Ambassador for Sustainability Champions Innovation at CSR Leadership Summit

PETERBOROUGH, U.K. - Jan. 20, 2021 - PRLog -- The COVID-19 pandemic is creating a global opportunity for innovation, repurposing and changes of direction according to Prof Colin Coulson-Thomas, chairman of Adaptation and India CSR's Brand Ambassador for Sustainability. While presenting the opening keynote during the inaugural session of the 11^th annual CSR Leadership Summit, the author of Winning Companies; Winning People called upon the CSR community to play a catalytic role in ensuring socially responsible outcomes.

Adaptation's chairman emphasised the importance of resilience:  "We need individual, family, organisational, community, network and social resilience. Resilience is about coping, responding and rebounding, but in relation to COVID-19 we should not return to where we were before the pandemic. The cost in terms of environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity, use of finite natural capital, and contribution to global warming and climate change would be too high."

The professor questioned CSR Leadership Summit attendees:  "Were previous activities and lifestyles sustainable? Can we turn adversity and tragedy into an opportunity to move towards a more sustainable future? Can we evolve, transition and transform to a more sustainable and inclusive model of development that is less environmentally damaging? We need innovation – social innovation as well as business and economic innovation."

The Adaptation chairman argued: "We must create and adopt simpler, healthier and less stressful lifestyles that safeguard natural capital. Crises can create a common and shared exposure to risk, threat, pressure and stress that can cause people to come together. Cohesion and consensus are important for holding people together, but we don't want a dull uniformity. As well as collective effort we need individual initiative, inspiration and imagination. We need diversity, challenge and questioning if we are to bounce back to a better place."

Coulson-Thomas emphasised the need for socially responsible innovation, enterprise and entrepreneurship: "The CSR community should build socially responsible innovation into the purposes, visions, values, goals and objectives of organisations. Remember our responsibilities to future generations. Living in harmony with the natural world offers hope.  Collaboration and partnership are needed for Sustainable Social Development. Together let's build a sustainable and socially responsible future."

The three day 11^th CSR Leadership Summit 2021 was organised by the India CSR network. Prof Colin Coulson-Thomas, IMS President and the network's brand ambassador for sustainability has held public appointments at local, regional and national level and professorial appointments in Europe, North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, India and China. He is a fellow of the World Academy of Productivity Science and an Honoured Fellow of the Institute for Responsible Leadership, Details of his activities and recent books can be obtained from https://www.adaptation.ltd/