The conventional understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as being merely a philanthropic contribution by corporations is being criticised and regarded as inadequate by key opinion leaders.   I have come across a great number of articles and blog posts that look at how the idea of CSR has changed over the years and is deemed irrelevant today.  For instance, in The Wall Street Journal, Professor Aneel Karnani posits that “the idea that companies have a duty to address social problems is not just flawed but it also makes it more likely that we’ll ignore the real solutions to these problems.” Similarly in The Guardian, Michael Edwards points out that “corporate philanthropy deflects attention away from the need to change core business practices.”

A few months ago, Wayne Visser, Founder and Director of the think-tank CSR International has blogged about the failure of Corporate Social Responsibility to have a positive impact on society and the planet, and the need for a new approach – CSR 2.0, where CSR stands for Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility.  This time, I would like to bring forward Michael Porter, one of the most influential business thinkers, and co-author Mark Kramer’s big idea of ‘Creating Shared Value.’

Porter himself suggests that CSR is the product of escalating tensions between business and society, and has served as a logical intermediate step to create a truce between the two, but not as the ultimate solution.  He condemns businesses for creating profit at the expense of the community and as a result, political leaders have been unable to pursue business-friendly policies.  Indeed, the impulse has been to regulate, control and impose taxes on businesses.   He therefore calls for a rethink of the relationship between business and society and the benefits that the capitalist system has on meeting societal needs and improving people’s lives.

Convinced that on a deep level, business and society are mutually dependent on each other, he argues for profit and societal needs to be reconciled by creating shared value (CSV).  This involves creating economic value in a way that simultaneously creates value for society by focusing on its needs and addressing its challenges.  Whilst CSR programmes are often externally determined and focus merely on reputational issues, they are hardly connected to the business.  On the other hand, CSV forms an integral part of a company’s profitability and competitive advantage, and should therefore guide the investments decisions of companies.  CSV is a powerful way of creating economic value for the firm and requires a company to identify core areas in which shareholders and society’s interests coincide, and invest their resources in those areas to maximise value creation.  There is also the need for governments to learn to regulate businesses in ways that stimulate shared value rather than impede it.

The concept of CSV recognises that businesses depend on a healthy and vibrant society to flourish and that society needs successful businesses to prosper.  It also acknowledges that failing to address social and environmental issues can incur additional costs for firms and that on the contrary; tackling these can reduce some of their costs through innovations in technology, operating methods and management systems.  As a result, by moving from CSR to CSV, businesses will be generating profit that comes from meeting societal needs, and regain legitimacy whilst restructuring capitalism and its impact on society.

Porter talks more about creating shared value in his interviews with the BBC and the Harvard Business Review.

By Jessica Wettstein

I attended the UK Premier of ‘Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai’ from the Green Belt Movement.  Taking Root tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy.

The Green Belt Movement (GBM) was founded in 1977 by Wangari Maathai (Nobel Laureate 2004). Green Belt Movement’s approach is based on the premise that truly sustainable development can only take place through recognizing the link between the environment, democracy, and peace.

Through its holistic approach to development, Green Belt Movement addresses the underlying causes of poverty and environmental degradation at the grassroots level. Green Belt Movement programmes use a ten-step development model that mobilizes communities to take action in their local environments. As a result over 40 million trees have been planted and hundreds of thousands of women in rural Kenya have lifted their families out of poverty.

I recommend seeing the film as it a true inspiration to all environmental campaigners. I believe it’s available on DVD at takingrootfilm.com/purchase.htm

The Green Awards Best Green Campaigner category is for those sorts of individuals. See www.greenawards.co.uk/categories_x_16/categories_x_16/best_green_campaigner_award We’re looking for any campaigner who has set a goal or campaign target, has set about achieving it and can explain what they were able to achieve against the odds. Campaigns can be as local as your street, school, college or company or may involve a town, city, borough or even a national campaign.

The Campaigner of the Year will be the individual who is judged to have been most creative in getting results for their chosen issue, regardless of the size of the campaign or the budget.

Wangari Maathai became the first environmentalist and the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She overcame unimaginable obstacles that most of us never experience in daily life and yet still maintained a vision and reached into the consciousness of ordinary people to empower themselves to protect the environment and in doing so alleviate poverty. I think one thing I took from last night was the thought that no matter how big the problem is we face we can all make a difference and we should never just sit back through apathy when we hear of environmental degradation happening in other parts of the world such as the destruction of the forests. Because ultimately the planet will survive but the human race might not be quick enough to adapt to the changes that lay ahead because of the effects of global warming and climate change. We need to be focussed on our own survival and we need inspirational leaders to engage the mass consciousness. According to Wangari Maathai’s,Oslo, 10 December 2004, ”In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other.”

To enter the Best Green Campaigner Category visit: www.greenawards.co.uk/categories_x_16/categories_x_16/best_green_campaigner_award

For more information on the Green Belt Movement who is an Institutional partner for this year’s Green Awards visit:  www.greenbeltmovement.org

I think sometimes you’ve just got to get out from under the pile of e-mails and overbearing work schedules to mobilise yourself and generate awareness through mass protest for the issues one cares about. I often think of the quote by Martin Luther King Jr who said “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that happen.” I did wonder how easy it would be for people to show any sort of freedom of expression in the Square Mile with so much regulation, control and overbearing protectionist systems in place preventing the public from diverting from their ‘acceptable’ forms of behaviour, dress and actions. The closer I got to the centre your’e reminded that we’re in a society where we’re being denied some of our basic freedoms with CCTV cameras everywhere and roadblocks herding us through predefined routes. One of my favourite books is the Traveller by John Twelve-Hawkes which muses over a battle in society between randomness and one driven by systems. It’s quite frightening to realise Britain has more surveillance than any other state in Europe. And as communication is a cornerstone to civilization it’s worrying that more people are more institutionalised than ever, armchair-ridden followers of fashion and not willing to stand-up and fight for what they believe in. Anthony Robbins neatly puts it that were immersed in and deluded by this ‘all pervasive hypnotic culture’. Even though we’ve all been very institutionalised and our ideas homogenised as citizens,if it’s a debate between nature and nurture I think we all have the inbuilt capacity to get out there sometimes and shout as loud as we can. I suppose that’s why football matches play such an important role in society as they provide an outlet for people to reconnect with their tribal roots of solidarity and group expression. If we don’t mobilise now as the earth faces the catastrope of a 2 degree temperature rise we’ll be all responsible for the slow suffication of our innate communications skills and more worryingly witness to the slow degredation and further exploitation of our planetary scarce resources. We must maintain a voice and wake up! On a more positive note this week it was good to see docu films such as ‘Who Killed The Electric Car’ aired on national TV last night. And by the way, it was a sunny, chilled out, peacful and positive day on Bishopsgate today. I’m definately off to the next Climate Camp. So how is it that The Evening Standard showed the front page like Armageddon. Oh yes…of course the state apparatus having it’s say.

It’s great to see innovation that has the potential to make a real difference. We’re starting to see a plethora of new green gadgets but often the simplest ideas are the best.

Aiming to make things a fraction easier for homeless people in Canada—who face winter temperatures of as low as -30 degrees Celsius—Canadian ad agency TAXI developed the 15 Below Jacket, a garment that owes its insulating properties to old newspapers. Distributed to the homeless by the Salvation Army, the jacket’s durable, waterproof and wind-resistant case has internal pockets in the sleeves, body and hood for its owner to fill with newspaper. Readily available from recycling bins, bunched-up newspaper is an excellent insulating material.

The garment was named ‘15 Below’ to reference the Celsius mark at which a cold warning is issued, urging the homeless to get off the streets. It’s also a nod to the design competiton that produced it, which celebrates TAXI’s 15th birthday. Creative director Steve Mykolyn came up with the concept, winning the privilege of testing his prototype in a meat locker. Supervised by a paramedic, the design helped him survive eight hours in -28 degree conditions, after which 3,000 jackets went into production (in December 2007).

When stuffed, the jacket—created by Canadian designer Lida Baday—looks like a garment anybody could wear, avoiding stigmatization of its wearers. In the summer months it can be emptied and used as a raincoat, folded up into a backpack to be transported, or filled and used as a pillow. An altruistic project that rubs off very well on all involved, sponsors are currently being sought to fund distribution in other countries.