ABSTRACT
A 2010 Accenture survey of global CEOs put the last nail in the coffin of corporate responsibility (CR) as it stands. It found that 81% thought sustainability issues were fully embedded into the strategy and operations of their company. Fully embedded means sustainability is fully taken account of in all the products of the company. The sustainability movement should brutally tell CEOs that making wishy-washy claims such as 'Sustainability is part of our DNA' is just wrong. If someone read corporate sustainability reports, they'll find that most companies still focus primarily on the environmental performance of their own operations. For a consumer goods company such as Unilever, around 95% of a product's impacts typically come from outside the company's own operations. With the advent of outsourcing over the past 20 years, one's have many brands that consist essentially of a marketing department, some finance people, HR and legal units, and a product design team.
