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CSR - risk, reputation, and responsibility

Today's consumers hold companies to a higher standard – and increasingly, potential recruits are looking beyond profit and success and judging companies on whether they operate responsibly to address social and environmental issues. For many, that’s a deal breaker.

But what constitutes good CSR and how much is just cynical spinning?

How many organisations have consistency across communications and CSR, with a truly joined up approach towards articulating their values and acting responsibly?

Last night’s Midlands PR event, arranged jointly by the PRCA and CIPR and chaired by Midlands Insider editor Kurt Jacobs – asked that question to representatives from the public, private and charity sector who shared their anecdotes, wisdom and experience.

“Real CSR should be for everyone”, said Barrie Hodge, Head of Fundraising and Communications at youth homelessness charity St Basils – “it should be engrained”.

Barrie has worked with St Basils for the last two years. Prior to that, he’s spent most of his career working in commercial radio, producing shows across the UK.

He shared his five-point plan which provided a succinct summary of ‘good’ CSR: consider the values of the business; identify synergy with appropriate third sector organisations; identify practical solutions to make your world better; learn and grow together; and create a lasting legacy.

He told a story about lasting (or not-so-lasting) legacy. In a previous role, he, along with a few broadcasting colleagues, jumped at the chance to do their bit for charity. Alongside representatives from a local bank, they went out to help with a landscape gardening project. They put a up a new fence and they were suitably chuffed. They’d done their bit.

Then, a wee while later, they found out the fence had fallen down. The charity had to raise money to rebuild it then pay experts to put it up. It completely defeated the purpose of the original CSR activity because even working together, there were never going to be credible landscape gardeners. Their legacy was willingness, but total failure – but they did get their moment in the spotlight when they shared their experience and contribution (pre-fallen fence) on local radio.

Which begs the question – how much is CSR an end in itself, and how much should be promoted?

Andy Holding, Corporate Responsibility Manager at Birmingham Airport, is comfortable with the fact that much of what they do goes under the radar (pardon the pun), but he knows the importance of demonstrating their output internally and within their local community 

Birmingham Airport has one of the largest community impacts of any UK airport, with tens of thousands of people living beneath its flightpaths. For more than 20 years, Andy has been closely involved in developing a wide-ranging CSR agenda, addressing issues surrounding environmental impact, education, employment and community investment. 

He says that CSR at Birmingham Airport is practical – it’s about maximising the economic and social benefits of aviation while minimising its impact on local communities and the environment – and all in a highly visible setting where stakeholders are many and everyone has a view.

One of their major areas of focus is education. There are poor neighbourhoods in the surrounding area and the airport runs an educational facility where they fund workshops, teach work skills and life skills and boost aspirations.

As one of the region’s largest employers, this links back to a few of the points Barrie makes – including identifying practical solutions to make your world better. As the airport grows, job opportunities grow, so they choose to invest in training and they work with partners to target those in areas of social deprivation to help them gain meaningful employment.

Admittedly, there’s a bit of enlightened self-interest. Isn’t there always? What’s important is making it part of who you are. “It’s being responsible, but it’s more than philanthropic,” said Jonathan Fortnum a partner in Pinsent Masons, the international law firm. “It’s about making our people the best they can be.”

Jonathan was the driving force behind ‘Starfish’, Pinsent Mason’s CR programme which is focused throughout its international network on ‘Inspiring Young Lives’.  He’s passionate about ensuring Pinsent Masons is a responsible business of purpose to each of its stakeholder groups. 

We want our CSR activity to be “aligned, authentic and ambitious,” he said. “If you can weave CSR into who you are and what you do then it becomes part of the culture and it becomes safe from change – be it in management or office politics.”

His comments brought the conversation full circle and back to the initial question: how many organisations have consistency across communications and CSR, with a truly joined up approach towards articulating their values and acting responsibly?

There are many ways to execute CSR – some good, some bad, some awe-inspiring and some truly awful – but where CSR is engrained into business culture and it’s part of who you are (rather than a bunch of broadcasters and bankers building a fence for charity), the results are far more likely to bring about positive, lasting, change.