Let’s first understand the question: What does CSR stand for?
CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility. It encompasses such initiatives, investments, or responsibilities in a business model that makes a company accountable in society. It is a management concept that has numerous benefits irrespective of a company’s sector and size. The benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility are:
- It increases the profits of a company.
- It creates brand awareness and recognition.
- It increases a business’ sales and loyalty of customers.
- It is cost-saving and grants improved financial performance.
- It is good for the organizational growth of a company and leads to access for capital.
- It forms a positive image of the business.
The initiatives of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are measures taken by a business to not only improve the conditions of a society but also benefit it. They help in societal gains, portraying you as someone who takes great interest in the issues of society on a broad note, instead of just attracting maximum customers and working for your own gain. These initiatives solely depend on sustainability incorporating four categories. The four types of Corporate Social Responsibilities by Businesses are:
- Environmental Sustainability Initiatives
- Direct Philanthropic Giving
- Ethical Business Practices
- Economic Responsibility
In order to understand the concept of the four types of CSR, we will have a look at each of them briefly.
Environmental Sustainability Initiatives:
The initiatives for environmental sustainability passed by businesses mainly highlight two important areas. One is controlling pollution in our environment and the second is to reduce greenhouse gases. Many environmental issues are growing bigger each day and their awareness is not going to take a pause. We need to first educate ourselves on all these issues to take a step to make them better. Businesses who are aware of such issues take steps to diminish land, water, air, and noise pollution, and in this way, their role as good and considerate corporate citizens take another high which makes them look great. They don’t do it for their concern only, but the part they play benefits the entire society as well. You can take the example of Cisco Systems. It is a multinational technology organization that has taken numerous steps to minimize carbon footprint, also involving photo voltaic systems at their production facilities. They have established platforms that make sure employees work from aloof without having to commute to their office. They are taking great steps and are increasing their standing.
Direct Philanthropic Giving:
Direct Philanthropic initiatives are the ones that involve the donation of not only money or resources but also time. They donate such significant attributes on national, local or international levels to organizations and charities. These donations can be made to innumerable noble causes involving alleviation for national disasters, provision of clean water and safe and secure homes, education programs and basic human rights in underdeveloped regions or countries. You can an excellent example of the Co-Founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, who has donated a huge amount to his foundation. His foundation supports a variety of causes that include education, the elimination of malaria and development in the agriculture sector. In the year 2014, Bill Gates became the single largest person who gave a lot for the greater good. He donated 1.5 billion dollars in the stock of Microsoft to his foundation.
Ethical Business Practices:
The fundamental focus on ethical business practices is to the social responsibilities in business and to increase its profits summary cater with just labor practices to not only the employees of all businesses but also the suppliers’ employees. Fair and honest business practices for every employee include compensation for wages and equal pay for the work every labor put so much effort into. For suppliers, ethical business practices comprise the consumption of items that have been approved as satisfying fair trade standards. We can take the example of many ice cream businesses that use certified and fair trade for ingredients such as vanilla, sugar, coffee, strawberries, and cocoa.
Economic Responsibility:
The primary focus of businesses for economic responsibility is on such practices and standards that encourage the facilitation of their lasting growth, while also meeting every requirement which is fixed for environmental, ethical and philanthropic practices. When economic decisions are balanced with the impact they have on society, businesses tend to improve their organizational growth as well as their operations while simultaneously taking part in ecological practices. We can take the example of economic responsibility by looking at a company that has modified its processes for the manufacturing department. In these processes, improvements are made for recycled products which give that company a benefit in cutting down the material cost and a benefit to society by using fewer resources.
We talk about sustainability a lot in Corporate Social Responsibilities and so, these initiatives will always widespread in the upcoming years.
In the U.K, students struggling to work for CSR initiatives need to first know what they are. They can get affordable finance assignments help UK if they are having any kind of problem in their project course.
