According to Obama, the standards, announced at a White House ceremony attended by auto industry and union leaders, would reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and give five years of cost certainty to an industry battling to survive.
“The status quo is no longer acceptable,” Obama said and added that will pressure carmakers to transform and modernize the industry to produce more efficient vehicles.
“We have done little to increase fuel efficiency of America’s cars and trucks for decades”, stated in so many words the president. According to his words, the new standards put the start of a transition to a clean energy economy.

Source : Dnevnik.bg

The Program provides for different measures for support of projects for production of renewable energy, indicated Alexandrov. According to him, the received grant for eco-power station does not supersede the purchase of the power at preferential prices. The funding of projects, relative to renewable energy could be provided also by the banks. For instance, DSK has special unit for granting credits to projects, funded by the European funds.
Siurce: PARI Newspaper

The “Plant Bottle” is a significant development in sustainable packaging innovation,” said Mr. Kent, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. “It builds on our legacy of environmental ingenuity and sets the course for us to realize our vision to eventually introduce bottles made with materials that are 100 percent recyclable and renewable.”

Traditional PET bottles are made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource. The new bottle is made from a blend of petroleum-based materials and up to 30 percent plant-based materials..
Source: csrwire.com

The Carbon dioxide/CO2 Reduction national campaign in Bulgaria is initiated by Corporate Social Responsibility – Bulgaria Association. The realization period of the project is 2009-2010.
The campaign is aiming to help the households to save money, and to the business to be more competitive and responsible, as well as to all of us to save energy and to reduce the CO2 footprint over the planet.
By the start of this campaign Bulgaria will become the first country in New Europe to join the European project Low Carbon Diet. The СО2 reduction program is already conducted in Belgium, France, and Germany and is yet to start in the other European countries.

To read more about the program, download the brochure from here.

If 500,000 kids participate in Disney Friends for Change: Project Green events, together they can:

• Prevent approximately 100,000 tons of CO2 per year from polluting the air by adjusting their home thermostats.
• Save 5 million gallons of water in a single day by reducing shower times.
• Prevent 1 million pounds of waste from entering landfills by bringing trash-free lunches for a week.
• Create new habitats for local animals by planting 500,000 trees.

Source: csrwire.com

DSK Bank published its first Annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report. DSK Bank is one of the first companies in Bulgaria and the first bank in the country to publish a report on its CSR activities for 2008. The publishing of an annual report modeled after OTP Bank’s report is the first visible step towards structured and consistent Social Responsibility policy of the Bank. All CSR activities comply with the activities and goals set by DSK Bank’s owner OTP Bank.
DSK Bank’s CSR annual report for 2008 is a pilot, which is to be followed by OTP’s subsidiaries in Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Montenegro and Croatia.
A CSR strategy for 2009 was approved and respectively an annual action plan. The strategically focused CSR activities of DSK Bank will help the Bank become the leader in trust among the users of bank and financial services in the country.
The CSR practices of the organization also include technology activities. In November last year DSKBank, assisted by the IT Company Kontrax, implemented an ecology program for recycling of the used toner cartridges. The agreement between the financial institution and the system integrator stipulates the collection of the toner cassettes from the printing devices installed in all branches of the Bank, and their recycling in Hungary, by use of the special technology line installed there.
The report was worked out in compliance with the guidelines set by the Global Reporting Initiative G3 – the most frequently methodological framework used world-wide in terms of report-ing which guarantees reliability of data and open and honest approach to their interpretation. The report contains over 20 indicators for each of the following areas: economy, environment, human rights, working environment, and product and services responsibility.
A CSR strategy for 2009 was approved and respectively an annual action plan. The strategically focused CSR activities of DSK Bank will help the Bank become the leader in trust among the users of bank and financial services in the country.
The electronic version of th DSK Bank’s annual CSR report can be found on the Bank’s site www.dskbank.bg.

About ING Group

ING is one of the organizations which comply their business with the interests of the community and the environment, where it operates. Globally ING supports significant initiatives: the educational program “Chances for Children”, a joint initiative of UNICEF and ING; the project for reducing the CO2 emissions, international sport activities.
In Bulgaria the company is committed to social projects related to ecology, education and environment. One of these projects started in 2003 and aims to support the excavations and to popularize the ancient town of Perperikon. Under the patronage of Bulgarian Ministry of Culture ING has developed and maintained a website – www.perperikon.bg.

Read more about the social commitment of the company in the last ING Group Corporate Responsibility Report for 2008.

The National strategy for Corporate Social Responsibility of Slovakia was chosen for structural model of the strategy.
The final workshop of the group will be held on 3 June, 2009, at the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, Hall 2. The workshop will discuss the plan for realization and implementation of the Strategy for the period 2009-2010.

The received award is a part of the Annual HR awards which the Bulgarian Human Resources Management and Development Association (BHRMDA) handed over for sixth time this year. The winners were nominated for successfully realized projects in four categories: training and development, talent management, knowledge management and employer branding.

This prize awarded to Mobiltel is a result of the consecutively realization of the strategy about the employee developing in the company. The program was developed in September and its goal is to invest in those of them who have exceptional potential for professional development.
After the completion of the first stage – identifying the talents by their managers, a time has come for the chosen employees to get acquainted with the Program. The principals of the project are in great extent close to those in the sport – equal start, individual potential discovery, development of the skills by self-perfection, work with a team of experts, long-term investments in the name of the success.

In February members of the GC national network will convene to discuss the priority areas for the network’s activities in 2009. The new Advisory Board of the GC Network will be announced. On-line nominations and voting procedure will start in January.

Meeting of the Global Compact Anticorruption Group, Istanbul, Turkey – 26-27 February 2009 (26.02.2009)
The Group meets regularly to discuss how to enhance greater business engagement in the fight against corruption. This is the only Global group launched by the GC Office in which there is a Bulgarian participant. Ms. Valia Chilova, founder of the Association “Partnership for CSR”, managing partner Marketor which is member of the group.
More about the GC activities in transparency and anti-corruption and more about the 10th principle at:
http://www.unglobalcompact.org/Issues/transparency_anticorruption/index.html  

For more information contact the BBLF Office on tel. 02/986 52 02 or office@bblf.bg