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Rationality is Ruining Us: Mayors, presidents and governors join major businesses in charting way forward on climate change

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The rationality of business leaders is leading us to complete disaster.

Voicing concern for the continued lack of action on climate change, World Bank President Dr. Jim Yong Kim joined many others at the closing ceremony of Climate Week NYC (CWNYC) 2015 imploring the community to wake up and smell the air (no pun intended).

Referring to the ever maddening chase of the business case across corporate America, Dr. Kim emphasized that we now have enough facts and figures to address a global crisis unraveling in real time in places like California (see: drought and water shortage), island nations (land erosion) and across our depleting oceans and forests.aman 1

“My son will live through a 2, 3 or maybe even 4 degree Celsius warming. We cannot keep apologizing to our children for our lack of action. We must change course now,” he added, vocally seconded in frustration and urgency by many others who took the stage after him, including Former President of Mexico Felipe Calderon.

After more than ten days of events spread across New York City and covering a multitude of topics – from climate data and social justice to poverty, Rule of Law and women empowerment – CWNYC ended with several notable announcements this week, including commitments from Walmart, J&J, P&G and Nike to strive for sourcing 100 percent of their energy needs from renewable sources, six national banks coming together to ask for a climate treaty and divestment numbers reaching $2.6 trillion.

Mayors, Governors and Ministers Urge Urgent Attention

The week also saw the likes of NYC’s celebrated former mayor Michael Bloomberg and India’s Union Minister of Environment Prakash Javadekar taking the podium to ask policymakers globally to agree on a binding climate agreement at the upcoming Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris this December.

Aman 3While Mayor Bloomberg emphasized “you get what you pay for” and that “businesses invest where people live,” citing that New York City continued to be a mecca for business investment because of its early attention to the impact of climate change, the Indian Minister asked policymakers to frame climate change more broadly as a need to shift consumption patterns and lifestyles.

Referring to Pope Francis’ articulation of the “throwaway culture, the minister added, “India is a big country but it is also a poor country…this is about lifestyles and financing a global shift to cleaner sources of energy.”

Poverty is “the biggest pollutant” he said. “Human intentions have led us here and human intellect will help us lead the way out.”

For Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, climate change is no longer up for debate. Emphasizing that his state’s residents were already living with the impact of climate change and were fully engaged on adaptation, he said:

“We don’t live in the land of denial…a whole generation of Vermonters are learning about climate change the hard way.”

Open for Business: Corporations Show Early Results from Climate Adaptation Efforts

Not too far behind was the corporate contingent including leaders from Ikea, Kellogg’s, Walmart, Nike, BT, DSM, Philips, Siemens and many others as well as the State of New York Comptroller’s Officer, who participated in a plethora of rapidfire discussions, many ably and enthusiastically moderated by UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, on how they were accounting for climate change risks through various tactics and strategies. Here’s a sample:

  • Product innovation: Siemen’s is rolling out hundreds of windmills, estimated to power 7,000 – 8,000 homes each, Philips and Ikea are leading drive toward LED lighting
  • Advocacy: BT working across sectors on rolling out infrastructure to support the future of clean technology, automation and access for all, Mars joining hands with many other companies through investor advocacy group Ceres asking policymakers to agree on a climate treaty at COP21
  • Value chain mapping: According to Nike’s Chief Sustainability Officer Hannah Jones, the amount of polyester used in one year uses as much fossil fuels as it takes to operate 185 coal plants. Materials matter, she emphasized and therefore, Nike is evaluating its entire ingredient and value chain to understand all points of impact.
  • Circular thinking: IKEA looking ahead at leasing its products, extending their life and helping customers resell, recycle and reuse.
  • Scenario planning: NYS Comptroller’s office increasingly looking at “where we put our money. If companies don’t change their practices, we will move the money.”

None of His Business: Finding the Way Forward in Pope Francis’ Words

In an equally dramatic setting ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S. – New York City’s Jesuit University, Fordham – Andrew Winston, author of The Big Pivot, Jo Confino, Executive Editor at The Huffington Post, L. Hunter Lovins, president of the Natural Capitalism Solutions and Michael Pirson, Associate Professor for Management Systems at Fordham took the stage to contextualize why a religious leader was cutting through religious and political clutter to issue an urgent call to action.

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Before a packed auditorium of students, professors and others, the three distilled the 80 page Papal encyclical for what this meant for business, for consumers, students and perhaps more overwhelmingly, for humanity. The conversation was variously electric, sarcastic, alarming and deeply touching.

Winston cracked open the discussion by urging the audience to pay attention to what the Pope is saying. “If the Pope is signaling that the end might be nigh, we better sit up and listen. We have serious equity problems and we better start connecting it with environmental challenges quickly.”

Bringing a politically charged topic to life, Lovins alluded to the millions of refugees making their way west from Syria in the hopes of a happier life.

“Are we prepared for what that means for our cities, our local economies?” she asked. “I’ve always said climate change is not a moral issue; it is a business opportunity. But the Pope is starting to make me change my mind… This [climate change, poverty, economics] is not a religious issue. This is a global issue for humanity to confront and address as humans.”

Confino, who recently left The Guardian to lead Huffington Post’s foray into purpose and impact reporting, chose to take a more philosophical point of view advocating that “we need to re-convince ourselves that we need each other; that we don’t have control over everything whether we like it or not.”

On the other hand, Pirson implored education institutions to sit up and take note of what this meant for them.

“Every institution has to ask themselves why they exist and how they are helping the world move forward sustainably. This is a crisis and we need all hands on deck. Everywhere. If we’re not demanding that, we’re wasting our time,” he said.

So where to from here?

When do we shift from call to actions to simply action? While many more companies are stepping up their efforts – General Mills and Kellogg’s serving as great examples as they begin their path toward net zero – on the various threads of climate change, many, many more remain in the shadows waiting and watching.

Regardless of what gets agreed to in December, climate change is already changing our summers and winters (check out WXshift to see for yourself). Changing weather patterns are already impacting farmers’ harvesting timelines and forcing millions to relocate for better proximity to clean water and air. And as this impact spreads beyond the immediate areas under threat, our notions of ordinary and luxury stand to be tested.

We’re going to have to respond. We’re going to have to adapt. Our bottom lines will change.

And we’re going to have to continue to push the leaders and pull the stragglers along. After all, if the future of our children is not worth it, what is?

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Significant Challenges & Opportunities as The Sustainability Consortium Takes Standardization to China

09 Wednesday Jul 2014

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Last week, The Sustainability Consortium [TSC] announced its expansion to China.

Still in its infancy years, the group has successfully stayed under the radar as it worked with its influential member base and academic partners to evolve the tools and methodologies it seeks to create with the hope of standardizing consumer products sustainability.

With research partners playing a critical role in its global ambitions, the group has decided to partner with Nanjing University, one of the top five universities in China, to expand the scope and the testing ground for its research. The Consortium also announced the appointment of a new executive director.

Wei Dong Zhou, who will be responsible for setting the strategic direction of the Consortium’s projects in China, has worked in the field of CSR and sustainability across multiple sectors for over 20 years, including stints with the Chinese government, Business for Social Responsibility [BSR], nonprofit organizations, as well as managing CSR and sustainability strategy for the private sector.

I caught up with the new director to get a preview of the Consortium’s immediate plans, insights into the state of sustainability in China as well as how he plans to align his organization’s ambitions with the economic targets of the Chinese private sector.

Why did you decide to switch from a well-established group like BSR to a research-based – and much younger – organization like the Consortium?

The Consortium provides a great platform for developing product-based sustainability. Also, TSC offers a new approach to use scientific methodology to develop useful tools for companies. This is a TSC_logovery tangible opportunity for business. I am also attracted by the idea of using the combination of  academic research and private sector leverage to grow sustainability.

What can you tell us about the state of sustainability in China? And what opportunities do you see for the Consortium?

The Consortium is entering China at a very good time. The Chinese government is new and busy with its 12th Five Year Plan, which involves several goals related to sustainability. Lots of these goals will require masterful collaboration between the government and Chinese business, making the need for a medium like TSC critical.

Also, the need for standardized measurement is significant, especially for China’s widespread manufacturing sector. TSC’s tools can be the perfect solution for Chinese manufacturers since a lot of their Western customers are already TSC members. It will be in both parties’ benefit to implement these standards and begin measuring apples to apples.

In other words, TSC meets a crucial marketing demand of China’s manufacturing sector.

Then, of course, there is the lack of standardization. With companies using several different measurement systems and internal software currently, TSC’s system will provide a great way to integrate these systems and help Chinese companies manage their sustainability performance.

Which sectors will you be targeting for immediate collaboration?

China’s manufacturing output, as a percentage of global totals, looks something like this: we produce 65 percent of the world’s fiber, 70 percent of the world’s toys, 40 percent of apparel, 34 percent of the total garments imported by the U.S., and over 100 million air conditioners and 65 million washing machines annually.

With that large a manufacturing footprint, we will initially target the clothing and textile, electronics, toys and general merchandise industries for immediate partnerships. That is where TSC can have the most impact. Many of our members sell these products in the west. They want their Chinese manufacturers to tackle sustainability the “TSC way.”

Earlier this year, we published a series with The Conference Board on the state of the NGO sector in China. The findings were alarming. They pointed to a sector in disarray, a misplaced emphasis on public perception and growing pains for the business community. How do you plan on navigating that in coming months?

NGOs, unfortunately, are still in their early years in China, partially because of limited funding opportunities and government restrictions. Most NGOs in China, for example, still cannot register as non-profit organization due to the complex approval process.

But there are some NGOs – IPE, SEE, Earth Village, and Friend of Nature – that have been active in environment protection, philanthropy and social justice. International NGOs are also playing active roles in areas like women’s health, bio-diversity, HIV-AIDS, nature conservation and human rights.

We want to learn from their successes. This means demonstrating how our work on product sustainability can support China’s new Five Year Plan and help Chinese manufacturers cut costs, reduce business risks and improve relationships with their business customers.

What about the private sector?

The private sector has played a much more important role in the growth of the Chinese economy, contributing nearly 60 percent of GDP, 50 percent of gross taxation and creating 80 percent of the employment opportunities in 2012.

This is particularly true for industries like textiles, electronics, toys and general merchandise. The leaders within these industries are, therefore, active collaborators and prioritize stakeholder engagement. This is a huge market for us to develop localized tools and systems that standardize sustainability performance while meeting the needs of Chinese business. By helping these companies cut costs, reduce business risks and improve relationships with their business customers, we will help them grow.

Another sector that has been rapidly growing ever since the Sichuan Earthquake four years ago is private foundations. Already, there are 1,900 private foundations across the country versus 1,350 public foundations. The cumulative impact and creditability of these private foundations is growing much more quickly and credibly than their public counterparts primarily because they are more transparent about their activities.

But these represent a much longer-term target for us as they remain in development phase despite their rapid growth.

Is China’s business sector, especially manufacturing, ready for standardized sustainability standards?

Sustainability standards are at the beginning stages of development here in China. There are a few labeling programs, mostly initiated by government-affiliated agencies and industry associations, that companies have started to use but there is a clear lack of enforcement as well as consistency.

The public is starting to show concern about the credibility of these standards, however, particularly in food products – like the recent melamine milk scandals and toxic capsule incident. Chinese consumers lack the necessary understanding and awareness to drive their purchasing decisions according to sustainability concerns.

At the same time, some large manufacturers are paying more attention to the sustainability of their products as a way of increasing their market competitiveness, reducing their risk-profile and reducing cost through efficiency. For TSC, standardization isn’t about adding another layer to the process. It is a cost-effective way for companies to improve the sustainability of their products and a consistent way for them to communicate that to their business customers.

Since a large focus of TSC in China will be on decoding complex supply chains, what challenges do you anticipate ahead?

A large challenge will be applying sustainability standards developed predominantly in the West in China. Our challenge will be to determine how TSC tools and systems can be localized to meet the needs and standards of the Chinese market. The partnership with NanJing University will play a critical role in answering this question. They will also act as a neutral hub for us to connect with other stakeholders, particularly in the Chinese government.

Another challenge will be getting buy-in from the small and medium-size enterprise sector [SME]. How can we convince Chinese suppliers and manufacturers to buy into the concept of sustainability and offer practical tools and solutions to improve their performance? This will be challenging mainly because sustainability issues still remain a very ad hoc topic for small companies. We can overcome this by helping them become better businesses: cutting costs, reducing risks and building customer relationships.

My priority will be to convey our support to the Chinese suppliers of TSC members and international business. That is where TSC can play an instrumental role – leveraging business incentives to encourage Chinese suppliers to lead with sustainability.

Originally written for and published on CSRwire’s Commentary section Talkback on August  26, 2013.

Practicing CSR: Edelman’s 2012 Corporate Citizenship Report Reveals Tough Love

08 Tuesday Jul 2014

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When a PR and marketing firm publishes a corporate citizenship report, there’s a tendency to view the results – and the commitments – with a pinch of salt. After all, they’re traditional masters of spin. Right?

Wrong, says John Edelman, the namesake PR agency’s managing director for global engagement and corporate responsibility. Here’s how Edelman’s press release describes the firm’s commitment to corporate citizenship:

“Some call it corporate social responsibility. Others call it sustainability. For Edelman, global citizenship resonates most as a term describing the larger responsibility business has to society. The firm recognizes its place in the world as global citizens, local offices and individuals.”

“We’re incredibly pleased [that] we were able to provide over $5 million in cash, non-cash (volunteerism) and in-kind giving in FY12 to the communities in which we operate. Giving back has always been a big part of our agency’s heritage and helping our communities is just one of the ways in which we can be responsible global citizens,” John added in a recent conversation over email.

So what does the report detail beyond the private firm’s green commitments and philanthropic donations?

Human Rights & Supply Chain

Reminding me that citizenship at Edelman has only been a global function for two years, John pointed to two major accomplishments. Edelman_Facts“The introduction of our human rights policy and our supplier code of  conduct. When I started in this role, we began to see more and more client requests and requests for proposals (RFPs) in regard to our citizenship policies. Our development of these two policies in FY12 is directly related to stakeholder expectations of Edelman as a global company,” he wrote.

The firm also joined the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex), a web-based platform and registry where companies report on CSR-related initiatives around business and labor practices, health and safety and the environment.

For the past two years, the firm has used the GRI framework as a baseline for its CSR reporting. In 2011, the firm also became “one of 80 companies to join the International Integrated Reporting (IIRC) pilot program…as part of our commitment, our report reflects elements of the Integrated Reporting framework, such as identifying our capitals and transforming that capital to value.”

Challenges of Setting CSR Goals…

I have often said/written that the challenge of contextualizing what corporate social responsibility means for the service-based industries is uniquely harder than the consumer products sector. Not that the pressure is any less, as evidenced by the increasing numbers of CSR reports publishing in the last two years, but I do believe that B2B firms must dig deeper to identify – and fulfill – their responsibility to society, employees and the environment.

What’s been a unique CSR challenge for a firm that relies on its talent and has an immense global presence?

According to John, “the environmental initiatives and goals have been the most challenging.” He explained:

“The biggest contributor to our carbon footprint is business travel, which accounts for 73 percent of our emissions. Business travel for client-facing projects is a key part of what we do every day. Other industries and companies have more control over Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and can achieve reductions through direct actions. Given that we need to travel to service our clients, it’s harder for us to control our Scope 3 emissions. While we understand this challenge, we still need to work towards reducing our GHG emissions.”

“To that end, we are working individually with each hub office on setting a greenhouse gas reduction target and implementing practices such as increasing usage of video-conference facilities and purchasing 50 percent recycled paper.”

And it’s not just setting the goal that’s been hard.

…And Implementing CSR Programs

Implementing new programs across the firm’s markets has been a challenge as well, he said. “We Edelman's CSR Report 2012want to be a guiding force without being too prescriptive. We want to empower our employees around the world to implement and take part in citizenship initiatives with the understanding that they need to balance these with their regular workload,” he added.

John points out the inherent paradox that organizations like Edelman must tackle: how do you compel employees to volunteer and donate their time, money and skills while expecting them to manage a full workload and often, as is common in the PR world, 60-80 hour work weeks?

Ultimately it comes down to the committed few, driven by their passion and subjective understanding of their society and environment.

Disclosure: Led by Demand for Transparency

Since inception, Edelman has been a proudly private company. So why bother reporting on its non-financial goals? Especially when their service/product is often perceived in the market as spin?

It all comes down to being transparent, says the veteran marketing executive.

“Transparency has never been more important and we strongly believe that whether you’re a private or public company, you must be accountable for everything you do. Being transparent is part of how we operate and it’s necessary for us to report on the progress and challenges of our citizenship journey.”

As an example he pointed me to a section of the report, which highlights that the firm’s carbon footprint at “15,518 metric tons CO2e [had] actually increased since our last footprint period.” “We provide explanations for that increase, such as improved data-capture practices and control data quality, particularly on business air travel,” he said.

CSR: Business Opportunity?

© Copyright 2010 CorbisCorporationWhich leads to another question: As a PR agency, what was the motivation behind launching the Business + Social Purpose division – led by the legendary Carol Cone – beyond the obvious business  opportunity with companies evolving from cause marketing initiatives into more robust CSR strategies?

“It was clear that we wanted to ‘walk the talk.’ Working with clients on sustainability and citizenship is certainly a business opportunity, but beyond that, we needed to evolve and integrate our own practices. This is what we tell our clients: sustainability and citizenship should be integrated into the overall business,” he said.

Has the client-driven practice impacted cultural behavior and the firm’s organizational hierarchy?

“We have partnered with our Business + Social Purpose (B+SP) team members since we established Global Citizenship as a functional department. This partnership was important because citizenship was a new function, and we wanted to access the expertise of our people to evolve our own Global Citizenship capability.”

“As an example, we involved our B+SP team in our materiality analysis to prioritize our FY12 report topics. Through this analysis, we added an entire section on engaging with our clients, as a result of the dialogue with our B+SP members.”

Walking the talk? That at least is the objective, he said.

“We talk about the importance of the inside matching the outside, and the idea that your employees are your best ambassadors. Citizenship is an integrated part of our overall corporate strategy and having a unified message and integrated approach to it is imperative for effective impacts on our business and society, rather than having a siloed approach where citizenship sits on the periphery of the company’s strategy and operations.”

CSR Reporting: The Ultimate Reward

The ultimate reward of having a CSR strategy is when you can use the reporting function as a reflection on your organizational practices and improve them incrementally. As Edelman helps other organizations weave their way through and inculcate CSR into business strategy, it is important that the firm use the same philosophy internally.

“In the long-term, citizenship needs to be further integrated into our overall management systems. We Edelman Offices That Offer Culture and Work/Life Benefithave been making incremental progress year to year….During year one, we established a foundation; during year two, we have established some goals. In year three, we hope to develop metrics around CSR performance and eventually, we hope to create a citizenship scorecard that can be integrated into our management systems,” informed John.

How does the firm measure the impact it is driving with its clients?

“We believe it is important to measure impact of citizenship by looking at internal and external measurements. In addition to contributions to the bottom line, such as money saved by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and hours and value of volunteerism, it is important to measure employee engagement, such as employee recruitment and retention.”

“Now that we have established goals in some of these areas, we will next develop metrics to assess employee engagement and impact. In an effort to drive a deeper level of employee engagement, we created the Community Investment Grant program, which provides any full-time employee around the network with the opportunity to apply for funding to support a nonprofit organization where they volunteer or serve on the board.”

And let’s not forget the external piece, he reminded me.

“Any citizenship initiative must be tied to producing public engagement behavior outcomes which are at the core of Edelman’s business strategy such as building deeper communities, building trust, adding commercial value, and changing behavior.”

Holistic CSR goals, got it.

Originally written for and published on CSRwire’s Commentary section Talkback on September 21, 2012. 

Occupy Wall Street: The Average Joe Interprets Corporate Social Responsibility

19 Wednesday Oct 2011

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Earlier this week I was at the annual PRSA conference in humid and beautiful Orlando, Florida. Before you think that I have switched tracks from journalism to PR, stop right there! I was on site to speak on an interestingly personal topic: Sustainability: Walking the Walk.

Sustainability: Walking the Walk with CSRWire & Ethical Markets

Joining me on the panel were CEO of CSRwire Joe Sibilia and Executive Director of Ethical Markets Rosalinda Sanquiche. Sibilia started off the panel by talking about Occupy Wall Street. Not because he wanted a room full of dissent but because for Sibilia, as he emphasized on a recent Fox Business show, OWS goes to the heart of corporate social responsibility: A responsible capitalist system that takes into account a business’ social, economic and environmental stakeholders.

From a room of roughly 45 attendees, almost everyone raised their hands. However, when he followed up by asking how many understood what the protestors are demanding, the hands fell to a single digits. So, before I go any further, here’s a two-part question for you:

And:

Here’s the thing: Because so many continued to disagree with the holier-than-thou voice of CSR, claiming it is another cost business doesn’t need, a burden, not a business priority, so on and so forth, Michael Porter gave us an easier concept to embrace: Creating Shared Value.

You Don’t Get CSR? How About “Shared Value”?

Many more understood the economical efficacy offered by shared value than the tardy, accusatory and undefined acronym of CSR. But CSR as well as creating shared value are concepts spearheaded by economists, business leaders, researchers and activists.

Now we are all being forced to recognize and acknowledge a movement created by the average Joe (no pun intended!) demanding business to be more responsible, equal and just.

They want to be able to work, to have a home, a family. They want the right to live comfortably.

In other words, corporate social responsibility.

Yes, it’s one and the same thing, except now it’s not the activists or the bloggers taking up the case but an undefined mass of people who come from different backgrounds, experiences and age but are commonly united on one front: Fairness.

Regardless of whether you physically join the Occupy Wall Street protestors, it is far more important that you understand their message and recognize that this is your one chance to make things right.

Yes, You the Average Employee Can Make a Difference

So, go ahead: Nudge your boss to offer job sharing opportunities to candidates.

As a job candidate, question the recruiter on the company’s mission, values, priorities. As a student, ask your faculty to discuss business cases in context of economic recessions, environmental degradation and social upheaval.

Ask the tough questions, the right questions. As Michigan’s Ross School of Business Professor Aneel Karnani recently said, “You get the kind of government you vote for.” We as professionals and students get the kind of corporation we choose to work for.

This is your chance to influence business as an employee, a manager, and as a prospective candidate. For the longest time we have been told to vote with our dollars. Now it is time to vote with our expertise and professional skills.

Question is, are you up for it?

For Most, Day 1 of College = Excitement, Opportunity. Not for This Teen in Foster Care

30 Tuesday Aug 2011

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This is unusual for me.

Writing and reporting on CSR and sustainability issues, I have always preferred to keep personal stories out of my writing. However, this once I’d like to talk about an incident that has me rattled. And like everything else I write, I’d like to share it with you and hopefully together, help make someone’s life a bit easier.

There is a girl who recently started working at this store I frequent in my neighborhood. Yesterday, as I stood in her checkout line, she seemed flustered, stressed, worn out.

Was it the recent storm? No, she said. “It’s my life.”

The girl, 19 years old, was clearly upset and I asked her manager to give her a 10 minute break so we could chat.

She is one of thousands of abandoned children in New Jersey. Her father is in prison. Her mother, who remarried, abandoned her and she was placed in one of the state’s foster homes.

Then, she was in school.

Yesterday, however, was her first day of college thanks to New Jersey’s Foster and Adoptive Family Services (FAFS) program. Instead of the usual excitement, however, she was scared. Here’s why:

Her foster home parents, from the Division of Youth and Family Services agency (DYFS), have encouraged her to study and work at the same time. What makes it harder for her is that unlike the other kids in the house, she doesn’t have a car.

So she ends up spending hours everyday taking the NJ Transit bus from home to school, school to home, and then home to work, and back home. The problem: NJ Transit buses run every hour or so with limited runs after 10pm. Her shift at work doesn’t end till 10pm so she has to wait for the next bus, which doesn’t run till 11:58pm.

Here’s how her day goes, she explained:

5:00am: Wake up, rush for college

6:30am-1:00pm: Classes

1:00pm-2:30pm: Bus, lunch at home

3:00pm: Back on the road heading to work (shift starts at 4pm). She only lives 15 minutes away but is dependent on the bus schedule

4:00pm-10:00pm: Work

10:00pm-11:58pm: Wait for the bus

12:30am-2:00am: Finish homework and complete weekly assigned house chore

2:00am-5:00am: Sleep

She doesn’t have a case officer anymore, she says, because her father got sentenced and that’s when the case closed. Her mother doesn’t support her and the DYFS workers receive half of her bi-weekly paycheck, which doesn’t leave much for her to save between food and textbooks.

She also told me that those funds are “supposed to be used toward weekend trips and expenses like a bus pass for the kids,” but that in reality, none of those trips take place.

Can she report this to someone? She doesn’t think so. After all, they are helping finance her college education. And she doesn’t have an assigned case officer.

She is also thankful for “having a roof on her head and health insurance.” She realizes that leaving the home would mean financial instability and she certainly cannot afford independent health insurance.

But why work that exact shift at work? Perhaps an earlier shift can help get her home sooner, giving her more time for homework and sleep?

The DYFS staff insist she work in the evening to support her expenses.

Clearly, she has a complex mix of logistical and puritanical policies to deal with. How does she want to move forward?

Take a year off of school to save enough money to buy a car and afford rent so she can get out of foster care.

The hitch? She says, the DYFS folks insist that she go to college; that it is part of the arrangement of living in foster care.

All through her narration, I’m thinking, there has to be two sides to the coin. DYFS after all is a social services agency built to protect such children. Surely, she is biased and simply stressed with trying to balance work with studies? Most adults have a hard time juggling work and home, she’s just a teen at her first job.

But at the same time I was also thinking more on lines of how I could help.

Regardless of whether she is biased, simply venting or stating the honest truth, can I help improve her life in any way? What can I do to help her cope with life and believe in herself?

Mobility is clearly her biggest obstacle. Would a car be the solution?

Or financial help?

Or something else?

Living in the country of “everyone’s dreams,” makes it easier for us to forget people who are worse off. Growing up in India, poverty, destitution and neglect were visible, right there for everyone to see. The jhuggis (straw huts) coexisted with the brick and granite mansions on the streets of Delhi. The Mumbai slums–now that everyone is familiar with them thanks to Slumdog Millionaire–are in your face, there everyday, alive and naked.

Here though, in one of the most expensive states of the country, girls like her are invisible — and stories like these so much more shocking.

So, what should I do? What would you do?

Connect with me @AmanSinghCSR or leave a comment.

Sustaining Timberland: An Interview with VP of CSR Mark Newton

02 Tuesday Aug 2011

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When one of the country’s few purpose-based and values-driven company announces new sustainability goals, chances are you won’t be as excited as you would be if it was BP, for instance.

Because we expect ambitious and aggressive goals from leaders, and at Timberland, this expectation is part of everyone’s job.

Before the boot maker announced its new set of revised sustainability goals earlier this week, I caught up with Timberland’s new Vice President for CSR Mark Newton on his new role, the goals, as well as their latest efforts at stakeholder engagement: Timberland’s new Communications Portal.

Sustainability: From Apple and Dell to Timberland

Newton, who has spent his entire career working on sustainability at electronics giants like Motorola, Apple, and most recently Dell, understands that the road ahead will be rocky as Timberland completes its merger with VF. VF owns several outdoor brands like The NorthFace, Wrangler, Jansport and Nautica.

We started with the new 2015 goals. What’s new about them?

“Focus,” said Newton. “Moving forward it is very important that we create focus for our companies, including a commitment to innovate from cradle to cradle.”

Timberland’s 2015 Sustainability Goals

Set in four broad categories of Climate, Product, Factories and Service; the goals are ambitious and aggressive, if not new or radically life-changing. I asked Newton the purpose of each category.

Climate: “This is a topical focus for us if not so much a functional one. But we’re not saying we’re going to be singularly focused on climate change but that this affects our customers and decisions and therefore, we must equip them with decisions and the right products.”

Product: “At some point we all want to start creating innovations that have a zero footprint. The idea is to move toward a vision of a closed loop product lifecycle. You can see where we are and where we want to go. It is directionally correct.”

Factories: “We have an obligation that is not just transactional to our suppliers, employees and other stakeholders. The whole idea of sustainability is to stay in business. In perpetuity, we cannot do that without treating our employees well and scaling our business properly.”

Service: “Timberland was founded on the idea of commerce and justice, of giving back and creating value. We offer our employees 40 hours to volunteer every year. Today we are asking what the impact of that workforce is. Where are we going with this, how do we prioritize our efforts and do it well?”

What underlines all of these goals and their success, however, is engaging and changing consumer behavior.

Changing Consumer Behavior: Timberland-style or VF-style?

Earlier this year, at the Annual GreenBiz conference, Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz said that sometimes companies have to lead consumers by taking a stand on what is right. “You cannot always wait for consumer demand to dictate your decisions,” he said.

Now with Timberland becoming a part of the VF family, are dynamics shifting? Will the merger bring a renewed and united effort in the apparel industry to shift consumer behavior or lead to inertia and inaction?

I put the question to Newton, who while new in his role, is a veteran in the consumer products industry. “We are having several conversations around this. We are Timberland and we will always be that. This is the reason people are interested in EarthKeepers and we will continue to move the needle,” he said.

What about Swartz’s inspiring declaration? Newton offered Timberland’s EarthKeepers product line as an example:

“The ultimate goal of every company that is working on sustainability is to be able to drive top line growth because of its sustainability efforts. It’s very rare to see top line growth associated with these things, many companies are running leaner and end up staying within compliance. At Timberland, our EarthKeepers product line is actually doing that with double-digit growth in the first quarter.”

Authentic Communications: Engage the Consumer, not Just Inform

With skepticism already high in the market, there is a fine line between selling more units and ensuring responsible consumerism. EarthKeepers seems to be clearly bucking the trend and providing a new, profitable way of doing business sustainably.

Was this growth the result of consumer education, eco labels, or increased communication?

“Authenticity. We’re finding success because it is authentic. We are intentionally focused on products that are environmentally friendly and socially conscious. And we are committed to continually communicating that. We’re not waiting for everything to become perfect, we’re putting it out there and calibrating it as it evolves,” he said.

Examples? Newton offered the eco-index, which Timberland was instrumental in creating and pushing out. “We are promoting the index so we can create real change and movement. That’s exciting and offers us a chance to drive real, calculable change,” he added.

What VF brings to the table then is scale. “VF has been a partner for years on making the process much more efficient. Now the merger will allow us to collectively drive things that Timberland alone simply cannot do. This bigger opportunity is huge for us,” he emphasized, adding, “It’s also not just forward-looking things and what we can do upstream. VF has a very efficient process in place because of their brands. We have had limited impact there but now we can have much more.”

Timberland’s New Communications Portal: CSR in Real Time

With Timberland already being aggressively visible and vocal in the consumer marketplace, why did Newton and team feel the need to launch a new CSR communications portal?

“We’re segmenting the conversations on our website around products and around topics so everyone has a better sense of clarity. Even though our authenticity ensures that sustainability conversations become natural in all parts of our business and you don’t have to go to the CSR portal to have a CSR conversation, we felt that different stakeholders have different perspectives. You can still go to the products portal and have the same conversation as you would on the CSR portal, because the intentional design, how we conduct business with suppliers and community issues are woven into the product and the product description.”

Why then is the new portal necessary if sustainability is so intricately embedded into the work culture at Timberland?

“We are having conversations with a very vast and diverse spectrum of people, from wholesalers and retailers to direct consumers. They all come with very different demands and perspectives and we want to offer them the opportunity to engage in the language they understand best,” he explained.

Fully integrated with social media tools, the portal is designed for consumers looking for details on green products, interesting stories and much more. Not only can you go to the redesigned portal and discuss Timberland products, you can also discuss the team’s CSR efforts, join ongoing conversations through their Bootmakers blog, and chime in on more topical discussions around the Green index and climate change.

Admittedly, many companies continue to struggle with this balance between preserving the granular stuff and promoting more general conversations around products.

For Timberland, the answer was to lead in both.

“People can go granular as they want or stay as generalist as they’d like. What’s different about the portal is that we are not starting conversations by discussing one of our pillars or metrics but focusing on stories that matter and then getting to the things that are underneath those stories; this marks a fundamental shift for our website,” Newton added.

Being a communications geek, I can definitely attest to Newton’s excitement about this new portal. The ability to throw open your business practices and product lifecycle to your stakeholders takes gumption and a resolute belief in transparency.

The Timberland team knows that this throws the door open to endless questions and scrutiny but Swart’z recruits are used to that and know that open engagement is the only way to maintain authenticity and empower their stakeholders toward sustainability and a zero impact footprint.

This is mission critical for Timberland.

As Newton put it, “Regardless of what happens post-merger, we are all in this together. Our values are integrated into all of us and everyone who works here. Jeff Swartz might be the leader but you can expect to hear the same things from all of us.”

This is Timberland’s — and VF’s — opportunity to drive the apparel industry toward a more sustainable future. The 2015 goals are the means to an end, a future that VF and Timberland can now together impact much more powerfully.

Comments? Leave a comment, email me or connect @AmanSinghCSR.

VIDEO: A Test in Corporate Transparency: Winning One for the Blue Shirts

29 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by in CSR reporting, HR

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Last week I was at Best Buy headquarters in Minneapolis to moderate a live webinar with its CSR and sustainability executives. Joining me: Mary Capozzi, senior director of CSR, Leo Raudys, senior director of environmental sustainability and services compliance, and Hamlin Metzger, senior manager of corporate responsibility.

The agenda: To discuss Best Buy’s annual Sustainability Report and offer a live audience on Livestream and Twitter the opportunity to ask questions in real-time.

My job: To question, dig and examine, while moderating questions between the panel and the audience. About 20 minutes into the webinar, which is archived below — well worth a listen whether you are a sustainability nut, a tree hugger, a nonprofit exec, a job seeker or simply an electronics user — questions started streaming in.

From conflict minerals to employee education, every question was fair game.  While @Gchesman asked whether being a well-known company affects the level and degree of time and money spent on CSR and sustainability, @Davidcoethica wanted to know how Best Buy can better balance its role as a promoter of consumption of products against a sustainability ethos, and Robin Cangie wondered how Best Buy can help us all become more responsible consumers?

The conversation, thanks in part to an active and engaged audience, and wonderfully diverse questions, was invigorating, informative and challenging.

Barring the repeated mentions of their recycling efforts — sorry Leo, its a pet peeve — which to be fair is a huge and important undertaking for the global electronics retailer, the panelists were clear, comprehensive in their responses and unapologetically honest about their challenges: That there is a ton of work ahead and that they hadn’t figured it all out yet.

But as David Connor wrote earlier this week, when you’re a global player like Best Buy, expectations are higher as well. Did Best Buy live up to the expectations of CSR activists? Perhaps not.

Flip the coin though for a second.

Did they go on the defensive when I asked them why their retention rates were remarkable (74%) but the diversity of their recruits (12% African-American, 14% Hispanic; 180,000 employees) was quite underwhelming? No.

Did they dodge repeated questions about educating their supply chain, influencing consumer decisions, or the recently drafted UN Guiding Principals on Human Rights? No.

Bottom-line: Capozzi and team did not have all the answers but they didn’t pretend to either.

And that’s where, as an independent journalist, they get points from me for an attempt, however small, at open transparency, willingness to be accountable, and daring to do something new.

Remember the 11 Challenges for Corporate Sustainability? Well, a significant number of those relate to fear. For the Best Buy team, this webinar was a successful exercise in effectively addressing their own fears.

And that is where they just won one for their team of blue shirts.