Welcome back to the Strategic CSR Newsletter!
The first Newsletter of this semester is below. As always, your comments and ideas are welcome.
The articles in the two urls below offer different year-end perspectives on the progress made by the CSR debate in 2008. The first article is by Bill Baue of CSRWire.com and aims to provide a summary of key CSR events in 2008. In particular, Baue highlights the intersection of the economic and environmental crises:
“The economic meltdown of 2008 mirrors the simultaneous environmental meltdown fueled by the climate calamity - both share common roots, and many in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) community believe they share a common salvation. At the most basic level, the global economy is melting down because the belief in perpetual growth, propped up by deregulation and outright fraud, has smacked up against the finite nature of reality. Likewise, our atmosphere is literally melting our ecosystems, primarily because of the growth curve of fossil fuel emissions and carbon concentrations. … The most likely savior scenario likewise entwines economy and environment: a "green" recovery promises to create good jobs and strong companies while transitioning to a low-carbon energy infrastructure powered by renewable resources such as wind and solar.”
The second article is by Mallen Baker (Foreword, pxiii) who, rather than list a series of achievements, seeks to provide insight into what these achievements mean for 2009 and beyond. Of primary importance, Baker argues, is to recognize the negative influence of the search for ‘proof’ that CSR leads to measureable profitability for firms and maximum returns for shareholders:
“First – most people, including the declared supporters of CSR, have not really bought the business case arguments that have been put out there by a range of organisations, research groups and others. … There has been a whole industry based on this line in recent years. Trying to prove cause and effect: successful business = responsible business. It's time to move the argument on. All of those attempts bought into one central assumption – that it is the primary role of business to maximise shareholder returns and therefore any CSR commitment needs to show that it delivers cash to the bottom line in a direct and predictable way. That is the biggest assumption whose future is questioned by recent events.”
Happy New Year!
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
CSRwire Reports Top Corporate Social Responsibility News of 2008
Questions remain for CSR in 2009
A "green" recovery from economic and environmental meltdowns; the advent of Shareholder Activism 2.0 with binding resolutions at TARP banks; CSR adopts Web 2.0 strategies for sustainability reporting; is Wal-Mart really green? and much more...
Press release from: CSRwire
by Bill Baue
http://www.csrwire.com/News/14244.html
CSR: So what did we learn in 2008 that we can use in 2009?
Mallen Baker
January 7, 2009
Let's lose the sloppy thinking about CSR and bottom line benefits to start with, argues Mallen Baker
http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=6275
