Environmental Pacts Studied in Report

As more and more companies make public pledges to be environmentally sensitive in their work, charities have new opportunities to form partnerships with them, according to a report from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

The report cited 16 nonprofit and corporate partnerships as examples of productive teamwork. Among them: Environmental Defense’s work with McDonald’s Corporation, which helped the fast-food giant lower its trash output by switching from polystyrene to paper-based food packaging.

“There are an increasing number of companies willing to work with nonprofits on environmental issues,” said Dennis Rondinelli, one of the report’s two authors.

The report uses the case studies to illustrate the benefits and limitations of various kinds of relationships between companies and nonprofit environmental groups

Those relationships can be indirect, such as Xerox Corporation’s Earth Awards, which employees receive when they volunteer significant time to environmental groups. Or they can be more hands-on, as in the Mitsubishi Corporation of America’s partnership with the Rainforest Action Network to train the company’s managers in industrial ecology.

The report, “Partnering for Sustainability: Managing Nonprofit Organization-Corporate Environmental Alliances,” was paid for by the Aspen Institute’s Nonprofit Sector Research Fund. It is available online at http://www.kenan institute.unc.edu/CGBR.