Coro’s Blog: On Purpose

Nine billion. That’s how many humans will inhabit planet Earth by 2030. In less than 14 years, another two billion people will be consuming our already-scarce resources, threatening social cohesion.

Progressive companies respond to these environmental, social and economic trends by embedding sustainability internally, into all their business operations. They mobilize their entire workforce to adopt sustainable practices and pursue social innovation. They invest in key implementation measures to accelerate and scale sustainability within the organization by engaging their internal stakeholders. And they go much further.

Leading organizations recognize the far-reaching and interconnected impacts of their full value chain. They don’t just focus internally. They look outside their business and ask, “Is there more we can do to accelerate and scale sustainability for society and the greater good?” They respond by setting sustainability goals that extend beyond their own internal operations, influencing and mobilizing their external stakeholders to realize ambitious goals that contribute to both a sustainable business and society.

I am encouraged by the efforts of these trailblazers accelerating sustainability internally and externally. I have had the good fortune to collaborate with many organizations looking to harness their people, relationships, influence, resources and assets to accelerate positive business and social growth.

Interested in knowing more about the companies that are leading the CSR charge? Want to know how your organization – or business unit – can accelerate sustainability, internally and externally? Dive deeper with the following new resources.

Read the paper

Based on my experience helping companies embed sustainability into their organizational culture for over 25 years, I share my insights in this recently published Conference Board of Canada guide: Integrating Corporate Responsibility Into Your Corporate Culture.

Watch the webinar

I recently moderated a Conference Board of Canada webinar on how to integrate CSR into the corporate culture with TELUS and Teck. Both companies engage their business units and functions in understanding sustainability and its relevance to their functions and business objectives – and integrating sustainability into their business plans. Teck and TELUS go further, including sustainability in the company’s performance incentives. You can access the webinar here. (For a 50% discount contact publications@conferenceboard.ca and quote CORO.)

Check out the Institute

I helped launch the new Conference Board of Canada Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Institute this month. The Institute’s goal is to be the foremost independent science and sustainability-based knowledge organization in Canada. It will promote corporate social responsibility and sustainability leadership by focusing on “next generation” practices in CSR, leveraging the research I did on the Transformational Company for CBSR. The Institute is focused on helping CSR and sustainability practitioners understand the global social and environmental mega-forces that will affect the operating context of business, and pursue transformational strategies to address them, benefiting both their business and society.

The Institute’s premise is that in order for Canada to achieve its sustainability ambitions, we need to invest in upcoming CSR strategies, which include rapid internal and external mobilization, rather than CSR as usual. That’s the game-changer.