Growing up in America, getting CPR certified was something that everyone could do should they want to.

following the 5.12 earthquake I thought about this more and more, especially as many of the volunteers who showed up in Sichuan did so without basic knowledge of first aid.

It is encouraging to see that Ruijin Hospital and the Luwan Government are now making it possible to learn CPR in Shanghai.

The training is a collaborative effort by Ruijin Hospital and the Luwan District Health Bureau. It’s part of their campaign to provide more comprehensive services to people with common diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, breast cancer and cardiovascular and cerebral ailments.

It is especially important given the grim statistics of having a heart attack in China:

Since 70 to 80 percent of heart attacks take place outside a hospital and less than 1 percent of such patients are saved in China, the hospital decided to provide education and training in first-aid skills to community doctors, ambulance staff, patients, family members and police patrol officers.

only 1% save rate…

When writing the post The Difficulty of Evaluating CSR Reports, I had not begun reading Sinopec’s 2007 Sustainability Report.

Had I, I would have had another example of just how wide the spectrum can be.

Using the image below as a start, for Sinopec, sustainability for them is about 3 things :improving the financial value of the firm, improving human capital,and improving the environment.  There are none of the pictures of executives helping children read or plant trees, and what “kids and babies” angles they did through into this went into the back

What they did cover, often, was corruption and how they had programs to deal with that, and they had programs that supported the development of their employees and their families.  It was like reading a state owned enterprise guidebook at time as I began to see that Sinopec’s angle on this document was not only honest.. it was holistic in many regards.

As an assessment under traditional means  Sinopec’s report as a pure environmental report was not complete.  they failed to mention many of the key programs I would have hope to see from an oil firm, and what programs they have are pretty thin at best.  I thought that there would have been more mention on R&D related to clean technologies - like a BP - or that there would be some discussion around their process to clean up their supply chain.  However, neither happened

However, by taking their view of sustainability out to a position of where a traditional CSR report is positioned it did force me to think about how different parties view sustainability in different ways. Surely everyone can admit that the system is not a perfect one, but what I found almost amusing in my second read was that Sinopec had some of the best statistics (and presentation of their statistics), unlike many firms that bury or hide numbers with in reports.

Where I would recommend this report for readers is to spend some time thinking about how China and the West see sustainability from a cultural perspective and how this highlights that gap.  It is not necessarily a bad thing that Sinopec took this route in their report, and I do appreciate seeing their view, but if they need to really work on their supporting information for next year so that we can see just what it is they are doing.

CD News has posted a very interesting interview of Dr. Simon Zadek, Chief Executive of AccountAbility discussing the role of corporate responsibility in today’s world.

For me the most interesting part of the interview comes in the first three questions as Dr Zadek really hammers away at the idea that the Western CSR model is “the” model and puts forward that it is actually lesser developed and developing nations like China, Cambodia, South Africa, and Brazil that will really start to define how companies develop CSR practices.

over the past 10 or 15 years at the international level come primarily from a western liberal mind set. I think that there is an assumption on the part of many businesses or CR activists that it’s just a question of other cultures and countries catching up. That seems to me the furthest possible place from the truth.

for myself, I would agree with this statement in at about the 75-85% level as I think that given the size of “CSR” there is going to be a large chunk of this business philisophy that will be driven by the ideals of Western firms moreso that the conditions on the ground in the afor mentioned countries.  Corporate HQ will set the strategic directions for global programs, HQ based staff will manage country Foundations will still hire and develop teams, and while programs will localize (something we are seeing in China already in the largest programs) we are not seeing where local policies are breaking through in many of the CSR strongholds.

Were I to model it out:

Community investment (philanthropy and volunteerism) - global directed programs will begin to localize as local staff continues to develop, and business units on the ground will take on much of this role.  however, large global partnerships will continue to receive the largest grants.

Environment - this is certainly an area where western based managers need to begin listening to their BRIC/ developing nation partners as it is their partners who are exposed to the problems of environmental degredation on a very intimate level.

Labor relations (incl. health & safety). - This is an area that will have an interesting dynamic long term.  The in-house lawyers (and PR firms) of the west will look to drive strong policies to address issues on the ground as a matter of defense.  No one wants to be Nike in ‘97 again, and with consumer activisim in the west growing, the issues of child labor and exploiting labor are sensitive issues,  Some of the most proactive firms (Nike) are working with governments and NGOs around the world to develop systems, policies, and capacity to reduce these issues, and so in that manner the loop will close.

Governance and Codes of Conduct - These will become global.  firms like Philips, Wal-Mart, and others are all working feverishly to abondon the local + concept and more to a global standard that is really driven by the western home office.  Partly a defensive mechanism, partly arising from a need to work with a single code of conduct, there are entire industry clusters (particularly textile and footwear) that have worked to take it a step further and coordinate as an industry at a global level.

To read more of his interview, and it is a very interesting interview, I highly suggest it.  for those looking to learn how to break into the CSR field, you will get some excellent advice in is last response as well:

The key decision that someone coming into this field has to make is, “Am I comfortable becoming another manager in the field, responsible for reporting or responsible for compliance, or responsible for philanthropy?”;

A new report from Labour Behind the Label, a pressure group, has come out in the UK, ranking retailers for their ’sweatshop’ performance. Since the web-site seems to be inaccessible in China, have a read of this comment from the Independent on the report. Apparently:

Some very large retailers admit, in the words of the report, they “have no plans to do anything about garment employees’ poverty wages.” Step forward Clarks, Debenhams, French Connection, House of Fraser, John Lewis, Laura Ashley, Matalan, River Island and Levi Strauss.

If you are not British, you might know who some of those companies are, but they do represent a very sizable portion of the retail market in the UK.

For the report to include Levi Strauss in that list seems to be ludicrous, as Levi Strauss have definitely be doing a lot in this area for several years. Apparently a number of other companies did not did not ‘respond to the survey or make any information public’, including Burberry (who I know for a fact are leading the way as luxury retailers go) -the website I looked at for Burberry has plenty of information. I am thus very dubious as to the quality of the data in this report.

update:

click here to download the report if you are inside China.

Having read the report, I can reveal the report focuses on ‘Living Wages’ and thus deems paying minimum wage as not being good enough. The entire report is around trying to get companies to pay a ‘living wage’ to the employees of their contract factories, which should be decided by workers themselves (this is not how the UK minimum wage is decided though!). The minimum wages the workers get in China are living wages. In fact most of those workers are able to save money to send home. Other countries might be different; in which case the report should compare minimum wages with ‘living wages’.

Instead of lambasting companies for not paying a ‘living wage’, the report should focus on lambasting companies for not meeting other, more important, requirements, such as Minimum wage, having labour contracts, health and safety practices, environmental pollution and all the other laws these contract factories are breaking. Meeting the minimum law is, yes, only the minimum, but that is still what is needed. Beyond that, it is up to the market and laws to change; not necessarily the role of the buyers (unless they chose to, to distinguish their brand).

Read the rest of this entry »

Factory and labor conditions have been a hot topic in China for a while. It peaked last summer when product safety recalls focused the spotlight on China, and the recent implementation of the labor law has looked to push reforms into the system that protect industry.

Labor conditions and code of conduct have traditionally been a black hole for CSR reporting. Companies rarely highlight the fact that they have problems proactively, and if these issues are reported on it is because someone was caught doing something wrong.

So, when I was passed a link to the Project Kaleidescope report, I was intrigued as it was a chance to learn about these issues as the ongoing process they are, rather than as a moment in crisis. A partnership between McDonald’s, Disney, and Domini Social Investments, it follows a topic that has received a lot of attention over the last year in China:

Project Kaleidoscope was a collaborative effort initiated and guided by a multi-stakeholder Working Group consisting of representatives of the McDonald’s Corporation and The Walt Disney Company and other organizations that work on international labor issues. We, the Working Group, sought to improve working conditions in facilities that produce products for corporate supply chains. We believe this is not only a worthwhile objective in and of itself, but also a way to help protect against reputational risk and to enhance long-term shareholder value.

At 56 pages, this report offers a very comprehensive look into a process where real collaboration can occur. It is the best document I have seen to date on the issues, and how to proactively address them through a collaborative process.

So, if you are CSR manager, a purchasing manager, a risk analyst, HR specialist, etc I suggest you read this. These problems are not the problems or the responsibilities of a single department, so make sure that oyu read this and review it together.

full report can be downloaded here

Dell has released their 2008 CSR report (h/t Environmental Leader) and it has a lot of China content in its 112 pages (40 mentions to be exact), something to be expected as Dell has a large investment in an operation in Xiamen.

For those looking to gain a sense of what Dell finds important as a company, you only need to look at the website itself where Michael Dell lists 4 of their operational achievements/ focuses (2 philanthropic focuses are also listed outside of the below):

• Pledging to make Dell’s operations carbon neutral beginning in 2008 .
• Committing to producing energy-efficient products that deliver the most performance per watt for our customers .
• Launching ReGeneration.org , a global meeting place that enables people to learn about going “green,” share ideas and protect the environment .
• Continuing our focus on environmentally responsible product design .

As you can see, all of these goals are environmentally related, and all very worthy on their own right.

I am going to be interested to learn how they intend to achieve these goals (i.e. will carbon neutral be achieve through 100% solar panels or offsetting?  Are their efforts in product design focused on packaging alone, or are they looking to find ways for consumers to reduce their need to scrap a computer carcass every time their Intel chip dates itself?

China though adds another layer, and perhaps were Michael Dell to write a China report, his comments would reflect the fact that with nearly 80% of Dell’s supplier spend in the region, labor conditions are as important as the environment.

Some highlights from their China supplier portion

• Dell brought in its tier 1 and 2 suppliers to a EICC (code of conduct) training session in Shanghai, with those sessions also including workshops on how to create effective manager/ employee relationships, how to mitigate and address child labor, and hiring diversely
• Another workshop was held in Shenzhen to address business process improvement and the EICC.
• Dell has put in place an internal citizen team that identifies high-risk suppliers, arranges site visits , and conducts ongoing evaluation and training

Read the rest of this entry »

What comes into my mind when reading some of the endless articles of Chinese companies irresponsible practices in Africa, like this from Bloomberg news, is not the reasons why it is happening (of course there is pressure to keep costs low and pressure to access resources), not if Chinese companies are any worse than Western companies (either past or present) or other ‘developing countries’ companies (presumably not that much difference, but more Chinese companies out there and China is in the spotlight more) -but i wonder what the people running these companies are thinking.

I am a strong believer that people are inherently good, though also selfish. This thus means many people will put themselves over others, but if it is a matter of ‘a bit more wealth’ vs ‘death for a child’, i am mystified how people can, as human beings, make such a choice. The answer might be that such a choice never happens -that poor decisions create accidents, rather than people purposely acting irresponsibly knowing the impact it will have. Besides, if it is not forced labour, if it was so bad, wouldn’t the workers find work elsewhere?

read on for more on China in Africa and the role of the Chinese government…

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the trends I saw last summer was that your average Zhou was beginning to recognize that they had an opportunity to participate in the development in their society, and unlike before they were taking that opportunity. they were going for strolls in Xiamen, outing polluters online, and putting pressure on local officials who were not acting in their best interests.

It was a huge change that took the 3rd largest lake, a labor scandal, and a product scandal, but it happened.

I predicted then that we were at a turning point and companies would need to Clean Up or Close Up, and as I discussed in a post a couple week ago, the trend has continued. Where I see the biggest change, and where things are different than before, is that unlike the past where civil society was managed from Beijing pushing down onto the prvincies/ cities/ villages policies that would be ignored at the local level, and local officials would do so without any real fear.

Sure, there were the ever so often examples of bad cadres making the news, but in reality many never felt the heat. but that is all changing, and while there are certainly a number of things that have motivated the masses, there mediums of initial action is via internet and SMS, as the People’s Daily enterprises feel pressure from netizens in China suggests:

Enterprises in China - either Chinese or foreign-funded enterprises - have felt a magnitude of pressure from the massive number of Chinese netizens who urge them to shoulder more corporate social responsibilities (CSR).

Only strengthened by the recent emotional response that swept China in response to the earthquake relief, we are process by which not only are netizens and citizens more likely to express their opinions in a pubic forum, they are given a longer leash to do so, and once they do… they do so en masse. and when you have reports from Jones Lange LaSalle reporting statistics like:

A February Policy paper released by the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development stated that by 2005 84% of FIEs were involved in an industry is considered to be heavily polluting compared to 30% in 1995.

companies need to take more care when operating in China to make sure their labor codes and practices are in order, that environmental codes are observed, that a firm is not seen as exploiting China in any way, and that they are giving back to their local communities.