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

CSR is an abbreviation for Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR strategies have become common in today’s corporate world as more and more companies realise that their business performance and its societal impacts are intricately connected.

That is why it is important for companies to adopt CSR strategies and practices that enable them to optimise their performance and simultaneously benefit communities, society and environment where they operate.

There are many ways and tools to initiate and implement a CSR strategy, including various certifications, reporting standards, and frameworks. Let’s deep dive into it.

What is corporate social responsibility?

According to the European Commission, CSR is an approach whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. The latter is dependent on the country and government regulations where a business operates.

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

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

• An organisational structure that supports the implementation of the CSR strategy, including clear reporting lines for departments and employees who are involved in implementing the strategy.
• A set of policies and procedures that support the implementation of the CSR strategy, such as policies on ethical behavior, environmental sustainability, human rights, employee engagement, and communication with stakeholders.
• A systematic approach to reporting on progress towards implementing its CSR strategy through monitoring and evaluation processes (M&E).

• Learn more about CSR here

How to conduct and implement a CSR strategy?

Conducting a CSR strategy is not a one-size-fits-all process. Understanding the impact of your organisation 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.

• The 4 reasons why your company should adopt a CSR strategy

It starts with a clear understanding of what CSR means to your organisation. 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.

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Guidelines for tailoring a CSR Strategy for companies

1. Identify purpose

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:

• What are the possible benefits and challenges of this CSR strategy?
• Which values, strengths and weaknesses should the strategy address?
• What will the CSR report be used for?

2. Identify stakeholders and open dialogue

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.

3. Conduct a materiality analysis

Identify the company’s major CSR priorities:

• Which environmental, social, and/or economic topics is the organisation focusing on?
• Which topics are important to stakeholders, internal and external ones?
• Where can the company make the biggest positive impact?

4. Conduct a CSR assessment

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:

• Stakeholder concerns and values
• The drivers for CSR implementation (is there a weakness that the new CSR strategy needs to address or fix?)
• The strengths and weaknesses of the company’s decision-making structure, as these will determine priorities and which areas to focus the CSR strategy on.
• Already existing CSR initiatives (should current projects be integrated or connected with the new strategy to form a more cohesive whole?)
• Timeline and resources to implement new projects

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.

5. Define priority areas and specific goals/commitments

Once the purpose of the CSR strategy is established:

• Set a project scope and clearly identify which key areas to focus on.
• Set a project timeline, building in time for check-ins.
• Ensure that the goals do not overreach, as failing to deliver on a stated goal may compromise credibility.
• Try to make the goals Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based.
• Making a list of proposed actions may be helpful in conceptualising tasks.

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

6. Choose tools and/or framework(s)

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

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

• What types of tracking tools might be useful?
• Which performance indicators will this strategy rely on?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks of the selected framework or tool?

7. Launch CSR initiatives

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.

8. Monitor, report and verify progress

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.

9. Evaluate achievements and room for improvement

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

• What went well? What was difficult? What lessons were learned from the experience?
• What advice would you offer to a company undertaking a similar initiative?
• Is there any follow-up work to be done?

Common CSR tools and frameworks for reporting

CSR shares some frameworks and approaches with ESG, as both concepts involve a few common elements of environmental, social, financial and governance disclosures. Currently, one of the biggest challenges with developing a CSR approach or report is the lack of standardisation.

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

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

They include:

• ISO 26000
• The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

CSR Reporting Frameworks

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

Examples of frameworks include:

• The Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB)
• The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
• Accountability

CSR Reporting Standards

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:

• The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
• The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)

Certifications

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

Trusted certifications include:

• BCorp
• Responsibility Europe

Extra Financial Questionnaires

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

CSR Working Groups

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.

Other Tools

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 AI-powered tool, you’ll be able to collect and analyse 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, we'll help you quickly identify areas that need improvement, and then implement those improvements right away.

Don't miss out on this opportunity. Try our tool today and unlock your organisation's true potential!