FabianPattberg.com

Do you remember the Danish professor Bjorn Lomborg? He rose to questionable stardom in the Climate Change world as a Climate Change skeptic with his book “The skeptical environmentalist” and has been a prolific person in this field ever since.

This week he announced a u-turn in his opinion whether Climate Change is happening or not.

Headline: Bjørn Lomborg: $100bn a year needed to fight climate change
‘Sceptical environmentalist’ and critic of climate scientists to declare global warming a chief concern facing world.

This is the article in the Guardian.

The reaction so far
The reaction so far to his change in point of view has been mostly negative. What is he intending to tell us? From what I can see of the articles I read about this recent announcement people are just surprised about his change of mind.

My view
I have been amazed how much attention this story has received over the past days. Far too much attention for my taste.

So should we care about this at all?

My suggestion is: Absolutely not. Let him do his thing. What this is, is nothing more than marketing of an individual that does not have the science in mind just the publicity. All of this can be very damaging for anyone advocating action to tackle Climate Change and everyone working in the Sustainability field.

In a way I always liked his viewpoint as a Climate Change skeptic. It brought some new ways of looking at the issue of Climate Change to the table. Something refreshing. But this latest publicity stunt is is too much for me. Let’s forget about his latest book and move on to tackle the problems of Climate Change by not focusing on publicly and profiling but the issues we need to solve today.

Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/buggolo/311128680

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:

• Vault CSR
• Huffington Post
• GreenBiz.com
• Triple Pundit
• Elaine Cohen
• Paul Klein

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/

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/

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/

The topic of the week for me was the decision of the UK government to discontinue the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC).
This decision is a catastrophe for the Sustainability field here in the UK in my opinion.

The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) has been a champion of responsible business and government practice since its inception. It has celebrated many successes and nothing will be gained in my opinion by its discontinuation.
So what happened to the aim of being the ‘greenest UK government ever”? I guess it will turn out to be another hollow statement.

We are left to see what effect this discontinuation of the SDC will be. But there is one thing that has been become clearer than ever for me over the past few days: Never trust a politician actually delivering change if we are not in good economic times. Especially if his/her background is in media business such as for David Cameron , the current UK prime minister.

Here are some other news articles about this topic for you to get a better overview of various the reactions:

• Time: British Government Cuts Green Group
• Reuters: Watchdog says green steps can help close budget gaps
• Dash24.com: Shortsighted government to axe watchdog

And not to forget James Delingpole’s blog post about the topic: Government decides Sustainable Development Commission is unsustainable. He is known to take topics such as this apart to a point where they only serve him and his publicity. Obviously I had to comment as I am very passionate about this topic. And I received the public backlash I expected!

So let me know what you think about this decision to scrap the SDC. Do think it is a good decision or do you disagree?

P.S.: I also wrote a news item about this on the SustainabilityForum.com News two days ago.

I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in the first ever virtual CSR conference titled ‘ Engage CSR 2010’ this week.

The whole setup as a virtual conference is a new concept in this field. But in my opinion of  the conference was a huge success in bringing like-minded Sustainability / CSR people together and have them share information and experience at the same time. I believe I am not the only one looking at the feedback it got on Twitter and the coverage within the blogosphere so far.

Here are the links to reviews of the virtual conference that I have found as of today.

• Caroline Kawashima: Key Trends from Engage CSR 2010
• Leon Kaye: Engage 2010 Conference: A Virtual Immersion in CSR
• Julie Lloyd: The true benefits of reporting
• Elaine Cohen: Engage CSR at #CSRExpo: totally engaging
• Mags Shapiro: Virtual Conference Covers CSR and Social Media Best Practices
• Julie Urlaub: Did you Attend PRNewswire’s Engage CSR 2010 Virtual Event? Archive Available

Did I miss any reviews? If so please comment below or l let me know via Twitter or the contact forum on the About Fabian page.

Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/narcosislabs/2225724305/

The video interview below I believe represents a very interesting best practice example of how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Cause Marketing can be successfully linked in order to improve products, increase sales, build reputation and do good for the cause that is being supported. In this case, the quality of dog food and the support of dog shelters across North America.

Here Chris Jarvis of 3blMedia interviews  John J. Anton, Marketing Director at Mars Petcare about their integration of CSR and Cause Marketing.

I have been watching parts of the first day of the UN Global Compact Leadership Summit via the webcast yesterday.

The key message from the speakers and sessions (especially UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon) I was able to follow was, that we are now at a tipping point of the Sustainability / CSR practice across the globe. We just need renewed commitment by all parties involved to make this world a better place with regards to Sustainability / CSR and responsible business practice.

But are we really? Or are we just fooling ourselves to make us feel better?

I am an optimist and promoter of Sustainability / CSR by heart but we need to see the current global political reality here. I agree that we are at crucial phase of the Sustainability / CSR field but are we actually at a tipping point towards a more responsible business practice? Or are we actually making steps back at the moment with the BP oil spill crisis, failure of the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, etc?

Here is why I think we are actually making one step forward and three steps back at the moment: We are being told by our political leaders that we need to consider the current situation of our economies first of all. Governments are not really looking to invest in supporting a more responsible business practice and a more sustainable energy future with the financial austerity measures nearly every economy is now looking to implement. It is now about keeping the global economic growth going as they will tell us (an argument which I do not agree with, but this is a topic for a different post).

I bet that this will also be the main message of the upcoming G8 and following G20 summits in Canada. It will be about financial austerity and not the promotion of a more responsible business practice and investment in a more sustainable energy future.

Taking this all into account, is it then really fair to say that we at a tipping point towards a more sustainable future and responsible business practice?

I am not so sure. I certainly hope we are but looking at the current global political developments I doubt that Sustainability / CSR is at the top of the agenda of global leaders.

This is what I think. But what do you think?

Picture Credit as per creative commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toddography/12034661/

Next Wednesday I will be moderating a very interesting panel on the topic of Social Media and CSR at the PR Newswire’s first Virtual Conference and Expo.

The panel will specifically discuss the role of content in this busy and noisy world of Sustainability/CSR. Sustainability/CSR content nowadays is available at a click of a button but how do you actually find the most interesting content? Our aim with the panel is to provide as much practical advice and tips and tricks for you and your organization on how to find, analyze and use the right content in a way that fits your needs.

We will have examples from Suzanne Fallander representing Intel, Chris Jarvis from 3blMedia and Julie Urlaub from Taiga Company.

Here are the details for the panel:
Panel 2 – Social Media and CSR, 1:30-2:15 ET
Topic: Social Media and CSR – Exploring the use of content to accelerate business as a change agent for progress. What roles do each play in content delivery, and what places do they have in advancing business as a change agent?

Participants:

• Julie Urlaub, The Taiga Company
• Suzanne Fallender – Intel
• Chris Jarvis – 3BLMedia
• Moderator – Fabian Pattberg – SustainabilityForum.com

The Twitter hashtag for this virtual conference  will be: #CSRExpo

I really hope you will be able to join us. Registration is free. So what more can you ask for.

See you there!

Everything in the CSR / Sustainability world at the moment seems to evolve around BP and its action/inactions to fix the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. I am not doing any BP bashing here today. I am only using the current BP oil spill disaster in todays post as an example that CSR needs to evolve beyond its environmental aspects and the attention for detail by its practitioners.

This is my main argument in this post: Best practice such as the latest trend of integrated report, use of social media, etc. are steps in the right direction in my opinion but we need to increase the speed of the adoption of a more responsible business practice across the board within business in your local area and region.

The BP example has shown that big business will not act responsibly if it can get away with it. We therefore need to start at the local level to convince businesses to demand a more responsible business practice from all their businesses they are involved with. Customers and suppliers. Sustainability / CSR starts at the micro level and with clear guidance and support from a governmental level as I argued in my previous post.

This might sound very general and broad but it seems to me that we as Sustainability / CSR professionals are being caught up in the nitty gritty details of working with CSR / Sustainability far to easily and are somehow loosing the view of the big picture and the main purpose of this practice: To champion Sustainability / CSR and to help organizations in the transition to adopt a more responsible business practice.

This is the short video I recently did in partnership with 3blmedia on exactly this topic. Please let me know what you think about my argumentation and whether you agree or disagree.