Session 4: Consumer Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility Can CSR be the driver of change? Jonathon Hanks Incite S

1. Session 4: Consumer Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility Can CSR be the driver of change? Jonathon HanksIncite Sustainability (www.incite.co.za)

2. Session 4: Consumer Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility Can CSR be the driver of change? • Session 4 - Aims • Can CSR really be the driver of renewed trust between consumers and business? • Are consumers really interested in CSR and is it really changing business behaviour? • Is a CSR approach sufficient to deliver sustainable development on a global level? • How can consumer groups inspire and empower consumers to achieve sustainability?

3. While trust in business is understandably low…

4. …we nevertheless need to recognise and harness the power of business

5. To do so, we need to appreciate what drives business We should acknowledge that there is only one bottom line in business, and that to suggest otherwise results in the issue being marginalised “Terms like triple bottom line (TBL) and environment, social and governance (ESG) have played their roles as booster rockets and will fall away as new forms of integrated accounting and reporting take over.” John Elkington et al (2010).

6. We need to embrace this thinking that is informing the shift globally to integrated reporting “It is becoming increasingly apparent that the success or failure of organisations is dependent on their ability to create or sustain value without depleting the capital assets – financial, human, manufactured, social or natural – on which that value depends. South African Discussion Paper on Integrated Reporting Financial and manufactured capital Human and social capital www.theiirc.org Natural capital • SUSTAINABILITY“An approach to creating value that sustains or enhances the systems on which that value depends”.

7. We need to embrace this thinking that is informing the shift globally to integrated reporting This shift is reflected in the concept of ‘shared value’: “creating economic value in a waythat also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges” Creating Shared Value, Harvard Business Review; Michael E.Porter and Mark R. Kramer, Feb 2011

8. We need to encourage (and challenge) progressive business leaders who recognise the link between societal and economic value… “Success will require completely new business models. It will demand transformational innovation in product and process technologies… Interestingly too, the challenge is likely to encourage a much more collaborative form of capitalism.” Paul Polman, CEO Unilever(2010).

9. …acknowledging the role (and limitations) of C/SR initiatives

10. We need to lobby for progressive policy reform by government • Addressing the system flaws • Systematic under-pricing of the true costs and risks of our activities • Pervasive application of the worst sort of business and ecological values characterised by a profligate and hedonistic approach to economic life • The tendency of markets to privatise gains and socialise losses incite|ɪnˌsʌɪt| verb [ trans. ] encourage or stir up (unlawful behaviour) urge or persuade (someone) to act in an unlawful way: he incited loyal subjects to rebellion

11. And we should acknowledge the responsibilities (and significant challenges) for the consumer movement “The situation we face has arisen not from the old working class vice of excessive copulation, but from the modern middle class vice of excessive consumption… In practice green consumerism has failed to induce significant inroads into the unsustainable nature of production and consumption and is unlikely ever to do so… By shifting responsibility on to individuals and reinforcing the sacrosanct nature of consumer lifestyles, green consumerism threatens to entrench the very attitudes and behavioursthat have given us global warming.” Clive Hamilton I = P x A x T Environmental Impact is a function of Population, Affluence and Technology

12. Empowering Tomorrow’s Consumers Empowering consumers for “interesting times” We are here • Breakthrough: • Global co-operation • Radical innovation • Economy operates increasingly within ecological limits Breakpoint • Breakdown: • Runaway warming? • Escalating violence? • Large-scale extinctions? Transformation? 2020 - Transition 2012 - Source: The Natural Step (2004) and Erwin Laszlo (2006) – amended

13. A closing thought

14. Thank you Jonathon Hanks – Director Incite Sustainability jon@incite.co.za