CSRHub Blog Research on ESG metrics and comments on sustainability best practice

CSRHub CEO and Co-founder Bahar Gidwani will be speaking at CSE’s Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Training on October 11, 2012 in Brussels, Belgium.

CSE is a leading global sustainability (CSR) consulting, coaching, and training firm. CSE is offering a two day Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Training. This IEMA Approved challenging 2-day course enables participants to acquire the skills and competencies required to become qualified CSR practitioners. Over the past three years, executives from Fortune 500 companies, Local Governments and Universities have participated in CSE’s Global Certified trainings, including Supervalu, Unilever, ABM, Lockheed Martin, Baker Hughes, Noble Energy, United Airlines, Coca Cola, ITW, Stanford University, Walmart and Chevron.

CSE has been approved by IEMA (Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment), a leading not for profit global institute offering certified trainings for CSOs, CSR Managers, Communication Directors, HSE Managers and other executives. At the end of the trainings, professionals have the opportunity to complete a Final Assignment, which allows them to qualify for certification and earn the recognized CSR-P Certification (CSR-P Seal).

CSE is also offering Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Training at the following locations:

Vancouver, BC, Canada, November 1 - 2.
Atlanta, GA, November 29 - 30.
Chicago, IL, December 4 - 5.

If you haven’t already, register to attend one of CSE’s Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Trainings today!

The first 10 people to register for a CSE’s training and let us know will receive a 25% discount on a subscription to CSRHub. Contact sales@csrhub.com for the discount link.

Bahar Gidwani is a Cofounder and CEO of CSRHub. Formerly, he was the CEO of New York-based Index Stock Imagery, Inc, from 1991 through its sale in 2006. He has built and run large technology-based businesses and has experience building a multi-million visitor Web site. Bahar holds a CFA, was a partner at Kidder, Peabody & Co., and worked at McKinsey & Co. Bahar has consulted to both large companies such as Citibank, GE, and Acxiom and a number of smaller software and Web-based companies. He has an MBA (Baker Scholar) from Harvard Business School and a BS in Astronomy and Physics (magna cum laude) from Amherst College. Bahar races sailboats, plays competitive bridge, and is based in New York City.

CSRHub provides access to corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings and information on nearly 5,000 companies from 135 industries in 65 countries. By aggregating and normalizing the information from over 170 data sources, CSRHub has created a broad, consistent rating system and a searchable database that links millions of rating elements back to their source. Managers, researchers and activists use CSRHub to benchmark company performance, learn how stakeholders evaluate company CSR practices and seek ways to change the world.

By Ashley Coale

So what exactly did Unilever CMO Keith Weed mean when he told the annual Marketing Society audience in London at the end of last year that CSR departments have become redundant? Well, besides meaning to be just a little bit provocative, he also meant that the time has come to look past add-on CSR units within a corporation and start thinking about integration.

Calling a CSR department redundant wasn’t Weed’s way of saying CSR or sustainability efforts no longer have value. In fact, it’s just the opposite. Much like the example that Unilever is striving to set, integrated sustainability means putting sustainable principles into every facet of business operations. CSR is not the sole purvey of corporate affairs, the corporate foundation, the marketing department or even facilities. It’s part of all these departments and more. With integration, sustainability drives strategy, planning and the core of what and who the business is.

Companies that put integrated sustainability into practice strive to build a culture of environmental and social responsibility. Fostering a culture that embraces these values down to every decision is an effective way to standardize and insure compliance. (See Bertel’s Framework for more on this idea). Leaders such as Intel and Cisco incorporate sustainability goals – among other core frameworks – into individual employee performance reviews and base bonuses on successful achievement of these goals.

Intel and Cisco, among other leaders, also work to integrate sustainability into governance strategy. Board-level planning and decisions to embed sustainability into strategy reinforces this type of corporate culture. It also pushes the company to take a longer-term approach and innovate for the future challenges of a resource-constrained world. (For more on Intel and Cicso, check out their ratings on CSRHub. Intel scores a 66 and Cisco scores a 69.)

With the whole team on board, and executive reinforcement, there is no longer an isolated CSR effort. Instead, sustainability becomes a part of each decision, product and service. Nike’s Considered Design is an example of sustainability at conception, design and production of a product. Rather than looking at how to reduce impact after the product is made and shipped, Nike has taken a leadership role in employing principles of sustainable design right from the start. Integrated sustainability means thinking about this challenge every step of the way and in every conference room, office, assembly line and factory.

Photo courtesy of US Embassy New Delhi 

Ashley Coale has a long-standing passion for business sustainability and the impact that strong, effective communications campaigns can have in catalyzing change. As the Social Media Editor, Ashley manages social media and communications outreach at CSRHub. She is responsible for crafting and implementing content and strategy. Her communications experience includes a wide range of causes including international development, human rights, and federal and municipal sustainability policy. She holds a bachelors degree from Wellesley College and a Masters degree from the London School of Economics. A native of Portland, Oregon, she now makes her home in Brooklyn.

The following post is part of a CSRHub series focusing on 10 trends that are driving corporate transparency and disclosure in the coming year. To follow the discussion of each trend, watch for posts on the CSRHub blog every Wednesday.

By Ashley Coale

Sustainability and CSR are no longer confined to niche publications or blogs. While traditional green or sustainability related online news sources (such as Triple Pundit, GreenBiz, 3BLMedia) remain strong and growing, coverage of sustainability and CSR is becoming a key piece of mainstream journalism and reporting.

Increasing consumer demand has changed the expectation of business responsibility and social action, and has also pressured mainstream media sources for more information. Forbes, Huffington Post, Bloomberg, Fast Company, and Yahoo are all examples of mainstream sources that have come to include a full section or blog on sustainability, green issues, and/or CSR within the last several years. This uptick in coverage is important for the CSR field not just for pure quantity, but also the legitimacy that stems from coverage in highly respected mainstream and business publications.

Similarly, businesses have used the release of sustainability reports or the implementation of sustainability initiatives as a PR opportunity. PR Newswire routinely covers the release of sustainability reports, and has even recognized companies with its PR News CSR Award and Hall of Fame (this coverage of Campbell’s provides a great example as does this coverage of SAP).

Unilever’s upcoming ad campaign is another great example of sustainability coverage hitting the mainstream. The campaign will highlight Unilever’s sustainability plan and its efforts to reduce waste. The campaign communicates to consumers Unilever’s sustainability efforts and how they can join with Unilever to make a difference. And these consumers are not those that would seek out “green” news, but very mainstream consumers that might not read about Unilever’s sustainability leadership otherwise.

It is not just business-to-consumer communication that has changed CSR/sustainability coverage, but a shift has also occurred within business journalism. The Wall Street Journal has an increasingly significant amount of CSR coverage (including this controversial piece on the concept of CSR that continues to get traffic and commentary almost two years later). Similarly, the Harvard Business Review devotes coverage of CSR and sustainability in its magazine and blogs. As CSR has become a challenge for business, more businesspeople are looking to standard industry publications to help explain best practices, challenges and opportunities, and to learn from trendsetters. Business publications also help illustrate how CSR and sustainability help answer some of today’s big-picture business challenges: governance and transparency, the Occupy movement and the all-time low of public trust in corporations, innovation and global competitiveness.

The mainstreaming of CSR and sustainability news reflects its increasing acceptance. As most studies place consumer demand for pro-social and environmental action by business at somewhere around 75%, (read Edelman and Cone), it’s not surprising that mainstream media would start to notice. 

Ashley Coale has a long-standing passion for business sustainability and the impact that strong, effective communications campaigns can have in catalyzing change. As the Social Media Editor, Ashley manages social media and communications outreach at CSRHub. She is responsible for crafting and implementing content and strategy. Her communications experience includes a wide range of causes including international development, human rights, and federal and municipal sustainability policy. She holds a bachelors degree from Wellesley College and a Masters degree from the London School of Economics. A native of Portland, Oregon, she now makes her home in Brooklyn.