Corporate citizenship addresses socio-economic issues Wednesday, 17 November 2010 01:40

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of the quintessential phrases of modern management schools. Several training agendas claim that CSR is at the heart of their teachings and it is increasingly rare to come across a company engaged in any type of trade, whether public or private, which does not claim to be aligned with core CSR principles. In fact, CSR is a key word for marketing purposes aimed at painting corporations in a socially and environmentally friendly light. But what is CSR, really?

Qatar’s envoy to Pittsburgh last week, on the sidelines of the Pittsburgh Middle East Institute’s (PMEI) 3rd Annual Conference on “Clean Energy: Pittsburgh and the Middle East”, witnessed CSR and the power of corporate citizenship firsthand. Issa Shahin Al-Ghanim, Qatar’s Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) Governor and Director of Strategic Planning and Policy at Qatar Petroleum, and members of his delegation who are senior officials in the Qatari energy sector, were invited to observe the Allegheny Conference’s Annual Meeting on Community Development.

“The Allegheny Conference is a platform for business leaders to address economic, social, and civic concerns,” explained Dennis Yablonsky, CEO, in an exclusive interview with The Peninsula. Established 66 years ago, it is a consortium of Pittsburgh’s business organisations, universities, hospitals, and non-profit. Originally, it was created in joint cooperation between businesses and the city’s mayor in 1944 in order to address air and water pollution that once devastated the city, divulged Yablonsky.

Today, it represents the city and surrounding areas – consisting of 2.6 million people and $115bn in gross domestic output. During its annual meeting, local citizens and businesses’ concerns are addressed. These include industrial prospects, job opportunities, an economic review of the past year and an outlook for the following year, and trade obstacles that are facing local businesses.

Pittsburgh, as described by Ambassador Patrick Theros, the President of the US-Qatar Business Council, and former US Ambassador to Qatar, is the “birthplace of the oil industry” and is historically renowned for perfecting the art of steel manufacturing, as can be witnessed by the hundreds of bridges decorating the city. The economic boom experienced by the city and its surrounding areas has driven its local businesses to reinvest in the area, which has earned Pittsburgh the title of “Most Livable City” for two consecutive years in a row by Forbes’ magazine.

However, Pittsburgh was not always such a beautiful, eco-friendly place to live. The city’s rivers, which snake through and gush underneath bridges, currently attract local fisherman during the spring and summer months due to their fresh abundance of sea creatures. However, during the booming steel industry of the ‘40s, Pittsburgh was renowned for its smoggy skies and soot-filled air. Over dinner at the historic Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh, established in 1873 by the forefathers of the oil, electricity, and steel industries, Bill Flanagan, Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations for the Allegheny Conference on Community Development and television personality, regaled the Qatari delegates with a story from Pittsburgh’s polluted past. Businessmen were required to bring along an extra white-collared shirt with them into the city to change into once they arrived into their offices because the shirts they wore en route to Pittsburgh would turn black from all of the soot in the atmosphere.

As such, there was a sense of urgency at the time for CSR and corporate citizenship in the form of the Allegheny Conference to correct the near-sighted vision of purely commercial interests. Instead, the Conference addresses the concerns of local business and their families, friends, and neighbors. Through dialogue and working together toward a common purpose, Pittsburgh’s business invoke CSR to provide jobs to their residents, promote local industries, and invite responsible investments geared to supporting domestic enterprises.

So devoted to environmental protection, many of the skyscrapers adorning Pittsburgh’s mountainous horizon are “green buildings”, indicating that they are Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified. The Qatari delegation admired one such building during their tour of the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering. Broad, bright windows, energy efficient lights, temperature control devices, and insulation materials characterised this new facility, full of the latest technologies for its 2,600 students majoring in petroleum engineering amongst other areas.

CSR is not a new concept to Qatar. Just this week, Qatar’s Chamber of Commerce & Industry (QCCI) announced plans for initiating an array of CSR projects in the public and private sector. These initiatives will encompass assorted sectors including ethical business principles and sustainable development for the economy and environment. This is encouraging news as it indicates that Qatar, the largest sovereign wealth fund of 2009 (Reuters), is propelling forward as the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, but remains invested in its local businesses, citizens, and residents. QCCI’s plans reinforce Ambassador Patrick Theros’ assertion that “Qatar is the first in the region to know where it’s going and figured out a game plan to get there”.

The Peninsula

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