Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Practices: A Strategic Approach for Organizations
Question
Task: What are the key principles of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and what sustainable practices can organizations adopt to enhance their environmental and social impact?
Answer
STUDY QUESTIONS
Question 1
Answer:
The term “Corporate Social Responsibility” or CSR refers to the significant humanitarian practices that are focused on causing an optimistic impact on the societal and environmental context. Apart from that, a well-conducted CSR practice can strategically impact business performance and the overall business growth of an organization. Precisely, CSR practices are empowered in regulating the competitive organizational reputation of the companies (Singh &Misra, 2021). In a nutshell, CSR practices are strategically designed in order to bring value to the community over the period. In accordance with various kinds of CSR initiatives practiced by the companies, this strategic practice is generally segmented into four different categories including philanthropic responsibility,environmental responsibility, economic responsibility, and ethical responsibility (Islam et al. 2021).
Apart from that, a wide range of organizations tends to also consider some other forms of CSR, such as governance, diversity and inclusion, employee engagement, and well-being. It has been reported that significant numbers of companies have arranged in-house vaccination drives during the COVID-19 pandemic as one of the strategic CSR practices.
In addition to this context, it is relevant to mention that the key principles of Corporate Social Responsibility are as follows;
• Accountability for the tasks or performances attained by the organizations with an emphasis on its societal impact (Ver?i?&?ori?, 2018).
• Transparency is needed to be maintained.
• It is highly essential to practice "Ethical behavior" when it comes to initiating CSR activities.
• The interest of the stakeholders is needed to be respected. Precisely, CSR practices are focused to meet stakeholders’ interests.
• The overall CSR activities practiced by the organizations must follow the declarations stated in human rights.
• The CSR practices are designed based on international norms of behavior.
Question 2
Answer
Some effective practices that are often introduced to the organizational structure of the companies as effective measures in approaching sustainability are as follows;
• It has been identified that a wide range of organizations ensures properusage of biodegradable packaging (Prakash et al. 2019).
• Based on the information available in reliable secondary sources, a large number of organizations have restricted excessive paper usage as one of the sustainable environment-friendly practices in initiating various organizational activities.
• In accordance with the information depicted in the case study, IKEA has increased renewable energy usage in initiating various operational practices along with significant water efficiency (ikea, 2023). The same can surely be referred to as a strategic approach in considering environmental sustainability.
• Apart from that, the information available in reliable sources has confirmed that companies tend to invest (i.e. fund allocation or monetary investment) in green projects as one of the environment-friendly sustainable practices.
• This is to be included in this context that employee education or arrangement of employee training is of utmost required in optimizing the overall sustainability practices of the companies.
Question 3
Answer
The term, “carbon footprint” refers to the estimated total amount of “greenhouse gases” including methane and carbon dioxide that are regularly generated by our actions knowingly or unknowingly (Tennison et al. 2021). As depicted in this paper, most organizations nowadays tend to initiate environment-friendly sustainable practices in order to make a significant impact in resolving the outcomes addressed due to carbon footprint. In accordance with the information derived from the given case study, IKEA has adopted sustainable practices in replacing fossil fuels in initiating its transport operational activities in support of alternative energy (ikea, 2023). In addition to this context, it is highly relevant to state that the adoption of a circular economy (i.e. Reduce, reuse, recycle) plays such a strategic role in reducing the carbon footprint (Geissdoerfer et al. 2018).
Question 4
Answer
In order to introduce environmentally sustainable practices as an integral part of our regular life, initially, we all need to be aware. It is essential to know about the resources that can cause maximum “carbon emission “. Precisely, we need to alter or change some existing practices that we knowingly or unknowingly executed regularly and we unintentionally become responsible for generating "greenhouse gases". In a nutshell, proper education and learning can optimize awareness by reflecting on the essentially of environment-friendly sustainable practices (Korhonen, Honkasalo&Seppälä, 2018).
Question 5
Answer
As per the information revealed in the secondary sources, it is now confirmed that significant numbers of organizations have prioritized one particular dimension over sacrificing the alternate or the remaining dimensions. Such volatile or uncertain scenario is generally referred to as sustainability trade-offs (Rajesh, 2021). In accordance with the triple bottom line or TBL perspective, organizations tend to generally place comparatively more attention on attaining economic goals over environmental and social goals. The information obtained from the given case study, it has been noticed that IKEA tends to practice environment-friendly sustainable initiatives and the same has eventually optimized the organizational reputation of IKEA to some great extent (ikea, 2023). Apart from that, the cost-effective sustainable business practices as per the key concept of circular economy (i.e.reuse, reduce, and recycle) have enabled IKEA to maintain “trade off” or “proper balance”in managingorganizational cost.
Reference list
Geissdoerfer, M., Morioka, S. N., de Carvalho, M. M., & Evans, S. (2018). Business models and supply chains for the circular economy. Journal of cleaner production, 190, 712-721.
kea, (2023).Categories for better storage and organization. Retrieved from:https://www.ikea.com/ [Retrieved on 16 January 2023]
Islam, T., Islam, R., Pitafi, A. H., Xiaobei, L., Rehmani, M., Irfan, M., & Mubarak, M. S. (2021). The impact of corporate social responsibility on customer loyalty: The mediating role of corporate reputation, customer satisfaction, and trust. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 25, 123-135.
Korhonen, J., Honkasalo, A., &Seppälä, J. (2018). Circular economy: the concept and its limitations. Ecological economics, 143, 37-46.
Prakash, G., Choudhary, S., Kumar, A., Garza-Reyes, J. A., Khan, S. A. R., & Panda, T. K. (2019). Do altruistic and egoistic values influence consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions toward eco-friendly packaged products? An empirical investigation.Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 50, 163-169.
Rajesh, R. (2021). Optimal trade-offs in decision-making for sustainability and resilience in manufacturing supply chains. Journal of Cleaner Production, 313, 127596.
Singh, K., &Misra, M. (2021). Linking corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizational performance: The moderating effect of corporate reputation. European Research on Management and Business Economics, 27(1), 100139.
Tennison, I., Roschnik, S., Ashby, B., Boyd, R., Hamilton, I., Oreszczyn, T., ...&Eckelman, M. J. (2021). Health care's response to climate change: a carbon footprint assessment of the NHS in England. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5(2), e84-e92.
Ver?i?, A. T., &?ori?, D. S. (2018).The relationship between reputation, employer branding, and corporate social responsibility.Public Relations Review, 44(4), 444-452.
