Corporate citizenship professionals striving to demonstrate the value of their efforts inside and outside companies may be happy to know they have an ally who is trumpeting their work in the wider world of citizenship.

In a series of featured discussions on its website headlined The Case for Corporate Citizenship, the National Conference on Citizenship is “highlighting some ways corporations are engaging employees, giving back to communities, and integrating civically responsible business practices into their operations.” The NCOC goes on to note that “corporate responsibility has become a key driver in securing stakeholder interest, consumer trust, and employee loyalty, and many corporations are stepping up accordingly to demonstrate their leadership and investment in civic engagement.” Read the rest of this entry »

One of the benefits of a conference like this one is the opportunity for CSR professionals to network, share ideas, and learn from one another. In no other session has this experience been more true than in today’s panel: “Corporate Citizenship Journey – What have we learned? What is next?”

The room was packed to hear Chris Coulter, senior vice president, Strategy & Collaboration, GlobeScan; Kevin Moss, head of CSR, BT Americas Inc., and Rick Martella, vice president Corporate Affairs, ARAMARK talk about CSR trends over the last ten years, as well as where the field is headed going forward.

Rick opened the session by asking a couple of big questions:

• How have we performed as an industry?
• How do consumers perceive our work and impact?
• What has our social and environmental impact actually been?
• How are our senior leaders involved in our moving our CSR agenda forward?

Over the course of the session, Kevin and Chris answered these question and more, in what turned out to be a very spirited exchange between panelists and attendees. Read the rest of this entry »

As someone who has worked for both highly functional and highly dysfunctional organizations, I have often wondered what makes a company behave one way or the other. That is why I was very excited to attend the 2010 conference session entitled “Nature or Nurture: What is the Connection Between Corporate Culture and Effective Corporate Citizenship?”

Besides the topic, the draw for me was the high profile speakers: John Pazzani, vice president and corporate culture officer at The Timberland Company; Kandace Olsen, vice president of Communications and Human Resources for Great River Energy; and LaMae Allen deJongh, managing director of U.S. Human Capital and Diversity for Accenture. Read the rest of this entry »

These times are certainly not for the timid or small thinkers. Confronted with perhaps the greatest challenge of our lifetime, we face the urgent task of reinventing the future for our businesses and our society. Read the rest of this entry »

As I’ve been watching the brinksmanship going on between Russia’s state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom and the European Union, I am reminded of a seminar I participated in a few months ago with 20 Russian oil executives representing privately-owned enterprises.

As I reflect I think of how corporate citizenship is playing out. Frankly, with Gazprom, it seems they are being driven by self-interest and political clout. That is very different than what is motivating the Russian oil executives I met at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development training center. Read the rest of this entry »

As we head into an increasingly distressed economy, corporate citizenship practitioners are challenged more than ever to maintain investment in citizenship. The Center’s 2008 Profile of the Practice survey of more than 400 corporate practitioners offers insight into how to best support and illustrate the value of corporate citizenship to a company. Read the rest of this entry »

In monitoring conversations with companies around the globe, those who are leading the corporate citizenship or sustainability space are understandably nervous about potential negative implications going ahead.

It was only a very few months ago that things could not have been rosier, and there finally seemed to be a significant breakthrough in the Sisyphean task of the past decade. Even the Economist in January admitted it might have been too harsh in viewing the corporate responsibility movement as a flash in the pan.

But how quickly things can change. A whole new meaning of climate change has been introduced into the public dialogue. Instead of a focus on the environment, a very different and much more powerful climate change conversation has been thrust upon us, one that may in fact be reshaping capitalism as we know it. Read the rest of this entry »