A critical step along the sustainability or CSR journey is the adoption of a CSR / sustainability policy. It is important to adopt a CSR / sustainability policy to signal an organization’s commitments and define what an organization means by CSR or sustainability in order to foster organizational embedment and integration. A very common barrier to sustainability and CSR take-up and buy-in across an organization is the lack of a consistent definition of sustainability / CSR and what it means for the organization. Once the organization has determined its CSR / sustainability commitments, it can embed these concepts into its governance, operations, relationships and culture.
This is a short paper summarizing research Coro has conducted into CSR / sustainability policy approaches across different organizations.
This paper can be used as a checklist of potential CSR / sustainability policy components. It is based on a high-level content analysis of CSR / sustainability policy commitments. It gives insights into scope and policy language for the development of a CSR / sustainability policy. It addresses the following elements:
- Characteristics
- Philosophies
- Components
- Sample language
Sample language is organized according to purpose, scope, financial stewardship, business ethics, customers, employees, environment, community, governance, transparency and accountability.
This tool can save companies time and money conducting original research into CSR / sustainability policy practices as this organizes the common elements into one at-a-glance document. Use this tool to inform your CSR / sustainability policy approach.
