aspects of communication that relate to sustainability: communication of sustainability activities and achievements (the corporate social responsibility report), and the sustainability of an organisation's communications activities themselves.
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MNG81001Session1LectureTopic121.pptxMNG81001
Topic 12
Communication and sustainability
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When we consider the issue of communication and sustainability there are at least two important aspects of communication that relate to sustainability:
1. The actual communication of sustainability activities and achievements (sometimes called carbon footprint communications), and
2. The sustainability of an organisation’s communications activities themselves.
CSR (corporate social responsibility)
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The benefits of sustainability come from stakeholder empowerment, competitive edge in the market and sheer efficiency, all of which merit reporting widely to stakeholders. An increasing number of organisations in most industries now publish a sustainability report, which is also commonly referred to as corporate social responsibility (CSR) report.
Another aspect of communications and sustainability lies in the organisation’s own communication process. All organisations spend an enormous amount of time and money doing the work of communication. Companies are increasingly making use of videoconferences, voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) technologies, Skype and other substitutes for the frequent meetings that spur air travel.
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Telecommuting and working from home is becoming more feasible which means fewer cars are being driven, which reduces greenhouse gas production and perhaps an improvement in the personal quality of life.
Most organisations have now made the document aspect of communication much more efficient and lower in cost, with reports, for example, being published online and available for downloading, thus saving many trees and delivery activities. Or using the virtual team and thus minimising their carbon footprint.
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The environmental costs of producing media
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Whether these be the energy that powers Al Gore’s visually stunning presentations or the materials – wood pulp, ink, detergents, cleansing solvents – required for printing a newspaper, there are considerable environmental costs involved.
The media industry has slowly come to realise these costs, often as a result of prodding from NGOs like Greenpeace or in the form of policy (such as an organisation requiring carbon reporting for all its productions).
The print sector has elaborate mechanisms in place to use recycled paper and minimise the use of harmful toxins. Similarly, the film and television sectors have started to develop carbon calculators to allow productions to assess – and curtail – their emissions.
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To date, emissions reductions have focused on materials and practices that adhere to the traditional production pipelines for different sectors. The newspaper industry focuses on paper; broadcasting on the travel of journalists and crew; the film industry on production management.
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Most of the operations of contemporary media companies are now thoroughly digital. Films are shot on digital cameras, online workflows allow for centralised management of editing, newspapers are increasingly accessed online. Yet when these companies observe their environmental performance, digital operations often present a daunting challenge.
Many assume that digital media is more environmentally friendly than traditional forms. Yet it is not always clear what to include within these measurements. Considerations, such as the use of files and access to cloud services, provide complex challenges.
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Cloud services provide endless backups which are seen and marketed as a way to ensure one’s data is preserved indefinitely against disruption. But increasing information flow from servers to terminal devices and using remote hosting can lead to a considerable increase in the amount of energy used. Certainly, they provide for efficient corporate conduct and management of information, but they ignore the grounded realities of the data centres, still often partially powered by coal!
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What is Corporate Social Responsibility?
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CSR Defined
“Specifically, we see CSR as the voluntary actions that business can take, over and above compliance with minimum legal requirements, to address both its own competitive interests and the interests of wider society.”
Source: www.csr.gov.uk
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CSR: a commitment to integrate social and environmental concerns into a company’s business model.
CSR incorporates public and environmental interests into corporate decision-making.
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Three Principles of CSR
Sustainability: Are the company’s practices sustainable (will they last?)
Accountability: Is the company responsible for the effects of its actions?
Transparency: Is the company’s reporting clear, thorough, and transparent?
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The model for evaluating a company’s social performance is based on Carroll’s Pyramid of CSR and uses the following criteria:
Economic
Legal
Ethical
Discretionary or philanthropic
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Economic
The economic responsibility of a business is to produce the goods and services that society wants and to maximise profits for its owners and shareholders. The purely profit-maximising view is no longer considered an adequate criterion of performance.
Legal
Legal responsibility defines what society deems important with respect to appropriate corporate behaviour. Businesses are expected to fulfil their economic goals within the legal framework.
Ethical
Ethical responsibility includes behaviours that are not necessarily codified into law and may not serve the corporation’s direct economic interests. Unethical behaviour occurs when decisions enable an individual or company to gain at the expense of society.
Discretionary
Discretionary responsibility is purely voluntary and guided by a company’s desire to make social contributions not mandated by economics, law or ethics. Discretionary activities include philanthropic contributions that offer no payback to the company and are not expected.
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Evaluating corporate social responsibility
Total corporate social responsibility can be subdivided into the criteria of economic, legal, ethical and discretionary responsibilities
• economic responsibilities
The business institution is the basic economic unit of society. Its responsibility is to produce the goods and services that society wants and to maximise profits for its owners. A profit-maximising view argues that the corporation should be operated on a profit-oriented basis, with its sole mission to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules. This approach means that economic benefit is the only social responsibility.
• legal responsibilities
Legal responsibility defines what society deems important
with respect to appropriate corporate behaviour. Businesses are expected to fulfil their economic goals within the law. Legal requirements are imposed by: – local councils
– state and federal government
– federal regulatory agencies.
Organisations that knowingly break the law are poor performers in this category.
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• ethical responsibilities
Ethical responsibilities include behaviour that is not
necessarily codified into law and may not serve the firm’s direct economic interests. To be ethical, organisation decision makers should:
– act with equity, fairness and impartiality
– respect the rights of individuals
– provide different treatment of individuals only when relevant to the organisation’s goals.
Unethical behaviour occurs when decisions enable an individual or company to
gain at the expense of society.
• discretionary responsibilities
Discretionary responsibility is purely voluntary and
guided by a company’s desire to make social contributions not mandated by economics, law or ethics. Discretionary activities include philanthropic contributions that offer no payback to the company and that are not expected. Discretionary responsibility is the highest criterion of social responsibility because it goes beyond what society expects a firm to contribute to the community’s welfare.
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Ted Talk on CSR
https://www.ted.com/talks/harish_manwani_profit_s_not_always_the_point
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Source: https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/archive/pdf/en/sr_schematic-overview.pdf
CSR discussion
Define principles of social responsibility explaining in your groups what these principles mean. (Schematic overview of ISO 26000 Clause 4 – see Slide 7)
How can we recognise social responsibility practices of our company for your responsibility? Where can we get information?
Who are stakeholders? Who are they in your company for your responsibility? (Clause 5)
Why is the principle of engaging with stakeholders important for your responsibility?
What “social responsibility core subjects” relate to your responsibility? Describe them with examples. (Clause 6)
What characteristics of your company make it socially responsible?
Does your company say that they regularly review and try to improve their “organisations actions and practices related to social responsibility”? (Clause 7)
Do you think your company has sustainable development?
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How Do Companies Report CSR Activities?
A dedicated CSR section on the company website
A dedicated CSR team or department
The HR department
Business development section
Public Relations department
Directly via CEO and / or Board of Directors
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Some of the most common ways in which CSR is demonstrated:
Specialist ‘adopted’ projects
Corporate charitable donations
Voluntary schemes for staff
Staff fundraising activities
Changes to organisational operations
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World’s Most Ethical Companies
The Ethisphere Institute is a player in the crowded field of corporate ethics ratings. For the last nine years it has put out a list it labels the “World’s Most Ethical Companies.” The list is unranked and includes such companies as Gap Inc., Dun & Bradstreet, Adobe Systems and Colgate-Palmolive in the U.S., Tata Power in India, illycaffe spa in Italy and Brazil’s Natura Cosmeticos.
http://worldsmostethicalcompanies.ethisphere.com/honorees/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2015/03/19/the-worlds-most-ethical-companies-2015/#2492b1c92bed
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The OECD estimates that the middle class will grow from 1 billion people to 2,5 billion in the next ten years and 90% of them will come from China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Africa... L’Oréal’s ambition for the coming years is to win over another one billion consumers around the world by creating the cosmetic products that meet the infinite diversity of their beauty needs and desires, with a vision of universalising beauty.
In this context, they present "beauty-in’s", editorial platforms with textual and visual content offering an insight into Geo-cosmetics in the world: the culture of beauty in India, consumption habits in China, L’Oréal’s strategy in Africa, the role of the Indonesian plant in Asia, the success of luxury "Made in France”.
http://www.loreal.com/media/beauty-in
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The top ten least ethical companies in 2017 were:
Nestlé
Monsanto
Amazon
Shell
Tesco
Barclays
Exxon
Wal Mart
Coca Cola
Primark
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Union Carbide (1984)
Corruption scandals of the 1990s (Enron, Arthur Anderson, Shell)
Exploitation of overseas employees (Nike, Gap)
The GFC 2008-09
Making headlines for the wrong reasons
On the night of December 2, 1984, an accident at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, released at least 30 tons of a highly toxic gas called methyl isocyanate, as well as a number of other poisonous gases. The pesticide plant was surrounded by shanty towns, leading to more than 600,000 people being exposed to the deadly gas cloud that night. The gases stayed low to the ground, causing victims throats and eyes to burn, inducing nausea, and many deaths. Estimates of the death toll vary from as few as 3,800 to as many as 16,000, but government figures now refer to an estimate of 15,000 killed over the years. Toxic material remains, and 30 years later, many of those who were exposed to the gas have given birth to physically and mentally disabled children. For decades, survivors have been fighting to have the site cleaned up, but they say the efforts were slowed when Michigan-based Dow Chemical took over Union Carbide in 2001.
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Making Headlines For the Wrong Reasons
Chevron, the oil and gas behemoth, has been accused of tax evasion as well a number of environmental infractions in several countries around the world. But perhaps most controversial was a 1998 episode in Nigeria: after protesters took hostages as part of a demonstration against the company, Nigerian soldiers shot at the demonstrators, killing two. Chevron was accused of facilitating the transport of the soldiers, known for their "general history of committing abuses," to the scene. The company, however, was cleared of the charges in 2008.
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Throughout the late 1990s, Enron was almost universally considered one of the most innovative companies. Besides buying and selling gas and electricity futures, it created whole new markets for such "commodities" as broadcast time for advertisers, weather futures, and Internet bandwidth. At its peak, Enron was worth about $70 billion, its shares trading for about $90 each.
All that came crashing down starting October 2000, when the company admitted that it had misstated its income and that its equity value was a couple of billion dollars less than its balance sheet said.
On Dec. 2, 2001, Enron declared bankruptcy. Thousands of people were thrown out of work, and thousands of investors -- including most of the company's employees -- lost billions of dollars as Enron's shares shrank to penny-stock levels.
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The 1989 Exxon-Valdez oil disaster was an environmental catastrophe of unprecedented magnitude The 11 million gallon spill cost Exxon $4.3 billion. Laws at the time limited victim claims to those who had been physically impacted by the oil. Exxon’s lack of response response generated fierce opposition to its merger with Mobil a decade later.
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