Advice on entering the "CSR" Sustainability field in Asia

2009-09-26T21:43:00.001-07:00

It's happened again, my approximately monthly random email from some highly qualified person I've never met asking me for "advice on entering the CSR field in Asia". I work in the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) field, and my job title is Asia CR Manager. So I guess thats why they ask me!
But really, its a little more complicated than that. The "CSR" industry these days, is split largely into two main areas of work:
A: Ethical Sourcing/(Code of Conduct) social and environmental Compliance
and
B: (what I would call) General CSR .

I'll discuss A for a moment, which is where I currently work, and am most passionate about. Many large, international, (I say) more responsible brands have hired "CSR" or Code of Conduct, or "Human Rights" Officers, Managers, Directors and VPs to check working and labour , and, increasingly, environmental conditions in their supply chain. You know, no sweatshop labour, no serious pollution etc. But really its far more complicated than that. These CSR people work to assess, monitor inspire, train, and one day hope to achieve great wages, balanced working hours, freedom of association, and more in safe, healthy, environmentally friendly factories. It's work out in factories, on the ground, 'getting our hands dirty' working with audit firms, NGOs, interviewing, catching, training and working with factory owners and workers, and internal sourcing teams. It can be exhausting and very difficult work, but I'm inspired by the fantastic CSR Officers (etc) I work with in the industry who are passionately dedicated to making the world a better place by trying to ensure their famous international brand ensures factories know how to, and do the right thing.

B encompasses many more office based professionals. In recent years more and more Multinational Corporations have taken to writing "CSR reports". So many people at Headquarters spend a lot of time writing these reports, and responding to investor surveys, etc! Others work partly on this, and also on philanthropic efforts. These range from pure giving away of company money to charities, to deeper partnerships with organisations around social and environmental issues related to the business. Sometimes these people work partially on internal environmental management too,....do the lights get turned off in offices around the world, and how to make sure they do and track the money savings! Those that are fulltime environmental managers are usually called such, or EHS-Environmental, Health, Safety Managers, Directors, VPs, etc.

So, to return to the question of how to "enter the CSR field" I believe that to some extent you want to pick which field. Personally I find field A most interesting. As I was so interested in it, and in my day they didn't offer 'CSR' at university, I spent many years alongside mainstream career work reading about or attending events on worker rights issues, environmental issues related to factories, and the whole ethical trading and 'sweatshop' conversation.

As for Asia, I've always been China based, and in Asia this industry is largest in China-HK, Bangladesh and India, with a few people working in Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines. For China, well, historically most Chinese exporting factories were in south China, so thats really where most of the ethical trading teams are based, with some these days based out of Shanghai area.

I suggest the following ways to 'get into' the industry:
-offer part-time consulting or volunteering services in any skill you have to any of the NGOs or consulting firms working on these issues. These include:
-(quasi-NGOs): ICO, Taos, Verite, the FLA-Fair Labour Association, SA8000, etc.
-CSR consulting firms: HK, Guangzhou and Beijing offices of BSR-CTI China and CSR Asia. Narrowgate, AMC, AMA, Infactt, Levelworks.
There are many more, and for that, I recommend google, linkedin, and asking around.

Perhaps I can post more later, but for now I need to go back to carrying my own further studies in Environmental Management, as I believe this industry is about learning, learning, learning, and showing people you are passionate and knowledgeable about the issues.....and can offer some solutions!
All the best

VisionsFromAfar

Advice on entering the "CSR" Sustainability field in Asia