People, Planet, Profit, the triple bottom line

Filmed at the People, Planet, Profit Forum at ESMT Business School in Berlin, June 2010. This conference brought together key figures in business, media and MBA programs to discuss CSR and sustainability in the business world, and how to prepare for a sustainable future. This text may be used if credited to www.bschoolvideos.com

What is corporate social responsibility?

Rene Obermann, CEO Deutsche Telekom AG: Corporate responsibility is to be understood in an ecological, economical and in a social way. Therefore a triple bottom line is the only way for companies to be successful in the long run, which is also proven by the mere fact that more than 5% of our investors today are looking at our reputation in terms of social responsibility.

Jean-Louis Beffa, CEO, St. Gobain: Clearly, The houses of the future must be pleasant, comfortable and respectful of the environment. So within our strategy these aims are really very important. When you look at the needs of the planet to reduce CO2 emission or to save energy it is clear there is a lot to be done.

Lars-Hendrik Roller, President of ESMT Business School, Berlin: Sustainability is a big topic in Europe and in Germany. Maybe it has to do with the macro-economic environment. I know this is very controversial, but having put a lot of emphasis in Germany on environmental in terms of a regulatory framework, even though many economists were maybe not in favour of these at that time, has created an environment where Germany is looking pretty

How should governments regulate business?

Obermann: First of all we all should encourage policy makers to encourage long term views when designing their policies, for instance in the area of education, or how to respond to the social demographic crises in many economies which are very evident now. Or what to do in order to stimulate innovation and infrastructure investments. There are constant elections and I think that we, media, public, business, should encourage policy makers to look beyond the next election and really dare to do policies which are for the next generation rather than the next two years.

Second, particularly in the aftermath of the crisis, there were some trends and some concerning indications for protectionism. I consider this very bad. I think we should maintain the free trade approach or even foster it and shouldn't allow new signs of protectionism because they will not lead to prosperity, they will lead to the opposite.

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