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Address Social Responsibility Head-on: Panel
By Adam Hardiman | July 26, 2010
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) should be renamed collective social responsibility, said Paul Salinger, vice president of marketing at Oracle, during MPI’s 2010 World Education Congress on Sunday afternoon. “It’s disappointing to me that [citizens] haven’t started doing what we would like corporations to do.”
“A lot of people know the problems, but don’t know what to do about it,” responded Ann Duffy, Corporate Sustainability Officer for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
All stakeholders must be involved to make lasting impact, Duffy said, offering examples from the Winter Games: Athletes were told they could reduce their own carbon footprint by securing sponsors, and the bouquets handed to medal-winners were made by women recently released from prison, who were learning job skills.
A participant said that in a world filled with competing ideas, “the fear of not being authentic” was her organization’s biggest obstacle.
“Welcome to the mess,” said Duffy. Citing a number of reliable information resources on offsetting, she added, “Don’t be afraid. It’s authentic when the stakeholders feel they’re a part of it. Start at kilometer one and build from there.”
Duffy agreed with David Jerome, senior vice president of marketing at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), who said corporations’ sustainable activities must leave a lasting legacy, such as a measurable process that others can follow and build on. Once sustainability is named as a core objective, others will follow.
Topics: Carbon Footprint, Corporate Social Responsibility, Meeting Professionals International, News Capsules |