Tag Archives: CSRwire

Empowering Women Through Education: Talbots and BSR’s HERproject

03 Thursday Jul 2014

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It is often said that an empowered woman can lead to happy families, successful team projects, and a flourishing economy.

BSR_HERproject_1With women increasingly accounting for a higher proportion of our workforce — and supply chain — empowering them with healthy alternatives, training and access to medical information is critical. BSR’s HERproject has a similar objective in mind. The project, built around private-public partnerships, believes that businesses that invest in educating and empowering women in the workplace enjoy higher efficiencies, lower absenteeism and turnover rates, and higher return on investments.

In fact, “BSR’s HERproject has demonstrated the power of providing women’s reproductive health education in the workplace to transform individual lives, workplaces, and communities,” says Marcus Chung, Director of Corporate Responsibility at Talbots, a women’s apparel, shoes and accessories retailer.

Chung, in partnership with BSR’s Racheal Yeager, will lead a session at the upcoming Ethical Sourcing Forum in New York on some of the results, challenges and lessons learned from collaborating closely on implementing HERproject in Talbots’ contract factories.

Public-Private Partnerships to Drive Women Empowerment

Talbots has partnered with BSR since 2010 on creating, investing in and implementing curriculum to educate female garment workers around the world. What makes partnerships like these tougher to implement – but much more critical to push for – is that these workers are not Talbots employees – and the factories are not owned by Talbots either.

Return on Investment: BSR's HERproject“HERproject emphasizes partnering with local NGOs to deliver training to high potential workers, who in turn become internal trainers. We focus on health and nutrition issues which ultimately lead to increased confidence and competency among the workforce,” he says.

Chung admitted that besides higher rates of productivity, participation and loyalty, these exercises also help discern high potential candidates for leadership opportunities.

So far Talbots has launched the project in its factories in China, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

An Educated & Healthy Employee

There are some side benefits too, he agrees. “At one factory in Vietnam, management told me that other factories’ workers were approaching them to ask how they could join the factory to take advantage of the educational and training opportunities,” he says.

They have since seen higher rates of applications pour in.

For Talbots – a women-centric brand – this initiative has been crucial in driving social impact and demonstrating worker responsibility. But, according to Chung, it is much more than that. “HERproject also made it very easy for us to scale and take our philanthropic platform across our factories in a very real way,” he says.

“Of course it also helps with vendor dialogues: Our conversations with our suppliers and vendors used to be restricted to garment costing and quality. Now we have much more dynamic conversations.”

For retailers and manufacturers, HERproject, he says, offers a practical way of working with nonprofit partners and internal champions to bridge the complex cultural and economic divides that surround a global company’s supply chain.

Statistics have shown that a woman shunned is a dangerous woman. While an educated and empowered woman invests in the future and drives change for her family, herself, and her employer. Who wouldn’t want such a powerful employee on your side?

Originally written for and published on CSRwire’s Commentary sectionTalkback on March 1, 2011.

Crowdfunding for Capital Creation: Fad or Business Opportunity?

03 Thursday Jul 2014

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Co-written with Patricia Smith

“You can’t evolve into being a social media company. You have to be born social,” began Lou Kerner, veteran internet analyst and former managing director of the Private Shares Group at LiquidNet, an institutional equities marketplace. {Kerner departed LiquidNet within three months of taking the job citing differences in views with upper management.]SoHo_Loft_Capital_Creation

The event: The SoHo Loft conference on capital creation and crowdfunding at law firm Reed Smith’s palatial New York City office.

The topic: Crowdfunding and social media, i.e., how investors, analysts and executives can now use the power of social crowds to raise capital.

Crowdfunding isn’t just the newest — and hippest — way of raising capital for entrepreneurs today. It is also a wide open opportunity for investors, analysts and activists to build new enterprise and address the change they continue to seek from traditional business. Crowdfunding, essentially, builds on our hunger for social connections to raise awareness, pique interest and channel that into opening access to capital for worthy projects.

Case in point: Kickstarter, RocketHub, Seedmatch, etc. Some would even put DonorsChoose in the same category.

Congressman Patrick McHenry, R-NC, who opened the conference, alluded to President Obama’s recent appeal to pass the crowdfunding legislation, titled The Entrepreneurs’ Access to Capital Act, to free up capital for entrepreneurs. A firm and emphatic supporter of the bill, he added:

“The marketplace desires this. Why else would so many people come here on such a gloomy day if you didn’t want this? Capital must flow where it is best used. This is what is at the heart of capital formation. Get to the point where the American dream was to grow a business and eventually access our public markets.”

Choosing to use Innovator Dilemma author Clay Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation, Kerten exemplified Wal-Mart and Amazon not dominating the fast-growing social media space today despite their size and history because “you have to be born social to be social.”

Web 2.0: Banking on Social

KickstarterPrimarily “Second Internet” or Web 2.0 companies are all about facilitating sharing, he emphasized. Facebook is the dominant platform for these activities, he continued, adding that Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube represent formidable platforms in their own user following and growth.

In this landscape, brands can no longer buy audiences. “They have to earn them because users choose what messages they’ll share with their social network,” he argued. Example: Gaming company Zynga’s ability to drive Cityville to 100 million users in just seven weeks by leveraging Facebook users’ willingness to share their passion.

Smart brands understand people with high social media influence can do a lot to help or hurt their brand with a simple tweet or Facebook post. Klout is the perfect example of this growing niche of influencers. In its short existence, Klout has rated over 100 million individuals’ influence on social media and devised a score that Kerner termed as the equivalent of a FICO score for the Internet.

The Palms Hotel in California, in fact, is using these scores to decide who gets an upgrade. Some airlines are using it to decide who gets bumped from a flight, he added.

Social Media: Fad or Opportunity?

Offering up a recent study of Facebook usage, Kerner noted that 16 percent of Facebook users’ time spent online was on Facebook. Further, that time spent online was up 40 percent from the year before. Compare this, he said to Facebook’s latest product, Frictionless Sharing, which allows you to share content with your Facebook network without actually being on the Facebook platform. The opportunities? Endless.Zynga_s_Cityville

Twitter’s uniqueness, on the other hand, is in the immediacy it offers users. This, according to Kerner, is only going to grow. Pointing out that news organizations were one of the weaker members when it comes to using social media, he added: “Of the top news organizations, 93 percent have Twitter links going back to their own content and only 2 percent have links that send them someplace else.” For Kerner, this emphasis on pushing out content and resulting failure in engaging their audience in real dialogue translates as lost revenue.

We’re already using social media to channel our passions, thoughts and build deeper relationships. So, why not also to fund projects and new ideas?

What do you think? Could crowdfunding be the way forward for budding entrepreneurs tired of working in a closed-door market?

Originally written for and published on CSRwire’s Commentary sectionTalkback on February 28, 2012.

PwC Canada Releases 3rd Annual CSR Report: Staying the Course

03 Thursday Jul 2014

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PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Canada released their third annual corporate responsibility report today. It’s nothing groundbreaking. But nor is it pages and pages of images and quotes from top leadership interspersed with hard-to-evaluate statistics.PwC_CR_Report_2011

In true PwC fashion, the report details commitments and achievements in 2011 only to quickly move on to highlighting challenges and the firm’s key plans for 2012 followed by an affirmation of the firm’s social and environmental strategy.

The pressure on firms big and small to report on their non-financial activities is significant. With the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) officially launching in North America last year, CSR and sustainability reports are set to multiply in coming years. What always challenges me are the motivations behind the reporting: Is it simply peer pressure or do firms learn something from the process? Moreover, is the act of reporting an exercise in external communication or more of an introspective activity to improve processes and strategies?

I caught up with James Temple, PwC Canada’s Director of Corporate Responsibility for some insights:

What was the most important lesson learned from the often stressful exercise of putting this report together?

Every time we work on our Corporate Responsibility Report, we’re reminded that this is an evolving journey and one that requires us to be open to adapting to changing ideas, personalities and approaches to developing the most transparent narrative possible.

When you involve such a large number of stakeholders in such a rigorous process, all of whom are passionate about their work and the cause, it can prove to be a balancing act that requires a balance of leadership, managing expectations, and the ability to communicate with empathy and effectiveness.

Most importantly, the process has helped us finesse a blended approach that respects standard reporting frameworks and our unique firm culture and structure to develop a narrative that is representative of the success (and the challenges) we face along the way.”

The report mentions plans for a new three-year strategic plan to guide the next phase of PwC Canada’s CSR program. Any insights you can provide into that?

Over the next few months, we will be completing our environmental scan and a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis to ensure that we are being thoughtful about our dynamic marketplace conditions along with gaining valuable input from our Global Network of Firms.

Philanthropy plays a crucial role in targeting social and environmental challenges through nonprofit partnerships but it’s often the strategy behind these donations that helps make them effective. Any insights on what works well for PwC’s B2B industry?

From the 2011 CR Report: “In 2011, PwC contributed a total of $2,533,000 in charitable donations and sponsorships to community organizations across Canada.”

At PwC Canada, we have adopted a strategy that focuses on educating employees and other stakeholders about the most effective ways to give back to their communities.

We encourage people to utilize our PwC Canada Volunteer Continuum that spells out how a person or organization can deepen their engagement with the charitable sector while developing their skills and experiences.

This could include the ways people use their skills to volunteer, how they look at sharing their community experiences, calling on their business networks for support, or how to allocate their personal or organizational resources in the most effective way possible.  Our approach is rooted in the regular feedback we receive from the not-for-profit sector and considers impact (not just dollars and cents).

What are some points of achievements from the report that you feel especially proud of?

In the fall of 2010, PwC hosted a series of roundtable discussions with representatives from the not-for-profit sector, public and private foundations and major corporations called the Capacity Building Roundtable Project.

The purpose of the project was to raise awareness about how corporate funders could better allocate their resources to help the not-for-profit sector become more sustainable and deliver lasting results within their communities.

The report concluded with a step-by-step process that addressed critical needs identified by the community that could have the most immediate and scalable impacts.

One of the critical findings was the need to encourage other corporations to provide not-for-profits support for core operational expenditures, and ensure they build time for grant recipients to reflect, take risks and test new innovations into grant proposals.

How do you define success in CSR reporting? Metrics? Media mentions? Or a set of internal goals?

We encourage our employees and other stakeholders to integrate a CR mind-set into their day-to-day business operations.  We want to inspire and empower people to look for ways to embed good CR practices into their decision-making frameworks.

A great example of how we’ve engaged our stakeholders in a CR dialogue was through the Citizen’s Reference Panel. PwC Canada brought together people from across Ontario to discuss their views on how to build a more sustainable and cost-effective healthcare system across the province.   We published a piece of thought leadership outlining the results, and it’s something that will help our business, the public and governments have better insights into the development of new healthcare strategies.

Our firm can play in helping to shape the debate on sustainability issues impacting businesses today.

Success means knowing you’ve done everything you can to help develop the CR conversation.

Originally written for and published on CSRwire’s Commentary sectionTalkback on February 27, 2012..

Pathway to Financial Success: Discover Activates Parents

03 Thursday Jul 2014

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Corporate social responsibility has many shapes and forms today. Some organizations continue to use philanthropy as the crutch while others are adopting more expansive and strategic measures to improve their relationship with society and the environment.

For Discover, a financial institution with a history of catering to an elite consumer group with high credit scores and deep pockets, the business model is simple: Provide credit to low-risk consumers while ensuring quality customer service.

However, social responsibility for a financial services provider is a complex debate. I’m a big proponent of context and financial literacy falls perfectly in line with Discover’s core audience and social footprint. But should Discover be educating all consumers on the viability and risks of financial products or simply restrict its outreach to its customer base? Considering that a wide swath of their consumer base is educated and high potential, where should Discover focus its consumer engagement efforts?

A couple of weeks ago, Discover announced a new five-year $10 million program designed to help get financial education into the classroom. Their target: high school students. But this latest initiative, called Pathway to Financial Success, isn’t going to be just about conversations in the classroom.

Financial_LiteracyLeslie Sutton, director of external affairs and head of CSR for Discover, spoke to CSRwire about the initiative. “Not only will the initiative provide grants to public high schools to cover the costs of implementing a course on personal finance and give them access to a standards-based curriculum, it will also emphasize teacher training,” she said.

Further, “through a public service announcement [called Awkward Conversations] and a website, we want to raise awareness of the need for financial education and to encourage parents to talk to schools about incorporating it into the school curriculum.”

Discover wants to activate parents this time in a meaningful way. And in true Discover fashion, they’re doing this in a funny and intuitively intelligent manner.

I caught up with Sutton for more insights:

Why the emphasis on financial education at such an early stage [high school] when most Discover’s customers are elite professionals?

This is one of the ways we give back to customers and our community.

Discover has been involved in financial education for over 15 years. Helping people achieve brighter financial futures is our company’s mission. And getting financial education into classrooms is one of the ways we can help achieve that. It’s critical that kids develop the skills they need to manage their finances to make informed decisions.

Discover sees a clear need for financial education in schools. Statistics show that a majority of Americans lack the knowledge to make good financial decisions. A Sallie Mae study showed that 84 percent of students said they needed more education on financial management topics, yet only 12 states require a personal finance course before graduation, according to the Survey of the States by The Council for Economic Education. That’s opportunity for us to use our resources and platform to compel change.

With an economy built on consumer demand and credit availability, only 12 states?

The problem is multifold. First, many states are not requiring students to learn about money basics at school. And many schools lack the resources to add curriculum. Both teachers and parents say they are uncomfortable talking to kids about money.

We know that we need to get financial education into the school curriculum. It is the only way to get them thinking early. That’s why Discover is awarding grants to public high schools to cover related costs and give them access to a standards-based curriculum with one of the requirements being that the school measure curriculum results, so that we can ensure this information is being retained – not just provided.

How do you plan on engaging parents considering some of them might not be Discover customers – and might not have the tools to activate their school districts?

Talking to kids about money can be awkward and we want parents to know that Pathway to Financial Success can help by providing the tools and resources to begin the conversation at home and in schools. We created a public service announcement to get parents’ attention on this issue. It directs parents to Pathway to Financial Success, where they can find financial education resources developed by independent organizations.

Discover: Pathway to Financial Success

It also contains information to help them become more comfortable talking about finances. And if they want to join us in addressing the inclusion of financial education in schools, the website also provides parents with the tools needed to address that with local school administrators.

How does Pathway to Financial Success align with Discover’s business model?

We have always believed in providing our customers with the tools and resources they need to make informed decisions about money. Through Pathway to Financial Success, we’re helping to ensure that the next generation develops the skills they need before they make decisions that will affect their futures. That’s in everyone’s interest, not just our customer base.

By working with parents and schools to get financial education incorporated into the school curriculum, we want to reach thousands of classrooms and over a half-million students with the hope that by raising awareness of the need for financial education, more parents, schools and corporations will get involved in the effort.

That is in everyone’s interest as well. Financial education and independence is a critical tool in our personal and professional happiness. At Discover, this is much more than consumer education. It is about long-term financial empowerment.

Originally written for and published on CSRwire’s Commentary sectionTalkback on February 23, 2012.

Sustainability & Your Supply Chain: Risks, Metrics & Opportunities

03 Thursday Jul 2014

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What combination of education, training and technical solutions does it take to compel change through your organization as well as your supply chain?

It is a question that continues to dog manufacturers and retailers big and small as supply chains grow complex and social and environmental challenges multiply. What role should companies play in educating – and engaging – their suppliers? What’s ethical? With Sustainability Reporting becoming a mark of competitive advantage, how can organizations best track their performance?

The upcoming Ethical Sourcing Forum will kickoff its two-day conference next month by putting Coca-Cola, Intel, Bic, the International Trade Centre (ITC) and Intertek on the hot seat to try to answer some of these complex questions.

Ethical_Sourcing_Forum

The panel, led by me, will not only offer best practices but also discuss specific tools that the companies have either developed or collaborated with their nonprofit partners on, to track and examine sustainability progress with their suppliers.

For a preview of what promises to be a compelling session of benchmarking and teasing apart a sensitive topic, I turned to Mathieu Lamolle, a market analyst with the ITC for some insights.

An Ethical Supply Chain

The ITC, a United Nations agency for trade related technical assistance, has one goal: To help businesses become more competitive in global markets, speeding economic development and contributing to sustainable development.

Part of this goal, Mathieu told me, is a “Standards Map web tool for organizations to analyze, map and compare themselves according to an array of 75+ sustainability standards in supply chains.”

“We also want to enable any organization that has its own code of conduct and assessment protocol to benchmark what they are doing against others. They can benchmark their own corporate practices and see how they measure up against other companies and sustainability standards.”

Ranging from small companies, traders and suppliers to retailers, importers and others, this new tool will encourage data sharing for the purpose of internal benchmarking with the ultimate goal being an ethical and efficient supply chain.

While it remains strictly a business-to-business tool for now, Mathieu emphasized that there are plans to eventually roll it out for general consumption and public benchmarking as well.

Benchmarking Sustainability Progress

StandardsWhat’s especially promising about ITC’s new tool is its abject emphasis on sharing for the purpose of benchmarking. The organization’s role as a UN neutral intermediary between public-private partnerships further helps break through the risk-averse behavior that often delays well-meaning initiatives within organizations.

Although, so far the tool has found resonance with participants for the primary purpose of internal tracking and public sharing of information on the Standards Map web tool, Mathieu admitted that the true value of the tool “is going to unfold when we can spread the news globally” and allow people to compare the true progress being made by participating organizations on educating and training their supply chains. “The more people use it the better it is,” he said.

The impact of such a global tool can prove to be significant in an industry that is evolving and constantly juggling multifold standards and regulations. Want to learn more about the Standards Map? Wondering how you can use the tool to track your organization’s sustainability progress?

Join us at the Ethical Sourcing Forum for a lively discussion that will focus not only on available tools, but also how to best manage metrics, challenges of a global supply chain and whether any of the present panelists’ tools can be customized to work in your industry.

Originally written for and published on CSRwire’s Commentary sectionTalkback on February 22, 2012.

Dow Chemical: Extracting Business Value out of Sustainability

03 Thursday Jul 2014

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After more than a decade of negotiations, there’s news today that Dow Chemical has agreed to clean up 1,400 residential properties in Midland, Mich.

The root cause: A Dow Chemical plant located in Midland, also home to its headquarters, responsible for polluting the area with dioxin for a better part of the late 1990s.

Dow Chemical has had a long history of pioneering research and innovation in sustainability, from collaborating with nonprofits on driving solutions — it was named one of the most sustainable companies in Brazil in 2011 — to industry-wide partnerships on reducing their products’ environmental footprint.

But no number of accolades or ratings can hide the immense environmental and social footprint of the company’s operations, domestically or internationally. Or as many would opine, help erase a history of soil, air and water contamination.

So, how does the chemicals giant prioritize sustainability to drive its long term business plan? And how are these complex social and environmental challenges defining this strategy? Neil Hawkins, Dow Chemical’s VP for Sustainability & EH&S offers some insights:

Top Sustainability Challenges of 2011:

1. Accounting for the value of nature

We’re entering a new phase of integrating the value of nature into the corporate balance sheet through a breakthrough 5-year collaboration with The Nature Conservancy. This partnership will determine the value of ecosystems to Dow’s operations.

Scientists from both organizations are developing tools and testing models together that we will eventually share with other companies and the science community. In early 2012, we will issue a public progress report on the collaboration, as well as a broader update on Dow conservation projects around the globe.

2. Market adaptation to sustainable solutions and innovation

There is a significant divide between environmental and social issues, and the appetite of markets to adapt, and sometimes pay, for new solutions that address these issues. Bringing innovation to market is a costly proposition filled with economic and political volatility, lack of clear and consistent regulation, and lack of guarantees for ROI.

Despite these headwinds, we are addressing megatrends and challenges by staying focused on our mission and values, and through unwavering investment in our innovation pipeline.

Aspirations for 2012: Where does CSR / Sustainability fit?

In 2010, Dow passed the midpoint of its second set of 10-year sustainability goals – the 2015 Sustainability Goals.

In 2012, we will work on our next set of goals, building on the momentum of the past 20 years, and find ways to drive Dow’s science and people into unprecedented areas of leadership, collaboration, innovation and change.

These goals serve as a strategic guide for leveraging business to address global challenges from accelerating urbanization, rapid population growth and increasing demands on natural resources. Prioritizing the safety and wellbeing of Dow people will also always be at the core of how we measure success.

With sustainability at the root of our mission, vision, and values, sustainability and CSR don’t just “fit” in – they drive decision-making, investment choices, hiring practices, and employee engagement at Dow.

Sustainability, in particular the pursuit of more sustainable chemistry, also gives our innovation engine a clear target.

Predictions: Extracting Business Value from Sustainability

Companies will become more proficient at extracting business value from sustainability commitments and practices

The chemical industry, among others, will continue to move beyond sustainability as an obligation driven by outside forces, toward uncovering tangible economic value that drives both top and bottom line growth.

The economic value of sustainable development can and should influence all decision-making – including capital investments, recruiting, marketing, product design, R&D and service functions. Companies will need to become savvy life cycle practitioners, innovators and collaborators.

By looking externally at unique partnerships, and internally at deeply integrated sustainability through employee engagement and accountability, companies will unlock new areas for growth by harnessing the value of sustainability.

The critical role chemistry plays in solving world challenges will continue to move to center stage.

Our world is facing pressing challenges including water supplies, energy sources and affordable housing. Mitigating the impacts of these challenges and managing our natural resources worldwide requires the manufacturing industry, and in particular, the chemical industry, to play an enabling role by discovering and implementing new technologies.

Chemistry is fundamental to our lives. It enables more than 96 percent of all manufactured products.

As a company, we’re committed to driving innovative solutions through chemistry, such as the POWERHOUSE Solar Shingle, which transforms a typical house into a dynamic power generator.

Then there are efforts such as the United Nations’ 2011 International Year of Chemistry that put the power of chemistry on a global stage.

But more attention is needed to accelerate science-based solutions, increase collaboration, and attract new generations into rewarding STEM careers – where the problems of today and tomorrow will ultimately be solved.

Originally written for and published on CSRwire’s Commentary sectionTalkback on February 17, 2012.

The Justice League’s Latest Mission: Famine & Hunger in Africa

03 Thursday Jul 2014

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When the Justice League comes together to fight evil, evil stands little chance.

In a world of economic uncertainty and social unrest, superheroes provide children with mentors, entrepreneurs with lessons in responsibility, and the rest of us with inspiration.

Now, DC Entertainment, the creators of renowned characters like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, has joined hands with Time Warner and Warner Brothers to leverage the collective power of these superheroes to tackle the troubles of the real world.

Their target: The hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa, an epidemic that has reached frightening proportions while being sparsely reported by the media.

We Can Be Heroes comes with immense leverage [thousands of employees, millions of canvases and platforms, a global fan base] and aspirational goals. In collaboration with three global nonprofits – Save the Children, Mercy Corps and International Rescue Committee – the conglomerates will match dollar for dollar up to a million dollars.

Their two-year goal: $2 million spread evenly among the three NGOs.

“13 million people go hungry in Africa. That is unimaginable. How are we letting this happen?” asked Cokie Roberts, prominent NPR journalist, author and board trustee for international nonprofit Save the Children, at a press junket Monday morning in New York City.

We_Can_Be_HeroesIntegrated Corporate Social Responsibility

Jeff Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner, who opened the event iterated that this cause marketing campaign is much more than straight up philanthropy for the company. “This is our corporate responsibility,” he said, adding, “We Can Be Heroes will capitalize on 90 years of storytelling to a global audience. We can help create far reaching awareness on a famine that can be fixed.”

Alluding to a consumer base already saturated with information, diffused by competitive branding exercises and weakening attention spans, Bewkes said, “Today consumer engagement is more important than ever before. Hunger isn’t geographically bound and our humanitarian care shouldn’t be either. Like the Justice League, together we can be heroes.”

everaging The Power of Herosim — and Interactive Media

This well thought out campaign – there is a merchandising component, a well-designed website and plans to integrate the message on all possible Warner and DC platforms globally – will capitalize on two leverage points: 1) The potent power of our collective strength in making a difference, and 2) The effectiveness of rich storytelling through a vast platform of interactive media.

I often say that half the battle of doing the right thing is telling your story effectively. In today’s connected world, stories matter. And this is where “having the opportunity to do something bigger than ourselves” can prove inspirational and monumental.

Diane Nelson, President of DC Entertainment, put it well: “This [campaign] is about awareness and using the intellectual property our companies own to make consumers aware of the crisis.” Nelson was picking up on something Roberts alluded to in our earlier conversation:

“Americans just need to know about this. We are a wonderful people and once we know that people are in dire need, we respond. Getting that information out there will really save millions of lives.”

There is no arguing that the need for help is indeed great.

As Barry Meyer, Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros., who sat down with CSRwire exclusively for an interview said, it is a perfect fit for the entertainment conglomerates.

“We thought it was a very good fit: Both the messaging and the corporate commitment. We are a big company and we have a lot of ways to communicate with people…to get the message out on what’s going on in Africa. I certainly know many people who are anxious to find ways and mechanisms to help with problems like this including many of our employees outside the United States, who are more aware of the hunger crisis in Africa than frankly, our US employees are.”

With domestic unemployment stoically high, the stock market continuing to rollercoaster and a distracting election year in the U.S., attracting domestic consumers to engage, learn and perhaps most importantly, donate, will not be easy. “That’s where collaborating with three international Justice_LeagueNGOs with feet on the ground is crucial. We expect them to keep us on track, tell us what is working and what isn’t,” said Jeff Robinov, President of Warner Bros. Pictures Group.

For Robinov and team, this campaign falls fair and square within their corporate social responsibility strategy by fluidly integrating philanthropy, engagement, business units with their core competencies – story telling – to drive results for a humanitarian crisis.

I asked Meyer what his hopes are with activating the company’s internal audience:

“We have a significant employee population outside the U.S. We want them to know that we are behind these issues and working on them. As for the employees inside the US, where awareness is low, the aim is to raise that awareness. Make them aware of a huge humanitarian crisis that’s happening halfway around the world.”

With consumer confidence and employee morale low in recent years, it is no surprise that companies are looking for innovative ways to keep their employees motivated and loyal. Referring to the recent Occupy Wall Street protests, Robinov told me:

“See what’s going on with the protests across the country, a lot of that for me personally is related to a lack of human faces for corporations today. We need to be respectful of our bottom-line and our reputation but we are really moved and we really want to help these people. As a company, Time Warner has always reached out to people in times of need. We have a moral obligation to do this.”

CSR: Deploying Core Competencies To Target a Social Issue

At the end of the day, for the companies — and their nonprofit partners — involved, We Can Be Heroes is emblematic of what integrated CSR can look like: Knowing your strengths as a business entity and leveraging them and your stakeholders to target a social issue.

As Meyer told me, “Social responsibility in a certain way speaks for itself. The word responsibility implies an obligation. Big companies have an obligation to society. They make a lot of money and have an obligation to deal with issues that are important to their employee bases…and we feel the obligation very, very deeply.”

He also emphasized that this marks the first time the global brands have come together to target an issue that is long standing and will therefore require long term commitment and out of the box thinking that goes beyond one stop solutions.

The success of WeCanBeHeroes.org will ultimately rely on a global consumer awakening and the belief that together we can all be heroes. Who doesn’t believe in the power of that?

Originally written for and published on CSRwire’s Commentary section Talkback on January 24, 2012.

Ceres Investor Summit 2012: 5 Trends Not to Bet Against

03 Thursday Jul 2014

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Last week, Ceres and the United Nations came together to host the 2012 Investor Summit on Climate Risk & Energy Solutions in New York City. With several announcements marking the day—a record $260 billion was invested in clean energy in 2011—it was Bank of America Chairman Chad Holliday’s pre-lunch presentation that stood out for its aspirational message.

I had the opportunity to host Holliday last year for a keynote on responsible business practices. The occasion: The release of Carol Sanford‘s book The Responsible Business, for which Holliday provided an articulate Foreword.

This time around too, Holliday chose to focus on lessons learned from his years leading DuPont, which saw record growth, transition from a chemical company to a science-based products company, as well as the country’s first chief sustainability officer appointment.

“As you listen, make sure you’re not inadvertently betting against something,” he cautioned adding, “Whether you want to own it or not is merely situational. But listen.”

Here then are Holliday’s five things to not bet against:

1. Don’t Bet Against Breakthroughs

“Don’t bet against a major breakthrough or a series of breakthroughs that create clean, cheap energy.” Holliday followed this warning by a reminder that “the price of natural gas in the Middle East” used to be our prime concern.

“No one was talking about shale energy, tidal [energy] 10 years ago. Somehow we missed that,” he added. Holliday also alluded to the American Energy Innovation Council he set up when at DuPont that counts Bill Gates, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, GE’s Jeff Immelt and others as members: “We
really felt that such a breakthrough was probable so don’t discount the power of innovation.”

2. Don’t Bet Against America

“Particularly American engineers and research universities,” he continued. “Thirty five of the 50 top research institutions worldwide are located in the U.S. Seventeen of the top 20 are in the U.S.,” he said

Bank of America Chairman Chad Holliday Admission rates in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) have been declining for years in the U.S., and several sectors are ramping up their community development and research dollars to invest in STEM initiatives and academic institutions. While it is true that graduates from Asian countries have increasingly filled STEM jobs—and have an incredible presence in Silicon Valley—in recent years, Holliday was quite right to point out that “it will require other countries to grow awfully fast to catch up with us.”

“What we see in the press is that China is overtaking us in engineering. In fact, there is no question that China is indeed leading us in the number of graduating engineers. But when it comes to quality and diversity—biotechnology, nanotechnology, quality control, systems engineering—we are hands down champions,” Holliday said.

3. Don’t Bet Against Sustainable Energy For All

“One of the three commitments of the United Nations General Secretary was to provide electricity to the 1.3 billion people globally who still don’t have access to electricity,” said Holliday. “Now let’s discuss the 1.3 billion-strong population of China: How productive would they be without access to electricity?”

His message: That’s opportunity to deliver value for business, investors and entrepreneurs.

4. Don’t Bet Against Dramatic Events Driving Dramatic Government Action

“One nuclear fallout after the tsunami that struck Japan was enough to compel Germany to take the decision to go completely nuclear-free for their energy supply,” he said.

Emphasizing that one must increasingly view business and investment in the context of their social and environmental setting, Holliday offered a glimpse into his role on Shell’s CR committee: “I regularly meet with NGO groups and investors to understand what they are thinking. I then coordinate with Shell’s corporate responsibility committee to visit sites to really check and see if they are doing what they commit to. Then it makes a difference,” he said, adding, “We cannot measure growth and success from afar because that’s just PR.”

5. Don’t Bet Against People in This Room

Putting the onus on the over 500 investors in attendance, Holliday said: “You’re here today because you think private money can make a difference in this sector. You’ve made a good decision.”

Indicating to his recent appointment as Bank of America’s chairman, he continued:

“I joined Bank of America in the time of a recession. I didn’t have much time to do any due diligence so I decided to find out what they were doing on sustainability. And I’m proud to say that I was impressed. They have already made an 18 percent deduction in greenhouse gases (GHG), made a $20 million commitment to loans for sustainable projects and nurture a working culture that prioritizes sustainability.”

Many other firms in the room could probably tell similar stories, he added, warning: “But don’t bet against each other.”

Emphasizing the need for public private partnerships, he concluded: “Working with the public sector and other stakeholders is going to be key in our goal of sustainable energy for all.” There too, he had the same warning: “Don’t bet against each other.”

Originally written for and published on CSRwire’s Commentary section Talkback on January 18, 2012.

2011: The Year Business Learned to Say Mea Culpa

02 Wednesday Jul 2014

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These were just some of the things that kept us busy in 2011. While some represent the changing marketplace, others are age-old struggles between activists, consumers, employees and corporations. Yet, they all represented the emergence of new forces at play in our corporate corridors.

Yes, 2011 represented despair for many – the jobseekers, the underemployed, the single parent, the shopper, the CEO, the trader – but with despair, as CSRwire’s CEO Joe Sibilia noted, comes hope, adaptability and often, solutions.

And it is at that stage that most of us converged in 2011.

Transparency: Is Business Ready?

Take, for example, the recent BSR conference held in San Francisco. My panel addressed a topic that is bound to get most of us shifting in our chairs: Sustainability in a Hyper-Transparent World. Ouch, right? Joined by executives from Oxfam, Intel and SourceMap, the conversation included several uncomfortable moments (I offered up Zappos as an example to the audience, citing that the company livestreams its all hands meeting in order to live its mission of “building open and honest communications.”) and featured several probabilities, suggestions, and potential solutions by a group that included lawyers, sustainability executives, CSR officers, reporters, strategists, entrepreneurs as well as nonprofit leaders.

“When you are increasingly naked, fitness if not optional.” – Macrowikinomics

That the panel attracted a full room of senior executives willing to discuss difficult issues like privacy, corporate governance and stakeholder responsibility is a start.

The C-Suite Headlines Sustainability

Till last year, while much was being written about CSR and sustainability, executives were largely absent from the dialogue. In 2011, this changed ever so subtly. Earlier in the year, Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn took the stage at one of the year’s most prolific conferences, the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship’s annual conference. He discussed the importance of employee wellbeing, organizational design, transparency (Kathleen Edmond was the first Chief Ethics Officer to start a blog on ethical issues in the workplace) and the importance of stakeholder engagement.

“The more you peel the onion, the more you realize there is to be done. You just need to be constantly excited about peeling the onion.” – Brian Dunn, CEO, Best Buy

At Net Impact, Nike’s Hannah Jones took the stage as did REI CEO Sally Jewell. BSR kept the momentum going by featuring Ofra Strauss, CEO of the Strauss Group, Autodesk CEO Carl Bass and Anheuser-Busch CEO Carlos Brito.

These chiefs weren’t exactly looking to gain brownie points. They were after all speaking to the choir in some respects and to an audience that for the most part, gets business and social responsibility. But what made each of them stand out was their honesty about the difficult problems facing us today – a first? – agreement on the role of business in adding to today’s social and environmental mess.

“In the last few years, business has lost tremendous trust in the marketplace. That we are GOOD now rests on us.” – Ofra Strauss, Chairperson and former CEO, The Strauss Group

Mea culpa, they all said. Followed by: Here’s how we are trying to change ways, rethink growth, repurpose missions and reengage stakeholders.

That’s a start.

Social Media Engagement: 140 Characters Rule

Despite all the naysayers of social media, there is no denying that for any organization that sells a product or service today, having a dedicated presence on Facebook and Twitter is a prerequisite. With engagement reaching never-seen-before proportions, even Chief Sustainability Officers are learning to communicate in 140 characters or less.

“We must see social problems as business opportunities.” – Carol Cone, EVP, Edelman

But several companies dipped their toes in active engagement by trying out new formulae: Best Buy released their annual CSR report by hosting a live webinar (that I moderated) with their Sustainability team and a parallel conversation on Twitter. As I quizzed them about the report, questions poured in from Twitter: What was Best Buy doing in the area of conflict minerals? What about human rights? Recycling? How about consumer education? And why the low diversity ratio of employees?

Squirm they did, admitting that the issues were complex they did, but answer they also did.

They weren’t the only ones though.

Timberland (that was acquired by VF earlier in the year) launched their new Communications portal, McDonald’s hosted a live chat on Twitter with VP of CSR Bob Langert, UPS held several chats during the holiday season from sustainable gifting to green packaging choices.

Communicating your sustainability story is an important cog in the wheel called trust and the choice to engage is no longer a valid option. How you choose to do so, however, will continue to differentiate you from your competitor.

Making Business Sense out of Sustainability

Several large organizations came forward in 2011 asking jobseekers and students applying for jobs in sustainability and CSR to understand how to relate their core competencies and knowledge to the issues facing us today, i.e., water depletion, carbon emissions, climate change, etc.

How can depleting levels of water relate to a professional services firm, for example, or a bank? Why must a software company invest in engaging and educating its supply chain?

Climate Corps: Creating Jobs & Savings

The Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps program is one of very few initiatives that have managed to tie sustainability with business strategy and growth while creating jobs out of the process.

From placing seven MBA candidates as summer fellows in 2008, the program has quickly grown in popularity, placing 96 students at 78 companies in 2011. The fellows spend an entire summer working with their host companies on identifying energy efficiency solutions, implementing carbon management processes and helping diverse businesses embed environmental sustainability into their strategies.

The results: Millions in savings. While few get direct job offers from the Fellowship, most have had success finding jobs where their unique mix of experience, passion, and the ability to tie business strategy with sustainability, is appreciated and utilized in changing processes, setting standards and adapting organizations to a fast-changing reality of limited resources.

This is a start.

Organizational Design & Sustainability

Where does sustainability fit in your organization?

Everywhere, really, is the only correct answer, irrespective of where the chief sustainability officer sits. This, finally is getting addressed by what I consider a crucial component at any company: The HR and recruitment teams. In collaboration with IE Business School, I moderated seminars with recruiters, HR directors and organization design consultants on the value of CSR in candidate recruitment and retention.

We discussed the relationship between productivity, values, respect and growth. We heard from students who want to work for socially responsible companies and executives who are redirecting their organizations to instill a culture of ethics, responsibility, accountability and pride.

Mea culpa, most of them said. That’s a start.

Originally written for and published on CSRwire’s Commentary section Talkback on December 30, 2011.

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Translating Business Responsibility: An interview with Warner Bros. CEO & Chairman Barry Meyer: Now LIVE on CSRwire!

24 Tuesday Jan 2012

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Translating Business Responsibility: An interview with Warner Bros. CEO & Chairman Barry Meyer: Now LIVE on CSRwire!

When the Justice League comes together to fight evil, evil stands little chance. In a world of economic uncertainty and social unrest, superheroes provide children with mentors, entrepreneurs with lessons in responsibility, and the rest of us with inspiration. Now, DC Entertainment has joined hands with Time Warner and Warner Bros. to launch We Can Be Heroes.

Their target: The hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa.

Their spokescharacters: The Justice League