The term Corporate Responsibility (CR) is used to refer to the ways in which companies treat their employees, customers and suppliers, the environment and community.

Importance of CR in a downturn
CR has remained high on the international business agenda, despite the onset of the recession. A number of statutory provisions have come into effect in the UK in the past two years which increase the responsibilities of companies in terms of reporting on the CR activities. These include the new Companies Act provisions under which quoted companies must report on the companies’ impact on the environment, employment practices and community issues. In addition, Climate Change Act of 2008 requires reporting on CO2 emissions.

These provisions in the UK are being mirrored to a greater or lesser extent elsewhere in the world.

Leading companies have also been taking major new initiatives to promote their own businesses. These include:

• WalMart in October 2008 requiring thousands of suppliers to sign up to new rigorous environmental and social standards.
• Aviva Investors announcing in January 2009 that it will adopt “a more responsible approach to global investment”. This will mean that it will assess the environmental, social and corporate governance of policies in the companies in which it invests (to the extent of some £235 billion) and vote at their AGMs depending on the quality of disclosure of CR information.