By Lloyd Mackey

SOME 20 Vancouver Island business and charity leaders had an opportunity to explore the concept of corporate social responsibility. The occasion was a March 12 noon-hour seminar led by Earoel Kennedy, B.C. team leader with World Vision (WV) Canada.

The seminar was part of a Business Education Series sponsored by the Times-Colonist newspaper, as part of its 150th anniversary celebrations.

The event was hosted by the Victoria Chamber of Commerce at its Fort Street office.

The Taiwan-born Kennedy is currently completing work in her master’s degree in business leadership at Trinity Western University in Langley. She took the chamber group through an exploration of the means by which organizations committed to corporate social responsibility (CSR) can achieve:

• stronger financial performance through such things as eco-efficiency;
• improved accountability to and assessments from the investment community;
• enhanced employee commitment;
• decreased vulnerability through stronger relationships with communities; and
• improved reputation and branding.
Kennedy suggested CSR is about “seriously considering the impact of a company’s actions on society.”
She pointed out that genuine CSR “requires a company to consider its acts in terms of a whole social system, and is held responsible for the effects of its acts anywhere in that system.”
She described the hierarchy of responsibilities under CSR as moving from a base of economic responsibilities, up a pyramid  through legal, social and ethical responsibilities.
Kennedy spoke of six options a corporation can activate, in the practice of CSR. They are:
• cause promotion – promoting social causes through promotional sponsorships;
• cause-related marketing – making a contribution or donating a percentage of revenue to a specific cause based on product sales and usage;
• corporate social marketing – supporting behaviour change campaigns;
• corporate philanthropy – making a direct contribution to a charity or cause;
• community volunteering – providing volunteer services in the community; and
• socially responsible business practice – adopting and conducting discretionary business practices and investments that support social causes.

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Interviewed by BCCN following the seminar, Kennedy traced her “pilgrimage” toward her current work with World Vision from her childhood in Taiwan. She said she became a Christian at age 13 and, in her later teens, moved to the United States; she described herself as a “boarding school kid,” like many of her compatriots.

She earned a communication degree from Ohio University; she then practiced her craft in engineering and mining companies, in various parts of the world.

She took her present position with World Vision, and embarked on her masters studies, in part because her husband –  employed in the tech sector – was happy with the idea of seeing her pursue her ministry objectives.

“My work in the mining and engineering industry was interesting – and paid well,” she said.

“But my Christian faith informed me that there was more – that there was an opportunity to help people in the corporate world, to help their companies exercise social responsibility.”

Kennedy, like other WV representatives across Canada involved in the organization’s CSR program, makes presentations in schools, for companies – and, as was the case here, as part of chambers of commerce and business group education initiatives.

She pointed out that the presentations are designed to inform corporate leaders that acting in a socially responsible manner is good – not only for society as a whole, but for the corporations who behave responsibly.

The payoff for WV, she noted, is that it gives the Christian humanitarian organization (one of the largest in the world) an opportunity to identify corporation donor opportunities – money, personnel, charity events, matching contributions and/or material goods – which could assist in faith-based social development.

In her presentation to the Victoria group, Kennedy also plumped for the benefits of responsible behaviour toward employees.

She provided, for example, stats relating to two major retail groups, one of whose wage profile is about 20 per cent higher than the other. The higher performer on the wage side, she said, is reflected in a much lower employee turnover rate.

She cited Vancity, Telus and BC Hydro as three B.C. corporations that are taking CSR seriously.  

In citing donor opportunities which would be directly beneficial to WV, Kennedy spoke of international development, child sponsorship, the organization’s gift catalogue, 30 Hour Famine and the agency’s Canadian program.

April 2008