Sustainable Strategies - CSR 2.0: The age of Responsibility

Recently The Terrace attended an MVO Nederland Masterclass by Dr Wayne Visser, author of the book “The Age of Responsibility: CSR 2.0 and the new DNA of Business”. The presentation focused on the evolution of CSR throughout the years and highlighted how organizations and countries implement different approaches to social responsibility. According to the author, there are five CSR ages characterized by distinct ideologies:

- The age of greed: limited practices undertaken with the aim of generating shareholder value; business that are successful and make more money benefit society;

- The age of philanthropy: business should make money, but give back to society through donations and sponsorships (this age is personified by Rockefeller);

- The age of marketing: focused mostly on promotional CSR, which enhances brand image and reputation. The well-known concept of greenwashing is associated with this stage;

- The age of management: organizations adopt voluntary codes and industry standards, aligning and integrating CSR and business strategy;

- The age of responsibility: also known as CSR 2.0, can be named as "Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility". It represents a fundamental shift towards a systemic analysis, which includes society and ecosystems. At this stage organizations tackle material social and environmental issues, typically through innovating business models and revolutionary processes, products and services.

Companies tend to evolve and go through several ages, but they may also have activities in different stages simultaneously. In the case of The Netherlands, the audience agreed that most activities are still focused in the age of marketing, although leading companies are strongly positioning themselves in the age of responsibility. Mentioned examples were Triodos Bank, Unilever and InterfaceFlor.

Dr Visser considers that CSR 1.0 fundamentally failed to improve social and environmental practices at a system level due to three main reasons: (1) only large companies started integrating CSR principles and generally restricted to some activities; (2) CSR focused mostly on incremental improvements that do not match the urgency of the problems; and (3) the market does not consistently reward sustainability, giving an advantage to companies that externalize their costs to society.

The new age of Responsibility should be fundamentally different and based on five principles:

Creativity – use of innovation and disruptive approaches

Scalability – need to go beyond pilot projects and envision growth and transformation of the core    business

Responsiveness – tackle real challenges and understanding the contribution of the business to the problems

Glocality – “Think global, act local”

Circularity – understanding nature’s limits and implementing closed-loop approaches (e.g. cradle to cradle)

In the new age of CSR, companies must understand they are both part of the problem and part of the solution to solve pressing social, environmental and ethical challenges.

Dr Wayne Visser is Founder and Director of CSR International and author of twelve books. For more information please visit the website www.waynevisser.com. 

By Catarina Silva