The Ecology of Change: A BSR10 Recap

By CSRwire Contributing Writer Francesca Rheannon

With climate friendly legislation dead for the foreseeable future in the US Congress, will corporations save the day? Francesca Rheannon went to the BSR Conference 2010 to find out.

The midterm elections coincided with the opening of this year's Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) conference in New York. It was packed - some 1100 attendees and speakers, many from the most powerful corporations on the planet, including Monsanto, Walmart and ExxonMobil.

With the recent Republican wins in the House and elsewhere, and a weakened Democratic majority in the Senate, the outlook for robust government support for environmental and clean energy is highly unlikely any time soon. Yet, as a new report from the U.S. Academy of Sciences shows, the planet's meltdown isn't waiting for our legislators to wake up to the dire peril we face: global warming is accelerating at a swifter rate than anyone predicted. These are scary times - and time is running out.

All the more reason to hope the private sphere can do what government may refuse to. With this in mind, however, the BSR Conference 2010 seemed at first to be an exercise in cognitive dissonance. There was the "organic" breakfast provided by ExxonMobil, a company that has spent millions on promoting the climate change denial industry and has lobbied mercilessly to kill carbon-limiting legislation. Sponsoring a breakfast is a minor quibble, but more concerning was the major luncheon address of Hugh Grant, Monsanto's Chairman, President and CEO. As those who have seen the movie Food, Inc. may remember, Monsanto has not exactly been a poster child for corporate social responsibility or environmental sustainability.

The facile temptation would be to say that allowing companies like ExxonMobil and Monsanto to preen their green is little more than allowing them to greenwash their sins. But that would be to miss the purpose of the conference and the philosophy behind it, according to BSR head Aron Cramer.

"We're not an advocacy group. We don't do shaming and blaming," he told me. "Our role is to help companies understand the world is changing. It's open to everybody because every business benefits when it learns about the important issues in sustainability." Cramer takes the long view - and he wants BSR to be a catalyst for companies to take the long view as well.

Tackling climate change and shifting corporate culture toward social responsibility will take the combined actions of multiple "wedges," Cramer says. These include internal pressures stemming from sensing business opportunities and innovation. The need to mitigate risk is another wedge: reputational and legal risks (like those confronting BP now in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster), as well as the environmental risks companies are facing along with the rest of us (the insurance industry is waking up to that quicker than most.)

Another wedge for change comes from government regulation, often spurred by the actions of NGOs and advocacy organizations. And, finally, demand from consumers forms another wedge pushing corporations toward more socially responsible behavior. These wedges and their interrelationships constitute an ecology of change, states Cramer.

And, companies are getting the message. One telling moment came during the Q&A at a fascinating discussion on "Feeding the Future: What Will It Take?" McDonald's vice president of sustainability, Bob Langert, asked, "What can we (McDonald's) do?" The question seemed to be directed to Josh Viertel, director of Slow Food USA. The suspense was palpable as the audience waited to hear what the leading proponent of slow food would say to the leading purveyor of fast food. (The Slow Food movement was given birth in protest of the opening of a McDonald's in Rome, as Viertel had already recounted.)

To everyone's surprise, Viertel responded with high praise for McDonald's signing of an agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to improve wages and working conditions for the farm workers who pick Florida tomatoes. Then, he gently went on to say there was more to be done: that McDonald's needs to begin feeding children healthy food, by boosting the nutrition of Happy Meals with fresh vegetables and lowering the sugar and fat.

It was a teachable moment for everyone in the room - one that exemplified the role BSR expects its conference to play: to be a place where companies will hear (and hopefully listen to) voices outside the corporate bubble who are speaking for greater responsibility and justice.

Actress Julia Ormond also raised a clarion voice for justice in her talk about modern slavery. Speaking for the Alliance To Stop Slavery And End Trafficking (ASSET), she showed how virtual slavery stunts the lives of millions of children all over the world. Ormond had praise for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's signing of the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010 (SB 657) to help bring about the end of slavery and trafficking.

In an illustration of Cramer's point about the ecology of change, it took pressure from NGOs like ASSET, CASTLA and Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), among others, to move government to pass the legislation. But companies must step up to the plate: declaring the anti-slavery campaign needs the assistance of businesses to track the labor conditions in their supply chains. Ormond issued a challenge to the company representatives in the room to "elevate human rights and place them at the heart of their business strategy."

Lastly, the final wedge is the individual. As I wrote in a dispatch last week, ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things by bringing companies, citizens and consumers together to support environmental and social justice. But none of us are off the hook. As I patted myself on the back that I rode my bicycle to the BSR 2010 conference from Soho to midtown Manhattan, I had to admit I all too often let ease and habit trump my own personal environmental responsibility. It’s going to take full deployment of all the wedges in the 'ecology of change' to preserve our future.

About Francesca Rheannon

CSRwire Talkback's Managing Editor is Francesca Rheannon. An award-winning journalist, Francesca is co-founder of Sea Change Media. She produces the Sea Change Radio's series, Back to The Future, and co-produces ICCR's podcast, The Arc of Change. Francesca's work has appeared in SocialFunds.com, The CRO and E Magazine. Francesca also hosts the nationally syndicated radio show, Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon.

This commentary is written by a valued member of the CSRwire contributing writers' community and expresses this author's views alone.

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