(Cartoon from Rob Millard)

Simon McKeon at The Age on CSR as a grassroots movement:

While CSR has so much to offer, it has not exactly been a smooth ride to date, and nor will it be in the future. Those who have wandered into the CSR space are well aware of the fact that there have, from time to time, been disappointments, unrealistic expectations and poor communication. But by and large, these are seen as lessons to be learned, not as evidence of a fundamental flaw.

The opinion piece that has evoked the greatest reaction was by Janet Albrechtson earlier this year, who said CSR "is a con job. It's largely all talk. It's a meaningless gimmick".

Nothing could be further from the truth. Gimmicks don't work in business, or at least not in any longer-term sense. One doesn't fool employees, customers, let alone the community sector, with gimmicks.

Albrechtson then says that CSR is "a neat trick used by NGOs as ... Blackmail, the idea being that if a corporation fails to embrace social responsibility by taking up their particular agenda, then, by default, that company must be socially irresponsible".

The business environment is typically tough - profits don't fall off trees. Corporations don't readily succumb to external blackmail. No, the drive for CSR largely comes from within the corporation. Employees increasingly expect their employer to have an enlightened attitude to the community.

In other corporate social responsibility news:

*At the International Herald Tribune: In Japan's front offices, a new fusion of East and West.

*In in a batch of stories on Wal-Mart: emphasis on CSR in China as stores open there, Wal-Mart to push energy saving light bulbs, and is the Wal-Mart model working better than the World Bank model?

*An international summit is planned in Ankara to bring together socially responsible parties, foreign and domestic investors, and financiers with PPP projects for civil society support.

*CSR to make it in school curriculum in Bangladesh.

*From Social Funds, IFC and ILO team up to improve working conditions in global supply chains.

*BP ... green image or green mirage?

*Will 2007 be the Year of the Corporate Blog?

*On September 20th in New York City, a forum will be held on "Web Accessibility for the Disabled -- Corporate Social Responsibility, Governmental Compliance, Leveraging New Markets.''