The CSR Newsletters are a freely-available resource generated as a dynamic complement to the textbook, Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Sustainable Value Creation.

To sign-up to receive the CSR Newsletters regularly during the fall and spring academic semesters, e-mail author David Chandler at david.chandler@ucdenver.edu.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Strategic CSR - Unforeseen Consequences

The article in the url link below indicates the difficulty in upending established systems and replacing them with new systems that emphasize outcome over process, but also generate unforeseen consequences:

“Then there are biofuels. Often put forward as an eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels, they now seem to be anything but. In theory, the crops from which the biofuels are derived should mop up around half the greenhouse gas generated by the burning of the fuel in vehicles. But environmentalists are now warning that the demand for biofuels is driving up rates of deforestation in Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil, as farmers chop down trees in order to plant more profitable biofuel crops instead. A UN expert committee on energy warned this month that the result could be a net increase in greenhouse emissions, and "significant biodiversity loss, soil erosion and nutrient leaching".”

In addition to having to turn around the supertanker global economy in the face of global warming, sustainability advocates have the added pressure of discovering viable alternative processes and products, and quickly!

Have a good weekend.
Dave

Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther

Unforeseen consequences
Businesses can fend off the risk of 'revenge effects' with more vigilant expertise and less optimism.
By ROBERT MATTHEWS
1039 words
24 May 2007
Financial Times
London Ed1
Page 16
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1892df7c-0994-11dc-a349-000b5df10621.html