Driving Sustainability to Business Success: The DS FactorManagement System Integration and Automation

CHAPTER 4 International Institute for Sustainable Development

Drivers Pushing Business to Corporate Responsibility

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) has indicated that some of the drivers for pushing business to incorporate social responsibility (CSR) are as follows:

• The shrinking role of government leading to voluntary and nonregulatory initiatives
• Stakeholder demands for greater disclosure
• Increased customer interest in social performance of companies and its influence on their purchasing decisions
• Investor assessment of companies’ performance based on criteria that now includes ethical concerns when buying and selling stocks
• Competitive labor markets—employees looking beyond paychecks and benefits to operating practices and principles; companies being forced to improve working conditions
• Supplier relations—ensuring that other companies’ policies or practices do not tarnish your reputation

When an organization adopts a policy of social responsibility, some of the positive benefits can be: enhanced brand image and reputation, increased sales and customer loyalty, more ability to attract and retain employees, and improved operating costs and financial performance bringing access to capital.¹

Global Reporting Initiative

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an international nonprofit organization, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with a mission to make sustainability reporting standard practice for all companies and organizations, and ...