CSR and Sustained Development initiatives
There are a number of projects and initiatives that are shaping the goals and principles of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development, such as:
- OECD (
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ) is an international organization with 35 industrialized countries as participants, which account for 76 per cent of the world trade. The themes that this organization addresses include environmental, human rights, labor issues, and information disclosure.
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UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights . The completion of these norms was possible through discussions with unions, business, and NGOs. The norms include clarification of corporate social responsibilities of companies in countries where they operate, and also refer to human rights in the workplace.
- ILO (
International Labor Organization ) and its Tripartite Declaration focuses on the “social aspects of the activities of multinational enterprises, including employment creation in the developing countries” (Governing Body of International Labor Office, 204th session). The principles established by this organization are adopted voluntarily, and thus its reach is limited since non-compliance cannot be sanctioned.
- United Nations' Global Compact was established in 1999 by United Nations' Secretary Kofi Annan as a voluntary international initiative. Participant companies are asked to demonstrate their support to ten different international principles of human and labor rights, anti-corruption and environmental protection, to seek solutions to the challenges of globalization and promote responsible corporate citizenship. The initiative has more than 2,500 business participants from 90 countries around the world.
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Kyoto Protocol was agreed on in 1997 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. A total of 1968 countries and the EEC have ratified the protocol (envroliteracy.org, 2007).
Csr and corporate strategy
A distinction must be made between charity and CSR. Charity refers to a company’s efforts to donate money or resources to an organization or a cause, promoting and allowing employees to volunteer in the community, and the establishment or endorsement of foundations. Conversely, CSR is a concept that involves a company taking into consideration the different stakeholders involved when making a business decision. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development identified CSR to be an integral part of a company’s value system and strategy (intranet.csreurope.org). For a company to fully integrate CSR, top management must integrate social responsibility into the strategic level of the decision-making process in order to develop a framework for economic decisions made at different levels of the organization’s hierarchy.
The problem that a company will encounter if CSR is not integrated into the organization strategy is that management and employees could bypass social responsibility considerations and CSR becomes personal ethics rather than CSR. To adopt a CSR strategy the organization needs to take the following steps:
- Define CSR for their particular business.
- Understand motivations underlying its commitment.
- Establish policies and goals to achieve CSR.
- Establish measures to monitor their accomplishments in CSR (bsr.org).
