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Make Europe a Pole of Excellence
on Corporate Social Responsibility
1. A Renewed European Strategy on CSR Raise awareness and promote the exchange of
best practice, with an emphasis on SMEs and
In order to encourage investment and provide an acceding and candidate countries
attractive setting for business and work, the European Back up a European Alliance on CSR as the vehicle
Union must complete its internal market and make its to develop a close partnership with business
regulatory environment more business-friendly, while Support CSR initiatives by stakeholders. The
business must in turn develop its sense of social Commission will also organise regular review
responsibility. Against this statement by European meetings of the European Multistakeholder
Heads of State & Governments in March 2005, and on Forum on CSR to take stock of progress made in
the basis of the work accomplished on CSR at European relation to the recommendations of the Forum
level -in particular through the European Multistake- Cooperate with Member States, in particular
holder Forum-the European Commission adopted a through the High-Level National Representatives
renewed strategy on CSR on 22 March 2006. on CSR
Examine further voluntary action to achieve the
Through a strengthened partnership with governments, objectives of transparency and information for
business and stakeholders, it wants to give a new consumers
impulse to make Europe a pole of excellence on CSR; Explore the possibilities to support further
thereby better harness the innovation of enterprises research into CSR as part of the forthcoming
and stakeholders in support of sustainable develop- 7th Framework Programme
ment and the European strategy for growth & jobs. Invite business schools, universities and other
education institutions to incorporate CSR as a
In its new Communication on CSR, the Commission cross-cutting issue into the curricula of future
offers a clear definition of CSR: a concept whereby com- managers and graduate students
panies integrate social & environmental concerns in their Promote CSR globally through enhancement
business operations and in heir interaction with their of international instruments (UN, OECD, ILO,
stakeholders on a voluntary basis. The Commission also Regional Agreements, etc), trade incentives
presents clear actions to promote further take-up of and its integration into EU initiatives such as
CSR. For instance, the Commission commits to: the New European Strategy for Africa.
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public. Here also a strong emphasis is put on multi- 3. The European Cartography on CSR
disciplinary research and the integration of CSR and
sustainable development in traditional education It is in this context that CSR Europe, together with its
Ensure an enabling environment for CSR, through National Partner Organisations is developing a
the promotion of voluntary and innovative efforts of European Cartography on CSR, based on a survey of
companies on CSR, a strengthened partnership with over 500 business solutions and 140 business
all stakeholders and by being consistent across the networking activities. Our ambition is to offer new
European policy areas and integrating the insights to all those willing to engage in or up-scale
promotion of CSR where appropriate. In this innovative strategies, pro-active dialogues and colla-
respect, the partners of the Alliance also agree to borative actions on CSR. This Cartography is by no
take stock through high-level meetings and to means exhaustive, neither academically founded.
communicate the Alliance results in the context of Nevertheless, it provides already valuable indications
the European strategy for growth and jobs. on how and where in Europe change happens within
Develop open coalitions of cooperation between business, as much as on where constraints and gaps
business, experts and stakeholders. With the remain in the area of CSR. It might also serve in
backing of the Commission, Laboratory meetings prioritising the activities of the European Alliance on
will be set up in the following Roadmap and CSR. All your comments and suggestions are therefore
Alliance priority areas: most useful.
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Objectives and Methodolodgy
With support of the European Commission, CSR Europe implementation of CSR strategies by companies
is undertaking a European Cartography on CSR which (e.g. policies and legislation, societal /
will be available in the fall 2006. The present document environmental / economic factors etc)
already provides some tentative results which will be
further analysed and consolidated.
Indicate their expectations from the European
Commission
To develop this Cartography, businesses were invited to The European Cartography of innovative business
select innovative CSR approaches and practices which solutions for CSR challenges is thus based on the
they are willing to share with other companies on CSR analysis of the above two sets of data, i.e. 545 CSR
Europes Marketplace Online.The stock of CSR solutions solutions featured by companies and 141 business
provides only illustrative exemplary cases. It is by no initiatives through sharing and networking with
means exhaustive, neither does it aim to be a complete others (via NPOs). The collection of solutions features
inventory of business activities on CSR as it does not innovations across a range of sectors, including among
cover each and every activity that businesses are others IT&Electronics (14%), Telecommunication services
undertaking for addressing CSR problems. (10%), Finance (10%), Retail (8%), Pharmaceutical (6%),
Food & Beverage (6%), Oil Gas and Mining (5%), Utilities
The solutions are categorised into 10 themes inspired (5%), Energy (4%), and Consumer goods (4%).
by the goals and strategies of the European Roadmap
for Businesses towards a Sustainable & Competitive
With this Cartography, our ambition is to support
Enterprise, launched in March 2005.They are also similar
enterprises and networks to:
to those set in the European Alliance on CSR launched
by the European Commission and business leaders on
22 March 2006. Benchmark their CSR strategy and practice
against those of other business and networks
from throughout Europe, representing a wide
As a direct contribution to this cartography, the 22
National Partner Organisations (NPOs) of CSR Europe range of sectors.
produced, on behalf of their respective memberships, a Consider future trends and priorities in light of
detailed overview of their activities and services to their short, medium and long term strategies
support business initiatives for networking and sharing Explore with other companies, organisations and
with others. As national references on CSR, they were the European Commission how to bring the
also invited to express their views on current and future European Alliance on CSR to life
trends in the general CSR context in their country.
The Cartography is also there for the European
In this survey, conducted in March April 2006, NPOs Commission and other stakeholders to:
were asked to :
Get a better understanding on how and where
Provide information about the key networking change happens within business
activities conducted over the period 2004-2005 Understand some of the expectations of CSR
Identify, among the 10 Roadmap issues, those business networks regarding their roles in
creating a more favourable environment for CSR
which they believe will be the most significant to
companies in the coming 5 years in Europe Take some of the Cartography results into
Indicate the main external factors that currently account when the European Multistakeholder
affect (both positively and negatively), the Forum on CSR will gather again
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Cartography Results
Sources: 545 CSR Business Solutions & 140 Business Networking Initiatives
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2. Does CSR impact the
bottom line of business? Social and Economic Impact of CSR
Does it have intangible
Direct bottom line benefits to business
impacts? Intangible benefits to business
45,1
62
Target CSR issue directly addressed 71,9
45% of business innovations yielded
direct bottom line benefits to business. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
These include improved profits, cost (% of cases by impact of CSR)
savings, operational efficiencies and
gaining new business opportunities
In over 62% of cases, business gained
intangible benefits, such as improved
credibility, goodwill, enhanced
reputation and relations
Furthermore, in 72% of cases, companies
were able to start addressing the target
problem, while nearly 40% resulted
in wider impacts on society
(e.g. through increased awareness about
the issue, by up-scaling the project or
spin-offs into other impactful activities).
3. What constraints do
businesses face when Type of constraints
implementing innovative (multiple responses across categories)
CSR solutions?
Internal managerial constraints 32,4
External constraints 9,9
In 1 out of 3 cases, the constraints Intrinsic complexities 47,5
faced by these companies were largely
internal and/or managerial 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Resources or operating costs (17%) (% solutions by constraint)
Operational difficulties in implemen-
ting CSR in the business context (11%) Internal managerial constraints internal management systems & procedures (integration within
Internal management systems and the business, across departments, operating sites, subsidiaries)
internal communication
procedures or the integration of inno- need for training, skills enhancement/improvement
vation in the existing systems (11%). resources, time; operating costs
operational difficulties in implementation
Regarding the external side, only 5% of External constraints lack of external awareness (supply chain, partners);
the constraints relate to regulatory, trust (stakeholders, public)
institutional or governmental action, institutional, regulatory, governmental support
while 8% are partnership related. external communication/media
resources needed for upscale, integration; external funding, donors
Over 52% company responses reiterate Intrinsic complexities newness of the innovation; initial difficulties; problems in
that CSR challenges are intrinsically measuring tracking output/outcome; weakness of the solution
difficulty of the issue; issue slow or hard to change in the short
complex to deal with term; contextual difficulties (demographic, social, economic)
Issues are difficult or slow to change complexity of the innovation; difficult to upscale/transfer;
or it is hard to alter the socio-demo- need for improvement for the long term
graphic context and conditions (12%) partnership/ stakeholders
Innovations are complex to
implement, upscale or sustain in the
long term (20%)
There are initial start up problems
when innovating and implementing
change (18%)
Sources: 545 CSR Business Solutions & 140 Business Networking Initiatives
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4. Are there matters which dont matter?
Or what gaps in the current initiatives need
particular attention?
In reporting the innovative solutions that Safety issues are already being addressed,
they have implemented, companies appear mainly through formal legislative obligations.
to have provided fewer examples in the While this might provide a part of the
following two areas: explanation, we believe that more innovation
on Health & Safety is needed, for instance
Equal opportunities & Diversity within the supply chain, for consumer health
(50% less solutions on this issue and safety, or with regard to specific critical
than on Environmental protection) issues such as mental health and stress at work.
Health & Safety (50% less solutions
on this issue than on Skills & Some other questions arise: Is the low
Competence building) representation of innovations on Equal
Opportunities & Diversity due to the
It is also concerning that there are few intrinsic complexity of such issues?
initiatives of the national business Or is it that the companies have not yet
networks in these two areas. successfully implemented solutions or
adopted changes in their management
The limited examples of solutions on Health & systems and processes in this area as
Safety may be due to the fact that Health and compared to the other issues?
5. Is your company
well prepared for CSR issues:
tomorrow? current focus and future priorities
As privileged and informed observers on 23
Mainstreaming CSR 11,18
CSR developments, the National Partner 18,6
Organisations of CSR Europe were asked to 21
Innovation & Entrepreneurship 14,74
select the issues they believed should be 9,4
11
addressed on priority by companies in the Equal opportunity & Diversity 8,82
6,5
next 5 years.
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Communication & Transparency 4,08
13,7
They ranked Mainstreaming CSR and 9
Innovation & Entrepreneurship as by far Stakeholder engagement 14,8
14,88
the 2 most important issues for the next 9
5 years. Skills & competence building 15,6
12,6
7
A comparison of the reported future key Environmental protection 16,7
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issues and the present focus of business
solutions and networking activities, shows 0 5 10 15 20 25
the areas where more focus, preparation
% of NPOs indicating issues as future priority area
and innovations are needed to help better
address the future concerns and seize % of collected Business Solutions
opportunities. % of collected Business Networking Activities
Sources: 545 CSR Business Solutions & 140 Business Networking Initiatives
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Managing internal change and
building trust Are companies getting the balance right
Both Mainstreaming CSR and
Communication & Transparency are issues to address tomorrows CSR challenges?
which currently get much less attention
that what would be justified by their Mainstreaming
Equal Innovation & Communication
perceived importance for the future. This Skills & Opportunities Entrepreneurship & Trans
parency CSR
Environmental Stakeholder Competence
positively signals the need for continued Protection Engagement Building
& Diversity
Sources: 545 CSR Business Solutions & 140 Business Networking Initiatives
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6. Is there a distinctive CSR
throughout Europe? Geographic Outreach of CSR solutions
6 in 10 solutions have a specific Europe 10
national or local focus Global 27
Only 1 in 10 solutions are explicitly reported National 64
to be implemented at the regional European 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
level, and 1 in 4 is implemented in other non- (% of business solutions by geographical scope)
European countries or globally. Although
nearly 60% of participating companies
operate globally, their local focus shows how
enterprises tailor their CSR initiatives, taking
into account issues in the various local and
national contexts of their consumers, Type(s) of initiatives of business
customers and communities.
sharing / networking with others
At the same time, some initiatives do
show that there are specific European Awareness raising 46,2
contributions to the development of CSR Capacity building 36,9
Meetings with key stakeholders 16,79
The majority of solutions provided by
business to illustrate their innovation on CSR 0 10 20 30 40 50
are about environment. This in line with (% of initiatives of each type)
Europes common engagement in the Kyoto
Agenda, contributes to build a low carbon Conferences, seminars, website, awards, newsletters,
Awareness raising
economy, which is in the benefit on both media partnerships, featuring in the media;
citizens quality of life and the Participation on panels, jury in major projects
competitiveness of its enterprises. (research, awards)
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8. Initial sketch of where
to tap into CSR knowledge
and expertise across
Europe
Sources: 545 CSR Business Solutions & 140 Business Networking Initiatives
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1. Mainstreaming CSR, Transparency SWE FI
NO
and Communication
SCOT
IRE
UK
NL
POL
BE
DE
CZ
SLO
FR AT
CH
PRT ES IT
GR
Sources: 545 CSR Business Solutions & 140 Business Networking Initiatives
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2. Stakeholder Engagement NO
SWE FI
SCOT
IRE
UK
NL
BE
DE
SLO
FR AT
CH
PRT ES IT
GR
Sources: 545 CSR Business Solutions & 140 Business Networking Initiatives
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3. Equal Opportunities SWE FI
NO
& Diversity
SCOT
IRE
UK
NL
BE
DE
CZ
FR
CH
PRT ES IT
GR
Sources: 545 CSR Business Solutions & 140 Business Networking Initiatives
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4. Innovation & SWE FI
NO
Entrepreneurship
SCOT
UK
NL
POL
DE
AT
IT
Sources: 545 CSR Business Solutions & 140 Business Networking Initiatives
14
5. Skills & SWE FI
NO
Competence building
SCOT
IRE
UK
NL
POL
BE
DE
CZ
SLO
FR AT
CH
PRT ES IT
GR
Sources: 545 CSR Business Solutions & 140 Business Networking Initiatives
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CSR Europe Members
Connecting Connecting
for the CSR Innovation
16
www.csreurope.org
CSR Europe National Partners Organisations
The European
Network on CSR Network on CSR
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www.csreurope.org
CSR Europe would like to thank the European Commission DG Employment, Social Affairs
and Equal Opportunities for its support for the development of this Cartography
CSR Europe would also like to thank the following Roadmap partners which are supporting
CSR Europe in capitalising on the European Business Roadmap for a Competitive and
Sustainable Enterprise 2010.
Although this brochure is presenting only some initial results, we already would like to express
our gratitude to those who have been engaged in the process and in particular:
Dr Anupama Mohan, Belgacom fellow on CSR at Solvay Business School, Damien Dallemagne
from Arthur D. Little, Pierre Echard and Jan Noterdaeme from CSR Europe.
Thank you also to all the companies and NPOs who we have kindly harassed to provide data in
time as well as to Carien Duisterwinkel for her excellent support. Critical guidance was also
provided by Bernard Giraud from Danone, Elena Bonfiglioli from Microsoft, Stefan Crets from
Toyota, Toms Sercovich from BITC Ireland and Ruggero Bodo and Gianfranco Romano from
Sodalitas. We hope that many other companies as from now on will further assist us in the
successful completion and dissemination of this pilot project.
For more information on the Cartography, please contact: Jan Noterdaeme jn@csreurope.org
and Pierre Echard pe@csreurope.org
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