Feature Article
CSR: Zero Sum Charity or Strategic Opportunity?
By Wayne Dunn
President & Founder, CSR Training Institute
Former Professor of Practice in Corporate Social Responsibility, McGill University

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A Magazine for the
Environmental Center for Arab Towns
Issue 16, January 2017
Yet, many act like it is. They see the growth of
corporate social responsibility as meaning that the
responsibility of business is to make money for its
owners and to give some money to support society.
Support for society sits outside of core business
functions. With no need for any relationship
between the two and no focus on synergies and value
optimization.
This is a zero sum model where the resources
dedicated to supporting society and the environment
are, quite simply, at the expense of the business
owners.
Quite simply, with the demands on today’s businesses
and the current economic climate everything needs
to become more efficient.
21st Century business is expected to produce value
for society, be effective stewards of the environment
and provide reasonable returns to business owners.
This requires strategic thinking and planning and an
integration of social, environmental and shareholder
value.
Businesses that can effectively integrate and align
business value, shareholder value and environmental
stewardship will do better for themselves and for
people and planet. When a business adopts a more
strategic approach to CSR it can do more, produce
more value. For its owners and for society and the
planet.
Wayne Dunn
President & Founder, CSR Training Institute
Former Professor of Practice in Corporate Social
Responsibility, McGill University / ISID
wayne@csrtraininginstitute.com
www.csrtraininginstitute.com
CSR: Zero Sum Charity or Strategic Opportunity?
Business is not a charity, is it?
Business must move past CSR as charity.

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How can a business shift from a charity-focused approach to a more strategic, value generation approach.
A simple starting point is to systematically examine its core business activities and see how they link to social
and environmental well-being as well as business value. The next step is to look at key business pain point
issues, and see where an how they link to society, environment and other issues.
Strategic CSR and Value – creating more winners

A Magazine for the
Environmental Center for Arab Towns
9 Issue 16, January 2017
Often there will be easy, straight-forward
opportunities; a restaurant chain or other food
industry company partnering with a food bank
to provide safe, surplus unused food, a property
developer or supporting research and application
of energy efficient construction processes and
materials, a hospital working with a charity focused
on diabetes or other disease. Many times these initial
partnerships can expand to other areas where there
are shared interests and opportunities. Other times
it will be more difficult to find the opportunities
where business interest and expertise intersects with
societal value and environmental stewardship.
But, it can be done and the recently adopted
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide
a great framework for business to use to identify
these prospects. The SDGs, or Global Goals as they
are sometimes called, are a set of 17 Goals that
were adopted unanimously by the United Nations
in September 2015 as a guide for development for
all countries. The framework is used by NGOs,
international and multi-lateral organizations and
is easily adapted as a framework for business’
engagement with social and environmental value.
The SDGs cover poverty, education, health, gender,
equality, environment, partnership and other key
areas. Any business that wants to begin a serious
examination of how it can contribute to social and
environmental well-being while still focusing on its
own business interests is likely to discover ideas and
opportunities through a simple exercise.
I’ve found that simply bringing together a cross
section of people from a business and having a
facilitated discussion around the SDGs, one by
one, can identify exciting opportunities and create
enthusiasm and commitment. Many businesses are
surprised to discover how much they are already
doing that is linked to the SDGs, and how much
opportunity there is to do more, not as charity, but as
a strategic business opportunity.
Using the SDGs to integrate social,
environmental and business value.
Some will resist change
Some business owners and managers will look
at this and think ‘this doesn’t make sense, my
business doesn’t work that way’, and then simply
continue on with business as usual.

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Unfortunately, the reality is that business isn’t as usual. It has changed, and there is a rising expectation that
business should produce social value and be an effective steward of the environment, at the same time as it is
creating shareholder value.
This is true globally and is true for all businesses. The degree of truth may differ from business to business and
region to region, but the trendline is the same. Society, government and other key stakeholders expect more
of business today that they did five years ago. And they expected more five years ago than they did ten years
ago. And, the collective power to act on those expectations and punish or reward, is growing at the same time.
Smart managers and owners, with an eye to long-term success and profitability, will factor in these changes and
seek ways to efficiently optimize business, societal and environmental interests.
For some it is more challenging to make
the connection between business value and
environmental stewardship. They see reducing
environmental impacts as having a direct affect on
business profits and shareholder value. They see
environmental stewardship coming a financial cost.
For years it has simply been accepted that it would
cost money to meet environmental regulations and
guidelines and that voluntarily going beyond them,
voluntarily finding ways to use environmental
resources and natural capital would necessarily add
to business costs and take away from shareholder
value.
Today, environmental issues are becoming
increasinglyimportant. Theeffectsofglobalwarming
are confronting us regularly with record breaking
heat spells and storms and other events happening
regularly. Globally this is driving increasingly
stringent environmental regulations and increased
expectations that business can and should be better
stewards of the environment.
Strategic CSR and Environmental
Stewardship

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Environmental Center for Arab Towns
11 Issue 16, January 2017
Some businesses are seeing opportunity in this
situation and are creating products, services and
offerings that use environmental resources more
efficiently AND reduce costs at the same time.
They are finding business value in environmental
efficiency. Some of these are obvious. Hotels and
accommodation facilities use large amounts of
financial, environmental and human resources to
wash bedding and towels. Most have developed
programs to encourage guests to re-use towels and
bedding rather than having them changed every
day. This saves the business money and reduces its
environmental impact.
Others are less obvious. Courier companies like
FedEx and DHL are investing in software and systems
that map out the most efficient daily routes for their
drivers, taking into account all the stops they have
to make, traffic patterns, road conditions, etc. Some
are even integrating real-time traffic data to enable
continual optimization. For the company this results
in less distance traveled, less fuel burnt and less wear
and tear on vehicles and less employee time spent.
For the environment it results in less fuel and carbon
cost and the reduced wear and tear on vehicles means
longer life and less environmental costs from repair
and replacement.
Other businesses are going further and using
environmental efficiency as a business cost
management strategy and a marketing and
positioning strategy. A great example of this is
Diamond Development’s Dubai Sustainable City.
From conception, through planning, construction
and operation, every effort was made to integrate
environmental efficiency, business value and quality
lifestyle; a true alignment of social, environmental
and business interests that optimizes value on all
dimensions.
Going forward we can expect that society will
continue to expect business to contribute to social
value through their investments and operations.
Don’t expect this to remain static – society’s
expectations of business’ social performance had
increased over time and we can expect it to continue
to do so.
We can expect that environmental regulations will
get more and more stringent and, at the same time,
society will expect continuous improvement in
business’ overall environmental stewardship.
The echo-chamber of social media and the increasing
transparencyandscrutinyenabledbytheinternetwill
keep pressure on business to meet these increasing
social and environmental performance expectations.
Some businesses will struggle and resist, seeing it
as a zero-sum game and will reluctantly improve
social and environmental performance as required
by regulation and as forced by consumers and
stakeholders.
Aligning environmental stewardship and
business value
Going Forward

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Other businesses will embrace the changes and look for opportunities. They will examine their systems and
processes, and sometimes the very fundamentals of their business, looking for those strategic opportunities
where business, social and environmental value aligns and creates breakthrough opportunities.
Today,andgoingforward,thosewholookatCSRasaZero-Sum,Charityfocusedapproachwillfinditcoststhem
more and profits them less. Those that look at CSR as a strategic opportunity to meet the needs and demands
of the marketplace, their stakeholders and their shareholders will find exciting Win Win Win opportunities.
We all need to do our part, and we all need to be part of helping ensure others do their part too. It is easy to
think that as individuals there is little that we can do that makes a difference. Easy to think that it is large
companies and governments that need to change.
But, as individuals, we can make a difference. We can make a difference by what we buy, by what we re-use and
recycle. We can make a difference by how we travel to and from work. We can make a difference by turning
lights off and turning AC down.
We can make a difference by helping to educate and inform others. We can make a difference by demanding
better sustainability performance from our leaders and governments, from the companies we work for and buy
from.
There are so many ways that we can make a difference as individuals. Remember, CSR and Sustainability is
everyone’s responsibility. Change starts with you. What have you done today? What will you do tomorrow.
CSR and Sustainability are EVERYONE’s Responsibility.

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Environmental Center for Arab Towns
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The world is changing. We need to move to more efficient use of all forms of value including financial
value and the value of nature and our precious ecosystems.

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Stakeholder Engagement Strategy: Help More – Hurt Less
Learning how to engage and work effectively with stakeholders can be hugely valuable for many businesses.
The flip side, not learning how to engage and work effectively with stakeholders can be very costly.
There has been enough written on Stakeholder Engagement Strategy to fill many bookshelves, maybe an entire
library. Yet, for many, it remains this complex, arcane topic that is not well understood and therefore, often not
attempted, or just simply done poorly.

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Environmental Center for Arab Towns
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Much can be said for the more complex discussions
and strategies around stakeholder engagement. They
have undoubtedly worked well for many. But, much
can be said for a simpler approach that can be more
easily understood and absorbed throughout the
organization.
Help more, hurt less is really the heart of stakeholder
engagement in its simplest form. Find out who can
help or hurt your business. Understand how they
can help or hurt you and then understand how you
can help or hurt them.
Then, simply help more and hurt less. For those that
want things to be more complex, you can go and pull
down any of the long, complex essays and books on
stakeholder engagement and you will find that the
message changes little, what they do is elaborate on
tactics.
If you are like me and easily get lost in too much
theory and tactics that are too complex you can
simply remember Stakeholder engagement means
help more and hurt less.
The Canadian University of Dubai and Canada’s
CSR Training Institute have partnered to provide
training, resources and support to assist Emirati
and Gulf region businesses and organizations to be
more strategic and effective in meeting the social
and environmental expectations of society while,
simultaneously, providing reasonable returns to
investors and owners.
They do this through executive masterclass programs
that make global best practices and learnings
available in the region and by providing direct
consulting support to appropriate programs. For
more information info@csrtraininginstitute.com .