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CSR Global
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One mig ght say thatt, in Malays
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hey attended
d the CSR
Global Summit
S 200
09, held in Singapore
S o 13th and
on d 16th
Pages
Januaryy 2009.
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1 

Dr Geh
G Min
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Dr Geh Min, the immediate past President of Singapore’s Nature Society, opened the
conference with colourful analogies from her experience with the human anatomy. She
pointed out that behaving in a responsible manner is fundamental to the health of a
business, and not cosmetic application. She also noted that the only kind of cells that grows
at all costs is the tumour cell, which eventually destroys itself. Likewise, she believed that
corporations should, not only stop looking at profit at all costs, but go beyond the triple
bottom line (profit, people and planet) in the future.

CSR reporting

The first day of the conference had a few talks where speakers attempted to define
corporate social responsibility, perhaps in order to define the parameters of what a business
is obligated to do (and by implication what it does not need to do), or perhaps because
there are quite a number of definitions for CSR. Founder and Managing Director of OWW
Consulting Malaysia, Dr Geoffrey Williams, succinctly stated that

A responsible business finds out who its stakeholders are, what they want, and deliver it to 
them. 

Dr Williams pointed out that this is the new management paradigm that businesses need to
consider. Founder and Managing Director of Counterpoint Professional Services Malaysia,
Steve McCoy, agreed with Dr Williams, adding that structural changes need to take place
within the organization, and that CSR is not merely a matter of good intentions.

Dr Geoffrey Williams

In fact, all the speakers agreed that CSR goes far beyond good intentions, and underpins all
of a business’ processes. And, as pointed out by Professor Dr Mustaffa Mohamed Zain (see
earlier interview), businesses should publicize their CSR efforts.

Aside from Professor Dr Mustaffa’s reason for reporting (to encourage others), Dr Williams
2 

stated that reporting is essential, otherwise no one would know a company’s standing in
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relation to the CSR efforts it has made. For example, Dr Williams displayed a chart showing
  

the position of each country’s CSR standing, with Singapore

generally ranked on the lower end. However, Dr Williams believes
this is not because Singapore’s businesses are not behaving
responsibly, but because they fail to report their behaviour
successfully.

The reason why reporting needs to be done, aside from

encouraging others and being ranked (i.e. the competitive
component, which businesses cannot run away from in this day and
age), is for investment purposes. New ethical funds are approved all the time, and the fund
managers need to know how ethical, responsible and green a business is, before it will
invest in it. Furthermore, a country’s ranking will give fund managers and investors
indicators as to where to place their moneys.

Aside from this, Dr Williams also said that the best way to attract and to keep employees
(and investors) is to tell them about how the business is behaving responsibly. Furthermore,
most times the failure to tell stakeholders might lead to the assumption that there is
something to hide. UN PRI UK Executive Director, James Gifford, gave pointers on the
principles of responsible investment (PRI), where he likened businesses to fiduciaries for its
stakeholders and investors.

At the end of the day, Dr Williams noted, CSR increases revenue, decreases costs and
therefore decreases risk.

Pressure points

Edelman Group’s South East Asia Managing Director, Robert Grove, stated that businesses
are under pressure from three sources:
• Non-governmental agencies (NGOs)
• Labor / Employees
• Consumers
In fact, Grove pointed out that consumer activism is at an all time high. Perhaps, the CSR
Digest notes, this can be seen in the recent conviction of perpetrators of the melamine
poisoning scandal last year. In addition to this, fifty percent of employees would not want to
work for an employer they did not trust. According to Grove, the workforce is doing their
own due diligence on potential employers, made easier by websites like Glassdoor.com.
3 
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Mr Robert Grove

Grove also stated that IBM allows employees to spend ten percent of their working time on
causes close to their heart. This was explored by Steven Davidson of IBM Global Business
Services Hong Kong on the second day of the event. Davidson explained IBM’s perspective
when it comes to CSR and the workforce:

• CSR leadership attracts and retains top talent

• Employee involvement in CSR strategy leads to more and better solutions
• Employees involved in CSR objectives are best able to capture emerging customer
expectations

While many corporations take a top-down approach when it comes to employee

engagement, Davidson believes that usually CSR initiatives come from the bottom up. In
fact, the program that allows employees to utilize ten percent of their time in their preferred
causes benefits IBM. For example, when an employee decides to work in a HIV related cause
in South Africa, IBM eventually gets to learn more about that emerging market. If the
company were to decide to penetrate the market, they have personnel who have ground-
level knowledge of the country and its workings.

Laws, soft and hard

IBM’s Davidson stated that his company believed that it is better to be open rather than to
be pried open. According to Davidson, stakeholders are now the brand managers for
businesses, stating that all it takes is one photograph of one wrongdoing sent to a pressure
group that could cause great damage to a business’ brand.

With an estimated one billion camera phones worldwide, all it takes is just one to cause
4 

negative impact to your company’s reputation, and with the world growing smaller, and the
Page
  

advent of Web 2.0, not just the products and services of a business, but its operations,
suppliers, and partners are wide open to scrutiny.

On this note, Managing Partner and Head of the Corporate and Securities Law
of KhattarWong, Tan Chong Huat, believes that soft laws, or guidelines, rather than hard
laws, or legislation or case law, works best for CSR. Aside from the pressure points faced by
businesses, Tan believes that fossilizing CSR into hard laws might cause unnecessary
demands on a business.

Mr Tan Chong Huat

Michael Chiam, Malaysian Mirror Committee of Social Responsibility Member, Nominated

Expert for the Industry Stakeholder Group and Malaysian Employers Federation Council
Member, opined that, on some occasions, these international guidelines or soft laws can
cause hardship on developing nations, citing the troubles faced by Malaysia’s fishing export
industry recently.

Millions of ringgit worth of seafood is languishing in freezer units in Malaysia because they
’suddenly’ do not meet EU’s hygiene and environmental standards. As such, Chiam believes
that these soft laws amount to barriers to trade, especially for those in need of trade.

Going Green

Singapore’s Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications of Lanxess, Kaye Lim,
5 

discussed how Lanxess deals with its green issues. Believing that CSR is the “next Industrial
Page
  

Revolution” and global megatrend, Lim pointed out some alarming environmental issues,
including:
• Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are thirty-five percent higher than before
the Industrial Revolution
• Currently, there are 19 megacities (over 10 mill people) in the world, with 8 expected to
come into existence within 15 years.
• World demand for oil and gas will outstrip supply within 7-10 years.
• About 1.1 bill people do not have access to safe drinking water.
• World food demand to rise by 50% over next 20 years.

Lim pointed out that business opportunities arise from these trends, such as clean energy,
environmental resource management, energy and material efficiency and sustainable
investment and business services. Furthermore, businesses in existence can develop a
competitive advantage through sustainability.

Lanxess focuses on three aspects of CSR globally. Aside from its interesting social/cultural
and education/ empowerment efforts, Lanxess efforts in its processes are noteworthy.
Lanxess will build a second laughing gas reduction unit (LARA) at its Krefeld-Uerdingen site,
set to be in operating this year. Because of this, Lanxess will cut its annual emissions of
climate gas in Germany by 1.5 mill metric tons by 2012. This project will eliminate as much
as eighty percent of the company’s total direct greenhouse gas emissions in Germany.

Ms Kaye Lim

Furthermore, the chemicals group is in the process of setting up an innovative and highly
efficient cogeneration plant at its Brazilian site. The new plant, which will have a capacity of
4.5 MW, will operate with bagasse, a component of sugar cane left over from sugar
production. Through the use of raw material, energy generation at the plant becomes
completely carbon dioxide neutral.
6 
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YTL Corporation Malaysia’s Director of Environmental Investment, Ralph Justin Dixon,

explained that YTL’s CSR focus includes protection of the environment, promotion of arts
and culture, and supporting education and community development. While its promotion of
arts and culture and development of education and community endeavours are laudable,
YTL’s environmental efforts are of particular note, especially as its business is mainly in
development.

Firstly, YTL’s takes a special initiative in responsible tourism. Its Pangkor Laut Resort on
Pangkor Island Malaysia is an entirely green development, from its design to the types of
building materials used, to its waste disposal. YTL also has on-site ecologists at the resort,
dedicated to researching the biodiversity and ecology of the rainforest, wildlife and marine
life on the island, as well as running educational tours for visitors.

Mr Ralph Justin Dixon

The company also takes measures to lessen its activities’ impact on the environment.
According to Dixon, YTL works with the Malaysian Government to implement a policy of
using clean fuels. Its power stations are designed to minimise impact of emissions,
particularly nitrogen dioxide and its submarine pipes are extended ten percent further than
required by engineering by-laws so that the ambient temperature of marine environment is
maintained. Furthermore, YTL has obtained ISO14001 Certification (Environmental
Management Systems) for both its power stations in 2007.

Achievements
7 
Page
  

The event also allowed businesses to showcase their achievements. Proctor and Gamble
(P&G), together with World Vision International, explained how they worked together to get a
special community product by P&G (which purifies water) to Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis
hit the country. With World Vision having its presence in Myanmar, the product was packed
shipped to Myanmar, and disseminated more easily than it would have been, had there been
no partnership in the effort.

(l-r) Farlim's Dato Mohamed Iqbal, Mr Michael Chiam & Dr Amin Khan

Senior General Manager of Maswings, Dr Amin Khan, talked about the airlines endeavours in
the environment and the people. Mentioning that the company’s CSR tagline was “Always for
the People and the Environment”, or “APE”, the company has several CSR projects, including
Wings of Borneo, a project offering cheap rural flights in Northern Borneo, Wings for
Children, with which Maswings offers free flights to sick children living in the Northern
Borneo jungles who are in need of hospital care and Project PINTAR, which aims to help
raise the awareness of the importance of education as a way to improve the academic
standards of underprivileged children from deprived socio-economic conditions.
8 
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Final day panelists

  

On the first night of

o the confe
erence, Pinn
nacle also organized th
he Gala Awa ards Dinner &
Global CSR
C Awards s Ceremonyy at the sam
me venue, re
ecognizing outstanding
o g CSR
achievements in thhe region. The
T categoriies and gold d winners are as follow
ws:
• Best Envvironmental Excellence Award - Ku
ulim (Malayssia) Berhad
• mmunity Programmed Award - Glo
Best Com obe Telecom
m, Philippin
nes
• Best Workplace Practices - FedEx
• CSR Leadership Aw
ward - Merck
k Ltd, Thaila
and
Many more
m speakeers participa
ated in the knowledge
k sharing andd/or showca
asing of the
eir
busines
sses’ CSR un
ndertakings s, a list of which
w is available here.◊
◊

 
9 
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