tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56589196194362888142024-03-06T00:07:28.876-08:00The Age of ResponsibilityThe official blog of the book:
The Age of Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business,
By Wayne Visser
Forward by Jeffrey Hollender.
Publisher: Wiley, 2011
Editions: Hardcover and Kindle (408 pages)Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-15704494525272386162012-07-09T05:07:00.001-07:002012-07-09T05:09:13.653-07:00Longer, Wider, and Deeper Than You Realize: A Commentary by William C. Frederick<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.williamcfrederick.com/articles%20archive/Visser%20Review.pdf"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Reposted</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>A Commentary on The Age of Responsibility by William
C. Frederick</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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Dear Wayne, <o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m writing to tell you that, regretfully, I shall not be
reviewing your new book. It pains me to bring you this news, particularly
because as you must know from my previous reviews of your earlier books, I
have the highest regard for you and your admirable understanding of what
we once called “Corporate Social Responsibility” or “Corporate Social
Performance” and you now call “Corporate Sustainability
and Responsibility.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Having twice read your book carefully and with growing
admiration, damned if I could find anything to say about it that others
haven’t already said. After all, nearly two dozen of the world’s leading
lights in the CSR field—activists, university professors, film makers,
sustainability pioneers, corporate consultants, NGO/CSO
affiliates—endorsed your views even before the book was published. One of
them even called it “an instant classic.” Wow! <o:p></o:p></div>
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Oh, I suppose I could summarize your main theme—you know, the
various stages of CSR, the new principles of your CSR 2.0, plus the
chances of getting everyone (especially big corporations) to go along. But
that would only give some potential readers—students and their profs?—an
excuse not to read the book itself, or possibly they would just convert
the whole thing into a set of bullet points. So they would then miss out
on the richness of your textual analysis. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I will, as a side note, say that I do indeed admire you for
taking your “CSR world quest” trip around the world to talk face-to-face
with all the CSR (or CR) experts. No one else has done that. And for
describing the almost countless numbers of localized CR initiatives that
seem to be bubbling up from inside the world’s diverse
ecosystems— spreading their messages and programs to reduce global
poverty, lighten carbon footprints, roll back corruption, and temper the
constant quest to acquire more and more “stuff.” It’s the kind of global
trip that all of us should take some day, if not in person then by reading
about your travels among this fertile undergrowth of local CR initiatives. You
make it abundantly clear that this is the wellspring of CR’s future—an
upwelling of hope from below rather than a top-down push. <o:p></o:p></div>
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While I’m at it, I’ll take another minute or two of your time to
express my gratitude to you for revealing to readers much of your own
personal life and dedication to CR causes—not always an easy thing for
authors to do. From the opening pages to the very end, you tell about the
forces that shaped and drove you onward to find the sources of CR, and to
foretell its possible future. It is indeed an inspiring story for all of
us. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So, why not just do a review? Because I’d rather reinforce and
strengthen your ideas about CSR 1.0’s “ages and stages” and then encourage
you to expand your “principles” of CSR 2.0. Your basic point about CSR 1.0
is that neither greed, philanthropy, marketing, management, nor
responsibility itself made a sufficient impact on the way corporations do
business. That’s probably true today but you might want to see what the
CSR pioneers who started it all had in mind and how they did it – from
the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. Here is a brief thumbnail sketch of the
main characters and supporting infrastructure of CSR 1.0. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Conceptual Foundations of CSR 1.0: <o:p></o:p></div>
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Adolf A. Berle & Gardiner C. Means (1932); Howard Bowen
(1953); Clarence Walton & Richard Eells (1961); Joseph McGuire
(1963); Keith Davis & Robert Blomstrom (1966)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Faculty Pioneers (mid-1950s to mid-1970s): <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
George Albert Smith (Harvard Business School); George Cabot
Lodge (Harvard Business School); Raymond Bauer (Harvard Business
School); Robert Ackerman (Harvard Business School); Clarence Walton
(Columbia University); Richard Eells (Columbia University); Neil
Chamberlain (Columbia University); Joseph McGuire (University of
Washington-Seattle); Sumner Marcus (University of
Washington-Seattle); Earl Cheit (University of
California-Berkeley); Dow Votaw (University of
California-Berkeley); Edwin Epstein (University of
California-Berkeley); Prakash Sethi (University of
California-Berkeley); George Steiner (University of California-Los
Angeles); Neil Jacoby (University of California-Los Angeles); William
C. Frederick (University of Pittsburgh); Gerald Cavanagh (University of
Detroit-Mercy); Lee Preston (University of Buffalo; University of Maryland); Archie
B. Carroll (University of Georgia); Harold Johnson (University of Georgia)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Institutional Support: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The business schools listed above; Committee for Economic
Development’s 1971 policy statement Social; Responsibilities of Business
Corporations favoring social contracts, stakeholder advocacy, and
government-business partnerships; General Electric Corporation’s
sponsorship of CSR conferences; U. S. Department of Commerce Secretary
Juanita Kreps’ advocacy of social audits; National Affiliation of
Concerned Business Students, initiated by Kirk Hanson; Harvard Business
Review; California Management Review.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Public Policy Advocacy: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Black (African American) Movement; Consumer
Movement/Nader’s Raiders; Pollution/Ecology/Earth Day; Women’s
Movement; Workplace Safety & Health <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Goals: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Analyze intersection of business firms and societal
institutions/attitudes. Increase business’s social awareness. Propose
voluntary corporate initiatives. Shape public policy. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Methods: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Analytic, skeptical, critical, ideologically neutral (neither
anti- nor pro-business). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You may already know that a much bigger picture of CSR 1.0’s
beginnings and accomplishments is on the way, organized by Kenneth
Goodpaster, Corporate Responsibility: The American Experience (Cambridge
University Press, 2012). Running parallel to this CSR 1.0 development was
an emerging Business Ethics field that applied philosophic principles of
ethics to business activities. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My sketch above shows pretty clearly that the CSR 1.0 movement
was clustered in a handful of business schools, with limited support from
the business community and rather grudging interest shown by the public
sector. The pre-NGO activists—blacks, women, ecologists, consumers,
workers—were scattered and unequally effective in their efforts to reform
corporate practices. Advocacy, not research, was the main method of CSR 1.0:
generally conservative, largely academic, occasional mass demonstrations,
not revolutionary. CSR 1.0’s goals were to enhance business awareness,
propose voluntary corporate initiatives, and shape public policy. The
“social” part of CSR went far beyond corporate philanthropy. Did CSR 1.0
achieve those goals? It did indeed succeed by calling attention to social
issues and needs not being addressed by either business or government. Did
it go far enough? No, of course not – at least, not by today’s standards. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Does that mean CSR 1.0 failed? Well . . ., in your book you say
“CSR is failing to turn around our most serious global problems . . . and
may be distracting us from the real issue, which is business’s causal role
in the social and environmental crises we face.” So, that leads me to your
idea of CSR 2.0, what you call “the new DNA of business.” But Wayne, I’m
not sure there could even be a new CSR 2.0 if those CSR 1.0 pioneers
hadn’t laid down the conceptual foundations on which today’s corporate
stakeholders make their claims, corporate codes of conduct are proposed,
social contracts and social compliance programs are formulated, human
rights are defended, and market justice is pursued. For all those reasons,
I suspect the CSR 1.0 pioneers would be cheering your pursuit of CSR 2.0. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
CSR 2.0 builds so well on what has gone before plus offering
much that is new and worth pondering. You put sustainability and
DNA—Nature itself—at CSR 2.0’s very center. The five principles of CSR
2.0—creativity, scalability, responsiveness, glocality, and
circularity—may indeed be indicators of DNA’s presence in the
business world. But while you are speaking of DNA only metaphorically, how
about taking a closer look at real DNA—the actual genes present in all
Earthly organisms—and the influence those genes exert on organic behavior,
including the actions and decisions of corporate managers? More and more
researchers are doing just that—evolutionary psychologists,
bioevolutionists, neuroscientists, ecosystem experts, organization
theorists, behavioral economists, biomimicry specialists. And you know
what they are discovering? Amazing research that points in one direction:
an understanding of human (and business) behavior that is greatly expanded
in scale, depth, and global range. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, for your next project, why not explore the real DNA
influence on corporate creativity, scalability, responsiveness, glocality,
and circularity? It’s there to be discovered, with leads provided earlier
by such pioneers as Paul Hawken and Amory & L. Hunter Lovins in
particular, whom you cite. Along the way, you’ll discover that the DNA is
in the people who inhabit the corporation, not the corporate shell itself, but
those human genes in employees and managers exert a powerful influence on
all the corporation’s activities and decisions. To get a handle on the
fearsome sustainability challenges we face in today’s warming planet which
you have identified so eloquently, take a stroll down Organic Lane—I guess
it could be called CSR 3.0. I’ve just produced a guidebook of sorts to
guide your way: Natural Corporate Management: An Evolutionary
Interpretation (Greenleaf Publishing, forthcoming 2012). It will be great
to meet up with you somewhere on the Evolutionary Cascade as we explore
our shared CSR pathways, CSR 2.0 and CSR 3.0. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With much respect and admiration for your creative work, my best
wishes, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bill</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-12283502552374455902012-07-09T04:52:00.004-07:002012-07-09T04:52:53.154-07:00To Scare or Inspire? Bringing Admission, Ambition & Pragmatic to CSR<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white;"><b><i>By Wayne Visser</i></b></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Part 13 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is the most effective CSR/sustainability strategy – to
scare or to inspire? How do you get the balance between sharing the bad news
(i.e. the state of the world) and the good news (i.e. the innovative
solutions)? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Betty Sue Flowers, co-author of Presence, told me that ‘if
you attempt to scare people with the enormity of the problems, the tendency is
simply to give up. And so when you dispirit people, when you remove the spirit,
you also remove the capacity to change.’ This is a common refrain – and indeed
a dilemma. We can’t deny the severity of the crises that we face, and yet we
can’t paralyse people with fear. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jonathon Porritt, author of Capitalism as if the World
Matters, told me, ‘I’m impaled on this every day of my life at the moment. What
do you do? I think we still owe it to
reality and to integrity in any communications process to share the empirical
reality. But how you come out of that without leaving people spread eagled with
despair and just utterly disempowered?’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Porritt elaborates, saying, ‘We’re trying to create these
upbeat, opportunity driven wish lists about what would happen if businesses
seized hold of this set of opportunities here, and started to do things
completely differently over there, and if politicians started to construct
societal and economic responses based on a world not on growth hormones. But
then you look at the scale of their responses and you set it against the scale
of the analysis, and of course it looks frail. It looks insubstantial in terms
of where we need to be. So I think the mechanisms we’re using are the only ones
available to us, but we haven’t got it right yet. Whether we can get there
building, building, building gradually over a period of time or whether we need
some shocks in the system to accelerate the emergence of that positive energy,
that for me is still a hard one to call.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jorgen Randers, co-author of the original 1972 Limits to
Growth report and author the recently released book 2052: A Global Forecast for
the Next Forty Years, is equally ambivalent. Speaking to me, he reflected, ‘Are
scare tactics better than carrots? There
are groups pursuing both avenues. I think I’ve moved to thinking that having a
positive view has a stronger motivational force than scare tactics. But then
you can ask the question, is it possible to come up with sufficient carrots to
make society act? And it looks as if
some support from some scare tactics or some of the disasters would help.’ <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The 21st Century Living project, undertaken
by Acona in conjunction with Homebase and The Eden Project, may
provide some answers. Based on an 18 month study of 100 households in the UK,
the findings showed that most people will act, given the right tools and
information specifically for their needs. ‘The data say clearly that environmental
values are not a good predictor of action. The message we got back was clear:
we can get on with cutting our environmental footprint without having to win
the battle for the long-term soul of the nation. Don’t browbeat people, don’t
frighten them – just show them where they are wasting money and resources and
they will change themselves. Frame the topic like this and everyone is
interested – young and old, wealthy and poor, green or not.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like all of us in the CSR/sustainability field, I have also
been grappling with the issue of whether it is best to scare or inspire. In my
case, however, this was also critical in a post-apartheid South Africa that was
in the grip of pessimism after the euphoria of its political miracle had
evaporated and the massive challenges of social upliftment became clear. This
was the subject of my book, South Africa: Reasons to Believe, in which my
co-author and I concluded that there are two basic ingredients to being
positive. The first is to recognise that our pessimistic views are skewed by
unbalanced media reporting. We have to remember that our mental state is
determined by what we focus on. It’s not that the media is lying; it’s just
that they are painting a picture of the world that is highly selective. They
are like manic-depressive artists patching together a collage, using bits and
pieces of real events, most of which happen to be dark or disturbing. So, we need to start exposing ourselves to
more of the positive news stories, in order to get a more balanced perspective
of what is going on around us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second ingredient to being positive is to recognise that
our attitude influences the world around us, for better or worse. The neutral
scientist in the white coat is a myth – he/she does not exist. The observer and
the observed are not separate; they are always inextricably linked. Everything
we think, or believe, or value, changes the world around us. It even affects
our physical health. Attitudes are like lenses that colour what we see. But
they are also like yeast in bread – they have a very real, visible effect on
the outcome of whatever we are trying to make work, whether it is a family, a
business, a nation, or even a whole planet. This is not just a philosophical
point. Optimism comes from actively engaging with life’s challenges.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Relating this back to the theme of this blog series, namely
CSR 2.0 and the Age of Responsibility, I always suggest that companies use a
simple dual test. The difference between a CSR 1.0 and a CSR 2.0 company is the
depth of their admission and the scale of their ambition. Interface founder,
Ray Anderson, concedes in his book Confessions of a Radical Industrialist not
only that today’s economic system is broken, but that he and his company are
part of the problem. He is able to see himself as a ‘plunderer’ (his word) –
not through malicious intent, or even greed, but by failing to question the
true impacts of business on society and the environment. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As Alcoholics Anonymous will tell you, admission is the
first step to recovery. Unfortunately, most companies stuck in the Ages of
Greed, Philanthropy, Marketing and Management are all still in denial, thinking
that either there is no problem, or it’s not their problem, or that it’s a
problem to benefit from, or that it’s only a minor problem.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Age of Responsibility is not just about admission
though; it’s also about ambition. As far as I can tell, Interface was the first
major company to set the BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) of zero negative
impact, as well as going beyond ‘no harm’ to also become a restorative business
– to genuinely make things better and leave this world with a net-positive
balance. Today, there are others like Walmart (zero waste, 100% renewable
energy) and Unilever (double the business, halve the environmental footprint).
I believe it is only such audacious goals that can lift the triple curses of
incremental, peripheral and uneconomic CSR. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As Robert Francis Kennedy reminds us: ‘There are those who
look at things the way they are, and ask why. I dream of things that
never were, and ask why not?’ We need more pragamatic dreamers,
business leaders who practice what brain-mind researcher and author Marilyn
Ferguson calls ‘pragmagic’. Will you be one of the pragmagicians of CSR and
sustainability? For all our sakes, I really hope so! Help us break the spell of
irresponsible business and unsustainable capitalism.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Senge concludes that a good guy/bad guy mentality can
be a barrier to such collaboration. ‘You’ve got to wake up and say “We’re all
part of the system”. You know who is causing the destruction of species? You
and me. You know who’s causing the huge waste problems around the world? You
and me.’ Once you become more open-minded to this possibility, then you can
look for collaborative solutions. ‘Look for small steps of things you can do
together with people with whom you traditionally would never have
cooperated — and do something useful, no matter how small.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="background-color: white;">Article reference</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Visser, W. (2012) To Scare or Inspire? Bringing Admission,
Ambition & Pragmagic to CSR, Wayne Visser Blog Briefing, 1 May 2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Source</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Extracted and adapted from Visser, W. (2011) The Age of
Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business. London: Wiley.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
***<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Part of the WAYNE VISSER BLOG BRIEFING Series<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Copyright 2012 Wayne Visser</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-36644745411538785532012-07-09T04:51:00.001-07:002012-07-09T04:51:18.208-07:00Will Anyone Join Your Revolution?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i>By Wayne Visser</i></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><i>Part 12 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.</i></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Margaret Mead once said, ‘The only person who likes change
is a wet baby’, to which Hunter Lovins added ‘and the baby squalls all the way
through the process.’ So change is never easy, especially on the big issues of
sustainability. In thinking about this, I have found Richard
Beckhard and David Gleicher’s Formula for Change rather useful: D x V
x F > R. This means that three factors must be present for meaningful
organisational change to take place. These factors are: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
D = Dissatisfaction with how things are now;<br />
V = Vision of what is possible; and<br />
F = First, concrete steps that can be taken towards the vision.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If the product of these three factors is greater than
R (Resistance), then change is possible. I have seen sustainability change
efforts fail for all four reasons. Deep-seated resistance often exists because
the benefits of the status quo to those in power are considerable.
Sustainability initiatives, especially if they are integrated into the core
business, are often seen as extra burden. For instance, an operations manager
of a plant really doesn’t want the extra hassle of collecting emissions data
for a sustainability report, or subjecting his staff and facilities to an
audit.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most often, I think, the dissatisfaction that we may feel
with the state of the world or the company’s actions really isn’t widely shared
enough. Jonathon Porritt, author of Capitalism as if the World Matters, after
many years in the sustainability game (he started the UK’s Green Party and
chaired the government’s Sustainable Development Commission among other
things), told me: ‘Looking at people all over the world today, rich and poor
world, they are not remotely close to a state of mind that would call for
anything revolutionary. There’s no vast upheaval of people across the world
saying, “This system is completely and utterly flawed and must be overturned
and we must move towards a different system.”
There isn’t even that, let alone an identification of what the other
system would look like.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Likewise, on creating a compelling vision, Porritt concludes
that ‘we have not collectively articulated what this better world looks like –
the areas in which it would offer such fantastic improvements in terms of
people’s quality of life, the opportunities they would have, a chance to live
in totally different ways to the way we live now. We haven’t done that. Collectively we’ve not
made the alternative to this paradigm, this paradigm in progress, work
emotionally and physically, in terms of economic excitement. We’ve just not done it.’ Taking first steps
is something companies are generally much better at, especially picking the
so-called ‘low hanging fruit’. But the reason these steps so often don’t get
beyond the pilot or peripheral stage is because the other two factors –
dissatisfaction and vision – are not strong enough.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another way to think of change in a structured way is Peter
Senge’s concept of the learning organisation, popularised in his book, The
Fifth Discipline. He described the five interrelated disciplines as follows:
‘Systems thinking [the fifth discipline] needs the disciplines of building
shared vision, mental models, and personal mastery to realise its potential.
Building shared vision fosters a commitment to the long term. Mental models
focus on the openness needed to unearth shortcomings in our present ways of
seeing the world. Team learning develops the skills of groups of people to look
for the larger picture that lies beyond individual perspectives. And personal
mastery fosters the personal motivation to continually learn how our actions
affect our world.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a follow-up book, Learning for Sustainability, Senge,
together with co-authors from the Society for Organisational Learning, apply
the fifth discipline model to sustainability. In particular, they emphasise
connecting the inner and outer work that needs to be done: ‘Connecting the
inner changes in how we manage and lead with the outer effects our
organisations have on larger systems; connecting the inner changes in mental
models and personal visions with the outer changes in management culture; and
connecting the inner changes in who we are as human beings with how we act and
interact.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In seeking to create change for sustainability, Senge and
his colleagues once again emphasise the interconnected nature of all change
processes, and the critical role of business: ‘There has never before been a
time when the social, ecological and economic conditions that challenge
political leaders in any one part of the world have been so interwoven with
what is occurring in so many other places. This phenomenon has arisen through
the ever-growing web of interconnectedness spun by institutions, especially
multinational corporations. Collectively, these organisations determine what
technologies are created and how they are applied around the world: which
markets develop and which are largely ignored. These institutions determine who
benefits from the world economy and who does not.’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Given the interconnectedness, the key to change, believes
Senge, is collaboration. To illustrate his point at an MIT Sustainability
Summit 2010, Senge asked the question: What would it take to get rid of
disposable cups? Who would have to work together to eliminate disposable
cups? The answers suggested include everyone from Starbucks and its
competitors to paper manufacturers, food service providers, recyclers and
municipal governments. To make real headway on really
tough sustainability issues is a ‘massive undertaking in collaboration’.
What’s more, the parties that need to collaborate often aren’t naturally
inclined to.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Senge concludes that a good guy/bad guy mentality can
be a barrier to such collaboration. ‘You’ve got to wake up and say “We’re all
part of the system”. You know who is causing the destruction of species? You
and me. You know who’s causing the huge waste problems around the world? You
and me.’ Once you become more open-minded to this possibility, then you can
look for collaborative solutions. ‘Look for small steps of things you can do
together with people with whom you traditionally would never have
cooperated — and do something useful, no matter how small.’</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Article reference</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Visser, W. (2012) Will Anyone Join Your Revolution? Wayne
Visser Blog Briefing, 24 April 2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Source</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Extracted and adapted from Visser, W. (2011) The Age of
Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business. London: Wiley.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
***<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Part of the WAYNE VISSER BLOG BRIEFING Series<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Copyright 2012 Wayne Visser</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-57664920014365612972012-07-09T04:49:00.003-07:002012-07-09T04:49:44.770-07:00Big Business, Little Splash: Tackling the World Water Crisis<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white;"><b><i>By Wayne Visser</i></b></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Part 11 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
About 2.4 billion people live in water-stressed countries,
according to a report by the Pacific Institute. Water demand in the next
two decades will double in India to 1.5 trillion cubic meters and rise 32% in
China to 818 billion cubic meters, according to the 2030 Water Resources Group.
China is home to roughly 20% of the world’s population, but has only about 7%
of the world’s water. That means there are around 300 million people living in
water-scarce areas. According to a World Bank report, water scarcity and
pollution reduce China’s gross domestic product by about 2.3%. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I interviewed Fred Pearce about his book, When the
River Runs Dry, he told me that, for the average Westerner to get through the
day, it takes about a hundred times their own weight in water – that’s every
day; not every year, every day. The water used is mainly to grow the things
that we eat. Pearce gave me some of the facts and figures: To grow a kilogram
of wheat takes about a ton of water, a kilogram of rice takes more. Once you
start feeding grains to livestock to produce meat and dairy products, the
numbers are even higher. To produce enough meat for one hamburger takes about
10,000 litres of water, which is about 10 tons. If you are a vegetarian you are
not doing too much better because it typically takes 4,000 litres of water to
produce one litre of milk.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s for food. What about drinks? Coca-Cola sells 1.5
billion beverages a day in over 200 countries and uses about 2.5 litres of
water to produce one litre of its products. The company received its water wake
up call in 2002, when residents of Plachimada, a village in India’s southern
state of Kerala, accused the company’s bottling plant there of depleting and
polluting groundwater. Two years later, the local government forced Coke to
shut down the plant. In 2006, their situation got worse when a New Delhi
research group found high levels of pesticides in Coca-Cola and PepsiCo’s
locally produced soft drinks, resulting in several Indian states banning their
products. Coke denied any wrongdoing, claiming that bore-hole water fed farming
was mainly responsible for lowering the water table and that the pollution
claims were unsubstantiated. However, the public perceptions battle had already
been lost. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Speaking to Time magazine in 2008, Jeff Seabright, the
company’s vice president of environment and water resources, admitted that Coke
had mishandled the controversy. ‘If people are perceiving that we’re using
water at their expense, that’s not a sustainable operation,’ he said. This realisation resulted in a
serious shift in Coke’s strategic positioning of its CSR towards tackling water
as priority number one. ‘It's great that companies used to hand out checks for
scholarships or to clean up litter,’ said Seabright, ‘but increasingly the real
relevance is using the company’s core competence to address issues that are of
societal concern.’ And for Coke and the communities in which it operates, the
concern is water.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Coke realised that it needs to be seen as part of the
solution, not part of the problem. As a result, it has put resources into
water at an unprecedented scale. In 2007, the company announced it would spend
$20 million over five years to help the WWF preserve seven of the world’s major
rivers. It also set up the $10 million Coca-Cola India Foundation, which began
installing over 4,000 rainwater harvesting programmes and providing clean
drinking water to 1,000 schools across the country. More significantly, in June
of the same year, CEO Neville Isdell flew to Beijing and pledged that his
company would become ‘water neutral’, saying, ‘Water is the main ingredient in
nearly every beverage that we make. Without access to safe water supply, our
business simply cannot exist.’<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Coke uses the term ‘water neutral’ to describe the ratio of
ground water usage by any user as against the quantity put back into nature. It
is a contentious topic and not everyone believes it is possible. But the scale
of Coke’s ambition – and indeed the progress it is making towards its targets –
is going a long way to advancing the CSR 2.0 circularity agenda. Speaking in
2009, Coca Cola India’s Director of Quality and Environment, Navneet Mehta,
said: ‘Our target is to neutralise all ground water usage by the company in
India by the end of the current calendar year and become water neutral for all
products and processes by 2012.’ Mehta reported that the company had already
achieved a replenishment level of 82% on its annual ground water usage in India
and that their ground water usage ratio had improved over 42% between 1998 and
2008.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second largest beer manufacturer in the world,
SABMiller, has also been working hard on understanding their water footprint,
and launched a joint-report with WWF-UK in 2009 called ‘Water Footprinting:
Identifying & Addressing Water Risks in the Value Chain’. The report
reveals that in South Africa, the total water footprint is equivalent to 155
litres of water for every 1 litre of beer, while in SABMiller’s Czech operation
the overall water footprint is significantly smaller at 45 litres of water to
every 1 litre of beer. In both cases, the vast majority of this (over 90%)
comes from the cultivation of crops, both local and imported. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Efforts like these of Coca-Cola SABMiller are being
supported by the Water Footprint Network, which launched its Water Footprint
Manual in 2010, covering a comprehensive set of methods for water footprint
accounting. It shows how water footprints can be calculated for individual
processes and products, as well as for consumers, nations and businesses, and
includes methods for water footprint sustainability assessment and a library of
water footprint response options. It’s time for us all to make less of a splash
– either we ‘drop down’ our water consumption, or we ‘dry up’ our very source of
life.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Article reference</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Visser, W. (2012) Big Business, Little Splash – Tackling the
World Water Crisis, Wayne Visser Blog Briefing, 17 April 2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Source</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Extracted and adapted from Visser, W. (2011) The Age of
Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business. London: Wiley.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
***<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Part of the WAYNE VISSER BLOG BRIEFING Series<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Copyright 2012 Wayne Visser<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-31837563189554547622012-07-09T04:47:00.002-07:002012-07-09T04:47:29.021-07:00What Drives the Business Case for CSR?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i>By Wayne Visser</i></b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Part 10 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the ways the business case is determined is that each
region, country or community has a different combination of CSR drivers. I will
start with the five typical CSR drivers that are local (or internal) drivers,
namely pressures from within the country or community.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>1. Cultural tradition</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In many countries and regions, CSR draws strongly on
deep-rooted indigenous cultural traditions of philanthropy, business ethics and
community embeddedness. For example, in a survey of over 1,300 small and
medium-sized enterprises in Latin America, Antonio Vives found that the
region’s religious beliefs are one of the major motivations for CSR. In Asia, a
study by scholars Wendy Chapple and Jeremy Moon reached a similar conclusion,
namely that ‘CSR does vary considerably among Asian countries but that this
variation is not explained by [levels of] development but by factors in the
respective national business systems’. And in Africa, I have found that the
values-based traditional philosophy of African humanism (ubuntu) is what
underpins much of the modern, inclusive approaches to CSR on the continent.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>2. Political reform</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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CSR cannot be divorced from socio-political reform
processes, which often drive business behaviour towards integrating social and
ethical issues. For example, the political and associated social and economic
changes in Latin America since the 1980s, including democratization,
liberalization, and privatization, have shifted the role of business towards
taking greater responsibility for social and environmental issues. Likewise,
more recently, the goal of accession to EU membership has acted as an incentive
for many Central and Eastern European countries to focus on CSR, since the
latter is acknowledged to represent good practice in the EU.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>3. Socio-economic priorities</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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CSR is typically shaped by local socio-economic priorities.
For instance, while poverty alleviation, health-care provision, infrastructure
development and education may be high on many developing country agendas, this
stands in stark contrast to many Western CSR priorities such as consumer
protection, fair trade, green marketing, climate change concerns, or socially
responsible investments. Stephen Schmidheiny questions the appropriateness of
imported CSR approaches, citing examples from Latin America where pressing
issues like poverty and tax avoidance are central to CSR, but often remain left
off of international CSR agendas.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>4. Governance gaps</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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CSR is frequently seen as a way to plug the ‘governance
gaps’ left by weak, corrupt, or under-resourced governments that fail to
adequately provide various social services (housing, roads, electricity, health
care, education, etc.). Academics Dirk Matten and Jeremy Moon see this as part
of a wider trend in developing countries with weak institutions and poor
governance, in which responsibility is often delegated to private actors, be
they family, tribe, religion, or increasingly, business. A survey by WBCSD
illustrates this: when asked how CSR should be defined, Ghanaians stressed
‘building local capacity’ and ‘filling in when government falls short’.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>5. Crisis response</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Crises often have the effect of catalyzing CSR responses,
albeit mostly of the philanthropic kind. For example, the economic crisis in
Argentina in 2001 marked a significant turning point in CSR, prompting debates
about the role of business in poverty alleviation. Similarly, Hurricane Katrina
in the USA and HIV/AIDS in South Africa had the effect of galvanizing CSR. The
examples are endless, be they the industrial accidents of the 1970s and 1980s
(Seveso, Bhopal, Exxon Valdez), the environmental and human rights fiascos of
the 1990s (Shell, Nike, McDonald’s) or the corporate governance and natural
disasters of the 2000s (Enron, Katrina, Sichuan).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The rest of the CSR drivers are more global (or external)
and tend to have an international origin.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>6. Market Access</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The flipside of the socio-economic priorities driver is to
see these unfulfilled human needs as an untapped market. This notion underlies
the now burgeoning field of ‘bottom of the pyramid’ (BOP) strategies already
discussed. CSR may also be seen as an enabler for companies in developing
countries trying to access markets in the developed world. For example, a
survey of CSR reporting among the top 250 companies in Latin America found that
businesses with an international sales orientation were almost five times more
likely to report than companies that sold products regionally or locally.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>7. International Standardisation</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Codes are frequently a CSR response, especially in sectors
where social and environmental issues are deemed critical, such as textiles,
agriculture or mining. Often, CSR is driven by standardisation imposed by
multinationals striving to achieve global consistency among its subsidiaries
and operations in developing countries. For example, a study by Wendy Chapple
and Jeremy Moon in Asia found that ‘multinational companies are more likely to
adopt CSR than those operating solely in their home country, but that the
profile of their CSR tends to reflect the profile of the country of operation
rather than the country of origin’.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>8. Investment Incentives</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The belief that multinational investment is inextricably
linked with the social welfare of developing countries is not a new phenomenon.
However, increasingly these investments are being screened for CSR performance.
Hence, socially responsible investment (SRI) is becoming another driver for CSR
in many countries. Often, this is as a result of global SRI funds and indexes,
like the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and FTSE4Good, but the influence of
regional and national SRI instruments is also on the rise, with Brazil and
South Africa among the first to go glocal in this respect. In addition, there
are sector-based indexes emerging, like the ICT Sustainability Index launched
in 2008.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>9. Stakeholder activism</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In the absence of strong governmental controls over the
social, ethical and environmental performance of companies in some countries,
activism by stakeholder groups has become another critical driver for CSR. In
developing countries, four stakeholder groups emerge as the most powerful
activists for CSR, namely development agencies, trade unions, international
NGOs and business associations. These four groups provide a platform of support
for local NGOs, which are not always well developed or adequately resourced to
provide strong advocacy for CSR. The media is also emerging as a key
stakeholder for promoting CSR.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>10. Supply chain integrity</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another significant driver for CSR, especially among small
and medium-sized companies, is the requirements that are being imposed by
multinationals on their supply chains. This trend began with various ethical
trading initiatives, which led to the growth of fair trade auditing and
labelling schemes for agricultural products. Later, poor labour conditions and
human rights abuses resulted in the development of certifiable standards like
SA 8000. Major change has also been achieved through sector-based initiatives
such as the Forest Stewardship Council and more recently, through the ‘Wal-Mart
effect’, involving choice editing to source only from sustainable and
responsible suppliers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To conclude, the art of finding a ‘glocal’ business case is
to determine which of these 10 incentives and pressures are the strongest and
most applicable to the local context.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Article reference</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Visser, W. (2012) What Drives the Business Case for CSR? Wayne
Visser Blog Briefing, 10 April 2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Source</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Extracted and adapted from Visser, W. (2011) The Age of
Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business. London: Wiley.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
***<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Part of the WAYNE VISSER BLOG BRIEFING Series<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Copyright 2012 Wayne Visser</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-36839090571168474262012-07-09T04:45:00.001-07:002012-07-09T04:45:18.674-07:00Open Sourcing Sustainability: Web 2.0 Meets CSR 2.0<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="background-color: white;"><i>By Wayne Visser</i></b></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Part 9 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.</i></div>
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CSR 2.0 responsiveness goes beyond traditional partnerships
and CSO effectiveness; it is also about innovative ways to collaborate. I want
to flag several Web 2.0 inspired experiments in responsiveness that are opening
up sustainability and responsibility solutions to the public. One is a platform
called the <a href="http://www.wbcsd.org/work-program/capacity-building/eco-patent-commons.aspx"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Eco-Patent
Commons</span></a>, which allows companies to share their intellectual property
for the common good. The Commons was launched by WBCSD and covers issues like
waste, pollution, global warming and energy. ‘The premise of the Commons,’ says
Björn Stigson, president of the WBCSD, ‘is that the free sharing of these
patents leads to new collaborations and innovation aimed at helping others
become more eco-efficient and/or operate in a more sustainable way.’<o:p></o:p></div>
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The Eco-Patent Commons’ publicly searchable database already
contains over one hundred eco-friendly patents from companies like Bosch, Dow,
DuPont, Fuji Xerox, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Nokia, Pitney Bowes, Ricoh, Sony and
Taisei. Xerox, for example, has eleven pledged patents that cover a process
that cuts the time it takes to remove toxic waste from soil and water from
years to months, as well as a patent that covers technology that makes magnetic
refrigeration less harmful to the environment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Dr. John E. Kelly III, IBM Senior Vice President and
Director of IBM Research, believes that ‘innovation to address environmental
issues will require both the application of technology as well as new models
for sharing intellectual property among companies in different industries ...
In addition to enabling new players to engage in protecting the environment,
the free exchange of valuable intellectual property will accelerate work on the
next level of environmental challenges.’<o:p></o:p></div>
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Similarly, Donal O’Connell, Director of Intellectual
Property for Nokia, thinks that ‘environmental issues have great potential to
help us discover the next wave of innovation because they force us all to think
differently about how we make, consume and recycle products.’ Nokia have
pledged a patent designed to help companies safely re-use old mobile phones by
transforming them into new products like digital cameras, data monitoring
devices or other electronic items. ‘Recycling the computing power of mobile
phones in this way could significantly increase the reuse of materials in the
electronics industry’, concludes O’Connell.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Even more significant than the individual patents that have
been added is the shift in thinking that this signals among some of the largest
companies in the world. It is true none of them are exactly ‘giving away the
family silver’ – they are not opening all their patents – but they are
demonstrating responsiveness on a scale never seen before. They are recognising
that the global problems we face are larger than whatever individual solutions
can accomplish. If we are truly going to be effective in tackling our most
intractable challenges, we will need the wisdom of crowds and the collective
efforts of millions of entrepreneurs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A similar, more recent initiative is <a href="http://greenxchange.cc/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">GreenXchange</span></a>, a collaborative platform
initially launched by Creative Commons, Nike and Best Buy. Partners include
2degrees, nGenera and Salesforce.com. The fact that Creative Commons – a
non-profit organisation that previously developed licensing programs to help in
sharing creative and scientific content – has branched into the environmental
arena is good news, not least because it brings a sophisticated understanding
of the legalities of proprietary content, yet combines this with a commitment
to open-source sharing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The main difference between the Eco-Patent Commons and
GreenXchange is that companies that contribute patents to the GreenXchange will
have the option of charging users a fixed annual licensing fee and can also
restrict any licensing by rivals or for competitive use. In addition, even if
no annual fee is charged, patent users must register so there is a record of
who is using what technology. The
structure is more complex than the Eco-Patent Commons, but John Wilbanks,
GreenXchange coordinator and vice president for science at Creative Commons,
believes it will yield greater numbers of high-quality inventions. ‘We don’t
depend on altruism,’ says Wilbanks. ‘This system helps the environment while
enabling a firm to make money from patents in applications outside its core
business.’<o:p></o:p></div>
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Wilbanks cites a fictional example for illustration
purposes: Nike’s air-bag patent for cushioning shoes is crucial to its core
shoe business, but may have environmental benefits in other industries —
perhaps in prolonging the useful life of tyres. GreenXchange could enable Nike
to license the air-bag technology selectively to noncompeting companies.’
Although this example may be speculative, Nike’s commitment to the concept is
not. According to Kelly Lauber, a global director in Nike’s Sustainable
Business and Innovation Lab, by sharing its water-based adhesive technology and
working with footwear makers, average levels of environmentally harmful
solvents used by Nike’s suppliers decreased significantly.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Nike has issued a GreenXchange booklet in which it lays out
the challenge: Will the pursuit of sustainability create the new Google? The
new Nike? The new disruptive view of business models, markets, profits and
consumers? The answer is almost certainly yes. The conclusion is that ‘it’s
time to dust off the research, the assets, the knowledge, the innovation you’ve
developed on sustainability. Imagine the impact it could have if we gifted it
to the world.’<o:p></o:p></div>
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Whether it is the Eco-Patent Commons or GreenXchange or some
other platform for open-sourcing sustainability and responsibility that
eventually prospers and becomes the new collaborative standard, the genie is
out of the bottle. The idea is out there that, when it comes to technologies,
processes, products and services that have potentially life-saving or
earth-saving impacts, there is a moral obligation to share these with humanity.
No doubt these collaborative platforms have started in the environmental space
because, as was the case with reporting, green issues are easier to quantify
and design solutions for. But we can expect them to spread rapidly to the
social space as well. And as they do, they will shine a spotlight on those
companies that are truly embracing the CSR 2.0 principle of responsiveness.</div>
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<b>Article reference</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Visser, W. (2012) Open Sourcing Sustainability: Web 2.0
Meets CSR 2.0, Wayne Visser Blog Briefing, 3 April 2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Source</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Extracted and adapted from Visser, W. (2011) The Age of
Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business. London: Wiley.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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***<o:p></o:p></div>
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Part of the WAYNE VISSER BLOG BRIEFING Series<o:p></o:p></div>
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Copyright 2012 Wayne Visser<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--EndFragment--><br />
<!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-35807119007916552462012-07-09T04:39:00.001-07:002012-07-09T04:39:12.037-07:00The Long Tail of CSR: When Smaller is Bigger<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white;"><b><i>By Wayne Visser</i></b></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Part 8 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.</i></div>
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Is bigger always better or can we still say ‘small is
beautiful’, as the pioneering economist E.F. Schumacher argued way back in
1973? Certainly, the ‘muesli-eating, sandal-wearing’ New Age approach to
small-is-beautiful has been rather more of an advert for ‘small is groovy, but
ultimately ineffectual’. But what if we could do both big and small at the same
time?<o:p></o:p></div>
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I discussed the issue of scalability with Simon Zadek, a
widely respected thought leader on the civil corporation and accountability,
who posed the rhetorical question: ‘Is scale large institutional functionality,
or is it a flotilla of little boats?’ This is where Chris Anderson’s Web 2.0
concept of ‘the long tail’ is very useful. The Long Tail – named after the
extended tail of a statistical distribution curve – is the idea that selling
less to more people is big business. It’s the business model that has spawned the
most successful companies of the Web 2.0 age. The Long Tail questions the
conventional wisdom that says success is about generating ‘blockbusters’ and
‘superstars’ – those rare few products and services that become runaway
bestsellers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anderson sums up his message by saying that: 1) the tail of
available variety is longer than we think; 2) it’s now within reach
economically; and 3) all those niches, when aggregated, can make up a
significant market. He also notes that this Long Tail revolution has been made
possible by the digital age, which has dramatically reduced the costs of
customised production and niche distribution. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There are three enablers of successful long tail businesses,
according to Anderson: 1) democratising the tools of production (e.g.
digi-cams, content editing software, blogging tools); 2) democratising the
tools of distribution (e.g. Amazon, eBay, iTunes, Netflix); and 3) connecting
supply and demand (e.g. Google, blogs, Rotten Tomatoes).<o:p></o:p></div>
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So I got to wondering: Is there a Long Tail of CSR? And if
so, what does it look like? To me, the Long Tail of CSR is all about extending
the reach of CSR, and improving its ability to satisfy specific social and
environmental needs. Let’s use Anderson’s enablers as a framework for thinking
about this. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Democratising the tools of CSR production </b><o:p></o:p></div>
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This is about breaking CSR silos and extending CSR beyond
multinationals. At the early stages of CSR adoption, it is often confined to
Public Relations, Corporate Affairs or Marketing departments. As CSR implementation
matures, responsibility tends to migrate to specialised CSR departments of
various descriptions (environment, health & safety, accountability,
corporate citizenship, etc.). However, these versions of CSR are like the
Hollywood model of blockbuster films. They suggest that CSR is about a few,
high visibility programmes that are designed by CSR experts and delivered by
big companies.<o:p></o:p></div>
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By contrast, democratising CSR production would mean firstly
embedding CSR across the organisation – making it the responsibility of
operations managers, financial managers, shop floor workers, basically
everyone. This is only possible if CSR becomes part of the culture and
incentive systems of an organisation. CSR would also need to be extended beyond
the usual suspects (i.e. the high profile, branded multinationals) to the less
visible B2B (business to business) and national (rather than multinational)
organisations, as well as to SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) and down
the supply chain.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Democratising the tools of CSR distribution</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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To date, CSR has mainly be ‘distributed’ via a few select
projects – typically philanthropic or charitable activities – in which the
company offers its help to the ‘less fortunate masses’. Usually, the nature and
scope of CSR activities is determined top-down and offered as a fairly
undifferentiated ‘service’, e.g. Nike might decide to focus on sponsoring
sports teams, events and celebrities and Coca Cola might choose water as its
key CSR issue. The most common delivery mechanisms are money (sponsorship and
other forms of charity), or for the more advanced companies, adhering to
generic CSR codes and standards.<o:p></o:p></div>
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By contrast, democratising the tools of CSR distribution
should include allowing staff to participate in CSR delivery through volunteer
programmes, and developing more geographically tailored and sector-specific CSR
codes and standards, such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, or the
Global Reporting Initiative guidelines for HIV/Aids reporting. Beyond this, embracing
Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) markets and supporting social entrepreneurs will
allow the reach of CSR to be extended so that the needs of formerly unserved or
underserved people can be met. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Connecting CSR Supply and Demand</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Traditionally, CSR has been offered in the form of grants by
multinational head-offices, who control the budget and set the criteria by
which prospective philanthropic projects should be selected. For the more
advanced companies, this has been extended to adherence by their operations to
corporate codes of CSR practice and communicating this through CSR reports.
Demand has typically come from community groups applying to corporate
foundations for funding, or NGOs taking an activist approach to demanding
improved CSR practices.<o:p></o:p></div>
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By contrast, connecting the Long Tail of CSR supply and
demand will rely increasingly on cross-sector partnerships, multi-stakeholder
groups, social media and crowdsourcing. For example, Rio Tinto works with the
World Conservation Union to identify biodiversity needs and satisfy them
through appropriate CSR activities. Companies may also use extended stakeholder
networks of community groups, social entrepreneurs and microcredit enterprises
to better match their capacity to make a positive impact among those who can
most benefit, as BP is doing with smokeless stoves in India and SC Johnson is
doing with cleaning products in Kenya.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hence, applying the Long Tail concept to CSR requires a
different way of thinking about how CSR is generated, delivered and managed. It
means making CSR a more inclusive and embedded process within the company, and
a more diverse and far-reaching set of activities outside the company. It also
means creating meaningful stakeholder partnerships to ensure that the right
kinds of CSR benefit the right groups of people, where and when they need it.
The Long Tail in a nutshell, according to Anderson, is: ‘culture unfiltered by
scarcity’. By extension, the Long Tail of CSR in a nutshell is: ‘responsibility
liberated by collaboration’.</div>
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<b>Article reference</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Visser, W. (2012) The Long Tail of CSR: When Smaller is
Bigger, Wayne Visser Blog Briefing, 27 March 2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Source</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Extracted and adapted from Visser, W. (2011) The Age of
Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business. London: Wiley.</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-22198853857667593702012-07-09T04:34:00.001-07:002012-07-09T04:36:42.780-07:00Nature vs. Nurture: Are Social Entrepreneurs Born or Made?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><i>By Wayne Visser</i></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Part 7 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog
Series for 3BL Media.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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What do Taddy Blecher, Anurag Gupta, Wang Chuan-Fu and all
of the other social entrepreneurs have in common? Is this a special breed of
human being? Are social entrepreneurs born or can they be made? In the academic
literature, there is an interesting thread of research that is around the
concept of ‘champions’ in organisations, especially ‘environmental champions’.
The idea draws on prior conceptions of the human resources champion in the
1970s and 1980s, before HR became institutionalised.</div>
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Academics define environmental champions as people who can attractively
express a personal vision about environmental protection that is in tune with
both industry’s needs and wider public concern and who convince and enable
organisation members to turn environmental issues into successful corporate
programs and innovations. Environmental champions have been showed to imbue a
combination of characteristics, including being a catalyst, champion, sponsor,
facilitator and demonstrator. Their skills include the ability to identify,
package and sell environmental issues within their organisations. Their effectiveness in engaging others rests
heavily on expertise, top management support and a strong appreciation for the
problems that every business unit or operations manager faces.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Research on champions is not confined purely to the
environmental dimension of sustainability. Others have written about socially
responsible change-agents, as well as managers’ individual discretion as a
component of corporate social performance. British academic Christine
Hemingway, for example, finds that CSR can be the result of championing by a
few managers, based on their personal values and beliefs, despite the personal
and professional risks this may entail. Individual managers are also often
mediators in corporate philanthropy and stakeholder influence. Hence, the
notion of CSR champions has emerged as an important concept, which I will
return to this in the final blog on individual change agents.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Bill Drayton, who has been involved in selecting and
tracking the progress of the 2,700 Ashoka Fellows, believes social
entrepreneurs ‘focus everyday on the “how to” questions. How are they going to
get from here to their ultimate goal? How are they going to deal with this
opportunity or that barrier? How are the pieces going to fit together? They are
engineers, not poets. ... The entrepreneur’s job is not to take an idea and
then implement it. That is what franchisees do. The entrepreneur is building
something that is entirely new – by constantly creating and testing and
recreating and then testing and recreating again.’<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5658919619436288814#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">[i]</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
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There are other characteristics as well, according to
Drayton. ‘The true social entrepreneur also has an almost magical ability to
move people, a power rooted in exceptional ethical fibre. He or she is always
asking people to do things that are unreasonable – and people do them. ... The
entrepreneur has an inner confidence that most sense but do not understand.
While others think entrepreneurs are taking risks, entrepreneurs don’t see it
that way because they have thought things through extremely well. They also
believe in their ability continuously to adapt the idea as they drive toward a
goal that they know is a huge win for everyone, and ultimately to reach that
goal. They know, in other words, that they have the gift that brings the
greatest happiness in the world, the gift of being able to give at the highest
level. Once one grasps who the true social entrepreneur is,’ concludes Drayton,
‘one would have to be crazed to bet against him or her ultimately changing the
world at large scale.’<o:p></o:p></div>
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The question remains: Is such social entrepreneurship a
random and unpredictable phenomenon, or is there some underlying rationale or
theory that we can use to better understand and advance sustainability
innovation? I did a research project with my colleagues at Cambridge University
to answer this question.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5658919619436288814#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">[ii]</span></a> In our attempt to
‘map the territory’, we created a model that looked at the Enablers, Processes
and Agents of sustainability innovation. There were a number of interesting
findings.<o:p></o:p></div>
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First, of the four Enablers of innovation that we identified
– government, finance, technology and culture – most people are focused either
on finance or technology. For example, in the SustainAbility survey of over 100
social entrepreneurs, 72% cited ‘access to finance’ as their primary challenge,
and much of the report is dedicated to understanding this issue.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5658919619436288814#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt;">[iii]</span></a> Furthermore, many
typical cases held up as innovation success stories – whether they be GE’s
EcoImagination programme or Vodafone’s M-Pesa service – are almost inevitably
technology solutions. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The corollary of this finding is that the role of government
and culture is being neglected. Government, by setting clear, long term policy
targets on social and environmental issues like biodiversity, climate change or
access to health and sanitation, can create an enabling environment that allows
business to innovate. Likewise, fostering a corporate and national culture of
innovation – of opportunity orientation rather than risk obsession – is a
necessary precondition for innovation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the area of Processes, of which we identified three –
individual actions, management systems and tailored approaches – most of the
focus has been on individual actions. This mirrored our findings for Agents,
where individuals were favoured over companies and non-business agents. Hence,
the notion of a sustainability champion or a social entrepreneur trains our
hopes on the creative, business-savvy individual. This overlooks the important
role of innovation within large companies – what the second in the SustainAbility
series of reports called ‘intrapreneurship’ – as well as the potential for NGOs
like Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor (WSUP) to be part of the
innovative solution. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another interesting finding from my Cambridge research was
that most cited cases seem to be innovation processes specifically targeting
sustainability issues, rather than efforts at embedding sustainability
principles in core innovation processes. This is a fundamental distinction,
because it means that most R&D going on in companies – and hence most
innovation – is not systematically building in social and environmental
criteria. As a result, much like CSR more generally, innovation is a
peripheral, project/product specific activity, which is exactly what is
preventing scalable solutions from emerging in the mainstream economy. Until
CSR is built into every organisational process – and especially into strategic
functions like R&D or new product development – we will always be playing
on the fringes of the Age of Responsibility.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Article reference</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Visser, W. (2012) Nature vs. Nurture: Are Social
Entrepreneurs Born or Made, Wayne Visser Blog Briefing, 20 March 2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Source</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Extracted and adapted from Visser, W. (2011) The Age of
Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business. London: Wiley.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div>
<br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="edn1">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5658919619436288814#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt;">[i]</span></span></span></a>
Drayton, B. (2010). Tipping the world: The power of collaborative
entrepreneurship. Published on the McKinsey What Matters site, 8 April 2010.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5658919619436288814#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt;">[ii]</span></span></span></a>
Blowfield, M., Visser, W. & Livesey, F. (2007). Sustainability Innovation:
Mapping the Territory, University Cambridge Programme for Industry Research
Paper Series: No. 2.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5658919619436288814#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt;">[iii]</span></span></span></a>
Growing Opportunity: Entrepreneurial Solutions to Insoluble Problems (2007)<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-82857245831809904452012-03-21T04:56:00.000-07:002012-03-21T04:56:24.179-07:00Age of Responsibility now also on Twitter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/AgeOfR">Twitter</a>. Our handle is @AgeOfR<br />
<br />
We are also on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Age-of-Responsibility/140986762644491">Facebook</a>. "Like" us if you want to stay updated on posts.</div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-73026215207840140162012-03-18T04:23:00.000-07:002012-03-18T04:23:28.915-07:00CSR 2.0 as a New DNA for Business<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6.0pt;"><i>Part 6 of 13 in Wayne Visser's <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470688572.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Age of Responsibility</span></a> Blog Series for 3BL Media.</i><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6.0pt;">By May 2008, it was clear to me that the evolutionary concept of Web 2.0 held many lessons for CSR, and I began to develop my thinking around CSR 2.0. It quickly became clear, however, that a metaphor can only take you so far. What was needed was a set of principles against which we could test CSR. These went through a few iterations, but I eventually settled on five, which form a kind of mnemonic for CSR 2.0: Creativity (C), Scalability (S), Responsiveness (R), Glocality (2) and Circularity (0). These principles, which will be explored in detail in the next blog posts, can be described briefly as follows:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6.0pt;"><i>Creativity</i> – The problem with the current obsession with CSR codes and standards (including the new ISO 26000 standard) is that it encourages a tick-box approach to CSR. But our social and environmental problems are complex and intractable. They need creative solutions, like Free-play’s wind-up technology or Vodafone’s M-Pesa money transfer scheme.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6.0pt;"><i>Scalability</i> – The CSR literature is liberally sprinkled with charming case studies of truly responsible and sustainable projects. The problem is that so few of them ever go to scale. We need more examples like Wal-Mart ‘choice editing’ by converting to organic cotton, Tata creating the affordable eco-efficient Nano car or Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen microfinance model.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6.0pt;"><i>Responsiveness</i> – More cross-sector partnerships and stakeholder-driven approaches are needed at every level, as well as more uncomfortable, transformative responsiveness, which questions whether particular industries, or the business model itself, are part of the solution or part of the problem. A good example of responsiveness is the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6.0pt;"><i>Glocality</i> – This means ‘think global, act local’. In a complex, interconnected, globalising world, companies (and their critics) will have to become far more sophisticated in combining international norms with local contexts, finding local solutions that are culturally appropriate, without forsaking universal principles. We are moving from an ‘either-or’ one-size-fits-all world to a ‘both-and’ strength-in-diversity world.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6.0pt;"><i>Circularity</i> – Our global economic and commercial system is based on a fundamentally flawed design, which acts as if there are no limits on resource consumption or waste disposal. Instead, we need a cradle-to-cradle approach, closing the loop on production and designing products and processes to be inherently ‘good’, rather than ‘less bad’, as Shaw Carpets does.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6.0pt;">I believe that CSR 2.0 – or Systemic CSR (I also sometimes call it Radical CSR or Holistic CSR, so use whichever you prefer) – represents a new model of CSR. In one sense, it is not so different from other models we have seen before. We can recognise echoes of Archie Carroll’s CSR Pyramid, Ed Freeman’s Stakeholder Theory, Donna Wood’s Corporate Social Performance, John Elkington’s Triple Bottom Line, Stuart Hart and C.K. Prahalad’s Bottom of the Pyramid, Michael Porter’s Strategic CSR and the ESG approach of Socially Responsible Investment, to mention but a few. But that is really the point – it integrates what we have learned to date. It presents a holistic model of CSR.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6.0pt;">The essence of the CSR 2.0 DNA model are the four DNA Responsibility Bases, which are like the four nitrogenous bases of biological DNA (adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine), sometimes abbreviated to the four-letters GCTA (which was the inspiration for the 1997 science fiction film GATTACA). In the case of CSR 2.0, the DNA Responsibility Bases are Value creation, Good governance, Societal contribution and Environmental integrity, or VEGS if you like. Each DNA Base has a primary goal and each goal has key indicators.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6.0pt;">Hence, if we look at <i>Value Creation</i>, it is clear we are talking about more than financial profitability. The goal is economic development, which means not only contributing to the enrichment of shareholders and executives, but improving the economic context in which a company operates, including investing in infrastructure, creating jobs, providing skills development and so on. There can be any number of KPIs, but I want to highlight two that I believe are essential: beneficial products and inclusive business. Does the company’s products and services really improve our quality of life, or do they cause harm or add to the low-quality junk of what Charles Handy calls the ‘chindogu society’. And how are the economic benefits shared? Does wealth trickle up or down; are employees, SMEs in the supply chain and poor communities genuinely empowered?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6.0pt;"><i>Good Governance</i> is another area that is not new, but in my view has failed to be properly recognised or integrated in CSR circles. The goal of institutional effectiveness is as important as more lofty social and environmental ideals. After all, if the institution fails, or is not transparent and fair, this undermines everything else that CSR is trying to accomplish. Trends in reporting, but also other forms of transparency like social media and brand- or product-linked public databases of CSR performance, will be increasingly important indicators of success, alongside embedding ethical conduct in the culture of companies. Tools like Goodguide, KPMG’s Integrity Thermometer and Covalence’s EthicalQuote ranking will become more prevalent.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6.0pt;"><i>Societal Contribution</i> is an area that CSR is traditionally more used to addressing, with its goal of stakeholder orientation. This gives philanthropy its rightful place in CSR – as one tile in a larger mosaic – while also providing a spotlight for the importance of fair labour practices. It is simply unacceptable that there are more people in slavery today than there were before it was officially abolished in the 1800s, just as regular exposures of high-brand companies for the use of child-labour are despicable. This area of stakeholder engagement, community participation and supply chain integrity remains one of the most vexing and critical elements of CSR.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6.0pt;">Finally, <i>Environmental Integrity</i> sets the bar way higher than minimising damage and rather aims at maintaining and improving ecosystem sustainability. The KPIs give some sense of the ambition required here – 100% renewable energy and zero waste. We cannot continue the same practices that have, according to WWF’s Living Planet Index, caused us to lose a third of the biodiversity on the planet since they began monitoring 1970. Nor can we continue to gamble with prospect of dangerous – and perhaps catastrophic and irreversible – climate change.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 6.0pt;">In the rest of this blog series, I will explore what a different approach – CSR 2.0 – may look like.</div><!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-49831644283243141542012-03-09T03:46:00.002-08:002012-03-09T03:46:00.231-08:00Cracking the CSR Codes Puzzle<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Created>2011-04-13T08:48:00Z</o:Created> <o:LastSaved>2011-04-13T08:48:00Z</o:LastSaved> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>1146</o:Words> <o:Characters>6535</o:Characters> <o:Company>Kaleidoscope Futures Ltd</o:Company> <o:Lines>54</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>15</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>7666</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>14.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b>By Dr Wayne Visser</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Part 5 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Looking back, we can see that the 1990s were the decade of CSR codes – not only EMAS, ISO 14001 and SA 8000, but also the Forest Steward Council (FSC) and Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Certification Schemes, Green Globe Standard (tourism sector), Corruption Perceptions Index, Fairtrade Standard, Ethical Trading Initiative, Dow Jones Sustainability Index and OHSAS 18001 (health & safety), to mention just a few. But all that was just a warm up act when we look at the last 10 years, when we have seen codes proliferate in virtually every area of sustainability and responsibility and all major industry sectors. So much so that in the <i>A to Z of Corporate Social Responsibility</i>, we included over 100 such codes, guidelines and standards – and that was just a selection of what it out there. To illustrate the point, here is a sample of what has been thrust onto corporate agendas since the year 2000:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Carbon Disclosure Project; Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation; GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines; Kimberley Process (to stop trade in conflict diamonds); Mining and Minerals for Sustainable Development (MMSD) Project; UN Global Compact; UN Millennium Development Goals; Voluntary Principles on Human Rights; FTSE4Good Index; Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS; Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Business Principles for Countering Bribery; Publish What Pay Campaign; Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development; London Principles (finance sector); AA 1000 Assurance Standard; Equator Principles (finance sector); Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI); Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil; Global Corruption Barometer; UN Convention Against Corruption; UNEP Finance Initiative; UN Norms on Business and Human Rights; World Bank Extractive Industries Review; AA 1000 Standard for Stakeholder Engagement; EU Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment; ISO 14064 Standard on Greenhouse Gas Accounting and Verification; Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change; Bribe Payers’ Index; UN Principles for Responsible Investment; ClimateWise Principles (insurance sector); UNEP Declaration on Climate Change; UN Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME); Bali, Poznan and Copenhagen Communiqués (climate change) ... and many, many more.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">No wonder companies are suffering from code fatigue and audit exhaustion. It is the supreme paradox of the Age of Management – companies are pressured to standardise their efforts on sustainability and responsibility, while stakeholders and critics (myself included) remain unconvinced that this approach identifies or addresses the root causes of the problems we face. Many of the institutional failures over the past 20 years have, I would argue, been systemic failures of culture, rather than bureaucratic failures of management; they have more to do with a prevailing set of values than a particular set of procedures. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The latest in this code-mania is ISO 26000 on Social Responsibility. I have suggested before that ISO 26000 is like a teddy bear – something cute and fluffy, which may help companies sleep better at night, but nothing like the grizzly bear that we really need to shake business out of their CSR complacency. Of course, it is unfair of me to make so light of a five-year international process of negotiation involving over 90 countries, which managed to reach some measure of agreement on such tricky issues as human rights and fair operating practices. But I really do believe that, as a non-certifiable guidance standard that promotes a strategic approach to CSR (rather than a transformative CSR 2.0 agenda), ISO 26000 may prove to be more of a damp squib than a big bang.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Having said that, I must give ISO 26000 its due – as a foundation document that encapsulates the international consensus on social responsibility, it is to be applauded and recommended. Its greatest achievement – and what I expect may prove to be its most enduring legacy – is the way in which it broadens the scope of CSR, first beyond big corporates to any organisation, and second beyond an exclusive focus on philanthropic community development to incorporate six other core subjects, namely organisational governance, human rights, labour rights, the environment, fair operating practices and consumer issues. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Besides this, countries like Denmark are ignoring ISO’s strong declaration against ISO 26000 certification schemes and have begun developing their own certifiable national standard, DS 26000. I expect consultants will also increasingly offer ISO 26000 compliance auditing services, irrespective of whether these are sanctioned by ISO. The fact is that business, governments and civil society alike want standards on social responsibility with ‘teeth’. A decade of weak standards without sanction, like the UN Global Compact and AA 1000, as compared with tougher certification schemes like SA 8000 and the Forest Stewardship Council, have taught us where real value lies.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I believe that the codes-based approach, which I call Strategic CSR in an Age of Management, fails on three counts. First, the <i>incremental</i> approach of CSR, while replete with evidence of micro-scale, gradual improvements, has completely and utterly failed to make any impact on the massive sustainability crises that we face, many of which are getting worse at a pace that far outstrips any futile CSR-led attempts at amelioration.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Second,<i> </i>CSR is, at best, a <i>peripheral</i> function in most companies. There may be a CSR manager, a CSR department even, a CSR report and a public commitment to any number of CSR codes and standards. But these do little to change the underlying growth-and-consumption model that fuels environmental degradation and social disruption.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Third,<i> </i>the ‘inconvenient truth’ is that CSR sometimes pays, in specific circumstances, but more often, it is still <i>uneconomic</i>. Of course there are low-hanging fruit – like eco-efficiencies around waste and energy – but most of the hard-core CSR changes that are needed require strategic change and massive investment, which the markets don’t support.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So where does this leave us? I have argued so far that the Ages of Greed, Philanthropy, Marketing and Management have brought us to a point of crisis in CSR. Specifically, CSR is failing to turn around our most serious global problems – the very issues it purports to be concerned with – and may even be distracting us from the real issue, which is business’s role causal role in the social and environmental crises we face. In the rest of this blog series, I will explore what a different approach – CSR 2.0 – may look like.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>About the author</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Dr Wayne Visser is Founder and Director of the think-tank <a href="http://www.csrinternational.org/">CSR International</a> and consultancy Kaleidoscope Futures Ltd. He is the author of thirteen books, including <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470688572.html">The Age of Responsibility</a><i>: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business</i> (2011), <i>The World Guide to CSR </i>(2010) and<i> The A to Z of Corporate Social Responsibility </i>(2010). He is the author of over 180 publications (chapters, articles, etc.) and has delivered more than 170 professional speeches on in over <span class="apple-style-span">50 countries in the last 20 years.</span> In addition, Wayne is Senior Associate at the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership, Visiting Professor of Sustainability at Magna Carta College, Oxford, and Adjunct Professor of CSR at Warwick Business School, UK.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-17536737715144793482012-03-08T03:44:00.001-08:002012-03-08T03:44:00.366-08:00Broken Promises: BP’s slide backwards into Promotional CSR<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Created>2011-04-13T08:48:00Z</o:Created> <o:LastSaved>2011-04-13T08:48:00Z</o:LastSaved> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>1049</o:Words> <o:Characters>5981</o:Characters> <o:Company>Kaleidoscope Futures Ltd</o:Company> <o:Lines>49</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>14</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>7016</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>14.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b>By Wayne Visser</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Part 4 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">By 2000, John Browne, then-CEO of BP, felt the company had earned enough sustainability kudos to risk a major rebranding. The company reportedly spent $7 million in researching the new ‘Beyond Petroleum’ Helios brand and $25 million on a campaign to support the brand change. When Browne justified the exercise by saying ‘it’s all about increasing sales, increasing margins and reducing costs at the retail sites’, perhaps more people should have tempered their expectations. Certainly Greenpeace wasn’t duped, concluding at the time that ‘this is a triumph of style over substance. BP spent more on their logo this year than they did on renewable energy last year’. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Antonia Juhasz, author of The Tyranny of Oil (2008), was similarly sceptical, claiming that at its peak, BP was spending 4% of its total capital and exploratory budget on renewable energy and that this has since declined, despite Browne’s announcement in 2005 of BP’s plans to double its investment in alternative and renewable energies ‘to create a new low-carbon power business with the growth potential to deliver revenues of around $6 billion a year within the next decade.’<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Sceptics notwithstanding, Browne had earned his new title as the ‘Sun King’ and his reputation was not only being earned with green stripes. BP was also one of the first companies to declare their support for the Publish-What-You-Pay campaign. But success or failure is all about timing. If Browne had been a politician and had retired in 2003 after two four-year terms of office, he may still have been covered in glory, with his Sun King crown firmly in place. After all, he had turned BP into an oil major – perhaps even a competitor for Exxon Mobil – by creating a lean, mean, green machine. Instead, he hung onto power long enough to face the consequences of his own legacy of cost-cutting and rhetoric. As a result, between 2004 and 2007, the proverbial chickens came home to roost. Browne was left tarred and feathered.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">On 23 March 2005, when an explosion and fire at BP’s Texas City refinery killed 15 workers and injured more than 170 others. An investigation into the accident by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) ultimately found over 300 safety violations and fined BP $21 million – the largest fine in OSHA history at the time. In 2007, in a separate settlement related to the explosion, BP pleaded guilty to a violation of the federal Clean Air Act and agreed to pay a $50 million fine and to make safety upgrades to the plant. Two years later, in 2009, OSHA imposed an additional $87 million in fines, claiming that the company had not completed all the safety upgrades required under the agreement and alleging 439 new ‘wilful’ safety violations. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In March 2006, BP was found to be criminally liable for a corroded pipe on Alaska’s North Slope that leaked 200,000 gallons of oil. In August of the same year, another leak appeared and the entire Prudhoe Bay operation had to be shut down. During the investigation, a federal grand jury subpoenaed records from a Seattle engineering firm that had been hired by Alaska to evaluate BP's pipeline-maintenance record and uncovered a draft report that was highly critical of BP, but somehow turned into a final report that was largely complimentary. Member of Congress, Rep. Jay Inslee, concluded that BP had made a ‘wilful, conscious decision’ to ‘quash that information from the public’.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">By the time of Browne’s undignified exit into the wings of BP history in 2007, he was widely criticised for the dual crimes of greenwashing and instilling a cost-cutting culture that was the root cause of BP’s spate of safety and environmental incidents. Even the new CEO, Tony Hayward, a year before taking over, admitted that BP had ‘a management style that has made a virtue of doing more for less.’ <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">After taking over, Hayward quickly showed that he was not one for green rhetoric. Less than six months into the job, he announced BP’s plans to invest nearly £1.5bn ($2.3) to extract oil from the Canadian wilderness – the so-called Alberta tar sands – an action which earned it a Guardian newspaper headline as ‘the biggest environmental crime in history’. Greenpeace claims that it takes about 29kg of CO2 to produce a barrel of oil conventionally, but as much as 125kg for tar sands oil. It also believes the production threatens a vast forest wilderness, greater than the size of England and Wales, which forms part of one of the world’s biggest carbon sinks.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Two years later, Hayward’s apparent ‘back to the petroleum’ strategy gained momentum when BP announced that it had shut down its alternative energy headquarters in London, accepted the resignation of its clean energy boss and imposed cuts in the alternative energy budget - from $1.4bn (£850m) in 2008 to between $500m and $1bn in 2009. Bizarrely, Hayward used this occasion to stress that BP remained as committed as ever to exploring new energy sources. No wonder Grist journalist Joseph Romm responded with an incredulous rant: ‘Seriously, they gut the program and claim it is "reinforcement" of their commitment. Perhaps BP stands for "Beyond Prevarication" or "Beyond Pinocchio”.’<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">All of this history – the story of Browne, of Hayward and of BP – was like a dress rehearsal for the main event. I am referring of course to the catastrophic 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. That is covered in more detail in my book, <i>The Age of Responsibility</i>. For now, many questions remain unanswered: Will BP’s reputation recover? Will this prove to be the worst environmental disaster in history? Will we look back on the Macondo blowout as the inadvertent tipping point that ushers in a new low-carbon future? Students, professors and CSR wonks will study this case for years to come. But for the purposes of this blog, it is simply the latest drama in the BP saga – the story of a corporate leader in Strategic CSR, which managed to dethrone itself become a poster-company for Promotional CSR in an Age of Marketing.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>About the author</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Dr Wayne Visser is Founder and Director of the think-tank <a href="http://www.csrinternational.org/">CSR International</a> and consultancy Kaleidoscope Futures Ltd. He is the author of thirteen books, including <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470688572.html">The Age of Responsibility</a><i>: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business</i> (2011), <i>The World Guide to CSR </i>(2010) and<i> The A to Z of Corporate Social Responsibility </i>(2010). He is the author of over 180 publications (chapters, articles, etc.) and has delivered more than 170 professional speeches on in over <span class="apple-style-span">50 countries in the last 20 years.</span> In addition, Wayne is Senior Associate at the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership, Visiting Professor of Sustainability at Magna Carta College, Oxford, and Adjunct Professor of CSR at Warwick Business School, UK.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-61023967724206220622012-03-07T03:42:00.001-08:002012-03-07T03:42:00.472-08:00Give a Man the Means to Fish: From Paternalistic Charity to Venture Philanthropy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Created>2011-04-13T08:48:00Z</o:Created> <o:LastSaved>2011-04-13T08:48:00Z</o:LastSaved> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>1277</o:Words> <o:Characters>7285</o:Characters> <o:Company>Kaleidoscope Futures Ltd</o:Company> <o:Lines>60</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>17</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>8545</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>14.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b>By Dr Wayne Visser</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Part 3 of 13 in Wayne Visser's Age of Responsibility Blog Series for 3BL Media.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Give a man a fish and he will eat today. Teach a man to fish and he will eat tomorrow – or until his nets break. Invest in a man’s fishing business and he will feed himself and others for a long time to come. This is what it means to shift from paternalistic charity to venture philanthropy. It is an evolution that is important to root in a long and varied cultural tradition of philanthropy.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Confucius (551-479 BC) said: ‘When wealth is centralized, the people are dispersed. When wealth is distributed, the people are brought together.’ Hence, ‘a man of humanity is one who, in seeking to establish himself, finds a foothold for others and who, desiring attainment for himself, helps others to attain.’ When asked, ‘Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?’ he replied, ‘Is not <i>reciprocity </i>such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others’. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This so-called Golden Rule, which we find in all the world’s major religions, has come to represent the very essence of charity. In fact, the word charity derives from Latin <i>caritas</i>, which meant preciousness, dearness, or high price. However, in Christian theology, <i>caritas</i> became the standard Latin translation for the Greek word <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agap%C4%93" title="Agapē"><i><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">agapē</span></i></a>, meaning an unlimited loving-kindness to all others. Hence, in St Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians, we read, in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version" title="King James Version"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">King James Version</span></a> of the Bible, of ‘faith, hope and charity’. Of course, it is not only giving that is important, but also the nature of giving. There is a Jewish proverb that says: What you give for the cause of charity in health is gold; what you give in sickness is silver; what you give after death is lead. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Islam also has a strong tradition of charity. <i>Zakāt</i>, or alms-giving for the purposes of alleviating poverty and helping those less fortunate, is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The practice is generally in the form of an annual tithe or tax of 2.5% of an individual’s wealth, including money made through business, savings and income. The <i>zakāt</i> must also be above an agreed minimum (called <i>nisab</i>), which is said to be around $2,640 or the equivalent in any other currency. As important as the collection of <i>zakāt</i> in a community is its fair distribution among the needy. Another form of charitable action is <i>sadaqah</i>, which literally means ‘righteousness’ and refers to the voluntary giving of alms or charity. These ancient traditions are considered to be a personal responsibility for all Muslims, practiced out of love for humanity, to ease economic hardship for others and eliminate inequality.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">There are numerous other religious and cultural variations on the theme. Philanthropy in Latin America typically revolves around <i>asistencialismo</i>, which is charitable giving for poverty alleviation. Out of dedication to their religion, education and culture, Bulgarian communities raised donations to build churches, schools and cultural centres called <i>chitalishta</i>. In India, Gandhi’s trusteeship concept was adapted and applied to welfare acts. In Mexico, the Raramori, who still live in the mountains of the state of Chihuahua, use the expression <i>korima</i>, which means ‘to share’ resources in times of stress. In Southern Africa, <i>ubuntu</i> is the practice of humanism based on the collectivist notion that ‘I am a person through other people’.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So much for the roots and cultural traditions of philanthropy. Upon these foundations, the great philanthropists, ancient and modern, built their charities – from Rockefeller and Carnegie to Gates and Turner. The more interesting question, I think, is whether there is anything new and transformative about charitable giving?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One concept that has generated a lot of excitement is ‘venture philanthropy’. Seemingly, it has origins in another HBR article, ‘Virtuous Capital: What Foundations Can Learn from Venture Capitalists’, by <a href="http://hbr.org/search/Christine+W.+Letts"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Christine W. Letts</span></a>, <a href="http://hbr.org/search/William+Ryan"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">William Ryan</span></a> and <a href="http://hbr.org/search/Allen+Grossman"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Allen Grossman</span></a> in 1997. Their basic message was that corporate foundations can be more effective if they ‘develop hands-on partnering skills’, for which venture capital firms offer a helpful benchmark: ‘In addition to putting up capital, they closely monitor the companies in which they have invested, provide management support, and stay involved long enough to see the company become strong.’<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Since then, the debate has raged about what venture philanthropy is and whether it is plausible, ethical and desirable. After all, if the venture capitalists are treating their donations as an investment with expectations of a financial return, then is it philanthropy, or just business? And is it feasible to expect charities like community development organisations to generate a financial return in the first place? And what about the distinction between venture philanthropy and social enterprise, or social business?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So what do we know? There are basically three models of venture philanthropy. The first is traditional foundations practicing high-engagement grantmaking. The second is organisations which are funded by individuals, but all engagement is done by professional staff. Examples cited include the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood_Foundation" title="Robin Hood Foundation"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Robin Hood Foundation</span></a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City" title="New York City"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">New York City</span></a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipping_Point_Community" title="Tipping Point Community"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Tipping Point Community</span></a> in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay_Area" title="San Francisco Bay Area"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">San Francisco Bay Area</span></a>. The third is the partnership model, in which partner investors both donate the financial capital and engage with the grantees. An example is the Silicon Valley <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Social_Venture_Fund&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Social Venture Fund (page does not exist)"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Social Venture Fund</span></a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jose,_California" title="San Jose, California"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">San Jose, California</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Without getting heavily into the venture philanthropy debate, I do believe that – as with strategic philanthropy – it is symptomatic of the shift in our approach to tackling society’s most intractable problems. What we have seen is that traditional charity has been, for the most part, invaluable in bringing about alleviation of social and environmental distress, but rather ineffective in achieving resolution of the problems themselves. The need for pure philanthropy, irrespective of its strategic alignment to donors, will always be there. There will always be emergencies, crises and urgent problems that don’t link conveniently to business interests.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Venture philanthropy, on the other hand, recognises that we need ways to scale up solutions, and one way is to link business with a social cause, and provide the capital it needs to be effective. Hence, I regard venture philanthropy as one of the transition tools that we need as we move to the Age of Responsibility, not least because it brings creativity and scalability to the table. It is one of the critical enablers that is facilitating the social enterprise revolution, which is discussed in more detail in later chapters.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>About the author</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Dr Wayne Visser is Founder and Director of the think-tank <a href="http://www.csrinternational.org/">CSR International</a> and consultancy Kaleidoscope Futures Ltd. He is the author of thirteen books, including <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470688572.html">The Age of Responsibility</a><i>: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business</i> (2011), <i>The World Guide to CSR </i>(2010) and<i> The A to Z of Corporate Social Responsibility </i>(2010). He is the author of over 180 publications (chapters, articles, etc.) and has delivered more than 170 professional speeches on in over <span class="apple-style-span">50 countries in the last 20 years.</span> In addition, Wayne is Senior Associate at the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership, Visiting Professor of Sustainability at Magna Carta College, Oxford, and Adjunct Professor of CSR at Warwick Business School, UK. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-74752071496127716962012-03-06T03:40:00.001-08:002012-03-06T03:40:00.247-08:00Fat-Cats versus Alley-Cats: Why the Occupy Movement is Right<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Created>2011-04-13T08:48:00Z</o:Created> <o:LastSaved>2011-04-13T08:48:00Z</o:LastSaved> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>845</o:Words> <o:Characters>4819</o:Characters> <o:Company>Kaleidoscope Futures Ltd</o:Company> <o:Lines>40</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>11</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>5653</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>14.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b>By Dr Wayne Visser</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Part 2 of 13 in Wayne Visser's </i><a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470688572.html"><i>Age of Responsibility</i></a><i> Blog Series for 3BL Media.<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The most common explanation for the global financial crisis is to point a finger at the banks. And rightly so. But I believe we also need to shine a spotlight on the greed and irresponsibility of executives, fat-cats like Lehman Brothers’ former CEO Richard Fuld. These are the enriched 1% that suck the lifeblood out of the fleeced 99% and which the Occupy Movement is justifiably targeting. Naming and shaming is important, but we need to realise that this is a systemic cancer in our economic and financial system.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It is also not a new phenomenon, but worrying it is showing signs of getting worse, not better. In 2000, Enron was the 7th largest company in America, with revenues of $111 billion and over 20,000 staff. When the company collapsed in 2001, due to various fraudulent activities fuelled by a culture of greed, the average severance payment was $45,000, while executives received bonuses of $55 million in the company's last year. Employees lost $1.2 billion in pensions; retirees lost $2 billion, but executives cashed in $116 million in stocks.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">At the end of 2007, just before the crisis went public, Lehmans’ CEO Fuld and president Joseph Gregory paid themselves stock bonuses of $35 million and $29 million respectively. At the time, Fuld lived in an enormous Greenwich mansion, over 9,000 square feet, valued at $10 million. He had four other homes and an art collection valued at $200 million. Hardly a picture of responsible restraint.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Taken on their own, these executive pay packages are outrageous enough. But the extent of creeping executive greed comes into even sharper focus when we look at trends in relative pay. In 1965, U.S. CEOs in major companies earned 24 times more than a typical worker, a ratio that grew to 35 in 1978 and to 71 in 1989. By 2000, it had hit 298, and despite falling to 143 in 2002 (after the post-Enron stock market slump), it bounced back again and has continued rising through the noughties (2000s). <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Institute for Policy Studies Executive Excess report reveals that the 2010 ratio between average worker and average CEO compensation leaped to 325-to-1, up from in 263-to-1 in 2009. Among the nation's top firms, the S&P 500, CEO pay last year averaged $10,762,304, up 27.8 percent over 2009. Average worker pay in 2010? That finished up at $33,121, up just 3.3 percent over the year before.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">According to Fair Economy, the average U.S. worker's salary could pay for 10 months of health insurance, 5 months of college tuition, and buy 10 percent of an average home. On the other hand, the average Fortune 500 CEO's salary could pay for 300 years of health insurance, 200 years of college tuition and buy 34.5 new homes.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">But at least these CEOs are contributing through taxes, right? Wrong. In fact, corporate tax dodging has gone so out of control that 25 major U.S. corporations last year paid their chief executives more than they paid the U.S. government in federal income taxes. Citizens for Tax Justice, as part of a study on tax avoidance among the Fortune 500, has identified 12 corporations that have paid an effective rate of negative 1.5 percent on $171 billion in profits.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It is easy to go cross-eyed or brain-fried when confronted by a barrage of numbers like that. And yet, there was one particular number that shocked me so much when I read it that it stuck in my mind. I believe I read it in Body Shop founder Anita Roddick’s wonderful and feisty book, <i>Body and Soul</i>. She claimed that it would take one Haitian worker producing Disney clothes and dolls 166 years to earn as much as Disney’s then president, Michael Eisner, earned in one day. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Reflecting on this, I wrote in my book <i>Beyond Reasonable Greed</i>: ‘rather than spreading around the wealth for the common good, it seems to us that Adam Smith’s invisible hand has a compulsive habit of feeding itself’. If decades of inaction by governments on executive pay is anything to go by, then we should not wait for our elected politicians to put restraints on the market’s invisible hands.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So that leaves us – civil society. And that is why I believe the Occupy Movement is a revolution whose time has come. But they need our support; they need our determination; they, even need our outrage. If they don’t get it, we will stand by shaking our self-righteous heads and watch as another generation of Wall Street fat-cats gets fatter at the expense of Main Street alley-cats – that’s us by the way: we, the middle class; we the people who create the real wealth of nations; we who need to say ‘enough is enough!’<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>About the author</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Dr Wayne Visser is Founder and Director of the think-tank <a href="http://www.csrinternational.org/">CSR International</a> and consultancy Kaleidoscope Futures Ltd. He is the author of thirteen books, including <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470688572.html">The Age of Responsibility</a><i>: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business</i> (2011), <i>The World Guide to CSR </i>(2010) and<i> The A to Z of Corporate Social Responsibility </i>(2010). He is the author of over 180 publications (chapters, articles, etc.) and has delivered more than 170 professional speeches on in over <span class="apple-style-span">50 countries in the last 20 years.</span> In addition, Wayne is Senior Associate at the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership, Visiting Professor of Sustainability at Magna Carta College, Oxford, and Adjunct Professor of CSR at Warwick Business School, UK. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-87102226687031807232012-03-05T03:18:00.000-08:002012-03-05T03:18:52.513-08:00The Meaning of Responsibility<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Created>2011-04-13T08:48:00Z</o:Created> <o:LastSaved>2011-04-13T08:48:00Z</o:LastSaved> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>1147</o:Words> <o:Characters>6539</o:Characters> <o:Company>Kaleidoscope Futures Ltd</o:Company> <o:Lines>54</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>15</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>7671</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>14.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b><i>By Wayne Visser</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><br />
</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>The Age of Responsibility <a href="http://3blmedia.com/blog/20978">blog series for TBLmedia</a> - No. 1<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Do you sigh when you hear the word responsibility? Perhaps responsibility is even a dirty word in your vocabulary. Perhaps you associate it with burdens and restrictions; the opposite of being carefree and without obligations. But responsibility doesn’t have to be a chore, or a cage. It all depends how you think about it. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Responsibility is literally what it says – our ability to respond. It is a choice we make – whether to be attentive to our children’s needs, whether to be mindful of the plight of those less fortunate, whether to be considerate of the impact we have on the earth and others. To be responsible is to be proactive in the world, to be sensitive to the interconnections, and to be willing to do something constructive, as a way of giving back. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Responsibility is the counterbalance to rights. If we enjoy the right to freedom, it is because we accept our responsibility not to harm or harass others. If we expect the right to fair treatment, we have a responsibility to respect the rule of law and honour the principle of reciprocity. If we believe in the right to have our basic needs met, we have the responsibility to respond when poverty denies those rights to others. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Taking responsibility, at home or in the workplace, is an expression of confidence in our own abilities, a chance to test our own limits, to challenge ourselves and to see how far we can go. Responsibility is the gateway to achievement. And achievement is the path to growth. Being responsible for something means that we are entrusted with realising its potential, turning its promise into reality. We are the magicians of manifestation, ready to prove to ourselves and to others what can happen when we put our minds to it, if we focus our energies and concentrate our efforts. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Being responsible for someone – another person – is an even greater privilege, for it means that we are embracing our role as caregivers, helping others to develop and flourish. This is an awesome responsibility, in the truest sense, one which should be embraced with gratitude, not reluctantly accepted with trepidation. Responsibility asks no more of us than that we try our best, that we act in the highest and truest way we know. Responsibility is not a guarantee of success, but a commitment to trying. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So why is responsibility seen by many as such an onerous burden? Responsibility becomes onerous when choice is removed from the equation, when we do not realise our freedom to act differently, when we forget that we are allowed to say no. Responsibility becomes pernicious when we take on too much, when we mistakenly think that more is always better, when we take on the guilt and expectations of others. Accepting too many responsibilities is, in fact, irresponsible – for it compromises our ability to respond. Do few things but do them well is the maxim of responsibility. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Being responsible also does not mean doing it all ourselves. Responsibility is a form of sharing, a way of recognising that we’re all in this together. Sole responsibility is an oxymoron. Taking responsibility is a way of taking ownership in our lives, of acknowledging our own hand in the shaping of destiny. Responsibility is the antidote for victimhood. When we walk with awareness, we realise the enmeshed nature of reality, we see the subtle strands that make up the web of life, we accept that everything is linked to everything else. Responsibility is being conscious of the oneness of existence.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Responsibility, if we manage it well, should never be like the curse of Sisyphus, eternally rolling a rock uphill, but rather a blessing gratefully received. For what can be more joyous than making a positive contribution in the world, or making a difference in someone else’s life? Responsibility is the footprint we leave in the sand, the mark of our passage. What tracks will you leave? Where is the place where you can most freely and effectively respond? The choice, as always, is yours.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I wrote these opening words on responsibility in 2005, and I believe they are still as relevant today as they were back then. Responsibility is the choice we make to respond with care. My book – <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470688572.html">The Age of Responsibility</a> – and this TBLmedia blog series, is a way of taking stock. What choices have we made – in the way we live our lives, in the way we do our work and in the way we run our businesses? How have we responded to the needs of our day – especially the social, environmental and ethical crises we face? And have our actions been taken with care – have we cared about our impacts on others?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">There are even more troubling questions. For instance: Are companies more a part of the problem or the solution? Is the net impact of business positive or negative? There are other questions too; awkward questions that cut even closer to the bone. For better or for worse, I chose corporate sustainability and responsibility (CSR) as my way to make a positive difference in the world – the mark of my footprints in the sands of time. But given that CSR has increased dramatically over the same 50 years that many of our global problems have been getting worse, does that mean that CSR is ineffective? <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It gets worse. Could the whole CSR bonanza be an unwitting accomplice to the spate of corporate crimes of recent decades? Am I quietly and unintentionally aiding and abetting our collective demise? After all, Enron was stuffed to the gills with CSR – from codes of conduct and ethics officers to corporate volunteering and community development programmes. I am sure all of these CSR programmes had their merits. And yet, if they did nothing to prevent these companies acting like pirates on the high seas of finance, what good are they? <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">If CSR cannot form the bedrock of ethical corporate behaviour, does it deserve to have ‘responsibility’ in its title? More worryingly still, if CSR is used to legitimise businesses or practices that are, at heart, irresponsible, surely CSR is partly to blame for the various corporate ‘sins’ that go undetected and unpunished? I am led to a very uncomfortable conclusion. At worst, CSR in its most primitive form may be a smokescreen covering up systemically irresponsible behaviour. At best, even the most evolved CSR practices might just be a band-aid applied to a gaping wound that is haemorrhaging the lifeblood of the economy, society and the planet.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So we need a new approach – a new CSR, which I call CSR 2.0. This blog series will explore why CSR 1.0 is broken, and how CSR 2.0 can breathe new life into the concept and practice of corporate sustainability and responsibility. I hope you will join me.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://3blmedia.com/blog/Wayne-Visser/Meaning-Responsibility">Link to the original 3BL Media post</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>About the author<o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">Dr Wayne Visser is Founder and Director of the think-tank <a href="http://www.csrinternational.org/">CSR International</a> and consultancy Kaleidoscope Futures Ltd. He is the author of thirteen books, including <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470688572.html">The Age of Responsibility</a><i>: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business</i> (2011), <i>The World Guide to CSR </i>(2010) and<i> The A to Z of Corporate Social Responsibility </i>(2010). He is the author of over 180 publications (chapters, articles, etc.) and has delivered more than 170 professional speeches on in over <span class="apple-style-span">50 countries in the last 20 years.</span> In addition, Wayne is Senior Associate at the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership, Visiting Professor of Sustainability at Magna Carta College, Oxford, and Adjunct Professor of CSR at Warwick Business School, UK. <o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-23532421742449467412012-02-09T07:47:00.001-08:002012-03-05T02:40:00.418-08:00Be the Change – But first Be Yourself<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <!--[if !mso]> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><b>By Dr Wayne Visser</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Part of the <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/series/8-quest-for-csr-2-0/posts"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Quest for CSR 2.0</span></a> Blog Series for CSR Wire<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">What do we know about the role of individuals as CSR change agents? Intuitively, we resonate with adages such as Gandhi's 'be the change you want to see in the world,' or Margaret Mead's famous quote: 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does.' But beyond these clichés, what do we really know about change in the context of CSR?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As part of my PhD research, I interviewed a range of CSR professionals – managers, consultants, academics and NGO representatives working on corporate social, environmental and ethical issues. As expected, I found that the desire to create change recurs as a consistent theme.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">But the way in which CSR professionals make change happen, and the satisfaction they derive as a result, differs considerably.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Change Motivators</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For some, as one might guess, values play an important role. In particular, corporate responsibility is seen as a way to align work with personal values. For example, one manager I interviewed says: 'It's the inner drive, it's the way I am put together, my value system, my belief system … it's my Christian belief, my ethical approach.' Another explains that it is important to have 'inspirational leadership and people who align with your value sets.'<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For many CSR professionals, motivation comes from the fact that sustainability and responsibility are dynamic, complex and challenging concepts. 'The satisfaction is huge,” says one corporate responsibility manager, 'because there is no day that is the same when you get into your office. It's always changing, it's always different.' Another reflects that corporate responsibility 'painted a much bigger picture' and is 'just as holistic as you want it to be. It requires a far broader vision.'<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">These two factors – <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/194-can-we-break-the-spell-of-csr-curses" title="Can We Break the Spell of CSR Curses?"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">values alignment and the CSR concept</span></a> – are fairly crosscutting motivators. However, it is also possible to distinguish four fairly distinctive types of CSR professionals, based on how they derive satisfaction from their work.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">In practice, every individual draws on all four types, but the centre of gravity rests with one, representing the mode of operating in which that individual feels most comfortable, fulfilled or satisfied.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Four Types of CSR Change Agents<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>1. The Expert</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Experts find their motivation though engaging with projects or systems, giving expert input, focusing on technical excellence, seeking uniqueness through specialisation, and pride in problem solving abilities.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">To illustrate, one such CSR professional explains: 'There were a couple of projects that I did find very exciting … It was very exciting to get all the bits and pieces in place, then commission them and see them starting to work.' Another Expert says: 'I usually get that sense of meaning in work when I've finished a product, say like an Environmental Report and you see, geez I've really put in a lot and here it is. Or you have had a series of community consultations and you now have the results.'<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>2. The Facilitator</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Common themes among Facilitators are the derivation of motivation from transferring knowledge and skills, focusing on people development, creating opportunities for staff, changing the attitudes or perceptions of individuals, and paying attention to team building.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For example, one such CSR professional says: 'If you enjoy working with people, this is a sort of functional role that you have direct interaction, you can see people being empowered, having increased knowledge, and you can see what that eventually leads to.' Another Facilitator explains: 'The part of my work that I've enjoyed most is training, where I get the opportunity to work with a group of people – to interact with people at a very personal level. You can see how things start to get clear for them, in terms of understanding issues and how that applies to what they do.'<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>3. The Catalyst</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For Catalysts, motivation is associated with initiating change, giving strategic direction, influencing leadership, tracking organisational performance, and having a big picture perspective.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One such CSR professional claims: 'The type of work that I'm doing is … giving direction in terms of where the company is going. So it can become almost a life purpose to try and steer the company in a direction that you believe personally is right as well.' Another says: 'I like getting things changed. My time is spent trying to influence people. The real interesting thing is to try and get managing directors, plant managers, business leaders, and sales guys to think differently and to change what they do.'<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>4. The Activist</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">For Activists, motivation comes from being aware of broader social and environmental issues, feeling part of the community, making a contribution to poverty eradication, fighting for a just cause, and leaving a legacy of improved conditions in society.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One CSR professional says: 'It's also about the issue of being poor. It actually touches you. You see these people have been living in appalling conditions, the shacks, the drinking water is so dirty, or there's no running water at all, you see those kind of things, it hits you, and you think: What can you do?' Another confesses: 'I think my purpose here is to help others in some way and leave a legacy for my kids to follow. I could leave a legacy behind where I actually set up a school or a campus for disadvantaged people, taking street kids out and doing something, building homes for single parents.'</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Going Beyond the Business Case for CSR</b><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">One of the underlying messages of my CSR change agency research is that companies stand to gain a lot by going beyond the <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/227-csrwire-member-spotlight-building-a-better-business-case" title="Building a Better Business Case for CSR"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">business case for CSR</span></a>, by justifying sustainability and responsibility efforts on the basis of values – or by appealing to the deep satisfaction that working on CSR issues can inspire.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Taking this position – in addition to, rather than instead of, the business case – will enable companies to tap into a powerful source of motivation, namely the meaning that CSR professionals (and in all likelihood many other employees) derive from the alignment of values with work.</div><!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-15037600837323460442012-02-08T07:44:00.000-08:002012-02-08T07:44:00.251-08:00Changing the World, One Leader at a Time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b>By Wayne Visser</b><br />
<br />
<i>Part of the <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/series/8-quest-for-csr-2-0/posts">Quest for CSR 2.0</a> Blog Series for CSR Wire</i><br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We face a crisis of leadership. Our global challenges loom large and clear, but we seem to lack leaders who can make change happen at a scale and speed that match the size and urgency of the problems we face. In an attempt to understand this leadership impasse, I’ve done some research with the <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/bloggers/53-dr-wayne-visser/posts" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #21b100; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">University of Cambridge’s Programme for Sustainability Leadership</a> on how change happens. In this blog, I’ll briefly outline some of our conclusions.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s start with what kind of change we’re talking about. Jim Collins, author of <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Good to Great</em>, observes that companies that went from being 'good to great' did not rely on revolutions, dramatic change programs or wrenching restructurings. 'Rather, the process resembled relentlessly pushing a giant flywheel in one direction, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.'</span></div><h3 style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A tipping point on sustainability?</span></h3><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So we're talking about catalyzing and scaling up change. And for this change to be successful, leaders need to foster and entrench new values, culture, incentives, rules and resources. In<a href="http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/29877-Chief-Executives-Believe-Overwhelmingly-That-Sustainability-Has-Become-Critical-to-their-Success-And-Could-Be-Fully-Embedded-Into-Core-Business-Within-Ten-Years" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #21b100; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Accenture and the UN Global Compact’s 2010 survey</a>, 54 percent of CEOs felt that a cultural tipping point on sustainability is only a decade away—and 80 percent believe it will occur within 15 years, so perhaps we are nearing a moment of infectious change. Meanwhile, at the organizational level, leaders must catalyze change for sustainability through a suite of actions, including innovation, empowerment, accountability, closed-loop practices and collaboration.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We found that effective sustainability leaders are good at promoting creativity in business models, technology, products and services that address social and environmental challenges. Sustainability leaders also implement structures and processes for good governance, transparency and stakeholder engagement.</span></div><h3 style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A culture of discipline</span></h3><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Accountability does not have to be all about structures and controls however. Collins believes great leaders foster a culture of discipline, saying "When you have disciplined people, you don't need hierarchy. When you have disciplined thought, you don't need bureaucracy. When you have disciplined action, you don't need excessive controls." According to Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/members/12926-General-Electric-Company" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #21b100; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">G.E.</a>, "Enron and 9/11 marked the end of an era of individual freedom and the beginning of personal responsibility. You lead today by building teams and placing others first. It's not about you."</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The best sustainability leaders adopt principles of cradle-to-cradle production, internalizing externalities and extending these principles to the supply chain. Sustainability leaders also build formal cross-sector partnerships, as well as innovative and inclusive collaborative processes such as social networking (Web 2.0). Betty Sue Flowers, co-author of <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Presence</em>, poses the challenge as a question, saying, "We know a lot about heroic action because that’s in the past of leadership. But how do you have leadership in groups across boundaries, multi-nationally?"</span></div><h3 style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Achieving sustainability through storytelling</span></h3><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">At the people level, leaders catalyze change for sustainability by providing a compelling vision, encouraging long term thinking, making strategic investments and promoting intergenerational equity. Immelt says "every leader needs to clearly explain the top three things the organization is working on. If you can't, then you're not leading well."</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/32025-Ray-Anderson-s-Business-Lessons-from-a-Radical-Industrialist-Now-in-Paperback" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #21b100; font-style: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Ray Anderson</a>, the late CEO of Interface, saw this as a process of inclusion, saying, "For Interface, sustainability is broader than before: sustainability reaches out to embrace people, processes, products, place, the planet and profits—we now know that none can long be afforded allegiance at the expense of the others."</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sustainability leaders have to deep knowledge and skills and provide opportunities and resources for appropriate action. This embraces Robert Greenleaf's notion of servant leadership. He explains that "It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. The best test is: do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?"</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Transformational sustainability leaders also focus on creating a culture and structure that provides peer support and encouragement and recognizes achievement. Immelt says, "Today, it’s employment at will. Nobody's here who doesn't want to be here. So it's critical to understand people, to always be fair, and to want the best in them."</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the end, I believe the best leaders are effective storytellers. And they realize that we need a new collective story. As I wrote in <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Beyond Reasonable Greed</em>, "each time the world changes – when civilizations rise and fall, when new scientific theories challenge our understanding of the universe, when technological innovation reinvents our lifestyle, when political revolution breaks down the old structures of society, or when a global crisis threatens to destroy our planet – humanity is forced to let go of some of its most cherished beliefs in order to create a new mythology to guide its collective psyche."</span></div><h3 style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Small actions lead to big changes</span></h3><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We are at just such a fulcrum of change, and the beliefs we need to challenge and modify are many. Maybe it is our belief in the beneficence of the "invisible hand" of the market. Or our belief that a global political deal is all we need to solve the climate crisis. Or that that business has the power to act unilaterally in bringing about a more sustainable and responsible future.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If my experience of living through the political changes in South Africa has taught me anything, it is that change is systemic. It happens because of millions of small actions by millions of people all over the world, some coordinated, some diffuse. Yes, change also happens because of bold leadership, but it always needs an enabling environment, a society or an organization that is ready to change.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #222222; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 10px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Change is something organic. It is worth remembering that the largest living thing in the world is a honey mushroom in Oregon – an interconnected fungus measuring 3.5 miles across. It is said to be 2,400 years old and takes up 2,200 acres (1,665 football fields), with the small mushrooms visible above ground representing only a tiny proportion of its real girth and substance. I think change is something like that too: spread out, interconnected, growing where the ground is most fertile ground and often invisible.</span></div></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-44558924788011760632012-02-07T07:44:00.000-08:002012-02-07T07:44:05.458-08:00Sustainable by Design? 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<div class="MsoNormal"><b>By Wayne Visser</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>No. 10 in the <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/series/8-quest-for-csr-2-0/posts">Quest for CSR 2.0</a> Blog Series for CSR Wire </i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The CSR 2.0 principle of circularity has roots in life cycle assessment, cleaner production, sustainable consumption and cradle to cradle concepts. In <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/csrlive/commentary_detail/4699-A-Review-of-The-Age-of-Responsibility-" title="The Age of Responsibility"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">The Age of Responsibility</span></a>, I explore various well-known multinational examples, from <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/31053-Interface-Inc-Raises-Sustainability-Bar-Zero-Environmental-Impact-by-2020-Environmental-Product-Declarations-for-All-InterfaceFLOR-Products-Globally-by-2012" title="Interface"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Interface</span></a>’s carpets and <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/members/12858-Nike-Inc-" title="Nike's CSR Profile"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Nike</span></a>’s Considered Design shoes to <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/members/12216-Coca-Cola-Company-The" title="Coca Cola's CSR Profile"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Coca-Cola</span></a>’s water neutral initiative and <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/33479-Tesco-and-the-Sustainable-Consumption-Institute-join-the-Sustainability-Consortium"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Tesco</span></a>’s carbon neutral programme. But there are also smaller, more nimble companies, like <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/members/11737-Seventh-Generation" title="Seventh Generation's CSR Profile"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Seventh Generation</span></a>, that are able to go much further, much faster. What can we learn from these companies that are intentionally sustainable ‘by design’?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Seventh Generation, an American household cleaning products business started more than 20 years ago by Jeffrey Hollender, took inspiration for its name and philosophy from the Iroquois Confederacy (a council of Native American Indian tribes), which included the admonition that ‘in our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.’ From the beginning, this meant thinking in a circular way about the impact of their products.</div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">To begin with, this meant swimming upstream. “When Seventh Generation told executives at the old Fort Howard Paper Company that we wanted to market bathroom tissue made from unbleached recycled fibre, they laughed,” recalls Hollender. Despite such early resistance, however, Seventh Generation has remained steadfast in its commitment to ‘becoming the world's most trusted brand of authentic, safe, and environmentally-responsible products for a healthy home.’ And indeed, now has an impressive catalogue of cradle to cradle designed products, and has been doing extremely well, showing strong growth even through the recession.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">However, ensuring that Seventh Generation lives up to their promise of authenticity is something that requires constant vigilance. For example, in March 2008, the company was ‘exposed’ by the Organic Consumers Association for having detectable levels of the contaminate 1,4-dioxane in their dish liquid. In fact, Seventh Generation’s product was declared the safest of those available and they had been working with suppliers for more than five years to remove it. They have since eliminated the contaminant completely, but as Hollender later declared: “Our effort was simply not good enough. Our real mistake was to exclude consumers and key stakeholders from our ongoing dialogue about dioxane. In short, we flunked the transparency test.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Of course, the very foundation of transparency is information and the most basic kind is a full list of product ingredients, which, unbelievably, is not required by US law for household products. Consequently, Seventh Generation launched a Show What’s Inside initiative, which included an educational website and an online Label Reading Guide, downloadable directly to shoppers’ cell phones, which helped them interpret labels at the point of purchase, especially any associated risks.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As Hollender and Bill Breen report in their book, <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/csrlive/commentary_detail/2025-Author-spotlight-Jeffrey-Hollender-and-THE-RESPONSIBILITY-REVOLUTION-How-The-Next-Generation-Of-Businesses-Will-Win" title="The Responsibility Revolution"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">The Responsibility Revolution</span></a>, not long after, <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/members/12337-S-C-Johnson-Son-Inc-" title="SC Johnson CSR Profile"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">SC Johnson</span></a> launched a cloned version called What’s Inside. “That’s just what we had hoped for,” declared Hollender and Breen. “When a $7.5 billion giant like SC Johnson puts its brawn behind ingredient disclosure, it’s likely that the rest of the industry will follow, regardless of what the regulators do.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">Despite its green image, Seventh Generation knows that it needs to create virtuous cycles in its social as well as its environmental impacts.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As a result, in 2009, the company joined Women's Action to Gain Economic Security (WAGES) – an organisation committed to building worker-owned, cooperatively-structured, eco-friendly, residential cleaning businesses in San Francisco – to launch Home Green Home, WAGES' fourth worker-owned cooperative. This unique social enterprise serves the city of San Francisco and is creating healthy, dignified jobs for women in an industry known for long hours and low pay. The women who own and work in the business earn wages that average 50 percent more than their non-coop counterparts, and receive health care and paid vacation benefits. In the future, Seventh Generation and WAGES hope to expand the innovative practice beyond San Francisco. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Hollender is under no illusions about how far we collectively still have to go. In his Foreword to The Age of Responsibility, he confesses that: “Corporate responsibility in its present incarnation has been an enormous disappointment at best. It has not lifted people out of poverty. It has not protected the environment. It has not boosted community wellbeing. It has been too little, too late and at most has succeeded in getting some companies to aspire to simply do less damage than they did before. Instead of changing the world, corporate responsibility merely evolved into a baseline requirement in every company’s license to operate. Where it succeeded, it only managed to slow the rate of decay, which is hardly enough to do much more than maintain the status quo.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">And yet, he remains optimistic. “Though much has changed in the last 25 years, one thing hasn’t: Business is still the only force with the reach and resources to do what needs to be done as quickly and efficiently as possible. The hour may be late and the clock loudly ticking but the story of responsible business is not over yet. There’s still room for a happy ending. And the time has come for us to write it for ourselves.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It is examples like these and many others that show that the principle of circularity is not wishful thinking, but a practical strategy for achieving sustainability and responsibility, economically, socially and environmentally. And together with the other principles of CSR 2.0 or <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts?author_id=53" title="Blogs by Wayne Visser on CSR"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Transformative CSR</span></a> – creativity, scalability, responsiveness and glocality (touched on in the previous blogs) – these inspiring innovations and bold actions are ushering in the new Age of Responsibility and with it, a new kind of ‘susponsible’ capitalism.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Without a doubt, however, achieving this vision requires change on a scale and urgency that has seldom been witnessed in human history. So the question remains, how do we make change happen? I’ll examine the myriad answers to this in my forthcoming blogs, recommencing in January.</div><!--EndFragment--></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-37738597330591417292011-12-14T00:34:00.000-08:002011-12-14T00:34:42.591-08:00Myths About CSR in Developing Countries<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>By Wayne Visser</b></div><div class="MsoNormal">Part of the <a href="http://bit.ly/qw5xsM" target="_blank">Quest for CSR 2.0</a> series.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Are concepts and models of corporate social responsibility (CSR) developed in the West appropriate for developing countries?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I decided to first tackle this question by setting out what I believe to be Seven Popular Myths about CSR in developing countries. Most of these myths exist as a result of the feeding frenzy that inevitably occurs every time the media has hunted down and sunk its teeth into one or other juicy story of corporate exploitation. They, however, become sustainable because they are spread by whole legions of largely well-intentioned people who have vested interests in promoting their particular brand of the truth about CSR.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The Seven Myths:</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Economic growth is not compatible with CSR.</li>
<li>Multinationals are the biggest CSR sinners.</li>
<li>Multinationals are the biggest CSR saviours.</li>
<li>Developing countries are anti-multinational.</li>
<li>Developed countries lead on CSR.</li>
<li>Codes can ensure CSR in developing countries.</li>
<li>CSR is the same the world over.</li>
</ol>Let’s look at these myths each briefly in turn.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Myth 1: Economic growth is not compatible with CSR</i>: What the Index for Sustainable Economic Welfare and Genuine Progress Index show is that GDP growth and quality of life move in parallel until social and environmental costs begin to outweigh economic benefits. According to this ‘threshold hypothesis’ – coined by Chilean barefoot economist, <a href="http://www.max-neef.cl/home.php" target="_blank">Manfred Max-Neef</a> – most developing countries have yet to reach this divergence threshold. For them, economic growth and the expansion of business activities is still one of the most effective ways to achieve improved social development, while environmental impacts are increasingly being tackled through leapfrog clean technologies.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Myth 2: Multinationals are the biggest CSR sinners</i>: On the ground in most countries, multinationals are generally powerful forces for good, through their investment in local economies, creation of jobs, upgrading of infrastructure, provision of basic services and involvement in community development and environmental conservation. There are always exceptions, of course, and these should be named and shamed. But they shouldn’t overshadow the overall positive role of big companies in developing countries. The cumulative social and environmental impacts of smaller companies, which operate below the radar of the media and out of reach of the arm of the law, are typically far larger than that of the high profile multinationals.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Myth 3: Multinationals are the biggest CSR saviours</i>: Not only do large companies have limited influence over government policy, but most multinationals, despite large capital investments, provide only a minuscule proportion of the total employment in developing countries. The real potential saviours are small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), including social enterprises, which are labour intensive and better placed to affect local economic development. If the social and environmental impacts of these SMMEs can be improved, the knock on benefits will be proportionally much greater than anything that multinationals could achieve on their own. This is why the work CSR for SMEs by <a href="http://www.anahuac.mx/" target="_blank">Anahuac University</a> in Mexico and <a href="http://www.empresa.org/" target="_blank">Forum Empresa</a> in Latin America is so encouraging and important.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Myth 4: Developing countries are anti-multinational</i>: Developing countries are often caught in a no-man’s land of under-development in a competitive, monetized, global economy, and the sooner they can modernise and integrate, the better for them. Most often, developing country communities welcome multinationals and their CSR initiatives. This is not the same as saying the developing world should repeat the past mistakes of the developed countries, such as highly polluting industrialisation, nor that multinationals should not be required to be responsible and held accountable. But we should not deny developing countries the dignity of choice, whether it be Unilever products or Coca Cola, both of which have made significant progress on CSR in recent years.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Myth 5: Developed countries lead on CSR</i>: There are countless examples of how developing countries are proving themselves highly adept at delivering the so-called triple bottom line of sustainability, namely balanced and integrated social, economic and environmental benefits. It is actually not surprising, since in developing countries, these three spheres are seldom separable – economic development almost inevitably results in social upliftment and environmental improvement, and vice versa. Whether it is <a href="http://www.icnl.org/knowledge/ijnl/vol12iss2/art_1.htm" target="_blank">South Africa’s King Code</a>, which encourages integrated sustainability reporting, or <a href="http://www.alittleworld.com/" target="_blank">A Little World</a>, which uses mobile phone and biometric scanners to bring micro-banking services to the poor in India, a lot of the innovation in CSR is taking place in developing countries.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Myth 6: Codes can ensure CSR in developing countries</i>: The past few years have seen a mushrooming of corporate responsibility codes, standards and guidelines, which developing countries are keen to adopt, if only to satisfy their Western partners. This standardisation trend is both inevitable and necessary in a globalising world—which is desperately searching for an alternative to command-and-control style business regulation in order to satisfy the governance and accountability void which still exists. But this codification tends to measure CSR activities, rather than CSR impacts on the ground. Developing countries need to move rapidly through this Strategic CSR approach in an Age of Management to a more transformative CSR approach in an Age of Responsibility.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Myth 7: CSR is the same the world over</i>: One of the biggest fallacies is that, in a globalised world, CSR can somehow conform to a unitary model. Of course, we need universal principles, like the <a href="http://www.unglobalcompact.org/" target="_blank">Global Compact</a>, and perhaps even process frameworks, like <a href="http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_14000_essentials" target="_blank">ISO 14001</a>. But standardised performance metrics, like those of the <a href="http://www.globalreporting.org/Home" target="_blank">Global Reporting Initiative</a> and the numerous sustainability funds and indexes, start to tread on shaky ground. The tendency is for developed country priorities – such as energy and climate change – to receive emphasis and for northern NGO agendas to dominate.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The antitdote to these CSR myths for developing countries is glocality – one of the five principles of CSR 2.0. The term ‘glocal’ – a portmanteau of global and local – is said to come from the Japanese worddochakuka, which simply means global localisation. Or more simply, ‘think global, act local’. The question is, do we see glocality in action, or do we just see corporations in developing countries mimicking the practices of the West?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>About Wayne Visser</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Dr. Visser is Founder and Director of the think-tank <a href="http://www.csrinternational.org/" target="_blank">CSR International</a> and the author of twelve <a href="http://waynevisser.com/books.htm" target="_blank">books</a>. In addition, Dr. Visser is Senior Associate at the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership and Visiting Professor of Sustainability at Magna Carta College, Oxford. Before getting his PhD in CSR, Dr. Visser was Director of Sustainability Services for KPMG and Strategy Analyst for Cap Gemini in South Africa. In 2011, he was listed as one of the <a href="http://trustacrossamerica.com/offerings-thought-leaders-ue-mena.shtml" target="_blank">Top 100 Thought Leaders in Europe & the Middle East</a>. Dr. Visser lives in London, UK, and enjoys art, writing poetry, spending time outdoors and travelling. A full biography and much of his writing and art is on <a href="http://www.waynevisser.com/" target="_blank">www.waynevisser.com</a>.</div></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-83416246644042084722011-12-10T02:04:00.000-08:002011-12-10T02:04:00.339-08:00The Future Faces of CSR Activism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<b>By Dr. Wayne Visser</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><a href="http://bit.ly/qw5xsM" target="_blank">Quest for CSR 2.0</a> Series No.9</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">The third principle of Transformative CSR, or CSR 2.0, is responsiveness. (We explored <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/218-the-creative-destruction-revolution" target="_blank">creativity</a>and <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/224-could-less-consumer-choice-be-a-good-thing" target="_blank">scalability</a> in the last two posts). Some of the most important players in the responsiveness game – especially through cross-sector partnerships – are civil society organizations (CSOs, which I prefer rather than the term NGOs). Reflecting on how this sector is changing in the face of increased calls for responsiveness, I have distinguished 10 ‘Paths to the Future’ for CSR activism. I believe that CSOs acting in the CSR space will increasingly be:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Platforms for transparency – Undertaking investigative exposes & hosting disclosure forums;</li>
<li>Brokers of volunteerism – Providing project opportunities for employee volunteers;</li>
<li>Champions of CSR – Raising awareness and increasing public pressure for CSR;</li>
<li>Advisors of business – Offering consulting services to business on responsibility;</li>
<li>Agents of government – Working with or on behalf of regulatory authorities;</li>
<li>Reformers of policy – Pressuring for government policy reforms to incentivise CSR;</li>
<li>Makers of standards – Developing voluntary standards & inviting business compliance;</li>
<li>Channels for taxes – Receiving and deploying specially earmarked tax revenues;</li>
<li>Partners in solutions – Partnering with business/government to tackle specific issues; and</li>
<li>Catalysts for creativity – Creating social enterprises & supporting social entrepreneurs.</li>
</ul><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Let’s explore these ‘future faces’ of CSR activism in a little more detail below, drawing on examples from around the world of CSOs emerging roles.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Platforms for transparency </i>– The role of CSOs as agitators for, and agents of, greater transparency seems set to continue. For example, in Senegal, Benin, and Guinea, CSO intervention has been critical in the development of a free press. And in India, Karmayog allows citizens to report specific instances of bribery and corruption on a live, public website.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Brokers of volunteerism </i>– As companies increasingly see the benefits of volunteerism (greater job satisfaction, productivity, commitment and loyalty), CSOs are increasingly becoming people-brokers, as sources of projects for employee volunteers. For example, the Voluntary Workcamps Association of Ghana (VOLU) coordinates volunteers to help with the construction of schools, reforestation and AIDS campaigning.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Champions of CSR </i>– While some CSOs remain sceptical about CSR, in many countries they are the main agents for promoting CSR. For example, in Iran, a group of CSOs have joined forces with the UNDP to promote CSR through targeted training for managers under the umbrella of the UN MDGs. And in Senegal, CSR awareness has grown mainly due to a CSO called La Lumière in Kédougou.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Advisors of business</i> – A combination of genuine expertise, valuable perspectives and a crunch on funding means that many CSOs are turning to consultancy, working with and advising companies not only on specific social and environmental issues, but also more generally on sustainability and responsibility. For example, in Hungary, as opposed to the traditional role of watchdog, many CSOs engage in consultancy on CSR.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Agents of government</i> – The phenomena of GONGOs (government organised NGOs), GINGOs (government-inspired NGOs), GRINGOs (government regulated/run and initiated NGOs) and PANGOs (party-affiliated NGOs) are becoming more widespread, no longer just seen in China. Even where governments are not setting up or running the CSOs, they are supporting them as key catalysts. For example, Belgian CSOs receive €3 government funding for every €1 they raised themselves.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Reformers of policy</i> – Realizing that the ‘rules of the game’ need to change, CSOs are increasingly getting involved in legal reform. For example, in Indonesia, it was largely due to rising pressure from CSOs that the Law No. 40/2007 concerning Limited Liability Companies was introduced to make CSR mandatory.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Makers of standards </i>– In an effort to raise the bar on voluntary action by companies, many CSOs are developing their own social and environmental codes and standards, then inviting business to comply with them. For example, in Israel, the Public Trust Organisation established The Public Trust Code, covering advertising, transparency, disclosure, service and product guarantees, honesty in contracts and privacy of information.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Channels for taxes</i> – In some countries, the effectiveness of CSOs has earned them the ability to source tax dollars directly. For example, in Mexico, the FECHAC (Federation of the Chihuahuan Industry) is a CSO, set up after devastating floods in 1990, that is funded through a special annual tax on more than 38,000 industries. And in Romania, the 2% Law (in terms of the Fiscal Code) allows citizens to redirect 2% of personal income tax to a CSO.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Partners in solutions </i>– Not only are CSOs collaborating with business more and more, but also with governments and multilateral agencies. For example, in South Korea, ‘Cross Sector Alliance’ is one of 5 approaches to CSR being promoted, while in Africa the New Nigeria Foundation provides a platform for mobilizing non-traditional resources through public-private partnerships. In Turkey, TUSEV promotes linkages between domestic and international CSOs and encourages CSR by putting foreign and domestic firms in contact with appropriate CSOs.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Catalysts for creativity</i> – CSOs are increasingly expected to provide solutions, not just point out the problems, especially by launching or supporting social enterprises. For example, in Bangladesh, BRAC (formerly Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) has been crucial in the microcredit movement, and in Singapore, the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) has 12 social enterprises and 4 related organisations that are owned by more than 500,000 workers.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">However the future unfolds, it is clear that CSOs will be a significant player in the new landscape of responsible governance and accountability, both as a counter-balancing force and a partner to governments and business. In fact, I believe CSOs will be the responsive glue that holds society together in the turbulent years ahead.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Source</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Welcome to this international dialogue, Quest for CSR 2.0, with Dr Wayne Visser, pioneering author, academic and social entrepreneur. The dialogue, hosted by CSRwire Talkback, is based on his groundbreaking book, <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470688572.html">The Age of Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business</a>. For the next several weeks, Dr Visser will summarize the main points and key lessons of each chapter of his book, exploring why CSR 1.0 has failed, the 5 Ages and Stages of CSR, the 5 Principles of CSR 2.0 and how to make change happen. Readers will be invited to share their views on each posting. This exciting new series is co-published by <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/" target="_blank">CSRwire</a> and <a href="http://www.csrinternational.org/">CSR International</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/231-the-future-faces-of-csr-activism">Original link on CSRwire</a></div></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-50499077163130089112011-12-09T02:00:00.000-08:002011-12-09T02:00:03.487-08:00Could Less Consumer Choice Be A Good Thing?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<b>By Dr. Wayne Visser</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><a href="http://bit.ly/qw5xsM" target="_blank">Quest for CSR 2.0</a> Series No.8</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">So you buy fair-trade or eco-friendly products, and you think that is a good thing, right? Think again. What if so-called ‘ethical consumers’ are the very ones standing between us a sustainable future?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m crazy, right? Maybe, but here is why I say it. By creating a premium-priced, niche market for ‘ethical consumption’, companies have been able to present a responsible front to the world, while leaving the vast majority of their products – which are, by implication, less ethical, less responsible, less sustainable – unquestioned and unchanged. At the same time, a small group of usually well-to-do Western consumers have been able to ease their conscience by feeling that they are making a positive difference.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Now let me be clear. I am not against organic or fair-trade or eco-friendly products per se. That wouldbe insane. Clearly, there are groups of producers – usually poor farmers in the Third World – that have benefited from these initiatives. What I am against is the voluntary nature and premium pricing of sustainable and responsible products. The combination of these two factors has ensured that, with one or two exceptions, these products have never gone to scale. As compared with the total and ongoing impacts of mainstream shopping habits, ethical consumption, laudable as it is, has remained marginal at best and totally insignificant at worst.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The UK’s Sustainable Consumption Roundtable says, ‘we know that there is a considerable gap – the so-called ‘value-action gap – between people’s attitudes, which are often pro-environmental, and their everyday behaviors’. We know the ‘value-action’ gap is partly explained by price and availability of alternatives, but there’s something else. Context matters as well.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">To illustrate this, Timothy Devinney, author of <a href="http://www.mythoftheethicalconsumer.com/home" target="_blank">The Myth of the Ethical Consumer</a>, reports on a very interesting experiment he conducted while researching his book. The experiment took place at a coffee shop in central Sydney, Australia, over a period of several weeks. This coffee shop displayed a large and prominent sign indicating the products available, their prices and active specials. To this was added, quite obtrusively, another special, indicating: We have Fair Trade coffee! No extra charge. Just ask.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Here’s what he found. Unprompted, with only the sign to notify them of the availability of the ‘ethical’ alternative, less than 1% of customers bothered to ask for Fair Trade coffee, even though it was free. “When they prompted customers with a reminder that the ‘ethical’ alternative was available, the number of customers opting for the Fair Trade option rose to 30%. They then went a step further and took the customer’s privacy away: each time the clerk prompted a customer with the Fair Trade option, we ensured there was someone standing next to that person at the counter. In this situation, the number of ‘ethical consumers’ rose to 70%.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This is a hugely important lesson: If we want to achieve scalability of sustainable and responsible products and services, we cannot leave it to the passive choices of customers. Context is critical, and a little bit of peer pressure goes a long way. But do we really want to resort to public embarrassment to achieve scalability?</div><div class="MsoNormal">The alternative is the trend towards ‘choice editing’. The idea of choice editing is likely to get free-market fundamentalists all in a tizz, but the fact is that manufacturers and retailers choice edit all the time – for example on quality, price, aesthetics and brand. The only difference is now we are asking them to add sustainability and responsibility to their list of criteria.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So who is doing choice editing? Well, outdoor clothing company <a href="http://www.patagonia.com/us/home" target="_blank">Patagonia</a> converted to 100% organic cotton in 1996, frozen foods retailer <a href="http://www.iceland.co.uk/" target="_blank">Iceland</a> banned genetically modified food in 1997 and carpet manufacturer <a href="http://www.interfaceglobal.com/" target="_blank">Interface</a> has been using only renewable (green tariff) energy since 1998, so it’s not a new idea. The difference is now some of the big manufacturers and retailers are coming on board. For example, Unilever has <a href="http://www.unilever.com/sustainability/environment/agriculture/" target="_blank">committed to sourcing</a> 100% of agricultural raw materials sustainably, Sainsbury’s only stocks <a href="http://www2.sainsburys.co.uk/food/fairtrade/100percentfairtradeproducts/more-fairtrade-products.htm" target="_blank">Fairtrade bananas</a> and <a href="http://walmartstores.com/sustainability/" target="_blank">Walmart</a> has adopted an organic cotton and sustainable fish strategy.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Let’s look at Walmart in a little more detail to illustrate the point. Walmart set a target to purchase all of its wild-caught fresh and frozen fish for the U.S. market from Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)-certified fisheries by the end 2011. They are also working work with Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) and Aquaculture Certification Council (ACC) to certify that all foreign shrimp suppliers adhere to Best Aquaculture Practices standards in the U.S and by 2009, they were already halfway there.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, George Chamberlain, president of the Aquaculture Alliance puts the move in perspective: “The endorsement drew attention; Wal-Mart buys more shrimp than any other U.S. company, importing 20,000 tons annually – about 3.4% of U.S. shrimp imports. With Wal-Mart's nod, we went from trying to convince individual facilities to become certified to having long waiting lines.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Walmart also made a commitment to phase out chemically-treated textile crops. By 2008, Wal-Mart was the largest buyer of organic cotton, with more than 10 million pounds purchased annually. They are also the world’s largest purchaser of conversion cotton – cotton grown without chemicals, but waiting to be certified as organic. Former CEO, Lee Scott, was under no illusions about the ripple effects when he made the strategic choice-editing decision: “Cotton farmers can now invest in organic farming because they have the certainty and stability of a major buyer. Through leadership and purchasing power, all of us can create new markets for sustainable products and services. We can drive innovation. We can build acceptance. All we need is the will to step out and make the difference.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The question is, since not everyone has the size and economies of scale of Walmart, should we pin our hopes on voluntary choice editing? Or should we be lobbying for a different, and arguably more effective, form of choice editing, namely good, old-fashioned government regulation? The state regulates to ensure the health and safety of products, so why not for sustainability as well?</div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Source</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Welcome to this international dialogue, Quest for CSR 2.0, with Dr Wayne Visser, pioneering author, academic and social entrepreneur. The dialogue, hosted by CSRwire Talkback, is based on his groundbreaking book, <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470688572.html">The Age of Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business</a>. For the next several weeks, Dr Visser will summarize the main points and key lessons of each chapter of his book, exploring why CSR 1.0 has failed, the 5 Ages and Stages of CSR, the 5 Principles of CSR 2.0 and how to make change happen. Readers will be invited to share their views on each posting. This exciting new series is co-published by <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/" target="_blank">CSRwire</a> and <a href="http://www.csrinternational.org/">CSR International</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/224-could-less-consumer-choice-be-a-good-thing">Original link on CSRwire</a></div></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-10058330434302592922011-12-08T01:57:00.000-08:002012-02-07T07:38:09.203-08:00The Creative Destruction Revolution<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b>By Dr. Wayne Visser</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><a href="http://bit.ly/qw5xsM" target="_blank">Quest for CSR 2.0</a> Series No.7</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">One of the key theories on creativity is creative destruction. The concept is most associated with Joseph Schumpeter, following his 1942 bookCapitalism, Socialism and Democracy, in which he described <a href="http://transcriptions.english.ucsb.edu/archive/courses/liu/english25/materials/schumpeter.html" target="_blank">creative destruction</a> as ‘the process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one ... [The process] must be seen in its role in the perennial gale of creative destruction; it cannot be understood on the hypothesis that there is a perennial lull.’<br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The idea, of course, is much older. In Hinduism, the goddess Shiva is simultaneously the creator and destroyer of worlds. In modern times, the German sociologist Werner Sombart described the process in 1913, saying ‘from destruction a new spirit of creation arises; the scarcity of wood and the needs of everyday life ... forced the discovery or invention of substitutes for wood, forced the use of coal for heating, forced the invention of coke for the production of iron.’ Even Marx and Engels had a go at describing the process in their Communist Manifesto, stating that ‘constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. ... All that is solid melts into air.’</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The idea of melting solids is very similar to the metaphor used by sustainability and social enterprise thought-leader, <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/bloggers/20-john-elkington/posts" target="_blank">John Elkington</a>, to explain the disruptive changes going on in the world. In an interview with him, he explained: “What happens in an earthquake? The land become thixotropic; what was solid suddenly becomes almost semi-liquid. I think we are headed towards a period where the global economy goes into a sort of thixotropic state. Key parts of our economies and societies are on a doomed path really, and I think that’s unavoidable. I think we’re heading into a period of creative destruction on a scale that really we haven't seen for a very long time, and there are all sorts of factors that feed into it—the entry of the Chinese and Indians into the global market, quite apart from things like climate change and new technology.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As to what this means for business, Elkington believes that “all of these pressures are going to mobilise a set of dynamics which are unpredictable and profoundly disruptive to incumbent companies, so some companies will disappear. I think most companies that we currently know will not be around in 15 – 20 years, which is almost an inconceivable statement. But periodically this happens and there’s a radical bleeding of the landscape. We’ll find this sort of reassembly going on. Over a period of time we’re going to have some fairly different products, technologies, business models coming back into the West, and I think it’s going to be quite exciting, but quite disruptive.”</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">We see all kinds of examples of creative destruction in corporate sustainability and responsibility. For virtually the whole of the 20th century, the biggest companies in the world were the oil and motor giants – companies like Exxon, BP, General Motors and Toyota. But the 21st century, with growing concerns over energy security and climate change on the one hand and the rising geo-political and economic power of the East on the other, are ushering in a new era. Already in 2006, the richest man in China was reported to be <a href="http://ir.suntech-power.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=192654&p=irol-govBio&ID=144172" target="_blank">Shi Shengrong</a>, CEO of the solar company Suntech, and the richest women, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/business/worldbusiness/15iht-trash.4211783.html?pagewanted=all" target="_blank">Zhang Yin</a>, made her fortune from recycling. A 2010 report published by the Pew Environmental Center found that in 2009, China invested $34.6 billion in the clean energy economy, while the United States only invested $18.6 billion.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This explosive growth was brought home to me when, at an event of the <a href="http://www.vision2050.cn/" target="_blank">Women In Sustainability Action</a> (WISA) in Shanghai where I was speaking in June 2010, I got talking to a supplier of wind turbines to Europe. Simply put, he cannot keep up with the demand. He is turning customers away because there is already 12 months of orders in the pipeline. Even Germany, an early leader in the clean-technology space, can no longer compete with China in this sunrise industry. It is no coincidence that while Obama’s energy reform bill was being scuppered by the U.S. Congress, Malaysia was creating an Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry. And while the British company BP was virtually on its knees, in May 2010, the Korean company, Samsung, unveiled an eye-watering <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2363786,00.asp#fbid=NXrgscRElAU" target="_blank">investment plan</a> to ‘future-proof’ the company by sinking $21 billion into its green technology and healthcare businesses. It claimed the investment would generate $44 billion in annual sales and 45,000 new jobs by 2020.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Make no mistake – creative destruction is happening. The only question is which companies will survive the sustainability and responsibility purge and surge?</div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Source</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Welcome to this international dialogue, Quest for CSR 2.0, with Dr Wayne Visser, pioneering author, academic and social entrepreneur. The dialogue, hosted by CSRwire Talkback, is based on his groundbreaking book, <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470688572.html">The Age of Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business</a>. For the next several weeks, Dr Visser will summarize the main points and key lessons of each chapter of his book, exploring why CSR 1.0 has failed, the 5 Ages and Stages of CSR, the 5 Principles of CSR 2.0 and how to make change happen. Readers will be invited to share their views on each posting. This exciting new series is co-published by <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/" target="_blank">CSRwire</a> and <a href="http://www.csrinternational.org/">CSR International</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/218-the-creative-destruction-revolution">Original link on CSRwire</a></div></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-12757845261988067762011-12-07T01:57:00.000-08:002011-12-07T01:57:47.330-08:00What can Web 2.0 teach us about CSR?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b>By Dr. Wayne Visser</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><a href="http://bit.ly/qw5xsM" target="_blank">Quest for CSR 2.0</a> Series No.6</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">By May 2008, it was clear to me the evolutionary concept of Web 2.0 held many lessons for corporate social responsibility. At the time, I declared: "The field of what is variously known as CSR, sustainability, corporate citizenship and business ethics is ushering in a new era in the relationship between business and society. Simply put, we are shifting from the old concept of CSR – the classic notion of ‘Corporate Social Responsibility,’ which I call CSR 1.0 – to a new, integrated conception – CSR 2.0, which can be more accurately labelled ‘Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility.’"</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The allusion to Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 is no coincidence. The transformation of the Internet through the emergence of social media networks, user-generated content and open source approaches is a fitting metaphor for the changes business is experiencing as it begins to redefine its role in society. Let's look at some of the similarities.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i>Web 1.0</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A flat world just beginning to connect itself and finding a new medium to push out information and plug advertising.</li>
<li>Saw the rise to prominence of innovators like Netscape, but these were quickly out-muscled by giants like Microsoft with its Internet Explorer.</li>
<li>Focused largely on the standardised hardware and software of the PC as its delivery platform, rather than multi-level applications.</li>
</ul><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><b><i>CSR 1.0</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A vehicle for companies to establish relationships with communities, channel philanthropic contributions and manage their image.</li>
<li>Included many start-up pioneers like <a href="http://www.traidcraft.co.uk/" target="_blank">Traidcraft</a>, but has ultimately turned into a product for large multinationals like Wal-Mart.</li>
<li>Travelled down the road of "one size fits all" standardization, through codes, standards and guidelines to shape its offering.</li>
</ul><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><b><i>Web 2.0</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Being defined by watchwords like "collective intelligence," "collaborative networks" and "user participation." </li>
<li>Tools include social media, knowledge syndication and beta testing. </li>
<li>Is as much a state of being as a technical advance – it is a new philosophy or way of seeing the world differently. </li>
</ul><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><b><i>CSR 2.0</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Being defined by "global commons," "innovative partnerships" and "stakeholder involvement."</li>
<li>Mechanisms include diverse stakeholder panels, real-time transparent reporting and new-wave social entrepreneurship.</li>
<li>Is recognising a shift in power from centralised to decentralised; a change in scale from few and big to many and small; and a change in application from single and exclusive to multiple and shared.</li>
</ul><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">So what will some of these shifts look like? In my view, the shifts will happen at two levels. At a macro-level, there will be a change in CSR’s ontological assumptions or ways of seeing the world. At a micro-level, there will be a change in CSR’s methodological practices or ways of being in the world.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i>Macro Shifts</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The macro-level changes can be described as follows: Paternalistic relationships between companies and the community based on philanthropy will give way to more equal partnerships. Defensive, minimalist responses to social and environmental issues are replaced with proactive strategies and investment in growing responsibility markets, such as clean technology. Reputation-conscious public-relations approaches to CSR are no longer credible and so companies are judged on actual social, environmental and ethical performance (are things getting better on the ground in absolute, cumulative terms?).</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Although CSR specialists still have a role to play, each dimension of CSR 2.0 performance is embedded and integrated into the core operations of companies. Standardized approaches remain useful as guides to consensus, but CSR finds diversified expression and implementation at very local levels. CSR solutions, including responsible products and services, go from niche ‘nice-to-haves’ to mass-market ‘must-haves.’ And the whole concept of CSR loses its Western conceptual and operational dominance, giving way to a more culturally diverse and internationally applied concept.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><br />
</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i>Micro Shifts</i></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">How might these shifting principles manifest as CSR practices? Supporting these meta-level changes, the anticipated micro-level changes can be described as follows: CSR will no longer manifest as luxury products and services (as with current green and fair-trade options), but as affordable solutions for those who most need quality of life improvements. Investment in self-sustaining social enterprises will be favored over cheque-book charity. CSR indexes, which rank the same large companies over and over (often revealing contradictions between indexes) will make way for CSR rating systems, which turn social, environmental, ethical and economic performance into corporate scores (A+, B-, etc., not dissimilar to credit ratings), which analysts and others can usefully employ to compare and integrate into their decision making.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Reliance on CSR departments will disappear or disperse, as performance across responsibility and sustainability dimensions are increasingly built into corporate performance appraisal and market incentive systems. Self-selecting ethical consumers will become irrelevant, as CSR 2.0 companies begin to choice-edit; i.e., cease offering implicitly ‘less ethical’ product ranges, thus allowing guilt-free shopping.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Post-use liability for products will become obsolete, as the service-lease and take-back economy goes mainstream. Annual CSR reporting will be replaced by online, real-time CSR performance data flows. Feeding into these live communications will be Web 2.0 connected social networks, instead of periodic meetings of rather cumbersome stakeholder panels. And typical CSR 1.0 management systems standards like <a href="http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_14000_essentials" target="_blank">ISO 14001</a> will be less credible than new performance standards, such as those emerging in climate change that set absolute limits and thresholds.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As our world becomes more connected and global challenges like climate change and poverty loom ever larger, businesses that still practice CSR 1.0 will (like their Web 1.0 counterparts) be rapidly left behind. Highly conscientised and networked stakeholders will expose them and gradually withdraw their social licence to operate. By contrast, companies that embrace the CSR 2.0 era will be those that collaboratively find innovative ways tackle our global challenges and be rewarded in the marketplace as a result.</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Source</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Welcome to this international dialogue, Quest for CSR 2.0, with Dr Wayne Visser, pioneering author, academic and social entrepreneur. The dialogue, hosted by CSRwire Talkback, is based on his groundbreaking book, <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470688572.html">The Age of Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business</a>. For the next several weeks, Dr Visser will summarize the main points and key lessons of each chapter of his book, exploring why CSR 1.0 has failed, the 5 Ages and Stages of CSR, the 5 Principles of CSR 2.0 and how to make change happen. Readers will be invited to share their views on each posting. This exciting new series is co-published by <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/" target="_blank">CSRwire</a> and <a href="http://www.csrinternational.org/">CSR International</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/210-what-can-web-2-0-teach-us-about-csr">Original link on CSRwire</a></div></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-73533844739704075042011-11-06T08:50:00.000-08:002011-12-07T01:52:35.499-08:00Can We Break the Spell of CSR Curses?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b>By Dr. Wayne Visser</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><a href="http://bit.ly/qw5xsM" target="_blank">Quest for CSR 2.0</a> Series No.5</i><br />
<i><br />
</i></div><div class="MsoNormal">Looking back, we can see that the 1990s were the decade of CSR codes and standards – from EMAS and ISO 14001 to SA 8000 and the Global Reporting Initiative. But these were just a warm up act compared to the last 10 years, when we have seen codes proliferate in virtually every area of sustainability and responsibility and all major industry sectors. So much so that in the <i>A to Z of Corporate Social Responsibility</i>, we included over 100 such codes, guidelines and standards – and that was just a selection of what it out there.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">This spawning of CSR codes and standards is typical of Strategic CSR, emerging from the Age of Management. At its heart, this is the drive to relate CSR activities to the company’s core business (like Coca-Cola's focus on water management) by turning these into formal management systems, with cycles of CSR policy development, goal and target setting, programme implementation, auditing and reporting. All good and well, but where does this leave us? </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">My belief is that Strategic CSR – like its predecessors Defensive, Charitable and Promotional CSR - has brought us to a point of crisis. Specifically, all these approaches are failing to turn around our most serious global problems – the very issues CSR purports to be concerned with – and may even be distracting us from the real issue, which is business’s role causal role in the social and environmental crises we face. This failure is due to what I have called the three Curses of CSR 1.0, namely that it is incremental, peripheral and uneconomic. Let’s look at these briefly in turn.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Curse 1: Incremental CSR<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One of the great revolutions of the 1970s was total quality management, conceived by American statistician W. Edwards Deming and perfected by the Japanese before being exported around the world as ISO 9001. At the very core of Deming’s TQM model and the ISO standard is continual improvement, a principle that has now become ubiquitous in all management system approaches to performance. It is no surprise, therefore, that the most popular environmental management standard, ISO 14001, is built on the same principle.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">There is nothing wrong with continuous improvement per se. On the contrary, it has brought safety and reliability to the very products and services that we associate with modern quality of life. But when we use it as the primary approach to tackling our social, environmental and ethical challenges, it fails on two critical counts: speed and scale. The incremental approach to CSR, while replete with evidence of micro-scale, gradual improvements, has completely and utterly failed to make any impact on the massive sustainability crises that we face, many of which are getting worse at a pace that far outstrips any futile CSR-led attempts at amelioration.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Curse 2: Peripheral CSR<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Ask any CSR manager what their greatest frustration is and they will tell you: lack of top management commitment. Translated, this means that CSR is, at best, a peripheral function in most companies. There may be a CSR manager, a CSR department even, a CSR report and a public commitment to any number of CSR codes and standards. But these do little to mask the underlying truth that shareholder-driven capitalism is rampant and its obsession with short-term financial measures of progress is contradictory in almost every way to the long-term, stakeholder approach needed for high-impact CSR.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">So what we are left with is an approach to CSR which allows each company to set their own voluntary objectives and targets, which appear responsible, but lack the scale and urgency needed to reverse our social and environmental crises. CSR remains peripheral in another sense as well, because it is only a handful of big-branded companies that find themselves in the CSR spotlight. What about the millions of small and medium sized enterprises. By and large, CSR passes them by, despite their collectively bigger impacts.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>Curse 3: Uneconomic CSR<o:p></o:p></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Which brings us to Curse 3. If there was ever a monotonously repetitive, stuck record in CSR debates, it is the one about the so-called ‘business case’ for CSR. That is because CSR managers and consultants, and even the occasional saintly CEO, are desperate to find compelling evidence that ‘doing good is good for business’, i.e. CSR pays. The lack of corroborative research seems to be no impediment for these desperados endlessly incanting the motto of the business case, as if it were an entirely self-evident fact.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The rather more ‘inconvenient truth’ is that CSR sometimes pays, in specific circumstances, but more often does not. Of course there are low-hanging fruit – like eco-efficiencies around waste and energy – but these only go so far. Most of the hard-core CSR changes that are needed to reverse the misery of poverty and the sixth mass extinction of species currently underway require strategic change and massive investment. They may very well be lucrative in the long term, economically rational over a generation or two, but we have already established that the financial markets don’t work like that; at least, not yet.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The way I see it, that leaves us with three options for taking CSR forward, which I like to think of as the Parrot, Ostrich and Phoenix scenarios.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The <i>Way of Parrot</i> is to tell it like it is: recognise the limitations of CSR and admit to its primary role as a business tactic for reputation management. The <i>Way of the Ostrich</i> is the status quo: pretend that CSR is working and that more of the same will be enough. The <i>Way of the Phoenix</i> is the transformative agenda: reconceptualise CSR as a radical or revolutionary concept that challenges the intransigent business and economic model and offers genuine solutions to our global challenges. The Way of the Phoenix is what I call Systemic CSR, or Transformative CSR, or CSR 2.0, and is what we are just starting to see rising from the ashes of the previous ages, as we enter a new Age of Responsibility. This rather more positive agenda is what I will explore for the remainder of this blog series.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Source</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Welcome to this international dialogue, Quest for CSR 2.0, with Dr Wayne Visser, pioneering author, academic and social entrepreneur. The dialogue, hosted by CSRwire Talkback, is based on his groundbreaking book, <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470688572.html">The Age of Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business</a>. For the next several weeks, Dr Visser will summarize the main points and key lessons of each chapter of his book, exploring why CSR 1.0 has failed, the 5 Ages and Stages of CSR, the 5 Principles of CSR 2.0 and how to make change happen. Readers will be invited to share their views on each posting. This exciting new series is co-published by <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/" target="_blank">CSRwire</a> and <a href="http://www.csrinternational.org/">CSR International</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/194-can-we-break-the-spell-of-csr-curses">Original link on CSRwire</a></div><br />
</div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658919619436288814.post-54588066252628051812011-11-05T08:46:00.000-07:002011-11-05T08:46:01.122-07:00Exposing the CSR Pretenders<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><b>By Dr. Wayne Visser</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><br />
</b></div><i><a href="http://bit.ly/qw5xsM" target="_blank">Quest for CSR 2.0</a> Series No.4</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">Industrialism created a limitless appetite for resource exploitation, and modem science provided the ethical and cognitive license to make such exploitation possible, acceptable, and desirable. – Vandana Shiva</blockquote><div class="MsoNormal">Can Big Tobacco ever be responsible? British American Tobacco (BAT) have engaged in extensive stakeholder consultation exercises and, since 2001, their businesses in more than 40 markets have produced Social Reports, many of which have won awards from organisations as diverse as the United Nations Environment Programme, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants. BAT has also been ranked in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the FTSE Ethical Bonus Index and Business in the Community (BITC) Corporate Responsibility Index, and they funded Nottingham University’s International Centre for CSR.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Yet this is the industry where, in 1994, the CEOs of 7 of America’s largest tobacco companies<a href="file:///C:/Users/Wayne/Documents/1%20Writing/Books/Age%20of%20Responsibility/CSRWire%20Talkback%20Post4%20Marketing.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> testified before the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of Congress, all denying that cigarettes are addictive. They lied under oath. And this is the business that, according to the World Health Organization, kills more than AIDS, legal drugs, illegal drugs, road accidents, murder and suicide combined.’ Of everyone alive today, 500 million will eventually be killed by smoking, and while 0.1 billion people died from tobacco use in the 20<sup>th</sup> century, ten times as many will die in the 21st century. Isn’t responsible tobacco an oxymoron?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Of course, it’s not just Big Tobacco. What about Big Oil? This is the industry that set up and funded the Global Climate Coalition (GCC) to lobby against the emerging consensus of climate science and policy development until it was embarrassed into disbanding in 2002. A 2007 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, entitled <i>Smoke, Mirrors & Hot </i>Air, documented how ExxonMobil adopted the tobacco industry’s disinformation tactics, as well as some of the same organisations and personnel, to cloud the scientific understanding of climate change and delay action on the issue. According to the report, ExxonMobil funnelled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy organisations that seek to confuse the public on global warming science.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Or what about BP? In 2000, the company reportedly spent $7 million in researching the new ‘Beyond Petroleum’ Helios brand and $25 million on a campaign to support the brand change. Greenpeace concluded at the time that ‘this is a triumph of style over substance. BP spent more on their logo this year than they did on renewable energy last year’. Antonia Juhasz, author of <i>The Tyranny of Oil</i> (2008), is similarly sceptical, claiming that at its peak, BP was spending 4% of its total capital and exploratory budget on renewable energy and that this has since declined. That’s even before we factor in the Texas City refinery explosion in 2005, or the catastrophic Gulf spill in 2010, or BP’s ongoing investments in the Alberta tar sands. Isn’t sustainable oil a contradiction?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">While many of these examples – and I could cite countless more, from automotive, agricultural, chemicals and other industries – are a little more than the familiar toxic mix of old-fashioned dirty lobby tactics, many companies today in engage in far more subtle and seemingly plausible campaigns of misdirection – investing in environmental management systems, producing sustainability reports, and performing supply chain audits. Each of these actions is, on its own merits, laudable and to be encouraged; applauded even. But all too often, they are used as a smokescreen to mask the more damaging impacts and irresponsible practices of business.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Behind these actions lies a pervasive driver. According to the UN Global Compact and Accenture’s 2010 CEO survey, three corporate attributes – brand, trust and reputation – were consistently cited by CEOs as their primary reason for acting on sustainability. Simply put, CSR or sustainability are seen as a means of promotion in an Age of Marketing. As we saw in the BP case, ‘greenwash’ has become one of the popular labels applied to this kind of PR-driven misdirection by companies on environmental issues. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The word was coined by environmentalist David Bellamy in the 1980s and plays off of the concept of ‘whitewashing’ – literally painting over the cracks to cover up inherent faults. In 1999, the Oxford English Dictionary added the term, defining it as: ‘Disinformation disseminated by an organisation, so as to present an environmentally responsible public image; a public image of environmental responsibility promulgated by or for an organisation, but perceived as being unfounded or intentionally misleading.’</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Jose Lopez, EVP of Operations of Nestle admits that ‘there is probably out there an environment for pretenders, for the greenwashers. It’s going to get harder and harder to tell apart the greenwasher from the real guy. The reason is, we have a lot of information on what constitutes good sustainability practice,’ i.e. it’s easier to copy apparently credible behaviour.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">One classic example was an advert run by Shell which has a picture of a factory with flowers coming out of the smoke-stacks and claiming: ‘We use our waste CO2 to grow flowers’. There was a grain of truth in the claim, as in the Netherlands the company did capture CO2 and use it in floral hothouses. However, since Shell only used 0.325% of its CO2 output in this way, the Advertising Standards Authority banned the advert, following complaints. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As a result of this kind of greenwash, the UK’s Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code, enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority, created a clause for environmental claims in 1995. Since 1998, it has also published a non-binding ‘Green Claims Code’, advising advertisers on how best to make good claims. Despite this, greenwashing complaints, the majority of which are upheld, continue to rise year-on-year. One rather fun, yet informative, publication is ‘The Greenwash Guide’ by Futerra. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Of course, this kind of PR-spin does not only apply to environmental issues. After the launch of the UN Global Compact, companies started to be accused of ‘bluewash’ – a reference to the blue of the UN logo and business using association with the United Nations to appear more responsible than they really are. Likewise, although I haven’t heard the term, I can imagine the ‘redwash’ brush being applied to companies claiming social, community or labour responsibility that masks their real negative impacts on society.</div><div class="MsoNormal">Let’s be clear, I’m not into corporate witch hunts or evil empire theories, but isn’t it time we stop giving credit to industries and practices that tick superficial CSR and sustainability boxes, while doing little or nothing to change the underlying irresponsibility and unsustainability of their industries? Many companies are stuck in an Age of Marketing, with promotional CSR as their <i>modus operandi</i>, and it’s time that we exposed them, so that we can separate the CSR pretenders from the ‘real mccoys’.</div><div><br />
</div><div><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><div class="MsoNormal"><b>Source</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Welcome to this international dialogue, Quest for CSR 2.0, with Dr Wayne Visser, pioneering author, academic and social entrepreneur. The dialogue, hosted by CSRwire Talkback, is based on his groundbreaking book, <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470688572.html">The Age of Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the New DNA of Business</a>. For the next several weeks, Dr Visser will summarize the main points and key lessons of each chapter of his book, exploring why CSR 1.0 has failed, the 5 Ages and Stages of CSR, the 5 Principles of CSR 2.0 and how to make change happen. Readers will be invited to share their views on each posting. This exciting new series is co-published by <a href="http://www.csrwire.com/" target="_blank">CSRwire</a> and <a href="http://www.csrinternational.org/">CSR International</a>.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.csrwire.com/blog/posts/188-exposing-the-csr-pretenders">Original link on CSRwire</a><br />
<br />
</div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /> <!--[endif]--> <div id="ftn1"> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/Wayne/Documents/1%20Writing/Books/Age%20of%20Responsibility/CSRWire%20Talkback%20Post4%20Marketing.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Philip Morris U.S.A., RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, U.S. Tobacco, American Tobacco Company, Lorillard Tobacco Company, Liggett Group, Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company</span></div></div></div></div>Wayne Visserhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11965750553246267206noreply@blogger.com0