Home » Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the CR professions’ most mature set of self‐regulating
practices, dating back to the 1960s. The CSR function has evolved into a set of quality standards, ISO 26000, a practice code for self‐regulation in relations with internal and external
stakeholders. The CSR domain can include job titles and functions in the following areas:

• Corporate Citizenship. How a company engages with internal and external “citizens,” including employees, regulators, communities, customers, investors, lenders.

• Investor Relations/ Socially Responsible Investing (SRI). An investor relations function is a modern necessity for a public company, and since SRI now represents around 10% of capital markets activity, specific functions for dealing with SR‐type investors are growing.

• Public or Stakeholder Relations, Corporate Affairs and Communications. These executives most commonly face a company’s external audiences, are considered integral to a company’s CSR team, and often lead the CSR effort.

• Human Rights. Policing a company’s human rights policies and their application throughout the supply chain has become a significant function, especially in businesses employing far‐flung operations in low‐wage regions.

• Human Resources. Many companies assigned their top HR officer with the CSR lead, since their activities touch the company’s workforce daily.

• Social Entrepreneurship. Since the 2008 publication of the book The Power of Unreasonable People which described “social entrepreneurship” as a mission‐driven business with characteristics of both non‐profits and for profits, social entrepreneurship has evolved in companies of all sizes. The most often‐cited examples of social entrepreneurs are Jeffrey Hollender CEO of Seventh Generation, John Mackay of Whole Foods Markets, and Anita Roddick of The Body Shop.