“Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.”
- John Wooden
On the pH scale, 7 is the number that is perfectly balanced between being acidic or basic. And we aim to be balanced in everything we do at p.h. balanced films, most especially in the information we provide to you. We recognize the issues we address are complex – so we aim to give you a balanced view, based on reliable sources. What can YOU then do? Continue the Power of 7 by sharing what you read with 7 people… and if they each spread the word to another 7 people, who in turn share with another 7, before long, we’ll all see real change – and it starts with YOU.
This Friday, our favorite quote comes from one of our favorite coaches: John Wooden. While his advice came in the course of winning ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period (seven of those in a row!), we think it’s right on target for those deciding how corporate practices will respect people’s rights in their day-to-day operations: “Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.” - John Wooden
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This Friday, we’re bringing you wisdom from a seemingly unlikely source again. But when we look at the misinformation that companies provide and the public’s willingness to accept it without looking a little further (heard of “greenwashing?”), we realize that our favorite big yellow guy got something right: “It takes two to lie. One to lie and one to listen.” - Homer Simpson Happy Friday all! Parlez-vous Francais? Hablas español? Do you “speak” programming code? Whether in a new country or a new field of work, the first thing you’ve gotta do is speak the language. And we’ve realized that we throw around a lot of terms and acronyms in our work (and in our blogs) that might not be commonly used outside of the human rights field. So before jumping into more global issues and bringing you more about more corporations that are doing good (and those that are not), we decided to take a step back and define the key terms at the center of this organization. (We’ll focus on our human rights component – for filmmaking terms like “sticks,” “codecs,” and “dead cats,” you’ll need to look elsewhere.) First up? Corporate Social Responsibility… Corporate Social Responsibility, or “CSR,” is not easy to define. There’s an ongoing debate between academics, businesses, and consumers about an unbiased definition of this term.
But when we at p.h. balanced films use the term Corporate Social Responsibility, we mean: “running a company that is commercially successful in an ethical way that respects people’s rights, benefits communities, and helps the planet.” Favorite Quote Friday: from Patagonia We bring you today’s quote from an interview with Tree Hugger(while the name might make some members of my family roll their eyes, you can’t argue with this logic): “I’ve always felt like a company has the responsibility tonot wait for the government to tell it what to do, or towait for the consumer to tell it what to do, but as soon asit finds out it’s doing something wrong, stop doing it.” - Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia. Have a great weekend! Contributed by: Mary Donovan “There’s a false choice between doing good and doing well,” said Mark Newton, VP of Corporate Responsibility at Timberland said at the Responsible Business Summit this June 28th- 29th in New York. A Summit attendee who writes for the Companies for Good blog, Allison McGuire, listed this as one of her favorite quotes from the gathering (and check out the Timberland “Earth Needs Heros” video in her post!). One main subject discussed at the Summit: the impact of CSR on business. Positive? Negative? Somewhere in between? Newton maintains that businesses do not have to suffer if they are socially responsible. The Ethical Corporation, a global business publication dealing with corporate social, environmental and financial responsibility hosted the Responsible Business Summit, which provided a venue for people interested in corporate social responsibility (CSR) to meet and network with others interested in seeing business make a positive impact, listen to speakers, and participate in roundtable discussions. Topics included how to achieve long-term CSR, global supply chain issues, and international questions, just to name a few. One topic discussed during the summit was the problem of simply assessing human rights and social issues, without actually implementing plans and making any changes. Steven Wilding, a conference director at Ethical Corporation, tweeted: “Lots of companies putting together excellent human rights impact assessment but not matched by implementation on the ground.” While it may seem counterintuitive, according to Kathy Pickus, the Divisional VP of Global Citizenship and Policy of Abbott Fund, “Businesses, when acting like businesses, make more substantial changes than when acting as philanthropists.” To implement good CSR practices, corporations must carry out good business that respects human rights, not just donate some of their profits to charity. Plans, assessments, and donations are good, but they must be supplemented by direct actions in improving business practice. The Summit provided a forum for attendees to discuss issues that they faced in their businesses and share ideas about how to better the world. As the Summit got underway, attendees began tweeting reactions, highlights, quotes, and favorite facts with the hash tag #rbsusa – check it out if you want to learn more and share the inspiration. Have any questions? Info? Ideas? We’d love to hear from you! Comment here or drop us a line on Facebook or tweet @phbalancedfilms. Last week, we started a series of blogs about labels and certification by taking a look at some of the labels you might see on food products. Rather than dive into labels on other types of products, this week’s entry takes a closer look at Fair Trade labels in particular so you can get a sense of just how complex this world of labeling is. Our first post on labels mentioned the Label Lookup iPhone App, which evaluates and rates claims on product labels. It ranks products on a scale of 0 to 4 “green leaves,” 4 being the most trustworthy and reliable. Rainforest Alliance Certified gets four leaves, for example. Must be great, right? And it might be tempting to end your inquiry there… but we encourage you to dig a bit deeper. Happy Friday! This week we’re focusing on the film part of our mission and bringing you a quote from The Creative Edge Studio (a/k/a Global Film and Humanity Project), a group in Prince Georges County, Maryland that is exploring the role of film and digital media in bringing radical social and economic development to their community: “We believe in this BIG IDEA: that filmmakers and other artists are the most valuable cultural resources in the 21st century. In a world where technology and innovation are rapidly re-shaping our lives and economy, filmmakers are uniquely capable of applying the art of story-telling and technology to help us write a new chapter in the future of Prince Georges and connect us with global communities.” We agree! Have a great weekend, all! As a research and film organization that believes in the power of film to make a real impact in the world, we love bringing you stories about films that have made a real impact in the world! This week, we’re sharing a blog written for Women in Film and Video (thanks, WIFV!) regarding the recent Guggenheim Symposium at the 2012 SilverDocs festival in Silver Spring, MD. (Check out other blogs in “The Power of Docs” category for more examples of powerful films.) Contributed by: Lindsey Sitz (written June 20, 2012) After 25 years of extraordinary filmmaking—18 of which were spent filming the plight of three innocent men accused of murder—Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s friendship is still going strong. “We love each other,” remarked Bruce during Tuesday night’s Guggenheim Symposium. Whether it be the remarkable chemistry they share as filmmakers or their intense passion for storytelling and advocacy—Joe and Bruce have successfully moved mountains with their films. By 2011, after almost two decades wrongfully serving life sentences in prison, the West Memphis Three were to be set free and acquitted of all charges. “I owe [Joe & Bruce] my entire life,” Jason Baldwin, one of the West Memphis Three, said on Tuesday night. |
AuthorsAll of our team members contribute to this blog, along with special guest bloggers. Have something to add? Let us know! Archives
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