The future of CSR: towards transformative CSR, or CSR 2.0

Abstract

This chapter argues that CSR, as a business, governance and ethics system, has failed. This assumes that success or failure is measured in terms of the net impact (positive or negative) of business on society and the environment. The chapter contends that a different kind of CSR is needed if we are to reverse the current direction of many of the world’s most pressing social, environmental and ethical trends. The chapter reviews business’s historical progress over the stages of CSR: moving through defensive, charitable, promotional and strategic CSR approaches respectively. The chapter examines the three curses of modern CSR (incremental, peripheral and uneconomic), before exploring what CSR might look like in an emerging age of responsibility. This new CSR – called transformative CSR or CSR 2.0 – is based on five principles (creativity, scalability, responsiveness, glocality and circularity) and forms the basis for a new DNA model of responsible business, built around the four elements of value creation, good governance, societal contribution and environmental integrity.

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