David Prager is Global Head of Corporate Affairs at The De Beers Group of Companies. He has overall responsibility for enhancing the profile and image of the De Beers Group across all its businesses. David’s main focus is to shape a commercially conducive environment and promote the reputation of De Beers by developing and driving coordinated communications, government and stakeholder relations and social performance strategies. GlobeScan Director Femke de Man recently interviewed David to gain insight on the value De … “Recognizing Leaders: David Prager, De Beers”
On April 21, 2015, Dr. Anthony Hodge President of ICMM and Chris Coulter co-CEO of GlobeScan, hosted a lively and evidence-rich discussion on the mining industry’s progress toward sustainable development. Drawing on GlobeScan’s primary research amongst ICMM’s stakeholders, they explored the latest perspectives on current and future opportunities and challenges facing the mining industry, and examined the success and failure of both ICMM and its members in achieving continuous improvements in sustainable development. Particular attention was paid to key environmental … “Webinar Recap: Mining Industry Perceptions – Current and Future Opportunities and Challenges”
Debate at the recent Mining Indaba Sustainable Development Day in Cape Town, South Africa was a continuation of the discussion from the 2014 forum. The key takeaway from 2014 was that there is an onus on business to engage with affected communities in order to progress the development agenda. This year, Her Excellency, Graça Machel, President of the Foundation for Community Development shared her vision for the world, and Africa in particular, in a very engaging conversation with Dr. Anthony … “How NGOs Can Build “Trust Bridges” Between Stakeholders in Africa”
On September 26th, National Geographic’s Chief Science and Exploration Officer, Terry Garcia, and I were in Boston MA to publish the 2014 Greendex survey on the status of sustainable consumption across 18 countries, the fifth edition of this National Geographic / GlobeScan collaboration. If you are unfamiliar with it, the Greendex is a composite measure of sustainable (or not) consumer behavior consisting of 65 different types of choices and behaviors analyzed and tracked across four sub-indexes. Quite aptly, we chose … “New Metrics on Consumer Behavior Change”
R. Anthony Hodge is President of the International Council of Mining and Metals (ICMM), which brings together 22 global mining and metals companies to address the challenges around sustainable development. Throughout his career in academia, the private sector, and civil society organizations, Anthony has focused on the practical application of sustainability ideas. GlobeScan Chairman Doug Miller recently interviewed Anthony to gain insight on the value ICMM puts on stakeholder intelligence to help build recognized leadership in an uncertain world. How … “GlobeScan Dialogue: Recognizing Leaders | R. Anthony Hodge, ICMM”
How did we lose the room? This is the question facing the sustainability community as GlobeScan’s latest Radar data shows a decline in how serious the global public considers environmental issues to be. With ample scientific evidence to the contrary (see the latest IPCC report), how do we explain the decreasing public concern in environmental issues? And, on World Environment Day 2014, what does this mean for organisations trying to make headway on sustainability? GlobeScan’s recent Radar public opinion survey asked … “Enough of the Doom and Gloom: Amidst Declining Environmental Concern, Real Leadership is Needed to Re-Engage the Public”
At the 2014 Mining Indaba Sustainable Development day, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane (Founder and Chair of the board for African Monitor and Former Archbishop of Cape Town) gave a keynote address setting the tone for a proceeding panel discussion on mining and community relations, stressing the need to bring morality into business decisions with the understanding that profitability needs not to be the only consideration. A common thread running through the discussion that followed was the need for effective, transparent and … “Mining and Community Relations: Conflict and Resolution in South Africa”
Against the backdrop of one the world’s most severe typhoons and landmark levels of atmospheric CO2, the 19th Conference of the Parties has kicked off this week in Warsaw, Poland. COP19, intended to lay down the groundwork ahead of a new global climate change agreement in Paris in 2015, needs significant progress by politicians, business leaders, opinion formers and scientists if they are to reach consensus. The general population is unlikely to hear much about the conference via mainstream media … “Attention COP19: Global Public Supports Major Action To Tackle Climate Change”
Job losses at Anglo American Platinum and Rio Tinto, as well as the possible liquidation of UK Coal, are just three incidents from recent weeks that highlight the headwinds facing the mining industry, with commodity prices remaining depressed. GlobeScan’s polling shows that the industry faces similar challenges connecting with the general public. In most of the countries surveyed in our Radar global public attitudes tracking, majorities cannot name a single mining company they respect. To some degree this low public … “Mining industry faces a struggle to win public hearts and minds”
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)