Fabian Pattberg

Tag Archives - csr

New topic series: Profit and Sustainability

April 23, 20129:11 am

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How to profit from being sustainable as a business? Are Profit and Sustainability really going together? This will be the topic in a new series over the next months.

Let us get started with a quick review of the Google search results in order to get a first look at what other bloggers have written about Profit and Sustainability: Google search Profit and Sustainability

Here is a list of the search results I found interesting:

I am currently researching the topic in more detail and would appreciate if you had any other interesting links to blogger that have written about this relationship of Profit and Sustainability. I will also look into more formal research on this over the next few days.

Thanks a million.

Interesting viewpoint: Has London 2012 been greenwashed?

April 22, 20121:46 pm

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Today I have come across this interesting article from the Guardian blogger Jules Boykoff titled: Has London 2012 been greenwashed? | Jules Boykoff | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

In the article he clearly states that in his view the sponsorship deals with Dow Chemical and BP are “a clash between Olympic-style environmentalism and the corporate commercialism of the Games.” To him their involvement as sponsors is purely to serve as greenwash of their business practice. It is a very opinionated article which in my view addresses a very important aspect of CSR / Sustainability and sponsoring.

My view

When I read the article I was positively surprised initially. I like a strong opinion and the courage to express this. But I do not agree with the complete authors assessment of BP’s and Dow Chemicals’s involvement in the Olympic Games. For me the whole purpose of the Olympic Games as a global sports event is something extraordinary and an event which are all looking forward to. It is my sports event highlight in 2012. And sponsorships and partnerships are a part of the whole setup and help fund the Games.

But I also do not agree with the ever increasing commercialisation of the Olympic Games. And this has been a trend over the past Games which I have found very irritating. Sometimes I wish that I there would be something similar to an ad-blocker for TV programmes.

I certainly hope that the organisers will find the right mix between using the partners and sponsors to help promote the Olympic Games and at the same time making sure that the sport and amazing global diversity will be the focal-point in the weeks to come.

Translating CSR best practice into personal Sustainability action

April 13, 20122:09 pm

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How do you translate CSR best practice into personal Sustainability practice? I asked myself this question when we recently looked at appropriate plots in the area for the house we are planning to build over the next year here in Germany. During that planning I want to make sure that we are using sustainable products and building practices as much as possible.

I know an awful lot about corporate CSR / Sustainability best practice but is there anything we could in a way translate into personal Sustainability best practice in our daily lifes? Not only when we talk about sustainable building but Sustainability generally.

What is your view on this? Do you think the corporate and personal Sustainability go hand in hand? What can we learn? Thank you for the feedback. I am looking for all kind of ideas.

A new challenge: CSR / Sustainability as a hobby

March 30, 20125:34 pm

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I have worked in the CSR / Sustainability sector for nearly 10 years now and must say that I had a great time so far. But when I talked to a CSR colleague here in Germany this week and I talked about my current work I realized that CSR / Sustainability these days for me is more like a hobby than a job. Why? Well if you are regular reader of this blog you might remember that I took over the family business PMM Services here in Germany a little then over a year ago.

The past year has been really good and I was so busy with the new challenge, family, my two dogs and two websites that there was hardly any time to keep developing my consulting business next to the family business. And for me, business without the proper business development approach and full time commitment is a hobby and not a business. This is what the past years as a businessman have taught me. Either you do something 120% or you do it as a hobby with all the consequences.

My CSR / Sustainability hobby: Blogging and TheEnvironmentSite.org 

Don’t get me wrong. I believe that this development comes at the exact right time for me and that this is actually a great chance for me to focus on my personal CSR / Sustainability communication channels. And these clearly are my two websites, FabianPattberg.com (this blog) and TheEnvironmentSite.org (my online discussion forum and blog on Sustainability and Environmental topics). The difference now is that these two sites are a hobby of mine not part of my business anymore.

I really like this new development and I am sure I will work in the CSR / Sustainability business again but not for the next years. I am now in the middle of another 5-10 year block of a new challenge in life and I am keen to imbed CSR / Sustainability topics in my new business as much as possible with the help of my two websites and my network.

Thank you for being a part of this future and please connect so that we can exchange CSR / Sustainability views and information!

TheEnvironmentSite.org is back

March 29, 20121:15 pm

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Some of you might have wondered where the my environmental website and discussion forum, TheEnvironmentSite.org, has been over the past weeks.

Long story, here is the short version: At the beginning of March from one day to the next, hackers attacked the site and managed to inject one of websites styles (determines how the forum looks visually) with malware and a virus which was forwarding visitors to another site away from TheEnvironmentSite.org and pretty much prohibited any participation on the site. I investigated and in the end had to close down the complete forum altogether until I had this fixed.tes1 TheEnvironmentSite.org is back

But it now turns out that this was a blessing in disguise. The break of 3 weeks altogether gave me the chance to update the software, cleanup  the old membership base and delete spammy threads in had overlooked in the past. Now TheEnvironmentSite.org is back and stronger then ever with a brand new forum look and much heightened security measures to ensure that any future hacker attacks will be unsuccessful.

Have you checked us out yet? TheEnvironmentSite.org Forum

My latest Twitter updates now as a designated page

March 19, 201211:38 am

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I am always trying to improve my website. Today I wanted to let you know that you can now view the latest 15 of my Twitter updates on a designated page here on my site. This is the direct link to the Twitter update page: My Twitter Stream. For me Twitter is an extension of my blog and a great way to connect and share  information with likeminded people from across the globe. I hope you will find these updates useful.

If you have any feedback on how to improve this page or the overall website please let me know. And please connect with me on Twitter. It would be great to hear from you: Fabian on Twitter.

Why are not more CSR / Sustainability organizations on SlideShare promoting their work?

March 16, 20123:54 pm

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I am a regular user of SlideShare. SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations. It supports documents, PDFs, videos and webinars. All in all a really great resource.

Today I was just browsing some of the new interesting CSR / Sustainability uploaded items when I realized that there where hardly any CSR / Sustainability organizations present on the site. To me this seems like a wasted opportunity for these businesses working in the sector.

slideshare logo Why are not more CSR / Sustainability organizations on SlideShare promoting their work?

There where only two (!) larger organizations from the sector I was able to find without any big problems:

I really hope that more organizations working in the CSR / Sustainability sector will use this site more often in the future. It could be such a great way to share more in-depth presentations, great webinars and at the same time get useful targeted feedback by stakeholders from across the globe.

CSR / Sustainability angle of the Goldman Sachs New York Times letter

March 14, 20121:47 pm

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Today’s post is about a resignation letter from the former Goldman Sachs executive director, Greg Smith. This is nothing out the ordinary by itself. What is special about this resignation is the way he did this and a clear sign how much of a challenge CSR / Sustainability activities and best practice within the finance sector are. But let’s start with the way Greg Smith resigned.

This is the article in the New York Times (NYT):  Why I am leaving Goldman Sachs

goldman sachs logo 150x150 CSR / Sustainability angle of the Goldman Sachs New York Times letter

It is a great but very sad read at the same time. A gripping account of how much his company but also the corporate culture has changed for the worst since he joined. If only half of his description is true then customers at Goldman Sachs are not being treated how they should be and the overall culture in the business is in need of a complete overhaul to put it mildly!

The CSR / Sustainability angle
This story has an interesting CSR / Sustainability in my view as well. It just shows how much of a mindset-change is needed within the financial sector. In this situation CSR / Sustainability practices can only be then a side-act. It seems to me that not even the basics of good business leadership exist at Goldman Sachs taking Greg Smith’s description into account. What possibilities to make a difference  does a CSR / Sustainability specialist have in this kind of business environment? NONE.
We might just witness a good example of how a business sector can be pre-CSR / Sustainability capabilities at the moment. The first rule for Goldman Sachs now can only be to get their house in order first. And when this is done, CSR / Sustainability could be back on their agenda. What a fascinating case study that will be!

Good CSR / Sustainability posts from this week

March 4, 20126:26 pm

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Today I wanted to share some of the interesting CSR / Sustainability posts I have been reading over the past days. I am a little bit like this woman here in the picture on the right. Despite all the turbulence around me, am I desperate for some good CSR / Sustainability or related literature each week. I hope you will enjoy these good posts as well.

reading Good CSR / Sustainability posts from this week

Elaine Cohen’s latest CSR Reporting posts:

Thanks Elaine for sharing such great content.

HBR Blogs

Guardian Sustainable Business section

And finally from Forbes

What other interesting posts have you come across this or the previous week?

Picture Credit: Moriza

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.