Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) sounds as dull as a date with Gail Trimble, but these are the practices that make an employer stand out and could have you painting a scout hut or teaching kids maths alongside your day job. To get an idea of it, watch the videos of Lord Michael Hastings from KPMG giving his refreshingly honest take on it. KPMG are cracking at this, so it’s no huge surprise that, to find like-minded suppliers, they launched a survey to see what other companies were giving something back to their communities. They found, it’s the big employers who do the most: organisations with a turnover of more than £50 million are twice as likely to have CSR and diversity policies in place. Of the 955 companies polled, over 61% have a diversity policy in place, 53% have a CSR policy, 13% have environmental management certification. However we’ve found some small to medium sized companies can also make a big difference – where you really feel you are working on a CSR project as one big team; Feelgood drinks are a feelgood example.

Changes to the Kyoto protocol due next year will force many companies to take the climate change more seriously – or face huge fines. So if these companies don’t go green, their business will be worth less money. So say the tree huggers at the Carbon Trust. They looked at firms with a combined worth of $7trillion, and found they could be worth even more if they took steps to tackle emissions – with automotive firms set to gain the most by reaping the benefits from techy advances in the field of hybrid and electric cars.

You heard it here first: After giving our lawyers the fidgets claiming that one of India’s biggest firms, Tata, had used thugs to seize farmland for the factory to build the world’s smallest and cheapest car, the Nano, we seem the claim was not a conspiracy or flashback. In fact the opposition party in West Bengal has called for an indefinite siege of the factory building in protest. The party leader, a tough old dame called Mamata Banerjee, wants 400 acres of land returned to local farmers and is in no mood for a compromise. In such a stand you soon find out who your friends are: a number of other states in India have come forward and said they are more than happy to build the Nano. That will worry the state government here who are desperately trying to attract investors who for years have been put off by its communist policies. If Tata are forced to move, what message will that send out? The world’s cheapest car, yes. But at what cost? Hanson St Hansen-Hansan, News at Ten, Bengal.

The country’s “greenest” supermarket that has opened: built from wood, it uses rainwater to flush customer toilets, has a wood chip boiler to heat the place, and wind turbines to power its checkouts. The new Sainsbury’s store in Dartmouth will use 50% less energy from the national grid and produce 40% less CO2 than a normal store. The rainwater bog-flush alone will save more than one million litres of mains water every year (that’s a lot of people going to the lavatory at their local supermarket, isn’t it?). Its electricity bill will be a third lower than a normal supermarket, saving Sainsbury’s £200,000 a year. Its pretty hard to label the build with the “greenshit/bullwash” label: Sainsbury’s planted 400 trees to compensate for the 200 used in the timber frame, and 90% of the building waste being recycled. Even the delivery lorry also made its first drop off at the store powered by the gas produced from rotting rubbish. A sizeable doff of my bowler hat to Sainsbury’s. More of the same please.

There’s no point giving out gongs at the Green Web Awards if you can’t give some “greenwashers” a good shoeing at the same time. Wooden spoons were handed out at the awards to Shell and ExxonMobil for advertising campaigns that tried to make them look more green, and toy maker Mattel. They were ridiculed for attempting to sell a range of Barbie dolls (Barbie BCause) who’s production and distribution did not practice what it tried to preach. For a more curious case of Green back slapping we need to get in a cab over to the Royal Albert hall which played host to the curious Business in the Community “awards for excellence,” who patron is none other than Bonnie Prince Charlie. Companies were recognised for progress towards greener practices – these included energy giants like EDF and NPower, and even E.ON, the darlings who are proposing a return to coal-fired power at a plant in Kent. Best of all, the Environmental Leadership award went to Tesco – a company who’s ethics are constantly under fire for its treatment of suppliers and who has been known to send “local” chickens on a 1,000 mile round trip from farm to fridge. So surprising was the win that Tesco didn’t bother to send anyone of note to collect the award, and some in the attending audience were so appalled they got up and left. So I drank their (organic) wine. Well done though to our firends at the Co-op who won company of the year.