Obama moves to promote social innovation

First signs of what the US presidency of Barack Obama may mean for corporate responsibility have emerged with the creation of two new government offices in his administration.

The Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation and the Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy will together promote and provide funds for businesses that work on social issues, and will also coordinate action on climate change.

One task of the Office of Social Innovation will be to attempt to enlist and coordinate corporations, social entrepreneurs, NGOs, and foundations to help solve social problems.

Sonal Shah, the office’s newly appointed director, who is the former head of global development at Google, said the initiative will ‘help direct and create partnerships that might not otherwise have existed’.

The Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy will be headed by Carol Browner, formerly administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under Bill Clinton, and will be responsible for coordinating government policy on emissions targets and climate change.