Corporate Social Responsibility - A Source of Industry Pride

Abstract

President's column The SPE Strategic Plan 2018–2023 calls for claiming pride in our industry’s higher purpose, that of supplying energy to meet the needs of humanity. The industry has been vital to global well-being long before the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) was coined. CSR is a key way that business can address stakeholder concerns that are beyond its core KPIs—the relationship between business and the long term; between business and the development of the communities and countries within which they operate successfully; between business and pressing social problems such as poverty alleviation, capacity building, education, health, local economy, and the environment. I have traveled the world this year promoting sustainable development in our industry and learning about our industry’s accomplishments. I am impressed, yet I can see that we need to think even bigger and better about our role in society, and in history.  While the use of our products has raised living standards for billions of people, the pace of human development is having detrimental impacts on nature. Our industry not only applies its ingenuity and innovation to addressing its own impacts, but also actively participates in global efforts to tackle some of the world’s most significant sustainability challenges. As the source of more than 50% of the world’s energy, the scope of our opportunities, and our responsibilities, is huge. CSR grew from man’s impact on his surroundings—people and nature. The term is vigorously discussed, disputed, and frequently substituted by other terms. Semantic nuances and sensibilities matter, and they reflect the different cultures, drivers, and contexts in which business is conducted. A widely accepted definition is the one crafted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development: “Corporate social responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.” The concepts and practices engendered by that definition are now central to how business is conducted. It also aligns well with SPE’s definition of sustainability.  Christiaan Luca, a 2018–2019 Distinguished Lecturer, has devised a model that graphically illustrates the clear shift in perspective required to access the benefits of CSR—a society- centric view of the world with one’s company as one stakeholder in society amongst many vs. a company-centric view of the world (JPT April 2018).