Publications & Thought Leadership

This Report on “Best CSR Practices in Canada: Six Case Studies” provides insights into leading Canadian companies advancing their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) impacts.

Leading CSR in Canada is underdoing a strategic pivot from corporate efforts to embed social and environmental considerations in governance, risk, strategy, decisions, functions, products, supply chains and operations to the embedment of societal or humanitarian ambitions in the core purpose of the company. This approach to CSR embeds CSR in the “business model” and influences everything across the company and the role the company plays to influence and transform its industry, communities and ecosystem for good. It is called Social Purpose.

This was one of the main conclusions drawn from a 2018 research project which studied recent and projected shifts in CSR among 32 leading CSR companies across Canada. Following up on this research, the Federal Government commissioned (and contributed to) “Best CSR Practices in Canada: Six Case Studies” of companies demonstrating this shift from CSR to “social purpose”.

These companies include:

• Chandos Construction (Alta)
• Libro Credit Union (Ont)
• Maple Leaf Foods (Ont)
• MEC (BC)
• Mills Office Productivity (BC)
• Vancity Credit Union (BC)

“Best CSR Practices in Canada: Six Case Studies” profiles current efforts in the following areas:

• Social Purpose
• Community Partnerships
• Social Innovation
• Lessons Learned

“Reading Best CSR Practices in Canada: Six Case Studies” will give you insights into emerging good CSR practices you can pursue at your company.