Corporate social responsibility

The Plenary of the CERSE, State Council for Corporate Social Responsibility, authorized the Spanish Strategy for Corporate Social Responsibility, a strategy that provides the country with a common frame of reference, which will allow harmonizing the different actions that can be carried out both in the public and private spheres.

What is corporate social responsibility?

It is established as the Active and voluntary contribution to the betterment of society., the economy and the environment by the institutions, with the vision of improving their competitive situation in the market, as well as their added value.

The Spanish Strategy for Corporate Social Responsibility It has 6 fundamentals that I will explain below, in turn, it establishes 4 strategic objectives, as well as 10 actions with their corresponding strategies, all of them share the vision of: Support the development of responsible practices in institutions so that they become a significant engine of Spain's competitiveness and the transformation of its society towards a more productive, sustainable and inclusive economy.

The foundations of Corporate Social Responsibility

1. Competitiveness: The improvement of its position in the market, its profitability, productivity and sustainability.
2. Creation of shared value: The application of the values that defines CSR, in effective collaboration with stakeholders, contributes to generating and reinforcing positive impact. It must, at the same time, contribute to erase negative impacts and generate value in the population.
3. Social cohesion: Corporate Social Responsibility must increase the efficiency of institutions and companies to determine the equality of possibilities and the inclusion of all social strata. A socially responsible organization must consider all those economic, labor, social and environmental aspects without giving more priority to some over others. Corporate social responsibility promotes constant innovation through the introduction of new alternatives for administration, which favor the creation of cutting-edge products and services. Maximize the creation of shared value for their owners and society in a broad sense, in order to prevent and mitigate the consequences arising from this action. Valuation by society is the best form of promotion, it needs citizens to visualize how to help reduce the socioeconomic effects, mainly the loss of jobs with the creation of new jobs.
4. Transparency: The promotion of exemplary and transparent institutions is fundamental, since this is reflected in an increase of credibility and trust towards your company. Companies that consider themselves socially responsible dialogue with their interlocutors and commit to fixing problems.
5. Sustainability: Corporate Social Responsibility currently has sustainability as a highly relevant point, since by obtaining or marketing resources that do not harm the environment, they put the company in an attractive situation for society.
6. Willingness to compromise: Adopting new social responsibility policies is extremely complicated, since changing the routine is never easy, but with the will as an elementary point, effective results will be obtained. and is an added value to compliance with current regulations. The commitment assumed voluntarily will then be essential for the success of the application of the policies.

Main objectives Corporate Social Responsibility

1. Promote Corporate Social Responsibility policies both in large companies, as well as in SMEs, public and private organizations.
2. Integrate the proposed values in society.
3. Identify Corporate Social Responsibility policies as an attribute of competitiveness and sustainability.
4. Create a common reference framework for Spain, which guarantees compliance with Law 20/2013, on the Market Guarantee Unit that allows adequate coordination within the sector.

Actions to achieve it and concrete measures Corporate Social Responsibility

1. Promote Corporate Social Responsibility as a driving force for more sustainable, equitable and socially responsible institutions aimed at companies with a greater vision of the current world with which they interact.
2. Integrate Corporate Social Responsibility in education and research: education, in the field of ethics and social values; and research, in the field of the adequate application of the criteria learned in education, to promote the existing systems of Corporate Social Responsibility.
3. Transparency for trust: Transparent and crystalline good governance practices, as well as the moral behavior and sustainability of a corporation, are signs to identify socially responsible institutions.
4. Promotion of the generation of more employment: Institutions that are considered socially responsible must pay special attention to the constant generation of quality jobs and pay attention to the sectors of the population with the greatest difficulties of labor insertion to work together and try to solve it by creating a suitable job for this profile. . They must promote and promote the diversity of race and gender in the workforce, ensuring, fundamentally, the fulfillment of their human and labor rights.
5. Socially responsible investments: properly putting social responsibility into practice generates long-term investments and fosters responsible and sustainable growth. At the same time, there must be a promotion and dissemination of innovation as a characteristic sign of the new socially committed Spanish companies, especially those that promote the development of new technologies and those whose objective is to promote the sustainable development of society.
6. Links with suppliers: The development of socially responsible systems by the institutions and the actions that contribute to disseminating good practices among their different suppliers, must occupy a priority place in the strategic plans of an organization.
7. Responsible consumption: The implementation of awareness measures for the consumer to buy responsibly, participate in decision-making, as well as in future improvements in the products or services offered.
8. Sustainable systems development: It is essential to respect the environment in any organization that considers itself socially responsible, since it is necessary to think about the planet where its operations are carried out and if these directly or indirectly damage the environment, do something about it to promote it. This action promotes respect for the earth, through the implementation of actions associated with the control of polluting emissions and the promotion of clean technologies, among others.
9. Development cooperation: Development cooperation is the action that promotes the coordination and participation of the different reference agents, in order to comply with the World Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the protection of the human rights of its human capital and its sector of interest. .

It is also intended to incorporate the principles established in the United Nations on Human Rights and transnational companies and promote the socially responsible administration of institutions in Spain.

10. Coordination and participation: This action aims to generate or design coordination mechanisms between the different public administrations that exist, with the vision of promoting the principles and criteria of Corporate Social Responsibility.

An example of socially responsible companies is Inditex, that, in 2001, the Amancio Ortega textile group decided to launch its Corporate Social Responsibility department at a global level. The target The creation of this department consisted of trying to understand and fix the problems derived from its expansion throughout the world.

This task has taken as reference three basic principles:

1. Constant dialogue with your customers
2. Good faith towards consumers and society in general.
3. Transparency in your finances and your sustainability strategy to stop using polluting chemicals for the environment in your textiles.

It is, therefore, an important measure that visualizes aspects of an economic, social and environmental nature.

East commitment that the Inditex brand It took over more than a decade ago and has reaped numerous benefits, including the following:

• Brand status around the world.
• Loyalty of both customers and suppliers.
• Substantial increase in sales.
• Better guarantees or financial loans.
• Greater effectiveness of company employees

Another very obvious example of the realization of a good practice of the Corporate social responsibility it is Ikea, the Swedish multinational furniture manufacturer, which launched the program Planets and positive people, It is a strategy that seeks to reconcile business growth and sustainable development, equating them without prioritizing either of the two.

The action of this strategy is simply focused on three aspects:

1. Self-sustaining life in Spanish homes.
2. Resources and energy harnessed from the environment.
3. Better life for people and communities.

Ikea does not have tools of social balance, but has a Ethical code focused on a good relationship with its customers, especially with regard to actions to save energy, reuse waste and take advantage of other sources of energy that the earth provides for free without polluting it.

LThe most outstanding achievements since the beginning of its strategy are:

• More than 700,000 solar panels located in Ikea buildings worldwide.
• Administration and operation of 224 wind turbines.
• Implementation of the LED lighting system to achieve maximum light efficiency, as well as a small energy expenditure. Customers are often encouraged to use this system as a form of environmental sustainability and long-term savings.

Through his Ikea Foundation, the company supports projects for access to health and education for children in economically disadvantaged countries.