CFO and the CSO: Six Areas for a Lasting Friendship

May 31, 2012
Authors
  • BSR Staff

Steve McCoy-Thompson, Director of Operations, BSR

This blog is the fourth in a series on organizational structure and sustainability, from the perspective of BSR’s Director of Operations. The first is on the role and placement of the CSO in an organization. The second covers strategy and the integration of sustainability into the business model, and the third examines how to establish a common organizational language for successful sustainability outcomes.   

The CFO serves as the great reality check on corporate initiatives, capable of reducing grand intentions to sobering data. And that is why she can also be a CSO or CSR leader’s best friend. Here are six priority areas that can form the basis for a lasting friendship.

As BSR’s CFO, Dan Luscher understands the business priorities of a broad range of companies and industries. He believes that “beyond the dense words and pretty pictures, every business plan or annual report addresses a set of core issues that each company must face. The more CSR programs support these issues, the more concrete support they’ll likely receive from the CFO.” Below is a high-level summary of these priority areas with suggestions for where the CFO and the sustainability team can not only speak the same language but also achieve mutually beneficial results. 

  1. Business Model: CSR can directly support the business model through product or process innovation or by promoting supply chain improvements that are also sustainable.
  2. Markets: CSR practices can directly influence and build the customer base, such as a product recycling program to drive new customers or community outreach to support brand awareness.
  3. Teams:  There is a proven correlation between CSR and top talent attraction and retention, as well as between healthy/happy labor and productivity. 
  4. Resources: Fundamentally, CSR is about the forward planning of business-critical resources and stakeholder relationships, whether it is raw materials or people. For example, structural changes in the supply chain can help secure critical resources at reasonable cost for the long term.
  5. Risk: Risk management is an increasingly sophisticated area of business, and sustainable practices can directly contribute to the mitigation of medium- and long-term risks, from sustainable sourcing of production and raw materials to the siting of future investments.
  6. Revenue and Profit: CSR directly contributes to the bottom line (in addition to the triple bottom line) by using sustainable practices to lower energy costs, improve production, build customers, and contribute to a range of other initiatives. 

In each case, you’ll notice a pattern in line with the above. Sustainability is not the driver: good business is. Of course, broader questions of corporate responsibility and ethics should be integrated into every business decision. Yet, when sustainable practices are clearly aligned with business imperatives, the more likely it is that the practices themselves will be sustained by the business, even when times get tough. And the higher the degree to which we can address and measure sustainability, the greater endorsement we are likely to get from the CFO, which leads us to the next gateway to the CFO’s heart: the KPI, which will be covered in the next blog.

Let’s talk about how BSR can help you to transform your business and achieve your sustainability goals.

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