Tue 29 Jan 2008
Predictions for 2008?
Posted by Adam Arvidsson under CSR 2.0 , Co-creation , Ethical Economy , Ethics , Social CapitalMore and more people are arguing that 2008 will be remembered as the year in which the business community really discovered sustainability. We read about these news every day, Apple begins to tackle its bad sustainability record, even WalMart pronounces sustainability to be a major concern.
A recent paper sponsored by BT and Sisco: ‘A new mindset for corporate sustainability’ (and available here) points at three major aspects of this shift in business mindsets.
* Boardroom commitment to sustainability helps build a framework for robust corporate governance.
* Investors are becoming increasingly receptive to sustainability.
* Sustainability offers a proven and legitimate framework for exploiting new avenues for innovation.
(via EthicalCorporation)
What will come out of this? Will the US recession trigger a new New Deal organized around sustainability and Green Capitalism? Will this be a way for the west to maintain its position vis-a-vis energy-intensive China? It’s a possibility.
January 29th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Fake It till ya Make It?
I think everyone in the environmental/CSR etc community has been sceptical of the very recent & very shiny righteousness from hitherto conservative companies & political circles. Here as so often, the Lady doth protest too much (Hamlet Prince of Denmark, III,2). Much talk, but a longer record of little action.
Yet there is a point - this may be the core of an idea like Actics - where faking becomes making. If you issue enough apparently superficial statements - enough easy words - sooner or later you’ll feel compelled, from all sides, to be brought to account for them.
So for my own part, I do look optimistically at the rest of this decade, 2008 included.