2010 August | FabianPattberg.com

The strong voice of the CSR community

August 30, 20101:07 pm

It is now exactly 7 days ago that a storm in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) world broke out over an article by Aneel Karnani published in the Wall Street Journal titled: ”The case against Corporate Social Responsibility”.

In the article he argued that the idea of companies having a duty to address social ills is not just flawed but that it also makes it more likely that we’ll ignore the real solutions to these problems.

All week last week the reactions to this article from around the CSR community flooded in. People tweeted on Twitter, shared on Facebook and emailed from one practitioner to the other arguing for and against this point of view. Some reactions where in support of Mr Karnani but the majority where criticizing the simplicity of his argument and absolutely disagreed with his assessment that CSR in itself as a business principle was flawed.

This is a list of some of the reactions by authors and websites:

I do not want to go into detail what my view on this article is but if you have read my blog for a while you will know that I am all for CSR as a business concept and that in my view no organization now and in the future can allow itself to not take some aspects of CSR in account in order to make more money and take up its role as a responsible business in our society.

In any case. For me this strong reaction by the CSR community showed a lot more then the passion of some individuals.

My interpretation of this reaction from the CSR community to this article

Over the past few years a lot of people in the CSR community have been become increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress within global organizations to continue to implement a more material and meaningful CSR programs and practices within their business. At the same time more and more so called “business experts” started to make their voice heard and strongly criticized the whole purpose of CSR and its value for business. Common arguments include the lack of focus on the business case (ie. whether it makes the individual business more money embracing CSR) and the time is not right to lay further constraints on business growth (especially during an global economic downturn) by increasing its overhead costs and pulling vital budgets away to further strengthen CSR practices within a business.

The CSR Community is ready to face its critics: Last weeks reactions to the WSJ article showed that the CSR community is ready to face its critics and argue its way to increased recognition. It showed that there are many people out there that are willing to stand up and argue in favor of CSR, highlight the best practice and usefulness for the individual business and business as a whole across the globe.

Social Media and CSR is a winning combination: It has furthermore become very clear that social media as a tool is vital for the future of CSR. Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook are and will continue to be the three cornerstones of the next phase of CSR in terms of communication and collaboration. The more people join in to share their ideas, examples and experiences to make CSR the business norm, the more we will be able to convince business across the globe that CSR is not just a business fashion but that it is able to adapt and change to include the latest trends and best practice as well. Adapting in a way that CSR is providing a voice to all diverse stakeholders opinions and that organizations which are willing and able to listen to these voices will hugely benefit from this in the short in long term.

For me as a member of the CSR community, this last week was a very encouraging week.

What was your view on the discussion and reactions of people to the WSJ article? I would love to hear your viewpoint.

Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dnorman/436670816/

How Sustainability can become a pre-competitive factor for business success

August 25, 201012:12 pm

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We need to change the way we think about sustainability and the future of our planet. This is the straightforward message how Jason Clay from WWF is ending this TED talk which I would like to present in today’s blog post.

I can really recommend this video to anyone interested in Sustainability. For me the most interesting message includes the need of NGO’s such as the WWF to work and cooperate with the biggest global brands on the key issues such as the global production of palm oil or the rainforest deforestation in order push us as consumers more towards demanding more sustainable products.

NGO’s can’t do this themselves. But what they can do is to convince and show companies that they can earn more money with being sustainable and pushing for a more sustainable production and distribution. If this is successful, Sustainability in the future will become one of the pre-competitive factors for business success.

This is the video:

The Sinar Mas Palm Oil saga continues

August 19, 201012:20 pm

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Several months ago Greenpeace started Kit Kat Nestle campaign to protest against the use of palm oil from companies that are trashing Indonesian rainforests, threatening the livelihoods of local people and pushing orang-utans towards extinction. Here is my post about the effect of the campaign: The Greenpeace Nestle Kit Kat campaign

In the end Greenpeace prevailed and now Nestle has stopped using palm oil products that come from rainforest destruction.

One of the major suppliers of Nestle was Sinar Mas. This company has now again come under immense pressure as Greenpeace reports this week:

Title: Sinar Mas caught with pants on fire, fibbing to stock markets

“Shooting yourself in the foot. Getting egg all over your face. These and many more idioms apply to the Sinar Mas group which, following the release of its audit last week, has seen its executives “misreporting” the audit’s findings.
Despite what company bigwigs have been saying, the audit doesn’t clear Sinar Mas of operating irresponsibly or outside Indonesian law, leading to the embarrassing retraction of several claims made publicly which the audit doesn’t in fact support. Worse, Sinar Mas has been telling these fibs not just to journalists, but to its shareholders, the Indonesian government and the stock exchange.”

Read the complete article here: Greenpeace on Sinar Mas Audits

My opinion

Did anyone really believe that Sinar Mas was going to back down and comply with the new rules it has set themselves as a result of outside pressure? The palm oil industry is a tough competitive industry and Sinar Mas is one of the market leaders. And it wants to stay one of the market leaders.

I believe there is only one answer to this reoccurring corporate irresponsibility. Sinar Mas needs to be closed down in my view and start anew in some shape or form that has different business principles and leadership at its core and a much stronger continuous stakeholder input. I am sure the people that where exploiting the rules and acting irresponsible are still working there. Change on this scale does not happen that quickly. So what made us think they would not go back to their old ways?

Over the years my opinion on how to tackle these difficult examples has changed. Cooperation and assistance in order to get results is one thing and must always be the first step but right-out criminal behavior does not deserve any kind of sympathy. Drastic action needs to be taken to put things at Sinar Mas and I am fully supporting the action of Greenpeace in this case.

Do you? What is your view on this?

Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/artaim/2364883451/sizes/l/

My Top Five Sustainability / CSR Communication Examples

August 16, 20104:45 pm

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Today we received our organic vegetable box as we do every Monday. Inside where some great vegetables and this little note:

My Top Five Sustainability / CSR Communication Examples

What a great short note to say that this lettuce is not perfect but that there is also nothing wrong with it. This is what I call direct and easy to understand communication. I, as a customer, would like to see more of this kind of communication. But obviously this is not the norm we all know when we talk about Sustainability / CSR reports and related documents.

This kind of communication as illustrated above is therefore I believe even more important if you are communicating your Sustainability / CSR topics as a business.

Why? Because Sustainability / CSR topics are not as easy to communicate as a soft drink that has less sugar then the leading brand for example. A Sustainability / CSR message is a lot less exciting and relies more on facts and is generally considered ‘boring’ by most of its stakeholders.

So what are good examples where Sustainability / CSR topic have been communicated in a way that is easy to understand, direct and something I would call as good communication?

My top five currently are:

To sum up:
Good and effective Sustainability / CSR communication needs to be direct, uncomplicated and friendly but at the same time focused on the cultural context of the individual target group.

Here is an example: A message of Sustainability / CSR excellence that is intended for the Scandinavian market has to be focus more on the cultural context of the Scandinavian public. This same communication would most likely not work with the audience in the Spanish market.

I will try to find the time in the coming weeks to write a separate post about this crucial aspect in Sustainability / CSR communications: The cultural difference and Sustainability / CSR communication. In the meantime I would love to hear your views on the points I raised in this post.

A great way to show your appreciation and support publishers in the Sustainability / CSR field

August 11, 20107:28 am

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Some of you might have noticed that there is a button on each post and on the main site called ‘flattr’.

What is flattr?

flattr is a social micropayment platform that lets you show appreciation for the things you like, help support the people you like and enable them to continue with what they do.

Everyone can add their own things to flattr and receive appreciation from others. It is a simple but very effective way to combine the aspects of the appreciation and reward for the content you as a publisher are producing.

This is a short video about flattr:

In my opinion flattr is a great way for blogger and publishers in the Sustainability / Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) field to not have to ask for donations or put advertisements on their site but to simply add flattr and in this way collect monetary support for their work. Currently flattr is brand new and you either need to register to get an invite or you can simply ask me. I still have three invitation codes left.

So why not simply sign up with flattr, start flattring and support other publishers in our field for the great work they are doing?

Note: I am not affiliated by flattr in any way but just believe that the developers really have thought this through and I have decided to use it on my site.

Is Sustainability dropping off the agenda in UK boardrooms?

August 9, 201012:22 pm

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500 senior executives of the UK’s largest companies where asked in this survey commissioned by telecoms company O2 and produced by consultancy The Future Laboratory what the current situation in UK boardrooms with regards to Sustainability is like.

The survey concluded that despite remaining on the agenda, sustainability is losing out to the demand for short term profits in the boardroom.

This is the link to the O2 report: The O2 Report and coverage of the report in the Guardian Newspaper: Guardian Article

Some more input:

This is an interesting quote from the report to give you more context: Ben Dowd, O2 Business Sales Director, said: “Our report reveals that success and sustainability go together, but UK executives are facing serious barriers to pushing it up the agenda. With budgets under ever increasing scrutiny, sustainability will only gain real traction in Britain when boardrooms have the tools to prove its commercial benefit.

Harnessing state of the art technology is the answer with energy monitoring, and expert consultancy just some of the ways that can give British boardrooms the confidence they need to make sustainability part of their profit improvement plans.”

My Opinion:
I think the quote from the O2 sales director says a lot. Pushing Sustainability up the companies agenda as a whole is proving to be very difficult. Especially in these difficult economic times. For me the most important aspect of the problem is very clear: Business Case, Business Case and Business Case.

Without the business case there is not much more we as Sustainability professionals can do to raise the awareness with business to adopt a more responsible business approach you might think. But I think this is the wrong way of tackling this topic of the business case.

The times are changing and so should the quest for the business case
All of this talk about the business case is not new, not by any means. But there is a different feel about this in my opinion to for example 12 months ago.

I feel that these economic times can and are something of a catalyst for change towards a more responsible business practice that is driven from inside the business and not so much determined by external pressures. With this I mean a change that pushes us beyond always looking for the overall business case and realizing that the business case is something each company needs to find for itself and in its own time.

The business case is not something you can buy or find from one day to the other. It is something that each organization needs to discover and individualize towards its business needs. Once a company is willing to do this I believe it will be able to find their business case for Sustainability.

Finding the business case is not rocket science. What it needs is commitment from the inside, the willingness to think outside of the box and most importantly time to be understood from an employee perspective. Once a company is following these simple principles I believe each company will be able to determine their individual business.

This is what I think will work. But what do you think about this? Let me know and Iets have a good discussion about it.

Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricardo/9681639/sizes/s/

Will we ever convince the climate change deniers?

August 2, 20101:28 pm

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The post title pretty much says it all. Will we ever convince the climate change deniers? What do you think? Have you had experiences with people or groups that categorically did not want to accept that climate change is happening?
I have and I find it extremely frustrating to see, hear and read that someone does not believe that climate change is happening. It seems that we will for the foreseeable future always have these two opposing fronts. The climate change advocates and the deniers.

temperatures Will we ever convince the climate change deniers?

I am seeing myself as you can imagine, as a climate change advocate but here are some examples from recent environmental discussion forums that are discussing this day and day out with utter determination:

The EnvironmentSite.org and its monster long thread called: The Sky is falling. The thread already has over 1000+ pages and the debate is raging on. I love the visualizations and every now and then a sceptic reinvigorates the discussion by posing daring accusations and arguments.
Topix Forum on Global Warning has an equally long thread on this: Who still takes global warming seriously? This is a long discussion thread again where the advocates and deniers are just not getting anywhere in my opinion. What is the purpose of the discussion then I am questioning myself.

After the failure of the COP15 in Copenhagen, the world in economic slowdown and the PR disaster of ClimateGate what are the options for climate change advocates? Business as usual?

I am sure about what I will do. Spread the word about the horrible effects of climate change and provide platforms for advocates to do so as well. I believe we have no choice but to press on with our advocacy work on climate change. No matter what problems we face across the globe and what climate change deniers are throwing at us.

But that is what I am and will continue to do.

Where do you stand and what do you do?

Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/themadlolscientist/2538226906/

Fabian Pattberg

Monthly Archives - August 2010