CSR London and Contentism Manifesto

Last night I told a colleague who is a fantastic Corporate Social Responsibility consultant that most of the CSR managers I'd encountered had no real budget to speak of, no authority within the company to change behaviour and business practices, and they were bundled into the marketing/PR department so their main function was to find green aspects of the business they could use to promote the companies image.

He said, that was "old school CSR", and modern thinking is to have the role at the top of the managerial chain, directing business practices. That sounds much better but I'd like to see how it works in practice?

CEO We're going to build our new widget in the 3rd world where they can do it for a 10th of the price.
CSR No, because there are no reliably enforced standards for preventing child labour, pollution and energy inefficiency.
CEO Oh, OK well then we can't afford to make the new widget. We can all go home early today.

(Incidentally Old School CSR would have said Great, I'll issue a press release on how we are stimulating the developing world's economy.)

The thinking behind CSR is historically marketing driven. The idea is that people like to do business with companies whose values they admire and respect. And the role of of CSR is to communicate those values, so fundamentally it's packaging, rather than improving business practices.

There is a fundamental dis-juncture between the corporate world whose purpose is to make money, and the CSR objective of making the world a better place.

Sure there are some ways to do both, but most of the time these two objectives require actions in polar opposite directions.

This Green Economy I keep hearing about from Boris, Gordon and Barak (Mayor of London, Prime Minister of the UK, and goal keeper for planet earth's soccer team) sounds so far like old school CSR, putting green "look at me" stickers on existing policies that have an element of greenery to them. There isn't yet a coherent "everything we do must be sustainable" ethos, informing every policy.

I've always fancied my self as a Marx-like figure, inventing radical new political ideology, which is at first ridiculed and misunderstood, then adopted through revolution, and corrupted so that in 100 years from now I'm remembered as the architect of a completely failed ideology. But I'm more of a hippy than a communist, so I've come up with a manifesto for happiness which will remove our dependence on capitalist structures, and lift us into sustainability.

"Contributing to society" is a phrase which is synonymous with being economically productive, and code for having a job which contributes to your own personal wealth, and consequently to the wealth of society. Wealth, of course as we all know, leads directly to happiness.

But the Contentism approach is to take the direct route to happiness, so the role of government under the Contentism Manifesto is to make people (not wealthy but) happy. With policies that stimulate the Happiness Index, rather than the economy.

Actually the Contentism Manifesto is for individuals, not political parties. It's about downsizing consumption, aspiring to work less, rather than earning more on a personal level. Freedom by cutting domestic overheads, rather than earning more. It's admittedly a bit of a slackers charter, but it's not about smashing the system or defying the capitalist machine, it's about working just enough, and valuing free time or happiness rather than money as the measure of wealth.

OK so I am confusing my radical new ideology with anti-consumerism a bit, and the hippy mantra that you can only find happiness when you throw of the shackles of your possessions is a load of budhist fundamentalist crap, maaahhn.

Driving a sports car at 100mph down the motorway is an experience that makes a lot of people happy, and films look great on a 52" plasma. But owning a sports car, worring it's going to get keyed by a drunk eco-vandal or stolen, writing the check for the insurance, paying for the fuel, and getting points on your license for speeding, these are all things that make most people unhappy.

The worst of it though is that the guy next door has a bigger plasma, and he's miserable cos his neighbour has a faster car. There's never a ceiling where you think, that's it, I've made it. I don't need any more stuff, or any more promotion, or any more pay, which is a pity because reaching that point feels fantastic.

Maybe retired people get it. Suddenly you aren't allowed to work any more, you know there is no chance you are going to get any richer, and you think, this is my lot now, and when you look at it you think "Its alright, I'm off to play golf".

Pity it takes 65 years to get to that mindset. Contentism says bring it on now, lets all take an early retirement attitude. It doesn't require an extreme commitment, because fortunately Contentism is scalable, it doesn't need a critical mass to become effective. A bit of Contentism is a bit good. Try it.