Diary of an MBA #3: Is business taking CSR seriously?
When we were in the midst of the economic crisis 18 months ago the business schools took a bit of a hammering in some quarters for helping to perpetuate the trouble. They were accused of producing graduates with the technical skills to succeed, but little in the way of responsibility and accountability.
So perhaps surprisingly Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plays an important role in my MBA at Durham. While not covered in a self-contained module, the themes of CSR are included in all the subjects we study during the course of our year and was also the topic for our first “formative” assignment on the programme.
In light of mounting evidence that increased CO2 emissions are leading to climate change, we were asked to assess the extent to which markets and conventional corporate objectives will go to resolving the issue. I concluded they wouldn’t – at least not in time – and unless governments intervened we were all heading for near certain doom.
However after a great deal of careful construction, ensuring my work was correctly referenced and handing my essay in, the latest issue of Supply Management dropped through my letterbox. Leafing through I noticed numerous news articles and announcements about CSR initiatives. It made we wonder whether the tide is turning and perhaps enough is already being done by big business and the important role procurement is playing to achieve it. But we don’t hear much about green practices at smaller organisations with lower profile brands to protect and no doubt a contribution from that sector will be vital too.
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Business is not really taking CSR seriously. Look, it’s just the normal pursuit of supply chain improvements, which are then touted as climate initiatives. Once improvements are realized, a company can market themselves as green and apply for some sort of climate subsidy which might be available. This is just good business, and there is no reason to waste a good subsidy. Cap & trade is the only market mechanism which might have produced real and significant carbon emissions reductions, but that is now dead. Actually climate change as an issue is almost dead as well, so now the left are switching from climate change to biodiversity as a new approach to resurrect cap & trade (You will hear more about this in the next few years as it grows). In time supply chain improvements will not be touted as climate initiatives but biodiversity initiatives, along with a new green subsidy or marketing advantage. In the EU of course they have endured a cap & trade market for about 6 years now (with no appreciable reduction in emissions). And soon the EU will begin to use carbon as an excuse to apply tariffs on imports; cap & trade after all is designed to be used as a trade protection weapon, whether to promote saving the planet or biodiversity. Whatever the flavor of the month.