Breathing fresh perspectives on strategic CSR

Three speakers and numerous commentators added substance to Håkan Ulrich's message.

The opening shots were by Marc Phitzer, Managing Director of FSG Geneva. FSG is the non-profit consultancy arm of Michael Porter & Associates that works with companies and foundations that seek greater social impact. In addition to heading FSG’s Geneva office, Pfitzer leads FSG’s “Shared Value” approach area, and he emphasized the specialness of the term.

“’Shared value’ is not about sharing the value you create,” he emphasized. “It’s about corporations pursuing the idea that profit-making should be a priority of their social responsibility programs.” Value must be created in several domains.

This has led to a shift in how corporations talk about their CSR efforts that are tied to the environment. From “environmental footprint management”, GE went to Eco-Imagination. Syngenta moved from “farmer safety training” to “food security”. And Toyota moved from a focus on the car to “zero emission mobility”.

According to Noel Morrin, Senior Vice President Sustainability at Skanska, the international construction company with 52,000 employees, “We don’t use the term CSR at all. Instead, we talk about the goal of reaching Five Zeroes.”

This is a reference to achieving zeros in these five areas: loss-making projects, environmental incidents, accidents, ethical breaches, and defects. He used this backdrop to talk about differences between Swedish and Anglo-American practices. Among other things, Morrin cited a healthier union culture in Sweden that promotes safety.

“At the same time, US/UK safety records have been 6 times better than those in Sweden,” said Morrin. “The reason is that Swedes are non-confrontational and don’t want to intervene when they see a potential violation. We brought in a US/UK safety culture to improve things.”

“But an area where Sweden really shines is in the use of hazardous material in building projects. Here Sweden is the best in the world. In principle, we do not use any hazardous materials in Swedish construction.”

Peter Bodor, Public Affairs and Communications Director of Coca-Cola Sweden, said that Coca-Cola has ambitious goals for reducing its carbon footprint by 80% in the period 2004-2020, as well as climate, packaging and water usage goals.

“Sustainability is a business priority at the executive level,” said Bodor. “But it has to produce results marked by continuous improvement and employee engagement.”

They sponsor a litter clean-up program in conjunction with local sports clubs, under the umbrella name Städa Sverige (Clean Up Sweden).

“This gave us a platform for employee engagement,” noted Bodor. “At the same time it allowed us to talk about one of our key areas for improvement, packaging.”

Tommy Borglund, Head of CSR Services at Hallvarsson & Halvarsson and Gary Baker, Client Service Director at Ernst & Young were the moderators at the seminar.

Written exclusively for AmCham by Robbin Battison, Battison & Partners
Photos: Alexander Farnsworth