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Corporations Accept Environmental Responsibility

© Kenneth Friedman

ENN, the Environmental News Network, reported on June 27 that a lengthy questionnaire followed by a 60-minute in-depth interview of 100 of Europe's leading business analysts and decision makers reflected a change in corporate attitude about environmental and social responsibility from "nice to do" to "need to do." The study's results were reported at a special conference marking the Prince of Wales Business Leaders' Forum in London.

According to ENN, "Corporate (social and environmental) responsibility is on the mainstream agenda for public companies concerned about customers, employees and communities," said Robert Davies, chief executive of the Business Leaders Forum. Companies are beginning to recognize that social and environmental responsibility creates value for shareholders as well as society.

According to the ENN story, corporations believe that their response to social and environmental responsibility must be integrated into business planning. They also believe that "A company's performance and impact count globally as well as locally" and that "Exemplary environmental performance is regarded as a minimum requirement when assessing a company. . .."

ENN also reports that the survey found that while charitable giving is commendable, it isn't important enough on its own to outweigh the value of social and environmental stewardship.

The ENN news article doesn't explain where these corporate attitude changes came from but quotes Gavin Grant, managing director of a new corporate social responsibility unit of Burson-Marsteller, which conducted the survey, as acknowledging that "NGOs and the growing number of informed consumers care about companies' social and environmental performance." He's quoted as saying "The vigilant companies are the ones who have assessed their vulnerabilities, implemented effective action plans to address those vulnerabilities taken steps to create inclusive stakeholder dialogue and produced sustained communications programs promoting messages about change."

Could it be that ISO 14000, the International Standards Organization's environmental management standard influenced corporate attitudes? ISO 14000 was a European response by industry to a rash of environmental misbehaviors that invoked public and governmental ire and threatened industries with government regulation. To dampen government zeal and improve industries' public image, industry representatives worked with ISO to develop the environmental standard, which was to become the voluntary self-regulator of environmental affairs. Included in ISO 14000 is the concept of social responsibility and community involvement centered on environmental stewardship.

Perhaps time has retired the older less environmentally sensitive managers and replaced them with more socially and environmentally conscious younger managers. Perhaps the Internet has increased communications so dramatically that people are even more informed than they were when they relied solely on the newsmedia. Whatever the reason for the corporate change in attitude and behavior, it is a welcome change and one that should be imitated around the world.

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