Newsletter // GreenBuzz, Monday, September 17, 2012

It's been two decades since BSR came on the scene, the first major association of companies committed to "social responsibility," though most of those activities these days fall under the rubric of "sustainability." By whatever name, BSR has been a major force in helping companies — leaders as well as learners, as it likes to point out — understand, embrace, and succeed in changing how they their manage supply chain, employee, community, human rights and, of course, environmental issues.

This week, in the run-up to BSR's 20th annual conference in October, we offer a lengthy interview I conducted with Aron Cramer, BSR's CEO and president, looking back at where CSR and sustainability have come, and looking forward to where it's going. One takeaway: How companies think about consumers and consumption could be a game-changer that determines whether companies can sufficiently address their environmental impacts.

Column Formation: Longtime readers will notice that we've been adding a steady string of regular monthly columns, both by individuals and by topic. We now have more than 20 such columns -- nearly one per business day -- and that number continues to grow. We'll be featuring our columns and columnists on the righthand side of this page, starting with Radical Industrialists, written by sustainability execs at Interface, the floorcovering company. It provides an insider's view of some of the issues and challenges the company has faced in its journey toward "Mission Zero," its effort to be not just benign but restorative. This month's column tackles the vexing problem of eliminating PVC, one of the principal components of its carpet tiles. Look for additional featured columns in GreenBuzz.

Also this week: Marc Gunther returns with an analysis of company ratings and rankings, and another on a startup company using social media to improve building efficiency .... Our VERGE editor, Derek Top, leads a package of stories focusing on smart building technologies (much more on this at our VERGE @ Greenbuild conference, Nov. 12-13) .... and Ann Goodman profiles the two individuals heading up JPMorgan Chase's sustainability efforts, offering both business solutions and social risk management.