CSR has always been a controversial issue and the criticism of it being 'greenwash' or a corporate PR exercise is by no means a new one. But for a variety of reasons people still think that CSR is worth their time and energy and buy in.

To understand why the CSR debate is still on going we need to look at the reasons why certain groups of people believe it to be a worthwhile exercise and what their frustrations are with CSR. At the heart of any pro-CSR reasoning lies a belief that it is possible for companies to be socially responsible, an assumption which this report questions, or at least a belief that the motivations of the company do not matter if the result is a positive one, a position which, again, this report disputes.

NGOs
‘Working with business is as important to us as munching bamboo is for a panda,’ WWF157

NGO involvement is key to CSR. Their engagement with companies adds legitimacy to the process as they come to represent the interest of the wider social good.

Here are some examples of NGO/company partnerships:

Charity donations and cause-related marketing – Some
NGOs refuse all corporate donations, such as Greenpeace. Many will accept any. Even those that refuse certain corporate donations rarely look at the wider political context of a donation and refuse only those from companies they see as having negative impacts directly on their stakeholder group. Children's charity NCH, despite having an ethical fundraising policy, accepted donations from arms manufacturer BAE Systems158.

Developing and monitoring corporate codes of conduct or
environmental management techniques – The Ethical Trading Initiative is an example of an NGO led code. It was set up in the 90s by a coalition of NGOs such as Christian Aid, Oxfam and War on Want following campaigns on UK food and clothing retailers. Companies that have signed up to their 'ethical trading' code include Asda159, GAP160 and Tesco161. While companies such as these may have made a public commitment to CSR, they are still using sweated labour, paying rock bottom prices to producers, squeezing small retailers out of the market, selling us goods we do not need and damaging the environment.

Developing socially responsible products - Greenpeace's no-corporate-donations policy does not, however, go as far as committing to no corporate tie-ins. It jointly promotes a renewable energy product, Juice, with npower. Npower is owned by German utilities giant RWE which has come under fire over
many issues including pushing water privatisation. RWE’s core business, for example running nuclear and coal-fired power stations, is a world away from its investment in renewables.162

Stakeholder dialogues – As we have explored, stakeholder dialogue between NGOs, companies and other actors is a key aspect of CSR.

Why are NGOs getting involved in these partnerships?

From the NGO perspective they are trying to achieve some of
the following objectives:

• Creating change - NGOs engage with companies because they believe they can change the company's behaviour to meet their social change or environmental objectives. Their strategy is to use the power of corporations to improve things in their specific area of focus.
• Shifting towards regulation – For some NGOs the objective of their engagement with companies is to make progress towards the regulation of companies in the wider public good.
• Follow the leader – For many NGOs, the debate on whether or not to engage with companies is already over. The attitude is 'all the major NGOs engage with companies so why shouldn't we?' While in many organisations internal debate continues, there is a sense that, right or wrong, engagement is the current tack so there is little point in questioning it.
• Barricades to boardrooms - If after battling with a company over their negative practices, the company caves in and agrees to make changes, a common response is for NGOs to enter into dialogue.
• Frustration – Equally, engagement can be seen as a quick fix. The idea of campaigning for structural change, or targeting every company on every issue is daunting. NGOs need PR successes to retain supporters and funders. CSR, with its
  promise of motivating companies to change themselves, appears to offer a high ratio of campaign success to input of resources.
• Credibility - Through engagement, and being seen as 'rational', realistic and co-operative, NGOs gain profile and influence amongst government and industry.
• Funding – Funding for NGOs is highly competitive and a small amount for a company makes a huge difference to a cashstrapped NGO.

CSR workers
People working in CSR in major companies often have very laudable motivations for choosing their line of work. Three in five people report that they want to work for a company whose values are consistent with their own163. It's unlikely that these people are in the job because they like the challenge of hoodwinking society into believing that companies are altruistic corporate citizens and truly sorry for any negative impacts that they may have inadvertently caused as a result of trying to make an honest living. Many people choose to work in CSR because they passionately believe that they can change the
corporation from within. They want to make a difference and while they don't want to simply be part of the corporate machine they still want a good job and a comfortable lifestyle and don't relish 'opting out', whatever that might mean.

The question for people working in CSR is what level of change will they be happy with? Since the number of major companies that have made any real shift in the way they operate is very close to zero, when will CSR workers see the whole project as a betrayal of the principles they are seeking to promote? How long will they hold out in the hope that their arguments will win out and their role as conscience of the company will be unnecessary?

The other frequent argument for 'working from within' is that companies will run their CSR programmes anyway, so it is better if people working on them are committed to trying to use this as a means for social change. But unless those people are also actively working to undermine the company's power, for example by unionising or leaking damaging documents, they are doing more to protect the company and the power structure it exists within than they are to protect society or the environment, no matter how beneficial the programmes they introduce may be.

The frustrations of CSR workers are often to do with their isolation within the company. Many CSR workers feel more affinity with the NGO representatives they have dialogue with than with their own colleagues. There is also the frustration that they have little power, and have difficulty convincing management to implement bold initiatives. Another frustration is that the most effective initiatives from a social or environmental point of view are often the ones that are most difficult to sell, and that once the PR is in the public domain the commitment to projects shrinks.

Consumers

Consumers do not want to think that their lifestyle and consumption habits have a negative impact on others or on the
environment. But there remains a big dividing line between the number of consumers saying they are concerned and those that could be termed 'global watchdogs' (see section on ethical consumers). Ethical consumption fills consumers' need to continue consuming and helps to minimise the guilt that they feel about their impacts. Consumers don't like to think that their favourite clothing brand, soft drink or supermarket is unethical, and so are receptive to corporate messages about social responsibility. If it can't rebuild trust in the corporation, CSR aims at least to manoeuvre members of the public into a position where they don't know what to think.