CSR Book The Responsibility Revolution by Seventh Generation Co-Founder

Recently I came across a review by Michael Connor of a CSR-themed book that's co-authored by Seventh Generation's Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Jeffrey Hollender and the company's editorial director Bill Breen entitled The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Business Will Win.

Hollender is known as an unconventional and colorful character who advocates for progressive business values and positions himself as the "chief inspired protagonist" of his Vermont-based company that sells personal care and natural household products. So I was intrigued when learning that the focus of the book is "to show that when companies shift their value proposition," say the authors, "from selling desirable products to solving difficult social and environmental problems, whole new opportunities arise." Great, I thought. Another book for the CSR library.  Among the profiled companies referenced as well-known brands typically linked with CSR and sustainability initiatives are Patagonia, Timberland, Organic Valley, Seventh Generation and a few other bigger corporations. The idea is to share lessons on doing the right thing genuinely and effective, says Connor. So I kept on reading the review with greater interest in the book. Or I did until I learned that Nike was included in that listing.

I know that it's easier to find a dropped, golden pin on a beach than to identify a handful of corporations whose CSR record is pristine from day one. Often the larger the corporation the bigger impact they have on the lives of people and ecosystems, and it's not unusual for some of them to eventually throw large chunks of money and participate in social and environmental projects for very different reasons.

Many of these corporations have motives that can be as legitimate in righting social and environmental wrongs through CSR as they can be ruthless in the social hardships their business activities create to individuals in affected communities or the degradation they introduce into the environment when their number one preoccupation is to deliver robust profits to their shareholders at nearly any cost to these other factors. But I can't shake off the vision of 1,800 Honduran factory workers whose livelihood was so seriously impacted not just by the closing of the Nike subcontracted plants in that country, to say nothing of the conditions under which they  may have labored, but by Nike's refusal to pay those workers for their earned, legally-mandated severance and benefits.

I found myself thinking that I could still choose to read the book on the basis that I do consider the other named companies to be ethical organizations with decent CSR initiatives. Yet, including a truly progressive company such as Patagonia in the same category as Nike, well, it creates much dissonance in my brain. And with this biased lens for abused factory workers and against a corporate giant that flicks them off their shoulder like a nagging mosquito, I found the following authors' statement rather ironic: "At too many companies, do-gooding claims are mere meeting pabulum--a way to burnish the brand, entice consumers, and shake off critics. Those companies that are genuinely committed to doing good too often isolate their CR (corporate responsibility) departments from their operating units and so prevent them from influencing criticial strategic decisions." I'll probably still read the book, which I'll borrow from my local library instead of purchasing it for my CSR bookshelf. But I remain disappointed in the authors' choice of lumping Nike in the same pool as the others.