Sustainability Blog, like many others, seem to think the practices of corporations, socially responsible or otherwise, are like the news on TV - we just watch it happen. There is another popular opinion that CSR is just a bunch of propaganda and marketing. I don't entirely agree with either opinion.

Corporate Social Responsibility isn't just something we watch. CSR is a full contact sport, and requires your participation. Not only by choosing to boycott the companies that are not socially responsible, not only by speaking out against unjust corporate practices - no, there is a lot more to CSR than meets the eye.

More Than Marketing

Michael Donahoo (TubaTechno on Digg) has the right idea:

Coming from a person who has no real world experience or higher education. Corporations have 1 responsibility, to their shareholders. Their main responsibility is to increase the value of their company for their shareholders. A company can have level profits from year to year and STILL increase the company's value to their shareholders. They can grow their brand, or have an increase investment in the community as part of their corporate responsibility.

"Any apparent attempt at something unprofitable is marketing." So paying for most of your employees' health insurance is unprofitable, do they do this for marketing? No, they do this for employee satisfaction and loyalty. Corporations do many things that are not profitable, it doesn't mean it's solely for the purpose of marketing in making them "look good."

Source: Comments on a story in Digg

Although some companies appear to use their socially responsible acts as marketing points, isn't this something you would want to encourage? By their act, they have invested in you. They have already paid you. Shouldn't you reward them for all their hard work?

Not to mention by encouraging these companies to talk about what they do, eventually they just might start being more transparent - and as I have said before, fixing corporate transparency will fix everything. CSR is simply win-win-win - so long as you can see through the gimmicks.

A Lot Like Politics

Just like politicians, corporations try to tout their "platform" of social responsibility in order to win your "vote." Some corporations actually have the actions to back those words, with products and practices that really do benefit the triple bottom line. However, much like politics, some of it is just so much hot air.

The only real difference between CSR and politics is you vote with dollars, words, and actions instead of rigged Diebold machines (although, now that I think about it, neither the dollar or electronic vote really hold any actual value, but that's neither here nor there).

You do a lot more to forward or hinder socially responsible acts by corporations than you think. Not voting ("being concerned") may as well be a vote against your favorite candidate ("cause"), and a vote for irresponsibility. Working for a company whose ethics and values are unknown to you is equivalent to campaigning for a candidate you know nothing about. Starting to see a pattern yet?

• By ignoring the problems in the world (such as modern human slavery), you are giving corporations permission to ignore global issues too. Think about it - if you, their customer, are not worried about something, then why should they?
• By working for a corporation who acts against the interests of society, you too are being socially irresponsible
• By purchasing products lazily (without researching whether they were produced, shipped, and marketed in a responsible fashion), you are simply encouraging corporate laziness and oversight.

Be the Change You Wish to See

You are a citizen, and in the eyes of the law, so are corporations. How can you expect more of corporations than you are doing yourself? You must be a responsible consumer before corporations can get this whole social responsibility thing right. You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

It's not just their responsibility. Corporations, like politicians, need to be held accountable for their actions. They need to be watched. They need to be led to understand better ways of doing things. And you must lead them.

CSR is not all about what corporations do - it is what you do too!