Manual an Introduction to CSR English

Topics Manual

An Introduction to Corporate Social Responsibility

Train4CSR | Topics manual | An Introduction to CSR | page 2

This handbook has been completed within the project

Innovative training methodology for CSR topics -

Train4CSR – Agreement No: 2008-1940/001-001. It has

been developed and compiled through collaboration

between the following organizations:

The use of this document and its partial

reproduction are allowed only for non-

commercial uses and with explicit reference to

the source.

www.train4csr.eu

KOVET is the leading Hungarian business organisation that promotes

organisations on the road towards sustainability. KOVET are the leaders of

the project and the partner consortium

www.kovet.hu

IKSZE provides vocational trainings and advisor services mainly for

Hungarian non-profit and for-profit organisations and higher education

institutions.

www.ikszi.hu

Impronta Etica is an italian non-profit association made up of companies,

utilities and public sector organisations with the aim of stimulating

enterprises to implement policies of social responsibility..

www.improntaetica.org

Spanish association for the promotion of ethical and socially responsible

policies among companies and institutions at the core of their corporate

values, providing them with frameworks for auditable management

systems. Foretica is member of CSR Europe.

www.foretica.es

Scottish Business in the Community is one of the Prince’s Charities

in Scotland, it is the only organisation supporting and challenging its

private sector members and its partners to improve their impacts in the

workplace, marketplace, community and environment.

www.sbcscot.com

CSR Europe is the leading European business network for corporate social

responsibility.

www.csreurope.org


Table of contents

1. Introductionandobjectivesofthemanual Introduction to the topic

2.ObjectivesoftheTrainingAim

Who is the training for?

Key competencies

Attitudes

Skills

Knowledge

3.Termsanddefinitions

4.OverviewofthetopicKeywords

Historical background

Recent trends in Corporate Social Responsibility

5.ContentPrinciples

Supporting information

6.BenefitsofCSRforanorganisation

BestpracticesandexamplesofinitiativesandtoolsforCorporateSocialResponsibility

Bibliography

page 06

page 07

page 08

page 09

page 11

page 13

page 14

page 15

page 05



1. Introduction and objectives of the manual

This manual is designed to support the delivery of the training module, CSR Introduction.

This module forms part of the 10 training sessions developed as part of the Leonardo

Lifelong Learning Project, Train4CSR.

The manual is a framework providing the trainer with the relevant background, information

and guidelines to effectively deliver the training. However, to make this relevant within your

country, sector and organisation, please use the supporting documentation to customise your

training.

Introductiontothetopic

Corporate Social Responsibility has been growing in prominence and importance over the

last few years. With the economic crisis much of the developed world has recently been in,

there is no better time for organisations to demonstrate their responsibility to the social

challenges of the day, to addressing environmental concerns while at the same time using

this to increase profits. Sustainability is vital for organisations to enjoy sustained growth, but

what does it really mean? What are organisations actually doing and where does it all come

from?

This course aims to develop the concept of CSR and sustainability, giving participants an

insight into the principles behind it, as well as practical activities they can engage in to

increase the sustainability of their organisations.


2.Objectives of the Training Aim

This course aims to introduce and build upon the key concepts regarding corporate responsibility (CR),

providing attendees with an insight into the history, global context and best practices of CR.

Whoisthetrainingfor? • New CSR Managers or CSR Managers looking to refresh their ideas

• Other managers who have CSR within their job remit

Keycompetencies:The course is intended to develop the following competencies in the participants. Please note that your spe-

cific course objectives should focus on those competences which are the most appropriate to your business.

AttitudesCSR can only be embedded by demonstrating individual and collective responsibility for our •

own and the organisations actions

A change to long term thinking (strategizing) must replace current short termism in order to •

build responsible enterprises

Display the ability to act as change agents and leaders of sustainable change within the •

organisation

The ability to challenge the status quo, to look for innovative partnerships and demonstrate •

lateral leadership.

Skills Effective cooperation and collaboration•

Critical and creative thinking•

Research, planning and evaluation skills•

Communication•

Team working•

Project management •

Ability to question decisions – critical thinking•

Ability to influence influencer•

Ability to act as change agent within the business•

Knowledge Current CSR activities•

Business benefits•

History of CSR•

Context which CSR sits within nowadays•

The triple bottom line and sustainability•

Available resources•

Basic implementation models•


3.Terms and definitions

•UNGCThe United Nations Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed

to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of

human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.

•TripleBottomLine(TBL)The triple bottom line captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organi-

sational (and societal) success: economic, environmentall and social. Also sometimes referred to as

`People’, `Planet’ and `Profit’.

•StakeholdersAn organisation’s stakeholders are those groups who affect and/or are affected by the organisation

and its activities. These may include, but are not limited to: owners, trustees, employees and trade

unions, customers, members, business partners, suppliers, competitors, government and regula-

tors, the electorate, non-governmental-organisations (NGOs) / not-for-profit organisations, pressure

groups and influencers, and local and international communities.

•GlobalReportingInitiative(GRI)A multi-stakeholder process facilitated by an independent institution whose mission is to develop and

disseminate globally applicable Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.

GRI is a network-based organisation that has pioneered the development of the world’s most widely

used sustainability reporting framework and is committed to its continuous improvement and appli-

cation worldwide.

In order to ensure the highest degree of technical quality, credibility, and relevance, the reporting

framework is developed through a consensus-seeking process with participants drawn globally from

business, civil society, labour, and professional institutions.

•InternationalOrganisationforStandardisation(ISO)ISO is the world’s largest developer and publisher of International Standards. ISO is a network of the

national standards institutes of 163 countries, one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in

Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system.

•NGONon-governmental organisation


4.Overview of the topicKeywords

• Corporate Social Responsibility

• CSR

• Sustainability

• Triple Bottom Line

• CSR activities

• Business benefits

• History of CSR

• Global context

• Workplace

• Marketplace

• Environment

• Community

• Corporate citizenship

• Sustainable development

• Transparency

• Values

HistoricalbackgroundWhile the term ‘CSR’ may be a relatively new one, the concept behind CSR has been around much

longer.

The industrial revolution in the 19th century had two major impacts; the growth of l̀ocal’ business

into what would become global corporations, and the apparent breakdown of existing social networ-

ks. The environment was considered an unlimited resource and much of our economic growth over

the past century has been fuelled by what is now known to be unsustainable and/ or limited re-

sources. This has had serious consequences to both the social fabric of our societies, as well as the

environmental challenges that continue to persist today.

While a general breakdown in social networks is well recognized, there were efforts by individuals

to compensate for this. An example of this is New Lanark, in Southern Scotland. New Lanark was

founded in 1786 by David Dale, who built cotton mills and housing for the mill workers. Dale built the

mills there to take advantage of the water power provided by the river. Under the ownership of a part-

nership that included Dale’s son-in-law, Robert Owen, a Welsh philanthropist and social reformer,

New Lanark became a successful business and an epitome of utopian socialism. While the works

were looked after in terms of their everyday needs, they did not however have any say in the manage-

ment of the enterprises.

Motives for these examples of early socially responsible businesses are varied, but included:

• Potential for social unrest

• Sense of duty

• Commercial benefits and binding workers to the organisation


However, these examples were certainly not universally adopted, and were undertaken by the likes of

David Dale and Robert Owen on a voluntary basis. General conditions in factories remained incredibly

low, and social deprivation continued unabated in large areas of the UK.

While these are indeed example of early businesses demonstrating a level of responsibility to their

employees, in more recent times CSR would have been preceded by philanthropy. Philanthropy is

now however seen as an easy option, a large corporate writing a cheque to engage in goodwill in their

community is becoming outdated. While this is important, more direct mechanisms of engaging in

the social communities has developed, enabling the staff to take a direct interest and appreciation

for social challenges in geographical locations that an organisation may be based, or where they may

have operational activities.

From an environmental standpoint, NGOs such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace were

founded, bringing the unrestrained destruction of natural resources and our natural environment to

our general attention. This had a remarkable impact on business, where suddenly responsible beha-

vior, and being seen to be responsible for fear of reprisals from NGOs, moved the environment up the

agenda, often into the realms of risk management.

CSR has changed in time, but a common theme that can be traced throughout is the benefit to social

and environmental consequences of business, the so called r̀ight to trade’. Government, business

and NGOs have all been involved in the dynamics of this, with social, environmental or economic fac-

tors taking precedence according to the politics of a particular region, or the prevailing issue of the

time. This means that CSR cannot be strictly defined for a global audience, but will have key drivers

in different areas e.g. HIV/ AIDS affecting south African workers, Carbon Trading Schemes in Europe,

diversity in the UK etc.

The continued growth of CSR and sustainable development has seen many companies now repor-

ting on their social and environmental activities. Government too is supporting this growth with ever

increasing legislative requirements and mandatory reporting on elements of CSR.

RecenttrendsinCorporateSocialResponsibilityToday, business, government and NGO are working closer together striving to identify the ways of

how they can benefit from each other through CSR and sustainable development, raising social

expectations on local and global levels, reducing environmental impact (and capturing the oppor-

tunities from this rapidly expanding market), while at the same time pursuing the (current) globally

preferred measure of success- the continued and increasing GDP Growth. Some more specific trends

include:

Greenwash: Companies that were reporting environmental savings and credentials without fully em-

bracing the principles behind this have faced scrutiny from environmental groups and stakeholders.

There is a risk of greenwash, as public perception of the motives and actions that corporations are

taking remains quite sceptical.


Corporate Governance: The governance of organisations has been put under additional scrutiny fol-

lowing the collapse of financial institutions.

Ethics and personal values in business: CSR is used as a tool to integrate personal values into the

workplace thus enhancing the company’s culture.

Linking internal drivers and champions: Empowering motivated employees to drive the change wi-

thin the workplace.

Supply chain: Looking down the supply chain, supporting suppliers to become more socially and

environmentally responsible; using procurement to ensure that supplies and suppliers are ethically

sourced.

Sectoral Cooperation: Innovative partnerships emerging, the need to work together and identifying

synergies across sectors to work towards common goals.

Urgency: Heralding new way of doing business.

Choice editing: A term used in the report to describe instances where governments and / or busines-

ses are making responsible choice for consumers (eg removing all non energy efficient lightbulbs

from the market). Choice editing for sustainability is about cutting out unnecessarily damaging pro-

ducts and have enormous significance for the environment.

Changing expectations due to the emerging economic climate.


5. Content

Below is some additional information to help in your preparation for delivery. It has been included to

increase your knowledge around the topic and covers key principles, issues and themes considered

relevant.

PrinciplesThe overarching principle behind CSR is one of responsible business practise. Key questions howe-

ver are what constitutes this r̀esponsibility’, and how can this lead to organisational sustainability?

This course will demonstrate that much of this will be down to the culture and core business of the

organisation, with taught CSR simply providing a framework within which responsible business can

flourish.

Some key principles within this framework include:

• Leadership and strategy

• Top down, bottom up approach

• The company’s values and mission

• Know and understand your business drivers

• Core business – products and services

• Integration, measurement and reporting

• Communication

• Personal values

• Stakeholders and partnerships

SupportinginformationAn introduction to CSR covers a variety of topics related to CSR or sustainability. One of the key

objectives of this course is to move CSR from a concept to practical actions that employees could

take in order to make their businesses more environmentally friendly, socially inclusive and sustaina-

ble in a long term period.

Specific activities which are taken by the course participants fall under four key headings:

• Environment - With the Copenhagen accord and grwing worldwide interest in the environment,

it has never been so important to stay ahead of legislation while saving money, increasing your

brand and limiting your impact on the environment.

• Marketplace - Marketplace examines four key aspects of responsible business practice: pro-

ducts and services, suppliers, procurement and marketing. Engagement in these different areas

will ensure that CSR is embedded in core business and is not simply an / add-on.


• Workplace - This identifies how business creates a responsible and productive culture and

environment in the workplace in order to ensure the most effective use of knowledge, skills and

talent of the workforce.

• Community - The proven connection between a healthy and profitable business and the wel-

lbeing of the community around it.

Another key tool that is used is the concept of the Triple Bottom Line (see the figure below). It repre-

sents the need and benefits of measuring and reporting on the three key areas: social, environmental

and economic.

Social

Environment

Bearable Equitable

Sustainable

ViableEconomic

The phrase was coined by John Elkington in 1994. It was later expanded and articulated in his 1998

book Cannibals with Forks: the Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business. Sustainability, itself,

was first defined by the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations in 1987.

Another tool used by organisations to determine CSR activities that could: a) Have most impact and b)

Be most easily implemented, is shown below.

Blo

ckag

e

Impact

Don’t touch

is it a quickwin?

Go for it!

Patiencerequired

ImpactvBlockage


6. Benefits of Stakeholder Engagement for an organisation A well implemented CSR strategy has been known to benefit an organisation by:

Enhanced reputation•

Support to risk management•

Cost reduction•

Innovation•

Human Resources•

Enhancement of internal image•

Creation of new markets•

Identified synergies within the business and across sectors•

Improved stakeholder engagement•

Increased personal development•

Improved recruitment and retention of key staff•

All these benefits lead to improved performance and results

The very basic model of CSR integration into the company strategy will/will not be presented, depen-

ding on the level of participants (see the figure below).

Stepsalongtheroad...

6.Evaluate and improve

1.Conduct a CR assessment

3.Develop CR

commitments

4.Implements CR commitments

2.Develop a CR strategy

5.Verify and report

on progress

Improve

Check

Plan

Do


Annex: Bestpracticesandexamplesofinitiativesandtools forCorporateSocialResponsibility

What Where

CSR Europe database on mainstreaming CSRhttp://www.csreurope.org/pages/en/revolutiona-ry_business_models.html

Embedding sustainability in organisational culturehttp://www.cbsr.ca/sites/default/files/file/Culture-Report_Final.pdf

Another important resource for references and practices is the Accountability website:

http://www.accountability21.net/default.aspx?id=256

Video: WBCSD: The Role of Business in Tomor-row’s Society

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xox7Z0Bq7jY

What Where

AA1000: standard for evaluation of the stakeholder relations established by companies

http://www.accountability21.net/uploadedFiles/publications/SES%20Exposure%20Draft%20-%20FullPDF.pdf;

AA1000: a handbookwww.accountability21.net/.../Stakeholder%20Enga-gement%20Handbook.pdf

Global Reporting Initiative (4.14-4.17):http://www.globalreporting.org/NR/rdonlyres/ED9E9B36-AB54-4DE1-BFF2-5F735235CA44/0/G3_GuidelinesENU.pdf

ISO26000: an International Standard providing guide-lines for social responsibility

http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink?func=ll&objId=3935837&objAction=browse&sort=name

An Implementation Guide for Business by IISD www.iisd.org/pdf/2007/csr_guide.pdf

FTSE4 Good Index Series. 2008 Inclusion criteriawww.ftse.com/Indices/FTSE4Good_Index_Series/F4G_Download_Page.jsp

G3 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. Global Re-porting Initiative

www.globalreporting.org

ILO Conventions: human and labour rights www.ilo.org

ISO 14001: 2004. Environmental Management Sy-stem. Requisites with instructions for use

www.iso.org

ISO 19011:2002. Guidelines for Quality and or/ En-vironmental management systems auditing

www.iso.org

ISO 26000 (process of development) www.iso.org/sr

ISO 9001:2000. Quality Management System Re-quisites

www.iso.org

OECD Guideline for Multinational Enterpriseswww.oecd.org/department/0,2688,en_2649_34889_1_1_1_1_1,00.html

Database,guides

Standards–Regulations


Bibliography• http://www.responsiblepractice.com/english/introduction/eu/

• www.sbcscot.com

• www.maydaynetwork.com


This project has been funded with support from

the European Commission.

This publication [communication] reflects the

views only of the author, and the Commission

cannot be held responsible for any use which

may be made of the information contained

therein.

Documents

Manual an Introduction to CSR English