Did You Say "A Business Case for CSR"? PwC & Dell certainly think so!

I've spoken about the business case for incorporating CSR into our company strategies for a while now but so far haven't been able to quantitatively show how it is. Well, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Dell made it easy. As part of Climate Week NYC, going on currently, the two companies came out with their CSR Report illustrating what efforts they made last year and how they are affecting their bottom line.

While PwC managed to reduce their carbon footprint by 10% last year and report that they are on track to reach their goal of 20% by 2012, Dell managed to recover 125 million kilograms of used computer equipment for recycling in 2008.

A few simple points from the two reports that simplify understanding my argument:

• Travel: Investments and individual actions have helped reduce PwC's travel emissions by 19,440 metric tons, 18% between FY07 and FY08.
• Responsible printing initiative: Within 12-18 months, 52 PwC offices will receive new, energy-efficient, multi-functional printers that default to double-sided printing and also enable toner cartridge recycling. As offices undergo this transition, 30% recycled content paper will be purchased to support local behavioral changes around printing less.
• Reduced product packaging by more than 9.5 million pounds and introduced the first Dell curbside recyclable product packaging. This reduction will result in a savings of more than $8,000,000 from 2008 through 2012.

These are just of course, three simple examples of steps companies can take to start their climb toward becoming environmentally sustainable. If your employer hasn't yet started their course, I suggest you step in and use that "Write to us" forum on your company's Intranet to jot down a few comments to HR and upper management.

Many times, change for the better has come from the bottom up. This might be your opportunity.