MBS Events
Conscience Consumerism - Shopping That's Good For The Soul
In conversation with Stephen Goldberg, Anita Borzyszkowska, Santiago Gowland and Laurel Powers-Freeling
Thu May 11, 2006
| The Soho Hotel, London
The fact that so many high-profile business people turn up to hear about what was once a subject on the periphery of the corporate agenda is testament to how mainstream corporate social responsibility has become. The aim of the discussion is to put CSR into context, to discuss its importance in today’s business environment, its implications for companies, and its impact on staff, investors and consumers. On the panel are representatives from global companies spanning finance, food, household goods and fashion.
One by one, the panelists lay out their stalls: for Whole Foods, the US-based specialist foods retailer, social responsibility is a core tenet of their business and has been for 25 years. Stephen Goldberg, Vice-President of Whole Foods-owned Fresh & Wild, thinks it’s great that the ‘big boys’ are beginning to embrace what ‘small $5bn dollar companies’ such as his have been advocating for decades.
‘CSR is now being absolutely driven by the consumer – not simply backed up by the media but backed up by sales. For the first time, we are seeing a meeting of desire and virtue" – Anita Borszyskowska – Gap Inc
Laurel Powers-Freeling, Senior Vice-President and Head of UK Consumer Services at American Express, is conscious to distinguish between corporate social responsibility and conscience consumerism: “For American Express, CSR is about who we are as a company, how we relate to the community and the accountability we have to the constituencies in them. So, when things like tsunamis happen, we have an ability to reach out and help. Conscience consumerism is something quite different…it’s about what our consumers have asked for. The RED card is a response to the way people feel, the way they want to shop.”
When Suki Larson of M&C Saatchi in the audience asks whether conscience consumerism is a generational shift or a backlash against the conspicuous consumption in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Laurel is quick to respond: “There is a generational aspect to it, but we’ve identified a group of people that we call ‘latte activists’, who tend to be over thirty five and relatively affluent folks who have enough money to decide to live their lives in a slightly different way.”
Santiago Gowland, Director of Global Corporate Responsibility at Unilever, provides a historical sweep: “At one time, Unilever’s efforts in corporate social responsibility centered around charitable contributions and social investments. They were nice to do but were probably linked to a reputational, rather than a growth and profit agenda. Today, it’s all about linking the corporate responsibility agenda to brands, integrating social, economic and environmental indicators, as well as lifecycle analysis and contributors to vitality. One example is the Dove brand team trying to find solutions to social dilemmas that affect women today, and then establishing strong marketing initiatives to that effect.”
Anita Borszyskowska, Vice-President for International PR at GAP continues: “Philanthropy has been at the core of our business since 1969, and part of our business, the Gap Foundation, supports philanthropic efforts in countries where we retail, typically in developed economies, and where we source, typically in developing economies. There are on-going programmes where we respond to specific needs when they occur, so when Hurricane Katrina happened in the US, we provided clothing, accommodation and financial donations to support the communities there.”
“For us, social responsibility is the key. If we take care of a team member, the team member will take care of the customer, the customer will buy from us and we will deliver a healthier bottom line” – Stephen Goldberg, Whole Foods
“CSR is more at the core of how you do business and the way you execute and deliver. So, this Spring we launched a RED T-shirt, which was 100% African and manufactured in Lesotho, where a lot of communities are being left bereft, without employment and where the AIDS/HIV rate is 40%. A lot of those sufferers are women and in the retail industry, the workforce is primarily female. Through RED, we can help support trade within the community and empower the community to help itself.”
So, is CSR just a feel-good exercise or is it of real strategic and financial importance to companies? Stephen is quick to respond: “For us, social responsibility is key. If we take care of the team member, the team member will take care of the customer, the customer will buy from us and we will deliver a healthier bottom line. So, we are the first company to create a sustainable model to provide medical care for all of our team members: everyone is provided for.”
Anita agrees: “What’s exciting for me is that CSR is now being absolutely driven by the consumer – not simply backed up by the media but backed up by sales. For the first time, we are seeing a meeting of desire and virtue and there’s this yearning to create desirable products and for them to be sustainable and of quality. But while there is a consumer out there who wants to do the right thing and participate, they aren’t prepared to compromise the quality of a product or the style of it. And consumers today understand so much about CSR that unless your initiative or product has absolute integrity, you are not going to fool people for long. In the long term it’s foolish and damaging to your brand.”
Santiago ends on a positive, but challenging note: “With poverty increasing and environmental issues at the top of the agenda, I would say it’s a win-win situation: if it’s good for society, it’s good for business. But there is a good-for-the-consumer, bad-for- society-argument and vice-versa, and that’s where the challenge lies. To balance the multi-local, local and global framework, we look at the entrepreneurial drive in all communities and the ambassadors in it, as they are the key. They feel a responsibility to give back to those communities. If you are a company operating in hundreds of countries and you are an expert on nutrition and hygiene, you have a responsibility and authority to deliver frameworks that enable the companies to join together to make a difference. The hard work and processes of the companies must lead to maximizing delivery of benefits at all levels.”
“We’ve identified a group of people that we call ‘latte activists’, who tend to be over 35 and relatively affluent folks, who have enough money to decide to live their lives in a slightly different way” Laurel Powers- Freeling, American Express.
Download PDF
