Innovation + Responsibility

"It's in our DNA." That is the standard line you tend to hear when companies launch an "official" corporate responsibility program. Company leaders (and the corporate responsibility staff) go into overdrive trying to articulate that a dedicated program is a natural outgrowth of an existing corporate culture of social and environmental awareness and commitment. Whenever I hear this DNA line I think, "Yeah right." I mean, is it possible that social and environmental responsibility are in the DNA of every company? No way.

Since joining Sun in September, I have heard varations on this DNA theme. It elicits in me the same roll of the eyes that occurs when I hear other companies make the claim. But over the past couple of weeks I have been feeling more and more like maybe it really is in Sun's DNA. And maybe it really is part of the fabric of these other companies, too, and my skepticism is perhaps unfair.

SunShine Schools
I was recently meeting Crawford Beveridge, Sun's Executive Vice President and Chairman, EMEA, APAC and the Americas, for the first time, and he mentioned to me an outstanding program going in on China. This program was started in 2000 when Sun employees got together and raised money - $250,000 USD - to re-build a dilapidated school in a nearby rural community. The results were incredible - the school, which was previously just a run down shack, was now state of the art. Sun's employees initiated the endeavor, raised the money for it and made it happen.

And they continue to make it happen, opening seven schools since 2001 - most recently in June 2006- and starting a scholarship fund for students from low-income families. Today 258 students in seven SunShine schools receive scholarship assistance.

One cannot fake this kind of commitment and dedication to the community. If I had to guess, I would say it is in their DNA.

Printed Cover Sheets
I got another great look into the Sun genome today when I sat down to lunch with Lori Duvall, Sun's Eco Responsibility Program Manager (and my trusty guide to all things Sun), and Michelle Finneran Dennedy, Sun's Chief Privacy Officer. Our conversation touched on a range of topics, everything from the value Project Blackbox can bring to a developing country (a lot) to whether or not you should let your boss set you up on a date with his friend (probably not).

As the three of us talked, the subject of Lori's number one pet peeve - printed cover sheets - came up. "What are printed cover sheets?" you wonder. Well, these are the single sheets of paper that are printed at the start of every print job here at Sun. So, a one page printout becomes a two page printout thanks to this coversheet. In truth, this coversheet has no value. The only information on it is your employee ID number and some detail about the number of pages you just printed. I suppose it would be valuable in an environment with lots and lots of people doing lots and lots of long print jobs, many of which look alike and so need to be separated and clearly marked on the printer so as to avoid confusion. In a law office maybe?

To me, the printed cover sheets are nothing but a waste. Of natural resources and of money. If we are trying to be eco responsible, let's start with a very easy fix - reduce our paper consumption by eliminating this riduculous printed cover sheet function!

But to some people on our Menlo Park and Santa Clara campuses, the printed cover sheets are coloring paper for little kids at underfunded schools and day care centers.

Several years ago, a Sun employee learned about a day care center where, due to scarce resources, children were using old newspapers for coloring and drawing. A light bulb went off in her head about those darn printed cover sheets that, up until that point, were nothing but a nuisance. She put a collection bin next to the printer with a sign on it encouraging people to deposit their cover sheets in the bin so they could be used by area kids for coloring and drawing.

In true grassroots fashion, the idea caught on and other buildings initiated the practice. Now, several years after the first printed cover sheets were re-purposed as coloring paper for kids, Sun employees are sending several bankers' boxes worth of the paper each month.

I know that it is at the top of Lori's agenda to get rid of those pesky cover sheets all together. But as long as we are stuck with them, this seems like the best possible use for them.

Sometimes I actually like being wrong
Well, the next time someone tells me that corporate responsibility comes naturally to their company because "It's in our DNA," I probably will not be so quick to roll my eyes. Because I suspect there are many more stories, just like these, all around Sun (and other companies). I am really excited to learn more and more of them!

I just got back from five glorious days in the best city on earth. This year's Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)conference was in NYC, my hometown. The benefit of having a conference in New York City is that lots of people will attend, thus making the conference more worthwhile - more than 1200 people registered for this conference. The drawback, of course, is that you have the distractions of the city tempting you away from the stuffy hotel ballrooms where the conference is happening. I managed to resist this temptation because (1) I arrived a couple of days early so that I could be sure to get as much social time with my friends as possible and (2) the conference was actually pretty good!

One of the best things about the conference was the fact that there were 1200+ people in the same place whose jobs/careers/passions are all focused in a similar direction. It was good to see, because it really is so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of how hard it can be to get people to understand/listen to/pay attention to you, you forget why you were excited about doing this kind of work in the first place! The week away also gave me some much-needed perspective, which I cannot believe I needed after only two months on the job. But clearly I did.

Overall the conference was good. I met some really good people doing very interesting work at their companies. The usual players were represented and I did have to laugh at the celebrity status of some of the early CSR pioneers. Standing around while people whisper, "Oooh, that's Sue Mecklenburg from Starbucks. She's my hero!" was, well, interesting and amusing at the same time. But then you hear about what Sue has done at Starbucks, how she has been pioneering CSR at that company for many years and you think, "Hmm. She could be my hero, too."

Some of the better sessions were Communicating CSR: Building Credibility with Skeptical Audiences (I even bought the CD of the session to share with folks here at Sun) and Measuring CSR Integration: Do You Know Your KPIs? The KPI session was jam-packed. Standing room only (I was one of the standing), people spilling out into the hallways and others sprawled across the floor trying to listen and learn. One key takeaway from that session was that just about everyone - even the companies that have several years of CSR under their belt - is making it up as they go along!

I also participated in a great discussion between companies and representatives from the SRI community. It was a useful and lively dialogue and what I appreciated most about it was the level of candor among the group. I suppose that is to be expected among people who are focused every day on transparency and responsible business. Still, it was nice to see the two sides, who in some cases may view each other as adversaries, instead treat each other as potential partners.

There were also some good keynote speakers. Personally, I enjoyed Richard Parsons, the Chairman of Time Warner. He did not necessarily say anything especially deep or groundbreaking. But he was, I felt, thoughtful and authentic, and really came across as a CEO who believes that this notion of responsibility is at the core of his company's values. Some of the other CEOs (Novartis, Coca Cola) were also very thoughtful, but for whatever reason, Mr. Parsons was the one who resonated with me most. Maybe because he did not run down the list of initiatives his company has undertaken as part of their CSR program (as the other two did). Maybe because he resisted the standard "keynote" format, and rather than get up and speak at us, he participated in a conversation (City Arts & Lectures style!) with the head of BSR, who, to his credit, asked some tough ones (though he could have been more pointed on the issues of media bias and reporting on the Iraq war).

Now that I attended the conference, I feel much more dialed into the larger CSR community. And what I love about it is that it really is a community - people sharing best practices, good advice and useful warnings.