Community, Consumers, CSR management
September 01 2003
by Briefing Staff
Business in the Community named Carillion as Company of the year at its 2003 awards ceremony held on June 12. BitC praised the construction company for its overall systems and approach to managing its social responsibility. Adnams, the Suffolk brewer, was named as the Small company of the year - the first time such an award has been given. Standard Chartered Bank received the international award for its Partnership for Africa initiative. Award winners in other categories included Waitrose for rural action, Shields Environmental for the environment and The Co-operative Bank for cause related marketing. Meanwhile, Tesco was named Scottish business of the year at the Scottish Business in the Community awards on June 5, and HBOS took the corporate social responsibility title at the Scottish PR awards in June for its community banking programme. The bank also won joint first place with Edinburgh City Council for best community campaign. Contact Gill Shaffer, Business in the Community, on 020 8347 8206 (http://www.bitc.org.uk); Jane Cumming, IPR Scotland, on 01463 783018 (http://www.ipr.org.uk/scotland)
Editorial Comment
Carillion deserves credit for the progress it has made in developing and integrating a robust CSR strategy since its demerger from Tarmac in 1999. That the £2bn business and construction services company should choose to announce a profits warning on the same day it was awarded BitC's coveted maple trophy could - and should - be put down to nothing more than unfortunate timing.
Predictably, the press couldn't resist the temptation of suggesting a relationship between the two events. The Times, for one, relished the opportunity to ridicule CSR as having "got out of hand . . . driving business into new areas of expenditure at a time when they need to be concentrating resources on innovation and improving productivity."
A justifiable case can be made against the jaundiced nature of this article in particular. There's a stronger case still around the mainstream press' persistence in casting CSR leaders as moral do-gooders wasting shareholders hard-earned cash.
Whatever the truth of the matter, the fact remains that press and public alike still fail to see CSR as more than an ancillary of mainstream business. More CSR awards that stress the mainstream business benefits, and more mainstream business awards that stress CSR, would be an important first step in getting through to the business media. Until then, however, finalists would do well to recognise that BitC remains judiciously silent on whether the "guaranteed national press coverage" it promises will be positive or negative.
Many people are unable to name a socially responsible company, according to the fourth annual CSR Monitor published by Environics on June 13. Based on a survey of over 21,000 consumers, shareholders and corporate employees in 21 countries, the report suggests that in 2002, one in ten more consumers considered punishing companies they see as socially irresponsible than in 2001.
Six out of ten (60%) Irish adults believe that business does not pay enough attention to their social responsibilities, and more than half (53%) claim they would pay more for products or services that are socially responsible, according to the first-ever survey of consumer attitudes in Ireland towards CSR, recently published by Business in the Community Ireland. Contact Shannon Stevenson, Environics, on 00 1 416 969 2775 (http://www.environicsinternational.com); Darina Eades, BITC Ireland, on 0353 1874 7232 (http://www.bitc.ie)
US companies value different aspects of CSR from their European counterparts, according to research published by PricewaterhouseCoopers on June 4. Europe-based multinationals focus on the economic and social impact of their products and services (50% versus 27%), while the US places emphasis on positioning for long-term profitability (91% versus 80%). Governance, corporate ethics and attention to investors are equally important to both.
More than four fifths of US companies believe that good corporate citizenship helps the bottom line, and nearly three quarters (74%) believe the public has the right to expect companies to act as good citizens. A survey published on July 14 by the United States Chamber of Commerce and Boston College also shows that corporate citizenship in US companies is driven largely by internal corporate values (75%) and customer feedback (53%).
In contrast, a survey by Gallup finds that just a fifth (22%) of Americans have confidence in big business. The Gallup annual confidence in institutions poll reveals that only health maintenance organisations are seen in a worse light by the public. Contact Pete Collins, PricewaterhouseCoopers, on 00 1 646 394 4496 (http://www.barometersurveys.com); Linda Rozett, US CC, on 00 1 202 463 5682 (http://www.uschamber.com); Press Office, Gallup, on 020 8939 7000 (http://www.gallup.com)