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Northern light: Norway leads on ethics
- EC Newsdesk, 19 February 2009
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Opinion:
Isn’t it good, Norwegian Wood?
Norway, the land of Brundtland and sustainable development, has just released a white paper which sets a new standard for government guidance on corporate social responsibility, write Teresa Fogelberg and Paul Hohnen.
The Norwegian government's new 100-page white paper on responsible business may be the most comprehensive and bold of its kind in the world yet.
Entitled “Corporate Social Responsibility in a Global Economy”, the paper sets corporate responsibility firmly in the context of global sustainability challenges and the competitiveness of Norwegian business in the global economy.
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Comments:
Norwegian Wood or Good? - Gunhild Ørstavik, 28 Feb 2009
The Norwegian White Paper on CSR is not yet translated to English. Nevertheless, it is brought into the International debate by Teresa Vogelberg and Paul Hohnen on the Ethical Corporation website (!). Unlike the broad spectre of Norwegian Civil Society Organisations, academia, Parliamentarians and major Social Responsible Investors, they are excessive in their praise of the paper.
Paul and Teresa state that “The Norwegian government's new 100-page white paper on responsible business may be the most comprehensive and bold of its kind in the world yet.”
Is it the recommendation to strengthen the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the UN Global Compact, and GRI that is so outstandingly bold?
Fair enough, the paper does give an indepth introduction to the field of CSR and discuss a number of positive tools that may be implemented. It is a good introduction. However, it is neither ambitious, nor concrete when it comes to political commitments and it totally lacks a victim perspective. The few suggested measures would not prevent any abuse by Norwegian corporations, nor sanctions for violators or redress for victims. Neither does it reward the best performers.
One of four recommended national measures reads:
”The government will continue their work to asses which measures that might prevent Norwegian citizens and Norwegian corporations from committing serious environmental crimes outside the Norwegian boarders”.
I bet this must scare the wits out of the bad guys! Despite several recent examples of the opposite, the paper seems based on an underlying premise that Norwegian corporations are global actors only in order to do good, and create sustainable development in the world.
On behalf of the NGO coalition Forum for environment and development, I challenge Hohnen and Vogelberg to concretise how they believe this paper will as you say ”set a new standard for government guidance on corporate social responsibility”.
Within a few weeks also actors with a more limited command of Norwegian should be able to read the paper and judge for themselves.
More http://www.forumfor.no/Artikler/5142.html
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