“How can my company help make the world a better place?” a full-page advertisement asks readers of some of the major US newspapers in September.
Behind the question? Alcoa, Coca-Cola and General Motors, and the bosses of 15 other US companies supporting S.E.E. Change (Society, Environment, Economy), a new initiative to demonstrate that business and economic growth are compatible with commitments to society and the environment.
The US Business Roundtable, a business lobby group that aims to promote economic growth, a competitive US workforce and a dynamic global economy, is driving the initiative. The aim is to encourage companies to adopt business strategies and projects that benefit society, environment and the economy, and to showcase the results so the public can see the impacts. SEE Change claims that goals and metrics will set it apart from other initiatives: participating companies must commit to goals and metrics for social, environmental and economic sustainability. No one set of metrics is prescribed. Instead, the focus is on encouraging companies to go beyond standard eco-efficiency metrics and to find ways to measure how value creation itself can contribute to social or environmental challenges.
Critics complain that the initiative is not prescribing a particular set of metrics for companies to use, such as the Global Reporting Initiative. But the initiative’s alternative focus is to be commended, not least because wider social impacts are much harder to measure. Instead of ticking boxes based on their eco-efficiency or diversity statistics, SEE Change wants companies to ask themselves: how can innovative new products and technologies contribute to social well-being, such as disease prevention and treatment, literacy, housing, mobility, land use and ecosystem protection, and trade?
Perhaps S.E.E. Change is aiming too high. But its potential for change is significant. Take the Business Roundtable’s response to Hurricane Katrina. In addition to donating nearly $269m, the Roundtable tested its new Partnership for Disaster Relief initiative, which brought together business sectors, such as health, technology, financial services, construction, transportation and communications, into a coordinated private sector response to this kind of major natural disaster.
With the chief executive of DuPont, Charles Holliday, chairing S.E.E. Change, the initiative certainly has the backing of a big-hitter. Yet if Holliday is really committed to S.E.E.’s strapline, he’ll persuade the Roundtable’s other big players – Pfizer, Exxon Mobil, Boeing and Goldman Sachs – to mobilise sustainable business solutions and really “discover the positive power of business”.
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