Crowdsourcing Corporate Sustainability Strategies

Abstract

This chapter provides cameo case studies of the way in which three large companies -- Unilever, Sony and J. Sainsbury -- have employed crowdsourcing exercises to review, refine and develop their corporate sustainability thinking, commitments and strategies. It also offers some wider reflections on this process. The chapter begins with an outline of the origins and basic characteristics of crowdsourcing, followed by a short discussion of the concept and contested meanings of sustainability. The material for the three cameo case studies is drawn from the reports Unilever, Sony and J. Sainsbury posted on the Internet about the crowdsourcing exercises they conducted to review their sustainability plans and strategies during 2010, 2011 and 2012. The findings reveal that the crowdsourcing exercises undertaken by the three companies attracted a wide range of constructive comments and produced a number of recommendations designed to develop new sustainability initiatives and to enhance their existing corporate sustainability strategies. While crowdsourcing offers a number of attractions to companies looking to review and develop sustainability strategies, not least in that it seems to offer a cost effective way of tapping into a number of other corporate organisations and to a potentially large number of consumers, it is not without its problems. The chapter provides an accessible exploratory review of how three major companies are employing crowdsourcing in developing and reviewing their corporate sustainability thinking, commitments and strategies.