Corporate Social Responsibility hits the high street? Well, not yet…

It’s been over two years now since that dreadful day in Harrods when I decided that consumerism really wasn’t for me. Since then, I’ve been living my life quite happily without frequenting the usual high street chain stores on a biweekly basis as so many people do. So what have I learned? Well, if you can find happiness by enjoying the simple things in life, then you don’t need to buy so much stuff. I feel the need to quote Sam Duckworth of Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly here ‘Open your eyes, as you don't need to buy it’. So, Sam Duckworth and I know that there’s more to life than shopping; Sam’s written a lovely little song about it but it seems that we’re in the minority.

Apparently fashionistas of the world are still even new to the idea of organic! Jigsaw, one of the high street heavy weights has just launched its ‘first ever’ organic range. Shame it’s a little late in the game. Both ASDA and Next were doing organic t-shirts at least a year ago. Meanwhile, the free newspaper I found on the train applauds Jigsaw for making green cool ‘and there’s not a Hessian sack in sight’. It seems that despite the hard work done by organisations such as Oxfam and War on Want, the fashion industry is still 20 years behind the food industry. So we’re still calling anyone with an environmental conscience a ‘greenie’ are we? Still perpetuating the stereotype of sandal wearing beardy hippy types? Tsk tsk.

Meanwhile, back in the business world, things are looking up. Despite the current recession the ‘ethical climate’ still continues, being led by the food industry. Fairtrade, organic and local have all been foody buzz words for a while but now the mainstream businesses have caught on. Big multinationals have noticed that Corporate Social Responsibility is not something to be sniffed at. Previous ideas of ‘we can’t mention the good things we do because it leaves us open to criticism on what we don’t do’ has been replaced by ‘this is what we do, we know we’re not perfect, but we’re working on it’ attitudes. Even Starbucks, mass consumerism in a cup, has a Global Responsibility report that details how much waste their disposable cups generate. It’s all about clearly stating business intentions, aiming to improve social and environmental standards and reporting on it. If more businesses can put these good intentions into practise, then perhaps we might actually make some progress towards more sustainable consumption.