HR Job Descriptions for CSR

Some of you may know that I am now in the final stages of writing my book to be published later this year by Greenleaf Publishing, on the ways Human Resources Managers need to change what they do and how they do it in order to become more relevant partners in Companies who adopt a strategy and practice of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability. Most HR Managers, I maintain, do not have a CSR mindset, many don't even know what CSR means and why it is relevant to their function. In around 250 packed pages, I have already described this interplay in great detail, with many examples from businesses around the world and some inputs from leading HR professionals in global Companies.  I am now writing the final piece, pulling all the separate analyses of the different HR functional areas together, with a toolkit for what and how to change. One piece of this is a new-style Job Description for the HR (generalist) Manager in a business which assimilates CSR strategy as part of its way of life. I will share my thoughts on how this looks to me, in the hope that any of you out there with a particular interest in HR may respond with insights which will improve my version and which I can use as I finalise the book.

Job Description for an HR Manager in a CSR-minded organisation (draft)

Job Purpose

The HR Manager is responsible for developing and assimilating tools and processes which enhance business and individual capability, in a way which develops a positive and healthy organizational culture, upholds business principles and values, and maintains accountability for the effects of business and individual actions on all stakeholders including society at large and the environment.

Job Objectives

1. Support the delivery of business strategy, objectives, goals and targets through the effective engagement, deployment and development of people.
2. Assure the resourcing of the business with appropriately skilled talent, in the right place at the right time to perform the required tasks.
3. Contribute to the development of a corporate culture which encourages dialogue, support for individuals, openness to new ideas and the ability of each individual in the organization to achieve professional and personal fulfillment.
4. Assure the understanding of people in the business of the impacts of all their activities on stakeholders, society and environment, and support programmes in which all may contribute to improving these impacts.

Key Areas of Responsibility

1. HR Strategy: Development and implementation of HR Strategy which is aligned with business objectives and supports business strategy delivery through all professional HR functions in a responsible way.
2. HR Stakeholder Engagement: Identify all direct and indirect stakeholders of the Human Resources function in the business and engage with them in different ways to ensure complete understanding of their needs and aspirations, and ensure responsiveness to theses needs.
3. Personnel Planning and Resourcing: Analyse the long-range resourcing needs of the business in the context of changing market and business dynamics, and manage processes to ensure that people with the right skills are available as needed to perform tasks as required.
4. Organizational culture: Promote the development of an ethical, inclusive and diverse organizational culture based on respect and values, in which all are able to contribute in a context of open information and dialogue, acceptance of continual change and focus on professional leadership and personal accountability.
5. HR Functional Contribution: Develop, deliver, monitor and measure processes and tools to ensure effective attraction, recruitment and retention, training and development, remuneration and reward, performance management, and employee relations in the business, in line with the principles and practices of social and environmental responsibility.
6. Internal Communications: Ensure a high, dynamic and interactive level of internal communications in which all employees are engaged and can feel part of the business community.
7. Sustainability: Ensure the HR function is aligned with the business's sustainability strategy by providing sustainability awareness training for all employees, and developing HR programmes which support Sustainability strategy, which may include community involvement and volunteering programmes and environmental activities undertaken by employees, amongst others.

Key Measures of Job Outputs

1. Employee Satisfaction and Inclusion
2. Employee Diversity
3. Stakeholder Satisfaction with the HR Function contribution
4. Adherence to Ethics and Values by employees
5. Attraction, Recruitment and Deployment Effectiveness
6. Employee Health and Safety and Well-Being
7. Employee Retention and Turnover Rate
8. Individual Skill Development (training)
9. Performance Review Implementation
10. Employee Engagement in Internal Communications
11. Employee Volunteers and Hours Volunteered in the community
12. Employee contribution to reduction of the business's Environmental Footprint

Key Knowledge, Skills and Competencies required to meet the job requirements


Knowledge and Skills :
• Business strategy, processes, performance drivers, risks and opportunities
• Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility principles and practices
• Business and sustainability issues in the wider societal context
• HR Strategy Development
• Stakeholder Engagement and Dialogue Processes
• HR Functional development and implementation expertise in all HR sub-functions
• Human Rights, Labor Codes, Health, Safety and Well-being frameworks
• Communication tools including advance application of social media internally and externally


Competencies :
• Leadership, clarity of purpose, long-term thinking and visioning skills
• Ability to challenge the system using an inquiring mind and analytical skills
• Listening, Mediating, Integrating and Influencing skills
• Commitment to help people grow and develop (in alignment with business needs), and a passion for business with social and environmental responsibility
• Outstanding proliferate communicator via diverse channels
• High degree of integrity, personal ethics and commitment to social justice
• Optimism and a sense of humor

(NB: I did not add Chunky Monkey addict as a key competency, though, of course that helps).

Any of you CSR Leaders or HR Professionals out there with a view on the above ?

elaine cohen is the CEO of Beyond Business, a leading social and environmental consulting and reporting fitm. Visit our website at www.b-yond.biz/en

What still went wrong

One of the common criticisms levelled at CSR Reporting is the focus on good news. Few Companies rise to the challenge of presenting a  balanced report which provides stakeholders with a full picture, including aspects of their sustainability performance which cannot be described as entirely positive. So imagine how refreshing it was to find one company who actually includes a page in their report entitled "What still went wrong". Can you guess who ? I doubt it.

The What Still Went Wrong Company is Royal DSM N.V. and their Sustainability Report for 2009 includes a rather painful page (number 66) of mini-disasters in the field of Safety, Environment and Health. We are treated to stories about an operator whose finger tip was sliced off when he was replacing a gear wheel on a production machine, one who burnt his ankle when he stepped into an open duct with hot condensate, another who was bitten by a venomous snake which is the source of venom proteins for use in treatment of cardiovascular disease, and some poor guy who had an electric cabinet weighing 1600 kg fall on this "torso region". We hear about  near misses such as when a fork lift truck fell of a dock, and a worker who fell through a roof and saved himself by hanging by his elbows at a height of 8 meters (elbows?)  DSM tell us about environmental blips such as the runaway reaction in a storage tank which released decomposition products of chloroacetaldehyde, and yeast broth emissions through a chimney which contaminated the surrounding neighbourhood.

DSM, a Life Science company, employs nearly 23,000 people and has what appears to be a positive and improving safety record, with clear processes in place to prevent and manage safety incidents and near-misses.  What Still Went Wrong does not include any fatalities. And yet, having your finger chopped off during routing maintenance, or breaking your collarbone (yes, that too) are not the sort of things you expect to have to deal with when you pack up your lunch box for another day on the job. The safety of employees is one of the most important aspects of corporate responsibility. But you knew that. So does DSM.

So why include these horror tales in their CSR report? First, being responsible is being transparent. Good news or bad, if it is material, it needs to be told. Even a lost finger tip impacts the quality of a person's life. Second, DSM is boldly going where almost no other Companies fear to tread. By highlighting these incidents. DSM is demonstrating that they are not perfect, in the same way that no Company who issues a Sustainability Report is perfect. Every Company has safety incidents, some far worse. Some simply record numbers of fatalities as a statistic with no further commentary. Most Companies avoid mentioning negative issues, in order to create the impression that they are perfect, when we all know that this cannot be. In this resepct, DSM shows leadership by highlighting issues of which it may not be particularly proud, but in doing so makes a public statement of commitment to do whatever in the Company's control to prevent recurrence. In this way, their reporting contributes to enhanced levels of trust in  the Company.

Whilst I am not advocating that all Sustainability Reports should contain a detailed hospital checklist of broken bones, near-fatal slips and falls, cracked skulls, animal bites and ingested poisons, I do applaud Royal DSM for bringing us down to earth and demonstrating that even with the best of safety practices, people are people, machines are machines, and things happen. Facing up to this reality, responsibly,  is the one of the Golden Principles of CSR. 

elaine cohen is the CEO of Beyond Business, a leading social and environmental consulting and reporting fitm. Visit our website at www.b-yond.biz/en

The CSR Report Tool-Kit

As the daughter of a carpenter, I always understood the importance of tools. They say that a bad workman always blames his tools. Well, in the case of CSR reports, it is worth ensuring that you have the right tools to start with.  I have compiled this set of essential tools for writing a CSR report.

A milled-head fibreglass curved claw hammer: CSR reporting involves much debate and dialogue. Often, it takes quite a while to achieve the clarity needed for a report. Prudent use of this tool will enable you to hammer out the issues in a thorough way, and deliver a report which has a clear message. Also, if during the process, you find that someone is not toeing the line, you can always hammer them to the wall.
A pair of Alpine Trail steel toe waterproof hiker boots from Timberland: CSR reporting involves a lot of getting around - physically visiting people in their own working environments to understand what they do, how they do it and what impact they are having. Often, to get to the people, you have to wade through mounds of other priorities. Sometimes you have to spend hours touring facilities and plants. A good pair of hiking books will get you to everywhere you need to go. Also, if during the proces, you feel the need to flee to the jungle because the pressure of it all is just too much to bear, this tool will be invaluable in navigating the rough terrain.
A teaspoon: CSR reporting is full of stress and time pressure. It is inconceivable that you would start to write your CSR report without a good stock of Chunky Monkey in your freezer. A teaspoon is the essential tool with which you can devour this essential nutrient at all stages in the process. Also, if you need to practise the powers of your super-consciousness in order to influence your stakeholders, bending a teaspoon a la Uri Geller will provide ample practice.
A tape measure: CSR reporting is about impacts. Positive and negative impacts. No worthy CSR report should see the light of day without effective tools for measuring impacts. This is where the tape measure comes in. You need to measure the amount of space in your report given to measures and indicators. Also, during the proces, if you have gone overboard with the teaspoon (see above), you might need to measure the circumference of your middle-body to determine the unforeseen impact of the stress of it all.
A sorghum-made broom with a long handle:  CSR reporting should not be a regurgitation of information which was previously reported or information which is already in the public domain. A good broom will help you sweep away all the irrelevant material and get to your report  with clean and fresh content. Also, if during the process, you fall in love, you can use the broom to sweep the target of your affections off their feet.
An ergonomic titling-handle power spade: CSR reporting is about transparency. Not everything that should be transparent in your CSR report is easily available.This spade is one of the most useful tools you can add to your CSR Reporting toolkit. It will help you dig deep, deeper and deepest to uncover all the details of what your Company is actually doing in the sustainability arena, both positive and less positive. Armed with everything you have dug up, you will be able to present a fair and balanced view of your Company's sustainability efforts. Also, if during the pocess, you find the need to speak in plain language, you can avoid all the CSR-Speak by calling your spade a spade.
A recycleable fine mesh sieve:  If you have decided to include a materiality analysis in your CSR report, and this is a good thing, then you will need to filter out all the non-material issues in a fairly energetic way. This essential tool will allow the efficient out-filtering of all the information that no-one is all that interested in anyway. Also, if during the proces, you need to separate the men from the boys, this sieve will come in very handy.
Rose quartz: The CSR Reporting process can be emotionally challenging, and it is likely that you will face several interactions which could be personally stressul and shake your self-confidence. Rose quartz offers spirutual comfort and encourages you to believe in yourself, because you know that CSR Reporting is the right thing to do, despite all the nay-sayers  who will challenge your sanity. Also, if during the process, you are invited to a special party, you can always make yourself a rosequartz pendant to wear with that new organic cotton outfit you just bought. 

And the most essential tool in your CSR Reporting kit:
A vibrator: Here I am referring to a class of mechanical devices for uses such as signalling. The prudent use of such a device will enable you to check for greenwash and whitewash in your report and make sure that the content you publish is authentic, representative and reflective of the Company's sustainability activities. Also, if during the process, you .... well, somethings are best  left to the imagination.

elaine cohen is the CEO of Beyond Business, a leading social and environmental consulting and reporting fitm. Visit our website at www.b-yond.biz/en
 

Who stole the bees from Burt's Bees?

Burts Bees. Aspiring to be the Greenest Company on Earth. They have made a good start, apparently. The 2009 Corporate Responsibility Update of  their "very first" 2008 report, attests to year on year increasing revenues since 2004 , growth from 400 to 480 employees , increased post consumer recycled product in packaging, lighter weight packaging, and reduced use of PVC, total electricity reduction by 21%, total water reduction of 20% , and a "net normalized reduction" of GHG's (normalized means factoring in sales growth ) of 33.5% versus base year which is 2006 (though actual total emissions versus 2006 were 5.7% higher in 2008) .   Burt's Bees give preference to socially and environmentally conscious suppliers, spend 28% of purchasing costs in their home state of North Carolina, and 1.39% to minority or women's businesses. Burt's Bees employees contributed 6,006 hours of volunteer time in 2008 and 2009, and the Company donated cash of $295,500 to charitable purposes , and $600,000 of product . Burts Bees team members love their work (those who responded to the employee survey rated their job 4 on a 1-5 scale) and 30% of the Company's executives and senior managers are women. Burt's Bees employees have a great safety record and practice yoga as part of the Company's well being program. The Company is engaged with partners such as Habitat for Humanity and Teach America and a wide range of intiiatives for the benefit of the community.And relations with parent Company Clorox are quite hunky-dory. OK. So far so good. Many good initiatives from this sustainability spirited Company and clearly strong efforts to manage their impacts. Their decision to issue an update  demonstrates a commitment to continued progress and a degree of transparency.

The question I kept asking myself as I read this report-update however was, where on earth are the bees? There is almost nothing about bees in this report. I expected to be totally blown away with bees. I thought I would read loads of hive-tales, pollen-stories, honeycomb legends, nectar anecdotes and, of couse, tributes to the Queen Bees. I hoped to learn about endangered bee species, colony collapse disorder (mentioned in  the 2008 report),and hive restoration expeditions. I thought this report would be quite buzzing with bees. I thought we would be inspired with sustainability learnings from drones and colonies of honey bees. Burt's Bees  has come  a long way since its beginnings as a Company in 1989. I took a look at  the products on their website. My eye caught the Mama Bee Belly Butter which is targeted at pregnant women with big bellies (though I suspect Chunkey Monkey regulars could benefit too, mentioning no names) but to my dismay, it is made from cocao butter though cera alba is listed in the ingredients list. Cerra alba ? Yes, you guessed it, Beeswax. I thought I might order some  Baby Bee Bubble Bath containing vanilla exract (no chocolate chunks) but no cire d'abeille (Beeswax in the language of the tricolor). So I went to the Naturally Ageless Intensive Repairing Serum to smooth out all those wrinkles (especially now that I am appearing on 3BL TV), but again, bees extract gives way to pomegranate extract. So, I think Burt has some explaining to do. Is this a Company about bees or what ? Who stole the bees?

Anyway, bees or bust, this update is a nice chatty summary, even though there are many aspects which I found confusing. The time period covered is not clear - Fiscal Year or 2008 or 2009 or half'n'half? DIfferent dates and time periods are referenced and it is not always clear to me what relates to what. The data presented is not detailed and left me wondering in most cases about the basis for calculation.  Whilst the trademarked Greater Good Burt's Bees Sustainability framework loooks graphically impressive, I cannot discern how it all hangs together in a clear strategy or workplan in each of the different dimensions. I lack a stated approach to strategy - goals, objectives, targets - presented in an orderly way. This report is a collection of snippets of good news, which is good news, I suppose, but I would have liked to have seen a more consistent buzz. I tend to think this review has been sort of force-fit into the form of a Sustainability Update, pieced together based on limited bits of information availabe.  It includes an aspirational reference to the GRI (and a somewhat meaningless table of how the 2008 report (not the update) broadly aligns with the different sections of the GRI framework. It doesnt hang together all that well, despite evidence of  continued progress. If the Company plans to introduce an update every interim year, I would find it easier to follow if conceptually it were a little sharper.  

Anyway, its hard not to get stung by Burt's Bees, and to admire them for their contribution to the pollenation of sustainability. In the meantime, I will just bumble along back to my apiology-free  corner, where life is positively buzzing.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

13 ways to show you love your employees in CSR reports

I have written about CSR-report-speak in the past. There is no doubt that the lingo of CSR Reporting is an art all of its own. One who reads many CSR Reports, as I do, develops the ability to discern the connection between the language and the performance. The high-level declarations need to be supported by substantive actions and data.

One of the areas in which CSR Reports are often the most slushy is when referring to employees. Whenever I read that "employees are our most important asset", frankly, I cringe. It's not true, and usually Companies who say this do not behave as though they believe it to be true. Should it be true? Are employees assets? Or are they partners? Stakeholders? People? Are they resources to be compared with the latest packing machine the Company purchased, or are they individuals which make the choice every single day to show up for work, and the degree to which they will contribute ? And believe me, after 8 years serving as a Human Resources VP, I can tell you that not ALL employees are best assets, and some are even significant liabilities. A definition of assets in the business world is: Any item of economic value owned by an individual or corporation, especially that which could be converted to cash.  Employees are not something you own. They are people you partner with. IMHO.

In reporting, which often, but not always, is a reflection of corporate culture and corporate language (depends how many copywriters were involved, I guess), there are also many ways to refer to employees: they may be personnel, or human resources, employees or simply, our people. They may be our team, or they may be our associates, our partners or our colleagues.  One banking report even refers to employees as the Bank's Men and Women. Guess they don't employ giraffes, huh?

Here are some of the ways Companies express their commitment to employees in their CSR and Sustainability Reports. If you are writing a report,  you can use this as a crib sheet. There are only so many ways you can declare your love for your employees. What is more important though, is what you do and say after you have selected the words.

Outkumpu Annual Report 2009
Outokumpu's success is based on the company's most important asset, our personnel. The Group's renewed People strategy aims to attract, retain and develop Outokumpu people globally, enhancing both their motivation and their ability to support the Group in its vision of becoming the undisputed number one in stainless steel.
Merck Sustainability 2008
Merck's ability to deliver on our strategy is dependent upon our employees — they are our single greatest asset.
H&M 2008
We provide our colleagues with the opportunity to grow and develop within H&M, providing training wherever possible.
Henkel Sustainability Report  2009
Our global team is our most important asset for a successful future.
Thomas Cook Sustainability Report 2009
The sustainability of our business depends on our employees: they are the people who turn a trip into a dream holiday for our customers. Therefore we aim to recruit the best and to keep them with us.
Marks and Spencer 2009
To encourage a successful business we need to develop and reward our people, retaining our reputation as an employer of choice.
Novartis Corporate Citizenship Report 2008
Novartis endeavors to promote the livelihoods of its associates and to be a good neighbor in the communities where it operates. Through our commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, we foster equality of opportunity, fairness and mutual respect. We strive to give our associates opportunities to grow and realize their full potential, and create an environment of continuous performance improvement and personal development.
Wainwright Bank 2009
As the bank has expanded we have consciously created an environment that provides all our employees freedom to be themselves.
Lindstrom Sustainability Report 2008
Lindstrom is an employer that looks after the well-being of its personnel.
TNT Annual Report 2009
TNT's employees are key to delivering TNT's results which is why TNT invests significant efforts to ensure that it provides a safe and attractive working environment. 
Banco Populare Di Milano Group 2008
Given the importance attached to the individual and in the awareness that happy, motivated men and women represent a major competitive advantage for the Bank, we have always invested in initiatives that enhance the level of internal wellness.
Gap Inc 2009
When asked where they work, more than 134,000 people around the world can say, “Gap Inc.” We want them to say it with pride. It’s our intent to create a workplace culture that encourages every individual to: “ Wear your passion.”
British American Tobacco Report 2008
Attracting, developing and retaining talent is key to our ambition to be a winning organisation. Given the nature of our industry, having a strong and clearly differentiated reputation as an employer is critical to our long-term business sustainability.

Having said this, any Company who says "our employees are our greatest asset" AND provides Chunky Monkey as a basic employee benefit, would be forgiven.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en 

Sustainability Education starts at home

Practice what you preach! That's not a bad doctrine to live by, right? Which in my case, means, amongst other things, educating my kids about sustainability, and in particular, sustainability reporting. In recent weeks, my kids have been witness to me making video blogs for 3BLTV. Or should I say, making thousands of video blogs for the recycle bin for every single video blog that actually makes it to 3BL TV. (If I sold all my out-takes, I would be able to feast on Chunky Monkey every day till I reach the age of 324).  If you havent checked out 3BL TV yet, the most exciting video CSR news and commentary channel available on the web, starring accomplished experts such as Christine Arena, Fabian Pattberg, Chris Jarvis and David Connor, then you should so so soon. The CSR Minute starring Emily Polk is a great way to keep updated whilst you are eating your sustainable cornflakes, and the CSRUnscripted and CSRReport channels are exactly what you need to reactivate those tired brain-cells when you sense they are short on inspiration and new insight. If we dont make it to the Oscars next year, I may have to take up making movies about war and violence. To save me from that, please watch a great team of experts, and me, on 3BL TV.


Anyway, back to preaching. Sustainability Education begins at home. My nearly 12-year old daughter Eden is always keen to learn. See her first lesson in this short video. Very short. I think we will  postpone lesson number 2 till she's 19.




elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en  

Whose report is it anyway ?

In support of International Women's Day, and women everywhere, I was asked to write a piece for the GRI Blog. I did. you can find it HERE. Happy Day, gals!

In preparation for this piece, I chatted some with Maria Sillanpaa, as you can read on the GRI Blog.

But sometimes, valuable insights are worth two blops.

In talking about reporting, Maria mentioned her frustration with clients who tell her: "WE MUST do a GRI report!"  Maria's response is : " By all means write a report, but do YOUR report. "

Maria is a staunch advocate of transparency and reporting, and sits on the Technical Advisory Committee of the GRI. She knows her stuff. And, here, she is right. The GRI is a framework to assist in preparing a Sustainability Report, not a checklist around which you build your report. Before you even think of whether you are responding to EN9, LA4 or 4.13, you should be thinking about your sustainability story, the concept of your report and how the way you want to tell your story and  aligns with your Company mission, spirit and culture. If you would like your report to reference the GRI framework, at some point, yes, you need to check how you are doing against the GRI indicators. But if you succumb to the temptation of blindly following the framework and producing your report as a list of answers to 100-and-something clauses and indicators, you will end up with a dull summary of activitiy which energizes no-one, including you.

If you are writing a report, remember that it belongs to YOU, not to the GRI. Make it unquestionably yours. Use the GRI framework as a tool but not as a straightjacket. Whose report is it anyway?

Thank you Maria for this insight !

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

No News is Good News? Sustainability at Bloomberg

Bloomberg have a new sustainability mini site. It's about how the folks at Bloomberg are creating a sustainable Bloomberg. Over 10,000 folks in 135 offices around the world. They call their programme BGreen, and aspire to use Bloomberg's influence to create  a low carbon economy. It's fairly short and to the point. This is EVERYTHING it says:

• Bloomberg has reduced waste to landfill by 15%
• Green Energy purchase and IT savings have reduced electricity by millions of Kilowatts by doing things such as switching lights and computers off when not in use.
• Bloomberg have reduced their  "transportation" carbon footprint with 50 Bloomberg employees biking to work in Frankfurt and in general, using trains instead of flights where possible, shuttle buses instead of cars, and alternative shipment instead of air.
• Bloomberg has a plan to save 15 million gallons of water per year (15% of total consumption) via employee education, bathroom retrofits and rainwater capture.
• Materials used in location designs include environmental considerations.
• Bloomberg plans to make a 50% carbon emission reduction by 2013 (using 2007 as a baseline).

I find myself wondering if they created this flashy minisite just for this. I mean, it could all fit on one web page. It hardly even fills a blop. So I went back to the beginning to see if there was something I had missed. And then all was clear. This is what the introduction page says:

Bloomberg is a leader
Bloomberg is visionary
Bloomberg is progressive
Bloomberg is sustainable

Well. There is nothing that resembles leadership, vision or progressiveness in this glossy virtual brochure. And it only marginally resembles sustainability. If this were a news item, it wouldn't make the freebie edition. 

So now I find myself wondering what they had in mind when they put up that site. Who is it for ? What is its purpose? Perhaps one of the 10,000 Bloomberg Green employees might see this post and tell me.

And yet, there is something to be said for starting where you are. If this is where Bloomberg is, and credit where it's due, even this is better than nothing and probably took some effort to achieve, and it's far better to talk about it now than to wait until they become leading, visionary, progressive and sustainable, which, by the look of things, is gonna take some time.

My message to Bloomberg: Great. So far so good. Now its time to make NEWS out of your sustainability program.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

It's a CSR report, not a Megillah!

Tomorrow is the Jewish festival of Purim. I was wondering what lessons Purim holds for CSR reporting.
Purim commemorates the escape from anniliation of the Jews by Haman, the Prime Minister of Persia way back when. Haman's plot was discovered and avoided by Ester, the Jewish Queen of Persia. Haman was hanged and Ester who had shown great bravery in revealing the plot became a heroine. That's the short version.
The Purim story celebrates freedom from oppression of indigineous peoples, the protection of human rights, right over wrong, integrity, and the power of women to save the world. No wonder, every year, Jews around the world celebrate Purim. Purim celebrations typically revolve around several customs. 

• The first is that everyone dresses up in fancy dress. This is an ancient custom, deriving from, as one of  the theories goes, the fact that Ester disguised herself in order save herself and her community.
• The second is that we eat Hamantaschen - this is a three cornered pastry which commemorates the hat that Haman, the evil oppressor, wore.
• The third is that we make a lot of noise using things called Graggers. This is usually done during the reading of the Megilla (see next custom).
• The fourth is the reading of the Megilla. This is the story of Purim that is read in synagogues. The thing about the Megillah is that it's really long and takes forever to read. Know the expression ?  "Spare me the details, dont give me a Megilla!" 

As you can by now appreciate, the lessons for CSR reporting are clear.

• Don't try to dress up your CSR report as something it is not. The day after Purim, with no fancy dress, you are excactly what you were before.
• The three corners of the Hamantashen remind us to balance our report with the triple bottom line, rather than just concentrating on environment or social aspects.
• Making a lot of noise is not what CSR reporting is all about. Your report should contain relevant material content.
• And finally, your CSR report should not be a megillah. It should be as consise enough as possible compatible with ensuring the right information gets through.

I thought I would celebrate some reporting megillahs! Some of the  longest reports I have come accross are: 

GoLite 2009 Sustainability Report - 159 pages - GRI A+. This includes 16 appendices but there is a one-page executive summary which you can make do with after you have downloaded 27 megabytes of PDF.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters - 2005 report - this was their first report with 175 pages. (Subesquent reports are somewhat shorter!)

And then there is the all-time award-winning classic by Vodafone - a 378 page absolute Megilla - the Vodafone Group 2007 Report.

But then, making a Megillah of your report may just help it win an award, according to Spada's research on Trends in FTSE 100 Environmental Reporting published in 2008. This has been true for Vodafone and Green Mountain reports - time will tell about GoLite.

In the meantime... if you want to make a Megilla of your report, remember that people may only read it once a year, at Purim! And whist they are doing so, they will be making a lot of noise with the Graggers. Maybe, after all, it might be best to focus on material content ! Happy Purim!

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en 

A merger of value and values

Now that I have got the hang of embedding slideshare presentations in my blog posts, I wanted to share with you the story of a non-profit merger which I have been supporting in my consulting work for the past 9 months or so. I am referring to the establishment of Leket Israel, Israel's only non-profit umbrella organization whose mission is to alleviate food insecurity through providing hundreds of food non-profits (who provide meals and food supplies directly to the needy) with a consistent supply of safe and nutritious food of all types, and supporting these non-profits through capacity building training, advice and resources. Leket Israel's operation is truly outstanding and an exemplary social AND environmental net positive impact organisation. Leket's positive Social impact comes through ensuring more people have access to basic nutritional requirements and increasing levels of food security in Israel. Leket's positive Environmental impact comes through massively reducing food waste by rescuing food and ensuring it gets to people who need it.  

The food comes from 4 sources:

• Gleaning of agricultural fields and salvaging fruit and vegetables which would otherwise be left to rot, or salvaging fresh produce which cannot be sold from packing houses.
• Rescuing catered meals from a wide range of venues including large catered events,  corporate dining drooms, restauraunts and even Army bases. The rescued meals are, of course, those which have not been served to the table and remain in their original catering packing.
• Collecting unsalable manufactured food products from food manufacturers and importers - these are typically products which are close to sell-by date but risk reaching expiry date by going through the regular supply chain to groceries, or products which have wrong labels or similar issues which don't affect the quality of the contents. 
• Operating a collective purchasing program, whereby food non-profits can purchase food (which they will distribute to the needy, to supplement donated food) as part of a collective operation run by Leket, and achieve up to 30% in savings versus regular food purchase prices.

Leket Israel employs around 70 staff and engages tens of thousands of volunteers each year in the gleaning program and food rescue collection and distribution (much of which is at night time). In 2009, the combined organisation  provided over 10 million meals in this way. That's one meal per day every day for over 25,000 people suffering from food insecurity. That's over 12 million lbs of food which would otherwise have become carbon-emitting organic waste.

At the beginning of 2010, Leket Israel was formed through the merger of two organisations, which you can see in the following presentation :

Non-profit Merger - Leket Israel

View more presentations from elaine cohen.

Back in 2006, I had the privilege of consulting to one of the merger partners ("Leket: the Israel Food Bank" - the collective purchasing arm)  (and in doing so, getting to know the other merger partner as well, "Table to Table", the food rescue arm). At this time, I supported the establishment of "Leket: The Israel Food Bank" after a year long and complex process of market research and dialogue with a wide range of stakeholders including facilitating several group discussions. I led the formulation of a comprehensive business plan which was used to secure funding for the establishment of "Leket: The Israel Food Bank" . Having completed my role, I was pleased to see the organization develop and increase its activity year on year.
 
During 2009, I was approached by the Chairmen of the two merger partners to assist in reviewing the viability of a merger between the two, and, if agreed, support the merger process and post-merger operational development. The result is a new organisation, "Leket Israel", bigger, better, more efficient,  and with a strong and optimistic future, as it consolidates the merger, drives synergies and significantly expands its activities. The name Leket refers back to the biblical commandment of leaving behind for the poor any grain that the harvesters’ sickles have missed.
 
The process of the merger is described in the presentation, so I won't dwell on that here. Suffice it to say that this is social entrepreneurship at its best. The issue of resource inefficiency in the non-profit world should not be underestimated. Non-profits, which look beyond the personal interests of the founders, or the ego of the key players, to focus on the optimal way to further a social mission, are the true leaders of this sector. In recent years there has been much talk about the convergence of the non-profit world and the business world. M&A's (mergers and acquisitions) are still a rare thing in the charity sector. I am sure that Leket's pioneering progress sets an example for many others. 

As a consultant, I have to say that this sort of work is both challenging and  immensely rewarding. The ability to work with philanthropists who are committed to a better future, visionary social leaders and  motivated and capable staff and volunteers is humbling. It remains  for Leket Israel to deliver their challenging 3 year work-plan  (supported by  a Scorecard measurement and metric process), and improve the understanding and measurement of the true scale of this organization's positive direct and indirect impacts . I am sure that, once an appropriate total measure of overall impact is established, the scale of positive contribution to society and environment will surprise even the founders.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en  

By Gum, Its #CSR

When was the last time you removed your knees from under a table and found a blob of Spearmint Gum stuck to one of them? When was the last time your foot stuck to your newly laid kitchen flooring, due to a pink blob of Bazooka joining the two together? When was the last time you noticed a smiling teenager casually chatting to friends, stopping for a second to curl his tongue to hurl a pellet of masticated Stimorol into the distant bushes? Or the last time you went for an hour of pastoral relaxation in the local park and observed the grass lawns littered with Freedent, Orbit and Winterfresh  wrappers? When was the last time you went fishing and fished a fish whose gills were stuck together with teeth-marked Juicy Fruit? When did you last put on your favourite blouse and notice that Hubba Bubba had got there first?

If I were a gum producer, I would consider the environmental effects of gum-chewing habits as one of my most material issues. Somehow, when sticky-substance gum manufacturer Wrigley says that Wrigley brands are woven into the fabric of everyday life, I dont think this was quite what they meant. Just see what the Chewing Gum Action Group in the UK has to say about gum droppers.  More importantly, what does Wrigley say about these undesirable effects of people who chew ? 

Apparently, chewing gum offers significant benefits:  Improving Oral Health, Diet and Weight Management, Improving Focus, Contentration, Alertness and Stress Relief. Sounds to good to be true. Chewing gum never did all that for me ! Maybe I need to improve my chewing technique.

The Wrigley Sustanability Report for 2008 does indeed include a paragraph on Wrigley's initiatives to promote responsible disposal of chewing gum, and Wrigley is a member of NGO associations  which support keeping our planet beautiful, including above-mentioned Chewing Gum Action Group. Including anti-litter logos on chewing gum wrappers since the 1930's doesn't seem to have quite done the job. This issue is treated in a remarkably low profile way and seems to me to be inadequate in terms of a Company accepting true accountability for the way its products are used. Have any of Wrigley's activities actually impacted the amount of Chewing Gum litter that invades our lives? The Success Stories of the 2008 Action Group Campaign include some impressive case studies, such as one in the Test Valley Borough Council in the UK where a 62% drop in chewing gum drops (deliberate pun) was observed, though this begs the question of how long this improvement can be maintained. It also seems like a bit of a drop in the ocean (yes, another pun).

I was wondering what creative ways Wrigley could develop to encourage a long-lasting sustainable system for responsible gum disposal:

Recycling: yes, recycle your gum. Wrigley could wrap gum in reusable wrappers so that you can pop your gum into your pocket and whip it out the next time your jaws have the urge to reactivate.
Upcycling: Wrigley could develop a side business of hardened-gum-based products - such as cell-phone casings, laptop shells, shoe soles, lighting fixtures etc
Culture: Wrigley could commission an exhibition at the Tate of gum-art using only chewed gum. Gum lovers would flock in their thousands to admire the exhibits (and create more on-the-spot)
Sealant product line: Wrigley could make a range of products using gum for sealing purposes for application with car tyres, car radiators, water pipes, leaking roofs etc.
Defence systems: Wrigley could offer used reinforced chewing gum in the manufacture of air-to-ground missiles for use against aggressive land forces.
Space exploration: Use of chewing-gum based shells for space shuttles for planetary discovery missions.
Child care: Innovative application for releif of hyper-verbalism in the under-10's  (attach to lips of kids and hold shut for 3 minutes). Works also for CEO's.
Gastro-intestinal problems: Diarhoea releif. Take a hardened blob of chewing gum and stick it .... oops, enough said.

Wrigley could also become pioneers of sustainable gum innovation such as Swallowable Chewing Gum, or Self-Destructing Chewing Gum, or Chewing-Gum-that-turns-into-Dollar-Bills-after-300-chews.

Whatever method Wrigley decides to adopt to ensure that the inevitable consqeuences of its core business contribute a Net Sustainability Gain (see previous post:)), I would like to think that it is s more than Wrigley does now, which seems to be a little, well, half-chewed.  

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en  

CSR leaders or hypocrites?

Martin asked the questions on Twitter. "What do you think of alcoa? hypocrite? trying to do the right thing? CSR leader?" and of course I can never resist a direct invitation to respond.

I was in the middle of writing my response to this post by Amelia Timbers to which he referred, but my reply was getting rather long, so here it is in full uninhibited Reporting Blog style.

Amelia described how the Aloca Company is a great CSR communicator, progresses great CSR programs and appears to be doing all the right things, with the exception of a highly criticized smelter build in Iceland which apparently was in conflict with good environmental practice. Amelia says: "The reality is that, even at its cleanest Alcoa still may be a top polluter.", and that we should give them credit for trying. 

I admit that I didn't know too much about Alcoa, it's not one of the Companies or sectors I track. However,  Amelia's post could be written about many Companies that are advanced in CSR practices and communications, but, are apparently not perfect. If the only way to achieve no impact is to stop doing business, then we are being unrealistic about what CSR and sustainability means. What we should be aiming for is a business which delivers more benefit to society via its core activities than the damage it does - e.g. a Net Sustainability Gain. Unless we are all prepared to go back to being cavemen (and women), (come to think of it, Fred and Wilma seemed to have a great ole time), we will always have industry which pollutes, uses non-renewable resources and creates inequal economic and social benefits. Even the best of social and environmental life-cycle thinking will not eleminate all the direct impacts of all businesses.

Of course, there are no good tools to calculate the NSG (Net Sustainability Gain) (this is my term - you saw it here first ! - good - eh ?) of a Company, so all we can do is make a judgement. Amelia refers to the many awards and high places in sustainability rankings that Alcoa has won, questioning whether this could be an indication of their  CSR standing relative to other Companies. But I have long since maintained that sustainability rankings serve the rankers more than the ranked. They are all positive, in  that they highlight some aspect of sustainability performance and serve to drive awareness and competitiion for higher ranking. but by and large, they do not give us a balanced or complete picture. The only ranking from which we can hope to gain true insight  is the calculation of a Company's  total Sustainability Impact and the advances it is making to improve this, against its own performance. It is not for a business to legislate itself out of business. If aluminium, or tobacco, or alcohol, or gambling  or defence systems are inherently undesirable or unsustainable businesses, Governments should outlaw them. Until they do, what we can expect of such businesses is to do what they do in a way which maximises their contribution to society and their NSG. (Net Sustainability Gain). The methodology for making such a calculation sounds impossibly complex, though some basic tools exist, such as the GRI performance indicators, SROI tools and so on. But no combination of these today goes quite far enough to bottom out all Sustainability Performance impacts into one multiple bottom line equation which is meaningful in any way.

You can read the Alcoa 2008 Sustainability Report online. Alcoa has reported on Sustainability since 2003, both at global and individual country level. They conduct Stakeholder Engagement panels and report openly on the feedback they have received. They give voice on their website to over 70 employees of different levels and regions. They have gone from 2% women senior executives to 14% in 10 years. They have reduced absolute carbon emissions by 36% since 1990, and significantly reduced absolute levels of energy and water consumption. Yes, they seem to be doing a lot of the right things and getting a lot of the right results. But, yes, producing aluminium cannot be done without taking something from the planet. Just as none of us can live without doing the same. (Unless, perhaps, we are Fred and Wilma).

As a consultant, I work with many types of Companies and sectors, including those who are not the sexiest or the most obvious in terms of sustainability. It's sometimes a challenge. But, for me, a Company who demonstrates year after year a commitment to dialogue, accountability and transparency, in pursuit of its own NSG (Net Sustainability Gain) improvement, and delivers tangible measurable results, earns my respect.

Thank you to Amelia for the inspiration for this post, and to Martin for inviting me to repond. Got more than you bargained for, huh?

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en  

7 Reasons CSR consultants should use social media

I have been asked to give a talk to a Forum of CSR consultants about why CSR consultants should use social media in order to ... well.. become better CSR consultants. I thought I would do a little test. I have prepared and posted my presentation to Slideshare, and it will be interesting to see how many CSR consultants who attend my talk will have picked it up before the talk. Should I make a little wager with myself? Hmm, I will guess no more than 10%. Otherwise, what would be the purpose of me going to talk to them? Duh!

Anyway, I apologise for the rather self-congratulory nature of the content, but the easiest way to give examples of how social media adds value for CSR consultants was to give examples from my own activity, because I find social media enriching, rewarding, educating, entertaining, (time-consuming), (addictive), challenging, enlightening, fun and always adding value to the knowledge, awareness, insights, information and service I can bring to my clients. I have taken real recent examples from my #csr life on social media, and included tweets, facebook and other conversations. I would like to thank all the unwitting partners in my social media engagement for providing me with material for this talk, and hope they will retroactively grant me permission to use their stuff in my presentation.

Here is the presentation.

7 Reasons CSR Consultants should use Social Media

View more presentations from elaine cohen.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en

GRI Reporting Levels 101

You have decided to report. A first report. You have made a preliminary decision to report in line with GRI Reporting Application Levels. Then you have to decide:  declare a reporting level or not declare a level or just state that your report is in the "spirit of " the GRI? What's the difference between all these and why is it important? How do you make the decision for your Company? And how do you, as a reader of reports, view the ways Companies choose to select levels.

For the lay reader, this may all be gobbledygook. Or gookygobble. Or simply gooky. What the lay reader wants is a good reflection of the Company's sustainability practices and impacts, in language s/he can understand, in as comprehensive way as possible without including next week's shopping list. Whether the Company has responded in full or in part to indicator EN27 or clause 4.9 or LA5 is really not significant. If the report communicates well, is complete and credible, the lay reader will not discern the nuances of GRI reporting adherence. I suspect that 90% of readers are lay-readers. But that's just a very wild guess.

So why all the fuss about Reporting Levels?
Wait .. not so fast ......

A quick explanation of reporting levels:
The GRI Framework includes 42 background company profile etc blurb disclosures and 79 Performance Indicators in 6 categories (economic, environment, human rights, labor standards, product reponsibility, society) Download here a one page crib-sheet of all the indicators.

A level: This is the most transparent level of reporting.This means the Company responded in full to all the indicators in the GRI G3 framework, including any relevant published sector supplements. In addition, the reporter must include an index of the GRI framework, indicating where the reader can find the information for any specific indicator.  There is a small loophole: If a reporter decides not to disclose on a specific indicator, or doesn't have the full data available, then an A level can still be claimed if the reporter explains why there is no disclosure and offers some sort of intention to disclose in the future eg. We have not yet fully calculated our carbon footprint, but we intend to do so by 2015. In theory, one could claim an A level report by disclosing absolutely nothing and promising to do so years hence. In practice, though, different Companies do skip certain indicators, but these are only a few per Company. 

B level: This is a reasonable level of transparency. This means that the Company has disclosed all the Company profile blurb required by the first part of the GRI Framework and has selected 20 of the 79 additional indicators with at least one from each category.Sector supplements are not mandatory at this level. SImilarly, non-disclosure is acceptable if there is a good excuse explanation. An index must be included as for level A.

C level: This is hardly transparent at all. The Company must disclose 28 of the 42 profile disclosures, and 10 of the 79 performance indicators. This is so not a stretch that its suitable only for first time, small business reporters only who want to get on record that they have reported, demonstrate that they are thnking in the right way about sustainability, and provide a basis for future more ambitious reporting. An index must be included as for Levels A and B.  

(At all these levels, reporters may include external assurance and earn a + (A+, B+, C+). But dont get me started on assurance .....).

Undeclared level: This could be any of the above level of transparency. The reporting Company is unsure of the reporting level or for whatever reasons doesn't want to state a level (perhaps someone (like me) might check ). Instead, the Company includes a GRI Index and notes where everything is in the report.

"In the spirit of" level: This is "in the spirit of" transparency. This is a Company who says, OK, everyone is using the GRI so we had better do so too. But we really can't be bothered doing all the work of checking that we have responded to a list of indicators, and we really don't think the GRI Framework is all that big of a deal, so let's just say we were inspired by  the GRI, and everyone will think we are great. I call it the pot-luck level, as you never know quite what you will find in a report written in the spirit of the GRI. Also, there is usually no index.

Good. Now we have got all of that clear, how does a Company select the reporting level?

Six Commandments

Commandment One: Thou shalt not report at a level for which you do not haveth data.
Check your inventory of information. Work up the scale. Enough for C? Enough for B? Enough for A? If you have answered no to any of these questions, check whether you are close. In some cases, with just a small stretch, you may be able to get data for a couple of indicators wihtout too much additional effort.

Commandment Two: Honor thy bosses, so that your days may be long in the Company that thy worketh in.
In other words, check what level of disclosure your bosses permit.  You may have information, stories and data, but the bosses may not be all that comfortable just yet with sharing it with the world. Transparency is sometimes a little hard to stomach for some managers. Yes, there are actually people in business who don't believe that sooner or later a lack of transparency won't catch up with them.

Commandment Three: Thou shall not covet thy neighbours reporting level. 
There may be good reasons for reporting at a lower level,  You might wish to report at a lower level that you are capbable of, in order to leave room for the perception of improvement next time (!), or because you are not entirely sure of the way you might want to report your data long term, and perefer to leave some room for manoevre (especially if you are a first time reporter). Remember that you can declare a level and still report more than minimum number of indicators. Also, as a first time reporter, the energy that delivering the report will require may not leave much for doing an excellent job on aligning your indicators. So, you might prefer to reduce the challenge first time around and focus on content.

Step Four: Thou shall reporteth at a level no lower than what you dideth before. 
Each report must maintain or exceed previous reporting level.Forwards, not backwards. Didn't Einstein have a theory about that ?

Step Five: Thou shalt remain true to thine  soul.
Check who you are. If you are a major global Company who has been reporting for years and years, sticking at C or undeclared level is not all that impressive. Might as well just bite the bullet and go for an A.

Step Six: Thou shalt not existeth in a vacuum.
Check what your closest competitors are doing. If they reported A then you better report A. Right ?

Finally, when all is said and done, who really notices ? Often the reporting level is not about how truly transparent the Company is or wishes to be, but about market leadership and reputation and other external factors. A leading Company reports at A.  A mediocre Company reports at C.  (first-timers excepted). Or so it seems. Companies perceive A, B and C as a grade of their Company, not of their transparency. Which might be a good thing, actually. This leads to a kind of race for a transparency ranking which, whatever its motivation, is positive.  In the next revision of the GRI framework, either the GRI will eliminate Application Levels, or it will have to add a few levels higher than A so that more Companies can demonstrate higher levels of leadership (I am taking out a patent on that idea).

Finally , ok, final finally, what is more important than your A, B, C, U or Spirit report is what you actually tell your stakeholders and how comfortable with transparency your Company is. It's ok to take some time to build transparency, though preferably you will achieve A level transparency before the Apocalypse.  (Apocalypse = the date when B&J stop manufacturing Chunky Monkey).

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz/en