CSR or Greenwashing?

Corporate social responsibility does not have a universally accepted definition and thus organisations globally, who practice it, do it differently. CSR has seen a huge take up with companies since 1970s, everything from cars to food is being sold to consumers as 'green' or 'sustainable'.  In some companies, CSR falls to be crucial and genuine but the majority of them use it as a spin to damaging events - a concealer for dark circles. In the UK less than 1% of an organisation's budget is allotted for CSR activities. 

BP Green Fiasco

The baddies like organisations in the oil and gas industry, coal and mines or any sector that directly harms the environment try very hard to sell their products/services as green/sustainable . One example was British Petroleum (BP)'s revamp to Beyond Petroleum, a green project to ensure responsible and sustainable activities of its organisation. While they did invest huge time and money on this project - changing their logo to a green one took up most of the investment. It not only pinched the organisation hard on the waste of investment, it trampled their little existing reputation.

The need for something like CSR arose with varied and increasing environmental issues and increasing number of NGO watchdogs, reduced trust in companies, 'more than just business' attitude of companies and the economic turndown to an extent. With these factors in hand, most companies developed CSR strategies to show their participation in different ways. There has been an observation made by most CSR strategists that CSR plans and strategies have not yet been merged with business objectives and when that happens CSR may not be viewed as such a green sell off. 

Due to media exposure on companies with good and bad CSR initiatives, NGOs cracking the whips on companies to be increasingly sustainable, consumers are highly aware and alert about CSR vs green washing. Websites like greenwashing index equips consumers with a information and tools to spot CSR as green spin offs. 

The Green revolution

Organisations need to recognise the opportunities behind genuine sustainability initiatives as it not only builds their financial performances but also is an excellent way of maintaining high brand value, reputation and trust. For public relations such authentic CSR planning and strategies is a recipe for positive communication for all stakeholders, tailoring CSR strategy planning and free and positive news coverage. The PR department in the baddie organisations, on the other hand, will keep brushing green to mask its damages.