Having a good Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) model ensures your business is contributing to society and the general public in a positive way. Whether you’re in the process of building your CSR from scratch, or you have a well-established one, there are four key areas of a solid strategy that your initiatives will fall into:
-
Environmental -The reducing, reusing and recycling of products and waste will limit the impact on pollution, gases and ultimately your business carbon footprint. Supporting and sourcing from your local supply trade reduces the need for fuel-hungry, long-haul transportation and/or air freight. Using recycled and biodegradable materials minimises the wastage of packaging. Reviewing back-office operations to implement paperless where possible and using in-house recycling stations to deal with the rest.
-
Philanthropic – Supporting the aid of favoured charities and benevolent campaigns near and afar with the donation of your time, money, or resources can contribute to improving the welfare of others.
-
Ethical – The implementation of fair trade standards; equal pay in exchange for equal labour, for both employees and within your business supply chain.
-
Economic – A responsibility to make ethical, financial business decisions and hold company beliefs that encompass all of the above.
Commitment to the cause
Health and well-being is the primary spotlight of Fruitful Office, an example company in the pursuit of delivering high quality, fresh fruit to businesses across Europe to promote a nutritious working lifestyle. Those businesses who join Fruitful Office’s objective through regular receipt of their colourful and nourishing deliveries, not only see employee morale boosted through feeling cared for and valued, but their brand is boosted, too; as a company who treats their employees with the provision of healthy snacks, sets their image and reputation apart.
For every Fruitful Office basket sold, they commit to planting one Guava, Papaya or quick-growing firewood tree in Malawi, together with the UK charity Ripple Africa. They have been supporting this mission for 6 years, helping schools, households and farms to get involved in planting up to 30,000 seeds every year. This campaign encourages effective, community nurturing through training, planting, monitoring and on-going care of the seed right through the life cycle to fruit-bearing. The provision of both firewood and fruit to the Malawian families ensures they have enough for their own consumption and a source of income generation to some.
As well as supporting their chosen charity project, Fruitful Office are extremely proud of their commitment to the FareShare #ActiveAte initiative, which fights the risk of hunger amongst fifty thousand UK children per school holiday week, and at the same time tackles the environmental impact of food waste. Fruitful Office provides a weekly commitment to donate any excess fruit to zoos, under-privileged nurseries and schools, resulting in their own zero wastage and a valuable, appreciated contribution to those who need it.
So, the benefits of your internal CSR aim to reach further than the well-being of your own company and your employees. These are just a few of the best practices on measuring social impact. Building a framework around the areas mentioned above can underpin your growing CSR philosophy and launch your business to a higher, moral ground.