To the Plymouth-based Carlson Companies, “corporate and social responsibility” aren’t just buzz words. They represent a long-standing commitment to expansion in the marketing, travel, and hospitality industries, while supporting the growth of developing nations. For example, the company is investing in the infrastructure of poor regions through its hotels in South Africa and Tunisia, and a hotel in Nigeria that is set to open in late 2007.
In these countries, Carlson Companies is working to provide economic opportunities for people and improve their long-range job skills. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, tourism directly generates 74 million jobs and roughly 4 percent of the global gross domestic product. Indirectly, it provides another 150 million jobs, and adds another 6 percentage points to the global GDP.
“We have to find the right balance,” says Kim Olson, chief communications officer for Carlson Companies, “the right tension in developing business practices and growing those practices in new areas of the world. At the same time, we find ourselves trying to ensure lasting and positive results in the lives of the people and the backbone of the communities in which we operate. So we want to make an impact and at the same time be good business leaders.”
But Carlson Companies hasn’t stopped with property development. The firm cofounded the World Childhood Foundation in 1999 with Queen Silvia of Sweden and remains very active in it. The organization funds local programs that defend the rights of children and support better living conditions for them. Since 2004, the foundation has focused on protecting children from sexual abuse and exploitation, with special attention to the needs of girls and young mothers.
“We became the first travel and tourism company, and certainly the largest, to sign the ECPAT [End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes] code of conduct,” Olson says. “What that code of conduct requires us to do is meet certain criteria for doing business.”
For one thing, this means providing exploitation-awareness training programs for general managers at the company’s business locations worldwide. Also, Olson adds, “it means we spotlight our efforts with World Childhood on all of our branded Web sites, including our corporate home page. And we use our leaders to get the message out there.” In January, Carlson Companies Chairperson and CEO Marilyn Carlson Nelson brought at-risk children and the work of the World Childhood Foundation into focus at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“We want to make an impact on the world,” Olson says. “That’s why a lot of us are here working at Carlson. We really back that up in every aspect of what we do.”
