A new sense of urgency and confidence is sweeping the professional community engaged in corporate responsibility work, leading to greater attention on how the root causes of poverty and environmental change can be tackled collectively. This is the assertion of "Serving Systemic Transformations" a review of last year's trends, published today by Lifeworth.

In the foreword to the new review, WWF's Jules Peck, explains that "transforming capitalism to a system that enables prosperity in harmony with each other and the planet is the greatest challenge of our time." He argues that as sophisticated companies recognise they cannot shift their business models to more sustainable ones without the support of government, consumers and investors, some executives are working together to create that support. The review chronicles efforts in areas such as finance, government relations, and consumer marketing, where executives are serving systemic transformations toward more sustainable and equitable operating environments.

Lead author of the Review, a Professor of Management at Auckland University of Technology, Dr Jem Bendell argues that people engaging in such work are manifesting a particular awareness, where they see systemic causes of social problems and cross personal, institutional and cultural boundaries in order to transform those causes. The cross-boundary orientation of the review is exemplified by sponsorship from organisations from different fields - including environmental group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and Nike, the footwear, apparel and equipment company. Nike's Vice President of Corporate Responsibility, Hannah Jones supports publication of the annual reviews, to provide "insightful commentary on emerging trends in the field and identify implications for the future of business in society."

This review marks the 5th anniversary of Lifeworth, a 'boutique' professional services firm that focuses on bridging the personal and systemic to sustain transformative action in the corporate responsibility field. "Whether we are doing research, strategy or policy work, or even coaching, we infuse a system-transformation dimension to all our work. This means looking at how we perpetuate existing systems through our contributions to social norms, regulations, ways of thinking, and resource use. And it means crossing boundaries to act collectively to transform those systems."

The review incorporates columns from the premiere academic publication in this field, The Journal of Corporate Citizenship, and is also sponsored by the University of Nottingham's International Centre on Corporate Social Responsibility. "Serving Systemic Transformations" can be accessed for free at www.lifeworth.net Contact: enquiries@lifeworth.com

Lifeworth

Lifeworth

Lifeworth Consulting is a social enterprise that promotes sustainable development through influencing enterprise and investment. We also run Lifeworth.com, the jobs portal for responsible enterprise. Reflecting on our year, in each of our specialist areas during 2010 we sensed people realising the need for far greater change than they currently seek in their own organisations, and some confusion about how to deal with that gap between awareness and action. We've been seeking to help.

We analyse, educate and advise on global changes in business-society relations and how to influence and respond to these changes in helpful ways (Enterprise Trends). Our activities and outputs in 2010 responded to this growing desire for transformation, working with the UN, GTZ as well as CSR networks in Asia to contextualise the key challenges for CSR and responsible investment in the coming years. We also analyse, educate, and advise on the specific practice of cross-sector relations, including partnerships between business and public interest organisations like the UN and NGOs (Engaging Change). We find that the desire to attempt transformational change counters some of the negative effects of growing demands for numerical scores on project effectiveness in challenging funding environment. Social change can be tough, and requires new ways to assess progress, although not ones that see a partnership's existence itself as the goal. We brought that perspective to our work with UN agencies and NGOs during the year, as well as through the teaching of courses and publishing of papers.

Our third work programme is the focus of our corporate strategy advisory work, where we help high-end brands to develop their approach to achieving social and environmental excellence (Authentic Luxury). It is topic we were busy with in 2010, but mostly with research, lectures and media. The companies in this sector are not moving as rapidly as we had imagined they might, given the strong business case for prestige brands to out perform on social and environmental issues. We worked with a couple of companies on their CSR strategies, but are yet to see wider demand for support to develop and execute ambitious and creative approaches.

Thanks for your interest in our work, and I hope you have success in making waves with your own. You can follow me on Twitter @jembendell.

-Jem Bendell, Director, Lifeworth Consulting

Here is that keynote on sustainable wellness:

Integrating Personal & Global Wellness: The Future of Luxury by Dr Jem Bendell from Wellness Summit on Vimeo.

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