Norwegian Wood or Good?

The Norwegian White Paper on CSR is not yet translated to English. Nevertheless, it is brought into the international debate by Teresa Vogelberg and Paul Hohnen on the Ethical Corporation website. Unlike the broad spectre of Norwegian Civil Society Organisations, academia, Parliamentarians and major socially responsible investors, they are excessive in their praise of the paper in their article "Isn't it good, Norwegian Wood?".

Outstandingly bold?
Teresa Vogelberg and Paul Hohnen state that “The Norwegian government's new 100-page white paper on responsible business may be the most comprehensive and bold of its kind in the world yet.”

Is it the recommendation to strengthen the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the UN Global Compact, and GRI that is so outstandingly bold?

The paper does give an indepth introduction to the field of CSR and discuss a number of positive tools that may be implemented. It is a good introduction. However, it is neither ambitious, nor concrete when it comes to political commitments and it totally lacks a victim perspective. The few suggested measures would not prevent any abuse by Norwegian corporations, nor sanctions for violators or redress for victims. Neither does it reward the best performers.

How will the paper set a new standard?
One of four recommended national measures reads: ”The government will continue their work to asses which measures that might prevent Norwegian citizens and Norwegian corporations from committing serious environmental crimes outside the Norwegian boarders”.

This must scare the wits out of the bad guys! Despite several recent examples of the opposite, the paper seems based on an underlying premise that Norwegian corporations are global actors only in order to do good, and create sustainable development in the world.

Forum for environment and development challenge Hohnen and Vogelberg to concretise how they believe this paper will ”set a new standard for government guidance on corporate social responsibility”.

Within a few weeks actors with a more limited command of Norwegian should also be able to read the paper and judge for themselves.