Later there\u2019s the inevitable falling out, typified by arguments over what it was all about to start with. Lastly, the final stage is a grudging acceptance that no matter what, this is how things are set to remain for evermore.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s an odd existence to follow. First everyone says \u201cEh? What\u2019s that then?\u201d Then they fall in love with you and can\u2019t get enough.<\/p>\n
Later there\u2019s the inevitable falling out, typified by arguments over what it was all about to start with. Lastly, the final stage is a grudging acceptance that no matter what, this is how things are set to remain for evermore.<\/p>\n
Yep, life as a TLA* is tough. Only the most successful reach the heights of HTTP, the JK Rowling of acronym-land, used and translated the world over.<\/p>\n
Most of the others fall by the wayside, the discarded betamaxes of their generation. However, now the arguments are starting to break out. For starters, what does CSR stand for? Is it:<\/p>\n Two out of three are a form of reporting, so talking about CSR reports just doesn\u2019t make sense. Then again, if it\u2019s the second option (which it was originally), what happens to the environment and all the cute, cuddly critters?<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the next issue: Corporate. The roar from boardrooms across the land cannot have gone unnoticed: \u201cWhaaaat? Only businesses have to be responsible??\u201d<\/p>\n Febrile Competition<\/strong> However this one letter has swayed some to junk the CSR tag. After all, why should it be just companies? One of the points about sustainability is that it requires effort from all of us \u2013 Government bodies, charities, NGOs and, most importantly of all, private individuals.<\/p>\n Some have followed the lead of John Elkington and his famous Triple Bottom Line. This requires that a company is measured by it performance in social, environmental and financial terms.<\/p>\n Businesses following this protocol have retained their existing financial reporting infrastructure and created a new one alongside it. Typically this is called the \u201cSociety and the Environment\u201d section.<\/p>\n However, just as \u201cCorporate Social Responsibility\u201d missed the environmental point, so \u201cSociety and the Environment\u201d misses the labour relations aspect many include in sustainability\u2019s definition.<\/p>\n Others have preferred to adopt the \u201cHealth, Safety and Environment\u201d approach. This seems to cover all the bases and comes in many alternative forms. These include a reshuffled \u201cEnvironment, Health and Safety\u201d and the optional suffixes Security and Quality.<\/p>\n The Real Bottom Line<\/strong> There are many aspects to what a sustainable economy is. There are many debates yet to be had, many approaches to be tried and many solutions to be found.<\/p>\n However we cannot let ourselves be drawn into the concept that simply protecting biodiversity or improving labour conditions is enough. They are steps on the road, not the final destination.<\/p>\n Nor can we be lured into the belief that sustainability is a new addition to current business practices. It is not. It is a new way of doing business: a new business practice in its own right.<\/p>\n Sustainability, like present-day financial management, needs to be embedded into every aspect of an organisation\u2019s activities, no matter what the commercial footing of that organisation is.<\/p>\n Rather than quibble over which model of TLAs is required for which type of organisation the straightforward practice of reporting sustainability needs to spread. If the John Elkington model is followed, this will include and subsume financial reporting.<\/p>\n It is for this reason that we will adopt the term \u201cSustainability Reporting\u201d because it is this, rather than the type of report employed, which matters most in the long run.<\/p>\n (*) Three Letter Acronym<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s an odd existence to follow. First everyone says \u201cEh? What\u2019s that then?\u201d Then they fall in love with you and can\u2019t get enough. Later there\u2019s the inevitable falling out, typified by arguments over what it was all about to start with. Lastly, the final stage is a grudging acceptance that no matter what, this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,23],"tags":[8246,54,35,97],"class_list":{"0":"post-335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-best-practices","7":"category-csr","8":"tag-best-practices","9":"tag-corporate-social-responsibility","10":"tag-online-corporate-communications","11":"tag-sustainability-reporting","12":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n
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\nFrom Familiarity to Contempt<\/strong>
\nCSR is well on its way through this lifecycle. The \u201cEh?\u201d stage lasted several decades, some would say centuries. Then CSR was picked up as part of the growing sustainability revolution and everyone fell in love with it.<\/p>\n\n
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\nOf course not; so the \u2018C\u2019 really is superfluous to requirements. Every organisation, every person needs to be social, or sustainable, or responsible. Or whatever.<\/p>\n
\nAll of this is in danger of obscuring what the core issue underlying all of these efforts really is: Sustainability.<\/p>\n