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Total Corporate Responsibility (TCR): New Sustainability Approach Addresses Critical System Change Issue
Total Corporate Responsibility (TCR): New Sustainability Approach Addresses Critical System Change Issue
Published 08-22-06
Submitted by Global System Change
An article by Frank Dixon, called System Change: The Greatest Challenge and Opportunity Facing Business, claims that evolving economic and political systems into sustainable forms is the best way to ensure business prosperity and probably the only way to provide a sustainable world for our children.
The article summarizes system flaws that cause extreme price distortions in our market system, unrealistic growth expectations and under-valuing of future generations. It also shows how political systems compel irresponsible behavior in competitive markets by not holding companies fully responsible for negative impacts on society. In the social area, the role of advertising and media in driving compulsive behavior and other social problems is discussed.
Effectively addressing these extremely complex systemic issues requires collaboration and adoption of a systems perspective. A new approach to sustainability, called Total Corporate Responsibility (TCR), does just this. TCR is being implemented by Gazeley Ltd, a wholly owned but independently operated Wal-Mart subsidiary based in the UK. Gazeley is a global real estate developer of distribution warehouses. It provides Wal-Mart and many other clients with environmentally-superior facilities that lower energy use and carbon emissions by as much as seventy percent.
Dixon claims that, "Systemic issues compel all businesses to operate unsustainably. As a result, system change is the most important sustainability issue because sustainability is not possible without it. Yet system change receives little attention from business. This presents a major opportunity. Companies aggressively working in this area will be seen as the true sustainability leaders." TCR provides a practical, profit-enhancing means of driving system changes that allow sustainability.
The System Change article and related papers can be downloaded at www.globalsystemchange.com.
About Global System Change:
GSC was established by Frank Dixon to help businesses and other organizations effectively address systemic issues that weaken competitive position and compel all firms to operate unsustainably. Through TCR and other processes, GSC helps organizations implement practical, collaborative, profit-enhancing system change strategies. Prior to GSC, Frank Dixon oversaw the sustainability analysis of more than 2,000 firms as the Managing Director of Research at Innovest Strategic Value Advisors. He has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and is currently advising Wal-Mart, Gazeley and other firms on sustainability.
