Climate Change: the biggest corporate social responsibility

Photo: Clinton Steeds

Today I went to a breakfast hosted by the The Australian Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (ACCSR) where keynote speaker Paul Hohnen talked about climate change and how businesses must become sustainable. He thinks the basic motivation will be either greed or creed.

"Climate change might be prevented as much by changes in technology and financial engineering as it will by changes in consumer habits. On both fronts, business must play a key role. In this regard, corporate responsibility has already played a pivotal role in putting these issues on the agenda, and bringing them to the point where leading companies like General Electric and Philips are integrating them into their core business."

I think most corporates are in a transition phase, just starting to work out how to be more sustainable. Even though The Body Shop has a proud history of environmental responsibility and activism we don't claim to be perfect, but we're trying. I think that's the key and I know all our staff are 100% committed to learning and trying new ways to reduce the size of our footprint.

Since starting at The Body Shop I've been researching about becoming carbon neutral. This means that we get an accredited measurement of our greenhouse gas emissions and offset them with carbon credits. We're not doing this to just to tick a box. Part of this process will be learning how to continually reduce our greenhouse gas emissions - long term through smarter, greener ways of operating.

I've been getting advice from the ACF, Origin Energy (our green energy suppliers), Sustainability Victoria, RMIT Global Sustainability Institute, Carbon Planet, Village Green and Neco. The process is quite perplexing because there are a whole lot of carbon auditors out there and they all offer different things.
I'll let you know how we go.

If you're wondering what our motivation for becoming sustainable is... well it's purely creed! We wouldn't be in business if the only reward was money. We believe we're here equally to make a difference to the social fabric and have a positive impact on our environment.

In Australia The Body Shop has been campaigning to "Protect our Planet" since 1986.

I'll leave you with Grist, a great environment blog and their How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic article and Planet Ark's Recycling Near You website - a great resource that helps you search for local recycling information either by Council Area or Product.


Adam Valvasori - Values Manager