What is the meaning of CSR (Corporate social responsibility) and how to adopt it?

According to the European Commission, CSR is “a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis.”

The idea behind corporate social responsibility is that businesses have a responsibility to benefit the society that they exist within, rather than just seeking economic profit.

A company that has a strong CSR strategy will typically have three major focus areas:

Conducting a CSR strategy is not a one-size-fits-all process. Understanding the impact of your organization on environmental and social criteria is crucial, therefore identifying the company’s goals accordingly, finding ways to measure them and then implementing strategies that will help achieve those goals.

It starts with a clear understanding of what CSR means to your organization. What are its core values? What does it stand for? How does it want to be perceived by the public at large?

Once you know this, you can begin to develop a strategy for communicating those values and ideas to the public in a way that will resonate with them, with reportings and initiatives.

Determine the overarching goal and vision for the strategy, as this purpose will serve as the guiding force for the rest of the CSR strategy.

Ask questions such as:

Understand which groups will be most influential and/or impacted by potential CSR activities and reach out to them to begin a dialogue about their expectations.

Identify the company’s major CSR priorities:

Each company has unique needs and levels of pre-existing CSR activity. Conducting a CSR assessment will help identify the company’s starting point and gauge factors such as:

Ensure that by the close of the assessment, everyone who will be working on or impacted by the CSR strategy is on the same page in terms of current status and the needs that are going to be addressed.

Be proactive in gathering feedback from employees and other stakeholders—try to gather as many diverse perspectives as possible.

At this stage, it may also be helpful to put together a CSR leadership team.

Once the purpose of the CSR strategy is established:

Once focus areas and goals have been decided, start building support among senior management and employees to secure buy-in.

Conduct research into what peers are doing. Other sources of information and reference are industry associations and organizations specializing in CSR.

Running analyses of similar case studies can provide helpful information and aid in future projections.

Maintain engagement with stakeholders, follow projects/programs timeline, and seek to deliver on project benchmarks.

Maintain CSR-relevant governance practices, and introduce trainings that help support CSR projects.

Compile data from the CSR projects into a transparent and easily understood report for communication with stakeholders.

Complete verification by employing internal audits, peer/stakeholder reviews, or third-party audits.

Take some time to reflect on the experience of implementing and tracking a CSR project.

CSR shares some frameworks and approaches with ESG, as both concepts involve sustainability reporting. Currently, one of the biggest challenges with developing a CSR approach or report is the lack of standardization.

Given that there is no mandated structure for CSR reports, corporations can select the format that best suits their message and highlight the information that they deem important to their CSR program.

In fact, an article by Harvard Business School observes that companies will create specific branding strategies for their CSR reports, leveraging the report for marketing and PR, as much as for communications. However, the lack of standards does present difficulties in comparing data and identifying areas for improvement.

Listed below are some examples of reporting frameworks and other resources that a company might consider.

CSR guidance lays out the underlying principles and baselines for corporate social responsibility.

They include:

CSR frameworks provide comparatively standardized approaches for reporting out on CSR activities.

Examples of frameworks include:

Reporting standards provide a blueprint for companies to understand and report out on their impact in a comparable and credible manner.

Some well known CSR standards include:

CSR certifications provide proof of impact; third-party organizations can be contracted to verify a company’s commitment to CSR and outcome of activities (performance, accountability, and transparency).

Trusted certifications include:

Questionnaires such as the CDP and Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) provide scoring methodologies and benchmarks for building financial indices.

Working groups such as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and CSR Europe bring together sustainability and subject matter experts to help scale and otherwise support sustainability efforts.

There is also a wealth of other tools to aid in CSR risk assessment or impact quantification. Most of these tools tend to be topic-specific, focusing on issues such as reducing/measuring carbon footprint, or on life cycle assessment (LCA).

At apiday, we use our technology to help companies track their CSR actions and make sure they’re building a company that puts people first.

With our algorithms, you’ll be able to collect and analyze data from your documentation, your team reports, and any other sources you choose, to give you a complete picture of your company’s CSR performance.

With this information, you’ll be able to quickly identify areas that need improvement, then implement those improvements right away.

The more a company cares about society, the environment, and its employees, the more successful it will be in the long run. Customers and stakeholders turn to companies they can trust and believe in, companies that value and respect their employees keep them longer. And unsustainable practices might lead to negative PR.

A number of benefits come from CSR, including: increased brand loyalty and trust, better employee engagement and retention, improved recruiting efforts, increased sales, and better preparation for laws and regulations as there is a recent push for governments to formally require and more closely regulate such activities.

CSR usually includes topics that fall under the following three categories: social (e.g. DEI, career development, health & safety, etc.), environment (e.g. climate change, biodiversity, resource use, etc.), and economic (transparent supply chain, philanthropy, etc.).