Publication of recent EIRIS report and its relevance globally - CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa -
CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa » Publication of recent EIRIS report and its relevance globally
Publication of recent EIRIS report and its relevance globally
Last month Ethical Investment Research Services (EIRIS) published The state of responsible business: a global corporate response to environmental, social and governance (ESG) challenges. The report summarizes the CSR approach in different regions of the world and reveals considerable differences among the regions. It is for sure worth reading – where ever you are based in the world!

Some report findings were quite straight forward like the fact that large corporations are more likely to adopt CSR strategies than smaller ones. I was aware that there are actually differences in how corporations approach CSR in different regions in the world, but I was surprised to read that EIRIS finds American firms lag behind European firms.

According to the research US firms lag behind European firms in all CSR aspects. Many European companies have for instance explicit human rights strategies for high risk countries where they operate while only very few US corporations have such policies for critical countries in place. The same is true for supply chain policies: While over 50 percent of European companies have supply chain policies, 80 percent of US and Australian corporations and over 90 percent of Asian corporations do obviously not have supply chain standards policies in place. This is a rather surprising result.

While I found the report in general very interesting to read, I don’t agree with all of the findings, especially when I apply them to HP as a US company from its origin. The report concludes that American firms lag behind European ones in all CSR aspects. However, at HP, we have had a social and environmental supply chain management policy in place for many years and were the first corporation who adopted a supplier code of conduct in the IT industry in 2002. I suppose HP is an exception to the rule here?!

I can see where the report is coming from though. I assume that the leadership of European companies in CSR has much to do with the pressure that is being put unto companies in Europe by consumers and campaigning NGOs. Take the topic of environment, health and safety (EHS) for example. I’m sure you all know the TCO label, a voluntary labeling system for the assessment of office equipments with regards of occupational safety, energy efficiency, ergonomics, ecology, electrical safety etc. The history of this eco-label started in Sweden with the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees, (TCO) which, at the beginning of the 1980s, noticed accelerating health problems among white-collar workers related to inadequately designed office equipment. Concerned workers, mainly women had raised awareness about ergonomic issues such as burning eyes and problems associated with radiation emissions from computer displays. The first TCO label was launched in 1992 in Berlin with the strong support of HP and today for example half of the computer displays produced around the world are TCO-labeled. A success story that started in Sweden, similar to the recently announced ‘IT Eco Declaration for Print Supplies’, which has global relevance and has its origins as well in Sweden, where in the early 1990s customers, largely from the public sector, began to request information about the environmental properties of the IT equipment they purchased.

But regulations and standards are not always the perfect answer trying to regulate a company’s CSR strategy. HP together with a big network of other European companies is in favor of a voluntary value based CSR approach and has supported the CSR alliance in collaboration with the EU back in March 2006. So reports like the one from EIRIS for sure help to increase the transparency of companies and regions and their CSR programs. And this is probably the most relevant as it is pretty important to learn about existing best practices on CSR and to help closing existing gaps – in all regions and in as many companies as possible on a global level. Let’s make sure we learn from each other!

Jeannette Weisschuh, Head of Corporate Affairs , HP EMEA
Posted 10-22-2007 12:04 PM by BlogArchive

Comments

Firmbyte wrote HP - Fraud? Deceit? Mistake? call it want yo
on 10-31-2007 12:24 PM
I'm looking to get some feedback from HP staff as to their opinions on HP's corporate behavior. It appears that HP couldn't care less about unhappy customers because HP have taken my money for an Nvidia 383Mb 8400M GS but put in a 128Mb card, said nothing in the hope taht I never noticed, and think it's ok to refuse to rectify the situation unless I pay to have the laptop shipped back to them. In effect expecting me to pay twice for the product. Do you, as a HP employee, think it acceptable for your employer to, in effect, defraud it's customers? If not please send an email to Mark Hurd saying so, he seems to ignore his customers please.
jeannette.weisschuh wrote Re: Publication of recent EIRIS report and i
on 11-05-2007 1:48 PM
Thank you for your comment. I will forward your comment to our customer centre and ask it to respond to it. Kind regards, Jeannette
redcarrie wrote Re: Publication of recent EIRIS report and i
on 11-14-2007 2:24 AM
This is very exciting to hear you address a difficult challenge like this. CSR is hard enough just trying to understand and tackle at national level, but with the immense variables in global communities, it's going to be vital we come together at some level to hold each other accountable, but at the same time, build a foundation so we can start as equals, and not be fighting in a space that is really meant for doing good. I am curious to hear more about how HP is tackling rolling out programs with a global vision/reach, but allowing them to be adapted locally where necessary due to cultural differences, etc. Thanks for sharing!
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