Beyond "Green"
The future viability of business demands a focus on people as much as planet.
By Michael Pinchera
The Human Rights Campaign—the largest U.S. gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights group—recently awarded the Raytheon Corp. a perfect score on its annual Corporate Equality Index for the third straight year. (In 2006, the aerospace and defense company became the first in its industry with such a ranking.) And corporate social responsibility (CSR) expert and One+ columnist Tim Sanders credits Raytheon's domestic partner benefits program, calling it the best he'd ever read.
Indeed, employee treatment plays prominently in the level of how responsible companies are perceived. Results of the 2008 Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient survey reinforce the value for companies to focus on the employee treatment aspect of CSR in order to build marketplace trust—Google ranked No. 2 in the survey's social responsibility section because of its innovative workplace, but it's not recognized in the top spots concerning support of good causes, the environment or communities.
Similarly, there is nothing socially responsible about Raytheon's business, many argue. And the "people" aspect of CSR is only part of the "triple bottom line" (people, planet and profit) that also encompasses social awareness, community support and planetary stewardship.
Among Raytheon's products are Stinger and Tomahawk missiles. The shoulder-launched Stinger missiles are often reported as being used by terrorists to attack civilians and/or military targets; Tomahawk missiles have been built specifically to deliver cluster bombs—numerous small munitions loaded into one primary projectile—and are viewed by many in the international community as just as dirty and careless a weapon as landmines since some cluster bomb submunitions scatter unexploded, detonating at a later date. In 1993, the U.S. General Accounting Office found a 2 percent to 23 percent range of failure for some cluster munitions. More recently, Human Rights Watch—a 30-year-old non-governmental organization (NGO) focused on human rights awareness—found a dud rate of 5 percent to 16 percent, depending on the exact type of munitions.
These details are all important to consider. Sanders says innovative CSR-minded companies will begin asking their business partners, "What are you doing for the planet and the community?" as social responsibility becomes more important.
With knowledge that Raytheon's products are harming civilians on a grand scale, positive employee treatment may not be sufficient to argue in favor of the company's social responsibility.
The "people" CSR component, Elizabeth Henderson, CMP, CMM, director of CSR for MPI, reminds us, includes those who work for an organization as well as people from the communities in which an organization impacts and does business.
Implementation is Innovation
Henderson believes strongly that planners can implement all three legs of the triple bottom line into their events.
"Starting small is a good idea, continuing to build and improve upon the program," she said. "And creating events that are more environmentally sustainable is an obvious place to start."
Amanda Gourgue, CMP, chief meeting revolutionist for New Hampshire-based Meeting Revolution, agrees that businesses need to start with small CSR initiatives.
"[Businesses] should have the big picture in mind, but work on some smaller tasks first," Gourgue said explaining that implementing CSR programs can be a large undertaking—overwhelming if only the big picture is looked at.
"Green" pieces are the most notable CSR elements garnering meeting industry attention because they're the easiest programs to start—recycling food, paper, metals and plastics doesn't necessarily require an effort or financial investment equivalent to volunteering the time and energy of your group. Precisely because green is the easiest element with which to begin, the other components of CSR need special attention.
Yet, in the space where two growing worlds (the meeting industry and CSR initiatives in business) collide, the latest and greatest CSR programs are not easy to define.
"It is hard to talk about innovative or cutting-edge CSR programs when many meeting professionals are just starting to get their arms around CSR," said Dominique Love, president of Atlanta-based Corporate Community Outsourcing. "So, at this point, implementing any CSR tactics beyond ‘greening' is innovation and a wonderful step in the right direction."
However vague CSR innovation in the meeting industry may be, evidence of the real-life, impactful actions of such initiatives are becoming easier to see.
"One program that still gives me goose-bumps today, is the Coca-Cola Company's 2007 McDonald's Division global business meeting in New Orleans," Love said.
Love and her staff designed and managed the "volunteerism" component but she says the meeting also included a lot of best practices across the CSR spectrum. The volunteerism element infused the group of 250 into a civic renovation project—the group fixed the Wesley Barrow Stadium field at Pontchartrain Park up to playing condition for use by three area high schools and a regional little league tournament.
Beyond volunteerism, the event's CSR footprint was enhanced with the procurement of services from as many local businesses and artists as possible, and a philanthropic endeavor that gave to the local parks and recreation department and bought the St. Augustine High School marching band new uniforms and equipment to replace items destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
According to Love, volunteer programs impact people the most.
"The ripple effect of volunteer service is underestimated," Love said. "At the most organic level, volunteerism promotes goodwill and is personally fulfilling. [It] can heighten a person's awareness of community needs and inspire further action—additional volunteering, donating financial resources, advocating for a cause and even making sure everyday actions benefit the greater good."
Love calls volunteerism "addictive and contagious" with the majority of volunteers repeating their service and bringing friends and family along to help.
"We also know those who volunteer are more likely to make personal donations to charity, which is a benefit beyond the volunteer labor," she said.
Gourgue reinforces this opinion, saying that people get the most impact out of a program in which they're physically immersed.
"When attendees see what an impact a couple of hours can do for a community, they start to understand what CSR is about," Gourgue said.
Attendees know that they made a difference in the lives of others and it makes them feel good, she says.
"Hopefully [attendees] will take those good feelings home with them and do community service in their own communities," Gourgue said. "It's the program that never stops giving."
Motives
At best, the Raytheon example indicates a major corporation offering world-class employee lifestyle benefits to attract the best available staff and gain an advantage in the looming war for talent; at worst, it shows a corporation using a CSR component to distract from a socially detrimental business.
Yet, as hungry as the masses are for more CSR, they're also wary.
In a 2007 survey of 140 Japanese opinion-leaders, including senior business executives, government officials, the media and NGOs, public relations giant Edelman found a significant divide in perceptions of CSR initiatives.
CSR is a reflection of corporations "changing the way they do business," according to 51 percent of stakeholders; 48 percent said corporations use CSR to "improve their images in the marketplace."
Regardless of sincerity, CSR activities are viewed as important tools for marketplace differentiation, the survey found. Still, organizations should tread lightly when implementing CSR programs for "market differentiation" alone—promoting such actions without true implementation of CSR ethos within could draw marketplace ire.
"'Greenwashing' is a term used when a manufacturer or service provider makes a claim about the environmental benefits of its product/service without foundation," Henderson said. "To avoid 'CSR washing,' [organizations should] tie [efforts] into organizational goals, mission and vision. This shows that the organization is serious."
CSR efforts should also be long-term, Henderson says. And Love agrees, further stating that community activities or investments that don't have any staying power are obviously headline driven.
"The biggest warning sign is a company that aggressively boasts its activities," Love continued. "From my experience, most corporations that are truly committed to CSR practices understand CSR is an evolution and all companies are far from CSR-perfect. So, you don't often see these companies bragging about what they do, they tend to share stories and their best practices but also focus a lot on what they can do better."
Organizations must remember what CSR expert Sanders says: "Your CSR is what the court of public opinion says it is."
When done right, self-serving promotion shouldn't be compulsory with CSR programs and initiatives—the actions themselves should be potent enough to tell the story. Dope sells itself.
The best way to ensure you're working with CSR-minded organizations, Henderson says, is to create a process that allows you to evaluate your supply chain.
"This might take some time to implement," Henderson added. "Start with asking questions of your suppliers about what they already have in place or plan to implement (make sure to ask about timelines), and then begin to insert CSR-related clauses into contracts. This is a great thing to add if you have a Strategic Meetings Management process. If you have preferred suppliers, then this can help you filter the partners you want to do business with. Put in place education programs for suppliers, make sure you are clear with them about your own vision, mission and CSR objectives and ask how they can help you achieve them. Give them opportunities to engage."
Ensuring the CSR commitment of potential business partners is difficult because some incredibly conscientious companies may not necessarily publicize their activities, they just do them, Love says. However, because CSR perception and reality is growing in importance most companies want to make sure their stakeholders are informed about their activities.
Love suggests looking at a company's annual reports and Web site to see the programs it has in place, if the information is up-to-date and if there is any CSR-dedicated staff.
"This tells me the activities aren't one-time deals, they are actually constantly evolving and under the organization/direction of staff," Love said. "I also like following up on old press releases to see if programs still exist. Headline-driven programs don't typically last beyond six months or a year."
CSR Runs Deep
To have CSR programs seen as genuine, organizations need to properly report (but not necessarily promote) the results of their actions.
"[They must] measure their impacts and report back to the stakeholders on what they have achieved," Henderson said.
The international business community has been working earnestly toward accepted CSR standards and benchmarks since World War II—prior to that, such actions were likely classified as charity or philanthropy. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)—a group now consisting of 40 countries which was established in 1948 to aid European reconstruction under the Marshall Plan—developed Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises in 1976 to establish business ethics on human rights, anti-corruption, employment and environmental issues. These guidelines are just recommendations for responsible business conduct, though.
Like the OECD guidelines, the U.N. Global Compact stands strong on human rights, labor standards, the environment and anti-corruption—straight-up CSR. Established in 2000, the Global Compact is directed by its "Ten Principles" that spell out CSR goals for groups and organizations that sign on to the compact. Just as the OECD guidelines are not legally binding, supporting the Global Compact does not in itself mean that an organization has been vetted and found to be in compliance of the compact.
However, according to industry veterans, such as Henderson, the Global Compact is one of the best ways to report CSR initiatives.
Signatories of the Global Compact initially have two years to issue their first Communication of Progress reports and must thereafter report annually or they will be removed from the initiative. Each of the more than 5,000 signatories (including MPI) must work to incorporate the Ten Principles into their organizations.
To flaunt a legitimate CSR reputation, organizations must also scrutinize everything they do and everyone with which they work—including the groups in which they invest (or, in some cases, groups in which they won't invest).
Norwegian life insurance company KLP includes Raytheon on a short list of organizations in which they will not invest. Under the heading "Socially Responsible Investments - KLP Lets the Money Talk," the report explains that companies are excluded from the investment portfolio for links to "gross or systematic violations of international norms, formulated through the Global Compact principles, U.N. treaties and the OECD regulations." Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Boeing are among the businesses excluded from the portfolio because KLP will not fund "producers of weapons that first and foremost impact on civilians" since that "type of activity does not correspond to KLP's fundamental values."
Beyond weapons manufacturers, KLP also refuses to invest in Exxon Mobil or Halliburton, for example, due to corruption issues, and tobacco manufacturers, such as Altadas SA, are excluded because of the health implications of their products.
Responsible Business and Government
An astute examination of the CSR pros and cons for destinations utilized should also be a priority for meeting professionals as numerous prominent meeting industry destinations such as China, Dubai and Singapore suffer from endemic human rights, labor and/or environmental violations and abuses. Yet, these are major international business centers with which meeting professionals often find it necessary to work. Reconciling a business relationship with destinations where government involvement is significant in business and basic social responsibility tenets are not necessarily met can be a difficult task. It's not always prudent to sever business ties because of issues counter to your organization's vision and mission, especially in locales quickly and powerfully emerging where CSR is a new or more recent concept.
"I think the key here is engagement and improvement," Henderson said. "Part of the idea of CSR is to create sustainable communities. If businesses desert areas that do not currently live up to their standards, chances are [the areas] might never achieve those standards on their own. If organizations engage them, have those difficult conversations and push for improvement, then destinations will (hopefully) improve over time and build the infrastructure and policy that may be necessary. This allows you to leave a legacy of improvement, using your business to drive change. I think it is important that planners push the envelope and be very clear on what their expectations and what their own CSR goals are."
Meeting professionals should proceed carefully and with input from other functions within their companies when dealing with such destinations, Love says.
"These situations can be a little tricky and have long-term implications," Love said. "Meeting professionals should discuss the issues with their own CSR, legal, human resources and corporate communications departments. Each of these departments (and maybe some others) may be impacted if a meeting is held in or pulled from a community with questionable social practices. If the company thinks it can instigate change through its meeting or event, then introduce minimum standards of conduct to the negotiations and give the local community and vendors the chance to step up to these standards. But keep in mind, sustainable change takes time, so set reasonable expectations at first."
News that the 2008 Summer Olympic Games would be held in Beijing prompted serious global CSR discussions. Leading to this month's games, corporations intimately involved with the Olympics—sponsors and partners—are seemingly content with the notion that the event itself will be positive, regardless of negative CSR issues with the selected destination.
Asked about doing business with a government responsible for human rights abuses, media censorship and other socially irresponsible behavior, top Olympic sponsors Coca-Cola Co. and General Electric were quoted in the Washington Post individually as saying, "The Olympics are a force for good."
That line is apparently the default response when Olympic-related groups are asked about CSR and the games—International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokeswoman Giselle Davies has also been quoted in the Post using the same verbiage, "The Olympics are a force for good."
Nicolas Hayek, CEO of watchmaker and Olympic sponsor Swatch Group, distanced his company's presence in China from the country's government, saying in Brand Republic, "We are partners of the athletes and the [IOC], not of governments, which is why we were present during the boycotted games of 1980 and 1984."
And other major sponsors have shared similar sentiments simply stating that support for the Olympics is independent of local contingencies.
Despite the beliefs of some sponsors, the event itself is not necessarily CSR positive—in preparing for the Olympics, government censorship has intensified and forced and/or abusive labor was exploited to construct new facilities for the games.
"It might, in some cases, be necessary to say that some destinations don't help you achieve your mission, vision and goals…at which point you move on," Henderson conceded.
The meeting industry is valuable, but even the influence of an event such as the Olympics can't positively change all CSR-lacking companies and destinations that cross its path.
"If there is no chance for change, then I encourage meeting planners and their companies to take the high road and direct their business toward a more socially conscious destination," Love said. "In time, the destinations will be motivated by the loss of revenue to make changes to their questionable practices."
Surely profit may be the most important triple bottom line factor for some destinations and companies literally realizing the Wu-Tang Clan's bottom-line-oriented, acronym-titled song "C.R.E.A.M."—"Cash rules everything around me, get the money, dollar dollar bill y'all."
CSR is the future of meetings, but implementing true CSR ethos in your business takes serious emotional, moral and fiscal work. Check your ego at the door.
MICHAEL PINCHERA is associate editor of One+.