Just barely meeting CSR

When reading about shared value from Porter and Kramer, I could not help but think of the book I am currently reading, Strange as This Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake. The novel follows a family in southern West Virginia in a hollow, the base of a mountain, where mountaintop removal has moved in. After floods the family is torn between a love for the place, for what they have always called home and holds all that they own, for leaving to a safer place. Historically, many of the slurry and blackwater floods that damaged homes and even killed citizens due to poor practices by the mining companies were deemed an act of God, rather than a deterrable mistake that should have serious repercussions. Those companies made the decision that saving money through unsafe practices meant more to them then potentially the lives of their workers and families.

Of course all mining and energy companies aren’t gloom and doom, but we do seem to be at a time when things should be shifting. As a new resident in Pittsburgh to attend school, I was surprised when learning the plans for the Shell cracker plant in Beaver County. This issue is extremely controversial, looking at the creation of jobs, energy extraction, and environmental impact. From Shell’s perspective, they are trying to make their supply chain more of a value chain. By creating plastic closer to where the gas if extracted, shipping gas to the east coast, and having access to a large amount of the country, they are reducing their overall costs. For me, this clearly lacks any sense of shared value. The company’s pursuit lacks transparency, as they have not disclosed is they will be using local companies for their supply chain. Though there will be many jobs, only about 10% of those estimated are permanent positions. And I continually wonder why we will be wanting to make low grade plastics that end up in our oceans and landfills and green spaces (is this what our consumers want?). 

Granted this discussion might be a bit cynical, but as a policy student, I constantly think of the push and pull between regulation and business practice. Porter and Kramer even used Wells Fargo as an example for one aspect of value creation, which we have recently seen to be markedly less impact than their shady dealings. Often times on the radio I even hear the discussion of the housing market bubble resembling aspects before the recession. While I completely agree with the article, that business does not have to be against the public but can be about shared value, it feels like policy needs to continually force the issue to even build corporate social responsibility. There are companies that do this, and I hope the proportion of those using shared values grows.