CR Internship report!

Corporate Responsibility Internship Report
by Cecilia Arribere

In December 2003 I was selected to what it would become one of the most exiting experiences in my life so far, both from a personal and professional point of view! This was an internship in the CSR department of DHL Global Headquarters in Belgium. What it would originally last 9 months, it was then extended to 16 months.

I graduated from University in June 2003 and had a little experience in the private sector as well as my AIESEC experience, where I worked for three years. I had a Bachelor in International Commerce and was mostly motivated to work in the social field, so I decided to give it a try in the CSR arena as a way to integrate my business related studies and my personal motivation for social work. I knew it would be very difficult to find a traineeship in this field as there were pretty rare back then. Therefore I wrote to almost every organization working in CSR in Europe, especially because it was in this region where this subject was more developed and were I thought I would learn the most. The replies were none!

In the meantime I worked at a rather new NGO in Buenos Aires, which was just getting into the CSR field. There I made my first approach to the subject and got an overview of this incipient movement worldwide. In November 2003 I received an e-mail that DHL, an AIESEC global partner, was looking to recruit someone for their CSR department and immediately applied for it. Had a phone interviewed within a week with whom it would be one of my coolest bosses ever, and was selected to start in February 2004.

What to say now? It is really difficult to choose my words as there is so much I could tell. I guess the best is to separate what it was my professional experience from my personal experience.

From the professional point of view, it was as motivating as eye-opening as I experienced many things I hadn’t imagined on one hand, and on the other hand, didn’t come across a lot of things I now see I had idealized. Imagine my situation coming from a local NGO in Argentina to the global headquarters of a multinational company, with operations in 220 countries. The power, especially economic, involved in every decision that was made was such, that it also had a highly political price within the company. My department would directly report to the CEO’s office. Therefore the decisions to develop any CSR project were not necessarily based in the interest of making good for people, but in the interest of who had more power in the company.

I was selected for this internship along with a Swiss girl, Nicole. We both shared an awesome office and as she had also worked for AIESEC for several years and experienced the lack of resources to run an organization, we would share the delights of having our own personal computers, cell phones and direct phone lines for each one of us, IT experts who would fix any technical problems and unlimited prints!!!

Our work mostly involved a LOT of reading, studying and internet searching, assisting in the development of global CSR related policies for the company, helping with communication materials and, the most exiting part of the job, we were also trained to run internal CSR audits which took us to Holland, the UK several times, Lebanon and some other nice locations I don’t think I would have gone otherwise. We also met some really exiting and interesting people and we had one of the coolest working teams ever!

FULL Report:
http://www.aiesec.net/members/clubs/globallearningnetworks/lncorporateresponsibilityig/file-storage/file?file%5fid=49802037

Post BAWB forum...

After back from Cleveland my heart and mind are still filled with astonishment and somehow too many ideas and thinkings coming up......
As a volunteer, I didn't have many chances to really join in sessions and workshops (just two workshops and a bit of speech), and didn't have much interaction with the people either --- didn't have much time to discuss deeply though.

By I really treasure this experience of joining this global forum is the fact is it provides me a great platform to think once again "What exactly is CSR?"
Upon all the philanthropy, community investment, corporate-NGOs partnerships, what drives CSR to go on?

I have heard about many answers by what I like most --- or perhaps the one I agree to most is the moral value within human itself.

I came to watch a TV program this morning when I woke up and there was a guy talking about the current problem of human beings of narrowing the value of their life to economical value, but there are a lot of things which are intangible and cannot be measured by numbers or identified by economy. And for previous decades our world has been lead by a dominant capital driven society, so dominant that we were lost with our morale in some way.

Working in CSR will require a person to perhaps being recalled about its moral value, and strive for working on this.

CSR team leader talking about her experience in Vitoria, Brazil

The quote below was written by Larissa, Brazilian business student, who joined AIESEC in the first semester of this year and is currently leading the CSR initiative of AIESEC in Vitoria.

"I started to feel interest on CSR as soon as I joined AIESEC, during my induction. A few months later, AIESEC in Vitória decided to work with issue and I became CSR Team Leader.

The experience of lead a team with 9 people; make and accomplish an operational plan; establish goals; coordinate tasks; work whit motivation of my members and awake interest on a theme that I liked and I wanna learn even more every day.

The same time that I have a big challenge, I have an opportunity to learn and develop myself. This experience on CSR make me Know where I wanna work in the future. And I'm pretty sure that this unique experience that I'm living and the network I'm creating through will make all the differences. I'm studying Business but I don't have doubts that no university can give me all of this opportunities that I'm having in AIESEC. "

Ethical MBAs

Thursday, October 26, 2006 source: http://ethicalcorporation.blogspot.com/

Ethical MBA's...?

Yesterday's FT carried an interesting piece, a new report by Net Impact, the student sustainability body for MBA's.

The survey undertaken by Net Impact shows that out of 2100 MBA students in 87 programmes in the US and Canada, 81 per cent said that profit and social responsibility can co-exist.

Is the ghost of the still-living Milton Friedman fading away? Well perhaps. Some 90 per cent of the students said business leaders should factor in social and environmental issues into decision making, but only 60 per cent of the 90 thought such an approach could be profitable.

While some 78 per cent believed CSR classes should be core to their courses, and 80 per cent wanted to find "socially responsible" employment "at some point" in their careers, an amazing 59 per cent said they would seek such work when finishing their MBA's.

That last stat is astonishing, but will they change their minds when the bank manager comes a' knocking? And what makes us believe that the broader student body is any different from the average consumer, talking the talk in surveys, but finding it too hard to make ethical choices in the real world (or too expensive)?

The survey results seem based on Net Impact members, so perhaps the big 59 per cent stat is unrepresentative of the majority of MBA's. That would seem likely.

The FT concludes by pointing out that a separate survey found that 56 per cent of MBA students admit to cheating at some point on their courses. A worrying statistic for the future of business ethics. Is it the MBA system that's at fault for pushing too hard? That would be an easy conclusion.

Most probably its also about the natural human tendency to get ahead by taking shortcuts where they present themselves. I doubt we'll ever breed out that particular genetic desire...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/ee45a804-63c5-11db-bc82-0000779e2340.html

Toby, Editor

Learning circles around the world

Hello everyone,

I was navigating in different foruns and faced this post of a Jeremy, a new member of AIESEC in Sydney, Australia, talking about a learning circle they had. Here is goes:

"One of the first things talked about was whether "climate change" has been over-hyped by researchers and the media. There was a general consensus that the focus has been justified.

Is nuclear energy a substitute for coal power plants? The federal government recently launched a review into the use of nuclear energy to reduce greenhouse emissions.
- Mixed responses.
- If it reduces the amount of greenhouse gases, isn't that a good thing?
- What about ethical issues regarding the increased enrichment of uranium (and exports), storage of waste?

We then moved onto the Kyoto Protocol
- Is it just a piece of paper? Does signing it carry any weight?
- It was raised that the main reason Australia hasn't signed is because of lost jobs and the effect on the economy. We thought this was quite short-term thinking. (Think of the children!!!)
- If economy is a problem, why have many other developing and industrialised countries still signed the agreement?
- Is it fair to have different standards for industrialised and developing countries?
- Good to establish ethical and sustainable practices in developing countries

The next topic after that was based on ACTION. What can individuals do?
- Reduce car usage
- Use "green bags" instead of plastic
- Debatable- Use green energy (from renewable sources)-- More expensive than normal energy. So where's the benefit for the consumer?
- Efficient light bulbs

Long-term effects of climate change:
- Perhaps this is why it's hard for people to act? It seems so far off.
- Impact of environmental refugees from the Pacific - Australia is the likely destination for refugees in the region. Is it ready to accommodate them?
- Variable weather-- Droughts--- This will have a huge effect on agriculture and the industry."

Good stuff!!!

new conferences coming up!

Wanted: Student Leaders for Sustainability

oikos International, the Sustainable Enterprise Association of Cornell,
and the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at the Johnson School of
Cornell invite graduate and undergraduate student leaders to join their
peers interested in leading and changing organizations to address
challenges related to sustainability at the January 2007 Convergence in
Ithaca, NY. Up to 75 highly competent and motivated student leaders gather at Cornell
from January 18-21st to spend three days learning how to be
more effective change agents in addressing social, environmental and
economic challenges. Students will receive guidance and mentorship
from various business and academic leaders in the field, including:
Ms. Susan Davis, Vice President Ashoka
Dr. Stuart Hart, author of “Capitalism at the Crossroads”
Ms. Liz Maw, Executive Director Net Impact
Dr. Mark Milstein, Director Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise
Dr. David Orr, Professor Oberlin and author of “Earth in Mind”

If you want to learn more visit www.oikosinternational.org/usconvergence
To send your application or ask any question contact Heiko Spitzeck at spitzeck@oikosinternational.org

At the forum with hundreds of experts on SD

Hi there,

right now at a snowing (!) Cleveland, joining the conference of Business as An Agent of World Benefit (BAWB) forum, with over 300 people from corporates, non-profit organizations, academy and Youth (mostly AIESECers:P) to discuss the ways and brainstorm initiatives that different people can do for a sustainable future.

With several experts in this area including Ray Anderson (Chairman, Interface. Inc), David Cooperrider (Case Weatherhead School of Management), Georg Kell (Executive Director, UN Global Compact Office) and many others, this 4-day conference will be a platform for different people to learn about the essence of Sustainable Development as well as learning from the case studies, findings on research, bringing up concrete ideas and connections within each other.

As a volunteer, I still haven't got time to join in any session, yet later will be able to join the workshops and research conversations which I am sure to get more ideas to share afterwards!

And, truly, AIESEC does represent a great youth voice in here!!!


(You can view the videos online from www.bawbglobalforum.org)