CSR of the company – tool for sustainable development

CSR – Corporate social responsibility

 

What is sustainable development?

 

The concept of sustainable development appeared in the process of combining three main points of view: economic, social and environmental. Sustainable development is the development of society and organizations that takes into account the interests of society, the optimal use of limited resources and the use of environmentally friendly – natural, energy, and material-saving technologies.

 

Sustainable Development Goals

On September 25, 2015, the post-2015 development agenda was approved at the UN headquarters in New York. 193 countries have adopted 17 global Sustainable Development Goals and formulated 169 targets. The completion of work on the announced tasks is planned by December 31, 2030, for this, countries must independently develop their own strategies, plans and programs for sustainable development.

1. Universal eradication of poverty in all its forms.
2. Eliminating hunger, ensuring food security and improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agricultural development.
3. Ensuring a healthy lifestyle and promoting well-being for everyone at any age.
4. Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.
5. Ensuring gender equality and empowering all women and girls.
6. Ensuring the availability and rational use of water resources and sanitation for all.
7. Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy sources for all.
8. Promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
9. Building strong infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and innovation.
10. Reducing inequality within and between countries.
11. Ensuring the openness, security, resilience and sustainability of cities and settlements.
12. Ensuring rational consumption and production models.
13. Taking urgent measures to combat climate change and its consequences.
14. Conservation and rational use of oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
15. Protection, restoration of terrestrial ecosystems and promotion of their rational use, rational forest management, combating desertification, stopping and reversing the process of land degradation and stopping the process of loss of biological diversity.
16. Promoting peaceful and open societies for sustainable development, ensuring access to justice for all and creating effective, accountable and participatory institutions at all levels.
17. Strengthening the means to achieve sustainable development and activating the mechanisms of the global partnership for sustainable development.

 

Source: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/ru/sustainable-development-goals/ 

 

Promoting the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals at the State level
The question remains about the role of independent intermediaries, such as the Government, in ensuring the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and preventing corporations from harming the universal social good, including people and the environment. There are mandatory taxes transferred to the state for excess emissions into the atmosphere and discharges into wastewater, waste disposal. These taxes are used to eliminate the negative impact of the organization’s activities on society and the environment. The introduction of the principles of sustainable development in the field of urban planning and territorial planning is described as “sustainable development of territories”. In this form, the term got into the Urban Planning Code of Russia. This concept implies ensuring the safety and favorable living conditions of a person during the implementation of urban planning activities, limiting the negative impact of economic and other activities on the environment and ensuring the protection and rational use of natural resources in the interests of present and future generations.
This is only part of the measures that can be measured and monitored, while most of the rules governing the social component cannot be expressed unambiguously.

 

Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals at the level of organizations

CSR of a company is a special case of the implementation of sustainable development objectives within the company. When adopting corporate social responsibility, organizations take into account the interests of society, assuming responsibility for the impact of the organization’s activities on various aspects of the public sphere. This obligation goes beyond the statutory obligation and assumes that additional measures taken to improve the quality of life of employees and their families, the local community, society as a whole, as well as the preservation of the environment, are voluntary.

When developing a program of activities within the company’s CSR, an integrated approach is used and the main sustainable development goals are taken into account, including the following areas:

  • Corporate culture
  • Respect for human rights
  • Safety, labor protection and workplace
  • Measures to reduce the impact of the organization’s activities on climate change
  • Nature and environmental protection
  • Assistance in the development of the local community and business
  • Interaction with society

 

 

Standards used for evaluation

The spread of the concept of sustainable development has led to the standardization of these processes at the global and national levels. The main recognized standards and guidelines for CSR of the company:

  • SA8000 (Social Accountability 8000) – created by the Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability (The Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility). A standard for evaluating the social aspects of management systems. The main purpose of the standard is to improve working conditions and living standards of employees
  • AA1000SES (Stakeholders Engagement Standard) – created by The Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility. The standard considers the principles, mechanisms and procedures for identifying stakeholders, building constructive relationships with them and developing social reporting. The Russian version of the standard was prepared by the Institute of City Economics Foundation
  • GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) – The standard is based on the concept of sustainable business development, in which companies need to balance economic, environmental and social activities. GRI provides for the possibility of preparing a report on only one or several areas of the organization’s activities and implementing recommendations in stages
  • ISO 26000 Guidelines on Social Responsibility. Prepared By The Working Group “Social Responsibility”. Voluntary guidance, which includes guidance on the principles, main themes and issues underlying social responsibility, ways to integrate socially responsible behavior into the strategies, practices and processes of the organization.
  • ICCSR-08260008000 or CSR – prepared by the All-Russian Quality Organization (VOC). The CSR standard allows any company to independently or through certification assess its commitment to CSR principles
  • CCI of the Russian Federation “Social reporting of enterprises and organizations registered in the Russian Federation”. The standard deals with social problems that are most relevant for Russia.

 

Advantages at the organization level

Companies are implementing social programs and sustainable development practices that work for a broader and longer-term perspective than making a profit from their core activities. Such events translate into commercial advantages obtained by increasing their reputation in the eyes of the public or the government.

 

HPBS Services

Sustainable development of organizations:

  • Development and evaluation of sustainable development programs at the level of organizations, preparation of CSR reports of the company;
  • Development of sustainable procurement policies;
  • Development of a waste management plan. Search for partner companies – waste processors, taking into account the specifics of the waste generated in the company.

Environmental friendliness of projects and green financing:

  • Development of criteria for investment projects that take into account the impact of the project life cycle on the environment to justify requests for individual financial products in the field of green financing (attracting financing on preferential terms, issuing green bonds and other green financial instruments)
  • Consulting services for adapting project solutions to meet the requirements of financial institutions for projects in the implementation of “green financing”
  • Assessment of the carbon footprint of the project to prepare the justification necessary for preferential project financing

 

Other HPBS services can be obtained by following the link: https://hpb-s.com/en/services/