Is Corporate Social Responsibility Optional?
By John Pilmer, President of PilmerPR
What does Wal-Mart and the United States government have in common? Answer: buying power. According to USAspending.gov, the U.S. government spends more than $500 billion in products and services each year from roughly 230,000 different companies. It is the world’s largest buyer of goods and services. Wal-Mart is the world’s largest consumer products retailer, buying roughly $300 billion each year in products it sells in retail stores from more than 100,000 different companies.
The U.S. government and Wal-Mart’s buying power are influential in setting the stage for corporate social responsibility requirements. According to Information Management, the U.S. government and Wal-Mart will begin phasing in corporate social responsibility requirements for their suppliers and vendors over the next few years.
The move comes as no surprise with Obama’s current emphasis on the environment. In fact, Obama went so far as to put in effect an executive order. The environmental goal is to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase energy efficiency, conserve water, reduce waste and use environmentally responsible products and technologies.” This is intended to benefit taxpayers through “substantial energy savings and avoided costs from improved efficiency.”
If your organization plans or wants to do business with large companies or the government in the future, then careful planning and preparation should start now. A corporate social responsibility plan will be vital for business approval.
Organizations can no longer ignore social responsibility. Whether you love humanitarian, green or goodwill causes or not, companies are increasingly required to account for sustainability and corporate social responsibility practices. Wise companies communicate with their publics on these issues and they work on “being good, before talking about being good.”
Precision Castparts located in Portland, Oregon is the perfect example. Portland prides itself as a green Mecca, but the largest company based in the city, Precision Castparts Corp., is not exactly part of the green family. Newsweek recently scored Precision Castparts as 466 out of the nation’s 500 largest and greenest corporations. They were also the lowest ranked among 21 companies in transportation and aerospace.
When the corporate office was contacted in regards to the reports not one reporter got an interview. Corporate spokesman Dwight Weber even said the company has no interest in rebutting the Newsweek report and prefers to remain low-key. However, Weber did mention they actually do have sustainable practices like, recycling waxes and reusing scrap metal for other products.
Even though Precision Castparts may be doing great things to “clean up their act” regarding the environment, they treated communication with their publics lightly in a city known for its green ways. Communication is key. As you make goals and plans for 2010 consider your corporate social responsibility plan, consider how you can prepare your organization for contracts with those who require strict social responsibility adherence.
About the Author
John Pilmer, APR is the founder and president of PilmerPR, LLC. In its 6th year, the award-winning PilmerPR team provides enterprise-level expertise at a small business price. The company is a 2008 recipient of the Provo/Orem Chamber of Commerce Arthur V Watkins award for excellence. PilmerPR was recently recognized at the National Press Club in Washington, DC for its work in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Also, see the KSL Channel 5 interview of the author regarding crisis communications.
The content of this blog reflects the views and opinions of the author, and not necessarily those of Utah Business.
Tags: Communications, corporate social responsibility, CSR, Green PR, public relations