SustainAbility
Founded by John Elkington in the late 1980s, SustainAbility calls itself “a strategy consultancy and independent think tank specialising in the business risks and market opportunities of corporate responsibility and sustainable development.”
SustainAbility tries to bridge both camps between the NGO world and business community, arguing of the need to bring the two together. It is both a business consultancy but also a progressive think-tank. Its critics argue that it just helps big business greenwash its operations.
Contents
Raison d’etre
SustainAbility sees itself as having pioneered the CSR and sustainable development debate for thirty years. It has pioneered corporate benchmark reporting and dialogue. However, many of the techniques being advocated by SustainAbility are used by business as PR techniques to greenwash their operations and divide their opposition. SustainAbility is a business strategy consultancy: offering advice to some of the world’s most controversial companies that have huge ecological social and cultural impact.
Re-branding Shell from Corporate Villain to Good Corporate Citizen
In 1995, SustainAbility initially refused to work with Shell following the Brent Spar fiasco and its endemic pollution and collusion with the Nigerian military in human rights abuses in Nigeria. However by 1997, the consultancy was advising Shell on its major new public relations campaign called “Profit and Principles” as well as Shell’s underlying PR strategy. In 1999, Shell even borrowed SustainAbility’s catch-phrase, “People, Planet, Profit” for the subtitle on one of their reports. Tom Delfgaauw former Vice President of Sustainable Development at Shell later joined SustainAbility as its first non-executive director.[1]
Biotechnology
Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, a healthcare and pharmaceutical company is one of SustAinability’s oldest clients. It has also worked with other biotech companies such as Aventis, Cargill Dow, DuPont, Monsanto, Novartis and Unilever. Elkington has made much of the fact that SustainAbility resigned its relationship with GM giant Monsanto in the late nineties, because they resisted his advice on societal tensions in Europe with regard to GM technology. Elkington is pro-biotech arguing that “there is a ‘sustainability case’ for many forms of biotechnology.”[2]
Bluewashing
In 2002 SustainAbility launched The 21st Century NGO: In the Market for Change report, published with the UN Global Compact. Whilst this report argued that NGOs themselves needed to become more accountable, some have questioned the legitimacy of the Global Compact. CorpWatch in the US argues that the Compact allows companies to “bluewash” (rather than greenwash) their operations. Bluewashing is, according to the New York Times, “allowing some of the largest and richest corporations to wrap themselves in the United Nations’ blue flag without requiring them to do anything new.”
Further criticism
It has drawn criticism from other quarters too: Judith Richter, the author of Holding Corporations Accountable argues “I am very concerned that the Global Compact has endorsed and thus legitimised a corporate study on how public-interest NGOs should behave.” Richter argues that if Sustainability’s “recommendations were heeded, it would put corporations and their lobby associations in a better position to lobby for a cut in funding of corporate watchdog groups and networks … The UN's support, via the Global Compact, for the simplistic analyses presented in this study may damage efforts to hold corporations accountable to the world's citizens."
Best-selling author David Korten is similarly sceptical. He argues “the effort by corporations to discredit the public whistle blowers who are exercising their rights as organized bodies of citizens to draw attention to corporate attacks on democracy, the public interest, and the integrity of the United Nations is an example of cynical corporate PR spin and unmitigated hypocrisy”. Critics argue that is Sustainability’s problem: it promotes engagement between NGOs and companies as the way forward, yet companies use dialogue as a PR technique to outwit their critics. Companies may also change their literature but not their operations. If this is the case, SustainAbility becomes nothing more than just another public relations company –with its “green credentials” providing better cover than most PR companies.
Key People
John Elkington, Founder and Chief Entrepreneur. He is widely seen as an authority on corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. Best-selling author of numerous books. Coined the phrase “triple bottom line”. Chairman of the Government’s Export Guarantees Advisory Council (EGAC) July 2005-2007.[3] Also on the committee for Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes, Business in the Environment, Royal Society of Arts.[4]
Sophia Tickell, Chair of the Board. She is an ex-Senior Advisor at Oxfam and Pharma Futures, a scenario planning exercise on the long-term risks & opportunities facing the pharmaceutical industry.[5]
Mark Lee, CEO. Ex- Vice President at Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) in San Francisco and, Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility at VanCity Savings in Vancouver. Clients include Ford, Nike and Starbucks.
Contact
20-22 Bedford Row London, WC1R 4EB
References
- ↑ SustainAbility website, accessed November 2007
- ↑ John Elkington Biotechnology: the Case for Sustainability, OpenDemocracy, August 19, 2003
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ [2]
- ↑ [3]
Clients
Since 1987 SustainAbility has worked for more than 150 clients including companies, governments and NGOs worldwide.
| Client | Sector | Country |
| ABN-Amro | Finance | Netherlands |
| Abbott Laboratories | Pharmaceutical | US |
| Ahlstrom Fibers | Finland | |
| American Chemistry Council | Chemical | US |
| Aracruz Celulose | Pulp & Paper | Brazil |
| AWG Plc | Water services | UK |
| Association for Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) | Finance | UK |
| AstraZeneca | Pharmaceutical | UK / Sweden |
| Aventis | Pharmaceutical | France |
| BASF | Chemical | Germany |
| Baxter | Pharmaceutical | US |
| Bayer AG | Healthcare & Nutrition | Germany |
| BC Hydro Energy | Hydro Energy | Canada |
| Ben & Jerry's | Food | US |
| BMW Group | Automotive | Germany |
| Body Shop | Retail | UK |
| Bristol Myers Squibb Company | Pharmaceutical | US |
| British Petroleum | Energy | UK |
| British Petroleum Chemicals | Chemical | UK |
| British Airports Authority (BAA) | Airports | UK |
| British Airways | Aviation | UK |
| British Telecom/BT | Telecommunications | UK |
| British Gas | Energy | UK |
| Building Design Partnership (BDP) | Architect | UK |
| Cable & Wireless | Telecommunications | UK |
| Camelot | Lottery | UK |
| Capital One | Finance | UK |
| Cable & Wireless | Telecommunications | UK |
| Cargill Dow | Polymers | US |
| Canon | Electronics | Japan |
| CEFIC | Chemical | Belgium |
| ChevronTexaco | Oil | US |
| Chiquita | Food | US |
| Coca-Cola GB | Beverages | US/UK |
| Commission of the European Communities (CEC) | Government | Europe |
| Compass Group | Foodservice & Hospitality | UK |
| Co-operative Bank | Finance | UK |
| Credit Suisse Group | Finance | Switzerland |
| CSIRO | Research | Australia |
| Danish Steelworks | Steel | Denmark |
| Department of Trade and Industry (DTI ) | Government | UK |
| Deutsche Post | Telecommunications | Germany |
| Dk-Teknik | Energy | Denmark |
| Dosfasco | Steel | Canada |
| Dow Chemical | Chemical | US |
| DuPont | Chemical | US |
| Energex | Energy | Australia |
| European Environment Agency (EEA) | Government | Europe |
| ESAB | Welding & Cutting | Sweden |
| Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) | ||
| Ferrosan Healthcare & Medical devices | Healthcare & Medical | Denmark |
| Ford India | Automotive | India |
| Ford Motor Company | Automotive | US |
| Friends, Ivory, Sime | Finance | UK |
| GEMI | US | |
| General Motors Corporation | Automotive | US |
| Greenpeace International | NGO | UK |
| Hewlett Packard (HP) | IT | US |
| Holcim (formerly Holderbank) | Cement | Switzerland |
| IBM Corporation | IT | US |
| IBM UK | IT | UK |
| ICI Plc | Chemical | UK |
| ING | Finance | Netherlands |
| INSEAD | Academic | France |
| Intel Corporation | Electronics | US |
| International Finance Corporation (IFC) | Finance | US |
| ITT Flygt | Pumps | Sweden |
| Microsoft | IT and Software | US |
| Mistra Foundation | Sweden | |
| mmO2 | Telecomms | UK |
| Monsanto Biotechnology | Biotechnology | US |
| National Grid | Energy | UK |
| National Power Plc | Energy | UK |
| National Provident Institution (NPI) | Finance | UK |
| Nike | Apparel | US |
| Nissan | Automotive | Japan/UK |
| Noranda Mining and Metals | Mining and Metals | Canada |
| Norsk Hydro ASA | Energy & Aluminum | Norway |
| Northumbrian Water Plc | Water Serivces | UK |
| Novartis International AG | Pharmaceutical & Healthcare | Switzerland |
| Novo Nordisk A/S | Pharmaceutical & Healthcare | Denmark |
| Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) | Multilateral | Multilateral |
| Pfizer | Pharmaceutical | US |
| PG&E National Energy Group | Energy | US |
| Powergen | Energy | UK |
| Procter & Gamble | Consumer Products | UK |
| PruPIM | Property | UK |
| Queensland Environmental Protection Agency | Government | Australia |
| Rohm & Haas Company | Chemical | US |
| Royal Dutch / Shell Group | Oil | UK / Netherlands |
| SAB Miller | Brewing | South Africa |
| St Luke’s | Advertising | UK |
| Schlumberger | Oilfield Services | US |
| Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) | Government | UK |
| ScottishPower | Energy | UK |
| Shell Chemicals | Chemical | UK |
| SITA | Waste Management | UK |
| Skanska | Construction Services | Sweden |
| Solvay | Chemical & Pharmaceutical | |
| Sony | Consumer Electronics | Japan |
| Starbucks | Beverages | US |
| Statoil | Oil | Norway |
| Swedish Airports Authority Luftfartsverket | Airports | Sweden |
| Swiss Re | Finance | Switzerland |
| Sydney Water | Water | Australia |
| Tioxide | Chemical | UK |
| Toyota | Automotive | Japan / Belgium |
| TSB Bank | Finance | |
| TXU | Energy | |
| Unilever | Consumer Goods | UK / Netherlands |
| United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) | Government | |
| United Nations Global Compact | Government | US |
| Vodafone | Telecommunications | UK |
| Volvo | Automotive | Sweden |
| Volkswagen | Automotive | Germany |
| Wachovia Corporation | Finance | US |
| Watercare Services Ltd | Water Services | New Zealand |
| Westpac Banking Corporation | Finance | Australia |
| World Resources Institute (WRI) | NGO | US |
| WMC | Mining & Minerals | Australia |
| World Bank | Finance | US |
| Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) | NGO | UK |
