As board member of a local non profit, I sometimes get to thinking about the more theoretical aspects of non-profit governance. I’ve recently been thinking again how non profit governance applies to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) in for-profit organizations and achieving common objectives.

The thing is that strategic objective alignment in NGO’s and corporations who work together can sometimes be a tricky task that largely is determinate of each party’s strategic goals, wherein those goals while aligning on some level often differ based on the stakeholder principle, I do believe that by offering operational transparency and vision alignment the NGO / Corp. partnership can create more “good” output, than if it were rely on status-quo collaboration. So let’s dive into the nitty gritty.

Inception

Social responsibility by the corporation and philanthropic activities propagate good, given, but the synergies that can be created between corporations and NGO’s by far outweigh those of each party operating singularly. However the underlying problem for each party in finding a partner is largely based on each party’s vision.

When looking to establish partnerships, NGO’s and companies need to enter a process of investigation, identifying those key points that bring both organization’s vision together.

If for example Shell would be looking to explore bio-fuels, a NGO in the bio-fuels space is the obvious election, however, organizational and operational culture need also align if processess are to coincide.

Vision Alignment

A partnership where these goals and objectives are aligned will create a positive reinforced efficiencies between the organization and the company. Key components towards creating these efficiencies can be established as follows.

1. Establish a clear vision – Think of the partnership as an internal joint venture with overlapping objectives. Unification or the development of a cooperative project vision will create focus and prevent stakeholder dissension.
2. Advance mutual objectives – The partnership needs to advance the overall strategic objectives of both parties. If a clear value is not present in the partnership, it will fail.
3. Create operational synergies – in logistics, processes, operations, et al… monitor, control and augment. If successful, apply towards other projects.

By actualizing these key components, the NGO and Corp will involve in “Bond building”, a positive synergistic process that creates a trusting symbiotic relationship.

Once bond building happens, the second facilitation process – operational transparency – begins to evolve.

Operational Transparency

Operational transparency is the clear and truthful unabridged communication between the Corp. and NGO, and vice versa. By being truthful and honest in their objectives and projects, synergies increase over time, and the resulting project(s) and/or program(s) will see more efficient execution, will increase in scope, and will create more good, – ideally project departments will function as extensions of one another.

However, to achieve operational transparency, each organization must have first aligned vision, and been involved in bond building.

The NGO / Corporate Bridge Matrix

Based on the functional relationships of NGO’s and Corps we want to stive for highly bonded relationships, this means, high vision alignment, and high operational transparency, in this position the parties achieve the highest synergies. Transferring information freely among themselves, and have the same aligned vision.

In second position we have synergetic, where synergies are based on vision, this is where component 1, 2, 3 flourish and trust is built, the arrow indicates the direction in which the relationship should head.

A non-functional relationship, is one where the parties are either in the “inception” stage, or if no synergetic progress has been made, should think of dissolving the partnership, no value is being created.

In the final scenario, prisoner, parities may have disclosed operational transparencies and are in a deeply involved non-functional relationship that creates negative project value and impacts both players negatively.

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I know this is short and simplistic, but I’m hardly going to write a chapter on a blog. I do hope however that it made sense and for those of us in non-profit management, it’ll help us think about the process of partnering.

No doubt about it, clean technology is growing, not only due to government and internationally set renewable energy targets such as the 2020, Kyoto, etc… but also because it’s simply something that we need to implement in order not to completely botch up this little planet of ours.

However, as with anything there are current trends in the sector, and it’s sub specializations. Today we look at the current trends in clean-tech and talk a little about what is currently hot and where is the outlook.

Solar

The solar sector is currently seeing a price war, with the average currently at approximately $1.50/watt, and most manufacturing coming out of China, western companies are having difficulties competing on price. However, company’s such as US’s BioSolar and Brazil’s Heliotek are currently developing organic solar panels that if they work should bring the price down to $0.50/watt.

The future in solar is predominantly on two fronts, 1. Lower prices per watts generated, and 2. higher efficiency in generating power from captured solar energy.

In terms of investments if a company can have a distinct competitive advantage in either of the two, investment will follow, additionally, there is opportunity for solar farms in the SEE area, predominantly the Balkan region and Bulgaria, however outside of the EU, socio-political risk may still be a factor as well as corruption.

Energy Accumulation / Fuel Cells / Batteries

Energy Accumulation at the moment is primarily focused on the automobile industry, this is specifically as there are more hybrids, and electric cars entering the market, and their fundamental weak point is the length of charge, time to full recharge, and mileage.

This is why we’re seeing companies such as Holland’s Epyon focusing on ultra fast charging, US’s Bloom Energy which is claiming to make high efficiency fuel cells moving the industry forward. There is still a lot of room for growth in the sector and energy accumulation will undoubtedly move away from automotive and into home, building, and corporate use over the years. Investment into Energy Accumulation technologies is slated to grow.

Waste to Energy

One of the biggest problems, and therefore opportunities in the market today is municipal solid waste. Within this sector you’ve got the following major trends, biomass/biogas processing storage and use, recycling – sorting organic and inorganic waste. Additionally, waste generation in Asia at the moment is spiraling out of control, and this now, as in the future is the market for waste management technologies.

Current technologies in the sector exist – however they are not efficient, in one case something around 50% of municipal solid waste was being recycled, and this was a market leader, a new company had devised technology to augment this to 85-90%. Quite the difference in efficiency.

Wind

The first thing to remember is that cost/kw h is still high when it comes to Wind though has been coming down. Due to these costs decreasing you’re starting to see a lot of new players entering the field, typically, larger companies that have traditionally not been part of the Wind Energy generation industry, these are companies such as GE, Siemens, United Technologies, and these big guys are not developing in house.

Typically, they’re buying into the market. This is good news, as we’ll undoubtedly see more wind farms popping up in the future, and that is also where the majority of new investment will fall. Wind farms. Coastal regions as well as mountain regions in the EU, but also globally will see a large increase in wind power generation, and there is definite investment opportunity there.

Additionally, in the area of efficiency, if a company can create a more efficient turbine, grab more energy from wind, etc… they will undoubtedly be a target for large scale investment.

Though we must still remember, investment in clean tech is a long term process that can take 5-10-15 years to develop a product from idea to market.

Business Ethics Matter

There is a reason that social responsibility has bee getting more and more attention in the corporate world and across some of the top business schools globally. Many will simply say that the whole thing is a trend, that it’s nothing more than the next wave of the “in” and that as a whole CSR is just a form of greenwashing one’s corporate activities.

These people are for the most part wrong. Given that greenwashing does occur, take BP for example, they retained the “BP” but re-branded themselves beyond petroleum – a name that inspires and gives hope, however, those close to the company, or for that matter anyone who wants to download and read their annual statement will see that only a small percentage of their revenues gets invested in new and clean energies.

The bright side is that CSR and business ethics as a whole are on the rise, ethical behaviour and operational transparency are only the first steps, and for the most part have been growing. A baseline study conducted by the UNDP on the Study of CSR Practices in New EU Member States and Candidate Countries shows a healty understanding and movement towards better overall CSR. But is it enough?

We say no, but it’s progress, and progress is a good thing. But the truth is that any established company will take time to re-align itself with any new(er) type practices, and at heart this may mean a change to the company culture which by no means is an easy thing to achieve for anyone.

The Question of CSR Implementation

With startups though this is a different story, since startups take on the cutlure of their founders, it then depends on those founders to create companies which are socially responsible. But what is CSR? By definition it is known as corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, responsible business, sustainable responsible business (SRB), or corporate social performance, is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. Ideally, CSR policy would function as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby business would monitor and ensure its adherence to law, ethical standards, and international norms.

But it’s more than that, a few weeks back we showed a video on how Entrepreneurs shape and change the world, this is it, by taking a new idea, whatever it is, we can simply and easily add an aspect of CSR into the business model. Why, it directly affects your bottom line, consumers will be more inclined to purchase products from companies that they believe are socially responsible, i.e. Starbucks + Shade Grown + Fair Trade Coffee.

The question of ethical integrity should never be a question, but should be incorporated into your business from the onset. Why? It’s quite simple, people trust honest businesses, and honest businesses tend to do better in the long run, but don’t take out word for it, here’s a video – in a Did you know? – format that quickly sums up where we’re headed with CSR, and why your stakeholders will want you as an enterprise to actively employ socially responsible practices in your day to day business.

Thoughts?