International Law

Working together to make a difference: CSR in China

By Andy Scott

With the season of giving upon us, corporations find themselves having to both consider employee bonus packages for their employees as well as some sort of charitable giving ahead of the end of the tax year. With this in mind, we have decided to publish an excerpt from our upcoming China Briefing 2008 Regional Business Guide series that focuses on corporate social responsibility.

The following text was provided by the World Wildlife Fund.

Corporate social responsibility trends

In a world of global business with its tangled web of manufacturing, supply chains, and customers stretching across the world, corporations are exposed to an enormous diversity of cultures, expectations and values. Issues such as biodiversity, ethics and accountability, social and economic development and community impacts are becoming real considerations and pose material challenges to businesses and their reputation.

These changes are rooted in growing scrutiny by consumers, non-governmental organizations, communities, governments and investors, primarily in North America and Europe, but now increasingly in Asia. They expect business to manage its impact on and interaction with the natural environment and society in a responsible way and contribute to sustainable development. Large parts of a company?s market value are based upon non-tangible assets including reputation, brand, strategic positioning, and external relationships. All of these could be put at risk by a company?s poor environmental and social performance, so managing these expectations makes clear business sense. (more…)

Full post as published by China Briefing Blog on December 20, 2007 (boomark / email).