CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility. Today, it is a standard part of most sustainable businesses. It helps companies contribute to a better society by working with social and environmental issues. More so, CSR tends to concern developing nations. Generally, this is also where these issues are the most visible.
CSR is about companies taking responsibility. By engaging in social, environmental and economic improvements. Therefore, one can divide it into three parts: financial-, environmental- and social. Today, these parts align well with the SDGs of the UN. Due to this, CSR is a normal and expected part of any sustainable business.
Other responsibilities
The concept includes ethical aspects, labour rights and corruption. When companies work with some of these subjects, they work with their Corporate Social Responsibilities. In other words, they are aligning their business models with a more sustainable world.
Social CSR
As mentioned, there are three main parts of CSR. These are the social, environmental and economic responsibilities. The social part concerns how companies respect human rights. More so, various international agreements and conventions guide this work. Two examples are the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ILOs agreements on employee rights.
Environmental CSR
This part concerns how a company works with nature – reassuring that a business has a minimal environmental impact. More so, it is common to work with reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Also, to avoid damaging chemicals in all productions. Another common area is to improve all things connected to transport.
Financial responsibility
Financial responsibility is about the company’s way of doing business. Naturally, the business must be profitable to enable social and environmental responsibility. Corruption is a common issue within this subject.
Other relevant facts
Some companies, such as transnational companies, offer CSR reports on their websites. This transparency is to give customers an insight into their business. For example, Oatly released a report in 2019. Finally, CSR is voluntary in most nations. The best-known exception is India, where it is mandatory for big companies. This law was established in 2014 and meant that larger companies must spend 2 % of their income on CSR.