Wayne VisserI believe that CSR 2.0 – or Transformative CSR (I also sometimes call it Systemic CSR, Radical CSR or Holistic CSR, so use whichever you prefer) – represents a new holistic model of CSR. The essence of the CSR 2.0 DNA model are the four DNA ‘responsibility bases’, which are like the four nitrogenous bases of biological DNA (adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine), sometimes abbreviated to the four-letters GCTA (which was the inspiration for the 1997 science fiction film GATTACA). In the case of CSR 2.0, the DNA responsibility bases are value creation, good governance, societal contribution and environmental integrity.
Hence, if we look at ‘value creation’, it is clear we are talking about more than financial profitability. The goal is economic development, which means not only contributing to the enrichment of shareholders and executives, but improving the economic context in which a company operates, including investing in infrastructure, creating jobs, providing skills development and so on. There can be any number of KPIs, but I want to highlight two that I believe are essential: beneficial products and inclusive business. Does the company’s products and services really improve our quality of life, or do they cause harm or add to the low-quality junk of what Charles Handy calls the ‘chindogu society’. And how are the economic benefits shared? Does wealth trickle up or down; are employees, SMEs in the supply chain and poor communities genuinely empowered?
Good governance is another area that is not new, but in my view has failed to be properly recognised or integrated in CSR circles. The goal of institutional effectiveness is as important as more lofty social and environmental ideals. After all, if the institution fails, or is not transparent and fair, this undermines everything else that CSR is trying to accomplish.
Trends in reporting, but also other forms of transparency like social media and brand- or product-linked public databases of CSR performance will be increasingly important indicators of success, alongside embedding ethical conduct in the culture of companies. Tools like Goodguide, KPMG’s Integrity Thermometer and Covalence’s EthicalQuote ranking will become more prevalent.
Societal contribution is an area that CSR is traditionally more used to addressing, with its goal of stakeholder orientation. This gives philanthropy its rightful place in CSR – as one tile in a larger mosaic – while also providing a spotlight for the importance of fair labour practices. It is simply unacceptable that there are more people in slavery today than there were before it was officially abolished in the 1800s, just as regular exposures of high-brand companies for the use of child labour are despicable. This area of stakeholder engagement, community participation and supply chain integrity remains one of the most vexing and critical elements of CSR.
Finally, ‘environmental integrity’ sets the bar way higher than minimising damage and rather aims at maintaining and improving ecosystem sustainability. The KPIs give some sense of the ambition required here – 100 per cent renewable energy and zero waste. We cannot continue the same practices that have, according to WWF’s Living Planet Index, caused us to lose a third of the biodiversity on the planet since they began monitoring 1970. Nor can we continue to gamble with prospect of dangerous – and perhaps catastrophic and
irreversible – climate change.
A final point to make is that CSR 2.0 – standing for corporate sustainability and responsibility – also proposes a new interpretation for these terms. Like two intertwined strands of DNA, sustainability and responsibility can be thought of as different yet complementary elements of CSR. Hence, sustainability can be conceived as the destination – the challenges, vision, strategy and goals, i.e. what we are aiming for – while responsibility is more about the journey – our solutions, responses, management and actions, i.e. how we get there. The challenge now is to admit that CSR 1.0 has failed, and to make CSR 2.0 – weaving the strands of
sustainability and responsibility – into the new DNA of business.
Also read: CSR 2.0: From defensive to systemic corporate sustainability and responsibility
About the author
Dr Wayne Visser is Founder and Director of CSR International (www.csrinternational.org) and author of twelve books, including nine on the role of business in society, most recently The Age of Responsibility (Wiley 2011). He is an adjunct professor in corporate responsibility at La Trobe University in Australia, a visiting professor in sustainability at Magna Carta College, Oxford, and senior associate at the University of Cambridge programme for sustainability leadership. His personal website is www.waynevisser.com