CSR proves to be a rotten term

Isabelle de Grave

As Responsible Business Week kicks off, Isabelle de Grave hears a controversial debate: “Is CSR past its sell by date?” 

The term Corporate Social Responsibility was coined in 1953 in Bowen’s publication 'Social Responsibility of Businessmen', where he asked 'what responsibilities to society can business people be reasonably expected to assume?'

Today it seems those expectations are still fairly low judging by the cynical adage ‘the CSR department has no friends’, and truism that it is more often than not to be found hidden away on the fourth floor.
 
This truism, acknowledged by the panel, Graham Precey, head of CSR at Legal & General, Michael Solomon, Director of Profit Through Ethics, Vicky Murray Principal Sustainability Advisor at Forum for the Future, and Simon Leadbetter founder of Blue and Green Tomorrow, was a telling sign that CSR teams working internally to make business good for society, the environment, employees and stakeholders as well as for profit, are not utilized to their fullest potential. 
 
At worst, the panel intimated, their efforts are reduced to fodder for company reports and branding campaigns, which lay claim to the responsible business stamp and keep the conscience of consumers and stakeholders at bay. 
 
“A lot of what CSR is doing is a little bit of good to cover up a lot of bad,” said Michael Solomon, Director of Profit Through Ethics in an interview after the panel.
 
Whilst the question of friendless CSR departments is up for debate, the term itself certainly has none. Discussion was punctuated with statements dissociating speakers from the three apparently moribund letters from “CSR? I have no idea what that is!” to “whatever CSR might mean…” 
 
The reluctance of any member of the panel to embrace the term is evidence enough that it is past its sell by date. “It is a dead brand,” said Simon Leadbetter, founder of Blue and Green Tomorrow, which publishes insights to help grow businesses that balance the needs of the planet, people and prosperity.
 
With global warming set to rise by four degrees Celsius according to a World Bank study – two degrees more than what was globally accepted to be the limit necessary to avoid disaster — CSR will likely rot before it has a chance to follow up on its intentions.
 
Whilst the term was overwhelmingly condemned, there was a joint sentiment that Corporate Social Responsibility, if the term survives at all, needs to be meaningfully and purposefully laid out, so that efforts maybe re-worked and like-minded forces brought together.
 
Vicky Murray, the principal sustainability advisor of Forum for the Future, said: “the bag for life is not enough”. There is a huge gap between what is being achieved by CSR initiatives and issues the planet is demanding us to respond to from climate change to resource scarcity. CSR doesn’t match the urgency of the challenges we face in the future and these are too big for one company alone. There is a need to collaborate to match the challenges that are ahead.” 
 
Forum for the Future have taken the collaborative ethos to the shipping industry, with a sustainable shipping initiative that brings together 19 companies from the shipping sector from ship builders to ship owners and insurers to think through what the future of shipping could and should look like.
 
These companies have developed a shared vision for 2040 and there are now four work streams in place working towards that vision.
 
A key question for Graham Precey, Head of Corporate and Social Responsibility at Legal & General, who spoke at the event, was how to create inroads for outside opinion into businesses so that they might become internalized.
 
Business often lacks the faculty, which allows them to be truly introspective and take on external views and opinion to judge themselves. “Businesses need to be in tune with the issues facing the planet, connect with and utilize the knowledge of the third sector,” Precey said.
 
A third value, alongside collectivism and introspection was the need for transparency to support a culture of good business acting for profit, society and the environment.
 
Responsible 100 is a ranking initiative working to open up business for greater understanding and scrutiny by the public. The online platform will explicitly detail those companies doing the very best they can to create a positive impact for society and the environment. 
 
“If it’s the real deal and you mean it, you are serious about claims of responsibility, then you should prove it, because we live in a time when its impossible for people to identify and support genuinely responsible businesses. That is what we are working towards” Michael Solomon, director at Profit Through Ethics, launching the initiative, explained.
 
Solomon also gave his personal insights on where we stand in the push for responsible business and whether we are seeing real change or fighting a long defeat.
 
He said: “Sometimes, I am very frustrated and afraid that there is no alternative. I worry the business we have is the business we are lumbered with, it will always offload costs onto society and exploit stakeholders because that’s what business does.”
 
“But most of the time I’m optimistic that it's not good enough and we will have a better business that is seeking to balance its pursuit of profit with the interests of society and is succeeding. Unless and until we do, we have a bleak future.”