Corporate Social Responsibility
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Welcome to the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) web-pages of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry. We hope that these pages will give you a good insight into what CSR is, why it is important, and what the European Commission is doing to promote it. |
What is CSR?
"Voluntary business initiatives, in the form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, can play a key role in contributing to sustainable development while enhancing Europe’s innovative potential and competitiveness."
Working Together for Growth and Jobs: a new start for the Lisbon Strategy, European Commission COM(2005)24, February 2005
Our definition of CSR is :
"A concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. "
Amongst other things, this definition helps to emphasise that:
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CSR covers social and environmental issues, in spite of the English term corporate social responsibility;
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CSR is not or should not be separate from business strategy and operations: it is about integrating social and environmental concerns into business strategy and operations;
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CSR is a voluntary concept;
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an important aspect of CSR is how enterprises interact with their internal and external stakeholders (employees, customers, neighbours, non-governmental organisations, public authorities, etc.)
Related Commission websites |
"I
am convinced that the tomorrow’s marketplace will reward the ability
of enterprises to understand and meet the expectations of society,
beyond simply complying with regulation and meeting consumer demand
in the narrow sense of the term. Successful companies, large and
small, will be those that will have risen to the challenge of
integrating CSR into their business strategy and purpose."
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