CDR expanding in Europe

On 3rd May 2023, Rob Price , Pietro Jarre and Jessica Huntingford all spoke about #CorporateDigitalResponsibility in Arezzo, Italy as part of the kick off of a European wide research project. This article was originally published on 4th May 2023 on https://corporatedigitalresponsibility.net.

Yesterday I?read?that the landscape in the background of the Mona Lisa painting was alleged to be a bridge near Arezzo in Italy. It made me regret that I hadn’t actually gone to Arezzo to speak in person, rather than dial in remotely as I have become accustomed to during and after the pandemic. Also yesterday, a number of people from 7 countries (Italy, Spain – Catalan region, Finland, France, Romania, Hungary and Ireland) descended on Arezzo to kick off a 4 year long EU funded interregional cooperation project CDR EUROPE, supported by CDR Manifesto Supporter, RESOLVO Responsible Solutions , a Tuscany based SME Consultancy, coordinated by Arezzo Innovation and co-funded by the Interreg Europe programme.?

I think my overriding thought from the day is that a year long programme isn’t such a bad idea. It is impossible to get across the depth and detail of #CDR in a day, especially when told from a number of perspectives. By necessity, definitions are skipped by in minutes, case studies and references thrown up briefly, and the discussion moves quickly moves on, looking for tangible things to do differently. There are always opportunities to find those of course, but there is no magic wand to wave that instantly solves for all. All businesses are different – public, private, large or small, product or service, consumer, citizen or business focused customer bases, different market sectors, different degrees of digitalisation.?

I was struck by one of the speakers, a local SME from the region who employed 15 people and produced specialist smoked meat and hams. As he said, superficially why would Digital be relevant to them? He then answered that by explaining how they had driven efficiency and performance improvement in the operations and distribution in the business. I added that they could explore more, for example, traceability and transparency of the supply chain using blockchain perhaps. We then explored some of the decisions that needed to be considered, traditional such as cost impact benefit analysis, but now also thinking about things like sustainability (energy use) or indeed more broadly perhaps some form of Digital Impact Assessment (part of another inspiring presentation by Pietro Jarre).?

Resolvo are fulfilling a role to help this range of public sector or policy making organisations across these seven countries to explore how CDR should be applicable and relevant to them, and specifically their SME population within those countries. To determine how the intent and principles can be consolidated down to a playbook or assets that can be easily adopted and used by any business to improve their conscious awareness on people and the planet.?

We all heard from the European Commission about their?Industry 5.0 programme, which is focused around three pillars – human centricity, sustainability and resilience. Whilst its focus tends to be more around the manufacturing and production process, it is remarkably similar in intent to CDR. I could point to Principle 4 – subprinciple around sustainable automation practices - specifically, but actually it’s across the board as it also touches strongly on cyber-resilience (Principle 3) and environmental sustainability (Principle 5-7).?

I introduced the International #CDRManifesto in about 20 minutes. It’s tricky to do it justice in that time, because the scope is just so broad, but at least it sets the scene. Coincidentally we had already published translations in all languages represented in the session apart from Hungarian, though that too is available in draft form (and, as a result of the meeting, the CDR EUROPE Hungarian partner will help turn the draft into a final version). The key questions are always about how organisations are using it, and I point to case studies such as Weleda AG or 默克 in Germany, with their extensive CDR experience and programmes already in place. But actually the best answer was from Pietro, who told people that they are already doing it and of course they will be – in part. The CDR Manifesto is a holistic framework that is about raising awareness of the unintended consequences, mitigating the negative effects, or innovating to solve or disrupt. Different organisations will place different priorities on the various aspects of the framework and it is certainly not intended to be read as “do all these things now”.?

It will be interesting to follow this interregional exchange and to see how it evolves in regard to Policy and Public Sector organisations, in addition to making it applicable and relevant to SMEs. Having recently visited Norway, I would also flag the work of Leif Skiftenes Flak who is “putting in place a task force under the?GoForIT?umbrella to, among other things, seek to flesh out this flavour in collaboration with state and local governments”, and perhaps also that of Johan Rochel in Switzerland who, last I spoke to him, was hoping to produce an SME CDR Assessment tool.

There is no value of CDR, or Industry 5.0, or CODES Global Action Plan, or any of these initiatives if we cannot also convert policy and principles into awareness, training and tangible assets that enable people, and organisations, en masse to do think differently. I am however increasingly heartened to hear that all of these initiatives continue to make progress, in academia, in reach across broader geographies and in further evolution and research to help make relevant, real, and turn into positive impact.?

My thanks to Resolvo, Interreg Europe, the participating countries and organisations, and the European Commission for driving forward with this initiative.?

Photo by?Bjorn Agerbeek?on?Unsplash?