What is Corporate Social Responsibility?
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is about a company recognising a responsibility for its impact on the wider society and a willingness to go beyond minimum legal requirements to these impacts. A business has an impact on the community and environment through its everyday operations, for example through its products, supply chain, employment and energy use, to name a few.
We believe that engaging in CSR is the only way to create a sustainable business on a commercial, social and environmental level. We know that CSR has a positive impact on your bottom line. Find out more about the business benefits of CSR.
The core areas of CSR
Heart of the City support businesses to develop policies and activities around the four core areas of CSR:
Community
You can make a difference to your community through initiatives such as fundraising, volunteering and payroll giving.
Environment
Reducing your carbon footprint both benefits the environment and reduces your operational costs.
Workplace
It is often said that a company's greatest assets are its employees. A company should consider employee wellbeing initiatives, workforce diversity and local recruitment.
Marketplace
Your products, services, clients and supply chain have an impact on the world. However, a business can extend the reach of its CSR policy by including its stakeholders in its plans.
Strategic integration
Our vision is to make CSR part of the culture of every business we work with. This means seeing CSR as an integral part of your business and as such requires policies, strategic development and measurement. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) guidance on Social Responsibility (ISO 26000) summarises this integration process in further depth. You can also read more on the government's definition on CSR.
Heart of the City help businesses form robust programmes by addressing three additional key areas that make your charitable efforts go a lot further: strategy, communications and monitoring & evaluation.