Corporate Training Magazine

Incorporating Social Responsibility Into Business Strategy
Vol 2 Issue 2- Mar 2006

By Mark Robbins

Corporate social responsibility has arisen as an important societal force. The challenge many businesses and business schools struggle with is in understanding and incorporating CSR into the strategic core of their philosophy and operations.

In a major step to help industry bring social responsibility into its practices, Queen's School of Business established the Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility to mainstream CSR activity throughout the curriculum and practices. The School has launched a Certificate in Corporate Social Responsibility for its Bachelor of Commerce students as well as a series of events each year for its MBA students, which includes panel discussions, presentation of live case studies by industry leaders and classroom development.

The Centre is also playing a role in the international community as a founding member of the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative. Centre Director Jay Handelman reported, "The GRI was formed with the expressed intent of bringing businesses and business schools together from around the world at the same table to learn from each other and to help mainstream CSR throughout business practice and business school curriculum with the goal of developing a business culture of globally responsible leadership."

The GRI is being directed under the auspices of the United Nations Global Compact and the European Foundation for Management Development. "These international organizations provide both the administrative support and a global venue through which we can affect change. There are 20 founding organizations, and we are in the process of recruiting 20 new organizations, maintaining our mix of businesses and business schools from around the world in order to help expand our efforts to mainstream CSR best practices," explained Handelman.

The initiatives of this group are designed around the following criteria:

To increase the capability to deliver visible results in the development of globally responsibile leadership
To demonstrate a continuous effect on the development of globally responsible leadership
To engage in initiatives that could not be achieved by any other group (i.e. leveraging the uniqueness of a global group of businesses and business schools).

In September 2005, the GRI presented to the Executive Director of the UN Global Compact a series of tangible initiatives aimed at businesses and business schools. These initiatives include the development of an executive education program; establishing scholarships and other support for business school students to pursue this kind of study, and the development of curriculum that can be adopted by business schools. The GRI also identified the need to work with international bodies to implement reward structures for both businesses and business schools that adopt initiatives to develop globally responsible leadership. Proposed options include rankings of businesses and business schools in terms of their CSR efforts.

"It has been remarkable to see the involvement on this initiative from such high level people from businesses and business schools around the world. From our corporate members on this initiative, it becomes evident that the reason they are expending so much energy on such an initiative is that for their companies, globally responsible leadership does not just reside at the top of the organization. This kind of leadership seems to permeate the organization and serves to integrate CSR into the companies' culture, its belief system and overall strategy," opined Handelman.

And this message of global responsible leadership is having an impact, evidenced by the growing number of Canadian companies who are being recognized for their commitment to corporate social responsibility. This list includes companies such as Alcan Canada, where CSR isn't just a buzzword, it's an ethos that is imbued throughout the company's business plan.

"Sustainability is a priority, and it made sense to incorporate economic and social objectives into our business framework as well," said Daniel Gagnier, Alcan Canada senior vice president, Corporate and External Affairs. "When you really think about it, it all boils down to the fact that CSR is the right thing to do. It benefits the company, and most importantly it benefits your employees, the environment and the communities you work in."

Alcan's commitment to CSR has won the company kudos from many different sources, including a nod in 2003 from Corporate Knights as the top corporate citizen out of 50 Canadian companies. Corporate Knights is an organization that promotes business ethics, concentrating specifically on socially responsible investing and corporate social responsibility. Alcan also consistently ranks high on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes.

Although Gagnier appreciates the accolades, he said Alcan doesn't implement CSR for positive publicity. "We don't practice CSR for the purpose of winning awards or gaining goodwill. We do it because it's a holistic business approach that is a win-win situation for everybody." Gagnier believes so strongly in the concept that he is the volunteer chair of ISO's Strategic Advisory Group looking into the feasibility of a CSR standard.

Alcan sponsors numerous projects that aid communities around the globe. They range from an arts program for Vancouver kids to watershed management consulting in third world countries. In Brazil, the company has built eight clinics for Project Smile, a free dental program that has treated more than 3,500 children in the community of Ouro Preto. In Bangladesh and other underdeveloped countries, Alcan works with aid organizations to remove arsenic from water. An educational program, Micro-Business Network, helps schools around the world teach students the importance of sustainability and how to run a business through the recycling of aluminum cans and shopping bags. More than 32,000 students have participated since the program's inception 14 years ago, and the profits fund school and community activities.

Alcan's commitment to CSR isn't just for outside projects. The company also fosters this spirit in its workplace and in its relationships with suppliers. Its Worldwide Code of Employee and Business Conduct sets out a path toward responsible workplace and business practices that the company expects its employees and its contractors to follow.

"Our long term plan for CSR is simply to get better at it," said Gagnier. ³Someone once said to me that the road to sustainability is still under construction. It's certainly a journey of improvement, constant learning and the use of economic success for the benefit of both shareholders and stakeholders."