Caring for Yorkshire: What does CSR mean for your business?

THE bar has been raised in the world of business and to be successful, your company must do more than just offer competitive prices and high quality.

This is a message from leading Yorkshire businesses who worked with TheBusinessDesk.com to unravel what corporate social responsibility (CSR) means to business.

This week, TheBusinessDesk.com has teamed up with construction group Esh to publish the supplement dedicated to uncovering CSR. To download it, click here.

Brian Manning, chief executive of Esh Group, which views its own corporate responsibility activities as the ‘added value’ which Esh Group brings to a job, in addition to the standard requirements, says that CSR gives businesses an “added dimension”.

“Years ago doing business was all about price, then it became about quality. We obviously have to be competitive and offer quality, but the bar has been raised and that involves supporting the communities we’re involved in,” he says.

“People are looking for more now and this involves adding value – that is a vital part of the work we do.”

CSR hasn’t always been something firms have been particularly interested in or geared up to do. And many don’t understand its meaning, how to create a policy or be involved.

Olga Watterich is head of community for Yorkshire, Humber and the North East at Business In The Community (BITC) – an organisation which engages with businesses to develop an integrated approach to running a responsible business. She says CSR as something which is built into the business, not bolted on.

“It’s about the whole way the business runs and the community is a big part of that but not the whole part of it,” she says. “You’ve got to make sure all the things are in place to make the business sustainable. That’s what we see CSR as being, rather than something which is just nice to do.

“It’s just as valid for an organisation to look at energy usage and its impacts on the environment – really looking at the way it operates.”

Community and education adviser for Yorkshire Water, Anne Reed, says that for Yorkshire Water, CSR is all about doing the right thing, not just in the community but in areas covered by environment marketplace and workplace.

“We’re investing in our colleagues and investing in customer education – we want to make sure our customers understand the value of what we do,” she says. “A lot of research shows that customers understand the clean water side of the business, but not the dirty water side. Part of being a responsible business is about us getting out and talking about what we do and helping people to understand where their money goes.”

To read the full report, download the supplement by clicking here.