By Sabine Braun for FORUM CSR international.

Launched by politics as a way out of regulatory powerlessness and then adopted by the industry: Many companies see the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a guiding light in an increasingly complex world, while others still regard it as a PR gimmick.

With its 2001 Green Paper on CSR, the E.U. Commission launched a concept for the future, outlining the responsibility that companies voluntarily take on – or are supposed to take on – for the environment and society. In the meantime, the political side of CSR has taken a bit of a backseat: The original idea was to tread a path beyond regulation, which of course is not only characterized by a lack of ordinances and legislation but also by companies’ contributing to the shaping of new standards. Just what this can look like is shown by the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), which, as a cross-enterprise approach to responsible supplier management, has emerged as a normative power that goes beyond voluntary measures taken by individual companies. Worldwide training and audits are to ensure that suppliers comply with minimum social standards.

Between free will and legislation

Under the banner of CSR, German companies have now also come to understand how they can put the spotlight on their voluntary contributions to society and the environment. Unfortunately, they don’t have as much to show as their British counterparts, who have been vaunting their good social deeds for many years. But there’s an obvious reason for this: Up to now, German companies have found themselves in a tight regulatory corset, which makes many social and ecological measures compulsory – at least with regard to their domestic activities. A strong state also shapes what’s happening in France, where – compared with Germany – the focus is much more on the social aspects of economic management. In 2003, France obligated the country’s 200 biggest companies to produce sustainability reports – a move that demonstrated a level of governmental decisiveness rarely seen in the states of Europe nowadays.

CSR as a guiding light and management concept

Nevertheless, the number of sustainability and CSR reports has increased considerably in other countries in the past few years, too. This is because companies have come to see CSR as a future-oriented management concept that links shareholder value and public value, earning brownie points with investors and analysts. Some stakeholders criticize the fact that CSR is not nearly as far reaching as the concept of sustainable development, while others – including the companies themselves – welcome the fact that it is open to other areas of corporate responsibility such as anticorruption. But why, for two years now, have the consulting sector, companies, and the academic world been grappling with how to interpret and implement the concept of CSR - and to a much greater extent than the political institutions that launched it?
Over the past few years, companies have certainly come to realize that they need a new guiding light in a complex environment and when faced with a global strategy, because national legislation is not a guideline for global conduct. And at the same time, lobbyists have repressed the once almighty governments so much – even in terms of CSR – that today at least the top bracket of globally operating companies is experiencing a lack of standards.

Consulting hype – or a desire to make a difference?

This opens up a strategic gap into which regular consultants are also flooding with their extensive PowerPoint presentations. After all, nothing promises more profit than insecure companies who are wondering what to do in the face of critical campaigns by non-governmental organizations, numerous voluntary commitments, various guidelines with varying degrees of legitimacy, and a myriad of sustainability and CSR benchmarks. In principle, the fact that the economy’s strategic advisors are – at long last – engaging with the topic is more than welcome. Because CSR is one thing above all: a strategic concept for coping with change. However, they shouldn’t drop it right away if the profits forecast today don’t actually materialize. This has happened before in Germany, when the recession of the mid-1990s abruptly put a stop to the eco-hype in society and the economy. Hardly established, some environmental consulting departments quickly shut down again. And for Germany’s economy, meager years without a vision followed, in which politicians and consultants saw environmental protection only as a “potential for cutting costs.”

Dealing with emerging issues

When issues emerge, everyone pounces on them. And when they disappear again or are placed within a regulatory framework, whole business areas collapse in the consulting sector. Both – usually overlapping – tendencies are, however, a significant characteristic of CSR, if it is to be understood as a strategic and management concept. Standard solutions are simply not possible in this area of conflicting forces. Rather, a company’s CSR strategy must be defined and balanced on the narrow path between “positioning” in the light of newly emerging requirements and “compulsory exercises” in spheres of activity that are to some degree already regulated.

Supporting politicians in transforming this “voluntary” concept into an obligatory one should also form part of the strategy of ambitious companies. Because if it is to have a future, CSR must legitimize itself in the long term as a political concept – not just as a business effectiveness program.

Sabine Braun, 46, is founder and managing director of the consultancy akzente kommunikation und beratung gmbh, which has been set up in 1993. With its focus on sustainability and communications, akzente has made a major contribution to shaping the development of sustainability reporting. Today, akzente advises large German companies such as Bayer, Bosch, Evonik, Merck, RWE, ThyssenKrupp Steel, Siemens, and WestLB in their CSR reporting, strategy, and stakeholder dialog. akzente is an organizational stakeholder in the Global Reporting Initiative, a member of Transparency International (German chapter), and future e.V., as well as a sustaining member of Germanwatch e.V.

The launch of FORUM CSR international takes place promotionally effective at “The Amsterdam Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency” on May 7-9. Visit [1] www.forum-csr.net for more interesting content about Corporate Social Responsibility.