On CSR & Sustainability
“Corporations are social institutions. If they don’t serve society, they have no business existing.”
- Henry Mintzberg
“True green marketing must go beyond the ad models where everything is another excuse to make a brand look good; we need a green marketing that does good.”
- John Grant
“Business has a responsibility beyond its basic responsibility to its shareholders; a responsibility to a broader constituency that includes its key stakeholders: customers, employee, NGOs, government – the people of the communities in which it operates.”
- Courtney Pratt, Former CEO Toronto Hydro
“People are going to want, and be able, to find out about the citizenship of a brand, whether it is doing the right things socially, economically and environmentally.”
- Mike Clasper President of Business Development, Proctor and Gamble (Europe)
“Not long ago the concerns of ecologists were as irrelevant to business planners as those of ethicists are today. “Green” has gone from being a disparagement to becoming a badge that no smart company would risk being without. Ethics are similarly en route to becoming a strategic imperative.”
– John Dalla Costa, Ethical Imperative
“We know that the profitable growth of our company depends on the economic, environmental, and social sustainability of our communities across the world. And we know it is in our best interests to contribute to the sustainability of those communities.”
- Travis Engen, CEO, Alcan
“Corporate social responsibility is not just about managing, reducing and avoiding risk, it is about creating opportunities, generating improved performance, making money and leaving the risks far behind.”
- Sunil Misser, Head of Global Sustainability Practice, PwC
“It is not good enough to do what the law says. We need to be in the forefront of these [social responsibility] issues.”
- Anders Dahlvig, CEO of IKEA, quoted in Financial Times.
“In terms of power and influence you can forget about the church, forget politics. There is no more powerful institution in society than business… The business of business should not be about money, it should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed.”
- Anita Roddick
“Stakeholders want companies to make a profit, but not at the expense of their staff and the wider community.”
- Brian Gosschalk, CEO, MORI, quoted in Financial Times
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.”
– Warren Buffet
“Companies that are breaking the mold are moving beyond corporate social responsibility to social innovation. These companies are the vanguard of the new paradigm. They view community needs as opportunities to develop ideas and demonstrate business technologies, to find and serve new markets, and to solve longstanding business problems.”
- Rosabeth Moss Kanter
“Companies with their eye on their ‘triple-bottom-line’ outperform their less fastidious peers on the stock market”
- The Economist
“Ethics is the new competitive environment.”
- Peter Robinson, CEO Mountain Equipment Co-op
“Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children”
- Kenyan Proverb
“When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world.”
- John Muir
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced”
- Kierkegaard
“Sustainable development is a dynamic process which enables all people to realize their potential, and to improve their quality of life, in ways which simultaneously protect and enhance the Earth’s life support systems.”
- (Forum for the Future Annual Report 2000).
“We are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to.”
- Terri Swearingen
“The best friend of earth of man is the tree. When we use the tree respectfully and economically, we have one of the greatest resources on the earth.”
- Frank Lloyd Wright
“You can tell how high a society is by how much of its garbage is recycled.”
- Tahanie
“We are seeing the birth of a new perspective of the world, where ecology and economics are two sides of the same coin.”
- Leif Johansson
“We are living in an interminable succession of absurdities imposed by the myopic logic of short-term thinking.”
- Jacques-Yves Cousteau
“Only after the last tree has been cut down. Only after the last river has been poisoned. Only after the last fish has been caught. Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.”
- Cree Indian Prophecy
“The continued poverty of the majority of the planet’s inhabitants and excessive consumption by the minority are the two major causes of environmental degradation.”
- UN Environment Program
“Every generation is, at the same time, user and protector of the natural, genetic and cultural heritage of mankind, and can even enrich it, so as to leave for future generations at least the same opportunities it has had.”
-Javier Perez de Cuellar
“Everyone who considers themselves a realist will be forced to justify their behavior in light of their contribution toward the preservation of the environment.”
- Ernst von Weizacker
“The future belongs to those who understand that doing more with less is compassionate, prosperous and enduring and thus more intelligent, even competitive.”
- Paul Hawken
“If you want to see an endangered species, get up and look in the mirror.”
- John Young, former Apollo astronaut
“Our world has enough for each person’s need, but not for his greed.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
“The world’s deteriorating ecology poses as great a danger to mankind today as did the nuclear standoff between the superpowers at the height of the Cold War.”
- Mikhail Gorbachev
“Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man.”
- Stewart Udall
“The ecological crisis is doing what no other crisis in history has ever done — challenging us to a realization of a new humanity. ”
- Jean Houston
“Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so called scientific knowledge. ”
- Thomas Edison
“Business is not just about making a profit anymore; it’s about creating a sustaining business culture that energizes employees, creates a unique profit edge and makes a positive impact on humanity and the environment. Anything less is a waste of valuable time and resources we need for a sustainable future.”
-Will Marré
”Businesses that recognize the importance of social responsibility often have employees who tend to be more satisfied with their jobs, adopt similar values, and become more committed to achieving success within the industry.”
- Douglas Klein, President of Sirota Survey Intelligence