The 2008 Water Footprint Summit (London, December) lists a who's who of speakers from the corporate social responsibility (CSR) sector.
Now I am one of those people who thinks that companies need to profit maximize first and worry about the environment, education system, etc. later not-at-all.
Others (usually not owners) think that companies should pursue a triple-bottom line ("People, Profit, Planet"), which -- besides being impossible -- is important to include in your marketing literature.
Anyway, if you've got to maintain image, you've got to have a CSR officer who will speak at meetings and attend meetings, hire consultants and act as consultants.*
These things take money: Although the two-day Summit may seem reasonable (not to me) at £1,000,** what made me LOL was the "skip the Summit, send me the CD" option, which is only... £300! (I guess cheapo-CSR officers then cut-and-paste their new "knowledge" onto the corporate website.)
Bottom Line: Rather than wasting ££ or $$ on this crap, spend it getting a carbon tax into place and running the best business you can.
hattip to DG, and image from here.
* I think the technical word is "circle jerk" :) For a good example of this, consider the "finding" that "Companies that write longer sustainability reports are more likely to win environmental awards... For every one page increase in a sustainability report, the odds of a FTSE 100 company winning an award increase by 3%." I guess that CSR people will switch to 14pt font -- not very sustainable in terms of paper, but very efficient in terms of lengthening reports!
** The one happening in SF is $1,800 -- that's even more expensive!
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