From

CSR to Sustainable Business:

What are companies doing, and why

Toby Webb, Founder, Ethical Corpora7on and Stakeholder

Intelligence. Lecturer, Corporate Responsibility, Birkbeck,
University of London

Tecnolgico de Monterrey, Mexico, September 2013

Tobias.Webb@stakeholderintel.com

Tobiaswebb.blogspot.com

What is CSR today?

CSR IS NOT PHILANTHROPY
Ethics * Integrity * Products *
Services * Consumers * Investors
* An7-corrup7on * Suppliers *
Tax payments * Market Ethics *
Employees * Civil society *
Poli7cs and the Environment
and more
CSR is not about how you give
your money away
It is about how you make it
CSR is about how you run your
business when no-one is
watching

What are the CSR trends today?

More compliance
BeWer governance
Improved trust
Cost reduc7on
Co-ope77on

What are the (addi?onal) trends

tomorrow?
Resource constraints
(popula7on, materials,
climate change)
Licence to Operate
Collabora7on for
systems change
Ins7tu7onal, trade and
poli7cal improvements
Impact measurement

Who are some of the leaders?

Unilever - Ten year journey
towards sustainable growth The
Sustainable Living Plan
Applies right across the value
chain
Responsibility for own direct
opera?ons (social/enviro)
Also for suppliers, distributors
and how consumers use Unilever
brands
Underpinning the Plan are around
60 very tough business targets

So what do they actually want to do?

Bring safe drinking water to 500 million people
Increase propor7on of product por^olio that meets highest
nutri?onal standards (22% in 2010 to 25% in 2011)
Halve the greenhouse gas impact of products across the
lifecycle by 2020
2020: Source 100% of agricultural raw materials sustainably
(36% in 2012)

Business Benets of Sustainability

Marks & Spencer

Launched Plan A in 2007.

100 commitments to
achieve in 5 years
Now extended Plan A to
180 commitments to
achieve by 2015.
139 achieved so far

Ul7mate goal of becoming

the world's most
sustainable major retailer
Sustainability work has
driven prots as well as cut
costs
2012: 135m NET BENEFIT
(29% increase year on year)

Launched in 2007: Ten years of incrementalism leading to transforma?on

Who are some of the leaders?

General Electric: Eco-

Innova7on as business
strategy

$2.3 billion invested in

Ecomagina7on products
in 2011

Ecomagina?on:
Mainstream focus on
business innova7on and
sustainable industrial
products

Reduced GHG emissions

30% since 2004
Reduced wastewater by
45% since 2006

Who are some of the leaders?

2011 - Siemens reorganised

opera7ons into four core
Industry - providing
business units:
sojware and technology

services
Energy - eciency in energy
produc7on and distribu7on, Infrastructure and ci?es -
including oil, gas and
sustainable technologies
renewables
(smart grid equipment and
rail vehicles)
Healthcare - supplying

technology (medical
imaging equipment and
healthcare IT)

Siemens and Green Business Strategy

2011: Products and
solu7ons in
Environmental Por^olio
generated revenue of
29.9 billion: 41% of total
revenue
Objec7ve: Grow annual
revenue to 40 billion by
2014 with new,
innova7ve products and
excep7onal growth in
elds like renewable
energy

Why do they choose to lead?

Unilever
Securing supply

Marks and Spencer
Customer trust

General Electric
Low carbon future

Siemens
Urbanisa?on


(These are not the only reasons!)

Why do they engage stakeholders?

Employee engagement drives innova7on and ideas
NGO partnerships bring science, experience, and credibility
Communi?es have increasing power & inuence
Social media means no company escapes scru7ny
Big business want a long term vision from Governments:
And policies and incen7ves that enable investment and
longer term planning: So must lead by example

How do they engage with

stakeholders?
Dialogue with civil society
Consul?ng experts on
agriculture, trust, ethics.
urbanisa7on, climate
change, energy futures
By using guidance and
standards
Listening to their
employees
Watching trends emerge

ISO 26000 Guidance Standard

How do CSR and Sustainability improve Business?

Consumers want to trust brands, not all the product detail
Leading companies are turning sustainability into
opportunity all over the world: Water, Telecoms,
Commodi7es, Retail, Mining, Construc7on
9 billion people means less resources. Innova7on will be
essen7al. The Circular Economy will be vitally important.
Corporate roles in changing inecient systems will be vital:
The winning companies recognise CSR is systems change
CSR and Sustainability = Smarter business

Professor Robert Eccles,

Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School

Is CSR/sustainability protable?
London Business School & Harvard Business School research:

Firms with beWer CSR performance face signicantly lower
capital constraints
BeWer stakeholder engagement and transparency around CSR
performance, are important in further reducing capital
constraints
That the rela7on is driven by both the social and the
environmental dimension of CSR
"CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCESS TO FINANCE" Available at: hGp://ssrn.com/abstract=1847085

CEOs agree with all this

UN Global Compact and
Accenture CEO study 2013:

75 CEOs 1-to-1s
1,000 CEO responses
103 countries
27 industry sectors

Found two clear CEO
priori?es for the future:

One: The need for

governments to intervene to
align global markets
allowing companies to
compete eec7vely to drive
sustainability

Two: To move beyond
incremental change to
transforma7on that delivers
both sustainability
leadership and value
crea7on

In conclusion
CSR today = Sustainable
Business tomorrow. BUT:

Good governance does not

happen without Ethics

Sustainable business does

not happen without
Strategy

Ethics do not happen

without Stakeholder
Engagement

Strategy does not happen

without good Governance

My nal point: Successful

sustainable business is
based on both ethics and
open and con7nuous
engagement with society

Thank you!

Tobiaswebb.blogspot.com