Human trafficking in Nike's sweatshop factory in Malaysia

Nike - Just Do It (Parody)

Dispatches: Fashion's Dirty Secret

Peek inside the average woman's wardrobe and it will be packed full of trendy high street clothes emulating the latest catwalk fashion - all bought at just a fraction of the price. My wardrobe is no different. A pair of £7 skinny jeans, t-shirts that cost no more than a few quid and a favourite dress which I grabbed for just under a tenner. High street fashion is in its heyday because now we can all have the latest designer trends at bargain prices.

But what's the real cost? Dispatches has discovered that fashion has a dirty secret - there's a hidden cost to cheap clothes and it's a human one.

Ethical Trade Initiative

Good video on what ethical trade initiative have achieved...

Join(RED) Long Video

Dove Campaign for Real Beauty

This is perhaps the smartest piece of CSR I've ever seen.

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is almost scarily good as it picked up so well on the recent backlash against advertising in fashion and cosmetics retail. The idea of women feeling good about their body whether they're fat,thin,young or old was quite revolutionary as it totally subverted all the other messages coming from advertising - which usually promoted the idea of the comsumers imperfection.

Taking responsibility for the messages they send out as a company - messages that are easily picked up by young girls - is another form of CSR.

British American Tobacco Held Responsible

“If they have 15% of the world market then they are responsible for 15% of the world's tobacco deaths, three quarters of a million deaths every year.”

On Ash.org.uk


These activist are out to make British American Tobacco responsible for the impact that their products have.

This is a perfect example of how consumers and activits are beginning to question the operations of companies they feel are having a negative impact on the world.

The Co-operative

This video is about the co-op bank and the formation of their ethical policies, the focus of which is inspiring young people, tackling global poverty and combating climate change.

The Co-operative have been consistent in their efforts since 1992 and they have set the standards for in the market for ethical trade and retail. They are the UK's most ethical brand, according to a study by GfK NOP Ltd, a leading research agency.

The Chuck Taylor All Star is recognized around the world as a symbol of originality and self-expression. The rubber-soled pioneers that put the ‘squeak’ in basketball have been an off-the-court favorite of rock stars and rebels for the past 60 years. And now, you can design your own pair. Make Mine RED. 15% of the net retail sales of these CONVERSE (PRODUCT) RED™ shoes will be paid to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Geneva, Switzerland).

Change trade, not our climate

"Change trade, not our climate" is a publication launched in late 2009 by the Our world is not for sale network. These are videos from a talk hosted by the Trade Justice movement.

In this video Asad Rehman talks about the struggle between those who want 'business as usual' and those who say thats just not possibe anymore. He talks about the economics and politics involved and the issues around the Copenhagen summit. The essence of it is, that changing the way we trade is crucial and basic to reducing the impact of climate change - and thats the issue we have to be dealing with.

The other video's are watchable on the War on Want website, and talk about ethical trading in general. They're quite informative to get an idea of the big political and social issues.

Precision footwork is something SCARPA team member Gord McArthur puts a lot of value in. Here a fun little vid where he shows what that looks like, and why he’s a fan of all the different categories of SCARPA footwear.

A typical day in the McArthur household – chasing the kids around followed by a little drytooling.

About Doernbecher Freestyle

Doernbecher Freestyle is a partnership between Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and Nike. Each year, a group of special Doernbecher patients who have triumphed over serious illness are selected to design authentic Nike shoes, which are sold at Niketown stores nationwide and online to raise funds for the hospital.

Starbucks: "Origin Tour"

Starbucks take their baristas to the plantations - on Guardian.com

This could be good for our case study?!

Starbucks are now taking their metropolitan 1st world staff to work on the coffee plantations in the 3rd world - no doubt as part of their CSR programme.

Is this just a shameless PR stunt or will it actually make a difference. This article seems to suggest the latter - by making human connections and relationships staff in coffee shops of the US and Europe will hopefully stand up for their coffee growing comrades and develop a culture of "fairness".

Ethical Consumerism

Ethical Consumerism @ Guardian.co.uk

When considering CSR we should probably also consider the phenomenon of "ethical consumption" - the idea that the consumer can act ethically with the choices of products and services they pay for. It is, of course, the spread of this idea in the minds of the consuming masses that makes CSR such a hot topic for companies.

The idea of "ethical consumption", although great at face-value, is, of course, highly criticised for justifying consumption at existing levels.

The Corporation

Ok...I guess if we're going to try and understand the complexities of "corporate social responsibility" we should probably know what a corporation is first.

This documentary looks really interesting - breaking down how coporations function and the impact they have.

Above is the trailer. Below is the first chapter. All other chapters are avaiable on YouTube.

I'm going to get watching now!

!SYOU co-designed sneakers

The idea behind !SYOU is international collaboration and the support of the local communities and economies. This is a short video, worth a watch to get the general idea.

Now imagine the same thing on a large scale. It’s somewhere in-between mass manufactured retailing and making designer shoes. With a backing from the large scale manufactures that have a hold in markets across the globe, the result could be a collaboration between sectors, companies, and down to individuals. In the very least, it would do a lot for the company’s CSR, make the experience of being sustainable more tangible for the consumer and the system would, in theory, be able to provide more sustainable, affordable shoes for all of us – one’s that support local economies in some small but direct way.

Simple ?

The BIO-D collection by Simple Shoes contains Ecopure, a pellet mixture that is added to the mid-soles and out-soles of these shoes to make the plastic, rubber and EVA mixtures bio-degradable - they are built to break down to dirt in a landfill environment after 20 years.

This shoe range, along with their 'ecoSneaks' is made from recycled and sustainable materials like hemp uppers, recycled car tire bottoms, organic cotton linings, recycled plastic bottles (PET) shoe laces and foot beds, and water-based glues. Their packaging is also completely recyclable.

It seems simple enough and leaves me wondering: do we need legislations to be passed in order to incorporate something like this into the entire system? How can processes and technologies like this be made more public, transparent and available so that the consumer can really drive the demand for these things? (How many 'good' chemicals do we need to create to counter the 'bad' ones??!)

The shoes were not priced as high as I expected and the closest place for us to pick up a pair is Schuch. That should give us an idea of the kind of retail environment it's sold in.

CSR debate

CSR WEBCAST

Fenton’s CSR team recently hosted a spirited and provocative debate featuring Professor Aneel Karnani, author of the controversial Wall Street Journal OpEd on Corporate Social Responsibility published on August 23rd. In addition to Dr. Karnani, the panel showcased eight other professionals (full list below), each providing an unique perspective on the state of CSR in business today.

Interesting video but a tad long!

Fenton CSR Webcast from Fenton on Vimeo.

Should the Government create a CSR ranking system?

CSR Rankings war...



Came across this 100 best corporate citizens ranking table that's been produced to highlight a company's overall responsibility to the community. Looking further at some of the companies its interesting to see how they can receive a "yellow card" but still stay on the same ranking score.

But whats to say that these companies actually follow everything they preach!

CSR needs a leader.

http://www.thecro.com/files/CR100Best.pdf

No Logo: The backlash against the brands

Short video of Naomi Klein talking about her book "No Logo" (2000) - a look behind the shiny world of perfectly sculpted brands and the documentation of the first backlashes againt major corporations.

A warning to all companies who are not currently considering their impact on the world and society.

The rhetoric of corporate social responsibility outweighs the reality

"The rhetoric of corporate social responsibility outweighs the reality" Guardian.com

Found this article from the guardian on the development aspects of CSR. Its interesting to get another opinion on how CSR is still only seen as a marketing ploy.

One quote from the guardian was:

"At the moment, CSR-driven schemes are simply not proportionate to the value these companies extract from Africa and Asia.!

Maybe we do need that goverment legislation to help support this!!

The Story of Stuff

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

You may have seen this one.

Fantasticly simple illustration of how things get from raw materials to the high street and the destruction this system causes. Its also a great insight into stakeholder involvements.

The "Story of Bottled Water" (below) is another one in the series (there's more on the website) that is a great example of "manufactured demand".

The Century of the Self

(starts a little abruptly...think it was recorded off TV!)

Okay...this is not exactly about CSR but I was reminded about it after our conversations about consumerism on Friday.

This is a very highly acclaimed, if not widely enough known, 4-part documentary by Adam Curtis about how "the masses" have been pacified, minipulated and controlled by capitalist corporate culture.

The first episode tells the story of Edward Bernays, a cousin of Freud, who is widely recognised as the inventer of PR. Bernays was fascinated with minipulating the mind and took a lot of inspiration from the Propoganda used by the Nazis in the Second World War.

The story of making smoking acceptable for women (around 12:00) fascinates me.

All four episodes are a must see - especially when dealing with the retail industry.

We are Earthlings...

"Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil," Plato

A friend posted this on Facebook last night and I ended up watching the whole thing. Its a little slow paced(and a tad New-Age/American for my liking) but I highly recommend it.

The section on Fashion(particularly around that of the leather industry in India) begins just after 46:00. The whole documentary however, in all it unpleasantness, illustrates just how ignorant we are - and want to be - about the impact our actions have.

German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer, is famous for his writings on the acceptance of inconvenient truths in society:

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

If you take the example of cigarettes, this can be seen to be quite true. First people laughed at the idea that smoking could cause cancer etc. When hard evidence started to emerge society rejected the information and continued to smoke. Only recently have we come to terms with the truth.

I think we're in stage 2 with regards to animals, meat and the ecological/health impact our eating/clothing habits are making.

World Vegan Week '10 starts monday...just sayin' ;)

First Tragedy, Then Farce

"First Tragedy, Then Farce" by fantastic contemporary philosopher Slavoy Zizek.

An important, if slightly grueling, introduction to the ethics of CSR.

Hello World

CSR at GSA is a online collection of research into "Corporate Social Responsibility", especially in fashion retail industry, carried out by students of Design Innovation at the Glasgow School of Art.