Paul Toyne’s article for Critical Eye in 20o4 looked at Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Exploring whether CSR was emerging as a critical business issue as organisations recognise how their behaviour can influence how attractive they are to, amongst others, investors and the job market. So just what is CSR? Where did it come from? Why does it matter? Is it a strategic imperative?
Fast-forward to today and the approach taken, and in Paul’s view, it has broadened for the better. The holy grail is still to integrate and embed the principles of sustainable development into policy and business practices, so creating an outcome that provides social and environmental benefits. CSR did a good job of helping us all make a start in the right direction, it was not perfect but we all knew that!