Last week I wrote my first sustainability report based on the GRI G4 guidelines. This was for a Saudi business conglomerate and with this report which applied G4 at core level, they became the first Saudi company to issue a GRI checked G4 report. Despite the hugely steep learning curve and the effort it took to tear myself away from the G3 thinking, the report was a colossal source of pride and gratification for me and for everyone who worked on it. Yes, there were times I just wanted to…

Corporate Social Responsibility is a relatively new business discipline and its inclusion in the mainstream management consulting is even newer. As companies  embed corporate social responsibility into their businesses, the value of working with CSR consultants isn’t always clear.

The first time I worked with a Saudi business contemplating CSR, what struck me most was how receptive the management was to new ideas. Yes I could hear trepidation and fear of unknown territories but above…

The literature on CSR and Sustainability topics is diverse, vibrant and a little…

On the rare occasions that I have to tell people what I do (rare, because being an expat female in Saudi Arabia, people generally assume I don’t work), it is always tricky. I am still trying to figure out what’s worse; the confusion with “Customer Service Representative” or that barely concealed eye-roll. Despite the eye-rolls and the perplexed stares, I…

One of the most annoying things about CSR and sustainability as a career line is, having to explain to people what you do for a living. Ahhhh….the blank stares, the ubiquitous confusion with “Customer Sales Representative” and the unsaid stereotypes associated with all things social.  There are times when I seriously consider lying about…

I recently finished reading The Assault on Reason by Al Gore. In one chapter of the book Gore gives the metaphor of human immune system and how it calibrates itself during childhood and infancy and creates antibodies in response to any threats to the body. The process continues till a person is a grown up and then the genetic code of these antibodies remain imprinted in the immune system for easy accessibility whenever…