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Is CSR really for everyone… 1,127 reasons why it’s not!

Bangladesh

Once again – a terrible disaster affecting the poor and vulnerable!
Once again – exploitation seems to be part of some company’s business-plan
Once again – arguments, that CEO’s responsibility is to maximize value for shareholders
Once again – greed is showing its ugly face
Once again – it’s time to push the head deep down into the sand!

When is it ever enough?

…the “general” reaction – having heard the terrible news – we head home feeling a bit “miserable”, so on the way we make a quick stop at the local Mall and buy a new bright-colored T-shirt at $19.95 to comfort ourselves… Continue reading

Rapid Transition…

Quick change

Earlier this week the CO2-level at Mauna Loa passed the 400 ppm barrier – for most people it passed by as a small news item hidden among others, while in some newspapers it actually reached the front page. Next day it was replaced by concerns on whether this or that artist was going to make it through the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song contest…

“We have twenty years to make a change, not twenty years to contemplate on what we are going to do!”

If you spend just a little times researching on things about the climate change, global population growth, water scarcity and some of the other boundaries of our planet, the maths are not that difficult – you don’t even need to have a specific opinion about things, just some basic knowledge on mathematics – Join me for a brief moment, it’s worth while! Continue reading

WE are the world… more cooperation needed!

We are the world

If humanity is going to continue a successful life on this planet, we need to embrace a sustainable lifestyle – not only me, not only you, not only someone else – WE!

“Success comes when people act together; failure tends to happen alone.”

- Deepak Chopra

Even if nobody can have missed the fact that we have only one planet and that our humanity’s existance on it is threatened, numerous statements show incredibly cynical views on this undisputable fact. Continue reading

Management in a Sustainable future…

Corporate-hierarchy

Sometimes when looking at new management books, management training etc. I find it a bit fascinating that so little have changed over time. For instance – how come that playing football still is considered a training ground for leadership, but raising children isn’t.
How come military expressions, titles and strategies are so often used and referred to although strive for individualism is stronger than ever. Why is the metaphor for a career often a ladder?

Haven’t we come further?

Today our world is probably more complex and interconnected than ever, but still most organizations are continuously concerned about drawing and re-drawing hierarchic schemes and creating “job descriptions” which they then try to “squeeze” people with individualistic ambitions into, just like decades ago. Continue reading

Ignorance is NOT Bliss…

Ignorance

From time to time business-people “complain” that all these sustainability-measures are so costly, sometimes with an added “…and for what?”
Sometimes corporations and executives try to avoid the subject, addressing Sustainability as a “hygiene-factor” or an “already integrated part of normal business” – without ever having made the journey to become a sustainable business…

Are these reactions a defence-mechanism, is it ignorance, a way to ignore the economic contraction that’s very likely to come – or is it merely a “Fear of the future”…? Continue reading

Is it still the right way? – Our Social “Perpetuum mobile”…

perpetuum-mobile

I suppose it is quite normal that societies set up systems in a way that somehow promote and “safeguards” a continuous evolution in the “right way”….

Only question; Is it still the right way?

At the start of democratic movements, did we anticipate that evolution should take us to where we are today?

In this post I have tried to reflect on some “perpetual patterns” in our current set-up. Continue reading

Bubbles don’t crack slowly – they burst!

Coalbubble

A burning planet “or” scorched economies…

In recent weeks there have been a lot of reports and articles on this theme – almost as if there is a choice…

Whatever idea, whatever opinion, whatever calling you have in life, it is very hard to pursue your goals if there is no liveable planet to do it on – It is as simple as that!

Our current “western” lifestyle is overexploiting our available resources and breaking the planetary boundaries – we need to get back in Balance, and we need to start NOW! Continue reading

Less Unsustainable is NOT EQUAL to more Sustainable!

Sustainable Bottom Line

We need to set the Math right!
Quite often there are commercial messages and communication from corporations, stating different variations of “being more sustainable” – On a packaging using less plastic, on a car with lower than average CO2-emissions, on a detergent with low concentration of chemicals etc.

This way of using a relative context, pretending that it is an absolute context, is not only strongly misleading and deceptive, it also postpones real change.

A parallel…

Is a corporation that improves its business from a large economic loss to a small economic loss – “more” profitable? No! – It is not, it is still not profitable! Continue reading

Sustainability Reports – Are they positive for the Planet or just a “Smokescreen”?

Smokescreen-text

At this time of a year there are always a lot of Annual reports issued, Financial reports and Sustainability reports. Having studied some recent sustainability reports makes me wonder – What´s the point?

The only purpose seems to be to show some Policy statements, some “base facts” and to position yourself in relation to others. This might be the main purpose of an annual financial report, but  it doesn’t make much sense for a Sustainability report – the Planet doesn’t care if a Corporation is “less bad” than others, it needs Corporations to be “Good”.

To put it in another way – If an Annual financial report show “Red”, very negative numbers, the reaction would be very strong from shareholders, the market and the board – but if the Sustainability report shows 350,000 tons of CO2-emissions…
Is the reaction the same? Continue reading

Incinerating resources – Is there Any excuse for it…?

landfill

In our current linear economy of ”Take-Make-Dispose” there is a built-in contradiction.
Most people don’t want increasing amounts of waste, but at the same time most people “agree” that we “must have” economical growth – Isn’t there a missing link here?

The end-result from a linear economy is Dispose/Waste, any attempt to reduce waste must therefore start earlier in the chain of events – When it is created… Continue reading