I was shocked to discover that good CSR has only become mainstream in just little over a decade. For years, it was seen as a do-gooding slide show taken on by a few companies.
I was recently at a M&S mega store on Oxford Street sitting in the cafeteria flicking through their in-store magazine when I stumbled upon their CSR campaign "Plan A" which is essentially a set of 100 worthy targets over the next 5 years.
The company detailed explicitly its plans to give 15,000 children in Uganda a better education; save 55,000 tonnes of CO2 in a year; recycle 48m clothes hangers; triple its sales of organic food; convert over 20m garments to fair trade cotton. My initial response was all this sounds very elaborate - how can the company afford to warehouse this vast range of activities under the 'doing-good' umbrella.
I asked myself, is this really necessary and if so for whose benefit? As a PR student, I'm familiar with the CSR boom - the need for big companies to tell the world about their corporate citizenship, the need to push the message through websites, magazines, print press even CEOs are on the act, jumping at opportunities to speak at conferences about their willingness to be more "green".
And why not, after all, in 2006 the government made it law; according to the 2006 Companies Act, it is a requirement for public companies to report on social and environmental matters.
To answer my question on for whose benefit - the companies itself of course. This is essentially an exercise in protecting reputation, enhancing trust in big business, keeping the army of NGOs at bay whilst motivating, attracting and retaining staff.
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