Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility

[Dr. L. Ramakrishnan]

I have been looking for elegant ways to address the "Society" bottom line, especially initiatives aimed at improving the interface between organizations and the society. I am sure that there are many initiatives, for example, under 8a/8b of the businesse excellence models based on EFQM adopted by companies. I am looking for initiatives that go beyond philanthropy and Bottom of the Pyramid (Hart & Prahalad) concepts. I believe that many members of the Elsmar Cove Forum have something to contribute on this subject; I would like to invite you with your views/info. Thanks for your views.

With best regards,

Ramakrishnan

 

[Sidney Vianna]

I have been looking for elegant ways to address the "Society" bottom line, especially initiatives aimed at improving the interface between organizations and the society. I am sure that there are many initiatives, for example, under 8a/8b of the businesse excellence models based on EFQM adopted by companies. I am looking for initiatives that go beyond philanthropy and Bottom of the Pyramid (Hart & Prahalad) concepts. I believe that many members of the Elsmar Cove Forum have something to contribute on this subject; I would like to invite you with your views/info. Thanks for your views.

With best regards,

Ramakrishnan

Dr. Ramakrishnan, this is such a controversial, but at the same time, fascinating topic. I believe that there are hundreds of competing initiatives, programs, entities around the World trying to "define" and protocol-dress "Social responsibility". ISO themselves being one of the latest organizations trying to get a piece of this pie, through their SR work and ISO 26000. We have a thread going on the ISO 26000 guidance document. I invite you to read it, in case you have not done so yet. Just like you, I would like to have a chance to exchange ideas on this subject, here at the Cove and elsewhere.

Thanks for bringing this up.

 

[Jen Kirley]

Hello Dr. Ramakrishnan,

Social responsibility has been a core value within the Baldrige Quality Award for some time now. See about the core value and how it contributes to the system here: http://www.baldrige21.com/BALDRIGE CRITERIA-ALL YEARS/06 Item 7.6.html

I also found a nice document on the subject here: cleanerproduction.com/Pubs/pubs/Hamner - Market CSR Indicators and Quality Systems.doc

I hope this is what you hoped for.

 

[Dr. L. Ramakrishnan]

Dr. Ramakrishnan, this is such a controversial, but at the same time, fascinating topic. I believe that there are hundreds of competing initiatives, programs, entities around the World trying to "define" and protocol-dress "Social responsibility". ISO themselves being one of the latest organizations trying to get a piece of this pie, through their SR work and ISO 26000. We have a thread going on the ISO 26000 guidance document. I invite you to read it, in case you have not done so yet. Just like you, I would like to have a chance to exchange ideas on this subject, here at the Cove and elsewhere.

Thanks for bringing this up.

Dear Mr. Vianna,

Thank you for your response. I have indeed visited the ISO 26000 forum a few times in 2005 and have also gone through the other related threads today. Probably I have not made my request clear in my posting; what I need are examples of how the Society interface is addressed by various organizations. Many organizations are comfortable with Philanthropy (or strategic philanthropy (Michael Porter)); for example we have programmes providing health-care for expectant mothers and after delivery, their new born babies near Kolkata - we have adopted these poor and underprivileged women and their new born babies for a specific period so that their health is taken care of. This is a case of pure philanthropy without expecting something back. We too have a programme for providing medical diagnostic facilities in villages on a sustainable basis through a distant health-care programme where the user has to pay for the facility; but he saves on time to travel to the nearby city and losing his daily earning (this is a BOP project similar to what Hart & Prahalad have been talking about). There are initiatives like donation of blood by employees voluntarily to, say, Red Cross. Another approach I know of is that of Procter and Gamble, which uses Cause linked marketing to raise money for, say, providing vision to blind children. I know of another case where an organization started a movement to reclaim "dead" lakes and ponds in their city which solved the water problem of the city. I am looking for examples such as this; I am sure many such initiatives have been taken by organizations to reach the society. While I agree with you on the controversial nature of the standard on the subject, I am sure all will support such initiatives, standards or no standards.

With best regards,

Ramakrishnan

 

[Dr. L. Ramakrishnan]

Hello Dr. Ramakrishnan,

Social responsibility has been a core value within the Baldrige Quality Award for some time now. See about the core value and how it contributes to the system here: http://www.baldrige21.com/BALDRIGE CRITERIA-ALL YEARS/06 Item 7.6.html

I also found a nice document on the subject here: cleanerproduction.com/Pubs/pubs/Hamner - Market CSR Indicators and Quality Systems.doc

I hope this is what you hoped for.

Dear Jennifer,

Thank you for your response. As explained in my earlier posting, I am looking for examples of how organizations are addressing the Societal interface; of course standards may help us to systematically address the issues arising at the Society interface. I am thankful to you for the reference to the article: Integrating Market-Based Sustainability Indicators and Performance Management Systems by Burton Hamner. This paper provides a a good summary of the state of affairs on the subject matter and brings out models that many excellent companies follow.

With best regards,

Ramakrishnan

 

[Jen Kirley]

Dear Jennifer,

Thank you for your response. As explained in my earlier posting, I am looking for examples of how organizations are addressing the Societal interface; of course standards may help us to systematically address the issues arising at the Society interface. I am thankful to you for the reference to the article: Integrating Market-Based Sustainability Indicators and Performance Management Systems by Burton Hamner. This paper provides a a good summary of the state of affairs on the subject matter and brings out models that many excellent companies follow.

With best regards,

Ramakrishnan

I suspected I was missing the mark. So, I encourage you to research Baldrige Award winners listed here http://www.quality.nist.gov/Award_Recipients.htm for specifics on their accomplishment.

You can look at their award summaries (see here: http://www.quality.nist.gov/Contacts_Profiles.htm) and may choose to contact them personally for details. You may get a good response. My understanding of the Award program is that recipients are more or less obligated to share their stories to help other organizations in their journeys.

I also encourage you to examine the Results sections (Section 7) if you look at the summaries. You may find examples of declared measurable benefits of social responsibility.

I hope this helps!

 

[Dr. L. Ramakrishnan]

I suspected I was missing the mark. So, I encourage you to research Baldrige Award winners listed here http://www.quality.nist.gov/Award_Recipients.htm for specifics on their accomplishment.

You can look at their award summaries (see here: http://www.quality.nist.gov/Contacts_Profiles.htm) and may choose to contact them personally for details. You may get a good response. My understanding of the Award program is that recipients are more or less obligated to share their stories to help other organizations in their journeys.

I also encourage you to examine the Results sections (Section 7) if you look at the summaries. You may find examples of declared measurable benefits of social responsibility.

I hope this helps!

Thank you Jennifer for the lead...I think that these summaries will give me a few examples I am looking for. With kind regards, Ramakrishnan

 

[Statistical Steven]

An interesting spin would be to look at successful companies that do not have any social responsibility. I doubt you would find many as here in the USA, social responsbility costs are part of the "marketing" expense. Very few organizations look at the greater good, but rather at the bottom line impact of such an investment.

 

[ralphsulser]

One of the things our company does that could be part of social responsibility is we periodically have people volunteer, on company time, to adopt a one mile section of a highway near our plant. The volunteer crews go out and pick up all trash on both sides of the highway and bag it for pick up by the highway department for disposal.

 

[RosieA]

A couple examples:

Several local businesses have participated in a program called "Adopt a School". Not only do they give money to a specific school for special projects, but also donate employee time to work in the classrooms.

I've worked for several businesses who adopt a family through the Salvation Army at the holidays. Employees buy gifts and the companies buy food. These same companies also did the Adopt a Highway program that Ralph mentioned.

There are numerous mentoring programs for high shool kids supported by local companies, either through the schools or through a local program called The Learning Web.

My current company has donated unused space to local Not-for-Profits like the Science Center, as storage space.

Another great program many companies have is a "matching grant" program. If you have a special charity or not-for-profit organization that you donate funds to, they will match your money.

There are lots of small things like these that businesses do to reach out and support their comunities.