A DEFINITION OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR)
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is about managing your business to achieve both commercial and social benefits. In essence, it's about managing your economic, environmental and social impacts to help you improve results, reduce risks and enhance your reputation. It is also about growing your business in a way that has value for everyone connected to it.
Earlier this year Bill Gates delivered a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Where he spoke of “creative capitalism”. This is an approach where government, business and non-profit collaborate to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit or gain recognition by doing work that eases the world’s inequities.
Creative capitalism takes an interest in the fortunes of others and ties it to interest in business fortunes in ways that help advance both. “This hybrid engine of self-interest and concern for others services a much wider circle of people that can be reached by self-interest or caring alone”. He went on to say that philanthropy and government aid channel our caring but the resources run out before needs are met. “To provide rapid improvement we need a system that draws innovators and businesses in a far better way”.
Bill Gates stated that if people are given an opportunity to associate themselves with a cause they care about, they invest and make an impact. “Your contribution is more powerful than simply donating cash or offering employee time to volunteer. It is a focused use of what your company does best. It can turn good works into recognition and ensure that recognition brings market-based reward to businesses that do the most work to serve the most people”. When profits are not possible, the market based incentive is recognition. Recognition enhances a company’s reputation and appeals to customers. It also attracts good people to the organization”.
THREE PILLARS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR)
ECONOMIC - The direct and indirect economic impacts that the operations have on the community and stakeholders
ENVIRONMENTAL - The physical impacts occurring in the natural environment due to business operations
SOCIAL - The direct and indirect social impacts that the company has on people
FOR MORE IN-DEPTH INFORMATION CONSULT THE FOLLOWING RESOURCES
CANADIAN WEBSITES:
Business Ethics:
www.businessethics.ca
Business for Social Responsibility (BSR):
www.bsr.org
Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR):
www.cbsr.ca
Corporate Responsibility Officer:
www.thecro.com
Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility (CSR) International:
www.csrinternational.org
CSR Wire – The Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire:
www.csrwire.com
Cultural Shifts
culturalshifts.com
Five Winds International:
www.fivewinds.com
Industry Canada – A Definition of Corporate Social Responsibility:
www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/csr-rse.nsf/eng/home
Mallenbaker.net on Corporate Social Responsibility:
www.mallenbaker.net
Principles for Global Corporate Responsibility – Bench Marks for Measuring Business Performance:
bench-marks.org
The Conference Board of Canada – Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility:
www.conferenceboard.ca/topics/GCSR
United Nations Global Compact - The Global Compact in Canada
www.unglobalcompact.org/NetworksAroundTheWorld/display.html?id=CA
CANADIAN ARTICLES:
Business Roundtable – Institute for Corporate Ethics – Company Stakeholder Responsibility: A New Approach to CSR:
www.corporate-ethics.org/pdf/csr.pdf%20
Canadian Business Online – Making the Business Case for Corporate Social Responsibility:
blog.canadianbusiness.com/category/paul-klein
CBSR – CSR Trends 2008:
www.cbsr.ca/sites/default/files/CSR_Trends08.pdf
CBSR – The Climate Change Guide – Corporate Canada: Responsible Business Action on Climate Change:
www.cbsr.ca/sites/default/files/CBSR_ClimateChangeGuide(1).pdf
CBSR – Building Sustainable Relationships – Aboriginal Engagement & Sustainability:
www.cbsr.ca/sites/default/files/CBSRAboriginalEngBook.pdf
Chambers Ireland – Four Pillars of CSR:
www.chambers.ie/index.php?id=390
Corporate Citizen – The Changing Nature of Corporate Responsibility:
www.corporate-citizenship.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/final-paper.pdf
Corporate Citizen – Whose Responsibility?
www.corporate-citizenship.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/whose-responsibility.pdf
Corporate Responsibility – The Corporate Responsibility Coalition (CORE) – Corporate Abuse in 2007:
www.corporate-responsibility.org/module_images/corporateabuse_discussionpaper.pdf
Corporate Responsibility – The Corporate Responsibility Coalition (CORE) – Supplement in the Times:
www.corporate-responsibility.org/module_images/CSR_Apr06.pdf
Corporate Responsibility – The Corporate Responsibility Coalition (CORE) –Why Corporate Social Responsibility is failing children:
www.corporate-responsibility.org/module_images/WhyCSRpagesHR.pdf
Corporate Social Responsibility – A Definition by Curtin University of Technology:
www.cbs.curtin.edu.au/files/GSB_Working_Paper_No._62_Corp_Social_Resp_A_definition_Thomas___Nowak.pdf
Corporate Social Responsibility: A Necessity Not a Choice:
www.internationalbusinessreport.com/files/ibr%202008%20-%20corporate%20social%20responsibility%20report%20final%20(150%20dpi)%20web%20enabled.pdf
Corporate Social Responsibility – The Global Sullivan Principles:
www.mallenbaker.net/csr/CSRfiles/gsprinciples.html
Corporate Social Responsibility – What Does it Mean?
www.mallenbaker.net/csr/CSRfiles/definition.html
Corporate Social Responsibility in Canada: The 2008 Ivey-Jantzi Research Report:
www.ivey.uwo.ca/centres/building/outreach/ideas/CSR2008.pdf
Corruption or Compliance – Weighing the cost – 10th Global Fraud Survey by Ernst & Young:
www.ey.com/Global/assets.nsf/International/FIDS_Corruption_or_compliance_weighing_the_costs/$file/Corruption_or_compliance_weighing_the_costs.pdf
CSR as a Business Strategy – BSR Identifies Five Key Trends in CSR:
www.bsr.org/resources/BW_2008CSRSection.pdf
CSR Case Study – Telus: Leading the Canadian Telecommunications Sector in CSR:
www.nrcan.gc.ca/sd-dd/pubs/csr-rse/pdf/cas/telus_e.pdf
CSR Wire – The Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire – Corporate Social Responsibilities Categories:
www.csrwire.com/categories
Cultural Shifts – Making the Case for Corporate Social Responsibility:
www.culturalshifts.com/archives/181
Definition of Corporate Social Responsibility:
www.mallenbaker.net/csr
Five Winds International – Sustainability and CSR:
www.fivewinds.com/services/services_SustainabilityCSR.cfm
FTSE: the Index Company – FTSE4Good Index Series:
www.ftse.com/Indices/FTSE4Good_Index_Series/index.jsp
Harvard Business Review – Strategy & Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility:
harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/email/pdfs/Porter_Dec_2006.pdf
Industry Canada – Corporate Social Responsibility – An Implementation Guide for Canadian Business:
www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/csr-rse.nsf/eng/rs00126.html
Supporting Waterloo Region’s Business Community:
www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/region.nsf/$All/B865CC1AA4A9A549852574CD00714BF6/$file/CHAPTER4.pdf?openelement
Tamarack: Collaborating With Business for Social Transformation by Gary Loewen:
tamarackcommunity.ca/downloads/learning_centre/Collab_Business_072008.pdf
Towers Perrin – Corporate Social Responsibility: It's No Longer an Option:
www.towersperrin.com/tp/showdctmdoc.jsp?country=global&url=Master_Brand_2/USA/News/Spotlights/2008/2008_07_30_Spotlight_Corporate_Social_Responsibility.htm
Understanding the Nature of Ethics, Values, and Purposes of Business, Health Care and Law: Implications and Applications for Community Sport:
www.cces.ca/pdfs/CCES-PAPER-Malloy-E.pdf
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development – Guidance on Corporate Responsibility Indicators in Annual Reports:
www.unctad.org/en/docs/iteteb20076_en.pdf
Wikipedia.org - Definition of Corporate Social Responsibility:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility
