CSR with Communities and in Supply Chain

CSR with Communities

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with communities refers to a company’s commitment to positively impact the local communities in which it operates. This can include initiatives such as providing education and training programs, supporting local businesses, investing in infrastructure, and supporting social and cultural initiatives.

Companies can engage in CSR with communities in various ways, including through partnerships with local organizations, employee volunteering programs, and charitable donations. The aim is to build stronger relationships with the community, promote social and economic development, and address social challenges and issues.

When any company enters a community, it creates jobs and pays taxes.

Due to corporate establishments, communities face a number of challenges which impact their quality of life and hence need the company’s intervention. If corporates do not engage in mitigating the risks they create for communities they are likely to face more negative business impacts.

Issues of CSR with Communities

• Destruction of Livelihoods
  
• Unsafe Practices
  
• Industrial Accidents
  
• Human Rights Violation
  
• Pollution and Waste Accumulation

Destruction of Livelihoods

The depletion of natural resources caused by companies as stated in CSR at environment module, affects the livelihoods of the communities that are dependent on the environmental resources. For example: India plans to cultivate Jatropha in 11 million hectares.

In a land starved country, this diversion of land has serious consequences for rural livelihoods and rural eco systems. The Companies involved in the gold rush of Jatropha in India are D1 Oil, Godrej Agrovet Ltd., Tata Motors, Indian Oil Corporation, Kochi Refineries Ltd., Biohealthcare Pvt., Southern online Biotechnologies Ltd., Jain irrigation System Ltd., Natural Bioenergy Ltd. and Reliance Energy Ltd.

Unsafe Practices

Includes industrial practices that are disguised as a benefit, but are actually harmful to the health of the community in the long run. For instance Amax.Inc, “a mining company in Blackwell, Oklahoma, U.S.A during its 58 productive years, stored chemically hazardous waste sand in heaps around the facility, and gave it away by the truckload to private citizens and to the town for public works projects.

This sand has ended up in driveways and roadsides all over town. It also lies underneath the high school track and the parking lot of the First Baptist Church.” (Stickland, 2008).

Industrial Accidents

Industrial hazards are threats to people and lifesupport systems that arise from the mass production of goods and services. When these threats exceed human coping capabilities or the absorptive capacities of environmental systems, they give rise to industrial disasters.

Losses generally involve the release of damaging substances (e.g. chemicals, radioactivity, genetic materials) or damaging levels of energy from industrial facilities or equipment into surrounding environments. This usually occurs in the form of explosions, fires, spills, leaks, or wastes and impact local communities.

Human Rights Violation

Companies that employ the local community, albeit in many cases there is a violation of human rights where employees are not paid enough, ill treated by the employers and provided with no social benefit.

For instance Anglo Gold Ashanti Kilo (ASK) one of the largest mining companies in the world, extracts large tons of gold found in, Ituri, Africa, where the miners of the community are suffering for their basic needs and amenities.

Pollution and Waste Accumulation

Includes companies that treat the local village areas as dump yards of the industrial waste. For instance, “In China Luoyang Zhonggui High-Technology Co, dumps trucks of silicon tetrachloride (highly toxic substance) between the cornfields and the primary school playground of the nearby village, and has continued to do so for nine months, which has now made the land infertile and the vicinity is not suitable for people to live “(Eunjung Cha , 2008)

CSR in Supply Chain

Integrated supply chains are becoming an integral part of competitive environment. Certain social obligations come along with the economic benefit derived from the integrated supply chain. Many buying firms have developed a code of conduct as a way of managing their partner behaviour in the supply chain.

Firms are seeking to achieve strategic advantage and a key area in corporate social responsibility is the extent to which companies manage their supply chain responsibility.

This includes providing their suppliers or subsidiaries the following:

• Respect basic rights like freedom of association, work life balance
• Respect labour rights like living wages, health and safety in workplace
• Respect people in local communities
• Not using the child labour or forced labour

Many companies have started employing third parties to look after these matters and then these companies will provide independent report on supply chain activities.

Example: Apple had joined the Fair Labor Association (FLA) as an associate member, the first high-tech company to do so, and that the FLA will independently report on Apple’s supply chain activities.