I share a love for social media with many in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. It is on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn that the most evocative conversations happen, contentious debates take place, and strategic relationships form. Consumers have taken to these channels to pursue their pet causes and peeves, and advocates have jumped in, to massive appreciation and feedback.

At a recent breakfast hosted by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and NYSE Euronext, the Conference Board's David Vidal asked an insightful question: What are the top three reasons for your company's reluctance to embrace sustainability—and to adopt sustainability reporting?

The responses that came from an audience representing the glitterati of the corporate social responsibility world might surprise.

Keep in mind that a majority of them (I'm almost tempted to say all) don't need another lecture on the business case for CSR or sustainability, are active advocates, and represent companies that--for a multitude of reasons--recognize the link to their bottom lines.

continue reading

Aman Singh Das is the Corporate Responsibility Editor at Vault.com. 

There were nearly 100,000 new charges of discrimination filed against employers during fiscal year 2010. This marks the highest level (7.2 percent) of new discrimination cases ever recorded, according to the latest report by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Workplace Discrimination

Another startling fact: For the first time since the EEOC was instituted in 1995, charges of employer retaliations outnumbered racial discrimination charges, reports The Wall Street Journal. And, according to the Huffington Post, roughly 20,000 of these were actually upheld, i.e., they product positive results for the complainant.

Further, the EEOC reportedly secured more than $404 million in monetary relief from employers -- the most money the commission has ever obtained through the administrative process, reports HuffPo.

There are several easily-explained reasons for this increase, with a strained economy playing primary defaulter.

Disability Discrimination

According to CNBC, "The largest increase was from people who said they had been discriminated against because of a disability, an increase that may be linked to recent changes in the legal definition of disability to make it more expansive."

Another contributing factor has been the increased level of interest show by President Obama's team toward workplace discrimination. In fact, one of his first initiatives back in 2009 was to launch disability.gov—a website that provides a whole gamut of information on subjects such as disability laws, rights, employment help, how to apply for benefits, arranging transportation, etc. for people with disabilities.

continue reading

As we've seen by many recent year-end posts, 2010 really culminated in a "coming out" party for corporate social responsibility professionals. The industry has indeed gone mainstream, and the sustainability function of businesses is no longer stored in a back hallway, only coming out once per year to express green initiatives and explain the company's carbon footprint to investors.

Sustainability and corporate responsibility have moved to the front page and marketing dollars are now covering more initiatives than the obligatory cause marketing programs. During 2010, we saw major programs unveiled by Marks & Spencer, Target, GE, Timberland, Wal-Mart and P&G. These programs were created with the company's DNA at their centers. Further, a global study by Echo Research, titled, "A World in Trust," that analyzed CSR trends and interviewed business leaders concluded that organizations must make sustainability a top business imperative.

Cross-sector progress on Sustainability

The Global Reporting Index (GRI) and Center for Sustainability & Excellence (CSE) each established beachheads in the U.S. and a study by PWC reported that sustainability reporting is on the rise.

Who is Julian Assange: An ethical capitalist, a protagonist for corporate social responsibility, a new-age Gandhian, or an anarchist and a menace to society?

Take a look, for example, at this from his interview with Forbes: "You could call it the ecosystem of corruption. But it's also all the regular decision making that turns a blind eye to and supports unethical practices: the oversight that's not done, the priorities of executives, how they think they're fulfilling their own self-interest. The way they talk about it."

I turned to some of today's most prominent thought leaders on transparency, accountability and CSR. Our attempt at deconstructing WikiLeaks and the aftermath of Assange's expose(s) for the state of corporate social responsibility:

Let's begin with a simple realization: Regardless of motive or short term effects, Assange's investigation is changing the way we perceive the government and organizations with respect to ethical behavior and overall responsibility.

What Shelly Lazarus recently called "enlightened self interest," is in fact a realization across the private sector that status quo won't work for too long in an economy of unequals.

continue reading.

"Consider these numbers: $350 million in net operating savings over the projects' lifetimes. 400,000 metric tons of annual greenhouse gas emissions. More than 650 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year." -- Victoria Mills, EDF's Managing Director for Corporate Partnerships

These are the savings identified this year by the 51 MBA students who participated in Environmental Defense Fund's (EDF) Climate Corps internship . "Finally, an internship program that gets sustainability" was my reaction back in May when I heard about the program that encourages companies to seek out sustainability efforts by focusing on energy efficiency solutions.

These are real numbers and carry a real ROI for companies' sustainability efforts. As Mills succinctly points out: "If MBA students can come up with results like these in a 10-week summer fellowship, what could happen if businesses all across the country got serious about energy efficiency."

Celebrating the fellows that allowed us to be a part of their summer internships this year, here are a few examples of what they accomplished with companies like PepsiCo, News Corp, eBay, RBS/Citizens Bank and Yahoo!:

There is an argument that some companies—such as those that deal in weapons and tobacco--just can't do corporate responsibility in a meaningful way. As a result, they are often excluded from CSR rankings and benchmarking exercises. But what about a company like McDonald's under constant fire for its products? How does the world's largest fast-food chain practice corporate social responsibility that is both contextual and real?

At McDonald's recent inclusion and diversity benchmarking event, Senior Manager for Corporate Social Responsibility Kathleen Bannan began her presentation with a statement that will resonate with several regular readers of this space: "CSR is everybody's business."

Bannan was attempting to highlight the evolution from how the company used to interpret CSR and what it has come to mean today, i.e., a shift from purely philanthropic ventures to a core element of the company's long term strategy. Although the last part might be too much to swallow for critics who claim that a company that sells fast food and offers plastic toys cannot spout responsibility, Bannan offered some interesting context.

It's worth remembering as you read further that the CSR department at McDonald's lives within the inclusion and diversity team. According to Bannan, who is a Boston College graduate and previously worked for the Center for Corporate Citizenship, having a home within the diversity department offers her team a unique opportunity to participate in shaping the company's long-term strategy. Further, alignment with Global Chief Diversity Officer Pat Harris' vision ensures that CSR remain relevant for the company.

Here's how Bannan presented the evolution of CSR at McDonald's:

The cover essay in The Wall Street Journal's special Executive Advisor report yesterday attacks advocates of corporate social responsibility, calling the belief that "businesses have a responsibility to act in the public interest and will profit from doing so" ineffective and flawed.

Aneel Karnani, an associate professor of strategy with University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School of Business—ironically the venue for the 2011 Net Impact Conference, where I am headed in October as a speaker on Diversity as a Strategic Advantage--brings up several issues in his op-ed, some that rankle, and others that well underline today's complex market.

To get some perspective on how Karnani's claims have been received, I reached out to many of my contacts in the CSR community, largely through social media. Everyone who responded has a distinct stake in Karnani's article: they are professionals committed to furthering corporate responsibility, and while they view the debate from a variety of standpoints, there is unanimous agreement that business strategies must evoke sustainable practices for continued growth—whether we call it CSR or not.

Ann M. Charles wants senior management to realize that the economic collapse has changed the culture of leadership forever. Founder of BRANDfog and producer of the upcoming Great Leaders Conference, she firmly believes that for companies to be successful, they must embrace social media while recognizing that corporate responsibility is no longer a vague, idealistic concept.

Having spent almost 20 years in marketing and witnessed firsthand a pervading sense of short-termism across corporate America, Charles started BRANDfog in 2009 to address this gap and offers social media and CSR advisory services to CEOs.

Part of her endeavor is an exclusive, by-invitation-only event called the Great Leaders Conference: Corporate Social Responsibility and Leadership for a Responsible World. We sat down for a chat about the conference, scheduled for October in New York City, her mission for BRANDfog, and what her interactions with management reveals about their attitude toward CSR.

An excerpt:

"On a broader level, this is not a CSR conference. It is the Great Leaders conference because it aims to highlight a cultural change among leadership. Leadership is changing on a number of fronts and very quickly, in a way that CEOs are really struggling with. For example, social media has blown the doors off the closed corporate culture, where customers want to know what the company stands for, what the CEO believes in, what the core values of the organization are, etc. In a way, companies can no longer control their messaging. There is a two-way exchange that can't be ignored today.

As the US markets continue to debate whether we are still in a recession, on the road to recovery, or headed for a double recession, the Indian government is busy imposing regulations to boost corporate philanthropy and social responsibility. In an economy that continues to post steady growth despite upheavals across Europe and the U.S., India Inc. is increasingly facing scrutiny for their role—or their notable absence—in the social and environmental growth of the country.

In early March, corporations were surprised with an announcement from the government's Corporate Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid: Corporate Social Responsibility could become written law if companies did not step up their social responsibility footprint. He said, "You can't hope that everything will work without a basic legislative line drawn. But where that line should be drawn must come by way of consensus from industry."

This jab at corporate India came days after Khurshid recommended setting up a CSR stock exchange, where companies could buy and sell credits for "doing good," and hopefully boost accounting. Initially, the business community lauded the proposal. But this cheer quickly died down.

Now the issue is back on the table: the ministry has asked all companies "to provide details of their investments made as part of their CSR initiative during the last fiscal year."