For many years, business strategy has been dominated by profit maximisation and market share domination and today, these traditional notions still impact much of the weight of decision making. Yet the rise of the importance of stakeholder value and pressure from concerned consumers have thrust corporate social responsibility to the top of many modern business agendas.
Corporate social responsibility is concerned with the impact decisions have on its stakeholders, the public and the wider community. It can act as a self-regulating mechanism to hold organisations to account for their actions, this may relate to the treatment of staff, business ethics and commonly practices surrounding sustainability.
So why is this so important to modern business? With one-third of UK consumers stating they have stopped using a service due to environmental concerns, ignoring the carbon impact of decisions is not a sustainable solution in the medium term.
Businesses are adapting to find new means of bridging the gap between business strategy and ethical practice, yet many of the current solutions are not fit for purpose. All talk and no action policies, or ‘greenwashing’ refers to marketing and PR stunts related to sustainable business practice. In 2021, the UK Goverment published the Green Claims Code which sets out a criteria for businesses to follow before claiming they are sustainable- businesses have until 2022 to ensure their pledges are legitimate.
Lucy Finnie, Junior Consultant
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