Non profit
UK: Neela Bettridge, Director of Article13 Consultancy
Neela Bettridge is the Director of Article13 Consultancy, a UK based social enterprise involved in business responsibility and sustainability
di Staff
Neela Bettridge, 44, is the Director of Article13 Consultancy, a UK based social enterprise involved in business responsibility and sustainability that is particularly interested in how intangible risk affects business strategy. Article13 is also a member of the Corporate Responsibility Coalition (CORE).
How long have you been working in Csr and where have you worked?
I have worked all over the world in this area for around 10 years particularly in Europe, Japan, India and America.
Have you always worked in Csr?
No, I began my career at Saatchi & Saatchi implementing marketing and communications strategies with companies like BA, BP, Galileo and Gillette. After that I worked in development with Action Aid and as the CEO of an environmental NGO… it was an easy step to run a social enterprise.
How and why did you become interested in Csr?
I have always wanted to change behaviour and ways of working and am genuinely interested and concerned about our societies and the environment. I also believe that business has an enormous role to play that can be turned into innovation for them as they respond to the challenges of our world and their role in it.
What personal achievements in the field are you particularly proud of?
Creating a Csr consultancy and engaging with business plus providing a leading edge website that is an intellectual goldmine
Do you think SD can be achieved?
It sounds trite but sustainable development is a journey not a destination. As issues emerge so new facets of sustainability need addressing. If the government is not going to meet these aspects then expectations are for business to be responsible and accountable ? hence Csr. The issues of the changing population dynamics and the growing population will place more stress on the planet?s natural resources and what we in the Northern hemisphere have taken for granted like water will become key issues.
In your opinion what are the main challenges that civil society faces today?
Meeting the changing challenges of a changing population, against a context of the rise in India and China, within the constraints of finite resources. The challenges for civil society are how to address these issues and also who decides which issues is a priority, what needs to be done and who is going to do it.
And how do you think that civil society will rise to the challenge?
I really believe in partnerships, in bringing the whole of a system into the room. Public-private partnerships, for example, in the health sector have brought together governments, NGOs, companies and communities to seek to address the diseases of the worlds neediest, like the Medicines for Malaria Venture funded by the Gates foundation.
So you think there is real potential for partnerships between the profit and non profit sector?
Yes, huge potential. However they do need to be clear about their vision, common ground and the need for action otherwise they can become talking shops. Examples of partnership to achieve impact scale up and leverage can be found on the UN Global Compact (UNGC) website and I know as signatory to UNGC and being part of the UK chapter UNGC is seeking to foster more of this type of unlikely and transformational partnership.
How effective do you think the Companies Act will be in reshaping British business?
The juries out on that, it was a shame they moved back at the last minute on the Operating and Financial Review. However current ongoing research in the organisation reveals the growth in board level Csr committees to consider the company?s strategic response to sustainable development or Csr. As you might expect the most frequently mentioned focus is on the environment.
On a personal level, what would you say you have learned from working in this field?
The importance of not jumping to assumptions, the need for people to be involved in setting the agenda and not just having it imposed on them, and how effective harnessing the transformation energy this sort of process generates can be. An example is the work we carried out for Roche in asking sub-Saharan African healthcare workers directly what was needed to scale up the response to HIV/AIDS.
Do you have any websites to suggest our readers?
www.sustainabilityforum.com
To contact Neela Bettridge please write to staff@vitaeurope.org
To find out more about Article13:
