August 10th, 2010

CSR Leadership Helps You Stand Out from Green Me-Toos

Leadership has been defined as “an act or instance of leading; guidance; or direction” (from Dictionary.com).  To be an accomplished leader, one must utilize those characteristics while gathering followers to achieve a common goal or task.

Rahul Mitra made a great point in a recent CSRwire blog post, stating that “. . . the available CSR [literature has little] to say on leadership, compared to stakeholders, the ‘business case’ or even global/local adaptation.”  CSR leadership can come from many different places and benefit companies and society, while forming engaging dialogue between multiple stakeholders. It’s also become almost necessary to stand out from all of the others who have jumped on the green band wagon.

I’ve often talked about organizational CSR leadership from a very specific point of view – finding a CSR-related problem, relevant and material to one’s organization and its industry, that is not adequately being addressed and taking ownership of finding a solution. One example of that is Starbuck’s search for a replacement of its disposable cups via a crowd-sourced campaign to develop ideas for the solution – its “Beta Cup” campaign. Another is Timberland’s placement of an “ingredient label” on its shoe boxes to educate and allow customers to make more informed decisions from a sustainability perspective.

BSR’s recent report, New Frontier in Sustainability, highlights some important, though less pursued areas of sustainability that offer great benefits to the businesses that take leadership in them, as well as to society.  According to the report, “first-generation” sustainability efforts, including a reduction in energy and water consumption within both organizational operations and supply chains, have achieved some success in terms of preventing negative environmental and social impacts. Although these ‘first generation’ efforts are helpful, the authors argue they are not going to be enough as the planet’s ecosystems degrade and we reach planetary limits.

Beyond “first-generation” sustainability efforts, the report focuses on sustainable consumption and three key parts of the business value cycle as opportunities to make significant advancements in sustainability: product design, consumer engagement and use, and end-of-use.

Product design: Design choices about things like material weight and packaging have direct impacts on transportation costs and fuel use.  Puma’s new Eco-Box = No Box, for example, will reduce carbon emissions by 65 percent and save 8,500 tons of paper, 20 million mega joules of electricity, and 1 million liters of water annually. This new “eco-box” is not a box at all but a reusable bag with small removable cardboard structures for support.  Because it weighs less than a shoebox, it also reduces the amount of fuel used to transport the shoes.

In some cases, a focus on sustainable consumption may result in the radical redesign of familiar products, while in others, there may be an opportunity to deliver value through services in place of products.  Zipcar, for example, is a car sharing service that allows consumers to rent a car by the hour or day whenever they need to. The Zipcar is especially handy for urban dwellers as it allows them to travel comfortably from point A to B without the necessity of owning a car. Each and every Zip Car takes 15-20 personally-owned vehicles off the road cutting back immensely on gas usage and production waste. The creators of Zipcar focused on finding a solution to a problem and created a consumer service rather than a product that would rectify the problem.

Consumer engagement and use: Consumers may be in the driver’s seat when it comes to choices about products and use, but companies can give consumers the keys to more sustainable usage.  Engagement entails going beyond marketing the product to talking to consumers about how they use the product as a way to inform product design, redesign and production.  It’s also a great way to deepen consumer engagement.

Retailers and manufacturers can partner in innovate ways to inform and dialogue with consumers, including through use of “behind-the-label” online information on producer profiles, production methods and supply chains, as well as social media; interactive kiosks, including with label/tag scanning for relevant information; and access to such information through mobile phones.

End-of-use: Companies are setting targets to eliminate all waste from products’ end-of-life.  This focus allows business to incorporate waste prevention into the design phase of products.  It will also go hand-in-hand with how companies source their “raw” materials.

The BSR report goes into detail regarding the importance of bringing sustainable practices to the core of a business’ actions. Utilizing innovative products and production processes can generate competitive advantages while delivering new value and education to the consumer. If the consumer knows about your passion for sustainability and social action they are more likely to purchase or promote your product. To promote sustainable behavior and more actively engage consumers, companies can include sustainable options into products and give consumers simple, accessible information about how to use their products in a more sustainable manner.

Read more about more opportunities to take leadership in sustainability and CSR from the BSR report.