1. Friday May 25, 2018
      Home > BUSINESS
      Text:| Print|

      China steps up its CSR efforts(2)

      2012-10-15 16:15 China Daily     Web Editor: qindexing comment
      Richard Welford, chairman and founder of CSR Asia, during a recent corporate social responsibility summit held in Beijing. [Photo/China Daily]

      Richard Welford, chairman and founder of CSR Asia, during a recent corporate social responsibility summit held in Beijing. [Photo/China Daily]

      From left: Evan Lewis, vice-president of communications for Accor Asia Pacific; Aurora Chen, director of sustainability for Coca-Cola in China; Zhang Yanming, deputy director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Office of Pudong New Area in Shanghai.

      From left: Evan Lewis, vice-president of communications for Accor Asia Pacific; Aurora Chen, director of sustainability for Coca-Cola in China; Zhang Yanming, deputy director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Office of Pudong New Area in Shanghai.

      Shanghai experiment

      One area that has seen the strongest impact from the government push for corporate responsibility is Pudong New Area in Shanghai.

      Housing offices for dozens of the country's largest companies as well as the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the economic development area was among the first established under modern CSR guidelines in 2009.

      Ranging from regulations on employee rights to environmental protection, the 67 practical standards have since been adapted as the go-to-guide for companies operating beyond Shanghai's borders.

      Companies, both foreign and domestic, operating in this area are held to some of the strictest CSR standards in China, says Zhang Yanming, deputy director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Office of the Shanghai Pudong New Area.

      "We require a higher proportion of State-owned enterprises to take part in the higher standard system," Zhang says.

      "They should be role models in the new system. They should have to perform better because of their stronger financial foundations."

      The number of companies striving to meet international social responsibility standards is set to grow even faster as Chinese brands eye overseas markets.

      "A lot of the bigger Chinese companies who have global ambitions realize that they have to do CSR," Welford from CSR Asia says.

      "They are beginning to learn that if they want to move out of China, part of that license to operate is demonstrating that you are socially responsible. They are becoming aware that you have to take social responsibility with you, otherwise you can get into trouble."

      This is exemplified in the Fortune China CSR Ranking 2012 report, which puts China's three largest international brands - Haier, Huawei and Lenovo - as the top three Chinese CSR contributors.

      Sichuan lesson

      Perhaps the biggest transition for Chinese companies, going from being viewed as having very little CSR to eclipsing the long-standing programs of the multinational companies operating within the nation, came after the magnitude-7.9 quake that struck Sichuan province in 2008.

      Mourning the loss of more than 70,000 lives and hundreds of thousands left without homes, the earthquake awakened the giving spirit of the Chinese, and donations by the millions began pouring in.

      Wanting to offer their own contribution, several multinational companies gave donations following global CSR guidelines listed by their corporate headquarters.

      While the average amount donated by large companies initially hovered around 5 million yuan ($796,000, 618,000 euros), Chinese consumers felt as though the largest multinationals had not given enough.

      It sparked an online campaign tracking the amounts foreign companies donated. Those who did not give enough were dubbed "iron roosters" after a famous Chinese idiom meaning cheap, referring to the difficulty of getting a single feather out of an iron rooster.

      It resulted in boycotts of products from foreign companies listed as iron roosters, including Nokia, Samsung, KFC and McDonald's.

        Flexible approach

      Companies quickly learned that in China, and other markets where cultures may differ, stepping away from a global standard and adopting local techniques is often crucial to success.

      "The way we manage business processes is in a market-by-market approach," Evan Lewis, vice-president of communications for Accor Asia Pacific, a hotel operator, said during a recent panel discussion.

      "We have to appreciate that competitive advantage exists in the countries we operate. There is no universal business strategy across Asia. When you've got emerged economies, newly industrialized countries and emerging markets, the approach to each of those businesses is a different level of organizational development."

      Since the sharp increase in philanthropic activities by Chinese businesses after the 2008 earthquake, the playing field has also seen a shift in charitable contributions.

      In the Fortune China CSR Ranking 2012 report, the top 10 most philanthropic multinational companies donated an average of 0.34 percent of their yearly revenues, compared with an average of 0.17 percent of revenues among the highest donating Chinese companies.

      Still, with more than 200 international non-governmental organizations operating in China, there is no shortage of causes for donations.

      For companies wanting to build a good reputation, which is at the bottom line of all CSR activities, charitable giving is the most quantifiable and visible to consumers, governments and shareholders.

      But in the areas where a company's contributions are not so easily traced, organizations must resort to other means to put onto paper their efforts to stakeholders.

      In reporting CSR efforts, China has excelled compared with the rest of the world.

      Facing outside scrutiny from government and investors, more companies are adopting the International Standardization Organization (ISO) and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) - the two largest third-party reporting institutions.

        Setting the trend

      Since joining the World Trade Organization, the number of sustainability reports issued by Chinese companies has risen from just one in 2001 to 898 in 2011, according to the China WTO Tribune.

      In 2009, China was top with environmental certifications, with more than 55,300 Chinese companies registering for the ISO 4100, an accepted global standard for environmental management. The number of newly certified companies in China was higher than the rest of the top 10 countries combined.

      "Reporting is the glue that holds everything together," says Sean Gilbert, director of climate change and sustainability for KPMG Advisory (China).

      "Standards are very good at helping people to avoid problems, talking about what not to do. They're not nearly good at the creative side of the question, what could you do? Or should you do?"

      Gilbert says China is still not at the stage of fully understanding what exactly CSR is, with some Chinese companies not even realizing environmental issues fall under the remit of social responsibility, but has made rapid advances.

      As China looks to the future of CSR, the focus will be more on making quality, sustainable products rather than on corporations interacting with the community, he says.

      "People have moved away from community investment, philanthropy and volunteering as being the focus. They're much more focused on how a company operates, what it makes, how it makes it, where it makes it and how it distributes it," Gilbert says.

      "This is really just starting in this part of the world."

      Comments (0)

      Copyright ©1999-2011 Chinanews.com. All rights reserved.
      Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

      主站蜘蛛池模板: 综合亚洲伊人午夜网| 国产日产成人免费视频在线观看| 国产成人精品日本亚洲专区| 亚洲Av永久无码精品黑人| 成人免费毛片观看| 亚洲人成色777777精品| 免费黄色app网站| 国产成人精品日本亚洲语音| 国产精品极品美女免费观看| 国产精品亚洲综合天堂夜夜| yy6080亚洲一级理论| 色婷婷精品免费视频| 久久久久亚洲AV成人网人人软件| 51午夜精品免费视频| 亚洲人成网站在线播放vr| 一级毛片在线免费观看| 亚洲天堂一区二区三区四区| 99久久国产热无码精品免费| 狠狠色伊人亚洲综合网站色| 四虎影视永久免费视频观看| 免费观看四虎精品成人| 亚洲成AV人片在线观看无| 在线观看的免费网站无遮挡| 亚洲影视自拍揄拍愉拍| 四虎永久在线免费观看| a级成人毛片免费图片| 亚洲国产精品线观看不卡 | 久久免费国产精品一区二区| 亚洲一区二区三区夜色| 午夜视频在线观看免费完整版| 美女视频黄.免费网址| 亚洲精品无码久久久影院相关影片 | 最近中文字幕免费完整| 亚洲av色香蕉一区二区三区蜜桃| 亚洲日本中文字幕一区二区三区| 人妻无码一区二区三区免费 | 国产卡一卡二卡三免费入口| 乱淫片免费影院观看| 亚洲精品日韩中文字幕久久久| 日本高清免费不卡视频| 无码国产精品一区二区免费模式|