Fabian Pattberg

Category Archives - Sustainability & CSR

News and interesting information on Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability topics.

The Social Responsibility of MMORPG game companies

February 19, 20125:23 pm

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Online role playing games have also evolved into so-called MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game) games these days. Over the past weeks I had the chance to talk to people playing and producing MMORPG games and realised that there is an interesting CSR angle to these kind of games.

MMORPG games such as World of Warcraft, Star Wars TOR  obviously are a lot of fun to play but they also enable its players to develop their social skills as well. Social skills such as working together in your team, called your “clan”, in order to reach a certain goal is just one example of how players are indirectly developing skills within these games. These games have some many interesting social facets these days. Truly amazing.

And this is just the beginning. MMORPG games will become a lot more complex and more popular over the next years. This is why companies producing these games will have an ever-increasing social responsibility towards their customer, the gamer. This social responsibility in my view is massively undervalued at the moment. In a way this industry is in a similar situation to the lottery industry and its discussion about responsible gaming  years ago.

Take the time to watch this video from TED below by Jane McGonigal called “Gaming can make a better world”. For me this talk opened up a whole new way of thinking about the potential of the MMORPG games.

CSR in Germany – 2012 Update

February 7, 20123:09 pm

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I am German and I now also live in Germany having moved from the UK back to my home country. CSR in Germany generally therefore is and has always been important to me. Having lived abroad for nearly half of my life I am also very critical of what the German CSR field has to offer, especially when we talk about current CSR best practice.

This is not the first post on CSR in Germany. These are the links to posts dating back to 2008 and 2009.

Overall situation of CSR in Germany in 2012
Germany in terms of CSR has a lot to offer but for some reason best practice over the past 2 years has not really evolved. There are some exceptions to the rule of course as the below mentioned CSR best practice examples show. But generally I can not see a huge difference to the overall best practice and CSR direction of German organisations now in comparison to 2 years ago. Why this is the case I am not sure. It might be the economic downturn or the lethargy of global business to step up a gear in CSR best practice. There are many possible reasons and I am sure all of the CSR practicing organisations will have a good reason for what they do in CSR. I believe we will see a lot of positive change in German business but lets just hope some of it will also be in the CSR field.

Here are my top current CSR best practice examples and further CSR in Germany resources you might find of interest.

CSR in Germany best practice examples

  • Puma: Puma and their very innovative Environmental Profit & Loss Account (E P&L). This is the future in this business sector in my view. Excellent best practice.
  • Siemens: A lot of data and information shows that they are serious about learning from past CSR problems. Transparency is the key here for Siemens. Siemens on Sustainability
  • BASF: The information approach to CSR. BASF, similar to Siemens, is taking the proactive approach in providing a lot of information and resources. If you have the time as a stakeholder to dig through their information resource that is. BASF on Sustainability

CSR in Germany resources

  • CSR in Germany initiative led by the German government – This overall CSR initiave is a step in the right direction but has not really established any thought leadership within the German business community in my view. There is a lot to be done and not much to be shown for so far.
  • German Council for Sustainable Development - The purpose of the council is to “support Germany on its way towards sustainability, to promote sustainability as an issue for public discussion, to support the German government in all matters of sustainability”. A very bold statement indeed. Has it achieved much? Hmmm, very sketchy I must admit.
  • CSR Germany (PDF) -  The CSR Internet portal of Germany’s four leading business organisations. This is an OK website for CSR information but the issue I have with this organisation is that it is lead by trade organisations and not an NGO.
  • UPJ – German national network of engaged businesses and local non-profit intermediary organizations. UPJ have some good initiatives is one of the few organisations with useful global partnerships
  • CSR News list of German CSR businesses - This is a good list of companies active or doing business in the CSR field in Germany. CSR News is also based in Germany and run by some really engaged founders.

Keep it simple and direct when promoting CSR / Sustainability

February 4, 20125:47 pm

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When successfully communicating and promoting a certain product or cause, I learnt over the years that you need to keep it simple. Not overly simple but simple enough to let your audience know what you want to tell at a moments notice and with a tone they understand. This simplicity but also directness is not something you can learn quickly but only by continuous, honest and substantiated stakeholder engagement. This is the link to a stakeholder engagement series I wrote several months ago: A structured stakeholder engagement approach.

communication Keep it simple and direct when promoting CSR / Sustainability

I believe that this kind of simplicity & directness is essential when we look at promoting CSR / Sustainability. Anything else will not work. It might work in the short term but long term engagement needs to include a different tactic.

Companies and related to CSR / Sustainability communications work I like at the moment:

What other good communication & promotion examples have you come across lately?

Picture Credit: Wesley Fryer

Is Facebook mutating into a money-making machine?

February 2, 201212:31 am

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I just heard about the upcoming Facebook IPO via mashable and needed to write a quick post about it as I feel that this development has a significant CSR angle to it.

The CSR angle of the Facebook IPO

The big problem I see is that Facebook is getting to powerful and influential due to its extreme high valuation ($15 billion USD+) and the consequential interest of global investors that are after one thing only: Making lots of money.facebook logo Is Facebook mutating into a money making machine?

Facebook’s purpose in my view, is to provide us with a platform to connect with our friends and family. And to me it seems that an IPO will in a way sell our personal information and relationships to the shareholders of Facebook. And this is not right. It is actually very wrong.

As a responsible business Facebook should focus on providing us with the best possible personal global social networking site and not mutate into a global money-making machine out to let us pay for premium features or inundating us with the latest PR exercise of a global car manufacturer for example.

I really like Facebook don’t get me wrong but if Facebook will mutuate into this money-making machine once it is a publicly-listed company, then I am surely leaving it for good as I do not want to be part of this website anyone.

This is my view on this. What is yours?

 

Video: Hedonistic Sustainability by Bjarke Ingels

January 31, 20129:02 pm

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In today’s post I wanted to share another very interesting TED video relating to Sustainability and sustainable design. This time from TEDxEast. In this video Bjarke Ingels talks about “Hedonistic Sustainability”. What this exactly means will be explained in the video of course.

Scandinavia and Sustainable Design / Architecture

Bjarke Ingels is from Scandinavia. For some reason a lot of the really visionary sustainable designers/architects are from this region of the globe. I lived in Denmark & Sweden for a few years (did my Masters at the Copenhagen Business School, etc.) and must say that the number of young people interested in design, architecture and sustainability is unusually high in comparison to other areas of the world that I know of. In a way you could call it a melting pot of revolutionary sustainable future design and architecture in my view.

This is the talk of Bjarke Ingels:

Twitter is the most popular Sustainability / CSR Social Media channel

January 29, 20124:33 pm

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Last week I conducted a poll aimed at identifying the most popular Social Media channel for your Sustainability / CSR topics. The result was unambiguous really.

Twitter is the most popular Social Media channel for Sustainability / CSR topics.

These are the results in numbers:

  • Twitter with 73% (40 votes)twitter Twitter is the most popular Sustainability / CSR Social Media channel
  • Facebook with 11% (6 votes)
  • Google+ with 15% (8 votes)
  • LinkedIn with 16% (9 votes)
  • Other with 7% (4 votes)

What does this mean?

Two main messages really.
(1) If you are intending to communicate any kind of Sustainability / CSR message, the Social Media channel you should use as your primary channel is Twitter.
(2) Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ are alternatives but at this point not really considered as useful as Twitter.

What are your thoughts on this result? All views are welcomed.

Poll: What is your favourite Social Media Channel for CSR / Sustainability topics?

January 22, 20126:45 pm

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I decided to conduct regular polls on interesting CSR / Sustainability topics during 2012. The plan is to do a new poll every 3 weeks going from Sunday to Friday that week.

This is this weeks poll:


Thank you for participating and I will publish an analysis of the results once the poll has closed here on my blog.

Howies splits from VF – A good sustainable business decision

January 18, 20124:48 pm

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I am not the most passionate shopper or consumer when it comes to clothing but one company I have always been buying from over the past years has been Howies in the UK.

howies logo Howies splits from VF A good sustainable business decision

Howies started out with the vision to be a truly sustainable and environmentally friendly organisation years ago. They joined Timberland in 2006. I like Timberland, so I continued to shop with Howies. In 2011 Timberland where bought by VF. This acquisition made business sense for Timberland and VF but as a Howies customer I must admit I did not like the idea of my brand being one tiny part of a huge world-wide brand conglomerate. This is the link to the post: VF and Timberland, if you are interested in my VF-Timberland view.

Today I was very pleased to read that the Howies owners bought back the business from VF. Howies would have been a tiny part of the overall business and the owners, in my view, rightly decided that being part of VF would not be good for the future of such a great sustainable clothing brand.

This is the news item from the Howies website: On our own two feet

The CSR / Sustainability angle on this development

I believe that this is a great example of how CSR /Sustainability can best thrive while being small, and that belonging to a multi-national corporation does not always help in promoting sustainable business practices. Yes, you could argue that this is a one of example but so far my experience has thought me that sustainable business practices work best if the business can go and evolve at its own pace without much interference from big-business trying to accelerate  this process. It certainly helps if you more cash available to do as you please but in the end it all depends on the commitment of the business owners, its employees and key stakeholders to make change happen. This is a lot easier in a small independent business.

I would like to congratulate the new Howies owners for this bold move. I will certainly order more in the future from now on. The reason is very simple: I now know who is behind the business, how they source their products and what they stand for as a business. This is all I want and need to know from a sustainable business these days.

I wish you a Happy 2012 – Let’s make it a year to remember

January 2, 20129:16 am

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I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and a successful 2012.

Let’s all work together to advance Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) awareness and best practice in our world!

Although pessimism surrounds some predictions for 2012, I am sure we can make 2012 a year to remember with regards to Sustainability / CSR.

So let’s get to it!!!!!

Your CSR / Sustainability world in 2012: What could you do different?

December 21, 20113:14 pm

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A strange title I know but the purpose of this post is very simple. What could you do as a CSR / Sustainability professional in 2012 different to 2011?

I have listed three points, which I feel are very important and useful for everyone working the CSR / Sustainability field across the globe.

Point 1 : Why not strive to learn more about CSR / Sustainability?

This is what I have set myself as a goal for 2012.  I have been working in the field for a long time now but I find that I also need to read more CSR / Sustainability related literature (books & ebooks) on a regular basis. My daily routine includes reading my favourite blogs via my RSS reader but I noticed that I am not reading enough published CSR / Sustainability literature anymore. This might sound like a very simple thing to do but I have noticed that during the daily routine I usually do not give myself the time to read books that provide me with a more in-depth viewpoint or information background.

I will now brush up on CSR / Sustainability classics such as Simon Zadek’s The Civil Corporation: The New Economy of Corporate Citizenship Your CSR / Sustainability world in 2012: What could you do different? and John Elkington’s The Chrysalis Economy: How Citizen CEOs and Corporations Can Fuse Values and Value Creation Your CSR / Sustainability world in 2012: What could you do different?, just to name two very insightful CSR / Sustainability classics.

Point 2: Write more about what you do

I assure you that once you read more about CSR / Sustainability, you would want to write more about it as well. This does not mean that you have to have a full-fledged blog. Easy does it in my view. If you do not want to have a blog then why sart email conversations with friends, colleagues, etc about CSR / Sustainability topics. This is a great way to digest the information you have just read or learned in my experience.

Point 3: Communicate more via Social Media

Communicating using Social Media is an easy thing to say, I know. But why don’t you give yourself 10 minutes each day to tweet via Twitter or post interesting information on your LinkedIn page. It does not have to be more time you spend each day or every other day. If you keep up this routine, I am assuring you that you will have a lot of fun doing this and at the same time will have the opportunity to get to know lots of likeminded people from across the globe reaching out to you and the information you are sharing.
If you are looking to get started in Social Media and do not know where to start, then this posts from a few months ago should help you with that: My current Social Media dilemma.

So what are you waiting for? Start doing something different today to change your life tomorrow for the better. icon smile Your CSR / Sustainability world in 2012: What could you do different?