What are others doing? Brussels.

Since writing my first blog I have moved back to Brussels. During my time here I have been trying to explore which organisations are already looking into this question of “corporate social responsibility” and I am pleased to hear that there are indeed, of course, quite a few.

First and foremost I came across the European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS), an organisation which deals with “the most critical issues confronting economies and societies today”.
http://www.eabis.org/

Secondly I found CSR Europe: “The European business network for CSR”
http://www.csreurope.org/

Then, Ethical Corporation: They “provide business intelligence for sustainability.”
http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=2928

Another one…. The Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE) “a non-commercial research facility dedicated to integrated environmental and sustainability research at both a national and international level.”
http://www.isoe.de/english/profile.htm

Finally, an excellent mentor I once had mentioned this organisation to me:
European Corporate Governance Institute – “an international scientific non-profit association. We provide a forum for debate and dialogue between academics, legislators and practitioners, focusing on major corporate governance issues and thereby promoting best practice.”
http://www.ecgi.org/organisation/overview.htm

My next mission is to understand who these people are exactly. What do they do? What are their aims? Are they making a difference? And, after all is it worth trying to make a difference?

This is about Good for business

For a long time I have known that I am a business woman at heart and that’s thanks to my family background. I started at a very young age working in my mother’s shop, selling, counting and dealing with the till. I visited trade show after trade show, I was surrounded by self-assessment tax forms, I bargained with customers and suppliers alike. Business is in my blood. At the same time however, I have been surrounded by good people and so I have developed a sense of social justice and this was why I wanted to go into law when I was younger – it only seemed logical that justice and law went hand in hand. However I couldn’t escape my background. Try as I might I know I’m a business woman.

So, as I constantly put off studying law over the last few years I have started thinking about how I could mix the two. In a world where businesses and globalisation can be seen as bad profit-seeking organisations and where the word “commercial” can be dirty, what is a girl to do?
I started to search and it turns out it is absolutely possible to mix the two and that’s what I want to write about. I’ve also grown to realise that businesses are powerful in many senses of the word and I hope to write about how that power has been used for good and to try and change the attitude of many who either see business as an evil or to change those who don’t use business for good.

This is about good for business.