Sunday 28 September 2014
Two decades of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)...a success story?
CSR succeeds? A
TorontotheBetter update on the battle to civilize commerce.
Setting
aside for a moment fundamental questions about the essential independence of
financial self-enrichment and social benefit, there is still a way to go to
achieve real value from the enterprise
culture change that has become popular in recent years, at least in advertising
copy. In some sense the CSR movement has succeeded. There are way more healthy
food and green energy options available than there used to be, for those that
can afford them. If the price in shopper confusion and greenwashing is one that
has to be paid then maybe that’s a small one compared to the greater potential
good. The many corporate responsibility
campaigns have at least encouraged corporations to adopt a “better join them” policy
rather than risk market-reductive odium in the media. Pop singers and
entertainers sign on by the hundreds, young people support multiple ethical and
ecological campaigns, and public opinion
solidly supports a clean environment and jobs for all, though how to get there is a seriously divisive political question. Government imposition of the values
they claim to support remains a bridge too far for most corporations. And most developed
economies still ration well-being through competition while economic “animal
spirits” continue to devastate lives though economic busts, most recently in
the still reverberating collapse of 2008.
Over twenty years of ethical blaming has produced a
corporate sector in which many, though by no means most, corporations have
added some aspects of broader community commitment to their operational profiles,
whether it be selective charities or staff benefits. Mega-capitalists Warren
Buffett and Bill Gates debate, and support “creative capitalism”. But still,
because of the over(?)-compensatory charities and tax write-offs that have often
ensued, the line between self-interest and societal commitment is hard to define with precision and the voluntaristic nature of this whole transformation process
makes mass change for all virtually impossible. The end result is, therefore, that
the more sign-on virtually the same, or even less, impact, as governments
continue to withdraw under the cover of “social”
corporations. Enterprises can continue their normal activities while
maintaining feel- good marketing profiles, anaesthetizing the genuine interest
of most in greater access to good quality goods and services that contribute to
a better world.
What we need is a social economy movement that supports the
societal installation of key social determinants including democratic
workplaces, ecological operational practices and management transparency. Whatever
the final tools the starting point must be a movement. For all the popularity
of feel-good consumerism as consumerism it inevitably inherits the brand name vacillation
that characterize its origins.
Most important, perhaps, enterprise and its users (that’s all of us, of course) must come together to support intervention to this end, rather than opposing it at all costs, in the name of lower taxes, the current norm. If you agree, join our Alliance for Toronto’s Social Economy at www.TorontotheBetter.net/atse_signup.html. There is a way forward for society and it will take more than piecemeal marketing make-overs to get there.
# posted by Taodhg @ 5:48 pm 
