Dec

6

Is corporate social responsibility being taken seriously?

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There is an increasing importance being attributed to corporate social responsibility. However for a great majority of businesses the focus on it, particularly on the specific activities by individual staff, are still not imbedded within their routine activities and the initiatives are just that – initiatives that fulfill a strategic goal. Is the impact of such deployment that corporate responsibility takes a back seat against more common and core tasks?.

Many companies will incorporate mission statements relating to corporate responsibility (for example sustainable procurement) in their published objectives. However there are still a significant number that cannot present KPI performance or action for these targets – they remain merely mission statements on this matter and many will not have an answer detractors will also argue that CSR is a melting pot of numerous concerns which can provide the company the flexibility to switch swiftly from one customer’s CSR requirement to another without ever completing one.

However, it is not surprising that CSR is gaining importance as customers and the marketplace become more aware and competitors begin to see the commercial advantages. Strategies in establishing appropriate targets as part of corporate objectives are being implemented by the majority of enterprises. These goals are usually deployed across the entirety of the company, are typically the case. It covers the various disciplines which includes operations sales and their supply chain. Slowly but surely CSR is becoming a responsibility of everyone in the company with both SME’s and large companies taking this responsibility seriously.

Implementation of CSR requires key facilitators (leadership, tools, processes etc). What’s in it for the companies themselves? perhaps two key result areas – complying with legislation and maintaining competitiveness.

This is true for the large companies but what about the small and medium enterprises (SME). Are the SMEs doing their part by developing strategies to address this concern? Customers and compliance will play a very great role in creating momentum. SMEs will most likely be affected by the following:
• Buying Power – Those who are supplying markets where customers demands requires environmentally friendly products and processes.
• Revenues – Customers that have sustainability criteria will typically expect its supply chain to flow down the requirement. Therefore non-compliance will mean less revenue.
• Legislative Control – Those that supply products which are covered by law to uphold these practices.

The question is whether sustainability is a serious business objective or perhaps merely an approach to pursue improvements (e.g. cost reductions whereby sustainability compliancy is a by-product). This may act as the rational for companies upholding social consciousness.

Whilst CSR can be considered synonymous to good business practices (especially true when CSR compliance is a requirement on a particular industry or a market. )Sustainability of the supply chain is not always easily measured. (for example how to measure the impact on bio-diversity.)

When it comes to legislation, true corporate responsibility must not offer get out clauses or opportunities for business as usual – for example the often discussed EEC cap & trade targeted reductions in CO2 emissions but it is commonly argued that it merely rewarded the heavy polluter with better carbon credits compared to their historic production.

Surely in the future, CSR will be implemented in the majority of businesses and industries. Therefore there is a need for those who are in the supply chain to build strategies, tools and techniques that will address this concern and they will eventually support these initiatives to get a better performance evaluation.