Business and Peace-Building

Acknowledgements

In my work at the University of Queensland, I have had the privilege of speaking with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practitioners from all over the world. They are committed professionals who are earnestly trying to do the right thing for the communities affected by mining, oil and gas, timber, pipelines, hydro-electric dams, windfarms and other large-footprint operations. None of them wakes up in the morning saying, “How can I mess up the lives of people and environments affected by natural resources projects today?”

What I have heard repeatedly is that there is simply too much information to track, too many forms to fill out, insufficient human or financial resources to do the job they know needs to be done and stacks ...