Brief Biography:
Antonina Ilieva is an architect with an interest in the lively exchange between architectural theory and practice. Currently one quarter of studio dontDIY, Antonina Ilieva has been working on her research on contemporary Japanese architecture in parallel since 2012.
Corporate social responsibility and the environment - natural and built
We keep talking about the city, our contemporary city, and more interesting foreign topics come up for discussion. While someone asks why we translate "street festivals" simply as "street festivals" and doesn't that take away from the meaning, and another wonders about "co-living", which ultimately rests purely and simply on a coexistence "like in the communes", what is important is the very fact that this discussion is happening. As soon as external concepts come in to describe the processes taking place here, then these processes are either so new or so well forgotten that they seem alien to us at the moment. As soon as we think and talk about these concepts, then we also start thinking and talking about the processes behind them, and locating them in our world.
This is how we arrive at corporate social responsibility, which we often refer to in English using the acronym CSR. The topic of corporate responsibility is extremely broad, and this text only touches on it to draw attention to its actually inextricable link to the built, and natural, environment of the city.
Perno Ricard Responsib'All Day Bulgaria at the National Academy of Arts photos.
When we talk about corporate social responsibility, we can find it referred to in many ways, including: strategic philanthropy, corporate citizenship, social responsibility, and more. Each of the names carries with it a particular perspective on the role of business in society. Corporate social responsibility is broadly the response of business to the challenge of 'sustainable development'. It refers to everything from how a company manages its processes to generate an overall positive impact on employees and their families, on the local community and society at large, to specific charitable gestures such as cleaning and renovating streets and buildings, educational campaigns, etc.
SMEs: sustainability as a creative business model
Gro-Cycle grows truffles in coffee grounds; De Ceuvel is an energy autonomous co-working village and laboratory for renewable energy research
A number of modern companies are starting from the concept of sustainability and are developing business models firmly rooted in the concept of a circular economy, combining economic growth and environmental protection in one. More often than not, these are small and medium sized companies established in the last two decades, where the understanding of sustainability has evolved beyond the notion that ecology = activism, rooted in the artificial divide between city and nature caused by the rapid pace of global industrialisation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The comfort with which such companies handle waste, the old and the seemingly unnecessary in order to develop attractive and economically successful brands shows a return to the very natural and historically grounded recognition that humans are in fact part of the eco-system that our planet represents and, if conducted in moderation, their activities are not necessarily harmful to the environment. Such a pragmatic mentality has in fact existed for centuries in the traditions of a number of cultures - the satoyama landscapes of Japan, the dehesa land units of Spain, the ahupua'a regions of Hawai'i - all of which are a balanced mosaic of natural and human-cultivated landscapes in which economy, natural cycle and administration are in harmony. Apart from the more manageable size, the secret of the success of such small companies probably lies precisely in the fact that this type of natural drive for sustainability is simply part of their zeitgeist, their morale, and allows them to be creative. As designer Yuliyan Kirilov, founder of Bulgarian recycled brand Zona Urbana , notes, what makes recycled objects unique and therefore desirable is design.
Big companies: sustainability - mission possible
When it comes to large companies, however, active members of civil society often question their underlying motives for CSR, believing that corporate funding programmes for social and environmental initiatives are nothing more than PR campaigns. In the construction industry, for example, it would seem at first glance that the gold medal winners on the topic of sustainability are companies whose buildings are certified to the LEED standard for sustainable construction. While their ambitions are in the right direction, the reality is that even when consumption is reduced, buildings - residential and public - remain one of the world's biggest consumers of energy and raw materials. The potential impact of truly green buildings on our environment is obvious, but is what we are doing about it enough and how to be convincing in the public eye? Despite the pessimism they might sometimes face, CSR practices are evolving and an increasing number of companies internationally are getting involved. The reasons for this are many - for one thing, the noble motivation of company employees themselves as the driver and initiator of CSR programmes cannot be downplayed. Another important driver of CSR practices, even in large companies, is the corporate leaders themselves. Companies are not monolithic entities, but organizations led by specific individuals and situated in the societies in which they operate. Thus, it is not uncommon for CSR programmes to reflect the human side of companies and the personal commitment of their leaders to contribute to the community of which they are a part. One striking and appropriately large-scale example of corporate social responsibility by a major company, launched in the earliest stages of industrialization and evolving to the present day, is the renovation of the legendary automaker Ford's River Rouge plant complex designed by the studio of William McDonough, an architect with an international reputation as a visionary in sustainable design.
"This is not environmental philanthropy, but serious business that for the first time balances the business needs of automobile manufacturing with environmental and social concerns in the redevelopment of an industrial site with environmentally unacceptable current conditions," said Ford Chairman Bill Ford , grandson of Henry Ford, in 2000. "That is what I mean by sustainability, and this new facility in Rouge lays the foundation for a model for sustainable manufacturing in the 21st century. While most companies would prefer to change locations over investing in an 83-year-old facility, we view this project as an important reinvestment in our employees, in our hometown and in a 20th century American icon," Ford Motor Company Press Release , 2000.
the Ford plant in River Rouge - photographed 1927 and 2004 after the William McDonough + Partners project photo credit: Wikipedia
By analogy, the scale of the support of large and globally established companies such as Apple, AirBnB, Google and hundreds of others for important natural sites goes beyond the immediate economic interest and object of the particular companies and speaks, if not of genuine concern, at least of ethics and regard for the essential. A good example of this phenomenon in an urban setting is New Yorkers' favorite park , The High Line, designed by the iconic landscape architecture and urban design studio Corner Field Operations on a New York City donated abandoned section of the city's rail infrastructure. Perhaps important in this case is the toolkit provided by the park's management, which makes it easy for companies to support the exciting location won back from the wrecking ball for the benefit of city residents.
the High Line Park and friends photo: Wikipedia
Could it be that in Sofia, too, similar projects will start to get more and more support from businesses and citizens to get their Green Line - like the one for Sofia's Green Line, the work of young architects Hristiana Vassileva and Svetoslav Alexandrov?