Corporate Social Responsibility An introduction to:

Corporate Social Responsibility? What is :

Also known as: Corporate Citizenship Corporate Responsibility Responsible Business

Definition: “ Specifically, we see CSR as the voluntary actions that business can take, over and above compliance with minimum legal requirements, to address both its own competitive interests and the interests of wider society.” Source: www.csr.gov.uk

adds value Corporate Social Responsibility:

Economist, Milton Friedman says: “ The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.” “ What does it mean to say that "business" has responsibilities? Only people can have responsibilities.” “… in a free society there is one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud."

Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility

Example: Organisational Focus JP Morgan Chase

Example: Environmental Focus Coca Cola

Example: Customer Focus Home Depot

Example: Employee Focus Johnson and Johnson

Example: Stakeholder Focus Credit Suisse United Technologies

Example: Social Focus Bristol-Myers Squibb

Other sources for CSR reporting: ‘ Sustainability Guidelines’ developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (www.globalreporting.org) SA800 certification developed by the international human rights organisation Social Accountability International. (www.sa-intl.org)

Other sources for CSR reporting: The Green Globe programme for ‘benchmarking, certification and performance improvement’, based on Agenda 21 proposals from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit (www.greenglobe.org) ISO 14000 international environmental management standards (www.14000.org)

Other sources for CSR reporting: The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) framework and mechanism designed to encourage businesses to adopt CSR policies (www.unglobalcompact.org) The FTSE 4 Good Index – measures the performance of companies who meet globally recognised CSR standards. (www.ftse.com/Indices/FTSE4Good_Index_Series)

Alternative sources of information: www.corpwatch.org www.naomiklein.org