Best Practices Corporate Social Responsibility Results

Educating Our Community

We began this project by researching CSR through background articles and through interviews with professors teaching the subject and professionals working in the field. We hosted four different events, two of them through with our Beta Alpha Psi Chapter and two more with local high school DECA classes.

BAP Presentations- February 20th, 2007

We had two guest speakers at our presentation, each speaking for about 30 minutes. The first guest speaker was Professor Westerman from the University of Washington. He spoke about the history of corporations and their social responsibility requirements. He also discussed sustainability and the domino affect that everyday business operations have on the environment. The last topic he covered was the triple-bottom-line and how the social, environmental, and economic performances need to be evaluated when measuring whether a company is performing well.

The second speaker was Margaret Yung who is the Financial Vice President and National Manager of Washington Mutual. She shared with us Washington Mutual’s Community Lending & Investment commitment which is dedicated to providing affordable housing. She also discussed Washington Mutual’s charitable contributions towards community development, K-12 education and financial education.

BAP Survey Results

Before this first BAP presentation we gave the eighty BAP members, four professors, and four professionals who attended surveys. These surveys asked who had heard of CSR before and what their views were on the issues involved with it. We found that 36.2% of the attendees had never heard of CSR before.

We also asked "How strongly do you feel that corporations have a duty to correct adverse social impacts they cause?" The results were strongly skewed that they should.

The next question was "How important is it that a corporation helps to conserve the environment?" The responses were once again strongly in favor of this.

BAP Presentation- March 8th, 2007

On March 8th, we held a second presentation for our chapter. The guest speaker was Ken Schram who is a commentator from KOMO-TV. He taught our chapter the skills needed to make issues relating to corporate social responsibility come to life and be given the attention and thought. He discussed the importance and how to use critical dialogue to push for corporations to change. Our chapter learned that critical dialogue is important because corporations are not going to change unless there is a financial advantage.

DECA Presentations- March 21 & 23, 2007

In March, four BAP members, including Austin and I, presented to Shorewood High School and Hazen High School. The presentations were each 45 minutes. We began by giving the students an overview of the history of corporations and their obligations to be incorporated. We then introduced the triple-bottom line and the idea of how measuring the social, environmental and economic performance of a corporation creates a better evaluation of the firm’s overall performance. We also discussed CSR issues relating to NIKE, Wal-Mart and Starbucks. Throughout the presentation we integrated student involvement by asking for their input regarding the responsibility of corporations.

DECA Survey Results

At the end of each presentation we had the students fill out a survey. In all we had 54 student participate. The survey had three questions asking the students to rate how much they agreed with each statement on a scale from 1 to 5. With 1 being not agreeing at all and a 5 being in complete agreement.

The first statement asked students how strongly they felt that our presentation increased their awareness about CSR. As you see the majority of the students felt our presentation increased their awareness about CSR.

The second statement asked the students if they expect to see environmentally conscious businesses in the future. From their responses we found that most students believe there will be little change, and a few students are hopeful that businesses will become environmentally conscious.

The third statement asked students if they expect there to be changes in the future business environment. The graph shows students believe there will be a change in the business environment.

Overall, the majority of the high school students felt our presentation changed their expectations towards the future business environment and increased their awareness about corporate social responsibility.

Impact of CSR on the Financial Environment

We researched CSR with several other BAP members. We compared and contrasted REI and Starbucks. REI released their first report this year, while Starbucks has released them for several years. We interviewed the CSR managers from both companies. We found that there were several challenges and goals ahead for this form of reporting through our research and interviews. Both companies have a lack of standards to guide their reporting. This is still an emerging form of reporting that is being developed by the companies as they report each year. Starbucks said they view this as a supplement to the financials for the benefit of the public and their shareholders. Both REI and Starbucks view CSR as a long term business strategy that builds their corporate reputation, customer loyalty, and goodwill.

Impact of CSR on the Environment

Public interest in CSR activities has increased. Companies are becoming more transparent and substantive in their social and environmental activities. Some examples of this are Starbucks’ Coffee and Farmers Equity program which provides financing to the farmers in developing countries who they buy their coffee from, so they can develop sustainable farming practices. REI builds LEED certified buildings for their stores. This is an environmental certification that these buildings use less utilities and sustainable materials and techniques in construction. Also, Washington Mutual has a Compass Housing project providing transitional and emergency services to the homeless in Seattle. We found that media scrutiny of CSR issues has increased, with more stories highlighting negative corporate activities. Articles such as "Forbes Corporate Scandal Sheet" and "Starbucks Scandal of Sept. 11" highlight negative aspects of corporate activities and negatively affect the image of companies.

Final Takeaways

The final takeaway from our research, interviews, and presentations regarding CSR is that CSR is an emerging issue. People are becoming more aware and critical of the effects corporations have on the environment and society. In order to initiate change among corporations and increase the awareness of CSR issues, people need to use critical dialogue and put pressure on the corporations to change.

We also found that there is little authoritative guidance on how and what to report. This makes comparability of CSR reports very low. These reports are often filled with information about the various activities corporations are involved in and can be as thick as their financial statements. Without knowing what to look for and how to determine if what their doing is sufficient the reports are often overwhelming to the reader and incomparable to reports of other firms.

The only comparison available is among a companies own consecutive CSR reports.

Overall CSR reports are in their "infancy" phase and are just beginning to emerge for many companies. As the public becomes more informed about CSR we believe these reports will develop and become more important and comparable.

Also with increased public pressure to be socially responsible, corporations will have incentives to develop the reporting to show that they are socially responsible.