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CSRwire Weekly News Alert
4.29.2008 - 11:59pm ET
The Latest Corporate Social Responsibility News - An Inside Job: Social Intrapreneurs Promote Sustainability From Within Corporations
In 1978, Gifford and Elizabeth Pinchot coined the term
"intrapreneur" to describe innovators who create change from within
corporations, obviously riffing on the term "entrepreneur." Almost a
quarter century later, the Pinchots co-founded Bainbridge Graduate
Institute, the first MBA program to integrate sustainability at its
core. This bold move exemplifies "social entrepreneurship," a current
buzzword for applying innovation to promote social and environmental
sustainability that is the focus of a new book (The Power of Unreasonable
People co-authored by SustainAbility founder
John Elkington), a foundation (The Skoll Foundation established by eBay's
first president Jeff Skoll), and annual awards (Fast Company Social
Capitalist Awards.)
Now, a buzz is building around social intrapreneurship. John Elkington
just co-authored a report (sponsored by the Skoll Foundation and others)
entitled The Social Intrapreneurs:
A Field Guide for Corporate Changemakers. The guide profiles
prominent social intrapreneurs from multinational corporations such as
Unilever, Nike, BP, Cemex, Coca-Cola, Dow, and Shell, among others. It
also proposes a playful taxonomy of tactical and strategic
characteristics: the stamina of a donkey, a "lone" wolf, a giraffe with
head in the clouds and feet on the ground, and beaver who transforms
landscapes.
The report highlights the need for mindset shifts, pointing to another
report released late last year: the Avastone Corporate
Sustainability Study (ACSS) entitled Mindsets in Action.
Instead of profiling individual intrapreneurs, the study explores the
intrapreneurial mindset and profiles ten companies across five stages of
sustainability (as defined by SustainAbility’s Corporate Responsibility
Gearbox): comply, volunteer, partner, integrate, and redesign. The report
finds that none of the surveyed companies has reached the fourth stage, and
none even view the fifth (arguably most important) stage as
business-relevant.
For yet another social intrapraneurial storyline, check out Michael
Conroy's book Branded!: How the
"Certification Revolution" is Transforming Global Corporations.
Conroy, an economics professor for 25 years before becoming a foundation
program officer seeding certification schemes, profiles influencers he
interacted with on both sides of the inside/outside divide. His sketches
demonstrate the vital importance of corporate actors in driving
certification forward, such as Rachel Kyte of the International Finance
Corporation and Pamela Flaherty of Citi in the development
of the Equator Principles, Michael Kowalski of Tiffany & Co. engaging with
the "No Dirty Gold" campaign, and Bob Stiller of Green Mountain Coffee
Roasters on integrating Fair Trade into corporate culture.
This article was written by CSRwire contributor Bill Baue.
CSRwire's Top Multimedia Picks of the Week
Packed with interesting statistics, this “20-Now Action Forum" video is a
great snippet of last week’s forum which focused on the business case
for investing in green building. • The New York Times put together a
fascinating and somewhat disturbing video about the current drought in
Australia and its long-term global implications. • Discovery's new
Planet Green channel - devoted to helping the environment - will be
launching June 4th around the world. Check out this highlight from "Wasted," one
of the new shows) • Fortune’s David Kirkpatrick interviews the always-brilliant
Jane Benyus, the woman who coined the now-famous phrase "Biomimicry,"
the idea that by "mimicking" nature we can design products that will be
both beneficial and sustainable.
CSRwire accepts multimedia contributions to its Video, Commentary and
Research section, vcr.csrwire.com.
To read the latest corporate social responsibility news from Mercy
Corps, Blackbaud, Innovest and other leading socially responsible
organizations, visit http://www.csrwire.com/LastAlert.html.
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CSRwire is the leading source of corporate social responsibility and
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