Corporate social responsibility and prostitution

Curious item in the FT this morning about business leaders low prioritisation of climate change. The YouGov survey for KPMG said only 14% had a clear strategy for climate change. Far more urgent were said to be brand issues, marketing strategies and corporate social responsibility. Strange as, if climate change is not a part of corporate social responsibility, then what is?

I really think that this is the point which so many leaders seem to miss about CSR. To be effective it needs to be all encompassing and all consuming. If you adopt a CSR programme you are standing up to be counted on your social and environmental credentials. I really don’t know how organisations can pick and chose which parts of their organisation they wish highlight for CSR purposes – it just sounds like hypocrisy. I really don’t get why BAT, the cigarette manufacturer has a CSR programme – why bother. Or Honda’s Formula1 team promoting their environmental credentials. It just seems a bit like a tart going to church on a Sunday!