This will be the last CSR Newsletter until the Spring semester.
Have a great holiday season and I will see you in January!
On reflection, this semester I sent a marked increase in the number of Newsletters focused on environmental sustainability, in general, and climate change, in particular (Issues: Environmental Sustainability, p171). This, no doubt, mirrors the growing public awareness of these issues and, as a result, the greater profile they are given by the media. As such, I will finish this semester's Newsletters with a 20 minute video that focuses on sustainability, although my sense is that it is presented in a 'Michael Moore-type' approach to documentary-making, which is to say it is more polemical than it is objective and scientific. Nevertheless, as with much of Michael Moore's work, it is entertaining and educational, and it makes some very important points:
http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html
My sense is that the most effective way of achieving the over-arching goal of the video (how to make a linear system more sustainable) lies in maintaining a focus on CSR in its broadest interpretation. In writing Strategic CSR, we originally decided to limit the environmental sustainability content, simply because so much has been written about this subject elsewhere and there were so many other subjects that we wanted to discuss that were not, at the time, central to the CSR debate. One of our main messages, as a result, is that it is the inclusion of all aspects of firm operations that maximizes the strategic advantages of CSR. In the spring, my thought at present is to try and return to this broadest focus. While not ignoring issues of environmental sustainability or recycling or climate change, I will try and rededicate the Newsletters to this issue of system-wide sustainability, as it is only by focusing on the system as a whole that meaningful and lasting change can occur.
As usual, your thoughts and/or feedback are always welcome.
Happy Holidays!
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther
