Careers with a conscience: how to make corporate social responsibility part of your job

CAREERS WITH A CONSCIENCE ★ '%%.:9>I>DC HOW TO MAKE CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILTY PART OF YOUR JOB BY ELAINE APPLET...

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CAREERS WITH A CONSCIENCE ★

'%%.:9>I>DC

HOW TO MAKE CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILTY PART OF YOUR JOB

BY ELAINE APPLETON GRANT

Insider

Guide Careers with a Conscience How to Make Corporate Social Responsibilty Part of Your Job

2009 EDITION

Careers with a Conscience

WetFeeT 1518 Walnut St. Suite 1800 Philadelphia, PA 19102 Phone: (215) 546-4900 or 1-800-926-4JOB Fax: (215) 546-9921 Website: www.wetfeet.com

Careers with a conscience 2009 Edition ISBN: 978-1-58207-901-1

Photocopying Is Prohibited Copyright 2009 WetFeet. All rights reserved. This publication is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America. No copying in any form is permitted. It may not be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, in part or in whole, without the express written permission of WetFeet. The publisher, author, and any other party involved in creation, production, delivery, or sale of this WetFeet Insider Guide make no warranty, express or implied, about the accuracy or reliability of the information found herein. To the degree you use this guide or other materials referenced herein, you do so at your own risk. The materials contained herein are general in nature and may not apply to particular factual or legal circumstances. Under no circumstances shall the publisher, author, or any other party involved in creation, production or delivery of this guide be liable to you or any other person for damages of any kind arising from access to, or use of, its content. All illustrations by mckibillo

Careers with in Insurance a Conscience & Risk Management

CHAPTER

1 2 1 The CSR Proposition

11 The Job Landsape

2 Overview

12 Where the Jobs Are

2 CSR—What is It, Anyway?

15 What the Jobs Are

3 CSR: On a Growth Curve 4 CSR Seekers


4 Breaking It Down 6 The Bottom Line— and Where to Find It 8 A Historical Perspective

conte 2009 EDITION

3 456 27 Landing the Job

33 REAL PEOPLE PROFILES

41 For Your Reference

28 Become a Great Candidate

34 David Frishkorn: Xerox

42 Books

20 The Rankings 21 Do Your Due Diligence

28 Ace The Interview

35 Michael Dupee: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

22 Resist Corporate Spin

29 Do You Need An MBA?

19 Exploring the CSR Landscape: A How-To Guide

42 Magazines

23 Examine Thyself 23 Network and Learn

36 Atlanta McIlwraith: Timberland 37 Karen Weigert: ShoreBank Enterprises

nts

43 Websites

The CSR Proposition

1

Overview�� 2 CSR—What is It, Anyway?�� 2 CSR: On a Growth Curve�� 3 CSR Seekers�� 4 Breaking It Down�� 4 The Bottom Line—and Where to Find It�� 6 A Historical Perspective�� 8

THE CSR PROPOSITION


OVERVIEW

FOR YOUR REFERENCE

REAL PEOPLE PROFILES

LANDING THE JOB

EXPLORING THE CSR LANDSCAPE: A HOW-TO GUIDE

THE JOB LANDSCAPE

“How closely does my job align with my values?”

It’s a question that an increasing number of workers are now asking. These are people who are looking for more than a big paycheck and a view from the corner office. They seek to work for companies that act sustainably; help the communities in which they do business; treat employees, suppliers, and customers fairly; and behave ethically. In other words, they’re focusing on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Rather than relying on bottomline thinking, they’re looking at what’s known as the “triple bottom line”—a term author John Elkington coined in his 1998 book Cannibals with Forks. It’s a concept that includes environmental and social success in addition to financial performance in assessing a company’s worth. Employees working for a socially responsible business might measure success by the quality of their lives and the lives of the people whom the organization touches, as well as the ways in which the company works toward the greater good. The modern CSR movement has its roots in the early 1970s. The consulting firm Abt Associates published an environmental report in 1972; by the ’80s, companies such as The Body Shop and Ben & Jerry’s joined the movement. These companies started working with the notion that businesses could bring social and environmental benefits to the world while still turning a profit. Most started with corporate philanthropy, volunteerism, and, of course, basic compliance with environmental and other regulations. Today, CSR is rapidly going mainstream. An increasing number of companies are taking steps to ensure their practices conform to CSR guidelines. The evidence can be found in companies’ corporate social responsibility reports, in which they discuss their environmental, social, and ethical initiatives and behaviors. In some cases, outside firms, such as KPMG or Ernst & Young, verify the report; in others, the company gathers a group of stakeholders who critique it. Meanwhile, the world of information on corporate 2

W E T F E E T I N SIDER GUIDE

social responsibility grows daily, through blogs, websites, magazines, conferences, and social networks. The growth of the field is great news for job seekers whose values serve as their compass. Still, the CSR concept can be hard to pin down—it isn’t always clear what constitutes a socially responsible company or a CSR-related job. Finding the right niche can take ingenuity and perseverance.

CSR—WHAT IS IT, ANYWAY? Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), the flagship organization for socially responsible businesses, defines CSR as “respect for ethical values, people, communities, and the environment.” The basic idea is simple—but the execution is extraordinarily complex. When a company makes a commitment to respect “people,” for instance, the initiative needs to extend not just to employees, but also to customers, shareholders, suppliers and their employees, and residents of communities from which the company obtains its raw materials, among others. To give an indication of the breadth of the issue: BSR provides fully 53 different issue briefs on CSR, ranging from reports on child labor to primers on corruption and bribery.

For Your Reference

3

Real People Profiles

WETFEET INSI DER G UIDE

Landing the Job

which he envisioned serving social responsibility and sustainability leaders at for-profit companies. At the time, CRO editor Denis Schaal says, only 14 of the Fortune 1000 companies had corporate responsibility officer (CRO) positions. Two years later, that number is approaching 200, Schaal estimates. And those titled officers are, of course, a minuscule percentage of the people who actually have social responsibility duties, as evidenced by CRO’s 30,000-reader circulation. Other measures show tremendous growth in the

CSR world as well. The Corporate Register, a database of CSR reports, today holds no fewer than 17,886 reports from 4,523 companies, suggesting that more corporate workers are attending to various aspects of CSR, either in dedicated positions or as part of conventional jobs. And anecdotal evidence suggests that other CSR-related positions—especially those associated with the environment—are popping up everywhere. An executive at a waste management company recently told Schaal that its large corporate customers “are establishing sustainability officers on a daily basis.” All of these numbers are just a few indicators of the explosion of interest in CSR during the past couple of years. In 2006, “green” burst through its niche walls and into mainstream culture. During the latter half of the year, it seemed like every magazine sported a green cover story. Al Gore’s Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth had finally moved concern about global warming to center stage; it will probably never get knocked off. Add to this oil hitting $100 a barrel for the first time ever in 2008 (and the widespread realization that it’s a finite resource), then add in the transparency of the Internet, which makes it increasingly difficult to hide harmful actions, and it’s easy to see why CSR is becoming an attractive concept for a growing number of companies.

Exploring the CSR Landscape: A How-To Guide

In 2006, Jay Whitehead founded CRO Magazine,

Every company has its own way of pursuing CSR goals, generally dedicating its resources to those areas that are most relevant to the business.

The Job Landscape

CSR: ON A GROWTH CURVE

The CSR Proposition

Every company has its own way of pursuing CSR goals, generally dedicating its resources to those areas that are most relevant to the business. For instance, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is interested in alleviating hunger and poverty in the communities in which it operates. The Timberland Company is known for its passion for volunteerism and for its efforts to reduce carbon emissions throughout its supply chain. International Paper, as you might guess, focuses on environmental sustainability. Most WetFeet publications focus on a single function (such as human resources) or industry sector (such as banking or health care). Careers with a Conscience necessarily covers multiple functions and industries; it’s a broad introduction to an emerging field made especially attractive by the opportunity to make a positive difference. Use this book as a primer to understanding some of the key issues, areas of opportunities, and trends within the CSR sector. Whether you’re an undergraduate, MBA, or mid-career job changer, the information in this book should equip you with a basic understanding of core CSR concepts in the green space: places where you can find opportunities, the types of work you’ll be involved in, and how people have broken into the field.

The CSR Proposition The Job Landscape Exploring the CSR Landscape: A How-To Guide Landing the Job


CSR SEEKERS As the concept of CSR permeates our culture, it’s

also motivating a growing number of job seekers. (In fact, if you’re reading this book, you’re probably part of this trend.) A 2008 survey of career goals, conducted by employer-branding firm Universum, found that 45 percent of undergraduates want “to be dedicated to a cause or to feel that I am serving a greater good.” Also, a 2008 survey of students and recent grads by Experience, Inc., a career-services firm, found that 79 percent of respondents would prefer working at an eco-friendly company to working at a conventional one, and 81 percent saw significance in working for an environmentally friendly company. And in a 2007 Net Impact study of MBA candidates’ attitudes, 26 percent of respondents said they wanted jobs “that offer the potential of making a contribution to society”—up from only 15 percent five years earlier.

BREAKING IT DOWN

Fair treatment for employees Socially responsible businesses should not only pay fair wages—which means paying a living wage, or at least more than the minimum wage—but also provide employees with healthy working conditions, health care and other benefits, and the freedom to engage in collective bargaining or unionization. Most companies that pride themselves on CSR go far beyond simply providing fair treatment by offering significant opportunities for education and training, wellness benefits, paid time off for community service, and more.

Sustainability In the U.S., businesses are “greening” their operations as fast as they can, pushed in part by recent spikes in oil prices and by the need to reduce carbon emissions. A commitment to sustainable development also involves using raw materials without depleting the natural resources of the communities where they’re found. On the forefront of sustainability issues: development of clean technology, alternative energy, and the conservation and distribution of clean water.

Business Ethics A combination of factors has brought the issue of corruption—bribes, insider trading, etc.—to the forefront. In the U.S., the egregious Enron and

For Your Reference


What does CSR consist of? As we see it, socially responsible companies pay close attention to:

Human rights For companies operating in developing countries and nondemocratic states, human rights looms as an especially important issue. The generally accepted definition of human rights includes rights to life, liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; the right to participate in culture; the right to food; the right to work; and the right to education. This issue is of particular concern for companies operating in countries that don’t guarantee human rights to their citizens. The question becomes: Is it possible to guarantee human rights to workers in a foreign country when its leaders do not? 4

W E T F E E T I N SID ER GU ID E

In the U.S., the egregious Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals made the public aware that misrepresenting a company’s numbers can have tragic effects for employees, shareholders, and entire communities.

The CSR Proposition

π The UN’s Ten Principles (COP) report, available to the public, that tracks its progress. Human Rights • Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and

Labor Standards • Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; • Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor;

and • Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies. Anticorruption • Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

to get around the law—others have welcomed this institutionalization of ethical standards and practices.

Philanthropy

WETFEET I NSI DER G UIDE

5

For Your Reference

Corporate philanthropy can help communities solve real problems. Or it can serve as a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. The public tends to honor or vilify philanthropic ventures depending upon whether it views them as authentic attempts to help or as PR ploys. On the corporate side, arguments can be—and have been—made for the usefulness of strategic corporate philanthropy, which is integrated into the mission and operations of the company, as opposed to corporate philanthropy primarily designed as an addon to improve corporate reputation.


WorldCom accounting scandals made the public aware that misrepresenting a company’s numbers can have tragic effects for employees, shareholders, and entire communities. And as business has become increasingly global and more transparent, the need for anticorruption policies has become more and more critical. As the Internet makes it easier to see “inside” a company, the public is demanding to know the ways in which a company’s operations affect its stakeholders. In the U.S., the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act put an entire generation of internal and external accounting and finance professionals to work ensuring Enron couldn’t happen again. Although many companies complain about the costs of “Sarbox” (as it’s known in the accounting world)—and some auditors say unethical companies have found ways

• Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility;

Landing the Job

• Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labor; and

Environment • Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;


• Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

• Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

The Job Landscape

In 2000, the United Nations attempted to codify CSR— essentially providing interested organizations with ground rules for responsible practices—when Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched the United Nations Global Compact on corporate social responsibility. This voluntary initiative is arguably the world’s largest CSR program, with more than 3,700 participants and stakeholders from more than 100 countries. The compact asks participants to commit to ten principles that advance human rights, labor standards, the environment, and ethics. The United Nations provides the following list on its website, www.unglobalcompact.org. If a company signs the compact, it is promising to adhere to these ten principles and to produce an annual “Communication on Progress”

The CSR Proposition The Job Landscape


THE BOTTOM LINE—AND WHERE TO FIND IT

For Your Reference


Landing the Job


It isn’t just a desire to do good—or to appear to do

good—that’s motivating corporate social responsibility. It’s also hard business logic. Several studies bear out this wisdom, showing that companies that “do good” do, in fact, do well financially—often better than companies that have paid scant attention to their social and environmental responsibilities. In a 2004 study of S&P 500 firms’ performance from 1996 to 2000, Margarita Tsoutsoura of the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Responsible Business demonstrated a statistically significant link between higher levels of corporate social responsibility and greater profits. In 2007 Goldman Sachs released a study showing that companies with strong environmental, social, and governance policies outperformed the stock market in general by 25 percent. Seventy-two percent of the companies on the list outperformed their industry peers. Looking at a single aspect of CSR, researchers from New York University and the University of Texas at Dallas published a paper that examined the role corporate philanthropy plays in generating revenue. The 2006 study, entitled “Is Doing Good Good for You? Yes, Charitable Contributions Enhance Revenue Growth,” found that in industries sensitive to public opinion, every dollar of corporate contribution generates an additional $6 in revenue. In another recent study, two IBM executives, George Pohle and Jeff Hittner, led a team that surveyed 250 business leaders around the globe. They found 68 percent of the businesses they looked at view CSR strategically, “as an opportunity and a platform for growth,” rather than as an add-on relegated to the 6


corporate philanthropy department. And 54 percent of the leaders surveyed feel CSR is giving them “a competitive advantage.” Moreover, a surprising 49 percent of their companies have recently launched CSR activities focused on creating new revenue streams. In the words of Pohle and Hittner: “CSR is no longer viewed as just a regulatory or discretionary cost, but an investment that brings financial returns.” One huge factor: an environmentally concerned public that wants to purchase products from green, responsible companies. These consumers aren’t operating in the dark; the Internet has created a world stage that makes it difficult for any company to hide activities that betray the CSR concept. In their 2008 paper Attaining Sustainable Growth through Corporate Social Responsibility, Pohle and Hittner write: “Because the Internet is now a place where people congregate to discuss and organize social actions, the balance of power between business and society has shifted toward society and away from business.” Take Wal-Mart’s recent environmental initiatives. Customers pushed it to offer sustainable and organic products, and it’s now seen as a leader in this arena. One particular area of change has been reduced packaging, which makes an environmental statement and saves on the retail giant’s transportation and energy costs. The fallout for Wal-Mart’s thousands of suppliers: If they want to do business with the world’s largest retailer, they have no choice but to operate sustainably.

INSIDER SCOOP “If you want to play with Wal-Mart—the world’s largest retailer—you have to make a sustainable product that meets its specs.” —Dennis Schaal, editor in chief, CRO Magazine Small business owners also are incorporating CSR principles into their operations—at least to help them win business. Jeff Baker, CEO of Image 4, a 20-year-old, $3 million Manchester, New Hampshire, outfit that makes exhibits for trade shows, began an

The CSR Proposition

times the size of his former shop. (LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a standard for developing high-performance, green buildings developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.)

The Job Landscape

environmental and social makeover of his business about five years ago. He says he did it because it was the right thing to do, but also because it gave him “serious first-mover advantage” in a competitive industry. Today, to accommodate the growth Image 4 has experienced since embracing CSR, he is moving the company into an LEED-certified building three


π Business Ethics 101 harassment, and data privacy and protection. Those studying for a specialized MBA or a graduate certificate can expect the kind of intense case study preparation that characterizes most standard MBA programs, with an emphasis on sticky situations that involve a great amount of interpersonal conflict. Ethics officials have to be equipped to oversee multimilliondollar deals as well as face-to-face interactions. Several schools are well ahead of the business ethics curve:

Also, the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, a nonprofit association, offers certification to its members to promote best practices across industries. Another professional development organization, the Ethics & Compliance Officer Association, is working on a certification program.


For Your Reference

• Colorado State University launched a 10-week online certification course in 2001. A professor with the university’s Center for Business Ethics and Social Policy started the site e-businessethics.com, a popular online resource.

• Loyola University Chicago’s Graduate School of Business offers a graduate certificate in ethics to MBA students and working professionals. Courses in the program include integrative leadership, environmental ethics, and ethics of finance.


• Duquesne University offers a master’s degree in leadership and business ethics, available at its campus in Pittsburgh and online. The program seeks to ground students in the philosophies of ethical theory as well as their practical applications in the workplace.

• The Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College is one of the oldest in the field, but has managed to keep up with the times. The curriculum includes an intensive fourweek session at the college’s Waltham, Massachusetts, campus that culminates with a graduate certificate in business ethics.

Landing the Job

Business ethics has long been a part of undergraduate and MBA curricula, but business schools are now paying heightened attention to this area. The Enron scandal still casts a long shadow, and the financial crisis of 2008, spun out of poor judgment and overly risky investments, has created new examples of what can happen when businesses are left to their own devices. On the horizon is a newfound emphasis on ethical business and regulatory accounting practices. The result has been an upswing in enrollment in business ethics programs, particularly at the graduate level. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business reports that business schools in general are beginning to reflect a renewed emphasis on ethics in their MBA course offerings. Demonstrating a commitment to institutional ethics, participation in business ethics programs can be a boon for students looking to land CSR positions. Business ethics courses cover a range of topics—for example, how to formulate and implement internal policies to address employee theft, sexual

7

The CSR Proposition The Job Landscape Exploring the CSR Landscape: A How-To Guide Landing the Job Real People Profiles For Your Reference


A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE In 1970, when economist Milton Friedman wrote his famous New York Times Magazine piece “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,” he wasn’t expressing a particularly new thought. Since the industrial revolution, American business has operated under the assumption that its job is to grow bigger, make more stuff faster and cheaper, and distribute it more widely. The glorification of financial growth doesn’t leave much room for nuanced questions of sustainability and quality of life. Until recent years, the mainstream seldom questioned the idea that “more is better.” But, in fact, CSR has its roots in the early years of the republic. Initially, Americans believed it was important to limit the power of corporations and that they should exist to serve society. In the early 1800s, the American government granted corporate status only to those companies that benefited the common good—by, for instance, building bridges or canals. Around the same time, Quakers instituted a policy of refusing to invest in any company associated with slavery. But this history is little known because the notion of the bottom line is so deeply entrenched in American society. The belief that companies should continually increase their profits has colored how we measure the performance of the companies we run, work for, and invest in, and how we measure the performance of entire economies. Most common economic measures, such as the gross domestic product (GDP), fail to account for the social ills—or the social good—that businesses create. As John Talberth, director of the Oakland, California, think tank Redefining Progress, writes in the Worldwatch Institute’s 2008 State of the World Report: “It is beyond dispute…that GDP fails as a true measure of societal welfare… While it measures the economic value of consumption, GDP says nothing about overall quality of life.” Talberth 8


notes that GDP fails to measure sustainability and the depletion of natural resources—and ignores the devastation wrought by wars and natural disasters. In their book Natural Capitalism, Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins ask a question at the heart of the CSR proposition: “What destination does our society want to reach, and how will it get there?” As a worker in today’s global economy, you can play a big role in charting its course.

The CSR Proposition

The Job Landscape

Exploring the CSR Landscape: A How-To Guide Landing the Job


For Your Reference

9


The Job Landsape

2

Where the Jobs Are�� 12 What the Jobs Are�� 15


WHERE THE JOBS ARE A CSR job can take a variety of forms. It could

mean a conventional job—in, say, finance, marketing, or production—at a company known for its broad commitment to social responsibility. Or it could mean a job more specifically focused on CSR itself, such as a chief responsibility officer, a compliance specialist, a health and safety professional, a socially responsible investor, or an environmental engineer dedicated to reducing carbon emissions. It could involve working for a large company or a small one—or even starting your own entrepreneurial venture. Or it might not involve a new job at all: Some use their existing positions as platforms for introducing socially responsible initiatives into their organizations.

For Your Reference


Landing the Job



Large Public Companies The good news about the Fortune 1000: Every day, multinational firms are creating new CSR jobs. The fastest job growth is coming from the clean technology, renewable energy, and public relations sectors. The jobs most easily identifiable as CSR-related are usually in management, with CSR or related terms in their titles—for example, chief responsibility officers (CROs) and vice presidents of CSR or sustainability. Often, these executives have small staffs of program managers and administrators. The bad news: MBA candidates are so interested 12


in CSR jobs that despite the area’s growth, demand for these managerial positions outpaces supply. Furthermore, businesses award most of these plum jobs to internal candidates from other areas of the company—although at the very highest levels, the job search is often entrusted to a headhunter. But don’t despair. Numerous opportunities exist to incorporate socially responsible initiatives and activities into a more conventional job. Jobs in marketing, finance, or production might already include CSR duties, from making supply chains more efficient to producing CSR reports. And even if not, such a job might allow you to become an internal champion for CSR and gradually transform your position. Take the experience of Paula Ivey, founder of The CSR Group, a CSR consultancy in Austin, Texas. In the mid-1990s, she took a compliance manager position at Compaq. “It wasn’t really ‘me,’ but I had a vision for what I could build it into, and I was able to garner support for that. We built it from being a compliance function into more of an outwardly focused CSR function. That is the path that most companies take. They start off trying to comply [with regulations] and then build on that.” Patricia Baker holds a conventional job—she’s a training specialist—but she works at a company whose CEO is a CSR evangelist: Timberland, the Stratham, New Hampshire, shoe manufacturer, under the leadership of CEO Jeffrey Swartz. For years, Timberland has held large volunteer events it calls Servapaloozas—days when huge teams of Timberland employees volunteer on large community projects, from painting buildings to putting up playgrounds. Making these events happen takes projectmanagement skills and excellent team leadership, so Timberland creates a service corps of leaders selected from internal applicants and provides them with additional training. Baker won one of these coveted spots in summer 2008, leading a group of 200 in the renovation of a bike trail in urban Manchester, New Hampshire. In the process, she was able to contribute her management experience and skills as a trainer and documentation specialist to a community-oriented

“Don’t get hung up on having ‘CSR’ in your title.” —Paula Ivey, founder, the CSR Group

Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Digital Marketing Expert, Green Mountain Energy—a retailer of “cleaner energy” and carbon offset services in Austin, Texas

•

Accounting Manager, Reusable Bags—a manufacturer in Chicago whose mission is to reduce the “stupid” use of plastic bags.

•

Director of B2B Sales & Business Development, World of Good by eBay—an Emeryville, California, partnership between eBay and World of Good, a fair-trade marketplace launched in September 2008.

The IRS estimates there are about 6 million businesses with more than one employee in the U.S.; of these, most are small businesses. Small-business


13

For Your Reference

•


Manufacturing Manager, Advent Solar—an Albuquerque, New Mexico, manufacturer of solar panels

Unless you’ve been living under the proverbial rock for the past five years, you can’t have missed an explosion in socially conscious entrepreneurial enterprises, from TerraCycle, the Trenton, New Jersey, company that sells “worm poop” fertilizer in recycled soda bottles, to Mishawaka, Indiana’s Better World Books, which uses the profits from selling used books to fund literacy programs here and abroad. Social entrepreneurs are pioneering companies that, from the outset, adopt social or environmental goals while also making a profit. These companies are good fits for mavericks who don’t want to wait for larger companies to transform their practices and who prefer smaller, more nimble work environments. If you’re interested in CSR-focused entrepreneurial ventures, you should definitely check out the activities of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit B Lab. This organization encourages social entrepreneurship by certifying “B Corps”—“purpose-driven” companies that “create benefit not only for shareholders, but for employees, the community and the environment.” In order to become a B Corp, a company has to pass a rigorous series of standards, known as the B Ratings System. Currently, B Lab counts among its ranks 124 B Corps, ranging from painting contractors to property managers to marketing firms; together they have a market value of $910 million and operate in 31 industries. Of course, you always can choose the entrepreneurial route yourself. If so, you’ll find plenty

Landing the Job

•

Entrepreneurial Ventures


Some smaller companies have generated a lot of attention for their CSR activities. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, for instance, a company with revenue of $500 million in 2008, has been lauded repeatedly for its CSR practices. But while most small public and private companies don’t get as much attention for their CSR activities as Fortune 1000 members do, many still offer loads of opportunities for job seekers interested in making the world a better place. Here’s a small sampling of job openings we found at small and midsize companies in 2008:

owners—from dry cleaners to insurance companies to restaurants sourcing local foods—have become significantly more interested in social responsibility during the past two years. In large part, these smallbusiness owners are interested in greening their companies, but most small companies also are open to corporate philanthropy and volunteerism. For evidence—and leads to good jobs—look to the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), which claims a membership of 15,000 entrepreneurs throughout the U.S. and Canada.

The Job Landscape

INSIDER SCOOP

The CSR Proposition

project—and gained experience that puts her in an excellent position to apply should a CSR-related spot at Timberland open up.

The CSR Proposition

Careers with a Conscience Where the (Social) Money Is

For Your Reference


Landing the Job


The Job Landscape

Have a great idea and a terrific business plan for your social venture, but need some funding—and maybe some outside management expertise? The following is a small sampling of resources that might be useful. Foundations • Acumen Fund (www.acumenfund.org) Invests patient capital and provides management support to businesses designed to alleviate poverty • Ashoka (www.ashoka.org) This 25-year-old foundation, which invests in social entrepreneurs worldwide, launched a new social venture fund in 2008. • Echoing Green (www.echoinggreen.org) Founded in 1987, this organization provides seed funding to social entrepreneurs around the world. • Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship (www.schwabfound.org) Provides funding and resources to social entrepreneurs throughout the world • Skoll Foundation (www.skollfoundation.org) This organization gives out the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship—three years of funding designed to help winners continue, replicate, or extend successful programs. Social Venture Capitalists • Funk Ventures (www.funkventures.com) A Santa Monica, California, socially responsible investment firm that funds clean technology, medical technology and health and wellness ventures. • Good Capital (www.goodcap.net) Billed as “a bridge between two powerful forces: traditional philanthropy and traditional investment,” this organization provides capital to for-profit and nonprofit organizations through its Social Enterprise Expansion Fund. • Investor’s Circle (www.investorscircle.org) A network of more than 200 angel investors who provide patient capital to sustainable businesses. Banks • ShoreBank (www.shorebankcorp.com) A Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI) with a triple-bottom-line focus on profitability, community development, and environmental conservation. • New Resource Bank (www.newresourcebank.com) This “green” bank provides loans to startup companies offering green products and services. 14


of help out there (you’ll have to do some digging) from universities, local and regional economic development groups, social venture capitalists, and even a growing number of “green” banks willing to invest in social enterprises. Many universities, from Stanford Graduate School of Business to Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business to small Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, offer undergrad or graduate courses in social entrepreneurship. If you’re considering starting a social enterprise, it’s not a bad idea to take at least one course in this arena—for instance, on how to fund and manage a nonprofit, or if you’re starting a for-profit enterprise, on how to balance the demand for stakeholder benefits with the need to turn a profit. One pitfall of social entrepreneurship: It’s not necessarily easy to meet the sometimes-competing demands of economic and social success. “If you’re running a for-profit company, you’re always balancing these pieces,” says Heidi Neck, a Babson College entrepreneurship professor. “At a certain point there’s a danger of losing your social mission to your economic mission.” (Neck recently helped Babson set up a new social entrepreneurship center.) Social enterprises are inherently more challenging than other startups, because they exist to tackle extremely complex problems such as energy or hunger. And although raising money is never easy for any new venture, it can be that much harder for the social entrepreneur, who typically can’t promise investors the returns of a traditional business. Still, social entrepreneurs can find grants or lowinterest loans through foundations, social venture capitalists, some community banks, and social investment funds. And any number of networks— online and off—have sprung up to serve the needs of the growing population of social entrepreneurs. You’ll definitely want to join Net Impact, which has chapters in many cities throughout the U.S., and you might want to attend the annual Social Capital Markets conference (www.socialcapitalmarkets.net).

The CSR Proposition

WHAT THE JOBS ARE

Socially Responsible Investing


For Your Reference

The growth of CSR within corporations has been mirrored by the growth of socially responsible investments (SRI). In Saving the World at Work, author Tim Sanders notes that between the 1971 launch of the Pax World Fund—the first socially responsible mutual fund—and the end of 2001, assets in SRIs rose from $150 million to more than $100 billion. In other words, during a period when assets in other mutual funds rose by 1,350 percent, the SRI sector rose by a

A job with a nonprofit can offer the same scope and executive experience as a CSR position in a large corporation. “When you think of nonprofit jobs, you tend to think of local, community-based jobs—but they can be big,” says Patricia Palmiotto, director of the Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship. When recruiting for CEOs, executive directors, COOs, directors of operations and finance, nonprofits are now looking to business schools and to professionals with experience in the corporate world. Palmiotto cites a listing at the Environmental Defense Fund for a director of its Environmental Innovation Institute—a job that requires an MBA and ten years of experience. Another example: Tuck alumnus Curt Welling, a former investment banker, became CEO of AmeriCares, a Stamford, Connecticut, nonprofit that delivers humanitarian assistance to war-torn areas and disaster zones.


“When I first worked at Green Mountain in the mid-’90s, recycling office paper was a big deal. When I came back in ’04, it wasn’t about that—it was about redesigning the way you even think of new products. It was exponentially more complex, interesting, and impactful.” —Michael Dupee, vice president, Corporate Social Responsibility, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters

For job seekers looking for positions that will allow them to act ethically and compassionately, CSR jobs are certainly a desirable target. But work in the nonprofit sector may present other means to achieve similar ends. Exploring the nonprofit route might be especially advisable for recent college and businessschool grads. For one thing, as already mentioned, corporate CSR jobs are especially hard to land for those starting out. However, the nonprofit sector is suffering from a shortage of leaders—a shortage that will only get worse as baby boomer nonprofit managers retire over the next several years. James Weinberg, founder of Commongood Careers, suggests that CSR-focused job seekers look closely at the 5 percent of nonprofits he calls “entrepreneurial”—fastgrowing, aggressive organizations that seek to eradicate the root causes of social problems, he says, rather than to serve simply as support nets.

Landing the Job

INSIDER SCOOP

π The Nonprofit Alternative


As already noted, Fortune 1000 companies are increasingly creating executive-level CSR positions. In other organizations, though, CSR has been folded into more conventional job designations, often falling within the bailiwick of C-level executives such as the CEO, COO, VP of strategy, VP of operations, or the director of public affairs, marketing, or communications. Many companies, like Xango, a Lehi, Utah, maker of dietary supplements, place CSR within the public affairs department, reflecting the common practice of using CSR to build a company’s brand or improve its reputation. A more progressive tactic is to integrate CSR into a company’s strategy, letting it filter throughout the entire organization and affect all measures of performance.

The Job Landscape

Strategy and Management

15


Careers with a Conscience whopping 6,800 percent. Moreover, in the years since 2001, the field has doubled: The Social Investment Forum reports that in 2007, 260 such funds existed in the U.S., with assets of $201.8 billion. That growth spells a lot of opportunity for accountants, analysts, auditors, researchers, and finance professionals with a bent toward monitoring the three pillars of SRI performance—environmental, social, and governmental responsibility, aka “ES&G.” It also has created job opportunities in the myriad standards and accountability organizations that look over corporate documentation and ensure potential investment targets are living up to CSR standards. Such organizations range from nonprofits that set CSR standards to auditors who independently verify companies’ CSR reports. The growth of SRI also has created opportunities within corporations. These days, virtually all publicly held companies, in order to attract socially responsible investors, need finance professionals, investor relations specialists, and communications experts who understand the territory. Of course, those companies that have made big CSR commitments are more likely to make CSR awareness an overt part of any finance professional’s job. The arena is robust enough that Boston-based KLD Research & Analytics, a research firm with

These days, virtually all publicly held companies, in order to attract socially responsible investors, need finance professionals, investor relations specialists, and communications experts who understand the territory. 16


more than 20 index funds to its name, recently added nine analysts to its staff of 55—despite the economic slowdown. At KLD, recent college grads can go to work in the research department; more senior positions usually demand MBAs, master’s degrees in public policy and related fields, or even doctoral degrees in human rights or other specialties. In general, SRI hiring managers look for quantitative skills, such as database programming and analysis. Equally important, however, is passion—usually about a specific area, such as natural resource development, climate change, or human rights issues.

INSIDER SCOOP “For a watchdog group, it’s all about coalitionbuilding. They work with companies, investors, environmental organizations, and public interest groups, trying to bring all the parties together by encouraging and facilitating dialogue.” —Karin Chamberlain, index manager, KLD Research & Analytics You also might consider going to work in a community-investing organization—the fastestgrowing part of the SRI sphere, according to the Social Investment Forum. These organizations direct loans or capital to individuals and groups that typically don’t qualify for more mainstream capital or debt. Such funds are used for housing, small-business creation, education, and more. Many of these organizations are small and entrepreneurial, such as Vested for Growth, a Concord, New Hampshire, organization that invests in promising companies which have trouble getting bank loans, but which have pledged to create local jobs. A good source for SRI jobs is the Social Investment Forum (www.socialinvest.org).

Professional Services Communications and marketing professionals, lawyers, accountants, human resources pros, and management consultants can find a variety of CSR jobs. Some specialties make particularly good fits: Employment attorneys can work in civil rights, while

The Job Landscape Exploring the CSR Landscape: A How-To Guide

starting your career in the development or fundraising departments of nonprofits, which are hungry for professionals. The knowledge and communications skills gained on these jobs are also transferable to the philanthropy departments of corporations. At the upper levels, corporate philanthropy careers might require an MBA, especially as companies seek to make corporate giving programs more strategic. Patricia Palmiotto, director of the Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, cites the example of an alum who leads external affairs at General Mills; her job includes running the General Mills Foundation.

The CSR Proposition Landing the Job

those with environmental law degrees are expected to be in high demand as well. So too with lawyers who specialize in governance, ethics, and compliance. Some companies stay on the lookout for HR and training specialists who understand diversity and who are forward-looking about making their companies great places to work—including providing CSR opportunities for every employee. Marketers and communications professionals, within corporations and at agencies, can promote CSR programs and produce CSR reports. Management consultants with CSR specialties can start their own firms or, increasingly, find jobs with small CSR-focused consultancies like Criterion Ventures in Haddam, Connecticut, or The CSR Group in Austin, Texas. Smaller firms work on a broad range of projects, says The CSR Group’s Paula Ivey—her firm does everything from improving the sustainability and ethics of a company’s supply chain to shrinking product packaging and producing CSR reports. Large consulting companies, such as McLean, Virginia’s Booz Allen Hamilton also hire CSR specialists; here, you’re likely to specialize in one or two aspects of CSR.

Corporate Philanthropy


As we noted earlier, most companies started down the CSR path by establishing corporate giving programs. While many have since broadened their focus, corporate philanthropy remains a mainstay at most large companies—and smaller companies are interested, too, as is evident by the increasing number of small companies that donate some percentage of their profits to charity. A few social enterprises have made philanthropy a backbone of their business models. Take the company Working Assets, which sells telephone service under the name CREDO: It was built around the idea of giving a percentage of its profits to charities chosen by its customers. Corporate philanthropy is an attractive arena for recent college grads—so attractive, in fact, that these jobs are becoming more and more competitive. James Weinberg, founder of Commongood Careers, a Boston-based search firm for nonprofits, suggests

For Your Reference


17


3

The Rankings��20 Do Your Due Diligence�� 21 Resist Corporate Spin��22 Examine Thyself��23 Network and Learn��23

The CSR Proposition


The Rankings companies most likely to offer a chance to bring your professional skills to bear on CSR issues. A good way to start is to look at the rankings outside sources compile, assessing companies’ practices and reputations. Just be aware—a company’s appearance on these lists does not signal blanket approval of all its activities. A few of the most important rankings: •

•

For Your Reference


Landing the Job


The Job Landscape

It’s time to get down to brass tacks: finding the

20

CRO Magazine’s “100 Best Corporate Citizens” list, which weighs company performance in categories such as the environment, human rights, employee relations, governance, and philanthropy. The list is drawn from the Russell 1000, an index of the largest publicly held companies in the U.S., which means it excludes small caps and privately owned firms. As useful as the list is, it includes some prominent multinationals whose good works in some areas must be weighed against malfeasance in others. Of those appearing in the 2008 listings, ITT (No. 8) was previously accused of breach of arms control—a scandal that led to the CEO’s resignation; Motorola (No. 51) has outsourced a good share of its manufacturing jobs to China; and Monsanto (No. 88) has used child labor in India through third-party contracting. Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” provides a good idea of how companies treat their employees. Fortune began its famous ranking before the CSR concept went mainstream, and it inevitably includes companies that are good to their employees but falling short when it comes to other CSR criteria such as environmental efforts or governance. Still, numerous studies have shown strong correlations between a company’s commitment to social responsibility and employee satisfaction—so it’s no surprise that Google, Cisco, and Starbucks, all known for their CSR W E T F E E T I N SID ER GU ID E

commitments, were among Fortune’s top ten in 2008, with Google topping the list. •

Fortune’s “Most Admired Companies” ranks corporations across nine criteria, including use of corporate assets, investment value, and quality of management, as well as social responsibility. Considering the range of factors in this ranking, it’s no surprise that the most socially responsible companies don’t make the top of the overall list. But the listing also breaks out its results into individual categories; in 2008, International Paper, UPS, and Starbucks took the top three social responsibility slots.

•

Fast Company’s annual Social Capitalist Awards ranks enterprising nonprofits and included a list of ten laudable for-profit businesses. In 2008, its list ranged from socially responsible investment bank Developing World Markets to environmentally friendly furniture maker Herman Miller.

•

Plenty magazine publishes an interesting and eclectic list of CSR heavy hitters called the Plenty 20, composed of companies they see “pushing the ecological envelope.”

•

Two credible rankings also have emerged from the socially responsible investing world, aimed at screening stocks on the basis of environmental, social, and governmental performance as well as financial performance. The Dow Jones

Just be aware—a company’s appearance on these lists does not signal blanket approval of all its activities.

The CSR Proposition

π Helpful Research Resources

• KLD Analytics’ SOCRATES Database (www.kld.com/ research/socrates) This comprehensive database, designed for institutional

• Footnoted.org This blog, run by Financial Fine Print author Michele Leder, is a must-read for investors and journalists who cover public companies. It can be helpful for CSR job seekers as well. Leder does what almost no one else wants to do: She reads the fine print

The rankings are only a starting point. Now


21

For Your Reference

it’s time for the serious research, which should be conducted at least in part by using the techniques you would employ for any job search, not just for finding CSR jobs. If you’ve targeted a particular sector, you should look at industry rankings and, perhaps more important, start networking within the industry.

Make full use of the career development office at your school or alma mater. When you’re researching a particular company, read its annual reports, along with its CSR reports, if they exist. (You can find them on CorporateRegister.com.) Read what the company says about itself on its website—the text might give you clues about the kind of talent they’re seeking. And track down what the press has said about the company with a Google News search, by visiting the library, or, if you have access to it, a LexisNexis search. (For other good online sources, see the “Helpful Research Resources” sidebar above.) The Internet has clearly made it a lot easier to garner information about corporations and their activities. One great guide for using the Web for this is the tutorial “How to Do Corporate Research Online,” created by journalist and business watchdog Phil Mattera on his Corporate Research Project site www. corp-research.org/howto.htm. Among his suggestions:


DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE

• CorpWatch (www.corpwatch. com) This site’s tagline says it all: “Holding companies accountable.” Like Footnoted’s Leder, the writers at CorpWatch are trying to expose corporate malfeasance. You can look up issues by industry, which is a nice feature when you’re still trying to decide where you really want to work. And don’t forget to follow the link to Crocodyl, a collaborative “corporate malfeasance wiki” created by CorpWatch, the Center for Corporate Policy and the Corporate Research Project.

Landing the Job

Sustainability Indexes follow 300 sustainable companies worldwide. And the FTSE Group’s FTSE4Good indexes “measure the performance of companies that meet globally recognized corporate social responsibility standards.”

of annual and quarterly reports and writes about what’s buried there. What she turns up can be amazing, from hints of bribery investigations to the rare gold star for ethical performance.


• Co-op America’s Responsible Shopper (www. coopamerica.org/programs/ responsibleshopper) Designed to help consumers spend their dollars in a socially responsible manner, this site posts information on company activity, negative and positive, from hundreds of firms. And wherever it suggests that a consumer might not want to shop at a company, it offers alternatives through a “Go Green” link.

investors, contains independently written CSR profiles of 3,000 companies. (A sample profile of Nike is 42 pages long and includes information about company operations in a range of areas; a description of its CSR activities, including how much money it gives to charities; and more.) Socrates is expensive, but students and alums can access it at some university career centers and libraries. A superb resource.

The Job Landscape

• The Corporate Research Project (www.corp-research. org)

The CSR Proposition

•

•


The Job Landscape



Landing the Job

•

For basic information on a company, including the names of its executives, a description of its primary business, links to company press releases and recent news, and a list of its competitors, see Hoovers.com or Yahoo Finance (finance.yahoo. com). Study a company’s annual report and other SEC filings. To download the glossy version of the company’s annual report, go to its website and look up “investor relations.” For the 10K—the SEC version of the annual report, which, as Mattera points out, is a far richer source of information—visit www.sec.gov/edgar/ searchedgar/companysearch.html. Search for the company name. And be sure to read the fine print, particularly the sections on risk and legal actions—sometimes the only place such information can be found. If you’re interested in executive and board member compensation, search the SEC’s EDGAR database for the company’s proxy statement, or form DEF 14A. The proxy statement will tell you what the senior executives make and what they pay their board members, which is important if you’re concerned about economic inequality.

RESIST CORPORATE SPIN

For Your Reference

When you’re researching a company’s CSR

claims, it’s best to approach the project with a healthy dose of skepticism. Take the issue of sustainability: A 2008 study conducted by researchers from PRmeasurement firm KDPaine & Partners and Brigham Young University, “Measuring the Transparency of Environmental Sustainability Reporting,” examines the environmental sustainability claims of 50 companies, as reported on their websites. The study found, as 22

W E T F E E T I N S ID ER GU ID E

often as not, companies’ environmental efforts were aimed more to enhance public relations than to increase true accountability to shareholders. Among other evidence: Few of the companies examined sought third-party measurement of their performance. Where can you find honest information about corporations? “Not on their websites!” says Katie Paine, one of the creators of the study and the founder of KDPaine & Partners. “Corporations now like to give the impression that they are socially responsible,” said Phil Mattera in a 2008 Corporate Crime Reporter interview. “I’m very skeptical about these corporate social responsibility claims. At the very least, there is inconsistency.” Case in point: Chevron—a company that for years has been chomping at the bit to expand its offshore oil drilling, yet presents itself as conservation-conscious in its advertising. A recent Chevron commercial exhorts viewers, “Join us in one of the most important efforts of our time.” The punch line: “Using less.” Look at the experience of Image 4, a small New Hampshire contractor that constructs interior spaces and signage for retailers and banks. The firm reports that their banking clients all wanted to paint their interior signage or their walls green—ostensibly to cash in on the public’s growing interest in sustainability. But they weren’t using VOC-free paints or building energy-efficient interiors: Coloring their interiors green was as “green” as they were getting. It’s not easy to gauge a company’s CSR performance. For instance, Toyota has one of the best environmental reputations on the planet, largely because of its best-selling hybrid, Prius. But in 2008, Domini Social Investments, one of the oldest and most influential SRIs, excluded the company from its funds. Domini’s research department uncovered a questionable connection between Toyota and Myanmar’s brutal military dictatorship—an example of how complex a company’s CSR factor is. Even the most admirable companies have their weak points. Timberland has one of the best CSR reputations of any company around. However, its use of third party manufacturing in China has at

NETWORK AND LEARN


A key step in homing in on a CSR career is to figure out just exactly what you hope to accomplish. It’s a matter of clarifying your values. In his book More Than Money: Questions Every MBA Needs to Answer, Mark Albion, the cofounder of Net Impact, urges job seekers—and not just MBAS—to work out a “destiny plan,” asking themselves “What will my contribution be?” rather than simply “How will I make a living?” He writes, “You’ll need to consider how your work will fit into your life. Be aware that in death, rarely will loved ones remember you for your work in private enterprise as much as for what you’ve done for your family and contributed to civil society.” Some traditional career-clarification questions come as you formulate your “destiny plan.” What are your skills? Where does your experience lie? If you’re a mid-career job changer, are your skills transferable? (Remember that most CSR jobs apply environmental and social considerations to conventional duties.) If you’ve figured out where you want to go, will you need to obtain new skills or add to your experience before you can snag that brass ring of a job?

Landing the Job

Don’t expect to be able to clarify your values all

on your own. Here’s where networking becomes key. Get out and talk with as many people in the CSR world as you can—people who hold the kind of jobs you might want, hiring managers, people you might meet at associations such as Net Impact or in online WETFEET INSI DER G UIDE

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For Your Reference

times caused lapses in its high-mindedness. In 2004 the National Labor Committee exposed that the Kingmaker Footwear factory in the Guangdong Province, which manufactured Timberland shoes, was using child labor, providing no health benefits, and requiring long hours. Timberland’s Director of Corporate Communications responded, saying that they were aware of the situation and have processes in place to evaluate and end such relationship if necessary. In a 2008 interview with Fast Company, Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz explained the company’s reasoning for ending production at Kingmaker, saying “…we tried a hundred different ways to remediate the violations to human dignity that underscore [Kingmaker’s] business model. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that its value system is different from mine. There was no way to make it work.” The point is clear: Find out as much as you can. You don’t have to exclude from your list of target employers companies that aren’t perfect—because no company is. The case of Timberland shows that a company’s response to bad behavior might be just as

EXAMINE THYSELF


microfinance pioneer who founded Grameen Bank. “Something clicked,” she later wrote in a blog posting. “This sounded like a fit. This was my context. I wanted to figure out how to contribute to the work of microfinance.” The lecture inspired Flannery to found Kiva. org, a microlending site that has now facilitated nearly $40 million in small loans to entrepreneurs around the world. Flannery had prepared the ground and seeded it with learning.

The Job Landscape

Jessica Jackley Flannery knew she wanted to be a social entrepreneur and to help alleviate poverty. But she didn’t know how to pursue her dream. In 2001, she was working as an administrative assistant at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and used the opportunity to attend every lecture and every meeting that had anything to do with social entrepreneurship. One day in 2003 she attended a lecture by Muhammad Yunus, the

The CSR Proposition

π Finding the Right Path

significant a factor in evaluating a company’s CSR value, as good behavior. Thorough research can help you look at the big picture.


Careers with a Conscience groups that focus on your interests. Contact alums of your college or university who have found their way into CSR-related jobs. Ask them what they do, what problems they’re solving, what the rewards are, and what they like and don’t like about their jobs. Ask them how they got there. Because this field is so new and changing so rapidly, the best thing you can do is immerse yourself in it and learn as much as you can about the issues. Not only will this process educate you and help you fine-tune your career goals, it might also produce job leads. Some networking tactics: •

Go to Green Drinks gatherings, which are held all over the world, to meet people interested in environmental and social causes (www.biothinking.com/greendrinks).

•

Attend any of the numerous conferences in this field. Two good broad ones are the annual conferences of Net Impact and Business for Social Responsibility.

•

Seek out associations specific to your interests and your region and attend their events. Socially responsible investing professionals love the SRI in the Rockies conference; CSR and green marketers attend Sustainable Brands events and the LOHAS Forum.

•

Get involved. Join Net Impact; become a board member of your local Business for Social Responsibility chapter; contribute your skills and energy to a nonprofit. You’ll learn, meet people, and build your resume. Participate online. Join in the countless green and CSR-related discussions. Try out new social networks like JustMeans (www.justmeans. com) and the forums on TreeHugger (www. treehugger.com). Join a Facebook group devoted to the causes you’re interested in. Connect to like-minded people on LinkedIn. As you learn, contribute your knowledge—be helpful as well as helped.

•

π CSR Job Listings The following sites specialize in green and/or socially responsible jobs here and abroad: • Business for Social Responsibility (www.bsr.org/ resources/jobs) The granddaddy of all CSR associations and job listings. • Net Impact (www.netimpact. org) An exceptional association with a useful job board aimed at MBA students and grads, but worthwhile for any professional interested in CSR. To access job listings, you must become a member. Rates range from $20 to $55 annually.

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• Green Dream (www. sustainablebusiness.com/jobs) A searchable database focusing on sustainable jobs, from technicians through executives. • Ethical Performance (www. ethicalperformance.com/ recruitment/index.php) A good source for internationaland U.S.based CSR and SRI positions. • Social Investment Forum Jobs Board (www.socialinvest. org/resources/jobs) Another worthwhile source for SRI jobs.

• JustMeans (www.justmeans. com) A social network for people interested in corporate social responsibility and social ventures. Aside from a job board, it offers job-seeker services including resumebuilding help and coaching. • Idealist (www.idealist.org) The number-one site for nonprofit job listings, internships, and volunteer positions. • Social Venture Network (www.svn.org) A good place to find jobs in the entrepreneurial nonprofit sector.


Local and regional networks of entrepreneurs are a good source for leads on CSR jobs with smaller companies. One particularly prominent network is the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, or EO (www.eonetwork. org). It’s open only to entrepreneurs, but your local chapter should be able to put you in touch with members who might be hiring. For entrepreneurial companies specifically dedicated to CSR and/or sustainability, try the Social Venture Network (www. svn.org) or your local chapter of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (www.livingeconomies. org). Business for Social Responsibility has many local, active chapters; find yours at the BSR website (www. bsr.org). BSR is a thriving organization—the New Hampshire chapter, for instance, grew by 80 percent in 2007 and has 135 companies. Finally, if you’re interested in working for a female-owned company, check with your state or local Women’s Business Center, a support organization for women entrepreneurs. The Small Business Administration provides a list of these at www.sba.gov/ services/counseling/wbc. The best way to network with these organizations is to attend conferences or other events. You also can call local directors, tell them what kind of a job you’re seeking, and ask for leads. If the associations offer a volunteer opportunity—helping to plan a local event or serving on a fundraising committee, for instance— grab it! Volunteering is a great way to get to know people and to prove your worth to the community.

Exploring the CSR Landscape: A How-To Guide Landing the Job Real People Profiles For Your Reference


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Landing the Job

4

Become a Great Candidate��28 Ace The Interview��28 Do You Need An MBA?��29

The CSR Proposition The Job Landscape Exploring the CSR Landscape: A How-To Guide


BECOME A GREAT CANDIDATE You’ve researched the field, fine-tuned your

career goals, and found a job prospect that suits your skills and your commitment to CSR. Now it’s time to hunker down and prepare yourself to be the best candidate you can be. During any job hunt, you need to pay close attention to what your resume says about you and how you come across in your interview. This principal certainly holds true for jobs in CSR territory—but a few special considerations also come into play as hiring managers scope out your potential.

For Your Reference


Landing the Job

•

You need to show concrete evidence of your passion. Interviewing for a sustainability position? It’s not nearly enough to go into a company and say you care about the environment, if the most you can claim is that you recycle your soda cans. Volunteering—in a way that shows real commitment and produces real accomplishments—goes a long way. Hiring managers tend to be skeptical about candidates who haven’t joined a relevant cause or organization. “What I look for in a job candidate is a well-rounded skill set, balancing academics with relevant real-world job experience, plus outside activities and some sort of a social agenda,” says Steve French, managing partner at the Natural Marketing Institute in Harleysville, Pennsylvania, a marketing consultancy specializing in the health and wellness marketplace.

•

A CSR-related internship will give you a definite boost in the job hunt. Hiring managers like to see you’ve taken this step to gain experience in the field. “I always look for internships,” says Paula

28


Ivey of The CSR Group. “It shows they’ve taken the initiative to get in there and really learn.” An incidental benefit of internships: They provide an opportunity to test the waters at a potential fulltime employer. •

If you’re a mid-career job changer, highlight how your skills and experience can transfer into a new, CSR-focused position. The good news? A 2008 Ethical Performance salary survey of CSR professionals in Europe showed that more than half had changed careers to enter the field.

•

Depending upon the specialty you’re choosing, if you’re a career changer, you might want to consider getting an MBA or other advanced degree. Or you might want to attend an executive training program in sustainability or social responsibility. (See the “Do You Need an MBA?” section on the next page).

INSIDER SCOOP “I look for corporate experience. It’s really important for a consultant to understand the mind-set of companies.” —Paula Ivey, The CSR Group

Ace the Interview When you go in for your interview, you need to

be armed with comprehensive knowledge about the company and its relationship to the issues you care about. Then you need to be absolutely clear about the skills and experience you can bring to bear on those concerns. For instance, your passion for the fight against global warming may lead you to seek a job in operations or manufacturing. You have to let the interviewer know how your knowledge of energy efficiency can help the company reduce its carbon

THE CSR PROPOSITION

8IFOBTTFTTJOHB$43JOJUJBUJWF IPXEPZPV make decisions about costs versus benefits?

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)PXDBOXFBSUJDVMBUFXIBUXFTIPVMEEPJOUIF first year versus the next five years?

INSIDER SCOOP

DO YOU NEED AN MBA?

When Patricia Palmiotto works with students on their CSR interviews, she advises to them that they’re “charting new territory.” Palmiotto suggests preparing answers to questions like these: )PXEPZPVCBMBODFQPUFOUJBMMZDPOnJDUJOH demands from employee groups and other stakeholders?

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8IBUJTUIFSPMFGPSUIJTDPNQBOZJOTPDJFUZ

there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to that question. But the complexity of CSR, particularly as its practice migrates from being an add-on department to being a core component of many companies’ strategies, certainly suggests that an MBA can be helpful— especially for those aiming for management positions. “People graduating now and in the next few years will have amazing opportunities, because there are so many more partnerships between nonprofits and for-profits and more ways in which the environmental impact of a company’s activities are being measured and reduced,” says Palmiotto. “An MBA and the skills that it brings can do so much in so many ways.” That’s WETFEET INSIDER GUIDE

29

FOR YOUR REFERENCE

t

There are so many different jobs in this sector that

REAL PEOPLE PROFILES

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

LANDING THE JOB

“We tell job seekers to open their cover letter with a statement of personal passion for the organization’s work and to state where that passion comes from and why this is an organization they want to work for.” —James Weinberg, Commongood Careers

EXPLORING THE CSR LANDSCAPE: A HOW-TO GUIDE

t

THE JOB LANDSCAPE

emissions and save money. If human rights issues are your focus, show how you can help make the company supply chain more ethical. These kinds of specifics are important because you might be breaking new ground, meaning the company will be looking to you for entrepreneurial ideas and drive. “Research every possible piece of information about what that firm as done, what its issues and challenges are,” says Tuck School’s Patricia Palmiotto. “Talk to everybody. Understand its culture, its opportunities, and be prepared to talk about anything and everything concerning the organization and what you might have to offer.” One final word of advice, basic but important: Be nice! It’s an important consideration when interviewing for any job, but it’s especially vital in socially responsible companies, which have an overt commitment to treating everyone fairly and compassionately. “Sometimes we see people not being very nice to the clerical staff,” says Kathy Brooks, vice president of HR at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. “We think, ‘If your mother didn’t teach you how to behave, we can’t either.’”


also true in the nonprofit world, where entrepreneurial The 10 Best Executive Training ventures and large traditional nonprofits—struggling Programs in CSR already with a shortage of executive talent as baby If you’re already in a corporate career and want to learn boomers retire—are vying with the corporate world for more about transforming your organization, an executive MBA talent. training program may be just the right thing for you. The time commitment isn’t huge: It’s usually measured in As companies become more invested in CSR, so do days or, at most, weeks. Here’s CRO Magazine’s list of the business schools. What follows is The Aspen Institute’s ten best, in alphabetical order. (Many of these universities 2008 list of the top ten U.S. schools for students offer several different programs, for interests ranging interested in social responsibility. from environmental leadership to managing global initiatives.) 1. Stanford University 2. University of Michigan • Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship 3. University of California, Berkeley (www.bcccc.net) 4. University of Notre Dame • Columbia Business School (www.gsb.columbia. 5. Columbia University edu/execed) 6. Cornell University 7. Duquesne University • Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business (www. fuqua.duke.edu) 8. Yale University 9. New York University • Harvard Business School (www.exed.hbs.edu) 10. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill To see the Aspen, Colorado-based institute’s full top 100 list, visit www.beyondgreypinstripes.org/rankings. One other avenue for advanced degrees: Explore new “green MBA” programs at schools such as Bainbridge Graduate Institute, Green Mountain College, Presidio School of Management, Marlboro College Graduate Center and Antioch University. These programs have been designed from the ground up for sustainability professionals.

INSIDER SCOOP “Across the nonprofit sector as a whole there’s a really pervasive sense of hiring based on personal fit above all else. Personal fit [translates] into how passionate a person is about the organization’s mission. —James Weinberg, Commongood Careers

For Your Reference



30


• University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business (execed.bus.umich.edu) • New York University’s Stern School of Business (w4.stern.nyu.edu/executive/) • Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management (www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/execed) • Seattle University’s Albers School of Business and Economics (www.seattleu.edu/asbe/clf/ELP_Main.asp) • Stanford Graduate School of Business (www.gsb.stanford.edu/exed) • Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School (www.olin.wustl.edu/execed)

The CSR Proposition

The Job Landscape



For Your Reference

31



5

David Frishkorn: Xerox��34 Michael Dupee: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters��35 Atlanta McIlwraith: Timberland��36 Karen Weigert: ShoreBank Enterprise��37

The CSR Proposition

Careers with a Conscience ACCOUNTING FOR CSR Name: David Frishkorn Title: Director of Business Ethics and Compliance

The Job Landscape

Company: Xerox Location: Norwalk, Connecticut Hours per week: 45 Years in business: 18 years as an accountant, 10 years with Xerox, 5 years in current position

For Your Reference


Landing the Job


Size of company: 57,400 employees worldwide Education: BS, accounting, Slippery Rock University; MBA, Rochester Institute of Technology; graduate certificate in business ethics, Bentley College

David Frishkorn took on the role of director of business ethics and compliance at Xerox with the goal of making ethical conduct an embedded part of corporate culture—no easy task at a company as large as Xerox. How did you wind up in this career and this job? What was your path? Well, I’m an accountant by education and a CPA by training. I worked in accounting and control at two other companies. I joined Xerox in accounting, and I was in internal control functions and control finance until five years ago. The CEO asked me to think about doing ethics and compliance (E&C). He thought I had a high degree of integrity and was willing to speak out and stand up for what’s right, and I had earned a reputation for that. Why did you get into CSR? I hadn’t given thought to a career in it or the broader connotations of social responsibility. I thought I’d follow the financial and accounting path, but the position sounded pretty appealing and reflected things that I’d taken for granted. What I saw in the job was the opportunity to help Xerox people do the right thing, and sometimes you need a little help deciding what that is. What aspects of your job relate to CSR? I manage the code of conduct for business policy, the training 34


on fraud and expected behaviors, and investigations into fraud. We provide a lot of the statistical data relative to policy compliance, ethics violations, and discipline for noncompliance. We also help enable some of the employee statistics for safety records and satisfaction through the employee engagement survey. In our citizenship reports, we have four dockets: conducting our business with integrity, creating a great workplace for our people, sustainable investment and development, and leveraging our resources through community involvement and local events. What would you recommend to a recent college graduate looking to incorporate social responsibility into his/her career? First and foremost, you have to have a high degree of personal integrity and a high level of fairness and open-mindedness. You have to really understand the company in its values and culture and to put ideals out in front of personalities. It might be difficult to go right into E&C since you need an understanding of the company’s culture. You can get that via any kind of job that touches on policy and processes: internal audit, internal policy, or something in the legal department. What would you recommend to an MBA graduate or to someone making a mid-career job change? Mid-career people should have years of experience and exposure in order to gain a better appreciation of the culture, the policies, and management expectations. Legal, finance, or HR—those are probably the most common career paths to E&C, but it doesn’t have to be restricted. Did you have any misconceptions about what this job would entail before you took this position? Fortunately, I had no preconceptions. It was all new ground to me. Even though they had an ethics program for 40 years, it was never utilized the way it is now. We’ve been putting it in place for the last five years with a more institutional and embedded approach to culture.

Name: Michael Dupee Title: Vice president, Corporate Social Responsibility Company: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Location: Waterbury, Vermont Size of company: 1,220 employees Education: BA, history, Boston College; JD/MBA, Georgetown University

Michael Dupee learned the business ropes at

What do you do? I run a department with six people.

So what’d you do next? I had first come to Green Mountain in 1991 and worked in an entrylevel job in the factory. I worked my way up to


For Your Reference

Goldman Sachs, but it wasn’t until his return to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters that he managed to get an entire company buzzed about CSR.

How did you get your job? After getting [my graduate degree], I took a job as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Within a year I was very unhappy. A big disconnect for me was that I was missing nature. So I started looking at companies that made snowboards, skis, and bikes—but it wasn’t inspiring.


Years in business: 4 years in current position

Landing the Job

A CORPORATE BOOST

Can you give an example of one of your initiatives? Last year we did some research that indicated to us that 50 percent of the people in these coffee communities have to change their diet for at least three months of the year because they can’t afford to buy food. So they eat less, eat more poorly, or they borrow against future earnings. [So we] organized a gathering in Nicaragua in April 2008. “Let’s figure out together what you guys want to do and we’ll help you do it,” we said. We approved a plan and made a $60,000 grant to get started. Because they run out of food and money at the same time, it includes diversifying farming, which could help them get income at different parts of the year. And there’s talk of building community-based silos to store grain so that they have it ready to draw out during the “skinny months.”


Have you made any sacrifices to take this job? What are they and have they been worth it? Well, the career opportunities in a broader field are far greater than the career development I have in E&C and compliance. There are times I’ve thought the way to grow is to move to another department, but the more likely way is to find synergistic capacities and grow the entire office.

We do a bunch [of CSR initiatives], but our CSR ethos is distributed throughout the organization. We spend a whole lot of time on how we interact with our employees, with the coffee communities, and with the environment—we’re not a one-trick pony. We [recently] went through a process to identify our social and environmental bottom lines. Our social bottom line is alleviating poverty and hunger; our environmental bottom line is reducing solid waste and promoting responsible energy use.

The Job Landscape

How about your being named of the World’s Most Ethical Companies in 2007 and 2008? We try not to put too much emphasis on external awards, but personally, I was very excited. It was awarded by the Ethisphere Institute in cooperation with Forbes magazine.

The CSR Proposition

What has been the most rewarding aspect of your job? I would say it is the reception that dayto-day employees have had relative to our ethics and compliance program. Their expectations have constantly been higher than my own.

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The CSR Proposition

Careers with a Conscience THE GOOD FOOT purchasing department. I was leading the company’s environmental effort. At the time if you were recycling paper, that was progressive. When I started looking to move out of Goldman Sachs, I’d been away from Green Mountain for eight or nine years. But there were a whole host of people here who I still knew. One of them said, “You should call Bob Stiller,” who was then the CEO and is now the chairman. They were saying, “We ought to up our level of commitment to CSR. We ought to create a department.” When I was there before, I was very visible as someone who did a lot on these issues. That’s how I ended up back here. I was open to an opportunity that presented itself. What would you recommend to someone who wants to incorporate social responsibility into his or her career? Jobs like mine aren’t common and don’t come by very often. Keep your eyes open, but don’t put all of your eggs in this basket. Be open to opportunities. Cultivate agility and listening skill, because opportunities may come up in the strangest places. Take an entrepreneurial approach. Maybe you have an idea, a company, or service you can offer on your own. Create something new, because the paradigms are shifting. This is becoming more and more a part of mainstream business. Come up with an idea of how you can serve that niche that wouldn’t have occurred five years ago. It’s the wild, Wild West right now. Look at jobs that you don’t think are CSR jobs and try and find a place where you can bring your perspective and passion into that world—one that’s going to bring some real serious change.

For Your Reference


Landing the Job


The Job Landscape

Name: Atlanta McIlwraith

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Title: Community Engagement Leader Company: Timberland Location: Stratham, New Hampshire Hours per week: 50 to 60 at the busiest times Years in business: 3 years at Timberland Size of company: 6,300 employees worldwide Education: BA, political science, Duke University; MBA, with concentrations in marketing and sustainable enterprise, UNC, Chapel Hill

Once a year Timberland promotes public service through its Servapalooza event—but all year long Atlanta McIlwraith spurs on CSR by overseeing a team of global stewards who manage regional service committees. How did you wind up with this kind of career? I began my career as a political organizer. I then took my grassroots organizing skills to the for-profit world as national public affairs manager for The Body Shop. In that role I managed a series of public awareness and action campaigns that launched in stores nationwide. After business school, I served as an associate program manager for Population Services International’s AIDS prevention programs in West Africa. I then worked as an independent consultant for Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility. I decided I wanted to work in a more global role and saw the job posting on Timberland’s website. I applied and got the job. Why did you get into corporate social responsibility and community engagement? It was The Body Shop founder Anita Roddick’s book Business and Soul that first sparked my interest in using business to transform the world. I opened the book one evening and was completely riveted. I stayed up all night and finished the book as the sun came up the next day. I was so deeply inspired by the story that it became very clear to me that I had to work for Anita. Six months later, I landed a job in the Values

Get creative. Approach companies you admire and get to know their needs around CSR. Propose consulting projects and see if you can get in the door.

•

Don’t give up. If you don’t get the job, apply for another opportunity. I’ve definitely found that persistence and determination are huge assets in a CSR job hunt.

Where do you see yourself going next—say, in the next two to five years? I would like to manage a CSR team and ultimately have my own CSR consulting business.

What would you recommend to a recent graduate or someone making a mid-career job change? • Seek internships (while in college) with companies that are known for their CSR work.

Name: Karen Weigert

•

Location: Chicago

Title: Senior Vice President, Mission-Based Deposits Company: ShoreBank Enterprise Hours per week: Varies, generally 40 to 50 Years in business: More than 10, 2 with ShoreBank Size of company: More than 575 employees, with $2.4 billion in assets Education: BA, government and international studies, University of Notre Dame; MBA, Harvard Business School


37

For Your Reference

ShoreBank’s loans go toward environmental conservation and community development, and Karen Weigert works to drive deposits to online savings accounts, helping to boost the company‘s triplebottom-line efforts.


Join Net Impact. Net Impact’s mission is to make a positive impact on society by growing and strengthening a community of new leaders who use business to improve the world. Net Impact posts CSR jobs on its website and has professional chapters in many cities around the U.S. which serve as a great way to network

PROFIT, PLANET, PEOPLE

Landing the Job

•

As a graduate, apply for jobs with companies known for their CSR work. Jobs in CSR are few and far between, but once you’re in the door you can get to know the people who work in CSR and maybe “volunteer” on your own time to help them with some projects. This will get you known by the team and hopefully will put you on their list of candidates if and when they are hiring.


Have you made any sacrifices to take/keep this job? What are they and have they been worth it? I may well have been able to earn more money in another field, but I can’t imagine working for a business that didn’t have a greater awareness of its ability (and responsibility) to help solve pressing social and environmental problems. I’m committed to using my skills to help a company find the win-win scenario that’s available through leveraging resources to change the world for the better.

•

The Job Landscape

What aspects of your job relate to corporate social responsibility? At Timberland we have four pillars of CSR: Environmental Stewardship, Code of Conduct, Transparency and Accountability, and Community Engagement. My role is to look at how we can leverage our resources in terms of service hours and investments to make it better in our communities.

The CSR Proposition

with other professionals interested in CSR. Net Impact also has a wonderful annual conference with a job expo of socially responsible companies and approachable speakers who work for the leading CSR companies. Don’t be shy. Go up and introduce yourself to a speaker that interests you.

and Vision department. That experience has served me well at Timberland.



How did you wind up in this career and this job? What was your path? I had an interest in the for-profit side of things, and I was lucky to get a job in a larger, traditional company. My first job out of college was at Goldman Sachs. Then I moved to Washington, D.C., and worked on the Clinton campaign and administration. One of my posts was at the Global Environmental Center at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where I learned about the funding that the U.S. spends abroad in our aid budget. After that, I got my MBA, which was a wonderful opportunity to see what makes successful companies tick. Later, I worked with McKinsey and eventually worked as an independent consultant, where ShoreBank was one of my clients. Why did you get into corporate social responsibility? I was interested in community development and in the idea of a triple-bottom-line business: one that addresses profit, planet, and people. If we’re going to address the issues that we face, we need strong nonprofits—even though my career right now is in for-profit business. I’m also driven by environmental issues, and the fact that we can be profitable while still making a difference is a pretty interesting and innovative model. What aspects of your job relate to corporate social responsibility? We manage the bank as a triple-bottom-line business, and embedded in this is how to grow a for-profit bank and how to handle the tasks that come about and the challenges that we face. We launched the first fully online product, shorebankdirect.com. You get the usual perks of a high-yield savings account—the ability to bank at 2 a.m., a fabulous interest rate—but you also get to know where your money is going and that it’s funding things that you care about. [At ShoreBank] it’s funding loans in community development and environmental conservation.

38


What would you recommend to a recent graduate looking to incorporate social responsibility in his/her career? First, you should know that you can get these jobs right out of school. Focus on building concrete skill sets so that you can help many different kinds of organizations, and on people that could be your long-term business partners. Sometimes people can exclusively do things that are triple-bottom-line-related or CSR-related, but it doesn’t have to be the be-all end-all. It’s about what opportunities might exist out there. If you have an area that you’re passionate about, dive right in. Keep your eyes open to what’s around you, because where you’re based can affect what you’re doing. What has been the most rewarding aspect of your job? It has been going from something that didn’t exist or only existed on a few sheets of paper to something that’s making millions of dollars and making a difference. Have you made any sacrifices to take or keep this job? What are they—and have they been worth it? Any role has trade-offs, and you have to ask yourself, “What are you willing to live with?” I built a division within ShoreBank, and a platform that’s Internet-based is hard to do but still doable. As an individual, I could not have pulled that off, and certainly not this fast. Where do you see yourself going next—say, in the next two to five years? The next thing to continue is to build the platform and to continue to bring in deposits for the bank, because we’ve got a little more growth to do there. We’re taking the next step in marketing and hiring new staff, and we’re really trying to scale a business that started as a pilot.

The CSR Proposition

The Job Landscape



For Your Reference

39


For Your Reference

6

Books��42 Magazines��42 Websites��43



Books Forces for Good: The Six Practices of HighImpact Nonprofits By Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant The authors of this book studied nonprofits, the third largest industry in the U.S., for four years and identified 12 commendable organizations that share six similarities in best practices. The organizations include Habitat for Humanity, Teach for America, The Heritage Foundation, Share Our Strength, and eight others.

Saving the World at Work By Tim Sanders In this book author Tim Sanders talks about the “Responsibility Revolution,” or how corporate efforts make the world a better place. As the former CSO of Yahoo, Sanders offers practical advice every individual and company can use to make the world a better place. He enlightens his readers with extensive interviews with hundreds of employees and CEOs and countless stories of people who are simultaneously making a difference in the workplace and world.

For Your Reference


The Ecology of Commerce By Paul Hawken Published in 1994, The Ecology of Commerce remains arguably the most powerfully written case for why businesses should start operating sustainably—and how they can do it.

Natural Capitalism By Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins A little denser than The Ecology of Commerce, this is a good introduction to the ideas behind natural capital. Its authors, all three leaders in sustainability, offer cases that argue for a system in which businesses are good for the environment.

42


Faith and Fortune By Marc Gunther Faith and Fortune grew out of a 2001 article that Gunther, a senior writer for Fortune magazine, wrote entitled “God and Business: The Surprising Quest for Spiritual Renewal in the American Workplace.” The article garnered such a response that Gunther decided to write a book, and in doing so discovered a movement among businesses to place greater value on spirituality and social responsibility in the workplace.

Magazines CRO Magazine (www.thecro.com) focuses on corporate ethics and provides a platform for corporate responsibility officers (CROs) to boost the impact of corporate responsibility programs via its popular media vehicles such as the magazine, newsletters, and website. Business Ethics (www.business-ethics.com) is an online magazine that provides news from the intersection of business and society. Some of its most popular features include the “100 Best Corporate Citizens” list and the annual Business Ethics Awards. Ethical Corporation (www.ethicalcorp.com) is a British magazine with a circulation of 10,000 and bears the humorous tagline “Not an oxymoron.” It promotes debate and discussion about responsible business practices through the magazine, website, and business ethics conferences it hosts all over the world. Progressive Investor (www.sustainablebusiness.com) has a green angle and shows its readers how and when to invest in companies leading the way to a clean economy through renewable energy, green building, green products, and organic foods. Fast Company (www.fastcompany.com) is a magazine that features innovative leaders laying the groundwork for change in the workplace with the hope of inspiring rising leaders to be more intelligent and efficient.

Elaine Appleton Grant is a freelance journalist specializing in entrepreneurship, business, and social and environmental change. She has worked at Inc. magazine, the “bible” of entrepreneurship, and served as a producer on the NPR talk show The Connection. Her work has appeared in

Audubon, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, BusinessWeek, and U.S. News & World Report, among many other publications. Grant is currently coauthoring Small Acts, Big Impact: How You Can Change the World Five Minutes at a Time, a book about social change.

JustMeans (www.justmeans.com) is a website devoted to helping people make an impact on the world through their jobs, and equips them with the networks, news, and job listings to do so.


CSRWire (www.csrwire.com) is a website whose title explains it all; it is a global source of CSR news, providing distributing, editing, and promoting services.

π about the author The Job Landscape

Websites

The CSR Proposition

Stanford Social Innovation Review (www.ssireview. org) is published by Stanford University and covers “new and better ways of improving the lot of the world.” A board of researchers and CSR practitioners guides the magazine’s content.

Indeed (www.indeed.com) is a job search site that also offers a salary comparison tool Landing the Job

SimplyHired (www.simplyhired.com) is another job search site that provides a salary tool Commongood Careers (www.cgcareers.com) is a job placement firm specializing in entrepreneurial nonprofits; the website includes a job board.


Ellen Weinreb CSR Recruiting’s list of job boards (www.ellenweinreb.com/boards.htm) Environmental Leader (www.environmentalleader. com) Aka “the executive’s daily green briefing”

For Your Reference

America Forward (www.americaforward.org) is a coalition of more than 70 entrepreneurial nonprofits seeking to solve “domestic challenges facing our nation in education, public health, poverty and economic mobility, workforce development, crime prevention, and civic engagement.”

WETFEET I NSI DER G UIDE 43

Special Advertising Section

Make [responsibility] count.


BIG

DREAMS

IN BELIZE CITY

For a select group of 100 PricewaterhouseCoopers interns, the country of Belize holds a meaning and excitement they could have never imagined before interning with PwC. In June 2008, the interns shipped out to the Central American country, a place some had never heard of before traveling there, and spent a week on construction projects, teaching children in underprivileged schools, and making connections with the world and with each other. Candidates for the Belize City program had already met rigorous standards. They were screened and had accepted positions with PwC as summer interns in assurance, tax, and advisory areas. Their attitudes toward service and outreach were a good fit with PwC’s company-wide approach. They proved they had the right mindset, skillset, and passion by completing essay questions that asked: What type of experience do you have related to community outreach? If you had to create a course to teach, what would it be? How do you plan to keep in touch with the students after you leave? The community outreach aspect was no problem for Camille McLaws, an Accounting major from Brigham Young University. She

came to the internship with an extensive background in service—everything from tutoring and mentoring in elementary schools to assisting younger, handicapped students with physical therapy. However, she says the trip to Belize went above and beyond. “It blew all my expectations out of the water,” she says. A typical work day split up the intern group among four schools in Belize City, and

each team worked on classroom instruction during school hours and construction work after class was dismissed. The interns moved from teaching lessons about business, entrepreneurship, and the value of money to painting, constructing shelves, and setting up computers for new libraries. To handle long days—most began at 7 in the morning and ended after 10 at night—Camille and the other interns formed fast bonds. “I know now that you can become friends in a short amount of time,” she says. “We were so sad to leave, and I know the students were sad to see us go.” Hassan Hassan, an engineering major from Iowa State University, was first attracted to the Belize City program through PwC’s campus website. “The videos and stories about community service really inspired me,” he says. “I thought, ‘This is one of the largest firms that does that and encourages that?’ It’s really a part of their corporate culture.” Originally from Sudan, Hassan’s main connection to the mission of the project was to do international development in a third-world country. He ended up seeing a lot of himself in the children he met and as a result, made strong connections. “I don’t think any of us expected this to happen in a week,” he says. “I think we all established at least one strong relationship with a student.” While on-the-ground work took place from June 28 through July 3, the efforts were the result of many months of preparation. Curriculum and course materials were designed and created, events were planned, and construction projects were laid out. However, upon arriving in the classrooms the interns quickly learned to adapt the


coursework to fit the needs of the students. Apart from the demands of classroom teaching, the interns also had to be prepared to witness life in a setting vastly different from their own lives. Although Belize has a strong tourism and resort industry, much of the country remains impoverished. It’s a hard environment, and one very different from the lives of most American college students. To provide guidance to the 100 student interns, PwC’s CSR Leader Shannon Schuyler arranged for several PwC partners with experience in international development through the Ulysses program to come on the trip. “These are PwC partners who had gone to work in developing countries, doing construction work and educating people on economic and entrepreneurship issues,” she says. Hassan ended up taking this newfound passion for service and outreach back with

him to Iowa State, devoting time to service organizations there and planning a second trip to Belize with other students. “I didn’t expect the personal impact on me,” Hassan says. “It was great to see where it started and where it ended up when we left.” He hopes to continue his involvement in service after he joins PwC in an advisory position in Chicago. McLaws had visited PwC’s San Francisco office before taking part in the internship, and the experience in Belize—interacting with the students, fellow interns, and other PwC employees—convinced her to accept

a job offer in the company’s tax division. “I knew that PwC was the company they’d advertised themselves as,” she says. “I made up my mind that I’d work with them no matter what.”

It Started with 88 Students In 2007, Project New Orleans was a starting point for PwC’s combined Corporate Responsibility and Sourcing efforts. The company took 88 students from 88 schools to New Orleans to help rebuild the city’s oldest high school, Warren Easton High. This is not a Giveaway; It’s a Way to Give Back Instead of having giveaways at college career fairs, PwC representatives gave students a donation card with three options: plant a tree, build a school, or support a child. These cards decided where PwC would donate the money they saved on giveaways. A Day Well Spent In 2008, all PwC summer interns participated in a community service day held locally in their market. As a firm, PwC hosts its Community Service Month every June, and each office hosts a day of giving back to their community.


Q&A with Shannon Schuyler For the Belize City program for PwC’s summer interns, Shannon Schuyler could have been a behind-the-scenes coordinator, helping the students prepare for the trip and then shipping them off. But Schuyler was along for both the travel and work, putting in long days alongside the interns in rehabilitating schools and setting up libraries and other learning resources. A week-long project in Central America, though, is just the start of PwC’s company-wide approach. Q: Tell me about PwC’s efforts in Corporate Social Responsibility. A: We’re trying to get away from the notion that it is only about community service. It’s really multiple things, including community giving and outreach along with service. We’re also involved in projects with environmental sustainability and climate change, ethical business practice through our supply chain management, and a focus on our people through training and diversity. Q: How do PwC employees balance this work with their business functions at the company? A: Through our Community Investment website, employees can register the hours they work, whether it’s going to different events locally in their community or taking part in an annual firm-wide event. It’s really part of identifying the whole person, and part of who they are is that they volunteer. Q: How does the Belize City program figure into company-wide CSR efforts?

Want to know more?

A: We really feel that it’s part of our “people” development. Through this community outreach, we felt it was a great opportunity to help our interns and other staff become leaders and to take the lead in shaping the future for someone else. It also comes from a great partnership between campus recruiting and the CSR department. Q: How did you prepare yourself for taking part in the Belize City program? A: Working through PeaceWork, a nongovernmental organization, a small group of us went down for a site visit. We were able to experience the plight of the community and the poverty of the children which helped to drive an unyielding commitment to come back and make a measurable impact. It took a lot of advance planning, but I wanted to see for myself and let the students know that this Central American, Caribbean country isn’t all scuba diving and luxury resorts. There are a lot of people in Belize who have no running water, whose buildings are broken, and whose children have no place to play. Q: What trends are you seeing in the interests of students coming to work for PwC? A: There’s been a shift. Years ago, people were motivated by who could offer the biggest signing bonus. But now, students want freedom and flexibility in their work life, and they want companies that want to do the right thing. We’re starting to see students mandate that companies do this. I’m very impressed with this generation of students. In terms of environmental issues and ethical issues, they’re at a completely different level in showing what they want to do.

Go to www.pwc.tv and check out Channel 4 to learn more about Corporate Responsibility at PwC.

Resumes & Cover Letters Killer Consulting Resumes Killer Cover Letters & Resumes Killer Investment Banking Resumes

Financial Services Careers 25 Top Financial Services Firms Careers in Accounting Careers in Asset Management and Retail Brokerage Careers in Investment Banking Careers in Venture Capital

Industries and Careers: Specific Careers in Advertising and Public Relations Careers in Pharmaceuticals Careers in Brand Management Careers in Consumer Products Careers in Entertainment and Sports Careers in Health Care Careers in Human Resources Careers in Information Technology Careers in Insurance and Risk Management Careers in Marketing Careers in Nonprofits and Government Agencies Careers in Real Estate Careers in Retail Careers in Sales Careers in Supply Chain Management

WETFEET I NSI DER G UIDE 49

For Your Reference

INTERNATIONAL CAREERS 25 Top Global Leaders The International MBA Student’s Guide to the U.S. Job Search A.P. Moller–Maersk

Industries and Careers: General Industries and Careers for Engineers Industries and Careers for MBAs Industries and Careers for Undergraduates Million-Dollar Careers


Financial Services Companies Deutsche Bank Goldman Sachs Group J.P. Morgan Merrill Lynch Morgan Stanley UBS AG

Career Management Be Your Own Boss Changing Course, Changing Careers Finding the Right Career Path Negotiating Your Salary and Perks Networking Works! Green Careers Survival Guide for Women in Business

Landing the Job

Job Hunting Getting Your Ideal Internship Job Hunting A to Z: Landing the Job You Want Job Hunting in New York City Job Hunting in San Francisco

Consulting Companies Accenture Bain & Company Booz & Company Boston Consulting Group Deloitte Consulting McKinsey & Company


Interviewing Ace Your Interview! Beat the Street®: Investment Banking Interviews Beat the Street® II: I-Banking Interview Practice Guide The Wharton MBA Case Interview Study Guide: Volume I The Wharton MBA Case Interview Study Guide: Volume II

Consulting Careers 25 Top Consulting Firms Careers in Management Consulting Careers in Specialized Consulting: Information Technology Consulting for PhDs, Lawyers, and Doctors

The Job Landscape

Ace Your Case - Consulting Interviews Ace Your Case® I: Consulting Interviews, 3rd ed. Ace Your Case® II: Mastering the Case Interview Ace Your Case® III: Market-Sizing Questions Ace Your Case® IV: Business Strategy Questions Ace Your Case® V: Business Operations Questions

The CSR Proposition

WETFEET INSIDER GUIDES series

is the ultimate guide for finding jobs that involve corporate social responsibility—CSR. Whether it involves a new kind of attention to the environment, human rights, working conditions, or corporate transparency, a lot of companies are looking beyond the bottom line and creating positions for CSR professionals. CSR is popping up in all industries and in all sizes of companies, from entrepreneurial startups to Fortune 1000 giants. Careers with a Conscience will give you the lowdown on CSR job opportunities—and where to find them.

TURN TO THIS WETFEET INSIDER GUIDE TO LEARN ★ WHERE THE CSR JOBS ARE AND HOW TO FIND THEM ★ WHY CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IS A HOT-BUTTON ISSUE ★ WHAT SOME LEADING COMPANIES ARE DOING TO “GIVE BACK” ★ IF YOU NEED AN MBA AND THE BEST BUSINESS SCHOOLS FOR A CAREER IN CSR

★ WHAT IT MEANS FOR COMPANIES TO BE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE—AND HOW TO SEE THROUGH CORPORATE SPIN ★ HOW TO USE NETWORKING TO YOUR ADVANTAGE ★ THE JOBS THAT BEST FIT YOUR EDUCATION ★ INSIGHTS FROM THE INSIDERS: HOW REAL PEOPLE HAVE FORGED CAREERS IN CSR

WetFeet has earned a strong reputation among college graduates and career professionals for its series of highly credible, no-holds-barred Insider Guides. WetFeet’s investigative writers get behind the annual reports and corporate PR to tell the real story of what it’s like to work at specific companies and in different industries. www.WetFeet.com

Illustration by mckibillo

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