Multum in Parvo: SSD to CSR: "I Want a Divorce!" - How to Divorce as Friends: Step-by-Step Guide

NOTES FROM AN ABANDONED VILLAGE

I'm still asking: Where and why did they go? Here is the story: the Bories village is composed of seven groupings of huts, each having a very precise function: houses, stables, barns, goat shelters, tanning mills, bake houses - the whole social and economic system build laboriously from limestone, and it all was abandoned by its inhabitants about 150 years ago. Classified as a Historical Monument by the French Government, it includes an impressive collection of archived documents none of which tells WHY??? The Bories village in France isn't the only abandoned place on Earth: Brochs, Trullis, Cabanes, Cleits, Giren are scattered around the world. Wherever you spot them, you are hit by the patience and dexterity of those who created them and the enigma that surrounds their abandonment. Visiting abandoned places - ancient but also modern - is becoming more and more popular tourism nowadays. Ghost towns in the former USSR and in the US, orphaned mine sites in Canada, post-Chernobyl villages attract by their macabre beauty. As the DirJournal blog says, "There are mainly two reasons why people suddenly or little by little leave the place where they used to live for years or even generations: that's the danger and economic factors."

My blog is dedicated to

"These were thy charms - but all these charms are fled."

Oliver Goldsmith, "The Deserted Village"

Watch these dramatic pictures at http://www.dirjournal.com/info/abandoned-places-in-the-world/

Sunday, February 7, 2010

SSD to CSR: "I Want a Divorce!" - How to Divorce as Friends: Step-by-Step Guide

From our last guest speaker (SSI):

Social Responsibility	Sustainability
- Based on personal values	- Based on Science
- Vague, often voluntary reporting	- Standardized reporting
- Linked to ethics	- Linked to profitability
- Reactive	- Proactive

My question now is about CSR and sustainability reporting. CSR aka corporate citizenship, responsible business, sustainable responsible business, or corporate social performance is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. Ideally, CSR policy would function as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby a business would monitor and ensure its adherence to law, ethical standards, and international norms, and also embrace responsibility for the impact of its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, co!mmunities, stockholders and all other members of the public sphere. The measurement system is however more problematic. For each business, different measures are taken in consideration to classify a business as "socially responsible". Each business attempts to reach different goals. But when I hear that investors invest in SSD, and not in CSR, to me it means one thing: cleantech. CSR is not sustainable in the investors' eyes because social is long to create a return on investment? Well, in this case cleantech risks to repeat the story of hightech. Nortel was desperately in need for social accountability. Actually, the GRI reporting system doesn't separate sustainable and social, or ethical. Sustainable business has to be ethical. Sustainable investment, too.

Priekā - Cheers!