Blog Action Day: The world needs more sincere and serious CSR initiatives

CSR, a new trend in the corporate world, at least new to the Arab world, it’s when companies feel responsible to communities they operate in, but how sincere they are? Is it a matter of having a good PR?

Corporates are all about revenues, generating as much money as possible, no matter how. So it’s pretty interesting when see this greedy monster trying to give back to the community, but personally I think instead of giving back, try to be less-greedy, reduce the damage you cause as much as possible. However every initiative is much appreciated, but if it’s not sincere, if it’s not serious, then it’s just another bullshit coming from a company that sucks the hell out of people and environment.

Corporates damage varies depending on the nature of the business, for a property developer like Nakheel, environment is the biggest victim, Nakheel has caused a huge damage to the marine life in Dubai with the man-made islands in the Palm and the World projects, on the short term, damage made to the environment is not really observable, but on the long term, it is. However this is the core of their business, and you can’t expect them to stop it. During the Holy month of Ramadan, Nakheel launched an initiative to support efforts to secure drinkable water in few parts of the world, for every participation from an individual, they’ll donate 100 AED, and according to their website, the total donated money was AED10 million, that’s like $3 million, which if is really used to secure drinkable water for thirsty people, would be more important, on the short term, than saving the marine life.

Aramex is pretty active on CSR, I met their Chief Sustainability & Compliance Officer (CSO) a while back, I guess few companies in the Middle East have such a position, I remember that he mentioned that Aramex donates 1% of its annual profits to support its CSR initiatives, which is very good, imagine if every corporate in the world annually donated money to make this world a better one. Now Aramex has established some sort of an organization in one of Amman’s poor neighborhoods, in which they support the community there to live a better future, I didn’t have the chance to actually go and see, but they seem to be serious about it. Aramex’s business is not very damaging to the environment, it’s a courier company, the damage they cause comes from plastic packages and smoke that comes form the exhaust of their cars while delivering couriers, and as far as I know they have added a fleet of eco-friendly vehicles to their operations, and recently they’ve announced a new line of pouches, an eco-friendly one.

Speaking on eco-friendly packaging, Carrefour offers eco-friendly shopping bags, in attempts to change people’s perception on environment, yes this stupid small plastic bag needs more than 100 years to break down. I remember reading somewhere that the government of Dubai is considering replacing plastic bags used throughout the city with eco-friendly ones. Dubai is a great example when it comes to charity initiatives on the global level, HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum has launched several amazing initiatives such as Dubai Cares, and Noor Dubai, ambitious plans to make a difference in the world. In Jordan, HM Queen Rania has launched several interesting initiatives such as Al-Aman Fund and Madrasty. I’m sure there are many similar initiatives, which is really appreciated.

Companies like Real Estate developers, telecommunication, fashion, cosmetics, banking and finance, sports, entertainment etc. should contribute more, their annual revenues can help in solving problems of this planet. I guess their should be some sort of a global law that pledges corporates to donate parts of their annual revenues for charity causes. when you look at a football player, or a cinema star earning millions and millions of dollars every year, this is excessive, when would they need all that money for? Eventually they’ll die and leave it some dog, or for a greedy relative. Suppose that you have 100 million dollars, let’s say you donated 1 million a year, that’s 50 millions in 50 years, you still have 50 to enjoy your life with, I mean it’s not a race.

Corporates should allocate parts of their annual marketing budgets to CSR, or even allocating separate budgets for charity, it creates some buzz, especially when it’s sincere and serious, I guess if a company built houses for poor people, neither these people or the government would refuse adding something that refers to this generous initiative, it would make a good branding opportunity for that company. When you contribute, people will talk, people will create buzz, it’s a win-win situation.

Eventually we say charity shouldn’t be forced, it should be genuine, but think of the happiness you can cause when you treat a poor patient, or send some kid to college to be able to build a future for a entire family, think of the relief of a starving family when you feed them. I said it before, humans are the worst creature on this earth, if they weren’t, life would be much much better.

Such a scene is really a shame on humanity, this is a starving Sudanese child, who was unable to crawl to the nearest camp, the bird watching him eats only dead bodies, so the bird was waiting for the child to die of starvation to get a meal, the guy who took this shot went through a serious depression, that eventually led him to commit suicide after 2 months. When you look at someone like a wealthy Paris Hilton trying to live a simple life, when you look at fashion shows, when you hear that a movie generated millions of dollars in one week, you won’t imagine such a scene.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 12:25 pm and is filed under International, Media, Public Interest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.