Frankly CSR

As I mentioned in my previous posting, I’m in Australia for The Green CIO conference, as well as a three-day Lawson user group meeting for customers in Australia and New Zealand. 

The Green CIO conference was a very interesting event.  It included about 200 companies, media outlets, and vendors. The conference had a heavy focus on the environmental impact of hardware (mainly servers) and data centers. That isn’t surprising given that IT represents 2 percent of all electricity consumption in the United States; half of that is from data centers.  

Two presenters mentioned that IT’s environmental footprint is equal to that of the commercial aviation industry.  Of course, IT doesn’t have the same public relations issues as the commercial aviation industry because our environmental impact is a lot less visible to people.  

Reducing the energy consumption of hardware was cited as the “low-hanging fruit” of reducing IT’s environmental impact. That’s probably true, and I would never discourage organizations addressing that issue, but I hope they are also looking more broadly at the role IT can play around CSR. I tried to communicate that message in my presentation. The feedback I received from the conference organizers and participants was very positive, but let me know what you think. 

As I mentioned earlier, I also attended the Lawson Australia-New Zealand user group event. At the event, I delivered a speech very similar to my Green CIO conference presentation.  The roughly 150 participants were a mix of about 50 percent IT leaders and 50 percent business-line leaders. The feedback from participants was two-fold:

1) CSR is moving up on their priority list and is starting to (or already has) get the attention of their senior leadership.

2) They appreciated the insight on how business software can be used as a tool to help manage CSR programs. 

I’m not looking for sympathy, after all I am in beautiful Australia, but during my week in Sydney and on the Gold Coast it’s done nothing but rain. 

G’day mate! 

Jeff

I’m at The Green CIO conference, presented by CIO Magazine Australia, in Sydney this week. This is an innovative conference that Lawson became involved with as soon as we heard about it. The conference places a sustainability focus on a broad range of information technology topics, including IT strategy, hardware, software, data centers, and change management. I’ll be speaking on the role that business software can play in helping companies manage their CSR programs.

I’m not surprised this type of conference is taking place in Australia. From what I can tell based on a survey of Lawson’s Australian customers and by reading business publications from the region, Australian businesses seem to be ahead of the curve when it comes to CSR. For example, telecommunications and IT provider, Telstra has issued an Annual CSR Report since 2003 that rivals those produced by an investor relations team. It details the company’s social activity in relation to its customers, employees, communities, and marketplace. It’s a bit long, but worth the read.

I’m excited about the opportunity to interact with a group IT professionals who are thinking about sustainability. I’m sure it will be a great learning experience. I’ll report back on the conference next week.

Jeff

What do Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, General Electric and Nokia all have in common?  If you said they are all among the top five global brands, you are correct.  If you said they all publish sustainability reports using the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Sustainability Guidelines, you are also correct.

GreenBiz last week reported on a recent study by GRI that looked at the world’s top 100 brands, as ranked by Interbrand, and found 80 percent of the top 15 global brands publish sustainability reports using metrics developed by GRI. All of the top five brands mentioned above are included. This research adds to the rapidly growing list of reports I’ve seen connecting sustainability reporting and strong performance in the areas of brand, revenue, profitability and other key business measures.

This type of report will often elicit comments from observers such as, “Large, profitable companies can afford to undertake CSR initiatives and publish sustainability reports. That just isn’t practical for the rest of us.”  This implies that CSR became important only after the company became a global leader or as sustainability becomes more in vogue.  In almost all cases, that view is misguided.  

I know CSR has been a long-held core value for IBM. At Lawson’s Executive Forum (a conference for executives from our customer organizations) last March, we focused on the topic of CSR. We were fortunate to have IBM Vice President of Global Community Initiatives Paula Baker on hand to discuss the company’s CSR program. It’s a very impressive story. I would also point you to the March/April 2007 edition of CRO magazine, which had a cover story on IBM. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I should note that IBM is one of Lawson’s strategic partners but the reason I’m highlighting IBM is its commitment to sustainability.

It’s also important to note that sustainability reports are just a means of communicating with stakeholders. It’s the actual sustainability practices that ultimately have an impact.  While reporting can certainly help companies create a “green halo,” stakeholders will quickly see through reports that are not based on solid sustainability activities.

Jeff

Welcome to Frankly CSR.  Clever name, don’t you think?  Well, I can say the name accurately reflects my purpose for writing a blog:  I want to create a forum to share candid, relevant information and ideas on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).  It’s a concept that has been around for decades. However, a heightened interest in the role of business in society has resulted in organizations in all industries and regions of the world reevaluating how they impact their stakeholders. Closer to home, it’s become an area of focus for my company, Lawson Software, and a personal passion of mine. What should you expect? Fairly frequent postings. I’ll share my ideas and questions, comment on news items and provide links to other CSR sites. I’m a software guy, so my natural leaning is toward how information technology can play a role. I’m sure that will come across in my postings.  I hope you’ll be a frequent reader, and I welcome your comments.   Jeff