Bottled Water Reporter Dec09/Jan10 - 14

environmental policies during an interview and having a comprehensive, well thought-out policy can give a ﬁrm an advantage in getting the top prospects. Establishing a CSR policy can also help improve the perception of a company by its current staff. Many companies report employee loyalty seems to increase when they encourage the workforce to become involved in their communities through payroll giving, fundraising activities, or volunteer activities. Be Realistic Decide from the start what CSR program elements are possible to implement. A large company—with a lot of resources and people—can assign multiple people to different strategies, so it can successfully take on more projects. Smaller companies may need to focus on just a few projects at a time. Also be realistic about your policy goal expectations. No matter how sincere your efforts, no matter how much time and money you expend, there are still going to be outside interest groups that don’t like you, your company, or bottled water. Don’t take it personally. There are people who think the Apollo moon landing was faked too. Governmental Regulation All companies are, of course, eager to avoid interference in their businesses through taxation or regulations, and this is a subject of intense concern for the bottled water industry. Unlike other reasons to consider a CSR program, which are company-speciﬁc, this is an area of consideration in which bottled water companies can expect to beneﬁt as a group. Establishing a CSR program to inﬂuence governmental taxation and regulation policy is an act that is complimentary to working with IBWA on its governmental relations objectives. By taking substantive voluntary steps, the bottled water industry can effectively educate legislators, consumers, and the media about the industry’s longstanding concern for consumer health, product safety, and the environment. It is critically important the industry work together on issues clearly important to our consumers such as recycling initiatives. This is paramount even if, in the short term, it doesn’t seem to have a clear ﬁnancial beneﬁt to individual companies. As Benjamin Franklin once famously said, “Gentlemen, we can all hang together or we will surely all hang separately.” Be Authentic The policies you implement have to be authentic. In other words, the CSR policy you establish better stand up to close scrutiny by third-parties—regardless of whether those third-parties consists of consumers who are truly concerned or bad guys out to play “Gotcha!” For example, websites exists that are dedicated to checking products’ “green” claims, and you do not want your company to become the latest poster child for “greenwashing.” Recently, two companies bashing bottled water were caught being unauthentic and it cost them dearly. Nalgene Products loudly proclaimed reﬁlling their bottles with tap water was a safer alternative to bottled water. Unfortunately for them, the company got called out publically by their erstwhile allies (who distrust plastic as much as bottled water) for hiding the fact Nalgene bottles are made from plastic containing bisphenol-A (BPA). Likewise, SIGG makes an aluminum bottle lined with BPA that it was touting as a bottled water replacement. The press viliﬁed SIGG when it found out that the company was actively concealing the fact it used BPA in its containers. Now, the consumers these companies were actively courting have serious trust issues with them, and Nalgene’s and Sigg’s sales have suffered accordingly. HOW TO DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT A CSR POLICY As mentioned previously, CSR policies need to be tailored to suit an individual company. Do not start by simply copying someone else’s efforts, publishing it to the world, and throwing a dinner party. If your company’s leadership and key employees don’t personally craft your CSR program, one or all of the following will occur: • Employees won’t buy-in to the CSR program. • The CSR program won’t get implemented. • The company won’t experience the potential beneﬁts of the CSR program. For your CSR program to be a success, you must include the three key “Must Be’s”: It must be realistic. It must be authentic. It must be savvy. Be Savvy If your company is going to beneﬁt from its CSR policy, you need to be savvy about which policies you create, implement, and emphasize in your PR strategy. If you simply make the same efforts everyone else is making, your company won’t get any ink or added loyalty from consumers. Heck, nowadays everyone is “for the environment,” “for recycling,” “for diversity.” Yawn. Snore . . . Nestlé Waters North America is a great example of a company implementing a socially responsible policy in a comprehensive, well thought-out manner that is getting the Bottled Water DECEMBER 2009/JANUARY 2010

Bottled Water Reporter Dec09/Jan10

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Bottled Water Reporter Dec09/Jan10