Have you met TED?

For anyone who’s not been introduced, TED is a website dedicated to ‘ideas worth sharing’. I love it. It’s full of interesting, informative videos from experts on all sorts of subjects and they’re not allowed to be more than 20 minutes long. The videos are filmed at TED’s live events, and there are all sorts of other ways they encourage idea sharing and learning (I had the pleasure of working on the TED Studies module ‘Understanding Happiness‘ and look forward to the rest of the TED Studies series).

One of TED’s new features is a playlist function, grouping together videos by subject matter, or inviting people to curate lists (Bill Gates, Bono, Bjork and Bobak Ferdowsi to name just a few. You might know the last one better as “NASA mohawk guy”). While I wait for my invitation, I’ve decided to post my own little CSR playlist on here.

I’m going to start with another new function, TED Ed, and a lesson called ‘Re-thinking progress: The Circular Economy‘. There are some big subjects covered at a high level, including design, manufacture and private ownership; I think it’s a wonderful, simple introduction to the circular economy concept. The key theme is taking inspiration from nature, which also feature in the next clip I’ve chosen.

Arthur Potts Dawson – ‘A vision for sustainable restaurants’ is a very practical talk, as Arthur shares the steps he’s taken in his own restaurants and when setting up a sustainable supermarket. So many people just talk about the need to take action, it’s great to hear about what someone’s specifically been doing.

Moving from a small organisation to the big ones, my third choice is Jason Clay – ‘How big brands can save biodiversity’. There are so many stakeholders involved in sustainability that actually making a global impact can seem impossible, especially if we’re relying only on discerning consumers as the impetus for change. Clay believes that the nature of our organisational structures means the tipping point could be reached by getting 100 key players on board. His roundtables get these big businesses to interact with NGOs, scientists and suppliers, until they reach a point where they’re influencing their entire industries. 

This supply side approach would mean we’d have no choice but to buy ethically, and while that would certainly make shopping much easier, we’re not there yet. By behaving as responsible consumers we do have the potential to speed this process up from the other direction too. Tim Leberecht (‘3 ways to usefully lose control of your brand’) and John Gerzema (‘The post crisis consumer’), talk about how this is already playing out and driving change in organisational behaviour. Both discuss the benefits, indeed necessity, of corporate transparency and authenticity. Of course if your organisation’s closet is going to be transparent, you better make sure you don’t have any skeletons in there -attempting to curb the spread of bad press on social media is like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.

A lot of my selections so far have focused on environmental issues, but CSR also covers the responsibility companies have to their employees, which is why I’ve included Auret van Heerden’s – ‘Making global labor fair’.

I’m going to finish off with a selection that sums up why we need to be doing all this, Alex Steffen – ‘The Route to a Sustainable Future’. Steffen says of our current trajectory “on the one hand we have the unthinkable; on the other hand way we have the unimaginable”. He goes on to outline the kind of game changing ideas that will help create the vision and action we need to create a third option. TED is full of talks on bright new ideas, but  I’ve chosen this one because Steffen pulls together some nice examples which makes the challenge sound exciting, rather than insurmountable.

I know there are plenty more very worthy speakers that could have made this list, if you have any favourites do share them below.

CSR by any other name – Timpson

Does an organisation need a dedicated CSR team in order to operate responsibly? Of course not, but in either case, a supportive CEO can make a huge difference.

John Timpson, of high street chain Timpson, spoke about his approach to business at the Good Day at Work annual conference in December. To him, taking care of employees and making a difference in the community is not part of an official strategy, just a combination of common sense and moral obligation. The feedback from the audience was the most positive I’ve ever seen, so I’d highly recommend taking a look. In case you can’t find the time to view it in full, I want to share some details of what I think is Timpson’s most inspiring idea – an innovative prison recruitment programme.

In 2009 James Timpson (John’s son, and current CEO of Timpson) attended an event at Thorn Cross prison. He was so impressed with his guide, a prisoner called Matt, that he promised him a job on his release. This single act has now flourished into a thriving recruitment programme. At Liverpool, Blantyre and New Cross prisons, Timpson have built training academies, kitted out to look like Timpson stores, so people can start their training before release. There are also two further training workshops at Forest Bank and Thorn Cross.

So far 117 people have passed through the system and started working in branches and there are 57 more still in training. The scheme has been hugely successful. On average, 61% of prisoners will reoffend within 2 years; if they find this drops to 19%. If they get a job with Timpson, the figure is a tiny 3%. And Timpson get a workforce of loyal employees, over 90% of these recruits are still with the company a year later.

I find this inspiring and applaudable on so many levels . Firstly, there’s the personal impact for each person and their family; Matt is still with the company several years on, as well as being happily married with two children. Then there’s the potential of other organisations followed their lead (more on that in the links below). Mostly it’s the nature of how the came about. This wasn’t an idea born of number crunching or the bottom line businesses case, it came from a powerful combination of individual interest, a personal connection and a sense that it was the right thing to do. I can’t help but think that it’s that kind of motivation that sparks the best CSR initiatives – those that are long term, effective and genuine.

More on this

Read about how Timpson, and other employers, recruit from prisons in this ‘What’s the Risk‘ business brief from BITC.

Sign up to Good Day at Work (it’s free) to see all the speakers from the event, plus access to loads more employee wellbeing resources.

Doing it right – Patagonia

This blog was partially inspired by an article in Yodel magazine, which listed some examples of socially responsible ski or mountain companies. Of those they listed, Patagonia is probably the best known, and their mission statement is ‘Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.’

Most large organisations now have at least a token CSR section; in Patagonia’s case their environmental commitment is given more priority than their products! The site includes environmental essays on all sorts of subjects and these home-grown and guest pieces are actually much more interesting than the word ‘essay’ implies. There are also more detailed sections on some of their main priorities, here’s a little glimpse into what you’ll find:

The Footprint Chronicles
This initiative “examines Patagonia’s life and habits as a company. The goal is to use transparency about our supply chain to help us reduce our adverse social and environmental impacts – and on an industrial scale.”. The interactive map is really interesting, and its honesty was refreshing. In some cases they admitted that there were practices they were uncomfortable with, (even if they fell within legal guidelines), and detailed steps they’d taken to improve working conditions.

Our Common Waters
This is a two-year campaign to explore issues of water scarcity – how to meet human water needs without threatening the environment now and in the future. Again there’s a lot of  honesty here, they use a lot of water to create their products, in fact they’re still figuring out exactly how much, as well as how to reduce it.

Common Threads Initiative
The Common Threads Initiative encourages us all to reduce, reuse, repair, recycle and reimagine; it invites customers to pledge their commitment  and explains how Patagonia plan to help at their end. As part of the pledge they actively ask their customers to buy fewer of their products. For me it’s this message that really takes them above and beyond when it comes to CSR. The implication that they’re willing to commit to their values even if it means taking a hit on their profits makes this, and all their other messages, sound truly authentic.

Now, it’s early days for this blog – so perhaps I’m a little naive at this stage – but I’ve been really impressed by Patagonia. As I set off in search of more CSR success stories, the bar has been set pretty high.