrors the sharp decline in support for free market economics recorded in the US last year—although it has since recovered a little there—and comes at a time when Occupy protestors have been camped in the City challenging the practices of the financial sector.
Nonetheless, it is still striking that this fall in support is happening when the UK has its first right-of-center government since 1997, which has vigorously defended the role of the City in British economic life and is pressing ahead with an ambitious programme of free-market reforms and cuts to public services.
In contrast, support for the free market economic system has strengthened over the past two years in India, where the economy has rebounded robustly following the global financial crisis.
Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 2, 2011
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)
While problems such as the ongoing crisis in the Eurozone, climate change, and unrest in the Middle East preoccupy governments around the world as 2012 begins, GlobeScan’s regular monitoring of global concern over a range of issues highlights that it is more immediate and everyday problems that are often at the forefront of citizens’ minds.
In GlobeScan’s annual tracking research, corruption once again emerges as one of the global problems considered to be most serious. It is also the problem that citizens are most likely to cite when asked which global problems they have discussed with their friends and family over the past month.
As this map shows, corruption tops the list of “most talked about” problems in a range of developing and emerging economies, including Peru in South America, Ghana and Egypt in Africa, Turkey in Europe, and India and Indonesia in Asia. Corruption is also often cited as a barrier to getting to grips with many of the other global problems that, as GlobeScan’s tracking shows, preoccupy many global citizens.
Taking a strong and public stand against corruption will be an important element in what businesses need to do to demonstrate their relevance to citizens’ lives, help build public trust, and maintain their social licence to operate.
Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 2, 2011
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)
At the end of 2011, the external environment for business has rarely been more challenging. With the Eurozone crisis unresolved, the economic headwinds that have been afflicting most of the world’s industrialised economies continue to blow – and recent data on Brazil’s economy in the last quarter suggest they may be spreading to the BRIC economies that until now have been enjoying buoyant economic growth. At the same time, pressure to regulate to ensure environmental and social responsibility is on the rise.
GlobeScan’s tracking of public respect for business across a number of sectors illustrates that at a time when consumers have little to spend and jobs are scarce, businesses are finding it hard to retain public esteem. In nine of the twelve sectors that GlobeScan tracks, respect has fallen across twelve developed and developing economies, with falls particularly sharp for food (with prices on the rise), banking (suffering from diminished consumer trust since the bailouts in 2008) and oil (thanks to a combination of high prices and environmental impact worries).
To regain consumer respect, these sectors will need to show in 2012 that they are able to deliver affordable products and services in tough economic times, while keeping one step ahead of consumer expectations on social and environmental responsibility.
Finding from the GlobeScan Radar, Wave 2, 2011
For more information on this finding, please contact Sam Mountford (Read Bio)
A GlobeScan / Haas School of Business study of the financial sector reveals “inclusive innovation” offers opportunity for the sector to grow and re-engage with society.