Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe
(1995-2005)
10 Years of Intense Business Innovation
&
Stakeholder Dialogue
Berlin Wall - 1989
The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 heralded a new era of co-operation and improved trade relations between East and West Europe. Previously closed economies were opened up and the information technology boom accelerated the globalisation of markets and ideas.
But the expansion and excesses of the 90s also triggered greater reflection on the part of governments, civil society and corporations over their respective roles in bringing about greater global prosperity.
Earth Summit in Rio - 1992
In 1992, the Earth Summit in Rio put the spotlight on sustainable development and the pressing social, environmental and economic challenges the world was facing. A small group of business leaders established the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Schell-Brent Spar - 1995
The Brent Spar episode in 1995 – which saw Shell at the centre of a media storm over its proposed disposal of an oil storage and loading buoy – coupled with protests over the company’s alleged involvement in human rights violations in Nigeria, highlighted the growing influence of a wider stakeholder constituency that was demanding to be taken seriously by big business.
Cor Herkstoter, Shell’s CEO at the time, responded to the new expectations of business and set the company on a new course of active engagement with civil society organisations to rebuild trust among its stakeholders. The result was Shell’s first “Profits and Principles” report and the beginnings of a wider business movement where companies started to become more transparent.
BP, Nike, Nestlé joined the ranks of companies now being held responsible for their own operations as well as of their supply chains. The textile industry was especially hard hit by revelations of sweatshop and child labour in developing countries.
Business Manifesto and CSR Europe - 1995
In this climate of increased scrutiny of corporate responsibilities, Jacques Delors, the then President of the European Commission, led a group of European business leaders in adopting a 'Manifesto of business against social exclusion'. The Manifesto led to the creation of CSR Europe in 1995, as the network on corporate social responsibility in Europe.
Seattle anti globalisation protests - 1995
Over the next few years, anti-globalisation protests became larger and louder outside meetings of the World Trade Organisation, the World Economic Forum and the G8. Fuelled by the international bestsellers such as No Logo by Naomi Klein, and The Silent Takeover by Noreena Hertz, they reflected a growing unease with big business and eventually forced an early end to the 1999 meeting of the WTO in Seattle.
In his address to The World Economic Forum in January 1999, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan challenged business leaders to meet this new tide of opinion by committing themselves to universal values and an ambitious agenda for development in the form of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
UN Global Compact - 2000
Launching the UN Global Compact in July 2000, he called on business to make international trade “work for all the world’s people”. Since then, hundreds of companies have signed up to the Compact’s ten principles on human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption.
European Appeal and Business Campaign on CSR - 2000
Then, in March 2000, a new strategic goal for Europe was defined at the Lisbon summit: to turn Europe into the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010. In the conclusions of the summit, heads of state and government appealed to business leaders to take up the challenge of corporate social responsibility.
In response, the first European Business Convention on CSR was held in Brussels. More than 500 business leaders came together to respond to the Lisbon appeal and shape the CSR agenda for the next 10 years. Their first step was to launch a European Campaign on CSR under the slogan “CSR, it simply works better”.
The power of big business was indeed growing: By 2000, the annual sales figures of many transnational companies outstripped the GDP of most of the world’s countries.
But so too was awareness of sustainable development as a business opportunity.
Dow Jones Sustainable Index – 2001
The Dow Jones launched the Sustainable Group Index, which rates companies according to social and environmental performance criteria. Similarly, in the UK, FTSE launched its FTSE4Good Index in July 2001 to harness the growing market for responsible investing.
Global Reporting Initiative – 2001
In 2001, transparency became the name of the game. More and more companies were publishing social and environmental reports as a way of building greater public trust. The Enron, WorldCom and Parmalat accounting scandals served to highlight the need for higher standards of reporting - making it verifiable, credible and measurable – and driving the rapid uptake of the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (launched in June 2000) which have been adopted by over 100 companies worldwide.
European Academy of Business in Society – 2002
But a European definition and framework was still lacking. In July 2001, the European Commission published its Green Paper to launch a European debate about the concept of CSR and how to promote it.
The outcomes were published in a Communication in July 2002, which set out a new strategy on CSR – one that sought to provide greater support for voluntary efforts, research and awareness-raising.
In the same month, CSR Europe was one of the driving forces behind the launch of the European Academy of Business in Society – an alliance of leading European business schools and major corporations to promote the integration of CSR in the curricula of Europe’s business schools.
European Multi-Stakeholder Forum on CSR – 2002
In October 2002 – in line with its new strategy - the European Commission established the European Multi-stakeholder Forum on CSR to promote innovation, convergence, and transparency in existing CSR practices and tools. After years of awareness-raising, CSR Europe member companies like BP, Novozymes, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Sony and ABB were now at the forefront of developing and sharing practical solutions. These included corporate responses to HIV/Aids in southern Africa; managing diversity and gender issues in the workplace; and the mainstreaming of social and environmental concerns in product innovation, to name but a few.
Meanwhile, on the global stage, as many business leaders as heads of state attended the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September 2002. Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed to business “not to wait for governments to make decisions” but to take a lead in pursuing sustainable development worldwide. Not wasting any time, over 300 voluntary partnerships were launched.
World Economic Forum in Davos -2003
However, the need to restore public trust in business remained high on the agenda and was the theme for the 2003 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. The meeting highlighted the need to take corporate social responsibility to the next level if it was to continue to be credible.
European Roadmap “Towards a Competitive & Sustainable Enterprise - 2005
As the European Campaign on CSR drew to a close, the gathering momentum of the conferences held in 15 European Countries was starting to be felt. By the time the European Multi-stakeholder Forum published its findings in June 2004, CSR started to become of greater importance.
Having begun as a response by companies to protect themselves from external pressure, it has evolved into an integrated business approach that strengthens a company when it is successfully applied throughout its operations and help to increase the competitiveness of business.
In this new climate, CSR Europe like many other organisations worldwide (e.g. BSR in the US, Ethos in Brazil), is helping to build expertise among its members and partners on a whole range of issues and offers an exciting new Marketplace where practitioners can share solutions with their peers.
With the support of the European Commission, CSR Europe will build further awareness and capacity building through the promotion and progress review of its European Roadmap for Businesses “Towards a Sustainable & Competitive Enterprise” 2010. This new initiative is open to any company operating in Europe and which is ready to
o Share our vision towards a European enterprise built on short and long-term value creation; stakeholder engagement; new skills and innovation in every compartment of business activity.
o Commit to strategic goals and processes articulating corporate responsibility and competitiveness.
o Appeal to the European Union and stakeholders to develop action and forge partnerships allowing business to manage change in a sustainable and competitive way.
For more info, visit www.csreurope.org
