Corporate Responsibility Coalitions
Greenleaf Publishing, 31 January 2013, 450 pages
978-1906093815
Theme of the Book
It is estimated that there are more than 110 national and international generalist business-led CR coalitions. The book considers: Why did these coalitions start and grow? What have been their impacts? Where are they heading now? Where should they be going? What is the future? In a period of austerity, business-led CR coalitions, with their decades of convening experience, could play an important role in addressing key issues - if they are fit for purpose going forward. The book explores with examples the emergence of new models of collective corporate action over the past four decades; the current state of play, and the increasing number, diversity and complexity in terms of how they not only network with each other but also engage in a much broader universe of institutions that are promoting responsible business practices. There are in-depth profiles of the most strategic, effective and long-standing coalitions, including: Business for Social Responsibility; Business in the
Community; CSR Europe; Instituto Ethos; International Business Leaders Forum; the
UN Global Compact; and the WBCSD.
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Corporate Responsibility Coalitions
 The worldwide spread of coalitions over the last 30 years has been an important factor in the growth of corporate responsibility.
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Coalitions have conceived, created and continue to drive collaborative business action: initially mobilising business action in the community; then developing responsible business practices; and now collaborative action which meets broader business aims.
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Their main purpose is to:
- make the case for responsible business;
- help companies to embed responsible practices; develop common visions and agendas for action; provide platforms for collective action.
There is no one size fits all, nor will a particular coalition model remain optimal for a specific organisation or for a particular market or society’s evolution over time.
CR coalitions need to review and, if necessary, renew their purpose and strategy; CEOs see collaboration as the way CR coalitions should operate in the future.
Sustainable capitalism is green, responsible and inclusive growth.
Properly resourced and organised, coalitions and the coalitions methodology could play an even greater role in future. For example, CR coalitions can play a significant role in the engagement of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which account for the majority of job creation in most countries.
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Corporate Responsibility Coalitions
Target Audience
The book sets out to reach a broad audience. Not only does the book inform readers who are unfamiliar with the existence and aims of the business led CR coalitions by providing an historical perspective, the book targets the coalitions themselves as some aspire to, and have the potential to, play a greater role in the future.
Furthermore, the book addresses key supporters and potential partners of CR coalitions in companies, governments, international development agencies, foundations, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions and think-tanks.
As teachers, Grayson and Nelson aim “to inspire a future generation of leaders to be more aware of the role of business as a partner in driving more inclusive, green and responsible growth, and to help them develop new types of leadership skills so that they can be effective in finding multi-stakeholder solutions to complex and systemic challenges”.
Introduction
Few public officials or NGOs would disagree that the private sector will have a substantial influence on determining whether the 9 billion people who will be living on the planet by 2050 can experience lives of a reasonable quality without destroying the ecosystem on which the survival of humankind depends (WBCSD definition of sustainable development). But, while action by individual corporations in the private sector will continue to be necessary, it will not be sufficient. Collective action is called for.
The book focuses specifically on business-led corporate responsibility coalitions that have been established with the explicit and, in most cases, dedicated goal of mobilising business resources to directly tackle one or more environmental, social or
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Corporate Responsibility Coalitions governance challenges. In mobilising resources, the CR coalitions are like ‘coaches’ who inspire with principles rather than ‘cops’ who police standards”.
PART I - The Past: The emergence of new models of collective business leadership
The rise of the corporate responsibility movement
A brief overview is provided of the rise of the corporate responsibility movement.
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Corporate responsibility is not a short term fad, nor is it only a Western trend.
Some drivers of corporate responsibility are: demands, including from business itself, for more concerted and systemic efforts to improve water, energy and food security, and to achieve sustainable development more broadly pressure on the private sector to help address broader socioeconomic issues growing focus on the responsibilities of business in relation to human rights
CR is driven by two broad sets of actors - champions and companies coalitions.
The definition of business-led corporate responsibility coalitions
The definition identifies a specific and important subset of the range of collective initiatives to promote responsible business and to give some practical boundaries to the scope of their investigation. Business-led corporate responsibility coalitions are:
“independent, non-profit membership organisations that are composed mainly or exclusively of for-profit businesses” .
‘Sustainable capitalism’, which is used in the title of the book, is explained “as a shorter way to describe the longstanding concept of ‘sustainable development’ and emerging calls for a more ‘inclusive green and responsible economy’.
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Corporate Responsibility Coalitions
The evolution of business-led corporate responsibility coalitions
Factors said to influence the formation and growth of CR coalitions range from specific political, social and governance drivers to broader underlying global trends.
There have been three main stages of evolution:
1.
The corporate social activists (1970 – 1989): responding to social and political crises, e.g. Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP)
( www.pbsp.org.ph
) was established in 1970, during a period of national and economic unrest.
2.
Global field builders (1990 – 2000): promoting and embedding responsible practices into core business.
3.
The industry and issue specialists (2000 – 2011): deepening and diversifying business solutions.
An interesting model also begins to emerge for the future: business-led corporate responsibility coalition network with other business-led initiatives in different industry sectors and geographies, as well as with governments and NGOs, to more effectively leverage the impact of the business community.
Global trends and motivations driving the growth of corporate responsibility coalitions
Global forces, such as the collapse of communism, technology, demographics and development, provide the context for almost all of the coalitions to switch from a focus on philanthropy and corporate community engagement to CR and sustainability more broadly.
For example, in Eastern Europe, coalitions emerged as part of the architecture of newly democratic and market economies; in Western Europe, as a response to the perceived limitations of the traditional welfare state/social security net, to protect the most vulnerable citizens from the excesses of the new, globalising economy; and in
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Corporate Responsibility Coalitions parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia, as part of the broader drive towards privatisation, globalisation and liberalisation.
Different arguments have been used to persuade companies to join the coalitions over time and in different parts of the world. These have included: social inequalities will harm business; CR is part of the quid pro quo for less government; CR is part of the ‘social licence to operate’ in certain markets; membership of a coalition demonstrates public commitment to CR.
The leadership role of individual champions, companies and foundations in building coalitions
Regardless of the original motivating factor or driver, nearly every effective businessled coalition owes its creation and its ongoing success to the leadership of visionary individual champions and strategically led companies. Individual champions, founders, CR activists and practitioners, individual companies and foundations have played an important role. Two long standing foundations that have helped to build the field of CR and sustainability coalitions have been the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
PART II – The Present: Assessing the impact of coalitions today
The number and diversity of corporate responsibility coalitions
An overview of the number, diversity and global coverage of CR coalitions is provided with a particular focus on the growing importance of collective business action in
China. China, predicts Sinologist David Gosset, is set to be the ‘co-author of the 21st century world order’ and it is simply now ‘too big and too important not to be discussed’. Encouraging greater interconnectedness and mutual learning and benefits between companies pursuing responsible business practices from China and the rest
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Corporate Responsibility Coalitions of the world could become an important aspect of the work of CR coalitions around the world, as well as for those operating in China.
One size does not fit all circumstances, also a particular coalition model may not remain optimal for an organisation or a particular market or society’s evolution over time.
Coalitions as part of a broader ecosystem promoting responsible business
Along with a greater number of corporate responsibility coalitions, there are many more other players reinforcing the messages of—but also now offering alternative services to—these coalitions. Examples include governments and intergovernmental institutions, NGOs, corporate responsibility consultancies, business school and university corporate responsibility centres, business representative organisations and trade associations.
The key roles of corporate responsibility coalitions
Most of the CR coalitions undertake some combination of the following seven key roles:
1.
Raising awareness and making the ‘business case’
2.
Identifying and disseminating good practices
3.
Advising and building the capacity of companies
4.
Brokering partnerships
5.
Delivering on-the-ground programmes
6.
Setting standards and spreading norms
7.
Promoting a public agenda.
In addition, as BSR states, ‘The corporate responsibility field is moving from the
“why” to the “how” of addressing global sustainability challenges’.
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Corporate Responsibility Coalitions
How coalitions organise themselves
There is considerable variety in how coalitions organise their governance, staffing, funding, membership, and relationships with the ‘serial joiners’ (companies that are members of multiple coalitions); in the tools and techniques they use; and in how far they work with international consultancies.
Networking among the coalitions
Within each of the global field-builders networks, in particular, there has been some sharing of expertise, models and best-practice guidance. By far the most frequent source of ideas, insights, help and advice for coalitions among the other coalitions is the WBCSD.
Overall, however, the distances involved, costs of travel, different stages of development and levels of organisational capacity have generally militated against extensive sharing and networking except on a largely ad-hoc basis and often rely on personal relationships and individual circumstances.
‘Short-term operational issues’ and ‘massive increase in demands’ on CEOs gets in the way of more regular collaboration between corporate responsibility coalitions.
Assessing the impact of coalitions
Despite the challenges of assessing the results and impact of the CR coalitions, the performance and impact of business-led coalitions can be evaluated against the following three questions:
 Have coalitions been effective at raising awareness?
 Have coalitions helped individual companies to embed responsible business practices and sustainability into their core business?
 Have coalitions helped to scale responsible business practices?
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Corporate Responsibility Coalitions
Progress to date has been positive, although not nearly sufficient and business-led
CR coalitions are still highly relevant and valuable, with a new generation of more varied coalitions emerging. However , while business-led CR coalitions are creating innovative forums and embedding practices for ethical and sustainable business, they are doing so in an atmosphere of increasing distrust of the private sector. Hence, the coalitions are not without their critics who claim that business-led CR coalitions: have not been sufficiently ‘critical friends’ to business, have diverted energies and resources from the public sector and civic leadership, and have been too timid in their goals regarding both the standards of CR they promote and their own targets.
Lessons learned also serve as practical tips: for example, keep refreshing the agenda and the arguments.
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Corporate Responsibility Coalitions
PART III - The Future: The leadership challenge for corporate responsibility coalitions
The need for greater corporate responsibility and collective action
Despite the progress made, there is growing evidence that voluntary leadership by the private sector needs to have more impact successfully to drive more responsible, sustainable and inclusive growth.
An agenda for action for the corporate responsibility coalitions
A 10-point Agenda for Action is outlined for business-led CR coalitions in the next stage of helping companies embed sustainability and to scale up the leadership role of the private sector:
1.
Helping individual companies to overcome the ‘performance gap’ and to embed responsible business policies and practices into the core of their corporate strategy, operations and value chains
2.
Promoting pre-competitive collective action within specific industry sectors, geographies and value chains to drive scale and systemic impact
3.
Convening companies to be part of more systemic and large-scale multi-sector collaboration between business, government and civil society organisations
4.
Spreading innovation from key emerging markets
5.
Engaging with small and medium enterprises
6.
Working with governments and advocating for progressive public-policy reforms
7.
Improving the financial enabling environment
8.
Partnering with business schools and universities
9.
Raising public awareness and spreading the practice of sustainable consumption
10. Promoting a new vision for sustainable capitalism.
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Corporate Responsibility Coalitions
CR coalitions could contribute to the growing public debate on the future of capitalism by helping to promote a new vision for sustainable capitalism and being advocates for this vision.
Are corporate responsibility coalitions fit for the future?
Are today’s voluntary business-led corporate responsibility coalitions able to rise to this leadership challenge? Are they fit for the future? With the proliferation of CR coalitions and the many competing issues for the attention of corporate leaders, concern is expressed about the survival of CR coalitions: When CEOs were asked about how CR coalitions should operate in the future, they responded that it is all about ‘collaboration’ – with other related organisations and institutions. While this is neither easy nor risk-free to do, they will need to ensure that they are able to collaborate. They will also need practical evidence of just how collaborations could add value to both parties.
“Although each entity has its own initiatives on green growth or sustainable development, these groups felt they could achieve more by coming together under a common umbrella in the interests of accelerating and scaling-up business impact”.
Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD) 2012
Recommendations and conclusion
Specific recommendations are provided at the conclusion of the book for each diverse group of actors on how they can help to increase the scale and impact of business led
CR coalitions and address the acknowledged gap between corporate level intent to embrace sustainability and its implementation at the level of strategic business units.
By acting on these, only then can we be confident of a world where economic growth and capitalism both drive and are underpinned by social inclusion and environmental sustainability; a world where private enterprise and innovation are a source of solutions to complex challenges and where they create a solid foundation of opportunity and hope for the next generation.
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Corporate Responsibility Coalitions
PART IV: Profiles of Leading Corporate Responsibility Coalitions and Sui
Generis Organisations
There are in-depth profiles of the most strategic, effective and longstanding CR coalitions including Business for Social Responsibility, Business in the Community,
CSR Europe, Insituto Ethos, International Business Leaders Forum; The UN Global
Compact and the WBCSD.
About the Authors
David Grayson is Director of the Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility at
Cranfield School of Management. He is a Contributing Editor to The Corporate
Citizenship Briefing (www.ccbriefing.co.uk) and a regular columnist for The Ethical
Corporation (www.ethicalcorp.com).
Jane Nelson is Director of Harvard Kennedy School's Corporate Social Responsibility
Initiative, a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a Senior
Associate of Cambridge University's Programme for Sustainability Leadership.
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