BSR Insight

A Weekly Newsletter for BSR Members | January 25, 2011

   
 

In This Issue

Editor's Note

The Future of CSR

Nearly five years after BSR asked member companies to explore the future of sustainable business, we take a look at how far we've come and how far we still have to go. In this week's feature, BSR Senior Advisor Allen White explores the current state of CSR, which he describes as both encouraging and disappointing. Although CSR survived amid the worst global economic downturn in the post-WWII era, truly disruptive changes in mission, strategy, and practice have been limited to a few leading companies.

And according to a new report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, these leading companies are also incorporating sustainable development measures into employee rewards and incentives structures—a strategy that is delivering clear business benefits.

Finally, we share BSR's commentary on the draft "Guiding Principles for the Implementation of the United Nations 'Protect, Respect, and Remedy' Framework,” and encourage other companies to submit their own comments by January 31, 2011.

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In Depth

Back to the Future of CSR

By Allen L. White, Ph.D., Senior Advisor, BSR, and Senior Fellow, Tellus Institute

Where is CSR headed in the coming decade? Five years ago, we asked this question and framed a response in the form of three scenarios: fade, integrate, and transform. Today, a picture has emerged that is both encouraging and disappointing. Although CSR has more than survived amid the worst global economic downturn in the post-WWII era, truly disruptive changes in mission, strategy, and practice have been limited to relatively few leading companies.

Read more →
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Spotlight

BSR Comments on Draft Human Rights Principles

This week, BSR submitted a commentary on the draft "Guiding Principles for the Implementation of the United Nations 'Protect, Respect, and Remedy' Framework" proposed by Professor John Ruggie, Special Representative to the UN Secretary General for Human Rights and Business.

The principles outline how business and government can implement the "Protect, Respect, and Remedy" Framework, including details on corporate human rights policies, impact assessments, integration of human rights throughout the business, as well as performance measurements and reporting.

Through our global human rights work, we have seen the "Protect, Respect, and Remedy" Framework emerge as the de facto standard for defining corporate responsibility for human rights. We believe that the principles will prove equally valuable and will experience similar uptake from and endorsement by business and government. Companies can submit their own comments on the principles until January 31 here.

For more information, please contact Faris Natour.

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Toolbox

Linking Sustainability Performance to Employee Rewards and Incentives

A new report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s explores the business case for incorporating sustainable development measures into employee rewards and incentives structures.

The report identifies the following benefits:

  1. Aligning incentives and rewards to sustainability commitments is a powerful way to demonstrate both internally and externally that sustainability is critical to and integrated throughout the business.
  2. Establishing a sustainability incentive system requires developing clear goals and performance metrics, which help focus people's minds on the sustainability issues material to business success.
  3. Integrating sustainability into performance reviews and rewards ensures that issues are discussed, training needs are identified, and people are incentivized to pursue sustainability objectives.

  4. Incentive systems can motivate employees to develop new business models to address urgent sustainability issues such as climate change and water security.