CSR--It Works!

I've been putting off sharing my views on Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR.  Mainwaring dedicated a lot of space to this practice in We First, which simply puts corporations--or more poignantly, mega-corporations--into action creating and implementing programs designed to promote sustainability and offset some of the damage they do to communities, cultures, and the physical environment.  (Really, I think at this point in the semester I may release a number of short posts that I've been pointlessly sitting on since they'll otherwise just get stuck in dusty corners of my mind.  What's the point in that?)

While we covered this topic in readings and classroom discussions, I couldn't help thinking about that movie, "The Corporation."  Ever hear of it? If not, rent it now--it is so pertinent to what we've studied about the evolution of the corporate mentality and how they've slowly begun to shift from short-sighted "me first" capitalism towards something that resonates with the general/global public.  If you have seen it, you may remember Ray Anderson, the founder and CEO of Interface, the carpet company that made a huge shift from irresponsibly producing toxic carpet squares to a business model that earned Anderson the name "the greenest CEO in America."  Sadly, as I looked him up on the 'net I discovered that Ray Anderson died in August 2011.  What really impressed me about his commitment to social responsibility was that he managed to still turn a sizable profit in pursuing it:

“I always make the business case for sustainability,” he told the New York Times. “It’s so compelling. Our costs are down, not up. Our products are the best they have ever been. . . .And the goodwill in the marketplace — it’s just been astonishing.”

For me, that proves CSR can work, that it won't destroy a corporation's ability to keep shareholders happy while contributing to a sustainable environment.  Better yet, Anderson took this approach years before it was popular to be a nice guy in business, even though he said he was "still a plunderer, but only two-thirds as much as I was." If only more of his fellow CEOs could share his conviction for sustainability we could see an even greater shift in CSR than what's already happening.