The Great 2012 CSR Revolution
January 27, 2012
So let’s do another little survey here. Hands up anyone who’s crossed Gypsy Rose’s palm with silver in the hope of having their fortune told? No-one? Oh, maybe one person at the back. Well, it doesn’t surprise me, we’re not really into such superstitious claptrap these days.
Nevertheless, every year every CSR practitioner seems to feel they too can be Gypsy Rose. Crystal balls get polished and predictions made. If you’re lucky, there may even be a waft of incense in the air .. or is that just over-ripe pot-pourri?
Myself, I try desperately to eschew this tradition but every year someone says something in their own crystal ball gazing which needs a response. This year is no different.
But first….
Mandatory CSR reporting will happen
CSR will be regulated in 2012. Read more
New CSR Regulation Coming Your Way
January 18, 2012
As has been stated many times, I’m a firm believer that the EU will introduce mandatory CSR regulation in the very near future.
This is not an article of faith (or want), simply a fact which springs from what the EU has said that it’s going to do. In the timetable for implementing on the Single Market Act (PDF), passed in late 2011, the EU said the Single Market would include a “legislative proposal on the transparency of the social and environmental information provided by businesses”.
You can’t really get much clearer than that, can you? Read more
The Eurozone, Cricket, and CSR
November 8, 2011
Sometimes you wonder just how committed people engaged in CSR are about changing business and society for the better. For example, when seriously challenging stories surface about business and governance the news agenda seems to have a blind spot about their effect on the CSR agenda. Instead the focus is on money alone, not finance or any other broader considerations.
As two examples, I hold up the the “spot fixing” convictions in cricket and Greece’s abortive referendum on the latest Euro bailout deal. Both of these should cause CSR businessmen and proponents to think very carefully about what they believe in, and here’s why.
Read more
A new dawn for new business?
October 3, 2011
Let’s start this post with a little quiz.
Who here’s heard of the GRI? Excellent, that’s nearly all of you. Those with your hands down need to go off and do a little homework .
Now then, who’s heard of Ceres or the Tellus Institute?
Ah not so many of you, but then again that’s not too surprising. Both are US based sustainability institutes: Ceres looks at it from the business and investment point of view while the Tellus Institute is more involved in policy formulation and research. Together they founded GRI, although it is now a fully independent organisation.
Last question: who’s heard of GISR, the Global Institute for Sustainability Ratings?
Oooh, one, two .. a few more hands. Not that many though. Well, to be fair it was only unveiled a couple of months ago. Like GRI it’s involved in the sustainability standards game, and like GRI it’s being established by Ceres and the Tellus Institute.
So, what you might ask, is the point of GISR? What does it do which GRI doesn’t do? Apart from give us yet another acronym to get confused by, that is.
Read more
10 things a sustainability website should show | Part 2 of 2
September 29, 2011
This is Part Two of an examination of the 10 things a sustainability website should contain, based upon the Network for Business Sustainability’s list of 10 Things New Sustainability Managers Need to Know.
Click here for Part One.
6) How does the company measure its environmental impacts?
This is such a crucial question it’s often overlooked. Every single sector, every single company, will have different environmental, social and sustainability impacts. The current trend towards emissions and water use reporting, while welcome, is little more than a statement of the lowest common denominator.
At it’s heart sustainability is about examining how each individual company can improve its own performance and leave this kind of herd mentality behind. So how does the company measure it’s impact, and what is unique about how it does so?
7) How does our sustainability attract and retain employees?
Another crucial question. Sustainability is often allied to marketing and PR but is rarely linked to human resources. However if sustainability is just as pertinent to a business’ operations as turning a profit, then it should be just as firmly embedded into the business’ recruitment and retention processes.
In all my years looking at corporate sustainability websites I’ve seen only a handful which have linked sustainability to recruitment and retention, and possibly only one which did so in a convincing manner. This is still a growth area and one which any business serious about sustainability should seek to engage in.
8) How does the company mitigate climate change?
On the current science, this is all about emissions, but it’s a little more subtle than that. “Mitigate” implies it is going to happen while most businesses appear to believe it’s all about stopping it from happening.
My personal perspective is that it IS happening and we have to adapt to survive. So what adaptation is your company embarking upon? Emissions reduction could be the least of your problems: perhaps you’re vulnerable to flooding or extreme weather conditions. Have you even thought about these factors, ten or twenty years down the line?
9) What is business sustainability?
A hoary old chestnut, yet one around which there is still a lot of debate. Yet it makes sense that if a business is claiming to be sustainable it should at least define, on its website, what it believes sustainability means. You’d be surprised at how many don’t.
10) What further information is available on sustainability?
As I keep repeating, one of the major challenges of sustainability is for businesses to pull together in common cause rather than fight one another. It’s not uncommon for a business website to point to resources published by NGOs, newspapers, research institutions and trade bodies.
What is uncommon is for a business’ website to point to one of their competitors and say “this is an initiative we aim to follow”. Yet doing so is vital for a corporate website, not just because it fosters collaboration but also because it shows how seriously a business takes sustainability when compared to (say) profit.
Conclusion
It’s clear from this brief tour of what corporate sustainability websites should contain that there are many possible avenues which by and large remain unexplored by mainstream business communications. This is partially because websites tend to fall within the remit of PR and marketing departments whose desire is to give as positive a spin on the company’s performance as possible.
Whilst this is an admirable ambition, it usually shuts off the need for a sustainable company to be transparent in the effects its operations has. Overall, it is this need for transparency which represents the greatest challenge for any sustainable corporate website.
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