It has been an eventful year, rich with challenges and opportunities to address the realities of incorporating the UNGC initiatives and principles into new and existing business models. When working in a transitioning country the measurement of progress in the mainstream is always focused on GDP and infrastructure. It is this mistake of definition that keeps PGI committed to promoting the prinicples of the GC. The most common misconception is that underinvestment in roads, rail and infrastructure are the cause of the problem. This is of course partially true, but the ground reality illuminates that plenty of basic infrastructure exists; it is in fact an issue of strategic metrics preventing development. This is demonstrated in its most extreme form regarding the precarious nature of India's food security and mass need to provide humane amenities to rural communities. It is not so much that India's supply processes are 'archaic' as they are often described, but moreover disjointed, discriminatory and prone to derailment.

Let's take crops as an example. Supply lines from field to market exist. However, the economics of middle traders upset the flow through the well known practice of hoarding. The farmer who uses hard earned rupee to gather his crop into a bull cart, tractor wagon or rented lorry often travels a far distance to the wholesaler 'go-down'. The farmer usually has some speculative second or third hand information on what his goods will fetch on the spot market. Most rely on the wholesale buyer for the current rate. The wholesaler is part of a network of wholesalers that move goods from one hub to another, and each wholesaler in the chain is of course interested in achieving the highest profit for the goods in his go-down. As such, applying elementary supply and demand strategy, he hoards the goods he has until the price rises to a level that satisfies his desired margin. The problem is that each of a dozen wholesalers in the chain are doing the same thing. To worsen the situation, when the farmer arrives at the wholesaler go-down he is met with the sight of the hoarded stock that the wholesaler insists is because there is currently no demand. The farmer is then offered a below market price sum for his goods, which he must take to recoup the costs he has already come out of pocket to bring the goods to the wholesaler. (In some situations, the wholesaler takes the goods from the farmer at the farm and again the farmer is out-of-the-loop of the market price for his goods and will accept a depressed price for the goods as a convenience factor for not having to himself assume the cost of transporting his goods. (The realities are also often complicated by tenant farmer dynamics which charges farmers for not meeting crop quotas, which creates a downward economic cycle leading to inescapable bonded labor. http://bit.ly/etz0ct)
The inflationary issues are created by the wholesalers and futures brokers who hoard the perishable goods until the price rises as high as the market will handle. This 'hold-out' hoarding results in food inflation and the often publicized rotting of food in go-downs. It is not that the goods rot because they cannot reach the marketplace, it is that they are systematically prevented from reaching the market by agri-profiteers. So what's the solution? As this example demonstrates is that no matter how many roads are paved and rails laid will the supply line issue be resolved. The weakest link in the supply chain, and the link that bears the greatest stress is the farmer. The annual rash of farmer suicides during harvest time is evidence of the fact that farmers, even with a healthy harvest, are victimized by a system that makes farming an unsustainable profession. The problem rests with the lack of farmer empowerment. Recent trials of farmer networks and 'knowledge centers' have put key business data like weather, harvest scheduling and market rates in the hands of farmers through the humble cell phone. (The pioneering for such endeavors goes without doubt to the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/327/5967/808.full   http://www.mssrf.org/  'E farming' is key to empowering and modernizing the business side of farming and assuring the farmer is equipped with the basic data sets needed to be a competitive and successful player and self sufficient professional. (A great example is PGI's good friend Venkat of eFarm, Chennaihttp://www.efarm.in/ ) This is new but welcome technology that is changing the lives of many farmers. Not so long ago farmers produced goods only for their village and surrounding taluk. However with the massive swell of urban population, (who rely on millions of rural micro farmers for food security) requires that the farmer is brought into the supply chain as an equal participant. Failure to do so is a human rights issue that has already claimed the life of too many a farmer at their own hand. The aftermath are widowed mothers of small children who often are ostracized and become destitute migrant field workers. Their children robbed of opportunity for a sustainable home and education. During one of PGI's internal CSR initiatives, PGI learned first hand of this dilemma when it volunteered professional services to  My School Satya Surabhi free primary school.http://satyasurabhi.com/  This amazing school for nearly a decade has provided free high quality education to the children of single working mothers and underprivledged in the rural backlands of the Palani Hills. It is a replicable model that can resolve the pitiful situation of the over stressed and broken rural education system. 
Whether it be farmer empowerment, dismantling of the go-down profiteers structure or development of free schools for the children of migrant workers, the key supply line issue is one of networks. So, why don't these networks already exist? One need only skim the surface to find that plenty of data exists on these problems but little initiative exists on the ground. Any initiatives that do exist are micro pilot scale and lack traction to become a movement. Why? The answer can be found in the lack of connection between the scores of 'clubs' that analyze and apply solutions.
Another example, will help explain. When PGI was developing the Surabhi Bamboo companyhttp://www.surabhibamboo.com/, its intent was to design a best of breed vertically integrated enterprise that included everything from the harvest of bamboo, its propagation and even the adoption of villages where workers and their families reside. The efficiencies continued through the treatment of the bamboo, the processing, the bringing to market and the marketing of the goods where they could receive the highest value addition. What resulted is an elegant model of closed loop network supply lines that demonstrate exactly how efficient India can be if processes are properly planned, implemented and socially fair. However, during the research phase for Surabhi Bamboo, PGI learned something very interesting that became an initial challenge for feasibility. PGI's research and countless meetings with all horizontals along the vertical demonstrated that invisible barriers exist that prevent a natural network to emerge which would allow supply line facility. PGI deemed this the 'club factor'. In short, the scientist club enjoyed their own company, the applied science club enjoyed their own company, the engineer processing club enjoyed their own company. At each of the meetings they shared with PGI their frustration that the bamboo industry is not taking off in India despite massive inventories and incentives. It was true that missions such as the National Bamboo Mission, Labor Department and CIBART had ample facilities for the setting up of a bamboo enterprise. However these could be categorized as in-the-box and out-of-the-box. The 'box' being the process machine line. Outside the box were the elements necessary to create a sustainable business. These include foremost raw material and marketing. Failure to create the connection between the innovative propagation clubs and introduction to private marketing platforms prevented any of the bamboo boxes to achieve the presumed level of output and success.
The best example was at the recent National Seminar on Bamboo technology and propagation last month in Bangalore. The room was full of scientists, a few representatives of bamboo business, the mandatory government guest of honor and interestingly, a contingent of farmers. After one very well rehearsed power point presentation by a senior member of the propagation club, a farmer raised his hand and asked the $50k question...'so, if I plant this variety of bamboo in my field, how much will I get per pole.' The speaker without a straightforward answer, looked to the distinguished club panel, who looked equally puzzled. The eventual response was very nebulous and never involved a rupee amount. The obvious reality of any industry is that unless someone needs the good, its impossible to know what to pay for the good. The trouble is that the processing club seldom connects with the propagation club despite the natural relationship they share, viz. The development of a bamboo industry in India. This is not to discount the clubs' good work and sincerity, it is the plain fact that most scientists are not comfortable with the 'business-side' and most processing centers are so focused on making sure their machines are able to process that there is little business analysis 'outside the box.'
A sound network such as the one designed into the Surabhi Bamboo enterprise would have made answering the farmer's question easy. The integration of science and propagation as an input factor of the processing costs and the market price would have made quoting the farmer a price per pole an easy analysis. A quick calculation of the three year input costs of propagation necessary to bring the bamboo clump and the quality of the bamboo that builds value addition to the market for the consumable results in a fixed number that can be quoted the farmer. With that knowledge the farmer (whose quantum of land is his means of revenue) can determine whether it makes sense to reserve boarder areas to the inter-cropping of bamboo. Issues of soil preservation, carbon credits and micro-climate considerations are other factors that can be included in the price per pole as a value addition that farmers appreciate and in sum, empowered. The farmer knows what he getting at market, the processor has the peace of mind of secure raw material at a fixed cost, and the supply line is established.
This same logic can be applied to any commodity but frankly it requires a broad focused plan analyzed through a business and economic lens through professionals accustom to setting up turnkey businesses. PGI has further found that the mere collection of data into a detailed plan report is often enough to generate private capital investment interest in agri-business, social corporations and supply line solutions. http://www.slideshare.net/ecologicalfox/elf-pgi-report-final1 It is therefore PGI's opinion that India supply line crisis cannot be legislated away, regulated away or paved over with new roads. The solution exists in the entrepreneurial and CSR private sector through efficiency process development that is a natural part of modern business practice.

4.1 Network heads are given complete autonomy over ther respective field of expertise and entire core group is aligned that the UNGC principles shall be the benchmark for all business plans developed for clients and project hosts. Strategic objectives are developed and implemented by the Managing Member Deborah Connelly who is informed and advised by network members and the CEO.
The Managing Member of the LLC is not an executive officer.
4.2 N/A
4.3 The framework of the organization is premised upon a network platform of independent contract professionals who have the right to opt in or out of any sponsored project with or without cause. The company has only one employee, the CEO. He has direct access and recourse through the Managing Member. Network members and their support staff have a right to call a strategic meeting at any time and openly discuss concerns or corrections related to PGI, its policy, its clients, projects, hosts or models. Decisions are taken on a democratic basis without relationship to share ownership or proportion of share ownership

GENDER AND SOCIAL EQUALITY AND POVERTY: It is truly amazing that in a world filled with such incredible technology, that the major crisis for a third of the world's population are the basic requirements for life: food, water and shelter.  Add to this list human equality, and you both identify a crisis and the reason why certain sectors of our human population are denied the other three basic requirements for a sustainable life.  The 'bottom of the pyramid' as it is referred by economists, is populated by the marginalized, the exploited, sets outcast by other sets. Within this population, the plague of matriarchal systems becomes clear. As draconian as it may seem, the reality is that the women of the world are victims of unspeakable atrocities and violations of basic human rights.

From the India perspective, like so many other issues, India wears many faces.  In a country of over a billion, there is a bell curve wherein women populate the role of President and captains of corporate enterprise; relatively populated by a (fortunately) growing set of educated young urban female professionals (albeit many suffering from glass ceilings); the massive center of the curve comprises of women who from casual glance may seem socially equal but are in fact in downtrodden, in constant risk of exploitation and cultural ostracism.  The bottom of the curve is a gallery of horror and despair that tears at the very fabric of human decency.

No one factor can be blamed, and certainly the Government of India has only limited reach to play moral police and activist.  Change can only come from ground swell and rejection of ancient practices such as 'honor killings' and female infanticide.  The book by Mala Sen's  Death By Fire is a must read for any who wish to be awake to gender bias reality.  http://www.amazon.com/Death-Fire-Female-Infanticide-Modern/dp/0813531020  PGI has staunchly advocated that CSR is the solution as opposed to the lip service of legislation and reliance on the mandates of an already stressed judiciary.   Only through the consumer demand that corporations abide by a standard of equality, will the atrocities of female injustice be curbed and eventually reversed.  Corporation that establish a CSR regime that actively monitors its upstream and downstream equality policies can expect brand equity returns and workforce improvements that come with community relations and social development.  This integrated returns paradigm (corporate and community) if adopted by 10 companies, 100 companies, 1000 and so on would have the desired effect of geometry and lasting revolution and change.

PGI is presently endeavoring on a bold campaign through the design of a commercial scale 3BL pro-woman/CSR forest farming initiative.  We are hopeful the plan of action will be facilitating before the end of this year. In the State where the sometimes scoffed 'treehugger' movement started, the genesis for which can be found in the daring and inspirational story of the Chipko women who unflinchingly encircled the trees in passive protest of their sacred forest to save it from the axe. The Uttarakhand forest-farming plan will be revolutionary and a measurable step forward in the evergreen revolution. The legacy of the Chipko women and the conservation of their precious forests will again regain significance and relevance through an inspired 3BL-CSR plan of action.The scale from the India perspective the work is daunting. The following example is one we use at our CSR seminars to illustrate the scale of a nation of a billion.  It also demonstrates the challenges that the Government...any Government would have managing and legislating basic human right issues:  

Think about the human resource assets required to undertake the census of India.  Counting 1.2 billion people.  If you hire 1000 people to do the job, and you assume they could complete the census data of 100 people per day, it would require each worker to count a million two hundred thousand people (12 lakh people) and would take over 32 years. In reality, the Government has hired 2.5 million (25 lakh) workers to do the job. (TOI) That's more people than the entire country of Slovenia and nearly that of Jamaica. Even with this army of workers, each worker must gather data on 500 people, 80% of whom reside in the massive unorganized rural sector.

The remarkable thing about business consulting in India is the incredible opportunity to observe humanity as a collective democratic society transitioning on an epic scale. The flip side is watching-in real time- the natural resource security of a Nation erode. For our U.S. readers, imagine waking up tomorrow and the landmass of US shrank by two thirds and the population tripled. That’s India. In previous news we’ve covered the critical issues of food security, increasing scarcity of potable water, drastic inflation in food prices due to broken and antiquated supply chains and farmer-market trade inequity. We’ve examined the social impact of these basic critical issues as it relates to endemic farmer suicides, GOI policies to gloss development imbalance and some fine people and organizations that have proved that positive change can be made no matter how big or small. Over the course of the past several months the entire PGI team has been where we love to be – in the field. We’ve applied our brand of triple bottom line (3BL) business planning and implementation and we’re pleased to say they are being well received. Having stopped for a breather before the facility of three major projects, we can report that we have some solutions to offer that we and many like us believe can lead to sweeping change. In a word, the solution is integration. More accurately, a multi-criteria de-compartmentalized approach to development as a vehicle of commercial –human – ecological symmetry. And it’s a model that works anywhere, whether India, U.S.A. or Burma. In essence the asymmetric growth of enterprise and human development indicators are a result of: 1) disintegrated public policy; 2) misapplied intel and resources; and 3) failure to adopt correlative systems of 3BL and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Although this seems a daunting list to achieve change, we also found it can be done very simply. Many small changes lead to mass movement. Ultimately it requires like minded people – and there are truly no shortage of same in India and elsewhere. What is needed is a clarity of mission, delivery and measurable outputs so others can join the movement and know the likely outcome.

As part of a PGI consultancy, should the client opt to facilitate a PGI business plan, PGI is the project manager and is a third party verifier that the client-company of organization respects human rights as planned in the feasibility study/ plan of action. These factors are observed and measured in real time throughout the project management and routinely clients require PGI to monitor metrics.

FIRST THINGS FIRST: HUMAN DIGNITY
The one maxim that we can confirm through our work in rural and marginalized India is that human dignity has real and measurable value. Our nature as humans is to be equal and interdependent. This statement is easy to accept, however until one actually witnesses the many disguises of oppression, particularly in the scope of labor and labor rights, one cannot fully appreciate the value and need for equality.

We at PGI have seen many examples. We’ve worked with communities labeled by industrialists as inherently ‘lazy’; which upon closer examination proved to be a blind-eye label given to a community that refused to be oppressed. It is therefore critical that those in the sustainable facility industry use PGIS and other integration building systems to learn what values and inputs are necessary to empower project sector communities and assure they remain culturally intact; connected to their environment. Only then can this world of ours begin enjoying the gold standard of the human-nature paradigm- a triple bottom line global network of millions of local economies.
FORGET MEGA – THINK AND DO A LOT OF SMALL[Image]
Which leads us to the point: Lots of small is so incredibly beautiful. There is no better joy than to create an facilitate the networks for replicable integrated systems that connect and empower the historically oppressed, marginalized and insecure. To not merely throw money at a problem or a people as a means of development. To form specialized teams dedicated to the hard work, the coalition building and problem solving. It’s the kind of effort that results in equitable and perpetual relationships; and create social/ gender empowerment and natural service security. It’s the solution that ends the subsistence and bonded labor paradigm of rural farmers through myriad relationship linkages and genuine triple bottom line planning. It requires no official policy (although policy can and should be a platform toward solution) but relies instead on using inter-and extra- organizational vertical expertise that is linked to the ground, working with Nature and each other.
INTEGRATED PEOPLE NETWORKS WILL MAKE CHANGE; GOVERNMENT IS A SUPPORTER NOT AN AGENT OF CHANGE
[Image]And this is do-able when networks build capacity and the necessary verticals are crosscut and harmonized. And this is not going to be delivered by Governments, or inter-governmentals or public policy…(they will support and provide medium service) but the work –the heavy lifting-must be done by all of us –from end-to-end. If there are those that need a different motivational tool to become aware, then think about this: TISS just released a study on the “Indian Approach” to Sustainable Development. It promotes the theory that every human is entitled to an equal share of the global atmospheric carbon sink. For example, the per capital ‘equity’ based emission entitlement for each American is 30.95 giga-tons, however US has emitted 81.57 giga-tons per person. In India, the per capita entitlement is 112 gigatons, however India has emitted only 25.28. The sum of the paper is that developed nations either compensate developing nations to the tune of $707 billion for their over-emission; or (as PM Singh suggested) each person in India is entitled to as much emission as anyone in developed country. (That would be 1.2 billion people entitled to 86.72 gigatons of carbon.) So, if climate-apartheid reparations versus per capita development parity (an apocalypse) are the only two options, then we need another option that comes from outside the policy box. It must spring from the ground. It requires a global paradigm shift that redesigns developed country norms and designs-right-the-first-time the norms of developing countries.
The TISS paper provides a good example of the policy paradox that finds equity though dividing groups rather than unifying. Unifying policies tend to emerge only when a crisis is immediate and defined in scope and need. In those cases policy is useful for rapid and joint response. Like a hurricane or an earthquake. But when given an incremental crisis like climate change, policy seldom reaches the critical mass needed for consensus; and if by chance consensus is reached, there is always the question of ephemeral sincerity and eye-wash. It is therefore up to each of us – an IT enabled collective of humanity- to change and turn the tide of climate change, natural resource security, human equality and sustainable development. This era is ours and it’s actually much easier to claim than you may think.
THE EVIDENCE OF CHANGE
What has given us at PGI much hope recently, is the universal message that is beginning to get traction and go ‘100th monkey.’ In many ways PGI itself was steered by gravity from its beginnings as a sustainable energy consultancy, to designing sustainable ag-businesses, and more recently CSR perma-economic 3BL planners. The transformation has been intuitive and directed by our mission-culture. Each project delivery resulted in deeper networks and mission focus. Our organizational focus has been influenced through particular revelations about the most efficient manner to winning the evergreen revolution. India –as noted above- presented the target rich environment and a cultural ground network (that is in many ways as effective as the internet but has been around long before its invention) that assists facility of replicable models and attracts likeminded strategic alliances. When good models work in India, the word spreads and the traction necessary to scale small-beautiful 3BL projects blossoms and achieves ‘viral’ potential.
PGI is convinced that the way to environmental remediation and widespread social adoption of 3BL models is the performance metrics that come from combining timeless wisdom (Vedic sacred gardens, Black Elk’s vision of a 4th Way and Mollison/Holmgren’s permaculture eco-synthesis, etc) with best practice technology and CSR systems. Obviously, the key is that all the bottom lines perform and are profitable. For this reason, PGI adopts an inter-disciplinary approach to produce holistic integrated ag-business-models each geo suited but with replicable core systems so they can be adopted and linked on a broad scale. This is how we will win the evergreen revolution.
3BL AND CSR VERSUS THE TIPPING-POINT: [Image]The power of what Gandhi described as India’s nine lakh (900,000) villages, empowered and interdependent can alter the course of development and steer India away from its current collision course with natural service breakdown. The saathi haath badhana is alive and growing in India and has the potential of avoiding immanent food/water security collapse. The current path is simply the result of 19th century notions of development process and lack of good governance. It has resulted in critically uneven, disintegrated and wholesale unsustainable development. PGI tweeted in January 2011 that this year would be the year that India’s development story collided with natural service security. It has sadly come to pass as predicted. For those who need to use commercial economic metrics as the measuring stick, witness then the rampant inflation of food and resources, manufacture and market drops, spiraling petrol prices, crash of cotton market, off-monsoon climate anomalies, the Anna Hazare movement that have made 2011 the most precarious year for India since 1998. Single-bottom-liners cry for a return to protectionist policies as a ruse to distract from the actual economic flaw- sustainability and linkages to its heart, rural India. Most striking is the recent statement of Home Minister Minister Chidambaram at the 28, September 2011 All India Management Association:
“We must raise the tax revenue to defend (‘the expected aggregate decline of resources’). I know many people won’t like this. But I think, I can summon the courage to make the statement.” Chidambaram also said that poverty must decline rapidly and at a higher rate than the current 1%, if the country has to achieve inclusive growth in the future.

Like the Chipko women who guarded their sacred trees, the people of India-and the world as a whole- must activate and make significant change in norms to protect natural resources and economic security. Chidambaram’s stark assessment is unsettling but a realistic step in the right direction that requires fuel.
9. DIRECTION FORWARD
[Image]It is time for all- from every profession- to leave their comfort zone, cross-cut and make the connections with those engaged in the work of adopting the right plan at the right place through an integrated network of 3BL CSR objectives. Participate. Activate. Make a small difference in a big picture. It doesn’t matter if you are in India or not, India’s development is affecting your world, your climate your future. If in a developed country then it is even more incumbent to reboot the paradigm to offset the effect of a crowded ever-developing world. To recognize that ‘development’ need not be measured in terms of tons of carbon and CO2, there is another way.
The evergreen revolution is winnable. Triple bottom line companies and networks are not some lofty ideal, they work. Permaculture on a community-commercial scale, forest farming on a community-commercial scale is not only possible, it’s proven and profitable and simply requires mass adoption and proliferation. The greatest irony shall be that in the end analysis those who historically remain connected to the Earth –the billions of SME farmers and foresters- will be owed credit for saving the planet and humanity. PGI professionals have always found SME farmers the most receptive agents of sustainable models…because we weren’t teaching them anything they didn’t already indigenously know! In fact we learned their TIK! They are the bearers of the flame of ancient practices that kept them connected to Nature. They maintain a wisdom immemorial… before humans began to believe that technology had relieved us the need for Nature.
10. MOBILATION IS KEY
Lastly, the evergreen revolution will not be televised. But our technology will assist us. The ability to network has never been so easy and pervasive. The dissemination of ideas has been the agent of change like never before. It is almost too coincidental that our ability to network with each other coincides with our critical need to modify our own behavior to save Nature and thereby ourselves. Like the Arab Spring proved that the collective can topple any regime no matter how large and brutal, a global collective is ushering in a new paradigm of equality and empowerment, harmonically connected to Earth and each other.

As part of a PGI consultancy, should the client opt to facilitate a PGI business plan, PGI is the project manager and is a third party verifier that the client-company of organization respects labor rights as planned in the feasibility study/ plan of action. These factors are observed and measured in real time throughout the project management and routinely clients require PGI to monitor metrics. Further, PGI network professionals have determined that the formation of project cooperatives, particularly in the rural farming sector are the most certain method of providing a stable platform of voice and rights over land, resources and market chain of stakeholders.

So perfect is South India's "Sacred Grove" ethos, that PGI incorporated the concept in its landmark ag-business model (Eco Logical Fox) as it pertains to inter-cropping, carbon capture, biodiversity/micro-climate protection and conservation. The recent news of groups going out and restoring sacred groves is indeed inspiring and could be the simple centerpiece of CSR programs worldwide.

6. SUSTAINABILITY: (Feb 12, 2011 p. 4, Chennai Edition, Arun Janardhanan) ran a terrific piece on the restoration of ‘Sacred Groves’ throughout Tamil Nadu. PGI has always maintained that India is the one place in the world where CSR and true conservationism could take hold in a meaningful way. The reason is that India-particularly in the South- is steeped in tradition and culture – a culture with an ingrained relationship between man and nature. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Sacred-groves-regain-pulse/articleshow/7471966.cms
PGI has always maintained that India is the one place in the world where CSR and true conservationism could take hold in a meaningful way. Based inter alia on Vedic scripture. As part of the Vedic scriptures, society, nature, heaven, earth are all inextricably related. One of the finest examples of this is the concept of Sacred Groves which are made up of plants and trees that each community should nurture and preserve. Each sacred plant was deemed by the Vedics to have qualities necessary for sustainable nature and society. The depth of the relationship went so far as to correlate the sacred plants with the 27 constellations of Hindu astrology. 
The recent news of groups going out and restoring sacred groves is indeed inspiring and could be the simple centerpiece of a CSR program of every company that occupies land, however small.The wisdom of the Vedics made it such that the adoption of sacred groves in each community provided that community with a constant source of nutritious food, preservation of microclimate, a 24 hour pharmacy of medicinal herbs, a watershed, a source of rapidly renewable building materials and conservatory of endemic biodiversity. First millennium sustainable processes at its finest, lost recently to growing population, land mis management and short sighted agricultural expansions. So perfect is the Sacred Grove ethos, that PGI incorporated the concept in its landmark ag-business model (Eco Logical Fox) as it pertains to inter-cropping, carbon capture, biodiversity/micro-climate protection and conservation. The recent news of groups going out and restoring sacred groves is indeed inspiring and could be the simple centerpiece of a CSR program of every company that occupies land, however small. In fact, last year PGI presented its Peerless Award to the Eco-Club of Senior Secondary School, Madras for their self-initiated sacred grove project on an unused patch of barren property behind their main school building.. Sensational. 
7. CSR PLANNING CSR is about analysis and planning. Each company determining what impacts it has on the environment and society. The sum of which create outputs only possible through crowd sourcing. In other words, each company takes care of its impact as a part of its business ethic, thereby alleviating the task of legislating solutions by already overly stressed Governments. [Image]
The end result? Nature will profit, society will profit and in turn punitive taxation to stem irresponsible corporates will be reduced and the markets will profit. So in a sense, CSR is all about profit. PGI has found that approaching businesses with spreadsheets demonstrating these profits is a far better CSR tool than sensational photos of polluted lakes and distressed animals. Corporations exist for one reason and one reason only – generation of revenue for profit. If you are like the activist-journalist that expressed ‘suspicion’ of PGI and all corporations –even those with noble missions- then you’re living in a world unreal…and in fact unsustainable. The future will be governed by whether commerce can live in harmony with nature and social justice. Integration of commercial endeavor with conservation and social justice is an absolute ethical requirement of the times. The massive paradigm shift necessary to meet the challenge of feeding, sheltering, clothing and providing safe water to tomorrow’s 9 billion human inhabitants will be solved through corporate ethics and innovations and nothing else. Good intentions, Government legislation and piecemeal conservative practices will not change the course of the rapidly approaching tipping point. 
[Image]Integration of commercial endeavor with conservation and social justice is an absolute ethical requirement of the times.
Profit: Only a profit model of natural and human economy and capital can influence the human mind and initiate change. This requires a different perception of the word ‘profit’ and the end of governments compartmentalizing and coddling social and environmental issues for which they are unable to execute integrated plans. Only through cross-cutting networked approaches, designed into plans of CSR, based on achievable outputs (aka profits) can mankind and economy reverse the trend and become sustainable. 
CSR is ultimately about profitability in every sense of the word. It doesn’t matter whether the company makes solar panels or drills for oil. Their objective is identical. Further, CEO’s and CFO’s of corporations want profits they can measure on a P/L at the end of the year. Genuine CSR demonstrates how properly managed internal and external processes can create parallel profit streams to their workers, their families, their environment and their nation. And if that is not enough to convince the ‘board’, CSR case studies show conclusively that those parallel social and eco profits create ‘real’ corporate profit in the form of increased revenues, goodwill brand equity, lower overheads, reduced taxation and a healthier workforce with lower attrition. This forensic and evidence driven approach makes CSR a concept boards can accept, because they understand it in terms they are accustom to dealing. 
Genuine CSR demonstrates how properly managed internal and external processes can create a parallel profit streams to their workers, their families, their environment and their nation.The PGI vision is that Boards will not need to be explained why installing a solar panel (without more) is simply not CSR. They will instead look deeply at their processes, their efficiencies their waste streams and recognize the interdependence of their endeavors and the need for cross-cutting strategies, medium services and integrated approaches toward sustainability. They will voluntarily adopt and allocate resources to employee and community welfare schemes with an eye on outputs that measure social success and ultimately their own bottom lines. They will adopt processes and embrace infrastructure that increase their efficiency and reduce overhead; and as they progress will realize the interconnectivity of their actions on their bottom line running companion with natural capital resource profit . They will dig deeper and extend their influence further as their business grows due to their greater definition of profits. CSR will then become part of the corporate value chain - its ethos- and if each company applies these principles it will become the standard ethic that is scientifically taught with clarity in law schools and business schools and grade schools across the world.

[Image]Just like it is easier for one billion people to each plant one tree than a Government to implement legislation and facilitate the planting of a billion trees, so too will corporates create theSacred Grove of sustainability through adoption of true CSR. S

The adoption of mixed crop, forest farming and permaculture has become a focal area of interest and implementation in PGI models. Further, the economist arm of PGI has been keen to relate the benefit and efficiency of 3BL planning and calculation of the value of natural resource services. Groups such as TEEB have been invaluable source of inspiration and information to this end.

8. From a feasibility and facility perspective, sustainable business planners can gain experience rapidly. Based on the law of frequency, variables and scale of enterprise, India simply creates so many opportunities to witness the very best and the very worst of human potential. It’s often been said that India is a land of contradictions. It’s not. It is a land of multi-dictions. PGI has been intimately involved in top-down problem approaches; bottom-up problem approaches and sandwich approaches. The sum of all these experiences has taught us a valuable lesson that is imperative that we share to as wide an audience as possible. It is the paradigm of many small actions can result in massive movement. That’s not to say scale is not unimportant, the influence of many small projects spread over a wide footprint create greater 3BL efficiency, scale and returns than a mega project.
[Image]Think about this analogy: A government decides it wants to increase national green cover. They decide that 1 billion trees need to be planted. Is it easier for a government to organize and facilitate the planting of a billion trees? Or would it be easier if one billion people planted one tree? We’re witness to analogous examples playing out the world over: the Arab Spring, the facebook factor, the Anna Hazare movement, cheap mobile technology that has connected rural farmers with meteorologists, market updates, cooperatives. The power of technology has delivered to people a tool for change.

With this in mind we turn attention to Corruption. : Business Dictionary.com defines corruption as:
Wrongdoing on the part of an authority or powerful party through means that are illegitimate, immoral, or incompatible with ethical standards. Corruption often results from patronage and is associated with bribery.

Bright line examples of corruption are easy to identify and have been well reported by media in U.S. and India viz Wall Street and 2G-scam, respectively. These instances require no further analysis. However, what about the effect on development and CSR as it relates to the seeming permanence of ‘divisive’ politics of parties the world over?

The conventional political model is to break the electorate into definable ‘banks’ across perceivable lines of race, caste, creed and economic differences. Can divisive political platforms be considered a form of corruption for their ability to focus the electorate on differences that hinder progress and sustainable economics? Is it possible for businesses to cross-cut their political support to dissuade party politics –as-usual?

The news from the U.S. includes the protests and ‘occupations’ by frustrated Americans in Boston and Wall Street. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill party division has prevented a much needed job stimulus package. The vitriolic rhetoric of those more interested in party political gain than the common good is glaring. Half a world away, the same scenario plays out in the city elections at Madras, Tamil Nadu, India. The local news reports daily the critical issues of 1000’s of MW electricity production deficit, hyper inflation of food and goods that has all but stalled India Inc.’s manufacturing might and an urban natural resource crisis that threatens short and long term food and water security. Meanwhile, politics as usual has taken to the streets driving platforms based on the distinctions of caste, creed and class rather than pressing 3BL issues.
In India and U.S., the competition for the powerful Government posts leads to complete preoccupation with maintaining and fueling the electorates’ prejudices and in turn results in poor strategic management of the resources the population rely upon for security and sustainability. The increasing scarcity of resources economic, social and environmental-unlike political parties- apply their pressures equally among all.

The U.S. can learn much from the relatively short political history of post-partition India and it’s chronic failure to heed the economists who for decades have warned of the coming day when India’s need for adequate infrastructure and human development security would reach tipping point. There is no other reason for the current 3BL crisis than lack of political SR and obsessive divisive political ambitions. The U.S. can also learn from India business sector whose ambition and sustainable planning has succeeded despite broken political machinery.
India can learn much from the U.S. political stand-off that has stalemated economic growth stimulus in favor of maintaining the flames of dis-satisfaction over the course of the current administration. The U.S. stands best equipped of any country in the world to revive the global economies through strong promotion of evergreen and 3BL recalibration of business. What the stand-off demonstrates is that deciding to do nothing is a decision non-the-less; and is contrary to the ethic for which representative members are voted to protect. As such, it can be considered corruptive.

As part of a PGI consultancy, should the client opt to facilitate a PGI business plan, PGI is the project manager and is a third party verifier that the client-company or organization does not leverage its power, clout or finances in a way that is considered threatening, coercive or corrupt. This is a major critical factor in India as the powerless have little recourse. As such PGI is mindful of such factors and remain vigilant throughout the project management and routinely as a monitoring metric.