Embedded Sustainability

Embedded Sustainability: The Next Big Competitive Advantage 

By Chris Laszlo and Nadya Zhexembayeva

Published by Greenleaf Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-906093-58-7

This review was first published on CSRwire.com on 29th July 2011

Description

 

In Embedded Sustainability, authors Chris Laszlo and Nadya Zhexembayeva explain and predict how companies can better leverage global challenges for enduring profit and sustained growth. They introduce the marquis concept of embedded sustainability: the incorporation of environmental, health, and social value into the heartbeat of the product life-cycle with no trade-off in price or quality – no social or green premium. This book helps readers to comprehend and implement the notion of embedded sustainability. At its best, embedded sustainability is invisible, similar to quality. In addition to delivering socially and environmentally conscious products for consumers, it is capable of considerably motivating employees. Most of all, it enables smart companies to create even more value for both their shareholders and stakeholders.

 

Commentary

 

Although I didn't, in many ways, it makes sense to start reading this book at the penultimate chapter, Chapter 9, entitled "The world in 2041." Now, 2041 is not all that far away, but the description of the fictional young Jake Marstreng attending an interview with "Septad Corp" is as futuristic as the best sci-fi movies, as surreal as the best fantasy productions and as realistic as the best documentaries on National Geographic. It's a future which is so far-fetched as to be a perversion of the authors' imagination and yet so possible as to be just around the corner. Detailed descriptions of the radically changed global economy, sci-fi lifestyles and new technologies are truly exciting: solar cell conversion of light into electricity, PCB destruction using photozymes, Virtual Retinal Display contact lenses, 3-D virtual conferencing, vertical farms using hydroponics and crop stackers powered by methane digestion, vehicles powered by solar photovoltaic thermoelectric generator hybrid systems, construction incorporating zero-energy technologies and hydro botanic water treatment and more. And all this happens after the Water Wars and the Dark Years. All that's missing is Dr Spock (who, in 2014, is probably Indian, Chinese or Brazilian). Reading Chapter 9 helps you make sense of what Embedding Sustainability is all about. It's not another shmoozy look at how companies are "doing well by doing good." It's not another collection of glowing MNE case studies that have more reputational value than sustainability substance. It's not a how-to-succeed-at-sustainability-in-3-days recipe. It is a highly intelligent (and intellectual) roadmap of the gearshift in corporate thinking and actions that are needed to transform sustainability bandaids into sustainable business.

  

Chris Laszlo and Nadya Zhexembayeva do a magnificent job of whetting our appetites for creating sustainable value. They describe the book as organized around "central themes of business strategy and change management, with two bookends." The first "bookend" is about the mega-trends that are driving the new business environment and the last "bookend" is about a future vision of business and some of the key questions we often wrestle with as we move forward on the sustainability journey.

 

The authors shape the mega-trends around three core issues: declining resources, radical transparency and increasing expectations, offering compelling arguments relating to each. For example, blue fish tuna has become so rare that a single adult fish fetched $396,000 at an auction in Tokyo; use of Google Earth to view the plantations where bananas are grown by Dole; the sale of 190,000 organic cotton yoga outfits by Walmart in the first 10 weeks of launch; or Sourcemap.org which exposes environmental impacts of anything manufactured.

 

Now convinced, the heart of this book provides an excellent backdrop for envisaging sustainable value creation. Seven key drivers are discussed: risk mitigation, efficiency opportunity, factor of differentiation, pathway to new markets, protect and enhance the brand, influencing industry standards and driver of radical innovation. However there are many paths to Rome and strategic approaches may differ from company to company. Embedded Sustainability then takes us on a journey of strategy development using three strategic frameworks: Porter's Generic Strategies, Kim and Mauborgne's Blue Ocean Strategy and Clayton Christensen's Disruptive Innovation, showing how all these can have their place in the ways in which companies create superior sustainable value.

 

Finally, even if you are on board so far, there is still much to debate. The final chapter of this book is an articulation of some underlying questions (the authors' "starter-kit of Big Picture questions"):

 

1. Growth or No growth? Is growth itself sustainable?
2. What is the role of government and the nonprofit sector? Can regulation achieve what voluntary initiative cannot?
3. Stopping the bad or creating the good? Is your agenda bright green or dark green?
4. Having or being? Is a moral awakening imperative?
5. Evolution or revolution? Can we expect a global breakdown and rebuild to occur within a few decades?
6. Restoring or transforming nature? Should we aspire to the preservation of nature in its untouched state or use our technologies to "fix" and "improve" nature?
7. Fear or enlightened self-interest? Are we motivated to change by fear or by positive images of the future? Does inspiration drive us more than the threat of an impending disaster?

 

Embedded Sustainability: The Next Big Competitive Advantage truly stretches our minds and turns sustainable value into a compelling direction which is within our capability, though not without fundamental repositioning of the way we perceive sustainable value and the routes to achieve it. This book is both delightful and frightful. The vision of an accessible sustainable reality created by Chris Laszlo and Nadya Zhexembayeva is delightful. The effort needed to get there is frightful. But, no gain without pain, right?

 

 

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainability Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices  Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en

CSR Author Spotlight: Veronica Scheubel

Snapshot:

Born in: St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canda

Lives in: 'The Vermont of Germany,' the Red Hair Mountains (about 100 miles east of Cologne and north of Frankfurt) with German high school sweetheart, after 22 years apart.

Educated at: Educated at: Baccalaureate in Germany, Political Science at Concordia University in Montreal and Masters in Organisation Consulting at Ashridge Business School in the UK.

Favorite CSR Book: Adrian Hodges' and David Grayson's Everybody's Business, as it was the first book to educate the world about CSR.

Favorite non-CSR book: Kenneth Leung's The Zen Teachings of Jesus (it's not a religious book); Edward Said's Representations of the Intellectual, Milan Kundera's Immortality.

Favorite movies: 'Il Postino,' 'Monsoon Wedding,' 'Smoke,' 'Smoke Signals,' 'The Royal Tenenbaums,' 'Gosford Park,' 'Lisbon Story,' 'Lost in Translation,' 'Eat Drink Man Woman'.

Favorite musician: Jazz trumpet player Chet Baker on 'The Best of Chet Baker Sings'

Favorite CSR report: SAP - for being accessible from mobile tablets, for the interaction and engagement, for the view of developing sustainability reporting as a journey.

If I could, I would ...: Go live in Buenos Aires for a year or two and then explore business opportunities in India!

This spotlight on Veronica Scheubel was first published on CSRwire.com on 4th May 2011

Having co-authored, with Nick Lakin, number 7 on the Cambridge University Sustainability Leadership Programme's top sustainability books of 2010, together with over 10 years of hands-on business practice and consulting experience, Veronica Scheubel, former Senior Corporate Responsibility Manager at Nokia, is a superstar amongst experts in how to mastermind and execute ways for businesses to engage with the community. Her book, Corporate Community Involvement: The Definitive Guide to Maximising your Business' Societal Engagement, (Greenleaf, 2010) is the most comprehensive, practical and well-researched guide available for those wishing to devise, plan, manage and succeed in delivering business engagement with local communities and employee volunteering programs. According to Veronica, there was a clear gap in the market for this kind of book: "Nick and I noticed that between the two of us, we had written so many internal company manuals on how to practice Community Involvement from inside a company. Nick asked why nobody had ever thought of turning this into a book, so companies don't have to re-invent the wheel. He convinced me that the two of us had to do that, so we set out to write our book. Working to a strict schedule, we got it done in 6 months. It helped that we had our previously-written manuals to refer to, and that we had all our personal experience from managing global Community Involvement programs to draw on."

Since publication, Corporate Community Involvement has generated positive reactions. Veronica mentions that "quite a few people have contacted us to let us know that they found the book really useful, particularly the Chapters on Strategy, Employee Involvement and how to operate as a company-internal change agent." According to Veronica, the most important messages in the book for succeeding in community involvement are: "Be strategic and contribute your company's core competencies, engage in real cross-sector partnerships in the community, and involve key functions in the company as well as employee volunteers."

The practice of community involvement is by no means uniform across all companies, according to Veronica. "As with so many other aspects of corporate life, there are the visionaries, the early adopters, the early majority, the late majority and the laggards. What strikes me after more than 10 years of my own work in this area is that we still have players in every field! We have visionaries like IBM, early adopters like Nokia, many companies in the early majority, but shockingly many companies still in the late majority that are still dabbling in philanthropy and are only just discovering Community Involvement. And then of course, there are laggards that still claim Community Involvement is not relevant to them and that shareholder value is all that counts ... The 'early' half encourages and enthuses me while the 'late' half creates the gap versus my expectations and shows me that there is still so much more work to do!"

Most of Veronica's professional time is spent in organizational change and corporate responsibility consulting, training, executive coaching, team development and Action Learning. She is also active in The Partnering Initiative at the International Business Leaders Forum in London which leads in matters relating to cross-sector collaboration. Veronica is an Associate, offering training, facilitation and mediation, including a three-day certification training in cross-sector partnering practice, offered in different countries. In addition, Veronica and her partner bought a home with a garden and, for the past two years, have been busy with renovation and redecoration. They both enjoy travel and the sun, hiking, cooking and nice restaurants, movies and good books. Every few days, they 'borrow' the neighbor's four year-old twin boys for a play session which is fun for all.

But this does not prevent Veronica from considering what her next book will focus on: "A few colleagues and I are really passionate about the opportunities of bringing organizational change consultants together with Sustainability Managers in companies, as we have experienced first-hand how much can be achieved for embedding Sustainability throughout an organization when both work together and pool their knowledge, resources and approaches. It is still a very new message out there, and we are a small cohort, but we'd like to spread the word and the practice, so there will have to be a book about it!"

Indeed, Veronica has a passion for making change in organizations more accessible. "The world is changing, and participative approaches within organizations as well as with stakeholders will become increasingly important and unavoidable. This is where I see a focus of my work - I'd like to support people in organizations, who might be used to the 'old ways' and perhaps a bit unused to and afraid of 'sharing power', in familiarizing themselves with new concepts, trying them out and experimenting with them. As a facilitator, I can help create a 'safe environment' for that." As Francois de la Rochefoucauld once said, "The only constant thing in life is change." Anyone who can help us navigate that is playing an important role in society, and Veronica, both in her practice and with her book, surely demonstrates what it means to be an agent of change.

I would like to thank Veronica Scheubel for sharing her insights and for her great guide to Corporate Community Involvement which features highly on my always-keep-close book list.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainabilty Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices  Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en

Sustainability in Austerity

Sustainability in Austerity: How Local Government Can Deliver During Times of Crisis

By Philip Monaghan
Publisher: Greenleaf Publishing
ISBN 978-1-906093-57-0
This review was first published on CSRwire.com on 19th January 2011


Description

Sustainability in Austerity has been written to provide local leaders with a lifebelt in these turbulent times. It empowers local authorities to address challenges they now face - by offering a treasure chest of cost-neutral and powerful ways for leaders in local government to advance sustainability as nations emerge from the global recession. The book sets out the required rules for leadership and proposes a myriad of innovative strategies for self-help achieved through habit-forming behaviour change among council members, staff and local communities alike. Packed with international case studies, anecdotes and management tips derived from a wealth of learning by like-minded peers across the world - all of whom have faced and overcome serious sustainability challenges - the book will be a touchstone for professionals working in areas such as: democracy and decision-making; corporate assets and resources; economic development and planning; waste and environmental services; fleet and logistics; and community management.

Commentary

"Can you be a responsible citizen and have a pet?" This is just one of the many issues addressed by Philip Monaghan in his fascinating book, Sustainability in Austerity. Apparently, in San Francisco, the estimate is that up to 5% of landfill waste comes from pet waste. Apparently, the energy required to feed a cat is about the same needed to build and drive a car 6,000 miles a year. Apparently, this is one of the issues local councils may want to consider as they explore opportunities for their communities to live more sustainably and reduce the environmental footprint of towns and cities. Perhaps the pet waste issue is not the most important one that councils will deliberate over, but it does open our eyes to the degree of complexity that local councils face in trying to move entire communities towards more sustainable lifestyles.

Philip Monaghan's book is an authoritative and inspiring guide for those holding local office. As the author writes, "For many, local councils are pivotal to the delivery of sustainability as every aspect of their role shapes how people live their lives - from democratic elections to education and planning to waste collection." Philip was inspired to write this book as a response to the Global Financial Crisis and the expectation that local councils would have to manage with much reduced budgets and navigate the "crippling impact on local government spending" in order to meet the needs of national governments and local constituents. Every time someone throws something away, for example, it increases the burden on waste management and local resources. The focus of this book, therefore, is getting things done in a cost neutral way.

The author lists 102 cost neutral interventions that local councils can leverage to drive the achievement of greater collective sustainability. They are in the form of case studies, anecdotes and management tips, with examples from many different cities as far flung as Baoding, China; Krakow, Poland; Caracas, Venezuela; Brisbane, Australia; Oslo, Norway; and Flanders, Belgium, to name but a few. The range and scope of these interventions address all aspects of local life including: pedestrianizing downtown city areas at weekends and transforming them in to walking, roller-skating or playground areas (Craiova, Romania); a Foodshare community coalition to improve access to food, with wholesale bulk buying clubs and a "Field to Table" schools initiative where students receive cooking training and develop schoolyard gardens (Toronto, Canada); incentives for installation of stormwater management controls for businesses and private residents (Montgomery County, Maryland, USA); creation of 8,000 microgardens in city areas (Caracas, Venezuela); a program for 45% reduction in local council water usage (Nillumbik, Australia); whole-life costing methods to improve health and safety with use of recycled materials for kerb edgings (Wakefield, UK); low-carbon trade zones incentivizing energy-saving businesses and clean energy development (Baoding, China); a pay-as-you-throw scheme that bills residents according to how much household waste they generate (Flanders, Belgium); a "greenest city in America" plan, which includes planting 500,000 trees, revitalizing parks and encouraging rooftop gardens (Chicago, USA); banning non-recyclable plastic bags at supermarkets (San Francisco, USA); and home composting - including the composting toilet (Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador).

Conscious that the drive for change is not just about solutions, but also about mindset transformation, the author clearly explains the business case for local councils to drive sustainability behavioral change and the processes for "making change desirable." The author proposes a five step "Excellence in Austerity Framework," based on a new paradigm for local government, which he calls the "Green Concentrate: focused, cost neutral interventions on sustainability during a time of reduced spending, made possible by freezing choices to enforce positive changes." Philip Monaghan offers a "management dashboard" for local councils, similar to a balanced scorecard approach, to serve as a template for advancing and tracking effective progress. Perhaps all local councils should follow the example of Vancouver, Canada who has developed a 100-year plan for sustainability?

Most business literature about sustainability and social and environmental responsibility tends to address national or international government policy, business actions or personal lifestyle change. This book is a refreshing approach from the perspective of another and no less a significant critical agent - the local council - in leveraging both the ability and opportunity around sustainability of all other players in our communities in creative and potentially revolutionary ways. If the image of many local councils is that of sluggish, unresponsive and bureaucratic officialdom, then this book offers to revitalize that image and show how councils can be a dynamic, thriving force with a mission that is much broader than collecting local taxes and handing out parking fines. It could even be the key to sparking a burst of energy at local municipality level, thereby transforming a much underestimated link in the chain of sustainability and survival of the planet into a new source of possibility. Local council leaders who see sustainability as key are the next generation of global heroes. It is my hope they will take the lead from this book, so the 100-year plan for sustainability in Vancouver can actually run to term in a world where its own local sustainability is dependent on broader supra-local systemic change with other localities making equally enlightened commitments.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainabilty Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices  Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en

The Corporate Responsibility Code Book. Revised Second Edition

The Corporate Responsibility Code Book. Revised Second Edition

 

By Deborah Leipziger

 

Publisher: Greenleaf Publishing

ISBN 978-1-906093-39-6

 

This review first appeared on CSRwire.com on 29th September 2010

 

Description

 

The field of corporate responsibility and sustainability has changed radically since the publication of the first edition of The Corporate Responsibility Code Book in late 2003. This second edition of the book reflects these changes, with the inclusion of a raft of new initiatives, revisions reflecting the improvements made to many others and the elimination of several initiatives that have been outgrown by developments.

 

The second edition includes:

• New initiatives such as the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, the Equator Principles, ISO 26000, and the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative;
• Updated versions of the UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative;
• The addition of codes and principles that have become more relevant, such as the ILO Code of Practice on HIV/Aids;
• The description of linkages between initiatives and the complex web of alliances that have grown in the field of CR as it has matured.

The Corporate Responsibility Code Book is a guide for companies trying to understand the landscape of corporate responsibility and searching for their own, unique route towards satisfying diverse stakeholders.

 

Commentary

 

You work in the field of CSR or sustainability. Do you need the Code Book? Let's check. Here is a little quiz:

 

1. Launched in 1977, whose Declaration of Principles focusing on Human Rights is Tripartite?

 

2. Which draft CR Standard defines "stakeholders" differently to the traditional definition of those who impact or are impacted by an organization?

 

3. Which framework, developed in Sweden, addresses the systematic causes of environmental problems and saved US$120 million for Interface, who was the first US company to implement the framework?

 

4. Which set of principles, developed in 1989, cannot be unilaterally endorsed by a company but require a two way process of dialogue and engagement?

 

5. Which global standard for transparency addresses both governments and companies?

 

The answers are at the bottom of this review. Got fewer than 5 correct? You need The Code Book. Got 5 out of 5 correct? You still need The Code Book. These 5 questions are just some of the interesting data-bytes you can find in the second edition of the 535 page The Corporate Responsibility Code Book, revised in 2010, to include new initiatives such as the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and King III, the King code on Corporate Governance issued in September 2009. But the value of this book is not in these individual references to individual codes. The true value is the entire collection, all in one place, of the leading initiatives which serve as a basis for the way in which businesses approach, mainly voluntarily, the whole field of CSR and sustainability. All the codes mentioned in the book are reproduced in full in 10 sections: global initiatives, human rights, labor rights, health issues, combating corruption, company codes of conduct, sectorial and regional agreements, and codes focused on implementation standards. Distilling thousands of codes and standards into 34 key tools, this book is a unique reference manual, categorizing the codes and frameworks by focus (process or outcome), by method of development (unilateral, bilateral, multilateral), by scope (key issues such as corporate governance, environment and human rights), by stakeholder focus (trade unions, governments, supply chain, etc.), by sector and by region. Each code, standard or framework, presented is preceded by a discussion which typically includes the background and context in which the code was developed, its strengths and weaknesses, the companies to which the code applies, the questions the code addresses, and insights relating to the "promise and the challenge" of each. Whilst mostly quite brief, particularly in the analysis of strengths and weaknesses, these commentaries provide important insights for those working with the codes or considering adopting one framework or another.

 

Such codes have value beyond the written documents that we can read in The Code Book. Author Deborah Leipziger wites: "The codes and principles described in this work have served to institutionalise dialogue and create for a discussion among actors who had never been in discussion of between whom there was hostility." The process of developing such codes, as anyone who works in or with organizations knows, is just as important as the finished document. Dialogue, engagement, new ways of thinking, generating consensus, working through the detailed nuances of definitions, approaches and objectives are all in themselves valuable actions that advance the cause of CSR and sustainable practices in business. The new ISO26000 draft standard, for example, has taken 5 years to develop with 92 countries and 42 organizations participating in the process. Whilst I am not convinced this particular final product actually brings any new value to our body of knowledge, I am sure these discussions have served to reinforce understanding and commitment.

 

In reviewing this book, I cannot help but look beyond the codes and frameworks themselves. The codification and standardization of CSR and sustainability is only a first step. The big leap comes when these codes are widely subscribed to by their target audience and are effectively implemented. The Code Book refers to some of the ways in which some of these codes have gained critical mass, for examples, the UN Global Compact or the Global Reporting Initiative, which have become truly global tools. However, any company adopting any such code needs robust internal processes and strategies, policies and plans to uphold the commitments that adherence to the codes require. Deborah Leipziger discusses in The Code Book the challenges of actual implementation of frameworks such as the UNGC, the GRI and the Equator Principles, and the criticisms that have been leveled at these frameworks because of companies who declare support for these processes and do not follow through. Over 1,000 companies have been delisted from the UNGC for non-compliance with the communication requirements. Some of the codes have overseeing or enforcement mechanisms, such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which requires an Independent Validator in each country; or the OECD Guidelines for MNEs, which require an NCP (national contact point) in each member state. I suspect codes that have been developed with a high degree of multi-lateralism and partnership stand a higher chance of ensuring practical effective application because of the common commitment and visibility of such efforts. Some evolve into leading industry standards such as the principles and criteria for sustainable fishing from the Marine Stewardship Council; however, overall, the cynicism these codes must often contend is less of a statement about the codes themselves, and more about the quality of implementation. Individual corporate codes of conduct (two examples are highlighted in The Code Book include the Shell General Business Principles and the Johnson & Johnson Credo), valuable and necessary though they may be, are often not applied with enough downstream organizational thinking or rigour of external verification that facilitate making these codes a reality in business and drivers of required transformation. According to Deborah Leipziger: "Without credible systems for verification and certification, stakeholders may become increasingly cynical about corporate responsibility." The value of this book, then, is in assisting organizations to understand and assess the relevant frameworks for their business, industry, sector, region or issue at hand. The value for people and planet is when companies adhere to these codes in a systematic and consistent way.

 

I cannot begin to imagine the amount of work author Deborah Leipziger invested in order to bring The Code Book and its revised second edition to life. It is truly a masterpiece in the landscape of CSR and sustainability reference books. This is a book which will never move out of arms reach, as far as I am concerned. Please don't ask to borrow my copy.

 

Answers to Quiz:

 

1. The ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy

 

2. ISO26000 Draft Standard

 

3. The Natural Step

 

4. The Ceres Principles

 

5. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

 

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainabilty Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Author of CSR for HR: A necessary partnership for advancing responsible business practices  Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en

Innovative CSR

Innovative CSR : From Risk Management to Value Creation


Edited by Céline Louche, Samuel O. Idowu and Walter Leal Filho

Published by Greenleaf Publishing , May 2010, ISBN 978-1-906093-35-8

This review first appeared on CSRwire.com on 4th August 2010

Description

This book aims to explore, inspire and support creative, innovative and strategic CSR. ‘Innovation’ in this book means new products, services and technologies and, in addition, new organisational and institutional systems, structures and new business models that empower the organisation to advance strategically in an ever more competitive business world. With contributions from a crème de la crème of scholars from 12 countries, Innovative CSR gathers together a cornucopia of innovative practices that will be essential reading for academics and practitioners alike. The book introduction can be downloaded here.

Commentary

Insights abound in this packed volume of academic papers from scholars in 12 different countries around the world and how they perceive the modern practice of CSR and, in particular, the ways in which CSR can be leveraged to create strategic value for businesses. It is rare to find an academic textbook that is utterly riveting, highly readable and well-structured, providing a wide range of case studies and commentaries on the practical aspects of CSR in a multitude of companies and organizations. This book does it superbly. Each paper is a gem. Each paper builds effectively around the central theme of strategic CSR innovation, exploring different dimensions of innovative and strategic practice on the part of corporate entities around the globe, offering new ways of thinking about the ways in which CSR is, and sometimes isn't, leveraged to deliver creative, strategic, triple bottom line value for businesses, society and environment.

Part I, "CSR and competitive advantage", encompasses six chapters, each addressing the strategic dimensions of CSR. Highlights include a paper proposing a framework for creating a dynamic link between CSR and strategy, offering a new way of analyzing materiality, with case studies demonstrating the application of this framework at Aveda Corporation, Herman Miller and Toyota. The paper concludes that firms must focus CSR efforts in three areas – market based, regulatory/standards based and operational based actions – in a context specific way in order to create value-adding strategies for CSR. Another paper offers astute insights into the reasons Companies settle for convergent (me-too) CSR instead of divergent (innovative) CSR – I refer to this in a blog post on the CSR Reporting blog. You can also read a fascinating account of an Italian company, Beghelli SpA, the Italian market leader in emergency lighting systems, who has diversified its business along sustainability principles and reaped significant business benefit. This study of Beghelli is based on 5 strategic variables proposed back in 1996 by Burke and Lodgson, quite an interesting model, and in the case shown, serves to support the importance of leveraging firm-specific resources for strategic CSR initiatives.

Part II, "CSR and value creation", examines the ways CSR can create value for a firm, its stakeholders and society. My favorite piece in this section is about corporate social responsibility as a brand building tool which offers another framework proposed by Simmons and Becker-Olsen in 2006 which establishes 4 key components of an effective strategic CSR program: clear motivation, appropriate initiative, right timing and right communication. The study cites both appropriate initiatives which add value, such as the company Gas Natural which established a relationship with the Barcelona city government to power the city's bus fleet with more environmentally-friendly natural gas, and less appropriate initiatives, such as Pepsi's support for a new highway construction in Mexico City, in which Pepsi's logo appeared on police booths along the new highway, thereby creating a negative association, confusing to consumers between the brand and the police force. A key conclusion of this paper is that strategic fit influences purchasing decisions, something many companies would be advised to note. "Programs that do not strategically fit with the business or are perceived as reactionary can lead to brand equity dilution".

Part III, "CSR and Innovation", focuses on the innovative aspects of CSR. This section is headed up with a fascinating study of 129 global innovative solutions and an analysis of these using a 4-point innovation scale developed by Mark Kramer and the Skoll Foundation in 2005 in order to evaluate the innovative aspects of CSR solutions against 13 different dimensions. A key finding is that Companies tend to develop solutions that adapt existing systems rather than change the systems – only 7% of initiatives studied can be regarded as "really" innovative. Other papers in this section include a very interesting sustainable innovation model for SME's and an analysis of the value that consultants contribute to CSR innovation.

All in all, despite the academic nature of this book, the sometimes rather tedious descriptions of methodologies applied, and the often repetitive introductory sections to each of the different papers penned by different academics, this book is a delight. The deep-dive into core CSR concepts provide original ways of thinking about how companies have and can make CSR a business-builder rather than a series of bolt-on projects. An essential understanding of what is strategic and what is innovative in CSR terms is a prerequisite, I suggest, for any company engaging in CSR practices. This book is a must-read for anyone considering these themes.

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainabilty Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my website www.b-yond.biz/en