BP chooses global CSR strategy

BP Australasia regional president Greg Bourne has often been called on to defend his company, sometimes in good humoured exchanges with friends, other times in more serious forums.

At all times, however, he views such discussions as clear evidence of a changing and broadening corporate environment.

A far more analytical and detailed look at trends and opinions worldwide has convinced BP it is not considered part of the "ordinary folk" in a world transformed to a global community.

BP is confident it has adapted well, and is operating efficiently in this global community, successfully dealing with compliance, diversity and remediation.

But the "ordinary folk" have been persisting in their differentiation of general community interests and their perceived attitudes of the large multi-nationals.

And they’ve been gathering strength of voice, not only outside summits and the World Economic Forum.

Concrete strategy, built into business plans, has been BP’s response to what it considers a "compelling case" to be engaged in this socio-economic evolution.

If it were not to do so, BP admits a real threat to retaining a licence to operate normal business, let alone grow and ensure future cash-flow.

One priority has been to deal with some background "signal noise" - inaccuracies about multinationals BP has seen and heard regularly – often repeated in the media and by governments and regulators.

Some of these are the result of

unfortunate practices by some companies which result in an entire industry being "tarred with the same brush", but others can be fictional.

One of the "misunderstandings" is the oft-seen comparison between the combined GDP of the world’s top-50 companies and that of the top-50 nations, putting the multinationals way ahead, Mr Bourne said.

But he told a Pricewaterhouse-Coopers audience at the recent WA launch of BP Global Choice that, despite this widespread public perception, the real figures showed the combined GDP of the top-50 companies as only 4.5 per cent of that of the top-50 nations.

Whenever a company of its size went into a small or developing nation it had always been "like a very big brick in a very small pond", Mr Bourne said.

Increased scrutiny from well-coordinated non-governmental organisations, the rising background noise and the strengthening impact of the concerted community voice had initially forced some forward-thinking around legacies.

While BP was sensitive to the impact of its activities on communities, it also began

to experience the direct consequence of activities in more remote communities on home markets.

This was also soon followed by a realisation of the competitive advantage to be had in adopting corporate social responsibility.

But more was needed, and in particular from companies such as BP.

Wars were not fought over fast food chains or over sports attire - but they were over oil and gas and minerals reserves - plus Governments varied in the consistency of their regard for corporate responsibility

Without denying a corporate need to survive – the need to get to the ordinary person, to get to Governments and the influential non-government organisations –BP is expounding a greater responsibility to work with others in the wider community, to "become a force for good", and a leader in forward-thinking on global legacies.

Hence the greenhouse abatement program BP Global Choice – a proactive individual and business-to-business market push towards sustainable living - plus the promise of further facilitative action.

"No-one else was tackling this issue like this, so we’ve decided we will," Mr Bourne explained.

Immediately after Mr Bourne’s exposé on why a multi-national should involve itself in the environmental and social agenda, more than 100 of Pricewater-houseCooper’s 140 guests submitted responses to a PwC survey on corporate social responsibility (CSR).

While 82 per cent of respondents said organisations which demonstrated good environmental performance also performed well financially, 65 per cent were either unsure, or disagreed, that the WA resources sector was above average in CSR performance.

Almost all thought CSR should form part of an organisation’s corporate governance framework, and while 74 per cent did not argue against legislative CSR obligations, 38 per cent said CSR made doing business more expensive.