Frankly CSR

There’s an incredible amount of activity taking place in the area of sustainable supply chains.  Because supply chain challenges are so broad, it is hard to capture the full scope of what’s happening.  In those situations, I tend to look for examples of activities that are having a real impact on business. Here are a few such examples: 

-        Wal-Mart, which has launched a host of sustainable supply chain programs,   implemented a new supplier packaging scorecard on February 1 that formally rates suppliers on their progress toward developing sustainable packaging, as well as their ability to help Wal-Mart reach its company-wide sustainability goals to reduce waste, use renewable energy and sell sustainable products. 

-        HP recently published a set of guidelines aimed at helping large corporations encourage sustainability throughout their supply chain.  The goal is to help multinationals better equip their suppliers – especially small and medium-sized business – to effectively compete in the global market while improving environmental standards. 

-        One of the organizations Lawson has been talking to about supply chain sustainability is the European Supply Chain Institute (ESCI).  ESCI is a member-driven organization that researches all areas that will have a direct, positive impact within the supply chain.  Last September, ESCI formed a new group called the Supply Chain Carbon Council to research issues related to carbon emissions in the supply chain and make recommendations.   

So what’s one of the main paths the Supply Chain Carbon Council is taking to help address carbon emissions?  Information technology.  Here is the Council’s position: 

“Businesses need to focus less on how IT contributes to their environmental impact and more on how IT can help lessen the environmental impact of their supply chain operations.  While making IT more green must remains a concern, there are areas where deploying more IT can significantly contribute to making an organization’s supply chain activities more environmentally sustainable.” 

I think this is an innovative strategy. Admittedly, I have a bias in this area because I work for a software company, but the reality is we need to approach our sustainability issues from many angles, and there’s a mounting belief that IT can be a key contributor. 

Jeff

We all want our views validated.  In the IT industry that often comes via analyst firms.  A year or so ago when Lawson began looking at the role IT in CSR, very few analysts were talking about it. That’s changing – quickly. Some recent examples include:

At its recent Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, Green IT topped Gartner’s list of the top 10 technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations in next few years.  Gartner focused primarily on hardware and data centers.  Green IT occupied the top 10 list with more “traditional” IT topics like business process modeling, metadata and Web platforms.

Forrester recently released a report entitled, Creating a Green IT Action Plan. It’s essentially a “how to” guide CIOs can use to create and implement Green IT programs.  The report has a broader perspective than just hardware and data centers, looking at the role of the IT organization in an organization’s overall CSR initiative.

AMR Research has probably done more than any analyst firm around the area of CSR and sustainability.  AMR launched a green technology research service in 2006 and most recently initiated the Sustainability Peer Forum. Introduced in August 2007,  the forum brings together a variety of environmental and sustainability industry leaders to share and discuss best practices, lessons learned and business strategies that support their sustainability efforts. 

I’m excited about how this focus by analysts will help validate the topic and drive the CSR message to more organizations.  In particular, I hope it will get IT professionals thinking about how they can lead the way.

Jeff

In my last post, I promised to share some thoughts on how IT can help organizations manage their CSR programs. Over the past year, I’ve been leading a project at Lawson focused on how business software, more specifically ERP solutions, can help organizations manage their growing array of CSR programs. Rather than try to cover this topic all at once, I plan to spread it over a few posts. 

 Lawson  has developed a CSR Solution Framework  to help companies add additional structure and thus derive value from their CSR programs.  While some may call it too ERP-centric, based on our assessment of what problems organizations are trying to solve around CSR, it is an objective, comprehensive approach. This post will focus on the foundation layer: ERP applications. A 2007 global CSR study by AMR Research found organizations are getting limited value from their ERP systems in helping them manage their CSR programs; however, the same study indicated many of those same organizations are looking to their ERP vendor(s) for solutions for their CSR initiatives.   I think it is safe to say that today most organizations probably manage CSR activities through a collection of disconnected spreadsheets, applications and databases.  Because ERP systems are often integrated and enterprise-wide, they are a logical foundation for managing CSR programs.  ERP systems manage the transactions that flow through the enterprise and strive to establish “one version of the truth.” In addition to eliminating the disparate spreadsheets, databases and other information silos, using an existing ERP system to manage CSR programs also enables organizations to generate a clear picture of which programs are generating the greatest return on their investment. In addition, Lawson  conducted a mapping exercise between the Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, a commonly recognized and accepted reporting standard, and the data tracked in our ERP applications.  We found a very strong correlation.  For example, GRI’s social reporting category focuses on areas such as age, gender, minority group membership, wage rates, rates of injuries, etc. In the Lawson  system, all of this data is maintained in a central repository and can be cross-referenced by factors such as department, geographic location, level in the organization, salary, etc.  Next time I’ll discuss the internal control system. 

Best, Jeff

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

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