| What is
the CSR Alliance?
On 22 March 2006, the European Commission
published a new Communication on Corporate Social Responsibility,
and through it, launched the European
Alliance for CSR - an umbrella network for discussion
and debate on new and existing CSR initiatives by large companies,
SMEs and their stakeholders.
The Alliance lays the foundations to
promote CSR in the future. It revolves around the following
activities:
- Raising awareness and improving knowledge
on CSR and reporting on its achievements;
- Helping to mainstream and develop
open coalitions of co-operation; and
- Ensuring an enabling environment
for CSR
The Commission has adopted this approach
as it is convinced that companies’ CSR activities can
contribute to a number of its policy objectives, from increasing
European competitiveness to making progress towards the Millennium
Development Goals.
How will its goals be achieved?
The Alliance will be the hub of European
activity on CSR by enabling networking across a range of businesses
and facilitating the exchange of experiences and knowledge
of CSR practices.
It aims to mobilise the resources and
capacity of businesses and their stakeholders in order to:
- Provide a valuable forum for generating
dialogue;
- Fertilise ideas and stimulate new
CSR activity; and
- Build partnerships between businesses
and stakeholders
While the Alliance will be principally
business-led and business-run, it is an opportunity to create
new partnerships and develop new opportunities with other
stakeholders - charities and other civil society organisations
that benefit from the wealth of CSR programmes businesses
are engaged in.
Who can join?
The Alliance is addressed to individual
businesses. This reflects the European Commission’s
view that CSR takes primarily a voluntary approach, encouraging
engagement from a diversity of European businesses. The success
of the Alliance and the effectiveness of its outcomes also
depend on business engagement with other stakeholders, who
are invited to make full use of the opportunities the Alliance
offers, by working closely with businesses who would like
to take part. Any business, whatever its size, can become
involved.
How will the Alliance be run?
It is an informal grouping and does not
involve specific rules or requirements, a charter, signatures
or heavy processes, nor will it be managed by the European
Commission. It relies on the support of business organisations
and the business community itself. Business organisations
such as UNICE, the European business federation, will help
co-ordinate matters in relation to the Alliance, keep track
of developments and activities and communicate them to companies.
They will generally act as an interface between Alliance companies
and the EU institutions, and foster contacts between those
companies. The CBI will form the link in the UK and BERR will
work closely with the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)
and Business in the Community (BitC), the leading CSR charity
supporting business.
What are the benefits:
The Alliance will:
- facilitate higher visibility of companies’
CSR activities in individual member states and across Europe;
- support networking and capacity-building
opportunities;
- provide a market place of ideas and
practices across Europe;
- demonstrate the value of voluntary
business engagement and the difference it can make to a
company’s triple bottom line;
- encourage companies to understand
and support the “business case” behind CSR,
highlighting incentives for involvement in CSR projects
and programmes;
- highlight opportunities for using
CSR as a way to assess and manage risks, such as workforce
management, environmental governance and operations in fragile
states; and
- foster dialogue with the European
Commission on CSR
How businesses can expect to be involved?
Businesses will be able to determine
for themselves to what extent they would like to be involved.
However, they are expected to:
- be ready to share information about
what CSR activity they do and how they do it;
- consider contributing on a number
of key areas suggested by the Commission in its Communication
on CSR, for example:
- innovating benefits to society;
- improving and developing skills
for employability;
- responding to diversity challenges;
- improving working conditions
in the supply chain;
- enhancing dialogue with stakeholders;
and
- addressing issues of communication
and transparency
- take part in periodic meetings to
explore and develop projects in the priority areas under
their own initiative
Commitment and mutual trust will be vital
to the success of this initiative. The results will need to
be ambitious, concrete and measurable in order to demonstrate
that the natural path for CSR is within the everyday business
practices of companies.
How do you join?
If you are interested and a company based in the EU, you are
invited to express your support, at any moment in time, to
the BERR. E-mail csr@dti.gsi.gov.uk
More information on the Alliance is included
in the Annex of the European Commission’s Communication,
available here. |
