Joshua Wickerham

On November 30, I joined colleagues at the EU China Business Summit in Nanjing, Jiangsu, which dovetailed with the EU-China political meeting.

That day in Nanjing, under support from the Sino-Swedish Corporate Social Responsibility cooperation, AccountAbility launched the report Responsible Competitiveness in China 2009: Seizing the low carbon opportunity for green development.

This from AccountAbility:

Businesses in China are increasingly working with government and civil society to shift markets to reward sustainable development. These responsible business practices are becoming more and more embedded in the country’s emerging green industrial policy and low carbon development pathways. In some areas, China is set to leapfrog into the elite group of global green innovators.

These are some of the highlights from the report ‘Responsible Competitiveness in China 2009: Seizing the low carbon opportunity for green development’, launched at the 5th annual EU-China Business Summit as part of the Swedish EU presidency on 30 November in Nanjing, China.

• Download English report
• Download the Chinese version

The analysis presented in this report shows that China is developing a distinctive low carbon, responsible pathway, namely that:

• Low carbon industrial policies offer Chinese businesses and consumers huge opportunities
• Responsible business ventures in China are now impacting global markets relaunching China’s brand
• Strong government leadership, incentives and supportive policies are playing key roles

The report was independently researched and written in a unique collaboration between AccountAbility and the China WTO Tribune, with support from the Sino-Swedish CSR Cooperation Project. Learn more about the report’s key findings.

The Joint Statement of the 12th EU-China Summit specifically “decided to strengthen high-level dialogue and exchanges between think-tanks from both sides, and to promote and support regular exchanges.” Read the Joint Statement in full. AccountAbility’s partnership with the China WTO Tribune is an example of this kind of knowledge and collaboration exchange.

I took Obama’s visit as a chance to write about how company action should play a more prominent role in the trust building and competitiveness equation of the Sino-US relationship. My Guardian article, A green call to arms, (link to Chinese version here) centers on climate change. Meanwhile, my ChinaDialogue piece, Obama’s China moment (and the Chinese version) addresses wider issues of corporate social responsibility. I focus especially on sustainability standards and other global “rules of the game” that the US and Chinese governments should encourage companies to improve jointly.

Guardian: A green call to arms (Chinese)

ChinaDialogue: Obama’s China moment (Chinese)

A Paper by Long Guoqiang, Simon Zadek, and Joshua Wickerham

AccountAbility’s Managing Partner, Simon Zadek, launched this report at the Boao Forum this year in Hainan and at the China Entrepreneur Club’s Daonong Green Companies Forum in Beijing. This paper is part of a two-year study with the State Council’s Development Research Center on “China’s sustainable trade strategy” working with several central-level Chinese research organizations and three international think tanks.

This paper examines how the Chinese business community can best use international sustainability standards to enhance their competitiveness in global markets and more effectively place themselves on a sustainable economic pathway.

It highlights the opportunity for Chinese businesses, supported by enabling public policies, to become a force in shaping the next generation of sustainability standards in global markets as a competitive strategy consistent with China’s broader interests. Doing so will require deeper engagement in existing standards initiatives, and a more explicit role amongst the communities that have developed and now govern them. Effective engagement in such standards is a means of off-setting competitive disadvantages, and creating competitive advantages when businesses and nations choose a more sustainable development path.

This paper sets out both strategic options for businesses and policy options for the Chinese government to realise sustainable development and competitiveness goals.

Download the full English version, full Chinese version, or the bilingual executive summary.

• Download the full English version.
• Download the full Mandarin version.
• Download the bi-lingual Executive Summary.

Read the press release.

Mentioned in the Harvard Business Review blog here.

Video interview with me on NetEase discussing link between sustainability and Chinese competitiveness (in Mandarin Chinese).

This is Fortune China’s 3rd annual survey of Chinese business leaders. This year Fortune surveyed 20,000 people using a survey designed by AccountAbility. The cover this year is much more uplifting than last year’s.

Download the full English version here.

The Chinese version is on Fortune China’s website here.

A Model of Modern CSR Development in China in Four Stages  (three “givens” and a prediction):

I spoke on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) panel at the 2009 Harvard Asia Business Conference about the evolution of “CSR” in China and what it means for both China and the rest of the world. I presented my own rather premature model of the evolution of the concept in China in four overlapping, mutually-reinforcing stages:

I. Hesitant engagement: (1993-2005): Chinese stakeholders see calls for greater social and environmental responsibility by foreign companies, governments, and civil society groups as largely discriminatory (technical barriers, cultural barriers, development stage differences, political differences, manifestation of the “China threat”, etc.).

II. MNC- and SOE-led: (2005-2008): CSR starts to become accepted in the popular Chinese press when major companies start publishing specific China regional reports like the first MNC’s (Shell’s) in 1999 or the first State-Owned Enterprise’s (State Grid Corporations’s) in 2006.

III. Government-led: (2008- 20??): SASAC’s 2008 #1 document and the Chinese Banking Association begin to articulate clear government positions on CSR. Government maintains strong leadership in domestic voluntary standard-setting process, begins to engage in voluntary standards initiatives internationally, such as the ISO26000 process. The Chinese Banking Association issues its first CSR Report (2009, link in Chinese)

IV. Hybrid: (20??-): Realizing the limits that international stakeholders have in understanding “country-specific” or government-initiated models of assuring social and environmental action, government agencies, enterprises, and other actors create new cooperation through overlapping standards. These new and unique social capital exchanges bridge barriers of trust while maintaining domestic interests in the voluntary and statutory standards setting process.

There are of course many other models for understanding the development of CSR in China, namely that collective enterprises in the 1950s-70s before Reform and Opening Up were fully taking care of workers’ and society’s needs (including workers’ wedding arrangements).

Others like Yin Gefei of the WTO Tribune models Chinese CSR development aligned to an ISO progression. ISO 9000: quality and price competition; ISO 1400: competition based on environmental attributes; ISO 2600: comprehensive social and environmental basis for competitiveness.

The degree of internationalization of the fourth stage and whether this prediction holds true depends on a number of factors, such as the trends of globalization in general, shifts in Chinese imports and exports, and the degree to which Chinese domestic and international stakeholders seek common means of understanding sustainable development actions and claims.

It may not be a best seller, but it should be more factual than Joe the Plumber’s upcoming book. Soon to be released, soon to be outdated, my second encyclopedia contributions include biographies on: The Development Research Center’s former director Wang Mengkui, Caijing founder-editor Hu Shuli, Huaneng’s former director Li Xiaopeng, “Iron-Faced” Auditor General Li Jinhua, and Sina.com founder Wang Zhidong. Check out the Biographical Dictionary Of New Chinese Entrepreneurs And Business Leaders on Amazon.

I first learned of Jill Buck through her website and the Go Green initiative. Later, I shared a panel with her at the China Entrepreneur’s Club “Green Companies Conference” in Beijing on Earth Day 2008.

Today, I appeared (a-heared?) on her radio show Go Green Radio on Voice America. We talked about Roots & Shoots, Jane Goodall, water, local music, getting involved and making difference. I think it went pretty well.

Here’s the podcast:

Go Green Radio stream: Roots & Shoots

Go Green Radio podcast mp3: Roots & Shoots

Here’s how Jill Buck describes the show:

Go Green Radio: Roots & Shoots Roots and Shoots…Dr. Jane Goodall’s Green Legacy to Youth Around the World

President of Roots and Shoots at UCSD. The Roots & Shoots program is about making positive change happen—for our communities, for animals and for the environment. With tens of thousands of young people in almost 100 countries, the Roots & Shoots network branches out across the globe, connecting youth of all ages who share a common desire to help make our world a better place. Roots & Shoots is guided by the founding principles and extraordinary vision of Dr. Jane Goodall, renowned primatologist, environmentalist and humanitarian. Her firm belief that young people, when informed and empowered, can indeed change the world, is at the very heart of our program. This powerful message of hope inspires us all. Our program—dedicated to inspiring tomorrow’s leaders today—not only motivates young people to learn about pertinent issues facing our local and global communities, but helps them actually design, lead and implement their own projects.

I only wrote parts of this, but, along with the Ministry of Commerce’s WTO Tribune, I edited it. I was responsible for overseeing the translation and editing new content.

The original report contains essays from Al Gore, Sir Nicholas Stern, Laura Tyson, and numerous others.

From AccountAbility’s website:

AccountAbility and Chinese partners WTO Tribune launched the Chinese version of The State of Responsible Competitiveness 2007 at the third Golden Bee International CSR Forum.

The forum saw domestic and international CSR experts - including AccountAbility Chief Executive Simon Zadek - come together to discuss new CSR development trends in China and abroad. The focus of the forum, in addition to the launch of the Chinese State of Responsible Competitiveness 2007 was the dissemination of the Benchmark Report of CSR practice in China, the award for ‘Golden Bee’ enterprises and the announcement of the ‘Golden Bee CSR China Roll.’

The Chinese version of the new report includes exclusive essays from Alex MacGillivray, Simon Zadek, your narrator, the Shanghai Pudong New District Government economic committee, and Cheng Siwei, Vice Chairperson of the 17th Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

I can’t say writing one of these things if fun, but it’s rewarding–and useful in improving my Chinese.

Download the Chinese version.

Download the English translation of the report.

Here’s the Chinese version of this month’s Fortune China cover story on Chinese attitudes toward responsible business practices, which I co-authored.

I took the photos of the article in the back of the cab in Beijing after a lunch meeting with the editors and uploaded them to my flickr account, so I’m sorry if any pages are hard to read.

Here’s a link to the Fortune China site and article.

This article is the result of many years of research with HIV prevention and anti-discrimination groups in my then-home of Shanghai. I had much help from people who choose to remain anonymous. Their stories and many more I hope to one day flush out in a book on the topic of modern gay rights in China.

My goal in writing this article was not to be provocative or overly political, but simply to bring to light one of the more mysterious episodes in modern Chinese gay history: simply, how and why a successful gay counseling and health hotline would suddenly cease operations. Copy is available electronically on many academic journal sites or directly upon request. (joshua *dot* wickerham *at* gmail *dot com).

In addition to my indebtedness to the people quoted in the article, special thanks goes to several friends at UCSD, Johns Hopkins, and the Princeton in Asia program who read drafts and made useful suggestions. These friends continue to play crucial roles with the Beijing CDC and the Clinton Foundation, and as a Fulbright Scholar. These friends are real heroes and inspire me as they continue working with this pandemic’s most stigmatized groups. I am also indebted to Bill Valentino, VP of Corporate Social Responsibility for Bayer China, who continues to lead the business case for HIV prevention, and Chung To of the Chi Heng Foundation, who remains a voice for Chinese gays and children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Both provided last-mile support. Lastly, I owe a debt of gratitude to Jim Fallows of The Atlantic, who encouraged me to submit this work to The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review (Now The G&L Review Worldwide) and to editor Richard Schneider, who improved the copy. Apologies to my advisor Susan Shirk who suggested I’d have to choose between doing sustainable environmental development work and HIV research. Seeing as both are critical, I just more often decline cocktail parties invitations and reject television’s numbing warmth.