As part of the nation’s growing obsession with all things green, CSR has been bandied around boardrooms and magazine articles for some time now, but it is in the green arena where it is now really coming into its own. For some time it was considered something of a passing trend, and was paid what could be best described as lip-service for some time. However, as climate change has increasingly become a spot-lit subject, the CSR army has grown in size, and the practice is no longer treated simply as the latest fad. Growing numbers of practitioners, including institutions such as the University of Nottingham Business School offering a PhD in the subject all demonstrate that CSR is here to stay, and is important to brand and consumers alike.
Incorporating CSR into your corporate agenda is not simply enough. As more and more brands include CSR in their day to day business, and shout about it in their communications, more brands and organisations are being caught out by underestimating the knowledge of their consumers in green manners, and the tendencies of media outlets and competitors to attempt to undermine their efforts.
Consider last year’s Live Earth event. Some of the world’s most eco-noisy stars were involved, including Sting with his band The Police, in an event that was panned by critics for its enormous carbon footprint. It would seem obvious that an organisation that billed itself as “concerned for a climate in crisis” would not fly stars around the world in gas-guzzling jets to perform on stages lit up by thousands of energy consuming lightbulbs. Or it was not obvious to the Live Earth organisers that anyone would make the connection! Underestimating your market has proved dangerous for many brands in the past, let’s hope the organisers of this year's Earth Day festivals around the world have taken this on board.
Sainsbury’s fell foul of a similar slip-up when it was discovered that its eco-friendly reusable bags were made in allegedly unethical conditions in China. The Co-op in Yorkshire took further advantage of their discomfort by launching the first Fair Trade reusable bags, made from Fair Trade cotton, but how long before another supermarket giant points the finger at the air miles the bag has travelled en route to Yorkshire? The point that both these brands have missed is that the whole journey must be taken into consideration, from creative conception to delivery and beyond – will that Fair Trade bag decompose within a suitable timescale when it reaches the end of its useful life?
