I believe the fundamental premise of your argument has merit, as I say in this and subsequent articles, when company leadership does not understand this long-term and interconnected nature of CSR/sustainability and how to utilize a PR relationship, they simply use PR firms as communicators rather than strategic allies.

PR firms should be strategic communication allies, looking forward into the future, spotting trends and possibilities, measuring impact of the current and past messaging, and sharing the story of the company as it engages the world. So yes, I agree, they are so much more than people who communicate with the public.

Lastly, bear in mind this article was written in 2009 as a CSR response to the question of CSR v PR. There were lively discussions on developmentcrossing.com and linkedin.com at the time. A lot has changed since then. PR and CSR/Sustainability are both now being seen by companies as strategic allies rather than “mouth pieces” and “philanthropy”, respectively.

Lean in terms of manufacturing is a about reducing errors, systematizing, and simplifying processes. Six Sigma & TQM are in the same vein.

Kaizen & Lean by their very philosophical nature should be green. Reducing waste, improving proceses, reducing materials, reducing errors. So in that respect “Green Kaizen” and “Green Lean” are a bit redundant. However, they could be emphasizing the environmental impact of these process improvements. Or they could be creating “green task forces” or even CSR as a part of expanding the scope of Kaizen.

Interesting.

It s pretty much what my company is trying to do at the moment. Hard work I suppose.

I read recently about green kaizen .. or green leaning. Sounds like a really effective , process orientated business way of measure and improve sustainability of an organisation.