As the Recession has started to bite, budgets have been slashed and projects mothballed across all sectors and industries. Investments in Sustainability, Corporate Responsibility and Carbon Management have been no exception. For many, who see such spend as purely discretionary, the demise of such, potentially “distracting”, initiatives has been loudly heralded. But is the “parrot” really deceased, or are the obituaries premature?
Is CSR a dead parrot?
The reality is that in cash-strapped times like the present, the principles of Sustainability, applied in a materially relevant way, should be seen as more - not less - important in ensuring long-term organisational survival. Properly planned and implemented, such initiatives can provide a stimulus for all sorts of good business practices, whether cutting costs through targetted reductions in energy use, enhancing loyalty through increased employee engagement, or speeding up planning processes through effective stakeholder management> in all such instances the effective implementation of the right initiatives in the right way can rapidly and meaningfully add to a companies bottom line.
At the same time organisations must remember that when the recession ends (and it will), any that have renaged on previously strongly voiced commitments to Sustainability and CR will find it very hard to re-establish their reputations. The key is therefore not to drop such initiatives, but to do more with less. Materiality and the ability to deliver demonstrable returns on investments is at the heart of this.
A little reflection on the learnings of the last recession, may also help us to foresee the future. Last time round, many of the IT companies that sprang up overnight to benefit from the dot.com boom, failed equally swiftly as the business benefits they promised failed to materialise. Such a fate is increasingly familiar to proponents of today’s “green economy” , and every day, more of the once-familiar faces on the conference circuits can be found asking about new (or any) opportunities.
However, just because some companies have (until recently) been able to get away with inept execution in the good times, it doesn’t mean that the core propositions offered were necessarily rotten of themselves. Just as fast and easy internet access is taken for granted today, despite the IT bubble bursting, so it will be with sustainability, which will without doubt simply become “the way we do business” for the best companies as they embrace the future.
This pruning of “Green Industry” is long overdue, and but now the youngsters have had their fun, and I’m afraid it’s the turn of the time-served old hands to take control of the sustainability purse-strings once again.
Rob Evans, Director, Tripos Consulting
