2015 CSR Prediction : Doing the right thing becomes central to business, not a sideline

People with good hearts often do the most harm. I witnessed this firsthand about 20 years ago, when – after I’d already been helping to build responsible businesses, large and small, for some 20 years – I saw the creation of a special business focus called sustainability. Then came corporate citizenship and other labels.

The organizations I had worked to develop had never separated out – and, as a result, fragmented – the work of doing business responsibly. Responsibility was part of how they did everything, not a sideline. I think separating responsibility from business operations, while well-intended, ultimately caused setbacks.

But I finally see that well intended sidetrack reversing: 2015 is looking bright for responsible entrepreneurship. Three big shifts in particular that should give us hope:

1. Less counting, more caring

Until recently, most reporting, consulting and corporate programs have used metrics to leverage responsibility. Managers figure out a way to count everything, believing a metric is the golden ticket to getting things done. The misguided notion of “what you measure is what you get” has been the mantra for decades. I don’t think it’s true. My mantra is: “What you get is what you care about.”

Google, for instance, is making headway in changing our relationship with food. Instead of focusing on metrics, it’s finding ways to make people care about the impact of their food choices on farming, health and climate.

Via global dialogue and multidisciplinary projects, it aims to create food experiences and knowledge that brings those impacts to life in a more effective and powerful way than simply by sharing abstract numbers and statistics.

This approach has already born fruit: Google has set up its own community-supported agriculture deals directly with local farms in Northern California. If Google and other companies can get more people to care, that could make it possible to scale for organic farming, resulting in real systemic change.

2. Less copying, more innovating

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The sustainability movement unwittingly has borrowed many bad ideas from the traditional business world. Chief among them is the idea of “best practices.” Copying others’ practices has the tendency to commoditize the same approaches rather than creating unique ones that are relevant to each situation and business.

For example, most companies have separate programs and standards for goals such as water conservation, fair trade, green building, energy efficiency and more. But focusing on the individual numbers in each category isn’t enough to make a business create real change. Being a fair trade brand is a baseline for being a good business; not a differentiator.

What I hope to see more of in 2015 is the shifting of entire systems through innovation. I’m already seeing some signs this trend is growing: take Merida Meridian, a small US textile design company that has been changing the rug industry with unique designs and products that exceed sustainability and fair-trade standards.

The company creates healthier communities in places – such as Brazilian villages – where it sources woven, dyed materials. It supports the unique artisan skills that were being lost to commodity sourcing. And the designs themselves stand out: Merida Meridian is now considered a “go to” source for top interior designers around the world.

It would have missed all that commercial and social success if it had simply pursued the best practices in its industry. 

3. Fewer substitutions, more game changing

2014 may have been the year of the social enterprise , but many social enterprises operate on a small scale. If we want to see true progress, these companies will need to think bigger.

While most social ventures offer product substitutes for conscious consumers, they leave more than 97% of the market to more irresponsible options. Or they focus on solving a single problem rather than changing the system that produces the problem. Most, so far, haven’t been disruptive enough to change their whole industry. But that transformation, I hope, is coming.

Community Sourced Capital of Seattle, Washington, is changing the financial system that affects small business investing and local economic vitality in its area. In particular, it’s taking on the impersonal relationships banks often have with their communities.

Here’s how it works: local residents make interest-free loans to local CSC-member businesses – which are vetted by CSC – to buy equipment and grow. The investors are investing in the neighborhood, as well as the business. They are deeply connected to the neighborhood businesses and care if it is succeeds. CSC is changing both an industry and a social system.

If more social enterprises find innovative ways to change systems, they could end up doing far more good.

Carol Sanford is an educator who has worked with companies such as DuPont, Procter & Gamble, Seventh Generation and Google. She is also the author of The Responsible Entrepreneur: Four Game-Changing Archetypes for Founders, Leaders, and Impact Investors.