Social Purpose at the Core of Business Success
Mention the term “corporate social responsibility” and you might hear this: “It’s dead. CSR has stalled. CSR has not fulfilled its potential. It has failed us.” Why? Because even at its best, CSR is only a partial solution with incremental changes that are not putting society and business on a strong footing to enable nine billion people to live well on the planet by 2050.
Ikea, Interface and business as a force for good
With the ink barely dry on the world’s first universal climate agreement adopted in Paris in December, many wonder what business will do to advance a stronger, cleaner global economy.
The Bold Approach Of Transformational Companies
At age 27, I was the youngest director elected to Vancity Credit Union, the largest community-based credit union in the world. It was the late 1980s. I ran a seniors’ agency, was chair of a provincial social planning group and had been a recent board member of the local United Way. In two and a half words, I was a “social do-gooder.”
How the circular economy could end take-make-waste businesses
Under the mainstream radar, businesses are innovating a new industrial paradigm: the closed loop (PDF) company.
Sustainable Value Chains: A Critical Innovation Strategy for Your Business
With the prospect of 9 billion people co-existing on our planet by 2050, progressive businesses recognize the need to reduce their impacts, maintain access to scarce resources, meet changing customer expectations and protect their brands. Companies that fail to do so will ultimately lose their social license to operate, disappoint customer and stakeholder expectations and miss out on an opportunity to gain competitive advantage.
Marketing for Social Change: Unilever Leads the Way
I collaborated with Francisca Quinn, a leading sustainability consultant in Canada, in conducting this research and writing this article.We have been collaborating on sustainability research and strategy over the past 2 years.
Prescription for a Healthy Business
Faced with rising income inequality, high unemployment levels, an aging population and sky-rocketing obesity levels, leading companies are adopting business strategies to improve public health outcomes. In research I conducted for Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR) on the qualities of transformational companies, these trail blazers are “solutions oriented” and “inclusive”, and seek to address systemic social issues through their core business.
Making products a force for social good – not just “less bad”
Transformational companies integrate sustainability into the full lifecycle of product and service design, use and disposal. They advance sustainability through continuous improvement of core products and services.
It’s Time for Transformational Corporate Water Leadership
Water is high on the 10-year risk list. Too much, too little, contaminated, pure – “water crises” is identified in the recently released World Economic Forum’s 2015 Global Risks Report as one of the most likely and most impactful risks over the next decade. It shares the stage with climate change, extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse – all of which involve water.
Changing the lens, the focus, everything
For 25 years, I’ve developed CSR strategies. And now I see that CSR is becoming business as usual. You’d think I’d be celebrating. But I’m not – because CSR has stalled.
Wikirate: Online tool accelerates stakeholder accountability and transparency
Readers may be interested in the launch of Wikirate.org, a new online resource with the ambitious vision of becoming a Wikipedia for corporate social responsibility. Vishal Kapadia, Executive Director of Wikirate describes this resource and its value in this guest post.
The Transformational College
Education has changed many people’s lives for the better. Now the education sector has the potential to play a powerful role in the future health of our communities and larger world. Having worked in recent years to reduce their operational environmental impacts, many Canadian educational institutions are ready for the next stage on the sustainability journey.