Good or bad, the past eight years have marked an explosion of interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) from all sectors of society except from the US government. Even the UN, which has been often considered slow to act, has organized the UN Global Compact, the largest movement in social responsibility.

It’s not my place to judge our government’s priorities, but I can say that what ensued from the lack of attention from our government was great for the social responsibility movement.  Due to the vacuum of societal structures to support the growth of CSR, individuals, organizations, and networks took it upon themselves to organize within the existing parameters.

Economically: the benefits for organizations and individuals in the US to “go green” are not even close to as subsidized and favored by regulations as they are in many countries around the world, especially Europe. This has caused the US green movement to find ways to innovate (eco-innovation) so that green products can cost as much as or even lower than existing “non-green” products. Thus the US has truly become a source for the greatest innovations in the green movement.

Socially: compared to Europe – where I spent half my life and was deeply entrenched in the social responsibility movements of the 90’s and until 2004, when I moved back to the US – being socially responsible is more engrained in the culture of most countries in Europe. People there talk less about it and just are socially responsible because it’s the right thing to do. Here in the US, due to the lack of governmental support, individuals have had to step into the void left by the government and promote social responsibility. This has created local and national networks dedicated to social responsibility which are better organized than in any part of the world. What is amazing about this movement is that the US has been researched to be among the most individualist cultures on the planet. But now, we are taking a collectivist concept, and making a collective movement around it. It’s getting to the point where there is huge peer pressure to be socially responsible with peer pressure coming from friends talking to friends personally or CEOs talking to other CEOs about their businesses. For example, I was at a conference with 1000 CEOs last summer and to see how each company was trying to “one up” the other company regarding their social responsibility was amazing (and sometimes a bit worrying since it bordered on green-washing but that’s a topic for another blog). So in summary, many countries in the world are more socially responsible as a whole with the average citizen and organization being much more advanced than in the US; however, the greatest and most innovations are happening in the US.

Politically: so what’s next? Should the government continue its laissez-faire approach? I definitely think not! Now that social responsibility has started from the grass roots, from individuals, businesses, and non-profits, it is the role of the government to create an infrastructure for innovation to be scaled up.

In these times when it’s getting increasingly difficult to compete with prices from other countries, the only advantage we have is innovation. If there was one area that the US is known for internationally, it is our entrepreneurial drive. However, innovation will only be further spurred if we create incentives for R & D, market and financial access for new products, and platforms to test and roll out new products. Most importantly, hard infrastructure will be needed for most of the innovative products to be scaled up. Just one example is green energy which needs a new re-organization of the entire energy grid.

If anyone knows how to create new systems, it is the US (and also to a large extent, the UK). We helped take the industrial age to a new height, thus creating our fossil-fuel-reliant economy. Now, we need to take the lead in the social responsibility movement. And we have the one most important ingredient to do so – people. Any government can put the right infrastructure in place. But it is the people that are innovative and that can create the products of the future.