Fabian Pattberg

Tag Archives - csr

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?

 

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?

My CSR perspective of the COP 17 talks in Durban

December 8, 20114:52 pm

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Some of you will know that the COP 17 in Durban will finish tomorrow. The summit started on the 28th of November and so far, judging from some of the blogs and articles I have seen, not much will be achieved in Durban by the end of tomorrow.

cop17 My CSR perspective of the COP 17 talks in Durban

Here are some recent useful links to articles:

My CSR perspective

Taking a look at the interim results of the COP 17 from a CSR perspective, I must say that this is a disappointing result so far. I can hardly describe how disappointing actually. It seems to me that Organizations and governments from across the globe have lost the will and interest  to change our destiny when it comes to tackling climate change.

It is very clear that they have quickly turned away from this uncomfortable climate reality only to focus on the single most important topic they always have: Business and economic growth. In a way the economic downturn and EU debt crisis have come at the right time for them to change the topic back to economic growth and prosperity.

Don’t get me wrong. Economic growth and prosperity are essential for our economy and local / global businesses. I know what I am talking about. I also run my own business and I need to find ways to bring in “fresh money” in order to pay my employees and the current bills. But I do not need to always grow my business in order to keep my business in the black. If I am not making enough money I need to find ways to grow AND cut back on the costs I have. But if I would be as ignorant towards such substantial treats to my way of doing business as the global organizations and governments are at the moment when we look at the dangers of climate change, I would be out of business very quickly.

We all need to change in order to avoid the damming effects of climate change. Everyone has to play their part. But the frameworks for our coordinated actions need to be set by our governments with the help of global organizations. And from what I am seeing at the COP17, are we actually much further away from this result than ever before.

Interesting video series on Sustainability in farming

November 18, 20113:17 pm

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Today’s post is about a really interesting video series on Sustainability in relation to farming. In this series there are six different episodes. So a lot of interesting information.

For some reason I did not really look into the relationship of farming to sustainability in detail before. This is why this series came in very handy to get me up to speed on the topic.

These are the links to the first five parts of the series. I decided to embed the last part of the series as I found it very useful as a summary and conclusion video for the overall topic.

Parts of the video series: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5

Making a difference: What will change in your life for 2012?

November 16, 20114:39 pm

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The annual changing leaf season always reminds of the changing times. It seems that Mother Nature wants us to all let go of our 2011 ballast, to plan ahead for 2012 and to prepare to change.

I am in the process of changing a lot in my life as well. Nothing drastic, but changes need to happen in order to realize my plans for 2012. In 2011 I pretty much streamlined a lot of operations in my business, on- and offline. This will continue in 2012. More is to be done offline, but streamlining will still be the motto in order to save costs and to be more effective to successfully promote CSR / Sustainability.

Let’s side-track a little here, in order to make an important point.

An example of passion and will power

The most impressive example I came across over the past years of how to change your life to make a difference was a group of three women from the London area. They were all passionate about one thing: Helping dogs which were close to being killed because no one wanted them anymore or their breed was a breed that is perceived as dangerous.

They all had their daily jobs and families, so no time to spare really. But they were so passionate about helping dogs that they simply had to find a way to make a difference as they could not bear seeing perfectly good dogs being put down for no reason. So they worked during the day and rescued dogs during night and the weekend.

This was four years ago. And now, through their sheer commitment and determination, they managed to establish a regional dog rescue charity called Rescue Remedies, which so far has been able to save and rehome close to 1.000 dogs across the UK.

Obviously saving dogs is not for everyone, but my point here is that we all can change our lives if we really want to. Somethings more and sometimes less change is possible and needed to make a difference.

So what can you change in your life this autumn in order to make a difference in 2012?